Founder of Believers Love World Ministry, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his wife, Anita have been in the news for two weeks now over their divorce case filed in a London court.
Last week, news emerged that Rev. Anita Oyakhilome, estranged wife of the Senior Pastor of the Christ Embassy Church, Dr. Chris Oyakhilome had filed for divorce in a London court on grounds of adultery and unreasonable behaviour. Later in the week, Rev. Anita is reported to have sworn to go through with the divorce which has scandalised the church for the past two weeks.
Speaking on Sunday evening, September 7, 2015, during the monthly global communion service of the church, Oyakhilome described the allegations levelled against him as “crazy” and “stupid” and urged his church members to pray for his estranged wife.
The pastor acknowledged that divorce was unbiblical and said that he would be considering his options if his wife went through with her plans.
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.
He said:
“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.
“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 some point in the service, a female pastor asked why the names of wives of men of God were not mentioned in the Bible. Oyakhilome’s response was terse.
‘“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.”
The suit, with number FD14D01650, was filed on April 9, 2014 at Divorce Section A, Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, UK, on Rev. Anita’s behalf by Attwaters Jameson Hill Solicitors, a full-service law firm with expertise in commercial law and a strong consumer focus in family, wills and estate, among others.
Pastor Chris has reportedly assembled a legal team to put up a defense in court against the wife’s allegations.
Chris Embassy is easily one of the Nigeria’s biggest church denominations with membership in hundreds of thousands and branches all around the world. Since the news of the divorce broke, Rev. Anita’s pictures have been wiped from the church’s website.
A female pastor in the London branch of the church has reportedly been fired because she sought a prayer intervention in the marriage of her bosses.
