DIARY OF A SOULWINNER
The day was Sunday, May 17, 2026. I was at the University of Lagos, Akoka, for an evangelism outreach. After I finished preaching, I stopped by the university chapel to meet with some people.
After the meetup, I left for my residence. As I walked past the chapel, I saw a young man praying fervently in English and in tongues. He knelt as he poured out his heart in prayer.
Something beyond the fervency of his prayers made me stop in my tracks.
It was the content of his prayer.
He prayed, “God, have mercy on me. Forgive me. Take this spirit of smoking from me.” Then he continued, “Every power from my mother’s house that does not want me to succeed in Lagos, O God of my father, Godman Akinlabi, destroy them in the name of Jesus.”
I intended to walk past him, but I felt pity for him, knowing that he would never overcome the challenges in his life if he continued praying that way.
I knew I could help him easily, and he would never have to pray about those challenges again. But he was deep in prayer, and I needed to get home before nightfall.
I stood there looking at him, and the parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. I knew I should not ignore a man whose problem I had the solution to.
While he was still deep in prayer, I walked up behind him and placed my right hand on his left shoulder.
“I want to answer your prayers,” I told him.
Immediately, he went quiet.
I was interrupting his prayer, but I knew he did not need to continue praying when the answer to his prayer was already available.
“Stand up. Put on your shoes and follow me.”
He stood up, put on his shoes, and followed me as instructed.
He appeared surprised that I interrupted his prayers, but the confidence with which I spoke compelled obedience from him.
We found a good spot to sit. I told him I overheard his prayers and that I had information that would resolve the challenges he was facing.
“There are things we pray to God about that we do not need to pray about,” I said. “The Bible says, ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’ So when suffering is caused by ignorance, prayer is not the right approach. Such a challenge can only be solved by acquiring knowledge. And that knowledge is what I want to give you now.”
He kept his gaze fixed on me with the same passion with which he had poured out his heart in prayer.
“Let’s begin from here. Are you born again?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“So tell me, what must a person do to be born again?”
“To be born again, one has to take God seriously, obey the commandments of God, and avoid sin,” he answered.
“As beautiful as those things sound, that is not how a person becomes born again,” I told him.
“The answer to your prayers begins with you getting born again. The information I am about to share with you on how to be born again will take care of the challenges you were praying about,” I added.
I shared the gospel with him, and he believed.
I went on to show him from the Scriptures that God was not holding any sin against him, and that asking God for forgiveness of sins was praying amiss. What he needed was knowledge of the forgiveness that is already available in Jesus Christ. I further taught him how he could overcome his addiction to smoking.
I emphasized that he should stop trying to overcome the addiction merely through physical efforts. Rather than struggling endlessly not to smoke, he should continue confessing his righteousness in Christ while refusing to yield to guilt and condemnation anytime he smoked.
I explained to him that the goal of the spirits influencing him to smoke was to dominate him through the guilt, shame, and condemnation he felt whenever he smoked. I added that if their goal failed because he chose to see himself as righteous by faith in Christ despite his moral failures, the spirit would leave him, and the addiction would eventually lose its hold on him.
I then addressed his prayers concerning the “powers from his mother’s house.”
I showed him from the Scriptures that the sins upon which the demons in his lineage based their oppression had already been forgiven through the death of Jesus Christ, and therefore they had no legal grounds to afflict any member of the family.
I also explained to him that it was not God who would deal with those spirits on his behalf. Rather, he was to confront them himself by educating them about the advantage he now had in Christ and commanding them to leave.
“You are now the power in your mother’s house,” I told him. “Summon every spirit that once plagued your family, tell them that the sins of your forbears have been forgiven, and command them to leave, because the sins upon which they based their oppression have been forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ.”
By the time I finished speaking to him, his countenance had completely changed. He brightened up and told me that everything I said made sense to his spirit.
The conversation ended in high spirits, and I watched as he walked away from the chapel.
He got his answers.
He did not need to continue praying.
The harvest is great, and laborers will no longer be few.
Apostle Destiny Kingston
Personal Evangelism Coach
Church Growth Consultant
ChurchGrowth360 Limited
DIARY OF A SOULWINNER
The day was Sunday, May 17, 2026. I was at the University of Lagos, Akoka, for an evangelism outreach. After I finished preaching, I stopped by the university chapel to meet with some people.
After the meetup, I left for my residence. As I walked past the chapel, I saw a young man praying fervently in English and in tongues. He knelt as he poured out his heart in prayer.
Something beyond the fervency of his prayers made me stop in my tracks.
It was the content of his prayer.
He prayed, “God, have mercy on me. Forgive me. Take this spirit of smoking from me.” Then he continued, “Every power from my mother’s house that does not want me to succeed in Lagos, O God of my father, Godman Akinlabi, destroy them in the name of Jesus.”
I intended to walk past him, but I felt pity for him, knowing that he would never overcome the challenges in his life if he continued praying that way.
I knew I could help him easily, and he would never have to pray about those challenges again. But he was deep in prayer, and I needed to get home before nightfall.
I stood there looking at him, and the parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. I knew I should not ignore a man whose problem I had the solution to.
While he was still deep in prayer, I walked up behind him and placed my right hand on his left shoulder.
“I want to answer your prayers,” I told him.
Immediately, he went quiet.
I was interrupting his prayer, but I knew he did not need to continue praying when the answer to his prayer was already available.
“Stand up. Put on your shoes and follow me.”
He stood up, put on his shoes, and followed me as instructed.
He appeared surprised that I interrupted his prayers, but the confidence with which I spoke compelled obedience from him.
We found a good spot to sit. I told him I overheard his prayers and that I had information that would resolve the challenges he was facing.
“There are things we pray to God about that we do not need to pray about,” I said. “The Bible says, ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’ So when suffering is caused by ignorance, prayer is not the right approach. Such a challenge can only be solved by acquiring knowledge. And that knowledge is what I want to give you now.”
He kept his gaze fixed on me with the same passion with which he had poured out his heart in prayer.
“Let’s begin from here. Are you born again?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“So tell me, what must a person do to be born again?”
“To be born again, one has to take God seriously, obey the commandments of God, and avoid sin,” he answered.
“As beautiful as those things sound, that is not how a person becomes born again,” I told him.
“The answer to your prayers begins with you getting born again. The information I am about to share with you on how to be born again will take care of the challenges you were praying about,” I added.
I shared the gospel with him, and he believed.
I went on to show him from the Scriptures that God was not holding any sin against him, and that asking God for forgiveness of sins was praying amiss. What he needed was knowledge of the forgiveness that is already available in Jesus Christ. I further taught him how he could overcome his addiction to smoking.
I emphasized that he should stop trying to overcome the addiction merely through physical efforts. Rather than struggling endlessly not to smoke, he should continue confessing his righteousness in Christ while refusing to yield to guilt and condemnation anytime he smoked.
I explained to him that the goal of the spirits influencing him to smoke was to dominate him through the guilt, shame, and condemnation he felt whenever he smoked. I added that if their goal failed because he chose to see himself as righteous by faith in Christ despite his moral failures, the spirit would leave him, and the addiction would eventually lose its hold on him.
I then addressed his prayers concerning the “powers from his mother’s house.”
I showed him from the Scriptures that the sins upon which the demons in his lineage based their oppression had already been forgiven through the death of Jesus Christ, and therefore they had no legal grounds to afflict any member of the family.
I also explained to him that it was not God who would deal with those spirits on his behalf. Rather, he was to confront them himself by educating them about the advantage he now had in Christ and commanding them to leave.
“You are now the power in your mother’s house,” I told him. “Summon every spirit that once plagued your family, tell them that the sins of your forbears have been forgiven, and command them to leave, because the sins upon which they based their oppression have been forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ.”
By the time I finished speaking to him, his countenance had completely changed. He brightened up and told me that everything I said made sense to his spirit.
The conversation ended in high spirits, and I watched as he walked away from the chapel.
He got his answers.
He did not need to continue praying.
The harvest is great, and laborers will no longer be few.
Apostle Destiny Kingston
Personal Evangelism Coach
Church Growth Consultant
ChurchGrowth360 Limited
Arabic
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Deutsch
Turkish
Dutch
Italiano
Russian
Romaian
Portuguese (Brazil)
Greek
हिन्दी