The Senior Pastor of the Fountain of Life Church, Jimmy Odukoya, has claimed that God instructed him not to cut his dreadlocks to save a life.
The cleric who stated this during a recent sermon, explained that he sought divine clarity over his appearance before he resumed pastoral duties after the death of his father, Taiwo Odukoya.
He said, “One of the things I asked the Lord before I came back was whether I should cut my hair or not. And He told me not to cut my hair.
“So I told my sister to go and pray that God will speak to her. She came back and said I wasn’t supposed to cut my hair, to which I replied, ‘I know, because God already told me”.
While insisting that God asked him to keep his dreadlocks to save a life, the pastor narrated how a Zimbabwe woman travelled down to Nigeria to attend service.
“A couple of weeks ago, someone came all the way from Zimbabwe to the church to see me. And she says, ‘People think that I’m crazy when I tell them I’m coming to Nigeria for the next three to four weeks.
“She says, in 2016, I was in New York when I had a vision that felt so real. I saw you with your hair and you are speaking to me, declaring over me, and giving me certain instructions.
“She said, fast forward 2025, after that vision I went through a tough break up, I lost everything I had in a divorce including my house and all I worked for. To compound issues, my mom got sick and I watched her die in my arms’.
“She said she was trying to find God so she went on YouTube to hear sermons. And my preaching popped up. You won’t understand because when I had the vision, I didn’t know you existed. So when I saw the man from the vision with long hair I screamed because I didn’t know that a pastor would have long hair.”
Odukoya said what struck him the most was that he didn’t have long hair when the woman had that vision. “God who sees and hears, knows at some point in February 2025, one of His children will have to see a man preaching. Guess what? I would have cut it if he didn’t ask me to keep the hair. God was making me keep my hair to save a life.”
