Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has commended the General Overseer of the Lord’s Chosen Charismatic Revival Ministries, Worldwide, Pastor Lazarus Muoka for the positive impact he has made in his life and that of other Bayelsans.
Diri made the commendation when he visited the church recently during its Mgbidi 2024 Lagos Experience programme with theme, “What God Has Determined Shall Be Done,” held at the church’s headquarters in Ijesha, Lagos.
The governor who came with a retinue of aides caused a stir when his name and his entourage were mentioned before the huge congregation in the church. A special choir made up of Bayelsans rendered songs in local Bayelsa language to the admiration of the governor and his team, and to the glory of God.
Appreciating the pastor, whom he described as ‘our papa,’ the governor said: “I also want to acknowledge the General Overseer, our Papa who has done so well, not only in my life, but in the lives of many Bayelsans and I know that the church is growing in leaps and bounds. I will like to encourage all of us who are worshipping God, heaven is an individual race and as I sat down listening to most of the testimonies and if you are not convinced that there is a God that rules in the affairs of men then you cannot worship God. If you are looking up only to somebody and you yourself is not entirely convinced then something is wrong with you. The conviction begins with you the moment you are convinced then God is going to walk with you.”
Diri noted that by February 14, 2024, his administration would have finished its first tenure of four years and would go in for the second tenure of another four years.
Disclosing why he came to the church, Diri said if he could go anywhere in the world to watch football or world cup, nothing stops him from leaving Yenagoa to Lagos to worship God.
The governor urged Nigerian families and the church to restore the nation’s lost values, which according to him, are fast eroding and the youths are the worst affected.
He said that the families and the church should rise up and train the children in the way of the Lord, so that, when they grow up they would not depart from the knowledge.
He said: “Our problem in Nigeria is not physical, our problem is that we are losing our value system and we are becoming lawless. If you know God and if our parents put in us like my parents did those values as we are growing up. The Bible says when you grow up you will not depart from it. That is the missing link in our society now. Our people want to get rich quickly and it is because the values are not there again. There are people who want to kill somebody for somebody else’s property like the testimony we heard from the lady earlier and that is because there are no values and, so, there are two institutions that are very important — the family and the church. They must rise again! If your children cannot emulate these values, then they will grow up to become a problem rather than an asset to the society. But I believe that with what I am seeing here and I have been seeing then God is at work.”
