Guti’s secret to long life

17 May, 2015 - 00:05 0 Views
Guti’s secret to long life Archbishop Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti

The Sunday News

. . . urges young people to stay away from women

Archbishop Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti

Archbishop Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti

Tinomuda Chakanyuka
LONG life is to a great extent a virtue, a celebrated feat that many people aspire to attain, yet few have managed to achieve. It appears to be a preserve of a selected few and society generally reveres those who live long. They are celebrated in diverse ways.
Gerontocratic societies ascribe leadership positions to the elderly, in apparent recognition of the wisdom and experience the aged would have gained in the many years of their lives.

We often read of plush birthday parties being thrown for the aged who would have reached certain rare ages that people may not have expected them to reach.

Because life expectancy everywhere is far less than 100 years, those that attain the age become unique and special members of society such that their lives easily become newsworthy and their profiles regularly feature in the media, often drawing a lot of interest.

Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is estimated to average about 60 years. A person in their 90s is wished more years to come, and urged on, as if in a race of some kind, to reach a century and surpass. That is one way society shows how highly it places long life.

One who manages to live up to 100 years is called by a special name, a centenarian, and if they manage to go beyond 110 years they graduate to being super centenarian. This is just another way society shows its obvious reverence to the aging.

Long life may be everyone’s dream, but as mentioned earlier, to many a folk, it remains elusive and an unattainable feat.

Various theories and explanations have been given in vain attempts to decipher how one can get to such advanced ages in life. Those that have lived long and reached 90, 100 or more years have also proffered different tips and “secrets” to longevity.

The Christian Bible, in the book of Deuteronomy Chapter 5 verse 33 says, “Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.”
Christians would be quick to give the above Bible verse as the ultimate formula to long life, yet it remains puzzling why a number of devout Christians continue to die at tender ages.

Is there a formula to old age after all? Could the feat be a God given gift, perhaps it is a fluke, an accident, or maybe it is a mystery that pertains to the spiritual realm, one that God alone can explain.

Such and more questions hover above the heads of many people as they futilely try to establish the prescription to long life. Those that have been fortunate enough to live long have also endured interviews from younger generations who would be eager to know the secret to longevity.

Sunday Leisure caught up with the founder of the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (Zaoga), Archbishop Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti, who himself has reached quite an advanced age, and discussed his formula to a long and healthy life.

Dr Guti was in Bulawayo last weekend to celebrate the 55th year anniversary of his church which is also known internationally across 100 countries as the Forward in Faith Ministries International (FIFMI).

The commemorations, which were held at Queen Sports Club last Sunday, also coincided with Dr Guti’s 92nd birthday celebrations, having been born in 1923.

Clad in a white jacket with silver embroidery, matching white pants, a white shirt and matching shoes, the celebrated cleric delivered a moving sermon, healed the sick, cast away demons, prayed for the backsliding, mended broken marriages and relationships and converted hundreds to God.

Over 5 000 congregates thronged the cricket arena to witness Dr Guti who was in the company of his wife Dr Eunor Guti, showing his mercurial side, as he exuded the energy of a 25-year-old while he carried out his ecclesiastical ministry at the colourful event.

Few could fathom how a 92-year-old could carry himself around so easily, without the aid of a walking stick, walking in an upright posture with no signs of a hunched back that many of his age or even younger now have.

Sunday Leisure was not spared the awe and could not help but inquire from the revered cleric how he has managed to maintain such a healthy long life and a youthful look and posture.

Fearing God and staying in his word, having a clean heart and mind, sufficient exercise, forgiving and not keeping grudges make up some of the ingredients to Dr Guti’s secret formula to a long life.

“The secret to long life is fearing God, staying in his word and letting God use you in the way he likes. For young people to stay long they should keep a clean mind and heart and stay away from women. They should forgive people and not keep grudges. It’s the word of God that makes me strong. It’s in the Bible that the word of God can help you resist sickness if you stay in. Read in the book of Romans it says the Holy Spirit will protect your body.

“A lot of people ask my children what my diet is. Of course I eat right but the secret is not just in eating, I also exercise a lot. Every morning I jog for about an hour and that helps keep my body strong.

“My number one diet is the word of God, forgiving people and not keeping grudges. I’m in God’s arms and I always strive to do his will. That has made me live this long,” he said.

Asked how long he thinks he can live and carry on with God’s Ministry, Dr Guti said God had promised him plenty more years to come to carry on ministering and nurturing new generations in the Christian faith.

He, however, would not budge on the number of more years God had promised him, saying that was a secret between him and God, one he would never share with anyone.

“Ninety-two is nothing, you are going to see more. I’m in God’s hands and I don’t plan on my own. I still feel strong and I would want to raise more generations. I have been nurturing new generations and I would want to continue with God’s work.

“God has told me that I still have more years of life, but I will not tell you how many. That is my secret with God and I will not share it with anyone. I can’t tell everybody what God has said to me, that is my secret,” said Dr Guti, accompanying his remark with a soft chuckle.

The illustrious minister, who has maintained a long marriage with his wife, also spoke on the secret to lasting marriages, urging couples to learn to forgive each other and tell each other how much they love one another.

“Most of all, couples must put their marriages before God, pray for one another and ask God to bless the union. If you go for ages without telling your partners how much you love them you risk losing them, like this Harare man whose wife went with the gardener, because all he did was pumper her with money and gifts.

“Couples should enhance communication, learn to forgive each other when one makes a mistake. No one is perfect and everyone errs at some point. Keeping grudges in marriages only serves to destroy them. That is how I have managed to maintain my marriage,” he said.

Dr Guti is not only a cleric but a decorated academic in the area of theology, boasting a number of qualifications, among them, a Bachelor of Christian Education and a Doctorate in the same from Northgate Graduate School and Zoe College in the USA respectively.

The well-travelled minister has preached and taught in several African nations, Europe, USA, Asia-Pacific countries, and the Bahamas.

He has founded and funded Bible schools in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique where he has trained over 4 000 pastors from more than 55 nations and also oversees more than five thousand pastors and evangelists worldwide.

He also founded orphanages and schools of ministry dotted around the continent.
Dr Guti’s has also authored books which include, Maturity Which Comes by Knowing the Ways of God, Understanding Your Angels, New African Apostle, Human Beings Cannot Change Without Pressure among others.

The decorated clergyman founded his church on 12 May 1960, after he “responded to God’s special call, a call which led to the birth of the ministry under a gumtree, in Bindura.”

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