The Annual Ministers’ Retreat 2024 of Unfailing Life International holds from Wednesday 11 -Saturday 14 December, 2024 at True Faith Christian Centre, Lagos. Rev. Jose Hizkiah, the host of the 4-day retreat titled Come Up Higher with free accommodation and feeding for all the participants, shares with Christian Benefits in the below interview the expectations from the interdenominational retreat, which according to Hizkiah, is aimed at lifting ministers of God from all the walks of life, churches and ministries for divine empowerment and restoration.
“At this retreat those who have backslidden, particularly ministers of God, shall be fully restored and empowered ahead of the imminent purging and cleansing that will sweep like waves across Nigeria and churches in 2025. There will be prayers for restoration and empowerment. We are going to pray, and God will open doors for Nigeria, churches, ministries, ministers and individuals. God will visit all the participants, rebrand them and they would begin to speak the word of Jesus, and Mark 16 will come alive in their lives.” Jose Hizkiah assures. Read the details below.
Briefly, share with us about your background, including your salvation encounter.
I schooled at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka, Lagos before traveling to the United States where I lived for about 30 years and returned to Nigeria. I had an encounter with Jesus Christ from a devoted Islamic background. Subsequently, the Lord asked me if I wanted to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. I said yes. Suddenly, a lightening came upon my heart. I jerked up and started praying in the Holy Ghost. These were some of my salvation experiences from the Islam faith to the Christian faith.
At what point in your walk with the Lord did you receive the call to ministry?
Initially, when the Lord spoke to me about my coming to ministry I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to be where I would be collecting the people’s money. Eventually, I yielded when the Lord said he had called me to go and correct the wrongs in churches, including the shepherds feasting on the flock instead of feeding them.
Share with us your preparation before answering the call to ministry
I did Bible School Correspondence with Kenneth Hagins Institute. In my quest to know all the nitty-gritty of the Bible due to my calling as a prophet and teacher, someone got me the Hebrew and the Greek Bibles. So, I studied both the Hebrew and the Greek Bibles. In 1994, when the Lord told me I was going back to Nigeria, I said over my dead body until I started seeing the vision of Jonah and knew I was heading for serious troubles if I didn’t pack my bags and return to Nigeria. Before I converted to a Christian and later received God’s call to ministry, I grew up a very bad boy. I was into all manners of evil acts as a student at UNILAG. I was into drinking, smoking, womanizing and all of such acts. I wasn’t even doing well in my studies because I was hardly in school. But with the help of God I graduated, did my youth service and bided Nigeria goodbye for the U.S. I said bye-bye to this God-forsake country, but now I know that Nigeria is a blessed country. Aside my Bible School Correspondence with Kenneth Hagins Institute, I attended Bro. Gbile Akanni Bible School, Gboko; travelling from Lagos to Gboko, Benue State. God took time to prepare me. Bishop Mike Okonkwo played a very important role in my life. When I returned to Nigeria I was attending his church. Though I wasn’t pastoring, he took me as his son. He tutored me. He prayed for me. As a matter of fact, Bishop Okonkwo was the one who prayed for me and sent me into ministry. He is my spiritual father. There is no controversy about that. He is a genuine man of God.
What were some of the things you had to sacrifice to serve the Lord?
I sacrificed a whole lot! First was my attitude before accepting Christ. I let go a whole house filled with all manners of material possessions that people would love to have. I left all to serve the Lord. I returned to Nigeria with just the only wears I wore. All my loads could fit into a nylon bag. God really disrobed me. Of course all those things were ill-gotten. So, God didn’t want the garbage to come with me.
What is the specific mandate of your commission by God into ministry?
The first call I heard from God was to be a minister to ministers. I was like I didn’t even know John 3:16 very well, and you say you are calling me to be a minister to ministers. The Lord sent a word to me that he was inviting me to minister to his ministers at a conference. I was like does he know who I am? What do I know that I would minister to ministers? I kept declining but the spirit of the Lord kept nudging me to accept until I did. That marked a new beginning in my life in 1993.
Please, tell us about that new beginning since 1993
I thought I knew nothing and that what I was teaching was elementary until I got to Benin. The host minister told me some ministers wanted to see me. I told him they can meet me in the hotel. When those ministers came to the hotel they said they had heard my teaching, unfortunately the ministry that invited me was not giving me enough time to minister to them what God has given to me. So, they encouraged me to start my own ministers’ conference and they would sponsor me. The next time I went there it was on our own platform. And that was the beginning of the explosion of our ministry. Today, we go everywhere. Recently, we were Rwanda for a ministers’ conference, and from there to Kenya. We hold ministers’ meeting every last Friday of the month. If I’m walking on the road and a minister passes me I would know he is a minister because that call is upon my life. We don’t run a church ministry.
You don’t run a church-based ministry yet you have your books everywhere. How do you fund and distribute your books without collecting tithes and offerings?
It’s the grace of God. I thank God for my wife. She is very supportive. When you have a spouse who supports and agrees with the vision God has given you it makes things very easy. My wife supports the ministry with her salary. The best thing that happened to me when I returned to Nigeria is my wife, Oluwatoyin. When the Lord started with us, she wrote a book on Outpouring of the Spirit and we gave all the copies of the book out free of charge. When we got to Ijegun, I wrote a book, and the Lord told me on every Sunday morning, go to all the churches in the neighborhood and give out the book free of charge. As at that time, I was looking to sell the book. I had already calculated the profits we would make from the sales. That was how we started the ministers’ fellowship every last Friday of the month. We have been writing and publishing books for years now, distributing them everywhere free. We started with newsletters and ran that for about three years. When the Lord saw the fruitfulness He opened the doors of book writing for us. And to the glory of God, we have written about 61 books and published about 35. We have a website people can visit and download our books free of charge.
What’s the central focus of the books?
The central focus of our book writings and publishing is Christ. We write books on the full counsels of God: Holiness, Faith, Evangelism, Holy Spirit, Discipleship etc. As a matter of fact, my best book is written on the Holy Spirit which is about 400 pages, and that is Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first edition was 120 pages. About four years later the Lord gave us more insights on the subject and we wrote about 400 pages on it. As the Lord leads wherever I go, I pick our books along for distribution. We sold our books in the past until the time the Lord said no.
How receptive are churches to your book writing and publishing ministry?
It’s a mixed feeling. Some feel like we are in competition with them. And some feel like we have come to steal their members; and I’m like if I don’t have a church-based ministry if I steal your members where am I taking them to. Some open to us with wide arms while some feel like we are in a competition with them.
Can you share some of the things that sustain your home and ministry?
It is the love of God and faith in Christ. The love of God pushes us beyond limits. My wife is writing a book presently. As she’s doing her own, I am doing my own. My knowledge of the Basic sciences gives me the grace to be able to write, because I remember at the University of Lagos where we write 12 pages on glycolysis, biochemistry and all that. It’s like God has prepared me for this kind of ministry.
How will you relate the mandate of your ministry; minister to ministers, to the Annual Ministers’ Retreat 2024 of your ministry from December 11-14, 2024?
The Lord came reminding me of a vision I had about 12 years ago where he lifted me up to about 20 storey buildings. In that revelation I saw an ocean shore and gigantic waves coming. When the waves got to the shore the water splashed and hit me. It was refreshing. I looked again and saw another waves coming behind. Immediately, I knew it was the move of the spirit of God coming. And that spirit came speaking about his son: “The time and season has come. I want my people to hear this.” In addition, at a meeting in Enugu I raised a particular hymn song and we saw the movement of God into that place, and the Lord began talking about consecration. When we talk about consecration we go back to the story of Aaron and how Moses brought them, in the book of Leviticus, where God was talking about the cleansing and the purging of His people. In 2025, the time has come for Nigeria to experience purging and cleansing. At this retreat those who have backslidden, particularly ministers of God, will be fully restored and empowered ahead of the imminent purging and cleansing that will sweep like waves across Nigeria and many churches in 2025. There will be prayers for restoration and empowerment. We are going to pray, and God will open doors for Nigeria, churches, ministries, ministers and individuals. God will visit all the participants, rebrand them and they would begin to speak the word of Jesus, and Mark 16 will come alive in their lives.
