•As MFM Celebrates @ 30
The Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries (MFM) Church just concluded a glorious 30th international convention and Anniversary in a 3-days event with a mighty and wonderful Thanksgiving Service. The celebration took place on Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th at MFM Prayer City, Lagos – Ibadan Expressway. It was a massive celebration where thousands of worshippers from across the world came to celebrate with the trail blazer, the general Overseer of MFM, Dr DK Olukoya. The theme of the convention was tagged Re-arranged for Revival. Part of the important dignatries who graced the convention were the governors of Lagos and Akwa ibom, Gov. Sanwo Olu and his wife, Ibijoke and Governor Udom Emmanuel. Also part of the iconic activities were gifts given to over 300 first class students from MFM Church and launch of a book which can be called an encyclopedia of MFM at 30. It showcases all one needs to know about MFM.
In its 3 decades of existence, MFM has attained the status of a spiritual trailblazer, pacesetter, pioneer and groundbreaker in the body of Christ generally. The iconic status of the church did not come by fluke or happenstance, It is a product of God’s grace. Popularly called the Apostle of fire, Dr DK Olukoya founded MFM Church 30 years ago in 1989 at age 32 and the church has become a global phenomenon by the grace of God through his able leadership. Many people might know how MFM started but nobody knew how God called Pastor DK Olukoya. It will surprise you to know that God called Pastor Olukoya at age 20 though he did not start MFM Church until 12 years later. According to the G.O, the MFM was birthed by divine revelation. What makes this man of God unique as a Christian leader is his ability to marry his training as a world class scientist and his scholarship as a researcher and academic with divine calling as a prayer and deliverance minister. At the convention, he revealed how he was called and he started Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries. He told the congregation during a sermon entitled, ‘Rearranged for Revival’, which is also the theme of the convention, that the revelation came while asleep.
Olukoya said, “I was sleeping in my one-room apartment in the Boys Quarters of a house located on Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba, in 1977, when I heard a sharp voice. I then woke up and walked towards the door. But I did not see anybody. “Again, for the second time, the thunderous voice came again, thunderous but very pleasant to the ears and as I was wondering whose it was, the Holy Spirit said: ‘son remember the call of Samuel’. Then He started giving the covenant that led to the establishment of the MFM.” Though it did not come until 12-years later. To the glory of God, the house has been bought by MFM and turned to MFM Bookshop. That was the house where it all started”.
Since he got and answered the call of God, DKO has been totally engulfed by the fire of the holy spirit which has turned him into a blazing fire for God. He has grown excellently over the years to become a true apostle of fire, No wonder, he has rightly been described as ‘the Elijah of our time” as a result of the extraordinary anointing of God that is flowing in his life and that is manifesting in his ministry. It takes great faith and courage to leave the known for the unknown especially in this world of uncertainty but Dr. Olukoya’s faithful obedience to the heavenly call paid off today. His journey that birthed MFM began after the call and after he came back from England in 1984 after a successful completion of his PhD degree. He went back to CAC Oloto, the church he used to attend before he travelled abroad. He later relocated to CAC Makoko under the umbrella of Light of the World Society.
It was there that the first Pentecostal Church in Makoko, Lagos was established. Later in 1989, in the sitting room of his flat at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, (NIMR), he started a prayer band made up of youths. Not long afterwards, the group meeting in Bro Daniels house as he was called then became large and he went on to rent a place at Old Yaba road where CAC model assembly later came to use for their services which was led by Bro Daniel Olukoya. With the growth of this new church which was clearly evolving its own distinct and unique identity, the Lord ministered to Bro Daniel and his wife, Pastor Sade Olukoya during one of their prayer sessions by a word of prophecy, the name, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries which became the name with which the new church was henceforth identified. They eventually bought a land at the present headquarters of the church, at Onike, Yaba. Its first service was held on the 24th of April, 1994 with 324 members. The testimony of the 30th Anniversary of MFM is that it now has at least 200 branches in different parts of Lagos and thousands of branches in other parts of Nigeria and in many countries across the globe. It has 700 regions in Nigeria and 88 regions outside Nigeria.
Today the church is present in more than 170 countries. Like Abraham ‘’the father of faith”, Dr Olukoya upon the call of God and his instruction, left his familiar terrain of research, academics and a flourishing career as a scientist, to start a ministry and work for God. By faith he found and began to run the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries which to many appeared like a strange and unreasonable adventure of leaving the certainty for uncertainty. It was also not quite common at that time for a first class degree holder who also has a PhD from a leading University in the UK to opt for God’s work but he took a step of faith and the rest is history. He also made it known at the convention that the road of MFM 30 years surely has its bumps, but by God’s grace they have come this far and God has just started with the ministry. In the early days of his ministry, he depended on his salary to pay church staff, settle various financial obligations and render assistance to the less privilege. His Volkswagen, ‘Kombi bus became church bus, tattered and old, he drove it on rugged and bad roads and at odd hours to carry out his ministerial assignments. Having started from a plot of land in a marshy area at its inception, MFM is now a global church with architectural masterpieces and great impact on the world and in the lives and hearts of millions across the globe.
–TAYO FAJORIN OYEDIJI
With additional info from MFM@30 Book
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