The Founder of the Grace Nation Church International in Lagos State, Dr Chris Okafor, says the church left behind by Jesus Christ was meant to be powerful and dominant and not cringing under the weight of the devil’s antics.

That the devil has succeeded in brow-beating the church into a position of docility and surrender has a lot to do with the fact that it has lost its cutting edge in the area of confronting the challenges satan, the enemy of mankind, continues to throw at it,” Okafor said while delivering a message in a recent Sunday worship service.

According to him, today’s church has allowed divisive tendencies which borders mostly on the mundane to derail it from the core mandate of acquiring power in order to withstand the devil’s relentless onslaughts on the human race.

Pastor Okafor added: “Today’s church needs power more than ever before.

“All through His earthly ministry, Jesus who is the head of the church, continually emphasised the need for Christians to acquire power which comes from having the Holy Spirit indwelling them. Because, He knew from experience that without it, it would be difficult to live a triumphant life, preach the gospel or deliver those oppressed of the devil.

“From what He said in John 10:10 where He described satan as one whose sole mandate is to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus tried to open the eyes of the church to the fact that it needed power to deal with a wicked and relentless enemy hell-bent on destroying the perfect work God did with the creation of man.

“There are several other places Jesus talked about the need for the church to equip itself against the wiles of the devil. In Acts 1: 8, Jesus made it mandatory for His disciples to wait in Jerusalem to be endued with power before attempting to take the gospel to the outside world.

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“In Mark 16: 17, Jesus, the Master Himself also talked about the signs that would naturally follow those who believe in His name. He said they shall cast out devils, take up serpents, speak with new tongues and conduct deliverances by laying hands on the sick for recovery.

“But what do we witness today? The church has somewhat been ‘captured’ by satan as it has failed to work with these essential tenets Jesus taught it. Rather, the church keeps dissipating its energy on denominational and doctrinal issues.

“Today, Christians are so occupied with whether they should pay tithe or not, which pastor does what, the denominations of churches people belong and so on, to focus on acquiring power that would fortify them against satan who Apostle Peter described in 1Peter 5:8 as a “roaring lion who is walking about seeking who to devour.”

“When Jesus said, ‘Behold, I give you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you’, in Luke 10:19, He was essentially referring to the anointing of the Holy Spirit that empowers anyone who believes on His name to exercise.

“Unfortunately, the church today is empty of power to do exploits – exploits of diverse healings and deliverances. The power of God is not being sufficiently exercised these days in most churches. That is why the body of Christ has continued to suffer.

“Until the church wakes up from its slumber and takes its rightful place as the epicentre of God’s power and anointing, it will continue to be cowed by satan and all his children of wickedness.”

The Star