Help! I’m Tired of Religion by Pearl Adams
Chapter 9 – My God is Too Busy to Notice Your Indecent Attire
Serialized Fiction: I gripped the handle of my seat as the passenger bus negotiated a sharp bend. Two women sitting by the driver shouted angrily at him to wait until they disembarked if he intended committing suicide on the road. A babble of voices joined in, haranguing the driver who simply turned and gave the passengers a wide smile. The ride from that point was uneventful, and the bus stopped at the entrance to Gloryland Ministry, Inc, Lagos, about 6:20 a.m. The first service was billed to commence at 6:30 a.m.
While some passengers traded insults with the driver, I hurried into the sanctuary to find a seat close the altar. I was determined to see the man of God at close quarters. I eventually found a vantage position and grabbed the seat, just as another worshipper was inching his way towards it.
I smiled at him and sat down with a contented look on my face. Mission accomplished, I brought out my Bible and opened to the Proverbs. I’d always enjoyed reading that part of the Bible. A close friend who shared my passion once observed that the Proverbs are the only scriptures that can be read just about anywhere.
At exactly 6:30 a.m., the General Overseer, Godfrey Ukana, climbed the podium and signaled to his assistant, John Knight, to lead the congregation in the opening prayer. That was followed by praise and worship, but hardly anyone danced or waved their hands, as is usually the case in most Pentecostal gathering.
I was surprised. It was then I noticed that all the women sitting on the same row with me wore no jewelry or makeup. Undaunted, I reminded myself that I wasn’t in the church for a fashion parade but to find a solution to my problem. Having settled that in my mind, I turned my attention to the man of God, just as he climbed the podium again to deliver his sermon.
I listened with rapt attention as the General Overseer read Proverbs chapter five. The thrust of his message was that a Christian woman had no business dressing like a street girl. He took a swipe at some ministers of God who allowed those he described as daughters of Jezebel to pollute their congregation. He challenged members of his church to purge their wardrobes of worldly attires and see what the Lord would do for them within seven days.
After the service, I quietly left the church without making any effort to see the man of God. I felt condemned and ashamed of myself. How could someone with the kind of short skirt I wore approach the General Overseer for prayers? I felt utterly dejected during the forty minute ride back to my home. I’d gone to the church expecting to receive a touch from God, but left with a heavy heart.
Actually, a colleague, Francisca Dongoyaro, who knew about my problem, convinced me to attend the service with the assurance that my captivity would be turned by reason of the anointing upon the man of God. Although Francisca wasn’t a member of the church, she said a neighbor’s cousin was healed of insanity when Ukana prayed for him. Of course, the mode of dressing at the church was not raised during our discussion.
On getting home, I slumped into a chair in my sitting room and mulled over my fate. I’d been a fun-loving and easy-going girl until the day I responded to an altar call at the Apostle of Grace Church located within my neighbourhood in Ajah area of Lagos Island. Three weeks after I officially joined the church, I was assailed by a very offensive smell oozing from my bathroom. Initially, I thought it came from the carcass of a rat or lizard. I searched the entire apartment, but found no evidence of a rotten animal.
Subsequently, the smell spread to the entire house and contaminated my clothes. It was as if something or someone sprayed my house with gas mixed with cow dung. The pastor of the church, James Usen, prayed and anointed everything in the house, while prayer warriors held night vigils for two months in my living room, all to no avail. In anger, I left the church and embarked on a spiritual odyssey that took me to about twelve churches within six years.
In desperation, I relocated to another house, losing a year’s rent on the former residence in the process. Still, the offensive smell persisted. I was forced to use very strong perfume meant for men to reduce the strength of the evil odor on my clothes. At one point in my life, I contemplated suicide, but the thought of denying my mother the joy of caring for my children restrained me. It was in the midst of my pain that Francisca offered me what I thought was a ray of light in the dark tunnel of satanic oppression.
With a determination fuelled by my desperation, I jumped out of the chair and made straight for my wardrobe. If the destruction of my clothes and jewelry would make a way for my liberty, I was determined to do it with gusto. With a flicker of hope appearing on the horizon, I pulled out all my clothes and tied them in bundles. I left nothing except three knee-length skirt suits and two pairs of pumps.
The next day, I hired a taxi and took the items to a farmland on the outskirts of the town. The driver gave me a quizzical look when I asked him to stop at the farm. I didn’t want to be drawn into any conversation with him, so I simply slipped the fare into his hands and walked away with my stuff. Once the man drove off, I lugged the bundles far into the bush and set fire to them with kerosene siphoned from my stove.
From there, I strolled down to a nearby canal and disposed of my jewelry and shoes. With high expectations, I returned to my home to prepare for work. By this time, it was already 8:30 a.m. and I had barely thirty minutes to get ready. Luckily, I got a taxi almost immediately and got to the office before my immediate boss arrived.
The next Sunday, I was among the first worshippers at Gloryland. This time, I found a seat on the front row, directly opposite the podium. With a satisfied smile, I brought out my Bible and settled down to keep busy with the word of God until the service started. After the opening prayers and the usual praise session, the General Overseer took over the microphone and enquired if any member had an encounter with God after doing away with their worldly attires.
About ten people raised their hands. With a look that said, “I told you so,” the man of God summoned them to the altar to testify. Two of them claimed God restored their marriages, while a lady of about thirty-eight years said a man proposed to her three days after she destroyed her indecent clothes. Other testifiers spoke in similar vein. Some said they had breakthroughs in their businesses, while others claimed they received healing in their bodies.
I took everything in with calm borne out of a conviction that I’d fulfilled my own part of the bargain. It was now left for God to confirm the word of his servant by rolling away my stone as he did for the jubilant worshippers. I left the church that day with a determination to be more committed in my service to God to hasten the manifestation of his power on my behalf.
Subsequently, I enrolled in the six week course for new members. Thereafter, I joined the choir and was later appointed an assistant house fellowship leader. Eight years after joining the church, the funny smell persisted. I eventually mustered courage to book an appointment to see the man of God. After pouring my heart out to him, he laid hands on me and admonished me to be prayerful. He said the Lord would surprise me if I remained faithful.
My encounter with the man of God further demoralized me, as I had been certain that the anointing upon his life would destroy the yoke Satan placed on my neck. I left his office with tears in my eyes and resolved to seek help elsewhere. After much introspection, I decided to attend a new church, the Light House, led by a man with an American accent.
I’d listened to his preaching on radio and television, but was initially put off by the scanty things worn by some members of his church. However, his claims to having the authority to destroy all yokes mesmerized me.
A month after my disappointing encounter with Ukana, I attended service at the Light House. Initially, I couldn’t flow with other worshippers as I had come to accept the order of worship at Gloryland as sacrosanct. Although I enjoyed certain aspects of the service, especially the praise and worship session, the pastor’s preaching was unnerving. I took exception to his charge to his congregation to honor God in their bodies by wearing clothes that fit. He jokingly said that Adam would’ve rejected Eve if God had presented him with an unattractive woman. He hollered, “How many brothers in this auditorium would love to marry a woman in convent attire?”
Without waiting for a reply, the pastor continued, “I don’t know who I’m preaching to this morning. Let me tell you the truth about the God I serve. He’s too busy loving me and looking out for me to bother with what I wear. What’s indecent dressing anyway? One man’s meat is another man’s poison. For those of you who peddle falsehood about the use of jewelry, I want to show you a verse in the Bible that will destroy your ignorance forever.
“Go with me to Ezekiel, the sixteenth chapter. From verse eight, God expressed revulsion at the inclination of the Israelites to idolatry. Take note of verses eleven and twelve. Let’s read them together. ‘I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, and necklaces, a ring for your nose and earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head.’ I don’t know about you. I feel like pasting the two verses on billboards across the nation to deliver souls held captive by legalistic ideologies propounded by men who know next to nothing about God.
By the way, did God create precious metals for the devil and his followers? We are sons and daughters of the most High God. Would he decorate the children of his enemies with beautiful jewelry and leave his own with the dregs of this world? Think about it and take your stand either with God or those who are jealous of your liberty in the Spirit and want to make you in their own unattractive image.”
As the pastor left the podium, I had a strong urge to pick up my stuff and leave the building. My mind was in turmoil. Why were there so many conflicting doctrines in the church? Where was the unity Jesus prayed for in John chapter seventeen? Somehow, I managed to stay to the end of the service. In fact, I literally ran out of the auditorium.
I wasn’t in the mood to join any camp on the issue of the inappropriateness or otherwise of Christians using jewelry or trendy clothes. God knows, I was more concerned with the problem that turned me into a social outcast. I had watched most of my friends walk out of my life. I had lost the desire to live, and just existed because I couldn’t bring myself to take my life.
When I got home, I resolved to take up my case with God. I switched on the light in the living room and sat on the floor. After thanking him for the opportunity to draw near to his throne by the blood of Jesus, I presented my petition. I reminded him of his promise that the rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous. I said, I wasn’t claiming my own righteousness but that of His Son Jesus Christ since Jesus took my place on the cross. I told Him I needed to be free, spirit, soul, and body, as anything short of this made mockery of the atonement.
After presenting my case, I lay on my face for more than fifty minutes. I was about dozing off when he spoke in the silence of my spirit. He said, “I deliberately simplified the gospel to enable every man understand and seek me for his salvation.
Paul was right when he said that some men pervert the message of truth to put the gullible in bondage. Of course, it’s to the advantage of Satan that men are led astray by false doctrines. At no time did my father mandate me to establish another religion on earth or propound theories on the best way to please him.”
“From time immemorial, men have been contriving their own means to reach the Father. He’s not that kind of God. The argument about what to wear or whether Christians should use jewelry is a rehash of the question the Jews asked me on the best way to please the Father. There’s no best way to please him except to believe in Jesus whom he sent. Every other way leads to legalism.
“The question in your heart is, ‘If most of the pastors you have encountered do not represent me, why haven’t I restrained them? Why should I answer some of their prayers?’ I judge according to the light that’s available for every man. There are Christians who have refused to accept my joy. I allow them live in the light they’ve received.
I’m a gift from my Father to all men, but I don’t compel anyone to accept me or the gifts the Holy Spirit administers. That’s why you see the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in virtually all denominations despite their doctrinal differences.
“My cross is central to man’s redemption, but some denominations have deviated from the central theme of the gospel to entertainment and self-centered ideologies that have bred religious bigots rather than saints. That’s why I’m raising up a new crop of workers in my vineyard that will restore the message and point men to me. I’m the light of the world. That’s why I said that if I’m lifted up, I will draw all men to me. Some denominations glorify their doctrines, not the Son of God. Let them preach the gospel in its purity and I will transform the lives of men in the power of the Holy Spirit.
“That’s not to imply that I sanction filth in any form, whether from a polluted heart or indecent attires. My gospel targets the heart of man. Once the Holy Spirit has taken abode in a man’s heart, he begins the work of renewing his mind to love purity and holiness. A pure heart will hate what God hates and God abhors indecency in any form.
“Now, to the strange presence in your apartment; be assured that the devil operates within the confines of my power. He’s nothing but a servant. Sometimes, I put my children through the mill to refine them. Malachi 3:3 says, “He will sit and judge, like a refiner of silver, watching closely as the dross is burned away. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold or silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.
“You’ve been chosen to take this message to your generation in this nation and beyond. I will be with you and uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. Don’t be anxious. I will open doors for you that no man can shut. My peace I leave with you. Be strong and of good courage, for one with God is a victor always.”
With his words imprinted on my mind, I stood up and anointed the apartment. Although I hadn’t heard any instruction to that effect, I felt deep within me that it was the right thing to do. Before I got to the kitchen, which was the last space, a mighty wind swept through my house, but nothing was destroyed. That was the last I experienced the oppression of eight years that had turned me into a shadow of myself.
True to his promise, the Lord opened strange doors for me to preach the gospel received by Paul for the Gentiles. I have seen the power of God manifest in all churches I’ve been invited to minister. I’ve traveled to many nations in Africa and have led thousands to the Lord, including pastors! I give all the glory to the LORD of lords who alone is worthy of adoration and praise!