| There are occult practices
in the church
By TOYIN OSAWE
Wednesday, August
30, 2006
 |
• Prince Ben Ukadike
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
|
Decked in a white T-shirt and fez-cap emblazoned with “Jesus”,
one can amusingly tag him “the Jesus man”. For
Prince Ben Ukadike, carrying a Jesus complimentary card, driving
a Jesus emblazoned state of the art car or having the interior
of his house with the five letter word popping at him from
every nook and cranny, is an art of life. The buzzword for
him is Jesus and he enthusiastically shares it with anyone
and everyone he comes across.
In this chat with Daily Sun, he shares his vision enthusiastically,
starting with his one-on-one encounter that turned him into
a “Jesus man”, his experience so far and the 50
million man Jesus march slated for December 26, 2006.
Encounter
There was this new year eve, we had prayed into the new year
after which we went to bed. Not long after, we heard knocks
on the door. The night guard had come to inform us that our
warehouse nearby was being robbed. He was so hysterical, and
he said he managed to escape.
This was around 12 midnight. My wife and I held our hands
across the bed and prayed. The prayer was that God should
make them become stupid. We reminded God about the counsel
of Ahitophel which became stupid (he was previously with David
then he crossed over to Absalom).
My wife and I summoned the courage to go there. We took our
dog along. When we got there, we parked outside, we saw three
9/11 trucks loaded with goods from our warehouse. They had
been abandoned. We decided to report at the police station.
As we were going, we saw a man, who was asking “where
are they.” We stopped the man to ask him what happened.
Then he told us that as they were loading the trucks, there
was a big bang like a bomb went off and everyone took off,
they had on mobile police uniform. The next day, the guard
at the neighbouring house said he had seen a policeman jump
the fence as if he was being pursued.
As we were going to report at the station, we saw a man and
he was arrested. He told us that after loading the trucks,
instead of them to leave, they were washing their clothes.
We found excreta everywhere, they had obviously become discomfited.
Another close encounter I had was one day when my wife started
writhing in pains. She said she had seen snakes, roundabout
her, trying to attack her. I rushed to her side and started
shouting the name Jesus and she felt better.
My conversion
I was born into a Christian home, but you know what that means.
Christianity now, unlike in those days, is more dynamic and
proactive. My parents were nominal Christians but I’ve
been able to carry them along before they died. My father
became a member of the men fellowship and the choir in the
Assemblies of God Church.
In 1977, my wife and I had embarked on some junketing in Europe.
We came back and I was billed to travel back to China. In
between, I had to travel to Owerri with my contractors because
I had planned to build an estate there. On our way back, I
fell ill and that illness took a year. During that time, I
was at the Celestial Church, in what they call (abe abo).
In the midst of that I was invited to the Assemblies of God
Church and it was there that I was convicted and I answered
the altar call.
After that, I had a heart to heart covenant with Jesus. And
it has kept me going whenever trials and temptations come.
Non compromise even in business
I had a company called Ben Auto We were supplying autoparts
in every other part of the country. We had as least four vehicles
servicing our various branches. We also had trucks, but then
we often had problem with the police on the highway because
they want to extort money from our drivers. I would not compromise
my faith by giving them bribes, and we always made sure we
had our papers for the vehicles. Because of our stand, we
had to go to court several times. So, after a while, the police
came to know us for that, and they stopped giving us stress.
In 1979, import licence was introduced which affected our
business. Then people encouraged us to give bribes in order
to continue our business but we stood our ground of not compromising
our moral code. Then, I had to lay off over 500 staff and
shut down all our branches. We didn’t want to give bribe
to collect the licence. The Bible speaks against giving and
taking bribe.
We had to think of other things to do. We thought of farming
and then Obasanjo was campaigning about OFN (Operation Feed
the Nation). So, we started a plantain/maize and poultry farm.
We later ran into problem with the plantain farm which was
about 500 hectares. Because it was so big and impossible to
fence round, the villages usually stole from the farm. We
also had problems with stem borers affecting the plantain
farm. Unfortunately, at that time, there was nothing like
agric insurance.
Also, we tried to go into rubber manufacturing, but we also
experienced a lot of hitches there because we wouldn’t
play ball compromising our faith by giving bribes. So with
all these problems, one day I just went into my closet and
cried to God. The next day, a federal commissioner, who was
receiver/ manager for a rubber company that we had sought
to buy and sold the place to us. As he was doing that, he
looked at me queerly and said he didn’t know why he
was doing that because another person had offered him much
money 50,000 pounds. I just smiled to myself because I knew
that it was God that had intervened. So, I became an industrialist
overnight. This happened in 1983 and we expanded with another
in the East.
The name Jesus
I would want to cast your mind back to the time Angel Gabriel
visited Mary to inform her of the birth of Jesus. He told
her that He would save His people. That name I believe is
God’s antidote to all the evils around today.
And you will note that it is written in the Bible that wherefore,
God hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is
above every other name. And when Jesus was leaving this world
He gave us that name as Christians. We have the power of attorney
with that name. He said in my name ye shall cast out demons.
So, when demons hear that name, they tremble.
That name encapsulates every thing. Salvation is in that name,
healing, protection, everything you need is there. As a believer,
if you have a problem, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
If you run into it, you’ll be safe.
For the evil ones, the witches and wizards, the story is different.
They tremble and flee when they hear that name. So, one of
their tricks is to keep people talking about every other thing
but the name. It is only in emergencies that people remember
Jesus and we want to change that.
Recently, a friend who is a doctor told me her experience
on a recent flight. The plane ran into turbulent weather and
everyone inside was afraid. And you won’t believe that
everyone started shouting Jesus, even the Moslems. In fact,
one of the governors from the North was there and he was also
shouting Jesus. And often time, we hear such stories, especially
with those who still had their presence of mind in such situations.
Occultism in the church
Yes it is true! Every now and then, we see instances whereby
agents of darkness will come in the guise of pretty ladies
and confuse the pastor, while he is preaching, through telepathy
or whatever. The pastors knows the power in the name of Jesus.
Why can’t they have a backdrop with the name Jesus.
You can bet that when these ladies who manifests such evil
powers see the name, they’ll be unable to operate, for
the Bible says every knee shall bow at the mention of the
name of Jesus. Whoever is righteous can run into it and will
be safe but the evil one will see it and flee. We still have
occultic practices operating in the church because the antidote
God gave has not been applied and that is what we are trying
to apply.
FESTAC 77 brought a lot of problems into the country. It was
supposed to promote the black arts and culture and we know
that meant occultism, voodoo practice and black magic. It
was at that time that the seed of evil was sown and it has
grown, but the antidote, like I keep saying, is Jesus. By
the time 50 million people come out on December 26, shouting
and identifying with Jesus, do you think all those evil spirits
will have a hiding place?
|
