Sports Features of Friday, 23 May 2014

Source: Seth Quaku Yeboah & Daniel Arkorful

Disobedience to the direction of God caused Ayitey Powers’ defeat

Michael Ayitey Powers’ defeat to Braimah Kamoko a.k.a Bukom Banku in their non title Light Heavy weight bout at the Accra Sports Stadium on 15th May, 2014 was as a result of his disobedience to the direction of God.

Ayitey Powers disobeyed the prophesy by the Founder and Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations Prophet TB Joshua to postpone the bout with Bukom Banku and hold on until God speaks, but went ahead and faced rival Bukom Banku which he lost by a unanimous decision.

Prior to the bout, Ayitey Powers accompanied by a friend Edwin Oblitey and Danny Arkoful, a Journalist with the Ghana Sports Newspaper went to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Lagos Nigeria to seek the face of God ahead of his scheduled 18th April bout with Bukom Banku and fortunately for Ayitey Powers he was taken through a deliverance session at the church and had the opportunity to meet the Man of God Prophet TB Joshua, on a one on one basis at his Office.
Prophet TB Joshua spoke with Ayitey Powers at length about his bout with Bukom Banku and advised Ayitey Powers to postpone the bout and hold on because it was a direction from God. Ayitey Powers accepted to postpone the bout, however Powers’ problem was that he had already taken ?2000 from the Promoter of the bout (Alex Ntiamoah) as a preparatory fee and was mandated to refund the money to the promoter if he wants the bout postponed.

Prophet TB Joshua gave Ayitey Powers $3000 to pay off the Promoter, if the promoter can’t wait for Powers as directed by God through His Servant Prophet TB Joshua to postpone the bout and hold on until God speaks.

Prophet TB Joshua wrote the direction of God on a paper for Powers so that it will guide him (Ayitey Powers) which an inscription “As for me I want to fight but God says I should hold on if I fight I will win” and advised Ayitey Powers to adhere to the direction of God and even told him the story of the current WBO Welterweight Champion Manny Pacquiao, who came to the Synagogue Church of All Nations to seek the face of God ahead of His fight against Mexican Boxer Juan Marquez and Prophet TB Joshua advised Manny Pacquiao to postpone the bout Prophet T.B. Joshua went on to say that he was seeing a big fight ahead of him (Manny Pacquiao but unfortunately Manny Pacquiao disobeyed the direction of God and went ahead to fight which he lost to Juan Marquez by a knockout. Manny Pacquiao later apologized to Prophet TB Joshua for disobeying the direction of God and promised to adhere to God’s direction.

It will be recalled that when Ayitey Powers returned from the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Lagos he made an appeal to the organizers of the bout to postpone the bout and hold on until he hears from the Man of God, Prophet TB Joshua as directed by God before he appends his signature on the supplementary contract for the bout.

This appeal generated controversy in the country and the Ghana Boxing Authority(GBA) and the organizers of the bout held several meetings with Ayitey Powers to sign the contract and the GBA even went to the extent of threatening Ayitey Powers with a life ban if he refuses to sign the supplementary contract for the bout.

Ayitey Powers disobeyed the direction of God and subsequently went ahead to sign the supplementary contract for the bout without the green light from Prophet TB Joshua, claiming that he saw Prophet TB Joshua in a dream on the second night of a three day fasting and prayers he embarked on, clad in a white robe, signaling him out of excitement that the way is now clear for him to honour the bout.
Ayitey Powers’s disobedience to the direction of God prompted the General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations Prophet TB Joshua to come out with a statement concerning Powers signing the supplementary contract and his decision to honour the bout, through the Public Relation Officer of the Ghana branch of the Synagogue Church of All Nations Evangelist Samuel Excellence, which was published on Ghanaweb on 1st May,2014
(http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/boxing/artikel.php?ID=307856), the website of Stirion Radio on 1st May,2014 (http://stirionradio.com/?p=2534) and in the 9th May, 2014 Edition of the Weekend finder Newspaper.
In an interaction with Daniel Arkorful, Evangelist Samuel Excellence indicated that Prophet TB Joshua did not influence Ayitey Powers’ decision to sign the supplementary contract to enable him honour the bout, contrary to the media reports that seem to suggest the Man of God had given Ayitey Powers the green light to honour the bout.

“Ayitey Powers is a sports man, a professional Boxer and has the right to take decisions on his own” Evangelist Excellence added
Evangelist Samuel Excellence also refuted claims by Ayitey Powers that Prophet TB Joshua gave him the green light to honour the bout in a dream, saying that the earlier encounter Ayitey Powers had with Prophet T B Joshua was in the Man of God’s office and not in a dream and that further correspondence regarding the way forward would have been made verbally.

When a cross section of the Ghanaian public attributed the defeat of Michael Ayitey Powers to Prophet TB Joshua and claimed that the Founder of the Synagogue Church of Nations Prophet TB Joshua fully supported Ayitey Powers in his quest to stop Bukom Banku after Powers visited the Synagogue Church of Nations in Lagos prior to the bout.

Interestingly, Prophet TB Joshua gave Ayitey Powers God’s direction concerning the bout and was even advised by the immediate past President of the Ghana Boxing Authority Mr. Samir Captan to adhere to the direction of God to postpone the fight and hold on as directed by Prophet TB Joshua and anything contrary to that will be gross disobedient and the consequences will be great but he (Ayitey Powers) bluntly flouted it and subsequently went ahead to sign the supplementary contract and lost to Bukom Banku by a unanimous decision.
This is not to take any credit from the performance put up by Bukom Banku on the night as it was so clear that Bukom Banku prepared very well for the bout both physically and spiritually which Ayitey Powers lacked.

As humans we can’t take away the spiritual aspect of lives and it’s critical that we adhere to the directions of God which The Holy Bible clearly and succinctly states in its pages that Obedience is better Sacrifice.