‘Foolish’ Zimbos being fleeced by crooks: Chibwe

Leader of the DiVineyard Church of His Presence, John Chibwe

LEADER of the DiVineyard Church of His Presence, John Chibwe, was at it again, this time describing any person who purports to be a Christian yet they are ready to waste money on things purportedly anointed, as foolish. Those who take time to know what the word of God should know that anything that is truly the Lord’s has no price tag, he declared.
Chibwe said this last week in Harare where he dared any church leader who sells purportedly anointed material, or those Christians who buy the material, to justify or defend this act.
He said anyone who is truly a Christian, should not pay even a cotton-picking cent on anything that is said to have something to do with God.
“You should not buy anything that is purportedly anointed, because by so doing, you are despising God… you are trying to say God wants your money and other material things in exchange for your salvation… this is foolish, what did Peter say to Simon (the Sorcerer?) in the Book of Acts (8:20)? That: ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!’ This is exactly what some people are doing… trying to make God so cheap as to be a commodity that they can buy with money,” Chibwe said.
“I am saying this not just to you (followers), but to people in all churches… others may see this as controversial, but I don’t care, even during his time, Jesus himself was viewed as controversial, but this is the truth. People are foolish because they do not read what the Scriptures say,” Chibwe said. He said this was so because many are always looking for signs and wonders, not God for what he is.
Of late, there has been a proliferation of a crop of church leaders who have become popular for distributing various materials that they claim to be anointed. Whether it is water, oil, wristbands, stickers or anything purportedly anointed, they are all there on the flourishing religious market. Some have become so daring as to introduce “anointed” condoms, “anointed” spectacles (to see things in the spiritual realm), “anointed” pens for use by students around examination time.
However, these materials do not come for free like sunshine, as they sell for as much as US$10 or more apiece, making the church leaders jaw-droppingly rich over-night.
It is these church leaders that Chibwe says are, to all intents and purposes, conmen who are selling snake oil and bottled smoke to a receptive market of gullible people who—if they make sincere effort to know the truth as it is contained in the Word of God—would know that the price for anything from God was paid for by the blood of his son, Jesus Christ, more than 2000 years ago.
Chibwe himself uses soil, ash and ordinary borehole water which he says anyone who believes in the power of God is free to take in any quantities they like, but is always quick to warn his followers that it is not a question of quantity, but the quality of one’s faith in God’s unmerited favour.
A popular joke doing the rounds on the social media is of a church leader who sells wristbands and other material that he says will protect his followers; when he actually goes around under the physical protection of more than a dozen bodyguards.
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