- Bishop WALE OKE Reveals Encounter As A Maths Student In UNILAG
Bishop Francis Wale Oke is one of the leading pentecostal pastors in Nigeria. With over three decades in God’s vineyard, the cleric, whose Ibadan-based Sword of the Spirit Ministries has been a force to reckon with in Christendom. He has led great crusades where the power of God was well felt and has won many souls for Christ. Bishop Francis Olubowale Aderibigbe oke was born in 1956 in Kasumu Village and stayed there for 11 years before coming to Ibadan where he went to Wesley Teachers’ College, then later the polytechnic and gained admission to the University of Lagos.
He studied Land and Engineering Survey; it was while in the university that he heard the call of God and got connected to Pastor Adeboye who was his teacher in University of Lagos, Pastor Kumuyi, Bishop Benson Idahosa and Bishop David Oyedepo. Bishop Francis Wale Oke is best known all over the world as a church leader with a very strong passion for staging crusades, evangelism, and winning souls for Jesus Christ. Pastor Enoch Adeboye is one of the spiritual fathers of Bishop Wale Oke and if you are very conversant with the spiritual relationship that existed between them, you will know they have become much like siblings. Bishop Wale Oke has a very great respect for Pastor Adeboye and even before their path crossed, Bishop Wale Oke knew the kind of person Pastor Adeboye is and no wonder, their meeting was divinely orchestrated when Bishop Wale Oke was a student in University of Lagos and Pastor Adeboye was his lecturer. Pastor Adeboye has always been a regular feature in all Bishop Oke’s programmes and he was also the one who presided over the sermon at his 60th birthday. So also is Bishop Wale Oke who is a constant figure at the redemption camp for any redeemed church events. One of the ordained leader in the Sword of the Spirit Ministries church, Femi Adelegan narrated an encounter both of them had at a time.
‘’Daddy GO, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, a vessel of the Lord, who carries great grace, combined with immeasurable and unquantifiable meekness, humility, and simplicity, and the spiritual father of “the birthday bishop,” was in attendance to honour and bless his spiritual son onhis 60th. And I attested to the fact that Bishop Wale Oke is a great respecter of spiritual authority, having related closely with him for over 20 years. I related my experiences of having been privileged to see Bishop Wale Oke prostrate himself to Pastor Adeboye in January 2003, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, when we staged the first edition of the ‘Nigeria Turning Point Prayer Programme.’ I have also watched him similarly prostrate himself before Pastor W.F. Kumuyi, whom he fondly identifies as his in-law and an apostle par excellence; a solid, impeccable and thorough man of God, a man of solid integrity, who is so well versed in the Scriptures. No wonder, God’s soldiers, ‘Field Marshal’ W.F. Kumuyi and Enoch Adeboye are always happy to witness epochal events in the life of ‘General’ Wale Oke, whom they brought up. In 1979, Bishop Wale Oke joined the Redeemers Crusade at Abusi-Edumare Academy, Ijebu-Igbo, where the power of God moved mightily. That day, Brother Wale Oke made a lasting impression on Pastor Adeboye with a prophecy he delivered to the pastor titled: ‘A Vessel Unto Honour.’ Pastor Adeboye described Wale Oke as a man of God with a sharp unction for accurate prophecies. From that prophecy of 1979, Pastor Adeboye has applied his education as a mathematician to extract 28 points out of which 27 have come to accurate fulfilment. Pastor Adeboye revealed that occasionally, he calls Bishop Wale Oke to inquire what his God is telling him on different matters, and his spiritual son has never disappointed him by disclosing the mind of God. How exactly did their path crossed, that is one question many craved an answer for? In one of his interviews he granted a daily paper, Bishop Wale Oke shed more light on how he met Pastor Adeboye as his student and reeled out some of his laudable attributes.
‘’He taught his students to pass, in fact at a time we had to name him the lecturer of the year. He was very principled, simple and straight forward, he never came late to class, and he would never leave until his time was over, and he wouldn’t make himself absent from class. When exams were approaching, if you missed Pastor Adeboye’s tutorial, you are finished, because he would bring like 10 questions and say, “In case they ask you these questions, this is how to answer them”, and he would work all of them out. And you can be very sure that four out of those questions would come out, though they wouldn’t come out verbatim. He wanted all his students to succeed. If anyone failed his class, I wonder if that person could ever pass again. I went to introduce myself to him in the first month of entering the university in 1977 having attended his lecture. He told me to see him, and from that time the relationship has been intact and later on as he rises in the ministry .’’I would say it was just the grace of God. I wanted to go to Obafemi Awolowo University but I made a mistake in the concessional examination. When they admitted me to the University of Lagos, I didn’t want to go because I didn’t like Lagos but it was at UNILAG I met my destiny helpers. That was where I met Pastor Enoch Adeboye, who was my lecturer in Mathematics in 1977. That was where I met Pastor W.F. Kumuyi. So, it’s divine grace and arrangement. I thank God for His wisdom. It is the blessings and grace of the Lord that I can say is the reason for the rising. Bishop Oyedepo and Pastor Ashimolowo are my friends. When we became friends, we had nothing’’. Since committing his life to Christ as his personal Saviour and Lord in December 1975, Bishop Wale Oke has over the past few decades preached the gospel in all parts of the world in accordance with the directives of Jesus Christ to His disciples.
TAYO FAJORIN OYEDIJI
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