By Sam Eyoboka and Olayinka Latona
TWENTY-FOUR hours after Shiloh 2010, the General Overseer of the Living Faith Ministries, a.k.a. Winners Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo on Monday night had the onerous responsibility of flagging off the 13th Holy Ghost Congress, a spiritual retreat of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG.

Oyedepo who spoke on the topic, ‘His Word is settled’, used the occasion to psyche up Christians in the country on the need to activate their faith without which they may not be partakers of God’s bless-ings.

The bishop who was dressed in a butter colour-ed suit, averred that the promises of God are availa-ble to everybody who can demonstrate enough faith in His word which is for ever settled.

Shortly after his sermon and the accompanying prayers, a member of the governing council of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Ezekiel Odeyemi took the microphone and lead the congregation to give thanks to God for all the past congresses. The spiritual retreat began on December 18, 1998 at Lekki in Lagos with a theme, Divine Visitation.

It was high pitched celebration and dancing when the front line saxophonist, Pastor Kunle Ajayi took almost 40 minutes to treat the audience to a worship session preparatory to the introduction of the main act of the day, the second talk of the day by the General Overseer of the church and the chief host, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.

At exactly 10.35 p.m. Pastor Adeboye, dressed in a navy blue trouser and a sky blue short-sleeved shirt with a matching Navy blue bow tie stood up from his seat to a loud short of Haleluyah.

Speaking on a topic, ‘His name is Jesus,’ Pastor Adeboye warned Christ-ians to be vigilant and depart from sin which can easily prevent them from experiencing divine breakthrough.

The man of God contend-ed that sin is the source of sicknesses which event-ually leads to death, draw-ing inference from the Bible, saying “the wages of sin is death.”

He said if Christians can refrain from sin problems and sickness will not have abode in their lives, add-ing that peace like a river will come into their lives.

Explaining some of the reasons why it will be well with Children of God, he said: “Because His name is Jesus, the sick will be healed, captives will be set free; because Jesus is the deliverer. He will deal with an individual life problem from the root.”

According to him, the only problem with Christians is that they refuse to listen when the Word of God is being preached. “We think that word of ministration is for the unbelievers. Therefore there is the tendency for Christians to pray and receive no answers from the Lord, because they feel too big to hear from the Lord.

The man of God therefore urged Nigerians to humble themselves because arrogance some times can prevent one from blessings and breakthroughs stressing that sin leads to sickness.

The entire auditorium went frenzy as soon he gave out seven prayer points that must offered by the congregation for at least one hour, saying that participants were free to assume any posture they prefer.

The Prayer Points:
1 Praise God that He allowed you to hear what you have heard.
2. Father, I come to confess all my sins to You tonight. Olease forgive me.
3. Father, in all the ways that I haver strayed, Please restore me to the narrow path.

4. Father give me a brand new beginning.
5. Father Tonight Deal with all the agents of death in my life.
6. Father, from now, let me enjoy peace like a river.

7. Father, let all be well with me.

Sanitation Ministry, a happy people

MANY residents in the Redemption Camp of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, currently hosting the 2010 Holy Ghost Congress woke up Tuesday morning to an unusual drumming and clapping of hands.

Curious residents who attempted to find out the source of the joyful noise found to their surprise that over one thousand young men and women volunteers drawn from different parts of the country were responsible for the rancorous noise.

Dressed in different colours of T-shirts, the young men and women are members of the Sanitation Ministry who are responsible for the onerous task of cleaning up the srawling city especially the over 155,520 square metre Holy Ghost Area that is still undergoing expansion work.

As early as 6.00 a.m. Tuesday, the drumming had started with heavy instrumentation at the tail end of the Holy Ghost Arena. They were singing and dancing and when Vanguard approached them to enquire what was going, Brother S.S. Briggs from Rivers Province One obliged us.

The Congress, apart from being a focused on Jesus Christ, the son of God and the difference He makes in the lives of those who make Him their Saviour and Lord, also provides opportunities for personal prayers, intercessions, worship and teachings on businness, ministry, marriage and other matters of day-to-day living.

According to the dark complesioned Briggs, the dancers are volunters from different parts of the country who had given themselves to make sure that the Camp is kept clean on a daily basis, stressing that “the Bible says cleaniness is next to Godliness.”

“So what you are seing here is not a rehearsal as such, but in this such we always take everything to God in prayer before we begin. In other words we are waosrhipping God for the opportunity He had given to us to see another day and as we are about to commence the day’s work, there was need for us to commit everything to Him before we begin,” he added.

Briggs said the number of volunteers will increase to about 5,000 as the Congress progresses, because “we are still expecting some more persons from different parts of the country.

TODAY’S EVENTS

MORNING SESSION

9.00-10.00:    Prayer & Intercession
10.00-10.30:    Praise & Worship
10.30-11.30:    Talk & Prayers—He came to set the captives free
11.30-12.00:    Offering

12.00-1.00:    Ministration

AFTERNOON SESSION

4.00-4.15:    Praise, Worship & Prayers
4.15-4.30:    Offering
4.30-5.30:    Talk & Discussions
a). Marriage Allowing God to Choose
b). First Steps to Business Start-up
c). Business Management: Vital Steps                                        To Profitability
d. Balancing the needs of the Family                   and Career II

EVENING SESSION

6.00-7.00:    Prayer & Intercession
7.00-8.00:    Praise, Worship & Choir
8.00-8.15:    Greetings & Announcements
8.15-9.10:    Talk One—The Lord Mighty in battle

9.10-9.30:    Special Prayers Two—‘The singles, the widows & the apparent barren’
9.30-10.00    Offering
10.00-10.20:    Choir Ministration

10.20-12.00:    Talk Two—Let there be light’