5 interesting things you may not know about Word of Life Bible Church

In a recent interview with Vanguard, Pastor (Mrs) Helen Oritsejafor provided valuable insight into her husband's ministry.

Here is what she shared:

The church had only one branch for 30 years

According to Pastor (Mrs) Oritsejafor, Word of Life Bible Church had just one branch for 30 years after it was founded on November 15, 1987. This was the headquarters at the International Gospel Center in Ajamimogha, Warri, Delta State.

She explains why saying, "that is in obedience to what God told him. Daddy is a man who sticks to whatever God tells him to do. He would always say that he doesn't have any point to prove to anybody.

"He's traversed all over the world and quite naturally, he would have been able to start branches all over such places because there were people literarily pleading for his approval to change the names of their ministries to Word Of Life Bible Church, but he would tell them God hasn't directed him to such arrangement."

From one branch to over 80

30 years after its inception, Pastor Oritsejafor finally got the go-ahead from God to not only anoint ministers but also to have branches, at least 80 of them.

In Pastor (Mrs) Oritsejafor's words, "Before the 30th anniversary of the church, God spoke to him, saying: "Word of Life has come of age. It's now time to begin to do what I have never asked you to do." You know besides starting branches, he has never ordained any of his numerous pastors for 30 years. What he usually did was to bring you to his office and pray with you and that's it.

"God said the first thing to do was to conduct a screening of over 1,000 ministers for the first ordination service in Word of Life. And we ordained close to 1,000 ministers in one fell swoop. How were the newly ordained ministers deployed? After the ordination, he announced we were going to have branches and to the glory of God, over 80 teaching centers across the state were transformed to become branches and the International Gospel Centre is now the headquarters of Word of Life Church."

This inaugural induction and ordination of Pastors, Assistant Pastors, Deacons, Deaconesses, Elders, and Gideonites took place on Thursday the 26th of April 2018.

ALSO READ: Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor says penalty for not paying your tithe is death

The mission is to heal the land

On Facebook, the church's official page states that the mission is to take the word to the world while building and equipping people who build the nation.

In this interview, the founder's wife offers more details saying, "He told us that He wants to use Word of Life Bible Church to heal the land; not only spiritually but also financially, materially, maritally and in every other sphere of human life."

She goes on to add while sobbing, "People often regarded as nobody, through Word of Life, he will now make them people of substance. It was that mandate that led me to the markets where, by the special grace of God, over 700 children have now been given scholarships from primary school to the university level. It's the greatest joy for us to see that people who could have ended up as agberos or street urchins can now have an opportunity to acquire education."

The church has 14 beliefs

According to the church's website, these beliefs are the Holy Bible (II Tim.3:16–17), the trinity known as the God-Head (II Cor. 13–14), repentance towards God (Acts 3:19), restitution where possible (Luke 19:8–9), sanctification (I Thess. 4:3), baptism of the Holy Spirit (Mk. 16:17–18) and water Baptism by Immersion(Acts 8:38,39).

Others include divine healing (Isaiah 53:5), second coming of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:9–11), existence of both eternal Heaven and hell (Rev. 14:1–11), the Lord's supper (I Cor. 11:23–28), marriage (Matt. 11:9, I Cor.7:15), compulsory tithing (Mal. 3:7–10), justification and regeneration (John 3:3).

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It all started with a divine vision

Most churches started with a vision from God and Pastor Oritsejafor's ministry is no different. Many years ago while he thinking about leaving the All Nations For Christ Bible Institute, Benin City, he got a vision in the bathroom.

Reportedly, he saw himself wearing a suit with a tie and preaching to thousands of people. This image was accompanied by a voice. It said: "This is what you are going to be doing the rest of your life. Take my word to the world".

This vision encouraged him to remain in Bible school. He later enrolled with the Nigerian Baptist Seminary, Ogbomosho in Oyo State, before moving to the United States for further studies at Morris Cerullo's School of Ministry (El Cortez), San Diego, California in 1979.

Pastor Oritsejafor eventually started his church before becoming the National President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) on February 7, 2005.

After holding this position for 5years, he became the first Pentecostal leader to be elected as the President of the Christian Association of Nigerian (CAN) in July 2010.