The power couple, Pastor Israel and Prophetess Mary Olubori of Rock of Salvation Apostolic Ministry and Havilah Prayer Mountain in Ibadan were recently our guests on City People Tv Instagram Live Chat with the Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE. We recorded a great moment with the celebrity couple, as the Live program was flooded with members of the ministry from all over the world.
This pretty Prophetess and her husband are the lovely couple behind both The Rock of Salvation Church and the Havilah Mountain. The church has several branches all over the world. Prophetess Olubori is well known both in Ibadan and London (where they reside and run a branch of the church) on account of the several lives she has touched almost on a daily basis. Testimonies abound as to the huge numbers of lives she and her husband have saved and their philantrophy, touching and changing lives.
In this exclusive interview, the couple revealed how they coped during the Covid-19 lockdown and also revealed what God told them 6 months before the Covid-19 started. Enjoy the interview.
Daddy, how is your ministry? How has it been in the last 3 months of lockdown sir?
We give God the glory. Though the buildings are closed but churches are not closed. People thought the building is the church. The building is just an assembly hall. We can take a hall in a hotel and still call it a church. It is the gathering of the children of God, where the word is preached and the spirit of God moves, that is what makes a church a church. Virtually we have reached out to our people, and through social media. We are reaching out to church members, to know their wellbeing, their welfare, to support where necessary, to assist and to pray for them as well. So we thank God everything is going on well.
Daddy, is there any message God is sending to us about Covid-19 pandemic?
It is like the prodigal son who took everything he wanted from the father and disappeared. We are all like the prodigal son, we took everything we wanted from God and disappear into thin air. Why did the prodigal son did went away far from home? Because he knows nobody will be able to disturb him or monitor him, so he wanted freedom. Not knowing that freedom is good but excess of freedom is very costly. He later found out that the freedom he got is costing him too much. The whole world wants freedom but at the end of the day it’s teaching us repentance, asking us to go back to our father. Everybody is humble today, the President, the governors etc. some people have even gone into hiding. I have never seen anything that humbled people like this Covid-19.
So God is telling us that we are still human, still flesh and blood. Submit to God, recognize the sovereignty of God, recognize the power of God, that is the lesson God is telling us, no matter the position we occupy.
What are the lessons that we need to learn from all these?
We must learn Humility. We must learn Tolerance. As husband and wife, even if you don’t love yourself but now that you have been locked up, we have been forced to stay together, so tolerance, love for one another has been achieved. Then, it has also taught us to reach out to people, to the less privileged, those who are suffering. The Bible says Love God and love your neighbor. If we love God and we don’t love our neighbor, we can’t be a Christian. We should learn to support other, learn to lift people up. We believe in ROSAC that the essence of life is not in what you do for yourself but what you do for others.
Mummy, how do you see the situation we are going through now?
There was a message before all these happened. We were having a special program on our mountain, when daddy and I were on 30 days prayer and fasting and God told us that something great that will shake the whole world is about to happen. He said it specifically that there is going to be a serious pandemic. He also told us to pray against plane crash. We started the prayer and after a month around June/July, God gave us another instruction to pray and fast again for 21 days, after that God said we should fast for another 14 days. Then, the message repeated itself again in January that this pandemic will happen and he also said after this one another one is still coming. God said those nations that think they don’t have it now will still have their own, worse than what we are experiencing. Many people are confirming the messages that God sent through me in January/February. This is the time for us to get closer to God. We need to move to God more.
This is the time for us to be more prayerful. What is happening to us now, God knows about it. It’s already written in the Bible that something like this will happen. This is a sign of end time. What we need most now is to pray for forgiveness and always cry for God’s mercy.
What will be your message to all the people watching us all over the world?
Let us be more prayerful. Let us love each other. Let us love God. Engage yourself in reading the world of God. Let us use this time positively until everything will return back to normal. Let everybody think of what we can do. We have a second chance to live again. I pray may the Lord console all those that have lost their family. And for all of us alive, it’s a sign that anything can still happen at any time. We should learn to prepare ourselves for any eventuality.
Mummy, you recently concluded a program in Ibadan, how did it go ma?
It was awesome. Havillah celebrated 15 years anniversary. It was awesome; we give God all the glory. People were on the mountain for 7 days, we fed them. We were online every day. We invited many gospel musicians to join us online. We give all glory to God. I also celebrate my husband who brought the idea of celebrating Havillahat 15 in London too, while I was complaining here in London because I couldn’t travel for the anniversary and he brought the idea to celebrate it online and people all over the world enjoyed it. To God be the glory, we recorded many testimonies, miracle, signs and wonders.
Daddy, how did you receive the idea of celebrating the 15 years of Havillah online?
We just have to think of the best way of using our time. The world is facing this pandemic, but we should realize one thing, that we are aging; our years are now being reduced. I always laugh when people are celebrating and they said they added another year, God has not added any year, but reduced it with one year (Laughs). So, we realized that we are aging and we need to make the best use of the time we have. We realized it is Havillah time and we have to mark it. So the Holy Spirit ministered to me that we can invite people, dance in our sitting room here, and preach the world of God, since there is no distance in the realm of the spirit. We got connected to heaven and everything went well.
Daddy, how do you always feel when you look at the growth of your ministry sir?
We just have to give glory to the Lord Almighty. Where we started was a remote area. Even when God was giving us message of expansion people were making mockery, saying that how would this be possible? God gradually brought us out of the ghetto and here we are today. We will continue to give all the credit to God Almighty and I want to thank Mama Olubori too for being a dependable force and pillar in the ministry. We thank God for the revelation. But one thing is synonymous with rock, we move with crisis. When we were at Ogbere there was a deliverance crisis.
We moved to Sanyo, there was another deliverance crisis; from there we moved to Havillah, we moved to Lagos, from Lagos to London. The church is growing out of affliction and persecution. So, when we go through affliction and persecution we believe God is about to do something great, he is about to promote us or take us to the next level.
We always see opportunity in every persecution and we exploit it.
Daddy, can you recall the 40 days fasting and prayers that you observed years ago. Can you share with us the experience and why you did it?
I don’t like mediocrity. I have an idea that if you want to be something, then be the best. When I was called to ministry I did not feel the power the way I should feel it. I didn’t feel His presence. Whenever I wanted to preach, I had to read books of great men of God before I could preach. I didn’t have any inspiration. One day, the Holy Spirit spoke to me that I should embark on a journey. I asked what kind of journey?
Then, I went to Erio Mountain and told my wife that I would like to go for 40 days and 40 nights without food. She said “no, we’ve been doing 21 days every year, we should continue with that” I disagreed, I said I wanted to do what my other colleagues could not do. I have to go beyond a limit that I had set for myself. If Jesus could survive it, I would. If Moses, Elijah, Babalola could survive it, I would survive it. I told them that I was not Ogbere Pastor; I was destined to be a global Pastor. And God told me, “You have children whom you have not seen, pray to bring them out”. So I prayed for His anointing, for His impartation and the growth of the Ministry. And then, the ministry was a one-sided ministry. The name of the church says Rock of Salvation Apostolic Ministry, but the Apostolic Ministry had been underplayed and the focus had been on the prophetic aspect alone. So, everybody who came to the church wanted to see Mummy, so I felt the need to now do something on the apostolic aspect as well. So, I got fully baptized, empowered to perform the task ahead, which was how I embarked on it. Then, after 41 days, I started on August 25th and finished in October 2001. On the anniversary day that I completed the fasting, people were crying. I was not given the privilege of seeing the sun or the moon for 40 days. I was indoor locked up in a very small tiny room, with no access to anyone except my wife and children and since then things have never been the same again.
You have your calling, while Mummy has her own as a Prophetess. Can you explain the difference?
When Christ them, He sent them in twos. Apart from that, you will find out that the calling of one person could never be the same as the calling of another, and they should not operate under the shadow of each other. We just have to find an agreement, a common ground to blend the two, the Apostolic and the Prophetic aspect and God has been at work. I give Him all the glory. My wife started before I came into the ministry. She had been a prophetess at a place in Olomi area, from there she went to Mushin area, where she rented a house, while she was there counseling people before the church started. Then we started as a prayer group at Ori-Oke Ojo Mountain, that was where we met. I met her on Ojo Mountain.
