The Lord began to stir me for the Christian ministry about 1991 and I was still worshiping at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Odoakpu, Onitsha. The Vicars I sat under included but not limited to, Rev. Cannon Emmanuel Meoba of blessed memory, Now Bishop Maxwell Anikwenwa, Rev. Cannon Ikeme, Rev, Cannon Francis Nwankwo now of blessed memory. I latter moved up to Inland Town Onitsha and started to worship with Emmanuel Anglican Church. Charles Amajuoyi was the instrument God used to bring me into the prayer and EFAC fold. The last Vicar I sat under was Rev. Cannon Emmanuel Ukpeke.
Some circumstances which I don’t want to discuss here led to my meeting with Brother Menkiti Ifechukwu Onyido, of Emmanuel Youth Center Onitsha whom the Lord used to stabilize me from the trauma associated to my crisis encounter in Emmanuel Anglican Church, Inland-Town, Onitsha. Please, note that I have since reconciled with every one of them and the last time I met Rev. Emmanuel Ukpeke, he prayed for me and properly released me into my assignment. I want to say that I did not mention any name here to express any grievances.
It was through Brother Menks, as he was popularly known that I met Chief Chinyerego, a member of Council of Chiefs in Onitsha kingdom. He had about seven beautiful daughters and only one son. All the daughters were facing one problem or the other. One of them had been thrown out of her marriage and she returned from Lagos with her child. Another daughter returned from Lagos in those days. Chief Chinyereugo was not a Christian but was quite tolerant and in some cases gave financially to me. I led Obiora his only son to Christ but I don’t know if he is still standing. In the midst of carrying out family prayers and deliverance on some of them, one of them went prophetic and announced;
“Emma, my son, I want to send you to Lagos to deliver my people. Deliver my people from that evil Prophet Temi Tope Joshua/”.
That was the first time the name Temi Tope Joshua was mentioned to me. According to the spirit, God has anointed me to confront and conquer the “False Prophet”.
There was a problem however because I had not been to Lagos before then and I did not have the money to go. I travelled from Onitsha to Enugu to meet Rev. Dr. A. A Nwodika, known popularly as “Apostle Healing Has Begun.” He had only few years separated from Rev. Dr. Paul Nweke, now known as Paul Nwachukwu of Grace of God Mission. I shared with him what I considered a revelation from God and asked him to support me financially. He agreed with me that Prophet T B Joshua was a false prophet but insisted that he must hear from God before he commits his money to my venture. We agreed that I should return in a week’s time within which he would have heard from God. Not even a penny was given to me to support my journey back to Onitsha which was very little then. When I returned to Enugu after a week, in my zeal, Apostle Nwodika said he has not heard from God and so will not commit his money to it. I went to Obi Onuzor of Daniel’s Ministry in Enugu still. He operated his kind of deliverance ministry. He agreed with me that Prophet T J Joshua was a false prophet but will not commit his money to the assignment God had given to me to go and destroy him.
I am sharing this to portray the hypocrisy of many people who claim they are working for God and teaching the truth. If you believe in a thing and God has raised another brother to solve a problem you recognize but could not solve, why would it be hard for you to support the vision? I was later to learn that all these men were driven by jealousy and the devil had captured their minds like mine because of their heart of hatred. Anywhere you go among Evangelicals and Pentecostals, you hear how Prophet T B Joshua was using the power of satan to destroy many souls. For a season I fell for this negative spirit.
In 1996 I moved over to Owerri and in 2005 to Port Harcourt, still convinced that T B Joshua was a false prophet. Brother Aham Ukagwu, who was one of PNUR partners once asked me why people said that T B Joshua was a false prophet in spite of the miracles that accompanied his ministry. I told him what the spirit I had met in a girl I was carrying out deliverance on told me. I added some things haters of T B Joshua had said and of course helped to build the false news. I crowned it up with the general assertion, we should not focus on the gifts and miracles but on their works. It is shameful to say that at that time I have not even seen a picture of T B Joshua. How could I have judged the works or fruits of a man I have never met?
I remember that Brother Aham Ukagwu asked me, “How could he be an illiterate and yet he can read the bible?” Like many people who have decided to shut their minds, I told him that T B Joshua had a little ear piece planted in his ears, so he was only repeating what someone was relaying to him. I don’t know if I convinced Aham Ukagwu but from that time my mind began to drive me to go to Lagos to see T B Joshua personally. Not because of any personal need; I came up from the power ministry and have never operated outside the power ministry. So I can’t understand why all the many great men of God in Lagos could not dislodge an “Ifa Priest” (according to them) who was wasting lives of God’s people.
Recent accounts have proven that T B Joshua was not an illiterate; he actually went to school but haters had spread that lie and the devil and his demons amplified it. I am reminded of the story after Christ rose from the dead spread by the religious leaders of that time. Matt28:11-15
It is unfortunate to observe how low that hatred and jealousy can make a man descend. All over the place pastors and preachers abandoned their primary assignment to attack T B Joshua. Prostitutes and servants of the Mammy Water spirits made videos and magazines accusing him of rape and witchcraft and our Christian leaders helped to spread them. In one account here in Port Harcourt, a rich businessman who belonged to one of the prominent Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria, wanted to go to T B Joshua but his Senior Pastor asked him to submit to death rather than allow the servant of the devil to minister to him. The man obeyed him and eventually died. Some of us will have many things to explain in heaven.
In 2009 I told my wife that I wanted to go and meet Prophet T B Joshua and I wanted to see why a servant of satan could be so powerful that Pastor E A Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, Pastor W F Kumuyi, Dr. Daniel Olukoya, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, (just to mention a few men of God in Lagos) could only grumble and pine away under his “negative influence”.
My wife Joy is very good at backing my ventures. We fasted and prayed for some days and I left for Lagos. I camped at Redeemers Camp the Headquarters of Redeemed Christian Church Of God. This was a long distance to Ikot Egbe where Synagogue Church of All Nations is located. So on the day I went I actually arrived late to even have a seat in the overflow crowd outside. My first shock was the way the walls of the church building were decorated with scripture passages that can on their own lead a seeker to Christ.
I sat down in a corner outside because I did not know what and how to start so I can enter the main auditorium. I later learned that people started lining up by 1am to be admitted into the auditorium. A young lady walked up to me and said, “It appears this is your first time here, sir?”. To which I nodded. She said, “Follow me. I have a seat inside for you.”
I just followed her and she laid me inside and gave me a seat where I can have a good view of the man T B Joshua. That was the day the former President of Ghana, John Atta Mills came to give his thanksgiving to God for his assistance to win the presidential election. They sat him in a prominent place, handed him a copy of the bible and sang for him, “You must make the word of God the standard for your life”
Besides the humble appearance of T B Joshua I have never seen, before then and after, when a President was dealt with in such a straight forward and honest manner. Most Pentecostals will surrender the entire service to him for that day. John Atta Mills was allowed to make a brief statement and that was all.
It came to the time for T B Joshua to preach, I saw power. Remember I told you that I came up from the power ministry, so before a man like me will be moved by power manifestations, there should be something extra. I must confess that the anointing made me pompous and my wife will complain that I must let others be themselves. This is the principal reason I can’t endure lifeless preaching. It hurts me more if I observe that the minister is acting it. But with T B Joshua, I saw real and raw power. I observed that the miracles are not the arranged kind. The cases coming up will be allowed to trace their history. One case of cancerous feet, I actually saw pictures of what the man was like before he got healed. Then the Holy Spirit in me bore very firm witness that what I was seeing was Him in action.
Prophet T B Joshua asked first timers to come around and meet with him on Thursday morning by 10am. I went back but not before I called my wife to change her prayer topics because I think we had something wrong in our hearts.
On that Thursday morning, T B Joshua announced that God had told him to give some people a handshake. There could not have been less than two thousand people in that main auditorium. He further announced that everyone should not expect him to shake them but it was for some special people. I was not the only one he shook but to my surprise he passed my position three times and shook me those three times
I came out of the church hall, called Joy and announced, “Prophet T B Joshua is not a false prophet. I have every divine confirmation now”
After that time I visited the place once in a while, once with Joy and at another time with Peace my daughter. Though I never had opportunity to meet him one on one, he is the only minister I have met that tamed my ego.
Those who argue that he had no one who claimed to have converted him. If not for the bible, we would not know who converted Paul. Till date we can’t say who converted Appolos yet we accept him as a genuine man of God.
Some are concerned how his church just exploded overnight. The church in the house of Cornelius grew to more than 200 spirit-filled members in one day. There is no history of the human vessel that preached to Cornelius. We cannot call what Peter did evangelism
Some argue that he came up from idol worshiping background. I am amazed that Redeemed Christian Church of God leaders can make such accusation. Papa Josiah Akindayomi, the founding Pastor of RCCG was not only an idol worshiper, he was an “Ifa Priest”. He was a polygamist. He was a member of Cherubim and Seraphim. He was part of anything genuine believers hates about White-Garment Churches. In fact, The Apostolic Church sued him for using the phrase, Apostolic Church of Africa in his tracts because they were so sure that Papa Akindayomi who was also an illiterate was from the devil. They burned the tracts publicly which they considered devil’s scheme to draw people to hellfire. These events hurt Papa Akindayomi until the later days of his life when God asked him to make peace with The Apostolic Church leaders if he wanted to make heaven. All these are written in his biography, “Like Seed in the Ground”, published by RCCG.
If Akindayomi could repent and be accepted by RCCG as genuine, why does it seem impossible to Pastor E A Adeboye that Prophet T B Joshua could also repent?
Some complain about his use of Good Morning water or Anointed Water. Till date RCCG still sell Handkerchiefs and Hand-bands they claim are anointed. They sell stickers and calendars too. If they can prove handkerchiefs from the bible, can they prove the rest? Can they prove pulpits worth five million naira from the bible? Can they prove ten million Naira screens in the church auditorium from the bible?
If they claim that God told them to do it, how is it that the same God cannot talk to T B Joshua? Must God pass through them to speak to every one of us?
Some complain of his too many miracles. I don’t have to respond to this because it is simply jealousy expressing itself. I know that no minister really like the “Mortuary Church Style” we power with air conditioners. I could not stay ten minutes in one of such churches. Perhaps that is why most of them cannot have services beyond two hours, whereas Synagogue Church of All Nations will be begging people to leave after they have stayed close to ten hours of one single service.
We need real power; the kind of power T B Joshua manifested. We should stop deceiving ourselves that we are okay with bible stories of the miracles of Jesus Christ, even when we cannot see them in real life. T B Joshua showed us what it was like in the days the Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth
I humbly apologize to T B Joshua and SCOAN Family for publishing this testimony late. I did not see it as necessary because T B Joshua did not waste time addressing his critics
I want to say to Prophet T B Joshua, I pray to meet you in the Heaven of the Jesus Christ who loved and cared for the poor; the Jesus Christ who never wasted time arguing about the power of God but manifested the power of the kingdom of God for even His critics to see and behold in bewilderment.
I pray that I will finish well like you. I don’t want to hang around here and mess up the few good works I have done as some do today
Sleep on Soldier!
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Pastor Emma N J Nwosu is the International President of Prayer Network for Universal Revival (PNUR) www.pnurnigeria.org
He lives in Port Harcourt City, Nigeria with Joy his wife of over twenty years and four God-loving children. His first daughter Peace Emmanuel is already in active ministry – emmanuelspeace.pnurnigeria.org.
He is popularly recognized as a Revivalist and catalyst of prayer across many Christian denominations having travelled to many countries to strengthen the Church and the leaders.
His first son Kassey Emmanuel is actively assisting him and Joy at his Headquarters, Door of Hope Christian Center, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Pastor Emma is author of more than thirty books with focus on Prayer, Revival, Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare. He has earned himself the status of an authority in that field. You can read his titles on www.bookshop.pnurnigeria.org
He also heads School for Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare – Deliverance School Online. www.sdsw.pnurnigeria.org
You can connect with him on Facebook and Youtube as @Emma N J Nwosu
You can also reach Pastor Emma via
emmanwosu@pnurnigeria.org
pnurnigeria@gmail.com,
+2348035724526 WhatsApp
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