The faith tabernacle churches were pockets of small churches with very strict holiness doctrine. They lived very austere lives denying themselves of most conveniences. they were generally looked upon with pity by members of the community who referred to them as the ‘wretched tabernacles’. The decade long relationship between the faith tabernacle America and Nigeria abruptly came to an end when Clarke the leader of faith tabernacle in America was accused of adultery. This fiasco led to developments that ended the decade long relationship between the two groups. One of the largest faith tabernacles congregations in Nigeria was the Ilesha church with 120 members in 1930. Under the leadership of a man by the name J A Babatope. In 1928, the Nigerian faith tabernacle church stated querying the American faith tabernacle's restriction of the manifestations of the Spirit and began to fast extensively seeking revival and the power of the spirit. It was in this season in 1930 that revival broke out in Ilesha through the ministry of a 26 year old man by the man Joseph Ayo Babalola a faith tabernacles member.
It was in 1929 that Babalola was introduced to the leadership of the faith tabernacles church and was subsequently baptised by them in the same year. Odubanjo later said of Babalola “since the days of the Apostles I have not met with any of his type who has direct dealings and intercourse with the Holy Spirit” In July 1930 precisely July 9th and 10th Babalola was invited by Odubanjo to a congress of the leaders of the church in Ilesha, it was here, after praying for a dead boy and the dead boy came back to life the 1930 revival was ignited. After raising the boy from the dead many sick people rushed to Babalola for healings and miracles. 200 people came for healings, the meeting could not stop but continued into its second and third week. By the third week of the revival about 100 lepers, 60 blind and 50 lame persons had been healed. Subsequently all kinds of healings of diverse sicknesses began. The meetings became so large that it had to move to a new venue an open space near a hill called oke-oye in the outskirts of Ilesha. In the following weeks people began to troop in day and night to experience the spiritual revival and miracles in oke-Oye at Ilesha. Babalola’s fame spread throughout the country and beyond its shores
In the following weeks and months other healing evangelist were raised like Daniel Orekoya, Peter Olatunji and David Babajide. Babalola and the other healing Evangelist focused on stirring the faith of the people to believe in the miraculous.
Unlike the faith tabernacle leaders, Babalola and his team did not teach the biblical doctrine of healing in any systematic way but rather relied on the operations of the healing gift of the Holy Spirit which many of them were strongly endowed with. Typically the meetings consisted of a stirring message by Babalola, Olatunji or Orekoya followed by vigorous singing and prayers and then specific instructions to the sick and the oppressed as a means of receiving cures for their ailments. By far the most prominent of this instructions was the application of the holy water. Generally the crowd took on the words even seeking to touch their garments.
The government later embarked on a crackdown of the activities of Babalola and his team, this was due to pressure from the mission churches who were fast loosing members and many of the traditional chiefs who accused the revivalist of instigating unrest in their domain. The height of this was the arrest and subsequent and subsequent imprisonment of Babalola for 6 months in 1932. Even though babalola was a faith tabernacle member.many of His converts acknowledged him as their leader but didn’t not have any connectedness to the faith tabernacle movement. Surprisingly Babalola submitted himself to leadership of the faith tabernacle movement.
To be continued. Watch for part 3
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