Bishop David Abioye has publicly celebrated Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Living Faith Church (Winners Chapel), on his 72nd birthday, putting to rest widespread speculation that the two men had fallen out following Abioye’s departure from the church.
The moment was captured in a video posted to Instagram on Sunday, 26 September 2026, showing Abioye pausing a service to acknowledge Oyedepo’s birthday before his congregation.
Abioye described Oyedepo as someone God had used “tremendously to shape the destiny of many and affect nations of the earth in no little way,” before leading the assembly in a prayer over his life.
Abioye prays for David Oyedepo
The prayer was warm and detailed. Abioye asked God to preserve Oyedepo, strengthen him physically and spiritually, and ensure that everything divinely planned for the cleric would come to pass.
“Father, we thank you for your servant, for your good hand upon him, Bishop David Oyedepo,” he prayed. “Thank you for all the wonders you’ve shown to him in his years of existence. The wonders performed by his hand, by your hand through him. Father, we thank you for keeping him strong and alive and for years ahead, for life ahead.”
He continued:
“We pray that greater strength, greater wisdom, greater grace, and all that you have planned for him shall find fulfillment in Jesus’ glorious name.”
The gesture carries particular significance given that Abioye’s retirement from Living Faith Church had fuelled rumours about tension between the two bishops. His heartfelt public tribute appears to tell a very different story.
Here is the Instagram video of Bishop David Abioye celebrating Oyedepo:
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