james kanbi, the General Overseer of God’s Mercy Revival Ministries (GOMERM) Lagos, said in this interview that it would take only God to deliver Nigeria from the complications of religion and politics that he said had taken the forefront of Nigerian politics. the 2023 general election. Speaking at GOMERM’s 2022 Zion Power Conference, which began on August 15, however, Akanbi dismissed fears of the country breaking up. extracts from SEYI JUAN SALAU:
Earlier this year he turned 60 with the release of his biography: ‘A Seed for Generations’. How do you feel marking this milestone?
I thank God that I was able to score 60. It was a great joy for me. It was not about age but about the impact that the Lord has allowed me to have in life at 60 years old. Life is not about duration but about donation. It’s not how long you lived but how much impact you made. I thank God for the few accomplishments I can point to at 60. It’s not just about looking at the numerical strength of the people around me in ministry. By God’s special grace, I have a few thousand people around me in ministry in about eight countries around the world where the God’s Mercy Revival Ministries flag flies. I thank God for the pillars that he has raised for the ministry. There is a son who will always be a source of joy for me in ministry. The first day we started the ministry he came in drunk, but today he is a regional overseer in the ministry. He is anointed and fully mature in the Lord and continues to grow. I sent it to various Bible Schools. He is like a trophy that I am looking at in this ministry.
At 60, one would expect it to slow down a bit. Instead, shortly after the celebration you went straight to the mission fields planting more churches and organizing more outreaches. What is the impulse that keeps you stronger at 60?
If you are going the right way and slow down, other people will pass you. When you are in the center of God’s will you cannot slow down. Being in the center of God’s will gives joy to move forward. Age should actually encourage you to do more. I looked at Noah when he was commissioned. I look at Papa Kumuyi; a wonderful mentor who I first met in 1981 as his student at Deeper Life Bible Church’s International Bible Training Center (IBTC). Sitting with him, I could see how he sees the future, and I said to myself, I want to choose a future like his. If at 80 he is saying that he feels 30, what should a little boy like me say? When you are in the center of God’s will for your life you will definitely have a great future for your life; you’re leaving. You don’t want to slow down because you see what God called you to do.
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Can you speak on the topic of God’s Mercy Revival Ministries (GOMERM) 2022 Power of Zion Annual Conference, labeled: ‘Higher Ground Life’?
We have been at a particular level for almost 23 years. When the Lord spoke to John, the Revelator told him to go up! When God calls you up, it means that he has a new agenda for you. When God summons you like that, it means that he wants to raise the bar. He wants to show you things you have never seen. He wants to restructure you and your system. He wants to make a new configuration for the system you are heading to and the lives around you. The higher level of life, as the theme of this year’s Zion Power Conference, which I received from the Lord, is a higher level of life. It is doing things in another and different way. It’s life getting better than where we are now. It is the work of the ministry becoming more effective and more efficient. God is actually saying that there is something better up there, come and see it! I will deposit it in you and you will go out to manifest it. That’s what the conference is about. At the one-week meeting, God will charge us with something new, higher, and better than what is present, and after the conference we will go out into the world and manifest it. When God calls you, he will download some things into you and release you into your world to manifest. That’s what’s going to happen.
What should participants do or prepare to share in the blessings of conference?
When you attend any program, you must believe that it is your set time to receive your prayers, wishes, and expectations. You must prepare in your heart that you are going to that program to meet God personally to answer your prayers, desires and expectations. Therefore, coming to the Zion 2022 annual power conference, participants must be serious throughout the entire week-long program. They must also come with the faith that they want to be better and also be ready to serve God; that they want to receive a seed that they will sow for the Lord as Hannah did. Hannah attended Shiloh that year with the mindset and determination that it was her appointed time to receive her desire; a child of God. She also came prepared with a vowed mindset to return the child to the Lord. She made the decision to receive and also to return to the Lord. So, for participants to partake of the blessings of the 2022 Power of Zion Annual Conference, they must also come to the program with the same determination and mindset as Hannah who comes to Shiloh to receive and serve the Lord, and they too will be blessed like Hannah. in the name of jesus
How will the conference affect the nation?
When God says climb higher, it means that place is a place of solution. It is where the jams are solved. It is where the status quo is reversed. This is where the dipstick is changed. It’s like when God took Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones and said, come on boy, look at these bones, can we get them higher? When Ezequiel looked at the situation on the ground, he said: Sir, I don’t know. Only you are the one who knows. So when people come to God in this way, He will burden them with some things and they will go into the world to make it better. When you make your world better, definitely the world around you will be better too. I believe in God that people will come out of the conference who will improve the world.
In view of the upcoming general election in 2023; the Church is now becoming more active in the nation’s politics. What is your opinion on the Church’s involvement in active politics; that until now avoided as dirty?
With the situation now developing in Nigerian politics and government, the Nigerian Church and Christians in general will be forced to actively participate in politics. The Labor Party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, is becoming a Christian. If the Obi movement continues the way it is going and Christians continue to relate to each other, although we may not get the key posts in 2023, we may get them in 2027. There are Christian Party in some countries. In Nigerian politics, it will take a very strong calling to get there. The call is so powerful that it breaks through if it is genuine and God’s instruction is clear. The call knows how to make resources and open doors. The call is supernatural evidence. If you have a call to politics, you will definitely make it. But if you are not called, you will be cursed. We had some Christians in politics in the past, but they messed them up.
With the cloud of religious fears, upheavals, uncertainties and suspicions like the APC Muslim-Muslim presidential bid, over Nigeria currently, as a prophet, do you foresee the country collapsing one day?
Nigeria cannot collapse. I believe that God has not given up on this nation. The current situation in Nigeria is not as bad as the situation in Ezekiel 37 when the people were completely desperate, but God still raised up a great army of them. Yes, right now Nigeria is facing many problems so serious that Nigerians no longer trust each other. The politics of religion has never come to the forefront of the burners like it is now. Some people are saying that there is nothing wrong with a Muslim-Muslim ticket because in the past we had a Muslim-Muslim Abiola-Kingibe ticket. But the politics of religion had not then reached a crescendo. Al-Qaeda terrorism was in its infancy. Islamic fundamentalism had not reached its peak. There was nothing like Boko Haram. There was no serious suspicion between Christians and Muslims. But now there is a deadly suspicion between Christians and Muslims. As Christians, how can we trust a Muslim-Muslim presidency? So when religious issues are discussed, the president, a Muslim, and the vice president, also a Muslim, will sit down together to address issues that concern Christians in the country; even when one of the two Muslims on the APC presidential ticket has a big question mark in his name? There is no mistaking the fact that Nigeria is on the road to crisis with the APC Muslim-Muslim ticket. But I think God knows how to get away with it. I believe that the number of righteous people in Nigeria is greater than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. I think there are some people who call on God with a very pure heart for Nigeria. God will continue to help this nation. I believe that Nigeria will not collapse. I often say that we cannot expect the world to get better. Situations in Nigeria and all other countries in the world will continue like this until the time of the End, but people can ask God to rectify their personal situations.
