Over a decade ago, I read a pamphlet written by a young Muslim man who had converted to Christianity. His story was that two years after he became saved, he was caught up in the Spirit to meet our Lord Jesus Christ as he prayed and fasted in seclusion at his local church in Plateau State, Nigeria.
Jesus Christ led him to hell and instructed him to ask the tormented souls in that place why they had ended up there.
Upon arrival, he interviewed the first two persons he saw, who were both men. They told him their names and why they had ended up in hell.
One of them said his name was Paul Gindiri. He was a notable firebrand evangelist who preached in Plateau State and the surrounding northern states before his tragic death due to prostate cancer in 1996.
The other man said his name was Benson Idahosa, who was also a popular preacher in Nigeria.
This Christian brother said he did not know about them prior to his visitation with Jesus to hell for the following reasons:
- He was a Muslim during their lifetime on earth and was thus oblivious of their religious activities.
- He was a newly converted Christian when he visited hell and had not known much about popular Christian preachers.
Abubakar Sadiq, as his name was, observed that these men were in their own shallow pits in hell. He said Benson Idahosa was, at the time, actually turned upside down in his pit of liquid fire.
The Lord Jesus authorized him to ask why they were there, and this is a summary of his interview with each of them.
PAUL GINDIRI — DIED 1996
After saying his name, he revealed to Abubakar Sadiq that the sin that condemned him to hellfire was GUILE (deceptive intelligence).
God’s Word warns His faithful believers to avoid the use of guile in achieving their aims, whether in preaching or in ordinary life.
1 Peter 3:10 says: “For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.”
BENSON IDAHOSA — DIED 1998
After introducing himself, he also disclosed that the sin which damned his soul to hellfire was COVETOUSNESS.
In Luke 12:15, Jesus Christ said: “…Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
Then Abubakar Sadiq asked him if he had gotten used to his torment in hellfire, to which he said no—that the torment is renewed constantly.
BIMBO ODUKOYA — DIED 2005
While he was still there, he said a woman called out to him and begged to be interviewed. She said her name was BIMBO ODUKOYA. I’m sure many of us in Nigeria know of the tragic Sosoliso Airline disaster at Port Harcourt Airport, which claimed the lives of some young schoolchildren. Bimbo Odukoya initially survived the crash but sustained serious injuries, which eventually resulted in her death the following day.
Sadiq Abubakar said Jesus Christ specifically instructed him not to grant her an interview, so he ignored her plea.
Jesus Christ also revealed the names of many pastors to him, both locally and internationally, who were still alive and whom he was instructed to warn because they were on their way to hellfire unless they returned to the narrow way to heaven.
Abubakar Sadiq said he told our Lord Jesus Christ that he had no knowledge of those preachers and their ways, so he needed to be enlightened so as to know what to say. He asked Jesus Christ if those people were on their way to hellfire because of certain things they had done, but Jesus Christ answered that for some of them, it was not necessarily because of their own personal deeds, but because of what they allowed in their congregations.
Of all the big names I know in the Nigerian Church, only the name of Pastor Williams Folorunsho Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Nigeria, was not mentioned as being found wanting before God.
To say the least, I was saddened by that revelation after reading the book. It also sobered me. I realized how thin the line is that delineates the boundary between what is acceptable to God and what is not, and how casually we have treated both as though they are one and the same before God. As long as we are comfortable with anything, we assume God must be comfortable with it too!
Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
I have chosen to write this message about the two sins of Guile and Covetousness because they are among the most subtle sins Satan uses to destroy many of God’s children, especially those who carry His anointing, as we have seen in the cases of the two men he mentioned.
I was especially saddened by the names of Paul Gindiri and Benson Idahosa. To say the least, I believed his testimony, not because I had to, but because it carried a compelling conviction in the heart that only the Spirit of God can give. If I had wanted to judge the veracity of that pamphlet by the great works of those ministers of God, I would have been persuaded to think that this spiritual young man was dreaming out of the abundance of his imagination. Evangelist Paul Gindiri and Bishop Benson Idahosa, as they were then known, were household names in the Christian community in Nigeria. Bishop Benson Idahosa was to Southern, Western, and Eastern Nigerian Christians what Evangelist Paul Gindiri was to Northern Christians. They shaped the Evangelical and Pentecostal landscape of Christianity in those regions.
Now, to say that those men could not make it to heaven after so much service to the body of Christ is, to say the least, heartbreaking. One might even be tempted to doubt the genuineness of such a claim. However, the truth remains that our God does not have respect for anyone who shows no respect for His Word, no matter how much they have labored for His Kingdom.
Ezekiel 33:13: “When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live; if he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.”
With God, the emphasis is not so much on the works we do for Him as it is on the faithfulness with which we do them.
It is easy to see the great works people do with the eyes of flesh, but only the divine eyes of God can see the motive and condition of the heart for doing those works, and some of those motives may fall short of His standards for acceptance.
Isaiah 66:2: “…saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
Let us focus on the two sins named above and see how we can identify and avoid falling into them as we serve God.
GUILE
Guile is, simply put, deceptive intelligence. It is the subtle manipulation of facts or circumstances to achieve a desired effect or aim. Anyone who speaks much must be careful to avoid this sin, especially preachers and teachers over God’s congregations.
See James 3:1-6:
“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body.” James 3:1-2
It is easy for people to resort to guile when their ego is at stake. The same can be said of some preachers who feel they must convince their audience at all costs to accept their doctrinal views, even when the facts they present are not scripturally sound. When people want to avoid confronting the truth without losing face, they resort to guile. I do not know how Evangelist Paul Gindiri ended up with the guilt of guile before God, and I cannot assume to know. However, given his many confrontational encounters with Muslim audiences here in northern Nigeria, one cannot help but assume it may have been in the course of some of those arguments.
Proverbs 10:19: “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise.”
Christian lawyers, teachers, and preachers of the Word of God must exercise extra caution in executing their duties, because the guilt of guile can be established against anyone who, with subtle, clever phrasing of words, seeks to avoid speaking the truth as conscience demands. It may seem like the only escape route at that moment to avoid saying direct words, but such nuanced responses, though appearing clever, are also guileful.
The truth has no other version; it cannot be explained in any other way without compromising it. The truth must be spoken as it is, devoid of unnecessary nuances and guile.
In all His heated encounters with the religious leaders of His day on earth, Jesus Christ stood solely by the truth. Apostle Peter later extolled His virtue when he wrote to the churches in 1 Peter 2:21-22: “For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”
Even though Jesus Christ spoke the truth all the time, there were occasions when He maintained silence—we must imbibe that virtue.
Luke 23:8-10: “And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad, for he was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him, and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him. Then he questioned Him in many words, but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him.”
Satan has his own strategy of making people sin with the words of their mouth, even when they didn’t mean to, so each child of God must be economical with words when the occasion demands it.
Luke 11:53-54: “And as He said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently and to provoke Him to speak of many things, laying wait for Him and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him.”
The truth may be uncomfortable to speak or to hear, but that is what God demands we speak all the time. If anyone will not hear the truth, we must, like Jesus Christ, keep quiet at that moment instead of saying what will suit them and thus fall into the condemnation of employing guile to please them.
James 1:19 says: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, _slow to speak, slow to wrath.”_
COVETOUSNESS
I believe this is the more dangerous of the two sins under focus in this sermon, and its prevalence in the church today should give every well-meaning Christian serious concern.
Why it is more dangerous:
Covetousness often masquerades as a legitimate ambition or desire to improve one’s situation, which in itself is not bad. But when such a desire becomes an obsession with material acquisition, as it often does, then it becomes covetousness, which is sinful before God. The two are almost similar, except that ambition plans strategically and waits patiently for results, while covetousness is driven by competition and an intense desire or envy for what another person has, and becomes discontented until it gets it too.
Covetousness is the lust of the eyes. And just as lust in the heart for the opposite sex, even without physical contact, is counted by God as sexual sin, so also is covetousness: to be envious of or to desire what someone else has amounts to the sin of covetousness, even if you fail to acquire it.
Exodus 20:17: “No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s.” JC
I am convinced that most people with a covetous tendency do not recognize it; they excuse that attitude as ambition. However, for ambition to be healthy, it must be self-inspired and not induced by another person’s achievements. If another person’s achievement puts you under pressure to be at par with them, then that is no longer ambition but covetousness. When you have an insatiable desire to acquire wealth or material possessions at any cost and by any means possible, that is covetousness.
1 Timothy 6:9: “But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.” NLT
Why it raises serious concerns for us today:
Covetousness has been doctrinalized in many local churches today and is commonly termed the prosperity gospel. By contrast, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior taught the virtues of godliness and contentment, which are the very opposite of the so-called prosperity gospel.
Matthew 6:31: “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing.”
Matthew 6:32: “Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.”
Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Matthew 6:34: “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
For about two thousand years since His ascension to heaven, Jesus Christ’s disciples all over the world have faithfully adhered to His core ministerial values: the redemption of the soul from sin, deliverance of the spirit from Satan and demons, and the healing of the body from sicknesses. Nothing was ever said about prosperity as a core value of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry until the 20th century when it was championed. What informed the paradigm shift from Jesus Christ’s teaching on the redemption of the soul as a prerequisite for eternal life to today’s teaching on the prosperity of the Christian as proof of redemption?
This whole new doctrine began in the United States as the church’s effort to align with the cultural “American Dream,” which is a capitalist ideal. The idea is simple: if God, through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, can redeem the soul, deliver the spirit, and heal the body, then He can also help the Christian achieve the “American Dream.”
The proponents of that new gospel may have meant well for their audiences, but it is evident they never anticipated the far-reaching consequences it would later unleash on the world at large—a consequence so large in scope and so heavy in cost that the body of Christ is still reeling from its negative impact.
Today, the word of God prophesied about two thousand years ago has found fulfillment in the lives of many Christians of this generation:
1 Timothy 6:3: “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing.”
1 Timothy 6:4: “He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words, from which come envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions.”
1 Timothy 6:5: “And constant friction between people of corrupt minds, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” NLT
I conducted an online research on how this all began, and below is a summary of my findings:
The prosperity gospel wasn’t championed by one person from one country—it developed in stages across the U.S. first, then spread globally. But here are the key figures and where they’re from:
1. U.S. — The originators (1940s-1980s)
This is where it started, mainly within the Pentecostal and Word of Faith movements.
- E.W. Kenyon (1867–1948) — USA: Often called the “father of Word of Faith.” A Baptist pastor who blended evangelical theology with New Thought ideas about faith and positive confession. His writings influenced later leaders.
- Oral Roberts (1918–2009) — USA: One of the first to bring it to mass audiences in the 1950s-60s through his healing crusades and “seed-faith” teaching—give money as a seed, expect a financial harvest.
- Kenneth Hagin (1917–2003) — USA: Called the “father of the modern Word of Faith movement.” He systematized the theology in the 1970s-80s and trained a whole generation of preachers through Rhema Bible College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- Kenneth Copeland (b. 1936) — USA: Hagin’s student. He made it a global brand through TV, books, and conferences from the 1970s onward.
- T.L. Osborn (1923–2013) — USA: He taught prosperity as part of redemption from the early 1960s, though his focus was missions rather than personal wealth.
2. Nigeria — The African pioneer (1970s onward)
- Benson Idahosa (1938–1998) — Nigeria: The first major African preacher to adopt and popularize prosperity teaching in Africa after his time at Christ for the Nations in the U.S. in 1971. He’s called the “father of Nigerian Pentecostalism,” and his 1973 revelation marked the start of prosperity preaching in West Africa.
3. Other global champions (1980s-2000s)
- Joel Osteen (b. 1963) — USA: Made it mainstream through Lakewood Church and TV, with a softer, motivational version.
- Creflo Dollar (b. 1962) — USA: Prominent Word of Faith teacher from Atlanta, Georgia.
- David Oyedepo (b. 1954) — Nigeria: Founder of Living Faith Church, aka Winners’ Chapel. He’s Africa’s wealthiest pastor and built prosperity teaching into one of the largest church networks on the continent.
- Edir Macedo (b. 1945) — Brazil: Founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Mixed prosperity with deliverance ministry.
The pattern
- Rooted in the U.S. in the post-WWII healing revival, influenced by New Thought and “Gospel of Wealth” ideas from the 1800s.
- Exported to Africa and Latin America in the 1970s-1990s through Bible schools, missionaries, and media. Nigeria became the biggest hub in Africa.
Important note: Not all Pentecostals teach the prosperity gospel. Many reject the “name it and claim it” version while still teaching that God provides for needs.
In concluding this sermon, I think it is necessary to share my own firsthand information about Bishop Benson Idahosa, as he was then known. Although I have not actually met him in person, I have listened to and watched his messages. It is unlikely for anyone to be his audience and not be awestruck by his faith in God, passion for souls, and boldness in confronting any challenges to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, posed by anything or anyone. Perhaps this is the more reason I still mourn him today and sometimes wish that Abubakar Sadiq’s revelation was not true. But the more I thought about it, the more I see why it must be the truth. Below are some of the things I learned firsthand from Benson Idahosa’s messages and from information gleaned from online documents.
FIRST: After he got saved at the age of 14 in 1952, he began his ministry in 1957 at the age of 19. In 14 years of preaching (by 1971) he had planted more than 6,000 churches in Nigeria and Ghana. All that while, his message was simple: salvation, healing, and deliverance through the name of Jesus Christ. All went well with him and the ministry, and God was glorified.
SECOND: In 1971 he left Nigeria to study at Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A., under a scholarship from Gordon Lindsey. While there, the prosperity gospel, which had already been in America for three decades, greatly influenced him. He made new acquaintances with some prosperity preachers like T.L. Osborn and Oral Roberts. However, by the next year (1972), after he had returned to Nigeria, the seed for the new phase of his ministry had already been sown.
THIRD: In 1973 he began his prosperity message, claiming that God wants believers delivered from poverty just as from sickness.
He also claimed to have received a direct revelation from God: “The world is complaining of poverty…. I have asked the cashiers of heaven to be on duty as long as you have a need…. I shall supply all your needs according to my riches in glory.” Philippians 4:19.
He also claimed that God told him:
“Wake up, go to the church in the morning, and tell them poverty died last night.”
From that year onward, Benson Idahosa began to teach prosperity as part of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. It became central to his ministry.
FOURTH: In one of his messages, which I listened to, he said that he and his wife visited the T.L. Osborn family in California, U.S.A. His host took him around the high-brow estates of that state to help him look for a house to buy. At the time, his ministry was not yet financially strong enough to buy any of those properties, so the Osborns proposed a deal: he could choose any house he liked, and they would make payment, which Benson Idahosa would repay in the future when his ministry had made enough money.
After they had returned from inspecting those beautiful mansions, Benson Idahosa said that very night God spoke to him and sternly warned him not to spend that night in America, or else He (God) would kill him.
He woke up afraid and told his host what had happened and of his plans to return to Nigeria immediately, even though it was fast approaching midnight. His wife would not follow, saying it was his call, not hers. Well, he was able to catch the last flight and barely made it back to Nigeria.
Personally, I strongly believe that that encounter with God at the T.L. Osborn home was God’s clear warning that his newfound alliance with American prosperity preachers was unacceptable. However, despite that warning, he went on to forge an alliance not only with T.L. Osborn but also with other American churches where he often graced their pulpits as a guest preacher.
FIFTH: Shortly before his death in 1998, I read a newspaper publication of a message he preached, which was one of his last before he died. In that Sunday sermon, he was reported as saying it was time for the ministry to return to the first messages they were initially known for. He acknowledged that the prosperity gospel had brought many blessings to them, but that it was time to revert to their roots and focus more on the message of salvation.
Well, he had, by those statements, actually told the truth, because a preacher who at one point was riding a bicycle from one location to another doing ministerial work for God, but at the tail end of his ministry was riding expensive cars and flying in aircraft, must have truly been blessed. But can we attribute every blessing to God? If, just before his death—perhaps less than two weeks prior—he saw the need to return to his beginning, then I doubt he was satisfied with what his ministry had become. He seemed, rather, to have been troubled.
Proverbs 10:22: “The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” NLT
I must state clearly here that I have nothing against anyone being blessed, as long as it is from God. Indeed, I personally pray for God’s blessings, but in strict compliance with what the Word of God allows.
The founders of the prosperity gospel are almost all dead now, but their works have survived them. The pertinent question to ask is: has the prosperity gospel made the body of Christ any better than it was before the 20th century? Personally, I do not think so. It has transformed many local churches from a heavenly-minded bride into a worldly-minded harlot. Their messages reek of covetousness, and their vision is more of earthly values than heavenly ones. Can we say with certainty that a church such as that is blessed by God?
It is high time we returned to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and lived by faith, as the true disciples of Jesus Christ did in the olden days, believing that God will take care of our needs as we serve Him wholeheartedly.
Hebrews 13:5: “Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.”
Let us watch out for merchant-styled ministries and ministers who are out there looking for yet another soul to make their disciple, just for the fleeting promises of this present and temporal world, while doing nothing tangible to help them experience the true redemption of the soul from sin and worldly vanities.
2 Peter 2:3: “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
God will judge every covetous heart and the lips that, by guile, have deceived precious souls into accepting a man-conceived and man-propagated gospel, which was never championed by Jesus Christ or any of His faithful followers.
Let us be wary of the danger of destroying the labor of our predecessors who protected the sanctity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with their life’s blood so that it might reach to the ends of the world, as Jesus Christ commanded. Impeding the spread of the true Gospel’s message is not without dire consequences, both in time and in eternity.
Galatians 1:6-8: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another; but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”