HOW I BECAME THE WIFE OF EMMANUEL KURE -Martha Kure

The younger generation has so much to learn from Pastor Mrs Martha Kure on how to discern the will of God concerning marriage. She is the wife of Emmanuel Kure, set man of Throneroom Trust Ministry, an apostle who chose to remain in the sleepy railway village of Kafanchan, but his calling is speaking loud all over the world. In this interview, Martha has shown that being a pastor’s wife is more than just managing the home front, preparing food for him, raising the children, etc.

A pastor’s wife should have a sense of vision within the larger picture of her husband’s calling. She must be able to hear God and confirm what the Lord wants him to do. When a wife hears God, she ceases to be a liability to her husband. She becomes an asset, not just to him but to the body of Christ. Read excerpts from an interview on how she became the wife of Emmanuel Kure, conducted in Kafanchan by the Editor E-life, Dr Bola Adewara.

Something has happened to the Church, not just in Nigeria but also around the world. The Christianity we see in the 60s, 70s, 80s seems to have disappeared. Christianity is not the same again. Do you also see it so?

The problem is that the generation we are bringing up now has access to all

* Pastor Mrs Martha Kure

sorts of information and technologies we did not have in our time. This has weakened the zeal of Christianity. All manner of information unknown to us are now at the fingertips of this generation.

This generation became exposed to all sorts of voices and vices. With the coming of the internet and mobile phones, they can Google anything and have answers and suggestions, strange voices from diverse places corrupting them, corrupting the covenant.

In our time, we grew up with our families and church members. We were passionate to see the whole village get born-again. We were not thinking anything carnal. Our minds were on fire and the Word. But as this generation came, they found out they could do anything.

Yes, they go to Church and hear their pastors, but they are not listening. They are not patient with anyone to follow them up. They can open any web page and listen to anybody anywhere in the world. As they do that, things begin to pop up. Then distractions start to come up, destruction and all kinds of moral decadence. Now, they know how to hide them from their parents. You are ministering. You are speaking. They are with you, but they are not with you. They are involved in other things.

Then the motivational speakers came, telling them it’s not about prayers. All you need is to think like this, and you can get certain things done. They forget that you can get things done, but your life, your character is not transformed. You can prosper, have friends, and live the way you want to, but your life will still be the same. The pastors, too, have theirs; they don’t preach holiness, sanctification, heaven and hell again to have a big congregation. All we hear is you can be this and that.

Gradually, we begin to pay more attention to human worship than God, looking at success in terms of what we wear and drive, much more than character building and the impact we are making.  Perceptions began to shift from the Word of God. We are no longer looking at certain biblical characters as our models. We are looking at celebrities. People want to live, talk, dress like them. So, all this has brought us to where we are in the Church.

The information we hear in Southern Nigeria about the killings of our Christian siblings, particularly in the Middle Belt and Southern Kaduna, is so disheartening. These areas have been peaceful places in years gone by. What is the genesis of these killings?

Recently, my husband was quoting John Kaine and said when Christianity left the Upper Room in Jerusalem and began to spread to other places, that was the beginning of watering down the power of the Word.

As Christianity spread worldwide, when it got to Asia, Asians had their form of Christianity, Africans had theirs, the Middle East, theirs. There is the Egyptian kind of Christianity, the Russian with theirs. In America, a lot of things have happened to Christianity. Now they’re making room for gay Christianity, under the guise that everybody has the right to do whatever he likes; God loves everybody, whether you are homeless or whatever. They begin to make room for all kinds of vices.

So it is with Nigeria. When Christianity got to the South, it travelled from there to the north and stopped at Benue to Plateau in the Middle Belt. That is how we have so many missionary organisations in that area. Then, Islam began to travel from Sokoto and Borno and came to the Middle Belt and stopped. So, the Middle Belt became a kind of battleground.

* Dr. Bola Adewara with Pastor Mrs. Martha Kure

Our people fought the encroachment and the rulership of Islam. Our grandparents fought so many battles. We still have some indigenous Southern Kaduna people in the palace of the emir of Zaria. Those were products of slaves, just like you have in the Caribbean and the US So, these two religions came and stopped in the Middle Belt.

Over time, as we got to the year 2000 up to the period of  Governor Joshua Dariye in Plateau state, that was the time the fights to take over the Middle Belt from Islam intensified, culminating in the declaration of the state of emergency on the Plateau. We began to see more attacks, all kinds of banditry, all types of Fulani attacks. The plan is to take over the region, rule over it and take over the resources.

All this banditry and killings is not just about religion; it’s also about the riches, all the green pastures, the greener places they want to take over. Today, we have villages in southern Kaduna that have been de-populated. They are taking over and settling in them.

Do Christians understand the reality of the situation? The Muslims marry many wives. Their rich people, even the beggars on the streets, have many wives and give birth to many children. Their population is exploding while the Christian population is depleting with the one-man-one-wife philosophy. Democracy is a game of numbers. Are Christians grappling with the reality of the narrative?

Well, I will say that if we look at it in the physical, we will be afraid of being overrun. But God has never won any battle because of the superior number of people or soldiers. We have testimonies in the Word of God, which has shown us how God fought battles. And we cannot break our essence in God by copying them to have two wives, three wives to increase our population so we could defend ourselves.

Polygamy is part of their religion. You can have wives if you can maintain them. Also, it is part of their jihad philosophy to have many children. When they settle in a place, they can out-vote you, the indigenes. Since democracy is a game of numbers, they are ruling you. Yes, it’s possible, and it is happening everywhere, even here. Here in Kafanchan, they were not as many as this, but see what is happening over time. When school closes, you see their children trooping from even our schools.

But like God told Jeremiah, let not their fears be your fears, let not their dread be your dread. We are working within the principles and rules that God gave us from the beginning: male and female. On that, we stand. We cannot be competing with them. We are children of liberty. God knows how to defend us. He knows how to raise the standard.

So, we can only trust in the Lord because they have a hidden agenda to rule over every place. We are working with the purity of heart, loving innocently, and that is where God is raising the defence for us. However, what you mention is true. They have children they don’t cater for, who eventually become a liability to others and society.

How and why did you marry Emmanuel Kure?
I met through his cousin, now a Judge, when we stayed around Sardauna Memorial College SMC in Kaduna. We lived in the same neighbourhood. Another younger cousin there told him he needed to meet one sister Martha that loves God, just like him. I was then a member of Deeper Christian Life Church.

One day, the cousin and I were talking when Emmanuel came in, and his cousin started talking fondly about how sister Martha taught him this and that, she did this, she did that. So Emmanuel announced that ‘I need to meet the sister Martha. She needs to have balance’. That was how we met.

We had opportunities to attend Bible studies together. I invited him to ours along Ibrahim Taiwo Road in Kaduna, and he came. That was the early stage of our meeting. What followed was the Southern Kaduna True Bearers Conference. He was one of them. But before arriving, he was on his way to Bayero University Kano (BUK).

I was standing outside when I saw him passing by. I greeted him and asked where he was going early in the morning. He said he had just got admitted to BUK and was going there. I wondered why BUK. He said that was where he got admitted, and he has peace with it. I said, ok, may the Lord go with you. As he left, I heard a voice: ‘That is your husband’. As I turned, I resisted the voice. I looked at the brother again, his trousers not reaching the ground. This brother? I didn’t even know that was God talking.

So, to call a story short, I kept praying, asking God for what is within His heart for me and not mine, because, at that time, we came under certain teachings to ask God for what He created with us from our mother’s wombs. To ask him for our heart desires, the specifications of the man we wanted, the man He wanted us to marry for His purpose. I told Him I didn’t want my own choice but His. Then I was just in Form Four. That time, other men would come with their Bibles and say, Sister Martha, God is saying we will settle down together, etc. I would say no, based on that experience.

* Apostle Emmanuel Kure and wife, Martha.

As the pressure was mounting on me from different men, I had to return to God in prayer and say, God, if Emmanuel is the man you want me to marry, if I am to become the wife of Emmanuel Kure, give him scriptures to give me. I am not asking him to come and propose to me because I am not ready. But give him Scriptures to give me, so I would not think some other brothers I was close to are the one. Give him scriptures to give me, so I would know he is Your choice for me, and that would settle it.

One day, we were at a conference, and we, the sisters, were cleaning the kitchen. Emmanuel was also there. As he was also about to leave, he came to me and said he needed to speak with me. He sat down and told me the Lord gave him Scriptures to give me, saying he was already on his way to Kano, but the Lord told him to turn and give me the scriptures. Emmanuel said he didn’t know the interpretations, but he heard God telling him to come and give me the scriptures.

The scriptures were  Habakkuk 2:3:  For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come. The second scripture is Isaiah 7:9, the second part talking about if you don’t believe, you will not be established. So, he gave me those scriptures and said, ‘I’m going. I am at peace now. I’ve obeyed God’. He didn’t know he was talking about himself. So he left.

I WANTED TO DIE, BUT ENOCH ADEBOYE STOPPED ME – Emmanuel Kure

HOW TO BE HAPPY ALWAYS By — Bola Adewara

I just gave God glory that it is now confirmed that I will be the wife of Emmanuel Kure. So I kept it to myself and started thinking if this is the person I’m going to marry, a man who loves God this much,   he doesn’t talk anyhow, when he’s talking, you see wisdom. If I would marry this man, I told myself I need to prepare myself again on the Word. I need to pick my Bible again not to become a liability or a parasite on him. The Lord should prepare me to be a daughter of her Father so that when I come into his life, I am standing on my Father, not leaning on him.

So, I needed to sit down again and begin the Bible again from Genesis, sitting on the Word, learning of God. That was when I started to ask God, what am I to do in this man’s life? Why bring this man? Who is in the Spirit? What are you bringing me into his life to fulfil, because it’s about your purpose. That was how God began to settle my mind and teach me many things.

When he graduated from BUK, he went for his NYSC in Katsina state, and that was when the Lord told him it was time for him to come and meet me. Then I was in CAST, and he was on our NIFES editorial team. When he arrived, he said the Lord is laying this on his heart, and he wanted me to go and pray about it. I told him I didn’t need to pray again because I got a confirmation three years ago. I was just waiting for the appointed time because I told God I didn’t want any long courtship of two years.

One year, one and a half, maximum. So, that was how we knelt, held our hands before the Lord and said, ‘Lord, we’re entering into this journey with you, to carry us. We don’t know the way or what You have in store, but we’ll learn to trust You’. That was how the Lord led us till we got married on my birthday in August 1986.

Tell me about the transition from there to now. How did the ministry start?
When we got married, he was the coordinator for CAPRO, and Bayo Famunire was the pioneer of the mission organisation. Then, the Lord began to talk to him about the Watchman, and he took it to CAPRO. He told them about nations and the place of the Watchman and the need for these Watchmen to begin to rise and speak to missions to change the atmosphere of countries. He wants CAPRO leadership to create rooms for such within the organisation.

The leadership responded that they could see that the Lord was beginning to lead him to a dimension that was not within the vision of CAPRO, and they were ready to pray and release him so he could enter the full extent of what the Lord was telling him. That was how the leadership prayed and released him.

I was then at Ahmadu Bello University. When he told me this, I told him he had heard God. I also need to pray and listen to what God is saying to confirm that its God. It doesn’t sound well for me to be railroaded into it because he said God is saying he needs to start a prayer ministry of Watchmen, raising priests, raising men to pray for nations. I need to hear from my Father.

So, when the meeting for Throneroom Ministry started, I wasn’t part of it because I needed to have clarity from my Father. I came into the ministry not by flesh but by the Spirit. So, I need to hear what my Father is saying because if I hear Him, I will be connected to the vision, not because of him, Emmanuel, but because it is born of the Spirit of God. Therefore, no matter what I go through, I will know God designed it, and I will be ready to cope because He will give me grace.

So, the Lord confirmed to me that the vision is by him. The vision will reach out to many people, learners and standard communities and individuals. We didn’t even understand how big this would be. When God talked to me, we were thinking of the villages, and we were exc

* Pastor Mrs Martha Kure

ited. We never knew it would become anything international.

So, when I joined, I connected to the vision. Whether my husband was there or not, I was there. Then, we lived in Kagoro, and I would come to this place with my daughter, who is now in her 30s, on my back. So that is how we metamorphosed.

He was then a lecturer at the College of Education, Kafanchan. He was still lecturing and doing the ministry. Gradually, he couldn’t cope, and the Lord told him to let go of being a lecturer. He gave notice to his employers and resigned from and went full blast into the ministry.

I can imagine that it would not be funny after the resignation. The regular source of income was not forthcoming, yet the needs and wants are increasing, children are coming, and you have to take care of so many things. How did you cope?

For us, it didn’t make any difference because the lecturer salary was three hundred naira, we paid rent, water, electricity bill, etc. Then is the firstborn. He had the younger ones, and I was in school. So, we saw from the beginning how to depend on God. At a point, he took a loan from the Bank of Agric to buy produce and stock during harvest to sell later.

He would go to Onitsha to buy clothes which he would sell to his lecturer friends. I would also sell this and sell that to make ends meet. There were days there was no food to eat. The ministry then was not like anybody made anything significant, and they wanted to come and say thank you. It was tough at the beginning.

Some people did not even believe us because they saw God’s miracles through him as using the devil’s powers. We learnt to trust in God. We learnt to abound in plenty and nothing. I mean nothing at all because there were occasions we couldn’t even go out to any event because we had nothing good to wear.

You couldn’t even take the children for immunisation because you couldn’t open their napkins in public. The embarrassment was much. We saw lack at its worst. There were times we put pepper in hot water, and we believed we were taking pepper soup. There were times we put cornflour in water, and we gave the children as pap. So, we saw all that. But in the midst of these, souls were being won, miracles happening, and the joy of salvation was there. This covered up for whatever we were lacking.

Gradually, the faithfulness of God began to show through the prophecies my husband was giving; the ministry was getting known, people were inviting him to Port Harcourt to defend what he was saying. Through this, people began to bless us; some would come to our house and enter our kitchen to help themselves. When they saw that it was dry, they would enter the market and stock the place on their own. Some people would see us and give. So God began to reward commitment, loyalty, faithfulness, costs, discipline in working with Him.

One thing that my husband told me, even when we are courting, is that… this path is a rugged route, and it can be lonely. He asked me, are you ready to follow this part? And you must understand the cost of commitment. One of the books he gave me as my examination card… in those days when you are writing an exam, your friends will send you a good luck card… he gave me that book The Cost of Commitment. I still have that book to date. The book is about Jesus telling His people to take up the cross and follow Him. Emmanuel wrote a comment on the book: The road is rugged. The route can be lonely.

But it’s the path of righteousness. And this narrow way Christ has given us, we will not deviate from it; we’re going to work on this way. You need to count the cost and prepare your mind to know that it will not be easy.

From the beginning, we were not expecting anything rosy. We faced reality, the truth of the calling into committing to serve the Father. In whatever capacity that He was to use us, we’re ready. That helped to teach us to persevere, go through the trying moments and all the criticisms, even around here. That enabled us not to deviate to get certain things.

And when he told me that the Lord said we should stay here in Kafanchan, I told him if the Lord said so, so be it. We waited, and the Lord has proved His Word over time.

Your husband told me how he was beaten somewhere around Kafanchan. How did you feel that day?
I remember he came back home that day, and there were specks of dust all over him because as the people, these palace guards called Dogari were beating him, somewhere throwing stones, others were pouring sand on them. When he told me, I said that he should rejoice as the apostles would say because he was beaten for the sake of the gospel.

I remember that even in my secondary school days, we were persecuted for the sake of the gospel, and we got back to our rooms, we rejoiced and danced that we were counted worthy for persecution. I encourage him. Whatever we go through, we will still reach out to the people, and at the appointed time, those thrones will come down and submit to us. And that is what has happened today.

Madam, where are you coming from?
I am Martha Kure nee Yusuf, born August 2 1964, at the General Hospital Kaduna, the same town where I was brought up. I attended St Anne’s Primary School when it was with the missionaries. It became LEA Primary School when the government took it over and relocated it to Kabala West in Kaduna. I attended Queen Amina College, Kakuri, Kaduna, then College of Advanced Studies (CAST) in Zaria, and later, Ahmadu Bello University, where I studied English in Literature.

Tell us about your family.
I am the fourth of six children and the first to get born. I have been on fire for the Lord right from when I was little. As a teenager, I learned to love God and work with Him. I have come a long way and keep growing and learning to stand. In Queen Amina College, I was one of the leaders of the Fellowship of Christian Students. When I got to CAST, I was the vice president of FCS and was involved in NIFES.

* Pastor Mrs. Martha Kure

How come you took Christianity so seriously at such a tender age? How did it happen?

When we were young, we had the family altar in our home. There, our mother taught us about Jesus Christ. We had this throughout our primary and secondary school. In those days, they would tell us that we would go to hell if you don’t have Christ, and I did not want to go to hell.

So, we had to receive Christ at the family altar, within the family. But I never got the revelation of who Christ was until my Form 2 in secondary school.

During an Easter program, the FCS Secretary came to minister, and she spoke on the death and resurrection of Jesus. That day, I had an encounter with Jesus, having understood that Christ so much loved me. This time around, I was not coming to Christ because of the fear of hell but to embrace His love.

I got to that point that I saw the essence of the love this man of Calvary had for me, to rescue me, to give me life eternal. That was the beginning of my walk with Him.
In Form 2, I got baptised in the Holy Ghost at an FCS conference. And that was the beginning of such zeal, reaching out for crusades, outreaches, ministering and impartation for children to get baptised in the Holy Ghost.

When we go on holidays, I brought back home what I’ve learned from FCS teachings, and I began to disciple my younger ones by force; whether you like it or not, I would call them for prayers. Whenever there was any dispute in the family, we prayed. And by my walk with God, my family respected my words.

As young as I was, I walked up to my elder brothers and talked to my parents respectfully because they knew I had drawn certain boundaries, and there were certain things I would not compromise. And so, when it came to counselling and all that, they wanted to listen to me.

What other influences assisted your growth?
Apart from having the Holy Ghost baptism, I was reading the books of Kenneth Hagin on the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Holy Spirit. There, he was talking about his encounters with the presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, how he got healed and all that.

One day, I was reading such an encounter of the work of the Holy Spirit when the presence of the Holy Spirit filled the place I was, and I had such an impartation. An anointing came upon me, and for hours I couldn’t stop speaking in tongues. Even when my younger ones entered the room and I was to talk to them, I found myself speaking in tongues. I was speaking in tongues to answer my mum, just all through for hours and hours.

So, I had to lock myself up in the room and just kept praying. That encounter created a great hunger in me to always seek the face of the Lord and learn to stay in the secret place. I am a secret place person. It is the work of reaching out that has brought me out. But I grew up as quiet, very reserved, a being just on the inside. I can be indoors for four days without going anywhere. I just go for Bible studies or a conference and come back home.

Tell us about the virtues of the secret-place.
Learning how to stay in the secret place has assisted me in intercession. I could be on my face for hours, just interceding, praying for my family, for the body of Christ, my community and village, and all that the Lord points to my heart. I have learned to grow from one level to the next level. I’m not a person that is ambitious to go ahead do certain things. No. I learned to wait on the Lord to take me a step at a time, to groom me for every next level. And that has helped me a great deal.

With the power of hindsight, who would you say is instrumental to your growth in the faith? What Church did you attend then?
The ECWA church. My parents were ECWA, and some of my siblings are still there. I was baptised in water in the Church. We lived very far, yet we would come to the Church for Girls Brigade, Choir practice and Sunday school.

The FCS was also very instrumental to my growth. There were some senior friends who came to visit us, one of whom was Jonas Katung, now of Maranatha Church in Jos. He would come to our school, Queen Amina College, with his fire teachings. Through that, we got connected with him. Anytime he was going for meetings or crusades, he would call me to minister impartation of the Holy Ghost.

Katung was about four or five years older than me, but his passion for the Lord was great. He was one of those who encouraged me to read the Word, pray, Holy Ghost. With him, we went everywhere, and we were fearless.

There were other people from whom I had some mentorship, but I can’t forget Katung because he helped push me to stand before people to minister the Word as a young girl.