By By Babatunde Omobowale
I have spent the last few days thinking about my father, Baba Ebenezer Olumuyiwa Omobowale and the conclusion that I came up with, is that as my biological father, he is simply irreplaceable and unforgettable.
Immemoriam
This is why I give God, my Heavenly Father, all the Glory, for stepping in, in His Awesomeness, to fill the gap, created by the exit, from this terrestrial realm, of Baba Omobowale, in my life and in the lives of my siblings.
Papa Omobowale
Baba Omobowale was a good father, a devoted husband and a great man of God, who worked tirelessly for the expansion of the Kingdom, with all the strength that he could muster. Every day, if he was not praying on one prayer request or the other, given to him by different people, he would be studying the Word of God or be in the presence of God at the programmes of the All Saints Evangelical Church. Everything about him revolved around his wife, the children, the grandchildren and the Church of God. God was Baba’s number one priority and he prioritized the things of God to the extent that he had never missed any church programme or activity since the establishment of the church on the 24th of April 1994. His commitment to the things of God was total and absolute. In fact, because of this personal conviction and decision to always be in the presence of God, he never went on leave from the Church and neither did he travel out of Nigeria, to the United States of America to visit my younger sister. His inability to go to the US also meant that my mother also stayed behind in Nigeria, to take care of Baba, from whom she was inseparable. Of course, my dear sister, Chief Petty Officer Temitope Alao, supported Baba with her prayers and numerous phone calls from the United States of America.
Baba Omobowale was a Prophet of God that many people did not know. As a Minister, in the Vineyard of God, he manifested several gifts of the Holy Spirit, among which were, the Word of Knowledge, the Word of Wisdom, powerful Dreams and Visions as well as the ability to hear the audible Voice of God. For me, my relationship with him, as one of his children, enabled me to witness, firsthand, the tangibility and existence of a spirit realm, where there are no speculations for the true initiate, a place where God serves as the Ultimate Overseer and Superintendent over this terrestrial sphere of existence!! With Baba as God’s Divine Tool, I came to believe and know that the things that emanate from the Spirit realm are not speculative or abstract and that they determine the affairs of the physical realm. Sometime, in 2019, my late father raised a prayer point in church for a couple. I still remember his exact words: ‘Pray for a couple now. God wants to promote them’. I recall that the whole congregation prayed heartily on this and several other prayer points.
The following day, which was a Monday, I saw Baba Omobowale during the Bible Study programme and he told me that the Prayer Point that he had raised, the previous day, for the promotion of a couple, was for my wife and I and that we should pray for its speedy manifestation. I told my wife later that night about what Baba had said and we both prayed about it. That same week, on Wednesday, I got a call from the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Idowu Olayinka, who asked me to see him in his office the following day. When I was ushered into his presence, on Thursday, he calmly told me: ‘I want you to go and serve this university at the Distance Learning Centre, as the Director’. For me, this was one of the many ways through which God had influenced the physical realm, in my own life, through the prophetic insight of my father. It was a tangible manifestation of how God intervenes in our affairs, in His position as the Supreme Being!! The essence of my testimony is not to gloat about the appointment, which was a call to duty and for which I am grateful to God and the former Vice-Chancellor, but also to foreground one undeniable fact: that there are things that we cannot explain, things that are beyond human comprehension about the existence of another parallel world, from where the affairs of this terrestrial realm is directed. I was informed about a promotion that God had divinely packaged for me, beforehand, a promotion which neither my father nor I knew anything about and it happened the same week!! The appointment was a clear manifestation of how God operated in Baba’s life. He was a Vessel of Great Honour, in God’s Vineyard.
I also recall that some years ago, there was an ASUU strike action and no money was coming in for me to take care of my family. I raised some funds from sundry sources and I told my wife that we would use the money to buy a used car and restart a transportation business that I had suspended several years earlier, because my 5 drivers were stealing my money. I budgeted about 200,000 naira, to purchase the car and after raising the money, I kept it with my wife as I did not want to spend it on something else. My wife and I also scouted around Bashorun and Akobo, looking for a used car and eventually, we found one that we could buy. Then the day before I was to go and purchase the car, my father came to my apartment. It was very early in the morning. Immediately after he came in, he told me bluntly: ‘God said that you should not buy any car. He said that you should go and reprint your book, Seasons of Rage’. I had not told him about my plans to buy a car, but God had told him. Eventually, I diverted the 200,000 naira to reprinting my book, which was then out of stock and I sold thousands of copies of this book and I made a LOT of money, money that I would not have made if I had bought a used car for ‘kabukabu’!! The Spiritual Realm is definitely real and it was the easy access that my father had into it that made him know things that he should ordinarily not know and which he used for the benefit of so many people.
In 2013, while I was serving as the Head of my Department, Baba Omobowale called me and told me that God said that I was about to write 3 books. I discountenanced the message immediately because I was so busy with my job as the HoD of the Department of English and I felt that I would not have time to write any new novel. A few days after he gave me this divine message, I received some visitors from one of the leading publishing firms, in Ibadan and Nigeria. They told me that someone had recommended me to them that I could serve as the lead writer of a book. I rejected the offer immediately because I felt that I would not have any time to work for them and with them. Then, later that night, I remembered the Divine message from God, delivered by my father and I called the Editorial Consultant who had visited me earlier that day. It was while we were talking that I learnt that I and some other academics were going to write 3 books –for JSS 1-3 — and not one!!
The fact that Baba Omobowale had a deep insight into the affairs of the spiritual realm was indubitable. Around 2011, he had summoned all his children who were here, in Nigeria, to see him. When we gathered together in his bedroom, he informed us; very bluntly that God had told him that it was time for him to come home, which was a euphemism for his death!! However, he also explained to us that he had requested for an extension of his lifespan, from God, for him to continue with his Pastoral duties for some time. He asked for collective prayers to be offered to God for the approval of this request. After he finished speaking, we all prayed about the issue immediately and we left him and my mum. A few weeks later, during one of our regular Friday Prayer Meetings, my father suddenly slumped after he had shared the Grace and we had chanted the usual 7 Halleluyahs, to mark the end of the prayer meeting. Those of us who were in church ran forward to where he had fallen, on the floor, and carried him. There was no response from him, as we called his name repeatedly. We brought him out of the church with the aim of taking him to the University College Hospital. As we hastily carried him to the gate, he came back to life and we told him what had happened. To the glory of God, he was with us for many more years!!
Baba peacefully transited to another realm of experience on the 20th of August 2021. I have shared on a number of occasions, how he accurately predicted his imminent transition on the 8th of August 2021, as he preached what was to become his last sermon in the church, when he said categorically that he had finished his race, a reference to 2 Timothy 4:7. I also recall that a few days before he preached that last sermon, he had told my mum and I of two revelations that he had received from God. He had seen a vision where his portrait had been removed from where it hitherto was, in the company of the portraits of the other Pastors of the All Saints Evangelical Church where he served as the Senior Pastor. In the second vision, he saw that it was the Assistant Pastors of the church who were now performing his statutory roles as the Senior Pastor of the church. My mum and I did not see anything wrong with this second revelation as every member of the family wanted him to rest more, by delegating some of his pastoral assignments to his assistants. We simply told him that God wanted him to take good care of himself by sharing some of responsibilities to the other Pastors. I remember that he shook his head as if he knew things that we did not know. Then, he asked my mum and me to pray very well that his position in the church would not become vacant!! Little did we know that the rest that he was to take was going to be more permanent one!!
I will always have fond memories of my father. He was not tight fisted and his generosity knew no bounds. Some of my fondest memories of Baba were my experiences during periods of prolonged strike actions by the academic staff of Nigerian Universities. Baba, always a doting and caring father, would regularly call me and my 3 brothers to ask about our financial situation and how he could help us. Even when we told him that we were coping, despite the non-payment of our salaries, Baba would still insist on assisting us with funds, which most often we repaid at our convenience.
I would like to conclude this Tribute with an extract from one of my sermons which focused on ‘How to obtain and retain the Glory of God’. Baba Ebenezer Omobowale anchored his life on the Sure Foundation that was Christ and this made his journey through this earth, very pleasant and pleasurable. There is no gainsaying the fact that without Christ as our Guide and Companion, the journey through this terrestrial realm of experience can be very stressful and difficult. However, the presence of God makes the journey pleasant as God will clear the obstacles on our path and obstruct the devil and his cohorts from exerting or exercising any power over us. To experience the presence of God, like Baba Omobowale did, there are certain preconditions that we must comply with, if we want to have access to the Glory of God. The Glory of God facilitates peace, happiness, laughter and joy. Anyone in whose life the presence of God manifests must live a life of holiness, purity and perfection, by steering clear of sin. Manifestation of the Glory of God in a person’s life transforms the individual into the Beloved of God, in whom God is well pleased.
A person, in whom the Glory of God manifests, like it did in the life of my father, Baba Ebenezer Olumuyiwa Omobowale, has God, the Creator of the whole universe, the King of all Kings as his friend, Saviour, Protector and Counsellor. The person is spiritually transformed into a radiant, refershing light, someone whose life will reflect the blessings that God has in store for those who serve Him diligently and faithfully, blessings that are not limited to this realm of experience but are eternal in scope. The manifestation of God’s Glory is also a veritable tool for Evangelism as it helps in the propagation of the Gospel of Christ, which was an important cornerstone of Baba Omobowale’s ministry. God’s Glory also brings with it the awareness of the limitless opportunities and blessings that are available to every child of God who makes Christ the pivot around whom his or her life revolves.
God’s Glory stands for God’s Grace, God’s Love, opportunities for limitless physical and spiritual growth, the ability to reject and resist every form of evil and sin as well as a very youthful zeal and enthusiasm to do what is right in the sight of God always. The Glory of God is also the same thing as the Holy Spirit of God, which is indispensable in the life of anyone who wants to make it to Paradise at the end of time. When the Holy Spirit shows up in a person’s life, like He did, in the life of Baba Ebenezer Olumuyiwa Omobowale, such a person becomes a new person, who possesses the ability to resist sin, as he or she radiates God’s beauty in today’s morally corrupt world. My prayer is that God will give each one of us, the enabling spirit, to serve Him, diligently and faithfully, as we reflect His Glory, in the name of Jesus.
Finally, Baba mi — Senior Pastor Ebenezer Olumuyiwa Omobowale — Baba rere, eniyan uyi, eniyan eye, sun re o, laya Jesu Kristi Olugbala re.
Emmanuel Babatunde Omobowale, PhD.
Senior Pastor,
All Saints Evangelical Church,
Ibadan.
27/08/2022
What's your reaction?
