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• Why we’re relocating Zion Ministry to the East –Ebuka Obi
By Ngozi Nwoke
Evangelist Ebuka Obi is the spiritual director of Zion Prayer Movement Outreach. He is also the founder of Saraphic Homes Foundation. In this interview, he spoke about the inception of his ministry, phenomenon behind the miracles in his ministry and the absence of submission by some wives, which is the leading cause of divorce.
How it all began…
When I was eight years old, I used to see visions. At that age, pregnant women would come to me to touch their protruded bellies and pray for them. Some would request that I tell them the gender of their unborn babies. Even when most of them had not gone for scan to know the gender of their unborn babies, I would reveal the gender of their unborn babies, and when they put to bed, it came exactly as I had prophesied to them. Remember that, at that time, there were no scanning machines in the hospitals.
My father was not comfortable with lots of people coming to our house to seek prophesy from me at that age. The news about me seeing visions spread to other villages and people from other local government areas and communities were coming to see this most-talked-about eight years old boy who could tell the future. There were some speculations about my spiritual gift. Some people said I was possessed by a demon. Some said I was mentally unstable and so on. Even my teachers in primary school used to come to me to pray into their palms.
When I was 12 years old, in CKC Catholic Church, Ubulu, Imo State, a priest from the church came to inform my father that I had the gift of the Holy Ghost. He told my father that I wasn’t possessed by a demon. My father wanted the best for his children. So, he was concerned that people would wonder how the boy whose parents were teachers would be prophesying and seeing visions for people. My father wasn’t comfortable with it. So, when the priest spoke to my father to allow me to answer the calling of God, that was when my father allowed me to continue my spiritual works and supported me. Unfortunately, the priest who helped me answer the call to serve God died. He instructed me not to have sexual intercourse with anyone, he advised me not to start a church, that my calling was only to start a prayer ministry. He told me I would save millions of people from problems. He said I should not be money-conscious with my gifts, and I have kept all his instructions. At that age, I didn’t understand what ministry was all about.
The aspect of helping people solve their problems is because I am too emotional about people’s problems, and that is one of my biggest weaknesses. I can’t withstand someone’s tears, and most people have used that weakness against me. They come to me for prayers, and they get answers to their prayers. When you are honest in what you do, the power of God will be made available to you. People come from all over the world, and if they are not getting answers to their prayers, they won’t come back. When they come to me, I don’t feel proud or arrogant about it. I just say, Lord, give me grace not to disappoint you. So many men of God started very well, but at a time they fell. I’m always conscious of this and I don’t want to make any mistake about it. To date, my father, who was against me exhibiting my spiritual gifts, now supports the ministry and what I do.
Since you are not married, how do you overcome the temptation of sexual intercourse?
It’s not easy. Some women come here to seduce me. That’s why we have heavy security guards and sophisticated cameras installed everywhere on the premises. It has not been easy, but because determination leads to success, by the grace of God, I haven’t been involved in any scandal or controversy bordering on sex or intimacy. I have the consciousness that, if any of the three vows I made to God, which are to abstain from sexual intercourse of any kind, not being money-conscious and not opening a church, is broken, I may have serious problems in life. That consciousness resounds in my mind. Some women are demon-possessed. Some of them come here and open their clothes to reveal their private parts and I tell them there are cameras everywhere. They don’t know that the security men watch everything going on in my office through the cameras. I don’t joke with those vows, and that is why I’m still in God’s grace.
What would you attribute the reign of Zion Ministry to?
I cannot attribute the success and growth of Zion Ministry to anything or anyone except to God Almighty. The reign of Zion Ministry is more than human comprehension. When I was a little child, I used to minister to lots of people. There is no time you will come to the ministry that you won’t see thousands of people waiting to see me.
There are no signboards that advertise the ministry. We don’t do adverts to announce the ministry, yet you see thousands of people trooping in and out of the ministry. As it is now, the space doesn’t contain the number of people that come here. We can’t do any big programme here because there won’t be space for everyone. We have bought more houses and demolished them just to accommodate people for the programmes. It’s still not enough. It’s just the grace of God, the anointing and sacrifice, that have kept us high. The sacrifice is that I don’t ask people to pay tithe and offering. I have never asked people to pay for consultation or bring money for anything. Even if my consultation fee is N10 million, people will still pay it. But I have never asked for money and will never ask for money from anyone to do prayers for them, because freely I receive and freely will I give. People are surprised that I don’t charge a dime for anything I do here.
You just concluded your programme tagged ‘Odieshi’; what is the programme about and its significance?
To us, Odieshi means divine protection. The scripture states, ‘greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. All these are scriptural prayers for protection. Odieshi means, with God, no evil shall befall you. It’s a divine protection programme.
The significance of the programme is that numerous people are healed of their ailments. The crippled walked, the blind received their sights, all manner of sicknesses were destroyed. The miracles are real and verifiable. The miracles are not arranged. The greatest miracle so far in the ministry is the act of young boys and men submitting their charms and surrendering their lives to Christ. Thousands of youths came out publicly to denounce their occultic involvement. Even native doctors who were diabolic surrendered their charms, Internet fraudsters, popularly known as ‘yahoo’ boys, submitted their charms. The salvation of souls to God is the greatest impact of the Odieshi programme.
For the purpose of expansion and to create more space to accommodate everyone, is there a plan to relocate the ministry from Lagos to the East?
Just as I mentioned, we cannot have any big programme here anymore. The crowd has become too much such that whenever we have a programme, over a hundred people faint due to overcrowding. The streets are congested. There was a stampede in the last programme and we don’t want such to occur again. Relocating to the East will also help in the development of that area. When we started the ministry in 2012 here in Lagos, the whole area was a desert, underdeveloped, and swampy. We started building structures, and that was how development came to this area. So, there are plans to relocate the ministry to the East to enable that region to develop and create employment for the people of that region. We are looking to acquire up to 30,000 acres of land. You can imagine what that would do for that region. We can’t have such space in Lagos, which is why we have decided to relocate to the East.
What is your reaction to people who doubt the authenticity of your ministry, especially the miracles that occur here and also to people who pass negative comments?
We receive so much condemnation, negative comments, false accusations, and backlash from people on a regular basis. They are so much and regular that we have developed a thick skin and learned to overcome them with prayers. I left social media because of these negative comments. I don’t have any personal social media handle. People have created fake social media pages just to defame my character. There are many false speculations about my ministry. They have said I am diabolic in the miracles that happen here. I can’t explain how the miracles happen. The recent miracle was when I prophesied to a man I never knew before that he would experience breakthroughs, and it happened. The man bought me a brand new car to appreciate God, but I rejected it. You must be a spiritual person to understand me. Even Jesus Christ, our saviour, faced trials and tribulations, and he was able to overcome them. So, we have learned to overcome these negative distractions with prayers.
Share with us about the Saraphic Homes Foundation
Seraphic Homes Foundation was founded in 2009. That year, God said to me, “I will bless and prosper you, but you must take care of the poor.” Since then, we have been visiting Ikoyi Prison and other prisons to reach out to inmates and pray for them and give them hope. We give them foodstuff and other basic stuff.
Right now, the foundation is building a psychiatric hospital in Anambra State. We intend to build psychiatric hospitals in the five eastern states in Nigeria because charity begins at home. They will all be free of charge. We have made it a mandate that no mad person will be roaming the streets anymore in the East. There will be patrol buses going about to pick up mad people on the streets. When the psychiatric hospitals are built, we will hand them over to the governors of these states.
Saraphic Homes Foundation pays up to N40 million of tuition fees for unknown pupils and students every term. We have Saraphic Hospital. All the people who come through the foundation are treated free of charge. Doctors and nurses are paid despite the free charges.
Are there people you mentor?
Yes. I am a mentor of people. We are having the Workers and Sons of Prophet programme right now. The work is much for me to carry alone. We need more ministers and prophets to make the work more effective. We are training a lot of people to join hands and make the ministry move forward.
Your teachings are more about wives submitting to their husbands and against divorce. Why do you uphold family values so high?
God has revealed to me repeatedly that the marriage institution is under satanic attack. The devil wants to destroy marriages completely. The rate of divorce currently is high and alarming. Couples get married today and in one year or two, they have divorced. Something is wrong somewhere. The trend now is that most men and women don’t want to be married. They prefer to become baby mamas and baby daddies. You have single mothers everywhere. This is not normal. This is not our culture. I am against it because it’s not the will of God. If you read the Bible, you will see that God condemns divorce. God instituted marriage when he said a man shall leave his parents and cleave to his wife. Not his baby mama or girlfriend. The Bible mentioned his wife. It’s an instruction from God. I advise all Christians to refer to the Bible before taking any action about marriage. On wives submitting to their husbands, it is a clear instruction in the Bible.
When are you getting married?
My parents have talked about marriage to me to a point that they are almost weeping about it. My father comes here every day to ask me when I am getting married. I have prayed about it and I am awaiting God’s direction. God has not shown me the woman yet. I don’t want to dabble into marriage without any instruction from God. I have never been in a relationship with a woman. I am a devout Catholic. I don’t joke with my faith and practice as a Catholic. I go for confession before a priest. I perform all the obligations in the Catholic doctrine. I made a vow to abstain from sexual intercourse until I’m married, and it shall remain that way until it is God’s time for me to settle down with the right woman.
