Bishop Theophilous Ugochukwu, the General Overseer of Miracle Assembly Bible Church, Lagos, had shared with Christian Benefits magazine how he died on January 24th, 2018 but surprisingly came back to life (resurrected) few hours later.
Bishop Dr. Ugochukwu’s reported back-from-death experience is one of such accounts in recent times by some ministers of God who were reported to have transited to the great beyond, mysteriously returned from the land of the dead and shared accounts of life in heaven and hell. Some even mentioned some prominent late pastors they claimed they saw languishing and gnashing their teeth in hell fire!
Although Bishop Ugochukwu didn’t claim he saw any pastor in heaven or hell fire when he “died,” his account of his reported death and resurrection is a reminder of the inevitability of death and the need for everyone to live aright, particularly in Christ, while alive. He shares his account with Christian Benefits magazine thus:
“On January 24th, 2018 I died as a result of a health challenge I had shortly after I returned from a deliverance assignment in my village. I went for a medical check-up in a hospital and tests were conducted on me. The medicals were going well until I suddenly passed out and found myself in a place I was later told in that transition was heaven. Those who witnessed the incident at the hospital said the doctors battled to bring me back to live to no avail and gave up on me. According to them, about eight hours later when I was about to be packed up into the morgue, suddenly I sneezed and came back to life. The doctors, staffs and other people who were around when I died were amazed. It was an experience that changed my life.”
He continues: “After this experience, my message changed. My worldview changed. My mentality about ministry and church changed. I received a fresh assignment to preach about the shortness and vanities of life. I discovered that what we are doing in ministry or church is entertainment. Heaven is a beautiful place. There are no class divisions in heaven. After the encounter, my message to people is there is a place called heaven. I’m not afraid to speak the truth. The joy of making heaven is important. Most ministers of God on earth are building walls to cage their members. My focus now is to win souls into God’s kingdom, depopulate hell and affect lives positively with the gospel of Christ. I’ve written a book titled “What I saw in Heaven,” the cleric disclosed to Christian Benefits magazine.
Bishop Dr. Theophilus Ugochukwu has his divine assignment in ministry clearly cut out from childhood. Although he was raised in a humble and idolatry family, providence again led him to become a mass server in a Catholic church. “I was born in a poor and wretched family who served idols. When the chief priest died when I was young the gods were consulted for his successor. The oracle chose me as his successor but I was too young for that position. In a bid to prevent me from been enforced on that position, my mother handed me over to a Reverend Father in a Catholic church. And I served as a man servant in that parish for nine years.
“In one of those days the Reverend Father said he saw me in a dream ministering a mass service; which indicated that God has called me to do His work. The priest was ready to single-handedly train me to be a priest but my mother wouldn’t want none of such because according to her she desired I raise children. So, she told me to pack my belongings from the parish and return home. I informed the priest about what my mother told me. He respected my mother’s decision because he had a great respect for my parents. So, I left the parish to go live with my in-law. That was how the journey of my life to becoming a Catholic priest was abruptly ended.”
Although the young Theophilous’ journey to a priesthood as a Catholic priest was truncated, that never altered God’s divine purpose for him to become his servant as he eventually became a Pentecostal priest (pastor) and General Overseer of Miracle Assembly Church, Mende, Maryland, Lagos. “It was my grandmother who first noticed the call of God upon my life through my weird utterances. When she was alive, I often told her to remove her kitchen utensils from a particular portion in our house; that the place would be used for God’s work. When she died that portion was given to me and there was where I started my ministry in my village in Imo State. I eventually pulled down an ancestral altar in my village.”
Today, Miracle Assembly Bible Church, Mende, Lagos, is a renowned deliverance and prophetic ministry with unusual unction through which God is mightily using his servant, Bishop Ugochukwu in delivering people from captivity at the church’s weekly services and monthly Freedom Night and Higher Level programmes. “God sent me as a deliverer to people. There is a testimony of a young man who was about to hand over the keys of his shop to his landlord over a huge debts he owed. But after prayers, things changed for him. One young man confessed he saw me in a dream and asked me what he could do for the church. I told him to buy three bags of cement for the church. He obeyed and God turned his life around. I have the gift of unusual unction: There is a testimony of another man whose shop at Mandillas was spared by a fire incident that consumed other shops. Our unction is authentic from God,” the amiable Bishop Ugochukwu finally remarked.
