APOSTLE BABALOLA’S KIND OF PRAYER
The great Apostle Babalola went to preach the gospel in a demonic town and he went to the king in the place to ask for land to build the church.
The king who was also a demonic person was not interested in the gospel; he also was practically a demon in his own right. He gave the man of God the forbidden bush. A bush where nobody goes.
When pregnant women die they throw them there. When people with familiar spirit die they throw them there
Nobody goes there.
Those who have ventured to go in,did not last 24 hours there before they died. That was the place the king gave to the man of God.
Baba Babalola thanked the king profusely, while the king was just looking at him, ‘why is this one thanking us’.
And Apostle Babalola went out, took his prayer warriors and they went to the bush.
When they got there, the man of God began to pray, Some of those who were there that day with cutlass to cut the bush,are still alive- they told us what I am telling you.
As they got there, the man of God rang his bell and with a very loud voice (because) the man had a loud voice.
In their days, there were no microphones and they addressed thousands of people
He said ‘O God arise and let your enemies in this bush be scattered’
That was all he said
Suddenly, they heard some people running and as they were running, they were colliding on each other.
They felt that people were falling and rising up inside the bush
Some were jamming themselves into the trees, they never saw anybody but they heard the sound of the scattering.
Your prayer today shall release confusion into the camp of the enemy.
They were running helter skelter.
After some time, there was calm and he ordered them to begin to cut the bush.
As they were cutting the bush, from the mountains, they saw a mighty python crawling down.
Those cutting the grasses wanted to run away.
Baba said ‘stay there’, continue to cut your grass.
They continued to cut and the serpent came majestically, the kind of python that could swallow a human without trace.
The serpent did not go to anybody else but Apostle Babalola.
Baba watched this snake coming and was not impressed at all.
As the snake approached, he just said ‘let the fire of the God of Elijah fall upon this serpent’
It was as if electricity passed through this serpent and it just dried up.
I will be writing about the valuable lessons that I have learned from studying the life of this great apostle. This has helped me as a young evangelist and I strongly believe that this will equally help all believers across the world.
The first and one of the most important lessons that I learned from the life Ayo Babalola is that ” BEING HEAVILY ANOINTED BY GOD DOESN’T NECESSARILY TURN YOU INTO A GENERAL OVERSEER OF A CHURCH.
I am tempted to say that if I have 10% of Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola’s anointing, I would have become a General Overseer of a new Church even when God has not commissioned me to oversea a church for him. And this statement is true of many believers, especially, those who have the call of God upon their lives.
One of the greatest tragedies in the body of Christ today are anointed pastors and Prophets who God has not commissioned to oversee a church for Him but who have done so because they felt being anointed automatically turn a man into a General Overseer. There are many G.Os on earth whom God doesn’t recognise as G.Os in heaven. They struggle to become what God has not called them to be.
At age 26, the anointing of the Holy Ghost and the Power of God rested on Ayo Babalola like no any other person in his generation. He organized one of the most crowded revivals with more than 40,000 daily participants at Oke Oye, in Ilesa, in 1930. It was a revival without postal, no radio hype, no television advert. The Holy Ghost Power and the mighty signs and wonders announced the revival across Africa and beyond.
Demons trembled at Babalola’s voice and many people that stepped into the revival ground started speaking with other tongues without anyone laying hands on them. The atmosphere was charged with the dunamis power of God. It was the most blessed apostolic revival in Africa.
Throughout the revival, even though Babalola was the human vessel that God used, he didn’t see himself as the leader of the apostolic crusade. He didn’t turn the crowd into a commission. Rather, he invited the missionaries church and other indigenous churches within Ilesha and his environs to come for the harvest of souls. It is on record that the number of new converts in each church increased tremendously as a result of Babalola’s revival.
“During the revival , every denominational church witnessed a considerable increase in membership, which means that more people were converted. The Anglicans, for instance recorded an increase of about 320 members, while the African church baptized 650 converts”. This made Rev. Jones of Methodist Missionary, Ifaki Ekiti to regard Babalola’s message as ” a call to a deeper spirituality and perhaps a basis for Christian unity.
In a letter to D.P Williams on May 4,1931, Odubanjo wrote in part;
“Within three weeks, Babalola had cured about one hundred lepers, sixty blind people and fifty lame person. “
Many dead people jumped back to life as a result of Babalola’s prayer. With this kind of apostolic result, if Ayo Babalola had started a church at Ilesha, it would have become an instantaneous success but he realized that was not his mission and commission.
Sadly in our days, many of our so-called revivals and programs only promote the activities and fame of the church and the G.O in charge. We use revival to create new Churches and to “become” G.Os.
Instead of forming his own church, Ayo Babalola simply worked with Faith Tebernacle and other religious bodies. When the 1930 revival ended, no new Church was born but all the existing churches were strengthened and populated. The 1930 revival was a crusade without G.O and it was a revival that produce no G.O after it ended.
Ayo Babalola didn’t answer to the title of G.O or Founder till death took him from this side of eternity.
Today men who only saw Babalola once in their dreams are now G.Os. Whereas, Men who attended Babalola’s revival received Evangelical fire that can birth churches but they realized that the ultimate aim of revival is not the proliferation of churches and G.Os but the empowerment of the existing churches.
Babalola led by example and other followed suit. the fire that people received from Oke Ooye revival is still visible in many towns and villages across the world.
We have erroneously learned to tie fire down to building and temples whereas the original intention of God is for men to become mobile temple of fire.
Apostolic revivals are meant to enfire men and not to build rubbles that we call churches. God is interested in revival that birth men of fire than money making programs that we use to build beautiful churches without holy fire.
Before you carry your anointing to start a new Church, ask the Lord: would this church be recognised by heaven? Before you register the name of your church with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Abuja make sure the church is registered with “the Kingdom Affairs Commission (KAC) in heaven. God is not eager to start a new Church, rather, he wants the existing one to truly know Him.
Many people who are G.Os today are raised by God as vessels of honour in their formal churches. Do not start what God has not finished. Do not comission what God has not commissioned you to do. You can be God’s General without becoming a General Overseer. You can influence your generation without becoming a founder of another church. Let God lead you. Do not start a church without an assigned angel. Like Joseph Ayo Babalola, learn to wait on God before you move on behalf of God. You can be heavily Anointed without being commissioned as a General Overseer. Know your place and your time in God’s agenda on earth.
Always remember this, multitudes are not the signs of his presence. Miracles are not the confirmations of his power. Many prophets uses occultic power. Not all anointing that makes men fall during impartation are from the Holy Spirit. Finally, the fact that the church is Rich and successful is not the yardstick that God is in the midst of it. Do not confuse the beautiful electrical lightenings to the awesome glory of God.
As a member of a particular church, also ask the Lord if He is the one that commissioned the church that you are currently attending. If your pastor funded it because of his anointing or his frustration from his previous engagement, and not as a result of God’s divine leading, you may spend years in that place without encountering God. It is hard to find God in a “thing” He has not commissioned.
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