APOSTLE JOSEPH AYO BABALOLA
“They (believers) devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the hand of the apostles. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”(Acts 2: 42,43, 47b)
This account is not to glorify any man but to give all glory to God Almighty, the Sovereign King who alone does great things and lives forever.
Apostle Babalola was a man who sought God wholeheartedly and had many encounters with the Divine- This man knew God, he was strong and did great exploits. In fact his story is out of this world.
Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola was born on April 25, 1904 to Elder David and Mrs Martha Rotimi in Odo-Owa Kwara State. He was brought up as an Anglican. He got some education (up to standard four), before he became a blacksmith’s apprentice. Later he became a steamroller operator under the PWD (Public Works Department), then under the control of Great Britain, learning to become a steamroller driver.
Babalola was baptized in Lagos lagoon in December 1929.
Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola was one of the notable apostles to emerge from the spiritual revival of September, 1930 that started in South West Nigeria at Oke Oye, Ilesa, Osun State and reverberated abroad. The revival erupted when Apostle Babalola raised a dead child back to life as the Church elders were deliberating on some doctrinal issues. Of course the meetings ended abruptly to give way to the supernatural move of God. What followed in the next three weeks was the healing of about 100 lepers, 60 blind people and 50 lame persons!
Apostle Babalola was a man given to much prayer; the least time he spent in prayer was 3–4 hours.
Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola once told his fellow ministers during prayer meeting to kneel down for a short prayer. After about 2–3 hours of kneeing down, the minister becomes frustrated and sat down, leaving only Apostle Babalola still on his knees praying for the next 5–6 hours. The following day, they asked him “Baba, if you asked us to pray a short prayer with you that took almost 6 hours, how many hours will your long prayer last?
Apostle Babalola being a fervent intercessor never missed the 40 days Lent period of prayer and fasting. At one time he was praying on a mountain and he was so overcome by the spirit of prayer he did not realize a big python had crawled over his body. It was when he finished praying that he saw the big python was dead by his side, struck by the power of God! It was said his knees were indented into a particular spot on the rock where he normally knelt to pray.
Apostle Babalola and his team of prayer warriors were bold men of faith who prayed, fasted and drove many demonic principalities out of many places in South West, the Middle Belt regions and Calabar in Nigeria. They preached the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and established the converts in Christian Churches started in many hitherto forbidden evil forests. He also took the gospel to the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1936. Some of his ministerial team members were Daniel Orekoya, Caleb Omotunde, Prophet Babajide, Pastor Odukoya, Pastor Medaiyese, Pastor Eleshindade, O. O Omotosho and so on. His outstanding ministry has inspired many others to seek God for the mighty power of the Holy Spirit to win lost souls.
It was said of Apostle Babalola that he once started praying with his team and then kept on praying. After some hours Babalola’s team members got tired and left him as usual to his endless prayers. By the time he would end his prayers with a loud “in Jesus name we pray!” he was surprised to find himself alone. When he asked what the time was, his team members told him “you have been praying standing on your feet for three days nonstop!”
Sometimes whilst Apostle Babalola was preaching, the power of God would lift him from the ground and he would be suspended in the air. Once as Babalola was being taken up like this by the power of God, one of his team members had to grab his legs in the air and forcefully drag him down to earth shouting “Baba please don’t leave us now!….. Baba please don’t leave us now!’
And the power of the Lord Jesus was always present to heal the sick at his meetings. Many sick people were healed, lepers were cleansed, those bound by demons were set free, and the dead were raised back to life without fanfare as Apostle Babalola preached the Word of life in the power of the Holy Spirit!
There were several instances where the Apostle needed transport desperately to go on his evangelistic missions. And while praying in faith the Lord was faithful to allow him to be miraculously transported by the power of the Lord on the wings of the Spirit from one place to the other like Philip of old! Once when Dorcas locked him in so that he would not go out for a revival meeting, he said ‘God, see what my wife has done!’ And Babalola heard the Lord say ‘put your hands on the wall!’ He did and went right through the wall to find himself transported straight to the crusade ground! Apostle Babalola was transported severally like this in the presence of many witnesses.
Yet despite all these mighty deeds, Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola was a very simple and generous man; he gave all he had to the Lord and the poor. He did not amass wealth. Somebody gave him a piece of land before he died. He did not do anything on the land. He had nothing in material terms at the time of his death. He had just 10 shillings and 6 pence in his bag at the time of his death. He eventually got a car in 1953 after twenty three years of explosive revival ministry; all this while he trekked, cycled and took public transport to his meetings. When he got his car, he would sit at the front with his driver while his disciples sat at the back seat. At the rear they kept clothing items they gave away to charity. In the course of the missions they were always doing free give aways! He was one to always take care of the very poor. He took care of forty seven children in his house and had the responsibility of entertaining many other adults and visitors at the same time.
- Following a schism in The Apostolic Church about 1940, Babalola went with a group led by Pastors J.B. Akinyele and D.O. Odubanjo to form a new independent church, Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), where he continued his healing and revival activities until his death. Babalola was not the sole founder of C.A.C as many claim today but one of the trio of C.A.C founding fathers. He focused on his God-given call and did not at any time strive for power and position with men. The CAC regard Babalola as an apostle, while in actual sense by real church ordination he was not at any time historically ordained into that office.
Apostle Babalola was single for many years. Out of pressure particularly from his father, he got married to his wife, Dorcas in 1935 with whom he had four daughters. Stories have it that Dorcas tried to use witchcraft to frustrate Apostle Babalola’s ministry, but I will leave that to your judgment. Apostle Babalola being a consumate evangelist would hold meetings from sunup to sundown with the wife having to always cater to the physical needs of the teeming visitors. Sometimes she would try to restrain him from going out to another campaign complaining that he needed to stay home, eat well and rest more. The frustrated wife with no one to share her burdens must have been taking out her anger on her hapless husband and the needy children staying at their house (about 47 children)! They were a ministry couple in public spotlight and the pressure was very intense! This is why I think that this couple had no one with more experience and authority to mentor them on how to steward a mighty move of God and run their family successfully at the same time. But some of their children when interviewed spoke of the couple having a loving union that just went through the normal marital pressures. Yet others claimed Babalola was initially in love with a single mother but was prevailed upon by Church elders not to marry this single mother for propriety’s sake but to go for the single Dorcas.
Apostle Babalola’s notoriety for mighty signs and wonders was so much that both great and small sought his audience. He became so popular that his presence caused a great stir wherever he went such that he could no longer travel during the daytime but at night as crowds of people thronged him for prayers and blessings.
Apostle Babalola worked very hard to revitalize the Christ Apostolic Church that had fallen into apostasy before his death. In fact he said several times that God would take him away suddenly if he did not call to repentance and righteousness his erring ministers who were misleading and oppressing the people and Christ Apostolic Church generally.
In July 1959, he sought to rest at his friend Prophet Akande’s house at Ori Oke Abiye, Ede in Osun State (a place he sometimes went to get some needed rest and privacy) after coming back from a hectic nine days gospel campaign (Imagine his schedule that week- on Monday he was in Sapele, Tuesday and Wednesday he was in Warri, on Thursday and Friday he was in Ilofa where he renovated the church there in readiness for the convention, on Saturday he was in Ibadan. And on Sunday he was in Ede where he died). While at Ede he shared about his divine call to the ministry, his burdens for the Church of God and the glorious CAC convention he was preparing for which was to be held at Ilofa, Odo-Owa, Kwara state. Then he prayed heartily for the church, Prophet Akande, Prophet Babajide and many other church delegates. He even prophesied a big tree will fall in CAC that year. No one knew he was bidding them farewell. While resting that evening, he breathed very loudly thrice. As his spirit left him, the room where he laid shook violently with the power of God as he confessed loudly “in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost!” The elders gathered around him and prayed and prepared his body for burial. He was buried by the Church elders at the Grave Prayer House Mausoleum, Effon-Alaiye, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
Some have suggested that Apostle Babalola dying suddenly at 55years of age was untimely because he drove himself too hard in the work of the Lord, there was too much iniquity in the camp and he was fighting so many spiritual battles.
Joseph Ayo Babalola University was started at Ikeji Arakeji, Osun in Apostle Babalola’s memory being the place where he encountered God (while washing at river Ariran) and received his commissioning into ministry while driving a road construction steamroller.
Why study God’s Generals? So that we can use the lessons of their lives to prepare for the mightier moves of God coming upon us.
Lessons We Can Learn from Apostle Babalola’s Story:
- Be totally consecrated to God.
- Shun sin, worldly lusts and every kind of evil work.
- Learn to hear from God by yourself.
- Desire and focus on the kingdom of heaven.
- Give yourself to prayer and fasting and spiritual disciplines.
- Walk in love towards the brethren.
- Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and power.
- Get somebody to mentor you in life and ministry.
- Carry your family along in your ministry.
- Follow the love of God — family — and ministry principle carefully.
- Love yourself and take care of your health
- Be full of faith and fearless in the face of opposition and danger.
- Demonstrate the power of God by faith to work miracles, heal the sick and cast out devils.
- Build a good team that can host and steward revival well.
- Seek to unite the Body of Christ.
- Stick to your God-given call and not strive for power and position with men.
- There is no success without a successor.
We are at the junction of another great move of God.
I am a firm believer in the prophecy that God is going to use Nigeria(n)s mightily in His endtime move. For where sin abounds grace abounds much more!
Are you ready for the mighty move of God in this endtime?
Get ready to pay the price!
Let us pray: REVIVE THE WORLD, OH LORD AND START WITH ME IN JESUS NAME!
Tell us what other things you have learnt from the life and times of Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola here and elsewhere?
Please stir up the fire of revival by sharing with others.
