Kanye West Gives An Emotional Performance At A Youth Conference, ‘The Devil Had Me,’ He Says

Gospel rapper Kanye West is currently on his Sunday Service tour, at times teaming up with acclaimed pastor Joel Osteen. This past week, he led a particularly emotional performance at a packed youth conference in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. At the conference, West recalled his journey to finding God again and claims his faith helped save him in dark times, according to Fox News.

West took the stage alongside his Sunday Service choir at the Strength to Stand Conference, where there were more than 12,000 college students in attendance. He performed songs from his recent Gospel rap album Jesus is King and provided his own personal faith testimony in between the songs. He got candid about how much his life has changed since he focused his life on Jesus Christ, and how he believes his faith was the guiding force that allowed him to turn his life around.

“I believe Jesus died for my sins. There was a time when the devil had me,” he said.

He emphasized his belief that God can save anyone, even someone as far removed from the faith as he had been at one time. Just the day before this performance, West had participated in a lengthy 10-hour prayer rally in Arizona, titled Awaken 2020. It was there he revealed even more information about his faith journey and again encouraged those in attendance to turn back to the faith even if they feel they don’t belong or won’t be accepted.

“Jesus saves. No matter how long you think you’ve been away. No matter how long you’ve been in the dark, the light is right there ready to save. To give you the confidence where they don’t want us to be brave. So you tell the devil today that we’ll no longer be his slave. It’s something that we take on day by day. Every day that I don’t pick up that drink, I beat the devil.”

West has previously revealed that before he started his Sunday Service choir just a little over a year ago and began to live his life differently, and he was battling some pretty serious demons. Among them was a problem with alcohol that he claims he was able to overcome through the help of his faith.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, West continues to top Gospel charts with his new music, despite how dramatically different it is from past work for which he became famous for.