By Kelvin Obambon
Pastor Joseph I. Okoro, the Senior Pastor of the Bible Christian Crusaders Mission, BCCM, has said that this year’s Festival of Glory would usher in a new lease of life to Cross River and those residing in the state.
He stated this in Calabar on Monday while briefing journalists about the annual event which he said has been going on for 26 years.
According to the clergyman, “part of the prophetic declarations we made yesterday were that God should bless this state and usher us into this new hope of a new dawn. We believe that it is a new dawn for Cross River State. We believe that this state is going to move to dimensions of glory that we have almost lost. The glory is coming back.”
The convener of the programme said the neighborhood edition of the Festival of Glory started on the 11th September and ended Saturday 23rd, adding that the proper event begins Monday the 25th September and that it would feature anointed men of God like Bishop Humphrey Erumaka, Prophet Isah Elbuba, among others.
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Speaking further, Pastor Okoro went on to narrate how the programme has evolved over the last 26 years, saying “initially it used to be Festival of Fire until 2018 when we changed it to Festival of Glory.”
He continued: “we started the programme in 1996. And it’s been running since that time except for a period of two years interval that we didn’t hold it. It has been consistent. God gave us the vision of Festival of Fire at then, and now Festival of Glory, and the vision was to redress the spiritual foundations of Christians, believers and children of God. Why that became necessary we discovered that after people have given their lives to Christ, there were issues with accomplishing their goals and their dreams. There were different types of obstacle facing majority of believers.
“As we looked into the Bible to find out what is actually the problem, we discovered that some of the problems were foundational problems. Problems like curses, problems like evil covenant and so on. We saw that it was affecting the level of progress that believers were making and the dimension of growth that they expected as children of God. Festival of Fire then started with the aim of addressing those foundational problems so that we can all be released into our glorious destinies. That’s what gave rise to Festival of Glory.
“Since we started this programme it has been awesome. A lot of testimonies have come out. Many people have surrendered their lives to Christ and those who have surrendered their lives to Christ have dealt with those issues we highlighted. Issues of negative heritages. Wrong foundations, evil dedications, curses, evil covenants that were entered into by our parents who didn’t know God. For many of us, we are the first generation of people that know the true God. Before now our parents worship idols and in worshipping those adults they entered into different types of transactions. Those things were affecting a lot of people. We have been dealing with that since 1996, and we have seen tremendous changes and transformations in the lives of believers and a lot of people are now entering into their dreams, expectations and destinies. This is what Festival of Glory has been doing.
“Another thing Festival of Glory has been doing, has been that we have also taken it upon ourselves as a church to redress some of the negative evil infrastructure that have been placed upon this land and this state. We know that our fathers worshipped different types of spirit and that is why you discover that in many places in those days you would come out and see sacrifices on the road junctions and so on. Those things were not for nothing. They were spirit worship. And some places you see shrines, you see alters. This is for the devil. We took it upon ourselves to counter those things, deal with those negative infrastructure. We took the church outside of the church.”
Pastor Okoro also added that the impact of the Festival of Glory and similar interventions by churches have contributed significantly to the prosperity of the state in recent time. He described the solemn assembly organized by the state government recently as a right step in the right direction.