The Assemblies of God, Nigeria, will hold its annual National Revival Summit, PENIEL, in Enugu.
The interdenominational programme is scheduled to begin on Monday 6 and end on Friday 10 November, 2023.
The General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Revd Prof Paul Emeka disclosed this on Saturday at a pre-event media engagement with journalists in Enugu.
He said the theme of this year’s PENIEL which will begin 7:30 am daily is “ A RETURN TO THE HOLY SPIRIT “, and will have numerous ministers of God as well as Gospel musicians in attendance.
According to Rev. Prof. Emeka, PENIEL which has been organised for over a decade offers opportunity for Christians to pray for the needs of the people.
Revd Prof. Paul Emeka said God is still concerned about the affairs of Nigeria and its citizens and will remedy the social and economic difficulties facing the people.
He enjoined Nigerians of all religious denominations to remain steadfast in their trust and hope in God for a more prosperous country.
He maintained that the Assemblies of God and the body of Christ was committed to praying for peace and unity in Nigeria as well as good and purposeful leadership by political leaders.
Prof. Emeka emphasised the need for all churches to return to the power of the Holy Spirit and asked god to direct and control their affairs for better evangelism and stability of the Christian religion.
He further stated that the return to the power of the Holy Spirit by the church will result in more spiritual manifestations of deliverance, healings and prosperity for Christians and the society.
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We have gathered in respect of our annual revival summit that we call Peniel. It has run its round and this time around it is going to hold from November 6 to November 10. And that’s why we have come here, to know more about it and to use this forum to invite people to come and join us to hear the word of God.
Like I said earlier , we do it every year. It is a programme through which we relate to the people, people outside our church called Assemblies of God. We will be indoors doing Sunday services and not everybody comes there. From time to time, we float a programme like this and invite people to come. People may not be able to come to your church because they will say they have their own churches to attend at the time you are holding a programme. But in this one, it is a special programme and everybody will be free to come. This programme again is planned with the generality of the people in view and that is why all the programmes and all the messages, the activities that will feature in that programme are made to be interdenominational in scope. And everybody who comes feels at home, because we don’t come there to condemn the practices of this church against the other church. Because we preach Jesus and Jesus alone. We also use that time to pray for the needs of the people and pray that God will WROTH miracles among us. Healings are emphasized and God has always honored the prayers of His people.
Other miracles feature, needs are met during this programme, as we pray and as we speak. So many other men of God from different places come to preach and to bless us through the word of God. At the same time, Christian musicians come there and they provide us a forum to worship God and be inspired. I must also let you know that we devote good time to pray for the country, Nigeria, to pray for the world, to pray for Nigeria, particularly, especially in the time we are in now. We pray that God will visit Nigeria and I must let you know that God has always heard our prayers when we pray.
This time again, we are going to pray vehemently for the country and God will intervene in the area of security, governance, praying for our leaders and asking God to make our people to get focus, give our people the brain, the wisdom and also the morality, the good mind for the people to make Nigeria a better place. This time around we are inviting the people of Enugu to come en mass. The venue of this programme is Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium. Don’t forget I said that it will begin from November which is Monday 6 to Friday that will be the grand finale. We will use this time to invite everybody to come. It is really going to be good and God is going to visit us in that programme.
THE THEME OF THE YEAR’S PROGRAMME
The theme of this year’s programme is a “Return to the Holy Spirit”. And if I must say something about that theme, I must also say that we will use that chance to preach on all needs and on all themes, areas of Christian problems and needs. But we will be emphasizing the Holy Spirit. A return to the Holy Spirit simply means that the church has wandered away from the Holy Spirit. Many times, what we talk about as the Holy Spirit is not really the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
We have to come back to the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to bless the church the way he wants. We don’t have to force the Holy Spirit to do what is not native to him. That is the purpose of this very theme. Again, we want to say that the purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit is evangelism, letting the world know about God and the gospel. We will be emphasizing this. We will be emphasizing the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit and the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, which will give rooms to healings, to miracles, to prophecies, to speaking in tongues and all these. But in a proper way as the Bible shows it and emphasizes it.
We start early announcing it so that people will be able to come. We do make provision for transportation, but the provision for transportation doesn’t extend to interior places and I would want you to know that this is a program that comprises all the Assemblies of God anywhere in Nigeria and also all other people. Therefore, if you provide transportation for people in Enugu, you need to provide for people from Abia, people from Rivers, people from the north and so we cannot do all this, but during the programme itself, arrangement is made so that intercity transportation will take place from the venue to the places where the participants would be lodging.
RELEVANCE OF THE THEME
The Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity. The Trinity, which we call the Godhead is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I would want you to know that the Godhead is concerned for the affairs of this world. Holy Spirit particularly, is concerned also for the affairs of this very world. We call our minds back to Genesis where the Bible says, when the world was simply void, only water everywhere, the Holy Spirit**** the earth , the Holy Spirit began to give the earth shape. That is to say, the Holy Spirit that was concerned then for the earth is still concern with the Green Revolution, and all the aspects of the earth that is coming into emphasis today, the Holy Spirit emphasizes today, the Holy Spirit is concerned about gender movement, is concerned about your oppressed , is concerned about bad governance, is concerned about all these things that are going on in the world. And I want to let you know that in this programme , these things will be emphasized. This is the overall theme, but different aspects of the theme will be X-rayed, and also as it impacts the lives of the people, to make it relevant, to show them that God is concerned about their affairs. So if people really come, I assure you that people will be blessed, and their eyes will equally be opened because of what God is going to do.
How long has the programme been in existence?
The program has run for about 15 or 17 years. And it comes every year. And our aim has always been like I said, teaching the Word of God. Praying for the country we are living in. I must also say that the church should not be answering questions that people are not asking and that we don’t just preach the Bible for the sake of preaching, we preach the Bible as it concerns the needs of the people. We try to answer the questions that people are asking and by this I mean that even the current situation in the country will be brought into focus. And in line with these things happening, the Bible will be brought out to show how the Holy Spirit is concerned with the needs and for the needs of the people in Nigeria . Our aim has always been to meet the immediate needs of the people and also to make people to be heaven-oriented, to know Christ more and to begin to live a holy life. Like we know in the country today, as well as the whole world, we have evil ,unholiness, immorality, many things are going on because people want to get rich very quickly. Among the things we emphasize will be teaching the people how God can bless them. How wealth can be created in genuine way, how entrepreneurs can be promoted and made to do things in the right way so that people will not be laid to the wrong ways. That is exactly what we’ll be emphasizing.
