TheCable

Enoch Adeboye, the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), says he is worried by the growing silence over a major aspect of man’s relationship with God.

Preaching on the third day of the ongoing RCCG 69th convention at the Redemption Camp of the church, he said that while salvation, sanctification, and baptism are important, many people and some churches ignore the need to be sanctified for closeness to God and rather choose to live the children of Satan.

Indeed, although many people rush out during altar calls for salvation, they stop at that level, without the necessary spiritual growth.

“Salvation is glorious but sanctification, which means being set apart for God, is more glorious; sanctification means being the favourite among the lot for the King of Kings,” the general overseer said.

A dictionary defines sanctification simply as the action or process of being freed from sin and purified.

For a man who is happy to have many people respond to his altar calls, salvation is dear to Adeboye, so he took the time to speak about its importance.

Liking it to a marriage in which the couple loses their individual identities, he said salvation is marriage to Jesus, who is the husband of the church. At salvation, therefore, one is the bride, who is transformed because everything changes.

Illustrating, Adeboye said, as in marriage when the bride goes straight to her husband’s home from the wedding ceremony, the saved goes into a new home and comes under new management with a new yoke, which is lighter.

“At salvation, you receive inexplicable joy, and you have a new hope, as well as ability that surprises people who knew your old self,” he said.

Additionally, he said, since God promises to “supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” you have a new source of supply, which is inexhaustible.

Speaking passionately about sanctification, the revered cleric said it comes with several advantages:

* It gives you direct and unlimited access to the throne room of God. In a simplified example of the story of Esther in the Bible, she was the only person, who could go to King Ahasuerus uninvited. Others who did that risked being killed immediately.

* Sanctification gives you unlimited freedom to make requests and provides unlimited intimacy with God, who does not hide anything from you.

* When you are sanctified, God even delivers others who are associated with you from trouble.

* He however warned that those blessings come at a cost: One must be above board in all things, meaning that what others can get away with, you can’t try it without immediate punishment.

* To be sanctified, the human heart in you, which is desperately wicked, has to be replaced with the heart of flesh – the heart Jesus made available some 2,000 years ago to replace the heart of stone in you.

* With the new heart, it becomes easy to live a life of holiness and to live for God.

But, of course, he said all that is possible after salvation; after surrendering your life to God.

With that, he made the altar call which was responded to by many people.

The day was packed with various activities, including the ministration of a group of elders clad in white.

Another highlight of the evening was the opening ceremony by children and teenagers of the church with songs, recitations, drama and dance. They were co-ordinated by Folu Adeboye, wife of the general overseer, who introduced them. They were blessed later by her husband.