The representative of the Igboland Territory of The Apostolic Church Nigeria, Pastor Cletus Nwankwo Egede has said the destiny of Nigeria is in the hands of the Church noting that only a genuine revival of the word of God can save the country.
He made the observation on Saturday, February 13 at the quadrennial convention of the church which held at the National Headquarters. International Convention Grounds, National Temple Olorunda-Ketu, Lagos.
In the message during which he highlighted the various sicknesses of the country, he said no true change can really happen in Nigeria if the church does not really experience genuine revival.
He said the kind of revival that will deliver the church and make an impact in Nigeria should be such that will create a hunger for the word of God in the hearts of the people.
He said when people are genuinely immersed in the word of God and they understand what they are being taught, it will be easy for them to live by it.
According to him, many of the ills in the country are consequences of the lack of interest in the word of God in many churches.
He implored The Apostolic Church in Nigeria to devote more time to the teaching of the word during their conventions and encourage the same in all parishes of the church.
Making reference to the Bible, Pastor Nwankwo said regular teaching of the word of God will bring revival in the church and by extension bring transformation to the society.
“The tragedy of the church today is that most of those who go to church are just members and not disciples of Christ. They are just mere followers who are yet to internalise what the Bible is saying and who are not broken down.
“Many in Church are just Christian converts. They are not disciples of Christ. It is possible to be a Christian without being a disciple. This is not what God called us to be” he said.
He said “Jesus called us to make disciples of all men unfortunately, the church has many distant followers. There is more preaching in the church than teaching which is the reason many are not grounded in faith.”
Giving the example of Jesus he said, “When Jesus was here on earth, he spoke with the crowd in parables but comes down to real teaching when discussing with his disciples. The essence of what is passed across is made real during teaching sessions. Our churches should devote more time to the teaching of the word of God.”
Another factor that will bring drastic change to the nation is, according to him, genuine repentance “There is a need for the church to genuinely seek the face of God in repentance and ask God to heal our land.”
He said, however, “not that we have not heard enough warnings but the challenge is that we do little about what we hear. We fail to go before God to intercede in genuine repentance and heartfelt call on him to save us.”
He said there is nothing happening in Nigeria that has not been revealed in the church before they happen noting however that “We hardly do anything about what is revealed. But today, the Lord is asking us to act fast. We need to do something to avert looming danger. We need to pray. We have the authority of Christ to confront evil happenings and put them where they belong.”