YeKengalé

Barak Obama on leaving the highest office of the land, contemplating what other worlds there may be to conquer, what other lions and bears there may be to slay, and being the epitome of an ambitious Black man, hardly yet in the prime of life, pondered taking on the next assignment, an office he thought exalted above that of president, the most important status in the land – ‘citizen’.

When thinking of how to frame this epitaph, words like ‘general’ and ‘giant’ came to mind, but I would not want to dishonor the Spirit of God whose glory shines through most brightly the broken vessels we all are when He encounters us in the clay of our existence. I cringe for example at what the early Catholics made of the truly simple fisherman Peter was because of the anointing Jesus conferred on him in a passing invocation and impartation. The vile abomination of that unholy letter Columbus carried to the innocent, peace-loving, simple folk of the isles in the name of Peter and his God should serve as a deterrent for all the arrogant fundamentalists that never seem to learn their eternal insignificance while in the flesh, enamored as they are with themselves, decorated with fancy titles, cloaked in goliathan armor.

But Jesus asked of the greatest prophet of his own time, “Exactly what were you expecting to see?” We are all ‘reeds shaking in the wind’, until as Peter himself attested, comes the withering and the fading. But it is the lasting glory I wish to dwell on in contemplating the amazing life of God in this true citizen of the kingdom, a man knowing his rights and privileges, exemplar without doubt of those whose very shadows carry more light and power than all the intelligentsia of this world in all their supposed genius, unworthy to even tie this man’s shoe lace, the man Temitope Balogun Joshua. Glory to God!

What do people expect to see indeed. I’ve heard all the belly-achers complaining about doctrinal standards, questioning the authenticity and casting doubt on the source of spiritual manifestations, nitpicking about moral standards of holiness, casting shade on this and that aspect of the man’s mortality…. and listen, I’m not saying that these things are altogether irrelevant, but I’m constantly amazed at the erudite and vociferous religious, moral and theological experts we have, ready at a moment’s notice to authoritatively judge another man’s servant, who themselves are absolutely incapable of solving even 2% of the problems this man solved under God’s anointing, from the sins and sicknesses of nations to the lives of countless individuals whose temporal and eternal destinies radically shifted on encountering the Might behind this man, his message and his ministry.

It’s hard to hide the angry Black man in me (though I must try for TB’s sake, who would never condone, humble man he was, such vaunting and strife) when I contemplate the pack of US Evangelical, prophetic jokers – the Hank Hunnemans, Chuck Pierces, Dutch Sheets and the rest of the Paula White soothsayers, constantly fluting (I almost said ‘trumpeting’ but that would be unworthy) ever round-the-corner, ‘third-wave’ awakenings, who barely seemed to have noticed that the greatest demonstration of divine unction since the early church fathers, [which by way of comparison (since apparently this is now what we do in the ‘kingdom’) makes dwarves of the so called ‘generals’ and ‘giants’ of their own North American Pentecostal tradition,] has been happening right under their noses all along. I didn’t see many of these self-proclaimed God-chasers crossing the ocean to lap up and take in the Glory of God being poured out through the likes of TBJ and others as God visited entire civilizations, their presidents and kings, working mightily through his servants, Africa’s apostles and prophets. Azusa 2.0

Let me leave all that alone. Bah! Humbug! God is merciful. Let God write his Ichabods where and when He pleases. Hank and combolo may yet get some semblance of their expected day of visitation. Should I now pretend to be sole arbiter of divine grace? I’m its recipient. That’s plenty above my pay-grade. What I will contemplate is the Majesty of the Presence revealed in the life of this true servant of God now that his race is over. Let that fill my cup and erase the bitterness. Truly this man was and is a citizen of Beloved Heavenly Zion, still not quite ready it seems, to settle on the earth, with so many of her citizens permanently passing through her portals; but we joyously await her full appearance, with her Prince by her side.

In loving memory of TBJ. Let all who have eyes and ears to watch and listen be encouraged:

Although the entire Emanuel TV archive was deleted from the internet before his death. [see Google Almighty for details] I’ve highlighted a small sample of reposted clips documenting TBJs journey with African presidents and leaders, from the highly popular Winnie Mandela Interview , the political reconciliations brokered in Liberia between the Doe / Johnson clans after the brutal assassination of the former political patriarch by the latter, publicly burying the hatchet in a SCOAN service; the Garang South Sudan conciliation, the presidential endorsements from Malawi, Zambia, and one of the several times that civil war was averted when heads of governments and opposition parties sought his counsel and intervention.

His prophetic diplomacy is unmatched by any other living African figure. Africa’s kings and prime ministers from Cairo to Cape town sought his fatherly counsel and prophetic guidance, often sending official delegations to his services when they did not come themselves to petition his counsel, favor or prayers as God’s oracle. Of all the manifest spiritual gifts in his prolific ministry, I personally was most astounded by the operation of the word of wisdom – more impressive to me than resurrection, which can be performed with a defibrillator (exposing certain entrenched folly can at times be as glorious as opening the eyes of the physically blind, or resuscitating the biologically dead).

This man had an African continental influence of the magnitude of Cecil Rhodes but in the reverse direction – putting back together in Jesus’ name a continent ripped apart (also in Jesus’ name) by European avarice and impunity.

This man lived and walked in the power of a son of God on the earth, conquering hell, disease and disaster with the breath of his mouth. Even if that is the heritage of the average citizen, and the standard lot of those born into the kingdom when her bloom is in full, still … Well done TB! You put fire on the enemies of God.

Of course. the prolific, daily, medically documented, display of astounding miracles, healings and profound life transformations, from presidents and kings, continental and international celebrities, clergymen, professionals, doctors, lawyers, philanthropists, sports and entertainment icons, and most importantly, Ghana and Nigeria’s poor and needy, who were all treated with the same dignity and grace, can still be viewed scattered over youtube on various channels which remain, for now.

The bulk of SCOAN’s healing ministry took place outside of religious services. From Monday to Friday, the sick were attended to by the hundreds, lined up outside the synagogue. Most received instantaneous and very visible miracles. The scene was the furthest thing from the sanitized Benny Hinn crusades.  On display was human disease in all its grotesque reality, the floor a constant mess of tumors that had fallen off, vomit, human waste and fluids which attested to the stark reality both of the human condition and the Glory of God on open display.

Google’s integrity can be weighed by their decision to take down the entire channel of Emmanuel TV archives, containing thousands of videos with the most remarkable anthropological content, the religious channel with the most subscriptions on the Youtube,)  because of a single video they claimed as evidence that the channel was the conduit for ‘hate speech’. The offending ‘speech’ was a sincere prayer of the prophet asking God to deliver from ‘shame and reproach’ persons with same-sex attraction who voluntarily approached the ministry for help.