The Sunday News
ZIMBABWE Assemblies of God Africa (Zaoga) founder Archbishop Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti has taken a swipe at emerging prophets who seek anointment from foreign spiritual fathers and import anointing oil for resale to church members, labelling the new breed of preachers proud and ignorant.
Delivering a sermon during his church’s 55th anniversary commemorations in Bulawayo last Sunday, Dr Guti bemoaned the proliferation of new churches, most of which he accused of using miracles and the gospel of prosperity to hoodwink and fleece people.
Dr Guti said prophets do not need to go to a foreign country to get God’s anointing from spiritual fathers as God had the power to anoint his own prophets even in their motherland.
The celebrated cleric, who has more than five decades in ministry, questioned the selling of anointing oil by prophets arguing that if the oils belonged to God as claimed, then they should be given to people for free.
A number of prophets who have emerged in the country over the past decade leading huge congregations, have professed having foreign spiritual fathers who anointed them to start prophesying.
United Family International Church (UFIC) leader Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa and Spirit Embassy’s prophet Uebert Angel Mudzanire’s spiritual father is Victor Kusi Boateng from Ghana, while Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) ministries leader Prophet Walter Magaya has been reported as saying Nigeria’s TB Joshua was his spiritual father.
The same prophets also sell to their followers anointing oils and wrist bands among other paraphernalia mostly imported from Nigeria and Ghana, which they claim have healing and deliverance powers.
Dr Guti described selling anointing oils as a profit making gimmick which did not have any Biblical reference, pointing out that there was no reason for any prophet to travel abroad to buy the anointing oils when oil was abundantly available locally.
“There are a lot of people starting churches today. Every corner you go you see new churches sprouting. Ask those people why they are starting churches. Some start churches because they want money, some prophesy to draw people to themselves.
“Some people go to Nigeria to get oil from men of God and sell it to people here, yet we have a lot of oil here. Why sell it if it is God’s oil, why not just anoint people for free. They sell it because they want to make money. It shows that people are starting churches to make business. That’s the problem.
“Some of these prophets make women pregnant, some just take money from people, asking people to give money to church to get blessings. That is not God’s will. You don’t need to trick people to make money or instill fear in people so that they remain in your church. Preach the truth, preach Jesus and God will bless you,” he said.
Quoting the Bible in 1st Kings’ Chapter 8 verse 56 Dr Guti proclaimed himself as a true prophet of God as all the prophecies he had made since he started ministry had come to pass.
“So today we are reminding you that what God spoke many years ago is true. I have said several times that I believe that ever since I have been prophesying many years ago, there is no one who has come to me and said what I prophesy is not true. So I know that I’m a true prophet of God.
“The Lord said when poor people listen to the word of God I will change them and they will prosper. If you ask today some people who were poor, people who did not even have a surname, today they are well known. In our church we don’t trick people to make money,” said Dr Guti.
In an interview with Sunday News on the sidelines of the anniversary celebrations after delivering his sermon, Dr Guti reiterated his criticism of the emerging prophets whom he said were too proud and ignorant by seeking spiritual guidance from foreign spiritual fathers when the same guidance was available locally.
He, however, conceded that there was little that could be done to stop the sprouting of new churches but urged people to be wary of the emerging churches as some of them were not genuine God’s churches.
“They (prophets) are ignorant and it is not God’s call to go to foreign land and seek anointing. A number of them (prophets) went there and were asked what they were looking for when their father was here in Zimbabwe. They go there because of pride. Some of them perform miracles using their own power and not the power of God.
“Some of the churches are good, some are not good but there is no way you can stop that. The other thing is that people are copying and just start churches when they have no calling from God. Most of these are people who would have defected from their original churches and then a person goes on to form his own church.
“False prophets can do it for a short time and they will disappear. If these churches are not from God they will die soon, but if the church is from God it will go on and on,” he said.
Zaoga, which is also known internationally across 100 countries as the Forward in Faith Ministries International (FIFMI), was founded on 12 May 1960 in Bindura by Dr Ezekiel Guti, who now leads the church together with his wife Dr Eunor Guti.
