December 29, 2022 • 62 mins
Dr. Jonathan Oloyede discusses his conversion from Islam to Christianity, the power of prayer, and how a spiritual revival and a fresh wave of grace will sweep across the UK. He has filled stadiums with hundreds of thousands people, gathered many from other countries for a National Day of Prayer in the UK but that was just the beginning. It was his digital footprint that solidified his prayer led movement that swept across Britain.
Born in Britain and raised in Nigeria, Dr. Oloyede is a medical doctor by profession but has served full time in pastoral Ministry as an apostolic missionary to the United Kingdom and Europe for over 28 years.
Affectionately known as “Dr. J” he is the leader of City Chapel and the Convener of the National Day of Prayer UK which organized hundreds of thousands to pray across multiple locations and stadiums in Britain. In 2021, he also helped to lead and organize an online gathering called "Virtual Pentecost" which saw over 47,000 people attend online.
Dr. J is blissfully married to his beautiful wife Abbiih and they live in Kent with their two Children. Dr. Oloyede’s overriding passion is to raise a global network of One Million Disciples of Christ across the continents and nations. He is the author of “Vision of Lights” a book which captures a prophetic hope of revival for the UK.
Born in Britain and raised in Nigeria, Dr. Oloyede is a medical doctor by profession but has served full time in pastoral Ministry as an apostolic missionary to the United Kingdom and Europe for over 28 years.
Affectionately known as “Dr. J” he is the leader of City Chapel and the Convener of the National Day of Prayer UK which organized hundreds of thousands to pray across multiple locations and stadiums in Britain. In 2021, he also helped to lead and organize an online gathering called "Virtual Pentecost" which saw over 47,000 people attend online.
Dr. J is blissfully married to his beautiful wife Abbiih and they live in Kent with their two Children. Dr. Oloyede’s overriding passion is to raise a global network of One Million Disciples of Christ across the continents and nations. He is the author of “Vision of Lights” a book which captures a prophetic hope of revival for the UK.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:31):
Welcome to Team Leadership Radio. That's t E E M, Train, equip,
Empower and Mobilized Leadership. I'm your hosts doctor Cecilia Martin
and joining me tonight all the way from London is
doctor Jonathan Oloyda born in Britain, but Britain Nigeria. Doctor
(00:54):
Oloyer Day is a medical doctor by profession, but has
served full time in pastoral ministry as an apostolic missionary
to the United Kingdom and Europe for over twenty eight years.
Affectionately known as Doctor J, he is the leader of
Chapel City and the convener of the National Day of
(01:15):
Prayer UK, which organized hundreds of thousands to pray across
multiple locations and stadiums in Britain. In fact, in twenty
twenty one, he also helped to lead and organize an
online gathering called Virtual Pentecous, which saw an astounding number
(01:35):
of over forty seven thousand people attend online. Doctor J
is blissfully married to his beautiful wife Abby and they
live in Kent with their two children. He is the
author of Vision of Lights, a book which captures a
prophetic hope of revival for the UK. Doctor Oloyer Day's
(01:55):
overriding passion is to rise or to raise a gale
global network, a one million disciples of Christ across the
continents and nations. Welcome, Doctor Oloyereday, how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Hi? Dr Martin? Good to have you online at twelve
midnight my time, but I believe something more normal your time.
But I'm but I'm enjoying. I'm enjoying this, you know.
I don't know anyway, So it's great.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
To be here with you the same here.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's if I sound a little nasally, I'm overcoming uh
oh gosh, a sickness, but I am feeling so much
better and excited about this conversation. And you're right, it's
only six o'clock here, so yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes,
So tell me first of all before we jump in.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You're a fan of what is it? Manchester United?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh? How did you know that? Did I write that
in bio? Somebody stick down? Yeah? I love football. My
dad used to support Manchester United. So when I came
to leaving the UK finally in nineteen ninety one, people
asked me what's your club? And I did think about it.
I just said, oh, Manchester United, I said, do you
know who they are? Not really, but I will start
(03:18):
watching their games. Thankfully, in the nineties they kept winning,
winning all the trophies, so yeah, I really I followed
Manchester United.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay, all right, well, sounds like you have a good team.
I don't know if you watch American football, but I'm
a Dallas Cowboy fan, which is also known as America's team.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Oh really, yeah, didn't you guys win the Super Bowl?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
We actually have won.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
We haven't won in recent years and we won't that. However,
we do have five Super Bowl rings.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh good, Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yes, I think so.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
People like to talk about us, you know, because we
haven't won in so many years.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
But hey, there are teams who've never won at all.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right, but that sounds like Manchester United. Actually, we used
to win a lot of trophies in the nineties and
recently we haven't won in a while, so people are
waiting for us to rise again.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yes, okay, so here's the book about teams. So you
were born in Britain but raised in Nigeria, Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah? What used to have happened was Nigerian. The way
the Nigerian circle or can I say community evolved in
the nineteen twenties, so twenty to twenty first century was
a lot of educated southern living Nigerians in the southern
part of Nigeria traveled by boat to the UK to
(04:51):
America to study in the sixties, mostly to the UK,
got their diplomas or their degrees and then went back
to ni So my parents came to the UK nineteen
fifty nine and stayed here for eleven years. They became
nuris psychiatric nurses and got their diplomas in marketing and
(05:12):
advertising as well. And so they came back to the
to Nigeria nineteen seventy, by which time they had had
four of us, four boys and a girl. I was
the last boy. So can you imagine my mom and
dad tried for a girl after the first boy first time,
they tried the second time. So when it came to me,
(05:38):
they were so sure that it was going to be
a girl. They had they had pink, they had pink,
they had brought my mom had bought pink and baby
outfits and I think out so my I was a disappointment.
So three boys and then the last was a girl.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The spoiled I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I'm sure they did. Wow,
that's that's that's beautiful. So you so your parents received
their education and then you went on yourself to become
a medical doctor. What was your specific area focused?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So I didn't So let's let's put it this way.
I trained as a medical doctor. By the time you're
in your fourth year, you become a clinical doctor. So
I was in the hospital for about four years. By
the time I finished, I came straight to England to
visit my sister on a holiday because I was on
a three month holiday in nineteen ninety one and my
(06:41):
sister used to live on the fringe of London and
that was where God called me to Britain, and so
I didn't fully start my medical career. I was going
to go to Northern Nigeria as a missionary doctor, and
I was going to become a pediatrician, pediatrician or I
(07:03):
was going to become going to psychiatry just like my
parents did. But God had other plans for me.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Wow wow, So how was that transition from you going
from industry into ministry. Was that a scary leap for
you or was it a smooth transition?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Well, let's put this way. I I was a Muslim,
so that I got born again or met the Lord
when I was in medical school and in my that
was in my in my first to second year in
in in university, and I got very involved in the
(07:46):
in the student movement, and it was ministry all through.
We were casting out demons, praying for people, getting people saved,
baptizing people, all in medical school. So I was almost
I was I was like I was almost a part
time minister even though I was in university. I came
(08:07):
over to England. I connected with my friends that had
come over before me, and I started a fellowship and
that's why I just transitioned to doing that. And I
was going to go back, and the Lord had other
plans if he put a burden for England in my heart,
and that was the that was the turning point.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Wow, I see. And how did your family accept your
conversion from being from Islam to Christianity.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh that's a long story.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, it's another story, but let me just rewind slightly.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
When we came back from England, the wider nuclear f
the wider community because in the West many people live
as nuclear families. In Africa, we live at extended communities,
so you don't live as husband and wife and children.
You live as husband and wife, and father and mother
(09:05):
and siblings. Everybody's connected. And so the wider family were Muslim,
and they said, look, you have to you have to
engage with what we're doing. You've been away for eleven years.
We like you to get involved in the masque, get
involved in the community. So my dad came home one
day and said, we're all going to be Muslim, and
(09:25):
there was no debate. We are going to the mosque
m HM, and and that that was it. And I
grew up. I'm used to that lifestyle. But there was
one question nobody could answer. And that question was why
(09:46):
doesn't Ala speak to me? And I kept asking the
question I asked my mom, which is almost like your
your equivalent of a pastor or leader. He was the
leader of our community. He could answer the question. I
spoke to my uncle, who was quite favant in the Muslim,
(10:08):
in the Muslim faith, he could answer the question. He
always said to me was we've got the prophet Muhammad,
and we've got the Quran, and we just follow that.
And I said, no, but we must be able to
talk to God directly. He made us, I can talk
to you. You can talk to me, I should be
able to talk to God. And I got into medical school,
I ran into this group of people who said, oh,
(10:31):
God said this to me. God said that to me,
and that caught my attention. What do you mean God
spoke to you? They used to have these meetings every
Friday do the Sea, from twelve midnight to five o'clock
in the morning. I think they held them every other
averd of Friday, and one Faithful Friday in February of
(10:54):
nineteen eighty six, I woke up and all of my
friends had gone to the town or gone back home
for whatever. But I was alone in the in the
costel with nothing to do. So I just thought, let
me go check out what these guys are doing in
this fellowship of Theirs. It's about was a one mile
walk around midnight in the village. So I walked there,
(11:18):
and when I got there, it was very chaotic meeting.
You know, in the in the in the mosque, the
women sit apart from the men, but here everybody was
all over the place and people were being prayed for.
The back I saw one or two people on the
floor being prayed for. Somebody was preaching. I just sat
down and as I sat down in that chaos, God
(11:42):
began to speak to my heart and he said, received
my son Jesus. It was so real, and I said, God,
I've been wanting you to speak to me all my life,
and now you're speaking to me in this place, in
this and he said, to receive my son's I went
to the front because the people were I saw people
(12:02):
go into the front. I didn't. I just went to
the front. And he said what do I want? Said
do I want to become a Christian? I said no, God,
but Dad, I said, actually become a Christian. I said
I don't want to become a Christian. I want Jesus.
And that was because when God said received my son Jesus,
I said, I will receive your son Jesus on one condition.
You will speak to me every day. Deal or no deal?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And God basically said deal. He didn't, he didn't, he
didn't quite use those words. I'm just I'm just summarizing
our conversation. And so when they said to do I want,
I said I want Jesus. So they didn't know what
to do with me, so they put me to a side.
So people came to pray for me, and and they said, okay,
if you want Jesus will give you Jesus. And so
(12:46):
they said I should say prayer. After them, I should
talk to Jesus, which I did, and after I did so,
I had this amazing experience and I began to speak
in tongues. And that was how I transitioned. That was
how I became a Christian. And I never looked back.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Since Wow, never looked back. And so, how has any
of your family also converted or no?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So what then happened was I went So that connects
to the next part of my story. I went back
to the hostel the following day, the following morning and
slept like a baby. And then two hours later the
began to wake me up. Our hostel, Doctor C was
on fire. What yeah, at the bottom it was it
(13:35):
was it was. It was one story building. And the
way they build houses in Nigeria, they there's it's a
concrete roof sometimes if they not finished the building. Anyway,
I ran to the top of this concrete roof and
the next rooftop was about thirty feet away, and the
fire was in the on the first on the first floor,
(13:59):
on the ground floor, and was so fierce and we
didn't have ambulances, and so my friends who had come
back from town were all there, and we didn't know
what to do. And the voice says to me, jump
and I said, I can't jump. This is a voice
said with authority. I said jump. So I run and
jump and I land on the other side. Wow and yeah.
(14:22):
And I look back and my friends could not jump.
But the voice says to me, pray for your friends.
So I kneel down to pray for my friends. And
as I kneel down to pray for them, I wake
up with a dream. Look. I'm looking around for the
fire because it was so real. And this voice says
to me, pray for your family and friends to escape
(14:42):
from the fire. You can escape from the fire, and
you can now do what you cannot do before. Pray
for your friends and your family to escape from that
same fire. And I knew instantly that what I had
done in that church was real. I had escaped on
the fire of hell. And the reason why I could
jump that incredible distance was because it was not humanly possible.
(15:07):
I needed the supernatural. Yes, And so I began to
pray for my family, my mom and my dad. Excuse
me to escape from the fire of hell. One morning,
I wake up and this voice says to me, your
parents are going to walk through your door. That door
at twelve forty seven. So I packed away, hide all
(15:29):
my books and my christ I didn't want to tell
my parents I become a Christian. And my parents walk
in at twelve forty seven with no warning because there
were no mobile phones in those days. This was the
nineteen eighties. And my mom was so impressed with my room.
She gave me money. But I had to go home
(15:50):
in the holidays and my father wanted us to do
some ritual, some Islamic ritual which would just have compromised
my faith. And I said I couldn't do it, and
he said why And I didn't want to tell them,
and he pressed me to tell me why I didn't
want to do it, and I told her I had
become a Christian. He he got mad. He called a
(16:12):
massive family meeting. Everybody came to talk to me. I
was the talk of the of the family that that summer. Wow,
when my mom traveled to Dubai, my dad said, look,
he's fell abo of having me around. Everybody's talked to me.
I'm not listening. He said, he's given me three days
to to to recan't and go call me come back
(16:32):
to being a Muslim, or I had to leave home.
He was going to do it was gonna it was
going to renounce me as a son. And so after
three days. Because I was a very compliant child, so
he was very surprised at my defiance and my stubbornness.
But I said, look, Dad, I've always done what you
(16:53):
wanted me to do. Put on this one, I can't.
And so I had left home and it was a
very tough time for me. Yeah. Well, got to a
long story shot. Some of my dad's friends that started
together here in the UK, who were not Muslims, who
(17:14):
nominal Christians, came to see him during that period and
he told them what I had done and what he
had done, and they got mad at him. They said Aligi,
that's what they called him, because he had gone to Mecca.
He said, Aliji, you are disowning your son because he
wants to become a monk. My son got to get pregnant.
You know, my son is a lay about. Your son
(17:37):
is going to become a medical doctor. Can we exchange sons? Right?
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Isn't that so bad after all.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, so I think they persuaded my dad so many
many months and months. I think almost a year later
my dad came to came to the hostel to to
take me back and said, long as I did not
preach at home, I was, I was welcome home. In
(18:08):
two thousand and three. It was seventeen years or thereabout afterwards,
my mom brought my dad to England because he had
a health challenge. He was in a serious accident and
so he had to get medical care here. While he
was here, I invited my mom to church on a
Mother's Day, which she didn't want to when she finally came,
(18:31):
and she got saved on Mother's Day in two thousand
and three. My dad got saved a year later and
then died a year after that. Yeah, so we'd like
to say that dad was the last to receive Jesus
and the first the same face to face. But my
mom became a Christian. My brother is the Christian, my first,
(18:54):
my first, my eldest brother who's passed on as well
with my dad, you know, was a Christian, and my
sister's also Christian, and all Christians. My mom is eighty six,
you know, she's a raven. She's a raven evangelist. She
goes everybody about Jesus.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Oh wow, what a beautiful story. Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's absolutely beautiful that
your family, you and your family reconciled through that, because
I know that had to be tough.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
It was I was nineteen. So it's the foundation of
my faith, and yeah, I cannot forget it.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, well, we know that it can be you know,
even the whole topic of faith can be challenging for
a family, for parents in general. And we're losing seemingly
a whole generation of students or individuals, young people who
have no faith at all, you know, so they're not
(19:59):
believing in any and in fact, I don't know if
you caught this article, but there was an article in
the Washington Post specifically about those in England and Wales
who no longer consider themselves Christian, or less than half
of the individuals they are considered themselves as Christian. What
(20:20):
do you think are some of the reasons that people
are falling away from the faith or not having any
faith at all.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I would say many reasons for that. I would say
that every nation has its seasons. That's what Van Buntie said.
He believed that every nation had a season when God
will send revival or there was a harvest, and you
guys had its seasons in the past. And we believe
all of our hearts there's going to be a fresh
(20:53):
wave of grace that's going to hit these shows. Well,
just like you have in the Book of Judges, I'm
taking people through the bike and when you look at
the history of the iSites, how they had the high
point with Joshua coming into the Promised Land, and then
they fell away during the time of the Judges, and
just doing all kinds of things, you find it less
(21:13):
a cycle. One generation serves God and then they don't
pass their faith onto the next generation, and that generation
falls away and then God raises new leaders and new
people that bring people back to faith. And I believe
it's part of the generational cycle. And those that went
to the First World War and the Battle of the
(21:35):
Salm and some of the terrible wars that the UK
went through in the twentieth century affected a lot of
people's faith. They fell away from God. Secularization, you know,
modernization and all these new contemporary thinking, and I believe
(22:00):
if that's one of the reasons why people fall away
from serving God. When there's when people are comfortable, when
there when there's no no challenge to We have a
full blown NHS here in the UK. In Nigeria. Before
you leave them, you have to pray, because you have
(22:20):
to pray that your car walks properly on the bumpy roads.
You pray that you don't get robbed. You pray that
you pray for your health because you don't have health insurance. Now,
people that live just above the poverty line, you find
that many of them have have faith, even if it's
not Christian faith. They want to have faith in some
(22:42):
kind of supernatural power. You see this with the Hindus,
you see this with even with the Muslims. You see
this all over the world. In the West, there's a
falling away, there's there's a there's a there's an affinity
with having no belief been being being an aetheist. Is
that that that that that whole spirit is rising when
(23:03):
the Bible, Bible is questioned, prayers taken out of schools
and there are no proper assemblies anymore compulsory, and the
nation has lost its identity in terms of being a
Christian nation of of of years past. They don't want
to identify like many muscliminations are proud to say we're muslimination.
(23:24):
This is what we believe. If you come to our nation,
this is what you have to adopt. Look at the
look at the World Cup in Qatar and the whole
tension around uh expression of of sex, of sexuality in
the public space, and those people putting the putting their
foot down that our culture and our faith does not
(23:45):
allowed for that. We have lost that in the in
the West, and as that has passed on to the children,
and so they have grown up in an atmosphere where
their parents don't go to church, don't pray, don't believe
in anything. So they're open to all kinds of spiritual forces.
And God is going to require that of this generation.
And that's one of the reasons why I believe God
(24:07):
has sent and people like myself are many others to
this country for such a time as this, to raise
a banner, to spark some change, to galvanize the indigenous
people back to their faith, and to pray in a
whole new generation of believers. And I believe that is
(24:28):
going to happen when. Don't ask me when, but I
need and know it's going to happen because God has.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Shouldn't well speaking of a government and those holding firm
to the faith. So we know that under the monarch
now with King Charles, he is the defender of the
faith and the supreme governor of the Church of England.
And to my understanding, there at least twenty six bishops
(24:54):
that sit in the House of Parliament, of the Parliament,
House of Lords. So do they have any influence on
laws that are past that support the Christian faith or
how do they intertwine with government laws?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Or is it.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Similar to what we have in the US, which is
practically a separation of church and state.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yes, there is a separation of church in state. That
apart from when the monarch dies or gets married, or
some or or child is born. That's when you have
this overlap of very curious overlap of the merge of
church and state. When Queen Elizabeth the Second died, there
was this wonderful overlapping of the church and government which
(25:42):
saw everybody go to church. It took us to church
and all the services, the Anglican services. The crowd like
the new king is going to be is going to
go for his coronation, and that's going to be in
a church. You know, Queen Elizabeth and y f took
us all to church. She organized everything before she died,
(26:05):
the hymns that were song and people had to come
and listen to a salmon. All church leaders, whether they
Hindus or Muslims or whatever, sitting in Westminster Westminster Abbey
and listening to a full blown sermon about salvation, very
very powerful. That's when you have the overlap, and that's
when Great Britain or the United Kingdom shows its foundational
(26:28):
history and the connection of the Anglican or the or
the Christian faith with power. But on the on the
regular government and the passing of laws, there's little or
no influence of those of those bishops or the church
on or involved with the person of this this these
(26:53):
laws before before anything goes to Lloyd to go through
the House of Commons and then go to the House
of Laws. And that's the all the time when those
bishops of people can vote and influence it in a
particular way. But many of those bishops are compromised. They
are what we call liberal in their thinking. For many
of them, you know and unlike America, where this is
(27:16):
aggressive voting structure where we push candidates like in the
in the Supreme Court, where you're pushing judges, supreme judges
that have a particular leaning because you want them to
vote in a particular way. And I'm talking about the
all issue of the abortion laws that were turned in
(27:36):
America recently. We don't have that in the United Kingdom.
They don't allow for that. And so there's a lot
of peeriog of people. It's because of as a result
of their being born into the privilege that they become peers,
or because they've been bishops for a long time they
are there and many of them are usually liberal and bishops.
(27:59):
And so that's that. That means that those who are
born against Christians and those who evangelical and hold true
to the world of God, we have to find a
way to pray things through and activate and mobilize people
to get involved with governmental the legal process. And that
has its as it's has its advantages. But these battles
(28:23):
is not in flesh and blood. We can only win
this battle on our knees and by strategic action. In
my humble.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Opinion, I hear you and I before we because I
do want to talk about the action that you talked
about with prayer, specifically what you've organized there, which is
a phenomenon. But before we move on, so your prime
minister is Hindu and the mayor is Muslim. Do you
predict any religious tension moving forward between these different types
(28:54):
of religion and Christianity and other sects that want to
be expressive.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
No, I don't think so. I think a lot of
what some in the media, even in Christian media, try
to express, I think it's a bit of an exaggeration
because I believe that I believe that the evangelical and
prayer movement are in pole position to stop any spiritual
advancement of the enemy. There's not going to be a
(29:27):
change in in in in laws to favor or bringing
Islamic laws. I know that sometimes some particular laws are
applied in certain communities within the UK, but it's all
subject to the British law system. So anybody that says
(29:48):
that they're changing the laws doesn't really know the law structure.
In Great Britain. You can have family and disputest set
to just like pastors who set to things, but you
cannot ensrine this in British law, you can, for example,
as a Muslim marry more than one wife. In the
United Kingdom it's not allowed. You know, in Muslim countries
(30:11):
you can marry more than one wife, and so many
of the things Sharia law, those things do not apply,
even though they want them to apply. They can be
done in communities as part of the Muslim community within
just like anywhere else. If you travel to Iran or
China where there's oppressive governments, there are many Christians that
(30:34):
operate Christian principles, baptized and do things against the law
within those countries because they are Christian and the same
applies here. But it doesn't mean that they've now changed
the law in those countries by adopting their own community
principles and values. Am I making sense to you?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You're making perfect sense. Actually, you're making perfect sense. I
think it's important to know that because when we're looking
at it from across the pond, as they say, you
don't know what's propaganda.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
And what is it?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You know, the vast majority of us we're watching the
Crown or other documentaries bik to what's happening. I know
the Crown is, do you guys watch it there.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, they watch it here, But I don't think. I
think Americans are more fascinated with the monarchy than we
are here. And that's a whole different story, to be honest,
and the whole Nick Meghan and Harry scenarios is one
case in point. But I think across the pond the
attitude to the monarchy is very different there than it
(31:44):
is here. And people know what they know. I'm more
accurately here than they would know in America. Yeah, And
I just want to say something before I go, so
I don't mislead those who are listening. I believe the
fact that we have a Hindu Prime Minister and a
Muslim Mayor of London is an indictment on the Christian
(32:08):
community in many ways because it shows that we have
do our discipleship properly. But it also is a provocation,
just like God used as Syrian and Assyrian to provoke
Israel to come back to Him. I believe that these
positions and these posts are stoken prayer and evangelism within
(32:34):
the body of Christ, where people some people they are
motivated by love, some people are motivated by fear and
the fear of the unknown, and God uses both. God
uses both the fear of God and the love of God.
There will be people in heaven because of the love
of God. There will be people in heaven due to
the fear of God. Both are Vallet are you with me?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I am with you.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I remember when I was young and they used to
show us these scary movies that there's I mean, they're
still scary as an adult, you know, where people were
left behind and there was a gallatine and you know,
doing the tribulations and you know, and I remember being
younger fearing God, you know, for for multiple reasons, for
(33:20):
things that happened in my own life, and I thought
he was out to get me. And then, you know,
also because there was a fear factor approach to salvation
when I was younger in the denomination that I grew
up in. Now, as I became an adult, I realized
that God is all loving, not all powerful, all knowing,
(33:43):
ever present, but also more loving than anything that I
ever could ever experience, you know, in my human humanness
and being so so I totally I totally hear what
you're saying. And you know, it's like you said, I
(34:06):
think there are shifts that happen in history and in
time for all sorts of reasons. And you're right, you
know this, Our country too is a Christian country and
we don't reflect it in.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
So many ways.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
And you know which leads me to the question I
was going to ask you too about for those who
want to know what true Christianity is, how would you
define Christianity? Because you said too that you didn't want
to be a Christian and I think they're and they're
and for multiple reasons. But I think today even more so,
(34:46):
people see Christianity as a hateful, hypocritical type of religion, okay,
when really it's supposed to be a relationship right with God.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yes, you can reflect light and love.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, we talked on two trigger wards their relationship and religion.
And the church doesn't. The religious church doesn't do a
good per on Jesus for Jesus for God. And many
times we reflect badly. The organized religious church reflects badly
the image of God, the heart of God. I believe
(35:29):
that christian true Christianity is when somebody's heart and soul
comes in contact with the love and the grace of
God and is able to embrace the life that flows
from the Cross through the sacrifice of our Lord on
(35:51):
the cross for all of us. And when we see
the extreme love God God expresses. For God so loved
the world that he gave himself, really many websais he
gave his only because is that He gave himself and
to die on the cross for us and whoever believes
in him. That I believe is true Christianity. The heart
(36:14):
that is transformed, the Spirit of God comes to dwell
in our hearts, crind other Father, and we are moved
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light,
got into Collosions one, twelve and thirteen. That is true salvation.
And one of the things that I'm encouraging people to
do is to get away from the dross and the
(36:38):
excesses of the religious church and get back into the
pure relationship and the religion that we find in the
Book of Arts, when people loved each other, where they
loved one another, and they loved God with all of
their hearts and all of their souls and all of
their minds. And to get back into the scriptures, because
the scriptures speak clearly of who God is. When you
(37:02):
digest the full scriptures and the scriptures from Genesis to revelation.
You have a better picture of who God is. So
I believe that's what true Christianity and what a true
believer is. And we have so many people that are
church go us that are not true believers. And we
(37:25):
do have many true believers that have stopped going to church,
organized church and one another. And so I tell people
that church may be dwindling, but the Kingdom is expanding, expanding,
and I'm more interested in the Kingdom than with the
religious organized church.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yes, you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
There are so many individuals who actually have been maybe
Christians for a long time, who are tired of the
traditional church. And like you said, the churches. Some church
doors never reopened after COVID and for and some of
them shouldn't have. Some that open shouldn't reopen, probably shouldn't have.
(38:14):
But like you said, there was a there's a genuine
hunger to know God, and that expands. Like you said,
the Kingdom of God versus the Church of the Four
Walls necessarily, and you have been able to reach people
beyond the fall four walls. Tell me about the National
(38:36):
Day of Prayer in the UK and how you were
able to fill several stadiums of over thirty two thousand
people to come together from I think thirty different countries
or so. It may have been more than that to
come together and pray.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Yeah, that was a journey that happen many. It took.
It took several years for that, and that came out
of a vision when I was praying in my room.
God showed me a number of visions and I had
one or two experiences where I was in the stadium
that hadn't been built before. And even though it wasn't built,
because I was in Wembley and it didn't look like Wembley,
(39:16):
about the twin towers, and I knew I was at
Wembley Stadium. And it was ten years later that the
old Wembley was demolished and then the new Wembley was
built in two thousand and three, two thousand and four,
and when I saw the new stadium, I said that
to Wembley. It was about ten years later that we
(39:36):
held a meeting in Wembley. Well before that, were held
a prayer meeting in west Ham Stadium in East London.
And that's because God gave me a number of visions
about the United Kingdom, about the coming revival that I
began to share with leaders and they were wondering those saying, Jonathan,
(39:56):
we don't do stadiums, And I said, well, God told
us to do it, and God's going to open the door,
and he did gave us favor and cotting a long
story shot. Many of those events took place over I
think a ten year period. We held. Yeah, we held
(40:16):
the first stadium event in two thousand and seven, then
we held another one in two thousand and eight, then
we had one in two thousand and twelve, then we
had one in twenty thirteen, so we had quite a number.
And then I went around the nation. We held about
(40:37):
three one hundred and fifty different prayer meetings in different
towns and villages across the United Kingdom. We have a
vast networks of thousands of thousands of people intercess us
praying groups, leaders, churches, denominational networks, and so I relate
I condemic people relationally, and I condemic people from South
(41:02):
Korea to the Chinese churches, to the Asian churches, to
the Sri Lankan churches, to the Caribbean African churches, to
the English, the Scottish, the Welsh, and the Irish churches.
I connected right across everyone everywhere, and that's been that's
been the signature of the grace of God upon my life.
(41:23):
I got to just open those doors to mobilize people
to prayer, to revival and to mission the preaching.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Of the gospel that's really astounding. And from your prayer meetings,
then you develop the virtual Pentecost meeting where fifty thousand
people attended online. What was Did that blow your mind
or what?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Oh? Yeah? I in twenty nineteen, I was getting ready
for the day and just washing my face and the
Holy Spirit said to me, increase your digital footprint. I'd
never heard a phrase before, increase our digital footprint? What
do you mean by that? So I told to my wife,
(42:10):
I said, God told me to increase that we need
to increase our digital footprint. And so we began to
do things online with our own local fellowship, small fellowship
that we oversee. We took everybody onto Facebook, reactivated our Zoom,
I started doing things and did prayers on Zoom. And
(42:32):
then two months later COVID hit and suddenly they said
we couldn't meet. Everybody had to do things online. So
we were already online, so we knew why God had
told us to start connecting digitally, so we were ahead
of the game, head of the curve. And then one
(42:54):
of my friends from Wales approached me and said, Jonathan's
on finished business with the Global Day of Prayer. Let's
do something online to connect with everybody. And that's when
we said, okay, let's do something at Pentecost since our
stadium meetings were at Pentecost were our focus was to
(43:15):
reactivate the Festival of Pentecosts, which we felt was the
birthday of the church. And so we said, okay, let's
just do this, and so we started talking to people
late twenty twenty and we ran the program, got people
to start praying online in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one,
(43:37):
and so we told people to register and TBN got involved.
They wanted me to do something special with them, and
so we set people to register and after this second week,
they told me that five thousand people had registered, wow,
which I said, that's not possible, and they showed me
(43:58):
the registration details. I said, well, that's interesting. And then
and I think several weeks later we'd gone up to
ten thousand, so we thought we probably would get about
seven thousand at the very most, maybe five to eight
thousand people. When we hit fifteen thousand, I said, wow, God,
(44:25):
we've hit a nerve here. And then we hit twenty
thousand and just kept on going and it kept on going.
By the time we hit thirty thousand people, I said, Okay,
that I think is enough. Then we hit thirty five
and then we hit forty thousand. By the time we
got to Pentecost May twenty twenty one, we were forty
(44:52):
five thousand people. I don't on the day itself, we
had forty seven thousand people registered, and so we did
something with TV and it broadcast a special program in
the morning, and then we did something in the afternoon
linking with Facebook and YouTube and it went every it
went viral dr C and we knew that God told us.
(45:14):
What God told us to do was was was to
hit a nerve, and that's what we'd like to do.
We just like to follow God. We've not repeated that
because we don't want to make it a what's the word,
We don't want to make it an assumption that which yes.
(45:37):
So we did something small last year. We just we
just got people, people registered, But we knew we knew
what God told us to do in twenty one was unique,
and basically he was basically saying to me, when I
give you a trumpet to blow, you blow it and
my people will gather.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, so I know we're still going to do one
or to stadium events game, but it's going to be
in Good's timing time to blow the trumpet. I will
blow it because he will give me the location. He
would tell me the stadium, and he would tell me
the strategy.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Wow, this is just so amazing to do a virtual
online event where you're maybe hoping for a couple of hundred,
maybe a thousand or so people and end up with
nearly fifty thousand people. That is when there are so
many pastors who either held prayer meetings online or they're
(46:37):
too trying to increase their digital footprint. And I guess too,
when you heard God say increase your digital footprint? Did
you just start with Zoom?
Speaker 3 (46:49):
What did you do? Did you do anything fancy or no?
Speaker 2 (46:53):
No?
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Facebook Live?
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Yeah? We heard my wife and I said, I did
Facebook Live. And we we have this thing we called
start the Year right as a local Assembly. So we
got everybody to register on Zoom for that for twenty
twenty January twenty twenty, and Covid hit in March twenty twenty.
(47:20):
So we already had Facebook going, YouTube links going, so
we had a YouTube channel, but we did we didn't.
We didn't live stream. We just were on Zoom and
my wife and I would do something regular on Facebook,
maybe something about marriage or just a topic, nothing fancy.
(47:42):
We just were doing it from our home. So when
we could not meet physically, we looked at each other
and said, we already have the structure to do. Yeah,
so we just we upgraded. We moved from audio because
mouse of what we were doing at the time on
Zoom was audio. We're not doing anything video. We just
(48:03):
would pray online with everybody. But when this hit, we
now went buy good camera and switched.
Speaker 4 (48:11):
To video, upgraded some huh yeah, and then we learned
how to live stream on certain platforms, linking in with Twitter,
with YouTube, and Facebook all at the same time.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
So that's that's what we started doing as well. And
so we we we as a church, we thrived, I
mean we, I mean our attendance more than doubled. I
started the online pre teaching in April twenty twenty and
that school of ministry is still going strong today. Yeah,
we get we get hundreds of people you know, involved
(48:49):
with that, with that teaching discipleship program. You know. So
we just know that God had led us and guided
us to do what we were doing. And I say
to people that one of the best things and minister
can have is the voice of God. Yes, know how
(49:10):
God speaks to you. It is the best thing you
can have as a minister, you know. And I say
to people, know how God speaks to you. You know,
I'm not your that relationship, you know, invest in that
relationship and make sure you know, just like some world
did you know know how the Lord's voice? What's the
(49:31):
quality of the Lord's voice in your spirit?
Speaker 3 (49:35):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Yes, because he speaks to all of us, and you
have to know how he speaks to you.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
I think that's very important and very key for a
person to know individually, to know how God speaks to them.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Now, tell me about your book, Visions of Light and
what inspired you to write it. How long did it
take you to get the finished product?
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Well, and unfortunately we've run out of print, actually doing
a reprint because it was done by this peculiar group
of people in Wales who came to me and said, Jonathan,
we want you to put all your visions and stuff
into a book. And so yeah, I I did that.
(50:26):
I got all the all the visions God gave me,
put them done in a book, and God gave me
the way to narrate it. So some of my stories
weaved into the into the vision of it's a very
it's a small book. It's not it's not and we
send it to we send it to hundreds of leaders.
You know, it went like why forever the first print went,
(50:47):
the second print went the thought print. So they're going
to do something now where they're going to link everything
onto Amazon, which they didn't do at the time. They're
gonna put everything on Amazon and so sometime next year
they're going to do reprint of the book. Were completely
sold out. I think I have one or two copies
at home which I'm going to make one available maybe
(51:08):
if you come to the UK, I will do that.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
I want I want my autograph, yes.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
But if people if people want, if people want an
electronic version, we can get an electronic version to them
and they can they can they can order through your
platform and we will send it to them.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Oh wonderful.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
And so this second go around it will also be
available on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
We're going to make sure of that. I'm going to
make it. I'm going to make it audio audio book
as well, and you know, do the full walks at
the time, because we were doing the virtual effect Pentacosts
and doing the stuff we we just we just got
it out there to produce the physical copies and and
and send them out to to leaders. So yeah, it
(52:00):
was it was rushed, but it is the story of
the visions that God gave me. The visions of the
Revival are coming to United Kingdom. And I would say
to anybody on this platform that is listening that God
is coming to the world. It's going to visit different countries,
different nations. He's going to visit different people. He's going
(52:21):
to visit the UK shown me he's going to He's
going to use people that are in prisoned at the moment,
people that are going to come to faith, and they're
going to come to him and he's going to use them.
He's going to raise younges. It's not like there's not
like a child Holy Spirit. God is going to use
the Holy use the Holy Spirit to minister through children
(52:45):
and young people all over the world. And so we
need to get ready for God's visitation, because darkness is
upon the face of the deep or the Holy Spirit
always brutes upon the darkness and the middle of the darkness,
and he kills God to let them be light, and
the light will shine in the darkness, and the darkness
don't be able to comprehend it. And so the world
(53:06):
is getting darker all kinds of things. People are crying out,
climate change, climate effects on our world, flooding disasters. Jesus
already predicted all of this in Matthew twenty four and
twenty five. If you read those two chapters, is a
story of the end of the age. And so he's
(53:28):
already said to us that we are sought and light.
He's told us that they're going to imprison us. He's
told that they're going to be plagues and pestilences, adequates
and all kinds of things happening. But at this is
just the beginning of sorrows. The Bible says that their
perulous time shall come, so we as Christian should not
be afraid of the darkness. They say, the eagle looks
(53:50):
at the storm and writes the storm and goes for
the eye of the storm. We as believers, we are
made to live in the middle of the storm. And
when the storm was blowing, that's when Jesus came to meet,
walking on in the middle of the storm, walking to
his disciples who were in the chaos. And I believe
(54:13):
that the peace of God in us is greater than
the storm that is in the world. That's why just
Chris was able to say, peace be still, and the
storm was swallowed up by the peace that was in him.
And so I am crying out to believe us everywhere.
Don't be afraid of the storm of divorce, the storm
(54:33):
of bankruptcy, the storm of incarceration, the storm of racism,
the storm of of of division, the storm of persecution
or trials, or your health challenge that you're going through.
God is going to come to you in the middle
of the storm, and he's going to speak to your
heart and you're going to know your full purpose. You
were made to write the storms, you were made to
(54:56):
walk through the darkness. David said, do I walk through
the vile of the childe of there I shall fear
no evil, have no gain. God is going to use us.
And so I just say to people, Jesus is coming,
and before he comes physically, he's going to come through
the church and we are going to have an awesome
(55:20):
manifestation of his glory.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Wow, that's so inspiring. Don't be afraid of the storm.
Speaker 3 (55:31):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Many people needed to hear that tonight because there's so
many things that you just listed it in that that
are really shifting and rocking people to the extent that
they feel hopeless. And there's so many suicides and those
who have just really given up on life.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
And it can be tough.
Speaker 1 (55:52):
Life can be tough, but like you said, there is hope,
there is light, There is love available to all of us.
It's available to all of us. And you know, before
we go, I want to know, what would you say
to a new Christian, a new convert in order to
(56:13):
sort of guard themselves through this what seems like a
mountain of darkness, or to guide themselves and protect themselves
inside the storm. It's you know, it's I found. You know,
I've been a Christian for a long time, and boy,
I at times, the the the the boat is rocking, right,
(56:36):
and even I say, sometimes what's in my life right now.
So and so I can't imagine those who are new
to the faith coming in doing these certain uncertain times.
What would you say to a new convert or a
(56:57):
new person coming into Christianity.
Speaker 2 (57:00):
If somebody, if I was going to speak to somebody
who's just coming to Christ, as it's one of the
best time is to come into Christ because their following
in tradition of how the Church was birthed, when people
came to Christ in the Book of Acts, they were
born again into very hostile territory. That's true, and there
(57:22):
were lots of things and factors that were against them.
They were imprisoned, they were attacked, they were beating, they
were persecuted, they were even killed. So I would say
to anyone who is a new believer, greater is he
that's in you than he that's in the world, number one.
And the peace of God in you is more tangible
(57:44):
and real than the chaos in the world. I would
say to them. I would say, to my brother and
my sister, make sure you digest the scriptures yourself, read
the Bible yourself. Don't start by reading listening to pastor
someone's online. As good as those are, get into daily
(58:05):
reading yourself. Anyone giving you anything is processed food. Yes
it's good, but it's not necessarily always good for you.
They tell us. The best type of food is organic food, scriptures,
eating the scriptures yourself, reading the scriptures yourself, that is
organic food. Anything you read a book, or you listen
(58:28):
to someone that is processed food by all means. Don't
reject those, but don't make those your main your main cause.
Make them the desert, all the status. Let your main
cause be the scriptures, and have your own way of
praying and connecting with God. With the scriptures and with
(58:49):
the Holy Spirit in you and prayer, you can't go wrong.
And then find a group of people that genuinely love God.
Your heart will identify who these people. The Holy Spirit
to guide you and lead you to your Pitter, your
James and your John. You know, your Ruth, your Deborah,
you know and your Esther. Those who really love God
(59:11):
and know God, and they will support you in the
difficult times when you may be lacking wisdom, or maybe
you want to compromise and you want to go back
to doing the things that you were doing before. These
lovely people God will use them to speak to you
and God will use them to touch you. And that's
what I would say. And wherever you find as the
(59:33):
local assembly of believers, you know, let these people or
find a good local church where they really love God.
Sometimes God takes us through churches because he's training us.
God to Joseph through parttisfus house, but that was not
his father destination is fat destination was the palace. God
(59:54):
to Joseph through prison. So some some churches are potifar.
Some churches prison, but they are there to train you
and get you ready for your powers, for the promise
and the call of God upon your life. So I
would suggest to people be led of God, you know,
and there's no perfect church. There's just the unique church
(01:00:17):
that is for you in your seasons of life. Okay,
So that's what I would say to a new believer
at this time.
Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Again, so encouraging. And I just want to thank you
so much for your time tonight. Thank you because I
know it was not the most convenient where you are
convenient for me, much much less for you.
Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
I'm glad we could do this before Christmas, you know.
I'm so glad we could do this.
Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Yes, me too.
Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
And again we'll be on the lookout for your book
when it's available, Vision of Lights. And again, thank you
for joining me and I can't wait to have you back.
Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Okay, we'll do this, We'll do this again. I will
send you. I will send you the link to my
audiobook that's on Amazon. I found these foundations which people,
which is a good one for new believers to actually,
So anything that any new believer can use that, you know,
I'll send that to you. Some people can get that
it's it's it's nominal payment. And sometimes I think the
(01:01:22):
audio version is free as well.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Sure that'd be excellent, because again, there are so many
different topics we hit on tonight that I think we
probably need to pause and take a deeper dive into.
So thank you so much again, and thank you everyone
for listening tonight. And it's always thank you so much
for being a team player
Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
To the tact about the do
Welcome to Team Leadership Radio. That's t E E M, Train, equip,
Empower and Mobilized Leadership. I'm your hosts doctor Cecilia Martin
and joining me tonight all the way from London is
doctor Jonathan Oloyda born in Britain, but Britain Nigeria. Doctor
(00:54):
Oloyer Day is a medical doctor by profession, but has
served full time in pastoral ministry as an apostolic missionary
to the United Kingdom and Europe for over twenty eight years.
Affectionately known as Doctor J, he is the leader of
Chapel City and the convener of the National Day of
(01:15):
Prayer UK, which organized hundreds of thousands to pray across
multiple locations and stadiums in Britain. In fact, in twenty
twenty one, he also helped to lead and organize an
online gathering called Virtual Pentecous, which saw an astounding number
(01:35):
of over forty seven thousand people attend online. Doctor J
is blissfully married to his beautiful wife Abby and they
live in Kent with their two children. He is the
author of Vision of Lights, a book which captures a
prophetic hope of revival for the UK. Doctor Oloyer Day's
(01:55):
overriding passion is to rise or to raise a gale
global network, a one million disciples of Christ across the
continents and nations. Welcome, Doctor Oloyereday, how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Hi? Dr Martin? Good to have you online at twelve
midnight my time, but I believe something more normal your time.
But I'm but I'm enjoying. I'm enjoying this, you know.
I don't know anyway, So it's great.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
To be here with you the same here.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's if I sound a little nasally, I'm overcoming uh
oh gosh, a sickness, but I am feeling so much
better and excited about this conversation. And you're right, it's
only six o'clock here, so yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes,
So tell me first of all before we jump in.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You're a fan of what is it? Manchester United?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Oh? How did you know that? Did I write that
in bio? Somebody stick down? Yeah? I love football. My
dad used to support Manchester United. So when I came
to leaving the UK finally in nineteen ninety one, people
asked me what's your club? And I did think about it.
I just said, oh, Manchester United, I said, do you
know who they are? Not really, but I will start
(03:18):
watching their games. Thankfully, in the nineties they kept winning,
winning all the trophies, so yeah, I really I followed
Manchester United.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Okay, all right, well, sounds like you have a good team.
I don't know if you watch American football, but I'm
a Dallas Cowboy fan, which is also known as America's team.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Oh really, yeah, didn't you guys win the Super Bowl?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
We actually have won.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
We haven't won in recent years and we won't that. However,
we do have five Super Bowl rings.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Oh good, Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yes, I think so.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
People like to talk about us, you know, because we
haven't won in so many years.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
But hey, there are teams who've never won at all.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Right, but that sounds like Manchester United. Actually, we used
to win a lot of trophies in the nineties and
recently we haven't won in a while, so people are
waiting for us to rise again.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Yes, okay, so here's the book about teams. So you
were born in Britain but raised in Nigeria, Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah? What used to have happened was Nigerian. The way
the Nigerian circle or can I say community evolved in
the nineteen twenties, so twenty to twenty first century was
a lot of educated southern living Nigerians in the southern
part of Nigeria traveled by boat to the UK to
(04:51):
America to study in the sixties, mostly to the UK,
got their diplomas or their degrees and then went back
to ni So my parents came to the UK nineteen
fifty nine and stayed here for eleven years. They became
nuris psychiatric nurses and got their diplomas in marketing and
(05:12):
advertising as well. And so they came back to the
to Nigeria nineteen seventy, by which time they had had
four of us, four boys and a girl. I was
the last boy. So can you imagine my mom and
dad tried for a girl after the first boy first time,
they tried the second time. So when it came to me,
(05:38):
they were so sure that it was going to be
a girl. They had they had pink, they had pink,
they had brought my mom had bought pink and baby
outfits and I think out so my I was a disappointment.
So three boys and then the last was a girl.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The spoiled I'm sure, yeah, yeah, I'm sure they did. Wow,
that's that's that's beautiful. So you so your parents received
their education and then you went on yourself to become
a medical doctor. What was your specific area focused?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
So I didn't So let's let's put it this way.
I trained as a medical doctor. By the time you're
in your fourth year, you become a clinical doctor. So
I was in the hospital for about four years. By
the time I finished, I came straight to England to
visit my sister on a holiday because I was on
a three month holiday in nineteen ninety one and my
(06:41):
sister used to live on the fringe of London and
that was where God called me to Britain, and so
I didn't fully start my medical career. I was going
to go to Northern Nigeria as a missionary doctor, and
I was going to become a pediatrician, pediatrician or I
(07:03):
was going to become going to psychiatry just like my
parents did. But God had other plans for me.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Wow wow, So how was that transition from you going
from industry into ministry. Was that a scary leap for
you or was it a smooth transition?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Well, let's put this way. I I was a Muslim,
so that I got born again or met the Lord
when I was in medical school and in my that
was in my in my first to second year in
in in university, and I got very involved in the
(07:46):
in the student movement, and it was ministry all through.
We were casting out demons, praying for people, getting people saved,
baptizing people, all in medical school. So I was almost
I was I was like I was almost a part
time minister even though I was in university. I came
(08:07):
over to England. I connected with my friends that had
come over before me, and I started a fellowship and
that's why I just transitioned to doing that. And I
was going to go back, and the Lord had other
plans if he put a burden for England in my heart,
and that was the that was the turning point.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Wow, I see. And how did your family accept your
conversion from being from Islam to Christianity.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh that's a long story.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, it's another story, but let me just rewind slightly.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
When we came back from England, the wider nuclear f
the wider community because in the West many people live
as nuclear families. In Africa, we live at extended communities,
so you don't live as husband and wife and children.
You live as husband and wife, and father and mother
(09:05):
and siblings. Everybody's connected. And so the wider family were Muslim,
and they said, look, you have to you have to
engage with what we're doing. You've been away for eleven years.
We like you to get involved in the masque, get
involved in the community. So my dad came home one
day and said, we're all going to be Muslim, and
(09:25):
there was no debate. We are going to the mosque
m HM, and and that that was it. And I
grew up. I'm used to that lifestyle. But there was
one question nobody could answer. And that question was why
(09:46):
doesn't Ala speak to me? And I kept asking the
question I asked my mom, which is almost like your
your equivalent of a pastor or leader. He was the
leader of our community. He could answer the question. I
spoke to my uncle, who was quite favant in the Muslim,
(10:08):
in the Muslim faith, he could answer the question. He
always said to me was we've got the prophet Muhammad,
and we've got the Quran, and we just follow that.
And I said, no, but we must be able to
talk to God directly. He made us, I can talk
to you. You can talk to me, I should be
able to talk to God. And I got into medical school,
I ran into this group of people who said, oh,
(10:31):
God said this to me. God said that to me,
and that caught my attention. What do you mean God
spoke to you? They used to have these meetings every
Friday do the Sea, from twelve midnight to five o'clock
in the morning. I think they held them every other
averd of Friday, and one Faithful Friday in February of
(10:54):
nineteen eighty six, I woke up and all of my
friends had gone to the town or gone back home
for whatever. But I was alone in the in the
costel with nothing to do. So I just thought, let
me go check out what these guys are doing in
this fellowship of Theirs. It's about was a one mile
walk around midnight in the village. So I walked there,
(11:18):
and when I got there, it was very chaotic meeting.
You know, in the in the in the mosque, the
women sit apart from the men, but here everybody was
all over the place and people were being prayed for.
The back I saw one or two people on the
floor being prayed for. Somebody was preaching. I just sat
down and as I sat down in that chaos, God
(11:42):
began to speak to my heart and he said, received
my son Jesus. It was so real, and I said, God,
I've been wanting you to speak to me all my life,
and now you're speaking to me in this place, in
this and he said, to receive my son's I went
to the front because the people were I saw people
(12:02):
go into the front. I didn't. I just went to
the front. And he said what do I want? Said
do I want to become a Christian? I said no, God,
but Dad, I said, actually become a Christian. I said
I don't want to become a Christian. I want Jesus.
And that was because when God said received my son Jesus,
I said, I will receive your son Jesus on one condition.
You will speak to me every day. Deal or no deal?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Wow?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And God basically said deal. He didn't, he didn't, he
didn't quite use those words. I'm just I'm just summarizing
our conversation. And so when they said to do I want,
I said I want Jesus. So they didn't know what
to do with me, so they put me to a side.
So people came to pray for me, and and they said, okay,
if you want Jesus will give you Jesus. And so
(12:46):
they said I should say prayer. After them, I should
talk to Jesus, which I did, and after I did so,
I had this amazing experience and I began to speak
in tongues. And that was how I transitioned. That was
how I became a Christian. And I never looked back.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Since Wow, never looked back. And so, how has any
of your family also converted or no?
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So what then happened was I went So that connects
to the next part of my story. I went back
to the hostel the following day, the following morning and
slept like a baby. And then two hours later the
began to wake me up. Our hostel, Doctor C was
on fire. What yeah, at the bottom it was it
(13:35):
was it was. It was one story building. And the
way they build houses in Nigeria, they there's it's a
concrete roof sometimes if they not finished the building. Anyway,
I ran to the top of this concrete roof and
the next rooftop was about thirty feet away, and the
fire was in the on the first on the first floor,
(13:59):
on the ground floor, and was so fierce and we
didn't have ambulances, and so my friends who had come
back from town were all there, and we didn't know
what to do. And the voice says to me, jump
and I said, I can't jump. This is a voice
said with authority. I said jump. So I run and
jump and I land on the other side. Wow and yeah.
(14:22):
And I look back and my friends could not jump.
But the voice says to me, pray for your friends.
So I kneel down to pray for my friends. And
as I kneel down to pray for them, I wake
up with a dream. Look. I'm looking around for the
fire because it was so real. And this voice says
to me, pray for your family and friends to escape
(14:42):
from the fire. You can escape from the fire, and
you can now do what you cannot do before. Pray
for your friends and your family to escape from that
same fire. And I knew instantly that what I had
done in that church was real. I had escaped on
the fire of hell. And the reason why I could
jump that incredible distance was because it was not humanly possible.
(15:07):
I needed the supernatural. Yes, And so I began to
pray for my family, my mom and my dad. Excuse
me to escape from the fire of hell. One morning,
I wake up and this voice says to me, your
parents are going to walk through your door. That door
at twelve forty seven. So I packed away, hide all
(15:29):
my books and my christ I didn't want to tell
my parents I become a Christian. And my parents walk
in at twelve forty seven with no warning because there
were no mobile phones in those days. This was the
nineteen eighties. And my mom was so impressed with my room.
She gave me money. But I had to go home
(15:50):
in the holidays and my father wanted us to do
some ritual, some Islamic ritual which would just have compromised
my faith. And I said I couldn't do it, and
he said why And I didn't want to tell them,
and he pressed me to tell me why I didn't
want to do it, and I told her I had
become a Christian. He he got mad. He called a
(16:12):
massive family meeting. Everybody came to talk to me. I
was the talk of the of the family that that summer. Wow,
when my mom traveled to Dubai, my dad said, look,
he's fell abo of having me around. Everybody's talked to me.
I'm not listening. He said, he's given me three days
to to to recan't and go call me come back
(16:32):
to being a Muslim, or I had to leave home.
He was going to do it was gonna it was
going to renounce me as a son. And so after
three days. Because I was a very compliant child, so
he was very surprised at my defiance and my stubbornness.
But I said, look, Dad, I've always done what you
(16:53):
wanted me to do. Put on this one, I can't.
And so I had left home and it was a
very tough time for me. Yeah. Well, got to a
long story shot. Some of my dad's friends that started
together here in the UK, who were not Muslims, who
(17:14):
nominal Christians, came to see him during that period and
he told them what I had done and what he
had done, and they got mad at him. They said Aligi,
that's what they called him, because he had gone to Mecca.
He said, Aliji, you are disowning your son because he
wants to become a monk. My son got to get pregnant.
You know, my son is a lay about. Your son
(17:37):
is going to become a medical doctor. Can we exchange sons? Right?
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Isn't that so bad after all.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, so I think they persuaded my dad so many
many months and months. I think almost a year later
my dad came to came to the hostel to to
take me back and said, long as I did not
preach at home, I was, I was welcome home. In
(18:08):
two thousand and three. It was seventeen years or thereabout afterwards,
my mom brought my dad to England because he had
a health challenge. He was in a serious accident and
so he had to get medical care here. While he
was here, I invited my mom to church on a
Mother's Day, which she didn't want to when she finally came,
(18:31):
and she got saved on Mother's Day in two thousand
and three. My dad got saved a year later and
then died a year after that. Yeah, so we'd like
to say that dad was the last to receive Jesus
and the first the same face to face. But my
mom became a Christian. My brother is the Christian, my first,
(18:54):
my first, my eldest brother who's passed on as well
with my dad, you know, was a Christian, and my
sister's also Christian, and all Christians. My mom is eighty six,
you know, she's a raven. She's a raven evangelist. She
goes everybody about Jesus.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Oh wow, what a beautiful story. Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's absolutely beautiful that
your family, you and your family reconciled through that, because
I know that had to be tough.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
It was I was nineteen. So it's the foundation of
my faith, and yeah, I cannot forget it.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Yeah, well, we know that it can be you know,
even the whole topic of faith can be challenging for
a family, for parents in general. And we're losing seemingly
a whole generation of students or individuals, young people who
have no faith at all, you know, so they're not
(19:59):
believing in any and in fact, I don't know if
you caught this article, but there was an article in
the Washington Post specifically about those in England and Wales
who no longer consider themselves Christian, or less than half
of the individuals they are considered themselves as Christian. What
(20:20):
do you think are some of the reasons that people
are falling away from the faith or not having any
faith at all.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I would say many reasons for that. I would say
that every nation has its seasons. That's what Van Buntie said.
He believed that every nation had a season when God
will send revival or there was a harvest, and you
guys had its seasons in the past. And we believe
all of our hearts there's going to be a fresh
(20:53):
wave of grace that's going to hit these shows. Well,
just like you have in the Book of Judges, I'm
taking people through the bike and when you look at
the history of the iSites, how they had the high
point with Joshua coming into the Promised Land, and then
they fell away during the time of the Judges, and
just doing all kinds of things, you find it less
(21:13):
a cycle. One generation serves God and then they don't
pass their faith onto the next generation, and that generation
falls away and then God raises new leaders and new
people that bring people back to faith. And I believe
it's part of the generational cycle. And those that went
to the First World War and the Battle of the
(21:35):
Salm and some of the terrible wars that the UK
went through in the twentieth century affected a lot of
people's faith. They fell away from God. Secularization, you know,
modernization and all these new contemporary thinking, and I believe
(22:00):
if that's one of the reasons why people fall away
from serving God. When there's when people are comfortable, when
there when there's no no challenge to We have a
full blown NHS here in the UK. In Nigeria. Before
you leave them, you have to pray, because you have
(22:20):
to pray that your car walks properly on the bumpy roads.
You pray that you don't get robbed. You pray that
you pray for your health because you don't have health insurance. Now,
people that live just above the poverty line, you find
that many of them have have faith, even if it's
not Christian faith. They want to have faith in some
(22:42):
kind of supernatural power. You see this with the Hindus,
you see this with even with the Muslims. You see
this all over the world. In the West, there's a
falling away, there's there's a there's a there's an affinity
with having no belief been being being an aetheist. Is
that that that that that whole spirit is rising when
(23:03):
the Bible, Bible is questioned, prayers taken out of schools
and there are no proper assemblies anymore compulsory, and the
nation has lost its identity in terms of being a
Christian nation of of of years past. They don't want
to identify like many muscliminations are proud to say we're muslimination.
(23:24):
This is what we believe. If you come to our nation,
this is what you have to adopt. Look at the
look at the World Cup in Qatar and the whole
tension around uh expression of of sex, of sexuality in
the public space, and those people putting the putting their
foot down that our culture and our faith does not
(23:45):
allowed for that. We have lost that in the in
the West, and as that has passed on to the children,
and so they have grown up in an atmosphere where
their parents don't go to church, don't pray, don't believe
in anything. So they're open to all kinds of spiritual forces.
And God is going to require that of this generation.
And that's one of the reasons why I believe God
(24:07):
has sent and people like myself are many others to
this country for such a time as this, to raise
a banner, to spark some change, to galvanize the indigenous
people back to their faith, and to pray in a
whole new generation of believers. And I believe that is
(24:28):
going to happen when. Don't ask me when, but I
need and know it's going to happen because God has.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Shouldn't well speaking of a government and those holding firm
to the faith. So we know that under the monarch
now with King Charles, he is the defender of the
faith and the supreme governor of the Church of England.
And to my understanding, there at least twenty six bishops
(24:54):
that sit in the House of Parliament, of the Parliament,
House of Lords. So do they have any influence on
laws that are past that support the Christian faith or
how do they intertwine with government laws?
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Or is it.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Similar to what we have in the US, which is
practically a separation of church and state.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yes, there is a separation of church in state. That
apart from when the monarch dies or gets married, or
some or or child is born. That's when you have
this overlap of very curious overlap of the merge of
church and state. When Queen Elizabeth the Second died, there
was this wonderful overlapping of the church and government which
(25:42):
saw everybody go to church. It took us to church
and all the services, the Anglican services. The crowd like
the new king is going to be is going to
go for his coronation, and that's going to be in
a church. You know, Queen Elizabeth and y f took
us all to church. She organized everything before she died,
(26:05):
the hymns that were song and people had to come
and listen to a salmon. All church leaders, whether they
Hindus or Muslims or whatever, sitting in Westminster Westminster Abbey
and listening to a full blown sermon about salvation, very
very powerful. That's when you have the overlap, and that's
when Great Britain or the United Kingdom shows its foundational
(26:28):
history and the connection of the Anglican or the or
the Christian faith with power. But on the on the
regular government and the passing of laws, there's little or
no influence of those of those bishops or the church
on or involved with the person of this this these
(26:53):
laws before before anything goes to Lloyd to go through
the House of Commons and then go to the House
of Laws. And that's the all the time when those
bishops of people can vote and influence it in a
particular way. But many of those bishops are compromised. They
are what we call liberal in their thinking. For many
of them, you know and unlike America, where this is
(27:16):
aggressive voting structure where we push candidates like in the
in the Supreme Court, where you're pushing judges, supreme judges
that have a particular leaning because you want them to
vote in a particular way. And I'm talking about the
all issue of the abortion laws that were turned in
(27:36):
America recently. We don't have that in the United Kingdom.
They don't allow for that. And so there's a lot
of peeriog of people. It's because of as a result
of their being born into the privilege that they become peers,
or because they've been bishops for a long time they
are there and many of them are usually liberal and bishops.
(27:59):
And so that's that. That means that those who are
born against Christians and those who evangelical and hold true
to the world of God, we have to find a
way to pray things through and activate and mobilize people
to get involved with governmental the legal process. And that
has its as it's has its advantages. But these battles
(28:23):
is not in flesh and blood. We can only win
this battle on our knees and by strategic action. In
my humble.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Opinion, I hear you and I before we because I
do want to talk about the action that you talked
about with prayer, specifically what you've organized there, which is
a phenomenon. But before we move on, so your prime
minister is Hindu and the mayor is Muslim. Do you
predict any religious tension moving forward between these different types
(28:54):
of religion and Christianity and other sects that want to
be expressive.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
No, I don't think so. I think a lot of
what some in the media, even in Christian media, try
to express, I think it's a bit of an exaggeration
because I believe that I believe that the evangelical and
prayer movement are in pole position to stop any spiritual
advancement of the enemy. There's not going to be a
(29:27):
change in in in in laws to favor or bringing
Islamic laws. I know that sometimes some particular laws are
applied in certain communities within the UK, but it's all
subject to the British law system. So anybody that says
(29:48):
that they're changing the laws doesn't really know the law structure.
In Great Britain. You can have family and disputest set
to just like pastors who set to things, but you
cannot ensrine this in British law, you can, for example,
as a Muslim marry more than one wife. In the
United Kingdom it's not allowed. You know, in Muslim countries
(30:11):
you can marry more than one wife, and so many
of the things Sharia law, those things do not apply,
even though they want them to apply. They can be
done in communities as part of the Muslim community within
just like anywhere else. If you travel to Iran or
China where there's oppressive governments, there are many Christians that
(30:34):
operate Christian principles, baptized and do things against the law
within those countries because they are Christian and the same
applies here. But it doesn't mean that they've now changed
the law in those countries by adopting their own community
principles and values. Am I making sense to you?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
You're making perfect sense. Actually, you're making perfect sense. I
think it's important to know that because when we're looking
at it from across the pond, as they say, you
don't know what's propaganda.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
And what is it?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You know, the vast majority of us we're watching the
Crown or other documentaries bik to what's happening. I know
the Crown is, do you guys watch it there.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Yeah, they watch it here, But I don't think. I
think Americans are more fascinated with the monarchy than we
are here. And that's a whole different story, to be honest,
and the whole Nick Meghan and Harry scenarios is one
case in point. But I think across the pond the
attitude to the monarchy is very different there than it
(31:44):
is here. And people know what they know. I'm more
accurately here than they would know in America. Yeah, And
I just want to say something before I go, so
I don't mislead those who are listening. I believe the
fact that we have a Hindu Prime Minister and a
Muslim Mayor of London is an indictment on the Christian
(32:08):
community in many ways because it shows that we have
do our discipleship properly. But it also is a provocation,
just like God used as Syrian and Assyrian to provoke
Israel to come back to Him. I believe that these
positions and these posts are stoken prayer and evangelism within
(32:34):
the body of Christ, where people some people they are
motivated by love, some people are motivated by fear and
the fear of the unknown, and God uses both. God
uses both the fear of God and the love of God.
There will be people in heaven because of the love
of God. There will be people in heaven due to
the fear of God. Both are Vallet are you with me?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
I am with you.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
I remember when I was young and they used to
show us these scary movies that there's I mean, they're
still scary as an adult, you know, where people were
left behind and there was a gallatine and you know,
doing the tribulations and you know, and I remember being
younger fearing God, you know, for for multiple reasons, for
(33:20):
things that happened in my own life, and I thought
he was out to get me. And then, you know,
also because there was a fear factor approach to salvation
when I was younger in the denomination that I grew
up in. Now, as I became an adult, I realized
that God is all loving, not all powerful, all knowing,
(33:43):
ever present, but also more loving than anything that I
ever could ever experience, you know, in my human humanness
and being so so I totally I totally hear what
you're saying. And you know, it's like you said, I
(34:06):
think there are shifts that happen in history and in
time for all sorts of reasons. And you're right, you
know this, Our country too is a Christian country and
we don't reflect it in.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
So many ways.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
And you know which leads me to the question I
was going to ask you too about for those who
want to know what true Christianity is, how would you
define Christianity? Because you said too that you didn't want
to be a Christian and I think they're and they're
and for multiple reasons. But I think today even more so,
(34:46):
people see Christianity as a hateful, hypocritical type of religion, okay,
when really it's supposed to be a relationship right with God.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
Yes, you can reflect light and love.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Yes, we talked on two trigger wards their relationship and religion.
And the church doesn't. The religious church doesn't do a
good per on Jesus for Jesus for God. And many
times we reflect badly. The organized religious church reflects badly
the image of God, the heart of God. I believe
(35:29):
that christian true Christianity is when somebody's heart and soul
comes in contact with the love and the grace of
God and is able to embrace the life that flows
from the Cross through the sacrifice of our Lord on
(35:51):
the cross for all of us. And when we see
the extreme love God God expresses. For God so loved
the world that he gave himself, really many websais he
gave his only because is that He gave himself and
to die on the cross for us and whoever believes
in him. That I believe is true Christianity. The heart
(36:14):
that is transformed, the Spirit of God comes to dwell
in our hearts, crind other Father, and we are moved
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light,
got into Collosions one, twelve and thirteen. That is true salvation.
And one of the things that I'm encouraging people to
do is to get away from the dross and the
(36:38):
excesses of the religious church and get back into the
pure relationship and the religion that we find in the
Book of Arts, when people loved each other, where they
loved one another, and they loved God with all of
their hearts and all of their souls and all of
their minds. And to get back into the scriptures, because
the scriptures speak clearly of who God is. When you
(37:02):
digest the full scriptures and the scriptures from Genesis to revelation.
You have a better picture of who God is. So
I believe that's what true Christianity and what a true
believer is. And we have so many people that are
church go us that are not true believers. And we
(37:25):
do have many true believers that have stopped going to church,
organized church and one another. And so I tell people
that church may be dwindling, but the Kingdom is expanding, expanding,
and I'm more interested in the Kingdom than with the
religious organized church.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yes, you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
There are so many individuals who actually have been maybe
Christians for a long time, who are tired of the
traditional church. And like you said, the churches. Some church
doors never reopened after COVID and for and some of
them shouldn't have. Some that open shouldn't reopen, probably shouldn't have.
(38:14):
But like you said, there was a there's a genuine
hunger to know God, and that expands. Like you said,
the Kingdom of God versus the Church of the Four
Walls necessarily, and you have been able to reach people
beyond the fall four walls. Tell me about the National
(38:36):
Day of Prayer in the UK and how you were
able to fill several stadiums of over thirty two thousand
people to come together from I think thirty different countries
or so. It may have been more than that to
come together and pray.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Yeah, that was a journey that happen many. It took.
It took several years for that, and that came out
of a vision when I was praying in my room.
God showed me a number of visions and I had
one or two experiences where I was in the stadium
that hadn't been built before. And even though it wasn't built,
because I was in Wembley and it didn't look like Wembley,
(39:16):
about the twin towers, and I knew I was at
Wembley Stadium. And it was ten years later that the
old Wembley was demolished and then the new Wembley was
built in two thousand and three, two thousand and four,
and when I saw the new stadium, I said that
to Wembley. It was about ten years later that we
(39:36):
held a meeting in Wembley. Well before that, were held
a prayer meeting in west Ham Stadium in East London.
And that's because God gave me a number of visions
about the United Kingdom, about the coming revival that I
began to share with leaders and they were wondering those saying, Jonathan,
(39:56):
we don't do stadiums, And I said, well, God told
us to do it, and God's going to open the door,
and he did gave us favor and cotting a long
story shot. Many of those events took place over I
think a ten year period. We held. Yeah, we held
(40:16):
the first stadium event in two thousand and seven, then
we held another one in two thousand and eight, then
we had one in two thousand and twelve, then we
had one in twenty thirteen, so we had quite a number.
And then I went around the nation. We held about
(40:37):
three one hundred and fifty different prayer meetings in different
towns and villages across the United Kingdom. We have a
vast networks of thousands of thousands of people intercess us
praying groups, leaders, churches, denominational networks, and so I relate
I condemic people relationally, and I condemic people from South
(41:02):
Korea to the Chinese churches, to the Asian churches, to
the Sri Lankan churches, to the Caribbean African churches, to
the English, the Scottish, the Welsh, and the Irish churches.
I connected right across everyone everywhere, and that's been that's
been the signature of the grace of God upon my life.
(41:23):
I got to just open those doors to mobilize people
to prayer, to revival and to mission the preaching.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Of the gospel that's really astounding. And from your prayer meetings,
then you develop the virtual Pentecost meeting where fifty thousand
people attended online. What was Did that blow your mind
or what?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Oh? Yeah? I in twenty nineteen, I was getting ready
for the day and just washing my face and the
Holy Spirit said to me, increase your digital footprint. I'd
never heard a phrase before, increase our digital footprint? What
do you mean by that? So I told to my wife,
(42:10):
I said, God told me to increase that we need
to increase our digital footprint. And so we began to
do things online with our own local fellowship, small fellowship
that we oversee. We took everybody onto Facebook, reactivated our Zoom,
I started doing things and did prayers on Zoom. And
(42:32):
then two months later COVID hit and suddenly they said
we couldn't meet. Everybody had to do things online. So
we were already online, so we knew why God had
told us to start connecting digitally, so we were ahead
of the game, head of the curve. And then one
(42:54):
of my friends from Wales approached me and said, Jonathan's
on finished business with the Global Day of Prayer. Let's
do something online to connect with everybody. And that's when
we said, okay, let's do something at Pentecost since our
stadium meetings were at Pentecost were our focus was to
(43:15):
reactivate the Festival of Pentecosts, which we felt was the
birthday of the church. And so we said, okay, let's
just do this, and so we started talking to people
late twenty twenty and we ran the program, got people
to start praying online in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one,
(43:37):
and so we told people to register and TBN got involved.
They wanted me to do something special with them, and
so we set people to register and after this second week,
they told me that five thousand people had registered, wow,
which I said, that's not possible, and they showed me
(43:58):
the registration details. I said, well, that's interesting. And then
and I think several weeks later we'd gone up to
ten thousand, so we thought we probably would get about
seven thousand at the very most, maybe five to eight
thousand people. When we hit fifteen thousand, I said, wow, God,
(44:25):
we've hit a nerve here. And then we hit twenty
thousand and just kept on going and it kept on going.
By the time we hit thirty thousand people, I said, Okay,
that I think is enough. Then we hit thirty five
and then we hit forty thousand. By the time we
got to Pentecost May twenty twenty one, we were forty
(44:52):
five thousand people. I don't on the day itself, we
had forty seven thousand people registered, and so we did
something with TV and it broadcast a special program in
the morning, and then we did something in the afternoon
linking with Facebook and YouTube and it went every it
went viral dr C and we knew that God told us.
(45:14):
What God told us to do was was was to
hit a nerve, and that's what we'd like to do.
We just like to follow God. We've not repeated that
because we don't want to make it a what's the word,
We don't want to make it an assumption that which yes.
(45:37):
So we did something small last year. We just we
just got people, people registered, But we knew we knew
what God told us to do in twenty one was unique,
and basically he was basically saying to me, when I
give you a trumpet to blow, you blow it and
my people will gather.
Speaker 4 (45:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
Yeah, so I know we're still going to do one
or to stadium events game, but it's going to be
in Good's timing time to blow the trumpet. I will
blow it because he will give me the location. He
would tell me the stadium, and he would tell me
the strategy.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Wow, this is just so amazing to do a virtual
online event where you're maybe hoping for a couple of hundred,
maybe a thousand or so people and end up with
nearly fifty thousand people. That is when there are so
many pastors who either held prayer meetings online or they're
(46:37):
too trying to increase their digital footprint. And I guess too,
when you heard God say increase your digital footprint? Did
you just start with Zoom?
Speaker 3 (46:49):
What did you do? Did you do anything fancy or no?
Speaker 2 (46:53):
No?
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Facebook Live?
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Yeah? We heard my wife and I said, I did
Facebook Live. And we we have this thing we called
start the Year right as a local Assembly. So we
got everybody to register on Zoom for that for twenty
twenty January twenty twenty, and Covid hit in March twenty twenty.
(47:20):
So we already had Facebook going, YouTube links going, so
we had a YouTube channel, but we did we didn't.
We didn't live stream. We just were on Zoom and
my wife and I would do something regular on Facebook,
maybe something about marriage or just a topic, nothing fancy.
(47:42):
We just were doing it from our home. So when
we could not meet physically, we looked at each other
and said, we already have the structure to do. Yeah,
so we just we upgraded. We moved from audio because
mouse of what we were doing at the time on
Zoom was audio. We're not doing anything video. We just
(48:03):
would pray online with everybody. But when this hit, we
now went buy good camera and switched.
Speaker 4 (48:11):
To video, upgraded some huh yeah, and then we learned
how to live stream on certain platforms, linking in with Twitter,
with YouTube, and Facebook all at the same time.
Speaker 2 (48:25):
So that's that's what we started doing as well. And
so we we we as a church, we thrived, I
mean we, I mean our attendance more than doubled. I
started the online pre teaching in April twenty twenty and
that school of ministry is still going strong today. Yeah,
we get we get hundreds of people you know, involved
(48:49):
with that, with that teaching discipleship program. You know. So
we just know that God had led us and guided
us to do what we were doing. And I say
to people that one of the best things and minister
can have is the voice of God. Yes, know how
(49:10):
God speaks to you. It is the best thing you
can have as a minister, you know. And I say
to people, know how God speaks to you. You know,
I'm not your that relationship, you know, invest in that
relationship and make sure you know, just like some world
did you know know how the Lord's voice? What's the
(49:31):
quality of the Lord's voice in your spirit?
Speaker 3 (49:35):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (49:38):
Yes, because he speaks to all of us, and you
have to know how he speaks to you.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:44):
I think that's very important and very key for a
person to know individually, to know how God speaks to them.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Now, tell me about your book, Visions of Light and
what inspired you to write it. How long did it
take you to get the finished product?
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Well, and unfortunately we've run out of print, actually doing
a reprint because it was done by this peculiar group
of people in Wales who came to me and said, Jonathan,
we want you to put all your visions and stuff
into a book. And so yeah, I I did that.
(50:26):
I got all the all the visions God gave me,
put them done in a book, and God gave me
the way to narrate it. So some of my stories
weaved into the into the vision of it's a very
it's a small book. It's not it's not and we
send it to we send it to hundreds of leaders.
You know, it went like why forever the first print went,
(50:47):
the second print went the thought print. So they're going
to do something now where they're going to link everything
onto Amazon, which they didn't do at the time. They're
gonna put everything on Amazon and so sometime next year
they're going to do reprint of the book. Were completely
sold out. I think I have one or two copies
at home which I'm going to make one available maybe
(51:08):
if you come to the UK, I will do that.
Speaker 3 (51:10):
I want I want my autograph, yes.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
But if people if people want, if people want an
electronic version, we can get an electronic version to them
and they can they can they can order through your
platform and we will send it to them.
Speaker 3 (51:32):
Oh wonderful.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
And so this second go around it will also be
available on Amazon.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
We're going to make sure of that. I'm going to
make it. I'm going to make it audio audio book
as well, and you know, do the full walks at
the time, because we were doing the virtual effect Pentacosts
and doing the stuff we we just we just got
it out there to produce the physical copies and and
and send them out to to leaders. So yeah, it
(52:00):
was it was rushed, but it is the story of
the visions that God gave me. The visions of the
Revival are coming to United Kingdom. And I would say
to anybody on this platform that is listening that God
is coming to the world. It's going to visit different countries,
different nations. He's going to visit different people. He's going
(52:21):
to visit the UK shown me he's going to He's
going to use people that are in prisoned at the moment,
people that are going to come to faith, and they're
going to come to him and he's going to use them.
He's going to raise younges. It's not like there's not
like a child Holy Spirit. God is going to use
the Holy use the Holy Spirit to minister through children
(52:45):
and young people all over the world. And so we
need to get ready for God's visitation, because darkness is
upon the face of the deep or the Holy Spirit
always brutes upon the darkness and the middle of the darkness,
and he kills God to let them be light, and
the light will shine in the darkness, and the darkness
don't be able to comprehend it. And so the world
(53:06):
is getting darker all kinds of things. People are crying out,
climate change, climate effects on our world, flooding disasters. Jesus
already predicted all of this in Matthew twenty four and
twenty five. If you read those two chapters, is a
story of the end of the age. And so he's
(53:28):
already said to us that we are sought and light.
He's told us that they're going to imprison us. He's
told that they're going to be plagues and pestilences, adequates
and all kinds of things happening. But at this is
just the beginning of sorrows. The Bible says that their
perulous time shall come, so we as Christian should not
be afraid of the darkness. They say, the eagle looks
(53:50):
at the storm and writes the storm and goes for
the eye of the storm. We as believers, we are
made to live in the middle of the storm. And
when the storm was blowing, that's when Jesus came to meet,
walking on in the middle of the storm, walking to
his disciples who were in the chaos. And I believe
(54:13):
that the peace of God in us is greater than
the storm that is in the world. That's why just
Chris was able to say, peace be still, and the
storm was swallowed up by the peace that was in him.
And so I am crying out to believe us everywhere.
Don't be afraid of the storm of divorce, the storm
(54:33):
of bankruptcy, the storm of incarceration, the storm of racism,
the storm of of of division, the storm of persecution
or trials, or your health challenge that you're going through.
God is going to come to you in the middle
of the storm, and he's going to speak to your
heart and you're going to know your full purpose. You
were made to write the storms, you were made to
(54:56):
walk through the darkness. David said, do I walk through
the vile of the childe of there I shall fear
no evil, have no gain. God is going to use us.
And so I just say to people, Jesus is coming,
and before he comes physically, he's going to come through
the church and we are going to have an awesome
(55:20):
manifestation of his glory.
Speaker 3 (55:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
Wow, that's so inspiring. Don't be afraid of the storm.
Speaker 3 (55:31):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (55:31):
Many people needed to hear that tonight because there's so
many things that you just listed it in that that
are really shifting and rocking people to the extent that
they feel hopeless. And there's so many suicides and those
who have just really given up on life.
Speaker 3 (55:50):
And it can be tough.
Speaker 1 (55:52):
Life can be tough, but like you said, there is hope,
there is light, There is love available to all of us.
It's available to all of us. And you know, before
we go, I want to know, what would you say
to a new Christian, a new convert in order to
(56:13):
sort of guard themselves through this what seems like a
mountain of darkness, or to guide themselves and protect themselves
inside the storm. It's you know, it's I found. You know,
I've been a Christian for a long time, and boy,
I at times, the the the the boat is rocking, right,
(56:36):
and even I say, sometimes what's in my life right now.
So and so I can't imagine those who are new
to the faith coming in doing these certain uncertain times.
What would you say to a new convert or a
(56:57):
new person coming into Christianity.
Speaker 2 (57:00):
If somebody, if I was going to speak to somebody
who's just coming to Christ, as it's one of the
best time is to come into Christ because their following
in tradition of how the Church was birthed, when people
came to Christ in the Book of Acts, they were
born again into very hostile territory. That's true, and there
(57:22):
were lots of things and factors that were against them.
They were imprisoned, they were attacked, they were beating, they
were persecuted, they were even killed. So I would say
to anyone who is a new believer, greater is he
that's in you than he that's in the world, number one.
And the peace of God in you is more tangible
(57:44):
and real than the chaos in the world. I would
say to them. I would say, to my brother and
my sister, make sure you digest the scriptures yourself, read
the Bible yourself. Don't start by reading listening to pastor
someone's online. As good as those are, get into daily
(58:05):
reading yourself. Anyone giving you anything is processed food. Yes
it's good, but it's not necessarily always good for you.
They tell us. The best type of food is organic food, scriptures,
eating the scriptures yourself, reading the scriptures yourself, that is
organic food. Anything you read a book, or you listen
(58:28):
to someone that is processed food by all means. Don't
reject those, but don't make those your main your main cause.
Make them the desert, all the status. Let your main
cause be the scriptures, and have your own way of
praying and connecting with God. With the scriptures and with
(58:49):
the Holy Spirit in you and prayer, you can't go wrong.
And then find a group of people that genuinely love God.
Your heart will identify who these people. The Holy Spirit
to guide you and lead you to your Pitter, your
James and your John. You know, your Ruth, your Deborah,
you know and your Esther. Those who really love God
(59:11):
and know God, and they will support you in the
difficult times when you may be lacking wisdom, or maybe
you want to compromise and you want to go back
to doing the things that you were doing before. These
lovely people God will use them to speak to you
and God will use them to touch you. And that's
what I would say. And wherever you find as the
(59:33):
local assembly of believers, you know, let these people or
find a good local church where they really love God.
Sometimes God takes us through churches because he's training us.
God to Joseph through parttisfus house, but that was not
his father destination is fat destination was the palace. God
(59:54):
to Joseph through prison. So some some churches are potifar.
Some churches prison, but they are there to train you
and get you ready for your powers, for the promise
and the call of God upon your life. So I
would suggest to people be led of God, you know,
and there's no perfect church. There's just the unique church
(01:00:17):
that is for you in your seasons of life. Okay,
So that's what I would say to a new believer
at this time.
Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Again, so encouraging. And I just want to thank you
so much for your time tonight. Thank you because I
know it was not the most convenient where you are
convenient for me, much much less for you.
Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
I'm glad we could do this before Christmas, you know.
I'm so glad we could do this.
Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
Yes, me too.
Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
And again we'll be on the lookout for your book
when it's available, Vision of Lights. And again, thank you
for joining me and I can't wait to have you back.
Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Okay, we'll do this, We'll do this again. I will
send you. I will send you the link to my
audiobook that's on Amazon. I found these foundations which people,
which is a good one for new believers to actually,
So anything that any new believer can use that, you know,
I'll send that to you. Some people can get that
it's it's it's nominal payment. And sometimes I think the
(01:01:22):
audio version is free as well.
Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Sure that'd be excellent, because again, there are so many
different topics we hit on tonight that I think we
probably need to pause and take a deeper dive into.
So thank you so much again, and thank you everyone
for listening tonight. And it's always thank you so much
for being a team player
Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
To the tact about the do
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