AROME OSAYI IS THE RAINMAKER (PART III)

“When Experience Becomes Doctrine”

By Akin Ojumu

Arome Osayi’s outlandish claim that he possesses power over the weather does not rest upon biblical exposition. It rests upon a story.

It rained. He spoke. The rain stopped. He preached. He spoke again. The rain returned.

From that sequence of events comes the theological conclusion:

“I have power over the weather.”

But this raises a fundamental question: Can experience establish doctrine?

EXPERIENCE CANNOT CREATE DOCTRINE

Osayi’s Port Harcourt story may be emotionally compelling. But testimony is not Scripture.

Suppose we grant, for the sake of argument, that every detail occurred exactly as Osayi remembers it.

It was raining. He spoke. The rain stopped. He preached. Later he spoke again. Rain resumed.

What exactly has been proved?

At most, we would know there was a sequence of events. We’d still have to establish that:

1. Osayi’s speech caused the rain to stop;

2. God supernaturally intervened because of his speech;

3. God gave him personal authority over weather;

4. This authority remains permanently available to him; and 

5. He may reliably exercise it whenever he considers the circumstances appropriate.

Those conclusions do not automatically arise from the story.

Yet Osayi moves from experience to doctrine: 

“I have power over the weather.”

This is precisely why Christian theology cannot be built upon anecdotes.

Experiences must be interpreted by Scripture. Scripture must never be interpreted by experience.

“GOD SAID, ‘WHEN YOU SHUT THE HEAVENS…’”

Arome’s account becomes even more serious when he claims that God personally confirmed his interpretation.

According to Arome Osayi, God told him: 

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

Notice what that alleged revelation accomplishes.

It does not merely instruct Arome. It validates his claim. God supposedly confirms that Osayi himself had “shut the heavens.”

This creates a theological circle.

How do we know Arome Osayi possesses authority over weather? Because he says God told him that he had shut the heavens.

How do we know God actually said this? Because Arome tells us God said it.

The private revelation becomes its own evidence. That is not how biblical doctrine should be established.

Any claim beginning with “God told me” must be treated with extraordinary seriousness because the speaker is no longer merely offering an opinion. He is attributing words to God.

And once God’s name is attached to a statement, disagreement becomes psychologically difficult.

Who wants to argue with God?

This is exactly why Scripture commands discernment.

1 John 4:1

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”

1 Thessalonians 5:21

“Test everything; hold fast what is good.”

A claimed supernatural experience does not exempt itself from biblical examination. It demands it.

MIRACLES DO NOT AUTHENTICATE BAD THEOLOGY

Arome Osayi strengthens his testimony by describing a woman who had allegedly been deaf for thirty years and began to hear during the same meeting.

But even miraculous phenomena cannot function as independent proof that a teacher’s interpretation is correct.

Scripture explicitly warns us about this. Deuteronomy 13 contemplates a prophet producing a sign that actually comes to pass, yet whose teaching must still be rejected if it leads people away from God.

Jesus warns:

Matthew 7:22

“Many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’”

The mere claim that something miraculous occurred settles nothing. 

Christian truth is not: 

Miracle first, theology second.

It is:

Scripture judges everything.

THE DANGER OF “CALL ME”

Perhaps the most revealing words in the entire Arome Osayi’s bombastic claims are these:

“Call me.”

There is something profoundly different between a servant saying:

“Let us call upon God.” 

And a minister saying: 

“Call me.”

Scripture repeatedly points distressed people upward. Arome Osayi’s formulation risks pointing them toward the spiritually exceptional man.

Rain problem? Call me.

Weather interfering with your crusade? Call me.

Why?

Because: “I have power over the weather.”

That is precisely where personality-centered supernaturalism begins to displace biblical dependence upon God.

The minister gradually becomes the man with the power. The man with the access. The man who can manipulate conditions ordinary Christians cannot. The man you need to call.

But Christianity does not teach us to place our confidence in spiritually powerful men. It teaches us to approach the throne of grace.

Hebrews 4:16

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.”

Not the throne of the apostle. Not the throne of the prophet. Not the throne of the missionary.

The throne of grace.

POWER BELONGS UNTO GOD, NOT UNTO MAN

Here, then, is the essential theological correction.

God can stop rain. God can send rain. God can calm storms. God can answer prayer. God can perform miracles. God can do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.

But none of those truths establishes Arome Osayi’s proposition:

“I have power over the weather.”

The biblical posture of the servant is dependence. 

The servant prays. God decides.

The servant asks. God acts according to His will.

The servant obeys. God receives the glory.

That keeps the supernatural where Scripture places it: In the sovereign hands of God.

But Arome Osayi does not stop with weather. He makes another startling declaration:

“If I stand before asthma, the person will be healed.”

In Part IV, we will examine whether Scripture teaches that God gives certain ministers a personally possessed, reliably deployable power to heal particular diseases whenever they encounter them.