By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The Senior Pastor, Fountain of Life Church, Jimmy Odukoya, has shared the spiritual instruction behind his decision to keep his dreadlocks—a choice that sparked mixed reactions within and outside the church.
In a recent sermon, he shared on Facebook on Wednesday, the cleric revealed that his dreadlocks were not a fashion statement, and he would have cut it if God told him to.
“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. I said, Lord, you sure? He said don’t cut it. I said alright. I don’t know what you’re trying to do but I’m crazy enough to follow you, lets do it together,” Jimmy said.
He added that even his sister, Associate Senior Pastor Tolu Odukoya-Ijogun, had expressed concern saying “This your hair… To clean a fish, you must first catch it.” In other words, if you’re going to reach people and bring about change, you must first be relatable and accepted.”
While Jimmy acknowledged her concern, he stood firm in what he had heard from God as he responded, “Sis, I hear you, but go and pray. God will speak to you.”
He said she later returned with clarity saying that she had a vision. “She saw me preaching with my hair and came back to say, ‘You’re not supposed to cut it.’ And I said, ‘I know. He already told me.’”
Jimmy further revealed how what followed next was a divine confirmation that stunned him.
He recalled, “A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday, a lady from Zimbabwe came to see me and she flew in from Zimbabwe because she wanted 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.’”
He continued, “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. The vision was so real that I told everybody in my family.”
Though at the time she had never heard of Pastor Jimmy Odukoya. It wasn’t until 2025, while in the midst of depression following a painful divorce and the loss of her mother, that she stumbled upon one of his sermons on YouTube, the cleric revealed.
He continued, “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. I was flown into depression, I wanted to end it all.
“All I knew was that I had to find God, like I need God to find me. I turn on YouTube to hear sermons, And all of a sudden your preaching pops up and you’re preaching Mercy Me.
“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 a long hair preaching I screamed, ‘This is the man I saw. I didn’t know any pastor would have long hair. It’s him!”
The cleric noted that at the time she had the vision, he didn’t have dreadlocks and cutting it against God’s instruction would have hindered him from saving a life.
“Here’s what’s crazy, in 2016, I didn’t have dreads. At the time she had the vision, I didn’t have my hair,” the pastor said.
“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.”
Recall that in 2023, Jimmy, who succeeded his father late Pastor Taiwo Odukoya, said he has a spiritual backing to his mode of dressing.
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