God wants to use recession to bring Nigerians back to Him – Cleric

The founder and presiding Pastor of the Christ Asset Church (CAC) Lagos, Dr. David Olu Sodeke, has urged Nigerians not blame the present economic woes bedevilling country on anybody, saying it was God’s designed way to bring back the people closer to Himself.

He said that God just wants to use the recession to teach us something so that we can return to him in prayers.

He also assured Nigerians that the country would be great again, just as he urged everybody to be deep in prayers so that the nation can regain its lost glory.

He made the revelation recently at his church premises in Iba, Lagos, while hosting selected Journalists on the activities lined up to mark the 30th anniversary of his church, which started as a ministry.

The cleric disclosed that 15 years ago, he had predicted that Nigeria would be having serious economic challenges this time and many did not take him serious, saying that God’s words cannot be changed even when every other thing changed.

According to the pastor, who broke away from Christ Apostolic Church as ministry, those who are blaming people for the present economic situation are not being sincere with themselves and the nation, reiterating that nobody can be singly be blamed for the pains and economic crisis Nigerians are experiencing.

“People say the Buhari administration and past governments are responsible for the nation’s problems; they are not. Our problem is not caused by anybody rather that God is annoyed with us and we must come back to Him in prayers for forgiveness. May I ask, is it the government that caused the problem that made oil to drop to a very low level in the international market? Did government create all the insects that are eating our crops? Did they cause our crops not to yield well, or did government cause all the natural pains we are passing through? Those who accused government do not know what they are saying, they should repent and pray to God for solutions.

We must understand   that there is an invisible power that is controlling our activities and what we need today is prayers now, whether you are a Muslim or a Christian, we need to pray hard to God to look into our problems and to forgive us our sins. We have sinned against God and we need to seek for forgiveness through our prayers”, he stated.

According to him, economic recession had happened to many countries across the world and Nigeria is not the first people to experience such economic challenges and we need to pray ourselves out of it.

He said economic hardship had happened before according to the bible and what cured it was prayer and we need to pray hard to overcome these challenges.

“When something happens, there is always reason for that  and only the wise men  that seek to know the reason ,but in this country instead of trying to know why the country is in crisis ,we choose to blame government and people .We should not blame any person for this crisis. We are not the first to suffer hardship what we need is prayers”, he added.

When asked whether Nigerians are not praying enough given that there are churches and mosques in every street and road in the country, he replied that “it is  true that there  are many churches and mosques  here and there, not in all these Churches and Mosques are people truly worshiping God, some are self-serving and they are not worshiping God in truth and faith. Not all these churches are seat of the living God, some are doing it selfishly.”

According to him, some of the people in the church would bear him witness that he had predicted the present economic crisis over 15 years ago, and has always been telling them that this country is going to have financial challenges.

He said, even last year he told the congregation that Nigeria is going to have economic hardship this time, stressing that next year we are going to have more difficult time, but I prayed to God and asked Him not to allow us go through these pains again next year and He said only that can save us.

“We should pray hard to soften the issues and God is willing to hear us”, he said.

According to him, some of our problems came as results that most of our leaders were not sincere with the country   and they behaved anyhow to the running of this country and God is not happy with us hence this problem.

“We have wasted many innocent bloods for our selfish interest and when such happens God will never be silent with us” he added.

He however disclosed that, after this time the country will be great again.

“I am sure Nigeria will be great again, this challenge is just to strengthen us to know God the more and seek his face in all we do “he added.