There was a man that once walked and lived in Africa. There was a man that God used to show to us that the God of the Bible is still our God today and the wonders of the Bible did not end with the Scriptures. That man is no other person than Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola. A man that mysteriously and miraculously traveled on the wings of the wind. Or should we call it Holy Ghost flight?
Let us look at Biblical foundation of this article. When the Lord miraculously took away Enoch from the earth, it was the miracle of the first century. It was an unbelievable occurrence. In Genesis 5:7 the scripture says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him away. This happened hundreds of years before the flood.
In the second dispensation, during the days of the prophets, Elijah also came to the world, walked in the spirit, and when it was time for him to die, God sent chariots of fire and horses of fire to take him away from the earth- That miraculous encounter is beautifully narrated in 2 Kings 2:1-11.
Fast-forward to the New Testament era, Our Lord Jesus Christ, after resurrection, was taken up into the heaven in the presence of the disciples (Luke 24:51).
The apostles that took the mantle of Jesus also recorded similar feet. Philip, one of the Spirit-filled apostles was supernaturally transported from Gaza to Azotus in Acts 8:39-40.
Like someone once said, the Acts of the Apostles has no end. It is a book without a definite end and Apostle Ayo Babalola, a man greatly used by God between 1928 to1959 in Africa lived to show that the God of the Bible is still our God today.
Despite all the miracles, healings and opportunity to make money from the crowd and congregants that usually attend his meetings; he did not buy or own a car until 1953. He was either trekking or riding a Raleigh Bicycle or using public transportation (usually Lorry)that was always overloaded with members of his Aladura group and missionaries.
23 years after the great Oke Oye revival that announced him to the world, his main means of transportation was bicycle.
But the Lord was faithful to him and even allowed him to travel on the wings of the wind like men of old.
There were several instances where the Spirit of the Lord miraculously transported Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola from one place to the other. However, I will share two of those instances here as beautifully narrated by Rev. M. O. Idowu, a Pentecostal historian:
BABALOLA’S MYSTERIOUS FLIGHT FROM OSHOGBO TO LAGOS
“The most incredible and difficult to believe in the Babalola’s story were his miraculous or mysterious journeys. How he made certain journeys that defied logic, natural laws and common sense. How he made some journeys and travels were sometimes so mysterious and unusual that were there not available a host of infallible proofs and eyewitness accounts of men of integrity and character that clearly affirm their authenticity, one would be excused for considering them unreasonable, illogical and simply impossible.
A particular case in point that is well known to many of the leaders of Christ Apostolic Church of those days and even church members was his miraculous travel from Oshogbo to Lagos.
It happened that they were on their way to Lagos for a speaking engagement in his car with his driver, Elder Ogunbona (now late). Somewhere around Oshogbo or shortly after it, the vehicle developed a fault and they had to stop.
The driver tried to unravel the problem with the car and to rectify it. While the driver worked on the car; the apostle carried his Bible and told the driver to meet him in the way after repair as he began to go on foot. In those days there were not many vehicles, so in one hour a vehicle might not pass.
Before long the driver rectified the problem and started on the way to catch his boss. He noticed too that no vehicle had passed while he worked on the vehicle that might have given the apostle a free ride to Lagos.
But to his amazement and surprise, he never could see Babalola on the way. Tried as much as he could to increase his speed; he could not see the apostle in sight. He got to Ibadan, he was not there. Until he finally got to Lagos and to the venue of the meeting where he saw his boss preaching.
FROM IWAJI TO EFON ALAAYE EKITI
There was another case like the one above.The apostle and the leaders of CAC, Medaiyese, Odutola and A.O Omotosho; conducted a pastoral visit one day to a town very near Efon Alaaye in Ekiti. The name of this town is Iwaji and in the olden days; there was only one footpath from this town, very near to Efon, and no other route.
After the assignment and they were about returning, the people still held to the apostle for one thing or the other. Since it was not his habit to drive people away from his sight or refuse to pray for anyone needing his attention, he continued with them. On seeing this, the three other pastors decided to leave with the people thinking that by so doing the people would release him. These three men had been trekking for more than 30 minutes and covered several hundreds of metres and were already looking at Efon from the hills before they decided to wait for the apostle.
As they were waiting, one of them looked in front at the foot of the hill and saw Babalola already in front. He told his other partners that it appears he saw someone that look like Oga, as he was popularly called, but the remaining two disagreed that it could not have been him since they left him behind at Iwaji and had trekked for almost 30 minutes; that there was no way he could have bypassed them to now be in front. “Which way would he have passed?” they asked.
When Babalola heard the controversy then he actually stopped and waited for them that he was indeed the person. The three persons could not believe their eyes that indeed Babalola had arrived there before them. From then on till they arrived home they did not say a word to him or to each other because they were scared.”
Note: For more knowledge about the ministerial life of Apostle Babalola, you can get these two books written by Evang. Aduralere Oluwagbohunmi: "Acts of Power: 15 Secrets of Apostle Joseph Ayo Babalola's Power and Success in Ministry,"
"Testimony of Grace: 20 Amazing Facts on a Steamroller that Became God's General."
You can call Evang. Oluwagbohunmi on:0808 711 0224