AROME OSAYI IS THE RAINMAKER (PART II)

“Call Me. I Will Stop It.”

By Akin Ojumu

There is a world of difference between saying:

“God answered my prayer and stopped the rain.”

and declaring:

“Call me. I will stop it. I have power over the weather.”

The first statement attributes the supernatural intervention to God. The second attributes a standing supernatural ability to the minister.

That distinction is not semantic hair-splitting. It goes to the heart of biblical theology concerning divine sovereignty, spiritual gifts, miracles, and the place of the Christian minister.

In a remarkable set of comments, Arome Osayi makes the following claims:

“Maybe we want to do an outdoor meeting and it’s raining, call me. I will stop it.”

He continues:

“I have power over the weather. And I have exercised it many times in Africa.”

He then recounts an incident at the University of Port Harcourt where, according to him, rain stopped after he addressed it, allowing him to preach.

Later that night, Osayi says God spoke to him:

“When you shut the heavens, before you sleep, loosen it.”

Osayi says he subsequently addressed the heavens again:

“O heavens, give your strength.”

And fifteen minutes later, according to him, the rain returned.

He concludes:

“I have power. I know I have that power.”

These are extraordinary claims. And extraordinary theological claims must be subjected to the authority of Scripture.

The issue is not whether God can stop rain. Of course He can. The issue is whether Scripture teaches that a Christian missionary may possess personal, repeatable authority over atmospheric conditions such that he can confidently tell people:

“Call me. I will stop it.”

That is an entirely different proposition.

GOD ALONE RULES THE WEATHER

The Bible repeatedly presents the weather as being under the sovereign government of God.

Psalm 147:8

“He {GOD} covers the heavens with clouds; He {GOD} prepares rain for the earth; He {GOD} makes grass grow on the hills.”

Jeremiah 10:13 

“When He {GOD} utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.”

Job 5:10

“He {GOD} gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields.”

Jesus Himself says of the Father:

Matthew 5:45

“For He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

The consistent biblical testimony is straightforward:

God governs creation. God sends rain. God withholds rain. God commands the wind. God rules the sea. God controls the natural world.

So, when Scripture records extraordinary human involvement in weather events, the human agent never becomes an autonomous possessor of meteorological power.

WHAT ABOUT ELIJAH?

Elijah is perhaps the strongest biblical example someone might invoke in defense of Osayi’s claim.

Elijah told Ahab:

1 Kings 17:1

“As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”

That sounds strikingly authoritative. But the New Testament interprets Elijah’s action for us.

James writes:

James 5:17

“Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain.”

Notice the emphasis.

James does not say Elijah possessed inherent power over weather. He says: Elijah prayed.

When the drought was to end, God Himself declared:

1 Kings 18:1

“I will send rain upon the earth.”

And James tells us:

James 5:18

“Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”

Elijah prayed. God acted. That is the biblical pattern.

Samuel provides the same pattern.

When Israel demanded a king, Samuel called upon the Lord:

1 Samuel 12:18

“Samuel called upon the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day.”

Samuel called. The Lord sent the rain.

That language preserves precisely the distinction Osayi’s rhetoric tends to erase.

A biblically careful testimony would therefore sound like this:

“We prayed, and God graciously stopped the rain.”

Or:

“We asked the Lord to give us favorable weather, and He answered.”

What Osayi says is materially different:

“Call me. I will stop it.”

That statement moves the center of agency from God to the minister.

EVEN PAUL DIDN’T COMMAND EVERY STORM

The Book of Acts gives us another important corrective.

In Acts 27, the Apostle Paul is trapped aboard a ship in a violent storm.

This is Paul. An actual Apostle of Jesus Christ. A man through whom extraordinary miracles had occurred. The Bible even tells us of the extraordinary miracles that God did through Paul.

Acts 19:11

“God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.”

Yet when Paul encounters a life-threatening storm at sea, he does not rise and announce:

“I have authority over weather.”

He does not rebuke the wind. He does not command the sea. He does not tell the sailors to call him whenever meteorological difficulties arise.

Instead, God assures Paul through an angel that those aboard the ship will survive.

The storm continues. The ship is eventually wrecked. And God preserves everyone aboard.

This should immediately make us cautious about constructing a doctrine in which a contemporary preacher supposedly possesses standing authority to stop rain whenever ministry circumstances require it.

If such authority were simply part of the preacher package, Acts 27 becomes remarkably difficult to explain.

JESUS IS NOT OUR MODEL FOR PERSONAL OMNIPOTENCE

Someone may point to Jesus calming the storm.

Mark records:

Mark 4:39

“He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’”

Immediately:

“The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”

But what did the disciples conclude?

They asked:

Mark 4:41

“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

That question is crucial.

Jesus’ command over creation reveals something about Jesus. The scene echoes Old Testament descriptions of Yahweh’s sovereign rule over the sea.

Psalm 107:29 

“He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.”

Jesus is not demonstrating a technique by which sufficiently advanced ministers may obtain jurisdiction over atmospheric systems.

He is displaying divine authority.

Therefore, one cannot simply move from:

Jesus commanded the weather

to:

A preacher may claim personal power over the weather.

That conclusion does not follow.

In Part III, we will examine another major problem with Osayi’s testimony:

Can an extraordinary personal experience become the basis for Christian doctrine—and can “God told me” serve as proof that the experience means what the claimant says it means?