Founder and overseer of Kingsway International Christian Center (KICC) Pastor Matthew Ashiomolowo in an interview reveals how he found himself in Christianity despite being born in a Muslim home.
Pastor Matthew is the Founder and CEO of 10 profitable companies, his church Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) is based in London, England, and was established in 1992 with 200 adults and 100 children.
He said,
When I was 20 years old, today I’m 52, I received Christ into my heart. It wasn’t because I found a religion but rather because I found a relationship. I was born by southern Nigerian parents in the Northern part of Nigeria which is the hold of Islam, and I grew up there for the first 15 years of my life.
I was born in Zaria, I was born in the Army Depot, I actually went to mosque like every other person. I grew up in the heart of Islam. I used to speak Hausa better than Yoruba, I had to come and learn yoruba when I came down South and my experience of salvation was very simple, it was unusual, 32 years ago when I was 20 years old as a Muslim man in the country of Nigeria, in a drunken state, I was visiting a friend who had a pack of tracks he had written before, I was really seeking for God and when I read the track, three things attracted me to christianity.
First of all, the fact that in Islam, there is no redeemer, secondly, there is no promise of an intercessor or a mediator between you and God. Thirdly, there is no after-life, really promised even Mohammed said he’s not sure of where he is going and I want to follow a person who’s sure of where he is going, and that was my first encounter with christianity.
There was a yearning, there was a hunger, so I moved from both going to the mosque to sometimes, visiting the church, at 20 I got born again, 21, I felt called of God, 22, I ended up in bible school. I went to a foursquare Bible school, I went to LIV Bible college in Ikorodu, but the thing for me was that it wasn’t a religion, it was an experience.
I had a personal experience, I saw that God was able to now work in my life, give me a clear understanding of what life is and what my direction in life was and the next thing, was just God blessing my life and even in Bible school, there were obvious signs to my Canadian lecturers, that this man, may one day be some kind of a preacher, so they gave some more attention.
It was much later, that I took a degree with Cleveland Tennessee’s Lee University. I was the first of the reverse missionaries, I did not go to England to study, I was sent by that same church as a reverse missionary.
They used to send missionaries here, I was sent as a reverse missionary but then 20 years ago, I stepped out independently to found KICC. Christianity is a definite encounter it isn’t just a receiving of religion and in Christ, I found that I was totally accepted by God, totally forgiven, given a hope for the now and an eternity for the future, I found a Redeemer, I found new life, I found that my past was forgiven, and My future guaranteed and whoever is watching (or reading), right now, and wherever you are in any part of the world, you need to understand that when Jesus said I am The Way, The Truth and The Life, he didn’t come to stand at a Pari pass with other religions, because He is The Way and He is the Truth, and.
He is the Life and when He rose from the dead, He said because I live, you shall live also, in other religions, there is no promise of eternal life, there is no promise of a future, that is guaranteed in God.
So you need to open your heart and know that God loves you, Christ wants to come into your life, If he can take a Muslim boy like me, My parents were Muslims, my brother my sister, sister was Adijat, brother Mudashir, and My mother Aishat, They all got born again, After I gave my life to Christ, My mother gave her life to Christ before she went to heaven.
My sister is born again, she is now Rachel, My brother is born again, and he is now a pastor also, he is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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