Fasting and prayer: Year I fasted for 189 days-Bishop Wale Oke
An old video posted on the Facebook wall of Bishop Wale Oke on May 20, 2020, where he spoke about his challenges in ministry has revealed how he fasted for 189 days in a particular year and how God in a mysterious way answered him and lifted his burden.
Bishop Oke is the Presiding Bishop of Christ Life Church based in Ibadan, Oyo State. He has been in ministry for several decades’ right from his student days.
In the video which was monitored by Church Times, Bishop Oke recalled that he once had a challenge that almost chocked him. He said the challenge was so much that he did not know where to turn.
The challenge according to him was about to wipe him out of ministry and make him useless. He turned to the left, right and centre there was no help. He then decided to humble himself and go to God in repentance to pray. “I made up my mind that he would resolve the matter that I will not quit until the matter was resolved”
He began to pray and fast. He fasted for 189 days. On the 189th day, he said he had shrunk and was emaciated. But the grace of God was upon his life. He came down from the duplex he was living then and began to pray in the dead of the night around midnight. He began to pray so much that the prayer was gathering momentum. He prayed for about three hours.
At a point, while praying he heard a voice outside his house singing. The voice was singing in a beautiful baritone voice and the voice called out to him.
He said, “the voice called me in my native name that only my mother uses. Most people around me don’t know that name. That was the name my mother used to call me. He called me and said are you still praying on this matter? He said to me, I have answered your prayers. Stand, rejoice and dance before me. I will make all your enemies barren of every good thing” That was the end of his fasting.
Bishop Oke, however, explained that he was not fasting to bribe God. He said “We can’t bribe God with fasting. It is only the blood of Jesus that can wipe away sins. I was only trying to humble myself before God. Fasting does not atone for sins.”
He said “there is a way you humble yourself before God that when you pray it would be impossible for Him not to answer. Have you not read how Moses was so close to God that he had to pray and plead with God to repent of the evil of wiping the children of Israel.
“He was doing the second round of 40 days fast when he made that plea. I am not talking of boastful fast and prideful fast. You don’t fast to show you’re spiritual. I am talking about humbling your soul before God because you are desperate for his help. In my case, there was no place I could turn. I was alone. But God came to my help”