The Sunday Mail
APOSTLE Raymond Mujeyi’s love for God started at an early age.
In this second and final part of an interview with Tendai Manzvanzvike, he speaks about ministry in Malawi, his return to Zimbabwe, the birth of Revival International Ministries, and his views about believers migrating from church to church.
Q: You went to Living Waters Bible School in Malawi. For how long were you there?
A: From 1998 up to 2001. Then my father died. That’s how I came back.
Q: For good?
A: No, because in Malawi I had really gotten a breakthrough — crowds following me; miracles happening. The miracles that I saw in Malawi, I have not seen them here up to now. Miracles like creation of skin. I was happy with my ministry in Malawi, and Apostle Ndovi liked me so much. He wanted to send me to South Africa, and doors were just opening for me to preach in other nations.
However, the amazing thing is that wherever I went for prayer, prophecy would come saying, “There is a man here from Zimbabwe. God is saying, go back to your nation, and serve your people.”
Eventually, I knew that this was for me. So, I came back not by choice. I didn’t want to come.
Q: You came back home, then what?
A: I came back because my father fell sick and they needed me urgently, as the first born in the family. My father then passed on, and eventually I settled here.
Q: Did you go back to the Catholic Church?
A: No. I couldn’t fit into the Catholic Church anymore. From there onwards, we started prayer meetings at home as a family, and then I had this new light on deliverance. I was so excited. But I also didn’t want to be in this, because I didn’t want anyone to know that I was a pastor.
I was so scared. I didn’t know about the future, so I said I would just do it for my family: teach and deliver them. Then, our neighbours started coming for prayers. Suddenly there was a group coming and I told Apostle Ndovi about what was happening and asked him the way forward. And he told me to continue.
I said I would start a church in honour of my father Apostle Ndovi, because he had told me his vision — that he wanted to have something in Zimbabwe. But, God had also told me that I would start something.
I started that church and named it Waters of Life, and I was with them for about four years. Then I told him, “Papa, the church is now established. Send a pastor. Let me follow what God has called me to do.”
In 2003, I started this work on RIM. That’s when I got married as well.
Q: Revival International Ministries – what are you saying in the name?
A: The name defines my purpose. My assignment is to build lives. I was at Domboshava for a camp meeting, and while praying I heard a voice. My name was called out three times. I thought it was my pastor friends calling me, but it was a vision.
I tried to listen and I heard these three messages: “Build lives! Build people! Take hold of destiny!” I wrote it down. Then I realised that all my friends were sleeping, and I knew that God was talking to me.
So, to get back to your question, revival is to bring back to life; to reveal that which was already there, but was covered. We are also talking about restoring that which was lost. It was already there, but something happened, so, we are bringing it back — reviving it. By so doing, we are building people, building lives and ushering them to their destinies.
Q: How did you get the flock?
A: The Lord told me not to be under pressure, or do things just because others are doing it. He told me clearly: “As I command you, do!” So, we don’t do anything until I am commanded. If I don’t hear God telling me to do it, I won’t. Since we started, we have never had a crusade. Every time I want to, He will say, “Not now!”
So, people just come. Some tell us that they had a dream about the name of a church and they were given directions on how to get to it, and they then look for our venue. Some people have come because of testimonies, testimonies of lives changed.
Even the branches we have, we have never gone to open a branch. It just starts like that.
Q: You don’t send people to plant a church?
A: No, it starts, and we later go to set up structures. Things have been happening without our effort. The Lord told me clearly that where there are green pastures, flocks will come. (Psalms 23) Even kana mombe dzikavharirwa mudanga rokwanhingi, dzinoziva kuti garden rokwanhingi rakasvibira, dzinopoya dzondodya kugarden ikoko. They will come, they will find their way. Where there is food, they will come.
The Bible also says where there is a carcass, the eagles will gather. Church is not a company, church is a spiritual entity, which can only grow by spiritual ways, and not through human strategy.
Q: The past few years have seen an exponential growth of Pentecostal churches. Are people still members of one church or they are just floating around depending on what is on offer? Has this affected your ministry?
A: What happens is that when you want to run a church the way it is supposed to be run, it is a bit tricky, because if you want to discipline a member, before you help that brother to go back to the Word of God, he has already gone to another crowd, where he is not monitored.
He loves God, but he just doesn’t want to be disciplined. He doesn’t want accountability. So, they run away. You remain with the loyal once.
A guy might impregnate a girl, and you tell them that you won’t marry them until they have followed what the Word of God says, and they will leave and go to another pastor who marries them without verification.
When revival comes, it is a mixed bag. The rebellious hide. So, when there is such a move of God, they will also penetrate, unnoticed.
I even tell my congregates that when you see that I can’t help you, but you know that pastor so and so can, you only have one life to live, please go and get help.
If I love you so much, I must love to see you delivered, and not to see you sitting in my pew, and I boast that these are my people, when nothing is working for you.
That is the understanding I have, because I know that I can be called home any time and I will be judged on whether I was a faithful servant, and not on the number of people I was able to keep in my church.
Q: Final remarks . . .
A: Don’t fight what you don’t understand. So, the things that I don’t understand, I pray for understanding, until I understand, and I will find myself doing the very things I was fighting. If I don’t understand it, I will judge and think that it is wrong.
But when I know what they know, I will be surprised. I have also come to the knowledge that God raises every ministry for a purpose. The assignment of each person depends on what is at their disposal. Some people’s assignments demand that they use oil.
So, the one who does not use oil should not fight the one whose assignment says they must use it. God your assignment explains to you, not to another person.
To believers I say, there are two pillars to their destiny, that is, stewardship and sanctification. Blessed are those that are pure in heart, they shall see God. You cannot make it to heaven without sanctification, because heaven is for holy people.
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