My Christian Testimony

To the unbelieving mind, the true believer is detached from reality. The Christian is under exposed, naive and maybe even a hypocrite. The unbelieving mind is blinded by the god of this world (2Cor4:4). Jesus Himself refers to this phenomenon in Luke 16:8. This has been the story in my Christian journey; I went from being an outsider of the Faith and the ways of the Kingdom of God, to an insider. Faith in Christ alone is necessary for me to have a saving relationship with God because it is the only thing that has consistently worked in my personal walk with God. Through countless ordeals and trials, he restores my soul. The Gospel to me is the consistency in the love of the Lord in my life, shown through his instructions. God has been consistent in my life.

Growing up, my family attended a Pentecostal Church, Christ Apostolic Church; it was here at the children’s church that I was confronted by an elderly and kind lady about my personal salvation. I don’t remember her sermon but she convinced me that God was merciful and kind. We said a prayer of conversion after that and I continued attendance. In that same year, my Uncle, a very devout Christian with a non denominational background confronted me about my faith over several days. We said a second prayer of faith, and this time I had become converted. As a Christian, he embodied God’s presence and was very fervent with his faith. He lived with my family and so we had lots of time together. After conversion the call to be a minister of the Gospel was almost immediately at the age of seven. I was certain that God had spoken to me, but growing up in a secular oriented family, being called into the ministerial service wasn’t encouraged. It was considered the work of a lazy person. Looking at the career of my uncle who followed the leading of the Lord to become the Prelate of the Methodist Church in Nigeria, and other ministers who followed Christ, I realize that I had been under informed as to who Jesus is.

A few years later I went to boarding school. There, I heard about a group of believers and decided to join them. At the first service there was a very heavy manifestation of God’s presence and I could sense something within me. If I remember correctly it seemed the entire class was also aware of this. I tried to ignore it and concentrate on the service. This happened at two more services, and it was unclear what it meant. The encounter was beginning to affect my relationship with my peers. I feared isolation as I had already experienced it heavily at home, so I stopped going to the fellowship. I graduated six years later and immediately after high school got the impression again that I was consecrated for Christian service. This time around, I knew there was no way around it.

In 2001 upon graduation, I followed a cousin to a Pentecostal Church. The structure was huge for the town and held about 12,000 worshippers, then communion was served and it happened in a very organized manner in about 10-15 minutes. Those two things got me committed and I became an active member. I later joined another branch of the same Pentecostal Church Winners Chapel at the federal capital, and became a committed believer. Not too long after that commitment, I got an opportunity to come to the United States. It was here, away from what was familiar in Nigeria that I committed to the Christian faith. In 2008 while employed as a worker in a bank, I got the same strong impression at childhood a second time, at this time I was 24. This time I knew it was God and spent extended times in prayer. I prayerfully attended a Bible school in Nigeria, and had many Charismatic experiences. During this period, the founder of the organization had come to pray for, bless and lay hands on the students from the United States.

Upon return to the States, a revival broke out. We grew rapidly from 40 to about 680, eventually hitting 1,000 in 2 years and moved to a bigger auditorium. It was at this auditorium that I sensed that I was to resign and begin an independent radio ministry based on praying for the sick. I prayerfully offered my resignation from the congregation but continued to be an active member. The program started well and we grew from about 20 listeners to approximately 2000 in about 6 months. We had live sessions and it was at these sessions that I realized that there were many questions being asked for which I had no inclination of how to answer regarding the Christian Faith. During this time I was encouraged by friends and family to plant a local assembly but soon realized that it was neither my calling nor my place. Crisis ensued. There was no zeal for the things of God and my faith suffered greatly during this period of my life. That began a season of despair and confusion. I disbanded the fellowship and joined a new local assembly in NYC. In 2019 I became a member of an Episcopal Church, Holy Trinity in Nassau County New York by reason of a book written by an Episcopal priest who had experienced revival. The book, ‘The Holy Spirit and you’ had actually restored my faith and confidence. I joined hoping to find something familiar. It was during this period that I became aware of the ministry of RC Sproul and Ligonier Ministries. Listening, I found that they had answers to many of the questions that I had been unable to answer during the period of the radio program.

God has been growing my faith, hope and love in Christ by showing that he can do things in different ways. I left my local Parish briefly to worship at another Episcopal Church parish in Manhattan that was closer to work. When I got there, the congregation was recovering from the impact of Covid. Attendance was very low and there were doubts about the health of the Church. The Lord informed me to sit down and observe what he would do in my life. This time, as a lay member, sharing a common experience with the members of that parish, the Church began to grow (Acts 2: 42-47). We went from 70 members to almost 300 at the main Parish and experienced growth at the Catholic service also. When the training was over they had grown to about 500 at both services. During this same period, I was favored to work with the office of the presiding Bishop Michael Curry through Father Fred Vergara, the rector at Holy Trinity, in the Asia American arm of the Episcopal Church. We worked on a podcast together that impacted the Asian community all while the parish was growing. Through this God had taught me that He could work in different ways, as I partnered with Him in what He was doing.

Consistency showed up at my first conference meeting. I knew that this Bible College leaned on the teachings of the theology of the reformation. My appreciation for the reformation does not come from a theological background, because I don’t fully grasp it yet, it comes from the fact that I am an economist, and that I see history through an economic lens, I see the hearts, wills and minds of men, changing because of what Luther stood for. I see economic growth and development breaking forth in the modern world, just a few centuries after Luther, and I see the world changing so rapidly because of the sacrifice and determination of this minister of the Gospel and others. The consistency of God’s love bearing witness in good times, in hard times, in easy times, and in confusing times, this is the meaning of the Gospel to me.

Today, I sense God leading me to return to radio and my original call of an Evangelist/Itinerary speaker. Pursuing the ministry in the way God wants it done is an obligation, but something tells me it's going to be a delightful surprise. As I understand more about how the Scriptures teach us about God's love in Christ, I look forward to living it out, and touching another generation with this good news.