Bishop Wale Oke… So Far So Thankful


Bishop Francis Wale Oke, President and Founder of The Sword of the Spirit Ministries with its headquarters in Ibadan, he is also an author and National Vice President of PFN (Western Zone). On September 8, he clocked 55 and out of these years he spent 35 in God’s service. At the National Stadium in Lagos, during the church’s monthly Advanced Ministers’ Seminar, he spoke to CHRIS IREKAMBA on national issues, among them, was how he was kicked out of the Anglican Church, his birthday, life of a Christian then, and now, and Christian banking.
Happy birthday sir; how old is Bishop Wale Oke?

I’m 55 years old, I don’t want to hide it and God has been so good to me. I’m 55 years old, and I’ve spent 35 out those 55 years in the service of God’s kingdom, preaching the gospel of Christ all over the world. So, I’m blessed, I’m happy, I’m glad to be alive and I give glory to God.

What is the significance of celebrating one’s birthday?

To give glory to God that Lord I’m alive. A whole lot of people have died; they are not as old as I am. But God kept me alive I’m giving glory to God. Number two; to give God the glory that He has blessed my life these 55 years. I’m the one talking to you now, I mean, where did I come from? From one small village in a corner of Nigeria and now I’m talking to a journalist, I’m talking about the president and all that. It is the goodness of God so I want to celebrate the goodness of God.
Number three; to appreciate the fact that God has graciously used me in preaching the gospel over the past 35 years. And fourth, to appreciate the fact that God has used me in one small way to contribute to the social economic development of this nation.

Are you fulfilled?

I have not reached my goal, the way is still far but so far so good I am fulfilled, God has been very good to me and I give Him all the glory.

Would you have done better in your chosen career as Land and Engineering Surveying or other areas than what you are doing today?

Listen, if you want to give me the whole world to make me change course, I would not. I’m so fulfilled because I’m not on a career job, I’m not in an employment, I’m fulfilling a divine calling. I’m fulfilling my destiny. I’m fulfilling the purpose of God for my life and that purpose is that God is using me to touch lives, save souls, heal the sick, bring comfort to the afflicted, to bring deliverance to the captive and to preach the good news of Christ all over the world.

In your decision to serve God were you at any point opposed , either by your parents or ---?

The gospel was not attractive. Those were the days when you say you are going to preach the gospel, its like you are assigned for poverty. There was no big cars such as Jeep, private jet; there was no known minister anywhere in the whole world that was using private jet to preach 35 years ago. Can you imagine what it was at that time, those who contributed to the gospel message were poor! There was even an adage : ‘as poor as the church rat,‘ I’m talking about preachers. But you see, when I made a choice I was very conscious of what I was doing. He (God) called me. In fact, I told God ‘if you bless me, I will preach it; if you don’t, I would preach the gospel. If I’m hungry, I would preach it, if I have food to eat, I would preach it.’ And I signed it as a covenant; but my people reacted, my elder brother in particular reacted veryvehemently: ‘Francis, how could you have gone to university, read an engineering course and you came out and this is what you are doing? Go and look for job?’ As far as they were concerned it was no job.

But my father stood by me; my father said: “if God has called you go and serve Him. He was a lay reader in the Anglican Church; he was the greatest influence in my childhood. He said: ‘my only concern is that you just married, how are you going to take care of your family?’ That was his only concern. He gave me that support. I told him and said: ‘Daddy, my God, who called me is faithful, He will not allow me to get hungry.’ And today, we are not hungry; we are blessed, so blessed.

Your daddy was an Anglican, why did you branch off?

They kicked us out in the time when we were born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. They said speaking in tongues was demonic. Those were the days of Archbishop Timothy Olufusoye, as the Primate of the Church of Nigeria. He was based in Ibadan at that time and so the pressure was on us. My own church then, Saint Peters Cathedral, now Arimoni, Ibadan, kicked us out. We didn’t want to go. They said: “All those boys speaking in tongues, send them out.” They thought the fire was going to die very soon but it didn’t. Then, God said if they wouldn’t allow you to preach inside the church, I should take the message to the market place and I went and people were getting born again. And I began to gather them as a fellowship and the fellowship has grown to become hundreds of churches today to the glory of God and thousands of worshippers.

In those days there were no private jets, according to you, but today many ministers have it; what is your view on this?

It is to preach the gospel and you need to move faster. There are places in Africa that they have only one flight a week. So, if you are going there, even if it is only one or two days you have to preach. It has weight and you see, time is the most precious commodity for any man on Earth. If you lose money, you can recover it, if you lose time, you can’t recover it. So, whatever thing you have to make you save time and be able to save your time more productively in preaching the gospel, its fine. Using jet is not bad, it’s just a tool to get a job done faster. If you are not able to afford it, don’t go near it. But if God has blessed your work so well and blessed your influence all over the world, you can afford it and it makes you to be more effective and efficient in preaching the gospel, go for it. By the grace of God we are on the queue we will soon deliver.

35 years of working in God’s vineyard, what are the challenges?

My own challenges are challenges of men, men that pretend to be faithful and are not. Men that will smile at you before your face and they’ll stab you at the back. Men that you trust, and you lean on, but still have daggers on your side. But God is giving us wisdom to deal with the challenges of men. The challenge of men is always there. So far so good; that is the basic challenge. Life is full of challenges and challenges are not problems. Champions overcome challenges so that they can move to the next level.
You can’t call yourself the world heavy weight-boxing champion if you have not taken some punches. The challenges are there and God who is delivering us will yet deliver us.

Looking at the time you were born again and now, What would you say are missing in Christendom?

The church is bigger, larger than it was then. At that time if you say you are born again, you are really born again. In fact, as a matter of fact, it was anathema to be born again, they would label you as an SU, you are persecuted, society rejects you. So, if you are not really sure of yourself, you won’t claim you are born again because you can expect serious persecution. Christians were real Christians at that time. When a Christian tells you something, go and sleep, that is the truth. He won’t cheat, he won’t forge signature, he won’t do any of those things. Holiness, uprightness, righteousness, and brotherly love; evangelism and prayer was very serious. But these days, “born again” has become the vogue. Even in Nigeria now, cars are born again. You would see the sticker at the back, anybody can say anything and claim anything. So, the challenge is that we still have believers that are saved, that love God, that are authentic, that are genuine. But, they have been infiltrated; a lot of people are just born again in name and not in character. That is why we are praying for revival and we are working towards it and we know the Lord will give us revival.

Other churches are running universities, should Nigerians expect a similar thing from you?

We are taking off this year by the grace of God. And the name is Precious Cornerstone University ;it is in Ibadan and along the Ibadan Expressway. But we are taking off from a temporary campus at old Ife Road. So, the NUC has given us the first visit and we are expecting them for their final visit and after that we take off.

But some of these schools and universities run by churches are not affordable. Even some members of these churches cannot send their children to some of these schools.

The point is that anywhere in the world, tertiary education is very expensive, especially in UK; where students went on rampage because the fees were jerked up for British people. University education is very expensive, you pay lecturers, they are professors, you build infrastructure, they costs billions, you have administrative staff, you buy equipment. And so many other things.
The way we cushion the effect is that we will make allowance for scholarship for people who cannot afford to pay and they are qualified, they are intelligent. Being a religious organization, we will accommodate that.
Now, that Christians want to float their own Christian Banking; what is your reaction to that?

I think it is a reaction that since Central Bank of Nigeria is promoting a sectional interest-- because Islamic banking is a sectional bank. The word “Islamic” makes it sectional, because it is meant for Moslems. And it is to be regulated by sharia; that is sectional. Now, my first issue is that promoting such is unconstitutional because Central Bank of Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians. It is not CBN of Moslems or CBN of Christians.

And he (Sanusi) is not supposed to promote anything and now that he choses to promote sectional stuff, then, let them give us Christian Banking with same zeal, same commitment, same amount of money as they are promoting Islamic banking. My frank advice to the Sanusi is that he should leave Christian banking alone, leave Islamic banking alone. Anybody that wants to promote Islamic banking ‘you are welcome, not CBN, anybody that wants to promote Christian banking you are welcome, not CBN.’ The job of CBN is to give guidelines, regulate and you must not violate the regulation. Period!

What is your comment on the UN House that was bombed recently in Abuja, and closure of foreign embassies

It is unfortunate that at this particular time when President Goodluck Jonathan is trying to bring transformation to Nigeria, some people are thinking of bombing the UN House. Bombing any building at all is devilish; it gives Nigeria a bad name all over the world. What interest are you promoting that is making you to take innocent lives, these people are criminals and they should be treated as criminals. The Federal Government should not negotiate with them. They should go after them and smoke them out of their holes. And let them face the full wrath of the law, so that it will serve as a deterrent for other people. I don’t believe they are Moslems, they are murderers. I don’t believe they are religious they are devilish and criminals. And if you negotiate with people with blood on their hands, see how many people they’ve killed in Maiduguri, and other places. How about the bombing on October 1. Such people should not be negotiated with. The Federal Government should beef up security; we shouldn’t play game with the matter of security. For the embassies that are trying to relocate from Abuja, it’s not going to continue to be like this let them not quit, let them stay and by the grace of God and the determination of the Federal Government and every meaning Nigeria, we will get over it. We are partners together. Terrorism is not limited to Nigeria , America, London, it’s all over the place. It’s a global phenomenon and as the world is fighting it, they should help us to fight and the Lord will bless them. They shouldn’t be friends of Nigeria when the going is good, they should be friends of Nigeria when the going is rough, let’s stay and weather it together.

In your monthly Advanced Ministers Seminar, you ministered on ‘destiny’ could you relate that to what is happening in Nigeria today?

I believe that God is moving Nigeria; He wants to bless Nigerians and at the same time the devil is trying to draw back the hands of the clock to discourage Nigerians. I cannot agree more with President Jonathan; there are better things to do; there are youths to be employed. There is need to provide power, fix the roads, make education better, provide quality healthcare. This is what we all we should join our hands to do. Every Nigerian, irrespective of his or her religious belief should join hands to contribute to the development and progress of our nation. We don’t have any other nation we can call our own. So, let’s join hands because the destiny of every Nigerian is tied to the country called Nigeria. If we burn this nation down then we will burn the future down; if we burn our destiny, we burn our collective testimony down. Let’s join hands and make Nigeria a place that will be safe for us and for our children and our children’s children.

Today, the minority is President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; that makes me extremely glad. That is the Nigeria of my dream. A Nigeria where anybody can aspire to be anything, irrespective of where you come from, whether you are Efik, Ibibio, Edo, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, whosoever, provided you are good and you are qualified. On your merit, you can be anything. Let’s join hands to build an egalitarian society that will be safe for our children to aspire to be whatever they can be. That is my counsel.
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Author of this article: BY CHRIS IREKAMBA



http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=60539:bishop-wale-oke-so-far-so-thankful&amp;catid=105:saturday-magazine&amp;Itemid=566

The way this MOG went on and on about being thakful that he is alive today made me to wonder if he truly believes that there is a beautul mansion with his name on it reserved for him in heaven after death. As the saying goes "action speaks louder than voice". Be wise people and learn how to sniff out these men of fraud.