Preached on 24th December, 2000 by THE SON OF MAN (Apostle Peter Odoemena) At THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD Onitsha
I am He Walking in the Midst of the Seven Candle Sticks. I am only gathering the loose ends, from the first Angel Messenger to the last to raise a Bride for Christ.
Believe it if you can… -Son Of ManAs you remain in the Message you have receive steadfast, unmovable, surely, “That Glorious Day” you will never regret getting yourself acquainted with Brother Peter Odoemena. On “That Day” when this life is over, then you will know that I am HE!
-Son Of Man
PROLOGUE
Please do not time me in this pulpit. Some people are on their way from Sokoto to Aba now, some from Maiduguri to Aba, and before they will get to their destinations, it may be too late in the night, yet they will not complain because it is all Christmas.
2) The Pastor said that it is because of Onitsha that we couldn’t have our camp meeting. Well, I have my own view. Whether we are camping or not, I believe every true Christian knows what to do now. I don’t need to program you; I believe you know what to do now.
3) This Message I want to handle now, I am going to handle it as a teaching. If you have been recording all the while, make sure from now you don’t miss anything. When you want to change your tape, let me know, or you slot in brand new tape altogether. God bless you Brethren. Amen.
PRAYER
Let’s bow our heads. Our Father and our God, the only Creator of heaven and earth and the fullness thereof, we give you all glory through the Name of your Son the Christ whom You’ve vested with authority over Your Church in whose blood, oh God, we have forgiveness of our sins and even the redemption of our mortal souls.
2. We have gathered, oh God, here in His Name trusting that you will see us through today and till eternity. We yield ourselves as your dear children completely to you.
3. With our heads at Thy feet Lord, we acknowledged that we are guilty of all we have heard from you so far.
4. We are really sorry in everyway we have misbehaved ourselves, contradicted You, perverted the truth, misapplied even our faith. Please overlook all those mistakes Lord for Your Name’s sake.
5. Humbly we bow down before You praying that You renew the right spirit in us all. Create retentive memory in us that Your Word, oh God, will be stamped on the tables of our hearts that at the end of today’s ministration, we will go home saying, “Didn’t our hearts burn when He was talking to us even the Words of life?”
7) Your Servant is before You, oh God, whom You’ve ordained even to bring us home, collectively Lord we lift Him up before Your presence, saying pass through Him and reach us this day. Close His mouth to all those things that are not convenient and open His mouth, oh God, to speak nothing but Thy Word.
8) Cease every human intellect in Him and let Thy wisdom flow from His mouth. Confirm the words of
His mouth, oh God, Father deep in our hearts. With the Power of Thy Holy Spirit, oh God, let the Words we will hear today become part of our flesh. Until the day we shall be clothed with our “new bodies,” let there be nobody here that will stray away from your Presence.
10) Rebellion instinct is always in man, you are the only person that can curb it. Therefore Lord, we pray that you curb every figment of rebellious spirit in all of us and help us to be obedient, loyal and faithfully to you and to your Servant whom you have sent to come and bring us home.
11) As we incline our ears unto you, Father, speak, we shall hear and we shall obey. Every distractive spirit, every contrary spirit, all demonic influences that may influence us out of Thy Presence here, Father we come against all of them by faith. We arrest all and cancel them in Christ Name.
12) Fill everybody fresh with Thy Holy Spirit. Comfort us oh God, with the comfort, which we have enjoyed from you right from the very beginning.
13) Thank You even for answering our prayers.
14) While we are here quietly and silently waiting if it shall please You that we shall be transformed today, let there be nobody that will be left out. Blessed be Your Name, Oh God, for answering our prayers in Christ Name we pray. Amen.
AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS (VOLUME TWO)
BY APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA
THE SON OF MAN
CHAPTER 1
MAN BY NATURE HATES LEADERSHIP
Psalm 119 verse 59 through 60, Living Bible Translation: “As I thought about the wrong direction in which I was heading and turned around and came running back to you.”
2) As I thought about the wrong direction I was heading to and I ran back to you. So, some years ago, our Brother Bishop Okey preached the Message: AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS, it is in the library. You can call it “part one” because the Scriptures he used are not the ones I am using here. So I’m going to talk to you on the same topic; AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS, peradventure somebody will run back to Him again.
3) As I thought on my ways, as I thought on the wrong direction I was heading to, as I meditated upon the wrong direction I was heading to, I saw destruction on my way. I saw horrible situations awaiting me in the end. I meditated; I thought about it, I reasoned, I concluded that I wouldn’t continue going that way.
MAN LOVES TO WALK IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
I have already taught you in this Faith that if a man is going somewhere and he discovers he has made a mistake—he’s taking the wrong way—he shouldn’t continue moving, because the more he continues moving, the more he’s straying away in the wrong. What he should do is to go back, go back to the origin, enquire about the right way, and then change his direction.
4) It is just like somebody standing on a point and then shot something. When you shoot it and you miss the target, you remain there, you shoot it again, you’re going to miss the target. All you have to do is to change your direction and then aim at it again—aim at it again. Finish.
5) It is always in man to walk in the wrong direction. Even from the beginning of Creation when the Almighty placed before man life and death, He commanded man to choose life that he may live but the Bible said that man decided to choose death. Man has always been interested in making the wrong choice, and he is always fed up with God leading him. Man by nature, wants to be the leader. Are you getting what I am saying?
6) When the going is bad, the Leader must appear, the Leader becomes the talk of the day. But when the going becomes very good, everybody becomes the leader.
7) Man by nature hates leadership. Man by nature will always think he will perform better than the man leading him. Man by nature will always like to condemn one that is better than him or her. Man feels he will do better always: “How I wish, if I were in your position. If I will have my way, I’ll do this.” If you will have your way, what will you do?
8) That was what killed Absalom. When Absalom waited at the door, people that were coming to consult his father David, he will just accost them on the way and biased their minds against his father David, say, “Well, how I wish I will have my way and be a king in Israel. How I wish I were a king and this problem comes to me, Oh, you know what I will do. There is nothing there, I will set you free, I’ll do this, I’ll do that.” And the Bible said, “So he continued everyday biasing the minds of the subjects of David until their hearts were turned away from David and they followed Absalom thinking that Absalom was a leader, they never knew he was just a playboy. Absalom was a playboy.
9) A little while, he rebelled thinking that he has gotten the hearts of people. Really, some followed him but able men, trained warriors remained with David. His counselor even told him clearly: “My friend, be very careful, your father is a warrior. He will marshal out a platoon of his soldiers against you and they are coming back with your head. Be very careful.”
10) So the boy rebelled and rebelled, one day he forced his father out of office. And David commanded his platoon and said, “Come, go and crush that rebellion.” David didn’t go to war, did he? Did he send a battalion? Never. He never sent a brigade or battalion or even a company. He sent just a platoon. They just went there, while coming back they were holding the head of Absalom. They presented the head of Absalom to David.
11) So watch, David said—remember David was a man after God’s own heart. No matter how God has loved you, no matter the level God is dwelling in you, no matter how you think you have served God, you have been faithful and loyal, there is always a time you’ll be falsely anointed to walk in error. There was a day, a time you even be tempted to rebel, you’ll even be tempted to join hands with the wicked. No matter the way you think God is using you, it is always real, check your Bible.
TURNING BACK FROM YOUR WRONG DIRECTION
Do you know a time came when the prosperity of the wicked tempted David? And David said, “My feet almost slipped.” We will read the Scriptures. It said, “I came almost closer to joining them. But when I entered God’s Sanctuary, there I learnt that I have wandered in the wrong direction.”
13) As I meditated on my wrong ways, as I thought on the wrong direction I was heading to, I ran back to Him. Please, think about this Scripture. 14) “I thought about the wrong direction in which I was heading, and turned around and came running back to you.” I turned around, and came running back to you. That was exactly what David did. I turned around came running back to you. David realized he was already heading to destruction. He was going to commit suicide because David has tasted the power of the world to come. David has tasted heavenly blessings. David has benefited from God even more than any other.
15) David said, “Who has bewitched me that I should not abide in the truth? What is happening in me? Am I asleep when all these things are befalling
me? I think a step forward, it is death.” That was why when the Psalmist came to a point, he said, “There is only but a step left between me and death. If I should make a step forward, it is death. I think the best thing I will do is to run back to Him.” Bible said that he turned around.
16) Remember he didn’t do it just like that, he first of all sat down and then thought about it. He saw he was heading on the wrong direction.
BRIDAL FAITH IS HIGHER THAN INDIVIDUALS
That was where I loved Brother Peter Onwudinjo of the Church at Nsukka. He is an undergraduate at Nsukka—a married man with about five children. Presently, he’s at the Church at Aba. I think I saw somebody like Brother Obadiah? Bro. Obadiah, you are happily welcomed into the Church, who came with you? Lovely? Sister Lovely, Ha! You are Sister Lovely or Loveline?
Whichever— Lovely, loveline— National Assembly be the same, you are all welcomed. Have you seen Brother Peter? Okay, you have seen him. Has he delivered the book to you with my good news? Thank you, God bless you.
18) He’s a nice Brother. When he came to me, he tendered to me five documents, apologies all through. He did not only apologize to me, he apologized to the Church, he apologized even to Uchenna, that’s Mrs. Nwoke who caused the trouble together with him. He refunded the money he collected.
19) I asked him, “Why were you taking all these steps to do all these things?” He said, “Sir, it will take a fool to play with eternal life. Remember my testimony about this Faith. I was a minister in the denomination. I had a vision about one coming and when He came to me, He placed the Bible in such a way I have never seen before, to the point that I knelt down. He commanded me to be baptized in the name of Jesus, I said no, it must be in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. So while we were discussing and discussing, the man said, ‘If you do not believe me you are perishing, because I am your Saviour. The dream left me.”
20) So the thing troubled him and troubled him. Two years after the dream, he went to Nsukka to study, there he came in contact with our former Brother Joe Ogbuka and Joe Ogbuka placed the Message to him, commanded him to baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus, he resisted it. Joe Ogbuka told him, “I am your saviour, if you refuse it you go to hell. I’m leaving you.” He said, “Okay stop. I’m not believing because you said this, I’m believing because God had already told me. My problem is now over.” And he got baptized.
21) So when he came to me, he said, “Sir, I cannot put the whole Church into trouble. It is better I die that the whole Church will survive. You know, I caused this trouble and the Church can never be wrong. I am wrong. And that’s why I took these bold steps to correct all these things.”
22) I said, “Sir, you now merit my handshake not because you made your wrongs right but because of the last statement: That the Church cannot be wrong but you are wrong. This is where I have loved you more.”
23) You know at times people behave as if the Church will tender apology to them. At times people behave as if the Church is dependent on them. That is why I built a Message in this Faith telling you: “Don’t ever build the Church of Christ around an individual. Whatever is the problem of the Church is our collective problem. No matter how rich a Brother or a Sister is, please don’t go to him to solve the problem of the Church financially or otherwise. We will make our individual contributions. The Church belongs to all of us.”
24) I’ve told you all these things ahead of time, try me. But gradually, gradually, gradually, we forget all these things. How can the Church tender apology to a man? Who are you? I say who are you? Do you know what the Church is all about to begin with? How can the Church be wrong? I repeat: How can the Church be wrong? The highest Judgment Seat on earth is the Church. I repeat: The highest Judgment Seat here on earth is the Church. That is if we know what the Church—Bridal Faith— is all about.
25) The Bible said all that was in God, He emptied into Christ, all that was in Christ, He emptied into
the Church. Then can Christ tender apology to you? Have you bid God to come and enjoy your glory? He invited you to come and share in His glory and His kingdom. He can do without you but you can never do without Him, for He is the Source of your existence.
26) So our Brother Peter Onwudinjo spoke wisely as a man. Now, he has thought on the wrong direction he was heading. He meditated upon it; he never went about quarrelling with anybody. He sat down, thought it all over, investigated into his personal life, circumstances around him, how he has been walking and the way things changed. Now, how the thing changed, because you may be maintaining a good record from the beginning, all of a sudden you see your record changing.
SIN IS REBELLION
In the book of Jude verse 9, there were angels that walked with God but they could not maintain their former estate, Bible said that God cast them out and reserved them in chains pending the day He will destroy them. Moreover, angels are human beings. Angels means messengers, human beings. In the beginning they were known to be faithful, but they could not continue in that their faithful estate.
28) Don’t ever say, “Once a minister, always minister,” No, you are wrong. Or “Once saved, always saved;” I don’t believe in that type of eternal security. I repeat: I don’t believe in it. If you continue in sin, God will wipe away your name from the Book of Life. He told Moses so. Moses said, “Instead of banishing these people from your Presence here, blot out my name from the Book of Life.” God said, “No. Far be it from Me if I would destroy the righteous in the midst of the wicked. He said, “Hear me very well, I will never destroy the righteous. Anybody that continues sinning against Me, his name will be blot out.”
29) Let me tell you something you don’t know: We said Judas, Judas, Judas. Judas’ name was written in the Book of Life in heaven if you don’t know.
When the seventy came back rejoicing that Satan bowed down before them, they cast out evil spirit, Jesus said, “Rejoice not because all these things obeyed you, but rather rejoice that your names have been written in the Book of Life in heaven.” But Judas could not keep his “former estate” and look at the whole dangerous Scriptures he fulfilled and his name was blotted out straightaway.
30) I don’t believe that God has saved me to continue rebelling against Him, for sin is rebellion.
31) People don’t know what lie is all about. Lie is perversion of truth. Anybody that is telling lies is perverting the truth. He knows the truth, but he is changing it into a lie. Read the Bible, anybody telling lie is fulfilling dangerous Scriptures because it is the habit of somebody God has left, somebody God has given over to reprobate spirit. When he sees truth, he will call it a lie. He sees lie; he will make it truth—perverting truth.
32) Therefore, don’t think God delights in what you are saying. No matter who you stand before and then you are telling your lies, refrain from it immediately.
33) David said, “As I thought on the wrong ways I was heading, I turned around, I ran back to Him.” Because I am the One that called you—a man after my heart—he thought he could behave anyhow. If David who was called a man after God’s own heart was so careful and could even suffer such mental shock, what of you today?
34) You can walk with the Son of Man from the very beginning and He’ll be calling you His “beloved,” that doesn’t mean He’ll love you unto the end. You will remain “beloved” as long as you are continuing in Him. But any day you derailed and starts following wrong way, you hang yourself in the end.
RECOGNIZE WHERE YOU HAVE FALLEN
David recognized where he has fallen immediately, he meditated on the wrong way he was heading to; he said, “No, I don’t want to perish after all my labours, what will my enemies say about me in the end? What will I tell the world? Will I now start telling them that the Message is not true or what? Will I tell them that I am deceived? Can I deny something that I saw with my eyes? What of the things I prophesied even with my own mouth? I say no, far be it from me if I should continue in these wicked ways, I better run back.”
35) “As I thought on my ways, as I meditated on the wrong ways I was heading to, I reasoned and I turned around, I ran back to Him the only Source of my existence.”
36) So please, that is my topic: AS I THOUGHT ON MY WAYS. What is my aim? I want to bring us to
a condition where we can now ponder a little and think on our ways. Are we heading on the wrong? Are we heading on the right side? Do we have any need of turning round and ran back to Him? In other words, recognize where you have fallen.
37) If the Voice is roaring on you, find out why it is roaring. If you are being rebuked, find out why you are being rebuked. Recognize where you have fallen and make amendment immediately because time is not on our side. Amen.
God has conferred absolute authority in the Bride to bind or loose anything on earth, and it shall be so in His sight. That is why whosoever that rebels against the Faith, against the Doctrine is rebelling against God and must be destroyed in the end with the world as God’s enemy.
-Son of Man
CHAPTER 2
THE HOUR WE ARE LIVING IN
Let me tell you something before I proceed to my Message. Maybe it has never come to your understanding. Since yesterday, I have been monitoring what people are saying concerning “the hour.” I called my wife last night when I tuned in Radio Delta, I said, “Darling, hear what is coming out. People are rejoicing and the commentator was saying, ‘Since the Creation of the world, this is the only time God has united the Moslems and the Christians, a sure sign that God is one and can never be divided.” He said that they can call it “unity in diversity” but it is a sure sign of things to come. I said, “Darling, hear what they are saying, that God has united Moslems and Christians together. A sure sign that God is one and can never be divided.”
2) Now, on Friday, in their Mosque, the Emir of Sokoto, the Sultan of Sokoto, while he was addressing everybody, he said, “I was thankful to Allah who has now convinced everybody that Moslems are in His salvation plan.” That there is no difference between Mohammedans and Christians. That the Almighty Allah from the beginning started programming the moon from the month of October—the first Ed-el-kabir was celebrated in the month of October—then Allah continued projecting the moon. It continued shifting forward and forward until it came to November. Then it continued pushing forward and forward until it started jumping between November and December.
3) He said, “A little while, we were celebrating it after Christmas—sometimes before Christmas—but this time around the year 2000, it’s a round figure, a round year.” That Allah is making a complete evolution in this generation by uniting the moon and the star in one date. He continued: “This unity shows that there is no difference between Christians and Moslems.” That he is now warning all that preach division to stop it seeing that the Almighty Allah has settled the problem. I said, “Glory be to God.”
4) Now, government knowing about it ahead of time, no matter how you say Obasanjo is a Christian, the same government directed that greeting cards should be printed at the expense of the government. And they printed two: Barika de Salah, Christmas greeting, all printed by Federal Government and they bundled them to all senior officers in all Federal Ministries, mandating them to distribute to everybody they wish to, in twos. So when you open this one, you put the other one inside, you give it out. My own is piled in my house; some of you have seen it. It has never been done before.
5) Now, this morning, I monitored VOA at exactly 4am, I tuned in the radio, I continued with them until I heard the whole news. So they were talking about Christmas celebration and its origin. They were saying many things about Christmas. A little while, one man started talking about this Islam Ed-el-kabir and the Christmas celebration. He said it is a wonder of this age that the moon could shift to a point that it can coincide with this Ed-el-kabir on the 25th of December, say, “It has never happened before.”
6) The other one said, “Seeing that heavenly bodies can now clash and then those that are Christians and Moslems can now come together,” he said, “I think we can predict that heavenly bodies can now clash together, maybe the earth and some other planets are going to have a head on collision.” So this is what they are thinking about it.
7) Now, hear me on the matter. It is happening at a time when the Pope had already integrated every religion into World Council of Churches. It is happening at a time when the Pope and the Anglican Primate have come together to light up “one candle of unity” and UN said it is a sign of good things to come.
8) Now, to us the true Bride, can we say that the hand of God is in that agreement? Can we say that the hand of God is behind Christmas celebration? Because that is what is coinciding with Ed-el-Kabir. Is Christmas a Christian feast? Did Christ institute it?
9) I can rightly say that this is the final of all finals. That God has through nature—He has used signs in heaven, He has used signs on earth—to vindicate that He has rejected this world. Did you get what I am saying? This coming together of the star and moon and what have you, is a sign in heaven, what is happening here on earth is a sign on earth but the whole thing is depicting a picture that God has condemned this world. It is finished. Because He has now declared everybody guilty of unbelief, there is only but a little group that is called out from them and that is this group—the Bridal Faith. Check even events around you, apart from this group, every other group is guilty of this Christmas season even Jehovah’s Witness. They will preach against Christmas but watch them; you will know that they don’t mean what they are saying. But in this Faith—Bridal Faith—we thank God.
10) Now that we can see things that never happened before happening and it is happening at this crucial hour, if you are wise nobody will tell you to behave wise. When you see things that never happened before happening—signs in heaven and signs on earth—if I were in your shoes, I will tighten my belt.
11) In this five O’clock American news, Clinton was saying that he was tired of this Palestinian crisis, the peace talk they went to discuss in America ended on Saturday on a dead-lock again. The Israeli foreign Minister who led the delegation said that Israel has made enough concision to Palestine, that this issue of the state of Jerusalem should be discussed again.
12) They said that Israel should release Palestine territories they occupied. The foreign Minister said
that they are yet to reclaim their territories occupied by Palestine which Ehud Barrak gave them as a concision for peace. In effect, he is denying that they are occupying Palestinian territories.
13) Concerning the refugees and their resettlement, the man said no, that they won’t have a place to resettle Palestinians that were ejected in Israel, that Yassar Arafat should make a place for his people. So the man warned them, Clinton warned them that if by the next summit that is coming up by next Wednesday, if it is not resolved, that he’s going to hand the matter over to the incoming administration of George Bush.
14) In addition, looking at the whole situation; there is no sign. If George Bush will behave like his father, well, we can expect the worst because it was his father that led America to fight Iraq and the son is now coming in as the president. We wonder whether he can endure what is happening in the Middle East.
15) Brethren, I am trying to bring you to the picture of where we are. Not that it was a law or mandate that Moslems walk by the appearing of the moon and the thing coincided. Why must it be this year? Maybe we are heading to a disastrous end, we don’t know. Maybe we are heading to a beautiful end, we don’t know.
16) You know today is ordinary 24th of December, tomorrow is still too far from now, even this evening is too far to a Christian. Whomever that is waiting on the Promise of the Lord, I am saying that in the next one hour, he’ll be in the mortuary. Therefore, you can now see where we are.
17) I thank God that the Bride has already arrived and she is sitting where the Lord said she must sit. Being placed in the wilderness where she will be nurtured well—while waiting for the Promise of the hour. Amen.