Most Pastors Aren’t Called By God, But By Their Stomachs – Dr. Etuke-Ayorinde, Canada-Based Minister, speaks out against fake miracles and materialism in Nigerian churches
Dr. Roland Olufemi Etuke- Ayorinde a Canada based Minister of God, has slammed most church owners for parading themselves as Lord’s chosen servants whereas they were not but called into ministry “by their stomach.”
In a chat with journalists, the Minister of God who had spent 52 years living off the shores of Nigeria said the development was responsible for the proliferation of churches in the country with most of them engaging in fake miracles.
He is the founder and General Overseer of his Canada based church known as Bethel Outreach End-time Message Tabernacle in Brampton Ontario
With visible expression of humility and Godliness ruling his life and ministry, Dr. Roland who is in the country to scout for a landed property to establish a Theological institution to replicate the one already established in Canada described the current situation as unfortunate pointing out that emphasis should not be on miracles at this end time.
God does not make mistakes when he is choosing his servants, When he calls you, he does so for a special purpose and mostly to redeem people from their sinful ways”, the ministry of God stressed adding that he disengages you from worldly affairs to work for that purpose he wanted to use you”.
Speaking on his journey to the ministry, He said it was a battle between him and his late mother who God first sent to him through a vision that he would end up as his servant. “Imagine me at the age of 12, I had never explored going to a party or clubbing, I was doing just book reading all the way and messages were coming that I will become a minister of God”, said Dr. Roland who prides himself with 5 PhDs in different fields.
” My mother told me that in a vision, the Lord told her that I will become a big pastor somewhere and I said mom, that is not the Lord, you only had a dream because, I have never enjoyed my youth, I have not had my Connoisseur, my Heineken. She would fight and fight me and even when I brought home a case of Guinness Stout and Heineken home, she broke the bottles with the content saying it’s not in this house that you will take alcohol”.
Speaking on other occasions that God gave messages relating to his calling, the minister of God mentioned a particular time when an Onitsha woman he wanted to marry told him that the Lord showed her that he would become a pastor.
Two occasions, he said included when was invited to a church in Atlanta Georgia to deliver a sermon and on arriving at the church the female leader of the church surprisingly on citing him exclaimed that ” this is the one that we have been waiting for”
According to Dr. Roland, he did not immediately understand what she meant until the woman revealed in a vision that the Lord had chosen him to become one of his ministers. He said a similar vision was also given to him when he flew down to Port Harcourt from Atlanta.
“But the day I finally accepted the Lord was when I finally did the worst of it all. I had money in my pocket, about 5,000 US Dollars. I went to a shop called Marshalls, an exclusive shop for brand names in Mens wears. I never saw myself to be a Kleptomania because I was well raised and well schooled
When you go to Marshalls, you will see a suit, of 10,000 Dollars on sale and mark down to 6,500 Dollars. Then you may see shoes worth 1,500 Dollars marked down to 300 dollars. So what I did because I couldn’t afford to pay that expensive price, I took the tag on the low price and swapped it with the tag on the expensive material I picked.. I did not know the camera had captured me”.
He said he was later approached by the security personnel on guard and taken to their office, where they played the video. ” I saw myself swapping the tags, if there was a hole around that day I would have jumped into it. I said Oh! please, I am sorry and I knelt down and started begging. he added.
To convince them that he did not come to steal intentionally but he was influenced by the devil, Dr. Roland said he brought out the money in his pocket, he also told them that he had more than that but he could not explain why the incident happened.
“I don’t know what led me into it but I told them that the devil led me into it and I profusely apologised. Then they took the clothes from me and warned that I should not visit the shop again in the next three months otherwise, I would be arrested. That was the day I melted on the floor, cried and the Lord forgave me and it was at that point that the calling started.
I am not ashamed to talk about it because it will help to save lives of those who had done or those with the tendency to do it so that they can repent and allow the Lord to come into their lives. I know many pastors would not be nold to say this in the public, they will be ashamed to do so, but when you are truly called and you fear and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you have to testify to the glory of God that all the bad things you have done, you do not do them again. To that extent you can encourage people who have worst cases to give their lives to Christ and be forgiven, he said with great confidence.
Formerly an Assistant Pastor in the Chapel of Glory, United States presided over by a senior pastor whose name he gave as Tola Adelani, Dr. Roland, said his ” constant visit to Nigeria is to raise a branch of the church in Nigeria”.
” I will be in transition in the next four years before coming home permanently but the first thing I sought to do is investment, so that my old age will not be back to work, struggling all over again” he noted.
