No One Left the Same

When Prophet Olabisi Adamu stepped to the podium at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja on that September evening, the room was already thick with expectation. Women had gathered from across Nigeria, some travelling from far and near, dressed elegantly and seated at banquet tables adorned with deep royal purple runners, soft candlelight, and fresh flowers. The décor was intentional. The atmosphere was deliberate. And everyone in the room sensed that what was about to unfold was not simply a gathering. It was a divine appointment.

This was the inaugural Queen Esther's Banquet, a prophetic prayer and intercession event conceived by Prophet Olabisi Adamu and rooted in a conviction that has driven her ministry for years: that God positions women strategically, that their placement in influential spaces is never accidental, and that the body of Christ has a responsibility to pray for them, cover them, and call them forward into the fullness of their assignment.

The evening opened in an atmosphere of worship and quickly moved into intercession. From the first moment of prayer, those in attendance described a tangible shift in the room. This was not a programme being executed. This was a people encountering God together, and the difference was unmistakable.

"The Queen Esther Banquet truly was as the Lord intended," Prophet Olabisi said in the days following the event. "An intimate time in His presence."

That word, intimate, would come to define the entire evening. Despite the grandeur of the Transcorp Hilton setting, the arched purple backdrop with its crown of glowing lights, the elegant table arrangements, the air of occasion that filled the ballroom, what happened inside the room felt deeply personal. Women prayed with their hands lifted, eyes closed, voices rising and falling in intercession that was both fierce and tender. There were tears. There were declarations. There were moments of silence so full they seemed to hold weight.

The teaching brought clarity to the mandate of the movement. Prophet Olabisi drew from the scriptural account of Esther, walking attendees through the significance of divine positioning and the responsibility it carries. The message was clear and it was direct: a woman placed by God in a position of influence is not there to simply occupy a seat. She is there to change outcomes. To shift atmospheres. To become, as the scripture says, a joy of many generations.

But the highlight of the evening, by every account, was the time of Divine Activations and Ordinations. Women were called forward. Hands were laid. Prophetic words were released over lives, over callings, over assignments both seen and hidden. The Holy Spirit moved through the room in a way that those present said they had not previously experienced in that configuration, not at a dinner, not at an event of this kind. Something was transferred. Something was imparted. And when it was over, the women who had walked in were not the same women who walked out.

In her closing remarks, Prophet Olabisi issued a charge that cut through the elegance of the evening and landed somewhere deep. She reminded every woman in that room that they were not waiting for a human institution to validate their calling or crown them with permission. God had already done that. Their assignment existed before their title. Their mandate was older than their appointment. What was required now was not qualification. What was required was obedience.

"Esthers are on the rise," she told the gathering. "We are rising as saviors and deliverers for our nation Nigeria. We have been mandated to lead with compassion and the fear of the Lord. Arise and go. Fulfill your mandate."

It was a moment that married the prophetic with the practical, the spiritual with the national, the personal with the generational. Women who serve in government corridors, who sit in boardrooms and legislative chambers, who carry portfolios and portfolios of responsibility under titles the world recognizes and some the world has not yet seen, were being told that their assignment was bigger than all of it. And that a movement was now standing with them in prayer.

Prophet Olabisi closed with gratitude for every woman who made the sacrifice to attend, acknowledging that their presence was not incidental but purposeful. God, she said, was intentional about this gathering. And He was intentional about every woman in it.

The inaugural Queen Esther's Banquet has since become the foundation on which a larger, more structured national movement is being built. What began as an intimate evening in Abuja has grown into a call to women across Nigeria and beyond to take their place in the ongoing intercession for godly, righteous, and excellent leadership in every sphere of public life.

Queen Esther's Banquet continues its mandate through monthly virtual prayer gatherings, strategic sector-by-sector intercession, and annual physical conferences. Women in public service are invited to join the movement and receive ongoing prayer covering for their leadership assignments. Intercessors who carry a burden for governance and national transformation are equally welcome to stand with us at the altar.