Day Pastor Adeboye led RCCG’s Holy Ghost Service from home

Though he is used to preaching to packed and even overflowing auditoriums, Pastor Enoch Adeboye led the April Holy Ghost Service of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) from his home at the church’s Redemption Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

This was due to the lockdown introduced by the federal government in Lagos, Ogun and the federal capital territory to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. As is the practice of the church, such government directives must be obeyed. But for him, the situation must have also been one of the many in his life to thank God for His awesomeness.

Tucked away in a one-room apartment in Mushin, a suburb of Lagos in 1981, preaching to the world from home was unthinkable. He had abandoned his palatial home at the University of Ilorin to serve God in Lagos in the capacity of a general overseer.

As accommodation became an issue for him and his family he had prayed to God for better accommodation and got the promise of a city, which the Redemption Camp is fast turning into.

From his home at the camp, he led the April Holy Ghost Service and had it broadcast live by the television station of the church to at least 198 countries where the church has a physical presence.

For a man used to large congregations, preaching in the presence of a few family members and pastors of the church, seated metres apart, would have dropped energy levels, but as a member of the church explained, the “humble general overseer” derives his passion and energy from the word of God and not from the crowd.

Some readers of his body language also said they did not observe any change in his energy; rather they noticed that he cover wider grounds with his sermon, making them take longer notes than in previous Holy Ghost Service sermons.

One thing he may have missed though was the “thunderous halleluyah” shouts by large congregations. Also missing was the pulsating praise and worship songs and
choir ministrations that usually got the people of all ages to their feet in various dance steps in the twin auditoriums at the camp.

Footage of one of the old praise and worship sessions of the church had been shown, but it couldn’t have had the same effect on people used to enjoy it live at the camp.

Continuing his series on “Let there be light,” Pastor Adeboye, who sat down to preach to remind his followers that the period of the coronavirus epidemic was a holiday for them, took his Bible text from Genesis 1: 1-3.

He had told his listeners that God allowed the pandemic to show to the world that He is still in control, and assured people who lived right with God of His protection. For such people, he explained, it is time to “enjoy the holidays.”

During the sermon, Pastor Adeboye went at length to show layers and layers of God’s love for man.

“God loves His creation so much that he wants the very best for him – man,” he said, explaining that by the Law of Priority, which shows whatever you have in your heart is what comes out of your mouth first when you speak, God showed his love for man in His early communication with him.

“The first time God spoke on record was when He said, ‘Let there be light…’ and in the order of Divine Priority, the first time God spoke directly with man, was to bless him as recorded in Genesis 1:28. “ God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
He stressed that out of His love for man, He blessed him and when God blesses a man, nobody can curse him.

The general overseer also known for his in-depth teaching said: “When God said be fruitful, and not barren. He decreed man’s fruitfulness in his very first message.

“Also, by saying multiply, He decreed man’s rapid growth. And then by saying ‘have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth,’ man is supposed to be the head and not the tail; to be a lender and not a borrower, etc.

“All the blessings are to automatically manifest in the lives of His children – those who belong to Him.”

From that, Pastor Adeboye showed another dimension of God’s love during His first self-introduction to Abraham.”

Explaining that who a person is may not be the same as what he is, he recalled that the first time God introduced Himself by name to Abram (Abraham), who was ninety years old and nine, he said:

“I am the Almighty God…” ]With that, he said, God showed that He is the One who has all power, all the might; the God who is absolute in power. Power belongs to Him, and with Him, nothing shall be impossible.

Illustrating, he said God’s almightiness is evident in the Abraham experience, where He reversed the irreversible with the womb of Sarah; and kept all His promises.

“That is El-Shaddai, which also means the all-sufficient one. “He is not only self-sufficient, He can handle any situation not only for Himself but for all of us. He is the one who is more than enough.”

He referred to Bible scholars as saying that Jehovah El-Shaddai could be likened to the breast of a mother, where there is enough
milk for as many babies as would want to drink. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

Having shown how powerful God is, he asked where one wants to belong in times like this if not on the Lord’s side.

With that, he called on listeners who were yet to give their lives to Jesus Christ to do so. In the auditoriums, many people would have gushed out to the altars, but God accepts the practice anywhere when it is done genuinely.