The Sunday News
AS controversial South Africa-based Prophet Sisonke Ndlovu’s drama rages on, local pastors have also come out, perhaps baying for his blood for “painting them with the same brush”, following his “No man of God has no scandal sentiments”, last month. This last week in a letter addressed to the prophet a local pastor, Tomson Dube, warns Sisonke about painting all clergymen with the same brush.
The letter reads:
Prophet Sisonke Ndlovu thou shalt not paint me with the same brush!
I read with dismay and disdain the first article that came out on Sunday News’ edition of 20-26 March 2016 with the headline: No man of God Has No Scandal: Sisonke revealed that he was involved in an adulterous affair, an affair which could have likely led to the demise of his church — Living God Ministries in Sizinda, Bulawayo. At that time, I had intended to respond to the article, but told myself I would let it pass.
When the follow-up article came out this past Sunday, 27 March-2 April 2016 with the headline Liar Liar! Screams Ex-Wife . . . Prophet Sisonke opens Pandora’s Box, I felt inspired to add my voice to this seemingly inconclusive saga that needs to be put in its right perspective.
As a minister of the gospel myself, I am fully aware what the Bible says when it comes to such issues as recorded in Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. But I want to use John 7: 24 as my premise to respond to this issue. John 7: 24 says, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment,” (KJV). I am not going to narrate the full story as it unfolded in the first article or the second article, my bone of contention is with Prophet Sisonke Ndlovu who when entangled in his messy and murky life, he drags everyone (men of God) to justify his actions. With due respect, he admitted his flaws and I am sure he has made it right with his God. But to stand up and say “No man of God has no scandal”, is scandalous in itself.
One thing that the Prophet is missing is that he should stand up all the way on his actions. He should not drag every man of God just because he has been exposed. This is about his character and integrity. A thief is only a thief when he/she is caught. Before then, it will be criminal and defamation of character to call him the same. But a man of God who is a leader in his own right should have principles and knows that s/he has followers that revere their leadership.
As a result, there is need for keeping a good record and living above reproach or what Paul says in I Tim 3:7 “Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil,” (KJV).
Prophet Sisonke needs to separate ISSUES here, in the book of Acts 17:30, we read there that “And the times of this ignorance God has winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,” (KJV). Here are men and women (in Athens) in the verses just before this one who wanted to justify their sins due to ignorance and Paul came out with the statement in Acts 17: 30. So my esteemed major prophet Sisonke you just have to repent of your sins and turn to God. (Which from your defence in the first article you said you did). Can I hasten to say that Paul reminds us in 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new,” (KJV). (The same scripture reference in the NLT Bible reads well: vs 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, The old life is gone; and new life has began!).
Yes, everyone has a past! But we are judged by what we have done NOW and NOT in the past. In politics we are judged by what we have done in the past just before an election . . . But in Christianity even when we repent to God in secret people will still judge us by what we have done after salvation NOT before salvation. Before I knew the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour, I did stupid things just like every other young man that was growing during that particular period in the 60s and 70s. When I got born again in March 1983, I became a new creature. I started living for Christ.
I understood what Paul says in Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (KJV). What this means is that as a new creature, you thrive to live for Christ and when you fall you admit and give yourself time to heal, but you do not say, “Everybody else does it so I can also do it!” That is what we call bringing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to disrepute. We do not live for other Christians nor are we in competition with other Christians. We are all called into the ministry and we live by our calling. And definitely your calling is not to change wives in a very short space of time and scandalise all man of God.
As a leader, you have to guard your character for the sake of the gospel and the person of Christ whom you have publicly declared to follow. John 14:30 the scriptures say, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me,” (KJV). Jesus Christ was telling his disciples that when the devil comes to accuse you, he should find nothing of his in them. The same goes to us. The sad script as espoused by your (Prophet Ndlovu) ex-wife shows that the devil has so much of his in you Prophet. I know you will scandalise your ex-wife and say she has a demon and she is the accuser of brethren. Let me explain what I mean by leadership and being a leader in you and I in our capacity as ministers of the gospel.
Life is a series of choices we face daily, and you and I have made hundreds of choices today. I read the one psychologist estimated that the average person makes fifteen thousand choices in the average day. Now, I am not talking about what colour shoes or underwear we choose to wear or where we will have lunch today. I’m talking about hundreds of choices we make daily about how we will behave toward the people who will cross our paths. I am talking about choices of character.
You know, choices like: Will I be patient or impatient? Kind or unkind? Puffed up, boastful, and arrogant, or humble? Respectful or disrespectful? Selfless or selfish? Forgiving or unforgiving? Honest or dishonest? Committed or just involved?
Remember Psychology 101 with Pavlov’s dogs and stimulus-and-response? There is a small world of choice between the stimulus we face in life and the response we choose to make to the stimulus coming at us. This little world is the world we must get a hold of if we aspire to be more effective leaders and better human beings.
And there is a lot of stimuli coming at us, isn’t there? Bills, bosses, false prophets, retirement planning, health issues, getting married, finding the right wife, children’s fees, rude and intolerant people, adulterous pastors, half-naked women and so on. Yet we have the power to choose our response to any stimulus. One person goes to Mozambique (e.g. war veteran) loses his arm and legs, returns home, and burns out on marijuana (imbanje). Another person (similar war veteran) goes to Mozambique and loses those same limbs, yet returns home and serves as the Zimbabwean Member of Parliament (MP) for Uzumba Kuramba-Kufunga. Same stimulus, different response!
In fact, the older I get now the more I am convinced that life is not so much what happens to us as it is how we respond to what happens to us. The worlds between stimulus and response are the world of character. Character is our moral maturity and commitment to doing the right thing regardless of the personal costs. Character involves the will to respond to stimuli according to values and principles rather than to appetites, urges, whims, or impulses. We are not animals.
Remember leadership is character in action, and leadership development and character development are one. Character is doing the right thing. Leadership is doing the right thing.
So be the man first before you are the man of God second that you say you are. Stand up for yourself. Get deliverance, be the protector of the faith you believe. What are your convictions? If you love the Lord and mean it then live to it. The old proverbial statement says: If you are joined with a prostitute, you become a prostitute unless you seek deliverance. You can ask me, have you not been tempted in the past 33 years . . . YES I have! Have you done it! NO! How is that? I walked away.
Hebrews 13:4 reminds us Prophet Ndlovu, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” I am not God and I will not judge you, but back in John 7: 24 we read and it says, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. If you mess up, you give yourself time to recover and at least a year to two years under mentorship with a spiritual leader walking with you would help.
This business of living in adultery for more than ten years pretending things are well when they are not and still stand before the people and minister at the pulpit is an abomination before God. Seek counsel and stay away from the pulpit and get delivered and healed from the spirit of adultery and fornication. The appetite for the pulpit is what has killed the so called “man of God”. This is the reason why Prophet Sisonke Ndlovu now thinks every man of God has a scandal. There are some out there who have towed the line. They are led by the Spirit of God because they are the sons of God.If you believe that you are called to the ministry (like you said Prophet Sisonke Ndlovu), then you are like all of us that are called to leadership. Paul wrote to Timothy and told him to do certain things to make him a good leader. There are good ministers and bad ministers. Decide to be a good minister! With the likes of Prophet Sisonke and many others who have gone unnoticed, it is obvious that there are not many good leaders around. If there were, you and I would be able to point them out without difficulty! I believe that there are many reasons why there are few outstanding leaders. This is probably the reason why Prophet Sisonke boldly declared that “No man of God Has No Scandal!” But is this correct?
What Prophet Sisonke seem to be oblivious of is that He is a leader by virtue of his being called into ministry Or conversely he should know that Matt 20: 16 says, “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen,” and Matt 22: 14 says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” The Bible teaches us that many are called to service. Anyone who yields himself to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ becomes an automatic leader. A minister of the gospel has to demonstrate leadership qualities and abilities all the time. If you are called to His service, then you are called to be a leader. You cannot deny it!
I find my esteemed prophet missing the mark because he may also need to be exorcised of the same spirit that he prayed for in his ex-wife. Most people are too selfish to be leaders. Such people care only about themselves. They are happy to have salvation. They are happy to have the Holy Spirit. They are happy to have prosperity. They are happy to perform miracles and draw many crowds. They are happy to be identified as having mega churches. But they couldn’t care less about anybody else. “Once I am okay,” they think, “Everything is okay,” That is a spirit of selfishness.
A selfish person cannot be bothered to go through any training or sacrifice to become a leader. Even when he falls into sin, he does not have the discipline to wait and be counselled. He will not expend any energy to help another soul. If Christ had decided to stay in the comfort of Heaven, where would you be today? He rose out of the grave and you cannot even get out of bed. I rebuke that spirit of laziness and selfishness! Thank God for missionaries. Thank God for people that travelled away from their homes into foreign cultures just because they wanted to help somebody. I know many do not see missionaries in this light. That is another subject for another day.
Finally to my fellow apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Bishops and Arch-Bishops and Popes are not excluded) integrity is wholeness. What do we learn from this incident by Prophet S Ndlovu? Character and integrity means being totally or completely sound. To have personal integrity means you are upright, sincere, loyal and pure. You need personal integrity to be a good leader. The true test of the effectiveness of the leader is this: Are your people better off when they leave than when they arrived?
Are your children going to be effective human beings, capable of being loving parents, capable of leading and serving others? Are your employees (church staff) more employable, better people, and have they grown more as a result of your leadership and influence? As a wise general puts it, “The first duty of any leader is to create more leaders,” (Hunter 2004, p.49). One of my favourite leadership authors Dag Heward- Mills wrote in his book; The Art of Leadership that “Your integrity is shattered by lies and deception. The reason why very few of us believe in politicians is because their integrity has been greatly compromised by the deceptions of past political leaders,” (Heward-mills, 1996, p.61).
Prophet Sisonke, your ex-wife screamed LIAR LIAR! And that shatters your character and it is not good for a man of the cloth to wash his dirty linen in public. And for you to scandalise every man of God just because you have been exposed is not the good thing to do. The parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30) tells us that each man will be responsible for his own deeds. So come out dirty if you are dirty and clean if you are clean. Do not drag everyone into your mess and paint every one with the same brush.
We are guilty of hating some of the Americans for arrogance and bluntness (cash talk) but when it comes to talking, they always talk or speak for themselves and not for others. So, Major Prophet Sisonke Ndlovu, please speak for yourself and not on behalf of others. Synonyms for the word scandal range from disgrace, shame, dishonour, gossip and etc and that is what you say all men of God are. I refuse and will not speak on behalf of other men of God, but would like to say your statement is rather unfortunate. I wish you well in life but to live in denial and not conclude your issues in life like what the ex-wife claims will not take you any further.
I rest my case.
Ref: Herward-Mills, D (2011), the Art of Leadership, Pastoral Ministry Series, Parchment House, Accra.
Hunter, J. C. (2004), The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle — How to become a servant leader. Crown Publishing, New York.
astor Tomson Dube is a lead pastor in a local city church and the University Chaplain at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust). He writes this article in his own personal capacity as a leader and a voice to the nations. You can get hold of Pastor Tomson Dube via e-mail on [email protected]
