A hooded man armed with a large knife suddenly leapt from his seat inside a church, rushed at the priest and was about to stab the man of God when he suddenly froze as if gripped by an "invisible force" and fell to the ground convulsing as churchgoers quickly disarmed the assailant.

The astonishing incident was caught on camera inside the Pentecostal IPUC Bosa church in Bogota, Colombia, the Mirror UK reported.

As the knife-wielding man attacked, the video footage showed the priest, Pedro Pablo Martin, calmly saying, "There is power in the name of Jesus," repeating this several times.

Just inches away from the priest, the attacker then took his hood down and then appeared to lose his balance as he collapsed to the floor.

As the worshippers were disarming the assailant some were heard castigating him and repeating the words just spoken by their parish priest. At this point, the knife-wielder began to convulse on the floor.

The church later posted the video footage of the drama on its website. The video footage was uploaded with the caption: "Hooded man attacks a priest but he is overcome by the power of the Holy One's name."

The church said what the worshippers just witnessed was God directly intervening to stop evil from harming a man of God. "We have a powerful God and his name is Jesus Christ. There is power in the name of Jesus," a church spokesman said.

A witness, who declined to be named, described the event as a "miracle."

However, some people who viewed the video footage raised questions on its authenticity, alleging that the church faked the incident just to increase church attendance.

Interviewed on radio, Fr. Martin said the video was authentic. "What happened was a display of the power of God protecting us from Evil," he said.

The priest said before the foiled attack, the knifeman approached and told him, "I'm here to kill you."

In response, "I told him to calm down, sit down and listen to the rest of my sermon because I didn't really take him seriously," Fr. Martin said.

"I only realised how serious it was when I saw him come at me with the knife. I invoked the Lord's name as an instinctive reaction and He demonstrated His power by removing the fury he felt so the man fell to the floor," the priest said.

After the attacker was disarmed by the parishioners, Fr. Martin said the man told him he hated priests and had tried to attack them before and that he had already spent time in prison.

When the police came to the church to arrest the man, Fr. Martin said he told them to let him go, saying he would not press charges against his would-be assailant.

"I'm confident he won't try this again. I thought about making a formal complaint but I've decided to leave his fate in the hands of God," the priest said.