Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The sudden and tragic death of controversial tenderpreneur Wicknell Chivayo in a helicopter crash has once again ignited a fierce debate surrounding Zimbabwe’s modern prophetic movement.
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Facing public scrutiny over why a spiritual leader claiming direct divine oversight failed to foresee or avert such a tragedy, United Family International Church leader Emmanuel Makandiwa fired back.
Retorting with “Ndiri Prophet, not God,” the self-styled ‘prophet’ defended his ministry while asking his critics, “Who has clean money? Who has clean ministry?”
Yet, beneath this rhetoric lies a far deeper theological deception.
Makandiwa is deliberately distorting the true role of prophecy under the New Covenant to maintain unquestioned personal authority, shield himself from public accountability, and justify his intimate financial ties with controversial figures.
To understand the fallacy of Makandiwa’s position, one must examine what actually shifted between the Old and New Covenants.
In the Old Testament, God spoke through a select class of prophets who served as national oracles, political advisers, and foretellers of geopolitical doom or deliverance.
Because ordinary Israelites lacked direct access to the Holy Spirit, the prophet was an indispensable intermediary.
However, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ permanently shattered this spiritual hierarchy.
As the author of Hebrews explicitly notes, God, who previously spoke through prophets, has in these last days spoken to us definitively through His Son.
Furthermore, the tearing of the temple veil at the crucifixion restored direct communion between God and all believers, fulfilling Joel’s ancient promise that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh, not merely an elite clergy.
As such, all who believe in Jesus Christ and are baptized in the Holy Spirit can hear directly from God.
We no longer require a human intermediary—Christ alone is our High Priest and Mediator.
In the New Covenant, the fundamental role of prophecy undergoes a dramatic transformation.
Writing to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul defines New Testament prophecy not as fortune-telling, foreseeing personal fortunes, or predicting individual life expectancies.
It is for edification, exhortation, and comfort meant to build up the church body.
This explains the near-total absence of Old Testament style prophets in the New Testament.
Where predictive prophecy appears—such as Agabus warning of a coming famine—it functions strictly to mobilize relief for the saints.
It is never to consolidate personal prestige, build private financial empires, or act as a divine intelligence agency for the wealthy.
To reduce the prophetic gift to a personal radar system that predicts deaths, plane crashes, or business deals is to import pagan divination into Christian theology.
Why then do modern self-styled prophets like Makandiwa cling so tenaciously to the Old Covenant prophetic model?
The answer lies in institutional power, financial leverage, and spiritual control.
By positioning himself as an Old Testament style “oracle,” Makandiwa creates an environment where his followers become spiritually dependent on his personal revelations rather than grounded in the complete Word of God.
Furthermore, adopting the mantle of an Old Covenant seer allows self-proclaimed prophets to wield the fear-inducing shield of “touch not my anointed,” effectively paralyzing critical thinking, insulating themselves from financial audits, and silencing legitimate public scrutiny.
This distortion becomes even more glaring when examining Makandiwa’s ethical stance on money.
Defending his willingness to receive lavish gifts and cash from figures whose wealth is deeply mired in public procurement scandals and tender controversies, Makandiwa offers a defeatist moral equivalence: “Who has clean money?”
This argument fundamentally misrepresents pastoral duty and biblical grace.
While Jesus undeniably welcomed sinners, He never validated, excused, or capitalized on their corruption.
When Jesus confronted the woman caught in adultery, His grace was immediately paired with a clear, uncompromising command: “Go and sin no more.”
Loving the individual meant calling them out of their sin, not legitimizing it.
The church is meant to be a sanctuary for spiritual healing and moral transformation.
As such, spiritual leaders like Makandiwa ought to be at the absolute forefront of calling figures with questionable wealth to genuine repentance, rather than acting as beneficiaries of their illicit gain.
This imperative is made even clearer in the encounter with Zacchaeus.
When the corrupt chief tax collector experienced salvation, he did not turn over his ill-gotten gains to Jesus to secure a personal blessing.
Rather, he publicly repented, pledged to pay back fourfold to those he had defrauded, and gave half his wealth to the poor.
Jesus affirmed him precisely because his repentance manifested as economic restitution to the victimized public.
In the same way, a true shepherd of God would never have accepted Chivayo’s lavish personal gifts, but would have instead challenged him to make restitution and give that wealth back to the people of Zimbabwe.
True New Covenant ministry demands that a spiritual leader act as an agent of transformation, not a beneficiary of systemic corruption.
A genuine prophet of God would not accept millions in questionable gifts while ordinary citizens suffer under economic hardship.
Rather, like John the Baptist or Jesus Himself, a true minister would call wealthy figures to genuine repentance, moral integrity, and economic justice for the vulnerable.
By hiding behind pastoral grace to justify accepting contaminated wealth, Makandiwa transforms the pulpit from a seat of moral righteousness into an engine for prosperity theology.
The Christian public must reject this deliberate conflation of Old Covenant office and New Covenant grace.
New Testament prophecy was never meant to be a commercial enterprise, a shield against public accountability, or a mechanism for legitimizing corrupt wealth.
A spiritual leader who claims the supernatural sight of an Old Testament prophet while disavowing moral accountability when visions fail or when questionable funds arrive is engaging in theological hypocrisy.
It is time believers evaluate every modern prophetic claim against the clear, sufficient, and uncompromising standard of Scripture.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on +263715667700 or mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com