Waiting mothers should not lose hope until they go to the grave-Pastor Gbenga Oso

For 15 years, Pastor Gbenga Oso, General Overseer, Laughter Foundation Cathedral has been in the ministry of standing in the gap, praying and interceding for women who are trusting God for the fruit of the womb.
In this interview with the Church Times team, Oso whose ministry
boast of incredible testimonies of waiting mothers and how they got their
breakthroughs share his experience in the ministry. He posits that a woman should not give up hope of a child until she goes to be with the Lord.

You have a very unique ministry of praying for women who are trusting God for the fruit of the womb. How did you come about it in the first place?

I have been a minister of the gospel in my former church, Gospel Faith Ministry. I was actually running a ministry until God asked me to focus on the ministry of women as it relates with the fruit of the womb. It was a bit difficult for me to comprehend what God was trying to do through me until I started obeying him and the results started showing. To me that was a strong indication that God wanted to primarily concern myself with interceding for women who are trusting God for the fruit of the womb.

Were you married before you started the ministry?

I had been married and I had been in ministry. Though I had some delays before we started having children, it wasn’t because of that I went to the ministry. It was largely because God gave me a specific instruction to go into that area of ministry.

What kind of delay did you have?

I don’t want to go into the details of that but it is sufficient to know that I had delay. That is now history because I have five children now. But as I said God spoke to me that he wanted me to start a ministry that should focus on women. I accepted it because God asked me to do it but I was not too keen about it. What I did was to do a general ministration for people and preach on a wide range of issues.
But then when God instruction came, we started another session for women who were believing God for the fruit of the womb and we used to asked them to wait so that they could be prayed for specially. We were doing that for sometime when God told me later that He had not asked me to make that arrangement that I should concentrate my attention on interceding and praying for couples with problems of procreation. God actually said my primary ministry was for praying for women who have challenges in the area of child birth.

But you did not find it strange obeying the call?

If you walk with God and you know the way He deals with you, it is better to obey Him than give excuse. And that was what I did. I had to heed to what God was saying. I was surprised at the outcome. We started with eight people who were largely women and we went on to be 50, 70. In those days you hardly find men coming to such gathering. But one day somebody from BCOS television came to see what was going on and he saw the testimonies that were being shared.
He observed that what God was doing through us was unique that the earlier the whole world knew about it the better. He encouraged us to be on radio. The programme used to be monthly. To my surprise the attendance after the radio programme shot up to about 10 times the original number we had. That really encouraged me. We had
to transfer to another hall. For the first time I knew people had this
challenge of having children. From that time the place was jammed with people who have this challenge and we had to trust God to help us in meeting the needs of people. Later we went on television and things have been looking up since then. We began to have people from different parts of the country and even from outside. All these were happening in Ibadan.

So how did you come to Lagos?

Around 2001 I came from Ibadan to Lagos for a function and after the function I couldn’t go back to Ibadan. I went to rest somewhere. That night God spoke to me through a vision. He showed me the Marina. I asked God what was the meaning and He told me that I should move to Lagos, as an answer to the prayers of people. I was not ready to come because I had everything I needed in Ibadan.
The programme on television was very popular and there were many influential Nigerians sending their wives to our meeting and God was really working in the cases we laid before Him. But God insisted I had to come to Lagos. So in 2003 we came to Lagos holding a programme once in a month. I used to come on a
Saturday and go back that same day after the programme. But God insisted that I had to move permanently to Lagos. So in obedience to His call, we moved to Lagos in 2004.

How has it been coming to Lagos with this vision?

I have no regret. God has been faithful. He has proved himself on our behalf and incredible miracles have been taking place.

But then people must have critising what you are doing and saying how come you concentrate on issues of procreation. What has been your experience on this?

It is true people have been saying all kinds of things about the ministry. But that has not in anyway stopped us from doing what God asked us to do. That is why it is important that before somebody starts something, one should be very certain about what God is doing because if you are not sure all kinds of thing will crop up that will pull you back. My consolation is that God asked me to start the project and the person who asked me start has been backing me up.

Can you nail the criticism of people down to what they actually say when they pass comment on your ministry?

It is just one criticism. They say he is only talking about children, children and children whereas there are other areas of ministry that is not being touched.
But I know what God had called me to. There was a man of God on television who was preaching and saying there are some people who say it is one particular area they have been called into. There are many I can’t recollect but I see them as distractions and I don’t give attention to them.

In 15 years of ministry what has been the experience?

In 15 years we have had countless children born in this ministry through God’s intervention. It has been awesome. But there are some cases you can’t forget no matter how hard you try. One of such cases was when I was in Ibadan a woman a retired civil servant who has never had a child before became pregnant and delivered a child. That was not publicized the way we do now. She was coming to the church and brought her husband later. The man had grey hair all over. There was a time I had to rebuke her in the course of pregnancy. Her pension was not
paid and she said she was going to Abuja to process her pension. I rebuked her.
I said God has done something of this magnitude for you and you want to travel with it. You better live the issue of pension alone.
I actually asked her to forget the pension and concentrate on what God has done.
I told her the pregnancy was more than any pension. She had the baby
eventually. No Caesarean section. I have given the testimony several times in the church and many other testimonies of such abound.
One of such happened recently. The woman came to give testimony about a month ago. She has been married for 35 years. She came to Laughter Foundation and for the first time had a baby. She is 60 years this year. These are things you can’t forget because medical science will tell you that at 35 the chances of a lady having children begin to drop and when you clock 40 and a little bit after 40 your chances reduce drastically.

What is it that you here that are not done elsewhere which
brings result to the women?

We don’t do anything special. It is just that we follow God’s instruction. You know this is a calling. But in Laughter Foundation, if you are a lazy person it may be difficult to get result. Of course the grace of God is there for everybody. But here we spend time to seek the face of God because cases around procreation are spiritual and complex. We give prayer assignment. There are challenges that come one’s way that if one does not pray it won’t go. Before people come here with their challenges they must have tried several things and several places. That is human being for you. It is after those things don’t work that they come to Church. Since it is God that sent us to do this work, I always go back to God and seek His face for direction. For instance the case of the woman who has been married for 35 years there is nothing that she probably had not tried. So it is only a divine intervention from God that can put an end to the crisis.
What we have found out over the years is that when people have tried severally and nothing is happening, such cases are demonic cases. They are cases that cannot answer to any other thing except prayers. There are cases of people who dream and see the effect of the dream almost immediately. For instances people sleeping and dreaming and they see somebody telling them they will never have children in their life. In some cases people who have such dream just take it for granted and don’t really pray about it. And when things like that are happening
to somebody no matter what the person tries to do to have children, it will
come to nothing.

But there are medical breakthroughs now for most of the cases
which were considered demonic before?

That may be true but medical science has not found a solution to real demonic operations. The only thing that can give solution to such problem is the power of prayer and the word of God. In this part of the world, there is excessive wickedness and voodoo practice. When people in this part of the world want to make people to suffer they just wait for the day of the wedding. On the day of wedding, everybody is free. If you used to lock your gates, on the wedding day it is usually opened and people take advantage of this to perpetuate evil. And usually they want to make the couples miserable by making them not having children. And we all know that in this part of the world we cherish children.
Immediately one is married, there is expectation that they should begin to have children and if the children are not coming on time, the person is depressed and the couples are treated with some caution.
Apart from this there are some that are caused due to defect in the person which medical science can handle. But so many others are traced to voodoo and cases of people offending themselves and wanting to get back at each other.

Are there things to take note of before and after wedding that
can save couples from demonic attacks?

We usually warn couples who want to wed to be careful when opening their wedding gifts because people hide all kinds of things in the gifts to harm couples.
There was the case of a couple who saw a snail wrapped in one of the gifts
given to them on their wedding day. That snail is a symbol of slow progress. And that means before the couple move on in life their progress will be slow. Something they should achieve for three years will probably wait for 30 years.
I have personally had to help couples open their gifts and we have encountered all kinds of things.What I tell people is that there is nothing prayers cannot handle.

Are there precautions to take before marrying at all?

Every marriage is expected to bear fruit. That is the plan of God. The first blessing God gave to man was the blessing of the fruit of the womb. The Bible says: And God bless them and say they should be fruitful. That was the first thing before they were commanded to have dominion over the other creatures on earth. But because of the world we live there are precautions people who want to marry should take because the devil does not want man to have God’s blessings.
For example when it is dancing time for couples the bride and the groom should not get too close to those who have come to share in their joy for obvious reasons.
You don’t allow people to hold you. There are people who have used that to afflict people with all kinds of things. In this ministry we hear all kinds of
things and see so many things. And through word of knowledge we get to know some things. There are times God tells me somethings that I find difficult to believe and when such cases are mentioned you see them coming out and some manifesting. Some churches don’t allow those giving gifts to shake the couple because of what they have experienced in the past.

But they can come around after wedding to do the shaking and
hugging?

It is always difficult. After the wedding it is always not easy for people to have access to you like the wedding day. You decide who you want to meet and interact with. But on the wedding day, strange things happen and you cannot trace it to anybody because it is a free environment and perhaps you pay little attention to details because it is suppose to be a day of joy. We also advise people to always invite a third party when opening their gifts and also do it prayerfully. When we begin to open gifts we first separate those that don’t have names on them. The ones that have names you can be sure that you will not find something bad there. There was the case of somebody opening gifts and they found excreta in the gifts. The Bible says the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it.

But have you had cases of being attacked on this issue of being
used to deliver women from the bondage of barreness?

God has been faithful. We have had to deal with all kinds of cases and God has given us victory. That is why it is important that we follow God’s leading because when you follow God’s leading you get result and such result endures. I have not experienced any form of attack.

But there are cases of couples who don’t have children after being married for long but immediately they separate and marry somebody else
they start having children. How do you explain this?

It takes two to have children. I’m now talking naturally now. When people are married and are having problem in having children, it can be the wife, the husband and it can be both. That is why medical science says after a couple has been married for about a year and they have regular sexual intercourse and the wife is not getting pregnant they should seek for medical attention. It is the woman that is usually called first and then the man.
Like you said there are cases of a woman leaving her husband and getting pregnant for another man and the man also going to marry another wife and having children. But when it is confirmed that the two don’t have problem and they separate and start having children in their new union then the case could be spiritual. It could be that there has been a curse on the couple that their union will not bear fruit. It happens when the parents of one of them don’t want them to marry. If a lady insists on marrying a man and the parents don’t give their approval it could lead to a fruitless marriage.

But do you subscribe to artificial insemination?

It is okay since it doesn’t involve idolatry and voodoo. It is not good to be married
and not have children because even if the couples are not thinking about it
there are people around them who will be more troubled than them. So I
subscribe to anything within medical limits that could be done to have
children. What I tell couple is that they should not be tempted to consult
herbalists for children or do abominable things because they want to have
children. It usually backfires. As for cases like IVF and other medical options couples are free as far as they have the money because it is usually very expensive. And the chances of its success are 50/50. You will still require prayers for it to succeed because if it is spiritual attack that one is facing the devil will still go ahead to fight. People who want to do IVF always go
through counseling and they are told it could be done close to three or four
times before it works. We have had cases of people who do it three or four
times and nothing comes from it.

What type of counseling do you give people who have tried
everything and nothing is working?

What I tell them is not to give up trying especially praying and trusting God. They must appreciate that God is never late and makes things beautiful at His own time. We encourage people to keep praying and thanking God always. Until they go to the grave they should not give up. And that is what helps people. There are people who have looked for children and at a point get tired of trusting God, it shows they can never have one. There are people who have waited for 17 years, 18 years and the Lord gives them twins. There are people who come from all over the country and God answers their prayers. The moment they breakthrough they can go back to their church.

One would think you will have a maternity centre?

We hope to have. We are waiting on God for direction. We don’t just want to do things out of the flesh. In that case we can take good care of all the pregnant women in our care. During our monthly miracle service we encourage pregnant women to wait after the service for special prayers. Here when people get pregnant they still stay and after delivery they come for thanksgiving. The ministry reaches out to people from everywhere irrespective of religion. It is when they come and they see the hand of God that some decide to stay back. Those who have been Christians already do go back to their churches. There are people who are not looking for the fruit of the womb but still come to worship here. It is not all about children we still preach the complete gospel and reach out to people from all spheres of life. Our television ministry has been a tremendous blessing to a lot of people from all over the world because we are on satellite.
Interestingly there are people who don’t have problem with getting pregnant but immediately they get pregnant their challenge starts. We handle cases like that and give special attention to it during the pregnant women conference day. Demonic activities affect them also and it is only God who can rescue them. There are cases of people who have still birth any time they want to put to bed. There are cases of women losing up to four babes at the point of delivery. That is the level the devil can go. When such people come here I take their cases personally.

What about those who carry pregnancy for years?

The first time I encountered this kind of thing was years ago. The woman carried the pregnancy for 18 months. It was such thing that made me realize why God said I should go into that area of ministry. That was even a small case.
Another case was somebody who carried pregnancy for five years.

But why can’t doctors operate on people like that?

Doctors can’t because when they go for scan they won’t see anything. So there is nothing to bring out from the person. That is the problem. Since scan is a human machine it cannot see something that is demonic. There are some of them who go outside the country to use all kinds of scan machine and yet do not see anything. The 18 months case was when I was in Ibadan. The one of five years pregnancy was in Lagos. When the miracle of delivery happened it was published by several papers. People were thronging the house of the woman when she delivered because those who lived around her knew she was carrying the pregnancy for several years. People wanted to confirm if the baby was a human being. But the baby was just like any other baby. Some thought he would grown
teeth. But the baby was normal as I said. We have also seen somebody who carried pregnancy for 8 years that was delivered of a baby girl. There was the case of another who carried pregancy for four and half years and delivered a set of twins. We have seen all kinds of cases. It shows God is awesome and human beings are wicked. No matter the level of wickedness in human beings, God is always there to help.

What is the role of your wife in the ministry?

She is in the background working and praying along. It is what she is asked to do that she does. She is involved in other areas of ministry.

I’m asking because I don’t see much of her?

My background is very conservative. If not because I have to minister you may not even see me on television. I like to operate in background. I like to listen to God before taking a step. A wrong step can put you back twenty years. Before coming to Lagos, God had to speak to me. And when you are in a ministry like where you see people carrying pregnancy for eight years you have no option but to wait on God. No human being can do such in his power. The future of the ministry depends on what God says.