By Sam Eyoboka

THE Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement (popularly called Lord’s Chosen) a Nigerian megachurch with headquarters located along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Surulere local government area of Lagos State was founded by Pastor Lazarus Muoka 0n December 24, 2002.

L-R: Head, Public Relations and Media, Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries, Pastor Chidi Louis, General Overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka and his wife, Pastor (Mrs) Joy Muoka, at the annual international crusade tagged; “What God has determined shall be done” in Mgbidi, Imo State.

The church which started with a few people in a rented apartment at Ilasamaja, in Mushin, has expanded with over 300,000 branches all over the world. Due to the increase in such a short period, the church was moved to its present location in Ijeshatedo on a 60 plot of land which can contain over 30,000 members in a service.

Fielding questions from Religious Correspondents ahead of the 16th anniversary, the General Overseer, Pastor Muoka the church is celebrating with a divine crusade with a theme: “Only God can do this.” Excerpts….

BY the special grace of God, we can say that God has really helped us in the last 16 years in ministry and we want to use this opportunity to return all thanks to Him as we celebrate this month. All that has taken place in this church is just the finger of God. There is no one that can take the glory! He made a choice of the ministry and chose us into the ministry. He has used us to establish the ministry in many countries of the world and many souls have been converted and the vision and mandate of is still on course.

You can see the effects: the threefold visions: Revival all over the world, revival of the apostolic Christian experiences in the Body of Christ all over the world, revival of heaven consciousness in the believers all over the world. I want to say that before the emergence of this church, many churches were sleeping and resting.

There was no real revival. What was happening then before this ministry was that people were unwise and they were just about the things of this world and a way to please the flesh, the standard of the world as if it was just for fanfare or for money making.

But since the emergence of this church we can see what has happened as we went on cable to preach the wholesome truth, making the people to understand that worldliness is sin and all unrighteous is sin, making us understand what is meant to live a Christian life and the peo-ple to abide in the will of God in every area of our Christian life and ensuring that righteousness is preached and practicalised inside and outside.

As we came in with that message, it has affect-ed the society at large. The first vision on area of grassroots revival, preaching the gospel, reaching out to every soul to be saved, talking about salvation, how Jesus died for us, paid the price for our sins and was buried and rose again for our justification and showing that as you accept Jesus it will have effect in your life, which we said a Christ-ian is not a sinner and a sinner is not a Christian. The truth is being made light since the emergence of this church. Everywhere people know that if you are not standing, you are not standing.

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We established churches everywhere to bring in that second vision and by the grace of God today people are establishing churches here and there and the church is spreading in Nigeria as revival. In spite of whatever is happening in Nigeria, Nigeria remains the number one Christian nation in the world.

What is that thing that kept you steady all these long that you can tell people that look up to you and secondly what are the expectations for each of the programmes lined up for this season?

It’s the grace of God! If you rely on God, He will help you. He will sustain, preserve and advance you. I’ll want them to understand that there is nothing you can do without God. When you do the work of God, He will take over from you and achieve for you. So God is the power of this ministry. We might not cook rice for participants but they will be satisfied as we minister to them spiritually and they shall be blessed. God will give them packages from heaven.

So it is what God has done; that is why the theme is tagged; “Only God can do this.” Anybody coming should come expecting that only God will do that which no man can do.

What advice do you have for upcoming ministers because there are lots of challenges? Secondly what is your advice to the people concerning the forth-coming election? And if you were to meet President Muhammadu Buhari today, what would be your advice to him?

All I can tell upcoming min-isters is that they should not depart from God. They should rely on Him, pray, seek His face at all times and He will guide them and ensure their success in ministry.

As for the advice, every-one who has attained the age of voting should exer-cise that right. They must go and vote to the glory of God so that God will use that avenue to choose a leader for us. I advise all Christians to go and vote. It’s your civil right.

My advice to the presid-ent is that; let everything be done according to the will of God. Let us have the fear of God. When the will of God is done, the nation will be blessed. There should be no violen-ce of any form. Let there be peace and let’s rely upon God to help us on this election. Everybody should pray towards it.

To the INEC, let the will of God be done. Let them do everything in the fear of God. Let them do every-thing according to His will so that we will have a peaceful election. Let no-body allow anything that will jeopardize the peace of the nation so that we can continue to build our nation and ensure that people’s lives are preserv-ed.

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What advice do you ha-ve for Christians at this point in time. Some peo-ple will like to know your reservations about the major Christ-ian bodies in Nigeria and will like to know why you are not part of them, sir?

We must pray ceaselessly for our nation because the Bible says we should pray for the peace of the nation. Its in the peace of the nation shall we have peace. When we have peace, the gospel will pro-sper. We should pray for the perfect will of God in the nation. If the will of God be done we shall have a peaceful and prosperous election. We are just 16 years, we are young! When we grow up, we will know the areas to participate in and where not to partici-pate in. So now that we are young, we are learning.

What’s your Christmas message for Nigerians?

I advise Christians not to celebrate Christmas with-out Christ. If you want to celebrate Christmas you must be sure that you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and personal savior and you shall be blessed.

Mgbidi crusade is seen as the mother of all the church’s crusades. It’s now a four-day affair instead of three in previous occasions. We want to know why?

God is a progressive worker. God continues to multiply the days because of what He has in mind to do. Seeing that God wants to do so much, so He added one more day.

How do you cope with negative stories?

If what you are encount-ering is the same as whhat our Master encountered, it will not bother you. Handle it the way He did. Commit yourself to God and pray for the people who don’t have under-standing. You can’t answer them because if you do it will look as if you have something to hide. So you just have to keep quiet and keep on praying to God.

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Do you think it is time for Christians to go into politics?

That is individual persua-sion. It is not a collective idea of Christians. If you want to go into politics, it is your business to go into politics.

There is this burning desire for the Chosen Crown University to start up. Whats the update on that project, Sir?

What is worth doing is worth doing well. If you rush into whatever you want to do, you are bound to make mistakes. You take your time, get your registration done and take your time before you go into it. That institution is not something you are going to have for just one year. The ministry is 16 years, that institution is not going to be the fore-most priority but yet we are working to ensure that that university must come to be. We are going through a proper process so that when you come in, you will say yes this is Chosen University.