Pastor Paul Sanyangore’s video ‘talking’ to God on the phone went viral and caused global uproar with international media organisations taking it up. Nehanda Radio Managing Editor Lance Guma spoke to Pastor Sanyangore about the whole saga and below is the full transcript of the interview.
Guma: The most asked question was which network did you use to speak to God and what name appeared on the phone screen when you called God and spoke to him?
Sanyangore – It is paramount to understand that the bible says of Jesus ‘the zeal of the house of God had consumed him’. I am born in an era of proving the power of God to an unbelieving world and it is that zeal that consumed me. I am so consumed by this zeal that I endeavour to prove God’s existence at any given opportunity. However zeal with no knowledge is misplaced and in that same vein I am a man who has no mentor, no one to admonish me or instruct me on how things could be done in a way that edifies the saints and evangelises the sinner without causing confusion like this did.
On another note, You see God can speak to us through anything. If he spoke to Moses through a bush.(Exodus 3 vs 4). lf He spoke to Balaam through a donkey (Numbers 22 vs 23). What can stop Him from speaking through the phone. In fact He is the one who gave us the materials which made the phones. Who is better me or Moses, Moses who says God spoke to him through a bush and me saying he spoke to me through a phone which is actually for communication.
Media sensationalism made it look like a number appearing on the phone or a network is used. It’s all based on their ignorance more than my own because Prophets since the days of old use symbolism, signs and tokens but in all those – God uses his Spirit to speak to our spirit not a phone but whatever we direct our internal ear to hear that symbol becomes the faith booster for his voice to be heard.
It’s just a symbol, a sign not God through a phone. It’s a faith booster. Remember God is bigger than these EARTHLY NETWORKS , but he only uses the HOLY SPIRIT which does not need boosters and cables . God’s network does not get interrupted. It doesn’t need a phone but as I said before … God uses symbols
Guma – The Daily Mirror in the UK for example had the story with the headline “BIZARRE MOMENT , PREACHER PHONES GOD AND HIS CONGREGATION BELIEVE HIM”. Do you think this whole stunt as some are calling it, was a mistake? The international headlines make the country look like a joke.
Sanyangore – First if you have heard my answer of it being a symbol and a faith booster then this question becomes invalid. Second for the Daily Mirror to say what it said after a Zimbabwean media said it first shows how misdirected we have become as a people and how colonised we are mentally in the sense that if you look at British media even in sports they make excuses for their players if they lose because in Britain they want to preserve the dignity of their country and how the world perceive them as a nation and they protect and hail their heroes.
In Zimbabwe we kill our own heroes and fight them. We have a very bad culture of hating and trying to destroy all our heroes ( which is very sad if you think about it )vso the media in Britain only picks this up coz our Zimbabwean media’s sensationalistic nature interpretes the happening the wrong way and fed it into the public maliciously and it’s only a very few people who understand the power of a faith booster.
The other problem is that the media and rival churches have put God in a box, they tell him what to do and what not to do. As for me I believe in a God who can do anything and I mean anything and I concede, yes, that my zeal needed wisdom and I have been graced to make amends with regards to it.
Guma: You defended yourself by saying such miracles are not meant to be understood by the natural being. But you have to admit not many people have claimed to have spoken to God over the phone?
Sanyangore: Yes that’s true and again I have told you that it’s not a phone That I spoke to God through because God speaks to my spirit but a phone is a faith booster. Remember God told Abraham you shall have children as the sand of the sea and as the stars in the sky. The stars and the sand became faith boosters that when Abraham saw the sand everyday and the stars every night it reminded him of God’s promises so his faith was boosted by those faith boosters.
Besides what makes it a miracle, a miracle is the fact that people are not used to it. If it was , then there was no need for this interview.
One more thing, I am also of the great opinion that our people need to understand how the bible works and how God’s faith boosters work and I keep reiterating that it’s not like God speaks through a phone or calls through a phone although he can never be stopped if he wants to.
The issue using symbols like the bible says Moses stretched his hands and parted the sea yet in another place it says the Lord by the blast of his nostrils parted the sea. Are we to believe that Moses’s hands and God’s nostrils are the same?
No that would be incorrect but to understand that when Moses stretched his arms it was a symbol, a way to put faith in action, a token that boosted his faith and God performed the miracle the way he wanted and that’s through the blast of his nostrils. In the same vein I raise a phone and God speaks to my spirit not through the phone. The phone is a faith booster. Don’t get things wrong.
Guma: What was the reaction of your fellow preachers and prophets to your phone call with God?
Sanyangore: No one reached out to me to comfort me or to correct me except one man that I never dreamt would have the time. Infact, I thank God for this happening for it brought so much attention that, Prophet Uebert Angel, the man who started the modern day prophetic movement, called me.
He called me from the UK, where he got my Number l don’t know. I tell you that man is a true man of God with the kingdom of God at heart. We talked at length and he was helping me on some areas of my life that I needed to amend. He reprimanded me on many things and corrected me on a lot more and what I had said. He taught me how to make impact for Christ and I realised the importance of having a mentor in my life something I never thought I needed.
Through him I realised that the zeal to prove the reality of God’s existence through miracles has to line up with the word of God and always be a sign pointing to Christ and no one else. You see Though he hasn’t accepted to be my mentor yet, I am praying for this to happen.
Understand that In my life I did not want a mentor, but after that call and the correction he gave me in love showed me I need a mentor who has been there and done that, someone to help me be the man of God I am created to be. Mankind needs good fathers, teachers and mentors like Prophet Angel.
If I can get him to mentor me the better because he is the father of the modern day prophetic movement in the world today. There are things I can never see even if climbed the tallest tree but those same things a mentor can see them whilst he is seated under.
I have so much respect for this man and many others, but this man is the father of the prophetic in Africa, he brought the prophetic movement to Southern Africa and leads the modern day prophetic revival around the world. Him calling me and not wanting anything but to fix some things and to moderate my zeal was and is still a blessing.
The word father in Hebrew means source, in other words God made him the source of the prophetic in southern Africa. So if I get the privilege of being mentored by Prophet Angel I will be mentored by the source, so how can you fail? I am still praying for that to happen. A lot of people are ignorant of this but that is the truth which can not be changed, this man is a revivalist.
The love and care he showed me proved to me that besides being a prophet he is called by God to mentor the next generation of prophets. He is one person who is willing to help others get to the top, look at the hundreds of people he mentors and how successful they are and if I can get the same privilege to be mentored by this man it will be a great move.
There is no way a genuine prophet would talk about Prophecy without talking of Prophet Angel. That person would be a liar. Taking that into consideration if I can get that man to correct me, teach me and Correct me then my life will be set and cancels out the silence of many who never called even to shout at me.
Prophet Angel has a heart for the young prophets and and young men of God and has gone through a lot of media lies and false accusations so he is a seasoned man so I say long live Prophet Uebert Angel
Guma: Your cousin Andy Zimunya has made serious allegations that you fake miracles.
Sanyangore: It’s not a surprise to be called fake, even if my cousin had not said I am fake still you were going to call me fake, I had been called fake before, I’m being called fake now and l will be called fake after so it is well with my soul.
From TD Jakes to Joel Osteen to even the lord Jesus himself, all these were called fake so I am in good company. I admit as I was corrected by the aforementioned general of God that my zeal needed knowledge and wisdom and at most misplaced that I am now ready to move into a place where God’s reputation is not impugned in the process. I also understand that many could not get it and by my zeal I might have caused a death of a thousand cuts to the reputation and work God wanted to do.
As for my brother, I love him. I forgive him and it is well with my life.
Guma: Some of the miracles you have been involved in include anointed condoms, anointed sewage, raising a dead child, phone call with God, angels descending on your swimming pool. One commentator described Zimbabwe as a ‘Tragic religious joke’ because of these things. Can you understand why some people feel this way
Sanyangore: He is very right because religion is a joke and I’m not a religious man, I’m a christian. Christianity is not religion, it is life given to us by Christ, and the life of Christ was filled with miracles hence all the miracles you are talking about. So some people feel this way because they are religious.
You want me to tell you what is a joke, a joke is when your congregates die of diseases yet the pastor can not heal them. A joke is when a pastor can’t tell his/her congregates what will happen in the future, we call that ‘the blind leading the blind’. A joke is when a pastor carries a bible which he/she doesn’t believe in. Besides In all this let’s not forget that most miracles were and are still being misinterpreted by the media and people coz it’s human nature to twist things to suit their devilish narrative it is easy for you to ask such a question based on the erroneous way someone reacted to miracles that I am doing by the power of God just as they misinterpreted the phone thing to mean I was actually speaking through the phone to God when I was using that as a symbol and a faith booster for we all know God speaks through our spirits but for that to happen faith needs to be boosted!
Guma: Can you tell us about your past and how you formed your ministry? I read somewhere you initially wanted to be a Zimdancehall artist.
Sanyangore: I come from a family of five with two boys and three girls. I gave my life to Christ in 2005 though I was a drunkard. I went to bible school in 2010 and became a pastor in Heartfelt International Ministries which is led by a great General of God, Apostle T Vutabwashe.
I founded Victory World International Ministries in February 2014 together with my wife Pastor Amanda Sanyangore whom I share with our two wonderful boys. The ministry started in Mbare and grew in numbers. We thank God for the grace found upon us and we just invested in our new home in Houghton Park which is called International Victory Centre (I.V.C).
Like any youth being a ZimDancehall artist was just the one of the leisure aspirations of my youth. Apostle Paul was not a dance hall hopeful but a murderer but God’s grace elected him. It doesn’t matter what a man is, God qualifies the unqualified.