What Happened To Joseph?

About when I became 14 years upward, my uncle (whose home I resided when I moved to Lagos to further my education) insisted that I start attending catechism in the Catholic Church. Of a truth, himself has never been to the Catholic Church for years. Since I knew him, the only time I saw him attend a church was two years ago (2002) when his wife insisted that they must wed in the Catholic Church. For the wedding’s sake, he started attending services again. Apart from that, the only thing I knew about him and the church (catholic church) was his telling us the story of when he was a mass servant years back.

Therefore, I started attending the Catholic Church catechism and sometimes the Sunday mass. Sometimes I skip services because I was not attending at my own volition. We did that for years till a day came and some other denominations started visiting our area in their normal Saturday visitation and evangelism. They spoke with me. What they said and what they quoted from the bible made some sense to me. What they told me agreed with what a colleague in the office has been trying to pass to me. This colleague has been trying his best to get me born again. Therefore, when the time came that I decided to change my church, the only available church that my friend referred me to was the Foursquare Gospel Church.

At the early days when I started out with the Foursquare Gospel Church, one time my dad visited my uncle in Lagos from our hometown. By this time, I have started missing attendance at the Catholic Church and my uncle complained often but to no avail. Therefore, when my dad came my uncle used the opportunity to report the matter and to see if I can be forced back to the Catholic Church. My dad asked me this unforgettable question: “what is the difference between the catholic church and the one you are attending”. I never thought about that question before. Was there a difference between the two? What difference can I possibly tell my uncle and my dad who do not attend any church neither have I seen the bible in their hands? For a few minutes, I was speechless and just wondered where my dad got such a one question. Silence too over and they waited for my answer.

Then an answer came to my mind. Without thinking about it and whether it will make sense to them or not I opened my mouth and said, “They teach the bible better”. Yes that made some sense to me. “They teach the bible better” I said within me and waited for any of them to response. Just as I expected, I made no sense to them. My dad as the most senior said “you have two options: one, return to the catholic church, two stay home and attend to neither of them”. He said in a tone that depicts finality and authority that marked the end of meeting. Indeed the meeting was over. He asked my uncle to ensure that I obey him.

In said in my mind “What a hard night meeting” as I retire to bed for a sleep. From “what is the difference between the catholic church and the one you are attending” to “you have two options: one, return to the catholic church, two stay home and attend no one”. I can remember staying home for two or three Sundays. Then I could no longer stay. I have to return to Foursquare to get my soul fed but how do I do that? I have to wait on God for wisdom.

The wisdom came some Sundays later. My uncle normally attends the family, age grade or town meeting virtually every Sunday. He leaves home around 10am on Sundays, and do not return until late in the evening. So I waited, as soon as he leaves home, I hit the road to attend the second service at the Surulere Foursquare Gospel. Sometimes I get there early and at other times I get there pretty late, so I just “share the grace” with them and go back home happy.

The Catholic Church was okay, it served its purpose in my life but I need to move ahead in my thirst and desire for the things of God as I found them in the bible. I attended once at the Foursquare Gospel Church, bible study I think, then Sunday service, then I continue for the next ten years.

My uncle tried his best to enforce what my dad decreed and in the process, God made him loose his job Often as I prayed for God to give him a job, often I heard God say “if I give him a job now, your spiritual growth will be hindered”. At those words I stopped praying for his job. When he lost his job, it became difficult for him to feed his and myself little family then. By then I just finished with my commercial school education and got a job. For the next four years my uncle and his family were feeding on my salary. That granted me the freedom to go to any church I wish. Since I bring the money, he could no longer dictate certain things to me.

As he was getting his job back from God, I was getting my accommodation and moving out of his home and his control. Jesus knows how to organize things and have us blessed by it.

I spent over nine months in Foursquare Gospel Church Surulere branch and was never noticed by anyone. I just walk in, have “fellowship” and go home. They are too many people there that even the youths could not recognize my presence. And because of the distance between where I resided with my uncle then, I located another Foursquare Church at a walking distance from my house. That was their Badia. At first visit, I was discouraged because they had just a building, no musical instrument and few pews. It was not as dignified as the Surulere branch. So I went back to Surulere Branch.

Once in a while when I run out of time, I visit the Badia branch and when I have enough time I go to the Surulere Branch. I kept doing that until one day a voice within asked me “this Surulere branch that you run to often, was it not developed by someone or some people? Do you not think that this Badia can be grown to that level? Would it not be joy if you be part of those who can make it grow?” That voice killed my visiting Surulere branch. I went back to Badia branch, sat down and listened. As I listened to the messages, the bible study, songs etc, I too got involved. I passed the tests, became a member, then a Sunday school teacher, then up in the ladder of leadership I moved.

That local Badia branch over a period of years grew from few members to over 50 members and several non-members. Their one room church could no longer accommodate them. God helped them through their then senior pastor and they got a 16 acres of bare land, moved in, built some structures on it and continued. A few years later, Badia church gave birth to Amukoko Foursquare. Members were asked to take a choice of either staying in Badia or moving to Amukoko branch. Amukoko is nearer my home, so I went for it.

I became from day one the secretary of Amukoko Foursquare for good eight years. I took minutes of meetings; I wrote letters, represent the and church in some engagements, functioned in every aspect that God has given me the ability. I became the best friend to the senior pastor. We became so close that he told me one day that Amukoko church will give birth to another church and I will be the pastor. Though I agreed with him but I do not see it coming to pass. God has started showing me from the bible things that makes me query so many of the doctrines and ways we (Christians) serve God. A reading through the bible stories of Enoch, Moses, Esther, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, Peter, Paul, to mention but a few shows you how wonderful the Spirit of God is. It shows you how simple it is to follow God in the Spirit. It shows you the difference between being in the flesh and being in the Spirit. It shows you how God walks and works in people. It leaves you not confused about the things God used such people to do.

But a minute look in the life of Christians, their doctrines, their leadership methods gets the man that is of the things of the Spirit of God to know that there is a wide difference between following Christ and bring a Christian”. One starts to wonder, where is the problem, where have we missed it. What has happened to the faith that those people practiced in love and in unity? Where did these endless politics and ceremonies come in?

Questions like the above flooded my heart on daily basis. I kept them to myself. Then sometimes, the Lord teaches me and gives me the answers through people, inspirations from bible verses and sometimes when I pray HE speaks the answers to me. When the answers started coming, I did two things. First I started using the questions and answers in every opportunity that I have to teach either in bible study or Sunday school. Secondly, I started a library of books and audio tapes. I also wrote newsletter with these things that the Lord is teaching me. First I was taught and wrote those things in fear because these doctrines are not the normal Christian doctrines that we are used to hearing. But as I teach them in fear, the Lord confirms that what I teach as being biblical and the truth. People always acknowledge it to be so. I could not believe it the day I stood and taught in our bible study on the topic “the bible is not the word of God”. I was expecting the pastor to “call me to order” after the teaching but to my greatest surprise, he came up to the front when I finished and expanded more on what I have just taught without contradicting it.

My search over the Internet for free materials from other countries for my library lead me to meeting Pastor John David Clark. At first, his teachings were a bit strange though I like them. We communicated severally through email. I asked questions and questions and he answered them. God sent him and others my way to confirm to me that the questions in my heart have answers and that there is a better way of serving our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ than what Christianity is making me believe. To enable me understand the more, he sent me books and audiotapes. I read them and listened to the tapes and also used some of the materials in my newsletter.

The more God shows me the evil doctrines of Christianity, the clearer it became to me that I was not going to be the pastor that my then pastor was preparing for me. I have to discuss these new things that the Lord is showing me with my good friend and then pastor. We arranged for a meeting on a Saturday. Then it went on for hours on four separate Saturdays. You can read about them here: Click to read story

We agreed and disagreed, searched the bible to find out more facts and truths and etc. It was during and after these meetings with my then pastor that Revelation 18:4 which says “ ” became very clear to me. And to be sure that I was not just fooling myself, I took my annual leave from the office. I prayed, read, researched and heard from God. Hearing from Him is one thing while deciding on doing what you know you need do is another thing altogether. It is time to leave Christianity and follow Jesus and His Words. That was the hardest decision that I have ever made in my life.

Again and again I asked myself, you are living Christianity to going to be with Jesus? You want to leave the normal Christian doctrines? Can you survive it? How many people who knowing that what you teach is the truth is willing to practice this with you? Where do go on Sundays? Can you live this solo-Jesus life that you are opting for? Questions upon questions.

As the questions flowed, the Spirit of God brought to my mind a paragraph It made me write in one of my newsletters some months back. It was a question I asked people in the September 15, 2000 newsletter with the subject Crying Voice (Click here for more on this.)

Here it is: I know that this might be above your imagination but it can happen. Imagine being in a position (situation) where you do not have access to the bible, Christians, written or audio Christian materials etc, say for 30 days,, will you still be a Christian after that? If your answer is yes of course, may I ask how?”

When I wrote that then, my answer is that someone can survive that if he/she keeps close to the Spirit of God. Now it is my time to be tested of it.

Anyway, all is now history. In 2001 that I left being a Christian, I have been happier. It had not been that easy. Jesus has taught me several more things that I would not have known if I had still been a Christian. It is a lifetime choice that I have made. I made this choice because I have always discovered two things that have been moving me in life: the Bible and the Word of God. I left the Catholic Church because the Foursquare (Pentecostals) teaches the bible the more and because God spoke to me. I left Christianity because Jesus teaches us the bible and His ways by His Spirit in us more than the Christian ministers do. It has been always the bible and His Word. It was the bible and His word that I read and heard and prayed earnestly in my uncles living room in 1991 when Jesus baptized me with the holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. It was the bible and the Word that God used in leading me to my wife. It has been the bible and His Word.

In concluding this story or testimony, please note the following. I love my brethren (every holy Spirit baptized person with the evidence of speaking in other tongues). It is my love for them that is giving me the encouragement to stay away from the Christian ceremonies so that one day they took can see and come of this spiritual Babylon – Christianity. I love to have meetings (“fellowship”) with them. I love to walk into a church and be involved. I love to do all the above and more but the spirit of Christianity is what I am keeping away from. So many have advised me look for a good church and join. I have looked; they all have the same doctrines. They teach people that they are born again without the holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, they still baptize in water, still practice the communion of bread and wine, church membership, man ordination among others. There is a gathering that if they had a Nigerian “branch” I would have been involved with them. Actually, I am with them (though not physically). They are my brethren that meet at www.pastorjohnshouse.com. did I hear someone say why not open a Nigerian branch? We are waiting on Jesus. We do not do things the Christian way of living one church and joining another or establishing another.

Doing what I have decided to do is not a guarantee of making it to His kingdom at the end of this life. It does not also mean that anyone in one of the Christian denominations will not make it to heaven. What will guarantees anyone making it is the baptism of the holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and living a godly lifestyle thereafter.

Joseph Odinikpo Ezeudu
P. M. B 80129 Victoria Island.
Telephone 234-805-643-8644
www.isaiah58.com/odinikpo
Motto: No Jesus, No Peace, Know Jesus, Know Peace