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did regarding the “prophecy” on Zimbabwe by Nigerian Prophet T B Joshua would have made the mark. More than one and half years later, retired Bishop Joshua Dube of United Baptist Church (insert) called and wanted to see me. Since it was a Thursday, I thought that he wanted to add his voice on the article about the carnage on our roads, but the 77-year old bishop had surprises. He had painstakingly (in long hand) responded to issues about prophecy, but from a personal perspective. This is Part 1 of Bishop Dube’s rebuttal.

The Herald of Thursday, February 18 2010 carried an article by Tendai Manzvanzvike under The Arena with Hildegarde, titled: “Prophecy on Zim: Where is the local voice?”
The article was about the “prophetic messages”, which have been and are being given by “prophets” of other countries, especially Nigeria hence the writer of the article rightly lamented the apparent dearth of indigenious Zimbabweans who can tell their fellow Zimbabweans the secret plans God has in store for Zimbabwe.
And, President Mugabe has repeatedly called upon the church to lead in this area. Going back to the article, it opened with a quotation from two scriptures, one of which I will repeat here: “Surely, the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7) and from Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”.
This is Zimbabwe’s greatest need in the patch we are going through as a country today: God’s knowledge.
I read and read the title as I very much felt challenged. Indeed, there ought to be a “local voice” or even many local voices, I said to myself, because God has it all laid down in His Word for every believing person and nation on earth to see what is happening in our world from His perspective.
All that is needed is to handle that Word properly and apply it to situations as history unfolds itself (2 Timothy 2:15). This writer sees two ways God uses today to reveal his secret plans to His people. The first, which is the primary of the two, is the written word in the Bible.
The second, and to a lesser degree are visions and dreams. This needs to be handled with the utmost care and humility as it can easily be abused when people get carried away in their own fancies and still call them prophecy from God.
If what we have called prophecy fails to happen or contradicts God’s word we become false prophets. Some of it becomes frivolous, like what President Mugabe had to rebuke when he told the nation about some people who visited him to tell him their so-called prophecies not so long ago.
Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these days spoken to us by His Son (the incarnate word, Jesus Christ, the Messiah), whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the universe.”
Jesus Christ is that Prophet about whom that writer to the Hebrews and Moses spoke, when he said to Israel in Deuteronomy 18:15, “the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto Him ye shall hearken.”
Now, in the case of Zimbabwe, which is our primary concern right now, allow me to narrate what God showed me in dreams/visions, which I have kept as guarded secrets for over thirty years now, as I waited for a more appropriate time to reveal them.
I shall also show why I still feel convinced they were not mere fantasies of my mind by including those relating my church which have already had their fulfillment.
In the runup to the Lancaster House talks, which culminated in Zimbabwe’s Independence, I had dreams concerning this country, visions similar to those I had in connection with the changes that my church later experienced in gaining our autonomy from mission control.
In the dreams relating to my church, I had dreamt in 1961 seeing two straight pots in beige colours, one leading south and the other one west. A voice said, “Go to the south first and when you return, go to the West.” The following year after that dream and contrary to my thinking that I would never go back to school, I found myself going to Swaziland (the south) where I was to do my secondary education.
When I finished my stay in Swaziland, despite the overwhelming vote of the missionaries against further studies because of the need for leadership in the church they correctly saw I found myself in the USA for further Bible studies.
I knew full well that the purpose of those sojourners was1Thessalonians 3:10 namely, that I “might perfect that which was lacking in my faith” – the know-how of real leadership of the church.
In my third year in Bible College (1969-70), I had another dream/vision. In that dream, I saw a small board with four lines written on it, and fixed above the head board of my bed.
The four lines were the programmes I was going to do upon returning home. A voice told me: “this is what you are going to do upon your returning home. Carry it out in the order given.”
1. Bring the church under the nationals;
2. Bring the mission schools under the church;
3. Bring the mission stations under the church; and,
4. Help your country in its political affairs.”
With amazing accuracy and speed, this programme, upon my return home in mid-1971, was carried out just as it was given, in a space of four years.
We were just finishing the third programme when the war of Zimbabwe’s liberation started in earnest in my home and of Chimanimani in 1975 and I was whisked away to detention by the Smith regime as I had already started involving myself in politics under the leadership of the now late Provincial Liberation War Hero Timothy Chihwata (TC) encouraging our young people to join the war if they felt so led in their spirit and the older people to support the new dispensation that was coming.
Then, in the next couple of years when I was in political detention, I had yet another dream concerning the person who would rule this country.
First, I saw how, one by one, our aspiring nationalists failed to make it to rule the new Zimbabwe that was imminent. One will recall that by the time of the Lancaster House talks in London, which eventually brought a negotiated settlement that ended the war at the end of 1979, there were four main political parties, excluding the smaller ones.
Two of these, the UANC and Zanu (Ndonga) were already in the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government which they formed with the Rhodesian Front Party of Ian Smith in March 1978, and Zanu-PF and (PF) Zapu (Zanla and Zipra, respectively) were still outside prosecuting the war.
I saw in my dream/vision the leaders of these respective parties trying to woo the people to vote for them to lead the country, but the people refused to vote for them.
As I watched, wondering, I was carried in the spirit to a large hall in Maputo, Mozambique, where I joined other clergy in our clerical regalia in a ceremony to install President Mugabe with prayers as we stood around him as the first and new leader of independent Zimbabwe.
Needless to say, when President Mugabe’s Zanu-Patriotic Front won the elections in 1980 and he became the Prime Minister of the new republic, I was not surprised.
In fact, may I add that this seer has not as yet seen a new candidate on the horizon to this day?
This is not politicking, dear reader. I am helping my country to see what God has ordained for our peace. Before and during the Independence elections, and indeed to this day, many prayers and fasting were, and are being offered for God to prevent President Mugabe and his party from winning the elections, but to no avail.
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