Leading preacher and the presiding Bishop of God’s First Ministries International also known as Illumination Assembly, Dr. Isaac Idahosa, recently returned from this year’s International Gathering Of Eagles (IGOE) in London. In this interview with Sunday Express, the widely travelled man of God spoke on his encounter with famous US preacher, Benny Hinn, plans of bringing Hinn to Nigeria, burning national issues as well as interactions with other men of God present at IGOE.
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| Benny Hinn & Bishop Isaac Idahosa |
You recently returned from one of the biggest meetings of men of God in the UK, International Gathering Of Eagles (IGOE) how did it go?
This year’s International Gathering of Eagles (IGOE), which is annually hosted by by Pastor Alex Omokudo of the Victorious Pentecostal Assembly was awesome. It’s basically the annual gathering of international speakers who are usually a blessing to people around the world. I was privileged to be one of the guest speakers for this year’s IGOE alongside other great apostles of God like Pastor Benny Hinn, Arch Bishop George Bloomer from America and a host of others. We looked at the subject matter “With God All Things Are Possible”. It was a mammoth crowd with testimonies abounding to the goodness of our God. It was a weeklong event.
How would you describe the experience?
It was an explosive experience because the presence of God made all the difference. You see, God’s presence is all you need because all you need is in His presence so people cultivated better ideas on how to build different relationships with the Holy Spirit by plugging into the supernatural.
Now that you are back, do you intend to bring these men of God to your church?
George Bloomer will be here during our International Blestival Of Grace (IBOG) Conference, which comes up from December 1 to 8. We are trusting God to host Bishop George Bloomer from the United States and some other people from there also. We are also looking forward to bringing people like Ron Kenoly, who is my very good friend and other anointed men of God here between November 17 and 18, for another special conference called “Restoration Of All Things”. It is going to be explosive here in November and that will continue in December with our IBOG. Then by January 2014, all things being equal, Pastor Benny Hinn should be visiting us here in Nigeria. We discussed that in the UK and he looked forward to coming to Nigeria in January.
Tell us more about the IBOG Conference and what inspired it?
IBOG is basically where people gather to renew their grace levels and change their gears in the presence of God. People come from all walks of life to give thanks to God. They also get quipped to round off the year strong and equip themselves spiritually to enter the New Year stronger.
Are there going to be musical attractions?
Of course, there will be definitely. We are going to be having great musical experience. You see, music is God’s food. Praise and Worship is God’s food so we can’t deny God his food. Them say “hunger no dey catch belle make another thing enter”. So when you give God his satisfaction then he releases his blessings. So we will be inviting people like Chinyere Udoma, Midnight Crew and some international guests that we are still working on. God’s willing we will be having a great time with them.
What are the other activities lined up by your church for the end of the year?
We just had our Passover Night on October 4, it was meant to prepare people for the crossing over. It was a night of prophetic prayers and intercession for God’s people. Our special Independence Praise and Power service was huge and awesome. We just observed our eight days of fasting conference, preparing us for the new levels of the church based on what God has ministered to me concerning what will be happening. We prayed strongly against evil especially what is happening currently in Nigeria. We are not waiting for 2015 to start praying for Nigeria, it will be disastrous to wait for 2015 before we can pray. There is a man to pray and there is a man to answer. All these onslaughts of the enemies in Nigeria is not unknown to us but if the church does nothing the devil will triumph. Evil prevails when good men do nothing. So we are gathering people to let them know that they cannot just fold their hands or stand on the fence thinking things will work out. Nothing works itself. What is going to be is not what is going to be until people work things out.
As a man of God what advice do you have for our President and the Governor of Rivers State who are fighting? And how do you think it could be resolved?
The advice I will give to the President is to act as a President. I expect him to call Gov. Amaechi because everybody who is a Nigerian submits to the President. He should reach out to Amaechi and ask him what the problem is. You don’t expect to beat a child and he doesn’t cry. So if he is crying out, let him cry out to the right quarter that is again to Amaechi. A woman cried when her husband died in II Kings Chapter 4 and she cried to the prophet. If you are crying to the wrong people they will give you wrong counsel and advice. So I expect he should cry to the right person and let the right person too, open his arms wide to accept and listen to him and take it up from there.
As a man of God, do you see this crisis turning into something else in our country?
The thief cometh not but to kill, to steal and to destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. I preach hope. I believe Nigeria is God’s and His fullness. But you see, we must look at the picture from Acts Chapter 12. Herod succeeded in killing James because the church did nothing about that. If we do nothing about that, the worse could happen. But then, because he found out that it pleased the Jews, he went ahead to pick on Peter but the church rose up to her responsibilities and began to pray then God sent his divine intervention. What we need now is God’s divine intervention. Other than that anything can happen. When God takes his hands off a nation, then the nation is doomed. I pray that God in his infinite mercy will take us out of this condition we are today. Because it has reached a point where people don’t even know what to do and the worse tragedy in life is not to know what to do next.
The CAN leadership under Ayo Oritsejafor has been accused of not doing enough for the nation. Recently, he was lampooned by el Rufai, who said he was not the voice of Christians, you as a man of God and a close friend to Papa Ayo, do you see him as the true voice of Christians?
We have never had a more vocal and bold CAN president like we have this time around. el Rufai must have his reasons for saying what he said but he is not speaking for the public, he is speaking for himself. el Rufai should learn to speak the right thing. What is the motive behind what he is saying? Papa Ayo has brought confidence back to Christianity; he has stood in the gap for both the rich and the poor. He is a man that stands for the truth, declares the truth because he lives by the truth. Notwithstanding, the body of Christ today is better off than what it used to be. Every day is a plus so we expect improvement so he has to do better than those who used to be there.
Bishop let us talk about your encounter with Benny Hinn, what was it like?
That was my very first encounter with him and it was remarkable. He is an epitome of grace, the man commands so much of God’s presence. You can’t be with Benny Hinn and be dry. He is the man who speaks into peoples’ lives and he relates well with people. After ministering, we met at the dining table and he was cracking jokes. So he spends time with people just as he spends time with God. He cracks jokes, he makes people laugh. So the Benny Hinn you see preaching is different when he is relaxed. A man you want to be with always.
What exactly did he tell you during the encounter?
He said he likes me. He also said to me, “you are a great man whose greatness has just begun and I would love to be in Nigeria with you.” And sincerely, we cannot wait to host him here soon.
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