Don’t surrender integrity for contracts — Pastor tells Church

A popular eye specialist and veteran preacher in the Upper East region has observed individuals and organisations do suffer abuse and are consciously denied business contracts just for being honest.

Such victimisation, he indicates, has a strong tendency of leading some well-meaning persons or groups into throwing decency away and eventually getting on the corruption bandwagon just to stay alive and relevant.

But he has told a congregation how to handle it when ‘corrupt powers’ deliberately shut their eyes on competence and viciously blacklist them from contract opportunities for being straightforward for public good.

“You must desire to lead a good life. Let’s all be honest in our offices. Let us say no to things that are not good. When you do that (saying no to things that are not good) you will not get contracts; but God will save you.

“That is the only way we can help prevent corruption in Ghana. It takes the church to walk in obedience, faithfulness and in the practice of the Lord for all others to see and emulate us,” said Rev. David Alale, Upper East Regional General Overseer of the High Powered Ministries International.

The respected eye doctor, whom many still prefer for healthcare despite retiring four years ago from saving sights to saving souls as a full-time minister, was speaking at a convention organised for members of the church. It was hosted by the City of Power— the church’s branch in Bolgatanga, Upper East regional capital.

His sermon, centred on the theme for the conference, “The Harvest is Here”, climaxed a three-day dry fast observed by members at the camp.

The Time is Short

Throughout his almost-an-hour-long sermon, the preacher, dressed in an all-white suit and an inner shirt dyed in a dark shade of red, emphasised the need for the church to intensify its soul-winning efforts because “the time is short”.

Referring to a multitude of wrongdoers waiting for just a message from the church to trigger a change in their lives as “a ripe harvest” and as “labourers” the Christians who were resolved to deliver the message, he observed the ‘harvest’ was ready but acknowledged the ‘labourers’ were few.

The few labourers, he said, would find the necessary reinforcement only if more Christians would, like Esther did pursue Israel’s interest in the Bible, devote their lives to evangelism regardless of their positions in society and, like the biblical Daniel and Paul the Apostle withstood all odds, sustain the flames of the redemption mission.

“As you go home,” he told a determined flock on the last day of the long fast, “you must abundantly labour to lead a multitude to heaven so that people, our brothers and sisters will not go to hell because of our laziness.”

He also emphasised: “Let us be mindful of the commandment the Lord gave us— to bring souls to God. Don’t be ashamed of the gospel. The harvest is here. And the time is short.”

The atmosphere inside the packed auditorium at Gambibgo, where the church’s branch is planted, as he preached and the choir sang, revived the experience the early Christians were said to have had when a heavy downpour of God’s Spirit filled their temporary ‘hideout’— the Upper Room— in Rome-controlled Jerusalem about two thousand years ago.

And just as the first Christians needed divine support for the soul-saving commission ahead of them, the Regional Overseer underscored the need for the present-day Christians also to seek God’s backing for the ‘harvest’ task assigned them.

“You cannot do it alone. Enoch walked with God. We must learn to walk with the Lord. You need the presence of God. You need the support and constant direction of God to be able to have a very good harvest,” affirmed Rev. Alale.

Origin and Purpose of Ahava

The church calls its annual camp meeting Ahava— a Hebrew word for “love”. And the idea of members abstaining from food for three days originated from a biblical episode in which a general fast was declared near a river called Ahava as the people of Israel braced themselves for a journey.

“Ahava means love and a place of total dependence on God. It is a time or a period where members of High Powered Ministries International all over come together to wait on the Lord for three-day fasting and prayer to seek the right way, to be empowered by God and for direction for the year or the month ahead of us.

“So, every first Friday of January, all of us will come together and pray. We used to call it camp meeting; but it is now Ahava. It’s a Hebrew word we picked from the Book of Ezra Chapter 8 Verse 21. If you read, you will see it written:

‘There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions’. It’s usually a dry fast from the first Friday to the first Sunday of every year,” Rev. Joseph Kobre, City of Power’s Resident Pastor and National Mission Director of the High Powered Ministries International, told Starr News.