After three months in a coma following complications from kidney disease, Daniel Olery\u2019s doctors told his family to prepare for the worst. As the family maintained their bedside vigil, his niece, Nina, visited a Pentecostal church in East London where Pastor Alex Omokudu was reputed to be a miracle worker. There she was given a green cloth, which she placed on Olery\u2019s head. Almost immediately, he began to make a remarkable recovery.
\nLast month, Olery was fit enough to visit the Victorious Pentecostal Assembly (VPA) and give testimony, showing photo of himself in intensive care with tubes attached to his body following kidney failure. \u201cI have seen a miracle happen,\u201d he said.
\nOmokudu, known as Pastor Alex by his congregation, bellowed, \u201cThis is God\u2019s work \u2013 Shout Jesus,\u201d which the 5,000 worshippers duly did in voices loud enough to drown thunder. Olery\u2019s miraculous healing is not an isolated case in the church\u2019s 14-year history. On the day he testified, at least 30 other people told incredible stories of God\u2019s intervention in their lives.
\nA student on a scholarship from Nigeria was critically ill and was already preparing to return home to die when someone introduced him to VPA. After a \u2018deliverance programme\u2019, he was healed.
\nA woman said, her daughter had been cured of kidney disease after they met Omokudu, while two women with fertility problems both became pregnant after visiting the church. Indeed, Omokudu has helped many couples struggling with childlessness have babies, often asking such people to bring pushchairs along to a special service. Among them were two women who had been infertile for many years. Both went on to have twins. \u00a0The pastor told another woman about to undergo IVF to put it off as she would soon become pregnant. She ignored him but six days before it was due to go ahead, she started feeling nauseous. It turned out she was pregnant.
\nAnother kind of miracle happened to Rosemond Osei, a 63-year-old Ghanaian businesswoman who went to seek spiritual help for her business. Instead, Omokudu told her to prepare for her wedding. She laughed it off, given her age, but is now happily married. People in search of work have miraculously received job offers while those with immigration problems have seen them improbably settled.
\nPastor Alex is something of a phenomenon in the UK, where such feats are routinely taken with a pinch of salt. His miracles, also broadcast on his Believe TV network, always take people by surprise including Omokudu himself. \u201cWhen the miracles happen, you are surprised, I am surprised, so it must be God,\u201d he says. His followers believe anything he touches can bring about a miracle. As green is the VPA\u2019s main colour, they wear green T-shirts or carry green face towels anointed by him. They believe that he is the miracle worker but he never fails to remind them that \u201cit is God\u201d.
\nPastor Alex says his success is due to his compassion. Speaking at the church\u2019s International Gathering of Eagles recently, he said \u201cfaith, love and hope are the three things ruling destiny. The greatest of them is love. Love gives victory. It does not know defeat\u201d.
\nHe is said to go to any length to attend to the needs of those who seek his help. On Mondays, he counsels an average of 500 people individually, giving them spiritual direction on how to overcome the challenges of life. As the day wears on, his aides start to worry that he is tiring himself out. But Omokudu presses on because he says he is doing the work of God and in any case \u201che has no other work\u201d.
\nHis demonstration of love is not just spiritual. He feeds those who come from distant places on Mondays ahead of the Tuesday\u2019s early morning service. He intervenes financially when his members are distressed and sponsors a number of them in their studies. \u00a0 Omokudu also believes that a pastor must have integrity. He says integrity is \u201csaying what you mean and doing what you say. You can never be respected or honoured except you have integrity and there is no better way to get people to trust you than through the integrity of your words\u201d.
\nNext is humility. According to him, the undoing of many people of God is lack of humility. To him, the more humble you are, the more the release of anointing. Once again, the challenge for him is that people mistake him for God. \u201cMen will make you look like God \u2013 refuse to be a God,\u201d he once cautioned his ministers.
\nThe pastor is also well known for his theatrics. Whenever someone gives a testimony of any miracle, he rolls on the floor in gratitude to God and calling on the congregation to \u201cpraise Jesus\u201d. When he is declaring a healing, he jumps about the stage and the faithful follow suit. On Tuesdays when he hosts the weekly one-hour prayer meeting themed \u2018Enough is Enough\u2019, the enemy \u2013 in this case, the devil \u2013 is attacked with punches in the air.
\nHis sermons are always down to earth stories of the capacity of God\u2019s love, grace and power. To him, there is nothing God cannot do. If anyone in the congregation is in doubt, Pastor Alex will tell his own incredible rags to riches story.
\nHe also preaches discipline. He frowns at pastors who indulge in the vices the Bible abhors. How can you be a pastor and you are dating members of your congregation? To him, holiness is prerequisite for receiving God\u2019s blessings. As he likes to paraphrase the Bible, \u2018on Mount Zion, there shall be salvation and H_O_L_I_N_E_S_S.\u2019 As a corollary, he believes in transparency.
\nMore than these, it is Omokudu\u2019s attitude to money that stands out. He does not make money the focus of his ministry although he is a very wealthy man, counting choice properties, a television station and a Bentley car among his earthly possessions. He demands simple offerings saying, \u201cGod does not want your money, he wants your heart\u201d and pointing out that those who request money for\u00a0miracles are thieves. It needs be said that Omokudu is a rather blunt man. He does not spare sin or preach prosperity for sinners.
\nHe has developed a unique formula for his Pentecostal work. First, those seeking spiritual blessings meet him during Monday counselling sessions. After the individual counselling, they are asked \u2018to do their deliverance\u2019 in which the person fasts and prays for the forgiveness of sins, breaking of curses and the defeat of the spiritual forces afflicting his or her life. The deliverance can last from four to 12 weeks depending on the severity of the affliction.
\nThose on deliverance go without meals on weekdays from midnight to six o clock in the evening when they break the fast. After the breaking of the fast, they can eat any food but it must not contain oil or pepper. Before the meal, they must drink a mixture of blackcurrant juice, olive oil and water. After weeks of being on the programme, Omokudu anoints those he believes have been spiritually cleansed. His critics say he is promoting the mixture as a healing agent. He disagrees and sees the deliverance programme as a package of restoring one\u2019s relationship with God.
\nAs Omokudu\u2019s fame spreads, he has attracted a number of influential supporters. Benny Hinn, the renowned American pastor,\u00a0has made VPA his partner church. He preaches there up to four times in a year and last year went on a special pilgrimage with Omokudu to Israel. Ayo Oritsejafor, a former leader of Nigeria\u2019s 80 million Christians has also ministered there.
\nOmokudu has not missed an opportunity to advance his ministry. He runs a satellite\u00a0TV station, Believe TV which is broadcast all over the world. He holds a live counselling session on the channel every Wednesday. He has also written many books, among them, 7 Laws for Activating Your Miracles, and Prayer Bomb. He writes a monthly devotional titled Don\u2019t Give Up.
\nWhat is remarkable about Omokudu is that he was born a deaf mute. Unable to go to school and all but abandoned by his father, he survived by foraging on the streets of Lagos. Then one day, he was miraculously healed of his disability at a church service and later ordained a pastor. He got married and relocated to the UK where he set up the VPA. It is now among the fastest growing churches in the UK. He tells his life story almost every day to inspire faith in God. To him, if the story of the transformation of Alex Omokudu is\u00a0 real, then, anyone\u2019s story can be changed by God.
\nEkoriko is a London-based journalist and publisher of News Africa Magazine<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Moffat Ekoriko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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