I wept because I could not speak in tongues-Obadara Four things that annoy God about Nigeria- Obadara

That afternoon at the church venue, Ezekiel Kayode Obadara a.k.a baba ona abayo was in the midst of a counseling session when Church Times reporter visited. A handful of people were waiting to see him and nobody seems to be in hurry. Obadara too was not in a hurry as he took his time to listen to the people he was counseling while praying and counseling.

For Obadara, General Overseer of Urgent Message Evangelical Mission, counseling has become a second nature. “I spend hours doing counseling. It has become part of me and a necessity. There are a thousand and one challenges facing people and most of them bother on marital problems, family problem and the challenge of what to do for a living.

“Those are the areas where we have had to carry out counseling. That is why it bothers me and churches just keep money in the bank while members are suffering. There should be a conscious effort by churches to create jobs for people” he noted as the interview began.

Since 1989 when Obadare, who trained under Prophet Timothy Obadare embarked on six month fasting and praying, he has not had cause to look back in the work of the ministry.

“I must say God called me by fire. I had wanted to be a lawyer. But I ended up studying accounting at the polytechnic but then I never had the opportunity of working until God called me to separate myself for fasting and prayers in 1989.”

As he came out of the fasting programme, God had prepared a number of people who came to him to be taught of the Lord. The first set of people who learnt under him graduated in 1993. But the unique thing is that in the beginning he never set up a church. But rather he helped in building churches and handing them over to denominations.

“God used me to start a number of churches which I handed over to some denominations because initially God did not allow me to start a church” he said.

Recalling his salvation experience he said, “God literarily pulled me out of darkness. I had just given my life to Christ but then I could not speak in tongues and that made me really sad. Infact I wept because I could not speak in tongues. But there and then I saw a great light which overshadowed me and the Holy Ghost enveloped me and the power of God endued me. That marked the beginning of my experience in the Holy Ghost”

Now the proprietor of Urgent Message Evangelical Theological Seminary, Baba Obadara as he is fondly called believes the rapture time is just at hand. With a prophetic unction he says, Nigeria is the end time instrument in the hands of God. Nigeria is loved by God. There is hope for this nation but many things are stopping us from getting the best of God. In the spirit realm Nigeria is loved. Our youths are being prepared to be sent to the ends of the earth for evangelical purpose. Nigeria will evangelise the world”

He however notes that four things annoy God concerning Nigeria . They are the shedding of the blood of the innocent, Idol worship in the land, leaders not leading by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the recklessness of servants of God who have ended up compromising the faith and who have allowed money to turn their hearts away from God.

While declaring that there is urgent need to go back to God, he said, “I have a strong urge in my spirit that the enemy is about to release some strange sicknesses into the land. There is a need to spend the last days and the early days of the year to pray and intercede for the land so that the enemy will not have his way.

He said Christians should also pray to avert sudden death noting that, “If someone dies before his time, the disadvantage is that the first thing that will confront him in the hereafter is the things he ought to have accomplished which he couldn’t. And that could be painful.”

He stressed further that there is no challenge in life that can not be subdued. “It is possible to avert certain deaths especially if it is not the will of God. “There are times people give up on life. Such people talk about death a lot and before anything could be done the person dies. There are people who are also killed in their dreams. Such death could be averted especially when one is conscious in the dream and is able to fight the spirit. There are some who die as result of sin and there are those who die as punishment for other people’s sins. There are deaths that come because God wants it. In all these there is a need to seek the face of God and to cancel that which is not of God” he stated.