Leave Idol Worship, Embrace God’s Outpouring Spirit, Anglican Priest Begs Youths
Odogwu Emeka Odogwu
The Vicar, St James’ Anglican Church, Umunya, Rev Canon Onyebuchi Eriobuna, has passionately begged youths entangled in idol worship in the country to retrace and embrace God’s abundant outflow of the Holy Spirit.
Entreating the youths in a complementing message, Rev Canon Eriobuna said pentecost Sunday is the fulfillment of the promise of God which He made through Prophet Joel, as it is in Joel, Chapter Two, verse 28 through 29, “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit”.
He said further: “Let me take it from this angle concerning the current deviation of our youth who are into all manner of demonic religious practices. Today you hear some of our youth boast, without any shame or reservation, of their involvement in idol worship, ezenwanyi, okite, ibute ike, yahoo-plus and various forms of money rituals. It is very, very unfortunate.
“You see, the Spirit of God says through the Prophet Joel that the spirit will come upon the young men and that they “shall prophesy”. I am, in fact, seeing what these youth are doing as a condemnable counterfeit and an utter disobedience of what God has said through Prophet Joel concerning what wonders He said He will perform with the youth.
“But you can see what satan has done in the lives of our youth by twisting their minds, their vision, desires and aspirations through diabolic religious practices. These handiworks of satan have made the youth to begin to see negative powers as genuine.
This is because whatever satan gives is cheap, fast, inferior but always with a very costly price. Satan’s gift is always an exchange of head with head. It is very worrisome how ignorant these youth are about satan’s schemes. It is painful how they are yet to realise that all that glitters is not gold.
“They practise, consult and patronise the ezenwanyi, okite, make demand for ibute ike, and engage in all kinds of damned entanglements, all in their bids to amass wealth and make cheap fame but without realising the after effects of their actions. Certainly, they will pay the price of what they are doing, there’s no two-ways about it.
They surely will pay for all the rituals they have made in respect of the money, fame, popularity or whatever material gains they acquired through the rituals and satanic ways and means.
“The ugly experiences that follow the path they are now taking are terrible, for some may either end up losing their lives in the process, or become mad, or become totally useless in life, so that at the end, all they hoped to get will eventually elude them.
“The pains and sorrows that go with the path they are now following are in fact, not in any way commensurate with the perceived gains. But, in contrast, the Spirit of God gives everything freely with absolute peace.
“I therefore appeal to our youth to be reasonable enough to retrace and come back to God and enjoy the outpouring of His Spirit which He promised them at this end time. In the New Testament, about 120 persons, patiently waited for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and they finally received it.
“Our problem today is impatience. Our youth these days lack patience. They will want everything now, now, now: they want quick money, quick promotion without labour, easy and quick popularity.
They do not want to study hard but they want easy and quick success. They do not want to pay the price of serving God in spirit and holiness so that God will provide them all their needs without sorrows. Instead, they rather chose the ways of satan for their needs. It’s very bad and unfortunate.
“The youth should seek God and deepen their faith in Him. They should endeavour to study the Bible, though today, people no longer seem to study the Bible. But it is when you study the Bible you will be rest assured of the fulfillment of the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit of God.
“So, I enjoin the youth to make haste and leave all forms of idol worship with which they are now entangled and embrace God. They stand to gain much from God whose outpouring of divine Spirit is abundantly waiting to be freely exploited” ,he concluded.
