Pastor Michael Adebayo Adeoye is another living legend within and outside Christ Apostolic Church, Nigeria and Overseas. Now 84 years, he was a Special guest recently at Powerlink Prayer House, Idimu where it was on record that he spent a part of his years praying during one of his trying times seeking the face of the Lord.
This time he was invited to come and speak to younger ministers of God about their marriage and the home front. He was very practical, open and frank as usual sparing no information that would be useful to his listeners.
PTL News was there to listen to this widely respected wise man who cut across various Church denominations.
The summary of his message to those who wanted to take anything home was very clear. He noted, “There are many marriages with bad foundation. This must be examined before marriage, and this takes us to Practical things we need to know about and before marriage.”
“What I want you to know as Christians and ministers is that the Holy Bible is our Manual. Whatever you want to do you can always justify it with the bible, but whatever God does not say you will not find it in the bible. God told Joshua that this book of the law should not depart from your hands. Joshua 1, Psalm 1. The bible is our manual. This is what we need, to enjoy our family.”
He explained further that “marriage is a union of two strange bed fellows, as the bible says in Genesis that the two were naked and they were not ashamed, quoting 1Corinthians 7 verses 3 and 4. God has balanced it this way.
Pa Adeoye also advised couples not to separate from each other but keep themselves together in fasting and prayers, (Ephesians 5.22.).
“Wives, obey your husbands, husbands, love your wives, but some husbands have turned themselves to executive husbands forgetting their marital vows. What is happening in marriage is not good to the ears. I am a marriage counselor and I am speaking from experience,” explained Pa Adeoye who was reputed to have joined Pastor Kumuyi and wife in holy wedlock.
The cleric also condemned those who are very quick to judge in marital disputes, saying “in most cases we are very quick to judge others but not self-critical,” quoting Colossians 3.16 and 19, and 1Peter 3. 1-7, he said, “Bible tells us to be wise with our wives as weaker vessels. Some husbands don’t trust their wives. The bible tells us to be the doers of the word, and not the hearers alone”, he noted.
There was also Question and Answer session when various questions and answered were presented.
Some of the questions addressed went this way, “Why are wives no more willing to obey their husbands?, and What about the wives that have divine callings?”
One of the answers also went thus, “A wife will not respect her husband if the husband does not perform his duties and responsibilities at home.”
It was advised that “a woman with a calling should stay under her husband, and when men have calling they should take good care of their wives,” noting that “Where there is no love, where the wives are proud, more husbands would not be faithful to their wives.”
Answering whether it was right for a pastor to ask for counsel from his church, the old cleric advised, “However old a pastor is, he is not older than God, Jesus Christ or Holy Spirit,” adding that, “God works in mysterious ways, we should not allow things that are temporal to deny us of things that are eternal. The man should report to God or seek for superior counsel. Faith is more than all these imaginations.
“As a Christian, there are so many things you don’t need to listen to, and when you listen you don’t need to comment.”
In his own remark, Pastor Enoch Oyedele told couples to beware of the tricks of Satan as he led in prayer, “O Lord, help me that I will not use my hands to open doors for the devil.” Quoting 2Cor.7.1, he stressed that a good husband or wife should cover the secrets of his or her spouse.
Pastor Peter Agboola, the host who just came in from UK, in his remarks revealed what led to the family oriented programme. He said, “When I came back, I realized that many of our ministers are having challenges at the home front and we are led to attend to this. We thank God for all that came from different church denominations to come and hear from a no less man than Baba Adeoye. We pray God intervenes in the families that are troubled and tortured by Satan.
“I believe by the little we have done, God will use it to touch homes and families. By the grace of God we hope to continue periodically to teach people to change lives. We have been told that it is the understanding of the word of God that matters, and we are encouraged to leave this meeting to think about and practise what we have learnt.”
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