Pastor Blessing Emeka Akandu is the Founder and General Overseer of The Genuine Seekers of Salvation Church, Igando, Lagos. Akandu, who recently marked his 9th anniversary in ministry, told OMIKO AWA reasons his church does not collect offering and tithe, but emphasise the use of herbs and roots, alongside prayers to administer healing on people of different sickness.

You just cocked nine, how did you come into ministry?
To be precise, it all started in 1978, when the late Reverend Obinna Ezekiel of Christian Pentecostal Church (CPM) in one of his village evangelism came to our village. He came with a film that dealt on the story of a man that lived a careless lifestyle and was involved in an accident with his bicycle and died and went to hell. As a boy, the story touched me and right then, I made up my mind never to live a careless lifestyle.

The next day, Rev Ezekiel saw me in my father’s compound when he and his ministers came to carry their musical equipment and other materials kept in our house, and said to my father, “this your son is going to be a great man of God.” My father was not their member; he only allowed the church to keep their items in our house because it was very close to their crusade ground. Since that pronouncement, his words have been ringing a bell in my head.

However, from the year 2000 to 2010, the call began to manifest and I became a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). I became a worker and attended the church’s Bible College. I later left RCCG for Life Seed, a Pentecostal Church, where I served as an assistant pastor. For some reasons, I left Life See in 2015 and became an iterant evangelist, preaching at different places to different people. I did this till 2016, when I had a dream, where a voice instructed me to live according to Psalm 15. Waking, I read the passage and made up my mind to live according to the dictates of the passage. I began to do so, and my life began to change drastically for the better. I began to understand many spiritual things and then, started the church.

Before this time, I had gone to a camp at Ishasi to pray; I was there for one week, seeking the face of God on how to run the church. It was at the campground that I got the revelation to overlook money.

I was also instructed not to collect tithes, offerings or urge members to sow seeds or give money for one thing or the other. The Holy Spirit instructed, I should make the church a place where the word of God would be clearly and truly preached. Then, I asked: “how would the church grow or be able to handle its needs? The voice replied: “The church does not belong to you. All I want you to do, is to put a basket at the back of the congregation in the church and anyone that wants to give anything can drop it in the basket. Do not make giving compulsory.” He also instructed that before the church closes that I should stretched my hand towards the basket and bless it, adding that the words, offering time, tithes, seed sowing or anything that pertains to money should not be mentioned.

I asked what would the name of the church be and he gave me a book that contains the names of churches that had existed and are no more. He pointed at some names and said; they are no more because they were not faithful. He asked: “Will you be faithful to me?” I answered in the affirmative and he said: “The church shall be called, ‘The Genuine Seekers of Salvation Church.’ He said, if I would be faithful in my calling that over 65 per cent of Nigerians will make heaven. Returning home, I discussed what the Lord had shown to me with my immediate family and some neighbours. On February 5, 2017, I started the church in my street. The attendance, including myself, was 13; we all lived in the same neigbhourhood. I did not preach that day, but praised and worshipped the Lord. After that, I told the congregation my encounter with the Lord and knelt for the remaining 12 members to pray for me. Bro. Emmanuel Ajoko coordinated the prayers and immediately he finished, he shouted offering time, and I called him to order— there is no offering please.

From that day to date, we have been holding our services without offering, tithes or seed sowing. And by God’s grace, we have stayed nine years and still counting.

How have you been able to carry out other humanitarian services without tithes and offering?
I work; I repair refrigerators, install air-conditioners and build cool-rooms for clients. I use my personal money to rent chairs and canopies every Sunday for church service in the street. And because I live in that neighbourhood, the people tolerated me, especially as our services last two to three hours.

Apart from renting chairs and canopies, I also give food to members (joloff rice or eba and soup). My neighbours sometime cook and served the people and with time our number increased. Before our first anniversary, we recorded over 50 members.

Within a year of starting, the Lord used me to heal a man with a cancerous sore on one of his legs. The man was so grateful to God that he moved us from the street to his personal land. Though, the place was swampy, we filled it and built on a portion of the land. He had wanted us to stay on the land for 10 years, pending when his children will be adults and take possession of the land. In 2019, when Covid 19 started, and by 2020 when government instructed churches to shut down to avoid the spread of the virus, the man changed his decision to allow us stay on his land for free. I did not close the church, as government had instructed, so, he saw the huge number of people coming for service and requested we should start paying him N150,000 every month as rent. We pleaded for less, but he refused and ejected us out of his land, despite the structure we erected on it.

Before this time, a member of church, Mummy Daniel, had told him that she dreamt that he chased the church out from his compound and died a year after doing so. However, he directed us to a place where we paid for two years to have our services, but while leaving his compound on December 28, 2020, I asked him to bring his family members for prayers, but he refused; we still prayed for them and moved on. The sorrowful side of the story is that after a year we left his compound, he died; just like Mummy Daniel had told him. With my former landlord’s death, the news spread that I killed him and my new landlord heard the story and became afraid; he immediately asked us to leave even though we had just spent a year of our two-year rent. He arranged with some street urchins (area boys) to dismantle our structure and force us out of his property. Some of our items were destroyed and I was even taken to the police, but was found innocent. The police advised the landlord to refund to the church the one year rent it has not used; the landlord did not do that to date. At this time, the church lost many of its members, especially as there was no place to hold services anymore. With the remaining few, we began to hold services from one member’s house to another.

On one of the services held in a member’s house, I prayed for Mr Udo, whose wife was down with stroke and the woman recovered. Her elated husband also gave the church a portion of his compound for its services, but his children objected to it, so, he rented a shop where we hold our services from then to date.

During the crisis, our members scattered and the church turned to my family affairs — my wife, my son and I. It became a three-man church. Things went to the extent that my wife disclosed to my son that she is praying to God to make me stop the church; I heard it and laughed and said, “even if she stops coming, I will not stop the church.”

What was the theme of your anniversary?
It is “O, Lord! Here, I am. Use me.” The Lord has healed a lot of people through me. He has as well revealed the use of different herbs and roots to me. Many people do not know that herbs and roots can cure different sickness; so far, the sickness is not as a result of nemesis. There are herbs and roots that can completely heal a mad person, deaf and mute, epilepsy, among others. Some people may see me as a herbalist; no, I am not. I only use herbs and roots as the Holy spirit directs me. Remember Prophet Elisha and King Naaman, the leper. Prophet Elisha would have come out and prayed and commanded the leprosy to get out of the king, but he did not do that. He asked him to go inside River Jordan and dip himself seven times and he did it and was healed. The Bible made us to understand that a carnal man cannot understand the things of the spirit. If you ask some Christians to go to a river and bath, they will tell you they are not of white garment church; they see it as a sacrifice to the god and goddess of the sea.

With these challenges you have had, why are you still pressing on?
When a man knows what he has, he will not give up. People may not see it; believe me, the miracles God has used me to perform and still performing are encouraging me to do more. Imagine, God using me to heal a woman whose mouth smells like a rotten egg. According to the woman, she has visited different hospitals, within and outside Nigeria, including visiting hospitals in India, and gone to different churches for prayers, but all to no avail.

Many people do not know that sickness comes in three categories —- nemesis, demon-afflicted, and nature/lifestyle.

Nemesis has to do with the evil or wrong one has done to his/her fellow human being coming back to him/her. This wrong may have been committed by one’s parents or the person suffering the sickness. We may have committed these wrongs, thinking nothing will happen, but nemesis does not forget things; it keeps records of events. It will return to you the same measure you have put in. The punishment may take awhile, it will, indeed, come. Sickness from nemesis, sometimes, is incurable. Herbs and roots or prayers cannot handle it because it is a payback time. The Bible says the measure you used for someone would be used for you; nemesis has no mercy or forgives.

Where then lies forgiveness of sin?
Forgiveness of sin will only happen when you repent. The Bible says: “Never again will a father eat a rotten grape and the teeth of the children decay, whosoever that ate a rotten grape shall be the one to suffer for it.” But it added that unless that child changes from the evils of his/her parents, if he/she continues the evil, the punishment will come upon him. When you repent, there will mercy and no nemesis.

For the demon- afflicted sickness, prayers can take them away because these demons work side by side with witches and wizards. This means that, there are spirits behind the sickness and when a pastor or any holy person lays hand on the sufferer the demons will runaway and the person will receive his/her healing.

The third category, which is nature and lifestyle come from the kind of food we eat, the air we breathe, our environment, water, among others. Roots and herbs can easily handle sickness in this category.

How about people taking Holy Communion and getting healed?
Yes, Holy Communion is part of nature; it is part of nature healing. Nature — herbs and roots — combined with prayers brings rapid results to our prayers. From the beginning, God never played with nature and this can be seen when he said Adam and Eve should eat fruits in the garden, but instructed them to never eat from a particular tree. Going back to Holy Communion, you will discover that the compositions are roots and herbs, which are medicinal and do not defile. Wine is from leaves and fruit, while bread is flour; these are the main ingredients of Holy Communion. The Bible says root and herbs are for our healing, but did not specify the particular disease or diseases the roots and leaves of orange or mango tree can cure.

Is it possible to serve God without spending money?
Yes! Why do think Jesus Christ said in Matthew 19:24 that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. If making money is your motive of serving God, you will never be faithful to God. For me, right from day one, my focus has been on God, the great provider, and it would never shift. Without taxing any member, we have been holding church programmes; feeding members and carrying out other welfare services. I am doing what God said I should do. If any man is truly called and he does the wills of God, that God that called him will never let him down; he will make provisions for him. Some claim to be full time pastors, yet they trickly collect money from their members in the name of seed sowing, offering, dedication or doing one thing or the other, which are equivalent to obtaining by trick (419). The moment you say, you want to serve God and you throw away your professional tools, your faithfulness will be in doubt. From the beginning of the world to date, God does not call lazy people to serve him. God will never call you to serve him if you do not have a flourishing thing you are doing, because he is a God of diligence.

Any regret so far?
Yes, I regret my not answering the call at the early stage of my life. Imagine, if I had started 20 years ago, God would have used me to heal many more people than he has done. Imagine, little me healing mad people and people with different infirmities.