Pastor Chris Oyakhilome Gathers Billions of Viewers for ‘Healing Streams’ as Nigeria’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Begins
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome recently held a Healing Streams program and planned another Global Day of Prayer against COVID-19 in the same month as Nigeria’s vaccine rollout kicks off.
As the first COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Nigeria, one of the country’s most influential religious leaders, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the president of Christ Embassy, has just hosted a very successful three-day Healing Streams event.
The program took place from Friday, March 12th to Sunday, March 14th and received an unprecedented number of viewers.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his Healing Streams program managed to get 4.1 billion unique logins during the three days, and people from all over the world followed the event in 1,047 languages.
The high turnout makes the Healing Streams the most-watched Christ Embassy event in history.
Over the three days, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and several other Christ Embassy pastors ministered, as the global audience received healing.
Multiple believers also testified to how they have been healed during previous Healing Streams programs.
Some of them had, for instance, been healed from migraines, infections and severe pain in various body parts.
Coronavirus keeps Pastor Chris Oyakhilome in Nigeria
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s Healing Streams happened just a week before his two-day Global Day of Prayer event against the coronavirus on March 26th, 2021.
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome has been keeping his congregation’s spirits high through multiple online and televised prayer sessions.
The pastor is used to holding events with large audiences in his studios in Lagos, Nigeria and around the world, but the coronavirus outbreak has forced the Nigerian megachurch to turn to technology.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome has succeeded in inspiring hope in his Christ Embassy congregation as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across Nigeria and the world and the administration of vaccines against the coronavirus begins.
Many of the members have voiced their appreciation of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s many online sermons that have brought them structure in their everyday lives during a year that has been characterized by stay-at-home orders and restrictions on movement.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome prays against COVID-19
On March 27th, 2020, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome initiated his first Global Day of Prayer against COVID-19, praying for it to disappear.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his friend Pastor Benny Hinn gave sermons to deliver blessings and hope to numerous Christ Embassy members and people who were not affiliated with the ministry who followed the event online.
In the following week, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome aired a “Your LoveWorld with Pastor Chris” program, where he gathered online viewers for prayers against the COVID-19 pandemic for five consecutive days.
Oyakhilome has continued these global prayer efforts against the coronavirus pandemic throughout 2020 .and into the new year
Around 100 episodes of his popular ‘Your LoveWorld’ program have aired with the most recent episode released at the beginning of March 2021.
In June 2020, Pastor Chris launched a second Day of Prayer. He ministered for 24 hours straight from his studios in Lagos, Nigeria.
He explained the importance of prayer to the participants.
“The reason why He invited us to pray is because He intended to answer. Jesus taught us how to pray. From the scriptures, we learn about prayer. Prayer by the prophets, prayer by the apostles of Jesus. Prayer is not a sign of weakness. Prayer is our faith talking to God,” the Christ Embassy president explained.
A vaccine of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s words
As the year progressed, several pharmaceutical companies around the world worked to develop a vaccine against COVID-19.
Among them were American/German Pfizer-BioNTech, American Moderna and the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca from the United Kingdom and Sweden. Russia developed its own Sputnik vaccine and China is reported to also have implemented the use of its own vaccine.
While people across the globe were waiting for the vaccines to be approved and misinformation about the vaccines spread, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome continued to host Global Days of Prayer.
His goal was to inspire hope in the Christ Embassy members, and he seems to have succeeded in that.
On social media platforms such as Twitter and KingsChat, several people from the congregation have testified how they have been vaccinated against despair through Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s words.
Ministers join worldwide prayer against the coronavirus
The Christ Embassy President hosted another Global Day of Prayer against COVID-19 in September 2020 that once again lasted 24 hours.
During this session, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome reiterated the significance of prayer.
“The greatest part of prayer is not the prayer itself. It is the answer. We have not had a great prayer program except we have had a great answer. It is God’s response that truly matters,” he stated and continued:
“Irrespective of what we have said, it does not matter what we shouted. It does not matter what we sang. It does not matter what we asked for if He did not answer. If He did not respond. It meant nothing. He will always hear us. He told us that we have His ear. Every time we pray, we have God’s ear.”
During this event, partnering pastors from all over the world participated, including ministers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Nigeria.
First Vaccines arrive in Nigeria
In December 2020, just before the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in various countries, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome kicked off another Global Day of Prayer.
Once again, he declared how essential praying is.
“In the presence of God in prayer, your faith rises. It rises to the surface. It rises to the top. What you thought was impossible… When you are in the place of prayer, it suddenly becomes possible to you. Your boldness stands strong,” Pastor Chris Oyakhilome stated.
Since then, several nations have begun vaccination campaigns, with Israel and the United Kingdom having vaccinated the highest percentages of their populations.
Nigeria received its first shipment of 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines at the beginning of March 2021.
Nigeria is set to receive an additional 12 million AstraZeneca vaccines through the COVAX Facility. Furthermore, the African Union’s Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team is expected to send 42 million COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
Pastor Chris Oyakhilome hosted another two-day Global Day of Prayer event on March 26th, 2021.
