Pastor Femi Lazarus has narrated how he fell to the antics of a scammer who promised to give him $5000 if he was able to pay off the duties on a load from the US.

He made the confession in a message sighted by our reporter online.

In the message, Lazarus who is the founder of Femi Lazarus Ministries Ecumenical (FLAME) said the first objective of scammers is to distort the thought process of their victims.

I was scammed

He said, “I have been scammed before. One of the ways to know scammers is that they want you to pay now. A scammer does not want you to think.”

Narrating his experience, he said, “When I was scammed, they said they were bringing a load from America. I did not think.  The guy said his wallet dropped in the load and it contained $25,000. He said they had stopped the wallet at the airport and that they had to bail it out with some money. They said once the wallet gets to me they would give me $5000.”

He said immediately he heard 5000 dollars, he lost his ability to think straight. He said the amount kept ringing in his brain.

Lazarus who said he was at Ile-Ife at that time recalled how he was carried away with the thought of getting 5000 dollars.

He said each time he passed on the road trekking he would imagine how he would build shops where people would be barbing and watching football at the same time since he was expecting a huge amount of money.

The expectation of some money made him go into debt.

He recalled, “I was not thinking. So I went to go and meet a sister in the Church because I did not have money when they asked me to pay. I asked my sister to borrow me money. She said the money she had was for her school fees. I said, give me we are about to be rich.

“She gave me, the scammers wanted more, I kept borrowing to give them. They wanted more again, and I said, I was done. At least they should allow the goods to land then I would take out of the money they promised to give me.”

But it dawned on him he was being scammed when the scammers mistakenly called him. “So one day they called me, they did know they had called me. For like 16 minutes I heard them speak pidgin English.

“A guy who had been speaking phonetics was speaking pidgin. My saliva dried, and I started running temperature.”

He said in all the earlier conversations he had with the scammers they did not give him room to think or perhaps he was carried away by the promise of dollars.

His message

Lazarus then said, “To establish doctrine, it takes teaching and labour and you give people breathing space. Any doctrine I try to establish without giving you room to think is a lie. Bible doctrines are not established by saying any pastor who takes tithe from you is a scammer. No. You labour by showing line upon line, precept upon precept by saying there is a difference between the Levitical order of tithe and the Abrahamic order of tithe.”

He explained that “Levite was in Abraham’s loins when Abraham gave tithe to Melchizedek. What was abolished was the law. We don’t give tithe as a commandment, we give because we are blessed.”

Lazarus who is also the Lead Pastor of Sphere of Light Ministries urged his listeners to be careful of narratives. “Many of the things going on in the body of Christ need correction. The reason why the corrective ministry of people is not accepted is because they are not correcting with the spirit of meekness.”

He said one of the things he learnt when he got married is that “if what I want to say to my wife is to effect a change in her, I would say it in the way she would understand since what I want is a change. If change is the goal you speak tenderly to Zion.” he stated.