By Mark Scofield
As a Christian who has also been embarrassed by the antics of the Senior Pastor of Eagle Life Assembly I would like to point out a few things about Prophet Blessing Chiza’s attempt at self-promotion and wooing soccer fans to his church.
It is unethical and a shame and his actions have the danger of painting all prophets in the country with the same brush.
The state media, Chronicle which has been reporting extensively on Chiza has not helped the situation at all and is guilty of reporting untrue things claimed by Chiza as fact.
A number of glaring issues arise and among these is that Chiza does not have a huge following in Bulawayo as he claims. His church on the outskirts of the city centre can hardly sit 400 people so where does he get the 5 000 members he claims attend his church weekly?
Eagle Life Assembly is hardly what one can call a mega-church. There are many churches with pastors and prophets who have never come out making the spurious claims Chiza has made, but have a following many times bigger than his.
Chiza claims that when the pastors who left him went away they took some members away and now the church has grown fourfold? How small had it been for it to grow four-fold?
Where is the fourfold increase unless the suggestion is that there were 100 people and the fourfold increase has resulted in 400 members now. The article in the state media claimed that Chiza had taken Bulawayo by storm. What storm and what huge following was the reporter writing about?
This cannot be much further from the truth. Furthermore, Chiza claims that Highlanders people love him. Not even the Highlanders executive has come out to support his assertions, is that not the sadness of arrogance?
To an extent Chiza contradicts himself and says he does not support any soccer team, so how does he know Highlanders supporters love him? He claimed they love his church and that is not true.
Highlanders fans are made up of every kind of church members that include sinners and whores who have never seen the door of a church. This is the same for every soccer team.
“You have given prophecies that have left people perplexed”, a part of the interview read.
But one wonders such as which one? I am a Christian who happens to know that he said the country was going to experience a good year and at the same time he was speaking another prophet elsewhere in the city was declaring a tough year ahead.
What that other prophet spoke about including policy changes in ZANU-PF, changes in immigration rules to circumvent Zimbabweans in the neighbouring countries and new migrations to other countries has already been reported in the papers, yet his prophecies are on a few soccer matches.
He claims his wife contributes to the accuracy of his prophecies. How is this possible when prophecy is GOD speaking to a man and not a man and his wife? Where in the 66 books of the bible does Chiza find this?
On top of this he says that his prophecies are 85% correct. This is shambolic!!
So how does a person know which side of the 85% they stand? How can you give prophecies you then apologise over? Which modern day prophet or old testament prophet do you know who has ever professed or done that?
If GOD told him the results how and when did He change his mind and then he claims he saw the warriors crying? Another issue which is a serious joke is that of him travelling in a convoy of vehicles.
Chiza must just openly enjoy the status of a convoy and not security concerns as he claims. What stampede in such a small church? In fact Chiza has been seen several times going to Parklands Mall alone to buy groceries.
The prophets I know in town who have bigger churches than Chiza don’t have body guards maybe its because they don’t give weird prophecies and therefore have no one to fear. They drive their own cars and have no one to guard them.
“The people must learn to believe their prophets” was the last statement made in the interview.
How do we do that when they become such a national embarrassment and on top of that try and blame juju and the coach for not walking with him. Did he want to control the team? If GOD had said it how was it to be changed by juju.
Prophets see outcomes not create outcomes my brother Chiza just for the future. I have felt outraged by the circus of the past few days and being a Christian who knows and understands the prophetic, it is really disheartening that the antics of this brother could have a damaging effect on the ministries of other prophets and wrong perceptions can then be created by this.
At worst, Chiza must just apologise for his attempt at self promotion and using the name of the Lord in the process.
Mark Scofield is a freelance journalist in Zimbabwe, who has served under a Prophet for nearly 14 years.