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The former General Secretary of The Church of Pentecost (COP), Apostle Dr. Alfred Koduah, has admonished Christians to avoid falling into what he called ‘spiritual ignorance.’

“There is no doubt that spiritual ignorance is expensive and dangerous. Quite regrettably, because of inadequate hearing from the Lord, some Christians in every generation, including Pentecostals, have experienced one form of spiritual ignorance or the other,” he stated.

Apostle Dr. Koduah, who is also the current Area Head for Takoradi, said this in a paper he presented on Friday, November 20, 2015 at the Heads’ Meeting of the leadership of Church of Pentecost underway at the Pentecost Convention Centre (PCC) at Gomoa Fetteh, near Kasoa in the Central Region.

Speaking on the topic, “Prepared To Hear From The Lord” in connection with the 2016 theme for the COP, “Hearing and Obeying the Lord’s Voice in my Generation” - 1Samuel 3:9-10, Apostle Dr. Koduah explained that because of spiritual ignorance and inadequate understanding of the voice of God, some early Pentecostal giants and healing evangelists committed several ministerial errors, which greatly marred their ministries.

He however stated that although the Bible has severally warned Christians against living in spiritual ignorance, some contemporary preachers erroneously think that they are hearing from the Lord and are preaching all sorts of falsehood, and taking advantage of certain gullible church members – all in the name of deliverance.

Apostle Dr. Koduah whose presentation was interspersed with several biblical examples and contemporary occurrences, gave some biblical antidotes to spiritual ignorance.

According to him, the only antidote to spiritual ignorance is going back to the Bible, saying, “Until Christians learn to rightly divide the word of God, there is no way they can come out of spiritual ignorance.”

He also said Christians can come out of spiritual ignorance by understanding that hearing from the Lord involves willingness to seek His face through waiting, meditation, studying the word, personal experiences, and openness to spiritual reality.

He indicated that the process of hearing from the Lord involves listening to God, comprehending or understanding what God is saying, believing and trusting in, and practicing what the Lord is saying as well as being transformed by what God has said.

Touching on hearing from the Lord, the former General Secretary said that there are a myriad of external voices that are vying for their attention. These, he said, include the media, social activities, high expectations at workplaces, sin and iniquity, prevailing permissive postmodern environment, as well as false teachings and practices. “As a result, some Christians have been caught up in the dreaded web of spiritual ignorance,” he added.

He charged Christians to understand the various means by which the Lord communicates with His people such as through the written word of God, intuition, dreams, and visions.

“It has been demonstrated that apart from the written word of God, all the other means of communications have some limitations. Accordingly, it is important for Christians to major in Scripture as the most authentic means of hearing from God,” he pointed out.

He further stated the need for Christians to engage in formal theological education to determine the hermeneutical accuracy of their doctrinal beliefs and practices.

“This will enable them to reduce spiritual ignorance and also enable them be sure that they are hearing appropriately from the Lord. It can be concluded that Christians in this generation must adopt a back-to-the-Bible approach in all their activities as a means of hearing adequately from God,” he said.