STILL FROM MY BREAKTHROUGH CAMPMEETING NOTES

Pastor Sam Adeyemi, Senior Pastor, Daystar Christian Centre, Oregun, Lagos, spoke on Day Three of Campmeeting 2011 on what he titled Anointing for Breakthrough. His texts were from I Samuel with which he very powerfully illustrated the character- and destiny-altering effect of the anointing upon the anointed; and through the anointed upon his/her environment.

There was the example of the young Saul. He was on a kind of search and rescue mission for his father’s lost asses. As far as we can see from the Bible, all that could be said of Saul, apart from being apparently an obedient son who hearkened to his father’s command to “go after the asses”, he was a handsome young man, so tall it could be correctly said of him that he stood head and shoulder above all else (see Samuel 9:2).

But the Bible records that when Prophet Samuel anointed him (10:1), he alerted him that, “…the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.”  And it happened exactly as he had prophesied: “And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day. And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them” (10:9-10).

Samuel, the pastor, continued his exposition from the Bible book of Samuel by also dwelling on the great work that the anointing did in the life of a certain shepherd boy who was to become the King of Israel. Anointed in chapter 16, and had his character and destiny instantly altered: “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward…” (verse 13). As a result, he not only got an invitation to spy the land (the palace), as it were (see verses 18-23); he went on to solve a national problem by taking out Goliath, the giant Philistine war general, with anointed words and a stone in a sling (see chapter 17).

As Samuel, the pastor, put it, the anointing is for problem solving and problem solving is the quickest way to leadership. The oil poured on David by Samuel, the prophet, did just that – solved a problem and began to propel David inexorably to national prominence and leadership.

Of course, the man of God wasn’t just rehashing a beautiful, inspirational Bible story; he was delivering a message. He pronounced under the unction of the Holy Spirit that a fresh anointing was coming upon the people of God, particularly those in the Gymnasium Hall of the Nigeria Institute for Sports (NIS), that Wednesday night. That will make them problem solvers. What is happening here (the campmeeting) will have national and international repercussions, he prophesied.

Then, he raised a very important question, the identity question, he called it. And for me, that was the highlight of his ministration and possibly, the single most important issue in Christendom. It is a theme that I have found myself returning to again and again in the last several years, as I personally struggle with the awesome reality of who I am in God through Jesus’ completed work of salvation and redemption. And the man of God’s revelation on the subject hit me like a tonne of bricks!

Going right back to Genesis and the fall of man (chapter 3), he pointed out that what satan did to Adam and Eve, when he cajoled Eve and they both ate the forbidden fruit, was simple: create an identity crisis, which the Lord Jesus had to come to resolve.  In verse 5, the serpent, as satan was characterised, said to Eve: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

The key phrase there was “be as gods” How disingenuous! Why would God want to prevent them from being “as gods”, when he had already created them in His image and after his likeness, and granted them dominion over everything else! As Pastor Sam put it, the result of eating the fruit was that they, and subsequently their offspring, became as the serpent. Put another way, he translated them from the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of sons, to his own kingdom, which is one of slaves! Adam and Eve were already “gods”, but they didn’t know it! They were already in His image and His likeness, but the enemy told them they needed the fruit to attain God-likeness. Who are you?

The man of God then revealed the major difference between the first Adam and the second, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ; the mediator of our new covenant, the covenant that restored us to our original status and stature. Unlike Adam in the Garden, Jesus knew enough about who he was to resist the enemy, when he came calling to warp up his identity.

The Lord’s encounter with satan right after his 40-day fast served the enemy notice that this was not an encore of the Garden of Eden encounter with the first Adam. The Bible records the opening shot of the enemy in Mathew 4, this way: “And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread” (verse 3). Jesus famously replied: “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (4).

As Pastor Sam Adeyemi expounded, when it is recalled that God had earlier publicly announced Jesus as His son, at his baptismal at River Jordan, Jesus’ response may well have been rendered in these word: I don’t have to prove anything to you or anybody else and certainly not in order to meet my current need for bread.  God Has already proclaimed me His son and that settles it!

Who are you, dear reader?