The full story
“Praise the Lord….,” a dark, stocky woman in a black flowery dress and a black beret shouted. The shout was so shrilling it pierced the eardrum, and so loud and prolonged that it echoed around the massive three-kilometre-by-three-kilometre auditorium, called the “Arena”.
It was on the Friday night of the 19th Holy Ghost Congress of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which held between December 5 and10. In church where handkerchiefs and anointing oil blessed by the General Overseer, Pastor E. A. Adeboye, heal terminal diseases, raise the dead, and where women without wombs get pregnant and deliver normal babies, the mood in some sections of the congregation was like “why is that lady shouting so much?.
What miracle haven’t we seen or heard before in this church?”
But when Moji Olutoyin, finished her testimony that Friday night, it earned God (Pastor Adeboye hates to take God’s credit) a thunderous ovation, with some people jumping and some others dancing in celebration of the power of God.
The Olutoyin story: “I’m here to give glory to God because once I was down, but now I can walk. On June 28, I realized I couldn’t walk. Two weeks before then, I was having back pains and I was taking many drugs, going from one hospital to another.
“From June 28, I was confined to the wheel chair and I had to leave Niger State to return home in Ogun State. On arrival I went for treatment at the General Hospital but I was referred to the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta. The doctors there referred me again to do MRI, which was to cost me sixty-five thousand naira.
“As I prepared for the MRI, the time this year’s last RCCG Convention drew closer, the pastor and other ministers of my church in RCCG Ogun Province 14 decided to bring me here in the Camp. The day we arrived, I saw Baba (Pastor Adeboye) close to where we were but I was in a wheel chair and couldn’t get closer to him.
“At that point, I felt hope draining out of me. But I stayed for the Convention, and participated in all the prayers. I was still lame when I got back home. But soon, one of my neighbours came visiting to say she had heard I could walk again, But I said I didn’t know about that.
“Soon after the question, I felt like going to easy myself. Then I felt like a heavy load had been removed from my body. After that I felt I could stand, and I stood up. I started moving one step after another and that was it. I could walk again and still do as you all can see.
“I thank God; I thank Pastor Adeboye for not letting me see shame by going from one herbalist to another. I give God all the glory and all the honour.”
“Praise God,” she shouted again, but this time the Arena erupted in applause.
Signs and Wonders.
It is usually taken for granted, but the first of the signs and wonders at mega events of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), attended by millions of people, is the ant-kingdom-like orderliness and the accident-free nature.
Another is the thousands of people who answer the altar calls to give their lives to Jesus, and of course, the miracles. On that Friday, it was difficult to count the rapid stream of people to the altar from all corners of the Arena, but I tried to have a sense of it with the number of minutes it took all the people to leave the altar in various directions, not in a single file. It took well over three minutes!
The Rash of Words of Knowledge
Another highpoint of the day’s signs and wonders, which Pastor Adeboye told the congregation to note as a turning point in their lives, happened towards the end of the sermon, titled “Complete Restoration”, which was also the theme of the Congress. Many of the miracles in the church are announced ahead as a Word of Knowledge from God. This early morning on Saturday, as he tried to close the sermon, there was a rash of words of knowledge. Adeboye wanted to stop, but when he told the congregation, they urged him on.
He had anticipated the surge of anointing and desired to impact it on the congregation, but unlike years ago when he could lay hands, it would perhaps have taken a whole day for him to do that. He personally anointed handkerchiefs and delegated his many pastors to anoint people with them. In the RCCG, there is usually no jah, jah drama of people shouting, jumping and falling during such moments, but as in Olutoyin’s testimony and many other big ones shared during the Congress, miracles do happen.
Pastor Adeboye doesn’t joke with the Word of Knowledge himself. Even if he did, it must have been erased years ago by his encounter with God, during a huge programme at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan. He recalled the incident during the Congress:
“At that event God said to me, ‘There is a woman here whose armpit has feathers instead of hairs. If she will come out I will take care of it.’
I have to confess to you that I doubted this myself.
I thought to myself, O God! Daddy, we have had a wonderful time. Why don’t You just let us go home? I mean this will spoil the whole show now. If I call this woman and she does not come out, people will say, “You see he’s overreached himself.”
But the woman came out, was prayed for an hair replaced the feathers in her armpit.
Happy New Year in December
Although Pastor Adeboye says Saturdays of the Congress, when he holds anointing service with Holy Communion, are the best days of the week-long event. Fridays, however, seem to be the peak, with the auditorium filled to the brim with people from all around the world.
That was what this Friday turned out to be. Pastor Adeboye called it a special night; an extra-ordinary night – the type never seen before. And it lived up to the billing. Prophecies and Word of Knowledge, which people jumped to claim, rang out ceaselessly. And, when he told the congregation to shake hands and wish each other Happy New Year, it was done promptly with excitement.
With the steady stream of people feeding the Arena, it was not surprising to find it seating an already large congregation at 4p.m when I got in. The mood was already solemn, with many people praying around the altar.
Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, Senior pastor of The Fountain of Life Church, kicked off the night with the high energy level characteristic of him. And from one event to another the night progressed towards the crescendo. Praise and worship songs from the Church’s Mass Choir and other performers lit up moods and the spirit. President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Pastor Felix Omobude preached; delegates from all the continents were recognized; more songs, including a theme song, followed and as was the usual routine on all the days, Professor Aboaba, still looking strong and alert for his age, announced Pastor Adeboye’s session.
The theme of the week-long Congress was “Complete Restoration” backed by a biblical passage, Joel 2; 25-27 which was read slowly for emphasis every day of the Congress by Pastor Adeboye.
Key take-home messages of the Congress, were:
•As God made provisions for after Adam’s sin and fall, there is always opportunity for restoration for those who give their lives to Christ, live holy lives and are obedient to God, doing His will. Every Christian is entitled to miracles, and those who continue to live in sin and are not born again cannot receive miracles because miracles come from God, who is holy.
•With that God plays His part of the restoration and blessings, which goes with protection, good health, provision, abundance, among others.
•Restoration is a process.
•Sin is disobedience, which causes a barrier between God and man.
•God says resist the devil and he will flee. Since God will not assign you what you can’t do, it means the devil can be resisted.
Pastor Adeboye does a lot of Bible teaching at other occasions, but as he admitted in his sessions during the Congress, they were for prayers. And there were lots of it and miracles.
During the Congress, 21 children, 16 boys and 15 girls, were delivered as at Friday.
Some 30 years after the Holy Ghost programmes was birthed, the Arena, which became necessity to host multitudes of worshipers, emptied itself after the Saturday anointing service, to prepare for another mega event.
Guest preachers who took turns to preach during the week were Pastor Mathew Asimolowo, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, Prophet Kayode Abiara, General Evangelist, Christ Apostolic Church Worldwide, Papa Ayo Oritsejafor, and Pastor Wale Oke (who Pastor Adeboye calls his personal prophet).
Others are Dr Felix Ilaweagbon Omobude, the President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, and United States-based, Indian preacher and senior pastor of Covenant Family Church, Pastor Stephen Rathod, a spiritual son of the founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Rev. Josiah Akindayomi.