Prophet (Dr.) Samson Ayorinde (... more about our President & General Overseer)
An architect-turned preacher, Prophet (Dr.) Samson Ayorinde, who used to be an atheist, heeded the call to the ministry after he had an undeniable encounter with God. Having heard clearly from the Lord, he decided to seek the face of God in 40-days prayer & fasting just as the Master, Jesus Christ. It was during this period he received divine instructions and the Anointing (mandate) from the Lord to “preach the gospel to the poor, … heal the brokenhearted (and sick), deliver the captives, give sights to the blind, and set at liberty those that are bruised and oppressed of the devil.”
Prophet Samson started the World Evangelism (Bible Church) Inc. over a decade ago and God has been confirming His Word with signs & wonders following. He is married to Rev. Mercy, a Prophetess and the mother of their 4 children. Rev. Mercy is specially anointed in the area of the fruit of the womb and many testimonies followed her Operation Fruitfulness ministry all over the world. They are the Senior Pastors of World Evangelism Bible Churches.
You could pass him on the road and not know that you have met a man with anointing that has raised the dead and preached to a crowd of over 1.4 million people gathered in a single place. His shy and humble visage belies the prodigious energy that becomes evident the moment he mounts the pulpit. Prophet Samson Olabode Ayorinde, General Overseer of World Evangelism Bible Church in Ogudu Lagos is indeed a General in God’s end-time army, showing that the gospel is not an abstract thing, but has power to set people free and change destinies.
From a modest background, he struggled through life’s deprivations to the point now where his ministrations traverse the length and breadth of the country and beyond and drawing huge crowds that fill the main bowl of the National Stadium to capacity each month in a crusade tagged Anointing Night.
The second of five children of a carpenter and a house wife, his ambition was to become an architect and once and for all, shake off the shackles of penury. That ambition was born out of an incident that occurred when his father went to work one day, at a building site that was supervised by a young architect. On that fateful day, his father had gone to work at the building site— Adewole Estate in Ilorin. The supervising architect, expressing dissatisfaction with his pace of work, angrily shoved him so hard that he fell down and then ordered him off the site. Humiliated and in pains, he vowed that his son would be an architect. Prophet Samson Ayorinde eventually lived up to that vow, but architecture and preaching the gospel on a full time basis are a mismatch.
Born in Rore, a village near Ilorin in Kwara State, ProphetSamson Ayorinde attended St. Michael Primary School and Ilorin Grammar School. After his secondary education, his primary school teacher took him to her mother in Ibadan for further training because his parents could not afford his school fees. He later returned to Ilorin where he worked briefly as a proof reader in a printing press. He then proceeded to Kwara State Polytechnic from where he graduated with HSC, (Higher School Certificate). Thereafter he gained admission into the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria. He left the university with a Masters degree in architecture firmly in his pocket.
For an avowed atheist in his student days, carrying the torch of evangelism was anathema but to Prophet Ayorinde’s praying mother, an able evangelist and prophet was in the making. She was undeterred in her belief that her son would one day preach the gospel with signs and wonders. Being a woman who prayed much, she had covenanted him to God at birth. So despite his preoccupation with pursuits that were not related to the gospel, his destiny with the pulpit was a foregone conclusion. Eventually he abandoned the slide rule and all other paraphernalia of architecture for the Bible. Yet the road to ministry was a tortuous one.
After his BSc programme, Prophet Ayorinde began to lecture in the university as part of his programme for a masters degree. At this point, atheism bowed to the Holy Spirit and he became converted. He would often find himself preaching to the students he was supposed to be lecturing, without actually meaning to. He became an avid student of the bible, the pages of which he devoured with a hunger that mounted each day. At the end of his masters programme, he was led by the Holy Spirit into prolonged fasting and prayer to seek direction for his ministry. It was during this period that he met Professor D. B Olumeyan who was then the Director of the Divisions of the Agricultural College, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He was invited by the Prophet to be his prayer partner. They would often go into the bush to pray, sometimes throughout the day and at other times, in the afternoon till late evening, in the rain and in the sun. In following the leading of the Holy Spirit, his calling as an evangelist and into the ministry of miracles, healing and deliverance became clear. His major prayer to God was to preach the gospel with signs and wonders. That his prayer was answered became evident when he held his first major crusade in Samaru Zaria in 1995 and a repeat in Zaria township two years later.
The result of his quest for direction also gave birth to World Evangelism Ministries which was incorporated in 1995 but before then, he had pioneered and pastored over ten churches. In the same year, Prophet Samson Ayorinde moved his ministry base from Zaria to Lagos. The World Evangelism Bible Church started in the living room of Rev., then Architect David Awoniyi whom he had met during an earlier trip to Lagos to attend a wedding. In 1998, just three years after, over 6,500 people attended an anointing service marking the end of a 21 day fasting and prayer retreat. Today, the church holds four packed services every Sunday with a combined attendance of over ten thousand. It also holds two equally packed services every Tuesday tagged “Miracle Service."
Currently, the church has her International headquarters in London, UK and branches in several locations in Lagos Nigeria, London and Atlanta Georgia.
Though Prophet Ayorinde has travelled to many countries where his unique ministry has touched thousands of lives, he has built up a crusade arm that brings his calling as an evangelist and prophet to the fore. A monthly crusade tagged “Anointing Night" that kicked off early in the year and held originally at the LTV open ground in Agidimgbi, Lagos had to be moved to the main bowl of the National Stadium because of the teeming crowds that throng the meetings. The Anointing Night has snowballed into a major event that draws attendance from all over the country, filling the stadium to capacity.
Prophet Ayorinde’s television and radio ministry has touched millions of lives. His programme—PROPHET SAMSON AYORINDE LIVE, is aired on three television stations and two radion stations, daily. Testimonies of miracles and deliverance through this ministry, pour in everyday, prompting a prominent and well respected man of God to declare that Prophet Samson Ayorinde holds the mantle of Lagos State. His unique style and reach sets him apart as a general with a firm grip on his command. He is blessed with a beautiful wife and four children.
