Pastor Adeboye ministering. Photo by Segun Komolafe

By Bisi Daniels

“Let there be light” is reference to the creation story where God commanded the earth, which was in darkness, to be lit.

Pastor Enoch Adeboye has explained several dimensions of the impact of God’s light in a sermon transcribed by The Discovery Media Team.

At the January Holy Ghost Service of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at the Redemption Camp, he clarified that the phrase could be a command by God, an advice or a plea/begging in man’s prayer to God.

.Making the altar call, which usually precedes his main sermons, he said “Let there be light,” as an advice from God is to allow Him into an individual’s life with His Light (God is Light) to save them and to make them better off; and He doesn’t do that empty-handed.

When the Light is embraced, the General Overseer says, darkness and failure is driven out of the individual’s life; success is guaranteed; needs are met; yokes are broken and untimely appointment with death cancelled.

“So, take His advice today, surrender your life to Jesus Christ. He will save your soul, and everything will become new,” he advised.

But before the altar call, he warned, “Before you come forward, get this clear: don’t be deceived by those who say that once you give your life to Jesus Christ, you can live any kind of life you want. That is not true!”

“If you are a thief and you say you are Born Again, you mean you are not going back to that crime.

“If you are a harlot and you are surrendering your life to Jesus Christ, you are saying ‘bye to harlotry.’

“When you give your life to Jesus Christ, you become a New Creature, you become a child of God. Even those who are not Christians expect you to behave differently.”

The altar call got hundreds of people running to the altars in both auditoriums (old and new) for salvation.

Dwelling later on the request from man to God for light, which also became prayer points, he said one could ask God to let His to shine to enable them see the invisible, what ordinary eyes cannot see.

The implication of that, he said, is that all of one’s requests to God would be answered and destiny activated.

The prayer for God’s light to shine in us for Him to open our inner eyes; to be shown revelations.

“Two people can read the same passage of the Bible,” he said. “One will see just one thing but the other person can write a book on just one verse because light   is shining in one and not shinning in the other.”

He also said when God’s light shines in an individual, he or she sees solutions to problems that will baffle others.

He illustrated this with a testimony on how he obtained his Ph D:

“I had been working on a problem for eighteen months. When you are undertaking a PhD, you are supposed to solve a problem that nobody else has solved before.

“That is why they call it an original dissertation. Because it is a problem that has not been solved before, it is not known if there would be a solution. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how many years one spends on it, if one doesn’t get a solution, you didn’t get a Ph.D. Period!

“Now I had reached a stage where I was faced with one hundred and eighty-six simultaneous equations. If you have done any simple mathematics before, you will understand that even if you have only three simultaneous equations you already have a problem. I had a hundred and eighty-six!

“I was at crossroads.  I didn’t know whether to turn to the right or to the left. I had worked relentlessly at the equations, trying to see if there was anything I could rearrange, but still encountered a block.

“One fateful day, at about 10pm, I got tired and threw it aside, choosing rather to study my Bible and then go to bed. I studied the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. Just as I was finishing, God spoke to me and said, “That is the solution to your problem.”

“But it didn’t make sense to me that the story of the crossing of the Red Sea would bring a solution to a PhD thesis problem.

“But God said to me, ‘Go and bring your equations.’

“It is a wonderful thing to hear from God. And I pray that you will continually hear from Him. Amen!

“I brought the equations. How many of you know that God can solve mathematics problems? He is the original mathematician. Whatever the subject, He knew it before you discovered it. God was saying to me, ‘Put this on the left, put this equation on the right, put this one on the left…’

By the time I finished, he said, ‘Alright solve those on the left together; those on the right together and then bring the two together.’

“He disclosed that was what happened at the crossing of the Red Sea. The sea was divided into two – one on the left, one on the right – when the children of Israel had passed through, the sea came back together. Five hours later my thesis was ready.

“Of course, when my thesis was presented to the external examiner, he said he had no questions for me.  When you present a thesis, you are engaged in an oral interview where they sit you down and drill you.

“Sometimes it goes on for three days, particularly as in those days the university authorities tried to prevent too many people from acquiring a Ph.D. It almost seemed like they were determined not to give it out.

But this external examiner said, “Go and give the young man his Ph.D.”

“The authorities argued with the external examiner, reminding him that it was not done that way.

They said to him, “Even if you don’t have any questions for him, sit him down and ask him what his name is or if he wrote the thesis himself and then you can let him go.”

He insisted, saying, “No, no, no, I have no questions. I am the expert here. Let him go.”

“By the way, he wasn’t going to ask Jesus any questions because I didn’t write the thesis, Jesus did.

“That was why it was so easy for me to let go of the PhD when I was born again. He said to me, ‘You shall no longer be called Doctor.’

Pastor Adeboye revealed that we could pray for God’s light to shine through us to enable us shine on other people, to impact others positively just as the moon reflects the light from the sun to the earth.

Also, we could pray for God to shine His light on our blind spots; weaknesses we don’t see. He said it is telling God at that level where we are helpless, send me help; it means that in the area where we are absolutely helpless, He will be there covering it for us!

“It doesn’t matter how anointed you are, you have a blind spot,” he warned.

Finally, Pastor Adeboye said there is also a prayer for God to shine light on whatever is preventing your little light from shinning.

He explained: Because you already have seen light you are the Light of the world.

But at times, there could be something covering your light from shinning.

If He shines His light on what is covering your light, then your light will begin to shine.”

The service, the first in 2020 featured the regular sessions like praise and worship, testimony time and special prayer for nations by Pastor (Mrs.) Folu Adeboye. Also, members of the congregation were blessed through laying of hands by pastors of the church.

-Bisi Daniel, journalist, Public Relations consultant and member of RCCG, writes from Lagos