By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter 
Bishop Joseph Ade-Gold. - Contributed
DOES THE spiritual life of one's forebears affect the kind of existence a person may enjoy in the
present? Bishop Joseph Ade-Gold thinks so. He believes every person, Christian and non-Christian, should enquire concerning their religious heritage in a process commonly known as spiritual-mapping.
Spiritual-mapping, the Bishop explained, is a
historical inquiry into one's family or community which is
complemented by much prayer and the exercise of the gift
of discernment to find out and understand events of the past
and how such events impact on the present.
REVIVALISM
Bishop Ade-Gold tells the story how a seemingly very accomplished woman came to him seeking his counsel. She said that whenever she reached a certain place in her life, she felt blocked. She did not know how to move beyond that block. She consulted with her 85-year-old aunt and discovered that her late parents experienced rejection everywhere they had lived as a couple. Her parents frequent movements was somewhat nomadic. She also learnt from her aunt that her parents had practised Revivalism a religion which in the minds of many, mixes adherence to the Scriptures with African practices a lot of which is deemed to be occultic.
The Bishop said that when the woman learnt of her parents involvement in the revivalism a kind of light bulb illumined her mind as she was then able to make some sense of why it was that she frequently had dreams of herself dancing and wearing a headwrap like those used in revivalism.
Rev. Ade-Gold said he prayed with the woman asking God to break the religious spirits that were affecting her life. The woman too was somewhat nomadic. "After working somewhere for a short-time she would say, 'Oh, I love this job', but before long she was seeking another job," he said. He prayed for the breaking of the nomadic spirit which had been released in her from earlier generations. "Now she is in a stable a job and she is happy," the Bishop said.
Born and raised in Nigeria, Dr. Ade-Gold, 48, holds citizenship in both that African nation and Jamaica. He came to the island in 1990 to pursue a Master's degree at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology (CGST). He holds a doctorate in Christian Education from the Minnesota Graduate School of Theology, and is a well-known deliverance minister. He is the author of Basic Secrets of Satanic Forces, and several booklets on spiritual warfare.
PASTOR ON A MISSION
Shortly after coming to Jamaica
he joined the Missionary Church Association (MCA) and was the pastor of the Devon, Spring Ground and Mollison Missionary churches. He later left the MCA to become the founding pastor of the Overcomers Christian International which meets at two locations in Kingston at 105K Red Hills Road, and in Mandeville at the Caledonia Plaza.
"I have done my own spiritual mapping for my own family. That is why I had to change my surname from Awojobi to Ade-Gold."
He changed his surname in 1998. He was born into a family that practised Obeah. At 19 he became a Christian and abandoned the family 'heritage.' Doing ministry in Jamaica was a source of embarrassment to him, as he was often asked: "What does 'Awojobi' mean?" He would explain 'Awo' means Obeah, and 'Jobi' means family. When you put the words together one gets 'Obeah Family.' His new surname 'Ade-Gold' means 'crown of gold.'
"I have realised the effect of obeah practice and what it has meant to all the generations after my grandfather. So I had to change my name," he said.
STORIES OF SPIRITUAL-MAPPING
The Bishop can cite several stories about the effects of spiritual-mapping. About three years ago, a woman who held two doctorates came to him
seeking counselling because she found
herself unable to land a teaching job for years, though she had applied to a number of universities locally and overseas.
He explained that when he did the spiritual-mapping, he found out that her late father had defrauded a number of persons to become the big landowner he was. Her late mother was a descendant of a slaveowner's family. The mother had lavished ill-gotten wealth on her daughter. All this knowledge Bishop Ade-Gold said he learnt purely through prayer. When he confronted his counselee with the history he had discerned, she confirmed it. The Bishop then asked, a member of his church who is also a descendant of slave owners to represent the counselee's mother. He said to his member, "Represent the mother of this lady. I want you to
confess the sins of her parents and accept her "(the counselee) as your daughter". He then asked the counselee to accept the woman as her mother. Then he prayed asking God to destroy the foundation of his counselee's frustrations. He asked God to forgive the sins of her family's past. The two women, he said, continued to relate to each other as mother and daughter for several weeks. Then a job offer came for the frustrated academic and now she is teaching at a university in Florida.
He gives an account, too, of a teenager who seemingly out of the blue had become a gunman and who through spiritual mapping was helped. The boy and his mother came to see the Bishop. "He said to me, 'Pastor, I don't want to be a gunman.' I said to him, 'Why did you choose to be a gunman in the first place?' Then the mother, the Bishop said, told him privately that the boy's father had been a gunman and that his father had died before he was born. But the mother kept the fact that his father was a gunman a secret from him. "This guy picked up this gunman thing and did not know what was happening. What had happened to his father has been released into him. So I told him, 'did you know that your father was a gunman.' He said he did not know.' I asked 'Nobody ever told you?' He said no. So I told him. He started to cry. He said if that is it, I don't want to go that way. The boy was prayed for and
desire to be a gunman left him.
Spiritual-mapping he stressed is not just for families but for communities. He explained that two-years ago he did a spiritual-mapping of Spanish Town. He spent about three days, he said, reading about Spanish Town's past, visiting historical sites in the old capital and talking to people who knew about the history of that town.
AN ANGRY SPANISH TOWN
"You know what I found out? When they removed the capital city from Spanish Town, they were hurt. The town was hurt. They were very angry.
It was as if they took what belonged to them and since that time Spanish Town is a very quiet place, but very angry. Anything that happens to make them just hit out, they will do it. It is in part because of what has happened in the time past. Spanish Town has been neglected since the capital was removed from there, Bishop Ade-Gold said.
Spanish Town was founded in 1534 and became the capital of the island in 1538. In 1872, the capital of Jamaica was removed from Spanish Town to Kingston.
"Spanish Town is a very aggressive community. Spanish Town is a bleeding community that needs healing. The Church has to deal with that part through some form of spiritual mapping, and decide how to address it; if not, the situation in Spanish Town will always be like that. They will be quiet for some time, then they will break out," the Bishop said.
There has been an upsurge in violence in Spanish Town since the death on July 12 of Oliver 'Bubba' Smith, leader of the One Order Gang. Since that time the number of murders in Spanish Town has been soaring.
The way forward for Spanish Town, he said, "is not just for the Christians to pray 'Lord stop these gunmen.' There needs to be a meeting of all the churches and the churches would just pray and try covering the issues then and now. If possible call some of the national leaders to come and just say something to Spanish Town like a word of peace. Something like, 'Even though the capital city has been removed from here, Spanish Town, you are still very important to us in this nation.' When they address that, they are going to calm the anger of the people. But not until
they address that part will they have
any success."
CHECKING SPIRITUAL HISTORY
The Nigerian-Jamaican Bishop believes every Jamaican should check his/her family history and where possible, visit the Registrar-General's Department to inquire about his/her
heritage. As one inquires about one's roots, he urges that particular attention be placed on the family's religious/
spiritual history, especially to see if one's forebears were involved in occult
religions and/or secret societies.
Every person should do spiritual
mapping, he argued, as it will help
people to understand why they are the way they are.
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mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com
