THE MOUNTAINTOP IS CLOSER TO THE ANOINTING

By Akin Ojumu

Last Sunday, November 28, 2021, Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s sermon was titled, “Going Higher”. Quoting from Exodus 17:8-23, the revered man of God told the story of the battle between the children of Israel and the Amalekites in Rephidim.

While Joshua led the army of Israel into battle in the valley below, Moses, together with Aaron and Hur, went up a nearby hill overlooking the battlefield below. As the fight raged on below, Moses held up his hands. As long as the hands of Moses were raised, the battle went Israel’s way. Whenever his hands came down, the Amalekites gained upper hands. At a point Moses hands became too heavy, and he could no longer keep them up by himself. So, his two companions got a stone, sat him down, and they helped keep Moses’ hands up until the battle came to an end. And the children of Israel prevailed in battle that day.

This story, the GO says, is a demonstration of the importance of going to the mountaintop to pray, because up there you are closer to God. Here was exactly what the man of God said, in his own words:

“When the Amalekites came to attack the children of Israel, Moses went to the mountaintop. There he raised up his hands while Joshua was fighting the Amalekites in the valley below. And the Bible says as long as Moses hands were raised, Israel was winning. When his hands went down, the Amalekites began to win. That tells you something. The mountaintop is closer to the anointing.”

According to Pastor Adeboye, the higher the mountain the greater the anointing. Your physical elevation is directly proportional to your spiritual elevation. So, if you want big anointing, climb the tallest mountain. Because the mountain top is closer to God who is the source of the anointing. 

By implication, you are closer to the anointing if you live in a skyscraper than in a bungalow. And you are most definitely closer to the anointing traveling on an airplane at 30,000 feet altitude than in a motor car cruising along on a lowly highway.

This is exactly what the folks at the white garment churches believe, and it is what they practice. Because they believe spiritual power resides on the mountaintop, they set up prayer camps at the pinnacle of the tallest summits they can find. That's where they go to seek power, summon spirits, and conjure divinations.

Obviously, Pastor Adeboye is in accord with the garment churches on this matter, that the mountaintop is the place to go get power. Perhaps, it’s the reason he went to cut the ribbon to declare open Mother Esther Ajayi’s Cherubim & Seraphim shrine the other day. They both believe there’s power on the mountain.

Conversely, our Lord and Savior tells us something entirely different. John 4:21-24 describes an encounter Jesus had with a Samaritan woman by the well who wanted to know why the Jews insisted Jerusalem is the only place of worship whereas her fellow Samaritans believed Mount Gerizim is the place where God must be worshiped. Jesus’ response was:

“Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. But the time is coming – indeed it’s here now – when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Some maybe thinking this is no big deal, it is just one thing Pastor Adeboye said during a whole sermon. If you think so you are sorely mistaking. Those who propagate error are not 100 percent erroneous 100 percent of the time. Out of a bunch of things they say, it could be 0.001 percent or less that is erroneous. What makes doctrinal error so deadly is not so much in the quantity. The slightest inclination to error – what the Bible calls “a little leaven” – is all you need to perverse the concept of the faith and mislead the Church.

Jesus says you don’t need to go on the mountaintop to worship God, that true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. But Pastor Adeboye says, to be closer to the anointing you need to go to the mountaintop. The question is, “Whose report will you believe?”