The Founder and senior pastor of the Grace Nation Church International, Dr Chris Okafor, has disclosed how he was rescued from kidnappers’ den after spending 50 days in captivity.

Okafor said his status as one of God’s major power brokers makes him immune from any untoward and unsavoury occurrences that could question his dedication and commitment to God’s service as an anointed minister.

According to him, his confidence derives from the immortal words taken from the Bible in Hebrews 11: 6 which says “God is a rewarder of those who dutifully and diligently serve him”.

The cleric said this during a recent Sunday service at the church in Lagos State.

Pastor Okafor said he had never at any time in his over 20-year work with God had cause to worry or fret over his safety or of those related to him because he considers himself immune from the “buffettings of the devil and his children of wickedness”.

He said: “This might sound presumptuous to some people for me to say I’m a power broker in God’s kingdom. But when you have been privileged to be the conduit through which God’s virtues of prophecies, healing and deliverances have flowed all through the years, it is only right to state the obvious.

“The Bible is clear about the benefits that accrue to those who win souls to God’s kingdom. See, nothing God values more than soul-winning. Soul-winning is to God what money is to man. I have come to discover that when we diligently apply ourselves to serving God in truth and in spirit, particularly working assiduously to ensure that we win souls to His kingdom. He pays our bills. He blesses us, he shields us from untoward happenings, and all kinds of tragedies and calamities.

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“God has confirmed that scripture in my life on several occasions. A lot of people are aware of how I survived a hail of bullets that ripped through the car I was travelling in when I was kidnapped on my way from a crusade in the eastern part of Nigeria some years ago.

“I survived more than 50 days of captivity in those kidnappers’ den. In all of that time, most people, including members of my congregation had given me up for dead. Yet, through God’s hands of mercy, I was rescued and I am still alive today, more than over a decade after the incident.”

Pastor Okafor further disclosed that he survived a plane crash, saying: “I was in a flight returning from one of the foreign crusades I went some years ago when our aircraft developed a fault.

“The situation was so bad that the plane was falling and plummeting dangerously towards the earth. In fact, we were already seeing the ground as everyone was in a distressed mood, calling for God’s intervention.

“I had stood up, and prayed a simple prayer, reminding God that no one who diligently served Him should see untimely and an unwarranted death. He heard me and we were all saved on that occasion.

“So, as a power broker – one who has offered himself as a vessel of honour for God’s wondrous works time and time again, it will be out of character for me to experience any form of harm, tragedy or untimely death.”

The Star