The General Overseer of Ever Increasing Anointing Ministries (EIAM), Egan-Igando, Lagos, Pastor Taiye Olayemi, has charged Christian ministers to pursue genuine encounters with God that produce visible fruits of transformation, rather than merely seeking spiritual experiences.
Pastor Olayemi gave the charge while ministering at the 2026 Ministers’ Conference of EIAM, where he emphasised that an encounter with God should be measured by its fruits and lasting impact on the life of a believer.
Speaking from Isaiah 6 and other biblical passages, the cleric said an encounter with God was “not by feeling but by the fruit it produced,” stressing that believers should be known by the evidence of God’s work in their lives.
“Every tree bears fruit and you know a tree by the fruit, not the leaf,” he said, urging ministers to examine the fruits produced by their encounters with God rather than being carried away by outward manifestations.
According to him, the Word of God remains the source of genuine spiritual authority, adding that ministers who claim to carry God must also carry His Word.
“A man of God is known by the amount of God’s Word you carry. It is the Word that is the source,” Olayemi stated.
He explained that while God is omnipresent, there is a difference between His universal presence and the manifestation of His presence, noting that believers, as temples of God, must cultivate the capacity to sustain His presence.
Drawing lessons from Isaiah’s encounter with God in Isaiah 6, Olayemi noted that Isaiah was already a minister before the encounter, but his encounter brought a fundamental change to his perspective and ministry.
He said Isaiah’s earlier perception of people was affected by his perspective, but after seeing the Lord, his perception changed.
“The way you relate with men will tell how you see men. Your view is determined by your perspective, not by the way they are. Until your perception changes, you will see men the same way,” he said.
The cleric therefore warned Christian leaders against judging people based solely on their own experiences of God, stressing that God may reveal Himself to different people in different ways.
“What I don’t encounter, I shouldn’t condemn,” he said, adding that believers should recognise the diverse ways through which God deals with His people.
Olayemi also stressed that God does not wait for human perfection before relating with people, saying the biblical patriarchs themselves were imperfect men through whom God worked.
“We are not condoning sin. God is not looking for perfect men to encounter; He’s looking for imperfect men to encounter,” he said.
He urged Christians not to allow their weaknesses or sins to drive them away from God, but to draw closer to Him for cleansing and restoration.
According to him, one of the major obstacles to sustaining an encounter with God is self.
“You can have an encounter now and lose it. You can only carry God when you are dead to self,” he said, maintaining that God would not compete with self in the life of a believer.
He described death to self as the essential remedy for overcoming the flesh, noting that the Apostle Paul spoke about dying daily.
Olayemi further identified five major fruits of a genuine encounter with God: revelation, conviction, cleanliness, conversation and commission.
He explained that revelation gives the believer a clearer understanding of God, while conviction exposes the individual’s condition before Him.
“Many of us don’t see ourselves until we have an encounter with God,” he said.
He added that genuine encounter also produces cleansing and inward purity, insisting that anyone who has truly encountered God should experience transformation in character and conduct.
“It’s to purify, not fire,” he stated, stressing that genuine spiritual dealings with God should result in a life that increasingly runs away from sin.
On conversation, Olayemi said an encounter with God creates room for divine communication, noting that a voice is an indication of personality and that God’s voice conveys His substance to the believer.
He also described commission as another major fruit of encounter, explaining that God gives those who encounter Him assignments beyond their natural abilities.
“God will never give you an assignment that by your skill you can handle,” he said, adding that the fulfilment of divine assignments is not dependent on eloquence or human ability but on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Using the imagery of wind, he said a Spirit-filled believer may not always understand where God is leading him but would inevitably demonstrate the effect of God’s work.
Olayemi urged ministers to become people of prayer, thanksgiving, mercy and dependence on divine help.
He advised Christians to make thanksgiving a daily lifestyle and avoid becoming murmurers or complainers, while also encouraging them to continually ask God for mercy and acknowledge their weaknesses.
“Mercy is for men and women that acknowledge that they are weak,” he said.
He further urged ministers to seek God’s help in becoming better leaders, fathers and mothers, stressing the importance of grace in sustaining believers in the Spirit.
“The secret place of help is in the spirit,” he declared, warning that anything produced outside God’s will would ultimately become a burden to the person who produced it.
Olayemi also challenged ministers to understand that they were beneficiaries of the labour of those who came before them, urging them to be prepared to labour for those coming after them.
“You don’t want to labour yet you want tithe. People have laboured on the ones that have come to meet you,” he said.
He concluded by urging ministers to seek God’s face rather than merely seeking His benefits.
“Don’t look for His hand; look for His face. Encounter is His face; experience is His hand,” Olayemi declared, calling on Christian leaders to make their hunger for God a daily pursuit and allow their encounters with Him to influence every area of their lives.