The members opened bare to the Lord Almighty what they wished to come through in the New Year after taking a stock of the good, the bad and the ugly which were part of His gifts of the year rolling away by seconds.
As personal supplications and wishes were being hauled into His presence, the heaven descended on a prophet who went into a trance with a prophetic message to the Church Council.
“Thus says the Lord, gather all congregation, from the North, South, East,West and go ye to the State of Osun. Hold a night prayer session and keep vigil. Pray for peace, harmony, concord and good relationship. Do this before the 15th day of the new month of the New Year. No blood is worth spilling for any reason. Do this and it shall be well with you, the church, the state and the nation.”
As the message was delivered, the Church Council was in a dilemma because The State of Osun has been embroiled in not too palatable relationship with some Christians over an educational policy. Then, why must it be from the same Christian group that has to be saddled with the responsibility of holding a vigil and praying for peace in the state?
But the Lord has spoken. For His ways are not ours and our ways are not His and the fury of the Lord Almighty is said to abide with the one who received the words of God and refused to act, implement, deliver or dispense it accordingly while woe betide the one who delivered what the Lord never inspired him to.
This was the albatross which hung on the neck of the entire Church Council of the Celestial Church of Christ, (CCC), Imeko after the prophetic message was delivered.
However, as a church which must live above human posturing, sentiment and political affiliation, the CCC Worldwide had no option than to hearken to the words of God spoken through His prophet and seek permission from the state government to hold the vigil.
Not averse to such a spiritual activity which will not only boost the spiritual credits of the citizen with God in heaven and harbinger peace on earth, the state Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola, a devout Muslim promptly set up a committee which liaised with the CCC Worldwide members to make the prayer night a reality.
The Freedom Park, a hitherto shanty located in the middle of Osogbo, the state capital opposite the old garage which has been turned to a conducive environment for gatherings and social events by Governor Aregbesola was where the CCC Worldwide members carried out the message revealed by God to a prophet which was delivered to the congregation at CCC Headquarters, Imeko, Ogun State on December 24, 2013 on Saturday 11 January 2014.
The Freedom Park was dressed in celestial order with 6,000 white plastic chairs neatly arranged with over two thousands stalked as extras, facing a macadamised stage having big sound system which filtered the gospel songs and messages into the ears of the congregants and two big screens relayed the event electronically.
The
event tagged “Cele for Aregbe “was never an understatement going by
the fact that as of now, the buck stops on Ogbeni’s table because as
the accounting person in the saddle in that state, he will carry the can
if there is bloodshed in his state during his tenure.To this, the Celestial members did not only pray fervently for peace, but invited the hosts of heaven and heavenly angels converged on the state that night with their wonderful, sonorous and pleasant gospel dances and songs ministration.
The Deputy Governor of the state, Otunba Laoye -Tomori, the Speaker of the State of Osun House of Assembly who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, members of the State Executive Council, Special Advisers and top governments functionaries also joined the Celestial Church members in praying for peace in the state.
The vigil which featured prayers, praise and worship songs with ministrations from distinguished and profound preachers while prominent gospel singers including, Lady Evangelists Tope Alabi, Mega 99 and others thrilled the audience with melodious songs, dance and music.
The CCC Worldwide sequentially in celestially order packaged the event and delivered the Lord’s message to the state as all the selected passages in the Bible and preaching notes emphasised why all men and women, old and young in the State of Osun should not only seek peace, but live in harmony and promote better understanding in good relationship.
Some of the religious leaders including Cardinal James Odumbaku, Superior Evangelist Benson Ayegbusi and Superior Evangelist O. Badru, Superior Evangelist Adeonigbagbe, and many other renowned Celestial Church of Christ leaders and prophets in their intercessory prayers prayed for peace, order, harmony, progress and against bloodshed in the coming election in the state.
The immediate past chairman of the State of Osun Christian Association who is also the Head of Osun Province, Celestial Church of Christ in the state, Superior Evangelist Abraham Akinola Aladeseye confirmed to all in his speech that the programme was a responce to a divine call by God to pray for the state of Osun. According to him: “on December 24, 2013 at World Headquarters, Imeko, there was a message that we should pray against bloodshed and crisis that could claim people’s lives in this state. We were also commanded to pray for peace, progress and stability of this state and that is the exact thing we are doing today.”
Senior Evangelist Aladeseye revealed that the programme was “purely a CCC affair. It is a purely divine assignment handed down to us by God Almighty and which we are here to implement without taking a penny from the government.”
He said that “We mobilised all CCC members from the South West including Lagos for this divine assignment. We extended the invitation also to all Christian groups in the state and other religions, that is why you are seeing some of Alfas and Muslim clerics here. The matter of peace is beyond religion. It is a collective and desirable value. It is a call to pray for peace to avoid bloodshed which all must be committed to because when crisis and turmoil break out, it has no respect for religion, age or political affiliations.
“We all have to pray together for religious harmony, progress and peaceful co existence in the state.”
Hon Bola Ilori, Special Adviser to Governor Aregbesola on Environment and Chairman of the Committee set up by the government to liaise with the CCC Worldwide for the hosting of the vigil remarked that “The hosting of this programme is a confirmation that Ogbeni Aregbesola is a man who encourages religious harmony and will do anything humanly possible, not only to prevent violence and crisis in the state, but also to engender peace, stability and promote good relationship and understanding.” Mr Ilori equally pointed out that “The presence of Governor Aregbesola here this night is to showcase to all that he is a man who love God and he always love to be anywhere where God is being worshipped no matter the language, liturgy, order or creed. He is a peace loving par excellence who cherish and spread love which he adores as greatest commandment from Almighty God – Love your neighbour.”
He commended the Celestial Church of Christ for organising such a programme, “I am happy that the church or God is again demonstrating his passion and love for the work of God through this special prayer organised for the State of Osun. We appreciate it and we are happy to have all of you around, God will continue to bless you and as a government, we will not fail God, because if we failed the people of the State of Osun, we have failed Him, but it is obvious as there were glaring evidences that God is happy with us in this state.”
Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in his response, thanked the CCC Worldwide for initiating the programme. “We appreciate your concern for our state, administration and people. We are joyous with your determined supplications about us to the Almighty and we are convinced that the Grace of God is here with us.”
He said that “we want to tell ourselves that religion is only meaningful if we properly internalised the essence which is love, tolerance, accommodation and ensuring peaceful co-existence in the society and whoever calls himself a believer and is not accommodating, loving, tolerant and help others must check himself because Jesus Christ told the disciples and His follower to love others as themselves, he told them about the supremacy of love which he instructed them to abide by, hence it is not right for whoever calls himself a Christian to harbour malice, hatred and bitterness against his brethren.” Governor Aregbesola charged the people to continue to love one another so as to have a peaceful and better society.
Governor Aregbesola said that “Whoever underestimates the power and mystery of prayers and fasting is dead. We in the State of Osun know the essence of prayers. We will appreciate regular crusade like this so as to unleash special blessings from heaven on my people and government through specially anointed men of God and associations or groups. We are people of prayers not people destined for curses.
“Prayers are the key to unlock the golden gates of spiritual banks in the spiritual colonies for the people, come here with us and do this periodically and let us pray to the Lord together.”
He called for better understanding on the part of the people of programmes and policies of the government adding that “No government will advertently execute policies and programmes which will be inimical to the people. I implore the citizens of the state for better understanding and cooperation as I Rauf Adesoji Aregbesola will never implement any programme which is not in the interest of the masses.”
Also, Senator John Adeyeye said, “I am most happy that this vigil holds tonight and in this State of Osun. And this makes me proud to be a Yoruba man. Yoruba is the only tribe that encourages unity among all religions, God used Moses, Joshua, Mandela, Awolowo, the same way He is using Ogbeni Aregbesola, everybody know that God is using Aregbesola. Some devil incarnates said Aregbesola wanted to Islamise Osun State and I told my people that if he did, I would carry gun against him, but I know he dare not because he is a man of peace. I notice that of all the commissioners, permanent secretaries, head of parastatals and agencies less than 30 percent of them are Muslims, so how did he want to Islamise the state? This is another testimony of his love for every peaceful and prayerful organisations and orders.”
The event recorded the presence of not only Christians from other denominations but of other two religions. An Islamic adherent, Mr Saka Waheed Adekunle said “This is a good sign and a testimony that God loves Osun. That I am a Muslim does not preclude me from joining any gathering where peace, love and harmony are being prepared or showcase for the state and people. I have been here since 10 p.m. and all what they have been preaching centred on love, peace, harmony and brotherhood, which are the focal points of Islam.”
He pointed out that “Regardless of the enormous development strides of Ogbeni in the state, we still need prayers.We need prayer to survive as a people and a nation and to religiously combine and continue to pursue a common agenda for our country. This will directly affect the positive development of our country and hasten development, I think this is part of what we need as a nation to continue to live in peace and harmony and I am happy to tell you today that we have hundreds of Muslim clerics and traditional worshipers here in our midst today, this is to show you that the governor is committed to religious harmony to fine tune development and I think this is a welcome development that should be emulated by all states.”
Comrade Amitolu Shittu, a popular human rights activist. And looking at this critically, it has finally confirmed that the insinuations of being an Islamic fanatic against Governor Aregbesola is not true, it has finally proved that governance can be used to better the life of indigene irrespective of religious affiliations. It has finally confirmed that this man meant well for everybody. This praise and worship vigil dispel the misinformation that Ogbeni want to Islamise Osun, which is a mere political propaganda. I am a Muslim by birth and I came here to see myself the reality of this programme. And I am happy to see what is going on here. If Celestial Church of Christ Worldwide can gather here to organise vigil which commanded the presence of Ogbeni and all his Executive Council members and the Yoruba traditionalists have done the same at Technical College, Osogbo, that is to tell you that there is nothing called Islamising, this is the truth, it has been proved, it has finally dispelled the lies concocted by those who want this state to go in flames and I think when a man means well irrespective of his religious affiliation, let us rally round him to support him in taking our state to a greater height.”
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