Olowoporoku: An unusual zeal for God

Of course it is true that many church founders go to any length to draw crowds to their programmes. These include burying cows alive on their church premises at the foundation stage or using human beings as sacrifice for the same purpose.

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We also have those who perform 'miracles' per second, using diabolical means, and those of them who worship money and material attractions. Rather than preach salvation, their emphasis is on things that glitter.

These are some of the reasons why I am hesitant to jump into celebrating men of God, especially those that I do not know, at least fairly well.

Fine enough, most of those who featured at the events alluded to the fact that there was nothing hidden or unusual about Olowoporoku's ministry's exponential growth. Just work; hard work.

I may be wrong, but I am inclined to believe them.

I have been following Olowoporoku at least since his ministry was introduced to me about two years ago through his WhatsApp early morning messages  (Voice of Mercy) that I didn't take heed of initially. I must confess that the name of his ministry, LOCCIM, never rang a bell in my ears until then.

Somehow, I have fallen in love with that programme ever since and I hardly miss it. Whenever I missed it, I tried as much as possible to make up for it. Except when I have my personal emphasis which I also believe is divinely inspired.

One thing that makes me seem convinced about Olowoporoku's calling (apart from the fact that I have not seen anyone come out to substantiate accusations against him, is his commitment to his work. What he calls his zeal for the Lord, a zeal which reflects in all he does.

Whenever he tells his story, or the story is told by others that they started together or people who knew him well long ago, I get the more convinced that truly, he is called.

Many people usually say they started from a humble beginning. If anyone did, it was Olowoporoku. For someone who started out as a young man at 19, it is commendable that he has stayed the course. He has never looked back. According to accounts, he just woke up one morning and left a note for his father that he had gone to work for God and that he was not lost; so, they should not bother to look for him. He then left Ibadan for Lagos where he started what looked like a horrible life.

It is fascinating that at 19, when many young men begin to exercise their new-found freedom by engaging in all manner of immoralities, he decided to follow Christ.

Things were so rough initially, according to accounts by him and some of those who knew him then, that they could not even afford a door blind!

For them, fasting was a natural routine. As a matter of fact, because of extreme poverty that afflicted them while in training, they could not tell whether the frequent fasting was natural or a response to their lack.

I doubt if many of the prophets and pastors today can afford to endure the kind of rigorous training that they went through, which time and space would not allow me to recount. Sometimes I have the feeling it is more rigorous than what artisans like mechanics, fashion designers, rewires, electricians, carpenters, etc. experience.

Yet, these ‘penterascal’ pastors want to be famous, they want to be wealthy, they want all the good things of life. But they are not ready to make the necessary sacrifices. They love wine and women. Yet, they want to be spiritually strong. That is a tall order; nobody can look up and down simultaneously.

When he starts to talk about the challenges he encountered in the course of the 40 years, one would marvel at his doggedness and courage. I remember it was from him that I first got to know that there are ‘sophisticated sacrifices’ in golden plates that the rich and famous carry at ungodly hours in the night, which are significantly different from those carried by the poor and left at some strategic places, meant to deter his ministry’s progress. The man literally saw hell in the course of the journey.

Olowoporoku has repeatedly told the story of his numerous 40-day dry fasting (no food at all during the period; I guess only a little water intermittently), including an occasion when he had started vomiting blood towards the end of the journey and still warned those who wanted to ‘prevent him from dying’ as it seemed it was then, that something would do them if they attempted to put anything in his mouth.

In all of this, however, I think he was only lucky that he survived, perhaps an indication that his was truly a divine instruction to go on such marathon fasting. Many had attempted even fewer days of such fasting and they never lived to tell the story. 

For Olowoporoku, the saying that ‘beside a successful man is a woman’ adheres. He should be grateful to God for giving him the woman that he married. She agreed to marry him even when there was no hope of a better tomorrow anywhere, and against the wish of one of her relatives who could not explain how a young and beautiful lawyer like their daughter, with a promising future, could fall for a 'man of God' without a tomorrow.

I remember the story of the day of their marriage when Olowoporoku said they were travelling for the ceremony and they had four tyre punctures before getting to the woman’s town. Obviously, they arrived the place late into the night and the ceremony still held at about 2.00 a.m. But the late arrival was a blessing in disguise as it shielded them from questions that would have arisen as a result of the incomplete items they brought for the traditional ceremony. A reflection of the state of his pocket then.

It is to the glory of God that, that woman, Justice Grace Olowoporoku, whose husband could not complete the engagement items about 30 years ago, later became Chief Judge of Ondo State, after serving as a high court judge and acting chief judge in the state.

Today, she is assisting the husband in the vineyard.

One of the mysteries about the man, Olowoporoku, is where he gets the strength to execute the numerous programmes that he does daily. One may have a zeal for something but if the energy is not there, the zeal will remain sealed up in the person's belly.

At least for the ones I am aware of as constants, there is the daily morning devotion on WhatsApp and Facebook, there is also the 40-day Apostolic Prayer Retreat, featuring daily vigils, which started on June 23, 2024; the annual retreat at the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, which follows the 40-day retreat. There is also a monthly nine-day prayer retreat (often titled "Nine Days in His Presence" or "Nine Days of Prayer"),that starts every first day of the month, among several others. Not to talk of the daily outreaches in several places every day that he attends physically, and sometimes, radio programmes.

Sometimes, some of these programmes overlap, yet, the man finds a way to do them without missing any. For someone like this, you expect him to be shedding weight. Olowoporoku is naturally huge in physique but no matter how energy-sapping those programmes are in the daytime, you see him bubbling when he turns up for the daily vigil; it is as if nothing has happened. He remains his huge self I spite of the rigorous fasting too.

He would always tell you it is God.

As a prophecy that he sometimes mentions affirms, he still has a long way to go if he is just on about the third of about 13-step ladder. But with God, all things are possible. I pray that the God that has sustained him thus far shall see him to the end.

In line with the theme of the ceremonies, “Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord.” – 2 Kings 10:16. Those who came with him must have learnt a lot from him.

I join Olowoporoku’s numerous ‘sons and daughters of Zion’ all over the world in wishing him happy celebrations.