I HAVE ABSORBED INSULTS WITHOUT ANGER – IT IS THE POWER OF SANCTIFICATION
IF YOU ARE NOT THOROUGHLY SANCTIFIED AND GOD RELEASES TO YOU HIS AWESOME POWER, YOU WILL DESTROY A LOT OF PEOPLE
THE FAVOURITE OF GOD MUST BE WITHOUT BLEMISH. TOTAL SANCTIFICATION IS LIKE CRUCIFIXION
THE REASON I WON’T SLOW DOWN NO MATTER MY AGE IS THAT I HAVE CAUGHT A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN
IF YOU CAN JUST CATCH A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN, YOU WON’T NEED ANY OTHER SERMON
BEFORE CORONA VIRUS BROKE OUT, GOD SHOWED US THAT THE WHOLE WORLD WAS GOING TO GO ON HOLIDAY.
THAT PROBLEM YOU HAVE BEEN HIDING OVER THE YEARS WILL DISAPPEAR TODAY
SANCTIFICATION MEANS SET APART FOR GOD’S USE
WHEN YOU BECOME A FAVOURITE OF GOD BY SANCTIFICATION, YOU BEGIN TO KNOW WHAT OTHERS CANNOT KNOW
WHEN YOU ARE TRULY SANCTIFIED, YOU BEGIN TO HEAR WHAT OTHERS CANNOT HEAR. THAT IS MY SECRET.
NOBODY COMMITS ADULTERY BY ACCIDENT. YOU THINK ABOUT IT FIRST
YOU SINNED BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT OF IT FIRST AND DECIDED TO DO SO
MY SALVATION EXPERIENCE: AN ENCOUNTER WITH PROFESSOR CHIKE OBI
IF YOU ARE BAPTISED IN THE HOLY SPIRIT YOU WILL SPEAK IN TONGUES
SO MANY CHRISTIANS SKIP THE PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION AND END UP SPEAKING IN TONGUES
GOD IS MORE INTERESTED IN THE ONE WHO BEARS THE FRUIT THAN THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
YOU CAN PERFORM MIRACLES, SIGNS AND WONDERS AND BE CAST OUT ON THE LAST DAY
YOU ARE EXPECTED TO EXPERIENCE THE STEPS OF FAITH: SELECTION, SALVATION, SANCTIFICATION, BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT
- Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “THE POWER OF SANCTIFICATION” || RCCG 72nd Holy Ghost Convention 2024 || Day 3 Evening Service || 7th August 2024
Today, our text will be 2 Timothy 2:20-21. Yesterday we spoke on, “As pure as light.” Today we want to talk about, “The power of Sanctification.” Church Gist. For those of you who were here I told you one of the reasons we have Conventions is so that we can dig deep because we are pilgrims on our way to Heaven and we want to learn those things that will help us make it to Heaven.
When I was younger, as soon as I became born again, I made my desire known to God: I don’t want to be an ordinary Christian. Is there anybody here tonight who will say the same thing to God and say, “Father, I don’t want to be ordinary.” He will grant your request in Jesus’ name! Church Gist. When I said that, what I wanted was power. The power of the Holy Spirit – I want to lay hands on the sick and see them healed; we want to see blind eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, dumb speak, lame walk, dead rise, I want to be able to just wave my hand and miracles will happen. That’s what I wanted. That’s why like I’ve told you before, I studied Elijah, Elisha, Peter, Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ himself very very closely. I wanted power. But it wasn’t long before I discovered that God is more interested in the fruit of the Holy Spirit than in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I soon discovered as it is written in Matthew 7:15-21, that he said, by their fruits you shall know them; not by their gifts, by their fruits. Church Gist. I soon discovered as it is written in Matthew 7:22-23, that you could have all the gifts – you can perform miracles, signs and wonders and then on the last day God will say, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.” It is possible for you to be a world Evangelist – raising the dead, opening blind eyes, doing mighty things and then on the last day, you will tell the Almighty God, “but I did all these things for you” and he says, “I don’t even know you.”
When I was younger, they taught us about what they call the 3 steps of faith and they based it on Ezekiel 36:24-27, they call it: Salvation, Sanctification and Holy Spirit Baptism. Actually when I studied the Scriptures closely myself, I found that they are actually 4 steps not 3. That step number one is Selection because Jesus Christ himself said, “no man can come to me except my father draws him.” Church Gist. That you’re here tonight can only be because God has drawn you and for that alone you should shout hallelujah! When he has drawn you to the foot of the Cross then step 2 takes place: Salvation – when the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sins. Then, Sanctification is supposed to follow. That’s when God says, “I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Then and only then are you supposed to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. So they call it, steps of faith – Selection, Salvation, Sanctification and baptism in the Holy Spirit. In those days, you are expected to have testified to the experience of Salvation, Sanctification, baptism in the Holy Spirit, before you can sing in the Choir.
Now, salvation is easy to measure. When you’re saved, it’s not going to be long before people will notice. Your name will change, you begin to be called, Son of God, daughter of God because the Bible says, to as many as believed him, to them gave he power to become sons of God. Suddenly you find that your friends who had been calling you by worldly names – Baba ke, Omo jaiye jaiye – suddenly begin to say, “ah! Leave him alone o, he’s now a child of God.” Your name will change.
Your accomodation will change. When you’re born again it’s not going to be long before you begin to attend Church instead of club house. Your former minister in the bar – the bar tender – will discover he has lost a member of his congregation because now you go to Church instead of going to the bar. I’m talking of those who got genuinely saved.
Your responsibilities will change. Now you begin to witness for God. You won’t be able to keep quiet. I’m talking of how it was when I was younger. I believe that’s how it will be from now on. You begin to witness, you begin to talk about Jesus Christ. Instead of witnessing for the devil, instead of witnessing for the witch doctor, instead of saying, “Last weekend, I met a herbalist who has swallowed the oracle.” No, you begin to talk about people who got saved, healed. I remember clearly when I got born again, it was on a Sunday night. Monday morning as I got to my office at the University of Lagos and I met my Head of Department – Professor Chike Obi of blessed memory – “Good morning Sir!” and I was just about to begin to speak. He was one of the greatest mathematicians the world had ever known but he was a tough man. Suddenly he looked at me and said, “Adeboye” I said, Sir. He said, “you look very cheerful this morning. You went to a party last weekend?” I said, no Sir but I have gotten an invitation to the greatest party of all. He said, which one is that? I said I have gotten an invitation to the wedding of the Lamb of God. You can’t keep it down; you can’t be born again and keep it down.
When you’re baptised in the Holy Spirit, it’s easy to see because if you are baptised in the Holy Spirit you will speak in tongues. It is the evidence that you are baptised in the Holy Spirit.
Unfortunately, Sanctification is difficult to measure because it’s a matter of the heart, there is a change of heart – heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh. Somewhere along the line, I can’t really pinpoint where it happened, people began to jump over Sanctification. They moved from Salvation to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. You know it’s like: salvation is the foundation of the house, Holy Spirit Baptism is supposed to be the roof and Sanctification is supposed to be the walls. But you know quite well, it is possible to have a foundation, dodge the walls and get to the roof – like our auditorium here. So many Christians end up not even knowing what Sanctification is all about. Then when you ask them, “are you sanctified?” They say yes; and we don’t have a way of measuring it.
I mean like, one young man heard me speak on Total Surrender in Ilorin. After the service he came to me, “Daddy, thank you for the sermon. I surrender all.” I said, really? He said, yes Sir. I said, good; because he is the only other fellow in the Church at that time who had a car. So I said, “thank God that you have surrendered all. Tomorrow we are going somewhere and we need your car for the journey.” He said, ah, but tomorrow is Monday. I said, I know. He said, I need the car to go to the office and … I smiled. I said, we are not going anywhere tomorrow, I just want to show you that you have not surrendered anything.
Sanctification cannot easily be measured because it’s an internal something. So many Christians end up speaking in tongues without going through the process of Sanctification. Today I want to talk to you about The Power Of Sanctification. I want you to please listen carefully because there are many of us who are not sanctified.
You see, it is Sanctification that makes living holy easy because your original heart, the heart you are born with, according to Jeremiah 17:9 is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The heart just wants to be wicked. It’s as if its very existence depends on wickedness. Luke 6:45. It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Matthew 15:19. It is out of the heart that all evil thoughts proceed. Nobody commits adultery by accident, you think about it first. One man of God once said to me, “Daddy you are taking this thing too far. Occasionally one will commit a sin without thinking about it.” I said is that so? Give me an example. Church Gist. He said “One may not plan to commit adultery but he may just fall.” I said I see. When you were removing your clothes, what did you think you were trying to do? You want to go for a swim? Don’t let anybody deceive you. You sinned because you thought about it and decided about it. Proverbs 4:23. You must guard jealously, diligently your heart. Why? Because out of it are the issues of life. If it is the old heart, the one that is desperately wicked, out of it will come evil. That is why God says the only way to help you is take away that stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. My prayer is that tonight you will experience sanctification.
To make it easy for you to swallow, sanctification has another meaning. It means set apart for God’s use. In the text I read to you, it said in a big house there are many vessels. Some to honour, some to dishonour. It said it is the vessel that is sanctified that is meet for the master’s use. Set apart for the master’s use. When we say set apart, maybe one way that will make it easy for you to understand is to use the word ‘favourite’. To be sanctified is to become a favourite of God. I will explain it in a way that I hope God will make it easy for you to understand. In the olden days a king was supposed to have many wives. Many times not of their own choice. I mean, you want to befriend the king so you will go and dash him one of your daughters. In the scriptures you find the example of Solomon. 1 Kings 11:1-3. Solomon had 700 wives plus 300 concubines. When a king had so many wives, by the way, that will explain to you why palaces were big in those days with many rooms. Because each wife will have her own room. Church Gist. With so many wives, the royal majesty will not be able to minister to each wife adequately. So several people help the king. I am talking about the olden days. All the royal fathers here are wonderful children of God. So the head of the army, the chief herbalist etc help the Kabiyesi. Of all these wives, Kabiyesi will have one that is his favourite. In my language they call her, Ayo – favourite wife. Nobody messes around with Ayo. You do so, you lose your head. The Ayo, the favourite wife, sleeps in the same room with the king. When you are sanctified, you become set apart for God. No demon, no devil has the temerity to tamper with you because you are a favourite of God. You are a vessel unto honour. The power of sanctification is embedded in this unique intimacy with God. When you are truly sanctified, you have intimacy with God that other casual Christians don’t have.
Numbers 12:5-8. God said if there is any prophet among you and I want to speak to him, I can talk to him in dreams and visions but Moses I talk to him mouth to mouth. The first time I read that passage I thought I read it wrong, I thought God was saying mouth to the ear. No! God is saying mouth to mouth. That’s tremendous intimacy with the almighty God. When you are sanctified… listen to me my brothers. Because one of my children said to me “Daddy we are not praying that you die soon.” I said even if you pray God won’t answer. He said “But you are getting older, tell us some of these secrets.” That is one of the secrets I am telling you now. When you are truly sanctified, you begin to hear what others cannot hear. Take note of that. The favourite wife sleeps in the same room as the king. They have discussions in the bedroom that other wives will not hear.
John 13:21-30. The Lord was sitting down with the 12 disciples at a meal and he said one of them would betray him. Church Gist. Everyone was saying who can that be? Who will ever do such a thing? The Lord wasn’t answering. The Bible said Peter turned to John, the disciple that Jesus loved, the favourite among all of them and told him, “Ask him, if he won’t tell anybody, he will tell you.” It is there in the Bible and so John said “Sir, who is the fellow?” The Bible said Jesus didn’t mention a name, He said back to John, “I will show you the fellow. I will take the bread, dip it in the soup and put it in the mouth of the traitor”. Jesus was sitting down with His disciples and two of them, Himself and the favourite were talking in codes.
There are information that the almighty God will only reveal to the sanctified. There are some elderly people here who will remember that years ago, we held a Holy Ghost Service at the stadium in Ibadan. It was a wonderful night of signs and wonders and then it was time to go home and suddenly God spoke to me and said there was a woman in the crowd under her armpit, where hairs are supposed to be, are feathers. “Call her out, I want to set her free.” Because every night the feathers will grow. Before the husband will wake up, she will quickly pluck them out but they will grow again. God said call her forward. I said, “Daddy please, we have had a wonderful time. Let’s go home now. If I announce, nobody is going to come out and if you say somebody like that is here, I know she is here. Church Gist. In a stadium? Publicly?” The Lord said to me, “You want her to die with her problem?” I said No. So I made the announcement and everybody was looking at me and wondering if I had gone mad but she came forward. When she came forward, she was a highly educated woman. I thought maybe she didn’t understand what I said. She said you got it right Sir. God delivered her. Now I am not saying thus saith the Lord. I am only saying this one as your father. In the name that is above every other name, that problem you have been hiding over the years will disappear tonight.
When you are sanctified, because of the intimacy sanctification brings between you and God, you begin to know what others cannot possibly know. Take Moses I just mentioned and just imagine how did Moses know what happened in Genesis Chapter 1? Was Moses alive then? No! Because of his intimacy with God, God told him, “In the beginning, before you ever came into this world, this is what I did.” Church Gist. When you become a favourite of God, you begin to know what others cannot know. For example, we heard a testimony last month at the Holy Ghost Service, a woman wanted to have a procedure with the doctors for the fruit of the womb. The doctors said how old are you? The lady said 58. Ah, sorry. You are already 3 years too old. She came to the Holy Ghost Service, as she was entering the auditorium God said “There is someone here, I have reduced your age by five years”. She said thank you Lord. The following week she went back to the doctor and said “Doctor, I am only 53 years old now.” The doctor laughed. “You were 58 last week, now you are 53. Who are you kidding?” The doctor went ahead with the procedure. You were all here last month when she was raising the baby. How did the man of God know that somebody was just coming in with that peculiar problem? When you are sanctified, you begin to know what others cannot know.
What is most important in this issue of sanctification, the power of sanctification is that if you are thoroughly and truly sanctified, you begin to see what others cannot see. You begin to see what had happened in the past like in 2 Kings 5:20-27. When Gehazi came to Elisha and Elisha asked him where he had been. He said he didn’t go anywhere. Church Gist. Elisha knew he went somewhere. “I saw you when you ran after the General, I saw when the General turned around to meet you. I saw everything that happened.” You begin to see what has happened. Things that there is no way you possibly could see.
In 1975, at Adelabu Street In Surulere where I was living, we were going for Workers Meeting on a Sunday afternoon and I went to the toilet to ease myself. As I sat on the toilet seat and lifted up my eyes. On the door of the toilet, suddenly a screen appeared and I began to watch as if you were watching a video. I saw a Church service going on. Before long I recognized it. This is our church at Ebute Meta, that is the altar. I was taken into the vestry leading into the altar and in the vestry there were two people praying. The pastor and the interpreter. As I was watching them praying, I was brought back into the church and somebody announced the hymn that will precede the sermon and as they were singing the hymn that preceded the sermon, the pastor and the interpreter came in, took over the service and fire fell. Church Gist. Then the screen disappeared. When I got to the church that evening, I told my father in the Lord what I saw. My father in the Lord put his hand on his head and said “Oh God!” Then he called some pastors nearby and he said I should repeat what I said. I told them and they all did the same thing. My father in the Lord said years ago, at the beginning of the church, that was how we used to conduct service. A preacher and the interpreter will be praying while the service is one, they only come out when it is time for the sermon but we stopped years ago. There was no way I could have known. When you become sanctified God could show you a picture of something that happened in your family years ago that is disturbing your present and show you how to deal with it.
You cannot only just see the past, you can see the present in a miraculous way. 2 Kings 6:8-12. A king wanted to wage war against a king of Israel and he is holding a meeting with his people saying this is where we are going to camp and so on and so forth. God was showing everything to Elisha. Elisha said to his king, this fellow is waiting for you there. Don’t go that way. Church Gist. First time, second time, third time, accurately. So the king of the enemy territory said there must be a spy here. One of the servants said there is no spy here. The one who is leaking your secrets is in his prayer room. I can tell you several stories. If I tell you some of them, maybe some of you will be careful before you come to my office again.
You can then begin to see what is yet to happen. 2 Kings 7:1-end. At a time when hardship was terrible, when people were beginning to eat their children, the man of God got up and said within 24 hours there will be more than sufficient food. You can go ahead and claim it as a prophecy. I also say Amen. Today is Wednesday, with the crowd here already and we are yet to approach Friday and Saturday. The God of Elisha must move so that we have more than sufficient food. We can see into the future. Some of us could remember, before Corona Virus broke, God showed us and we told many of you that the world is going to have a holiday. Nobody believed it until we began to see the whole of London, all the streets deserted. America, all streets deserted. You could see into the future. Church Gist. That might give you the opportunity to have a glimpse of your house in heaven. Let me tell you my brothers and sisters, if you can just catch a glimpse of heaven you don’t need any other sermon. If you see where you are going… Because it can’t be described. 2 Corinthians 12:2-5. Paul was talking about himself. He said I know a man who was caught up to paradise. What he saw there, he can’t describe. There are several people who keep on saying, “Sir, slow down. Don’t you know you are getting old.” I have seen where I am going. I have caught a glimpse of heaven, not yesterday. I have caught a glimpse of heaven when my father in the Lord was still alive. That was more than 40 years ago. You can’t see heaven and remain the same. You can’t see heaven and cling to the things of the world. You can’t see heaven and let any joker rob you of going there.
Let me mention two little more points and let the Holy Spirit teach you the remainder. Thorough is the real secret of divine power. That is the real secret of divine power. Why? Because God will not release massive power to someone who cannot see the invisible. 2 Kings 2:9-15. Elijah asked Elisha, “what do you want me to give you before I be taken away from you?” He said “I want a double portion of your power”. Ah! Elijah said, “what’s wrong with you boy? With a single portion that I have I am calling down fire at will. You want a double?” He said, “you’re the one who asked me to ask.” Church Gist. He said, “okay then, if you see me.” If you see the invisible; if you see horses of fire, chariots of fire. If you are not thoroughly sanctified and God releases to you his awesome power, you get angry just once and destroy a lot of people. Elijah destroyed 50 soldiers and their captain thrice. Elisha got double portion of the power, the devil recognised the fact – here is another sanctified fellow – the King sent to arrest him, an army, just imagine what could have happened if Elisha got angry. Imagine!
Now, you want the power to raise the dead? Don’t you know that the power to raise the dead can also be the power to kill? Some years ago, in a meeting of my boys – senior pastors in a particular country – one of the boys got up and began to talk to me loud and clear, “what kind of man are you? I served you, I worked for you. Anytime you’re coming to this Country I will be the one who will do this, who will do that.” He kept on. All the others were trembling, “what’s wrong with this boy? Who is he talking to?” When he finished, I smiled. Church Gist. I know what I could have done, among my people, among the Yorubas the worst thing you can do to a fellow is to begin to remind him, “I am the one who was feeding you; I am the one who was clothing you.” In Yoruba land they call it, Iregun (Iregun is a yoruba word that means blowing the trumpet after doing something good for someone.) No Yoruba man can take that. He will ask you to, “tell me how much everything you’ve done for me costs. I will pay you.” I could easily have said that to my boy, “boy, you’re talking to me? I am supposed to be your dad. By the grace of God I ordained you.” I could have said, “alright alright, sit down, calculate everything you have ever spent for me, calculate the interests I will pay you double but get out of this Church.” I could have done that and destroy his destiny. Church Gist. What did I do? Ah! “My son, I am very sorry; please forgive me. I will be more careful in the future.” That evening, when I laid on my bed and I was reviewing the day, I just said to Daddy, “I didn’t know I could take that o. Thank you for Sanctification.”
Finally before you pray, the favourite wife must be without blemish; the favourite wife is not supposed to make a single mistake. Oh the favourite wife has tremendous powers, she can determine the fate of other wives. All she needs to do is to report any of them to Kabiyesi and the wife is gone. Church Gist. But she is not allowed to make a single mistake. Numbers 20:1-13. Moses the favourite of God was at the threshold of the Promised Land and these people that he had been leading for 40 years – very troublesome people – annoyed him again. When God said, speak to the rock, he struck the rock. God said, “ah! Moses, as close as we are? By your action you dishonour me before these people? You won’t get to the Land.”
When we talk about total sanctification, the power of sanctification, it is like crucifixion. When you crucify somebody, he dies completely. When you are sanctified, if anger is your problem, anger dies permanently. Church Gist. If adultery is your weakness, it dies permanently. If lying is your problem, it dies permanently. Galatians 2:20 – that’s a way somebody can talk about sanctification. When I release you to pray tonight, I hope nobody is going to disturb you. Put yourself on the Cross and call on the Almighty God, “crucify me thoroughly, absolutely. Anything that is not of God that I have been joking with in my life, kill it once and for all. Sanctify me wholly.” Of course before Sanctification there must be salvation which means if you are not yet saved you can’t even be talking about sanctification. You must be saved first. He has selected you for salvation, that’s why he brought you here tonight. Church Gist. The next step is salvation and the blood of Jesus Christ is available to wash away all your sins. It’s only after you have been washed that you can then cry unto him for sanctification.
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