Bishop David Oyedepo says poverty is not of God and insists a child of God has no business being poor. If this were true and proven, all the world’s poor would have become rich Christians by now. Let us compare this with the word of God. Jesus says: “You will always have the poor among you.” (John 12:8). Moses says: “The poor will never cease from the land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11). So where does that leave Bishop Oyedepo’s “proven covenant cure for poverty?”
A few years ago, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo organised a crusade in Port Harcourt, the idea behind this crusade was to bring to the notice of Nigerians that God was getting ready to transfer the riches of non-Christians to Christians. It is important to get clarity on such issues because some years earlier, officials of the Charity Commission in England detected another wealth transfer in Pastor Matthew’s Kingsway church. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of church funds had been dubiously transferred overseas from Kingsway. As a result of these irregularities, Kingsway was placed in the hands of receivers, new trustee managers were appointed and Pastor Matthew was asked to repay 200,000 pounds to the church. The upshot of this was that he relocated temporarily to Nigeria, where he started preaching messages of “Sweat-less Wealth,” “101 Answers to Money Problems,” and “Twenty-Four Hour Miracles.”
When Pastor Wale Adefarasin became the Lagos State President of the PFN (Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria), he declared that his primary goal would be the eradication of poverty in Lagos State. Well, this turned out to be nothing more than the usual vain platitude of pastors. The proverb goes: “Physician, heal yourself.” (Luke 4:23). To date, Wale Adefarasin has yet to eradicate poverty in his church, Guiding Light Assembly; how much more in Lagos State.
The preaching of the gospel is not intended to eradicate poverty. Indeed, the gospel acknowledges the existence of the poor and confers spiritual blessings on them. (Luke 6:20). Simultaneously, it proclaims woe on the rich. (Luke 6:24-25). Jesus even warns that it will be virtually impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 19:24). If so, why are pastors presenting the antithesis of the counsel of God as our exalted objective in the service of Christ?