It was early morning when Rev. Yawson woke up to pray and seek the face of God for more power and anointing to minister. He would be ministering at the ongoing mega revival prayer meeting. He was the founder of his church, ‘Yawson Power Ministries’. As a morning ritual, he went to call his two sons and wife to join him in the hall. He called his hall the ‘Prayer Room’.
Instead of the normal one hour devotion prayers, they ended up spending three hours and Rev. Yawson seemed to have reached a spiritual altitude which has caused him to lose sight of his natural environment and take notice of the time. He operated in an unusual prophetic dimension. He asked his children to kneel down one after the other and he prophesied into their future. When it was the turn of his wife, he prayed for the grace and provision of God to sustain her family but little did they know what those utterances meant.
Time had run out for church service to start. Rev. Yawson went on ahead leaving his family behind. He never joked with his time of arrival in church. It was an awesome prophetic time of ministration on that day in church. After the service, Rev. Yawson knelt down in front of his seat and put his head on the chair in a prayer mood. This had caused a long queue of members who wanted to greet the man of God and receive from his divine tutelage.
A whole hour passed and Rev. Yawson was still on his knees without any movement. The more he kept long on his knees, the lesser the people waiting to see him became. Finally, his assistant pastor tapped him but he was still motionless. A further tap revealed that something was wrong. He was rushed to the nearest hospital in no time but they were disappointed to be informed that the man of God died long ago before arrival.
The news of the demise of the Man of God did not only come as a shock and a bitter pill for the family and entire church to swallow but also called for more questions than answers. As people thought about the sudden demise of Rev. Yawson, they took cognizance of the fact that he had announcement his departure proverbially in his sermons and finally during the last family devotion but they hardly took a cue from it.
One month later, a befitting funeral service was organized for the late Rev. Yawson. The entire auditorium was full to its capacity. There were giant screens mounted outside for the overflow.
Rev. Yawson was still in paradise when an angel of the Lord went to him and said: “Today is the day that your mortal remains will be laid to rest. I am on a special assignment from the Lord to supervise the funeral service. Will you go with me to see how your funeral service is being organized?”
“Why not? I will be more than glad to witness it. I’m grateful for the invitation!” he answered as they zoomed out of the scene straight to the funeral grounds.
Rev. Yawson and the Angel stood at the altar and witnessed every proceeding but they were invincible to the congregation. He was full of mixed feelings as he witnessed the proceedings; how friends and love ones from far and near and from different churches came to pay their last respect to him.
During the time of reading the tributes, so many wonderful things were said by all and sundry. Rev. Yawson was nodding his head and beaming all over to hear all those good things. The angel of the Lord turned to him and said:
“People hardly say bad things about a dead person during funeral service. At funeral grounds, man only reads of your good deeds most of which are just creative writing to say something good and nice about the deceased to the hearing of the sorrowed sympathizers but I tell you the truth, the book of deeds in Heaven that records every act of man should be the book that should cause every man to think twice before acting.
“You have heard so many wonderful things about yourself but no one had talked about the bad things you did. The world is full of deliberate, hypocritical and false reports but the book of deeds records every single act of man. Do not be happy for hearing those false and carefully creative lies from your pastors, family and friends but rather fear the righteous judgment of the Lord. Sometimes, I wonder why human beings are too much concerned about what their fellow man can do and say about them than what the Righteous Judge will say about them.
“My time is up. Another angel has come to replace me. We have to go now”, the angel concluded when the mortal remains of Rev. Yawson was lowered into the grave and buried. Rev. Yawson cast a long look at his family, friends and love ones as they departed till he could no longer from afar.
Lessons from the Story
- Know that the Lord can call you home any time so live your life in readiness because you do not know the time you will be called home.
- Do not be afraid of what your fellow man can do and say about you but the final words of the righteous judge on the throne. At the end of the judgment only two statements will determine your fate: “Well done, good and faithful servant” or “Depart from me, you wicked and unfaithful servant”
- It doesn’t matter which man of God buried you and what kind of prayer he said; it doesn’t matter where you will be buried and what kind of expensive coffin you were buried with, what finally matters is what the judge will say that will determine your eternal destination whether damnation or jubilation in heaven.
- What can testimony can be said of you in heaven or what tribute can heaven read about you? Note that every act of mankind is being recorded in the book of deeds (Rev. 20:12)
Writer: Ernest K. Akorli
Email: infochristo1@gmail.com
