A Matter of Life and Death

by Rita Langeland

It was early evening in the Kenyan village of Mat, when Rev. Geoffrey Kioko finished an all day prayer meeting that his ministry had sponsored for local pastors. He needed to get back to his home in Nairobi where his family awaited him. Someone mentioned a car that was headed to the city which had space for one more passenger. Geoffrey was grateful for the opportunity to catch a ride back to the capitol city and looked forward to witnessing to the vehicle’s occupants about Christ.

Darkness had fallen when the trip finally got underway. As the men chatted in the car, the evangelist brought up the topic of God’s love for mankind. He spoke about God’s willingness to forgive anyone who would come to Him and give them new life in Christ Jesus. The driver listened intently, asking questions as they traveled. After nearly 40 minutes of driving, the man pulled the car off the road and asked Geoffrey to pray with him to receive Christ as His Savior. The other two men in the car, who had heard the same message of hope, rejected the opportunity to accept Christ.

After praying with Geoffrey and receiving the salvation promised in the Bible to anyone who would call on the name of the Lord, the driver joyfully started off once again, heading toward Nairobi. About 15 minutes later, as they were passing through Ruiru Town, a large truck suddenly veered into their lane and collided with the car. The force of the impact caused the car to careen violently out of control, rolling over and over until it landed about 100 meters away in an open sewer.

During those surreal seconds that the car was spinning out of control, Geoffrey could hear the other men screaming in fear. But at the same time he heard another sound which resembled the sound of a mighty river flowing. He felt as if he was being held firmly in position in his seat. Amazingly, he never was jostled around or slammed against the inside of the vehicle. When the car came to a halt, Geoffrey simply opened the car door and climbed out. His side of the car was badly damaged yet he was unscathed. As people rushed to the car and began to drag the other men out of the vehicle, he was in shock as he slowly realized that all three of the men in the car were dead. He was the sole survivor of a fatal accident and he did not have a scratch on his body.

Geoffrey stood staring at the crumpled vehicle, in awe of God’s mighty deliverance and protection of his life but at the same time deeply grieved. Like the thief on the cross, the driver had received eternal life literally moments before he died. But the other two men who had rejected God’s offer of love, forgiveness and eternal life were now in hell by their own choice. It was a solemn picture of many people’s lives and the choices that they make.

Later that night, as he was praying and giving thanks to God, the Lord spoke to Geoffrey. He showed him that the sound of the rushing river that he heard as the car careened out of control, was the prayers of the saints. He came to understand that night, that there is a force hovering over the universe in the spiritual realm that controls the affairs of the saints - and it is PRAYER.
There are four essential spiritual principles that can be gleaned from this sobering but true story which occurred less than two weeks prior to the writing of this article.

1) We do not know when the day of our death will be and we must be spiritually prepared at any moment to meet our Maker. The Bible teaches that every man dies and then faces God’s judgment. Those who have received eternal life by putting their faith Christ are welcomed into heaven and those who have not trusted Christ for their salvation go to a place of eternal punishment. (Hebrews 9:27; Matthew 25)

2) God is a God of mercy and gives everyone an opportunity to be saved but He does not force His love on anyone. The choice is left up to the individual as God has given man a free will. (2 Peter 3:9; Isaiah 55:7) The Lord provided a final opportunity to those three men to choose Christ’s gift of salvation. One accepted and two rejected it.

3) God is well able to protect and deliver the believer from the most dangerous of circumstances. (Psalm 91; Psalm 32:7; Psalm 34:17)

4) The prayers of God’s people are effective and necessary in our lives! (James 5:16)

We know that many people pray for this ministry and for the protection of our missionaries, native pastors and workers. We are grateful for our intercessors and we have seen the power of their prayers in the miraculous deliverance from harm of HWCM’s East Africa Director, Rev. Geoffrey Kioko. So I want to encourage you to CONTINUE TO PRAY for wisdom and protection for all who are associated with this ministry. As a staff, we pray for all the supporters of Hidden With Christ Ministries, for protection, blessing, provision and spiritual revelation, and we know that God hears and answers those prayers.

If you have never surrendered your heart and life to Jesus Christ, do not hesitate another day, as you do not know if you will have another day on this earth. It is a matter of life and death - yours.