By SAM EYOBOKA

AT the beginning of the year, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian  Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye stunned the Christian world when he announced a 100-days fasting period for members of the church beginning from January 2 to kick-start the new year.

The announcement came as the 72-year old Pastor Adeboye released his prophecies for the new year, during a crossover service held at the Redemption Camp of the church, declaring that “2014 will be the year of Overflowing blessings” and “the destinies of many people will be determined this year.”

According to Pastor Adeboye, the only persons exempted are newly wedded couples and elders who are above 70 years of age, noting that he would fast despite his age. The other group of persons exempted are nursing mothers and pregnant women.

Said he: “You can drink water during fast.  You can drink tea if you are overseas and it is cold. If you miss a day, you must substitute it for two days.”
That exercise is expected to end on Friday, April 11.

The Kings’ Court parish of the church located in Victoria Island in Lagos has perfected plan to take the session to a new level. It is ending the fasting period with an extravangant praise session.
Addressing newsmen in his church office, the Pastor-in-Charge of the Province, Pastor Ben Akabueze gave reasons why the Kings’ Court, which has metamorphosed to become a provincial headquarters, is resorting to a praise session after the 100-day spiritual sacrifice.

“As we head to the end of the fast, we now want to move on to praise. There was a prophetic word spoken through our General Overseer, Pastor Adeboye, to the effect that for some persons this year, on account of what God would do, they would go from prayer to praising God. First of all, before you can go from prayer to praise, you must have been praying.

“It does not mean that when you move from prayer to praise, you stop praying. Neither does it mean that you have not been praising God previously. So effectively, the prophetic word means that God will do some awesome things that will cause its people to praise Him in an outstanding way, more than previously done.

“And so as we come towards the end of the 100-day fasting, which is itself part of God’s prophetic agenda for the church, we are having this special programme on the theme, “From Prayer to Praise” which will hold on April 13, 2014, here at the King’s Court.

“That pre-supposes the fact that we believe God to move in mighty ways in the lives of individuals and families in the church, so that they will have cause to praise Him because they have answers. When you get answers to what you have been praying about, you don’t continue to pray about it, rather you switch to praise for the answers. Whichever you look at it, we will indeed have answers to lots of prayers,” he stated.

Continuing, the pastor said “instead of continuing to pray, we will shift gear and go into praise for the answers.
Also important is that very often, when people receive answers to prayers, they just move on and don’t even remember to return to God with thanksgiving for what He has done for them.”

Drawing attention to a biblical story of the 10 lepers who were healed, but only one returned to thank the Lord Jesus, Pastor Akabueze said they don’t want to be like the nine other lepers.
“We want to be like the one Christ commended. That is why we believe that God will do big things in our lives during the fasting period and we will shift gear from prayer to praise,” he said.

He hinted that preparations and rehearsals for a worthwhile celebration have reached feverish pitch because the occasion will witness guest appearances of established gospel artistes just as it will be a platform for revealing bud-ding artistes who may walk away with recording deals.

Asked that one of the prophecies for this year is that the destiny of Nigeria will be determined this year and what impact will the praise have on the fortune of the nation?

This was his response. “As a church, we will be standing in the gap for Nigeria. But in all honesty, the programme coming up is primarily for members and families represented here in the King’s Court parish and all other families who will join us in the programmes. Yes, we will be praying for Nigeria and we hope that God will hearken to our cries for Nigeria and the cries of many others who have been interceding for this country.”