Prophet Irving Benjamin, Jr. was born on February 14, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York, to the late Irving Benjamin, Sr. and the late Vivian Ann Samuels. He was educated in the New York City Public School System and, in 1988, was accepted into Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers. That same year, he and his family joined Wayside Baptist Church in Brooklyn under the leadership of the late Rev. Joe L. Parker.

During his time at Wayside, Prophet Benjamin recognized the call of God on his life through the preaching and teaching of Rev. Parker. He became actively involved in the ministry, serving on the Junior Usher Board and eventually becoming its president. He also served as President of the Youth Ministry for ages 17–19. On Youth Sundays, held on fifth Sundays, he would often preside over the service. Prophet Benjamin remained faithful to the Wayside Baptist Church throughout his formative years.

In 1992, he graduated with a High School Diploma in Accounting. Shortly afterward, he was accepted to Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. During his time at Shaw, Prophet Benjamin was a light and an inspiration to faculty, staff, and students. In 1995, he joined Mount Calvary Word of Faith Church under the legendary Gospel artist Pastor Shirley Caesar. It was here that Prophet Benjamin was further nurtured in the Gospel and began to be molded for greatness.

On Friday, November 15, 1996, he preached his trial sermon and was appointed by Pastor Caesar to lead the Youth Ministry. Under his leadership, Friday Night Youth Services began to thrive through his faithfulness and dedication.

In 1997, Prophet Benjamin graduated from Shaw University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. By the year 2000, the Lord began to shift his path, and the prophetic mantle on his life began to manifest more clearly. He joined Resurrection Tabernacle of Praise Full Gospel Church (later known as Greater Life Tabernacle of Praise Full Gospel Church) under Apostle Mary Baxter. Through this divine connection, Prophet Benjamin fully embraced his identity as a Prophet and Prophetic Psalmist.

His obedience and faithfulness led to the birth of his own ministry—originally named Apple of Thine Eye Outreach Ministries—which was rebranded in 2004 as Empowered 2 Excel Ministries, Inc. In 2002, he recognized the pastoral calling on his life and entered a year-long period of training. He was ordained in June 2003 by Apostle Mary Baxter, who at the time led Faith and Praise Tabernacle of Deliverance Full Gospel Church, later known as Pool of Bethesda Tabernacle of Praise Life-Changing Church, Inc., and now Empowered 2 Excel Ministries, Inc.

Currently, Prophet Benjamin is engaged in evangelistic work and serves as the President and CEO of Empowered 2 Excel Ministries, Inc., a ministry committed to empowering humanity to

excel in every area of life. He also leads Men Excelling Toward Excellence Ministries, which seeks to uplift and equip men of all ages to thrive both spiritually and naturally.

In addition to his ministry work, Prophet Benjamin is the founder of Pristine Image Enterprises, Inc., a Christian and non-Christian talent and gift development agency. This initiative helps individuals pursue their God-given dreams and aspirations by unlocking and refining their unique talents.

Prophet Irving Benjamin, Jr. remains steadfast in his commitment to following Christ and fulfilling His will with his whole heart. Truly, he is a servant of God marked by grace, humility, and divine ability. Hear ye him for the grace of God is upon his life.

Here's My Website Info: https://prophet-ibj.my.canva.site/empowered2excel/

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Pastor Benjamin.

It's a great pleasure to connect with you.

What part of the world are you in today?

I'm doing wonderful.

Tell me, where are you calling from?

Where's the conversation coming from?

I am located in Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Wow, were you always a Brooklyn?

I've been raised here.

I was born here in Brooklyn.

The only time that I did go away is, you know, years later, when I went to college at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina.

And I was there for a season of my life.

I worked down there.

Was doing ministry down there.

And then the Lord sent me back to New York back in 2001.

And so from that time up to this point, I've been doing ministry.

And actually, this coming November, although it is 2026, this marks my 30 years in ministry.

And I will be celebrating in November, because November is the time in which I went forth on November 15, 1996.

And at that time, I was under Pastor Shirley Caesar, the renowned gospel artist.

God connected me with her.

But, you know, her church at that time was not too far from Shaw University where I was attending.

So, I give God praise for that.

And then later on, God connected me to my pastor now, Pastor Mary Baxter, who's also in Raleigh, North Carolina.

And I've been under her covering for over 20 years.

So, I'm excited about what God is doing in and through and for my life and for Empower to Accel Ministries, which is the ministry in which God has given me.

How did you come to meet Jesus?

That was back around maybe 12.

My brother had this babysitter.

Her name was Shirley Plato.

I don't even know if she's still alive or not.

And so I was asking her questions about how do you get saved.

And she gave me, you know, she pointed me to the scripture that's found in the book of Romans.

I think it's 9 and 10 or 10 and 9.

Sometimes we get confused with those scriptures.

And she said, all you have to do is invite him in.

You know, by reading that scripture, you're inviting him in.

And that was, like I said, at an early age.

And when I did that, you know, of course, I gave my life to the Lord.

And then I asked her a question.

I said, well, can I do this for my whole family?

And she was like, no, this is a personal thing.

So from that time, from meeting her, and you know, she was into the church and stuff of that nature.

And I was curious about it.

I wanted to give my life to the Lord.

So ever since that time, and this is when I was in my teen years, once again, I gave my life to the Lord.

And from that time to even now, I've been saved, Holy Ghost feel sanctified, filled with the Holy Spirit.

And so I thank God for the experience, because it certainly has been a blessing in my life.

Tell me about family life.

How did your family support you?

I would say I did have family support.

One of the things that my mother allowed me to do, because before she gave her life to the Lord, and then my brother came along, is I used to go to church with a neighbor of mine, she's going on to be with the Lord, but her name was Miss McGill.

She lived right on, I'm on the fifth floor.

So she lived on the fourth floor.

And she would take me to church with her.

And by me doing that, eventually, my mother started going and my brother started going and then one of my mother's co workers had invited us to their church.

That was my first church, our first church, Wayside Baptist Church here in Brooklyn, New York, where I passed at the time was Pastor Joel Parker, he's transitioned some years ago.

And so has my mom, my parents are transitioned.

But, and we started going to that church.

And we eventually joined in October 1988.

And me and my brother became part of the usher board.

And it was a good experience.

You know, I love my pastor's teaching at that time.

And once again, I was ushering me and my brother.

And then eventually I left there because God had called me to do my work.

But my mother stayed there and then eventually she became a usher.

So there was support, you know, I believe that my family knows that I love God.

And so they supported, you know, my journey and my endeavors and different things that I did.

You know, when I was at Wayside, I dealt with youth ministry, I dealt with youth, I dealt with the usher board, I dealt with youth ministry.

You know, I dealt with the evangelistic team at one point.

And all of those different things have prepared me basically to what I do now, because although I can preach from a pulpit, my greatest love is outreach, because I can generally have a conversation with anybody, you know, and it doesn't have to start out with Jesus, but eventually it leads to that.

And so it's been a blessing.

So the family support has always been there.

And I give God praise for that.

Yeah.

Tell me about New York though.

And I think of New York, the big city, multicultural, there's so many things going on.

What does it look like to run a ministry in a city, specifically being in Brooklyn, right?

What is it like?

Well, to me, it's good because back in 2002, that's when I talked with my pastor, Apostle Mary Baxter.

And I remember when I was in North Carolina, she asked me a question.

She said, when do you think you're going to start pastoring?

And I told her, I think something about within a year.

So basically, one day I went to this church, Refuge Temple Ministries, here located in Brooklyn, and Apostle Annabelle Thompson, you know, she was the pastor of our church, she was a pastor.

And at that time, I had my brother and some young people with me.

And I said, I want to go visit this church.

And so when we got there, we were participating and we were, you know, with the praise and the worship.

And she said, Father says, talking about God, God says to have your services here.

So God opened that door, and I started having services there.

And that's when my pastor of ministry started developing.

And eventually, you know, we left there and went some other places.

And then I, prior to leaving there back in 2003, excuse me, I started to, I got ordained as a pastor.

It was in June 2003.

My pastor came up from North Carolina with some of the other ministers, and she ordained me.

And it was an awesome time.

My mother was there, my brother was there, other people was there, was a good amount of people there.

And then eventually, from doing pastor of ministry, which I still do, but more or less now, I do online ministry and conference call, and I'm on Facebook Live.

But ministry has been good.

And then at one point back in 2006, God opened a door where I was doing services at the event center located in Brooklyn.

I thank God for Ms. May and her husband, they opened the door for me.

I've been knowing them almost 20 years, and I was doing services there for a season.

And it went really well.

We were doing services, I would be preaching, singing, excuse me, people would come, even if they would hear the music and, you know, me preaching, and they would literally come, they would be standing outside, and sometimes they would come inside.

So it's been very effective.

Because I told the Lord years ago that I wanted my ministry, I don't want to be like other people.

I want my ministry to be a ministry that impacts people in a positive way, in a great way.

And of course, I want God to get all the glory out of whatever I do.

So it certainly has been an experience.

And of course, right now, like I said, I do online ministry.

I love it on Facebook Live, my conference call line, we have awesome times in the services.

And I am excited about what God is doing concerning Empowered to Excel Ministries.

Because God let me know you must be empowered in order to excel.

Five years from today, you're listening to this conversation.

What's a message you'd leave for future you?

I want to leave a message for the people to let them know that they are impregnated with purpose.

I'm actually getting ready to release my new book, my first book of many to come.

I want people to those who can to get that book pre-order if you can very soon, even now.

But this is the message that I preached at my first church, Wayside Baptist Church over 20 years ago.

This is a book that has developed 20 years ago.

It was a message, but it's turned into a book.

And so I want people to understand that they are impregnated with purpose.

Jesus has a purpose for you.

God has a purpose for you.

And you cannot, glory to God, you can't do nothing else until you fulfill your purpose.

You know, a lot of time people try to do this, they try to do that.

And it doesn't work out.

The reason why it doesn't work out because you're not tapping into your purpose.

God, Jesus has a purpose for each and every one of us.

And you got to know your purpose.

You got to know your purpose.

And so my purpose is to help people recognize their purpose, pray for them, motivate them, push them and stuff of that nature.

And I want people to understand and I want them to know that regardless of what they've gone through, faced, dealt with, whatever the case may be, they have been impregnated with purpose.

You just need to connect with the right person or people that's going to help push that purpose out of you.

Pastor, it was an honor for you passing through to have a conversation with you.

I appreciate you passing by.

It's a pleasure.

I treasure.

Thank you for being on what has inspired my 12 million converts.