“The biggest project of my life, the highest calling ever.” These were Toke Makinwa’s words when she announced her pregnancy about a week ago, her Instagram caption overflowing with gratitude as she described her unborn child as an answered prayer. The divine blessing had “completely changed” her life. “Dear God, You did this one,” she wrote, “You opened this door that nobody can shut… This testimony, the timing… You make all things beautiful in your time, and this is just perfect.”
Toke Makinwa turned 40 last year with a massive celebration and thanksgiving, marking the milestone with characteristic gratitude and faith. Her journey to motherhood has been painfully public and brutal. She endured a marriage that imploded when she discovered her husband had gotten another woman pregnant while they were married. She survived two failed IVF attempts, openly battling depression through fertility struggles that left her questioning everything.
Yet through each devastating blow, she maintained her faith, kept praying, kept believing. Her pregnancy announcement thanked God for his timing, faithfulness and perfect orchestration of events after years of heartbreak. “All that time I was convinced you had forgotten me,” she wrote, “I didn’t understand why it took so long, but now I see it.” This was a woman who had walked through hell with her God and finally, finally received what she’d prayed for through tears and disappointment.
Most of what I had seen online were people’s praises. Many thanked God for her, showing and sharing absolute joy at her announcement. There were a couple of people screaming on X about how Toke Makinwa advocated for Women not to marry, then said she was okay being a second wife, and now she’s pregnant. They seemed to think she had misled all the women she’s apparently been preaching to. While some religious internet speakers had an entirely different stance.
Enter Solomon Buchi, a relationship coach and host of the podcast The Modern Christianity, with over 300k followers. He took to his platform and essentially declared that Toke’s pregnancy couldn’t possibly be from God because she lacks a husband. “As a Jesus girl, a Christian, we need to be careful with how we mix God with our personal decisions,” he lectured, as if he were God’s personal spokesman. “Decisions we’ve decided to pursue, whether they are Godly or not. Now I am not saying that there is anything ungodly about having a child, but you are having a child out of wedlock.” He then had the audacity to tell her there was “no need bringing God into that” and “no point trying to spiritualise it” because “according to God’s standard, the only right way to be a parent is in the premise of marriage.”
Who appointed Solomon Buchi as the interpreter of God’s standards? Since when did a relationship coach become qualified to dictate the terms of divine blessing? His entire argument hinges on the breathtaking assumption that he knows God’s mind better than the woman actually experiencing the miracle. The same Bible he claims to represent warns repeatedly against such judgment: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1) and “Who are you to judge another’s servant?” (Romans 14:4). Yet here he was, doing exactly that; playing God while lecturing someone else about properly representing Him.
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Prophetess Helen of Tom West Ministries was even more vicious, declaring with shocking certainty: “God cannot give you a child without a husband.” She accused Toke of “celebrating what is wrong” and warned that congratulators would “be a reflection of it.” With breathtaking audacity, she suggested Toke should have “used that same energy to ask God to give you a husband” first, as if divine blessings operate on some cosmic layaway plan. She had the nerve to question Toke’s faith while simultaneously mocking God’s sovereignty. Apparently, in Prophetess Helen’s opinion, God’s hands are tied by human institutions.
The irony is suffocating. These so-called believers violated the very Christian principles they claim to uphold. “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (John 8:7) seems lost on them. These weren’t random trolls hiding behind anonymous accounts. These were public figures with substantial platforms, using their religious authority to police a woman’s spiritual experience. They weaponised scripture and faith to shame Toke’s joy, essentially telling her, and every unmarried woman watching, that God’s love comes with conditions, that His blessings are reserved for those who fit their narrow definition of righteousness.
When religious influencers decide who deserves God’s blessings, they reveal more about their need to control women than their understanding of God’s grace.
Let’s be clear about what’s really happening here. Solomon Buchi and Prophetess Helen have appointed themselves as divine gatekeepers. They’ve created a belief system where God’s love operates like a bureaucracy; a marriage certificate is required before miracles are dispensed. But nowhere in the bible does God check marital status before opening wombs. Sarah was barren for decades while married. Hannah wept for years as a wife before Samuel came. Mary, the mother of Jesus himself, was unwed when the angel announced her pregnancy. Yet somehow, these modern-day Pharisees have reinforced that God’s hands are tied by human institutions.
Here’s what makes their judgment even more ridiculous: Toke Makinwa didn’t get pregnant through some reckless hookup or scandalous affair. This is a 40-year-old woman who made a deliberate, grown decision to pursue motherhood through IVF after years of failed attempts and heartbreak. She used medical intervention to achieve what her body couldn’t do naturally, the same way someone might get surgery or take medication. But apparently, in their warped worldview, God’s blessings come with asterisks about how conception happens and who’s in your bed when it does.
This isn’t faith, it’s patriarchal control dressed up in religious language. Notice how men’s reproductive choices never face this level of spiritual scrutiny. When male celebrities father children outside marriage, where are the prophetic declarations about God’s standards? The silence is deafening. But let a grown woman make an intentional choice about her own body and future, celebrating a long-awaited pregnancy, and suddenly everyone becomes a Bible scholar, armed with selective scripture and made-up moral authority.
They’ve reduced the infinite love of the Creator to a reward system dependent on their approval, as if divine love operates according to their relationship preferences rather than the heart of the person seeking blessing. They’re weaponising faith to shame women into compliance, to remind every woman watching that her worth, her joy, even her relationship with God, must be filtered through male validation and societal approval.
The real question isn’t whether Toke Makinwa deserves God’s blessings; it’s why we keep giving platforms to people who think they can ration divine love like it’s their personal property. Toke’s testimony will outlast their judgment. Her joy will echo long after their noise fades. And every woman watching should remember: your relationship with God doesn’t need their approval.
“The biggest project of my life, the highest calling ever.” Those were Toke’s words, and they stand. No amount of religious posturing can diminish the gratitude of a woman who waited, prayed, and finally received her heart’s desire. While influencers argue about worthiness, she’s busy preparing for motherhood, exactly as it should be.
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