Following the agelong misconception on why members of the Celestial Church of Christ mention the Holy Michael’s name while praying, Prophet Sola Odubowale of the World Evangelism Outreach has unfolded the reasons the church includes the name in her prayers.
In teaching on the Celestial Television Network, Prophet Sola Odubowale impressed that using the Holy Michael’s name while praying was the doctrine given the church by God adding that other denominations had their own doctrines too.
According to him, God answers prayers regardless of the doctrine upheld by any church or religious sect.
“It is a prayer pattern in our doctrine given to us. The same way the Catholics hold their rosary at a time of prayer, it is a prayer pattern. The fact that they hold rosary at a time of prayer does not mean God does not answer their prayers; it does not mean God is angry with them. As a matter of fact, most of the rich Christians in the world are Roman Catholics, so because of your biblical belief, will you now say because they pray with rosary it is wrong? No! It is a prayer pattern for Catholics.
“The same way for Muslims; when Muslims wants to pray, what do they do? The first thing they do is ablution. Even if there is no water, they use sand and take their rosary. It is their own prayer pattern and it does not stop God from listening to them.”
He continued, “MFM was the one that introduced fire prayer, they were the one that brought fire prayer. When we were growing up, that wasn’t in place. But when MFM came, that was the doctrine given to Dr Olukoya; God gave them fire as a weapon. When they first came, a lot of people were making jest of them, I was among those at first but some people asked God for revelation and God revealed the mystery behind praying with the fire prayer to them because the Bible said our God is a consuming fire. Today, it has become a global practice; almost all Christians, when they are praying, say ‘Father, every enemies of advancement, consume them by fire’. It was not like that before, it was a doctrine given to a church and embraced by the world.
“Just the way the Catholics have their own prayer patterns, just the way the Muslims have their own prayer pattern and just the way MFM members have their own prayer pattern calling fire, the Celestial Church of Christ, according to our doctrine, it is our prayer pattern as well to pray with ‘Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Holy Michael’. It is our pattern, it is our doctrine that God gave to us and we have been using it since 1947 and it has been answering to us. If you are not convinced about it, ask God for revelation.”
He pointed out that every church on earth has a guiding angel assigned to it as stated in the book of Revelation 12, hence the ministry of Angels should not be strange to the saints.
“As a matter of fact, to every church, there is an angel, at least one. Not to a church alone, to every community there is an angel, to every state, there is an angel, to every region, there is a national angel assigned to every country. The Bible established the fact that all the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation have their own angels. That is why when you look at Revelation Chapter 2, the Bible says, ‘Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write…’ That is to tell us that Ephesus has an angel, Sardis has an angel, Philadelphia has an angel too. To every church, there is an angel attached to work as a messenger from God to the church,” said Prophet Odubowale.
He further stated that it was one of the duties of the Celestial Church to make the world recognise the ministry of angels in the church in order to proffer solutions to man’s problems.
“Why do we pray calling the name of Holy Michael? It is to inform the world of the knowledge, the power and the participation of the angelic ministry to bring solutions to global problems. God is using the Celestial Church of Christ to educate the world that in the supernatural, there is an angelic department, an angelic ministry that you can operate in to perform many mysterious miracles. So God actually brought the Celestial Church of Christ to make the world recognise that there is the ministry of angels in the church.”
Prophet Odubowale made the distinction that the Celestial Church of Christ does not worship angels, rather angels are ministering spirits sent to them by God in delivering messages.
“In the Celestial Church of Christ, ours is not like an angel was attached, there is a profound ministry of angels in the church as sent to us, not to be worshipped but to serve as errand (angels) to us. God established the ministry of angels in the Celestial Church of Christ not for them to be worshipped but for us to have a whole lot of them. That is why you cannot afford to misbehave with any Celestian, the moment you’re thinking of doing them evil, thousands of angels are on the way to attack because we have the profound ministry of angels in the church.
Now, most revelations in the Celestial Church are sent to us by angels because we have the ministry; we have the prophetic ministry, the music ministry, in like manner, we have the angelic ministry; it is spiritual. Because we have the ministry in our midst, we have them at our becks and calls. So any time God wants to send some important messages to us, most of the times, these messages are usually sent through angels. So, we have them as ministering spirits.”
Odubowale affirmed that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One.
He said, “There are hierarchies, organisations, roles and responsibilities in heaven. The moment you mention Jehovah, you’re talking about God the Father; the Creator. The moment you mention Jesus Christ, according to hierarchy, you’re talking about the Son who is our mediator ( Hebrews 12:24.) The moment you mention the Holy Spirit, according to the hierarchy, you are talking about our inspirator; the one that inspires us, you are talking about the revelator; the one that shows revelations to us, you are talking about the illuminator; the one that illuminates us with his light
“The Holy Spirit is the inspirator, revelator and illuminator; God the Father Jehovah, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are One. All these three are One.”
According to him, the Holy Michael cannot replace the power of the Holy Spirit as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One and we are in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.
“We are in the dispensation of the Third nature of God presently. We are now in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit; that is to tell you that the Holy Spirit, His Presence is present. The Presence of the Holy Spirit is present with us at all times even if you don’t call Him because we are in His dispensation presently.
“So, Holy Michael is not used to replace the Holy Spirit. No! Because the moment you mention Jehovah, the moment you mention Jesus Christ, if you don’t call the Holy Spirit, he is there automatically, they are One. When you call Jehovah, even if you don’t call Jesus Christ, you have called the Three, they are Three in One, and they operate together.
When you call Jehovah, you call Jesus Christ and you call Holy Michael, we are not substituting the office of the Holy Spirit with the Holy Michael. No! Because this is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present, He is readily available whether you call Him or not. Holy Michael is not and cannot replace the position or office of the Holy Spirit, expounded the prophet.
Odubowale disclosed that the order of praying was established in the Celestial Church of Christ hymns, which rightly listed “Jehovah, Jesus Christ and Holy Michael” as it is used in the church.
He added, “It is a secret and the power that we are given and the pattern is established in our hymn, hymn 406, as sent to us by the Holy Spirit ‘Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Holy Michael Our Captain.’ That is the order as given and I just brought out the answer to you as revealed in our hymn book.
Why do we attach importance to Holy Michael, recognising him as our captain and what are his roles? The role of Holy Michael is expressly pronounced in the CCC Hymn Book. When you look at the hymn 377, stanza 5, 6, and 7, you can see the order by which we call upon the name of God in the Celestial Church.
Stanza 5: Jehovah Holy, Holy, Holy, behold us with thy favour.
Stanza 6: Jesus Christ the Redeemer, bind us with thine salvation.
Stanza 7: Holy Michael Our Captain, defender of all saints.
They are expressly analysed as revealed by the Holy Spirit in our hymnbook; Jehovah; stanza 5, Jesus; stanza 6, and Holy Michael; stanza 7.”
He explained that it was the duty of the Holy Michael to contend on behalf of the children of God as it was recorded both in the Old and the New Testaments.
“We call Holy Michael to stand for us as a captain in trouble. Daniel 12:1 ‘And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people…’ You are a king, you are a queen, it is not your responsibility to fight, you have someone, an angel you can send to fight your battle. Holy Michael shall stand to fight for the children of God, to fight for us, that is his office, his job and his duty.
“If you don’t believe because of that is brought out of the Old Testament, now in the New Testament, Rev. 12:7 ‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; the dragon fought and his angels’.
“That is his duty when it is time to fight a battle, we call Holy Michael to fight the battle for us and we use the name of Jesus because according to the same Revelations 12:7, it says they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the words of their testimonies. Even though we are sending Holy Michael on an errand to fight the battle for us, he may not conquer some fierce and strong battle without the blood of the lamb, so as to stand for us as captain in times of trouble,” explained Odubowale.
He also pointed out that the Holy Michael protects and ensures that answers to the prayers of the saints were delivered and not hindered.
“There are princes of the kingdom of darkness who are always available to withstand the angels of the good news of the children of God, to waste away their prayers and to destroy their efforts as recorded in Daniel 10:13. When you hear the Celestians calling Holy Michael, it is because we don’t want the angels of our good news to be withstood, we don’t want a delay, we want to pray and we want quick answers, we don’t want hindered prayers, we want quick results,” Prophet Odubowale added.
Prophet Odubowale further stated that the basis for using Holy Michael’s name while praying was found in the Scriptures where Apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy listed out in order; God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels as the witnesses of his words.
“We found that order in the Scriptures. It is in the Bible, we find it in the Bible and use it and it’s working for us,” he noted.
In 1 Tim. 5:21, ‘I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality’.
Paul Apostle that we can refer to as the most brilliant; we know all his epistles, he was outstanding in the knowledge of deeper things more than the others. He wrote more epistles than the others and while doing this, he used Holy Michael as a witness to the infallibility of the Scriptures,” Prophet Odubowale stated.
He, however, urged the denominations of the body of Christ to see themselves as they truly were adding that no church was greater or lesser but they were to work together to the glory of God.
He said, “All churches are churches before the presence of God, no church is lesser than the other and no church is greater than the other. Redeemed is there for a purpose, MFM is there for a purpose, Roman Catholic is there for a purpose, C&S is there for a purpose, Zion Church is there for a purpose, Celestial Church is also there for a purpose.
One is acting as the eyes, another as the mouth, another is acting as the ear, another as the hand and another as the leg; if one is missing, or if one refuses to cooperate with the other, it will affect them all.”
“We are all working together to the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we argue with one another, why do we
fight, why the confusion among the body of Christ? Like I said earlier, if you don’t
understand any truth as regards any church and their doctrine and practices, it
is simple, our God is a God of light, go to God, ask for revelations and He
shall reveal it to you,” Prophet Odubowale added.
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