The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has reflected on his early years, revealing that many who knew him as a young man never believed he would one day become a pastor.
Adeboye spoke on Saturday while delivering a message on day five of the Holy Ghost Congress 2025, themed ‘God of all Flesh’, at the Redemption City along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.
Addressing thousands of worshippers, including traditional rulers, the 83-year-old cleric said he is not proud of his past, describing his life as proof that God can change anyone, regardless of their troubled history.
Adeboye emphasised that he is not proud of his past, recounting an encounter with a former girlfriend who came seeking a pastor and was shocked when he introduced himself as the pastor.
He said, “Do you think there is anybody in your family who is too far gone that God cannot save his soul? Do you think there is anybody that God cannot turn into a great vessel unto honour? I don’t have time to give you several examples, but the man talking to you right now, many people never thought I could be saved. Even if I was saved at all, they never thought I could be a pastor. You don’t know who is in front of you. I’m not proud of my past; if one can be bad, I was bad.
“I have told you my story before. I told you about a former girlfriend of mine who came to the room and said, ‘I want to see the pastor,’ and I said, ‘I’m the pastor.’ She was shocked.
“She said, ‘You, a pastor? You mean you will pray, and God will answer?’
“Not too long ago, I met a former classmate we hadn’t seen since we left the university in 1967. We were together in a room, and she said something like, ‘You, na wa ooo.’ I said, ‘Me too, I’m surprised.’ We didn’t say more than that because her son was in the room with us.”
Adeboye also narrated how, as a child, he once orchestrated the breakup between his uncle and his wife after she maltreated him, stressing that they later reconciled.
The cleric emphasised that no one is beyond God’s saving grace and no life is too broken for God to transform.
He added, “On one occasion, my uncle’s wife mistreated me badly. As small as I was then, I told her I would get you out of this house, and I did. Thank God we met again after I became the general overseer; we have reconciled, and all her children are now pastors in the church here.
“There is nobody God cannot save,” Adeboye said, urging believers not to give up on anyone, regardless of their past or present condition.”
