Apostle Suleman Johnson, the General Overseer of the Omega
Fire Ministries International (OFM), Auchi, Edo State has encouraged Nigerians,
especially the leaders to forsake pride in order to move the nation forward.
Apostle Suleman during a recent interview spoke on his take
on Biafra, his ministry’s mission of peace and giving. He also explained why
he’s called the “Oracle of God”.
Read excerpts from the interview below:
What’s your take on pastors against prosperity preaching?
Well, that is not too bad, but every man interprets the
Bible as he understands it. In my own view, the message of the Bible should be
total and not one-sided as some people preach. God gave some pastors message of
salvation, some prosperity, some end-time, but that does not mean that
salvation or end-time preachers will not buy car or build houses for God and
his family by God’s given prosperity. Or because a pastor is called into
prosperity-preaching ministry, he decides not to talk about salvation again: he
will end his journey in hell. Every ministry assignment ordained by God should
complement one another. We need each other no matter the calling difference.
Romans 12:3
Tell us about your recent American Raw Power crusade
experience, and the charity visit to the US orphanage home.
The trip to Philadelphia, America was successful one among
our trips. We had attendance of about three thousand people in a meeting with
divine visitation that culminated in diverse testimonies. The word of God was
preached with power and great insight given by the Holy Spirit. The Lord spoke
to the people by prophecy in a very deep form; obviously we know that the
people have not recovered from the encounters. As regards Charity visit to the
US orphanage home, I love doing this and that is the reason we did it.
Recently, you attended to about 350 Youth Corps members at
your ministry’s headquarters and gave them N7 million. What was their mission
to the church.
The students came to see for themselves wonderful things
they have been hearing about us. They were 358 in number. It was a courtesy
visit. And when they were leaving, we realized that they needed to be
encouraged back to their orientation camps. We believe doing that is a way to
assist them, their parents and the community at large.
There is this issue of your alleged stand against the Biafra
struggle. And this has become an issue with some groups fighting for a Biafra
nation. As a man of God and not a politician, how does this connect with you?
I have heard that before, that I granted an interview to
some faceless interviewers against the agitations of the Indigenous People of
Biafra which is not true. I’m not the one, it was an evil concoction. To start
with, I’m a preacher and Ambassador of Peace for the United Nations. I’m not in
support of violence, I was one of the pastors in Nigeria who spoke several
times on live worldwide satellite TV broadcast for the release of Nnamdi Kanu.
People who are jobless should look for something to do
rather than fabricating stories that have no basis in order to confuse the
people. Pastors should not be dragged into unnecessary debate and tribal
rancor.
You have become synonymous with charity. How do you hope the
world should pay you back?
In the book of proverbs 19:17, the scripture says; “Whoever
is kind to the poor is lending to the Lord the benefit of his gift will return
to him in abundance”. We are only doing what we know how to do and our rewards
are from God. We are not expecting anything from men or any group. The world
cannot pay us back. I’m not a politician who installed a bore hole for his
community or does other projects and is expecting his people to vote for him in
his second term political election campaign bid. Ours is not like that, we are
only privileged to do what we know how to do to the glory of God.
You are not afraid to shoot at every issue while on the
pulpit. What inspires you at all time?
There are things you cannot learn in your old age about
life. Life is all about what you are made up of from the original dictate of
God’s will. The source of my inspiration is God. From the Holy Scripture, it is
God who works in us both to do His good pleasure. Whatever we are seeing today
is God. A person cannot hold petrol in his hand and at the same time holds fire
in his hand. These are two contrary matters. Whoever wants to shoot at issues
must avoid issues.
What more are you doing as a resonate voice in Christendom
to ensure that Christian leaders take the initiative to push for the necessary
and positive changes in our society?
From one of the interviews granted in early May, 2016 with
me about intercession we plan for Nigeria, the interviewer asked “How many
other pastors are you bringing into this plan?” The response was that we are
praying and good number of people in the nation would be carried along to pray
for Nigeria. The only way out is prayer and by declaring the truth regularly.
We are praying. There is better future for Nigeria.
One of the qualities for which you are admired on the pulpit
is your entertaining the audience in the most modest sense of the word and
informing them. Is that the magic wand behind the ministry increasing growth?
To start with, no man has strategy for ministering expansion
or growth, except it is given from above. We are not actually entertaining the
people in the course of sermons as you think but revealing the mystery in the
word by the Spirit of God. One thing we should know and understand about the
word of God is that, it has sweet side and bitter side. All work together to
form the totality of ministry’s growth when they are strictly adhered to. Some
laughed themselves into their next level as they hear the word while some are
sorrowful by the same word into their freedom. The Spirit of God backing the
word knows what to do to individual by the word.
At what point do you have the time to be alone with your
family, given your regular movements to preach Gospel across the world?
Every minister of God at the top has similar time challenge
due to crowded daily ministerial schedules but time has to be created as family
matter is paramount in the heart of God. The order of life is God first, family
second and ministry third. Generally, when ministry is getting larger and the
demand is obviously on the increase, the attention given to family tends to
suffer but all it requires is having understanding wife or husband and balance
the family time and the ministry time. I create time.
You are called The Oracle of God, this title must be special
to you because almost every pastor also bears this title. What’s the secrets
behind the title?
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