Author: Deji Okegbile

Joseph Ayodele Babalola, born on April 25, 1904 to David Lawani Rotimi and Martha Talabi Rotimi died 57 years ago. It was recorded that mysterious circumstances surrounded the birth of Apostle Babalola. On the day Apostle Babalola was born, a strange and mighty object exploded and shook the cloud. The 19th century Healing and Religious Revival in Nigeria can be traced to the 1930 Oke-Oye, Ilesa, led by Apostle Ayodele Babalola. Nigerian Christianity then was quite ceremonial coupled with pagan practices.[1] Under this condition, in 1918, the first prayer group started with many worshippers from Saint Saviour Anglican Church, Ijebu-Ode. There was formation of more praying group all over Nigeria lead by Oba/Pastor Babalola Akinyele (late Olubadan of lbadan), Joseph Sadare Miss Sophia Odunlami and D. O. Odubanjo. The doctrinal differences between the praying group and Anglican Church over practices like healing, opposition to infant baptism, reliance on dreams and visions, debt-owing, drinking of alcohol led to tension, and some of the praying group members were compelled to withdrawn from the church. The praying group continued to spread, with member reliance on prayer, divine healing and the All Sufficiency of God. Apostle Babalola renewal experience started on the night of September 25th, 1928 when he suddenly became restless and could not sleep. Akinwunmi explained that, Apostle Babalola experienced this for weeks without any tangible reason behind it. The climax...

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea. And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it – Amos 8:11-12 Visions are means of divine communications, and a good example is the fourth vision of Amos in chapter 8. The vision of the famine of the Word is beyond the power of UNICEF though the word of God is as indispensable as food and water. The highest priority in life is to listen to God’s Word and to receive His gifts of life and salvation. Like the people of OT, we cannot survive without the Word. The time Amos spoke about – a famine of God’s word is not that God’s word is absent because like our time, we have different versions of ‘the Bible on our bookshelves, on our laptops and on our Ipads and smart phones. But do we reach for it as often as we download bestsellers or play our game apps?’ In our media-driven world, words are a massive feature, yet little actually changes. ‘Lives are not saved. Injustice is not exposed and removed. Peace is not...