05/06/2026
THE ROD: SYMBOL OR IDOL?
- Pastor E. A. Adeboye
The brazen serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness is not God; it is something just made of brass. Sermon Times. And God just wanted to find out if these people would obey Him and believe in Him, and they would get the miracle of healing.
Some time ago, the Almighty God told us to lift up a rod for us to look upon during one of the conventions. Sermon Times. There were some people who said we had turned a rod into Jesus Christ, that we were doing something completely contrary to the will of God. We did not quarrel with them. We did not argue with them, because we were doing what God told us to do.
We know that it is written in the Bible that if all of us will praise God, then our God will bless us, and the whole earth will fear before Him. We know that passage says if all of us bless Him, if we all praise Him. Sermon Times. And God is aware that when we gather together for the convention, somebody has come expecting the fruit of the womb, another has come expecting healing, and another has come expecting financial breakthrough.
And so, when we are going to pray, it is difficult for all of us to be in one accord. In order that all of us may focus and be in one accord, He says, “Lift up a rod. Ask everybody to focus on this before you pray,” so that we can be in one accord.
When, during the convention or a special occasion, we ask you to lift up your handkerchiefs and look on us as we wave our hands, that the handkerchiefs will become anointed, we have not turned the handkerchiefs into gods. There is only one God.
But you know very well that with those handkerchiefs lifted up at that time, because we had obeyed, because at the very moment we say, “Look in this direction as we pray over your handkerchief,” we are in one accord. We have not turned those handkerchiefs into god. Sermon Times. The handkerchief is still a handkerchief, but it is a handkerchief we obtained at a time when we were all in one accord, doing an act of simple obedience and simple faith.
The handkerchief has not become God, but miraculously, we have had several mighty testimonies of what happened when we found ourselves in a crisis and we prayed, at times waving the handkerchief. We are simply saying to God, “This handkerchief is not God, but it has been anointed by the God who anointed Paul.”
The same faithful God who anointed Paul, who according to Acts of the Apostles chapter 19, verses 11 and 12, sent his handkerchiefs to heal the sick and to cast out demons—we are saying the God of Apostle Paul is still our God today. As He was yesterday, so He is today.
So when Jesus Christ said, after He took the bread and blessed it, “Take, eat; this is My body,” He was not saying to the disciples, “This bread has now become My body.” It was just a symbol.
When He said, “Take, drink; this is My blood shed for you,” at the time He was saying it, He had not been crucified yet. He had not been beaten yet, but He was already saying, “This bread represents My body broken for you. Eat, and be healed.”
The blood had not been shed yet, but He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me. This is My blood shed for you.” He was still very much alive and well.
The bread is only a symbol, symbolic of His body; the wine, symbolic of His blood. And He said in John chapter 6, verse 51, “Eat and live. Drink and live.”
So when we come for Holy Communion, the bread is made here in Redemption Camp, just like any other bread is made, and the wine is prepared in Redemption Camp. Sermon Times. But the moment we pray over it, that bread becomes symbolic of the body of Christ, and the wine symbolic of His blood.
He says, “Eat and live,” just like Moses said, “Look and live.”
