Prophet orders congregants to smoke, drink in church before deliverance

A  Harare prophet courted controversy in Budiriro 1 last week when he asked alcoholics and drug addicts to indulge in alcohol and cigarretes in church while he lay hands on them as a way of delivering them.

Prophet Lazarus Mashavave, leader and founder of Life Giving Sprit  International (LGMI) said the move would demonstrate his miraculous deliverance powers and help him deliver the addicts.

As congregants were smoking and drinking, Prophet Mashaire was laying hands on them and declaring them free.

Attendants at Prophet Lazarus Mashavave's church in Budiriro 1 who professed to have been delivered of their habits of drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes confess their deliverance after being prayed for.

Prophet Mashaire proclaimed that he has powers to deliver alcoholics and drug addicts. Soon after his proclamation, several men and women thronged the pulpit seeking delivarance. Prophet Mashaire subsequently ordered those who had come to the altar to drink alcohol and smoke their cigarettes.

They rushed to were they had been seated to take their cigarettes and beer and started drinking and smoking. What was not clear was why the congregants had brought the alcohol and cigarretes to church.

In a few minutes, they were complaining that their cigarettes and beer had lost taste. An elderly man only identified as Mukoma Solomon was the first to testify that his cigarette has lost its original taste.

"This is not the Madison that I have been taking, it has changed," he said. Prophet Mashaire ordered him to another one and try again. ln his second attempt, Mukoma Solomon said he could no longer smoke.

LGMI congregates described their leader as a serial healer, seer and deliverer. "My brother there is absolutely nothing he can not solve, he walks hand in hand with God," said Tapiwa Ngwenya.

"There is nothing wrong with what he did, it's only that you don't know him. God is about to open a new dispensation using Prophet Mashaire.

"The problem is that people will always look at the negative, they ignore the fact that people have been delivered," said Paul Mapfumo.

 However, some congregants at the church were less convinced of their sincerity suspecting that the act had been stage managed.

Source: Sunday Mail