Naming Ceremony

Naming ceremony in Celestial Church of Christ

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Naming ceremony is a done on the 8thday of a child’s birth and it is a very important in Celestial Church of Christ which can never be over emphasized because it’s a key thing that affects the life of a new born baby, from the prophet carrying the baby to the fruits, to the water the  basin to the honey and salt ,all these have their spiritual meaning which we must understand so we won’t take them with levity thereby affecting the life of the new baby.

At the entrance, a prophet/ess who will carry the child will kneel and is prayed for by the leader-in-charge to sanctify the prophet/ess and the child. The leader-in-charge starts by saying Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Holy Michael then recites Jehovah Ramah 3x and Psalm 24 follows. The reason for this holy name and this psalm is to dedicate the prophet/ess and the child unto the Lord for Him to take control of them and speak the deep mystery concerning the child so he/she can be taught and brought up as He has planned. We recite this Psalm every Sunday to make the whole members sanctified unto the Lord according to His purpose.


Prayer rendered from the child is that God should transform him/her from blood (as he/she was in his/her mothers womb before formation) to flesh (which was delivered and we all see, hold and carry) to Spirit (which is what God sees and work with). God does not see any man in flesh because he/she would be controlled by what he/she see, hears or think ,the child is not meant to walk in this way so the leader-in-charge prays so the child can be quickened and made alive unto God who is a spirit and only communicates with those that are in spirit (John 4:24).

Holy water is sprinkled (on the baby and the prophet/ess) to make the effect of the prayer direct and the prophet/ess must be in spirit so he/ she is not distracted by the events around which might lead to he/she being taken over by a strange or untrue spirit. 

At this time, the prophet/ess must know that the journey of the child will be revealed to them so they should not joke or take this with levity, because if a wrong name or message is given to the child, the journey of the child would be scattered and until the true name which is written in heaven for the child is given, he/she would not get to the place of purpose in life (this affects most of the child in Celestial Church of Christ, may God help us).

The arrangement of filing in during the processional hymn (Awa yio dupe):

1. The incense bearer
Who leads to prepare the church for worship, to make the atmosphere free of strange spirits and full of the host of heavens (oni tutari fi turari jona niwaju Oluwa lati pe won ogun orun sokale).

2. The bowl bearer
A basin of water is prepared (half filled) with seven candle standing upright in it, a male member bears this basin and seven candles are arranged, but three are lit while filing into the church, the rest are to be lit when the basin of water is placed on the table. 

It is important to state the reason for this practice, let’s go to beginning of earth’s creation Gen 1:2 showed us that the spirit of God is moved on the faces of waters and Rev 4:5 made us to know that seven lamps burning before the throne of God (just like our altar), we see that the child is taken back to his/her creation which is only determined and masterminded by God so no power, principalities nor nations nor kingdom would have power on the child. From water everything is created Gen 1:9, dry land came out of water which is where the dust, a man is created from is made so the mystery of the water is deeper than our mere thoughts. 

3. The Prophet/ess carrying the baby:
Who is already in spirit communicating to get the right and true name/ message for the child.

4. Seven elders:
Four male member and three female members : This arrangement has always been a thing of confusion for many because they really don’t understand why we need these people to usher in the child, the males represent all men and females represent the females the child will encounter in his or her life time. As they have ushered him/her into the church, no matter where they gather to do what’s not right against him/her it won’t succeed, and instead would bounce back on them especially if they do it before God of SBJO because they happily accepted him/her to be a member of the parish/ Celestial church as a whole. 

These elders are the ones that are meant to pray for the child after he/she is named and also usher him/her out at the end of the service, they are also the ones who are meant to pray for him/her outside but we carelessly change people or they leave without completing the task they started.

After the above, we have the normal male and female arrangement as in a normal service.

Let’s look at the material used for naming ceremonies and their spiritual meanings and how it concerns the baby and the church in general:

Seven types of fruits: This signifies blessing to the baby and to the church, the seven fruits are placed in front of the table used (where the sugar, salt, honey and water are placed ), the trees that bear this fruit are given a commandment by God during their creation (Gen 1:11) also in Gen 8:22, God made a proclamation that seed time and harvest would never seize (He never gave time for harvest) so this means the child would be fruitful throughout his/her life. 

As we know all the fruits would have different seasons, so all the seasons the child will experience will be blessed and if the land on which the church is built or the area the parish is situated is  barren, blessing of fruitfulness will come upon the land and everything around the area will be blessed ( Hymn 732). Automatically the parish and the people who attend are blessed and if there is any barren woman present at the ceremony, she is healed of her bareness as she happily takes the fruit to eat. What a wonderful thing to partake in.

Water: This is the first item given to the child after naming, the child’s name is called out and given the water to taste (we don’t say ‘eyi ni omi aye’(this is the water of the world) because we are given water which proceed out of God Himself (Rev 22:1 which has no record of creation). 

As no man has no power in water, the child will grow from strength to strength in the power and spirit of God. After the naming ceremony, the water is taken home to bath and given to the child to drink for three months, this is to remove anything that might have been planted in the child before and after birth and make him/her free from all the grips of the devil. 

Salt: This is the second thing given unto the child after his/ name is called out. This contains the power to remove rottenness from anything and doesn’t harbor rottenness/deadness/naughtiness (Idibaje kin wonu iyo). We all know salt is a preservative to preserve an item from getting spoilt, so also it has the power to remove deadness and rottenness from anything. 

One common instance was when Elisha used salt to removed bitterness from the river of marah (2 Kings 2:19-22), also God established the kingdom of King David by the covenant of salt and it stand till today (2Ch 13:5). Invariably, when salt is given to the baby, no power would have dominion over him/her and also no bitterness/naught/deadness would ever stay in his/her life, his kingdom shall be established forever just as God did King David’s, even Christ called us the salt of the world so this is not an ordinary item as we view it. As the people present take it, this is also applicable to the people who are present and partake in tasting the salt. Salt has the power to preserve so the child will be preserved and protected against any vile of the devil (gba wa logun aja kaye).

Honey: This is the last thing given to the child after his/her name has been called out. This naturally means sweetness but spiritually it’s more than that, it means restoration and keeping alive of the body, soul and spirit. It cures spiritual diseases and physical ailments etc, so as it’s given to the child, happiness and sweetness will abide by the child in all he/she does and of course all those who partake in the ceremony.

If we are observant, we will see that these items are natural and not man made, they are directly from God without any hand or wisdom of man so as we use them in Celestial Church of Christ, no man can have power over us nor the church (Eniyan koni agbara lori ijo mimo yi (hymn 384).

Jehovah Jecho – Hirami (let’s take note of the pronunciation) is called out with the name of the child and Dut 28:1-14 is read out loudly into the ears of the child and everyone to speak blessing into the life of the child according to the promises of God. This is where the parents needs to be very careful, they need to teach their child to HEAR ONLY THE VOICE OF GOD and nothing else, because that is the only condition the promises of God can manifest and be fulfilled in his/her life, that means the child must not take any step at any point of his/her life without asking God or hearing from God. This is the strength of them that are born into the fold.

Thanksgiving on this day is very important (items used), the songs rendered during this time will speak and go a long way in the life of the child, every song, water is used to wet the seed in the child, if we don’t render Celestial songs, we are applying wrong water which might kill the seed but if we sing Celestial songs, right water is applied and the seed will germinate and bring fruits. The parents and choristers should please take note. It’s the prophet/ess that will carry the baby at this time while the father of the child carries the thanks offering items.

Naming ceremony should never be mixed with the time of worship, for instance a child is to be christened on Wednesday or Friday or Sunday, it could be done before service or after service. If it’s mixed with service, we are making the child contest with God and we all know we serve a jealous God who doesn’t want His time to be shared with ANYTHING or ANYONE.

The filing out arrangement is quite different from the filing in, the choir comes before the baby this time as against the baby before the choir while coming in.  This is because the baby has been given a name and now has been registered as a church member so he/she files out with the congregation. 

The above is the practice on the 8thday in which we give God unto the child ie all that is of God is given to the child is of God (all natural and not man made) so he/she can be rooted in Him and on the 41stday (day of purification of the mother) we bring the child and give back to God.

The baby and the mother must not come to the vicinity of the church until 41 days. God has made provision for them so they are covered till that time, any spiritual work would be done when the baby is presented to the Lord on the 41st day.

The mother must not give the baby to anyone bring to church on her behalf before the 41st day

N. B: It should be a thing of note that the message given on the 8th day (naming ceremony) might not be full so the child would be brought back on the 41stday (the day of purification of the mother) to be given the full message of his/her journey. The parents would give the child to a prophet/ess who is in spirit to give the more details about the journey of the child (gbogbo oun Oluwa) as it happened in Luke 2:22-40 which is also the lesson of naming ceremony.

Author: Ayo Sobule

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