Lead pastor of The Fountain of Life Church, Jimmy Odukoya, has revealed that God instructed him not to cut his dreadlocks, a decision he believes was instrumental in saving someone’s life.
During a sermon on intimacy and hearing from God, the 37-year-old recounted seeking divine guidance about his hair before resuming his pastoral duties.
“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,” he shared.
He said his sister had initially questioned the decision, suggesting that cutting his hair might help his image, but he encouraged her to pray about it.
“I knew what God had said to me so I said to her, ‘Sis, I hear you, but go pray, God will speak to you,’” he said.
According to Odukoya, his sister later had a dream in which she saw him preaching with his hair intact.
“She goes back and told me I wasn’t supposed to cut my hair, to which I replied, ‘I know, because He (God) already told me,’” he added.
Odukoya then narrated a powerful encounter with a woman who travelled from Zimbabwe to attend his church services in Nigeria.
“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,” he said.
He continued, “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.’”
Odukoya said he asked her to explain further, and she shared a vision she had back in 2016 while in New York during Thanksgiving.
“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 somethings 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 said the woman was so impacted by the vision that she shared it with her family.
“She said when she came out of the vision, it was so real that she told everybody in her family about the vision, and the person that I saw—this pastor with long hair and a sword.
“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.’ She said, ‘Everything I worked for… It was a tough time. To compound issues, my mom got sick and I watched her die in my arms.’”
Odukoya said the woman was slipping into depression and trying to reconnect with God when she found one of his sermons on YouTube.
“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 I was preaching Mercy Me,” he said.
“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 I screamed, This is the man I saw!!!!’”
He said people around her thought she was having a breakdown.
“She said people thought she was having a mental breakdown as she called everyone saying, ‘I found the man I saw in the vision. I didn’t know any pastor would have long hair.’”
Then he added a striking detail, “Here’s what’s crazy: in 2016, I didn’t have dreads. In the time she had the vision, I did not 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,” he declared.
He concluded, “If I had listened to people, she wouldn’t have been saved. She came to the church to worship for three weeks. The three weeks was healing to her.”
Pastor Jimmy Odukoya has long been questioned over his appearance, which includes dreadlocks, a beard and earrings. But he has remained unapologetic, saying all of it is scripturally backed.
“God called me the way I am, just as I am. As for my dreads, the story behind it is long, but everything I do is backed up by scriptures,” he once said.
On criticism for his beard, he added, “When people say, ‘Oh, he’s a pastor and he has a beard,’ remember the Bible said that when Jesus was tortured, his beard was pulled from his face.”
Odukoya often reminds critics not to confuse personal preferences with sin, “God doesn’t look at the outward appearance. If we judge men by how they look, we would have rejected David when Samuel came to anoint the king.”
