In 1936, Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola went to Ghana on a missionary trip and when he left the country the Aganyin people (the Ghanaians) remarked;
“This is not a human being, this is a god from a foreign land”
The question that naturally follows this kind of observation or comment are; what could they have seen in the life and ministry of Ayo Babalola that provoked such a comment? What could they have seen in the life of Babalola that they didn’t see in any other preacher?
Again, when T . L Osborn, the Great White Preacher visited Nigeria in the 50s, his major cry was that God should raise someone Like Ayo Babalola for America. In his words;
“America would be lucky and blessed to have a single person like Babalola”
In the same spirit, Archdeacon Dallimore, Anglican church leader of Ekiti in 1938 who later became one of the founding principals of Christ’s school Ado Ekiti
maintained that:
“From all the prophets in the Bible , most of them are not comparable to prophet Babalola because what he ( Babalola) did in one day, many prophets in the Bible could not do it in three years”
Another CMS missionary wrote to his family in Britain and made a similar remark:
” Babalola’s two weeks ministerial work at Ikare was more effective than all the works done by all the missionaries for more than seventy years”
Again, I ask, what is it that Babalola has that other didn’t have?
One major factor that determines how much power one receives from the Lord is the level of responsibility that God assigned to that person.
When God raised Babalola as the first Apostle in Nigeria, the spiritual atmosphere of the country was completely dark. Although there were religious sparks but there was nothing like Pentecostal or Holy Ghost revival in Nigeria as at that time.
Therefore, when God called him in 1928, God gave him three undeniable grace: Apostolic anointing (to illuminate the dark continent of Africa for God); Prophetic anointing (to show the people in darkness that there is a God that knows more than any other god in the country and Evangelistic auction. With these three anointing upon his head, he became a different person.
Whether we like it or not, light is different from light and just like the way you cannot compare sun to the moon, you cannot compare the office a man that God raised as an Apostle and a pathfinder to the person that is meant to build on such apostolic commission.
For instance, Peter was specially endowed with power above other Jesus’ disciples not because he prayed more than other apostles but because he was to be the leader of the Church immediately after the ascension of Jesus.
His commission determined the level of anointing, boldness, miracles and wonders that his ministry commanded. He was anointed so much that his shadow healed the sick.
There is one eternal truth about God; He will never send you to do anything for him in the kingdom without a corresponding divine enablement. This enablement is what we call power or anointing.
The level of anointing or grace that one enjoys is therefore a function of assigned responsibility.
While i completely agree that one can grow in grace we must never make the costly mistake of comparing anointing of one man of God to another. anointing should never be compared. In God eternal plan for humanity, he assigned different people to do different thing for him at different time.
The same God that called Babalola who didn’t preach prosperity is the same God that commissioned Bishop David Oyedepo to liberate people from the iron cage of poverty. Anointing comes upon men for different purposes in God’s eternal plan for humanity. Do not compare anointing of men of God, rather, try to understand what God is saying per time. The same God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament ,revealing his majesty as he wishes.
The truth is that no one can function beyond his level of God given anointing. The scripture in John 3:34 talked about the anointing of Jesus. It was an anointing without measure and that is why Jesus performed miracles, signs and wonders without measure.
Likewise, the office that a man occupies determine his anointing. Before God could ask any man to occupy any office in his kingdom, he has already prepared and endowed such person with what he or she needs.
So, while it is good to see Babalola’s success story on what he did( his prayer, fasting and holy life) on earth, it is equally good to look at his success story as an act of God.
It was good that he prayed. Yet , his anointing was as a result of the task that God wanted him to perform and the office that God wanted him to occupy.
So the power that God gave him was not what he asked for or desired but what God wanted and planned for others. Babalola’s younger sister, Mrs. M. K. Olarewaju corroborated this view convincingly when she said that:
“Most people talk of his prayer life as being the reason for the power of God on his life. And to be sure he prayed a lot. As a matter of fact he possessed the spirit of prayer and his presence in any place changed the level of prayer of the entire area. But prayer is not the reason for the power of God on his life or his unusualness. Some other people speak of his fasting as being the reason . And truly he fasted. In fact he was unsurpassed when it comes to fasting . But fasting is not the reason for the power of God on his life or his success.
The reason IS BECAUSE HE WAS THE ONE CHOSEN BY GOD”.
Hummmm! The reason is because he was the one chosen by God. Moses success in Egypt , at Pharaoh’s palace was because he was the one chosen by God. Joshua success and power was because he was the one chosen by God. Peter level of anointing was because he was the one choosing by God. The level of Jesus anointing was because he was the one chosen by God. ” How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good”. ” And he whom God sent, he gave the Spirit without measure “.
You cannot do any thing for God without God and you are not the one that determine the level of power that you get but it is your responsibility to maintain what God gives you through prayer, fasting and fruit of the spirit.
I have read the book of Acts, and there is no place , after the day of Pentecost where the apostles ask for more Holy Spirit. None. In Chapter four, they prayed and the house was shaken. The scripture says they were filled with the Holy Ghost. God already gave you all that you needed but Satan , the thief ( John10:10) is always at your back. Whatever he steals from your fullness is what you regain through prayer.
On your own day of Pentecost ( God gives you all the power that you need to start your assignment and whenever he wants to promote you spiritually, he visits you again not with more Holy Spirit but with grace and word. All that God needs to promote you is a word from the throne. Reinhard Bonke once said that it is wrong to ask for “More Holy Spirit”. There is nothing like that in the Bible.
The scripture says, you will receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you. When the Spirit comes, power comes. When you commit sin, you cannot access power. God is that power. And he is holy. Sin cannot stay where God is.
The Holy Ghost is your access to that power. When you commit sin, you deliberately block your access to power. T. L. Osborn said, ” something dies in you each time you commit a sin”. Sin makes you loose spiritual power.
At the level that you are now, All that is important for God is for you to be able to maintain what you have through holiness, obedience to his will and love for other people. When it is time for you to have additional responsibility or move to your next phase of your calling, you will grow in grace by knowing God the more . Moses knew this secret and cried ” show me your glory”. Paul says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. To grow in grace you need to pray like these spiritual giants: Lord, that I may know you. While? God doesn’t bless ignorance.
Brothers and Sisters, you don’t need more Holy Spirit. God already give you access to power by giving you his sweet Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit that worked in the life of Ayo Babalola is what you have inside of you right now. The Holy Spirit is one but power levels are not the same. Power varies based on assigned responsibility. So if you are not working in the wonders and miracles of Ayo Babalola’s , that doesn’t mean you are not working in power. If God called you to be a teacher, don’t look to perform miracle. The greatest in the kingdom of God is a man who does successfully what God asked him to do.
Before Jesus Christ came, John was the greatest of all men that was born of women( Mathew 11:11). He was greater than Moses, a man who wrote the mystery of genesis and crossed the red sea with his rod. John the Baptist was greater than Elijah ( in whose spirit he worked Luke 1:17) , John the Baptist was greater than Elisha, a man who received the double portion anointing. Yet John the Baptist did not perform a single miracle “And many resorted to unto him, and said John did no miracle…John 10:41). He did no miracle but in the real sense of it he did the greatest miracle by preparing the hearts of men towards the day of the Lord. Evangelism and winning soul for the kingdom is the greatest miracle of all. And the greatest form of power that God gives to a man is not the power to raise dead back to life but to save souls into the kingdom of God.
The power of Pentecost itself is the power to reach out to the world. Holy Ghost is primarily given for evangelism. Unfortunately, many of us have lost the spiritual virtues that we received at Pentecost as a result of sin, prayerlessness, and worldliness.
Brothers and Sisters, It doesn’t take God more than a second to give you power but whatever God gives you ,you will need eternity to maintain it. That is why you need the Spirit of prayer.
God is always ready to give us power but are we ready to receive and maintain it?
I pray for everyone that can type amen, you will recover all the grace, spiritual virtues and power that you have lost to sin, self will and Satan.
You will fulfill your destiny gloriously in Jesus name.
