Interestingly, my call into ministry was not a spectacular experience. I gave my life to Christ shortly after my admission to the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, in 1982. But it was in the course of 1983 that started noticing this interesting experience. I noticed that while praying, I would also be preaching. The desire to preach, the desire to teach, the desire to communicate the Gospel came on strongly that I could not ignore it.
In fact, I started to communicate the Gospel on campus by writing verses from the Book of Proverbs on sheets of papers and sticking them on the water tanks from where all the students would fetch water. With that, in my first year of being saved, I became the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the Christian Fellowship in the institution.
Now you may want to know what moved me to give my life to Christ. Incidentally, I was raised in a Christian home, (my parents were nominal Christians but now they are born-again), but when I was going to the polytechnic, I felt like experimenting the other side of life – having fun on campus, as was the fad those days. But that was not to be; there was an uncle of mine, the first person to be saved in the family, who accompanied me to the campus on the first day. When we got to the hostel, he pointed at the notices of the various clubs and associations on the notice board like the Jaycees and the Palm-wine Drinkers’ Club. Then he pointed to yet another one and said, Here is a notice from the Christian Union. This is the one you must join. I thought he was joking but by December 1982 when the Christian Union organised a crusade, I found myself giving my life to Christ. My sense of calling into ministry evolved.
I really had no opportunity to catch the fun that I had determined to have on campus. I resumed in October and by the first week in December, I was saved. It was like God was waiting for me. But that was derived from a situation in our family. Ours was a medium class family from Kogi State, but we lived in Ilorin, Kwara State. My father had a civil engineering company and I was meant to take over the running of the business after my course in civil engineering, but just as I was entering the polytechnic, the business crashed. The money with which I went into school was a bank loan, an overdraft on my mum’s account. After I had paid school and everything and settled in school, I was left with only twenty naira. My dad promised to come back the following week but he never did until after three weeks.
I was living on coke and biscuits and I realised things were going to be a little tough for me so I felt I needed God very early, not the fun of drinking, drugs and women. Then during my Higher National Diploma course in 1986, I heard a man of God preach that, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” That day I got to the hostel and I said, Lord, where have you put my treasure in life, so that I can put my heart there? And God spoke to my heart: “You are going to be a preacher, you won’t be a contractor.” I was so sure about it. I told my classmates, Guys, your competition has reduced. I’m not going to be a contractor; I am going to be a preacher. The way God spoke to me is what I call inner witness; that is how my own leading comes. Hebrews 5:14 says, “There are those who by reasons of use have their sense exercised between good and evil.” When you walk with God, with time you become sensitive in your mind to the voice that comes from God and the ones that are not inspired, so it was the inner voice. I graduated in 1987 and during my national youth service in Kano State, I was president of Christian Corpers Fellowship in Kano State.
Suggestive Circumstances at birth
Well, my parents had a child, a boy, before me who died within four days. That was their first child. They were really disturbed and disappointed. But my Dad said that some months later, he was at a tap fetching water when an elderly man also came for water. (The case of the husband helping out in the home). He said he stepped aside and asked the man to fetch water. When the man was through, he thanked him and said, You lost a child but God is going to give you other children and they are going to be great and God is going to use them. And then my mother told me I was named Samuel and at my dedication, the presiding Reverend, Rev. Chestmore told them, You named him Samuel, you must understand what it means. Samuel in the Bible was given back to the Lord, to serve God; you must be willing to let this boy serve God. My family is filled with preachers. My younger brother is also a pastor; he pastors a church in Ibadan and the younger ones are warming up.
My ministry
After the HND and the full time as corpers fellowship president, I returned to Ilorin, where I worked briefly as a civil engineer, a site engineer with a construction company. But eight months into it, I felt I was at the wrong place. I knew I had to be in ministry. So I crossed overnight. February 1991, I went into full time ministry at the Rhema Chapel International Churches, Ilorin. Some five months later, I was posted to Lagos to start a branch of the church. I pastored Rhema Chapel, Yaba, from 1991 till September 1995 and founded DayStar Christian Centre in November 1995. When I was in Rhema Chapel sometime in April 1994, I felt like I was experiencing stagnation in ministry. I remember clearly one Monday, I confirmed I was feeling uncomfortable so I wanted to pray and fast. We began praying and fasting but when we were to end it, the Holy Spirit said I should continue the prayer for some time. Anyway when the answer would come it was, I am taking you to the next level in ministry through your teaching gift: Your ability to teach success principles from the Bible. You will do it on radio, through seminars, tapes, publications and television, but first start with radio. You will also start a church where you will raise people who will be models for the society.
From my understanding of it, it was something that was not going to be feasible within the context of Rhema Chapel. The policies would have to be altered so as to be able to accommodate what I wanted to do. It was a bit inconvenient leaving Rhema Chapel because of my position, but the reasons were compelling. In fact, my pastor then said I should start those things and let’s see how they would go but eventually I realised it was not going to be convenient; it was a novel idea and there were two sides to it – there was the success motivation thing and there was the church side.
Yes, there were financial constraints: for example, when we were to go on radio, we held a meeting with some media practitioners, and when we drew up some estimates for the first quarter production, that was to cost about N120,000.00. I am talking about that amount in 1995. When they mentioned that amount then, it was a lot of money and I didn’t know where I was going to get the money. But I quickly reminded myself instantly that I was the one teaching them faith. So I kept quiet.
Back home, I wrote the amount and its purpose on a piece of paper and stuck it on a wall in my bedroom. Then few weeks to take off, I woke up in the morning and I just felt that the money was already around somewhere but the devil was keeping it away. So I started praying to break the devil’s hold on my money; and asked my money to come in. The Holy Spirit just laid it on my heart to go through a filling station that was being run by a sister, a member of our church and pray for her because I was aware she was having some challenges with the business. I went there, did the prayer and bid her goodbye, but she asked me to wait. Then she asked, you mentioned about a radio programme some time ago, how far? I said, they said airtime alone is N75,000.00. We are trusting God for that. She put something in an envelope, I saw it was N75,000.00. I screamed. And that was how it started. Two weeks later, someone walked into the office and brought a cheque for One hundred and fifty thousand naira. I started making phone calls sharing my testimony. With that I have learnt a lesson over time. When God gives you an assignment, He prepares resources for the assignment. If you send yourself, you have to fund the assignment. If He sends you, He’ll fund it. So today, I embark on projects that cost millions of naira when I don’t even have a dime, once I am sure He is the one who sent me.
What ministry is to me
Ministry is a calling, a step higher than the normal vocation, in the sense that it is not something you can decide to do. When I look back, I realise I was stronger in the social sciences when I was in secondary school. I should have gone to read something like psychology or philosophy. But because my dad was grooming me to take over his construction company, I went to study engineering. But see where I have ended! God called me and I did not have a choice. In Romans 9: 16, He says,
I would have mercy on whom I would have mercy. I would compassion on whom I would have compassion. It is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that shows mercy.
So I’m aware that I’m in ministry not because I’m intelligent, not because I’m better than other people but just because of God’s mercy.
Overcoming challenges and temptations
One comes across temptations on a daily basis. I have had temptations with money in my early life. I have had temptations with the opposite sex. To be very, very candid, I get more form the opposite sex. In fact, when I look at it sometimes I say this ministry job is a risky job. But what really happens is that the anointing attracts, so also do the many miraculous things God does through us. It is also the fact that we are sent to help people who are broken-hearted and if we are not careful, if we do not define clearly and draw the lines, we can go overboard. We show acceptance to people who have been rejected. Usually the things start without any ulterior motives but with time some emotional elements develop.
I had an instance where a lady told me that whenever she spoke to me, she was sexually aroused. And when she said that I was scared. If I was out to take advantage of her, it was a powerful opportunity, but I have since known that if one wants to be in ministry, one should be in total commitment to God. Living a holy life is not something you can bargain about. So when the lady spoke, it was as if I heard the devil himself. I have since learnt to guard against temptation. One has got to keep one’s personal devotion to God strong. A daily prayer life, a consistent study of the word of God would help to insure against temptation.
I have also discovered that human beings are motivated by pleasure and by pain. Whatever you attach the emotion of pleasure to, you will do over and over again, and you will be attracted to it. Whatever you attach the emotion of pain to, you will run away from it. So one has to pray and read relevant portions of the Bible when temptation strikes. For example, in the area of sexual temptation, I consistently read Proverbs 5:7. It warns about the dangers of sinful sex.
How I sustain my faith
I sustain my faith by consistent daily devotion. When a winning football team is beginning to lose its games, the coach does not teach the player any complex tricks; he goes back to the basics. However developed one will ever be as a Christian, one must not lose sight of the rules of the basics – prayer and meditation of the word. And that is the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning – my prayer and meditation in the word. As a believer, I have come to the point where I have decided that God’s word is final over everything. The more you are familiar with the word, literally the more everything pulls out a verse in the scripture. I have been doing this, reading through the bible once a year now for many years. So there are lots of quotes, verses and so on.
Gifts
I believe that the most prominent gift is the teaching gift; helping people to understand. I love it. Part of it is the success-motivation that I teach. Beyond that, I feel that the greatest impact I’m likely to make in my generation and subsequent ones is through success motivation. I do this on radio, I intend to start on television. I write books, I do seminars. We call it success power international; it is different from the church, and it is registered separately.
I started Success Power before we started DayStar. I went on radio on 8 February, 1995. The church was inaugurated on 18 November 1995. The church supports the radio programme, Success Power, which gives an opportunity to relate with people outside on a non-religious platform. Even though it is still Bible-based, it is not heavy in church language. Incidentally, it reaches more people on a daily basis. We run daily broadcasts around Nigeria: in Cross River, Osun, Lagos, Kwara and Kaduna; on two stations in Ghana, and one in The Gambia, Monday to Friday, every day in the month. It is a bigger church out there.
Whereas people get healed in our service, and miracles happen here, the main assignment is information and there is a big place for that. If a person is strongly physically but crippled mentally it will be difficult for the person to still live a successful life. So I see the importance of the teaching ministry. I tell people that I may not have seen many people raised from the dead physically but I have seen dead dreams resurrect.
My normal day
I wake up at five o’ clock in the morning. Sometimes I sleep late. Generally, I sleep between midnight and one in the morning. If I get tired and I sleep later than one am then I wake up at five-thirty in the morning. On a normal day, straight from bed, I brush my teeth and grab my Bible to read and pray for an hour. Then I wake the family up for family devotion which takes about thirty minutes. After that I use another thirty minutes to plan my day or go on the internet or read a book and then get into the bathroom and get to the office from eight in the morning. I close anywhere between six and eight in the evening.
Message for Nigerians
Our country is not yet aligned with basic God-given principles to guarantee success-simple principles like defining a vision. The dream of today is the reality of tomorrow. As a nation we are breaking this principle. American have what they call the American dream. What is the Nigerian dream? You can’t remember because it does not exist. What is the clear picture of an ideal Nigeria? We need to start from there. Success is the achievement of goals. So trying to succeed without having goals is like playing on a football pitch without a goal post. However powerful a striker you are, you will not score. The end is frustration. It is the same thing. We ask: What are Nigeria’s ten year goals? What are the twenty, thirty, forty, fifty year goals? They are not there? These are those simple rules? And there are many more of these principles. I just want to encourage: We can’t have a new Nigeria without having new Nigerians. We must start from an individual basis. The success of all developed countries is the success of the individual. So each individual will begin to apply these basic principles and they are loaded in the Bible. I believe in my lifetime this country will move from the third world to the first world.
Culled from How I was Called