I thank God for this privilege to share. What I’m about to tell you is not a sermon — it’s my life. My name is Collins Goodness C., and for years I was a young Christian living among wolves in human form, searching desperately for spiritual power and protection. Fear was killing me on the inside. Every day, my family and I faced things in our neighbourhood that made sleep feel like a gamble. The invisible world felt hostile, and the visible one wasn’t much safer.
So I did what many desperate people do. I started following others to spiritual prayer houses and serving so-called men of God. It didn’t take long before my entire family was swept into the current. Together, we began attending the same prayer house, carrying out all sorts of assignments — each one born from a “vision” about how our relatives were secretly planning to ruin us. At one point in this dark journey, we were told to go to the river at midnight for prayers, offering spiritual sacrifices with domestic animals. We were to come back with water that would mark our victory over our enemies, deliverance from evil relatives’ powers in the village, and the long-awaited financial breakthrough.
We did it all. Every instruction. Every sacrifice. And nothing changed. Instead, more trouble arose.
But the most painful wound didn’t come from the river. It came from the mouth of the so-called prophet who saw a “vision” concerning me. He told me I was going to be great. He said I would pass my exams — on one condition: I must sow a seed with my newly purchased cell phone. My precious phone. I gave it. I sowed it with faith and trembling hope. And I failed. I failed, and for the next seven years, I couldn’t even afford another cell phone. Bitterness took root in my heart and grew thorns. I had been deceived, robbed of both my possession and my peace.
That was the breaking point. Disgusted and empty, I turned to the Bible myself. Not to a prophet’s interpretation, not to a vision, but to the raw Word of God. I began fasting and praying — not for someone else to hear from heaven for me, but to discover God’s will for my life with my own knees on the floor. And in those quiet, personal hours of study, something started to shift. Inner peace crept back in. Joy — real, unexplainable joy — began to bloom again in the ruins.
Some months later, a friend invited me to my first ALIVE-Nigeria mission. It was April 2019, in Rofo Community, Lagos. Before that day, I had heard all sorts of things about ALIVE-Nigeria — that they were too strict, vegetarian, proud because of their vast biblical knowledge. I went with suspicions in my pocket. But witnessing the mission with my own eyes rewrote everything.
The people were nothing like the rumours. They came from different parts of Nigeria, yet lived as one. I was warmly welcomed. I was cared for. It wasn’t a performance; it was family. That ground became reviving and life-changing for me. You see, I had always lived caged by fear of evil powers. I lacked the courage to tell anyone the reason for my faith. Boldness to speak of Jesus’ love? It was simply missing. But there, among those loving, Word-filled people, my spiritual life experienced a supernatural shift.
Today, I find joy in telling others about Jesus Christ. To His glory, I now have the boldness to speak of His love as we move from door to door. The man who once trembled now knocks, now speaks, now shines.
This ministry blessed me with the Bible and Spirit of prophecy knowledge, and in that treasure, I discovered a truth that has become the engine of my soul:
"He who begins with a little knowledge, in a humble way, and tells what he knows, while seeking diligently for further knowledge, will find the whole heavenly treasure awaiting his demand. The more he seeks to impart light, the more light he will receive. The more one tries to explain the word of God to others, with a love for souls, the plainer it becomes to himself." COL 354.1
That quote set my heart ablaze. Along with Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:17, it ignited a spark that turned me into Jesus’s hands reaching for others with the Gospel. I now find joy speaking of Jesus and His love for me in public meetings — without fear.
Friend, let me be honest. Even now, I still face life’s challenges. Following Jesus hasn’t erased my problems. But I have something I never found in those midnight rivers or false visions — a genuine sense of peace and purpose in Christ Jesus. I know He loves me, just as He loves you, and He has promised to be with us till the end.
That is my story. From fear to courage. From deception to truth. From a lost phone and a shattered heart to a life that now overflows with the very boldness I once begged for. ALIVE-Nigeria didn’t just teach me doctrine; they showed me a love that casts out fear.
I am your fellow servant,
Collins Goodness C.
Lagos, Nigeria.