Você tentou usar o método open da sua instância RecordSet? Talvez lhe dê outro erro que será mais útil.
Dim connection As New ADODB.connection
Dim rst As New ADODB.Recordset
Dim query As String
connection.ConnectionString = CONNECTION_STRING
connection.Open
rst.Open query, connection, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic
do while not rst.EOF
rst.MoveNext
loop
connection.Close
