By Kehinde Awosika
RCCG Annual Holy Ghost Convention August 2021 with Pastor E.A. Adeboye began on Monday 2nd August 2021 and went on till Sunday 8th August 2021.
The theme for RCCG Holy Ghost convention August 2021, under the leading of the Holy Spirit, was proclaimed by the popular General Overseer, was to be A NEW WAVE OF GLORY.
After the opening prayer, praise and worship, ministrations by other ministers, special prayers for the nations by Pastor Folu Adeboye, the G.O.’s wife, testimonies, special ministration by the Mass Choir of the Church, the cleric mounted the pulpit for his sermon.
He spotted his usual short-sleeve suit and bow tie. As he knelt to pray after a brief general prayer, the congregation too knew what to do.
On Friday, as he prayed, he kept repeating, “Thank you Father,” to show that God was communicating with him.
Before, he normally gave out the messages as he received them but on Friday he didn’t, and he was on his knees praying aloud.
As a youth pastor in the church recollects, after the prayer, there was a change in his face. It wore the serious look of one processing a serious message.
However, his face soon brightened with smiles as he introduced one of the highlights of the night.
He said, “It was time for couples that God have blessed with babies in the last one year or so, through prayers of the church, to bring their children to the altar for blessing.”
A lot of people went out from various corners of the church to form a large crowd at the altars in the new and old auditoriums of the church.
When they seemed to have gathered, Pastor Adeboye cast a look around and said, “You can see the number of homes where there was sorrow, but now there is joy.
“You can see the thousands of souls that have been blessed. I want the congregation around the world to join me to shout, ‘Hallelujah!”
After that, he blessed the new mothers and prayed for more of this type of miracles to occur in other homes.
Then he started the sermon proper by announcing that following the theme of the convention, “A New Wave of Glory,” the night was going to be a prophetic one.
“I’m telling you this, because in the next five minutes, God may say ‘Stop’ because the one that He has in mind has received what He wants to say,” Pastor Adeboye said.
The sermon was heavily laced with prophecies, which the congregation happily received with loud shouts of Amen. Some people even rejoiced over prophecies that spoke to them.
The Bible passage for his sermon was 2nd Corinthians 3:18.
Ministering, he acknowledged God as the Creator, Provider and King of Glory, with the power to promote and demote a person.
He said Glory comes as waves associated with individuals.
He mentioned many biblical examples like Joseph, who as a respected househelp in Potiphar’s house, carried God’s glory and when he was offered the opportunity to consolidate his position by his master’s wife he declined her advances, saying, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
As the Scriptures show, Joseph was able to fulfil a dream of leadership he had earlier on because he refused Potiphar’s wife.
Even at that, he was thrown into jail on false accusations charges.
Pastor Adeboye said, like Joseph, we should be determined never to offend God because “when the whole world is against you, but you have God on your side, all is well with you. But if God is against you, who can be for you?”
According to him, glory comes in waves, one by one and nothing should be done to abort the process.
“It is possible for a person to know glory at some point and then move into shame. But God could give the person a new wave of glory out of His mercy.”
Also, he said, the wave of glory is for individuals, the recipient could spread it to benefit others.
He gave examples of the flow of waves: He said a wave of Glory elevated Joseph from prison to become a Prime Minister and brought his family to flourish in Egypt.
But the wave ceased, when Joseph died and a new Pharaoh didn’t know his importance.
Then after some years of suffering in the valley, Moses emerged to liberate his people.
They could have been stranded in the wilderness when Moses died, but a new wave came in the name of Joshua, who took them to the Promised Land.
He told people who have fallen materially, financially, spiritually, those who have lost greatly because of personal weakness, and others, that a new wave is possible for them, as it was for Job, Nebuchadnezzar and others in the scriptures.
He said, even for those who feel destiny has not been kind to them and those who have become ex-champions, they are promises of a new wave.
He added that with God, the waves of glory never cease and we should avoid anything to cause it to cease despite our condition as rich and powerful or as poor and suffering from want.
He advised that to be a partaker of the new wave one should not annoy God
On God’s side, waves of glory never cease, so, that is the best place for you to be, but he explained that it starts by surrendering our lives to Him.
The landmark service on Friday was followed on Saturday with a Holy Communion Service and on Sunday with the Thanksgiving Service.
Much earlier in the day, the G. O. announced some of the decisions made by the governing council of the church, which met during the week, as follows:
* The establishment of an executive council for the youths
* The creation of 27 provinces in Nigeria out of the 28 that applied
* Approval of the ordination of people during the Year 2021 national convention:
(a) 10,802 deacons and deaconess
(b) 4,725 assistant pastors
(c) 2,230 full pastors
(d) 58 honorary elders
* The appointment of James Fadel as a new Assistant General Overseer (AGO). He joined the church in the early 1970s and is the continental overseer of the Americas.
