By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has disclosed that years of preaching and working without rest once cost him his voice, an experience he cited to urge believers against overworking themselves.
Adeboye shared the testimony in the 30 August 2026 edition of Open Heaven, RCCG’s official daily devotional, titled “Don’t Overwork Yourself 2.”
He recalled that upon becoming General Overseer, he was so concerned about the church’s growth that he fasted, prayed and preached for years without taking any rest or holiday.
He said he eventually discovered that he would lose his voice whenever he preached for more than fifteen minutes, and that he tried numerous remedies suggested by people, including drinking tea with honey, but the condition persisted.
An elderly woman eventually diagnosed his condition as what she called “teacher’s disease,” Adeboye recounted, telling him his voice had gone into rebellion from being overused without rest.
“You are suffering from what is called ‘teacher’s disease’. You keep teaching without resting your voice, and now it is in rebellion,” she told him. When he asked her for a cure, she replied, “Don’t talk for 15 days.” He protested that his busy schedule would not permit this, to which she responded, “When your voice no longer lasts for up to five minutes when you preach, you’ll do what I said.”
The warning, Adeboye disclosed, prompted him to take his first holiday since becoming General Overseer, travelling to Germany, where he stayed with the Nigerian ambassador.
The ambassador’s house had a sauna, he recalled, which he was told would warm the body from the inside and should not be used for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch, after which one would typically be sweating profusely.
Contrary to this expectation, he said he did not sweat within the first fifteen minutes, and it took forty-five minutes in the sauna before he began to sweat, a sign, he said, of how much stress he had placed on his body.
“I had put my body under so much stress that it wasn’t functioning as it should anymore. Since then, I have learned that I must not overwork myself and must rest from time to time if I am going to fulfil the assignment that God has given me,” he said.
Drawing from scripture, Adeboye referenced Exodus 20:1-17, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, noting that four of the verses emphasise the law of the Sabbath. God revisited the subject in Exodus 31:12-17, he said, instructing Moses that anyone who violated the Sabbath law should be put to death, underscoring the seriousness God attaches to rest.
Adeboye maintained that regular rest is essential for believers, stating that resting as often as necessary keeps a person refreshed and helps preserve life.
He advised that believers must always create time to rest if they intend to fulfil the assignment God has given them.
The devotional’s memory verse was drawn from Exodus 31:17, while readers were directed to Ezekiel 21-22 under the “Bible in One Year” reading plan.
