The Sunday News
Kudzai Chikiwa, Sunday News Reporter
AT 95 years still strong and energetic — an African Apostle who defied odds.
Longevity 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.
Gerontocratic societies ascribe leadership positions to the elderly in apparent recognition of their wisdom and experience they would have gained in the many years of their lives.
Because life expectancy everywhere is far less than 100 years, those that attain the age become unique and special.
Few people can fathom how a 95-year-old can easily carry himself 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 have.
People further crack their heads if they hear that the 95-year-old is not just a seated grandpa at home who helplessly awaits people to massage him.
In this case, the 95-year-old man is the founder of Forward in Faith Ministries International, one of the largest and fastest growing churches, which have spread to over 100 nations. He is a gifted evangelist, a veteran pastor, and renowned prophet with unmistakable marks of apostleship.
He is a humble servant of God, and has distinguished himself as a leading personality in the Pentecostal world.
An old man in a young boy’s body, the founder and president of ZAOGA Forward in Faith Ministries International Apostle Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti is the man who has defied odds.
No one is spared in the awe and curiosity of wanting to enquire from the revered cleric how he has managed to maintain such a healthy long life and youthful look and posture.
“What is really his secret? How did he achieve 70 years of ministering non-stop?”
Those are the million dollar questions the world has.
Fearing God and staying in his word, a clean heart, sufficient exercising, forgiving people and not keeping grudges make up some of Dr Guti’s ingredients to a long life.
He doesn’t have a complicated way of describing his life. Every time he takes to the podium to describe his God-given life he humbly says: “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 it. That’s the simple Godly way to live; there is no magic my children. My God told me from the beginning that FEAR NOT AND SIN NOT and that’s my guiding charter.”
A lot of people may have seen Baba Guti on television or heard him preach but still try to figure out his background.
Let’s sit together at the table of the hidden history of the apostle.
It is not every day that a poor and illiterate young man from the remote parts of a Third World country is raised by God to start a mega work with a global appeal.
Not only were his personal circumstances an inhibiting factor but the colonial system and racist attitude of the day was another mountain to be scaled.
Such is the story of Dr Guti, the humble servant of God who in 1960 was used by God to found ZAOGA FIF, a ministry that has spanned over 140 nations and states in all continents.
On 5 May 1923 a son was born in Ngaone (Chipinge) Zimbabwe by the name Handinawangu to Dorcas and Ngwanzeni Guti.
He grew up a humble young man, doing home chores like others though his life was through difficulties considering he was a rural folk. No electricity, no water supplies, no internet or any luxury but just needs to sustain the family. One day when his mother Mbuya Dorcas had gone for a journey, she heard a missionary preacher saying the final judgment of sinners is death.
Mbuya Dorcas narrated this to her children, and to Ezekiel the message was a warning from Heaven. He says he could not sleep with a burden in his heart. He withdrew to a remote area in Ngaone and cried saying “Creator, if you are there save my soul”.
This attracted heavens and Baba Guti says he heard a thick music saying “FEAR NOT, SIN NOT” which became the FIF anthem up-to-date.
“God showed me stars in 1946 and he said as many are the stars these are the people you will lead to Heaven. I did not want to start my own church. My heart was boiling with the word of God and whenever I got in a church I would feel like standing up to preach,” said Dr Guti.
This became a threat to other preachers who thought Baba Guti wanted to take over their ministries. He was at several times thrown out of churches.
“God told me that Ezekiel, rise up go to Bindura and I will start a new thing with you,” said Dr Guti.
So without any funding, assets or buildings, on 12 May 1960 under a gum tree in Bindura began the great work.
From these humble beginnings, the Lord has been so faithful that today the church boasts hundreds of church buildings across the world, five Bible colleges (three in Zimbabwe, one in Ghana and another in Zambia).
To benefit the nation and the world at large, today ZAOGA runs a state-of-the-art university, ZEGU in Bindura, Mbuya Dorcas Hospital in Harare, a unique hospital with both a medical and a non-medical wing where patients are prayed for and receive total healing. The 24-hour television station, Ezekiel TV, also beams across the globe.
As the vision continues to grow and realising its socio-economic role, the church has established two schools in Bulawayo, Eunor Guti Academy, a high school located in Kingsdale suburb and Ezekiel Guti Primary School in Cowdray Park suburb.
The high standards in these institutions are a true reflection of the ZAOGA brand.
The church has over the years emphasised the teaching on the value of hard, honest work and giving as the keys to prosperity.
This has taught and made members of the church to be financially independent.
This has not only transformed individual households and the corporate body of Christ but has also played a significant role both directly and indirectly in the country’s economic development by raising the standard of living of the populace especially in the country’s prevailing tough economic environment.
The church has been able to send missionaries to countries such as the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada among others.
As ZAOGA celebrates 58 years of the grace of God, more frontiers continue to be opened up. Last week they had a clean-up campaign all over Zimbabwe to celebrate the legacy of the Servant and Apostle of God.
THE CHURCH IS MARCHING ON! IZAOGA ISIHAMBILE IMPELA!!!ZAOGA YAFAMBA CHAIZVO! —@tamary98
