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Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, Where is the Fire? 🔥
The Foursquare Gospel Church was the first Pentecostal church I fellowshipped with in Nigeria from my childhood in the 1970s. My older cousin, John Nnorom of blessed memory took me to the parish in Okesuna (behind the old Sandgrouse Market) on Lagos Island. The church was among the most popular Pentecostal churches during the nationwide Pentecostal revival of the 1970s and continued to the 1990s with the overwhelming Christ For All Nations (CfaN) crusades of the beloved Reinhard Bonnke (19 April 1940 - 7 December 2019), the amiable and humble German-American Pentecostal evangelist, principally known for his gospel missions throughout Africa.
There was no Deeper Christian Life Ministry and Living Faith Ministry in the early 1970s.
The history of the Pentecostal revival in Nigeria dates back to the 1930s before World War Two and reignited in the 1970s after the Nigerian civil war.
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Read the following important reports:
1930s Revival in Nigeria Sparked by Pentecostal Evangel Magazine | Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
Nigeria that led to the formation of the Assemblies of God in that nation can be traced back to a single issue of the Pentecostal Evangel, which somehow found its way from America to Africa in the early 1930s. Histories of the Assemblies of God of Nigeria credit the periodical for sparking a hunger for the baptism in the Holy Spirit among Nigerians.
20 Pentecostal Pioneers in Nigeria by Israel O. Olofinjana (Ebook) -
The Foursquare Gospel Mission came to Nigeria before the independence of the country from British colonial rule. And started formally In October, 1955 by the missionary couple; Rev and Mrs. Harold Curtis from America.
I have been to the headquarters at 62/66 Akinwunmi Street Yaba, Lagos State where I had an interaction with the children and teens in 2003 for my National Essay Competition for Secondary Schools in Nigeria cosponsored by King of Kings Books International.
The Foursquare Gospel Church presently has a list of 4,712 churches in 173 districts and 841 zones in Nigeria. But how many of them are still active in the mission fields of evangelism?
Like the Assemblies of God Church in Nigeria, one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revivals in the country, leadership crises have been reported in the Foursquare Gospel Church and my older cousin, John Nnorom even told me and took me along to visit one of their senior pastors in Idi Oro area of Mushin on the mainland of Lagos in the 1980s. Some members left to start another church.
The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCC),
Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Living Faith Ministries, Christ Embassy, Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) have overtaken the Foursquare Gospel Church in popularity in Nigeria. But many of their branches or parishes are not showing the same overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit of the Pentecostal revival decades ago.
They are becoming complacent about the commandments of God, because of compromising with the world in pursuit of titular status symbols of the society in the competition for keeping up with the Joneses.
Lest we forget, our Messiah Jesus Christ had the temptations to be in chariots and on horses and become the new King of Israel from the lineage of King David. But He chose to go about on foot and never rode even on a donkey until the time came for His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.
These days, ministers of God are competing with celebrities in the world for palatial mansions, posh cars and red carpets and to be on the covers of the Forbes magazine.
They have forgotten that our Kingdom is not of this world.
Instead of competing for the salvation of souls, they are competing for real estate; spending millions of dollars that would have been invested in the upliftment of the underprivileged majority in the church and Nigeria.
Leadership is best by example.
The leadership of the churches should be preparing for Rapture and not competing for the Forbes magazine and Guinness Book of Records.
Are you bearing fruits for God?
Or you are bearing fruits for the world?
The churches are quick to point accusing fingers at the upwardly mobile youths captivated by the new developments in mass communication with their addiction to smart phones and the internet. But they forget that the same inventions of digital information have made the accomplishment and fulfilment of the Word of God to come to pass as written in Matthew 24:14-
King James Version14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
Psalm 19:4-
King James Version
King James Version
4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun."
The present state of being neither hot not cold is a rebellion against the Holy Spirit and if God should spit us out, we would be in worse fate to lose the grace of God.
God forbid such a calamity!
The signs have not stopped following us. But we have allowed the leakages of power to undermine the foundation of our faith.
Psalm 11:3-7
King James Version
King James Version
3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
4 The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.
5 The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
As Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:2-9:
2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, [a]unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was."
"Romans 8:19-22
King James Version
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
King James Version
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
Isaiah 40:28-31 King James Version (KJV)
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no
might he increaseth strength."
The size of our faith is the size of our strength.
We need another Pentecostal revival to stop the widespread loss of perishing souls as despondency is making millions of youths whose faith is ebbing away to walk away from the Kingdom of God.
We must fan the embers of the Pentecostal revival of the past decades to rekindle the flames of our waning faith in supremacy of the Holy Spirit.
We must use all the available means of mass communication to ignite the revival and to do the utmost as it is written in Romans 1:16-32:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor
The Rhema Blog
https://therhema.blogspot.comSince 2005
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