Three Things That Keep Me Impactful And Popular – Spiritual Director, Zion Prayer Movement Outreach, Bro Ebuka Obi
By Oki O. Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
World renowned evangelist and Founder/Spiritual Director of Zion Prayer Movement Outreach, ZPMO, Evangelist Chukwuebuka Anozie Obi has hinted at the three factors that has kept him in faith and will continue to keep him impactful and popular. He gave this information during his special interview with Trek Africa Newspaper and other selected media organizations at his Ministry’s headquarters in Lagos.
On the popularity that his ministry enjoys both in mainstream media and social media, Bro. Ebuka Obi said: ‘Like last year, we just finished 100 days of fasting and I decided to have something small for my birthday. Zion Ministry was quiet more or less, and then suddenly there was an explosion in social media and in the main media. The Bible says that there’s time for everything. And also Ecclesiastes 1:11, the Bible says, he beautifies all things in his time. So I believe this is time for our manifestation. The scripture said in Romans 8:18-19, and the whole creation is waiting to see the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God.’
‘Social media also helped. We have been here doing well by God’s grace. God has been bringing people in thousands, even before social media. But social media also helped. But to me, I believe it’s the time of God for more people to get to know what is happening here. It’s just the time.’
‘As I said, he beautifies all things in his time. Even me, I’m also very surprised how suddenly we have branches all over the world. If you ask me to explain, I may not be able to explain to you. But today, the United States, thousands of people, UK, Chile, all over the world. If you ask me how, I wouldn’t just say social media, because there are other ministries also on social media. I believe that is what God wants to do at this time. His way is different from ours.’
Bro. Ebuka Obi also explained how he came into ministry and what the journey has been for him. ‘After 11 years of barrenness, my mother started having female children. First one, female. Second one, female. Third one, female. And you know, I’m from a royal family, If you don’t have a male child, you are like an outcast. And my mom kept crying to God, if you give me a male child, I will dedicate him to you. And eventually, she became pregnant. In the trance, someone told her, you will have two. You asked for one, but you will have two. And the second of the twins will be a boy, he will be Chukwuebuka. He will serve God all his life. So I was kind of initiated from the womb, like the way Samuel was initiated through the mother Hannah.’
‘So immediately I was born, or we were born, when I was eight years, I noticed that people came to me. If I look at you, I’m able to tell you what will happen tomorrow. And it’s unmistakable. At that time, I remember when I was eight years old, so many pregnant mothers would come, 50, 60, every day. Tell me what I’m going to deliver? I would look at them, mama, you have a baby boy in your womb, you have a baby girl, you have twins. And it’s unmistakable.’
‘So that time, you know, my father is a teacher, my mom being a teacher, then they are not retired. Two of them are still teaching. My mom is teaching in primary school, my father is teaching in secondary school. You can imagine children from both parents, that both parents are teachers. So my father doesn’t really agree with that. If he’s coming back from school, a lot of people will be in our compound trying to see a boy of eight years. So he will flog me so much. Sometimes when I go to church, I will not return. They will be looking for me, they will find me in the chapel. If I remove my clothes, now you will still see some marks given to me by my father. It became so much that, at 11 years old, even my teachers will come to me to tell them what will happen tomorrow. I remember when my mom took me to someone that the doctor said he would die. That time I was 10 years old. I look and say, mommy, he will not die. And the person recovered. So I became famous even when I was in the village. Among my schoolmates, I was popular.’
‘When my dad flogged me, I would run away from the house. Until one Reverend Father came to our parish. This Reverend Father is no longer alive. He called my father and my mother. And he said to them, then I was 12 years old. He told them to stop flogging me that the grace of God is upon me and that I will serve God and God will use me mightily. It was the intervention of the Reverend Father that made my father stop.’
‘But I cannot forget, he warned me. He gave me three (3) warnings. He told me not to have sex until I got married. I was just 12 years old then but he told me that to maintain this grace, I must not sleep with a woman until I marry. He told me never to open a church that he can see where I will be talking to millions of people, but I should not leave the Catholic church where I was born. I don’t understand what he meant by not opening a church. And don’t be money minded. If you keep these three things, you will go far. I was barely 12 years old when he said this to me.’
‘Those instructions given to me kept me to today. I made it as a promise. I placed my hand on the altar. I promised God that I will not have sex until I marry and I have not married. I don’t think I’ve had sex before, never. And Zion ministry is not a church, here is a prayer ground. I don’t baptize. I don’t wed members. People come here, we pray together, and they go. Muslims come here, Christians, Hindus, everybody here is a prayer ground. I still maintain my Catholic faith to today. Then, being money-minded. I’ve never asked anybody to give me tithes. I’ve never asked anybody to bring a bazaar to me. I’ve never asked anybody before to touch the shoe of a man of God with 10 million. I keep those three promises’, Bro. Ebuka affirmed about his commitment to the 3 vows.
Reflecting on how Zion Ministry started out which has made him to be rejected in many places, he said: ‘A time came when I came to Lagos to work. The person I was working with had issues with me. I remember the day a Yoruba man came to buy goods. As I was selling to him, he has a wound, a smelly wound that refused to dry for years. And as I was selling to him, I placed my hand on the wound, and the next day, the wound dried. The next day, I saw more than 50 people in the office. My boss told me this is not why I called you to come here, the time has come for you to go.’
‘Then, when I went to the Catholic Church, I didn’t feel safe because people will be disturbing me, even right from the church which can also make some priests angry. Even when the mass is going on, you will see people telling me, touch me, pray for me, you know. I keep running from one Catholic Church to another on Sunday. Even in my office in Idumota, a lot of people come in there to look for me. They are not coming to buy, they are coming for me to pray for them. In my house, my landlady gave me a quit notice because sometimes they will bring someone that is suffering from epilepsy in the night, knocking on the gate. I was so miserable that I don’t have a hidden place.’
‘Somebody told me that there is a place called Prayer Estate where some pastors normally go there to have a quiet time. So, I started going to that place. It was very bushy then. I started going there to pray. When I started going there every Sunday after mass, people got to notice that I always go there on Sundays. That’s how people started coming there to look for me. That was how Zion Ministries started. We never planned for one day. I never planned to have a ministry, I never planned to have a prayer group called Zion Ministries. People started coming in their hundreds, at that time, to look for me. Then cars started coming in bringing people. The owners of the land said, no, no, that a lot of people are coming here to look for him with cars, inside this bush. We have to stop him. The landlords banned me from coming. But they left some other pastors that have small groups.’
‘When they stopped me, people said no, we enjoyed his prayers. People from nowhere contributed money and I supported them. That was how we came here. When we came here, we started to say, what name are we going to call this? Coming here today is not something I planned or budgeted for. It’s something I see that I cannot explain. It has never been my plan to have a ministry.’
‘People bought the first four plots here. Before you know it, four plots could not contain us. People keep buying. Zion people keep buying. From the beginning of the current street, people even demolished over eight houses of people, which we bought. For each of them, we didn’t buy any of them for less than 200 million.’
On donations and giving to the prayer ministry, ‘People you see that bring money here, it’s willingly. Nobody forced them, nobody taxed them. So, my whole journey, if I begin to explain it, tomorrow we cannot live here, but it has all the grace of God. There is nothing wrong with tithe. It’s one of the scriptural principles. I’ve never preached about it here for people to be giving me. There are other ministries that collect tithe. Whether it’s a church or a house of God, tithe is to support the work, to help the people. But I’ve never for one day collected or even asked people to bring it here. I believe that people should do what they want to do from their hearts. Tithe is a scriptural principle but it’s not mandatory. It’s not true that if you don’t pay tithe, you won’t go to heaven. In Malachi 3.10, the Bible made it simple. Bring your tithe in my house and I will open doors and I will drive away cankerworm and locusts. If some people are willing to pay their tithe, they should pay. If some people are not willing to pay, it’s not still a sin to them.’
‘Personally, I let people do what they want to do. I’ve never asked people to bring me fast food before. I have never asked people to give me tithes. I’ve never done a bazaar here. Any time we have a project, I will say members, we have this project. That is all. You will see people willingly give. That is how we run here. But to those who want to pay tithe, I don’t see what is wrong there. It’s one of the scriptural principles. Some people say tithe is the Old Testament but the same people are saying no weapon fashioned against me shall prosper. If you want to delete tithe, that means you have to delete and tear the whole Old Testament out of the Bible. Jesus did not come to condemn the Old Testament. The Bible says he has come to make it reality.’
On his unique walk of faith, Bro. Ebuka Obi affirmed: ‘I have not gone to any seminary school before. I’ve not gone to any Bible school before. I’ve never been in any school related to studying the Bible before. But when people see me studying, preaching, and praying, they will think one big man of God has lectured me. Anywhere I go, if I am in the spirit and I look at your hand, I will still tell you what you did yesterday, before coming here today. And it will be unmistakable. If you made a mistake in the past, I will feel like telling you. So, it’s a gift that was born with. The journey just started like that. It has not been easy, attacks from different angles, from east, west, north, and south.
About his relationship with the Catholic Church, the man of God hinted: ‘Many priests love me, many bishops love me, but some are still doubting me. What is he doing? Why would he possess such power? He’s not a Catholic priest. Why would he possess that power? Why would he be put in a crowd? Some of the saints like St. Anthony, St. Padre Pio passed through the same issue. So some of the priests and bishops that don’t agree with me, I don’t blame them. Everybody will not agree with what you are doing. Even Jesus Christ was not accepted by everybody. There are some priests that call me from outside the country who tell me ‘you are making the church proud, we have never seen any ministry by a layperson as large as this in the history of the world, not just Africa. No Catholic ministry, no Catholic member has had such millions of people. If they blow me, I will stay in the church. One thing I love in the Catholic church, nobody can bind you not to be a Catholic. I am getting to the level that I can never be anything except Catholic because I am already confirmed. The only thing you can do to make me not to be a Catholic is you will go and wake late Bishop Hortshire from the grave. That oil of confirmation, he should take it out of my head. But so far he can’t do that, I must remain a Catholic. That is my stand in the Catholic church. I love the church and I’m going nowhere. I would die here.’
‘I’ve never for one day declared myself an evangelist, pastor, prophet. I see myself as a brother. It is people that are putting evangelist. Some of the media people, when I prophesy, they say he’s a prophet, when I preach, they say he’s an evangelist. I’ve never for one day named myself anything. To me, I still remain brother Ebuka. The life of a man of God is not easy.’
On how he handles temptations of women being an unmarried man of God, Bro. Obi said: ‘When it comes to the temptation of women, it’s a normal thing. I’m not so ugly that women will not come looking for me. Women go to married men of God less when they know I’m not married. But one of the things that is keeping me is setting the boundary. I’m a human being. Blood runs in my veins but I love the anointing more than sex. I know the vow I took. I enjoy the anointing. I enjoy governors calling me on the phone seeking advice from me, senators calling me, seeking advice from me. I enjoy it more than 5-10 minutes of sex. There are cameras here. Some girls will come here, open their breasts, I would tell them that the camera is watching everything happening in this office. I made it to guide myself.’
‘I don’t go out easily sometimes I stay six months, except I have a crusade in other countries. My movement is from this office to Zion ground. I don’t keep many relationships. You have to track me in so many ways to get me. I have phones that ring every second but before you get me, it may take three months to speak with me. If you come to my two iPads, it’s same thing.’
