By Bisi Daniels
Collectors of Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s testimonies must be facing the task of updating their collections unceasingly. The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is noted for illustrating his sermons with testimonies to enable people to relate with the messages more easily and also for better retention.
But just as one felt one knew all the about his early years in the church, a fresh revelation came: All protocols were broken by the Founder of the church, Josiah Akindayomi, to ordain him a pastor. He was only two years in the church where it takes much longer, rising through the ranks, to be ordained a pastor.
At the June Holy Ghost Service of the church, he recalled how God made the Founder break protocols to ordain him pastor: “Thank God for my Father-in-the-Lord (Pastor Akindayomi). On the very first day he went to Jerusalem, God spoke to him; God told him ‘as soon as you get home, ordain the young man who will take over from you.’”
“But while he was away, God also spoke to me about it and I told the Almighty God to forbid bad thing. I didn’t want to be a pastor.
“However, against my silent wish, my Father-in-the-Lord ordained me on his return from Israel. He broke all the rules to do that.
“That day I was been ordained a Pastor, the man who was ordained before me had been in the Church for 15 years.
“I had been in the Church for only two years. We don’t do that in RCCG; we don’t ordain someone a pastor just like that.”
The leader of the church, which has spread to several countries, also used the opportunity to debunk claims that the church was the place for people to become pastors early: “I have heard that some people say if you want to become a pastor early, join RCCG and within six months you will become one.
“I said, ‘really? Let them come; let them come and see how many years it takes to be a worker before being made a Deacon; how many years they will spend as Deacon before they can become Assistant Pastor; and how many years they have to spend after they have become Assistant Pastor before they become Pastor; how many courses they will undergo
“Six months? Fine! Come, we will be waiting for you. “In my case, Papa broke all protocols; he wanted me to be what God wants me to be. He was a Destiny Helper! “I pray that God will shine His Light on you and reveal you to the one who will help you fulfill your Destiny – Amen!
Pastor Adeboye cited that example to illustrate one of the benefits of God’s light shining on the solution to an individual’s problem.
The RCCG was founded in 1952 by Pastor Josiah Akindayomi, after he had been involved in other churches. The church started at 9 Willoughby Street and remained there until they were able to acquire a piece of land at the present site of the Headquarters of the church at 1-5 Redemption Way, Ebute-Metta, Lagos (formerly 1a, Cemetery Street).
In the early 1970s, Pastor Akindayomi, who Pastor Adeboye calls his Father-in-the-Lord, started to look for an educated successor, who had been spiritually revealed to him, but was not at that time a member of the church.
He chose Pastor Adeboye, a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Lagos, who joined the church in 1973. Adeboye was ordained a pastor of the church in 1975, and his appointment as leader of the church was formalized in 1981.
According to Pastor Adeboye’s own account after his baptism in 1973, the gifts of God upon his life begun to manifest and his enthusiasm and the resultant gifts of God made me stand out.
“But two years later, when I first heard that I would be ordained a pastor, I thought it was a joke,” he said.
“I prayed to God to change the mind of Pa Akindayomi, but it was too late. Nothing changed. So on September 14, 1975, I was ordained a pastor. “I soon became the interpreter to my Father-in-the-Lord, who preached in Yoruba for me to translate into English.
“Also my evangelical zeal grew tremendously and the University of Lagos soon became my primary target of evangelization.”
From 40 parishes when he was made the General Overseer in 1981, the church now has thousands of parishes around the world, with strong presence in about 198 countries and territories.
Continuing the series “Let There Be Light” with the sixth part at the Holy Ghost Service broadcast from his home at the Redemption Camp worldwide, he dwelt on the experience of the Israelites at Marah while on the way to the Promised Land.
In the sermon transcribed by the Discovery Media Crew, the General Overseer recalled that three days into their journey to the Promised Land when the Israelites needed good water, Moses cried to God, who shone His light on a tree to be used to make the bitter water at Marah drinkable. He drew many takeaways from the story:
- When we cry to the Lord for a solution to our problems, He shines His light on the solution, which already exits.
- Before your problems started, God had been there with a solution; long before the Israelites got to the bitter water at Marah, the tree Moses used had been there, growing;
before Goliath started terrorizing Israel, the stone David used to kill him had been there. - What God’s light does to your problem is that it shows you the solution, which is discovered by crying out to Him.
- Before you were born, God knew you and even scientific evidence shows that a child’s physical features are determined within 72 hours of conception.
- When you are ill, God’s light shows you what to do to become whole.
- God’s light makes you see what to do for a financial breakthrough; to move from barely enough to more than enough, which had been determined more than 2,000 years ago by Jesus who became poor so you can become rich.
- God’s light also shows you what to do for all-round breakthrough -breakthrough in all spheres of life.
- Hannah had been praying at Shiloh for many years for a child, until the Light showed her what to pray for – a partnership with God – pledging to give her child, Samuel, to God to serve Him.
- Like Solomon, who prayed to God for wisdom, God’s light shows you what to pray for when you please Him.
- God’s light can also spotlight your destiny helper or spotlight you to be seen by the destiny helper; God’s light showed Elisha to Elijah.
- The tree at Marah was a tree of destiny; it was there to change destiny but it wouldn’t have been useful if God’s light had not shone on it for Moses to see it.
- God’s light can also make you a link between someone and his destiny helper.
- On a higher level, God light can make you the tree to be used as solution of the problems of other people; it can make you the blessed, as well as the blesser.
- In the Scripture, the tree has been used to symbolize man: “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the LORD, who meditates on His law, day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”
To conclude, he noted that God gets angry with the wicked; stressing that the One who is angry with you can’t bless you. But if you go to Jesus, He will forgive you your sins, bless you, and even make you a blessing to others.
Earlier, recorded praise and worship sessions of services, held before the ban on religious gathering, had been broadcast after which many online testimonies were read. Pastor (Mrs.) Folu Adeboye was on hand to pray for all nations.
