The Sunday Mail
The gospel of grace is gathering momentum in Zimbabwe. For the third consecutive year, Shekainnah Glory Ministries Global in partnership with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (Harare province) will on November 4 and 5 host The Mystery Revealed Mirror Grace and Worship Conference in the capital.
Key speakers include Andre’ Oosthuizen (South Africa) and Eugene Nyathi, a pastor at a local church – Church Team Ministries International (CTMI). Host Bishop Shelton Mudyaro (SM) speaks to Tendai Manzvanzvike about the importance of the grace conferences.
TM: You are holding another grace conference under the same theme as 2015 – “Christ in You”. Why are you continuing with this theme? Has the target audience changed?
SM: Thank you! The objective of the forthcoming conference is to assist leaders and believers to be established in grace. Thus we call on all pastors, leaders and people of influence, including praise and worship leaders, to join us as we share the message of the finished works of the cross.
But as you rightly pointed out, we are holding these conferences under a continuous theme.
The Holy Spirit laid that theme on my heart – “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:26-27). What God laid on my heart concerning these conferences is that for five years, we are going to run them under the same theme.
TM: Why?
SM: The Bible talks about this mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations, but has been made manifest in the person of Christ, because the Bible says in Colossians that God is no longer invisible, but He has made Himself visible in the person of Christ.
So Paul says that mystery is Christ in you, Christ in us, Christ in the nations, who is the hope of glory.
So while in prayer, the Holy Spirit said to me that mystery has not been unveiled as it seems, because to some, He still remains a mystery, for Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but unto us who are being served, it is the power of God.
In order for us to witness the manifestation of the power of God in our lives, we have to understand what happened on the cross. The moment we don’t embrace the message of the cross, it is very difficult for us to see the manifestation of the power of God in our lives.
TM: Those who have attended the last two can ask what’s new? What are you trying to arrive at?
SM: The mystery of the cross will take eternity to exhaust, because the whole gospel is centred on the Christ event – His life, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and where Jesus is seated now, where we are sitting together with Him.
We will maintain this theme for the next two years because this message of Christ in us is a foundational word. It means that if we have a weak foundation, we can’t sustain the structure.
So, we are trying to dig deeper into the mystery of the cross – that is your inclusion in the life, death, resurrection, ascension and current status in Christ, because the Bible says we are seated together with Christ in heavenly places.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)
We are co-seated with Christ, which means that our conscience should be where Christ is, for God sees us seated together with Christ.
Thus we felt that we should impress upon this foundational message, unveil it as possible as we can, so that people can understand that the transformation they need in their lives, prosperity, healing, whatever it is that they desire, Jesus Christ came and gave them. It is already there, and it only takes place when one awakens to the truth of this word.
We are in Him who is true, who makes us understand that whatever we are facing is not new. Why, because Jesus Christ has been in it, but that it is only when we walk that road of the cross, embracing what God has done and finished on our behalf, in the person of Christ, that these things will actually manifest in our lives.
That is why we dwell on it until we awaken to the truth of who we are in Christ.
TM: And the speakers?
SM: We have two keynote speakers – Eugene Nyathi and Andre’ Oosthuizen from South Africa.
We are privileged to have Eugene, because it has always been his desire to be a blessing in his own land.
TM: But who is Eugene Nyathi?
SM: A gospel artiste who has recorded two albums to date, Eugene pastors at Avondale Christian Church, together with a team of very precious elders. He is part of a group of pastors and leaders under the banner of Church Team Ministries International (CTMI), headquartered in Mauritius under the leadership of Pastor Miki Hardy.
They preach the message of the cross and the message of grace. We have him on the panel of keynote speakers because apart from being part of CTMI, he is a very powerful worshipper.
Eugene has a unique gift in the body of Christ. He is widely travelled, conducting worship ministries that major on grace and the finished works of the cross. Because of that, we believe that he is a valuable asset, and we want to tap into his gifting to give out what God has blessed him with, and he is also ready to give out.
Our desire is to also put this message of grace through worship, because worship is a very important aspect in the body of Christ.
This is what Eugene shared with me about his contribution, “In this conference, I would like to share about worship. As I am a musician, I understand the trap that we can get into by thinking that to worship God, someone needs to be a musician. That however, is very far from the truth.
“Worship is not music, but music can be worship . . . Worship is the state of your life before God, worship is a state of heart first. Music has its part in the life of worship, but most certainly it is not the foundation of our worship to God. I can worship God without even opening my mouth. My desire is that we can see worship with a new understanding.”
TM: And Andre’ Oosthuizen?
SM: He is another very valuable asset in the kingdom of God who runs his ministry in South Africa, which is called the Trinitarian Initiative for Thought Leaders.
A seasoned minister of the gospel, he travels to the nations to share the message of grace. For nearly three decades of ministry, Andre’ has served and participated in various roles in the life of the church in South Africa and abroad.
I have known him for almost eight years now, and he is a product of Francois du Toit, the person who mentored me. His messages are centred on the Triune God of grace for the adoption of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.
He answers the questions that arose at a young age – who is God, and who is Jesus Christ, and how we as mankind fit into the relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
He has a very powerful revelation on that.
TM: Why are you so passionate about the grace message?
SM: I think it is just the favour of God, and there is something He wants to do through us because on a daily basis our prayer is, “Lord the grace that we preach or talk about, let us experience the same grace even in our lives.”
TM: Since the inception of the grace conferences, how well-received has the message been?
SM: We are seeing a steady rise in terms of the responses, because the message of grace is the message for now. It’s not a new doctrine, for God did this more than 2 000 years ago, but it had not yet been unveiled in our understanding.
We had not really appreciated it, just like the diamond, which does not become a diamond when you discover it. It was always a diamond, but upon discovery the diamond changes our status. If we have been in poverty we become rich.
This message of grace – why we are dwelling on the theme – is that we want people to understand by revelation what God has done for them in the person of Christ, while they were dead in their trespasses.
We recently held a good meeting in Marondera, with church leaders. They appreciated the message. This is what we want in our lives.
TM: A revival kind of situation where grace takes centre stage?
SM: I trust God that years later, we will reflect when this message of grace will have taken over in every dimension, because people will come to a realisation that they have exhausted everything.
When they realise the truth of who they are – the Christ in them – and once they discover themselves in Christ, this is the mystery of grace. You discover that you are perfect, complete, and lack no gift. This brings transformation and reformation.
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