Bishop Okunlola Explicates the meaning of ‘’ Fresh Oil’’, as he pays episcopal visit to African Church, Good news Chapel, By: Waheed Ogunjobi

 Dateline was Sunday, 28^th of February , 2021. It was during an episcopal visit to one of the Church branches under his mission, precisely the African Church, Good News Chapel, Masoretinu Bus Stop, Kemta idi –Aba Housing Estate,  Abeokuta. It was the first official visit to the Parish in the year 2021 and the entire congregation was in high spirit to receive the Bishop.

The Director of Mission and Evangelism and Chairman of African Church, Solution Camp, Ewang, Estate , Abeokuta,  Bishop Jeremiah Okunlola who expressed  joy for being in the presence of the congregation appreciated members of the Church for their support to the work of God through the manifestation of their efforts. Upon arrival at the Church premises, he had earlier paid a visit to the site of the building project where the building of a Priest House for the man of God in charge of the Church is on-going at a fast pace. He congratulated the congregation and appreciated them at the same time for the gigantic efforts being put in place, to first make their priest comfortable and at the same time undertaking the building project.

In a Sermon, the Bishop Okunlola who spoke on the topic ‘’ Fresh oil ‘’ explained that oil is a metaphor of some things in the scripture. As he said, it means ‘’ Shemen in Hebrew, which means ‘’strength’’. According to the man of God , oil in the Old testament was mentioned in 192 times, while it was mentioned only in 11 times in the New testament. Oil in the Bible as the man of God explicated means health and comfort. He said, , it also means a symbol of consecration and reference and as well a symbol of longevity . 

He however, puts a caveat by saying that ‘’ lack of oil in human or on the land is a sign of God’s curse on the land, while calling on the congregation to strive as much as possible to receive God’s anointing.  He equally s explained that  God does not cause man directly as was the case when God cursed the land due to the misdemeanour of the first man-Adam. ‘’ So, when God speak about oil in the scripture, it means God will give us good health and comfort. It also means a token of honour as it indicated that God wants to honour his beloved by pouring oil on our head, while it also symbolises the Lord’s blessings and prosperity’’ , the Director  of Mission said.

Bishop Okunlola observed further that God will look at certain things in men, before they are anointed.  According to him, for  God to anoint a man, he must have received salvation. He must be redeemed and born again. He said, once a man is born again, he receives the anointing of the priest and king automatically without question.. The person who wishes to be anointed in his words must also be addicted lover of God and his house. ‘’ Be full of the love of God , so that he can anoint you ‘’, he stated further. He also said, men should be righteous and hate sins if they wish to be anointed by God, while they must sow into the lives of the Lord’s anointed . He enthused ‘’  Don’t let the person with God’s anointing go without blessing you and don’t let someone with the anointing of God curse you ’’ He  declared. Lastly, he called on the people to pray for God’s anointing.

He told the congregation that people do not necessarily need to go to the Seminary to receive the anointing of God. ‘’ See yourself as someone who God can anoint’’. 

A marathon prayer session later follow the main message of the day as the august visitor later took the pains to anoint members of the Church one after the other according to God’s instructions before he later departed with his retinue of Priests and entourage.