By Bisi Daniels
From his front row position in the massive auditorium called The Arena, the writer tried to count as joyous women, holding tightly their precious babies, streamed out from his right to present them to the Lord at the altar for blessing.
Soon, that became an exercise in futility as the single file multiplied into many swift-flowing streams, and many more streams of people gushed out from the congregation, making it easier to enjoy the mood of the moment than to worry about numbers.
The mothers had been blessed with the fruit of the womb through prayers of the church.
For about 10 minutes, the flow continued into a large pool of heads at the altar. By estimation there must have been thousands of mothers,children and some fathers, who were assisting their wives carry twins or triplets.
“When you consider that in all these homes there used to be crying every month but now there is joy, you should be able to join me in rejoicing with them,” Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) said; and prayed for them. That was in August 2019.
The 2020 August Convention of the church was held virtually and therefore could not accommodate the joyous exercise.
But at the September Holy Ghost Service, prayers were offered to the same effect.
Pastor Adeboye recalled: “Usually during the Convention in August we ask all those who have been blessed with the fruit of the womb after prayers during the previous Conventions to come out for blessing.”
He said the Almighty God in His infinite mercies has given him a very “special anointing” for making the barren fruitful.
“So, the mothers would come by the tens of thousands to present their children to God,” he continued.
“It always serves as a “point of contact” to those trusting God for the fruit of the womb because they can see what God has done for others and believe God for their own children.
“Now, because the Convention of this Year (2020) was virtual, we couldn’t ask people, who have become fruitful to bring their children, but I want to help your faith at the same time.”
He said a video of last year’s session was going to be shown for women seeking babies to watch, prophesying that “by the Special Grace of God, come Year 2021 at the Convention; you will be bringing your children forward soon.”
After showing the video clip he prophesied: “By the Special Grace of God in 2021 your own children too will be among them in Jesus Name, Amen.”
The sermon for the night was focused on God’s interventions in barren situations.
Earlier, a couple testified about their experience: Pastor Segun Odewunmi narrated how he and his wife went 11 years without a baby.
In September 2019, they keyed into a prophecy of Pastor Enoch Adeboye during the Holy Ghost Service of RCCG.
“We thought it was going to be one, not just one; we thought it was going to be two, not just two; God made it three – 2 boys and a girl,” he said.
In Pastor Adeboye’s sermon at the service, with the theme, “Let There Be Light – Part 8,” he noted that right from Creation, God has always wanted His children to be fruitful: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.’” (Credit to the Discovery Media Crew for transcribing the sermon).
So when we pray “Let there be light,” particularly in reference to child bearing, he said, God answers in various ways fit for our case.
In one of the testimonies used to illustrate the sermon, a woman without a womb had babies. Hesaid:
“A woman who had destroyed her womb during an attempt to abort a pregnancy came to us for help. She had messed around, become pregnant and because she tried to hide it from everybody, she tried an abortion that went wrong.
“When she was rushed to hospital, the doctors decided the only way to save her life was to remove her womb, which they did. And of course, she knew the result of that action when she got married – no babies.
“Later, she became born-again and heard that God can do anything. So she started going to a man of God (I won’t mention names) to say, ‘Please, pray for me. I need children.’
“One day the man asked her why her case was difficult when every barren woman he prayed for had conceived.
She told her story and the man said, ‘Oh, you mean you have no womb, and you are asking me to pray for the fruits of the womb?’
The woman replied, ‘It is you who taught us that with God nothing shall be impossible!’
“From that day onwards, whenever the man saw her coming, he would dodge. One day she saw the him dodging her and decided she would focus on God herself.
Then one day God visited her. She had a dream, in which she was stark naked, with a man holding an animal skin walking towards her. She became afraid but she was rooted to the spot; she couldn’t run; she was just shaking.
“When the man got close to her, he wrapped the animal skin round her and disappeared. The woman woke up sweating but she noticed signs of menstruation. She believed she had been given a new womb.
“Today, she is a mother of many children.”
Amidst prophecies and prayers, he also cited many more examples from the Bible to bolster the faith of anxious couples.
“Rachael, the second wife of Jacob, took her case to God and to trust Him alone, when her husband told her angrily he was not God to give her the fruit of the womb. And God remembered her.
“The case of Abraham and Sarah looked impossible, but when God visited the aged couple, He ignored Sarah’s doubts and turned all His prophecies into a decree. Nine months later Isaac was born.
“Manoah and his wife lived in a season when their people needed a champion. When they cried to God, He sent an Angel to them because the champion needed a Vessel to dwell in. The Angel told them they were going to have a miracle baby. They did.
“Hannah also took her case to God, crying out to Him and she was answered speedily.
“Let there be light could also mean a prayer for God to chase away darkness of fruitless efforts, darkness of failure.
· If you are working hard, and there is nothing to show for it, that is a form of barrenness.
· If those who were employed after you in the office are promoted ahead of you, that could be a form of barrenness.
· If you are studying hard and you keep failing your exams that could be barrenness.
“Let there be Light simply means, God should chase away darkness of barrenness of any form, whatsoever.
“Whatever your case is, take it to God by first surrendering your life to Him.”