Rev. Fr. Chinenye John Oluoma #FadaOluoma

Breaking of Kolanut. At a church event, the time for breaking of colanut came and the MC handed them to me to pray and bless. I said no, it should be given to the eldest man there and he should do it the traditional way. He did it, invoking blessings and fortunes on everyone, he invoked our ancestors too and at the end some of us answered iseeee, some didn't. Here are some questions for our discussion: 1. Is it right to break colanut the traditional way in a church gathering? 2. Can the invocation of an elder with the colanut be equated with a normal prayer said in the christian way? 3. What are the cultural practices you think Christians should avoid and the ones they should practice? 4. Is christianity against our traditions and vice versa? Let's talk about these issues today by 7pm on Facebook @ Fada Oluoma. Your contributions can be done through WhatsApp calls or chats. Feel free to drop your comments now, but don't forget to join the conversations live by 7pm. Bless you. #faithconversations #christianityandculture

A Public Confession. I appealled to a sister of mine for financial help. She sent me 5m. Then I went to bless a building project for someone I also take as father, he sent 500k for fuel after the exercise. I was thrilled, excited and visibly happy. I felt it was too much because I didn't use fuel of 5k for the entire journey. I was honestly and sincerely grateful to my sister who dashed me a whooping 5m but wasn't excited or happy that much, but here was i literally jumping to high heavens for 500k. When I settled down, I reflected on the whole thing. Why wasn't I as happy or as excited with 5M as I was with 500k? Logically, I should be more excited and happier with 5M than 500k. It wasn't ingratitude. I expressed my heartfelt gratitude to my sister and I truly was grateful. So it wasn't ingratitude, ingratitude is an attitude, excitement is a feeling, The answer is EXPECTATION. I EXPECTED more from my sister and had little or no Expectation from the man that gave me 500k. Notice that I didn't do nothing for my sister, she owes me nothing. I did something for the man and he owes me appreciation, no matter the form it comes. Yet the discrepancy in feeling happened. Expectations lead to entitlement and both are cancers. Many of us are like that. Many are like me in many ways, even in our relationship with God, that's why I want to share this with you. Feelings are true but not the truth. How I feel is true, but how I feel is not the truth. We must learn to subject our feelings to analysis and reflections. Here are some advices: 1. Make your expectations realistic. I won't say reduce them or increase them. The cliche is "reduce your expectations" and that's fine by me still. Do not have expectations from things beyond your own control. Expectations lead to entitlement, both horizontally( while dealing with earthly beings) and vertically(dealing with God). It is the cause of anger, frustrations, ingratitude, disillusionment and delusions. 2. Faith is not expectations and vice versa. I have been saying this for some time and hopefully some day y'all will grasp it. Let's take a look at Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego(S.M.A)before the fiery furnace. They had faith but not expectation. If they had expectation, they would have said "God will definitely and unfailingly save us from your fire, we serve the living God". And everything in their mind would be that God will save them from the fire. The opposite outcome will be totally unthinkable, unacceptable and irreconcilable with their concept of God, it will be an intractable dilemma, an evil to be avoided by all means. That's expectation. When that opposite happens, those who think Iike them will be in dilemma and totally bamboozled if not dejected. But notice that S,M and A didn't pray for deliverance, they had faith not expectation. They said: "we know that God can save us, but even if he will not, we will not bow down to your idol". That's the confession of faith. Think same of Daniel before he was thrown into the lions den. Then think of Stephen as he was stoned to death. Peter in the prison. Paul and Silas in the dungeon. They all had faith in God and not expectations. When Habb 2:4 says: "the righteous shall live by faith", this is it. That's same thing as Jesus saying man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. There is a subtle replacement of Faith with expectations among believers today. Can someone receive a miracle without expectations? Yes. Can someone fail to receive a miracle even with expectations? Most certainly yes, that is exactly the fate of the miracle seekers today, they don't get nothing, what their prophets do is heighten their expectations all the time and they get addicted to it. Those who break lose eventually become disillusioned or rebels against the Faith they once proclaimed. Can we have faith without expectations and vice versa? Absolutely yes.

- No formula for miracles

Love doesn't benefit the lover, at least not materially. When you are benefitting from love, you are not the lover, you are the loved. Love is not symbiotic. Marriage can and should be symbiotic in certain respects. Friendship and other relationships should ideally be symbiotic. Love is heroic and not symbiotic. Everywhere in the scripture Love is mentioned, it carries this profound but often missed meaning. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is the command. Have you noticed that it doesn't say love your neighbor because whoever it is deserves it, or is good or kind or belongs to your tribe or religion or church or does anything good for you? It simply says love your neighbor. The command already presupposes that you love yourself, so it is asking you to extend same self love to a neighbor. Love is not deserved or earned. Once it is deserved or earned by any means no matter how small, it is no longer love. "Love one another as I have loved you". "Love your enemies" "husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church". All of them carry same genetic code; love is not for the profit and benefits of the lover, it is not earned or deserved by the loved. It is free but not cheap, it costs the lover, not the loved. Love isn't most of what we think it is, it is way more noble and deeper than most of what we think it is. We devalue love alot. Until we get what LOVE is, we will keep worshipping a God made in our own images instead of the God who made us in His own Image. God is Love.

- What destiny is

No such thing as stolen destiny

- You still believe in such things as 'stolen destiny's?

A man's bicycle was stolen in the market. After a while he saw it at another corner of the market, the thief returned it obviously. The man went to the church to thank God, leaving it outside. When he came out, the bicycle had disappeared and he didn't find it again. This is not a made up story, it is the experience of many people in different ways. Questions: 1. If you were the man, how would you react or respomd to this? What will you say to God? 2. What will be your response to an atheist who mocks your faith at that moment and tells you that God doesn't exist, and even if he exists he is not powerful enough to stop such things happening to his worshippers? 3. Who do you blame for the disappearance of the bicycle; the thief, the devil, the parish for not providing security or God for allowing such happen? Join me today as we reflect and provide answers to these questions with honesty and clarity, guided by the scripture and teachings of the church. If you are among those who have had such experiences, it will be nice to hear your story. There will be live phone calls, it won't just be a teaching from Father, it will be a Faith discussion by all of us. Time is 7pm, live here on Facebook. I look forward to seeing you. Remain blessed.

The "i will never let you go unless you bless me" mentality. One of the interesting scenes Jacob's life is the episode where he wrestled with an angel all through the night and prevailed. This used to be a favorite for me those days of crusades and night vigils. It is still a favorite among many. It has established itself as the biblical basis to wrestle, fight, contend and battle for blessing. Over the years, my understanding of that scripture deepened. Instead of taking it as a model of faith, I see it as an interrogation of piety. The more I interrogate it, the less I model my prayer life after it. See, for all it's worth, Jacob's wrestle with the angel brought him nothing but additional name, more like a title. It didn't actually bring any substantial blessing that shifted the trajectory of his life to a whole new level. It is more like what I will call "much ado about 'smallthing'" That story isn't about a spirituality anyone should emulate or a piety people should imitate, it is more about the character or personality of Jacob, just a trademark of an individual. See, all that struggle and fight all through the night only got Jacob a name and nothing more. Before that time, he already made his wealth, had his children and settled. There was no other material blessing lacking in his life. So, what did the blessing he fought all night bring him? Just name. Jabez didn't fight all night, didn't have his name changes, yet he got a blessing that changed his life totally, from a wretched pauper to a wealthy person, now that's a substantial turn around. Let's end this with Abraham. The promise and blessing to make him father of a multitude is what Isaac inherited and Jacob too. When Jacob was named Israel, he just bore a title of a reality that was promised Abraham and that will materialize with time. The emergence of Israel as a nation was not dependent on giving Jacob the name, it was dependent on God's blessing and promise to Abraham. Abraham had his name changed from Abram to Abraham. He too got a new name, the difference between him and Jacob is that he got his without stress or fight, Jacob got his with much stress and fight. The question is; why would i fight all night to get what someone got in one minute? The worst thing is that Jacob also got his hip broken in the process, a physical injury and this hasn't stopped happening to the 'Jacobs' of this generation who want to get God's blessings by fire by force, they get injured. Why go through a piety that leaves you scarred, fighting for blessings that others get even while they slumber? Before you dismiss this post as one of those posts of a ' carnal' priest, please investigate and see how many childless women have been scarred for life, some damaged emotionally and physically in their Jacobic search for blessing of fruit of the womb. Many are literally, not figuratively, limping like Jacob after "contending" for blessings through marathon fasts and prayers and other things they do. I'm not saying that contending for your blessing is wrong, I'm just saying if you have to wrestle with an angel all night, get your hip socket dislocated along the line, and all you get at the end is change of name, my dear you got a bad deal. All I'm saying is; stop fighting for blessing like Jacob, start believing like Abraham.

Pastor Jerry Eze, Tiwa Savage, Mathias Ezeaku and The gospel Truth. While still saying no to tumbom tumbom prophecy as Fr Dj Kevin Ugwu leads the campaign, let's look at some other significant events that have taken place and the lessons they leave for us. Pastor Jerry Eze spent a whooping 1 billion naira to support businesses in Nigeria. This is sweet music to my ears and the ears of any honest person. Tiwa Savage followed suit with 2.1m dollars to sponsor some persons in music school and that's absolutely staggering. Firstly and most importantly is to give these two their flowers, encomiums and accolades. They deserve National recognition as a way of encouraging more people to toe same path. Nothing else I will say afterwards dims or blights their accolades. Now, notice some similarities and lessons between them: they are both celebrities whose wealth came from the people who pay for what they offer, or people who support them for what they offer. Tiwa is a musician, her music entertains her fans and they reward her financially, one way or the other. Jerry is a pastor and his spiritual ministration touches his followers and they reward him financially one way or the other. Same way I get mine on my humble and small level. Notice that Tiwa Savage's music is not the solution to tuition fees, hospital bills, house rents, capital for businesses for her fans, no matter how much they listen to her songs. Listening to her songs doesn't solve those problems for them or anyone else. Listening to her songs, memorizing them and believing them won't make you wealthy or get you the kind of romantic relationships the songs 'lyricize' or promote. Why? Because those are not what songs or musics are engineered to solve. Their value is in the entertainment they bring and the emotional lubrication they offer. If you are lucky, some songs will teach you some life lessons or truths, that's it. These values are important in our overall well-being as humans, so this is not an intentional or subtle demeaning of what good music does for us. To help solve problems of school fees, house rents and other financial problems, Tiwa Savage graciously gave out a huge chunk of the money her fans rewarded her for her wonderful songs to solve as much of these problems as she could. So, there are two messages here: if you go looking for solution to your problems from Tiwa Savage's music, you will not only be disappointed, you will be a delusional neurotic for not realizing this. Second message is that Tiwa Savage has done exceedingly well, we commend her and others in same industry who do as much, whether seen publicly or not. This is the 'gospel truth' about life and these issues. Hope you know the difference between'gispel truth' as we use it here and the 'truth of the Gospel'? How about Pastor Jerry? Well, before I oil your appetite further, I want to remind you about the Dvid and Goliath Conference(DAG-C) coming up on the 28th of May, at Holy Trinity Event Center, Maitama. We will bring you REALITIVATIONAL speakers, we will pray with you and for you as well so you are able to face and conquer your Goliath as David did. Oya register now: forms.gle/TUjFEq2Y3c6MSk… Pastor Jerry Eze comes next, stay tuned.

-Be wise and avoid being used and dumped

MAY you defeat your Goliath. Amen.

Abandoning economic power in pursuit of political power is like a man abandoning his wife in pursuit of a prostitute, like a believer abandoning his job or career in pursuit of prosperity miracles. This an an Igbo proverb in English. Ekwuchaam. 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️🚶‍♂️

Michael Chukwuka Eze wrote;👇 Fada Oluoma this question is sweeter than the message itself. I belong to the first category. I was asked to give my life to Christ and my results in the university will improve. I answered the altar call and I think that was my worst year academically. It was later I began to hear the truth, that if I don't study well, I will not pass, Christ or not. Most Pentecostals teach Christ as some genie that solves problems especially financial ones. The reality that my best gift from Christ above all things is salvation and eternity has put my mind at rest and made me a different and relaxed Christian. I still remember the days I paid tithe and expected full "blessings, shaken together, pressed down and runneth over" which never came!

You don't get paid to serve God or from serving God, but it pays to serve God. If you know the difference between those, take a bow and keep chilling.

The Advantage of Being a Christian. I walked into a shopping mall to purchase a phone. The first shop I entered is a muslim's. After hard bargains, he told me his last price. I left him and entered the next shop. Obviously owned by a christian. He was just rounding up his prayers and I can see drops of 'anointing oil' on the shelves. Okay, we bargained too till he arrived at his last price. Unfortunately, he didn't know that I just came from another shop and the last price I got there was lower than his. Of Course I went back to the first shop and got the phone at a cheaper price. I reflected on the whole scenario and one question kept bugging my mind; "what advantage does a believer in Christ have over non christians and unbelievers on this earth"? Despite the prayers the Christian bro did for success, why did I still choose to buy from a Muslim? Shouldn't his prayers have coerced me to buy from him despite the price difference? The obvious fact is that market forces do not bow down to your religious beliefs. Let's put it this way; being a believer in Christ Jesus doesn't give you any material advantage over non christians and unbelievers in the affairs of this world. If this suggests to you that prayer or worshipping God is meaningless or discourages you from praying, it means you have been believing and praying in ignorance and error. Open your eyes and see na, the same things that impoverish the Muslims and unbelievers around you is the same things that impoverish christians. The same things that also enrich christians is the same that enriches Muslims. If you go to school, there is no different atmosphere of miracles that apply to christians alone where by they can kabash all semester long without opening their books and still pass exams. It is the same attendance to lectures and studying that makes a Christian pass exams that also does same for Muslims and those who don't believe in God at all. Now, if the two shops I entered had same price and I decided to buy from the Christian brother because he is a Christian like myself, it wouldn't be any divine favor, it is pure sentiment of affiliation. God didn't choose the Christian over the Muslim to bless with that sale, I chose him because of our Christian identity, and it is not love, it is not fairness, it is not Justice, it is mere favor driven by sentiments of affiliation and favor ain't fair. Don't worry about the Muslim dude, some other Muslim buyer who thinks like me under same circumstance will choose him over the Christian. It is neither wrong nor right, just the arbitrariness of homo sapiens. If christians or Muslims get government appointments and contracts because of their religion and against objective principles of faireness and transparency that guide public administration, it is pure evil, it is neither God's blessings, favor or answer to their prayers. A society where such happens is doomed to failure, setbacks and retrogression as we see happening in Nigeria. Innocent and hapless citizens will suffer, and not even fellow adherents of the same religion of the people favored will be spared. This is how tribal, ethnic and religious sentiments have kept Nigeria paralyzed for eons. Okay, then what is the advantage of being a Christian, of believing and professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour? 1Cor 15:18- 19 helps with the answer; Our hope and certainty, in Christ Jesus, of eternity is it. If our hope in Christ is for the blessings of this world, Paul is saying we would have been the most miserable of all people. Why? Because like I said, Christ Jesus wouldn't choose to favor you against others in all material blessings. On top of that He makes more demands of love on us than the rest. Wetin we for gain specially if not eternal life?i love the fact that I serve the God who doesn't discriminate with material favors based on religion or piety, e dey sweet me for belle😀😀 What I have stated here is the general rule or pattern in life

-The blessing of physical beauty

-How believers should quarrel

Goliath wasn't David's personal problem. Goliath was Saul's personal problem and a National problem. Killing Goliath wasn't even a requirement for David to be a king. Problem is, if Goliath had succeeded in conquering Israel, David wouldn't have a kingdom to rule eventually. He would have ended up a king without kingdom. When we solve other people's problems and our national problems, most of our personal problems will be solved, we create bigger paths to personal greatness. N. B: Don't forget to register for the David and Goliath Conference. It is guaranteed to be awesome and impactful👇 *Materials needed for Sensitisation* 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽 Click the link to register for DAG-C2026 forms.gle/TUjFEq2Y3c6MSk… For more information, Visit Our Website: dagc.community Business Pitch deck submission is to be sent via mail to dagconference@gmail.com Or through the submission link on the website

When a pastor or priest who moves with armed security guards tells you unverified story of how kidnappers released a victim because they heard his voice and tells you that you too can operate with the same power and you feel something, some electromagnetic sensation in your heart, a heightened sense of power, that feeliing is not FAITH, it is either mere FEELING or EXPECTATION. There is a difference between FAITH and FEELING/ EXPECTATION. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. Feelings and Expectations come from hearing stories of miracles. There is a reason Jesus never told his audience the stories of the miracles he performed elsewhere. It is the same reason Peter or Paul or any of the apostles didn't tell stories of the miracles God did through them some where else to any audience they ministered. You don't even find the Old Testament prophets stand before the people to tell them stories of miracles they did elsewhere. Imagine Elijah trying to convince the widow of Zarepath to bake bread for him first with the story of his powerful exploits against the prophets of baal and how fire came down when he prayed. Stories of miracles and what we call testimonies as told by men of God when they stand before you are effective strategies of self projection. They raise expections and feelings, not faith. Most miracle seekers are driven and held by expections and feelings rather than faith. Story telling is a powerful tool for commanding people's attention. Some ministers know this and use it to exploit people's vulnerability. You don't need to hear stories and testimonies of miracles before you get yours. All you need is faith from God's word if God decides to bless you with a miracle. All these years you keep hearing your prophet regale you with wonderful stories of the miracles he did some where, you have never seen or known the beneficiaries and yet you believe him, hoping that some day it will be your turn. Bro, they are feeding your EXPECTIONS AND FEELINGS, not your FAITH. There is a difference between ministers using stories to teach or preach God's word and using God's word to validate the stories they employ to captivate you. Knowing that difference is knowing the difference between faith and expection. There is a reason God gave us Intelligence.