Pastor Chuzzy Udenwa is a Nigerian pastor based in Atlanta U.S.A he bares his mind on the Nigerian situation in this interview with Evangelist Bibi for Church Times Nigeria
Thank you sir for granting this interview for Church Times Nigeria. I know you are the Senior Pastor of Glory House World Church located in Atlanta GA USA. Can you tell us a bit about the church and how the church is fulfilling it’s assignment
I am most delighted to be a guest of Church Times Nigeria at this interview. Glory House World Church was inaugurated in 2002.God has blessed us tremendously since that time. We have a very strong media and social media presence, missionary, media publications and book ministry presence. We have a lot of outreaches in traveling and going to the nations. Even in going to Nigeria.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into ministry?
I started out as a journalist after I left the University of Ibadan in 1983.I finished my youth service at the Guardian newspaper in 1984 and I was absorbed and I worked there from 1984-1988 so my background is a background of journalism. I got called into full time ministry in 1995. I tried to run from it and shake it off but here we are twenty something years later in full time ministry. I’m glad that God has kept me and using me for his glory
Today you have a message for the Nigerian churches both in Nigeria and in Diaspora. What is that message?
The message is very simple that whether we are Nigerian Christians or pastors in Nigeria in Africa or wherever we are in the world is that we should return to the altar of prayer. God is calling us back to the altar of prayer to begin to intercede in a more intense fashion for Nigeria. Nigerians and Nigerian Christians have come to a place where there is a need to intensify prayers. Not that they have not been praying up to now but the recent events in the nation have shown that there is a need to change direction in our prayers especially in the place of repentance.
The bible says in 2 Chron 7:14 says that ‘If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land’
This is a time that the Lord is calling the Nigerian Christians to a place of repentance for the church, the nation and the leaders. There is so much sin and iniquity and God says we should talk to the remnant people who can stand in the gap to intercede not just in warfare prayers-in binding and loosing- but in the place of repentance, Pleading for the mercy of God upon the church and upon the nation. That is where I come in.
I am not saying anything new. My assignment is to be a convener, an agitator of a sort amongst many others that are crying. The church has lost its voice and authority. Not all but majorly. The church of God in Nigeria has come to crossroads where we have to go back to hearing the mind of God, the purpose , desires and counsel of God in the pace of prayer particularly in taking responsibility for all the mess the tragic, traumatic and disgraceful events that are going on in the church of Jesus Christ. Before we make intercession for the society we need to make peace with our God first.
The church and many Christians in Nigeria and in diaspora say they are NOT the cause of all the problems facing Nigeria so why should they be the ones repenting?
The bible says the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof and all that dwell there in the world. The Lord has given us authority over the government of the world. We should be the ones repenting because God has given us authority on earth and has placed us in a governmental position as the body of Christ. Ideally we should be the ones ruling and reigning and controlling what is going on and determines and influences the direction of the politics, economy and of the lives of Nigerians or wherever we find ourselves. Our God is a prayer answering God. Our job is to rule and reign and control the affairs of the nation on our knees not just in talking.
What effect will praying for repentance have on all the corruption in Nigeria, the politicians, the killings and the societal evils and poverty in Nigeria?
As a church we are not the ones to tell the leaders what to do but we can talk to our father in heaven and he will influence the leaders- for the heart of the heart of the king is the hands of God and like the waters of a river he can turn it to whichever way he wants. We engage with leaders in talking to them making comments and giving counsel but we engage more in the spiritual realm making governmental prayers on our knees. When I say governmental prayers I’m talking of ruling and reigning, being a door keeper, an intercessor, a middleman, being someone to standing the gap. Being someone to determine what happens when it happens in a nation through our prayers.
While the church is doing a great job in soul winning and evangelism and in different areas of ministry in Nigeria it is very important now for the church to intensify praying repentance prayers. If the church in Nigeria does not intensify praying repentance prayers very soon according to what the Lord is showing the church will be in a very compromised position.
We have failed God. The church has failed God and the people. We have lost our power, our focus and intensity and have become a subject for jokes. The church has become a place of any how behavior. The church is no more taking seriously in the society.
One of the most important things the church and a Christian can do is to pray and not just prayer for peace in the nation, for good leadership and governance but to begin to legislate in the place of prayer after we have made peace with our God and taken responsibility for our failures
It is only then we can begin to legislate through our prayer what goes on,who go in and who goes out. That is the type of tremendous power that God has given the Christian.
What effect will repentance prayers have on the coming elections in Nigeria in 2019?
Repentance prayers will first of all be to make peace with God. It is after that he will give us direction instructions, revelation on the next thing to do.
If not then we should not complain about what is coming next in Nigeria because what is coming is tragic, dangerous and is not something that anyone desires to happen in a nation. I believe that is why God is seeking the prodigals, the remnants to come back to him to pray and make peace, repent and acknowledge our ways before him so he can intervene and heal our land.
For many years the church of Jesus Christ in Nigeria has failed God. We have been isolated and not engaged the society enough. We have been sticking our head in the sand like an ostrich and we are complaining whereas God is counting on us to make peace with him repent and seek his face, to weep and ask for his mercy upon Nigeria because when judgement comes it will start from the house of God.
What is your view on the coming 2019 elections. Should Christians come out and vie for political positions? Should Christians get pvc cards and go out and vote OR should they just continue to pray for repentance and wait for God to solve all the problems in Nigeria
By all means necessary Christians should get involved with their Prayers, fasting, campaigning, coming out for elections, running as candidates, voting prayerful, registering to get their voters card, engagement in the campaigns and rallies. Most important we need to seek the face of God to make sure that he is with us so that we do not go to the battle front alone. We need God to go with us into all of this if not it will be us doing the same old things and that is IF THERE IS GOING TO BE AN ELECTION IN 2019 WE DO NOT KNOW YET!
You are based in diaspora, how are you going to be able to impact churches in Nigeria and in diaspora to join this repentance prayer crusade?
There is no distance in prayer. In any case I go to Nigeria frequently at an average I go to Nigeria more than 6 times a year. I always have different engagements in Nigeria. I am very current with what is going on in Nigeria. I have many friends and colleagues I communicate with on a daily basis. We agonize, we talk and complain but God has asked me to issue this clarion call for repentance prayers.
He has asked me agitate for the organization of repentance prayer meetings and also to get involved and organize same to just seek the face of God. .If we can just get the remnants to come out and unite not in any form of political platform but just to come to pray and weep between the porch and the altar and ask God for mercy. I believe that God will show mercy on Nigeria. I believe that the mercy of God can reverse things in Nigeria. It can turn things around and influence the directions things are going particularly in the church of Jesus Christ.
God in calling for these repentance prayers is saying to the church “Come back home” so that the father and the prodigal son can come together again and carry on the prophetic destiny of Nigeria .The church has become too divided with so much schism, politics and separatism, confusion rebellion, treachery and Lawlessness and we call ourselves Christians. No wonder the society is laughing at the church and the nation is going the way it is going. .No wonder that God is crying like a woman in the streets so that we can come back and that he can show mercy.
.
On a final note do you have a prophecy or a direction or a word from the Lord or do you have a personal advice at this time for the common man in Nigeria, Christians, the church leaders and governmental leaders in Nigeria
Trouble is coming. Judgement is coming. Disaster is imminent. Every indication is pointing to it. There will be more killings; bloodshed, confusion and chaos if we do not seek the face God and plead for his mercy on our nation. The blood of Christians have been shed enough. Churches have been burnt enough to stimulate us to wake up to pray. There is still going to be more churches that will be burnt and more innocent Christians may be slaughtered innocently and defenselessly except the church rises up to begin to deal with these blood thirsty evil spirits of genocide, mass murder and slaughter that are out to spill the blood of Christians. All it will take is for one attack to occur on a church that looks untouchable, impregnable or too protected and the churches in Nigeria will begin to empty out and people will begin to sit at home out of fear of their lives.
You can tell even from the current build up in Nigeria that the coming elections in 2019 IF IT DOES HOLD will be a great test and trying point for Nigeria and this is why we should rise us and pray intensive prayers that Nigeria will survive it and that Nigeria will flourish and that whatever happens that the body of Christ is preserved.
Pastor Chuzzy Udenwa www.glorytoglorychurch.org Tel: 1-404-909-5000 Follow him on FB, Periscope,Youtube Twitter & Instagram
