22/08/2026
I want to thank God for my father in the Lord. I want to thank God for a man who can hear from God, because if he didn't hear from God, I won't be here. He heard from God.
Of all the people that could become the general overseer, I am the least qualified. I mean, the church started in 1952, I came in 1973. Two years after I came, you ordained me a pastor. That's not done in the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The day he was ordaining me pastor here, in that little building over there, the man that was anointed before me had been in the church for 50 years.
When he called me, and said he was going to ordain me, my wife and I, we fasted for 14 days that God would not allow it to happen. Oh, yes. Who wants you to be a pastor? In those days, at least in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, to become a pastor is to be sentenced to p0verty, plain language.
And I had been poor. I had been in poverty for the first 18 years of my life. No pair of shoes. Then I struggled and struggled. I finished university education. I became a lecturer in the university. Now, at least when I joined the church, my car, which was second-hand, was the newest car in the church out of the 5 cars. At least it's the only one you don't have to push before it runs. And then suddenly somebody is now talking about me becoming a pastor.
We prayed and fasted, my wife and I. Like God didn't answer that prayer. Thank God he didn't.
When my father in the Lord told me I would be succeeding him, not that God had not told me himselfâwe'll talk a little bit about that laterâI told him, "No, it's not going to happen."
He said, "God told him."
I said, "Talk to him again." Anyone he chooses for you, I will support the fellow, 100%. But for me, to leave the little comfort I have and becomeâuh, I mean, you may not understand. I was acting head of department at the University of Mathematics at the University of Learning.
My boy's porch has a load, has 4 bedrooms. Because in Learning those days, there were houses nobody could live in back there. Not bad. And then they gave me a guest quarter, 2-bedroom bungalow, so that would tell you what the main house was like. To leave that and come and live in one room in Mushin? I said, "God f0rbid."
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In all, thank God for a man who can hear God.
â Pastor E A Adeboye
Transcribed by Flames Channel