Bishop David Oyedepo, the founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, has advised his congregation to disclose his phone number to anyone who kidnaps them.
He said he has the spiritual authority to arrange their freedom.
Oyedepo made the statements while attending a church service at his church’s Canaanland headquarters in Ota, Ogun State.
A video of the speech went viral on social media on Thursday.
“If anybody picks you, give them my number, give them my number,” he said.
The cleric backed up his advice with two tales of divine intervention in previous kidnappings involving church members.
In the first, he claimed that a pastor from the church was kidnapped and that he was given the kidnapper’s phone.
The bishop claimed he warned the abductor that he would be dead within 24 hours if the pastor was not released.
He said, “One time one of our pastors was carried off by, what do you call them, kidnappers.
“I said, give them the phone. I said, in 24 hours, if you don’t take him out, you are dead.
“The place was vibrating. On the spot.”
In the second account, he stated that a female church member was taken captive but had faith that she would be released by 7 a.m. He reported the captors did not receive a call from him and began injuring themselves before releasing her.
“She said, ‘My father said I’m getting out of here latest by 7 a.m. They didn’t call. They started cutting themselves,” he said.
Oyedepo reminded members that they all possessed the same spiritual force and only needed to uncover and deploy it.
“You have been raised far above the devil. If the church does not conquer these devils, God has left heaven,” he said.
The tape, labeled with the hashtag #SupersonicSunday by the church’s social media pages, appeared to be from a service held in the days before it went viral on Thursday.
