07/09/2026
I THANK GOD THAT I DIDN'T TRUNCATE ARCHBISHOP WALE OKE'S VISION - HE WOULD HAVE BEEN A PASTOR NOT ARCHBISHOP
- Pastor E. A. Adeboye
And then came 1979. We had a program at Abusi Edumare Grammar School in Ijebu-Igbo, and he was there, of course, as one of my disciples.
At 2 p.m. on December 24th, 1979, he came to me. He was sweating, and just began to prophesy:
"Thus saith the Lord."
Ah I looked at this boy!
Ha ha, ha ha!
And he began, on and on and on, in prose. By the time he finished, he gave me the prose because he had written them down before coming to tell me.
From the moment he started speaking, I knew this is God paying me a visit. After he left, I took the prose like a mathematician. I broke the prose to pieces. Sermon Times. God said, "One, I will do this. Two, I will do that. Three, I will do that." And there were 28 prophecies in that little prose he gave me. I've said that one before. Some of you have heard me say that one before. Of the 28 points in the prophecies, only one is yet to be fulfilled.
And someone once asked me, "What is the one that still remains to be fulfilled?" That's none of your business!
Ha ha ha!
1979.
So, of course, I became a bit more sensitive to this fellow. It's one who is coming directly from God to reveal my future, somebody I have to pay attention to. Sermon Times. So when, of course, he graduated, and he came to me at Ebute Metta—by then I was a little general overseer.
"Sir, I don't think I'm going to be able to work with my degree because God has called me into the ministry."
He was telling me what I already knew.
And then he said, "Sir, in spite of this calling that I'm sure God had given me, if you say, ('Pray,' and I'll now)—okay, okay—come and work for me, I will forget everything and follow you."
So I said, "Ah, okay."
I said, "Thank you very much. You will pursue your vision. Sermon Times. If God really, really wants you to work for me, you go and learn how to lead. It will then become easier for you to follow.
"But if there's anything I know about ministry that you want to know, I'm willing to tell you. But you have to come back another day."
Why? Because I'm traveling.
He said, "Where to?"
I said, "To Ilesha."
He said, "Can I follow you?"
So we travelled. He didn't plan to go to Ilesha.
So I said, "No problem. Come in to the car."
We travelled from Lagos to Ilesha, and it was question and answer all the way.
I'm just trying to let you know why I have to be here today.
Follow your vision. If God says you will ultimately come and work with me, it will be great.
I thank God that I didn't truncate his vision. If I had said, "Ah, what a good opportunity, a graduate," at that time, probably among my pastors, probably the most educated one would be somebody who had a school certificate.
Because if I had taken advantage of him, he would still be today a pastor, because the highest fellow in the Redeemed Christian Church of God is is pastor, but today he's Archbishop.