Pastors now wish their wives death.
Shocked? Don’t be because it is a fact.
An evangelist, Wale Olugbenro told our correspondent that he was shocked to his bones when he participated in a prayer meeting at a prayer mountain in Oyo State when a popular televangelist called a prayer point asking men who wanted their wives dead in a matter of days to raise their hands.
“I was shocked when more than half of the men at the prayer meeting who were more of pastors raised their hands. I could not continue in that meeting. The men were called out and the televangelist prayed asking that God will heed their request.”
Olugbenro who runs an independent evangelistic ministry said in his 20 years of ministry he had not experienced anything like that. “The implication of what happened in that prayer meeting is that all is not well in many homes. I think sometimes the untimely death of some pastors’ wives could be traced to these evil prophetic prayers rendered in some prayer mountains,” he said.
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Beyond the satanic prayers being prayed against this class of women is the glaring cases of loneliness that many of them are going through and the threat some of them face from strange women who are eyeing their position as the first lady of the church.
A particular General Overseer (names withheld) who lost his wife a few years ago was thrown off balance when some women in the church were literally fighting to marry him after his wife’s demise. The G.O had to settle for a woman who had been helping his family before the wife died to fence off the competition and clampdown on the agitation of the ambitious women.
The undue lust for the position of the first lady in churches perhaps informed the decision of many General Overseers who lost their wives to look for women outside their assemblies.
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The new wife of the General Overseer of Revival Assembly, Apostle Anselm Madubko is from Kenya; that of Pastor Odukoya is from South Africa. The General Overseer of Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor Williams Kumuyi had to marry a sister who had been living in the UK when his former wife died while the recently wedded Prophet Kayode Abiara married from the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministry when he wanted to remarry after his former wife’s demise.
The issue of marriage and remarriage however is just one of the many issues in the homes of church leaders. But our findings reveal that many of the women suffer because they do not understand the full spiritual implication of the call of their husbands. And their husbands too are to blame. Also, many of them think being the wife of a pastor confers the title of a pastor on them automatically. This is worrisome and perhaps the reason many of them face spiritual attacks and sometimes untimely death.
For those who have earned the call to ministry over the years through their activities and being able to stay under the mentorship of their husbands it has been a smooth sail. But that still has not shielded them from being victims of church politics, satanic attack and the indiscretion of many church members.
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A prophetess, Margaret Mayaki noted in an interview that many pastors who have challenges with their husbands are pastors who feel threatened by the progress of their wives while in some other cases their wives seem not to fit into the billing of a pastor’s wife. “I think the challenge arise because some pastors married before being pastors. Their wives did not bargain for their new status so there are bound to be challenges especially when such women are not spiritually equipped for the role they are expected to play. I think it’s one area the church has to look into.”
The President of Grace Missions International, Pastor Tokunbo Emmanuel expressed great dismay at the situation in the homes of many pastors noting that it is not exaggeration to say many leaders and pastors are going through trying and challenging times in their homes.
“It is true many pastors’ homes are challenged and this is due to multiple factors. One of such reasons is because some women in church see their pastors’ wives as not being qualified to occupy that position so they scheme for the position. I think the role of the wife of a pastor is an endangered one. She is the one who bears the consequences of all the decisions carried out in the church. She makes sacrifices and suffer a lot of things silently.
The husband on the other is busy taking care of the flock and sometimes gives little attention to the home. So when the wife now wants to assert herself she becomes a bad person in the eyes of the people her husband is pastoring”
Emmanuel who has been in ministry for over 30 years however notes that some women are also responsible for the problem they encounter in their homes.
“There are cases of women, like the case of Jim Baker’s wife in the US who was the one putting undue pressure on her husband, who create the template for trouble in their homes. But he however noted that no matter the trouble, pastors should not result to praying death for their wives. “If it is getting to that I think the pastor should rather seek for counsel and take a break from the marriage rather than wishing death for his wife.”
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The cleric observes further that not every woman can be a pastor’s wife. “That is why it is important for any servant of God who wants to marry to take time to seek the face of God while every woman who wants to marry a pastor should also be ready for the attendant challenges which I think are not insurmountable. But for those who have already married before they get into ministry, I will suggest they take time to get counsel when things are going awry. The church should begin to have a system of conflict management to help pastors who have challenges. As it is many pastors are lonely. They don’t know where to go and sometimes pride would not allow them open up on the pains they are going through in their homes”
Citing a case he is currently handling, he said, “That some pastors pray death for their wives is shocking but the truth is that the situation we find ourselves these days is worrisome. There is a particular case of a couple I know very well. The husband runs a church but yet the husband packed out of the matrimonial home to live with another woman. He abandoned his wife and his only child. So cases like this indeed calls for prayers and the church should begin to build mechanisms that would help pastors out of problems.”