The Divine order of the church as also described in chapter2 (section2,section 24) which was given on 29th September 1947, through a vision to the founder in his house while praying with some other people around him. One of the women in the house of prayer that moment after the founder's vision, also saw Jesus in what she described (section 25); with blood on his pierced hands and legs and gushing out on his side. Then she also explained the vision that Jesus came down from the cross and took the founder into a room and when they had emerged from the room, the woman explained that the founder was dressed in a white tunic full of stars and his eyes full of blinding lights and she couldn't look at them. This vision shown to this member in prayer with the founder at his house was to confirm his call from God and divine order. As Christians, we are clothed in the glory of God through His finished work on the cross; from the cross, from His finished work, He was able to take our shame and give us glory, covering, power; this we can understand as Grace (unmerited favor). After this particular day, on the 29th September, the founder explained he had seen many other visions and received heavenly visitors who spoke to him(section 26). The following day, the husband of the woman who saw the visions during prayers at the founders' house, saw some men playing a game called 'ayo' and told them what happened, because his wife was still in shock after the vision she saw. About twelve men came to confirm what they had heard, and about seven of the twelve were arrested by the Spirit of God and began to prophesy about the church; it's tenants and could not move. The remaining five went back and spread the news and those who heard again ran to the founder's place in disbelief, but some of them also experienced what the first set of people experienced (section 26).
Here we see that God was working in the midst of their disbelief and confusion to establish His church. Certainly, it won't be up to one man to carry out the plan of God. God was in His own way going to call people to His church, which we see how it was done here. From a woman's visions, her husband, taken by curiosity, told people and these people ended up as members prophesying about the church. As we see here, it's not by their power or by their knowledge or their holiness, but by God's grace, who had beforehand elected them for a work unknown to them but already predestined by God. These men went from playing a game on the street to instant prophets, they were never said to have been praying or fasting or doing any work of faith, God just showered His grace on ordinary men to empower them to work for Him. How big is our God! Even more people came, out of curiosity but were arrested by the HolySpirit for the work of the church.
This led to gossip that the founder was using dark power because of the uncommon miraculous signs they witnessed. It wasn't surprising that those who criticized him the more were from his former denomination and also other Christian denominations. Now there's a situation where about 200 people are at the founder's house every day, both Muslims , Christians and traditionalists , all out of curiosity. Even for the founder, this had become uncomfortable and thirteen days had passed. The founder tried to reach out to the police authorities to help drive them out (section 27).
From here we understand that the founder was not carried away or fleshy-excited about the crowd, but was on the contrary, trying not to have a following for himself, as also in the case at the community of Agange, where they requested to follow him to his church even if he had none at the time. As a man of God, we shouldn't chase after crowds but after souls for Christ. It's not about how many people are around you but about how Christ is working, through you. As a believer we should aim to be impactful, not popular. Many are called but few are chosen (Mathew22:14).
It was therefore suggested to the founder to arrange an open-air meeting the following Saturday to address all curiosity. (Section 27)
On this day of the open air meeting, according to section 28, the spirit of God instructed him to open a Bible in front of him but not read it and light three candles before him, which he did and, sitting with the founder, were two other prophets on each side, as he sat down, the reply to the question came directly from Him that sent the founder(section28), as the word say that 'don't think of what to say when you brought before the judges of the world for at that hour the Holy Spirit will teach you what to say' (Luke12:12).
Looking at all these events happening, It was by all means the will of God. The questions asked proved to be the vital questions we all need to understand the answers to understand the church.
The first question was from a member of a cherubim and seraphim church, 'understanding that Moses Orimolade(founder of the cherubim and seraphim movement) performed all spiritual works. Now the founder also claimed to be sent. What should they believe? The answer related to him was; 'with regard to the question John the Baptist came before Jesus; cherubim and seraphim are angels, all of whom wait upon the worship of our Lord Jesus. Seraphim belongs to the angels and is no more than a forerunner to prepare the way for the Celestial church of Christ. This was the answer the Lord gave to the founder to the question, adding that whether the world likes it or not, it's glory will be known to all humanity(section 29). The answer given to the question here explains everything already. Understanding the call of the cherubim seraphim movement, we can easily identify this as a movement and not a church. The founder of this movement and how it grew actually proves that the cherubim and seraphim are more of a movement than a church. Today, the term 'church' is used carelessly, but not every gathering is a church. Yes, Jesus is in every gathering where two or more are gathered in faith to his name, even in a house or anywhere the spirit of God descends where there's unity in Christ. These days we call any gathering a church which is not factual. They are movements and they are gatherings, but not all can fully be called a church. In a sense, here we expected most cherubim by this time to look towards joining the church but the movement continued, which we can also understand to be the will of God. We certainly do understand perfectly from this question that the Celestial church of Christ is a church of Christ Himself and not a movement or Christian gathering. A movement or a gathering is mostly powered by an individual, the head pastor, for example, are the Pentecostal denominations we see today, and once the head and founder are no longer, this gathering diminishes greatly. The Celestial church of Christ Church because of her call as a church, keeps on adding members even after over 30 years since the founder passed. This is a real church with Jesus as the Shepard. In other 'churches', as we call them, we understand that there's not completely a divine order for a church mostly, except a man of God with divine anointing which generates followers. This is also the will of God, we as. We should then be thankful for being in a church. The celestial hymns 330 and 376 describe it as the last church and that we should be thankful for the church being in our lifetime respectively.
The second question from a Catholic,
'Knowing that St. Peter and St. Paul took the Catholic church to Rome by the authority of Jesus Catholic, are you saying the same Jesus sent you to us?' The answer that was given; 'young man, we gave you one kobo to hold on to, and you held on to it. Now we are telling you to reject one kobo and take two kobo because the glory of two kobo is more than one kobo; but if you don't relinquish the one kobo in time and embrace two kobo, when you see the glory of two kobo , you will want to retrace your steps and embrace it but it will be too late as others would have taken your place'(section30). Here we see that the catholic church which pioneered all other orthodox churches brought to africa being described as one kobo and celestial church described as two kobo. one kobo, then two kobo, can signify as double blessings of the initial blessing which will be one kobo.
The celestial church of Christ compared to the churches in existence before its establishment, is a more relatable church to Africans. Our way of worship and style of worship is original and not imported. This made it more believable and connectable to the normal African mind. We saw in the divine order (section 2) how many nominal Christians going to churches still go to native power because so many of them saw the church as a foreign idea of God, not all but many nominal. The celestial church grace has descended to us, that is more blessing to us in the sense of us being able to engage the church with more understanding. As Africans, we are birthed and soaked in the quest for spiritual powers or spiritual knowledge and many Africans never saw the European churches brought from overseas as a strong powerhouse compared to their traditional gods their fathers worshipped, but the celestial church was created to erase all that and its mentality through its descending with spiritual power and spiritual actions, which was given by grace not by man's power or knowledge.
These main questions highlighted in the constitution(section 29,30) gave a clearer view of the purpose of the church and as a result of of the answers given, it was a successful open air meeting. Amongst other questions that were answered, many more people believed and joined the founder. This marked the beginning of the church and its growth. (section 30)
After about three months since the establishment of the church, the founder made it known that he was approached by some leaders of his former denomination who asked him why he didn't deploy his spiritual power that had just been bestowed on him for use within the former denomination. The founder replied that if he was embraced maybe he would have joined with his former denomination but instead he was preached against by some leaders of his former denomination (section31).
He stated in section 31 that he had not much understanding of the whole episode, as shown in the fact of calling the police force to help send the crowd away, and would have joined the former denomination if he was accepted by them. God is always ahead of us. The fact we are rejected doesn't mean God is not working. Rejection by people but acceptance by God is far better than acceptance by people but rejection by God. To fulfill the call of the church, God made him rejected by them the same way Jesus was rejected by the scribes and scholars of the law of Moses. If he was accepted by them, he wouldn't be able to carry out his mission. Here we also notice the founder was not always 100% sure of what was going to happen, hence where's the faith? He just perfected walking with the Spirit of God and believed in whatever is going on in His life as the will of God. We can't understand the ways of God at times in our situations, but we must trust Him, especially in those confusing situations. A Christian, as a born again, is like the wind, though you hear the sound but don't know where it comes from or where it's going (John3:8).
From section 32 to section 57 we see some notable miracles from numerous other miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ. These miracles God wrought on the church and the founder to confirm the power and authenticity of the call.
From 32 to 34 we see the power of resurrection. A woman died of illness and her body was brought to the house of the founder (the church was barely two months ago), despite the fact that all his compound relations were Muslims and were not in support of having a dead body in the environment, the body was laid on the floor and after the founder prayed, she was raised by Jesus Christ. She was told by the founder to go and show herself to the doctor, who confirmed her death, and on seeing her alive and completely well, he thought he saw a ghost and didn't understand that God brings the dead back to life (section34).
From 35 to 37, we see another dead person coming back to life. A friend of the founder, who he visited, just to see him dead, the founder took a piece of his 3 garment that he was wearing and placed it on him, telling everyone to leave the room. The dead raised back to life at twelve midnight and after coming back to life the individual related with the founder how he saw Jesus and Jesus told him that he was dead, but to honor the founder, he would return to life(section 36).
From 38 to 40 we see a notable event in a town. The sea of the town had overflown above its banks, causing problems for the community. The chief of the town asked for the founder to come and intercede for the town and its people. On getting there with about five other members, he saw a European father carrying a Shepard's staff by the sea, but the sea pushed him back as he prayed. When the founder got there, He who sent the founder told the founder that the world is like cv egg and the sea like a needle, instructing him to insert a needle in an egg in front of the community of people and throw it into the sea which would carry it away. As this was done, the sea receded completely(Section 39).
The news of the church spread to many places in the region of Dahomey, now the Republic of Benin.
This is Christ's excellent grace working excellently to establish His church. All the challenges posed to the founder were turned into testimonies (Luke21:13). Just as Christ worked miracles, even making mud mixed with saliva and placing it on a blind man to see (John 9:6), telling him to go and wash his eyes and he received his sight, these were exercises of faith to help the less powerful in faith to obtain a miracle. The founder plainly used an egg and a needle or put his regalia on the dead to help the faith of the environment so that it can obtain a miracle. As Celestials, we are exposed to this knowledge of faith. We use items with faith, be it a fruit, a candle, or any symbol of purity with Christ, and our faith is lifted up when using it in prayer. The item we use is not faith. Faith is in our heart, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God(Romans10:17). Items help our heart which is where faith resides, items can help your concentration with prayers, some items like fruits can be used proverbially with your spirit or heart of faith. This is a wisdom to all celestial. As a Christian, once we believe in our heart, God answers, the problem with nominal Christians going to seek dark power was because most didn't believe in the heart being enough and needed to use an item like a ring or some other sort of item to wear or to apply, on their body. This wisdom that God released to celestial is to counter this practice, we can do it with light, not allowing the items to use us nor also allowing our heart of faith to be useless without the items, but to use this items as point of contact to our heart which is the source of faith. He who worships God must worship in the Spirit(heart) and truth(Jesus) (John4:24). Your heart must grow in Jesus (the word), this is your faith, the level of your knowledge of the word is proportional to the faith you carry directly or indirectly. We see that the use of items in serious or many proportions is mostly given to new members or nominal Christians with less faith, but as you continue to grow and mature in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior in the Celestial church, we must know that our heart is enough. We pray for people and use things to help their faith, not our faith anymore, as mature Christians. Even if you must use these items in some cases, a true celestial does not rely on these items as the source of power, but on the Word of God behind grace to use items, and they will work. We must note strongly that the founder started with 'laying hands on the sick and dead' and never started using any items until later, and this was to help the faith of the environment. Let's keep this to heart. As celestial and Christians, we have a great commission to preach the gospel around the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, where signs and wonders will follow us. In His name we will heal the sick, raise the dead, we will drink poison and it won't harm us, we will pick up snake and they won't bite us, we will speak in other tongues(Mathew 28, Mark 18). As a celestial shouldn't be limited by items, we have to learn from the use of items and use knowledge to understand how faith works. By laying of hand we are enabled as long as our heart is lifted up to Jesus.
** Church Entry into Nigeria**
The uniqueness of the church was one of the reasons for the fast spread of the Celestial church of Christ. At that point, it spread to Lagos. Seven members who were also fishermen were mentioned to have played the fundamental roles in introducing the church to Nigeria.(section 42).
Now, it was time to bring the church into Nigeria and we see God's hand in His church using seven members; emphasizing on the number seven as perfection. God uses this to show us that bringing the church to Nigeria was completely a divine mission, as mentioned in section 42. The founder was reluctant to go to Lagos (section 43), even after refusing twice, and couldn't refuse a third time. God's will must always be done, even with the founder not planning this, unlike some pastors who will seek to go round the world and aim for fame, we see him on the contrary here. The founder also expressed 'fear' of Nigeria (section43). He described that he heard that Nigeria was a 'fast' and 'difficult' country. As men of God, we can have weakness, maybe little fears of things, definitely not fear that leads to panic, but at times too much cautiousness leads to fear, but regardless, we are strong in Christ even when weak(Joel3:10).
On his arrival in Lagos, the founder cured a mad woman instantly (section44). This led to a stir amongst other churches in the region, and they requested to meet with the founder. They had also heard of previous miracles and requested to see these miracles with their eyes. They requested to meet at a hall at Yaba in Lagos. They also made it clear to the founder that they were believers also, but were also thorough-going and will scrutinize his actions (section 45).
At the hall in Yaba, the founder selected two women, one married and unmarried, asking them to lie down and put his clothes on them. He removed two of his garments worn and placed one on each of the women. The women, after about an hour, were told to stand up and they both didn't feel any major impact (section46), at this point their disbelief certainly grew, then the founder remembered and sang hymn 229 (Holy Spirit descends into our midst) which an eleven month old child gave through the spirit to the church. On singing the hymn, suddenly the HolySpirit descended upon them; among them somebody said 'He is my beloved , I sent him, hear him', another said 'you married woman, you are in your mensural period, and you want to see the glory of Jesus, ask her whether she's on her period or not' referring to one of the women the founder earlier placed his garment on. Still another said, 'you young woman, you know very well you have just had sexual relations and you have not bathed to clean yourself, I am a selective God'. The whole hall shook, seeing the glory and power of God, they were all bewildered at everything they saw and heard coming from among them.(section48).
There's a lot to take note of here. First of all, the God of celestial is not limited but selective. Remember it was a hall that was used, not a church. Though the people asked for miracles. It was clear that the gift of prophesy from the HolySpirit rained in the hall that day powerfully. No mad, sick or dead person was brought, so this manifestation they witnessed was the only possibility because that's what they wanted, they that are whole need no doctor(Luke5:31,32). We can't force a miracle or the work of God on those with unstable or unbelieving hearts. After many questions about the environment with the people in doubt mostly, the founder couldn't do much, but we see a hymnal song being sung and thus changing the environment in the spirit. Our hymnal songs are given directly by prophesy in the Celestial church of Christ, the hymnals are the Word of God with authority and power, this is grace also. When we sing these songs our spirit changes, the spiritual atmosphere also changes. Let your heart continually be with psalms, hymnals and spiritual songs (Ephesians5:19).
After this downpour of the HolySpirit, they were reluctant to let the founder leave the hall, as rain was also falling in that environment. When it was time for him to go, the founder stretch forth his hand to the rain and it stopped just as he earlier said(section 49).
We, as celestial, as Christ followers have the power to speak to weather conditions to change, especially for the glory of the work of God, just as how Jesus calm the storm with His disciples (Mark4:35-41).
From section 50 to 57 we see the true story of three people also raised from the dead amongst many other miracles (section53). The third case of a woman who was brought to church and kept in the church vestry for women. After being there for about three days, lifeless and the faith of most around was gone because the founder didn't go in to pray for her but sent to place his garment on her. At the moment, the mother of the woman lying dead was about to take her to bury her. We see that as she came to ask to go and bury her child, the founder indicated in section 56 that her lions fell off, and then he had sympathy with her, followed her to the body and spoke to the body in the name of Jesus, and we immediately saw another miracle hand of Jesus through the founder(section 57). We as Christians and celestial members must understand that we have been given all authority through Jesus Christ. The founder indicated strongly in the same section how he didn't immediately go to pray for the deceased body, knowing fully well he wasn't the one doing the work but Jesus. He waited for the step of Jesus and followed. The people wanted prayers, vigils, fasting or other flagellation before God wrought a miracle, but that was not the case (section 56). Yes, as Christians, we must keep our spirits in check by prayer through fasting, but God uses us for His glory according to our faith and life of faith. Our response, every day and actions every day, especially moments when we are not praying, is our real-time faith, as I call it. God is expecting us to use the authority we have and not be held down by anything or any condition. Jesus has already met all the conditions on the cross and we, as Christians, are to use this authority in circumstances of life. As noted here, the founder was not known to do spiritual works, like how much he laid hands and instantaneous healings wrought through him in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. These days we see so many in celestial who have put their faith solely on spiritual works and have thrown away the power to lay hands on the sick, dead or those in trouble, we tend to only think of spiritual works now. We as leaders must know the place of spiritual works; it is mainly to help the faith of the seeker, and if the person seeking God already believes in you as a leader of the church, you can lay your hands on them alone or just do a simple work of faith like the founder; using girdles or your garment on them, this will work according to the level of faith in Jesus Christ as He is the one doing the work. What we say also matters during prayers . We remember Christ always using the word 'Asleep' instead of 'dead' (Mathew9:24). The founder was also known to never use faithless words or common words, even in a poisoned environment. Our life of faith should not be based on the condition of man, but the condition of Jesus Christ.
** Historical Reflection** (section 89): The founder mentioned a vital point here, telling us that nobody atall not even his father, expected the kind of service to God to which he was called. Your destiny is with God, even as parents or close relation, we cannot know in totality what God has in plan, we live by faith in Christ and He uses us as He pleases for His glory even beyond the thoughts of people around us. Eyes have not seen, ear has not heard not as it entered into the heart of man what God has planned for those who love Him(1Corinthians2:9).
**Registration of the Church**
The Celestial Church of Christ was duly registered in 1958 on November 24. Certified registration whose number is 489 by the then Governor General of the Federation(section 90). This was initially not disposed to be granted because no spiritual church of African origin had up to then been registered. This makes Celestial Church of Christ the first church to be registered as an African-origin church. Only churches with European or American origin were registered and recognized. After the founder was told about the reluctance of the governor to register, he told the congregation there was no cause for anxiety because the person who owns the church would reveal himself to the officials concerned. A few days later, the application was registered and sealed, waiting for the collector. The governor apparently had a dream where a tall man in white with long hair parted in the middle appeared to him and instructed him to sign the certificate of registration for the church because the church is His church.(section 90). This, on its own, is a miracle and a testimony to the church.
**Absolute Dictate of the Holy Spirit**
Section 91 emphasizes in the celestial constitution that the name of the church, the tenants of the church, the mode of worship of the church, the hymns of the church are all revealed through the Holy Spirit by our Lord Jesus Christ. (John 14:25,26).
Looking at other denominations, we see that the Celestial church of Christ is quite different and doesn't seem to copy or excuse human feelings. From the putting off shoes to the sutana to the mode of worship, it is quite different from the kind of worship that a common-minded person would bring, it can only be from heaven above.