How God’s instruction not to cut my dreadlocks saved a life —Pastor Jimmy Odukoya

Senior Pastor of The Fountain of Life Church, Jimmy Odukoya, has explained how obeying God’s instruction not to cut his dreadlocks played a key role in saving someone’s life.

In a recent sermon, Pastor Odukoya recalled how, before stepping fully into his pastoral role, he asked God whether he should change his appearance—specifically, whether he should cut his hair.

He said, “Before I came back, one of the things I asked the Lord was whether or not I should cut my hair. And the Lord told me not to cut my hair.”

To confirm the message, he asked his sister, Pastor Tolu Odukoya-Ijogun, to pray on the matter without revealing what he had heard.

“I knew what God had said to me, so I told my sister to go pray and that God will speak to her. She goes back and told me I wasn’t supposed to cut my hair, to which I replied, ‘I know, because God already told me,” he added.

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Pastor Jimmy then recounted a striking encounter with a woman from Zimbabwe who had traveled to Nigeria just to attend his church after experiencing a prophetic vision nearly a decade earlier.

“A couple of weeks ago, someone had come to see me all the way from Zimbabwe just to come to church. I said, ‘Please bring the lady in’ and she begins to tell me her story.

“She says, ‘People think I’m crazy. I told everybody I am coming to Nigeria for the next three to four weeks. I’m just coming to church.’”

According to Odukoya, the woman shared that in 2016, during a Thanksgiving visit to New York, she had a vivid vision featuring a man with long hair speaking to her.

“She says, ‘It was 2016, I was in New York, it was Thanksgiving and I had a vision, it felt so real. In this vision, I see you with your hair, and you’re speaking to me, and I have been dealing with some things in my life.

‘There was this dog on my shoulder. I knew the dog represented the weight I was carrying, and you had this long sword.

‘You began speaking to me, and it looked like thunder and lightning was coming out of the sword, and it burnt the dog into ashes. And you began to declare over me and gave certain instructions.’”

He added that years later, the woman endured a painful divorce, lost everything, and watched her mother die. In her search for God, she turned to YouTube— where she unexpectedly found him (Pastor Jimmy).

“She said, ‘Fast forward 2025, after that vision I went through a tough break-up, I lost everything in a divorce. My ex took the house. Everything I worked for… It was a tough time. 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 all of a sudden, my preaching popped up.

“And she said, ‘You don’t understand, because when I had this vision, I didn’t know you existed.

‘The person I saw, I did not know it was a real person. So when I saw the man from the vision with long hair, I screamed. I didn’t know any pastor would have long hair.’”

Reflecting on her testimony, Pastor Odukoya emphasised that God’s instruction to keep his dreadlocks wasn’t random—it had a purpose.

“Here’s what’s crazy, in 2016, I didn’t have my hair. The God who sees, hears, and knows, knew at some point in February 2025, one of His children will have to see a man preaching.

“Guess what? If He did not ask me to keep my hair, I would have cut it.

“And when I popped up on the screen, she would have seen me with no hair and it would have meant nothing.

“God was making me keep my hair to save a life.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE