Thursday 13 February 2014

CHARITY SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME FOR LEE GRADY AND CERTAIN PASTORS FROM GHANA

Africa’s vibrant Pentecostalism and Zimbabwe’s prophetic movement in particular, continue to attract satan’s attention. This is to be expected. Anytime you preach the Gospel and lives are changed spiritually, psychologically and, yes, physically, you can expect hell to hit back. 
Bishop Dave Chikosi
Bishop Dave Chikosi
This is why I wasn’t surprised to read two recent articles on this newspaper commenting negatively on both. The first was by Lee Grady entitled, “How the ‘prosperity’ gospel destroys Africa.”
The other article was entitled: “Ghana pastors vow to report Makandiwa to Mugabe, want UFIC banned.”
First article: Why Lee Grady’s position is hypocritical
Nehanda Radio readers may not know this, but the article by Lee Grady first appeared in Charisma magazine on Nov 13, 2013 under the title: “Five Ways the Prosperity Gospel Is Hurting Africa.”
J. Lee Grady has worked for Charisma magazine for 17 years. He served as editor-in-chief for 11 of those years. He has since left Charisma magazine for holier (?) pastures. Charisma magazine is one of America’s most widely distributed evangelical Christian publication.
What I find disingenuous in Mr Grady’s criticism of his so –called “prosperity gospel” (there is only one Gospel of Jesus Christ) is that as editor-in-chief of Charisma, he has benefited from the magazine’s promotion of ‘prosperity preachers.”
Charisma celebrated its 25th anniversary in the year 2000. In the August 2000 issue of the magazine, the editors revisited 25 people featured on its covers during its 2-1/2 decades of publication. The list is a Who’s Who of the biggest “prosperity preachers in the Body of Christ.
Many of these big preachers regularly take out full page ads in Charisma to publicize their conferences, and convocations. One can only imagine what percentage of Charisma magazine’s revenue comes from advertising versus sales. Estimates say that up to a whopping 90% of a popular periodical’s revenue comes from advertising.
If that is true, then Mr Grady benefited from this ‘gospel’ that he is now and is now hypocritically criticizing.
Here’s my simple message to Mr Grady: Before you bring out the big Western stick to patronizingly whip Bible-illiterate African pastors into line theologically, just remember that the magazine you edited for over 11 years endorsed a lot of the very prosperity preaching that you now demonize.
You and your magazine collaborated to advance the very “gospel” that you now want to tell us is the very antithesis of what Jesus preached. You were in bed with this so-called “prosperity gospel” for 17 years. But now you want to convince us that you just woke and realized that you are in the wrong bed – sleeping with the wrong woman?
If you feel so strongly against this ‘gospel’ that you have benefited from for 17 years (by way of salary and perks), then show your disgust by donating the rest of what remains of your “unholy” severance package, including your 401K, to the nearest charity?
And yes some Yoruba church in Nigeria could use your 401K to build a church and perhaps even an orphanage as well. It would be a wonderful gesture from the man the Yorubas affectionately refer to as Akinwale.
Pastors from Sekondi Tekoradi need to find something better to do with their time
And then there is this group of pastors from Ghana who want to clean up our ecclesiastical house in Zimbabwe as if their own backyard is squeaky clean. They are very angry because Zimbabwe’s Prophet Makandiwa is drawing big crowds to his church. Not only that, but they are also angry that he is deceiving people with dubious miracles.
They believe Rev Makandiwa received his powers from an evil man the last time he visited Ghana. (Caution: If you are a pastor and planning to visit Ghana any time soon, please cancel. You don’t want to return home and find yourself the object of suspicion and criticism for visiting this spiritually powerful State.)
So to my fellow ministers from Ghana: if you want to get rid of evil men, how about starting in your own country? Why don’t you begin by having that “popular fetish priest” Nana Kwaku Bonsam, arrested?
If Rev Makandiwa got his powers from this priest from your own country, surely it makes sense that you first clean up your own backyard before worrying about Zimbabwe? What about TB Joshua next door? Are you going to get him arrested too? Surely charity begins at home? Or are these men of God from Ghana too scarred of Bonsam’s evil powers?
If Prophet Makandiwa is bewitching a whole city in the manner of Simon the sorcerer, why don’t these men of God do what Phillip did with Simon the sorcerer i.e get him delivered, saved and baptized? Here is the Biblical account:
A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. 10 Everyone, from the least to the greatest, often spoke of him as “the Great One—the Power of God.” 11 They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic.12 But now the people believed Philip’s message of Good News concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. 13 Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed (Acts 8:9-13)
Go visit Harare, get Prophet Makandiwa delivered, saved and baptized. Or better still, these preachers from Sekondi Tekoradi could do what Paul did with Elymas the sorcerer:
Then Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked the sorcerer in the eye and said,  10 “You son of the Devil, full of every sort of trickery and villainy, enemy of all that is good, will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord?  11 And now the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be stricken awhile with blindness.” Instantly mist and darkness fell upon him, and he began wandering around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him.  12 When the governor saw what had happened, he believed and was astonished at what he learned about the Lord (Acts 13:9-12) 
This is how the apostles dealt with sorcerers and evil men. They challenged their powers directly. This is how prophets of old, like Elijah, dealt with the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel. He called fire down in front of them.
But is this what the men from Ghana propose doing? No. Their spokesmen is a certain Mr Lawrence Ajoba (I hope these are not fictitious characters conjured up by some anti-miracle journalist of a non-existent newspaper).
This is what Mr Ajoba has to say about this: “So we want to have a talk with the president (of Zimbabwe), and implore him to rid the country of dangerous churches belonging to the synagogue of satan.”
Man, go pastor your flock and stop wasting everyone’s time.

Source:Nehandaradio

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