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David Oyedepo planned to spend the weekend of May 1,1981 with his friend but God changed the plan in a dramatic way

It is one of the fastest growing Pentecostal ministries in the world today. Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel, the flourishing church empire founded by Bishop David Oyedepo 30 years ago, began in a small way in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. This was in 1981 when he was called into ministry with a mandate from God to liberate the world from all oppressions of the devil through the preaching of the word of faith.

Oyedepo said it all started on May 1, 1981, when he travelled to Ilesha, Osun State, to visit a friend. When he arrived his friend’s house, his door was locked. What he saw written on the door was: “Away on weekend”. However, as Oyedepo turned back from the door, he immediately heard the voice of the Lord saying to him: “My son, seek a quiet place, I want to talk to you.” The voice was audible.

Oyedepo then asked someone whether there was any hotel in the outskirt of the town where he could go and have a quiet time with the Lord.  He was directed to one international hotel nearby. As he went into his hotel room and knelt down to pray, he was caught up in a vision that eventually lasted for 18 long hours. In that vision, the Lord said to him: “Now the hour has come to liberate the world from all oppressions of the devil through the preaching of the word of faith and I’m sending you to undertake this task.”  He recalled that he saw passing by before his eyes a line - up of the afflicted and oppressed. “I saw the blind, the lame, the wretched, the battered and beaten, all in rows,” Oyedepo said.

After the divine encounter, he was filled with awe that God could think of him to the extent that He could send him to the world. For Oyedepo, it was a global calling for the liberation of mankind. He, therefore, set out to establish his ministry. On May 8, 1981, he set up the Power House which was a spin the support group of 64 people who prayed and fasted 26 months before the minister took off. He started the weekly fellowship of his ministry in Ilorin on May 24, 1981. It was called Faith Liberation Hour. That was a teaching session where he taught the word of faith every Friday and then held a seminar once a month. The ministry then had its first commissioning service in Ilorin on September 17, 1983. Incidentally, the ministry was commissioned by Enoch Adejare Adeboye, general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God who also ordained Oyedepo.

From that little beginning in Ilorin, the ministry was   extended to Kaduna on December 11, 1983. The church then located at Ramat Close, Ungwan Rimi, had a 300 sitting capacity but was more dominated with benches than worshipers. But within a few years, the church multiplied greatly and attendance grew to thousands to the extent that church’s entire space could no longer accommodate teeming worshipers. That informed the moving of the church to its permanent site in Barnawa area of Kaduna which is called the Garden of Faith. The magnificent edifice cannot in any way be compared to the old structure.  It has an array of office buildings, spacious parking lot dotted with trees and flowers and an ultra modern church auditorium where worshipers thronged every Sunday to commune with God. Today, the church in Kaduna has well over 25,000 worshippers, holding multiple services on the 13-acre facility.

As a pastor who approached his calling strictly as a divine mandate, Oyedepo was unwavering in his determination to ensure that the ministry grew to become an oak tree in Christendom. In September 1989, Oyedepo moved to Lagos in obedience to God’s instruction. The Lagos church started in a rented hall at 1A, New Era Road, Iyana Ipaja. From there, it moved to a 2.7-acre facility he acquired at 38, Raji Oba Street, Iyana Ipaja. There, a 3,000 sitting capacity auditorium was built, which soon became inadequate for the ever-increasing congregation. Alongside Faith, his wife, they both watched as God enlarged their territory.

It was while Oyedepo was considering what to do to accommodate the increasing number of worshippers that he got another divine instruction to move the church to somewhere along Idiroko Road, Ota, a suburb of Lagos, where he acquired a vast expanse of land in 1998. He named the vast expanse of land of  560 acres, Canaanland, and told the congregation that the building of the church auditorium in Canaanland would be completed within a year. The speed of the construction of church was breathtaking, considering the size of the building.  As he had proclaimed, the construction of this gigantic project was completed within 12 months, which experts claim could only have been a miracle, because such a project should normally take a minimum of three years to complete. The clearing of the ground for the building started on September 18, 1998 . The church auditorium reputed as the largest church building by the Guinness Book of Records, which Oyedepo named Faith Tabernacle was completed and dedicated on    September 18, 1999.

The edifice has a sitting capacity of 50,000 people and an outside overflow capacity of over 250,000.

Indeed, the imposing church auditorium built by Oyedepo, an architect-turned pastor, is an architectural wonder that cost millions of naira. It now serves as the headquarters of the Winners Chapel. The speed with which the mega sanctuary was completed is a living testimony to the awesomeness of God. It is equally amazing that the massive facilities that make up the Canaanland estate were built absolutely debt-free.

The ministry then built the old site of Winners Chapel in Durumi, Abuja, from where it began the construction of “Goshen” which is a camp like Canaanland in Abuja. It is along kilometre 26, Abuja-Keffi Road. It has an ultra-modern auditorium which accommodates over 15,000. The auditorium is a replica of the Faith Tabernacle. Goshen is complete with a dual-carriage way running through the 740-acre facility with street lightning as well as a housing estate with more than 45 housing units among others and all these were constructed in only 15 months.

Indeed, in line with the divine mandate, Oyedepo received in 1981, the ministry has continued to grow in leaps and bounds. He recalled that as far back as 1982, when the Lord spoke to him that this ministry will be flying on wings across nations preaching the gospel of Christ, he had a Volkswagen Beetle car. “We didn’t have any typewriter as an organisation but it was spoken and documented and circulated among the various things God said awaits this ministry in its pursuit. So, we are not just trying to do something, we are only working into a divine agenda,” Oyedepo said.

Today, in fulfillment of that divine mandate, his global vision of evangelism has taken the gospel outside the shores of Nigeria, and won a lot of souls. In May, 1994, he inaugurated the Africa Invasion Programme, AGIP, to spread the gospel across the continent. As part of its outreach programmes, the church acquired an aircraft in 1996 to facilitate his evangelism programmes to countries outside Nigeria. Tagged “Gospel on Wings,” the programme was launched as an arm of the World Mission Agency Incorporated - the organ responsible for foreign mission operations.

 The multi-dimensional outreaches of the Winners Chapel have made a lot of impact on the body of Christ worldwide. Such outreaches include publishing of books and other periodicals such as The Winners’ World, Signs & Wonders Today, and training through the Word of Faith Bible Institute, WOFBI, that is committed to ministry and leadership training and through the church network in the home and foreign missions. This, perhaps, explains why Oyedepo said the vision of the church was being accomplished by God through six liberation mandates. These mandates, according to him, include the Living Faith Church, the World of Faith Bible Institute, WOFBI, and Missions to the Nations, the missionary arm of the church. Others are the Publishing Mandate, Humanitarian services and Education mandate which gave birth to 60 Kingdom Heritage Model Primary Schools located across the nation, the Faith Academy, Covenant University and the newly commissioned Landmark University in Kwara State.

All over Nigeria, Africa, and other parts of the world, Winners Chapel has a lot of architectural masterpieces. One unique thing about the edifices built by the ministry is that the use of pillars in its auditoriums are de-emphasised and this enables every worshipper to have visual access to the altar. Some of these masterpieces are Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Goshen, along km 26, Abuja-Keffi expressway; Garden of Faith, Kaduna; Winners Chapel, Kano; Winners Chapel, Benue and Winners Chapel, Nairobi, Kenya, which is called ‘The Wonderland,’ Kenya, among others. Winners Chapel, Nairobi which sits 15,000 is the largest church auditorium in East and Central Africa.

The Winners Chapel network of churches is present in more than 4,000 branches in over 300 cities in all states of Nigeria, as well as in over 63 cities in 45 African countries, Dubai, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. There are also branches in the United Arab Emirate, UAE, Belgium, The Caribbean, Canada, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan among others.

Oyedepo’s motivational, faith-building teachings have also endeared him to many. Newswatch learnt that in the past 30 years of his ministry, many barren women have given birth to babies after attending his miracle programmes. Many more received healings, secured employment, financial breakthroughs, turn-arounds in their respective businesses and deliverance from ancestral curses. The ministry teaches the importance of faith and that both divine healing and material prosperity are benefits of submission to God’s will.

The teachings of Oyedepo are grouped under a range of topics called ’12 pillars of faith’, which include: Faith, The Word, Prosperity, the Holy Spirit, Praise, Consecration, the Supernatural, Wisdom, Prayer, Success, Vision and Healing. The focus of his teachings centres around faith in God, prosperity and miracles. He teaches that faith in the word of God is the key to a life of God’s blessings and security from the works of the devil. His teachings on prosperity are aimed at empowering people to live free from poverty, particularly in the African continent. He describes his own teaching on prosperity as “covenant software for programming yourself into victories and triumphs.” Every December, Winners’ Chapel holds its annual prophetic gathering, called Shiloh.

In May, this year when the 30th anniversary of the church, tagged, “Anniversary of Grace and Glory” was held at the ministry’s headquarters in Canaanland, Ota, Oyedepo gave praises to God for His faithfulness over the years.  Indeed, he ascribed the glory to the Almighty, whom he said fulfilled His word to the mission. “The word of God states that a man can receive nothing except it is given him from above. We, therefore, ascribe all the glory to God for his mighty acts in the midst of His people.’’

The presiding bishop of the Winners Chapel explained that what has sustained him in the past 30 years in the ministry is that he kept to his calling with his eyes fixed on the goal. “To the glory of God, in 30 years, the ministry has built a number of vibrant ministries, impacting the liberation mandate. I have never sat with anybody to run anybody down in 30 years,’’ he said.

The anniversary was a one-week event laced with several spiritual activities which came to a close with a thanksgiving service on May 8. David Abioye, executive vice-president of the church, said the 30th anniversary celebration was a testament to God’s creative power. He explained that the church was celebrating the faithfulness of God and appreciating Him because what He told His servant had been brought to pass. “This is to declare to the whole world that God can make happen what He has said He would do. Whatever God has said, He would make happen,’’ Abioye said.