Renowned Ghanaian preacher, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, in August 2017 recounted the several tribulations that characterized his early years as a young man.

In an interview with Bola Ray on Starr Chat, he said while growing up he battled numerous spirits and nearly lost his life on several occasions. The renowned bishop said he used to pay frequent visits to shrines due to his incessant thirst for success.

In one such instance, he indicated that he had to sacrifice his fingers for what he wanted.

He narrated, “Of all the battles in life, the spiritual battle is easily the most significant. It is always said that before anything of worth happens in the physical, it must be settled in the spiritual. It happened in the spiritual realm but sacrificed my fingers for it.”

“At age 20 something significant happened. I had nightmares, hallucination and heard voices at home; spiritual voices contending with the voice of truth, grace. I was captured by the spirit, instructed by it to light a candle and dip my hands into the burning flame.”

He continued; “I obeyed without question but with pain. My lips at a point were sealed until the pain had become unbearable. My fingers darkened in the flames until they turned into ashes. My shouts attracted siblings who came and rushed me to Korle Bu Hospital where I was admitted for months.”

Read the full story originally published on August 27, 2017, on Ghanaweb

From the very humble beginnings, Duncan-Williams has risen to become a remarkable man of God who represents Ghana and Africa on an international level.

The Archbishop in 2017, was named by the New African Magazine as one of “The 100 Most Influential Africans”.

He is regarded as one of the richest pastors in Ghana and he is the first non-American to lead the prayer for the incoming President and Vice President of the United States during the inauguration.



All these and more achievements didn’t come by chance. His life is a study of providence and destiny but it is also an application of persistence and the will to overcome all odds both physical and spiritual.

The Presiding Archbishop and General Overseer of the Action Chapel International ministry Nicholas Duncan-Williams upon his many tribulations while growing up have revealed how his fingers got burnt and ‘chopped’ off.

In an interview with Bola Ray on Starr Chat,and as monitored by Ghpage.com, the Archbishop Duncan-Williams said that While growing up, on multiple occasions, he nearly lost his life.He battled with spirits and was visiting shrines.He emphasized that, the thirst for success made him visit shrines for it.

“Of all the battles in life, the spiritual battle is easily the most significant. It is always said that before anything of worth happens in the physical, it must be settled in the spiritual.It happened in the spiritual realm but sacrificed my fingers for it.” he said.

Archbishop Duncan, known in many parts of the world as the Apostle of Strategic Prayer, the 60-year-old added that;

“At age 20 something significant happened.I had nightmares, hallucination and heard voices at home; spiritual voices contending with the voice of truth, grace. I was captured by the spirit, instructed by it to light a candle and dip my hands into the burning flame.”

“I obeyed without question but with pain. My lips at a point were sealed until the pain had become unbearable. My fingers darkened in the flames until they turned into ashes. My shouts attracted siblings who came and rushed me to Korle Bu Hospital where I was admitted for months.”

That was his break. He had a spiritual encounter with God on his bed at the Korle Bu teaching hospital and everything changed. When grace finds you, it doesn’t matter who or where you are.



Archbishop was born into a broken home, raised by a single mother. His twin brother failed to make it during birth. He lacked many things at birth including the love and protection of a father.

Food to eat was a struggle. Education was a luxury. He had little or none for all that. He pushed trucks, sold chewing gums on the streets to put food on the table.

He tried to go to America through Stowaway. He went to Abidjan jumped onto a ship headed for Marseille, France. He was caught and was to be fed to the sharks in the seas of Morocco but grace found him.

A man on board had a son called Nicholas and pleaded for him. They hid him in the dungeons of the ship until they got to Marseille. He disembarked safely worked at the port for a while but got caught and repatriated to Ghana because he had no papers.

Few weeks in Ghana, Nicholas run out of money and had to do another stowaway, this time to Israel, the land of promise. He went to Abidjan went on his knees with a fervent prayer to God asking God for a way in Israel. That, too, failed and he has repatriated again.

He is richer today but poverty was his great friend in the past; a preacher man today but he paid visits to shrines and encountered spirits in the past.