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What Pastor ISREAL OLUBORI Told City People
Pastor Israel Olubori (father of nations) and his beautiful wife, Prophetess Mary Olubori run the popular Church called Rock of Salvation Church, ROSAC together in London and in Lagos.
They also have a Mountain in Ibadan called Havilah Mountain of Fire at Amuloko-Akanran Road, Off Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ibadan. where they are right now observing the 90 days of Fasting & Prayer which started in December.
Recently, City People crew spent an afternoon with both of them and got Pastor Israel to tell us about how he and his wife run ROSAC
Below are excerpts.
Since the beginning of the year you’ve been on the Mountain praying & fasting. What has been your experience?
We started with 21 days every year, in 21 days we go from one Mountain to another. We can decide to go to Erema, Ede, and Iragbiji and spend at least 7 days on each mountain.
Around 2005, we got our mountain and before then we used to take members of the church to the mountain to go and pray because we understand the need for Christians to go to mountains.
Why is it important for Christians to go to the mountain to pray sir?
The Mountain is different from the church. We have some fundamental problems with Christianity because Christianity is not supposed to be a religion. If it were to be a religion the Lord would have given us some religious rites and that is why we have so many denominations which are not so in Islam because the Muslims have a form of worship.
Christianity was not supposed to be a religion, even Christ was not a Christian it was just a principle or a new way to access God, and now that we’ve made it a religion, the whites got Christianity and made it their own, they Europeanized it, and when the Africans got it too, they Africanized it so everybody tries to repackage and remodel the word Christianity.
Now the need for mountains, if you look at Abraham and even before Abraham, when Lot was to die and was rescued the scripture says, run to the mountains. A mountain is a place of rescue, it is a place of warfare, the warfare you cannot fight in the church, and the problem that cannot be solved in the church will go to the mountain.
Look at the case of Abraham, God met Abraham and told him to go on a three days journey to have an encounter with Him. I ask people if God was there and Abraham was there why did God ask Abraham to go on a trip, that means there must be something somewhere that he must encounter and then he went to Moriah on a 3 days journey. He didn’t know where he was going until he got to the mountain. On this mount Moriah, when the problem came to Israel during the time of David it was on that same mountain that the angel stopped the killing of Israelites when the sacrifice was made. On that same mountain, Solomon was led there and that was where the temple was built. So we found out that Jesus is always going to the mountain.
Some will ask why the Apostles didn’t go to the mountain, well the Apostles were being persecuted so they had to hide in their rooms and houses. They were scattered, they were dispersed and they couldn’t congregate openly, so they couldn’t go to the mountains.
The mountain gives you an advantaged position to see the advancement of the enemies. So, going to the mountain is not something of the Old Testament because Babalola went to the mountain and I don’t want hypocrisy in Christianity, it will affect Babalola as an apostle of God because he went to the mountain, so why are condemning it now.
I know some people are bad, we have bad doctors, but it doesn’t mean there are no good ones. Everything fake has an original, before you have a copy you must have an original. Sometimes you have one certificate and a thousand copies that you have printed when you are making your applications so we should not take away the fact that the covenant of the mountain still stands and the name of the church is the Rock Of Salvation Apostolic Church and with Jesus being our Rock we cannot do without rocks. Church service is moderated, we start service by 9:00 am and stop by 12pm. On the mountain no body moderates that, if you know you have a problem go and fight your battles there in the night or the day and that’s the difference between the mountain and the church.
There are no ushers, choristers, or order of service and that is the advantage of mountains. When Elijah went to the mountain why did God tell him to go to Mount Carmel, why didn’t He tell him to go to the temple, so there must be a covenant there? Jesus would always prays on the mountain or by the seaside. If He was here on earth people would call Him “Baba maami water” because John and Jesus started baptism, it wasn’t part of the old covenant so why are they baptizing people? It was established as a sign of spiritual initiation into Christianity and we have accepted it, sometimes we accept some and condemn some while what we need is understanding because some people do not know the line between the Old and the New Testament but they just want to condemn everything.
How has running the ministry, moving from London to Nigeria and different parts of the world been for you so far Sir?
The most important thing is that we give all glory to the Almighty God, the author and the finisher of all things. When this ministry started, it was in a remote part of Ibadan though it was a prayer group which morphed into a church that was established in the remote area of *ogbere.
So, we started gradually until we moved to *sanyo and every year we have this rite of 21 days which I refer to as an eagle’s flight. There is a translation of a Yoruba adage that says “The reason why the eagle is so powerful is that it sheds its feathers and gets a new one” so the beginning of every year we go on this trip and we don’t tell members. The members don’t fast when we fast, the bible says when the bride groom is with you, you don’t fast.
When we fast they don’t fast because we are fasting for them so why are they fasting when we are fasting. If they can handle their problems why are we fasting for them? So we are fasting for the renewal of power and authority. Every year it’s like your vehicle particulars are due and you go for renewal. Likewise, we go there to renew, we go to seclusion sometimes to renew our power and fresh anointing to do the work of the new year because the anointing of last year may not be able to perform the work of this year because there is always spiritual graduation so we need it to at least uplift ourselves spiritually, equip ourselves, update ourselves and upgrade ourselves as a rite that we have to do to get revelations and instructions on how to run the ministry the next year.
For traveling, we have able people we have trained in the ministry. We have evangelists, prophets, prophetesses, etc. They always stand in the gap when we are out of the country because we don’t want a situation where everything depends on us. In life, if everything is on you the moment you die everything will die, that’s why you have to carry people along.
I believe in one ministry, the ministry of discipleship by followership. You follow me, you study what I’m doing. If I’m doing anything bad why can’t I allow you to follow me? so, they all have access to our rooms, we don’t go with our keys so they have access to everywhere so they can study us and see all that we do so that they can reproduce it when we are not there.
Sir, the year is just starting, can you tell us how the year will be and what you think Nigeria should prepare for in the year 2024?
According to the prophecy by Mama Olubori, it is going to be bloody. Kidnapping will be rampant because people, out of greed, love of self, and desire to make money by all means will begin to do all sorts.
People need to understand that this thing called Money if you are not destined to have it no matter what you do, you will find yourself in trouble and if you are supposed to be rich at 40 or 50 then probably the person will die at 76, that means for 27 years you are going to enjoy the wealth. If you decide to get wealthy at 30, after 27 years you have to still die because your wealth is to last for 27 years, so if you now put it down to your present age, what is the need for it? And the way people are in a hurry these days is alarming.
We’ve invested so much in Ministry and even though we don’t get that results we still believe. But somebody can come within 5 years and they have a thousand members. We don’t copy anybody; I’m not running your race you are not running my race, I’m not giving account to you, you are not giving account to me; it is the ones that God has given unto us that we would give account of so why do I have to worry myself. Some people are not serving God they just want to serve themselves to make money, because what’s the essence of saying you just want a car by all means, what God gives to you will come to you so, 2024 is going to be a year of prosperity but the most important thing is for people to pray against sudden death. That they don’t encounter one of these evil bandits and terrorists moving around. And some of them angry because they feel that Tinubu is not serving the interest of a particular race or tribe. It might not be so but that’s the way they perceive it. You know some of them are just so myopic and anywhere they push them they would go and those are some of the problems but I believe God will help us to scale through.
We need to pray for divine intervention. Mama Olubori also gave a prophecy about some governors that some evil bandits want to lay ambush for. These terrorists are everywhere now and we need to pray that God would intervene; we don’t have to pray when they come in, we have to pray before they come in because prevention is better than cure both spiritually and otherwise.
How do you and your wife complement each other in the ministry?
Well, these are 2 ministries that do not agree. Even in the scripture, the Apostolic and the Prophetic don’t agree. If you look at the ministry of Paul there is always this contention, one has the spirit, one has the word. But if you look at the foundation of the world, the spirit was hovering waiting for the word and instruction. The spirit of God was moving over the waters until the word came. Even so, the Prophet cannot do without the word, she can’t prophesy without the word so we now have to bring the two together under one umbrella to complement one another to know when God is speaking and to know when it is my wife that is speaking.
We make sure that there is no conflict; one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit, one anointing, one fold, and one shepherd. We try to harmonize the two instead of competing with one another. Everybody in his/her own office as God has gifted you, what matters is what God profits from it.
Whenever I hear or watch any of your ministrations, they are always so powerful and inspirational. Can you tell us how the power of the Word comes about?
When I started my ministry beside Mama Olubori, it was funny. You know when God calls you, initially you wouldn’t know how to even start because. he doesn’t tell you what to do. If He calls you to be an evangelist, you have to know how to be an evangelist, if He calls you to be a prophet, you have to know how to be a Prophet. So, I started buying books; T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, and lots more and I started to preach.
Then I found out that I didn’t have what it takes to fulfill my ministry, so I called my wife and told her that I wanted a change. We’ve been going for 21 days every year. In 2001, I decided to embark on 40 days and 40 nights just like great men in the scripture did. She asked why then I told her that if somebody did it, then I wanted to do it. In August 2001, they locked me up in the room and I was indoors for 41 days. When I came out, if you see my picture that can only tell the story because that was the turning point.
Ever since then, all I needed to do was to make myself available and God will do the rest. I don’t write sermons and I don’t write prayers; the Spirit gives empowerment. Once you make yourself available, you will flow in the Spirit. No school teaches all these things, they are given by the Spirit of God. I just have to study some people, read the scripture and the Holy Spirit will minister to me regularly.
What will be your advice to other men of God who need to intervene in the problems happening in our country now?
The Bible says, a house divided against itself shall not stand. Christ is presiding over a divided house. There is this competition and rivalry. Those who have an agreement do that for financial gain, I don’t see people having deep financial connections before they begin to envy and get jealous of one another, the work of God is not like that. People don’t understand that that’s not a way a church is expected to operate.
An Evangelist is not supposed to start a church but should be invited by various churches. Everybody wants to be called a G.O. but that’s not how it works. For example, the office of a Prophet is supposed to be connected to all other churches of Christ, but instead of the churches that don’t have the gift of the prophet to invite these prophets to their programs, they condemn the office of a prophet.
Of course, there are fake prophets but when you compare fake prophets and fake doctrines, which of them is worse? A fake doctrine is even worse than a fake prophecy. Take the Boko-Haram terrorists for example, they are manipulated enough to believe that they’d get 7 virgins somewhere, and they are so indoctrinated to the point that they are ready to die for things that are not true; That shows that a false teacher is worse than a false prophet, so we should stop condemning one another and at least see reasons to reunite and pray for the peace of Nigeria. Those who love her will prosper in it.
If there is no peace, nobody will enjoy life; when death is capturing your neighbors you should know that something is coming, so this is a time for us to come together and form a formidable force to challenge the counsels of these people. So if we keep competing, I don’t know where we are heading.
Sir, you wear a new look. You have kept your beard for quite some time. Why? What’s the inspiration behind your new look?
An elderly woman in the church asked me about tying a scarf on her hair and said to her, your hair is your husband and during prayer, you can tie it because of the angels, but the husband can tell her to remove the scarf because he has authority over the wife.
She owns your body. Both of you are married so my wife just looked at me and said she wants me to grow some beards and leave it like that. And she has the sole authority. So I obliged.
In the scriptures, the people in those days grew their beards because even shaving your beards was a sin in the Old Testament. When we talk about Moses, he was not just a religious leader, he was a preserver of the culture and customs of the Israelites. Therefore, the Old Testament in the Bible was a combination of all the customs, traditions, culture, and laws and not just the word of God, so now we had to sieve all that and know the word of God and Israelite culture separately.
There are places in Israel where the male must put on a cap before going there, but in Nigeria we do not know the difference between law, culture, tradition, and religion. We just seem to mix them up. Christianity brought freedom to be ourselves. We are not in a cage. Some people think Christianity is just a religion. For example, when Jesus attended a wedding in the bible, how was the wedding performed? It was performed according to the Israelites’ rites and culture.
Even the exchange of wedding rings that we practice today, we borrowed them from the white people and then made them more extravagant. Some people still practice the tradition of staying indoors for one year because somebody died, and some even believe in staying indoors for 40 days before coming to church. I wonder where we get all these from, this is why people need understanding.
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