•‘I’m not in ministry to collect first fruits’

The General Overseer of Ever Increasing Anointing Ministries, Lagos, Pastor Emmanuel Taiye Olayemi, has said that pastors and other church leaders should concentrate on raising God-minded followers in the New Year, instead of dissipating energies on doctrines and practices associated with Christianity.

The General Overseer, who spoke on the New Year/yearly practices of first fruit offering, New Year resolution, yearly message declarations and New Year prophesies by many preachers at the beginning of every new year, admonished men of God to dwell more on God’s kingdom message, which he described as the primary concern of preachers.

Olayemi, who noted that Christianity was not from God, but was given to Christians by the world, said: “The gospel is the Kingdom of God and we (preachers) are not called to preach Christianity, because Christianity is a name given to us by the world; not by God. It was given to the followers of Christ by the people of Antioch, and not by God.”

Counseling fellow preachers to move beyond preaching salvation, Olayemi argued that salvation is not the ultimate goal of God’s Kingdom, but a process to the end, adding that Christians are called to do what Jesus Christ came to do, which is the preaching God’s Kingdom.

“Jesus brought the heaven and the government to earth. That should be the pattern we should follow and not about being born again. It is about bringing Christ into the hearts of the people. Other teachings are secondary. Jesus came to establish the heaven on earth. He brought the kingdom of heaven to earth, which is the kingdom of Christ on earth. This should be our primary focus as preachers,” Olayemi stated.

The cleric noted that the introduction of different doctrines by churches into the gospel has made many preachers to pay more attention on the doctrines of their churches than on the gospel of the kingdom, adding that only God could bring such preachers of the gospel back to the consciousness of the kingdom message.

Olayemi said: “A preacher will continue preaching the doctrine of his church until he has an encounter. Doctrine is a means of keeping and controlling people, instead of preparing them for heaven. We are called to preach God’s kingdom. Knowing about eternity requires divine encounter and enlightenment, which has to do with knowledge and knowledge does not come when you are not informed. You have to be informed to have knowledge, and this takes an encounter with God.”

Pastor Olayemi disclosed that the yearly first fruit offering is insignificant, stressing that the offering should only be collected and prayer on and then returned to the givers.

According to him: “Jesus deserves our first fruit being the first born from the dead. He is the first that seated with God and when you believe in Christ, you have offered your first fruit through him and in him. When people come to me with their first fruit, I collect it, pray and give it back to them. I am not in the ministry to collect first fruits. Abraham demonstrated the practice of first fruit and God collected it from him and gave it back to him. First fruit offering should not necessarily be at the beginning of a new year.”

Olayemi, who hails from Kogi State also dismissed the yearly New Year resolutions by people as a practice that does not work, saying people cannot change from their old habits by their own strength except by God’s grace. Making a New Year resolution, according to him, leads the people making them to fall into guilt and self-condemnation when they break such resolutions barely few weeks later.

He said: “What people need is an encounter with God to bring about changes in their lives. Our teachings alone cannot change people without God’s grace through an encounter with him. I believe in people having an encounter with God onto genuine changes in their lives at any time of the year instead of making New Year resolution that does not work. A new year can still be an old year. So, people are to be passionate about their intimacy with God every day and focus on the things of God year-in-year-out.”

However, the cleric recognised the importance of the yearly messages and declarations by pastors to their church members and admitted that such declarations often help members to focus and avoid careless living in the New Year.

Cautioning religious leaders from giving false or unrealistic hope in the New Year, Olayemi said: “Don’t give your church members false or an unrealistic hope in the name of prophetic declaration when you never heard from God. Declarations without God’s leading often backfire.”