*Tells City People His Reflections
Pastor Wole Oladiyun the senior
As you turn 60, what has life taught you?
Let me put it this way. God has taught me to depend on him absolutely. Life has taught me to be simple, simple lifestyle, simple maintenance. Equally, life has taught me to fear God. Anything God gives you, use it to develop humanity. God has taught me to be grateful to him. Life has taught me to fear God, to depend on God absolutely. In all, I want to say God has been so marvelous to me at 60years. There is nothing I want in this life that God has not given me. He has blessed me with good health. Look at me at 60, this is the way I am; just natural.
Every morning I wake up; I pray to God, I do my exercise every day, and he has given me Grace for alertness to be proactive, and eyes for details. I’m a very cheerful person and I love people. I have eyes for talents. When I see talent in you, I develop you. I am a talent developer. I want goodness for everyone; I want goodness for this nation. I hate bad news. I don’t want people to go down, I want people to rise. Even those who offend me I don’t want any evil to happen to them, I want them to change and do better. I like helping people. I’m an addicted giver, everybody knows that about me.
Can you share with us some of the men of God you look up to?
I want to thank the Lord for all our fathers and mothers in this faith. You will agree with me that, a man who wants to excel in everything he does needs mentors. I love the Igbos a lot, I salute their dexterity. I love there apprenticeship systems. An Igbo man who trades in spare part, he has about 5 people he’s training. That mentorship sense will make them to learn first the mistakes their mentors had made and it won’t be their portion because their mentor must have guided them. You need people ahead of you to learn from. You need your peers to learn from. You need those people coming behind you to learn from. I relay with three levels when it comes to mentorship. Those ahead of me that I revered a lot, Number 1 by the grace of God is Rev. Dr. D.K Aboderin; my spiritual father, I was under him for 7 years, may the Lord bless him. He taught me faith and how to live a consecrated lifestyle. Number 2 is my prayer mentor, Dr. D.K Olukoya, he’s my prayer coach, because of having the same background he’s teaching me till tomorrow, and he ensures I do things right and for every little thing that God does through my hand he hails me so I can do more, so I’m very grateful. Bishop Oyedepo, I’m learning from him because he’s a man of rugged faith, so he’s my mentor in that area. Pastor Mathew Ashimolowo is a man of deep wisdom. He is extremely very prophetic, and I’m learning from him till tomorrow. These are my mentors. I have other people who I look up to because of their lifestyles. Barrister Wole Olufon is one of them, that man taught me focus. And among my peers, Apostle Dele Johnson and Pastor Tony Olukoyede are my prayer mentors. Those coming behind me are numerous and I am learning from them as well.
CLAM is 21. When you look back and see how the church has grown in the last 21 years, how does it make you feel?
I give glory to God And I appreciate him. I just see in CLAM, God himself squeezing water out of the rock, Everything is just exclusively the grace of God and I thank the Lord. So seeing CLAM today, 21 years; it’s a real marvel. CLAM has become an apostolic phenomenon by the grace of God. God has succeeded in building a good reputation for CLAM. He has succeeded in building a good image for CLAM. He succeeded in building a brand for CLAM. CLAM brand is everywhere. It’s cutting across. Teaching ministries are demanding for our brand. Our image is being enhanced by God on a daily basis. God giving me the grace to write is an added value. By the grace of God, I’ve written 52 books that are making impacts worldwide. I’m grateful to God for what He is doing. By the grace of God, we are raising the second tier leadership for CLAM.
Tell us about your humble beginning?
I was born on April 2, 1959.
I had my primary and secondary schools in Ondo State. I was a Scholar on (Western Region Scholarship) I had my Higher School Certificate (HSC) in a place called Ikare.
After that, I went in to study Engineering at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1979. Since then, I had practiced engineering for years, then later went into various businesses. I had a Chemical Marketing outfit, a pharmacy and so many other things. But alongside, I had been a Christian of good standing.
How did you receive your family?
By Gods Grace, I am married to Bukola Oladiyun (nee Olubakinde) a virtuous, quiet and deeply spirited caring daughter of God. She was a former Bank Manager but now the Proprietress of J-Nissi Children School. We are blessed with 4 prophetic children (Two girls and two boys); Ayomide, Oluwadamipe, Imisioluwa, and Inioluwa.
How did you receive your spiritual calling?
I was brought up in Christ Apostolic Church (CAG). My background largely affected my encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ because right from childhood, I had been exposed to the knowledge of Christ and I have been growing with Him. But sometime ago, an event happened, I lost my father and that actually shook my faith in Christ because I saw the way we were worshiping God as a family. So for years I drew back. But in my final year in the University, God spoke to me in a very clear vision why my father died and that because of his agenda for me, that I must come back to him. So that day I took my Bible and looked for a CAC church in Ile-Ife and went there quietly, repented, and that was how I was restored back to fellowship.
Why did you go into business after your education? Why didn’t you go straight into ministerial work?
After my education, I went into Building and Civil Engineering business. I worked with a company, a notable Engineering company in Lagos where I rose to the position of Project Engineer. It was after that I decided to set up my own business. I had an encounter with the Lord around 1986, and the Lord said to me that while I was doing business He would like me to be trained up. Then He gave me a command that I should leave CAC and move to Deeper Life (Deeper Life Bible Church). So I went to Deeper Life. I was there, though I didn’t know the extent of what God wanted to do at that time. And from Deeper Life, I moved to Victory Christian Church (VCC) under late Bishop Anayo Iloputaife. Shortly after that, I traveled abroad, to Bonn, Germany, there I joined an African Christian church though I was not an ordained pastor, I was assisting the pastor.
When I came back, I joined Faith Family Bible Church. Even before then, I had been a committee member of Full Gospel
This exposed me to another level of spiritual training under intercessors for Nigeria. So I later attended their prayer schools, and I was gaining big knowledge about certain deep things of the Lord. I went to Latter Rain Bible School to train for one year under Pastor Tunde Bakare and at the same time under the leadership of Rev. (Dr.) Aboderin in my Local Assembly also. And along the course of the evangelical unction on me, I was developing my spiritual muscles through those avenues. So these were the ways through which God was training me while I was in my secular businesses.
As someone who ran a chain of businesses, what was the experience like before you quit to serve God?
The Lord gave me the mandate of Training in the field. In my businesses, I made money, but I didn’t have satisfaction. The transition from the business world into the work of the ministry was, and is absolutely the work of the Lord and the course of the election of God that I must work for him. And when the transition came, I resisted it for 2 and half years, and I suffered. Everything I made in the business world went away.
Let me quickly make a recall, as part of the reminiscences of the past. In 1990, I was driving along Agidingbi Road, then I was planning to travel to the United States to start up a Cab business with 4 drivers. I had the money (foreign currency notes) I heard God speak to me inside my car that, “You Are Not Going To Any Place. You Will Work For Me Here”. I got home, the Lord still spoke to me, and I was hearing Him. He showed me a vision, I saw people, massive people like the sand of the sea. He said between 1990 and year 2000, that every home in Nigeria, Christians will be magnified. He said there will be a movement where people will be born again massively, and it has come to pass. He said he wanted me to be part of it, that I will work for him, and that I was not going anywhere. He warned me that if I made any attempt, he would scuffle it. But when I heard that, I didn’t like it. Though right from childhood, my parents had been told that I was going to be a prophet and a rugged evangelist. But my parents were sad because the state of pastors then was appalling. Though my father’s desire then was for me to be an Engineer, which I later became, but he said let it be.
Right from my childhood I was seeing vision, naked vision.
Jesus appeared and talked to me for days, face to face, I saw him physically. So evidences abound that I will be a great man of God, but I thought personally that it will be when I am over 50 years. I must tell you this. That was why when the calling came, because I was married to engineering, I couldn’t leave it, and that was when my first problem came.
Then God broke down all my business empire. For 2 and half years, he stripped down every thing I had from me, even my car, I was going on foot. Then he asked me, “MY WILL, OR MONEY”?
but I reluctantly said, your will. Then I started preaching from Ogba to CMS inside the buses.
People would ask me: “Where is your Church?”
But I would not answer them. So it was the battle for 2 and half years, and in the most of it I fasted for over 300 days because I was confused. I was telling God, let me make money for the work (Ministry). So what I would say is that my transition from the business world to the work of the ministry was by election. I had been elected, not out of feeling of regrets, or looking for money, certainly not. I had been exposed to big money while in business, and God had made me comfortable. Therefore, my desire to serve God which I had thought would be at my old age is simply by a prophetic election and God’s manifold grace. I am honesty a product or an epitome of God’s MANIFOLD GRACE.
Tell us more about Christ Livingspring Apostolic Ministry (CLAM). How did you coine the name?
It is the name given to the vision God has given me in the book of John 4:14. God spoke to me three times concerning CLAM. It is an Apostolic outreach ministry, not a church. It is larger than a church but has a church arm. But the ministry is largely an outreach ministry to draw souls to the kingdom of God through the medium of Apostolic Revival, that is why you see our emphasis on Apostolic Revival through the word and prayers in absolute holiness. So we are to draw souls into the kingdom of God through Apostolic Revival based on John 4:14, and the Lord said everything in chapter 4 will happen to me. So I have fasted with that severally, and from day one, I wrote it from my Bible, CLAM VISION.
