By Wilson Adekumola
Pastor Julius Ajala was content with working for God, while also working for himself. But the unusual happened when a man appeared to him in a trance and told him he would have to quit his job and work for God full time.
He thought it was a joke until the man came to him one day and told him he won’t be going to his thriving welding business the following day. “I argued with the man and said to him that it was not possible. But the following day, I could not control myself. The man came to me and asked me to go and see a man at Ojuwoye, Mushin, Lagos. He mentioned a particular spot there. He said the man would tell me what to do.”
That was the beginning of a lifelong journey of faith for Ajala who is currently the Zonal Superintendent, Christ Apostolic Church, CAC, Zonal Headquarters, Omuo Oke, Ekiti State.
He said the mystery man’s instruction was so urgent that he could not resist him. He went to the place he asked him to go as instructed and saw a man sitting in a station wagon car with the inscription, Go Ye Evangelical Ministry. The man turned out to be the great evangelist Timothy Iyanda. He looked at him and said to him, so you are the one they have been talking about? Go and wait for me at the Go Ye Centre at Alimosho which is also in Lagos”
That was it. He aligned with the church subsequently and worked there and also worked with Apostle S.O Ajakaiye at Ilupeju. When he was called to a fresh work, he was posted to pastor CAC, Oke Isegun, Ijelu Ekiti on February 6, 1981.
Armed with OND in Civil Engineering, Diploma in Theology from Christ Disciple Bible College, Isolo, Lagos and Full Gospel Theological Seminary, Abak, Cross River State, Ajala’s thirst for education also made him go for a first and second degree in Religion Education at the Obafemi Awolowo University.
He then moved to Tennessee University in the USA where he was awarded Doctor of Divinity in 2003.
Ajala, an indigene of Ilupeju Ekiti, was born on April 4, 1961. He has put in about 40 years in ministry. God has used him to train a number of pastors including Rev. Francis Ekundayo of Harvest Field International Church, Ota, Ogun State, Pastor Samson Adeyemo, Christ Apostolic Church, Everlasting Glory, Agric, Ikorodu, Lagos, and a host of others.
He said serving God is just a natural thing to him as he was born, groomed, and nurtured in CAC. His father had vowed to give his male child to God. “I was the only male among his four children. He fulfilled his vow. My father was a lay reader in CAC, Oke Isegun, Oye Ekiti then. So, working for God is just a normal thing for me just that I never intended to be a pastor.” He recounted.
The CAC pastor said he had the rare privilege of hearing from God recalling how God once spoke to him in broad daylight in a trance. In the trance, a man appeared to him and said he would work for God and win souls for him. He dismissed the man and said to the man he was ready to work for God but was not ready to leave his work. But the man insisted that he had to give up his secular pursuit.
It was the same man he saw in the trance that later appeared to him and caused him to make the historic visit to Ojuwoye, Mushin which led to his encounter with Evangelist Iyanda.
Ajala: I feel fulfilled when souls are saved
He described his experience in ministry as being full of ups and downs. “You could be happy with all you are doing and suddenly you could encounter sorrow. But in all these I always give God the glory,” he said
For Ajala, money has never been a challenge as God has always supplied all his needs from inception. Though he made some moves he would have regretted in his early years of ministry, he said, God’s intervention has saved him from going down.
What gives him joy is when souls are won for Christ. “I feel fulfilled when I make an altar call and see people coming out to give their lives to Christ,” he said.
One striking event he would not easily forget was when on December 31, 1987, “my boss asked me to bring my lesson for the sermon that day and I did. He then asked how the message would be relevant to what we were doing that day. I told him that I wrote the message as I was led in the spirit.
By the time the message was delivered at CAC, Oke Igbala at Aruwajoye, Oke-Ogun, Owo, Ondo State, I was surprised that the sermon could make thousands submit their lives to Christ. That was a miracle. I have ministered on many occasions like that in many churches and I have seen lives being transformed.”