THE HANDS THAT WILL HOLD A ROD OF FIRE MUST BE A TRANSFORMED HAND THAT HAS SURRENDERED ALL.
TO HAVE THE ROD OF FIRE MANIFESTING REGULARLY IN YOUR LIFE, YOU MUST SURRENDER YOUR LIFE TO JESUS CHRIST AND FORSAKE YOUR PREVIOUS WAYS
HOLINESS IS THE MASTER KEY. YOU MUST BE HOLY; THE FIRE OF GOD DOES NOT MIX WITH SIN
THE ONE WHO CLAIMS THAT I FAKE MIRACLES IS A JOKER! THERE’S NO NEED TO FAKE MIRACLES.
AFTER PRAYER ON A CANCER PATIENT WITH ANOINTED HANDKERCHIEF, A NEW BREAST GREW IN TWO WEEKS AFTER MASTECTOMY
THE ALMIGHTY GOD CAN TURN THE CHIEF OF SINNERS TO SOMEBODY WHOSE HANDKERCHIEF CAN HEAL THE SICK – SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING.
THE ROD OF FIRE GIVES YOU DOMINION. IT IS A COMBINATION OF AUTHORITY AND POWER
HOW I GOT THE MONEY I USED TO BUILD MY FIRST HOUSE
MY EXPERIENCE WITH ZAMBIAN MEAL ON A FIRST VISIT
THE ROD OF FIRE CAN PRODUCE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING
THE HEAD IS THE CITADEL OF THE ANOINTING BUT THE HAND CONDUCTS IT TO FLOW FROM THE SOURCE TO WHERE IT IS NEEDED
I STRETCH MY HAND TO YOU, EVERY FORM OF EMBARRASSMENT IN YOUR LIFE WILL DISAPPEAR!
I DECREE TO YOU TODAY, THE KIND OF JOY THAT IS UNSPEAKABLE, FULL OF GLORY, WILL COME YOUR WAY VERY SOON!
I PRAYED, POINTING TO A DIRECTION, FOR A ROAD; 6 MONTHS LATER, ROAD CONSTRUCTION BEGAN IN THAT DIRECTION
THE ROD OF FIRE CAN MAKE A WAY WHERE THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY
THE ROD OF FIRE CAN CLOSE THE DOOR AGAINST YOUR PURSUERS – IT OPENED THE RED SEA AND CLOSED IT AGAINST THE EGYPTIANS
JESUS IS OUR ROD OF FIRE AND HE HAS SENT TO US HIS MANTLE – THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE ROD OF FIRE REPRESENTS THE POWER AND AUTHORITY OF GOD, AS SEEN IN THE ROD OF MOSES AND IN THE MANTLE OF ELIJAH
THE ROD OF FIRE HAS THE POWER TO SWALLOW THE RODS OF ENEMIES AND BRING JUDGMENT AND DESTRUCTION TO THOSE WHO OPPOSE GOD’S WORK
- Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “FROM THE MOUNTAIN TOP (Part 5) – THE ROD OF FIRE” at June 2024 Holy Ghost Service || 7th June, 2024 ||
Exodus 4:20. Just for your information, I am sure you know we are discussing, “From the Mountain Top (part 5)”
What is a rod of fire? Simple – the rod of God. Exodus 4:20; Hebrews 12:29. Because the rod we are talking about is the rod of God, it’s the rod of the consuming fire therefore it is the rod of fire. But that’s in the hand of Moses; when you go further into the Scriptures, you will find another rod of fire like we discussed at the Holy Communion Service yesterday and that will be the mantle of Elijah. Church Gist. Elijah, like I told you yesterday, is a classical example of a fire man of God, a fire carrier of God because in 1 Kings 18:35-39, he prayed for about 2 minutes and fire came down from Heaven. In 2 Kings 1:9-12, two times in a single day he commanded fire to come down from Heaven and fire came. He is a man who prays and fire falls, he is a man who will command and fire will fall and he had something peculiar to him – his mantle. You will remember very well that when he was about to leave and he asked Elisha, “what do you want?” and Elisha said, “I want a double portion of your spirit,” what he handed or dropped for Elisha to pick up was his mantle.
When you move into the New Testament you will find that the rod of fire is a name and that name is Jesus. Isaiah 11:1-5; Matthew 3:11-12; Acts 1:8. Just like Elijah dropped the mantle for Elisha after he departed, Jesus Christ said that after he has gone, he will send down power. Church Gist. “I will drop my mantle on you” and that mantle of course is the Holy Spirit. So the rod in the hand of Moses was a shepherd rod that became the rod of God, in the case of Elijah versus Elisha it was a mantle, in the case of you and I, it is the Holy Spirit dropped for us by Jesus Christ.
Now, what can the rod do?
- Exodus 7:10-12. The first thing the rod will do for you is to swallow the rods of your enemies. Church Gist. 2 Kings 6:8-23 – Elisha arrested the army, the mantle enabled him to arrest the arresters and he took them to enemy territory, opened their eyes, got them fed and just like the last speaker said, he returned them to sender.
- In the name that is above every other name, all the enemies that had been sent to arrest you, you will arrest them, you will return them to sender and they will never return!
Acts 12:1-end – by the end of the story you discover that this fellow who was raising himself up as the enemy of the Church was eaten by worms. The Bible says, after he died, the work of God prospered. Church Gist. So I have good news for you: anyone who has been waging war against you, trying to stop the work of God through you, very soon, the ground is going to swallow them up!
- The rod of fire can make a way where there is no way. Exodus 14:13-22.
- Everything that is frightening you up till now, the fire of God will consume tonight!
2 Kings 2:13-15. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it to you before, here was Elisha, he has received the mantle, he was about to begin his ministry but between him and the land where he was going to minister was River Jordan. Church Gist. With that mantle, a way was opened for him to cross over to his destiny. - I pray for someone here today that after tonight, you will enter into your destiny!
When you move into the New Testament you find that in John 14:6, Jesus will not just show you a way he will tell you, “I am the way.” But when you read John 11:39-44 you will discover that in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ, he produced a way when everybody thought there was absolutely no way. Church Gist. At a time when Lazarus was not just dead but buried, rotten, stinking, the rod of Jesse stood by the tomb and called Lazarus to come forth. Remember when he said, Lazarus come forth, several things were to happen at that moment: Lazarus was already dead, his flesh was already rotten, worms were already consuming the rotten flesh, the blood had changed to blackish water. So when the rod of Jesse spoke:
- Everything that the worms had consumed, they vomited. So everything the devil has taken from you, you’re going to get back!
- The blood that had changed to black water became blood again. So tonight, God is going to reverse the irreversible for you!
- Not only did Lazarus get up, the very sickness that killed him was also completely dismissed. Church Gist. I am standing on the authority of the Word of God to tell you: the healings that you get tonight will be permanent!
Then somebody said that if Jesus Christ had not mentioned, “Lazarus,” if instead of saying, Lazarus come forth, if he had stood before the tomb and say, come forth, everyone that had died before man was born would have come out of the tomb. Church Gist. But he was specific, he mentioned Lazarus. So tonight, God is going to be specific, he is going to mention the name of somebody, he’s going to say, Adeboye, come forth. If you’re the one he is going to mention shout, hallelujah!
I’ve shared this story with you before: 1981 I was visiting my town for the first time as General Overseer. The town came out to receive me and then, when the Oba was going to make a speech, he made a request. My town is somewhere in between Ife and Ilesha; from Ilesha to Ifewara was a distance of 13 miles (they called it then) that’s about 20 kilometres. Church Gist. The distance between my town and Ife was 8 kilometres but there was no road between Ife and Ifewara. So if you want to go to Ife from Ifewara you have to go to Ilesha – 20 kilometres and then travel about another 32 kilometres to get to Ife. My people said, “you see we do this Israelite journey, we wish that there’d be a road connecting us to Ife.” Well, I did the only thing I could do: I said, show me the direction you want the road and they showed me the direction and I lifted my right hand, pointed in that direction and cried unto my God: Father, let there be a way. Church Gist. Six months later, I am talking of 1981 at a time when nobody knew me at all, somebody woke up in Abuja and said, “ah ah, there’s a road here, it’s a Federal road though it is small.” To cut a long story short, I raised my hand in the direction that the people said they wanted the road and within 6 months, work began.
- Tonight, I’m raising my hand to all of you who are here and all of you who are connecting throughout the world, from today onward there will be a way for you!
- The third thing that the rod of fire can do is that: It can close the door against your pursuers. One of my children mentioned it in passing, he said that the rod that opened the Red Sea for the children of Israel is also the same rod that closed it against the Egyptians. Church Gist. Exodus 14:23-28; 2 Kings 4:1-7 – in the morning, tremendous embarrassment was coming into the life of this widow. By the evening, the door had been shut against the embarrassment.
- in the name that is above every other name, anything that is causing you embarrassment, the fire of God will shut the door against it!
Acts 3:1-8 – the lame man must have been seriously embarrassed. How? “Sir, what kind of joke is this? If you have no money to give me, go! You see me here lame from my mother’s womb and you say, get up and walk. If I can walk will I be here?” But then, Peter grabbed his hand and like I told some of my children not too long ago, the head is the citadel for anointing. When in Acts 2:1-4, the Holy Spirit came as cloven tongues of fire, like one of my sons said and sat on the head of those who were there. The fire landed on the head of Peter. But while the head is the citadel of the anointing, the hand is the conductor that will cause the anointing to flow from the source to where it is needed. When Peter grabbed that man by hand, the Bible said his ankle bone received strength, anointing flowed into that man and the man who was feeling embarrassed before suddenly got up, found that, “ah, I can stand,” he tried to see, “can I really walk? I can walk. Can I jump?” He found out he could jump.
I can’t reach all of you one by one, but I believe the Almighty God is asking me to stretch my hand to you one more time and to all of you, particularly those of you who are here tonight, those of you in the overflow, in the old arena, those of you who are watching all over the world, as I stretch my hand to you, every form of embarrassment in your life will disappear! That lame man never begged again and in the name that is above every other name, you will never beg again!
I can remind you, this thing happened a long time ago, there was a herbalist somewhere in Akure, very very powerful herbalist. Soldiers, top brass in the military, the police, etc came to him for charms and he had his habitation under a huge iroko tree. My son built his factory almost directly opposite that grove. May be he didn’t know what was going on. The herbalist was so powerful, when he kidnapped anybody, used them for rituals, nobody could touch him. So my son was producing his products and nobody was coming to buy because they were afraid to pass through the way where this man was reigning. I was visiting Akure and my son said, “please Daddy, come and help me bless my factory” and then he told me the story and I said, show me the grove and he did and I stretched my hand and I commanded that the fire of God will consume the grove. Whether that day or the next, I cannot remember but there was a thunderstorm and the thunder struck the iroko tree, broke it to pieces and that man fled because his magic met with power.
- Tonight, any evil tree in your village, in your town, will not be there when you get home!
- Exodus 15:22-26; 2 Kings 4:8-37 – when Elisha raised that child back to life, the woman didn’t say anything. She just went in, took her son and came out.
- I decree to you today, that kind of joy that is unspeakable, that is full of glory will come your way very soon!
- The rod can produce something out of nothing. The Lord asked me to tell you a story because there is a prophecy attached to it: several years ago I think around 1977or so, I was a games master at Okeigbo Ifetedo Grammar school and I led my boys and my girls to Akure to have a competition with their own people there. Church Gist. There I met their own games master and you know, we were both boasting, ‘my children will defeat yours, my children will wipe out your own children, etc.” So somehow, we became rather acquainted. Years passed, I came to the University of Lagos, I’ve not seen him after that game at all and I was in my final years of my Masters. One day I was on the Campus and suddenly I saw this man passing by, “ah, long time no see etcetera.” Then he said, what are you doing here? I am doing my Masters. I said how is it? Where are you? He said, I am in the Federal Ministry of Education. I said, “ah! You people! I applied for a scholarship, you didn’t even have the decency of inviting me for an interview. If you’re not going to give me, that’s no problem. But you should have invited me.” He said, he didn’t invite me? I said, no. Church Gist. He said, but we were even looking for somebody for Mathematics. I said, I got no invitation, nothing. He said, when I get back I will see what I can do.
To cut a long story short, he went back and the next thing I got was I got a scholarship and it was backdated to the very beginning of my course. So when I finished, they paid me for 2 years and that’s the money I used to build my first house. Church Gist. The Lord asked me to tell you that story because he said, there’s someone here: an acquaintance that you have not seen for a long time is going to show up and is going to turn the tide for you!
The rod of fire can produce something out of nothing. Exodus 17:1-7 – everybody knows that a rock has no water hidden inside it but when the rod of fire hit the rock, out of nowhere, water began to gush out. 2 Kings 4:42-44.
- From today onwards, not enough is something you will never say again!
But when you move into the New Testament you will see something even more significant. Acts 19:11-12. Are you ready to act by faith tonight? Church Gist. Again God asked me to tell you a story. Somehow I knew that this night is going to be different. It’s a story I told some of my children not too long ago.
It was the first time I visited Zambia and they fed me but somehow the food I ate didn’t quite agree with my stomach. So I began to go to the toilet in the night. I think it was about the 24th time of going to the toilet that suddenly I remembered that it is written, “you shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” Church Gist. There’s nobody to lay hands on me but ehhh, it didn’t say who the sick will be. I am the one who is sick now, so I laid my hand on my head and I said, “Adeboye in the mighty name of Jesus Christ be healed!” The stooling stopped.
Stand on your feet: you’re going to lay your hands on your own head and please pray as if you’re angry and mention your name and say, “Adeboye, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ be healed now!” Decree, “head, you will never refuse a miracle, a divine blessing!” Church Gist. The Lord asked me to tell you to stretch forth your hand by force and say, “in the mighty name of Jesus, every door shut against me, open now!”
I was talking about what can happen when you have the rod of fire that it can produce something out of nothing. Acts 19:11-12; when you remember in 1 Timothy 1:15 that Paul himself called himself the Chief of sinners, that the Almighty God can take the chief of sinners and turn him to somebody whose handkerchief can begin to heal the sick, that tells you that the rod of fire called Jesus Christ can make something out of nothing. Church Gist. Any time I hear some testimonies, I tremble particularly when it has to do with handkerchiefs that I’ve blessed because I know who I was. I’ve told you before I was so bad that if I were Jesus Christ I won’t save Adeboye. But he saved my soul and in his infinite mercy he started doing some of these unbelievable miracles. That’s why I laughed when I heard that one joker said, I was faking miracles. There’s no need to fake miracles. Some of the miracles God has been performing in our midst, they’re difficult to believe.
I remember one, when I was praying in my prayer room last night, God reminded me of one. Her friend had cancer of the breast, they took her to the hospital, cut off that one breast so that she won’t die. Church Gist. This lady went to visit her friend in the hospital, sad to see her in that situation and then took one anointed handkerchief that we have prayed over and laid it on the wound and prayed. Two weeks later, a new breast had grown. How can anybody fake that? Are you going to pretend that that happened if it didn’t?
- In the name of the one who sent me, all of you who are genuinely committed to me here as your Daddy, you will do greater miracles!
Now, what can the rod of fire do? Some of my children have mentioned it. They said, the rod of fire is a symbol of authority. One said it’s a symbol of power, etcetera. Church Gist. But you see, when we are talking about the rod, the best way to explain it to you is, what happens when a king has been enthroned? One day the Governor will come and hand over to him what they call, “the staff of office” – a symbol that here comes a king.
The rod of fire gives you dominion. It is a combination of authority and power. Psalm 45:6 gives us another name for the rod – it calls it sceptre. Another one of my children quoted Psalm 110:1-2. One of them referred to Psalm 23:4-5 and by the way, there was a song rendered by the mass choir about, why I am not afraid. That was a beautiful song directly from Heaven. Church Gist. That young man was saying, the rod, the sceptre, the symbol of authority, the symbol of power will allow you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and you have nothing to fear and you rule in the midst of your enemies because the Lord will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies.
- I want to decree to somebody that from now on, in the very presence of your enemies, you will enjoy!
I want to remind you of a story, many of you know the story: the late Orimolusi of Ijebu-Igbo (that’s the one who died several years ago) by the grace of God was one of my children. Got born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, etcetera etcetera and he decreed because where there is the Word of the King, there is power. He said, “no more idol worshipping in this town at least as long as I am king.” Church Gist. The Egungun worshipper said, “what’s wrong with him? We’ve been doing this before your father was born not to talk of yourself. We will celebrate.” He said well, we wait and see. Two weeks to the celebration, the high priest of Egungun festival died. Now, you can’t celebrate without the high priest. So, quickly they appointed another high priest. I think 5 days after he got to the stool, he died. They said, “ah ah, we still have 2 weeks.” So they appointed another one. Five days or so later, that one died. So they decided, “we still have about a week” and they called on the next fellow, we want to make you high priest. He said, no way. They said, why not? He said, the God of Orimolusi will kill me.
- I decree today, the God I serve, the God of all gods, the consuming fire will deal with all your enemies! Church Gist. This is a true story, it’s a story you can check that’s why I mentioned names and place.
Let me close: all my children asked a question, “how do I get to have the rod of fire?” Ordinary hands cannot hold the rod of fire. The hands that will hold a rod of fire must be a changed hand, a transformed hand. Like one of them mentioned, it has to be a hand that has surrendered all. Church Gist. Exodus 4:1-8 – the rod in the hand of a shepherd is what makes the shepherd a shepherd. So when God said, throw it down, God was saying, surrender all. When he threw down the rod and the rod became a serpent, the Bible said, he fled from it.
You want to be able to have the rod of fire manifesting regularly in your life, you must not only surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you must forsake your previous ways. The Bible made it clear: if you really come to Jesus Christ the one who is the baptizer in fire, old things must pass away, everything must become new. Church Gist. Elisha could not have picked up the mantle of Elijah if in 1 Kings 19:19-end, Elisha had not forsaken all to follow Elijah. We could not be reading about Paul performing special miracles through the anointing of God if he had not before said, “all things that were gain to me, I surrender all that I might know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” Isaiah 52:11.
Your purity, your holiness must be on a serious level. There are certain that other people can do, you can’t do them if you want to carry the rod of fire. I will tell you just one more story:
I was a lecturer at the University of Lagos and because of my position, there were letter headed papers on my desk, university envelopes and I wrote a personal letter – has nothing to do with the University at all. Church Gist. When I finished I stretched my hand to take one of the envelopes so I can use it to post my letter and the Almighty God spoke to me loud and clear: no, you can’t take that envelope. That envelope is for official matters not for your private letter. I said, ah ah Lord, envelope. How much is an envelope? God spoke to me and said: my son, if you know that an envelope is that cheap, go and buy yours.
How many of you will like to raise the dead? How many of you will like to lay your hands on the sick and they recover all the time? You better look at your hands very well and tell your hands, “from now on, you cannot touch the unclean.” Anointing is good, wonderful, but anointing is a double edged sword. You abuse it, it can kill you. Church Gist. When you say, let the fire fall, you better be sure you’re the kind of person that the fire of God will purify and not destroy. One of my children who spoke mentioned the fact that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace but they couldn’t burn because they themselves were fire. It was fire walking into fire. Those who threw them in were slain by the heat of the furnace.
I have prayed and I am sure God had heard me, that all of you my children you will be greater than I. But I have told you again and again, holiness is the master key. You must be holy. Not only must you be powerful, you must be holy. Hebrews 1:9. Church Gist. My beloved children, the fire of God is already falling tonight, God is already here with us, even the dead can feel his presence here tonight and the fire is going to fall even more. But you better be sure you’re right with God because the fire of God does not mix with sin.
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