Fruitful Living
Be mindful of false prophets
The Country Director of Changing Ways Bible College and Seminary in Accra, Bishop Dr Frederick Adjei, has advised Christians and Ghanaians to be mindful of activities of false prophets, who God would expose in His own time.
Bishop Dr Adjei said these false prophets have adopted strategies that played on the intelligence of their victims and made money, and sexually exploited women.
The Country Director gave the advice at a special graduation ceremony of two church leaders, who successfully completed a Doctorate degree programme in Bible Studies and Divinity from the Changing Ways Bible College and Seminary in Accra.
The ceremony was held at Asikuma in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern region last Sunday.
The graduates were the Leader and Founder of Alleluia Mission International Church at Asikuma in the Asougyaman District of the Eastern region, Prophet Dr Mawuli Akorli and Prophet Dr Joshua Abass Osumanu, a Muslim who converted from Islamic religion to Christianity and established the Christ Way Gospel Church at Dzemeni in the South-Dayi District of the Volta Region.
Delivering a sermon at the graduation, Bishop Dr Adjei indicated that prophecies come from God through His prophets, “but the current situation where some self-acclaimed prophets speak as if the power of God is in their hands should be of concern to citizens, and should regard such prophets as occultists.”
According to him, people who mostly fell victim to these category of prophets were women who asked for their help to give them children, husbands and to become successful in their business activities, saying “these victims should rather study the word of God and seek help through prayers.”
He said the false prophets as part of their strategy, would frighten their victims, forcing them to believe in what they do and purchase the anointing water, oil, and other exploitation materials on sale by the church.
Bishop Dr Adjei noted that he knew respectable pastors who God could have used to inform Ghana about the deadly COVID- 19 disease that killed thousands of people across the world but God in His wisdom, did not use them because God did not speak through them.
Moreover, he stated that it was becoming worrying that anytime the country was about to organise national elections and change government, ‘election prophets’ would emerge and challenge one another as to which of the candidates would win.
The Country Director of Changing Ways Bible College and Seminary, stressed that God cannot contradict himself by prophesying differently to prophets about one election, adding that Christians, traditional, religious worshipers and Islamic religion all worship God, and the way these prophets threaten and curse, society needed to take solace in the word of God rather than to believe and follow them.
From Samuel Agbewode, Asikuma
Fruitful Living
Environmental degradation in contemporary times (Part 3)
Unfortunately, some anti-social human activities today often breach these Islamic principles :
• Illegal mining (Galamsey) leads to water pollution and destroys fertile lands.
• Improper sand mining causes land degradation and deforestation.
• Unauthorised tree felling endangers ecosystems and biodiversity.
• Encroachment on wetlands and water ways leads to urban flooding and ecological imbalance.
These destructive practices violate the ethical duty of humans as stewards of the earth and
contradict both Islamic law and state regulations.
Key International
Environmental Protocols
• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands – Adopted in 1971, Iran
• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – Adopted in 1982, Jamaica
• Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – Adopted in 1987
• Convention on Biological Diversity – Opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit, 1992
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – Adopted in 1992
• Kyoto Protocol – Adopted in 1997, Japan
• Paris Agreement on Climate Change – Adopted in 2015
These protocols aim to promote sustainable environmental practices, mitigate climate change, and preserve natural habitats. Islam’s emphasis on balance, responsibility, and justice aligns with the goals of these agreements.
Provisions in the 1992
Constitution of Ghana
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana upholds environmental protection:
• Article 36(9): “The State shall take appropriate measures needed to protect and
safeguard the national environment for posterity.”
• Article 41(k): “It shall be the duty of every citizen to protect and safeguard the
environment.”
These provisions demonstrate that environmental responsibility is a constitutional duty for both state and citizens.
National Legal Statutes on
Environmental Protection
Ghana has enacted various environmental laws, including:
• Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1994 (Act 490).
This law established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the main state
institution responsible for protecting and improving Ghana’s environment.
The EPA monitors pollution, regulates industrial activities, issues environmental permits, and
ensures that development projects undergo Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA)
before approval.
Purpose: To control pollution and ensure sustainable environmental practices in industries, agriculture, and urban development.
Fruitful Living
Renewing our minds (Part 1)
When someone accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, “he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17. That is why Apostle Paul advises us in Romans 12:2 (our key text) “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” But it doesn’t end there.
A MIND TRANSFORMED
Nature abhors vacuums so when something is taken away from a space and that space is not quickly refilled, other things will start creeping in to fill up the space. The Bible gives an illustration of what happens when a vacuum is created in the life of a believer: “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, `I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”- Matthew 12:43-45.
A believer’s Christian experience is supposed to move from the initial phase of justification by faith in Christ, to daily sanctification for holy living, to glorification at Jesus’ second coming, and to eventual restoration to the pre-fall harmony between God and man. Knowing that the heart of a believer cannot be left empty after clearing it of the worldly things, Paul gives the prescription for daily sanctification with which to fill the vacuum: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
WHAT KIND OF
TRANSFORMATION?
Transformation is defined as “a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance or a metamorphosis during the life cycle of an animal.” We find these kinds of transformation happening all the time around us. Examples include a baby that we see twenty years later as an adult, a cancer survivor who has regained lost weight, a new mother we saw last when she was eight months pregnant.
I have seen many actors and actresses in real life whose faces do not look as flawless at close range as they do on TV. I now know that the credit for their on-screen transformation often belongs to makeup. Similarly, a smelly room can be transformed with air freshener, people with the right clothing, and a gloomy room with the right colours and objects.
No doubt all of these examples of transformation look good, but they are all external and non-lasting forms of transformation. They are definitely not the kind of transformation Paul has in mind as capable of filling the vacuum left by non-conformity with the world’s pattern. He says, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The right kind of transformation that he’s talking about here is not the one that comes from make-up slathered on, or having a particular dress on, or the right colors thrown here and there. It is the kind that comes “by the renewing of the mind.” What then is the state of the human mind that it needs to be thus renewed?
- By Rev. Dr Joyce Aryee, the author
