As Nigerian Christians continue in the New Year tradition and resolution, a Lagos-based cleric, Emmanuel Olayemi, general overseer, Ever Increasing Anointing Ministries, Lagos, has charged Christian leaders in the country to lay more emphasis on raising kingdom-focus disciples in 2024.
“The gospel is the kingdom of God. We (preachers) are not called to preach Christianity. Christianity is a name given to us by the world; not by God. It was given to the followers of Christ by the people of Antioch, and not by God,” Olayemi stated while speaking on New Year’s resolution.
He was speaking to the annual practices in Christendom where people were demanded to pay first fruit offering, make a new year resolution, yearly declarations and prophecies by many preachers at the beginning of the year.
Olayemi stated that the message of the kingdom of God should be the primary concern of Christians instead of practices associated with Christianity, saying Christianity was not from God.
“Doctrine is a means of keeping and controlling people instead of preparing them for heaven. We are called to preach the kingdom of God. Knowing about eternity requires divine encounter and enlightenment, which has to do with knowledge. Knowledge does not come when you are not informed. You have to be informed to have knowledge, and this takes an encounter with God,” he stated.
According to him, the introduction of different doctrines by churches into the gospel has made many preachers focus more on doctrines than on the gospel of the kingdom. He stated further that only God can bring most of the preachers back to the consciousness of the kingdom’s message.
“It’s only God that can do that. It’s an encounter that brings consciousness. A preacher will continue preaching the doctrine of his church until he has an encounter. A preacher in a doctrinal church will teach the doctrine of his church,” Olayemi stated.
Speaking further on raising kingdom-focused disciples, Olayemi disclosed that teachings alone cannot change people without the grace of God through a personal encounter. “I believe in people having an encounter with God for genuine changes in their lives at any time of the year instead of making a New Year’s resolution that doesn’t work or last.”
According to him, people should be passionate about their intimacy with God on a day-to-day basis, and that their focus should not be on earthly things but on the things of God. “New Year can still be an old year,” he stated.
