Other gods part 1: Matters of Religion

Greeting Conquerors all over the world!!!! Its been a long time and today I want to begin a 3 part series I called Other gods. In this first part, I want to look at matters of religion.

I was raised the African way and the issue of other gods is certainly no new discovery to my being. I knew at an early stage in life that I had ancestors that where interested in taking care of me and directing my paths. My livelihood was attributed to these bloodline spirits who were known as ‘vadzimu’ and guardians and protectors of our lives. Nothing could be done without informing them and going anywhere meant a prayer to them for journey mercies. They were literally at the centre of it all. However as i grew i began to detect conflict. I was being introduced to another way of worship at school and at church. The same mother who led us in the ways of the ancestors would lock doors on Sunday making sure everyone was out for church and no-one was staying behind.

Now I was beginning to know more and more about a certain Jesus who was supposed to be at the centre of it all again. This question on why- the two (Vadzimu and Jesus) was always met with what seemed like a noble and straight forward answer, “takangokura tichinzi toitazvese”… “We were taught to honour both and raised that way.” These were the words of my mother, a general in worship, a believer in both Jesus and the ancestors, a teacher of the faith, a soul winner and a servant of Christ in the Church-MHDSRIEP. When things were ok, church mattered. When the going got tough, matters where more fought on the spiritual plane on the other side of town from one seer to another. The seers where varied in their manifestations and expressions. Some were n’angas, others white garment prophets while yet others where svikiros or fortune tellers and so on. Various articles where used in initiating contact with the spirit world depending on who it was e.g cloth, sticks, water, snuff, beads, oil, candles, rice and charms made by all sorts of herbs and bloods of animals and so on. As I grew older, I was more confused and curious but things got to a melting point when I discovered that what we were simply doing for years and years was going round and round in circles.

One day I consciously made a decision not to mix Christ with vadzimu as taught by mom. I was grown up and needed to troubleshoot. Things were not working so I chose Vadzimu. Vadzimu was appealing, it was my heritage, my culture and a religion that would perfectly define me as an African person. I loved it because in it was wrapped the essence of being Shona. Afterall christianity came with the white man, the coloniser and so aroused a bit of anger in me and a valid reason to flee from it. But what did i get from all those hours of worship, at traditional functions (bira), in the forests and mountains…nothing except wasted time, wasted pain and wasted effort. All I ever got told there when things where not working out after doing all the ‘right’ things was that i needed to do one ritual or other to appeal to or appease the ancestors. Worsestill, after doing all i knew to do and things weren’t getting better-my sacrifice was not found right and acceptable in the first place. I am one person that gives my all and after going around the same mountain for too long and achieving nothing, I quit. To cut a long story short, one day a mighty man of God sold the gospel of Christ to me. I knew Christ already. But why was he so special to this well polished man? I had to find out.

I began the journey curiously and have not looked back since. I enjoyed the first few years of my journey as my dad and mentor Dr Hepie held me by the hand. I enjoyed the years of discovery as i like to call them until about the 7th year when I began to see some strange types of Christians, confusing ones. I mean when you get born again, you assume that everyone in church is holy and sold out to holiness especially those that actually play the part well. These are the Christians that profess Christ but their fruits are far from what they preach. They know how to speak the language, they can pray the heavens down and even tell you about your future. Some were pastors and some were just individuals in the church. So I came across a certain breed of Christians that specialise in perculiar gifts and manifestations of a strange ‘holy spirit’. I day strange because i could not place the Holy Spirit i was reading in some of thr things i eas seeing them do. To me this has increasingly fit the decsription of ‘Counterfeit Holy Spirit’. This one seems to specialise in ‘ministry’ and sowing discord therein using ‘spiritual gifts’ e.g dreams, prophecies and lying wonders. Ofcourse most times there are biblical references cunningly devised and unfortunately those caught up in this are not always aware of it themselves. But how did I arrive at the terms ‘strange’ and ‘counterfeit’…The fruits! Yes the fruits! I began to ask questions during times of prayer and meditation in the word. I at least deserved some answers for this madness that was going on around me in the name of worship and Holy Spirit. It began to look more and more like there were other gospels and other Jesus(s) because of the behaviours being exhibited. It has become apparent that people are doing church business for various reasons. While some are truly sold out and earnestly seeking God, some are in it for spiritual fashion-playing a fashionable front in the world where ‘christian’ sells and yet others are more on the lost side just hoping from one church to another seeking a spiritual high in miracles and signs & wonders so called- never coming to the knowledge of the God they think they serve. Yet again, there exists a rebellious breed in the church. Those secretly taking the offensive and working for the enemy to destabilise the body of Christ and hinder the efforts of unsuspecting individuals in church. In the book of Matthew, Jesus mentions something interesting. He declares that there will be man and women of God who after having preached and healed people in his name would not be allowed to enter heaven. Jesus says,

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!”

(Matthew 7:7-23)

It therefore remains that being Christian alone will not cut it and may not mean anything in the end as it can just be a fake title with no substance worthy of the crown.

Thank you for reading this post, lets meet again in part 2 when we look at the existence of other gods in biblical history

Till then

One Love

riseUPconqueror

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falling is not the problem, failing to riseUP is!!!