My name is Pst. Mrs. Grace Hannah Ajiboye, I am originally from Kaduna State but married to Rev. David Ajiboye who hails from Ikare in Ondo state; he is the Founder and Senior Pastor of Life Revival Ministry International, the marriage is blessed with four godly children – two girls and two boys.
I became a true born again child of God in the late 80s, after I left the Cherubim and Seraphim church where my late father was an evangelist before his passing. I had my primary and secondary education in Kaduna state, after which I relocated to Lagos for further studies. Upon getting to Lagos, I joined Victory Christian Church, where I truly met Christ even though I had served as a major chorister at my former church.
I never thought of marrying a Pastor, I just wanted to marry a good believer and child of God like myself. I had plans to relocate to the USA and settle down there permanently.
I would eventually commence the process of my relocating to the United States of America just as I had always desired but alas! All of my efforts would always end up in futility. I remember a particular day I came back from the American Embassy having been denied entry visa for the umpteenth time, I locked myself up in my room and there prayed in agony, crying and asking God why. Then I heard God spoke to me saying; “daughter I’ve held you back because of your marriage” and I answered and said “Lord, are you saying if I travel abroad there is no man over there for me to marry?”
About a week later, a sister in my local Church ran to me and told me how she had seen me in her dream in a wedding gown getting married and I asked her immediately if I was getting married to a white man. She laughed and answered in the negative; No she hadn’t seen me getting married to a white man. I angrily walked away from her.
I continued in my quest to leave Nigeria. I went to meet my spiritual mentor to tell him how I had been denied visa again but he told me that God wants me to get married and get settled here in Nigeria and that he had seen in a vision that a servant of God came to ask for my hand in marriage. As you would expect, I became angry again and left his premises disappointed. However, upon my return home, exhaustion took over me and I just resigned to my fate and said to God with every sense of humility “Lord let your will be done”.
One fateful day, I went to see sister Funmi a close friend of mine, who worked with a travel agency. There while we were discussing travel matters, she advised me to get the South African visa and then move from there to Dublin. We started the process and I was given a one month business visa to South Africa.
However, a week before my visa came I left my fashion designing shop in Ikeja to visit a Pastor friend of mine in Shogunle, one of the bustling suburbs in Lagos but met his absence. While I sat waiting for him a young man came in to see the same Pastor too. We exchanged pleasantries and I told him our mutual pastor friend wasn’t around and that I was also waiting for him to return. He asked if I was his Church member and I said no. He said he was on his way from Abeokuta but a mutual friend of theirs told him the Pastor would be around. He seemed to be in a hurry and asked me if he could drop a note for me to give to the Pastor when he gets back and I said that wouldn’t be a problem but then this mutual friend of theirs he had mentioned earlier – Brother Sylvester – happened to be someone I know fairly well too So I asked him to extend my greetings to him when he gets home since he said they live together.
A few days later I saw Brother Sylvester at my shop with the young man I saw at my Pastor friend’s place a few days earlier. I entertained them, while they were about to leave he asked us to pray, and after the prayer, he told us he had seen in a vision how an international door had been open unto me and that was same day I went to collect my South African Visa. I saw them off and on our way out, I called my friend Brother Sylvester aside and told him I had just gotten my visa and that I would be leaving Nigeria in a few days’ time with no intention of returning anytime soon. He said that’s ok but his friend, the young man of God he came with told him he would love to see me briefly because there was something important he wanted to tell me. I told him to go ahead and without mincing words, he told me he wanted me to be his wife, he was that straight to the point. I told him we both needed time to pray about it and he said ok and they left.
I left for South Africa a few days later and after I got there I became exceedingly restless and uncomfortable. I just wanted to return to Nigeria immediately. I couldn’t really tell what was wrong. All I knew was that I had suddenly become very homesick. It felt as though I hadn’t seen my mum and siblings for ages. I eventually returned to Nigeria.
Upon my return to Nigeria, the young man of God came back to me to ask for my response and I told him I still needed to pray about it. He said he had have given me enough time to pray about it yet I said I still needed more time and he insisted that he knew God must have spoken to me so he wants to hear from me. Truly God had spoken to me and I couldn’t lie about that, so I told him I had actually heard from God but that I had no intention to marry a Pastor but since this is His will there is nothing I could do. He then asked if he could take my response to mean a “Yes” and I answered in the affirmative. He immediately became so excited. About a month later, we started planning our wedding and eight months later we got married.
He was a full time servant of God – He still is till date to the glory of God – who had just started the ministry God committed into His hands. Those were really days of humble beginnings. They were actually tough and financially rough times. However, our God is a faithful father; he never left us alone without comfort.
My biological father was an evangelist and my mother a dedicated Christian too; this gave me the solid foundation required to build a sound spiritual life. As a young single born again sister I would decide on my own to embark on several spiritual exercises in prayers and fasting for several days. Sometimes I would go on for three, seven or twenty-one days. Sometimes I went on without food nor water and would retreat to a place of prayer just to have a moment of uninterrupted fellowship with my God. I had no idea whatsoever that he was preparing me for the greater task that lay ahead of me. I just loved to be on fire for Christ.
Immediately after we got married I became spiritually cold. I didn’t understand that as a Pastor’s wife I needed to equip myself spiritually. I felt my husband’s prayers and spiritual engagements were enough insurance cover for me. Alas! how wrong was I. I still used to pray but not with the same fervency and commitment. Then on one fateful night, my husband had gone to a secluded place of prayer after an anointing service and I had a nightmare. In that dream, I encountered a lady whom I knew physically and she started pulling at my hair. I screamed in agony and begged her to leave my hair to no avail. I would eventually wake up with a severe headache. I began to experience a dimmed and cloudy vision in one of my eyes. I lay down and began to pray to God to take away that affliction. That is just an example of the countless spiritual attacks that I began to encounter after assuming the position of a Pastor’s wife.
One particular attack I will never forget was in 2017. Three days to our annual international women convention, I had a revelation, I saw myself walking completely bare and people were throwing sand at me from behind, I heard in my spirit why don’t you turn and see who it is pouring sand on you, I turned and didn’t see anyone and I heard they have hid themselves in that corner, so I began to throw the sand at that direction and woke up. It was past 12 midnight. I knew it was a terrible dream, so I stood up and started praying seriously and canceling the terrible dream. I did my usual pro-convention prayers and finished around 4am.
I began feeling feverish and the following night I wanted to go to a prayer camp but I had no strength so I decided to stay back in Church and pray but I just couldn’t pray that night. In the morning I wanted to stand up but I couldn’t, I tried severally to get up to no avail. I called on two brothers who were in Church and they assisted to take me to the hospital. The medics carried out some tests but after I explained to the Doctor that my urine that morning was like blood, he referred me to another lab for further tests, this was now the first day of the women convention. I told another female Pastor to take the message for the day, she was later held up in traffic so I had to minister. The moment I got to the pulpit the Holy Spirit took over and I ministered powerfully, but after I finished ministering and entered the office I started feeling acute pains all over my body. My family returned from the journey they had earlier embarked on – I couldn’t go with them because of the women convention. We finished the convention on Sunday and went home, that night I couldn’t sleep and I was taken to the hospital, placed on admission and was discharged a week later. We went to Church on Sunday for the Children’s convention and I saw the women who were spiritually responsible for my afflictions communicating with their eyes in disbelief. Against their expectations, I was actually still standing on my feet, albeit very weak and frail-looking. After the service we went back home and I couldn’t sleep again, I was taken to the hospital again and spent another week there. While in the hospital the Lord opened my eyes to see all the people involved in my affliction and they were all women. I asked God what I had done to them and God said I had done nothing. God said to me that the ministry is moving to its next phase and they didn’t want me on that seat anymore. They wanted to replace me with another woman for their pastor. In that dream I saw one of the women cooking some meat with a big pot and she said to me “Mama I am celebrating my mother’s burial” but God told me that it was my flesh she was cooking spiritually. Your case is like Ezekiel 37, that they are celebrating that they are going to eat your flesh; to them they had finished your case, but God said I will bring you back to life just like I did to the dry bones in that book of Ezekiel.
It wasn’t an easy experience; their mission was to at least paralyze my enemy if they can’t kill me. I remember after I was finally discharged from the hospital I couldn’t walk or lift my hands and legs properly. I thank God for two of my spiritual sons who every day came over to the house to guide me on some exercises. It was like teaching a child how to walk, my skin was peeling off like a snake shedding its old skin but thank God for His mercy, my husband who called on God and others who stood in gap, today I am alive in sound health.
My greatest achievement is seeing God transforming the lives of the people; God has never failed me and my husband. Every time we call on Him over cases that look impossible, He always answers us. Anyone who walks into Life Revival Ministry, no matter his/her challenge, God always turns their story around, I am happy that God is really using us to impact, impart and transform lives.
I will advise the young ministers’ wives to have a personal relationship with God, be submissive to their husbands and they should be very prayerful.
To the singles who intend to marry servants of God, they should know there is a lot of demand and should be ready for the spiritual journey ahead that they are going to be completely sold out for God and be patient when things get tough. My husband and I went through tough times especially financially but today my husband has given me two car gifts. God has blessed and still continues to bless us on all fronts.
To every one of you at Timeless Facts, you are doing a great job, be committed to God and His kingdom on earth, put Him at the centre of all you do. A global breakthrough is yours in Jesus name. Thank you all for having me in this edition, God bless you all.
