Celebrating Archbishop Guti’s 100-year milestone
ON May 5 this year Archbishop Dr Ezekiel Handinawangu Guti celebrated the milestone of reaching 100 years.
Archbishop Dr Guti was born in Ngaone, Chipinge district in Manicaland province in 1923.
He is married to Apostle Eunor Guti, who is the director of the Women’s Ministry in Forward in Faith Ministries International, and has founded several women’s ministries that have impacted millions throughout Africa.
Celebrations for Archbishop Dr Guti’s birthday have been going within his church, Ministry in Forward in Faith Ministries International, for the better part of this month.
Archbishop Dr Guti has dedicated his entire life to the ministry ever since the day he heard his mother talking about the Lord Jesus Christ after she had heard a man preaching about a place called hell.
Filled with much fear, as young boy Archbishop Dr Guti began to wander and weep under the tree talking to the creator whom he knew was there, but did not know how to reach him.
One day he met a simple man who explained clearly to him the way of salvation. He accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour and was eventually baptised in the Holy Spirit.
Between 1948 and 1949, Archbishop Dr Guti travelled to the then Salisbury (now Harare) where he met a man he had been shown in a dream who explained and baptised him. He started to speak in tongues.
Archbishop Dr Guti felt the call of God to preach the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ to the people. The Lord subsequently revealed himself to him in many ways.
He started with a few people who increased to 80 churches with a membership of 43 000 born again Christians.
He preached in Mbare, but was to be chased from the church after getting extensive press coverage.
In 1958, he ministered in Highfield, in a church at Highfield Revival Centre for 15 years where many miracles happened started by a South African pastor who had been chased from his own church.
Archbishop Dr Guti too was later to be expelled from that pastor’s church as the leaders the pastor had left on his return to South Africa had not liked him.
The fame drove many from distances afar to seek the Lord and his healing power. One of the outstanding miracles was recorded in 2009, when a prominent singer, visually impaired and former Jairosi Jiri Band member, David Mabvuramuti, who had only 6% vision due to the hereditary illness retinitis pigmentosa, was able to see for the first time in his life after Archbishop Dr Guti prayed for him.
The church is now a big empire, operating in 106 countries worldwide. It has diverse investments, including dressmaking schools, bible schools, universities, colleges and vocational training centres, hospitals and clinics, primary and secondary schools, among others.
Archbishop Dr Guti is a distinguished academic cum religious leader who holds a number of degrees from different academic institutions.
He holds a Bachelor of Christian education and Doctorate from Northgate Graduate School, from Zoe College USA. He also has the following qualifications: BA, MA, DD, D Min and PhD in Religion.
He is the founder of the Forward in Faith International Ministries which has branches in Zimbabwe and abroad.
He is also chancellor and founder of the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University
Archbishop Dr Guti has founded bible schools in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique where he has trained over 4,000 pastors from more than 55 nations.
He also founded the Forward in Faith Orphanage Centre, F.I.F Children's Ministry, FIF College and High School Ministry, Gracious Women's Fellowship International, along with the Husband's Agape International Fellowship.
He oversees over five thousand pastors and evangelists worldwide and is a great intercessor, a man of love and compassion, with a hunger to win souls to Jesus Christ.
In 2010, ZAOGA FIFMI celebrated its 50th anniversary, where Guti addressed a crowd of over 50,000 believers in Zimbabwe at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
The event was broadcast live on Ezekiel TV, a Christian television network broadcasting from South Africa, found by Guti and wife.
On the international arena, Guti has accepted invitations to preach and teach in several African nations, Europe, the US, Asia-Pacific countries, and the Bahamas.
He has spoken in Bible schools, colleges, universities, and on television and radio programmes.
In December 2010, ZAOGA was granted a licence by the government to set up the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University in Bindura and the university has spread across the country.
Archbishop Dr Guti has also funded a number of children's homes, orphanages, old people's homes, health service centres and academic institutions including Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University.
Through the apostolic groundbreaking anointing and impartation, other great ministries and great names of men of God are known everywhere.
The impact of this apostolic ministry has birthed the invasion of many prophetic, teaching and healing ministries that are well known over the world.
Archbishop Dr Guti has dedicated his entire life to the ministry ever since the day he heard his mother talking about the Lord Jesus Christ after she had heard a man preaching about a place called hell.