A long tradition
About Ile Oluji
The Lord laid the burden in the hearts of four sons and daughters of Ile-Oluji resident in Lagos to call a meeting of believers to seek the face of God from 24th-26th December, 1992 in prayers with fasting, to make supplication and intercessions on behalf of our people and negotiate for God’s divine intervention and mercy upon the land of our birth.
Letters were sent out to individuals, groups, fellowships, denominations and ministers both within and without the city; inviting them for the meeting with the theme: THE LORD REIGNS’92.
The initial challenge was how to convene the meeting of prayer coupled with fasting in a festive time as Christmas, but the counsel of God must not and cannot be altered. The other challege was how to get the brethren and ministers to attend the meeting because, each group/fellowship has one Christmas programme or another to attend. Notwithstanding, God gathered us from nearly all the denominations. We made priestly repentance, supplication and intercessions before God on behalf of ourselves, the people and the land. We cancelled certain satanic covenants and dedications made by our ancestors, we made prophetic declarations of liberty and release over our lives, the people, and the land.
We dedicated our lives individually and corporately in a covenant to God for His purpose for our land and the move of the Holy Spirit in our generation. Everything was carried out under the leading of the Holy Spirit. Then a planning committee was constituted to function as the initial work force to consolidate the outcome of the meeting, to plan and work out prayerfully a meeting in line with the vision, the burden of the word of the Lord and the counsel of God as revealed to us
ILE-OLUJI FOR CHRIST ’93
The Vision:
This vision is for the complete liberation of our people and the land from the powers of darkness. It is a vision of a prosperous and.glorious new town where Christ is acknowledged and God alone is worshipped. A town where people will come to seek the God of heaven.
We believed that God will send the spirit of repentance throughout the land and that all the people will renounce and reject every involvement in idolatry, occultism and ancestral worship, and make a new beginning by an everlasting covenant with God.
If a generation could institute fetish beliefs, ancestral worship and the worship of other gods thereby dedicating the land and the people to these idols due to their ignorance and have brought this cloak of darkness, backwardness, wickedness and poverty over the whole land, we strongly believe that God by His infinite mercies will raise up another generation and that we are the generation that must take away the covering of darkness by the light of the gospel, cancel all satanic covenants and the worship of idols. A generation that will establish by an everlasting covenant the worship of the Only True and Faithful God by their knowledge of Christ Jesus and dedicate the people and the land to God who alone created all things “Daniel, Nehemiah and Esther Generation.
THE BURDEN
The Lord then burdened us to call a meeting from 11th-18th July, 1993. To gather the sons and daughters of this town to seek His face in repentance so that we may obtain mercy and find help in this time of distress and to turn away the wrath of God upon the land because of our rebellion against Him in the worship of heaven images. It is the burden of the word of the Lord in our hearts that now is the time for God to favour us.
We therefore proclaimed a 40 days prayer and fasting throughout the land from Tuesday 1st June to Saturday 10th July, 1993 to know the mind of God and to deal with these powers of darkness and overthrow their control over our people and the land of our inheritance. We met with our King, Oba Suulade Adedugbe of blessed memory to register the counsel of God concerning his ridership and the town from a mandate of 1Tim. 2:1&2. The king chose life and the Holy Spirit has anointed his reign as from that day.
Ile-Oluji Kingdom has been in the heart of God from eternity hence the many moves of God in various ways to make the land a praise on earth. Many years ago, an evangelist from Ilesa came to the town, he spoke against idolatry, secret cults and preached the gospel with signs and wonders.
Many were healed and converted, even among the old people. There were people who burnt their juju and ogboni regalia. Unfortunately, majority of them went back because the root of the matter which is satanic covenant was not dealt with as we all know today.
In 1985, the Lord burdened and led a group of intercessors (non-natives) to pray round the town and they prayed prophetic prayers upon the land and proclaimed the counsel of God as revealed to them.
After the death of Oba Adeseko, a group of believers normally met every Wednesday for prayer with fasting for the land and God’s choice of a king who will do His will, be born-again and who will be an instrument in the hand of God to turn the people from idolatry unto God. This was done consistently between 1988 and 1990.
Again, in 1989 the Lord led another group of Christians to minister deliverance to the land. It consisted of a body of believers, both indegenes and non-indegenes in the town and outside the town. They prayed and interceded for the land, preached Christ and declared the word of God round the whole town. In one of the sessions, a group of elders in St. Peters Church were moved unto repentance, and they renounced the satanic covenant made over the land.
Other spiritual assignments have been carried out by individuals as well as groups of believers too many to write. Essentially, from 1989 to date, God has been raising His army, one or two in a family whose vision and burden is for the total liberation of the land from the powers of darkness and to enthrone Jesus Christ as Lord over everything in Ile-Oluji Kingdom.
JESUS FESTIVAL (ODUN JESU)
After the 1993 crusade, a Ministers’ Conference was organised in 1995 with the theme: ‘Iron Sharpeneth Iron’. The pastors and workers were taught on the counsel of God for His ministers and the need to work together as one in order to achieve God’s purpose for the land. Thereafter, another crusade was held in 1997 at the Baptist Primary School Playground in Temidire. Prayers were made for the land and many gave their lives to Christ.
Then came five years of silent work. Most of the leaders of this movement were called into different ministries as led by the Holy Spirit. Pastor Gbenga Adegbenro was called to lead the Christian kings in Nigeria and Africa while Pastor Wole Oladiyun was led to start a church, Chris Livingspring Apostolic Ministry (CLAM) in Lagos. In the midst of this break of a sort, the Lord spoke to Pastor Johnson Oriade one of the pioneers of this movement while he was doing a leadership course in Word Of Faith Bible Institute (WOFBI) in the year 2000 in Raji Oba at Iyana Ipaja, Lagos to take over this project as a ministry. God started by revealing to him the wonderful and beautiful things He will do in Ile-Oluji Kingdom and how the place will become great and prosperous on the earth to the glory of His name. But that these things will only come to pass if the Ile-Oluji for Christ project continues in Ile-Oluji Kingdom. God told him he was chosen to take over the assignment as his ministry and God promised to do the work through him and have nothing to fear. He obeyed God and agreed to take up the project as a ministry. He told other leaders of this movement and they were all happy as he, being a pioneer of this vision would be able to handle the work effectively. He was prayed for as hands were laid on him and also on Bro Dayo Olorunkiyesi as his assistant.
Pastor Johnson Oriade took the mantle of the Ile-Oluji liberation project and went into prayers asking God for direction concerning the assignment. It was then God said He is taking the Ile-Oluji project into its next phase and for this a programme tagged ‘ Jesus festival (Odun Jesu in the local parlance) should be held in Ile-Oluji Kingdom and when Jesus is lifted up in the land, all men will be drawn to Him and all fetish festivals will be swallowed up just as the rod of Moses and Aaron swallowed up that of Pharaoh and his magicians in the Bible. This was conveyed to other leaders, they agreed and a date was fixed for the festival. July 18th to 20th, 2002 was chosen for the first Jesus festival with the theme: ‘The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is Mighty. Zeph. 3:17-20. Evangelist Ebenezer Obey of Decross and Pastor Samson Bamgbayan of New Testament Assembly, Lagos were invited as guest ministers.
Immediately the publicity for the first Jesus festival started, there was uproar by the traditionalists in the land against the festival. They said there will be bad omen in the land if the festival is held alongside the time they are preparing for their own idol worship festival. They courier through DHL a letter each to Pastor Johnson Oriade and Evang. Ebenezer Obey in Lagos telling them to suspend the programme with some warnings. The Divisinal Police Officer also wrote the Coordinator, Pastor Johnson Oriade to suspend the programme. The Coordinator called other leaders in Lagos to a meeting in CLAM and a decision was taken, letters were written to the King and all the traditional authority in the land, the DPO and the Commissioner of Police telling them why the festival should hold. In the end, Jesus was glorified as the festival could not be stopped. Meanwhile, Evang. Ebenezer Obey said that after he received the letter, God told him he should attend the festival because He has a purpose for Ile-Oluji in this endtime, so he came and declared the counsel of God despite the threat from the traditionalists.
The festival came to pass, multitudes of men and women, old and young thronged the venue of the programme, Baptist Primary School Playground in Temidire and many were saved, some surrendered their idols for destruction as many were healed and delivered from all forms of bondages. Oba Stephen S. Adedugbe of blessed memory was so glad because of the festival that he declared that the festival will be an annual event in Ile-Oluji Kingdom henceforth at the round-off rally in his Palace.
Ile-Oluji Kingdom has not been the same since this vision was birthed, the community has been moving from glory to glory by the hand of the Almighty through His Son, Jesus Christ. The sons of the land are now married to the land as everyone is eager to invest for the progress of the land in a dimension unprecedented. This is a fulfilment of prophecy for Ile-Oluji Kingdom. Many more are coming as Ile-Oluji is becoming a land of kings and priests, a land flowing with milk and honey, a praise on earth and a Bride of Nations.