Okonkwo: He was a precise person, not in competition with anyone
The Fountain of Life Church yesterday held a service as the church continues to mourn the passing of its founding pastor, Taiwo Odukoya, who died on August 7 in the United States aged 67.
The church had on Friday invited the general public to join them in Sunday service while making it known that there will be no onsite or online children’s church. It also announced details of Odukoya’s funeral. In an e-flier shared on its Facebook page, a service of songs will hold in honour of the late Odukoya on Friday, September 8, while the funeral service will hold on Saturday, September 9. Both events will hold at the church’s headquarters in Ilupeju area of Lagos.
Yesterday, the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), Dr Mike Okonkwo, described the deceased as a precise person, who knew exactly what he wanted and was never in competition with anyone. Okonkwo who spoke at the Sunday service at the Fountain of Life Church, said the late Odukoya did his things the way God instructed him.
He called on members of the church to be united in love and support one another, especially the Odukoyas family, saying “the greatest honour and show of love that everyone can give to this great general of God’s army that has suddenly left us is to bind together and be united in the vision because I’m sure he was a precise person. He knew exactly what he wanted and was not in competition with anyone. He was doing his things the way God instructed him.”
Okonkwo who recalled his experience in ministry said: “In a moment like this, there is the tendency for mortals to begin to say things that they don’t know about. I remember when I lost my first daughter. You can imagine. She sang in the children’s choir. And I just came back from Abeokuta crusade, I came back on the 24th and on the 25th in the night, she had a serious fever and before morning she was dead. I was wondering without any announcement.
It is only God that can deliver us from evil because it does not take permission to knock.I lost balance and while I was thinking about my daughter’s death, suddenly my younger brother who was on assignment in the church was shot by armed robbers and after a week he was dead. I was not in the country but I delegated the assignment. My younger brother, a medical doctor was working in the Navy. He had a bright future. I’m saying this to let you know that in life so many things happen to us and in this same ministry apart from these, I have lost another two brothers. I lost my parents on account of this, and other siblings went like that. What do you do that’s when you should prove your God and not to run away.
“So you don’t run your mouth and say things that you don’t know. God is in his own exclusive class. He is God, you are not. God is still a good God and does good things. He has assured us that He will not leave us or forsake us. He is always there with us,” he added.
Reminding them of their commitment, the cleric said it is not when somebody is around that everyone is dancing around that really matters, what happens when the person is not there.
“This is the time the entire family of Odukoyas need us to show that the Senior Pastor did not labour in vain. You all know where you were coming from before now, but see what God has done in your individual life, lives have been transformed and changed. This is the time to be committed,” he stated.
Okonkwo enjoined them to know that the departed has gone to be with the Lord and that is the joy of every Christian. Praying that Fountain of Life Church will not die, Okonkwo who happens to be the godfather of the late Odukoya said: “This global ministry will not die. The Lord will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Understand that we are not hopeless, the truth is that we have a hope in the future. So the journey and destination is assured and guaranteed. As many that have received Christ have eternal life and the devil cannot have final say in your life. Even when adversaries like this strike you are still a winner.
“It is in time like this that you know the reality of life, and death. None of us will live forever unless Christ tarries. One way or the other there will be a day when we will all die. One thing or the other will take us out and that is why it is good for you to guarantee your life and surround to Jesus. Don’t live your life to chance or procrastinate, stand with Christ. It is risky to procastinate because you don’t know when you are going to die.”
Okonkwo urged members of the church not to copy the examples Job and his miserable friends in the Bible to blasphemy, especially on things, they do not understand.
He said: “There are issues that happen to us that you can’t explain. So don’t live by rumour, rather allow God to speak and when he speaks it’s wisdom.”
