About Bill & Bridget Isaacs-Sodeye

Rev. Dr. Bill Isaacs-Sodeye

William Isaacs-Sodeye was born on 3rd September, 1934 in Zaria, Northern Nigeria to a Nigeria Railway pay clerk from Abeokuta, Ogun State, and a literate housewife from Ondo in Ondo State. He was schooled up to London Matriculation with a Lagos Baptist Mission School and became a graduate of Physiology and Medicine from Magdalen College, Oxford and later studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Bill became a Professor of Haematology and at the same time was ordained an Anglican Clergyman after he had been practising medicine for 13 years. He was a short-term missionary on CMS invitation in England in 1981 and has seen most of the miracles of New Testament times performed by Jesus today.

Eleven years ago Bill was ministering in Kano, Nigeria. He had begun a ministry entitled “The Healing Love of Christ Ministry”, when in 1987 the Lord asked them to prepare for a new phase. Both he and Bridget had to resign from their jobs in early 1988 and began living by faith. From this point, things happened quite rapidly, and Bill was appointed the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (Kano State Branch) in September 1988. He and Bridget then travelled to Singapore for a 5 week Course in Leadership and Evangelism in January, 1989.

Three months later, Bill became the Assistant National Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, and for the next three years he was in danger as a Christian leader under a repressive Muslim military government. There were at least three times in that period when he nearly lost his life. On October 14,1991 as Chairman of the Bonnke Great Gospel Crusade Planning Committee, the Nation went through harrowing times and 2,000 lives were estimated to have been lost as a result of the riots that ensued. After this, Bill was guided to write two books. The first was a prophetic word analysing the Nigerian situation. It was titled “The Surgery Nigeria Needs” (Word document) and it recommended solutions for the Nigerian problem. The second was a short autobiographical account of some of the miracles he had seen during his ministry. This is called “From Medicine to Miracles” and is available to download from the main page of this site.

At this time, Bill declared his intention to stand as a contender for the National Republican Party's nomination for the Presidential elections in Nigeria in 1992. He registered as an aspirant, but withdrew when it was announced that the fee for registering for the election was half a million naira. He came to England when it was clear that the military regime in Nigeria objected to his book on Nigeria, on the 16th of December, 1992.

On May 1, 1993 he was given a position with the Diocese of Ely as a Deanery Missioner in the North Stowe Deanery. He became a frequent visitor of eight parishes, developing a special rapport with St Andrew's Church, Oakington in Cambridge. He began his ministry in this area by supplying ministry in interregnum situations. He also conducted healing services as well as preaching and ministering in other churches.

During this time he also spoke on Radio and TV, whilst running two slots per day at local churches running Ministry Clinics for the sick and troubled people of the area. Bill affirms that during this time, “The Lord supplied all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

Towards the end of the first year, the Lord provided a miracle using a patient Bill was ministering to. She overheard that there was a problem over visas which made it impossible for Bridget to join him in the UK. She made some telephone contacts and with the prayer support of the believers, Bridget and their smallest children were allowed to come to England.

Mrs. Bridget Isaacs-Sodeye

Bridget Isaacs Sodeye is an Economics Graduate and is ordained in the Pentecostal Church.

Bridget writes: “Surely God does not have any partiality in the way He treats us human beings.   I would never have qualified to be one of His favourite ones, as I was brought up in a fairly rich and arrogant family. Rev 3:17 applied to us: You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. ' But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Wealth did not stop me from feeling empty deep within my heart.   Nobody ever shared with me their own feeling of emptiness, because every person pretended they were doing fine and had a good life.

I was brought to the knowledge of the truth and I had to make the decision of a life-time. If God who made me says I am a sinner, I had no choice but to agree with Him and leave the lifestyle of pretence.   Being religious did not hide the truth from me, as it could not fulfil the desire of my heart for something more satisfying than mere rituals.

While I was struggling with this in my heart, I was invited to a meeting by fellow undergraduates.   For the very first time in my life I was faced with the truth of how I was living, and also a knowledge of where I would end up if I did not repent and follow God's way of life.

Galatians 5:16 to 25 says "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. "

All my Roman Catholic teaching about the ability of good works to give me a secure place in heaven failed to stand in the face of God's word. I knew deep in my heart, that God was giving me a chance to know what the scores were, and an idea of what His expectations are ; as well as the way into His kingdom. I had always prayed that I may be allowed by God to live with Him in heaven when I died; the above scripture showed me clearly that I did not qualify!  It was a big shock to me.   The next question I had to answer was 'what would it cost me to live a life that would be pleasing to God?'  The speaker that evening, made it clear that I would have to give up the rulership of my life, and allow the creator of heaven and earth to be in total control of my life.   That was not a bad cost for my life was totally meaningless From the passage above, I found that I stood to gain the fruit that being led by the Spirit of God brings!

Another question came up in my mind: 'what if I failed to live up to God's standards?'

1 John 1:7-9 says “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ”

The life I had lived was one that manufactured lies as easily as one breathes.   How can a seasoned liar live a holy life?  Again God's word came to me from Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. ” It could only have been God who put all of this together for me in one talk.   After the talk I just knelt down quietly and asked God to forgive me all my sins, and take over rulership of my life forever.

That was the third time I had asked Him into my life; the first was to get rid of a fervent Scripture Union school-girl, the second was to get prayer help for a boyfriend.   Until I was prepared to follow my prayer with a commitment to obey God's word always, my life was unchanged.

The word of God became my only manual for life in Jesus Christ. I have never regretted that decision, in fact I have discovered that my gains are more than my losses. ”

Bridget describes how the Lord prepared her for her current ministry when she writes:

“I learned to rely upon God to teach me His way of doing things. It is totally different to the way I was used to. I soon discovered that, what He says may look very contrary to what I can see with my eyes, but situations have to be changed to allow His word to come to pass. With that confidence, I dared to trust His word in more difficult things and He has always won the day. In some cases, it took years! During which I lost all my friends and family who thought I had lost my mind. At that time God warned me about the problem of unforgiveness. In order to help me He explained that many of them were well meaning but just could not see what He was doing. So, I was taught how to pray hurtful words away before they got a chance to settle in my heart.

Mark 11:25-26 says "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your sins. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your sins. "

He did not stop there. He then instructed me to bless out loud to His hearing those from whom I received the hurts.   He then told me not to defend myself - in other words I should not bother to explain to people who had cut me off.   He gave me the opportunity to give truthful answers to direct questions to those who cared enough to ask me for an explanation of my actions. There were times when I could not bear the loss of some of my friends, and I tried to explain to them what God had told me. But it made matters worse! God is the only person who can give a person an understanding of anything in life.   Then even though it was painful I had to let go of many relationships and still love them; but trust God to work it out in His own time. I have learnt that to forgive a person who hurts me is for my own good.   If I do not forgive, neither will my heavenly Father forgive me my sins! I would then lose out on the most important relationship in my life.

Another lesson I have learnt is that I must continually keep blessing such people whenever the hurt comes to mind. It does take some time, but then healing comes from the Lord to my heart. The depth of the healing is evident in ability to relate freely with such people in future.

I thank God for another lesson He taught me about opinions: In Christ, the voice of the people is not the voice of God.   I have had to stand alone on the word that God had given to me against the opinion of many well meaning Christians. God is not a liar He always keeps His word. God does not see the same way people see, people look at the outside of a person but the Lord looks at the heart!  Many times when I have let the Lord down, He has overwhelmed me with His love and mercy!

Our God is a merciful God! He gives us more than a second chance, and He prefers mercy to judgement.