After days of maintaining silence on the divorce suit filed against
him by his wife, founder of Believers Love World Ministry, Pastor Chris
Oyakhilome, has finally spoken.
Speaking on Sunday evening during the monthly global communion
service of the church, the Pastor described the allegations levelled
against him as “crazy” and “stupid” and urged his church members to pray
for his estranged wife.
Although he appeared visibly disturbed during his first few minutes
on stage, he confidently acknowledged that divorce is unbiblical but
suggested he could consider the option should his wife insist on it.
Read his long but interesting speech below:
“I heard that some media houses – especially in Nigeria – are
writing some things against me. All sorts of frivolous charges, that’s
crazy.
You have to understand something about a man of God. A man of God
is not just someone who worships God or preaches God. A man of God is
handpicked by God, set on course by God. If you study the scriptures,
you will not find one man of God go against God, sinning against God.
The only things you might find will be a man of God, maybe in two
different kinds of ways. Moses, for example; when he struck the rock
twice, [he] was provoked by the anger of the people. [It was] not
because he wanted to do something against the Lord. No man of God does
something against the Lord.
“Are you hearing me? A man of God is set on a course; there is a
type of life that he is given. Then you have a young man, a young
prophet; he wasn’t named; he was deceived by another man of God and so
he went in a direction that God said ‘don’t go’.
“That is the only kind of thing you find about a man of God when
he misses the message of God or he acts beyond what God said. But a man
of God settles himself in the fight against the world… like those
writing those stupid things about me, that I did this and I did that.
“You don’t know who a man of God is. I don’t go in that
direction. I wasn’t accused of the things you said, nor did I commit
those stupid things that you said and I don’t need to go into that level
in such discussions.
He recalled that Jesus passed through similar travails and eventually
overcame. He said that although so many people were making mockery of
him, he would remain steadfast and not lose focus.
Jesus Christ was accused by many – a lot of frivolous charges. There
will always be those who would like for it to be true. But you know, in
spite of the accusations against Jesus, It didn’t change who he was. It
didn’t change him.
“There are preachers and there are men of God. I am not a
preacher; I am a man of God and I go in the way I’m asked to go. It may
cause some troubles with individuals but that’s not because I have done
something wrong and when it comes to Reverend Anita, what I will say to
you is ‘pray for her’.
“Don’t act like those people. If you are married to a man of
God, it doesn’t make you automatically mature. You can make mistakes;
you can do something that is wrong. But some people expect the wife of a
minister to definitely be at the level of that minister and so they may
be looked upon and the expectation may be like that, but it’s a
positional thing. “If a man of God is married, it doesn’t automatically
mean that the wife of a man of God is therefore a woman of God. That’s
not the way it is in the Bible. That’s why you don’t really find the
wives of men of God mentioned in the Bible. How many of them? Who was
Peter’s wife, did you ever know her name? You never find that out. Who
was John’s wife? Did you ever read the name? What about all the other
Apostles? How many of their names are written in the Bible. You never
find their names.”
At this point, one of the female pastors sought to know why the names of wives of the men of God were not found in the Bible.
Oyakhilome’s response was that she should ask God whenever she finds him.
‘“Why? You ask God when you find him. Ask God when you find him,” he exclaimed.
“So, they are little things; don’t try to make something big out
of them. So when journeying, doing the things that God called us to do,
Christians should not have a divorce; it shouldn’t be but you see, that
doesn’t mean a Christian may not take the step.
“They may do it but [they] have to make things right and we
shouldn’t take one another to court. But when it happens, not that we
don’t just want to go, it means someone is taking us there.
That’s a problem, but be wise and stay focused in the word of God
and don’t let those who want to feast on things like this, including
Christians… “There are Christians who like things like this; they want
to make something big out of this: ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, we said it’. You
said what? Judge nothing before the time. Be wise. Glory to God.
“So we are not working in sin and living in sin and hoping that
we can mix sin and righteousness together. We are the manifestation of
his righteousness. We walk in that light only, and that’s the way it’s
gonna be.”
In April, Anita Oyakhilome filed for divorce at Central Family Court,
High Holborn, London, UK, citing her husband’s “unreasonable behaviour”
and inappropriate relationships with members of staff, a euphemism for
“adultery”.