WRITTEN BY EMEKA ARINZE
Christianity is not a religion; it is an attitude, a way of life. The early Church experienced what we now call the Day of Pentecost as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles,

when the Holy Spirit descended on them, and they all started speaking in different tongues. These were fundamental values and principles upon which the early church was built. In their place we now have different and strange doctrines.
Today, the emphases of many churches are on prosperity, prophesy, miracles, healing, signs and wonders etcetera. These have become their comfort zone because it emphasizes meeting their needs and getting them blessed. This paradigm, no doubt, cannot bring God’s purposes to its defined end.
What people are looking for today is simply what they can get from God in the form of miracles, prosperity, breakthroughs and the likes. The situation has gotten so bad that these manifestations have been turned into merchandise that people buy. There is nothing wrong with these genuine manifestations though, but they have become our reason for serving God. What was meant to be by-products of our pursuit of purpose is now the object of our worship.
Most of the messages from some churches today are about these manifestations. They have now become a bait to lure people to God.
While there is nothing wrong with the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in these different aspects of human life, they are not the reason we should want to come to God. When Jesus Christ knew the crowd was following Him because of these manifestations, He had to address it as it was a problem.
Some of our Church leaders have now taken these messages to another level. They do not only lure people with prosperity and the likes, the messages are usually tied to the people giving to enrich pastors. Our pastors are becoming stupendously rich as a result, having chains of businesses set up, while some members of their congregation are peasants who cannot afford three square meals, education for their children, jobs and decent accommodation. Through these manifestations, the gospel has become attractive. People now see it as a means to wealth, which has prompted those not called by God to start opening churches all over the place. These self-styled pastors are all over the place swindling gullible people who are looking for miracles, breakthroughs, prophesies and prosperity, instead of a relationship with God.
In a society such as ours, where poverty and different types of ailments and needs are rife, these so-called pastors are thriving. Their activities were aptly described by Paul in second Timothy chapter three from verse one to seven which says inter alia, “But realise this, that in the last days, difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; avoid such men as these.
Some of these ‘pastors’ now go as far as using all manner of cultic powers to facilitate their miracles in order to draw crowd to themselves. The gospel now pays their bills. Some of their operations are very subtle because they look, feel, and sound like the real.
There is nothing like the gospel of prosperity or miracles, for instance. These manifestations are fringe benefits of our faith. The only gospel that was preached by our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ and the apostles is the Gospel of the Kingdom, which emphasizes a relationship with the Father. That is why there are many churches and church goers everywhere today but their actions are not Christ-like. Evil and crime are risen everywhere and every day. They do not go to Church to prepare to meet their maker but to get healing, prophecy, breakthrough, blessings and husband or wife etcetera.
The emphasis of the Spirit today is in equipping the saints to become Christ-like, finishing all of God’s purposes by fulfilling divine intents and making a people ready for the second coming of our King, Jesus Christ.
The religious structure of Christianity that is popular and all over the place is not the true church of Jesus Christ. The true Church of Jesus Christ is the aggregate of believers, world over, who are focused on bringing God’s purposes to a finish and are making themselves ready to meet with Christ.

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