RCCG 2017 Convention: How pastor fled after God blessed him — Pastor Adeboye

Praising God has been widely acknowledged to be a very beneficial exercise. Some scientific studies have attested to this. For example, Brigid Waldron-Perrine of Wayne State University in Michigan and his team have found that “Feeling connected to a higher power positively impacted not only their feelings, but their functional outcomes, what they were able to do.”

The findings confirm decades of existing proof of prayer’s healing benefits. One of the most frequently cited studies on the subject comes from San Francisco General Hospital’s Coronary Care Unit.

Yesterday, in line with the theme of the 2017 Convention of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, (RCCG), General Overseer of the Mission, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, a scientist himself, broke down the connection between praise and miracles in his usual understandable manner of explaining things.

A testimony

In one of his popular testimonies on praise, which he has shared elsewhere he said: A Nigerian couple travelled to the United States on scholarship and there they had a set of twins. Later, they ran out of money – no money to eat or do anything – and there was not even money to travel back home. For a solution, they had prayed and done everything they could legitimately do but still, no change. They were strangers in a foreign land with nobody to help them.

Then, one day, the babies were crying ceaselessly for food. All they wanted was food. It got so bad that their father decided to get out of the house before he went crazy. He went to the library, leaving the wife alone to cope with the twins.

In the husband’s own testimony, he said that his wife told him all of a sudden that she remembered that I had taught them long ago that if prayer fails they should try praise.

So, she took her tambourine and began to sing and praise God saying, “I don’t how you are going to solve this problem, but I will praise you all the same,” she said.

As she sang, she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door and saw a group of white people who had come to the neighbourhood to witness for the Lord by going from door to door. At a point they were about to go home because they were tired but the leader said, “One more house, just one more house and then we will go.”

As they arrived , they saw this lady with a tambourine in her hand. They told her they were there to talk to her about Jesus Christ.

The lady said, “Come in.”

The children suddenly went quiet when they saw the visitors. When the visitors were trying to tell her about Jesus Christ, she said, “Well, I know Jesus Christ. He is my Lord, He is my Saviour.”

They kept on talking for a while until the lady interrupted to say, “I’m sorry, I would have entertained you but I have nothing to give.”

And they said, “What do you mean by you have nothing to give? Not even a soda?”

She said, “Nothing at all.”

The leader was surprised. He said, “That can’t be true.”

He got up to open the fridge, opened and found it absolutely empty.

“You mean you have nothing at all in the house?”

The lady said, “Absolutely nothing.”

The leader, asking the others to wait for him, went to the grocery store and brought back lots of foodstuffs with the promise to return the following week. And, a week later, the leader got them a job. As of today, I know they have two houses in America simply because somebody decided to praise God.

The breakdown

Yesterday, a woman who took her triplets to the altar, testifed about the miracle she received for praising God. She narrated how she had been nicknamed “Sister Halleluyah” because of the frequency at which she shouted it.

She had been looking for the fruit of the womb but anytime she had challenges she increased the number of Halleluyah shouts. She started from three shouts, increased the number progressively, and was rewarded with a pregnancy that produced three kids to wipe away her tears.

Pastor Adeboye, cited that example during the breakdown of how praise works. Explaining that praise drives its power from the one being praised, he warned that self-praise or adulation is destructive as shown in the example of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylonia, who was made to eat grass like an animal for years.

Similarly, praising a human being, especially liking him to God, puts the person in danger, as was the case of King Herod who was eaten up by worms right in front of his subjects who likened him to God when they were praising his oratory.

“Only God is worthy of praise, and when you are praising the Almighty, who says He is God and non else, then be ready for miracles,” Pastor Adeboye said.

Explaining the process, he said praising God draws Him closer to you, and to do that‎ He arises. “And when God arises enemies scatter,” he said.

Backing each stage of the process with Biblical passages and examples, he went on to explain that because God is the King of Kings, He does not move alone; He moves with an entourage and as they do, the earth to trembles.

The third stage of the process is that God does not move empty- handed.

He explained the implications and benefits of the stages as follows:

Praise guarantees victory without having to put up a fight because when God arises no enemy can stand Him.

Praise guarantees earthquake on God’s arrival such that doors fly open, chains break and yokes removed for freedom from bondage, stagnation, storms of life and for solutions considered impossible to come.

Praise guarantees miracles because God who does not move empty-handed always gives gifts to people He visits; some of the miracles frightening ones.

In his usual style of enhancing retention, Pastor Adeboye told a story of one of his pastors, who received a miracle so big that he ran away from it. He said, years back, someone had presented a Mercedes car gift for the pastor was so poor he could not even dream of a bicycle. When the car was taken to him, with the promise of fuel and a driver, he doubted it was for him.

And upon the insistence of Pastor Adeboye’s driver who drove the car there that it was for him, the pastor involuntarily walked away in fright.

Noted for his holiness, Pastor Adeboye warned that people who live continuously in sin should not expect God’s visitation during praise sessions because He is a Holy God.

Earlier in the morning, Wednesday, a graduation ceremony was held for 5,658 graduates of the Redeemed Christian Bible College who bagged certificates, diplomas, bachelors, master and doctorate degrees.

Pastor Adeboye gladly received them on behalf of the Governing Council and blessed them with God’s unction, power and the meeting of their personal needs.

The College has also successfully graduated students in Malaysia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Cameroon, South Africa and Congo Brazaville, among others.