About my humble beginning - Dr Olukoya (MFM General Overseer)
General Overseer, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Dr Daniel Olukoya, tells SIMON UTEBOR and ALEXANDER OKERE about his humble beginning.
You recently spoke about how God gave you the vision to start Mountain of Fire Miracles Ministries in a one-bedroomed apartment. What was your initial reaction to such a dream considering your state at that time?
Truly, the vision came precisely in 1977, when I was a student in the University of Lagos. My reaction to the dream was one of surprise, joy and acceptance. That was because, though an undergraduate, I had already developed an intimate relationship with God and was deeply involved in His work.
In most cases, God does not give a complete picture when He calls a man. He provides the details of His assignment in easily absorbable stages. God, who sees the end from the beginning, knows that releasing the entire picture may seem illogical and scary to the new insider. He takes you on the journey step by step in small ‘doses’, walking all the way with you. We never knew that MFM Ministries would experience this reverberating explosion and become the global brand it is today.
I was at an embassy some years ago and an official of the embassy asked me, “Dr Olukoya, did you ever think that the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries would become a huge ministry with a global presence like this?” My response was, “It was never in my wildest imagination. What has happened so far is completely to the glory of God, who gave the vision and has been piloting it from glory to greater glory continuously.” This would explain to you that it is the work of God and not man.
The dream took 12 years before it was kick-started when you founded the church. Why did it take so long?
God is an epitome of excellence. That is why when He calls, He leaves room to prepare and equip His vessel so that they will carry out the assignment excellently. Apostle Paul spent 14 years in the desert of Arabia after he received a revelation on the way to Damascus, getting prepared and equipped for a ministry whose positive and redefining impact is still being felt today.
Although I did not struggle with the heavenly vision, my human mind was in action in the world of time, space and society as it interfaced with the divine mandate gestating within a calling. This divine errand erupts into definite manifestations at particular intersections of the temporal and the eternal. Thus, I journeyed from the academic world to ministry, assuming my current identity when the time was ripe.
Within this context of the dealings of God with a human being, I was constantly involved in measuring the present against the future, and my academic and career development against my spiritual calling.
As a result of these developmental trajectories, the vision of MFM Ministries was birthed in 1989, 12 years after it was given. Even at that juncture, I did not start until I was given a specific go-ahead. God is a masterplanner and He believes in preparation. As it is said, “Proper preparation prevents poor performance.”
When MFM Ministries started in 1989, I was already a researcher and molecular geneticist, working with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos. As a researcher, I was widely travelled and already had over 70 publications in scientific journals. It was in the middle of this promising and fulfilling career that God instructed me to start MFM Ministries, the vision He gave to me 12 years earlier.
However, when MFM started, I was still in service and remained in service, pursuing my career until 1998, when I retired to face the work of God fully and give my utmost to the Highest.
Yes, he was. One day, my father drove to the football field and disrupted our match. To my embarrassment, in front of my peers, he ordered me to come with him in his car. When I did, he drove straight to the church and handed me over to the choir leader, in whose hands I was immersed among motherly women practising how to sing in a very different environment from my playground, among my fellow strapping youths. That was how I got involved with Christian music ministry.
I still recall those days of boyhood joy of play and bonding on the pitch, so MFM has a football club, making a creative impact in the life of youths, withdrawing them from the streets, spreading the Gospel through football, winning national and international sporting awards, while our music ministry is noted nationally and internationally for its range and innovative power.
Thus, I bring these different aspects of my life together in terms of the anointing that is MFM.
Since you graduated from UNILAG with a first-class degree, what offers did you have to reject or abandon for the ministry?
After my PhD in the United Kingdom, I was persuaded to stay back and continue my research. I turned down all offers for the sake of destiny. I sensed that my future lay where I was born and became an adult, the place where my vision was more likely to come to fruition
I obeyed these inner convictions because I was neither working nor walking alone. I was being divinely guided. I knew I had an assignment at home. I knew I had to obey that inner voice. How and when it would unfold, I did not know; but as an obedient soldier of Christ, I obeyed, packed my bags and caught a flight back to Nigeria to follow the instructions of God.
Again, I did not struggle against the divine injunction, even though it seemed unattractive. This is another lesson: as children of the most High God, we must develop our relationship with God, to an extent that we are able to engage in dialogue with God as a child will with their father. This will help anyone at strategic but confusing decisive point.
Will it be correct to say you hear directly from God, and, if yes, how does this happen?
(Laughs) The plain truth is that everybody hears from God. You hear from God. God speaks to us all daily but you must have a personal relationship with Him, so you can decipher the voice of God from that of man, flesh and the devil.
Some people hear from God more frequently than others; while the spiritual ears of others are completely blocked, that even when God speaks, they cannot hear. It is all about the amount of time you have to concentrate and consecrate yourself.
I always tell my congregation, as exemplified by the series of lectures I am currently carrying out at the MFM International Headquarters, titled, ‘Every Member a Prophet’, that every believer must develop his spiritual antenna and sharpen their spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear directly from God frequently.
In MFM, we groom all our members to receive messages from God themselves, cutting off the dependence on prophets and other spiritual figures. We also have specific prayer protocols to get urgent answers directly from God in emergency situations, such as discerning the source of a problem and at life-defining critical periods of decision.
For instance, the choice of a life partner, employment, business partnerships and other vital ventures must be made with caution and discernment. This is because not everything is always what it seems. All that glitters is not gold and all that is gold does not glitter.
God speaks to us in different ways: through the scriptures, through our inner convictions, in dreams and visions and in some cases in a voice that fills one’s room or in a still small voice.
We don’t call ourselves a big church. We call ourselves a growing church. The first secret is the God factor. The Almighty God is behind our achievements. He is our Alpha and Omega, the source from which all our blessings flow; He who gave us a unique and clear mandate.
At all levels of the ministry, there is an effort to craft a particular identity of the ministry as a member of the body of Christ, united with other aspects of this divine unity. We do this as we fine-tune the distinctive identity of the ministry and the methods through which this identity is expressed as a ministry of warriors.
The MFM member is a warrior, a soldier for Christ, as demonstrated by all aspects of our lives: the kinds of books we read, the kinds of films we watch and the kind of things we say. The way we dress and pray are also functions of the way we see the world. Even people who may see us as extremists have come to understand MFM to be the last resort when all else fails. We are an outpost of spiritual concentration.
Overall though, the Creator of all things and the perfect manager of the entire universe is the secret to the successful management of our church, whose workers and followers are spread across the globe.
In operating the MFM Ministries in relation to the divine imperative, we have understood how to choose and encourage the harnessing of the abilities of diverse people. MFM has several trusted lieutenants who can be counted upon to do their jobs wherever in the world they might be without anyone having to look over their shoulders.
What were some of the challenges you faced in the early stages of the ministry?
The major challenge was that people criticised us unfairly and treated us as pariahs. Many people, including believers, considered our prayer points and militant prayer style very strange. Ironically, today, those same people now pray MFM prayer points and employ the MFM prayer style.
Some people have said MFM members pray as if they want to get immediate answers, what is the genesis of this type of prayer?
The genesis of the MFM prayer style is a long story. At the same time, however, it is rooted in the Bible, which says in Matthew 11:12, “Since the days of John the Baptist, the Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.”
When the apostles were assembled in the Upper Room, they prayed, and the place where they prayed shook violently (Acts 4:2). There is room for silent prayers, room for praise worship, room for pleading prayers and room for violent prayers. Jesus prayed on an occasion and the Bible records that His sweat was like drops of blood. That prayer must have been intense, fervent, engaging, militant and desperate.
The MFM prayer style is fierce, virulent, discomfiting, unsettling, violent and ferocious. It is also fervent, incessant, bulldozing, authoritative, audacious and commanding. It is demon-chasing, hell-scattering, yoke-breaking, enemy-dismantling and most importantly, effectual and mercilessly iconoclastic.
This militant kind of prayer is necessary in these end times, because the enemy of our souls has changed his gear to top speed and wicked people are waxing stronger in their evil works.
The Bible does not support the position that small churches guarantee salvation and touch souls better than large ones. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). He also gave the instruction to believers to make disciples of all nations. The utmost desire of God is the salvation of all souls. So, God is the builder of the church and whether a church is big or small, salvation of souls and preparing them for heaven should be the main focus.
What we do at MFM combines the administrative scope and financial reach of a big church with the attention to small groups and individuals enabled by growing churches. We do this through a technique of ministry, involving services that cater for the entire congregation, prayer and counselling units, involving small groups as well as the opportunity for attention to individual needs by groups of pastors and individual pastors. In that way, we cater for general, group and individual needs.
Nigerians are one of the most religious people on earth with numerous churches and mosques, yet we also top the list of most corrupt countries. What do you think is responsible for this disconnect?
There is a difference between being religious and being righteous. If a nation is populated by men and women who go to churches and mosques but Christlikeness is alien to them and their lifestyles, in that situation, you will have ungodly acts, corruption and so on. The Bible says that righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:34).
I pray that God will make all Nigerians righteous, in Jesus’ name.
Nigerians are also big on prayers for themselves and their country but things are really down for the country in terms of economic prosperity and other indices of development. Why is this so? Can we say the prayers of Nigerians are not being answered?
In Nigeria, we have the good, the bad and the ugly in Christianity. However, we must realise that there is no counterfeit without an original. The prayers of Nigerians are being answered. If not, we would not exist as a unified nation today.
It is the prayers of the saints that are holding us together; in spite of our diversity, we are sustained as a nation. You will recall that there have been many instances, even in recent times, when everyone was sure that the fabric of our unity was going to be shredded irreparably; but mysteriously there were sudden unexplainable twists which kept the nation calm and intact. All these can only be attributed to the power of God answering prayers.
I am a firm believer in the awesomeness and power of prayer. However, I would like to point out that the Bible says that we cannot continue in sin and expect the grace of God to abound. As a nation and a people, if we want divine intervention and revival in our land, we must shun sin, bloodshed, kidnapping, fraud, terrorism and all other vices that have become prevalent in our land.
“The prayer of the sinner is an abomination to the Lord” while “the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much”. So, I advise all Nigerians to forsake sin and embrace righteousness and God will do wonders in our land economically, politically and socially, repositioning us on the global map as a nation to be identified with.
God is a miracle worker. However, the greatest miracle that God performs is the salvation of souls.
Preachers should continuously stress to their congregations that it is imperative to have genuine salvation and make heaven. The undiluted word of God should be taught and lived by the preachers and the members of the churches.
That is why in MFM, we practise a do-it-yourself approach. We train believers to be their own prophets and to work miracles. We do not want anyone to be enslaved to prophets, pastors or miracle workers. That is not the will of God. It is not the stand of the Bible. Believers are not meant to move around, seeking miracles; they are to be miracle workers themselves (Luke 9:1-2; Mark 16:17-18).
Therefore, it is the responsibility of all preachers to educate and re-orient members of their churches to disentangle themselves from ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ and live by the standards of the Bible, thus enjoying the gains of the effectual prayers that change narratives. They should attain genuine salvation, which serves as a platform to perform miracles and enforce their God-given dominion in life.
Recently, there have been debates about whether paying tithes is biblical or not. What is your view on this matter?
Problems emerge when tithing is abused. We must be vigilant in preventing the use of tithes for the self-aggrandisement of those running the church. Full-time workers of the church have to be paid; infrastructure must be put in place and maintained.
Evangelism must be carried out. Logistics have to be funded. Skill acquisition programmes must be sponsored. The poor and needy in the congregation must be taken care of. Scholarship schemes seeing students through primary to university education must be financed. Programmes for youth repositioning like the provision of cash gifts to MFM students across the world, graduating with first-class degrees, must also be funded. Also, resources strategic in the church’s provision of social welfare that cushion the struggles of the populace must be provided. The tithe, among others, is used for these projects and programmes of the church.
Similarly, MFM has a well-funded, well structured, tightly run evangelism network on land and sea, combing the nooks and crannies and winning souls for the Lord through rigorous evangelism beyond comfort zones. There is the coastal evangelism that moves on speed boats. There are other forms of evangelism, like: prison evangelism, hospital evangelism, brothel evangelism and street evangelism, and so many others, all recording huge conversions. These initiatives are fuelled with precious economic resources such as tithes, offerings, ‘First Fruit Offering’ and so on.
The Biblical vision on tithing is inspired by the need to build the body of Christ in a material world, where the light of the Spirit is sought. Enthused by this vision, lovers of God and the gospel give even more than tithes.
Unlike MFM, some churches don’t have a problem with female members wearing trousers and not covering their hair in church. Do you think these things are actually against Christian doctrine?
We should be able to differentiate between those going for beauty contests, to brothels, clubs and night parties from those going to serve God in church.
An MFM member is armoured in the garments of warfare, repelling and boomeranging the arrows of the enemy, rather than being clad in devices inviting satanic infiltration.
A church is a corporate entity in relationship with its host communities. Does MFM have a corporate social responsibility policy?
As a socially responsible church, we also contribute significantly to the development of our host communities and give back significantly to the society. Some of the community development projects we implemented include: donation of police patrol vans to various police stations around the state, such as Sabo Police Station, Sabo, Yaba, Lagos. Another is the grading and tarring of roads, such as the Remi Abuah and Olasimbo streets in Lagos. Others are the drilling of numerous boreholes in the host communities where MFM branches and regions are sited. These boreholes, known as ‘Jesus Wells’, are sited in different parts of the country. There are many more under construction presently.
Other direct philanthropic gestures involve the donation of money to individuals and communities in which MFM churches operate, as well as to social causes. They also involve sponsorship and funding of important projects as well as provision of food, clothes and other important needs of poor members of the society. One of such cases in this regard is the donation of N400,000 each to members of Iwaya community who were displaced by the government. This intervention came to a total of N10m.
Another such intervention is the Care Evangelism Initiative, through which the Evangelism Group and We Care Ministry of the church collaborate to cater for the underprivileged, widows and orphans in the society, providing them with material needs, while sharing the gospel with them.
In addition to the huge sums of money the church spends in implementing her evangelism programmes, she also commits a lot of money to helping her members as well as non-members who are in need. Some of MFM’s philanthropic gestures and intervention initiatives include: spending huge sums of money annually to train our teeming members (male and female) in various vocational skills and entrepreneurial ventures, empowering them with start-up capital, as well as equipment to enable them stand on their own as self-employed and financially free members, etc.
A lot of money is expended on evangelism through sports. Several young men and women, who were once unbelievers, living indecent and purposeless lives but who have talents in sports, now have good clubs, plum jobs, and are excelling in their careers, serving God faithfully.
MFM Ministries now has a thriving football club in Nigeria’s foremost professional league, a female basketball team, as well as a female member, who is a Commonwealth Games gold medalist in wrestling, among others.
We also rebuilt the primary school I attended, turning it to an architectural masterpiece. The ultra-modern structure, neat environment, toilets, borehole facility, functional and well-stocked library have made the school the choice of every parent in the locality for their children and wards. The state went on to model their mega school project in line with the masterpiece we built.
Some of the other philanthropic initiatives we embarked upon include: donation of laboratories (constructing and equipping them) to secondary and tertiary institutions. One of such was donated to my alma mater, the University of Lagos, in 2018. The project was worth N250m. These philanthropic projects also include the construction of libraries and donation of books.
The renovation of Aje Comprehensive High School, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos and the augmentation of the school’s staff salary on a monthly basis, is another initiative we undertook.
You recently started a full-time university but people have complained that privately owned universities are just money-making ventures. How do you react to this?
The Mountain Top University is not a money-making venture. It is a safe place to bring up young children peacefully in a strict Christian environment, where they can grow up to be God-fearing, responsible adults, who can be dependable leaders of tomorrow. MTU grooms and empowers its students to excel academically and spiritually. It also prepares them for a life of superlative achievements in the areas of career, entrepreneurship and finance.
We were not pleased with reports we were getting of the goings-on in some universities and saw it as our urgent responsibility to create an enabling environment for youths to learn and grow up properly, devoid of any fears and intimidations.
Our fees are the lowest among private universities. A large percentage of our students are on scholarships funded by the church and we give our pastors rebates.
The Dr D. K. Olukoya Academic Award of Excellence is given to MFM Campus Fellowship members who graduate with first-class degrees (honours) from reputable universities all over the world. The first edition of the awards programme took place in January 2010 and 19 recipients from universities within and outside Nigeria were awarded with brand new cars and certificates of honour.
The second edition took place in May 2011 and 15 recipients were awarded brand new cars and certificates of honour. The third edition took place in April 2013 and 77 recipients were awarded with N500, 000 cheques each and certificates of honour.
The fourth edition took place in August 2015 and 106 recipients were awarded N500, 000 cheques each and certificates of honour.
Also, for the first time, we awarded 20 graduates with distinctions from different polytechnics N300, 000 each and certificates of honour. That same year (2015), there was also the presentation of a second category of awards in addition to the Academic Award of Excellence. In this category, four recipients were awarded the DKO NYSC Award because they distinguished themselves during their National Youth Service year and got National Awards on the completion of the exercise. They were presented with award plaques, N500, 000 cheques each and certificates of honour.
The fifth edition took place in August 2019 during the 30th anniversary of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries. Over 330 recipients from universities and polytechnics, all over the world, earned the award.
The Academic Award of Excellence has been a major motivation in turning members of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries’ undergraduate students all over the world to academic high-fliers and pacesetters.
I must fulfil both vocations: church and family. Church is a vocation; the family is also a vocation. Unifying both roles is compulsory and must be carried out for the fulfilment of my vocation as a man of God, father and husband. As a priest, I am a priest of the church and a priest of my home; so, I must harmonise the two. It is my calling.
In your opinion, how can a couple have a long-lasting and happy marriage?
There are seven keys to a successful marriage. Couples who apply these keys in their marriage will have a long-lasting and happy marriage. The seven keys are: love, respect, faithfulness, prayerfulness, encouragement, intimacy and godliness.
My wife is the quintessential helpmeet behind the MFM vision. Her support to me in ministry is unquantifiable and I thank God for this. Her centrality to the ministry runs from the early days of her writing prayer points for each member and visitor to our ministry on pieces of paper to her creation of art for our book covers and pamphlets. The dynamism and graphic force of this art have been strategic in creating an MFM brand of visual culture over the years.
Her visual art is complemented by her musical talent and wonderful voice with which she ministers to the congregation.
