General superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has spoken emotionally about the death of his first wife, Abiodun Kumuyi, blaming his absence from home during a church retreat for her passing.
Abiodun died on April 11, 2009, at the age of 57, after a brief illness.
She was married to Kumuyi for 28 years, having tied the knot on September 13, 1980. Their union was blessed with two sons, Jeremiah and John. The cleric later remarried Esther Blaize in London on October 13, 2010.
Speaking during the global workers’ conference at the Deeper Life International Conference Centre, Kumuyi recalled the tragic day and suggested that the devil exploited his physical absence to strike.
“I was preaching here on Saturday, 11th April 2009, and the devil worked on my absence. My wife was at home because she had a challenge.
“I was driving out, the devil came, but I did not remember to close the spiritual door that nobody will sneak into that place (his house) and when I finished the Faith Clinic that morning, I received a message that my beloveth wife was gone,” he said.
“I ran to IBTC (home); I saw it had happened and I met some people there; they were praying and the Lord assured me that I should let it go, let that go, don’t bother about it,” he added.
Despite the loss, Kumuyi said he resolved not to remain in sorrow but to channel the pain into spiritual fervour and expand his global evangelical work. He described the new direction of his ministry as a “revenge” against the devil.
“I let it (his wife’s death) go, but from that day, I said ‘that one happened, this other one will no more happen.’
“Since that time, for me to revenge on the devil, I have gone to many places since she left, I have covered most of the local governments in Nigeria, I have gone to almost all the nations of Africa, I have gone to all the continents of the world, blind eyes have opened, deaf ears have opened, the lame had risen up and walk and now I am getting to another level, the dead has now been raised and so I have come to tell you, those that have gone have gone, water under the bridge that has gone is gone, all that has gone has gone, now in your family you will be in charge.
“Anywhere I go, now I will be in charge. Nothing will be allowed to steal anything away,” Kumuyi declared.
