He was born into a Christian home. But Augustus Osisioma Diolulu who clocks 60 on September 22 did not know what being a Christian is until he had a dream that changed his life in his secondary school days.
Reflecting on the dream, he told Church Times that he saw a lot of people lined up on a particular street and everybody was asked to stand upon a scale. “I stood on the scale and I weighed far below my expectation. I knew I had failed the examination of God. I woke up crying,” he reminisced.
That dream encounter made him make a U-turn. He started following Christ.
Exploits in the marketplace
A 1990 graduate of Geoplanning from the University of Lagos, Diolulu has also been a veritable instrument in the marketplace of life.
As a youth corps member serving in the Nigerian Army in Calabar, Cross River State he brought to bear God’s wisdom.
He built a reconnaissance model and intelligence device for the military using his knowledge of geo-planning. That project earned him an award from both the Cross River State government and the then-military government of Ibrahim Babangida. He was eventually given an automatic job at the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
With time, he resigned from his employment with the ministry and concentrated more on consulting for the Army. The call from the army to build the operational device he designed for the institution during his NYSC days was very high. He built the device for several Army divisions in the country including the national intelligence agency in Lagos.
Call to ministry
That went on for years until the love of God consumed him to the point that he had to abandon the project for the work of the ministry.
Though he started another company: DK Stiens Furniture Nigeria Ltd; almost all his time is being devoted to God’s work. His call to ministry culminated in his ordination in 2002 at the Temple Rebuilders Ministry.
He confessed however that he entered ministry as an investigative person. “I had a desire to investigate the things of God to find out if they were real. And I have found that they are real.” He summed.
Diolulu served at the Egbeda, Lagos branch of the ministry. As he continued to serve the Lord, he began to have a strong burden to seek the healing anointing of God. “It became a passion. I had to place everything before the Lord to receive this anointing to be a blessing to people.”
He encountered God in a revelation which led him to begin to pray and fast for the healing anointing. And then, God began to use him to heal people in a rather strange but convincing way.
Miracle healing
Diolulu recalled that the first major miracle God used him to do was the healing of an Airforce officer who was paralysed. “I was sharing the word of God when the man’s legs came back to life.”
The excitement and joy that followed was uncontrollable. “That day we were like madmen. We were rejoicing and praising God.” He recalled.
After that experience, he gave himself to more prayers and fasting. He has since experienced God in diverse ways “I have seen several healings after that. I have seen fibroid and HIV healed. These are healings that could be verified.”
After a while, the Lord led him to start a fresh work with the name, Rivers of the Living Word Church also known as the Living Word Church. The ministry is committed to God’s infallible word and the healing of both the body and soul of people.
Working in the miraculous
While insisting that God still performs outstanding miracles as in the days of old despite all doubts and negative spirit in the media space, he said, “To experience God’s work in the miraculous, there has to be a true sacrifice of submission and dogged prayer and fasting.”
He reasoned that if someone makes claims to being used in the healing ministry, the first thing to do is ask if the person has made commitments that justify the result he claims. “If the secret life of the person does not tally with the Bible, the chances that the miracle he claims to have performed is not of God”
Sharing a personal experience, Diolulu states that in the area of working miracles, a lot depends on the minister and not on the recipient of the miracle.
“Your ability to perform miracles depends on your spiritual status. If the man of God has submitted himself to God to the extent that the anointing upon him is like that which Jesus ministered to his disciples, that person can minister healing and perform miracles anywhere.”
While noting that we climb spiritual heights from season to season, he said, “The uniqueness of Jesus is that he maintained a particular height and never came down from it. But for us, we fluctuate. I found out that within the time I engage in deep praying and intercession the manifestation of miracles becomes stronger.”
God’s gift and repentance
He recalled instances where God used him to heal people in unlikely places stating, “If the minister can climb to the spirituality in Christ, miracles can happen anywhere. But if the minister is not at that level, he will want to create an atmosphere that will engender the miracle. That is when pastors ask the sick to come to church so they can be prayed for. But in the real sense, it is not until you come to Church that miracles can take place. It should be an everyday experience and it can happen anywhere”
On the scripture that the gift of God is without repentance, he explains, “It does not suggest that people can be living in sin and still be operating the gifts of God. It only suggests that every man is born with a gift. It is that gift that is used by God when we now become born again. When we are not born again, the gift is impotent and of no use to God. But when we now decide to follow God, the gift begins to manifest.
“God will use what he had already placed in you. A man who operates in the gift of healing would probably have the gift of compassion. It is that gift that the holy spirit will breathe on. That gift was given to you without repentance, but you need repentance to activate the gift.”
Giving the example of Samson in the Bible, he states, “When Samson began to fall, the gift did not depart immediately. It left gradually. That is why if you look at the life of some ministers, their character does not correlate with the grace they operate in. The truth is that the anointing does not leave immediately, it leaves gradually. When a man is no longer willing to commit himself to God the anointing on him will leave eventually.”
Between the physical and spiritual
Making an allusion to Matt 16v16-19, he said it is important to pray to the point of seeing things done in the spirit before it is made manifest on earth.
He recalled the instance he had to pray for a young man who had a mental crisis. “The young man did not experience complete healing until God opened my eyes to see the healing take place in the spirit realm.
“We would pray for this boy, he would be okay, but by the time he gets home, the situation would relapse. That went on for some time until we decided to do a four-day praying and fasting. On the third in the course of the praying and fasting, I saw a sword descending from heaven in a day vision. I came to the understanding that God had broken the gates of bars and cut the bars of iron asunder. I stopped praying and told the others to stop praying.”
That was the end of the crisis in the life of the young man.
He cited the Elijah example when he was praying for rain in Israel. “He heard the sound of rain in the spirit before the manifestation in the physical. Until the physical and spiritual align there may not be a miracle.” Diolulu said.
Medicine and healing
Unlike some healing ministers, Diolulu does not despise medicine. He believes medicine is part of the healing plan of God for man. “But the controlling factor is the voice of the spirit. When Hezekiah was sick in the Bible the Lord recommended herbs for him. We don’t discourage the use of medicine. We encourage people who are sick to take medicine until they can develop faith for divine healing.”
He gave the example of a lady with HIV that God used him to heal. “Her condition had become worse at the time she came for prayers. She continued with her drugs and we continued praying for her. But one day she came and said, God told her not to take drugs again. Amazingly, she was healed days after she stopped taking the drugs. So, it is about what God is saying per time. There was another case of a brother who came to our meeting. He had HIV. He said when we were praying, he saw a lion jump out of his body. Since that day he stopped taking his drugs and he was healed after that. I think drugs are meant to sustain sick people until their bodies can respond to God’s divine touch.”
He recalled another example of a lady with epilepsy. “We prayed for her. To our shock, she was the one who said she was no longer interested in the drugs. She has since stopped having seizures six months after we ministered to her.”
Jesus and miracle workers
But then, how will he respond to Jesus’ statement that some people would claim they have done miracles in his name, but he would say he does not know them?
Diolulu explains, “The church needs to understand what Jesus meant when he said I am in my father and my father is in me. We should ensure that Christ is in us and we are in Christ. The will of God is that we enter into the union so that at the end of the day, Christ will see himself in us.
“I am not moved by miracles and even by preaching. Anybody can heal people. But the part of what I cherish most is to be one with Christ. It does not matter what role you have played in the church if you are not one with Christ, you won’t reign with him.”
Lessons in Ministry
He said he has learned over the years that ministry is about giving away your own life. “You no longer have a life of your own. We are dead to the world and alive to Christ. The work of Christ is to serve. It is not to be a master.”
Diolulu says he has also learned humility in the course of ministry saying, “I have been able to serve people to the glory of God that called me. I know at the end of the day there will be a report to give. This job I am doing is to satisfy God and not myself”
His marriage to Caroline has helped to enhance the call of God upon his life. “My wife is an evangelist and has been quite a blessing to my life and the work God has committed into my hands. She is a help suitable for me. God has blessed us with three wonderful children, all males doing great in the ministry.”