Pastor Enoch Adeboye has gone down memory lane recounting how he took over as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the many challenges he has had to face.
He gave the account at the monthly thanksgiving service of the church on February 7. It was also an opportunity to also thank God for seeing him and his wife through the challenges of overseeing a ministry of the RCCG magnitude.
Adeboye who became General Overseer when he was 39 years old said, “If I am to give a summary of what the journey had been like this past 40 years, I will be lying to you that things have been easy. The journey has not been easy. There have been times of agony, sorrow, and betrayals.”
He however said what has kept him going is the ability to hear from God and get direction from him at every turning point. “One thing kept us going. The Lord gave us the ability to hear from him.” He said adding that “You need guidance for a road you have not walked before”
While noting that life begins at 40, he paid glowing tribute to his wife describing her as a great pillar in his ministry. His words, “Today, I want to really thank God for a new beginning. I want to thank God for my wife. You can’t ask for a better wife. If you have a wife that is better than mine you should be afraid. Maybe the person is not a human being. The Almighty God gave me the best wife. I am saying this because God knew I could not possibly have done this work with another woman. If a different woman had been my wife, I won’t be here today.”
Recounting the many large gatherings the church has had in the past, he said, “Consider having one million people together for many years and nobody trampled to death, it can only be God. You can only pray comfortably in the prayer room if someone is out there. My wife is the one outside. She knows who to call when there is a challenge. Every member of my big family knows that by now. If you say you want to see the G.O. just get his wife. I thank God for my wife, God has given the Church a good mother.”
Pa Josiah Akindayomi
On the founding pastor of the church, he said, “I want to thank God for Pa Josiah Akindayomi, a man who could hear from God because if he did not hear from God I won’t be here. I was the least qualified to be the G.O. Two years after I joined, I was ordained, pastor. The man that was anointed before me had been in church for 15 years.
“When Pa Akindayomi called me and said he wanted to ordain me, my wife and I fasted for 14 days asking God to turn the decision down. In those days, to become a pastor is to be sentenced to poverty. For the first 18 years of my life, I had no pair of shoes. I struggled and struggled to become a lecturer. Suddenly somebody wanted me to be a pastor? We prayed and fasted. But God did not answer that prayer.
“When God said I will be General Overseer, I said no. I was prepared to support any other person God chose. But the founding pastor insisted I was the one.
“I wrote him a letter to decline the offer. He could not read any other book apart from the Bible and the hymn book. Somebody read the letter to his hearing. He called me and he broke my back by saying if you know you are not taking the offer, no problem but I want you to know one thing,
“I love you. Indeed, papa loved me. He wasn’t somebody you joke with. He was fire. He was another Elijah. When Baba says he wants to see you, until you get there, you will be sweating. He was great. It is the covenant God gave him that we are implementing now.”
Adeboye noted that once the head of an organisation is good, things will work. “When people criticise us, I don’t pay attention because what God has decreed, he will establish. God told our founder that He would meet this church when he returns. I want to thank God for all those who are members of this church, the Lord will see you through. I want to thank God for all the pastors. I want you to know you’re not in the RCCG by accident.”
Adeboye: God my source
Adeboye who will be 79 in March said when he took over as General Overseer, there was a handful of staff recalling that they had to pray and fast to pay their salary.
“My wife was still working so you know who was feeding who. I sold my car when I became G.O. I was riding a Toyota crown. When I was paid my gratuity, I was happy that it will keep me going. But then I recalled that I was under another master. I then asked God what he wanted me to do with the money. He asked me to divide the money into three. He said, give one third to this ministry, the second part to another ministry, and the remaining one to another ministry.”
He said that instruction left him in shock but God soon comforted him by telling him he would his source. “When you see me today and you are envying me, you need to know my source. I was living in a room in Mushin after I became G.O. When it dawned on me that my wife and children would be joining me, I began to pray to God to at least let me build a boy’s quarters.
“But God said don’t ask me for a house because I have decided to build for you a city. Today we are in a place called Redemption Camp. It has its own power system, water system, clinic restaurants, and many other amenities.”
On some of the challenges, he has had to face he said, “After about two years of being G.O I saw crisis upon crisis. The 39 parishes we had then were 39 problems. There was crisis upon crisis. Before we had meetings at the then supreme council I had to fast three days. Suddenly I discovered that I was having grey hair. Then God told me I was carrying the burden that should not be mine. He said, I was just using you as camouflage to do the work, that he is the one doing the work. When I realised that, I said to tell myself that I will never worry again.
Why I don’t flaunt my credentials
He said he dropped all his titles and credentials because of an encounter he had with God. “I was 40 years old sitting in my office then. There was this inscription on my name: Rev Dr. E.A Adeboye BSc MSc Ph.D. The only thing I did not write was the “empty barrel”.
He said God, through an illustrative graph, told him he had to sacrifice the titles “Rev. Dr” for him to go higher in ministry leaving him just with the title of pastor
“From that day till now, we have been growing higher. Anybody can preach my sermon. I don’t know much about theology. I never went to Bible school. I don’t know Greek, Hebrew that is why I listen to Him. Our first camp ground is in Epe which has been converted to the camp ground for former area boys.”
He recalled an experience at the camp where God reprimanded him for being disobedient adding that, “God reprimands the one he loves. If you think you are special to God and he is allowing you to get away with many of your wrong doings, check your salvation. If you think God will allow you to live a careless life, watch it. The closer you are to him the stricter he becomes.
For 40 years Moses led the children Israel and they gave him honours. But one single disobedience cost him the Promised Land. My request is to finish well and finish strong. You don’t mess around with God. There is a line you don’t cross with the holy one of Israel. Don’t mess with God.”
He also recalled how God warned him to stay humble after the historic Lekki 98 meeting noting however that RCCG belongs to God.
On the current pandemic, he says, “God says, “I can take care of my own, I will take care of my own. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be careless either. Obey the protocol but don’t be afraid. My Daddy says I can take care of my own, I will take care of my own. I never preach denomination I preach Jesus. But whether the devil likes it or not God will take care of his own.”
Story by Gbenga Osinaike
