The online jests swirling around the testimonies of some members of The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries brings back to fore what its founder, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, said about his spiritual journey and principle. Excerpts from his 2017 interview with the church’s press:
How did you become born again?
I first heard the word of God in the bus. A preacher preached and told us how we should give our lives to Christ. But I knew that what he preached was good and that one should be born again. The yearning to become a child of God where that truth can be preached made me continue to search for a place where the word of God is preached very well. I ended up in the same church the preacher worships. When I got there and heard the same word of God, I concurred with the preaching, because I had already given my life to Christ and from there, I also discovered that the yearning was really so intense in me. As a result of my yearning, I went to a brother who I knew was a born again, who gave his life to Christ and gave testimony on how his two containers were seized because he refused to give a bribe of N5 or N10 to those in-charge. True Christianity and salvation. So, when I asked him, he said he had a calling for the catholic and that he wanted the Catholics to be born again, so, I love the vision. I had a fellowship with them and from there, continued to worship with them. I later became a pastor of the church for many years before God called me to establish the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries.
How did the General Overseer of your former church react when you wanted to leave?
Leaving my former church was not easy for me. The General Overseer did not want me to leave but because it was God’s will that I should go and accomplish some missions, I had no option than to leave. Actually, the General Overseer and many church members were not happy. But today I have realized why God pulled me out of the church.
What business were you into before becoming a full time pastor?
Well, I was a motor parts dealer. I was importing motor spare parts and I had an office in Lagos. But then, I believe there is a reason God brought every individual into the world. Even while I was doing the business, I loved God and feared Him, not knowing where He wanted to take me. Eventually when I became born again, I knew it was the right decision because God really manifested Himself in me.
How could one overcome these challenges of being born again?
As a born again Christian, you rely on God to give you the grace that will sustain you when you are under persecution.
How did the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries come to be?
I had a revelation then in my former church where I was given a letter to become a pastor and money in the dream, but I rejected the offer because I cannot be bribed. I chose to take the letter to become a pastor and rejected the money. It came repeatedly but I remained in my former church until it was God’s appointed time for me to leave. The branch of the church where I was pastoring in Lagos was like the headquarters of the church due to the huge crowd and what God was using me to do then. However, I continued to serve God at the church, but when the time came in 2002, I wrote a resignation letter to the General Overseer and he was not pleased. But after many revelations, I finally left the church to start the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries in a batcher built on two plots at Ilasa, Lagos.
How then did you pull the crowd within a short period of time?
The truth remains that If God calls you; He will establish you, no matter the situation. He will attract the people. Though, you cannot see God, but if you do His will, you will prosper and that is what we preach here. Our credo at the Lord’s Chosen is “Do the will of God and prosper.”
So, when the Lord’s Chosen was established, people were coming from different places through the inspiration of God. Few days after we started, a man came with Lincoln Navigator jeep from Apapa, Lagos and told us that God asked him to join us. He eventually gave us a cheque of N1million. You see, when one has a personal encounter with God, he will relieve your problems. Today, many people come from America, Britain, Australia, Asia and other parts of the world to seek God’s face at the Lord’s Chosen. When we were at the former location, the present place was like an abandoned bush and nobody dared to go there. But, we did know that God kept it for us. So, if God calls you, He will bring people to support you. So, it all depends on how one was called.
Why did you name your church The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries?
God, not me, owns the Lord’s Chosen and nobody will say he knows what is happening here, not even me. By the grace of God, there is nothing that has not happened here in terms of miracles and that is why many people are fighting us. But they cannot overwhelm the power of God.
Could you say some of the challenges you faced at the beginning?
The host community was fighting the church when they saw that there was a huge crowd all over the streets where we worship. Then, they threw stones and sticks at us during services. In fact, they wanted us out of the area at all cost. But after some time, they started to open their doors to us; probably because God began to deal with them individually.
As a General Overseer of one of the major Bible-believing Pentecostal churches in the world, what does it take to run a church successfully?
It only takes holiness and the grace of God to succeed in the affairs of the church. If one does not hear from God, there is no how he can live up to expectation. The church is a thing of God that needs genuine spiritual strength to handle and if one is not really called by God, he should forget it.
You are known to be a healing and deliverance pastor, is it true that demons attack those who have such calling?
I am not aware of that, because it has never happened to me. It can only happen to those who are not spiritually strong and did not have such calling to do so. But for me, I think that demons cannot fight someone who is stronger than them. However, devil can fight you back through inciting people against you, by giving you bad name for instance. So many people come here as fraudsters and after helping them they turn their backs against us. They may say they gave you money or something like that in order to tarnish your image. For instance, all those fighting us are those whom we helped and ministered to and at the end, they revolted. So, I think, that is the only way the devil can fight back, they cannot come and slap me, because what is in me is stronger than them.
Why is it that some people’s problems persist after being delivered?
The reason is that after being delivered from a demonic attack, some people will go home and relax, thinking that it was the end. You see, when one is delivered from any attack, the person should remain strong in faith, repent from his evil ways and always be in prayer, so that the demon will run away entirely.
What challenges have you encountered in the course of your ministration?
God has called me and I must obey no matter the challenge. God therefore will make a way where there is no way for you. When I traveled to Australia recently, many were happy to see me. In most cases, when I go to any country, they embrace me and want me to pray for them. The last visit we made, our aircraft had fuel leakage around the Sahara Desert, thereafter, the pilot announced that there was a problem and I remembered the dream I had before the trip concerning the aircraft. Luckily, it went back to land somewhere.
What major remarkable miracles have been witnessed in your church?
What God has done in the Lord’s Chosen are numerous. Those into armed robbery, rituals and cultism have received genuine salvation. Yoke of sins have been broken, a dwarf grew up to a full age and hunchbacks vanish, cases of many years of bareness, madness, stroke and imbecility have been healed. Also, God has made many billionaires here, the deaf and dumb have received healing.
In fact, God is established here for churches and people to be free. The church is a refinery where souls are healed and refined and God in the church solves every kind of problem.
What do you hope to achieve for the rest of your life?
My vision is to win 10 billion souls for God, healed, delivered and blessed. God called me to serve Him.
I will make heaven and be with God forever. I am also available for God to use me to touch the lives of those who are in one problem or the other and that I would continue to do for the rest of my life. Therefore, I want the world to come to The Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries to witness the power of God in action. It is not human; only God can do it.
