What he does instead is very simple.

He raises up false preachers and teachers who will preach that same message or teach that same principle, but with exaggerations, lies, and obvious errors. Then he amplifies their voices, so they are predominantly loud and appear to be the prominent leaders on that subject.

So, what we now have is false people preaching on a true subject in a false manner, a manner so obviously wrong that both believers and unbelievers will be appalled by the falsehood.

Then the devil lets people give it a term or name so that unbelievers will berate and castigate the false principle (and the underlying truth) until genuine believers no longer want to be associated with the given name of that principle or the overall principle itself.

And until genuine preachers become discouraged or scared about preaching on the subject due to constant opposition and attacks from both within and without.

Guess what? It works every single time.

It worked with healing when the devil raised many false healing ministers and healing services dominated by fabricated miracles, up to the point where many believers now agree with unbelievers that such a thing as healing from sicknesses or corporate healing does not exist.

It worked with giving when the devil raised many frauds on the pulpit who extorted their church members, living large off their goodwill, so that, nowadays, once a church or a pastor makes any request for ministerial financial support, many Christians will join non-Christians to denounce such a pastor or ministry.

The devil also did it with several other principles on marriage, family, sexual purity, pastoral honour, and so on, leaving many believers with half-truths and incomplete messages because they have subconsciously built resistances to certain teachings.

And yet, the most effective and widespread principle the devil has been able to attack is the principle of prosperity in the kingdom.

Right up to the point that many believers do not believe there’s a provision for them in God for financial abundance that extends beyond their immediate needs and for purposes that extend beyond their immediate selves.

It’s unfortunate.

This article exists to prove the above, differentiate between the falsehood and the truth, and shed some more light on this highly debated subject.

I had a back and forth with someone in the comment section of a post about this subject, and I feel led to expatiate and expand on it in order to have my thoughts solidified in one piece.

Read patiently, and I hope God helps you understand.

“And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

— Matthew 16:19.

What Exactly is the “Prosperity Gospel”?

There is a difference between the biblical doctrine of prosperity and the prosperity gospel as a particular theological movement.

Without proper context applied, two people can use this same term in a conversation while talking about two completely different things.

On one hand, the biblical doctrine of prosperity means that God wants His children to be materially blessed alongside all the other blessings. He has freely given to them on the Earth.

On the other hand, the theological movement consists of teachings and tenets that include but are not limited to beliefs like: if you have enough faith, God guarantees you will become rich; or that giving 100,000 guarantees receiving 1 million in return; or that the size of your bank account is evidence of your spiritual maturity; or that that giving money to a particular minister guarantees a financial return; or that God functions like a supernatural investment scheme where you give to him and he triples or doubles it in return.

These two propositions are NOT identical.

They stand on two very different sides, talking about two very different things, and we have to stop lumping them both together.

I reject the latter category entirely, as should every other believer of the Christian faith.

That version of the “prosperity gospel” is characterised by exploitation, manipulation, and the idea that every financial difficulty is caused by a lack of faith, so it is outrightly wrong.

God is not a giant vending machine in heaven running a “pay your tithe and be blessed” programme, material resources are not the measure of God’s approval of a person, and prosperity, material or otherwise, is not the purpose or the essence of salvation.

Jesus Christ is.

Material wealth is included in the provisions of God for us, and I refuse to shy away from that fact, especially since there is a REASON for it.

The Excesses of said “Prosperity Gospel”.

For the sake of clarity, I’ll just list a few of them out:

It has been used to manipulate people, sell miracles, and exploit people’s desperation.

It has been used to turn giving into a transaction, telling struggling people that God will make them rich if they just “sow a seed”.

It has been used to teach that if you are sick, poor, or struggling, you simply don’t have enough faith, essentially equating poverty with sin or inadequate faith, and wrongly positing that Christians cannot ever experience hardship.

Some pastors have become the primary beneficiaries of supposedly kingdom-centred giving, using it as a tool to fund their personal lifestyle rather than its intended kingdom work.

It has been used to frame Christianity as an endless pursuit of material acquisition.

All these things and many more deserve the serious criticism they get, and whilst some of them can simply be classified as “theological errors”, many of them are downright manipulative practices being used for outright exploitation.

As Christians we must be willing to condemn them loudly and without hesitation every single time they arise.

But now it begs the question: How do we identity false teachings on prosperity?

Easy.

Anywhere the subject of riches, wealth, or financial abundance is being taught without the God-intended PURPOSE being taught alongside it, then that teaching can be said to be false.

You CANNOT separate God’s blessing from their purpose, and the purpose of all His blessings is for us to use them to bring His kingdom to Earth through our activities as men, and not merely for our self-gratification or personal indulgence.

More on this later.

The Underlying Truth.

Some believers see false teachings about prosperity and conclude that prosperity or material wealth of any kind must be false. They also see the power of wealth to corrupt righteous men and believe that it is a plague that must be avoided at all costs.

Both perspectives are wrong and don’t make any logical sense.

If someone abuses medicine, we don’t conclude that medicine is fake; the same way if someone uses the Bible to manipulate people, we don’t conclude that the Bible is false, and the same way if someone abuses marriage, we don’t conclude marriage is evil.

Fraudulent charities don’t prove that generousity is fraudulent, and the existence of counterfeit money only proves that something exists which is valuable enough to counterfeit.

We cannot see one or multiple bad examples or scenarios and throw out the baby with the bathwater because of them.

There is an analogy my pastor uses to explain it:

Imagine you are in a market wearing a beautiful, expensive piece of clothing, and you run into a mad man wearing the exact same thing.

If people start looking at the both of you, murmuring and making comments, you might suddenly feel tempted to pull the cloth off so they don’t conclude that you are also mad, but is that ultimately to your benefit?

Rather than take off the cloth, the proper way to distinguish yourself from the mad man would be to behave sanely while wearing it.

Unfortunately, this is what many Christians do with biblical principles that have been skewed and misused.

Rather than present the genuine versions of it and stand firm with that, we prefer to disassociate and avoid those teachings or principles completely.

Which is, at the end of the day, to no one’s detriment but ours.

Biblical Scriptures on Wealth and Blessing.

There is a tendency for us to slide into a tunnel vision that associates “wealth” and “blessing” only with money, and it is understandable, considering the fact that the target audience of certain “prosperity” messages are the people who don’t have a lot of it, but we must be careful not to fall into that trap.

Our biblically specified “blessings” include salvation, relationship with God, the Holy Spirit, wisdom, family, health, provision, opportunity, skills, influence, material resources, wealth, and the ability to produce and to serve others.

Material prosperity, the kind that goes beyond a man and his immediate needs, is one category of the blessing. It is not the whole definition, but it’s definitely included in it, and the biblical evidence for this is staggering.

Let’s start with creation itself: humanity was created to cultivate, multiply, exercise dominion, produce, reproduce, and steward.

From the beginning, abundance was embedded in the original human vocation, and the only reason “struggle” became a thing was because man rebelled and the Earth fell under a curse.

(“…Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. - Genesis 3:17.)

After that, we can look at the patriarchs.

Abraham, the father of faith, was materially wealthy. Genesis 13:2 explicitly describes him as very wealthy in livestock, silver, and gold; Isaac prospered extraordinarily (Genesis 26:12–14), and Jacob’s household was materially affected by God’s blessing (Genesis 30–31).

Israel’s covenant blessings in Deuteronomy repeatedly involve crops, livestock, land, houses, economic productivity, and national flourishing. Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

In 1 Kings 3, Solomon asks God for wisdom to lead his people aright, and God, in turn, gives him the wisdom, and riches he didn’t ask for, which he was later able to use to spearhead projects like the building of the Temple.

So, if someone says God doesn’t care about material prosperity, the Old Testament covenant simply does not support that claim.

Once again, it also doesn’t guarantee or promise that every believer will be extremely wealthy, but it is clear that the provision for it exists because there is an underlying REASON for it.

Did Jesus Teach Against Wealth?

As always, we weigh every spirit, doctrine, and principle against the words, teaching, and lifestyle of Jesus Christ, and we can see from his earthly ministry that He taught a lot about suffering, sacrifice, self-denial, and laying up treasures in heaven.

Jesus warned that it would be difficult for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven once his riches had become his god and source of salvation, positing that “You cannot serve both God and money.”

He also told the parable of the rich fool who accumulated material wealth for himself but was found with a lacking soul, and He repeatedly warned His disciples against greed, covetousness, and the pursuit of earthly treasures.

All of His warnings about wealth were primarily warnings about the power wealth can have over the human heart, which was why He attacked greed, misplaced trust, covetousness, and the tendency to let possessions become one’s god.

In the case of the rich young ruler, Jesus identified that his possessions had become an obstacle to his complete surrender. So, the problem was not that he had money, but that his money and his possessions had him.

And when Peter pointed out that the disciples had left everything to follow Jesus, Jesus did not respond by saying that His followers would always remain materially poor or that they would have to “wait” till heaven for their reward.

Instead, He spoke of them receiving houses, family, and fields in this present age, alongside persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. (Mark 10:29-30.) So we see present provision, present persecution, and future reward all appear in the same teaching.

Furthermore, when Jesus said “You cannot serve both God and Mammon”, he did not say we cannot have money and serve God, but that we cannot dedicate our hearts and souls both to God and Mammon.

Money becomes a problem when it becomes a master.

I’m making these distinctions because some Christians have the mindset that it is IMPOSSIBLE to be wealthy and righteous at the same time, and that is nothing but FALSE.

Equally false is the notion that wealth can only be gotten through immoral, illegal, or unscrupulous means.

A person can have money without worshipping it, the same way a person can be poor and still worship money, the same way a person can be wealthy and incredibly generous or poor and incredibly greedy.

The heart remains the litmus test, and that’s why there’s a provision in God for wealth for the children of God who desire to use it for His glory.

Apostle Paul built on Jesus’ teachings by saying that those who desire to become rich often fall into temptation and harmful desires, and that the LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Keyword – “Love”.

Then a few verses later in that same 1 Timothy 6, he specifically addresses “those who are rich in this present world”, instructing them not to be arrogant, not to put their hope in wealth but in God, to do good, and to be rich in good works.

Paul doesn’t tell wealthy Christians to feel guilty about being wealthy but to use their wealth correctly, for the purpose it was placed in their hands.

From Jesus and Paul, we can see that the issue is not whether you are wealthy or not; the issue is when it becomes your hope and what you’re doing with what you have.

Because, once again for emphasis, there is a REASON for that wealth.

And what is that reason?

The Purpose of The Blessing.

The purpose of the blessing is to be a blessing.

(Deuteronomy 8:18, Genesis 12:2).

God told Abraham in Genesis 12:2: “I will bless you and make your descendants into a great nation. You will become famous and be a blessing to others.”

This blessing was not God → Abraham → Abraham’s personal enjoyment.

Rather, it was God → Abraham → blessing flowing outward.

Jesus was the centre of that blessing, and alongside Him flowed every other material and non-material thing that was passed down to Isaac, Jacob, the Israelites, and right down unto us.

Many believers don’t understand that there is a purpose to the material blessing of God, and that’s why they imbibe the exact wealth-obsessive nature the Bible kicks against.

And many others don’t see any purpose to wealth outside of personal indulgence and luxury living; that’s why they don’t believe God can indeed bless. His children are having more than enough.

The method of God on Earth is men and women, and we are the conduits of establishing His kingdom here on Earth.

So, when God blesses us, whether it’s with wealth or wisdom or influence or power or spiritual gifts, it is to the purpose that we bring down His ways of doing things here on Earth.

How? Primarily through the gospel.

And then through good works, through acts of righteousness, through the establishment of justice, through the caring for the poor and the needy, etc.

That is the purpose of the blessing.

And for us to be able to do all this and more properly, and to the SCALE that is needed, it is important that many more of us who are God’s children gain access to substantial wealth.

An access that God Himself can provide.

Prosperity is not the essence of salvation, but it is definitely a tool for propagating that said salvation and all its benefits across the world.

Why Christians Need Resources and Influence.

This section is a direct rebuttal to the school of thought that claims: “God has promised to give us daily bread, so that is all that we need.”

Look, we can rightfully say that “we are in the world but not of the world” all we want, but the truth is that whilst we are still here in this world, there are many things that concern us and many more things that affect us.

In many nations today, if the government decides to ban public Christian gatherings, that is the end of public Christian services in that nation.

Of course, the Christians there will accept it as “persecution”, and maybe it is, but the only reason such a law would be established will be because there are no influential or powerful Christians anywhere to push back against it.

Imagine if Joseph of Arimathea wasn’t influential enough to request the body of Jesus and to bury it in his own tomb. Wouldn’t the lies of the Pharisees that Jesus’ disciples stole the body have gained more prominence and been accorded more credibility than they were?

Whether we like it or not, in this world, wealth is power, and we need more righteous believers wielding that power for the sake of God’s kingdom.

Don’t you have good things you want to do that you can’t simply because you don’t have the resources for it? Let’s all be honest.

The reason the devil has gotten a strong foothold in medicine, politics, entertainment, and many other areas is because Christians have been taught to abandon all these things because we are “not of” this world.

Yet, all these sectors that we refuse to participate in directly or indirectly affect us every day of our lives.

God’s method on Earth is men and women.

Christians have a mandate to carry the message of the gospel, build institutions, feed the hungry, care for the sick, create businesses, write books, make films, develop technology, enter politics, fund missionaries, establish schools, and protect vulnerable people.

Christians are to become excellent doctors, lawyers, engineers, filmmakers, politicians, academics, entrepreneurs, publishers, investors, philanthropists, educators, media owners, and institution builders using their influence and resources to serve humanity and glorify Christ.

But how can we do this if we don’t have the resources to, and we now go even further to deny the power of God to provide us with said resources?

We cannot simultaneously say God has called us to transform the world as both “salt” and “light” and then develop a theology in which Christians having the material wealth required to participate meaningfully in that world is somehow suspicious.

If not God’s children, who else will fund missionaries, build hospitals, establish schools, create businesses that employ people, fund Christian media, publish godly books, support persecuted believers, feed communities, develop technologies for the propagation of the gospel, and support people who are unable to support themselves?

Will God come down from Heaven to do it by Himself? Or are all these things unimportant and inconsequential, and all that matters is “making heaven”?

As believers, our response to broken institutions should be for us to build better ones, but how can we do that if we don’t have the capacity to?

How can we be so many in number and yet so little in impact and relevance?

During the last Easter celebration in April, God laid it in my heart to feed some of the people on the street of my house, and by the grace of God, I was able to share packs of food and drinks with more than a hundred people.

I could see the genuine gratitude in their eyes as they thanked God and hurriedly scurried away with the food in their hands.

Some of them were little children who looked like they hadn’t eaten properly in days; others were bikemen who had been standing in the sun for hours.

Is doing things like this not part of the kingdom either?

For some of you reading this, I know you have similar desires, but you just don’t have the capacity to. Is it so hard to believe that God can bless you to do so?

It’s not cheap, and I know how much I spent on it, but I also know how God provided the money simply because I had a desire to do something like that in His name.

Now, imagine more of us were doing more of that on much bigger scales.

Wouldn’t it be much easier to propagate the Gospel?

Jesus said, “That men may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven,” simply showing how our good works can create opportunities for the Gospel while simultaneously being good in themselves.

Without the right resources, everything we do for God will be on a small scale, and that’s why He gives us “power to create wealth”.

There’s a purpose for it.

The kingdom is the purpose for it, and it’s so sad to see the devil rob more and more believers of this understanding.

The Christian Hypocrisy Surrounding Wealth.

Nothing frustrates me about this topic as much as the hypocrisy around it.

We go to work five days a week. We pursue degrees and certificates, develop skills, apply for promotions, negotiate salaries, build businesses, invest, and pray for better jobs, financial breakthroughs, open doors, and “destiny helpers”. We want to own homes, provide for our families, travel, give our children a good education, help our parents, and have enough to respond when emergencies happen.

All of that is understandable, right?

And yet, when somebody says God wants His children to prosper financially, more than having just the basic things, we suddenly become suspicious and angry.

Hypocrisy.

That’s all it is.

It seems like we’re fine with receiving and receiving, without having the responsibility of being the ones to do the giving or stewarding.

And that’s not even all.

A lot of Christians are, unfortunately, actually struggling to get by or not in the state of financial freedom that they desire to be, and this is why teachings about wealth often touch a nerve deep within them.

Someone may hear “God wants you to prosper financially” and interpret it as “you’re failing if you’re poor” or “God doesn’t love you.”

This can then produce resentment, because it’s often easier for human beings to attack ideas that make us feel inadequate or intimidated than to admit that there may indeed be an area in which we are lacking.

Of course, there are legitimate concerns about exploitation and legitimate criticisms of particular teachings, so I’m not summing all the pushback to being “triggered responses”.

But I know a lot of it is, because I’ve seen it play right before my very eyes.

It’s unbelievable.

The Balance.

As believers, we have a tendency to tilt to either the extreme side of a teaching or the passive side of it.

So, I’ll just chunk everything into two categories so it serves as an overview:

WRONG - Every Christian is guaranteed to become wealthy. Poverty proving someone lacks faith or is “hated” by God. Wealth proving someone has God’s approval. Giving a guarantee of a particular financial return Financial abundance being the essence of Christianity is absolutely. Pursuing wealth as an end in itself. Being afraid of wealth because wealth is inherently evil is also no.

RIGHT - God can bless materially. God sometimes gives extraordinary wealth. Christians can legitimately become wealthy. Wealth can and should be used for kingdom purposes. God wants His children to be diligent stewards of His blessings.

Easy enough to distinguish?

Scripture doesn’t treat wealth as evil but as dangerous because wealth can give a person power, comfort, independence, influence, and options, and those things can be used for God or against Him.

Money can feed a thousand children, the same way it can fund pornography; it can build a hospital, the same way it can build the weapons industry; it can translate Bibles, the same way it can produce anti-Christian propaganda.

Money is a tool, and the morality of the tool depends largely on the person controlling it and the purpose for which it’s used.

That’s why for believers, we must always remember that there is a purpose to every blessing we have.

The prosperity preacher can say God wants you rich, making you pursue riches, constantly give “seeds” at your detriment, and become so focused on wealth that Christ becomes a means to an end.

In that case, you have missed it.

The prosperity critic can respond that God doesn’t want you rich because riches are dangerous, and you become so disgusted with exploitation that legitimate biblical teaching about blessing becomes uncomfortable.

In that case, you have also missed it.

The right Christian position requires considerably more nuance than either extreme, which is why we need to stop letting labels like “prosperity gospel”, “progressive Christianity”, “charismatic”, “conservative”, or “fundamentalist” do our thinking for us.

We have to be careful.

Conclusion.

We can berate the excesses and condemn the exploitative nature of many prominent teachings, but it doesn’t deny the underlying reality.

God blesses. God provides. God gives people the ability to produce wealth, and He can put resources, influence, and capacity into the hands of people who will use them for His purposes.

The purpose of the blessing is to be a blessing.

I pray God helps us understand why He blesses and why He gives, so He can put it in our hands and use it as a tool for His glory, because there is a world that needs the establishment of God’s kingdom more than it even knows.

There are hungry people who need food, sick people who need care, children who need education, communities that need development, missionaries who need support, institutions that need to be built, books that need to be written, films that need to be made, businesses that need to be created, governments that need righteous people inside them, and industries that need Christians competent enough to influence them.

There is nothing inherently more spiritual about being incapable of solving those problems.

God didn’t save me so I could be rich, but now that He has saved me, He has shown me the purpose of the blessing and shown me the areas He is blessing me to handle.

And by the Grace of God, when I am done, I will give account of all and receive my heavenly reward too.

The goal isn’t to become wealthy so we can boast about being wealthy. The goal is to become whatever God wants us to become, receive whatever He chooses to put in our hands, and steward it faithfully.

If that means abundance, let it be abundance. If that means sacrifice, let it be sacrifice. If that means suffering for Christ, let us suffer faithfully.

One day, the question will not simply be:

“What did God give you?”

It will be:

“What did you do with what I gave you?”

And nothing else will matter at that point.

That is the prosperity I am defending, and I will never, ever believe that God doesn’t want His children blessed financially on this Earth.

To you, my reader, please, I want you to believe that God can bless you, for the purposes that have already been highlighted in this article, and many more.

Fortunately, God CANNOT be deceived.

He sees all our hearts and knows the depths of our intentions, so He cannot be tricked.

If you have a genuine desire to be a blessing to your world, to make a meaningful impact, and you believe God can give you the resources that you need to do so, trust me, He will.

Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

Never forget: The purpose of the blessing is to be a blessing.

Peace.

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There are many things we cannot fully understand unless we learn under sound teaching. That’s why I put together this playlist of teachings, aptly named with the subject of this article.

By the time you’re done, and even long before you finish, you’ll understand:

- What the “blessing” truly is.
- The purpose of the blessing.
- What God’s “kingdom” is and how we are meant to bring it to the Earth.
- How to access the help and wisdom of God for your specific field.
- How to remain a steadfast, righteous believer even with access to abundance.

The teachings were all taught by my mentor, I’ve listened to them more times than I can count, and I can PERSONALLY guarantee that the lessons will change your life and outlook about many things.

I recommend them ONLY for people who have desires that are bigger than the promised “daily bread”, and want to be impactful, influential, and wealthy, not for selfish reasons, but for the sake of contributing to the work of God that needs to be done on the face of the Earth.

Enjoy.

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Picture this:

It’s Sunday afternoon, and you’re lazily checking all of the Snapchat/Instagram stories you missed while you were asleep and during the earlier church service of that morning.

You see some funny tweets, some TikToks, and some other random stuff; nothing too serious.

Then you come across a story, and you can see from the posts that the updates were made from a nightclub.

You tap forward through the flashing lights and the wisps of blowing smoke and the shot glasses and the strippers dancing, not really fascinated by anything you’re seeing.

A thought tries to cross your mind, but you shrug it off.

However, as you’re about to finish viewing the story updates, you get to the last set of posts, and the setting has changed. It’s no longer the dark, flashing den of the club, but now the ambient, large gathering of the church congregation.

There’s a choir ministering on stage, people dancing and waving their handkerchiefs, and the person (or people) who, just a few stories ago, was partying mindlessly in the club is now, seemingly, lost in the atmosphere of worship in the house of God, dancing and rejoicing.

Now you frown because you’re confused as you think:

“What exactly is happening here?”

There’s a verse of the Bible that always pricks my heart into caution, and I want you to pay attention to it because it’s the driving anchor of this entire article.

“They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”

- 2 Timothy 3:5.

Keep it in mind as you read on.

Imagine an athlete training rigorously for an upcoming World Olympics tournament.

He or she is waking up by 5am every day to take kilometre runs, spending hours in the gym training their muscles, and sleeping early at night to get about 8-10 hours of rest before doing it all again the next day.

And yet, during the day, in between the morning runs and the evening gym exercises, that same athlete consumes a regular diet of burgers, pizza, and ice cream that they consume without fail.

Despite all caution from nutritionists and personal trainers, they just refuse to eat anything else. claiming it doesn’t affect the exercises they already carry out daily.

So, their rigid work routine is still active, but so is their junk food diet.

Yet, in the mind of the aspiring Olympian, they strongly believe they will be a world champion when the tournament arrives in a few months.

Picture that scenario in your head.

Now, if you are brought in as an independent observer to judge this situation, would you conclude at the end of your examination that this athlete is going to win an Olympic medal?

And considering both the physical, mental, and dietary standards and preparations of other aspiring athletes, would you say this athlete in particular is truly dedicated to achieving his or her goal?

No, right?

I mean, obviously, the answer is “No”.

Which means that despite the fact that our athlete is doing all the rudimentary physical exercises, his or her daily diet indulgence is going to end up becoming their downfall in their quest to win an Olympic medal.

There’s a rigid demand and a certain price of self-denial that has to be paid before anybody can even get the chance to compete for being world champion; talk less of actually becoming world champion.

If the average person had to replicate the workout and lifestyle routine of the top 1% of professional athletes, 99% of people wouldn’t last a single day before quitting and bailing out.

The lifestyle and its intended goal just demand much more than many are willing to give.

And it’s the same thing here.

The same way it’s ludicrous for such an athlete to expect to triumph with such a terrible diet of fat and sugar is the same way it would be ridiculous for you or me to expect to enjoy the fullness of God and maximise the benefits of being his son or daughter when we keep indulging in things that make us unfit.

The same way that an athlete can be said to either be unserious with his goal or ignorant about what it truly takes to achieve it is the same way we can be said to not understand the guiding principles of this faith we claim or we can be said to not have even received the faith in the first place.

That’s just the truth, whether we like it or not, and whether we admit it or not.

“The Bible does not say that it is a sin” is one of the most lazy and convenient pushbacks that many believers, or supposed believers, give during debates about lifestyle choices and life decisions.

They mistake the absence of an explicit prohibition for the presence of biblical approval, and that is a very dangerous thing to do.

Scripture does not provide an exhaustive list of every conceivable behaviour that human beings might one day debate.

Attempting to do so would have even been impossible because, as humans, we just keep inventing new actions and behaviours, from awe-inspiring to outright ridiculous.

And also because the world has evolved far beyond what it was when the bible was written.

What the Bible does is to give commands, principles, moral categories, examples, warnings, and a broader understanding of what is good, evil, holy, wise, destructive, loving, and pleasing to God.

Consequently, the fact that it does not contain the exact sentence “X is a sin” does not automatically mean that “X is pleasing to God”.

The point is that expecting the Bible to have listed out every possible action as either wrong or right is just not sensible or realistic.

Many things were not directly addressed because it was expected that someone who had truly received the grace and knowledge of this faith would be wise enough to judge whether “action X” was consistent with biblical morality before engaging in it.

It was and it is still expected that your belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour should serve as a guardrail against our intentional, deliberate, and incessant participation in certain activities.

I don’t think there’s any specific law that says “don’t deliberately hurt the feelings of your friends”, and yet many of us try our best to always be good and kind to the people we love.

It would be hypocritical for us to understand the underlying principle of treating people with goodwill and act on it but deny the underlying principles of righteous living with the claim that “the Bible doesn’t say it’s a sin”.

Very hypocritical.

All things are lawful [that is, morally legitimate, permissible], but not all things are beneficial or advantageous. All things are lawful, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life].

- 1 Corinthians 10:23.

This verse from above was quoted from a letter by Apostle Paul, aka “the apostle of Grace”, and it is my rebuttal to the mindset that Christians can “do anything they want, as long as it is not a sin”.

No, that is certainly not true.

Christian freedom does not, in any way, eliminate Christian self-control.

There’s no constitutional law that says it is illegal for you to spread your friend’s embarrassing secret, and yet many of us won’t do it because it can be termed as a betrayal of their trust.

A lot of things cautioned against by God are not all explicitly “sin” or “wrong”, but we, as Christians, are encouraged to stay away from them because they do nothing to help or establish our growth in the faith or the knowledge of God.

And they do nothing to help us live and build lives that are worthy of the assignment or purpose that God will have us carry out.

You can spread this net broadly and make cases for why we shouldn’t listen to certain things, or watch certain things, or go to certain places, or get involved in certain things, or adopt certain mindsets, or agree with certain doctrines, or join certain movements, or advocate for certain rights, and so on like that.

Maybe for some things, God won’t judge it as a sin, but should you still indulge, considering the fact that it does nothing to get you closer to God and probably even drives you further from him?

Probably not. I would say “No”.

Similarly to the example of the aspiring Olympian athlete from above, we can see that it’s possible to have a goal or a desire in mind and yet be living two completely different lifestyles that are in conflict against that goal.

And the part that’s disturbing the most to me is that you can enjoy to the fullest the one that doesn’t take you toward your goal whilst indulging in the other.

But you cannot enjoy the one that can take you toward your goal to the fullest if you’re indulging in the other.

So, at the end of the day, you are doing nothing but missing out on meaningful progress in your journey because you keep dragging yourself back.

Some habits and lifestyle choices just don’t align with this faith that we have chosen, and that’s the reality of the situation.

Just to be clear, I’m writing this article with the mind of addressing people who I believe are serious and committed to growing in their Christian faith, and not those who are still sitting on the fence, undecided, thinking it’s all a big joke.

Like I said earlier, if you’re still loudly and confidently indulging in certain things, even up to the point of recommending and endorsing them, then it’s either you have not yet truly surrendered to this faith or you lack a basic understanding of what it is all truly about.

So, this means I’m not denouncing struggle. I can never ever do that.

We all have areas where God’s grace is being sufficient for us on a daily basis, so this is not a condemnation sermon or a call to unrealistic standards of perfection.

However, whilst struggle can be said to be a part of this journey that we are on, there’s a clear difference between struggling and exuberantly indulging.

Struggle can be moments of weakness to sin or an impulsive reaction to provocation, and it is often followed instantly by conviction, remorse, and repentance.

Struggle is NOT the hours and minutes spent confidently planning and strategising activities and then following them up with nonchalance, indifference, and little to no repentance or regret.

There’s a clear distinction between both, and it would do you and me a great deal of good to examine our lives to see where we are truly struggling and where we are indulging, so we can ask God to help us.

That’s why grace exists.

It’s to help us in times of need and not to encourage or pacify us in times of deliberate debauchery.

I try not to sound politically correct when I write articles like this, but at the same time, I also try not to segregate my target audience by being overly critical or by casting aspersions on them.

The truth is that, eventually, we will all have to make a conscious decision while we still have the chance to: Am I serious about my walk with God, or am I not?

Lukewarmness serves no real purpose to anybody; in fact, it’s even to our detriment.

We can’t deceive ourselves into thinking that we can “enjoy the best of both worlds”, because, unfortunately, such a thing just doesn’t exist here. It’s a lie of the age to believe that doing so means we’ve found a “balance”.

Not everything is explicitly “sin”, but not everything will get you to where you’re going or get us to where God wants us to be.

Either we’re aligned with Him or we’re not; there’s no in-between.

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After spending the entire book recounting the horrors he suffered under slavery, he rightly anticipated that some readers might mistake his criticism of slaveholding Christians as an attack on Christianity itself.

So, he ensured drawing a dividing line was done.

“What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper.”

Then he went even further to write:

“I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land.”

Despite his many years of terrible suffering and inhumane treatment by his so-called “Christian” slave masters, Douglass understood something that many people still struggle to understand today.

He understood that there was the “Christianity of Christ” and there was the “Christianity of the land”.

Accepting and understanding this simple distinction is as necessary today as it was back in nineteenth-century America because, ever since then and even right before then, countless evil actions have been committed by deeply religious people who believed, or who somehow convinced themselves, that God was on their side.

I can only name a few examples:

Slavery, colonialism, the Crusades, the Inquisition, The persecution of Jews, The burning of supposed witches, The oppression of women, Racial segregation defended from pulpits, Prosperity movements aimed at exploiting the poor and desperate, Church leaders covering up abuse, Spiritual manipulation, Religious cults that demanded unquestioning loyalty, Pastors using fear to control people, Parents using “honour your father and mother” to justify abuse against their children, Husbands using skewed interpretations of “submission” to justify abuse against their wives, and many others…

For decades, and even right up until now, entire systems of oppression have been built on and hidden behind crosses and the name of God while bearing almost no resemblance to the nature of the Carpenter who willingly carried one or His Father in heaven.

Many Christians like to believe that they are followers of a perfect and flawless religion because the God whom that religion is centred around is believed to be perfect and flawless.

That’s fine; however, unless we choose to live in a state of delusion or denial, we can see from history that the name of this God can and has been used by men and women to utter words and carry out actions that didn’t have the nature of said God present in them.

There’s no denying it; the evidence is clear if you come out of your state of bubbling ignorance to look at it.

And when you do, you’ll understand the “justification” that millions of people have when they look at the actions wrought by Christianity in the past and then choose to reject it in the present.

The only difference between such people and Frederick Douglass himself was that rather than reject Christ, he chose to reject those who claimed Christ while behaving nothing like Him.

He understood who Jesus was and the nature He carried that; that’s why his conviction couldn’t even be broken by years of suffering and torture done in the name of the God that he loved and believed in.

The tragedy is that a lot of people were never given the chance to establish their own convictions before they were dealt cruelly by men and institutions claiming the name of God.

And for the ones who did build conviction, due to many unanswered questions and the seemingly undeniable “discrepancies” that exist, they just couldn’t, in good conscience, continue in the Faith.

To an extent, I understand it, and honestly, who could blame them?

If your first experience of “God” was manipulation, and your first experience of Christianity was shame, and your first experience of the church was abuse, and the people who quoted Scripture to you were the same people who wounded you...

Then it’s only natural for the image of God Himself to become distorted in your mind, even if a part of you yearns or once yearned to believe in Him.

This is why many people believe they have “rejected” God when they have, in reality, rejected the false version of Him they were exposed to either through misrepresentation or misunderstanding.

For our own sake, like Frederick Douglass’, we must understand this distinction and be wholly convicted about it:

God is NOT a Christian.

And there has always been and will always be a difference between Him and the people who merely invoke His name, even though it’s not ideally meant to be that way.

As a Christian or non-Christian, and for the sake of proper understanding, you need to know that Christianity as a way of life that patterns itself after Jesus, the Son of God, and Christianity as a religion, a system of human doctrines, traditions, institutions, politics, and power are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.

Yes, they will often overlap because Christianity as a religion is meant to be the following of Jesus Christ, but they are, unfortunately, not always the same.

I can’t stress enough how important making this distinction is.

Jesus Himself warned that many people would come in His name, claiming to be Him (Matthew 24:5); He also warned about wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15), and He warned that not everyone who would say, “Lord, Lord,” truly belonged to Him (Matthew 7:21–23).

Some of Jesus’ strongest rebukes and public moments of outright condemnation were not directed at prostitutes, tax collectors, or perceived “sinners”, but at the Pharisees, the religious leaders who burdened people with cumbersome rules and difficult doctrinal practices while neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness, things He described as the “more important matters” (Matthew 23).

A lot of the “corrective” work His ministry aimed at doing was directed at religious people who had become experts at representing God and claiming His name whilst looking nothing like Him or acting like Him.

If this was already happening centuries ago, I believe it should simply tell us that God and the people who claim to represent Him are not always the same.

They are not.

And unless we learn to separate God from the failures and limitations of men, we will continue falling victim to lies, deceit, and the false representations of Him created by people, either intentionally with their selfish intentions or unintentionally through their ignorance.

If we want to know what or who God is like, we CANNOT begin by looking at pastors or at churches or at events of history.

No, we begin by looking at Jesus, and no one else.

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9)

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebrews 1:3)

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

Jesus was and is not merely someone who teaches us about God, and He is not simply a “prophet” or a “great revolutionist”; Jesus is God’s self-revelation.

Which means that whenever we wonder what God is like, we ask a simple question: How was Jesus like? How did Jesus treat people? How did Jesus act in certain situations?

If you ask that honestly, then you’ll find the countless examples freely available.

He touched lepers everyone else avoided. He forgave adulterers everyone else condemned. He restored Peter after his initial arrogance and the resulting failure. He wept at Lazarus’ tomb with the mourners. He fed hungry crowds; he defended children. He healed the sick. He welcomed outsiders, He confronted hypocrites, and He laid down His own life for people who hated Him, and even at the end, while nails were being driven into His hands, He still prayed…

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

That man, Jesus Christ, is our clearest picture of God.

So, any sermon, any church denomination, any “Christian” claiming organisation, any teacher, any doctrine, any practice, or any religious movement that does not reflect the kind, loving, and considerate nature of Jesus is NOT of God and should be rejected utterly and treated as an imposter.

Now, obviously, even drawing and accepting this distinction doesn’t automatically “solve” every grievance that people have against the Christian faith.

Especially as it does not cover a critical aspect of this grievance, which is the many unanswered questions.

Why does evil exist? Why does suffering continue? Why do innocent children die? Why do some prayers sometimes seem unanswered? Why does God intervene sometimes and not others? Why does so much of the Christian religion seem so male-focused? Why did God order the genocide of the enemies of the Israelites?

And so on…

Well, the simple answer is that I do not know the answers to all these questions, and neither do you, and neither do many people who claim to do so and try to offer some vague and convenient explanations.

Of course, the Bible gives us some answers, and there are other answers God reveals to us personally as we walk with Him.

However, there are other answers we simply will not receive on this side of eternity.

Now, I am not placing God above being questioned.

I believe that any ruler or symbol of authority that cannot be questioned is simply an oppressive one, and since He claims to be our “Father”, there’s no way He will block out all routes to us asking Him questions about things we don’t understand.

Whilst His supremacy is unquestionable, His actions definitely are, and throughout Scripture, we see people cry out to Him in confusion, grief, anger and lamentation.

If you are to read the Psalms, or read Job, or read Habakkuk, you’ll see clearly that God is not intimidated by honest questions.

However, asking questions out of a true desire to understand is much different from making conclusions out of arrogance or ignorance, and not having every answer to every question does not mean there are no answers to every question.

And whatever answers we eventually receive cannot contradict the nature God has already revealed through Jesus Christ.

Because God cannot deny Himself.

God is God.

God is supreme to Himself and to His own good and perfect will.

Which means that if He has to choose between His good and perfect will coming to pass and being misunderstood by humanity for hundreds or even thousands of years, He will choose His will.

I believe this is one thing that explains why there are many things we simply do not understand today; His purposes are simply larger than our perspective, and He sees way more than we do.

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.” (Isaiah 55:8–9)

To strike an important balance, this does not mean every evil thing that happens on the face of the Earth is God’s will, and this is one of those cases where the Bible gives us an insight into why things are the way they are.

Humanity lives in a fallen world, one radically different from God’s original design (Genesis 3), and this same humanity has continued in rebellion against God ever since while abusing their given gift of free will.

This is why we have wars, genocides, human trafficking, slavery, murder, rape, degeneracy, child abuse, domestic violence, corruption, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, fraud, political oppression, religious persecution, greed, environmental destruction, exploitation of the poor, racism, betrayal, and the unfortunate list goes on and on…

Should God be blamed for all these too?

Or are men and women like you and I not responsible for these happenings that we see around us every day?

The Bible consistently reveals evil as the consequence of a fallen creation and rebellious humanity, not the expression of God’s character.

God grieves over evil, judges evil, restrains evil, and ultimately promises to destroy evil. He is not indifferent to it, and to think so is to subscribe to a heretical school of thought that is very dangerous.

When I say God is not a Christian, I simply mean that God is not bound by a religion, He did not invent religion, and He is not subject to any religious doctrines or interpretations.

Christianity is the name history has given to the faith that seeks to follow the man called Jesus Christ, whom we believe is the Saviour of the world, the Son of God, and God Himself revealed in the flesh.

Christianity, at its best and as in its intended practice, is a way of life patterned after Jesus.

However, whenever the practice of Christianity by individuals or groups of people becomes filled with power struggles, control, manipulation, abuse, tribalism, traditions elevated above love, and doctrines divorced from the character of Christ, then it has ceased to resemble the One it claims to follow.

And such a version should be denounced and rejected, even if the entire religion in itself is not discarded.

Bearing this in mind, we must constantly return to Jesus as the pattern and as the blueprint.

He remains the standard.

And when any of the aforementioned continue to willingly and unrepentantly rebel against this standard, they can be said to be not of God but of the Devil.

One of the things that burden my heart greatly is just how many people have been broken and driven out of the faith through offence because of the actions of a few people or groups of people.

So many people have walked away, so many people cannot hear the word “church” without feeling sick, and so many people still carry spiritual, emotional, and physical wounds inflicted by people who claimed to speak for God.

So many others had to walk away because they were left feeling deceived, confused, and overwhelmed by the many things that were not adding up and their unanswered questions.

This is why, aside from the blatant enemies of the faith who are just seeking to stir up trouble and strife, I understand the deconstruction and I understand the anger.

I get it, honestly.

The same God many of us have encountered in pain, sorrow, confusion, joy, blessing, disappointment, and restoration is the very same God that so many others have been deprived of because of the historic and present actions of outrightly evil men and devils disguised as people of God.

As Christians, we are ideally meant to look like and represent God to the best of our ability, and when we choose to do the exact opposite, we leave a great deal of people in hurt and darkness.

Those people deserve better.

They deserve leaders who look more like Jesus, they deserve communities that reflect grace and compassion, and they deserve to know the full, undiluted truth of the Word and nature of God.

Dismissing or minimising their experiences would be very unfair because a lot of those grievances are justified.

My only prayer is that we don’t come to the time where those who have misrepresented and are still misrepresenting God will now become the final authority on who God is.

God forbid.

We need to be careful of letting Judas convince us to abandon Jesus and of letting wolves convince us that there is no Shepherd.

I believe the Holy Spirit still bears witness to hearts that genuinely seek the truth (John 16:13; Romans 8:16), and I also believe with all of my heart that Jesus is still worth knowing for the person that He is.

God loves you, God loves me, and God loves everyone; His entire nature is love (1 John 4:8).

At the end of the day, that’s the conviction that must settle deep in our hearts and matter to us the most.

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The crusade is a night vigil organised by “Judgement of Fire and Brimstone Ministries”, a prayer ministry headed by a mysterious prophet nicknamed “Apostle Lucifer’s Nightmare”.

The crusade has been in full swing for more than 3 hours, and the energy of the “spirit” is reaching peak levels, as seen obviously through the diverse physical ministrations.

Some bodies are falling to the floor, some bodies are vibrating at extremely high frequencies, and some other bodies are rolling around on the field while ushers try to keep them from hitting their heads on the ground.

That’s not all; chairs are also being broken violently, demons (you think) are flying out of people with loud screams, and other manners of displays are happening all around you.

The “prophet” is still on the altar, and he is declaring that you all “Shout out to God, ‘Fatherrrrr, the enemies of my father’s house die by fireeee!’ Amen!!”

Curious, you decide to listen to the prayers and groaning of some of the people around you.

“Holy Ghosttttt… everybody who doesn’t want me to expand my shopssss… this yearrrrrr… show them pepperrrrrrr… show them fireeeeeee!”

“Thunderrrrr… God of Elijahhhhh… strike all the enemies in my father’s house… that don’t want me to progressssssss…. Fire…”

“Fire from heavennnnnn… descend on my landlord!! He will not force me out of the house this month… Fire…”

And more and more…

You look around, slightly disturbed and slightly amused, and everybody around you that’s praying seems to be really into it.

They all look like they genuinely believe all their prayers will be answered if they shout “fireeee” loud enough.

It’s clear in their passion, and screaming, and shouting, and sweating, and everything else.

But if that’s the case, you wonder, then why were this exact same number of people present at this exact same crusade last month? And the month before that? And the month before that?

Is it that the God they’re praying to doesn’t answer their prayers? Or is it that they’re not praying well enough? Or is that they haven’t asked for the right amount of fire to descend yet?

What exactly has kept these same people here praying the same prayer for years without results?

You wonder, you wonder, you wonder…

Before I dive into this article, I’ll offer a disclaimer that I believe should go without saying.

Firstly, as “funny” as the above illustration might seem, I genuinely have no intention of mocking revival crusades or the activity of prayer.

God forbid.

Prayer works. I believe so with all my heart and soul.

I’m just painting a satirical picture.

Is it slightly exaggerated? Maybe (it’s really not), but it’s necessary because it serves as a foundation for the point I’m trying to establish in this piece.

And so do these:

Now, what exactly is the problem with the scene painted in the introduction?

Are they praying the wrong prayers? Are they wrong for praying those kinds of prayers? Does God answer those types of prayers?

Can such requests even be termed as “prayers” simply because they’re directed toward God?

Well… maybe, maybe not.

There’s not much time to delve into the theological aspect of it, and frankly, that’s not even the major bone of contention right now.

The issue that bothers me the most and prompted the writing of this article is simply this:

FOCUS.

The focus of those prayers, i.e., what exactly is being prayed about.

In a lot of spaces similar to that crusade, from the overall theme to the prayer points that are raised to the minds and expectations of attendees, much attention and emphasis is given solely to the enemy/problem/circumstance.

For example: “Breaking generational patterns”, “Killing the witches in my family”, “Destroying the bondage of my village people”, and so on and so forth.

Is this a bad thing? Well, no, it’s not, but it can become a serious problem if this is the only dimension of Christianity that a person practices and is aware of.

Many people who attend programmes such as the one described above either do so out of ignorance, fear, desperation, or a lack of proper understanding, even if they genuinely believe that God has the ability to answer their prayers.

Any expression of Christianity or its resulting spiritual activities, whether prayer or teaching the Bible, that focuses more on the Devil and his agents and the manifestation of their activities than on who Jesus is and what he has done and the resulting provisions of what he has done is very, very dangerous.

I can understand how pedestalling the work of the Devil can be used as an avenue to ensure people are not ignorant of his activities, but that hyperfixation on the enemy can end up being counterproductive if people aren’t simultaneously made to be even more AWARE of the persona and provisions of the God that they’re praying to.

Unfortunately, due to a lot of cultural and traditional influences on the doctrines and activities of many churches today, a lot of Christians are more aware of and knowledgeable about their opposition than they are of the One that is on their side.

So, they know everything there is to know about “marine spirits” and the “strong men” in their families and the generational forces opposing their progress, but they know little to nothing about the ministry of angels, the liberty of salvation, or the power of speaking the Word of God over situations.

They can passionately tell you that because the Prince of Persia was able to oppose the answering of Daniel’s prayers in the Old Testament, it means the Devil can prevent God Almighty from coming to their aid in times of need, but they can’t tell you how the fact that Jesus saw “Satan fall like lightning” in the New Testament means that all of such principalities have been disarmed and rendered powerless.

They can tell you all about the signs and symptoms and consequences of the sickness that they’ve been battling for years, but they can’t quote to you five different verses of healing from the scriptures.

I can give many more examples to illustrate this same point, but you should understand what exactly I’m driving at.

It seems to me, from my observation of many posters, songs, and sentiments/statements/beliefs, that there was a time in Christianity in Nigeria when a large focus was given more to spiritual warfare and prayers of violence and vengeance than to the proper understanding of the total benefits of salvation.

And not just in the past; correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the popular “Chosen” ministry that’s gained a lot of prominence recently also centred primarily around similar cases of vengeance against enemies, miracles, and very… interesting stories of deliverances?

(Whilst I’d admit that many of those stories sound farcical, I won’t outrightly call them “lies” because I genuinely believe that God can engender the occurrence of unbelievable events in dire situations.)

So, just to be clear, once again, I’m not castigating or speaking down on spiritual warfare or the importance of praying such prayers.

God forbid.

Spiritual warfare exists, and it’s very real, so the prayers or the songs or the ministries or the crusades are not the problem.

The problem is when we get to that point where EVERYTHING we do around church and prayer and worship is directed at fighting the Devil or breaking some curse somewhere or striking down some ancestral enemy.

This is the sole issue I have with the “fall down and die!” version of Christianity because all it does is keep believers’ consciousness of negativity and everything that’s wrong and evil, evil, evil…

When there’s already a more excellent way of thriving that has been provided:

The knowledge of Jesus, who He is and what He has done for all of us who believe in Him.

I’ll admit that another issue I have with this version of Christianity is that the prayers of people who engage in it often display their… smallness.

If after 20 or 30 years of being a believer you’re still praying against some “enemies” from your “father’s village” that don’t want you to pay your house rent, then there’s a serious problem somewhere.

I even have a question.

Why do we even treat God like He is a hired assassin?

And why is it that many of such prayers are tied to poverty and inconsequentiality and “little things”?

I’m not downplaying anybody’s trouble.

I’m just saying that because we’ve been wired and taught to focus so much on the problem, a lot of us don’t know what we are and what we carry.

We are so focused on the darkness that we forget that we are light.

“The Light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it or overpower it or appropriate it or absorb it [and is unreceptive to it].”

- John 1:5.

Light has no business struggling with darkness; it doesn’t even fight it but just simply dispels it.

So, anywhere there’s darkness – physical, spiritual, social, political, or economical – the simple solution is to introduce light.

Yes, there are chains and bondages that only the engagement of prayer and fasting will destroy, but those activities are meant to be powered by the understanding and awareness that comes from knowing the provisions of the Word; they’re not meant to serve as a replacement for it.

Knowledge brings awareness, awareness cures ignorance, and the resulting understanding that comes removes fear and allows a person to know exactly what to do and how to do it to get the results they want.

Let’s say after praying and fasting to break poverty from your family, you get a financial breakthrough.

If you don’t have the spiritual knowledge of how the Devil cannot now touch what has been given to you and the secular knowledge of how to grow and manage wealth, you might end up back in that poverty that you prayed to destroy.

The Bible talks about how demons return to the hosts they were cast out of even more violently when they discover that the space was left empty.

That’s why knowledge and light must always be present in our hearts and minds, especially when we’re praying for or about something.

If ignorance remains about an issue, then the root of that problem will always persist.

Yes, prayer and other spiritual activities might deal with the symptoms every now and then, but the core cause of the situation will remain unaddressed because it has not been properly dealt with by knowledge.

The worst thing a believer can be is to be ignorant.

Any believer that is ignorant of who they are, what they have, and what has been made available to them will live a life of struggles, substandard to what God has in mind for them, even if they live so righteously and end up going to heaven.

The Devil LOVES ignorant believers, and why won’t he? He’s a sneaky bastard that doesn’t mind losing battles in order to win wars.

He loves that a person can name the name of Jesus but still be tormented by basic afflictions simply because he or she doesn’t know one or two provisions or principles that they should know.

If the solution to a problem is that a person simply declares the Word of God over a situation, the Devil won’t mind if that same person spends hundreds of hours praying and fasting to solve the same problem that a simple declaration will fix.

Yes, he ultimately hates the fact that such a person is saved and is engaging the prayer of power, but he won’t mind it as long as the person remains stuck in that situation.

This is why praying without the right knowledge can sometimes lead to a lack of answers.

It’s like trying to use a square key to open a round hole; it just won’t work, and all it will do is lead a person into frustration and offence.

So, when I see people attend such programmes or pray certain prayers, my spirit is always disturbed greatly for them.

Will some of them get answers? Oh, of course, definitely.

God is merciful enough to answer the prayers of His people, even when they’re misguided, as long as it remains aligned in His overall will.

Will many of them remain in the results of their answered prayers? Well… not many of them will.

Will many of them get frustrated because they didn’t get the answers they wanted? Yes, yes, yes.

And it’s for no other reason than this knowledge deficit.

This deficit is the reason many Christians get caught up in religious sentiments, fall victim to scams and false prophets, and live a quality of life that is below what God has ordained for them.

The Bible clearly says it here-

“They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.”

- Psalm 82:5-7

This verse shows the fatal price of ignorance.

While prayer and revival ministries can carry a sufficient amount of the power of God to break chains and cause deliverances, if they’re not backed up with a system to support the prayer with simple and effective teachings of the word of God, many of those deliverances will be rendered null and void.

There has to be a balance.

I’m aware that this generation is fast losing sight of the importance of spiritual power and the awareness of spiritual warfare, and that on its own is an extreme that must also be avoided.

Yes, we’re blessed to have many solid teachers of the Word who show us the nature of God and the provisions we have in Him; however, we must not let the knowledge we have replace our desire to be empowered.

In fact, it must go ahead to fuel it because both of them are equally important.

Power without knowledge won’t be truly established, and knowledge without power won’t be effective enough to deal with certain situations that could arise.

Finally, another extreme to avoid is believing that Christianity and our walk here on Earth are all about softness and love and forgiveness.

Is it? Largely, yes.

But there’s also the place of war and violence and contention because we have an accuser whose sole agenda is to make us miserable and then use that misery to drive us away from God.

That’s the person we have to fight, and fight with UNDERSTANDING, which means there will be times where deliverance prayers and crusades will be crucial.

“Fall down and die!” Christianity, as it is, is not one to be completely dismissed.

If an enemy is running at you with a knife to KILL you, unrepentant and unfettered, I think it’s actually okay to pray for him/her/them to meet some sort of violent repercussion.

I know Jesus said we should “pray for your enemies”, but when it gets to a certain point, it’s better they meet their end than for you to do so, yes?

Yes?

All that being said, I really love this song-

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Across centuries, we’ve had different periods that consisted of different doctrines, church systems, and historical events, and whilst many of them were good, a lot of them are not so pleasing to read or hear about.

Even today, Christianity still has different denominations and doctrinal beliefs, ranging from traditional models that stick strictly to the tenets and the ways of the early church to new, more “progressive” models that are tethering dangerously on the line of apostasy.

Different people at different times have given different meanings to Biblical scriptures, causing them to come up with their own interpretation of what it means to be a “Christian” and how exactly God wants man to live on Earth.

Good thing? Bad thing? It can be, and it has been, both.

However, as much as we have the liberty to believe and follow whatever doctrines our spirit aligns with (as far as it is firmly rooted in the TRUE and UNCHANGEABLE word of God), there are certain aspects of this faith that we must preserve.

And certain traps that we must not fall into.

Today on Counter Cultural, we’ll be exploring three of such “versions” of our faith that we must not become privy to if we’re going to live and succeed on Earth as God wants us to.

Pay close attention.

The Christianity that helps God to fight sin.

^“But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong.” - Matthew 5:44-45 (CEV).

It is well-established in the Bible that God HATES sin.

It is established much more in that same Bible that God loves ALL MEN and wants to see all men saved and in the fellowship of his grace.

Unlike emotional human beings who have the tendency for bias and compromise of principles, God is well able to uphold his standard of righteousness whilst expressing his full nature of love.

This can be seen clearly in the verse that’s highlighted above, as it perfectly describes how his faithfulness is not affected by the way he might feel about the lifestyle or actions of an individual.

Therefore, as Christians, we must avoid coming to the place where we make our religion solely about discussing sin and constantly attacking sinners.

There’s a difference between this and teaching against living in sin whilst extending the message of salvation to sinners, and unfortunately, we seem to have lost the balance.

We have created a branch of the Salvation message that can only be described as the “Condemnation Message”, where our sole aim is to “help” God to let people know that they’re sinners and that they’ll burn in hell.

This is not right, and we must desist from turning our faith into being nothing else but an outlet for criticism, hate, and outrage.

We cannot be holier than God.

And we cannot be more God than God already is.

If you think you’re “helping” God express his hate for sin by attacking and berating the people you perceive as “sinners”, then you’re very wrong.

You’re not expressing the zeal of God; you’re just manifesting the same hatred that’s in the heart of the devil.

When we start to believe that we’re as grieved as God against sin, then we open the door for ourselves to become fountains of condemnation.

We must be careful.

God knows and sees more evil on the earth on a daily basis than we’ll ever imagine, and yet his grace and mercy abound continually toward every single one of us, day after day.

He sees the thousands of people who go to Hell on a daily, yet his goodness doesn’t change.

If God so loved the world that he sent his Son to save it, who are you or who am I to condemn that same world to destruction?

Again, this is not to say that we don’t kick against ungodliness when we see it, it’s to say that we don’t take up the role of judge, jury, and executioner over people that God is stretching his arms out toward in love.

Don’t let your actions further chase away someone God is already running after.

We can’t “scare” people into coming to God, and even if we do, they will not be deeply rooted because the basis of salvation is faith and not fear.

We invite people to come to God by reflecting his grace and mercy in our actions toward them.

Let’s be very careful.

The Christianity that has zero social impact.

“Make your light shine, so others will see the good you do and will praise your Father in heaven.” - Matthew 5:16 (CEV).

Contrary to what many people who oppose Christianity would have you believe, Christianity (both as a religion and as a practice) has had a more profound impact on the human race than any other belief system.

Jesus Christ, as the man who lived on earth and through the billions of followers he has raised, has done more good for humanity than any scientist or political leader that has ever been born.

Don’t be deceived, Christianity has shaped the world for good.

Some notable examples include:

The idea that every human life has equal worth, regardless of status, entered law and ethics through Christian teaching.

Orphanages and formal child welfare emerged from Christian obligations to protect abandoned children.

The abolition of the transatlantic slave trade was driven largely by Christian-led moral campaigns.

Western concepts of charity became institutionalised through churches rather than occasional personal generosity.

Universities in Europe began as Christian institutions created to study theology, philosophy, and natural law.

The modern concept of human rights grew from the Christian belief that humans are made in the image of God.

Amongst many others.

There have been lots of godly men and women in the past who were renowned for their spiritual capital and, alongside it, also had a great measure of societal relevance while they were alive.

And generations pass and the world evolves; we must ensure, by all means, that this pattern that has been laid out before us does not change.

I’m not denying that there are already thousands of Christians and Christian organisations doing a lot of good in the society today, but there’s still so much room for us to do even more.

In all honesty, if we were to compare the global impact of Christians in the past to what we have today, our contributions seem to have declined significantly.

And looking at the scope of what’s coming in the future, this should worry every single one of us.

If we can’t impact our world, how can we shape it to our advantage?

As Believers who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we should be at the forefront of every innovation and global breakthrough, simply because we have access to divine insights and spiritual wisdom.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many of us, and it’s even coming to the point where Christians are despised and viewed as small, inconsequential, and irrelevant because we are viewed as nuisances who just pray, make loud noises, and disturb people with flyers on the road.

Why is it that we’re not making as much tangible impact in the world as we used to?

Some reasons include the fact that we’re not interested in doing so anymore, the fact that we’ve allowed ourselves to become intimidated, the fact that many of us don’t have the required relationship with God that’s needed to access certain levels of insights, the fact that we’re becoming undistinguishable from the world, and many other reasons.

However, I want to zoom in on two other distinct causes of this.

The first reason Christians are not being as impactful as we should be in society today is the first version of Christianity that I listed above.

A lot of our churches, preachers, and doctrines are now focused more on condemning the world and calling it out for the wrong it does, rather than trying to influence it with the good that we believe we carry.

It’s like we’ve adopted a strictly moral focus in our messages, and whilst that’s not a bad thing, it is critical that we balance it with messages on social, economic, and political impact too.

Don’t just discuss marriage ethics and behavioural conduct on the altar every Sunday; also talk about the reasons believers need to embody and replicate God’s kingdom on Earth.

I understand that Sunday school is not the place to receive an education on social studies, but the point is not to turn the church into a civic centre.

The point is to train believers on the need for them to go out into the world and leave the mark of God on every single thing they see.

The second reason I believe this version of Christianity is currently thriving is because we refuse to go out into the world.

The instruction given was to “let your light shine before men so that they’ll glorify your father in heaven”.

The instruction given was to “be fruitful and multiply”.

Jesus describes us as the “light of the world”.

All this and many more direct instructions tell us that it was in God’s original intention for his children to SPREAD.

God wants believers to spread around different areas of the world and different sectors of human endeavours for the sole purpose of establishing his ways of doing things there.

That’s why when man planned to create a stagnant civilisation through the Tower of Babel, he had to come down to scatter their plans, forcing them to spread around the world.

We’re meant to influence the world through our presence, but it seems like we’ve been taught to contain ourselves, and we’re content with just being in church.

This is another grievance I have toward the older generation of Christians.

Many of them had this ideology of “Heaven is our true home”, forcing them to adopt and teach the belief that everything that happens on Earth is inconsequential to Christians and should not be paid any attention to.

And yes, I understand the genuine nature of their intentions, I do, but I still believe that it is deeply flawed.

We’re not meant to just go to church, isolate ourselves, and focus squarely on heavenly things.

We’re meant to learn from God, understand what he desires, and then go into the world to spread what we’ve learnt.

Everywhere.

Music. Politics. Business. Entertainment. Fashion. Social structures. Humanitarian activities. Engineering. Policy making. Education. Corporate spaces. Technology.

Everywhere.

And we don’t need to write “JESUS” or plaster Bible verses on everything before we can do this.

We simply use wisdom and tact as we establish God’s kingdom principles as the foundation of whatever we’re building or putting out for men to see.

We express the nature of God and the protocols of his kingdom in all our work.

However, the first step is to go.

Your light can’t shine in the world if it’s locked up within the four walls of your church, and you can’t make disciples of all nations if your focus is just your immediate street.

It’s illogical for us to keep complaining about how everything is bad and corrupted when we’re not making any attempt to put out the good and non-corrupted version of things.

It just doesn’t make sense.

I think this generation is finally waking up to this fact, and it’s really good to see.

You have a duty to spread and to influence, and you’ve been given everything you need to do so.

Don’t be scared of falling, and don’t be scared of failure.

Learn. Know the right things to do. Receive grace to perform. And go and go again, as many times as you need to.

We must avoid being Christians that shy away from social responsibility and social impact because if a sector isn’t being influenced by God, we can best believe that the devil is holding a stronghold there.

This is the secret to mass and effortless evangelism also.

Sometimes, people don’t need to hear the name of God shouted in their faces before they believe; once they see our good works around them and the impact we’re making, they’ll be more drawn to us and the power influencing us.

Which do you think is better for spreading God’s name and power:

A free maternity hospital that caters for all pregnant women at all stages and their newborn babies,

OR

Plastering “Hell is real. Repent or die soon” on every billboard around a city.

Think about it.

All I’m saying is that we can be heavenly conscious whilst being earthly relevant, and that should be the goal.

We have a duty to occupy till He comes.

The Christianity that is more emotional than strategic and more passionate than wise.

“We do not want Satan to win against us. He is very clever. We know how he likes to cause us to have trouble.” - 2 Corinthians 2:11 (EASY).

The Bible describes the Devil as being more “subtle than any of the other creatures on the Earth.”

He is the master of deceit, and as much as people don’t like to admit it, he’s very, very smart.

Don’t forget that he was one of God’s topmost angels before he fell, so he has a high level of divine wisdom, though it’s now corrupted.

And if you look around the world today and you see the systems and structures he has put in place to spread his will and achieve his goals, you’ll understand that he’s really not playing around.

All this is to say that if we want to defeat him and overcome him with the superior wisdom that we have from God, then we must also be as strategic as he is.

If we’re going to fight and beat him at his game, we must channel our passion and emotions the right way, with wisdom, tact, and tenacity.

Different generations of Christians have had different ways that they handled this faith, based on the way the world was at their time and based on what the people at that time needed to know and do.

This means that what worked for one generation might not necessarily work for another.

The message might remain the same, but the manner of approach and execution will certainly be different.

So, we must be sensitive enough to be discerning and intelligent enough to adapt to what the current need of the day is.

If not, we’ll keep using the same outdated tactics to try to gain an advantage over an opponent that is light years ahead of us.

One of the ways we can be wise in our doings is by focusing more of our energy and time on learning, showing, and teaching others and ourselves the things we need to do and spending less on the things we shouldn’t do.

The lessons we teach and the messages we preach should centre more on what God wants from us and less on what God doesn’t want from us.

It seems like a tiny change, but that shift of focus will do us a world of good because the idea behind it is that once we’re innately familiar with the original, we will be able to recognise and have less affinity for the fake.

It’s the same way bankers are taught to spot counterfeit currencies by being acclimatised with the look and feel of the original notes.

We should apply that same principle in our discipleship of new and existing believers.

Whatever we feed our focus will grow, so let’s shift our attention from what the Devil is doing to what God is doing.

This would be beneficial to us all.

(By the way, this same principle can be applied when you want to achieve goals, beat an addiction, and many others. Read more about it: HERE.)

Another way we must exercise wisdom is in the way we restore fallen believers and handle offences as Christians.

If a house is united, it cannot be broken down, but a divided house will always fall, over and over again.

We must not be so quick to condemn fallen brothers, sisters, and preachers to hell when they sin, make mistakes, or are caught in ungodly acts.

If they genuinely repent, God will forgive them, and if God forgives a man, who is another man to hold a grudge against him?

It’s foolish to be trying to defeat an enemy when our camp is divided.

One of the Devil’s foremost strategies in this age is to cause problems in the church, whether through doctrinal differences, false teachers, or by turning brother against brother through offence.

We have to be wiser than him.

The core tenet of Christianity is LOVE, and that love should be expressed from us to ourselves and to others outside our faith.

Nobody wins a war by emotion.

Sometimes, you’ll have to make sacrifices and difficult decisions and adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

Our adversary is not emotional, and he has been around for a very long time; we need to be meek and alert in all our dealings with him.

May God help us.

In summary, the three versions of Christianity we must avoid are:

The Christianity that “helps” God to fight sin,

The Christianity that has zero social impact, and

The Christianity that’s more emotional than strategic.

I hope you learnt a thing or two.

Peace be unto you.

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For the disclaimer purposes, I have no personal biases against any of the individuals or parties mentioned or involved in this story.

That being said, it’s actually ridiculous that we still have stories like this in 2025.

And since only a few ever happen in such prominent limelight, it’s insane to imagine how many such similar events happen every day in different places.

Aunty Esther’s case is another sad and familiar story that clearly shows how dangerous the combination of ignorance, a mindset of lack, and illogical religiousity can be to the life of a person.

Anywhere one or all three of these things exists, “practicality” is thrown out of the window in decision-making, and what you’re left with is resistance.

Not resistance that stems from logic or real conviction, but one that’s fuelled by archaic doctrine, external pressure, and the fear of disappointing whatever so-called religious group that’s in the picture.

Sicknesses and illnesses kill, but I assure you that the three monsters mentioned above kill also, if not much more.

If you’re an avid user of Nigerian Twitter (like I once was), whether as an observer or an engager, you’re probably familiar with Aunty Esther.

(Sorry, but I’m never, ever calling it “X”.)

She’s a petty trader and personal shopper who became “popular” a few years ago because she was always plugging her promotional tweets under the tweets of other people.

One day, someone called her out rudely and insulted her, and out of compassion and pity, many Nigerian Twitter users rallied behind Aunty Esther in defence, resulting in her getting patronage and a large following.

There’s this obsession Nigerians have with rewarding people rightly called out for their bad behaviours or opinions, but don’t let me digress.

I’ve been off the Twitter space for a long time till I had to start using it again because of work, and one of the first tweets I saw on my return was from Aunty Esther, and she was soliciting for help for her medical condition.

She had breast cancer, a very advanced one at that, and even though she had noticed a lump months earlier, she had chosen to avoid going to the hospital, claiming to prefer “natural remedies”.

I’m not sure about all the details, but I know that many people felt sorry for her, and a crowdfunding campaign for her treatment started almost immediately.

It was spearheaded by @WizArab10, one of the foremost philanthropists in the Nigerian Twitter space, and it attracted a lot of donations, attention, and goodwill messages.

Last month, in November, she went to the Lakeshore Cancer Center in Lagos, and thorough tests were done: CT scans, biopsies, tumour markers, receptor status, and full blood work.

The results confirmed that the cancer was far gone and that her blood levels were dangerously low.

However, the doctors explained that chemotherapy was possible, but that she would need a blood transfusion first, because without it, her body would not survive the intense treatment.

Naturally, what do you think should happen next?

Considering that over 30 million Naira had been raised, and that the doctors were on standby, and that time was running out on her, it just makes sense for Aunty Esther to undergo a blood transfusion so her treatment would begin immediately, right?

Well, imagine everyone’s surprise when news came out this morning that she would not be going forward with the blood transfusion.

Why, you ask?

Well, see for yourself.

That’s right, Aunty Esther is currently refusing to accept blood because of her faith as a Jehovah’s Witness, and has decided to use natural means to “boost her blood”.

According to reports, her church has even threatened to expel and excommunicate her from the congregation if she goes forward with the blood transfusion, and unsurprisingly, her family is in full support of her decision.

If you’re confused as to why Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t do blood transfusions, it’s due to their religious belief that the Bible commands them to “abstain from blood”.

They view blood as a sacred representation of life, and they believe that obeying this command is more important than sustaining their current life with a transfusion.

Is that ridiculous? You decide.

And just like every other doctrine, heretical or true, they have a Biblical scripture to back up what they believe:

Genesis 9:4: God told Noah, “The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe this command applies to all humankind, prompting them to reject all forms of transfusion.

We’ll come back to the absurdity of all this in a minute, but right now, you can imagine why the thousands of people who donated to Aunty Esther’s campaign are very angry at the moment.

They had raised millions for her treatment and had done everything possible to solicit support for her, and now that it’s time for her treatment to begin, the person over whom so much effort has been exerted is refusing to take the next step.

And for no other reason than the combination of the three monsters I mentioned earlier: Illogical Religiousity, Ignorance, and a mindset of lack/scarcity.

This is not the first time something like this has happened.

Aunty Esther’s story is just another case that exposes a fundamental problem in African Christianity:

The STRUGGLE many people have with understanding the difference between God as the Supreme Being that loves all people and Religion as a man-made attempt to try to understand God and build a relationship with him.

That is why many Christians struggle and live under different suboptimal conditions in their desperate efforts to please or serve God.

It’s also why many doctrines are obeyed without question, even when those doctrines contradict the very essence of the love and mercy that God represents.

Again, it is also why, even in the face of scientific progress and impressive medical advancement, some believers still cling to rules and laws that were written thousands of years ago, without considering their context, purpose, or evolution, just because they’re in the Bible.

I’m not an expert on theology, but I believe that sectors or denominations of the Christian faith that base their doctrines heavily on the precepts of the Old Testament should be treated with a lot of wariness and caution.

The Old Covenant was abolished and destroyed completely when Jesus resurrected, and whilst there are certain laws and rules that still guide our Christian practice, like the Ten Commandments and tithing, anything that does not reflect the loving, merciful nature of God as revealed through Jesus should be discarded.

With this in mind, we can boldly say that a Caesarean Section is NOT a sin, and that blood transfusion is NOT a sin, and that a woman leaving an abusive husband or marriage is NOT a sin.

The doctrines prohibiting these things are religious biases and nothing more, and they have seeped into our churches for two reasons:

1. Many Christians refuse to accept God as a calm, loving Father that simply wants the best for his people. They prefer to see him as this vengeful God who is difficult to please and requires performative sacrifices before he answers prayers.

2. We lack basic human empathy, and we don’t love each other as much as we should.

These two things are the reasons cases like this will continue to exist.

Moving back to Aunty Esther, as of this morning, the two major organisers of the crowdfunding for her treatment have pulled out, and nobody can even blame them.

It must be so frustrating and embarrassing that after doing all that they did, the subject of all the concern and pity would belittle their efforts by refusing to go ahead with her treatment.

This is not a matter of “She’s an adult; she can make her decisions.” No.

When you cry to the public for help and you receive help, you are accountable to every single person who answered your cry and came to your aid.

Many of the donors are very angry and are now calling for their money to be refunded since it won’t be fulfilling its purpose anymore.

Personally, I just hope the money is not given to the church or to Aunty Esther’s family for any reason. As harsh as that might sound, she has made her decision, and it would be ill-advised for the consequences of that decision not to be faced.

If she will not go ahead with the treatment for whatever reason, then the money should be refunded to the donators, or better still, it should be given to another similar cancer patient in need, one that will happily use the money for its intended purposes.

You know, the saddest part is that things are not even looking good for Aunty Esther at all.

At this rate, she’s mostly likely going to die if she doesn’t receive the dire medical help that she needs, and it’s just… unfortunate, honestly.

This whole event makes you question many things like - Does human life not have any value again? Was crowdfunding money for personal use always the plan from the start? What happens if she doesn’t receive treatment and she ends up dying?

I don’t even know.

I have no personal biases against Aunty Esther or her family or church; I’m just painting the picture of an issue that has happened time and time again.

One thing that’s upsetting me now is the fact that there are SO MANY people who are currently in the same spot as she is, and they will gladly give all they have to get just a fraction of the support that she has received.

There are many more people who have died in the past because they could not get any funds or external financial support for their own treatment.

Then there’s you, who has been fortunate enough to receive help and receive it so generously and lavishly, and now you’re treating it with so much contempt and entitlement.

All for what reason? Because your church said they’ll expel you if you take the blood transfusion? Because your beliefs don’t believe in putting your life over everything else?

It’s so ludicrous.

On this so-called church? Hm…

I try my best to refrain from speaking unkindly against bodies and individuals that are members of my faith because there is already a lot of misguided hate and criticism flying about against believers, pastors, and churches on a daily basis, and I don’t want to add to it for no reason.

However, when I see things like this, it just baffles and irritates me, especially because it’s being done under the pretext of worship and devotion to God.

Are we saying that God is pleased with a woman losing her life to cancer just because she refused to take medical treatment?

What kind of “God” have we created in our minds?

Why are we viewing God as one that cherishes man-made doctrines and laws (many of which have already been rendered null and void, by the way) over the precious, irreplaceable life of a human being?

Does that even make any logical sense?

It’s so sad that many churches are now at the point where they value doctrines, rules, and hypocritical performance over human life and dignity.

It’s quite sad.

I’ve spoken about this thing many times, and I really don’t want to go over it again.

When the poor woman was begging for help on the internet and crying out in pain, the said church was nowhere to be found.

Now that she has raised millions for her treatment, they are conveniently in the picture, making threats and laying out demands.

I really pray that, one day, my people will be free from the shackles of perverted religiousity so that we can live our lives to the fullest in the exact way that God originally intended for us to do.

I’m sure that many Christians die, get to heaven, and are heartbroken when they realise the gap between the quality of life they lived and the quality of life God wanted them to have.

So sad.

I’ll just slide this in here for no reason…

Backtracking a bit, I don’t understand where this idea that going down the medical route for treatment is a sign that you don’t have faith in God to heal you.

I really don’t.

People get healed and give testimonies with phrases like, “God put the doctors to shame”, as if doctors are devils who go around inflicting illnesses.

It’s irking.

The fact that the “blood of Jesus will cleanse you” doesn’t mean you should not take the drugs or treatment prescribed to you by a trained medical professional.

Doing one does not invalidate the other, and I even believe that undergoing treatment is a sign of faith that you trust God enough to heal you through it.

I’m a firm believer in faith, speaking confessions, and all those other things, but if you’ve spoken, prayed, fasted, and you’re still not healed, why forsake the available medical options on the table?

For as long as they see obvious foolishness like this on display, many atheists and unbelievers will never take us seriously.

They’ll just keep laughing at the absurdity of our beliefs while God in heaven is shaking his head and wondering when we’ll stop embarrassing him and dying for no reason in his name.

If we believe God was powerful enough to create the world and everything in it, why won’t we also believe that he’s the one who inspired the men who have created medical advances over the centuries?

We rather prefer to select practices that are over Two thousand years LATE in technological advancement to dictate our life in the present, forgetting that when those rules were given, there were no hospitals or skilled doctors or advanced machinery, so they had to make do with what they had.

God never changes, yes, but the human race does.

We grow and we advance, and God is not against us advancing with the times, it’s just unfortunate that many have let their rigid religiousity hold them back from living as they should.

All in all, it is well.

Humans make their decisions, and they have no choice but to live with them.

It remains to be seen what happens with Aunty Esther, and even though I hope she comes to her senses, I know just how insanely difficult it is for someone to break free from a limiting religious mindset.

All I’ll say to you is that, in everything you do in this life, avoid ignorance.

Ignorance is a terrible thing, and when you add cultural and religious biases to it, you get a raging monster that can wreck serious havoc on a person’s life, and it becomes much worse when it’s mixed with poverty.

I once heard the story of a family for whom money was raised for their sick daughter’s treatment, and when they were given the money, they used it to buy musical instruments and a generator for their church, and they also bought an okada for their pastor.

Just imagine.

Anywhere there’s a scarcity of resources, what comes next is blindness to the fact that money is nothing but a means to an end and not an end in itself.

So, you’ll understand why someone with this mindset will see spending millions of Naira on their health as a “waste”, preferring to keep the money for themselves, their family (and their church?), while their health slowly denigrates and they waste away.

It’s a nasty mindset to have.

Whilst you’re fighting ignorance, make sure you fight poverty too.

Anyways, I wish everybody involved in this story all the very best. God be with all of us.

Future Update - Aunty Esther passed away on the 27th of December, 2025.

Sigh, God rest her soul.

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“What if I could prophesy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge?

And what if I had faith that moved mountains?

I would be nothing, unless I loved others.”

- 1 Corinthians 13:2 (CEV).

Christians are sometimes the most tone-deaf and insensitive people in our society today, and whilst this could be a result of the expression of the natural human tendency to be selfish, I believe it boils down more to a mixture of vain hypocrisy and an exaggerated sense of self-righteousness.

We can be so critical and unsympathetic when we deal with people around us, especially when they are unbelievers, and even to fellow believers.

I understand the importance of standing on values and being vocal about the things that you agree and don’t agree with, and I also understand the place of speaking against acts and habits that go against God’s instructions.

That’s not the crux of the matter.

What I have a problem with is how willing, and almost eager, many so-called believers are to criticise, condemn, and harshly rebuke people, all in the name of correction and standing for righteousness.

I hate to break it to you, but even if you pull down, humiliate, or degrade someone in the name of God, it doesn’t mean that God is on your side.

The defining nature of our God is LOVE.

Everything about Him – his mercy, his goodness, his faithfulness, his wisdom, his justice, and all the rest – are all predicated under the love that he has for mankind.

This love is seen clearly in his dealings with us on a day-to-day basis.

Also, God has an equal amount of love for EVERYBODY on this planet, no matter who they are, where they are from, what they’ve done, what they are doing, or what they will do.

This means that the same love God has for that person who you think is the worst sinner on earth is the same love he has for YOU, and the same love that he has for his son, Jesus.

I know it feels good to people when they call themselves things like “God’s favourite” and “Abba’s beloved” and those other things- and I’m not saying they are wrong, I’m just saying it’s not exclusive (Acts 10:34).

The love of God is free-for-all and it’s available on the table for anybody who is interested in partaking in it.

The only thing that differs in how God relates with us is the level of relationship and understanding that we have of him, and even then, we can all still access the same depths of fellowship, if we desire it.

My point is very simple: Sinner or not, Born-again or not, Christian or not – God loves everyone all the same.

He might not agree with the actions and lifestyles of everybody whom he loves, but his love is unconditional, so it was never determined by your actions or by your lifestyle in the first place.

We live right because it’s the only way we can show God that we love him, and not because we want to make him love us or answer our prayers.

In fact, there’s more rejoicing in heaven when a sinner repents than when a believer prays for hours upon hours (Luke 15:7).

So, Mr or Mrs Christian, there’s really nothing “special” about you that should make you believe that you’re allowed to treat other people in any manner you please.

Pay close attention because I’m going somewhere that’s very crucial.

Now, with this foundation in mind, we can clearly see that God holds no biases in his love toward people, and with that established, you will then agree with me that it makes absolutely NO SENSE for a person who claims to love God to treat people that God also loves in a less-than-ideal manner.

It’s very conflicting in itself as an action.

I’ll get into the hypocritical aspect of this in a bit, but I want to dwell on the other reason for his very prevalent problem: SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Which is simply the state of being “convinced of one’s own righteousness, especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others: narrow-mindedly moralistic.”

For this context, self-righteousness is when a Christian is convinced that they have the ability to judge and condemn the actions of others because of the pedestalised perception they have of their relationship with God and also because of the righteous life that they might be living.

The perfect example of this is the story of the Pharisee who went to pray.

This was his prayer: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” (Luke 18:11-12)

Jesus described him as “proud” and basically said that there was no way God was going to answer such a prayer because it was coming from a place of arrogance.

He didn’t say that the Pharisee was wrong, meaning that he was not lying about doing all those things, but his heart posture for doing them (which inherently matters to God more) was not right, and so his prayers did not even leave the roof of the temple.

Meanwhile, this was the answered prayer of the tax collector that was branded as “sinful”: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13)

Can you see the difference?

I’m sure you can.

Which means you can also see that there’s a tendency for a man to become proud because he’s living according to the commands of God.

And this pride will, in turn, make him despise the people around him who do not live the same.

What’s much worse than this is when this self-righteousness is backed by cultural and traditional sentiments.

It becomes a recipe for disaster because all forms and traces of human empathy just fly out the window.

You can find situations where this exaggerated sense of self-righteousness is being expressed through traditional biases particularly among the older generation of African/Nigerian Christians.

And, in case you don’t know, I’ll tell you that it’s never pleasant to experience or witness it in action.

Honestly, religion can be a monster in the wrong hands, and even Christianity is no exception.

It’s the perfect tool to enslave, condemn, and trap people, especially when it’s taken out of its original foundation: The love of God.

Tradition is why you’ll see believers being nasty to other believers who do not conform to certain habits and lifestyles that they uphold, not because they are “ungodly”, but because they do not fit in with their cultural biases.

A good example of this is thigs like dyeing of hair, women wearing trousers, men wearing earrings, and many others.

These things often get major resistance, not because they are exactly “sin”, but because they do not agree with the long held traditions of a particular group of people.

Yes, I understand the desire to ensure that Christians look different from the rest of the world, but what I don’t agree with is the method of execution to achieve this goal.

Embarrassing people in public because of what they are wearing, publicly calling out and shaming people for their offenses, offering derogatory remarks to a person based on the mistakes of their past- all these things are not the way to go.

You’ll see Christians tearing down other Christians for doing certain things they do not understand, and they will do it all in the name of God, feeling wholly justified while they are at it.

It’s quite appalling.

Unhealthy Religiosity + Rigid Traditionalism is a terrible combination.

When I say “Tradition”, I don’t mean practical actions or ways of life that have helped Christians to live properly in the faith for centuries.

What I mean by tradition is relative, PERSONAL, and cultural beliefs that a group of Christians have adopted for a long time and have now, consciously or unconsciously, made the standard for every Christian that they come across.

Self-righteousness and a lack of basic empathy are what make us see people struggling with the faith, confused with understanding certain things, or asking uncomfortable questions and just dismiss them abruptly.

We tell them to pray more or to read their Bible more, and we imply that they are only struggling because they are not trying enough, like it was ever about their personal effort in the first place.

When did salvation ever become about “trying”?

This self-aggrandising nature also trickles down to the way we act when we go out on evangelism to reach out to the unsaved.

Many Christians don’t do it out of compassion or care.

Some people do it just to add names to their list, others do it to make themselves feel good, while some might do it just out of religious obligation.

There’s no compassion in you to actually see the person you’re reaching out to turn to the better way of living; you’re just doing it out of pride.

There’s no mention of God’s love or the sacrifice of Jesus, just arrogance mixed with damning condemnation.

“You’re a sinner, and you’ll burn in hell. Repent of your sinful ways or die!”

And we behave like this to “outsiders” as much as we do it to ourselves.

If you were to open up to some “Christians”, there’s a very good chance you would regret doing so.

Many of us are the chiefs of gossip and of divulging information that was given to us in trust and confidentiality.

When some Christians hear stories of people experiencing bad situations, they are always ready to make them feel like it’s as a result of their actions: “It’s because you didn’t pray against it.”

Or they quickly make it all about them: “I reject it; may that never be me!”

Whilst it’s okay to pray for better for yourself, do you really have to do it in their presence immediately?

Or better still, must it be done in such a condescending manner?

It’s terrible thinking to believe that things are going well for you in your life only because you pray regularly or because you “rejected” bad situations.

Very terrible thinking.

Personally, it bothers me to see just how many people have been hurt, broken, and beaten by churches, religious leaders, and certain Christian sects.

People have been left in terrible conditions by people that they would have never imagined would do what they did because, whilst they were all religious, loving, and respectable on the outside, their hearts and actions were just as vile and corrupt as that of the basest, natural man.

By the design and desire of God, Christian homes and churches are meant to be the primary places of community and vulnerability, a safe space where people can connect with one another, share their feelings, and be built up together in love and faith.

But what do we have today?

We have places where shame and hypocrisy are the order of the day.

People in many churches and homes can’t or won’t ever voice out whenever they are faced with anything, due to fear of being rebuked, judged, or condemned.

This is why many Christians that are struggling with lust, depression, homosexual desires, religious apathy, and many other justifiable feelings have nowhere to turn to because there’s nowhere around them that seems safe.

Nowhere in the faith seems safe, at least, so they find solace outside God and outside his boundaries.

Countless churches have the numbers and are packed to the brim with crowds, but in reality, there’s no actual congregation.

It’s all quite sad.

Way too many young believers do not have an older Christian person that they can trust for advice or teaching because, well, let’s be frank, most of them just don’t get it.

They might be strong in their knowledge of God, but they do not have the wisdom and emotional nuance that’s required to understand and navigate the contexts and struggles that younger believers face in today’s age and time.

Many of them claim that they do, but the truth is that most of them just DO NOT.

The frustrating hypocrisy of this entire thing is that Christianity, both as a way of life and as a religion, is built on Love and Grace.

And yet, we seem to place all emphasis on our human actions.

Our actions are important because they are proof of our faith, agreed, but they are not the basis or the foundation of the faith that we have in God.

The Bible encourages us to be “perfect like the Father” (Matt 5:48), but it also tells us that we are undergoing a daily and moment-after-moment transformation (II Corinthians 2:18).

Being human and being a Christian means there is going to be a fight and struggle for as long as you are on Earth; that’s why God is there to help.

If you’ve received this help, it’s only the bare minimum that you extend the same grace to everyone else that’s around you.

Even though God’s way is THE way, we can’t trample on people in our bid to show them this way; it doesn’t make sense.

When has something ever been built up by being dragged down? Never.

Your holier-than-thou attitude will never convert someone because it has already made them defensive before they even heard you speak.

Your condemnation message, as true as it might be, does not represent the fullness of God, which is mercy and forgiveness.

We have freely received love and grace from God, and we bask in it, but when it’s now time for us to extend this grace to others, it becomes a problem.

Why?

I really want to understand it.

The biggest reflection of our hypocrisy as Christians is how we pick and choose the actions to condemn and the ones to condone.

And we do this based on what our hearts and minds can “stomach”, things that don’t make us too uncomfortable.

So, it’s okay for a woman that beats her househelp to preach on the altar, but the woman that was formerly a prostitute cannot climb the same altar to sing.

Hypocrisy.

A woman that leaves her abusive husband has “broken the sanctity of marriage”, but nobody pays attention to the man that’s been beating her every night.

Hypocrisy.

Let’s “welcome” the politician who has pending corruption cases in court with open arms, but the teenage boys struggling with drug addiction must not be allowed to enter into the house of God.

HYPOCRISY.

It’s so funny when churches keep certain people locked out and segregated from the rest of the congregation because they are or were involved in certain things.

I understand not wanting to condone and encourage unrighteousness, but if not the church, then where should the lost and unsaved go?

Jesus himself said he came to save the sinners, not the saved. The 99, and not the 1.

So what is our own issue?

How exactly do we hope to bring these “sinners” into the fold if they can’t even come into the house of God to worship or hear the Word?

The only danger I see here is the people coming into the church and not conforming to change whilst they influence those who were already there, but I also believe that in a church where the presence of the Holy Spirit resides and the true Word of God is being taught, it’s almost impossible for this to happen.

As Christians, we should be accepting of people, not encouraging their vices and ills, but being conscious of the human that they are inside and the eternal soul they possess.

That’s how we obey the commandment to love.

It’s very important to God, and to our own utmost benefit, that we treat each other with patience and empathy, even when we relate with people who are outside of our faith and with people living lifestyles we don’t agree with.

You have no right to condemn anybody. Absolutely no right at all.

“God doesn’t like what you’re doing” is very different from “God is angry with you, and He will punish you for doing this.”

Correct, don’t rebuke.

And even if/when you do, it has to come from a place of love and desire to see a change.

We have been loved so that we can love, in the same way we’ve been given Grace so we can be gracious.

Resist the urge to judge.

Resist the urge to make someone’s spiritual struggles feel like the right time for you to “prove” your own righteousness.

In fact, sometimes just shut up and keep your advice to yourself.

Not every moment requires you to have the best Bible verse or the best prayer points to share.

Sometimes, you have to weep with people like Jesus did with Mary and Martha.

Sometimes, you have to eat a nice meal with them like Jesus did with Zacchaeus.

Sometimes, you have to accept people the way they are and then show them a better way, like Jesus did with Mary Magdalene.

God has met you where you are, so extend that to everyone around you.

This is not an encouragement of compromise or to ignore wrongs; I’m just saying you should treat people how you want to be treated.

Or even better, treat people the way you’d like God to treat you.

The biggest problem we have is that we lack LOVE amongst us.

So when somebody falls or stumbles, it’s either we shame or condemn them, or we ignore their wrongs completely.

Meanwhile, we’re meant to find that balance between correction and forgiveness, between acceptance and rebuke.

That’s how we do better.

We must never forget:

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This is Issue #1 of Counter Cultural, make sure not to miss any of the subsequent editions that will be coming your way very soon.

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'All wisdom comes from the LORD, and so do common sense and understanding.’

- Proverbs 2: 6-8 (CEV).

In today’s world, there are so many different sources of wisdom.

There are a countless number of books, teachers, opinions, facts, etc., with each of them all focused on trying to teach or get you to believe something.

Yet, despite all this, the wisdom of God still stands superior and indisputable as the ultimate source of all the knowledge needed for life and living.

Fortunately for us, this wisdom is stated plainly in the word of God, the Bible, and although searching it out requires learning, patience, and diligence, it’s freely available for anybody who searches it out.

The wisdom contained in this book cuts across all facets of life, and there is absolutely nothing in this world that the word and wisdom of God does not cover.

This newsletter publication aims to bring that wisdom closer to you.

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Now, because the wisdom of God is divine and superior, it goes against many norms, values, and traditions that have been established as the “standard” in today’s fallen world.

Counter Cultural is an unapologetic stand against the pervasive and invasive culture of the world today.

The truths and topics that will be discussed in this newsletter find their root strongly in established tenets of God’s word, so if you’re not aligned with that wisdom, there’s a very good chance that you’ll be uncomfortable, offended, or disturbed by the things you read here.

That’s perfectly fine; in fact, it’s almost kind of the point.

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As born-again Christian believers who live on Earth today, we battle with so many agendas, propaganda, heresies, and outright lies, all with one goal - to establish themselves against the knowledge of God.

And while the will and supremacy of God will always prevail in the end, it is still our duty to ensure that we stand firm against anything that tries to put itself above God, in any way, manner, or form.

It might be discouraging to see just how ignorant the rest of the world is and to see just how many people have been deceived, but we can find peace in the fact that our God can never lose.

And we must also ensure that we ourselves don’t fall prey to compromise, beliefs, and “progressive” notions that simply want to make our devotion and consecration to God wax cold.

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Who is Counter Cultural For?

1 - Definitely not for everybody.

2 - If you’re a believer who doesn’t have itching ears and wants to learn the truth of the wisdom of God at all times, no matter how uncomfortable it gets.

3 - If you’re a non-believer who is simply curious to know more about God and how he operates. This publication hopes to lead you to the light of his wisdom and, ultimately, his love.

4 - Anybody who desires to submit to something more than the bleakness, unfulfillment, and superfluity of popular culture.

5 - Anybody from anywhere across the world who wants to know God and his wisdom better, especially in how it applies to everyday life and living.

6 - Anybody who doesn’t want to just blend in and be another part of the faceless, inconsequential masses.

If any of the above sounds like you, or you relate distinctly to any of the above, then you are welcome.

Great to have you here.

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While the word of God will be the foundational principle of everything that will be discussed in this newsletter, insights and knowledge from relevant sources will also be referenced where and when needed.

There are so many things to learn and to know in order to live life as God intends for it to be lived, and while many of these things might be “unpopular”, we must hold them closely.

It is very possible to be Heavenly conscious and still be Earthly relevant, and the purpose of this publication is to show you exactly how.

And so help me God.

You are welcome to COUNTER CULTURAL.

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