Nigerian gospel singer, Moses Bliss, has revealed how he broke into the gospel music industry despite his poor background.
In an interview on the” Heart to Heart” programme of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Africa, Bliss narrated that after his father’s death, life became tough for his family until God intervened.
He said at some point he started helping his mother to engage in petty trading including hawking sachet water (pure water) to survive during the difficult period.
“My dad died some 16 years ago. It was a very difficult time for us as a family. My mum had to bear the responsibility for everything. So, at a time I had to start selling pure water so that I can assist myself and assist my education.
“But I was always singing. It was like a fire burning in my bones. I was always singing, always worshipping, always developing myself because I knew there was something, I knew there was a dimension of God I wanted to show to the world. It started like that and God started helping me.
“I save some money and my mum added money and I bought a keyboard for myself and I was always hawking. Even when I was selling for her, I was always singing and people would say they would like to come and buy from me because her son is always singing. So, it was a journey,” he said.
The multiple award-winning Bliss said the turning point of his life came when he met his pastor, Dr Chris Otabor, who is also a senior medical consultant.
He said, “I met him in 2013. Before then, I was playing for a certain church and I was being paid some stipend. But at some point I chose not to take money from church because I wanted to entirely serve God. I didn’t want to be trading myself with some money. I didn’t want to do that.
“So, I met my pastor and my pastor believed in me. I didn’t think I was ready. At the time, I was still a teenager. He told me ‘I think you can actually record the song. What about going to the studio’….…But I wanted to work on myself.
“But my pastor said, ‘I think you have the potential. Can you go to the studio and try? If it comes out well, then we can start making more songs but if it doesn’t, you can hold on a bit and start working on yourself.’ Then I reluctantly…He wrote a cheque for me and said, ‘go’ and then I went and I did that song, my first song.”
Advice to young ones
Bliss advised the young ones to have who can guide them to success.
“I think mentorship is very, very needed. In the Bible, you can see how people played roles to help people get to their destinations. As a young person you need a mentor. God always introduces that one person in your life that is meant to push you and catapult you to get to where you ought to be. And you must recognize it.
“A mentor is not someone who would be giving you money. That is where some people get it wrong. They feel like ‘oh, this one is not giving me money, he is not my mentor.’ A mentor is someone who gives you instruction, someone who can guide you, ‘this path is not the direction you should go.’ That is what my pastor did for me, telling me at every time, ‘do it like this. No, this is the way I think you should go.’
“And sometimes, by obedience of that mentor, of that spiritual authority over you, God honours you because God respects obedience. You have to be very careful of anybody who does not have anybody he listens to. If you cannot honour the man, how would you honour God? So you need a mentor to guide you. You need to submit under. Don’t look for money, look for instruction, words that will propel you to life.,” he said.
About Moses Bliss
Moses Uyoh Enang was born on February 20, 1995. He is married to Marie Enang nee Wiseborn, a Ghanaian and they both have a young son.
Some of his songs include Too faithful, Bigger Everyday, You I live for, Daddy wey dey pamper, You are great, New generation, For Life and E dey flow.
