The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, explained why he never fulfilled his childhood ambition to join the army. Speaking during his sermon at the church’s monthly Thanksgiving Service, he said he had always loved the military but his late mother prevented him from enlisting. Acknowledging the presence of military, paramilitary and other security forces at the special programme, Adeboye cited 2 Timothy 2:3—“enduring hardness as a good soldier of Christ”—and said, “I wanted to be a soldier; it’s my mother who didn’t allow me.”
He recounted how, after graduating from university, he told his mother of his desire to join the army. She replied, “You’re my only son. I’m not asking you not to join the army, just wait till I die and you have buried me, then you can do whatever you want.” This conversation took place in the 1960s. By the time his mother died in the 1990s, Adeboye said it was already too late for him to pursue a military career, though he still loved the army. “Maybe another time I will tell you the reasons,” he added.
Adeboye expressed his enduring fascination with the military, noting that he would watch any film or documentary related to it. “Because I love the army, I watched every film, cinema, anything that had to do with the military. I saw what changed civilians into iron men,” he said. He cautioned that seeing soldiers in fine uniforms does not reveal the hardships they endure. “You see them in beautiful dresses; they look nice. But if you check what goes on from the day they enlist until they march in ceremonial dress, you will understand what is called hardness and endurance,” Adeboye concluded.
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