Promoting Dealmaking? Utilitarian Religiosity and Faith Among African Neo-Pentecostal Prophets

Abstract

This systematic theological study critiques the utilitarian religiosity among neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) for promoting a dealmaking or ‘spiritual hustling’ approach to faith, rather than fostering a personal relationship with God. Utilitarian religiosity refers to the use of spirituality as an instrument to extract material blessings from God. NPPs represent a contemporary form of African Pentecostalism, characterised by prophetic figures who claim unique divine mandates to liberate individuals from the evil spirits believed to hinder prosperity in this life. The primary question answered in the article is as follows: how does the relational nature of faith in God in Christian theology challenge the utilitarian view of spirituality among neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) in Zimbabwe? The secondary question is as follows: how should Christian faith be understood and articulated to challenge NPPs to move from utilitarian spirituality to relational spirituality? Utilitarian religiosity is critiqued for promoting a works-based relationship with God, which violates the biblical teaching that faith alone is sufficient to establish a connection with God. The NPPs’ utilitarian spirituality is critiqued from a Reformed theological emphasis on salvation by faith and challenges them to propagate a relational spirituality that comforts and empowers the poor, rather than a utilitarian spirituality rooted in dealmaking that renders God distant from those who most urgently need his presence amid existential struggles.

1. Introduction

This is a Reformed systematic theological analysis of utilitarian religiosity among neo-Pentecostal prophets (NPPs) in Zimbabwe. Utilitarian religiosity is analysed from a Reformed perspective of faith in God as a personal phenomenon, emphasising a relationship grounded in personal trust rather than transactional dealmaking. NPPs represent a newer expression of African Pentecostalism that has risen to prominence as the dominant form of Christianity in Zimbabwe due to its phenomenal popularity. The movement of NPPs distinguishes itself from classical Pentecostalism through its distinctive prophetic figures, who claim to be uniquely anointed by God to perform various miracles aimed at delivering people from the spiritual forces believed to cause poverty and suffering (Kgatle 2022, p. 4). These prophets often offer one-on-one prophetic consultations and, in some cases, charge fees for their services (Kgatle 2020, p. 3; Taru 2019, pp. 113–18). Prominent NPPs in Zimbabwe that form this study include Emmanual Makandiwa, the founder leader of the United Family International Church (UFIC), Walter Magaya of Power Healing and Deliverance (PHD) ministries, and Uebert Angel of GoodNews Church, formerly the Spirit Embassy. The considerable influence of these prophets extends beyond NPPs, as many Christians from conservative churches also consult them or adopt their teachings and solutions when faced with personal problems.

The phenomenal growth of the NPPs with their utilitarian religiosity demonstrates that the contention of Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin that salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone is constantly under attack from notions of salvation by works (Grudem 1994, pp. 722–35). Therefore, the important Reformed position that emphasises personal faith in the loving and gracious God must be constantly defended and utilitarian religiosity discouraged. As will be defined in more detail later, utilitarian religion refers to the use of spirituality to attain material desires in this present life, rather than engaging in religion for the purpose of a mystical union with God and the hope of a blissful eschatological future. Of particular concern here is that utilitarian religiosity tends to promote a relationship with God characterised by what Kwenda (Browning 2013) describes as “dealmaking” instead of a personal relationship with God. This article therefore seeks to challenge NPPs to promote a relational spirituality that comforts and empowers the poor, rather than a utilitarian spirituality rooted in dealmaking, which presents God as a distant deity that demands intense religious rituals and works from people who most urgently need his presence in their existential difficulties. The article begins by defining utilitarian religiosity, followed by an exploration of its manifestation among NPPs. The subsequent section highlights the positive roles that utilitarian religiosity has played among its adherents. This is followed by a critique of how such religiosity encourages dealmaking rather than cultivating a relational faith in God. The article concludes with reflections on how NPPs—and African Christianity more broadly—can shift from utilitarian religiosity to relational religiosity.

2. The Utilitarian Instrumentalisation of Religiosity

Utilitarian religiosity is a defining feature among NPPs. As used in this article, the term refers to a pragmatic, instrumentalist approach to religion that treats spiritual practices and commitments as a means to master or manipulate God for anthropocentric purposes. Rather than being motivated by reverence for God’s supremacy and a desire for unconditional worship and service, utilitarian religiosity focuses on what God can provide to enhance one’s quality of life in the present. In contrast, unconditional or ‘pure’ religiosity is motivated by who or what God is, rather than by what one can gain from him.

Utilitarian religiosity focuses on the practical value of religious activities in making God meet immediate material needs. This contrasts with the Reformed position of grace and faith. In his 1946 essay ‘Utilitarian Christianity’, Niebuhr (1946, p. 3) described utilitarianism as seeking after immediate, tangible outcomes, treating “truth [a]s a pragmatic device by means of which men (sic.) are enabled to gain satisfactions as biological and temporal rather as rational and eternal beings”. Such a utilitarian approach to religion confines itself to bodily and material concerns while sidelining classical religious elements such as unconditional devotion to God and the willingness to sacrifice present comforts for eternal rewards. Niebuhr (1894–1962) was a prominent American Christian theologian and ethicist who wrote prominent books like The Meaning of Revelation (1941), Christ and Culture (1951), and Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960) that challenge(d) the Christian church to be courageous in maintaining its unique Christian identity. Utilitarianism fundamentally departs from the “pure endeavor after truth”, which regards truth as “an intrinsic good” (Niebuhr 1946, p. 3) to be pursued and valued for its own sake. In contrast, utilitarian religiosity subverts this principle by treating spiritual pursuits as a means to material ends. This is exemplified in the reversal of the teaching in Matthew 6:33; rather than first seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, as the verse commands, utilitarian religiosity prioritises the material benefits associated with the kingdom (Melton 2021). In such an approach, the seeking of the kingdom is instrumental to receiving its benefits.

However, as Niebuhr argues, criticism of utilitarian Christianity does not imply that the pure pursuit of the gospel has no practical relevance to our immediate biological and temporal needs; nor does it mean that pursuing God solely for his intrinsic good has no practical value in our present lives. What is questionable is the use of religion as a remedy for social ills. Indeed, a pure love for God, for who he is, has and ought to have implications for our practical lives, just as Jesus taught that his followers shall be known by their fruits (Matt 7:16). While the instrumentalisation of religion for purely human agendas can be biblically condemned, true faith can be proclaimed as a remedy for human and social brokenness, as true biblical faith can result in peaceful communities and constructive responses to poverty (Niebuhr 1946, pp. 4–5). The gospel can legitimately be proclaimed as a solution to poverty and social brokenness because Christ makes demands that have direct socioeconomic and political implications, such as loving other people, respecting life, upholding sexual morality, respecting property rights, and advocating for improved working conditions and business ethics that ensure social equality (e.g., Matt 5–7).

However, while it is legitimate to preach the gospel to broken societies with the hope that submission and discipleship to Christ will initiate sociopolitical and economic healing, what is questionable, as far as NPPs are concerned, is the impersonal instrumentalisation of spirituality that undermines the personal, relational nature of faith in Christ. In this utilitarian religiosity, God is treated as an impersonal power, and dependence on God is viewed as a form of mastery that relies on one’s skills to control God, rather than developing a personal relationship with him through faith (Banda 2022, pp. 9–11). The utilitarian instrumentalisation of religiosity leads Christians to believe that material poverty and suffering result from a failure to develop the appropriate spiritual skills to negotiate favourable deals with God for his blessings. This gives rise to a form of spirituality centred on dealmaking (Browning 2013), which was condemned by the Reformers in their condemnation of practices like indulgences. The following section explores how utilitarian religiosity manifests in NPPs, with a particular focus on Zimbabwean NPPs.

3. Utilitarian Religiosity Among Neo-Pentecostal Prophets in Zimbabwe

Utilitarian religiosity dominates in NPPs, where the primary role of worship and religious activities is to serve as instruments for receiving material blessings from God for human consumption. NPPs employ a utilitarian approach to spirituality by preaching religiosity as a means of overcoming poverty, suffering, and hindrances to prosperity in this earthly life. In NPPs, spirituality functions as a tool through which the poor address their poverty, while those who have amassed some wealth use spirituality to strengthen their hold on material prosperity and increase their wealth. Consequently, NPPs are embraced for spiritual power for both economic and existential reasons. Gifford presents NPPs as primarily focused on earthly success and operates under the notion that “a Christian is a success; if he or she is not, there is something very wrong” (Gifford 2004, p. 171). From a utilitarian perspective, it could be argued that if a Christian is not successful, it reflects their inability to effectively practice utilitarian religiosity. In general, success indicates one’s positive spiritual standing before God, while failure indicates a negative standing, such as being cursed and abandoned by God, the source of wealth and health.

NPPs are an African variant of the prosperity gospel movement and employ many of its aspects, such as positive confession, also known as the word of faith, the belief that physical health is a God-given right for all believers, and the notion that material prosperity and health are evidence of God’s blessings and the approval of individuals. This can be illustrated by statements from the prophetic couple, Prophet Uebert and Prophetess Beverly Angel, in their co-authored daily devotional booklet titled Power for Today: Jump Starting Your Day: Daily Devotional (Angel and Angel 2014). In the devotional teaching for 2 January 2014, Prophet Angel entreated believers to individually declare for themselves

I am what God says I am; I have what He says I have. I claim my wealth today. God delights in my prosperity and his cities shall be built by my prosperity. He gives me power to get wealth and He may establish his covenant upon the earth. In the name of Jesus.

This expresses the view that God’s will for all his children is material prosperity, and that he has established the spiritual realm to release either spiritual blessings or curses on people, depending on the state of their religiosity. Hence, Prophet and Prophetess Angel (2014) called on believers to position themselves as positive targets for God’s blessings by practicing positive confessions in their lives. On 21 January, they proclaimed (Angel and Angel 2014) the following:

Cease from declaring negative confessions, instead decree and declare life into your situation, say the same things which God has declared over your life. Don’t get entangled by facts, speak truth and act upon it.

These statements that emphasise the power of positive confession are not unique to NPPs but are foundational teachings in the broader prosperity movement, also known as the Word of Faith movement. In modern times, the concept of positive confession can be traced back to individuals such as E.W. Kenyon, who is regarded as the father of the Word of Faith movement. The statements made by the Angels reflect the instrumentalisation of the words uttered by individuals, asserting that speech sets into motion circumstances, positively or negatively, depending on its nature. This implies that a person’s words possess the power to bring into fruition that which they express. By stating that one should not be entangled by facts but rather speak truth and act upon it, the intent is to encourage individuals to reject their adverse physical circumstances, such as a disease diagnosis, because God has declared them blessed with health and wealth. In the NPPs’ positive confessional approach, ‘fact’ refers to a doctor’s diagnosis or an economist’s analysis, while ‘truth’ represents what God says about or to his people, such as “you are rich in Christ”. This practice of positive confession exemplifies the utilitarian use of spirituality to attain a state of material blessedness, as it encourages individuals to declare positive affirmations in their lives. Consequently, a person struggling with poverty must scrutinise their confessions and ensure they only articulate positive statements believed to generate favourable outcomes.

This is clearly illustrated by Prophet Makandiwa (2013), who proclaimed the utilitarian power of words by stating

Every time you step into a kingdom you see power at work. And how do you see power at work? You see commands proceeding from the mouth of the king. And servants are ready to take orders. As the king is sitting like this, he says this and they are running.

In this statement, Makandiwa paints a picture of a fiefdom where all activities are tightly regulated by the king, and where every action is sanctioned by the supreme crown. For Makandiwa, the image of the fiefdom, in which the king simply sits and orders his subjects to carry out his desires, illustrates the right or power that God has given to Christians to make positive confessions that bring good things into their lives. Thus, Makandiwa propagates a utilitarian religiosity by encouraging Christians to recognise their God-given privilege to command the spiritual realm to do their bidding. His illustration is premised on the view that Christians are gods, a notion constructed by neo-Pentecostals using Psalm 82:6. A detailed discussion of this passage is not within the scope of this article. However, the implication of this teaching is that believers who wish to receive better things from God must learn to deploy the right words that compel the spiritual realm to provide what they desire. Makandiwa (2013) added the following:

So when you want to demonstrate the kingdom of God as a child of God, you open your mouth and you release words. You can send a word on assignment to go out there and find you what you are looking for. I might not know, and I don’t even know how I will get there, but since I have released a word, I have employed the word to go out there and work for me. As to when the money is going to come, I don’t know; but all I know is that I have spoken the word—I am a millionaire, I have spoken it.

This excerpt from Makandiwa highlights the power of positive confession, which refers to the utilitarian use of religious words to attain material well-being. Makandiwa advises believers seeking good things from God to do the following: “[C]orrect your mouth, and get you to say the right things” (Makandiwa 2013). Ultimately, this implies that those who are poor, sick, or suffering bear the responsibility for their circumstances; it means they have failed to exercise the utilitarian spirituality of uttering the right confessions that could release them from their pain and usher them into a realm of prosperity and wealth.

Furthermore, the utilitarian religiosity encapsulated by positive confession can be observed in other affirmations of faith, such as sacrificial giving to the prophet—often regarded as God’s supreme representative on earth—unquestioning obedience and loyalty to the prophet, and the display of positivity through elegant dressing or living in an expensive suburb. Taru and McNeill (2024) describe the utilitarian spirituality of young congregants in a particular NPP church in Zimbabwe, where young men imitated the elegant dressing of their prophet–leader by wearing cheap counterfeit replicas of the prophet’s expensive suits. Because many of the young men were unemployed or poorly paid and could not afford the genuine brands worn by the prophet, they resorted to cheap counterfeits tailored in shanty shops in Harare. According to Taru and McNeill (2024, p. 953),

One of the suits that Thomas collected was designed the same way as a made-to-measure Angelo Galasso suit that prophet Ben had worn a few weeks before our visit. Thomas was open about imitating prophet Ben’s taste in clothes. When asked about the cheap imitation suits, he replied: ‘I am faithing it till I make it! Wearing cheap counterfeit clothes, he explained, is a way of indexing his desire and aspiration to afford original designer suits.

In this excerpt, the authors recount the experiences of a young man, pseudonymously referred to as Thomas, whom they encountered during their study. The events narrated in the story highlight a key aspect of utilitarian religiosity within NPPs—what may be described as ‘playing prosperity’ and dealmaking. Notably, within NPPs, this enactment of prosperity revolves around the prophet, who effectively serves as the primary point of contact between the believer and God. As a form of dealmaking, the believer uses the exquisite image of the prophet to negotiate their desired socioeconomic standing in life. Therefore, within this utilitarian framework, imitating the prophet’s authentic elegance is not an act of hero worship but a covenant between God and the believer, enacted by the prophet–leader. Furthermore, it serves as a positive confession by the impoverished individual that compels God to grant them the material prosperity they seek.

Therefore, wearing a cheap imitation of the ‘man of God’s’ suit does not expose the poverty of the wearer or signal a lack of divine blessing. Rather, the counterfeit suit functions as a symbolic act of spiritual actualisation—a material expression of the poor believer’s aspiration for a prosperous destiny. It represents a utilitarian spiritual gesture in which faithing [read: faking] is employed as a performative act to unlock the pathway to genuine material prosperity. According to Taru and McNeill (2024, p. 947), a “fake suit, if worn in the correct context and by the young Pentecostal Christians with whom it is associated, can be collectively understood as a genuine statement of aspiration through which young men effectively increase their chances of upward spiritual, and socioeconomic mobility”. In this context, the fake suit draws attention from both the prophet and affluent church members, thereby creating potential access to economic opportunities within and beyond the church community. Moreover, the suit is understood to signal a covenant or deal with God, in which the wearer anticipates divine reciprocation in the form of the authentic life the suit symbolically represents. Ultimately, any resulting upward mobility is attributed to God as the covenant-keeping provider who honours the believer’s faith. This dynamic reflects a pronounced element of salvation by works, as the individual instrumentalises their faith—and even their submissive self-presentation—as a means to climb the ladder of spiritual and socioeconomic advancement.

The utilitarian nature of the religiosity of NPPs is demonstrated by its teleological religious language and rhetoric, which are dominated by functional and positional words such as “progress, prosperity, breakthrough, success”, along with their opposites, “closed doors, poverty, sickness, setback, hunger, joblessness” (Gifford 2004, p. 171). This indicates that NPPs embody a functional spirituality practiced for the attainment of progress, prosperity, breakthroughs, and success, with a focus on the opening of closed doors and the overcoming of issues such as poverty, sickness, setbacks, hunger, and joblessness. Consequently, the main content of the testimonies of members in NPPs’ churches almost invariably centres on the material realm, encompassing finances, marriage, children, visas, jobs, promotions, and travel (Gifford 2004, p. 172). In essence, these testimonies focus not so much on who God is ontologically but on what God does functionally to meet people’s needs and wants in their present earthly existence.

Utilitarianism can also be discerned in the worship songs sung in NPPs’ churches, which focus not on mystical union with God but on a material life liberated from poverty and pain. This is also true in global prosperity churches, where songs primarily extol God not for who he is ontologically but for what he does materially for people. Thus, the content of the songs is less about forensic and eschatological salvation and more about humanity’s present material existence.

This criticism may be dismissed by pointing out that many songs in NPPs’ churches do extol God for his power, goodness, and faithfulness, to name only a few of his attributes. However, a closer examination of the theological scope of worship in NPPs’ churches reveals that the main thrust of the songs mentioning God’s attributes, such as goodness and faithfulness, is not about God’s supreme being but rather about how God is expected to function in meeting the material needs of the believer.

Thus, the praise of God’s moral attributes, such as faithfulness and goodness, does not encourage the suffering person to recognise that God remains good and faithful even amid suffering. It does not suggest that the suffering person should not give up their faith in God but rather endure their suffering faithfully because the faithful and good God will reward their faithfulness and repay them with abundant comfort in heaven. Instead, in their realised eschatological mode, when the NPPs extol God’s attributes of faithfulness and goodness, they mean that God will honour the material desires of his people and reward their sacrifices to him with material blessings in this present existence.

The NPPs invoke God’s moral and essential attributes to proclaim that the presence of poverty and suffering does not reflect the existence of a good God, and they challenge those who are suffering to turn to a God who is faithful and good enough to end their suffering. Therefore, among NPPs, as in the global prosperity movement, God’s attributes are understood utilitarianly in relation to the present existential situation of the individual.

Even when prophets make statements such as that of Prophet Makandiwa, “The word that I am sharing now will deal with spiritual warfare. I will train you how to fight. How you come out victorious in every battle that you face” (Makandiwa 2016b), the focus is not on the sins and temptations that hinder the believer’s faithful discipleship to God. Rather, the emphasis is on the obstacles to earthly prosperity. Consequently, the dominant element in NPPs’ theological and spiritual scope is “breakthrough” (Gifford 2004, p. 171). This concept of breakthrough affirms the utilitarian nature of NPPs, as the main focus of this Pentecostal tradition is the attainment of prosperity in the present life. According to NPPs, such benefits are obstructed by demons and personal sins; therefore, spiritual activity in these churches is primarily concerned with breaking through these barriers to prosperity (Gifford 2004, p. 172). NPPs’ worldview adheres to an enchanted perspective in which pervasive and dominant spiritual forces withhold success and wealth from God’s people, who should enjoy these blessings as their right as God’s children (Gifford 2004, p. 172). It is noted that the utilitarian religion of NPPs holds immense value in various African contexts of poverty. The following sections briefly describe how utilitarian religiosity functions as a source of hope for poor people.

4. Utilitarian Religiosity as a Means of Hope for the Poor

The utilitarian religiosity of the NPPs can be positively evaluated because it instils hope among poor and powerless people by motivating them to reject their suffering and challenging them to rise and take active steps to address it. Prophet Magaya (2015), a leading prophet in Zimbabwe, states “The worst person today is the Pastor or Apostle who is still teaching congregants that we shall rejoice in heaven and we must be ready to suffer here on earth”. He rejects such preaching as heresy and a proclamation of doom. Therefore, NPPs can be positively assessed for not promoting despair, resignation, and acquiescence to poverty and suffering. It positively challenges the poor and the suffering to “faith until they make it” (Taru and McNeill 2024). In this context, having faith until one makes it is an active pursuit of relief from suffering and poverty.

The NPPs’ religiosity challenges conservative Christianity’s tendency to preach an eschatological view of suffering that leads the poor to see their poverty and suffering as beyond solution in this world. Consequently, churches among NPPs are a constant hive of activity as people vigorously engage with their poverty, seeking to bring it to an absolute halt in this present world. Utilitarian religiosity instils hope by giving believers confidence that God can end poverty and suffering and lead people into a state of perfect health and material prosperity. It affirms that poverty and suffering can come to an end, provided people develop the appropriate levels of religiosity. However, while the utilitarian religiosity of the NPPs can be positively evaluated for offering hope to the poor, it can also be criticised for promoting a spirituality that thrives on dealmaking instead of personal faith, as declared in passages such as Galatians 3:11, which states that the just live by faith and not by works.

5. Dealmaking Spirituality Versus Relational Faith: A Theological Evaluation of Utilitarian Religiosity in NPPs

How can we theologically evaluate the NPPs’ use of utilitarian religiosity to receive God’s blessings of good health and material prosperity, as outlined in the preceding sections? On the one hand, the utilitarian religiosity of NPPs can be viewed positively—as a source of hope through which poor and powerless individuals seek to cope with their poverty and powerlessness (Banda 2020b; Magezi and Manzanga 2016). On the other hand, it can be criticised for promoting an intensely human-centred Christian spirituality—one that approaches God in the form of dealmaking rather than fostering a personal relationship based on trust in God’s gracious love for his people. This article draws on the notion of dealmaking as articulated by Chirevo Kwenda, a scholar of African Traditional Religions (ATRs), who is cited by Browning (2013) as characterising ATRs as fundamentally ‘dealmaking’ in nature. By describing ATRs in this way, Kwenda draws attention to a utilitarian approach to spirituality that is driven by instrumental manipulation rather than by personal relationality with the spiritual world.

Kwenda’s view of ATRs as dealmaking is supported by Kroesbergen (2019, p. 2), who observes that ATRs are not based on ‘truth-claims’ but rather on what is effective—what works. As Turaki (1997, p. 41) notes, the ATR worldview significantly shapes “how Africans understand and interpret Christianity or any foreign religion or worldview”. A central feature that emerges from ATRs is functional religion, which offers spiritual power aimed at achieving success and well-being in this life. In this context, the value of religious beliefs lies not in their doctrinal content but in the functionality of the spiritual world to improve and secure people’s lives (Kroesbergen 2019, p. 4). It is precisely this quest for power to manage life that gives rise to the dealmaking ethos in ATRs.

Mbiti (1970, pp. 1–2) illustrates the dealmaking nature of ATRs when he describes them as permeating all aspects of African life and being carried everywhere people go. Mbiti (1975, p. 6) further highlights the functionality of ATRs by pointing out that “it does not mean that African Religion has no weaknesses and no false ideas”, but that “as far as it goes, it [African Religion] has supplied the answers to many of the problems of this life even if these may not have been the right answers in every case”. This statement affirms that what is valuable lies in functionality and not doctrinal ideals. Therefore, since ATRs provide people with answers and direction in life, individuals are reluctant to abandon them quickly without finding something that offers better answers and security in life (Mbiti 1975, p. 6). Consequently, as a form of dealmaking religiosity, ATRs are characterised by spirituality that prioritises functions as instruments for attaining, maintaining, and safeguarding people’s well-being in this present earthly life.

This utilitarian religiosity, characteristic of ATRs, is also evident among NPPs, where the emphasis is placed not on doctrinal truth but on functionality. For instance, as noted earlier, Magaya (2015) criticises pastors who teach that Christians should endure suffering in this life in anticipation of rejoicing in heaven, dismissing such teachings as irrelevant to the immediate needs of believers. He further condemned theological training institutions for misleading people with “wrong theories of God’s Kingdom” and vowed that he would never advise anyone to attend a Bible or theological school (Magaya 2015). Magaya’s concern is not so much about incorrect teaching in theological institutions but rather a functional view of religion that is not constrained by doctrinal facts that may challenge the theological integrity of the prophet’s practices.

A key problem with NPPs’ aversion to doctrinally informed spirituality—and its preference for a functional, dealmaking approach—is that it undermines the personal relationality of God. It seeks to extract benefits from religious activities rather than fostering a personal relationship with God (Banda 2020a, p. 8). This is well illustrated by Prophet Makandiwa’s prophetic conduct and preaching, as reported by the online news outlet Bulawayo24 News. On 29 August 2016, Makandiwa held a widely publicised prophetic event titled Judgement Night 4, themed The Sentence, in Mount Hampden, near Harare. Bulawayo24 News (2016) reported Makandiwa making the following remarks during his sermon:

One of the days I attended a church service, and no message was given to me that I had to send someone back home to collect my gold watch. At one time I was instructed to drink water and the flowing of water into my body was the time I received prophetic messages to give people. I was used to receive prophetic messages five minutes before every service, but God is driving me his own way daily. Whenever I put on my gold watch, messages from God just flow like a river and I can see things easily […]. If you check your electrical gadgets you will discover that the plugs are coated with gold so as to pass electrical power.1

This excerpt expresses utilitarian spirituality, presenting a relationship with God as a form of making a deal that depends on the possession of gold rather than a personal connection through faith in Christ. Makandiwa is silent on the role of Christ’s redemptive blood in bridging the gap between God and sinful humanity. He also does not mention the importance of diligently and prayerfully studying and wrestling with Scripture to understand and proclaim God’s message, as exemplified by Daniel during the Babylonian exile (Dan 9). As depicted in the quoted statement, the relationship between God and the prophet, along with the revelation of God’s message to the prophet for his people, is governed by the water he has drunk and the gold watch he is wearing, rather than by faith in God. The implication of the prophet’s statement is that his faith could not sufficiently connect him with God for God to reveal his divine messages to him; therefore, he needed a gold watch to adequately connect him to God.

Throughout the excerpt, God is impersonalised as a spiritual power or force, as he is presented as connecting to people and revealing his messages through electromagnetism rather than through a personal relationship. Makandiwa’s dubious assertion that gold is used in every electrical gadget can be interpreted as an attempt to promote the notion that God only connects with people of wealth and that giving material possessions to God is the sole effective means of receiving his blessings.

Makandiwa’s reference to gold is significant in framing NPPs’ sacrificial spirituality, which thrives on the elaborate exchange of money and work for divine blessings (Taru and McNeill 2024, p. 949). Instead of a personal, relational faith based on belief, trust, and obedience to God, utilitarian religiosity in NPPs leads to a dealmaking relationship with God. This dealmaking approach is described by Taru and McNeill (2024, p. 943) as “spiritual hustling”, referring to hyper-religious activism intended to persuade God to release his blessings on people. Taru and McNeill derive their concept of spiritual hustling from the informal ChiShona terms kiyakiya and kujingirisa, which mean getting by and solving problems with limited resources or opportunities (Taru and McNeill 2024, p. 944).

The characterisation of NPPs’ spirituality as ‘spiritual hustling’ aptly captures its unsustainable, exploitative, and exhausting nature for the poor and suffering, who rely on it as a survival strategy in contexts of deep poverty. The economist Jones (2010) coined the term “kiyakiya economy” to describe the informal, often dubious economic culture that emerged in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s, following the collapse of the formal economy. He defined “kiyakiya” as a survival-of-the-fittest economy, an “economy of ‘getting by’, where ‘nothing is straightforward” (Jones 2010, p. 286). In light of this, Taru and McNeill observe, NPPs have drifted toward what may be termed “kiyakiya spirituality”—a form of erratic, transactional religiosity marked by unconventional practices that prioritise survival and profit over sound Christian discipleship. Notably, the kiyakiya economy has normalised and legitimised informal, untrustworthy activities once associated with tsotsis (criminals) and individuals perceived as lazy or opportunistic, seeking quick financial gain (Mpofu 2011, p. 14). In a sense, in NPPs’ churches, spiritual hustling or dealmaking has rendered many practices that were once linked to the occult, dangerous cults, religious charlatans, and idolatry acceptable in the church as credible Christian steps towards material prosperity and well-being (Kgatle 2021; Lazarus 2019). At the heart of spiritual hustling is the idea that God’s blessings to the believer come through intense and even dubious spiritual activities, such as wearing a fake suit as long as one’s heart is sincere (Taru and McNeill 2024, pp. 943, 950). The premise is that one can fake it until it becomes a faith that pleases God. However, in this instance, faking is not a deception but a means of making a deal with God for a better life. Therefore, spiritual hustling connotes a deviation from organised and orderly traditional religious observances and rituals to haphazard and unsystematic religious activities and rituals, often of an intense and sacrificial nature, designed to master God and compel him to bless the seeking believer.

However, these forms of spiritual hustling violate God’s personality and relationality by treating him as if he lacks independence, portraying him as one who can be controlled by the believer’s spiritual hustling. Ultimately, utilitarian religiosity destroys relational faith with God. Instead of inner discipleship marked by a personal relationship and walk with God, faith functions as a tool for extracting something from God for this-worldly consumption. As described by Meyer (2007, p. 15),

[F]aith is not a matter of meandering about one’s inner state, and the prospect of salvation after death. Faith is deliberately called upon so as to improve a person’s situation in the world, to seize God’s miracle. Faith, circumscribed as spiritual eye and spiritual hand, is a device, rather than an inner attitude, which promises the Born Again believer to be assured of God’s blessing.

In this mode, faith is treated more like a magical charm than a relational aspect. Spirituality becomes centred on the pursuit of spiritual power for personal advantage. Instead of fostering personal faith, it leads to high-intensity activity that focuses not on God but on personal gain. The following section calls for NPPs to shift from a dealmaking spirituality rooted in utilitarian religiosity toward a relational spirituality based on personal faith.

6. Relational Religiosity in Countering Utilitarian Religiosity

How can Christian theology confront the utilitarian religiosity among NPPs that promotes dealmaking and spiritual hustling among the poor and powerless, many of whom lack the financial means to tithe or offer costly gifts to prophets in exchange for blessings? One theological response lies in the biblical assertion that faith alone is the exclusive means by which humanity is connected to God. Rather than relying on gold and various aspects of spiritual hustling propagated by NPPs, Scripture consistently affirms the sufficiency of personal faith in Christ as the sole means of relating to God and pleasing him. This exclusive sufficiency of faith is underscored by scriptural assertions such as “the just shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17), which emphasise that salvation comes by faith alone, and not through human effort. As described above, the practices of the NPPs expose them to the charge of undermining God’s call to faith as the only means of connection between himself and humanity. The acts of dealmaking and spiritual hustling inherent in utilitarian religiosity reject the biblical assertion that all human beings are sinful and, therefore, incapable of producing any work that can please God (Rom 3:23).

The biblical declaration that the just shall live by faith means that salvation is God’s gift, freely given to humankind, so that no person can ever boast that it is their human efforts that caused God to save them (Eph 2:8–9). As Kruse (2012, p. 74) indicates, this declaration emphasises that the justification of believers is not a reward for observing the law but a declaration by God in favour of those who have faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. This exclusive role of faith makes biblically informed Christianity not merely utilitarian religiosity but relational, as it is based on a personal relationship between the believer and God. As previously argued, the relational aspect of justification by faith challenges dealmaking by calling for a personal relationship with God, built on love, trust, and submission to God’s sovereign will. Relational spirituality challenges utilitarian religiosity’s attempts to win God’s favour through external material offerings and religious rituals.

Barth (1966, pp. 15–34) expresses the Reformed view of the relational nature of faith in Christianity by presenting faith as comprising three elements: trust, knowledge, and confession. Basing his views on the Apostles’ Creed, Barth (1966, p. 15) states

Christian faith is the gift of the meeting in which men [people] become free to hear the world of grace which God has spoken in Jesus Christ in such a way that, in spite of all that contradicts it, they may once for all, exclusively and entirely, hold to His promise and guidance.

Barth’s articulation of faith centres on personal trust in the triune God through Christ. By describing faith as a meeting between the people and God, Barth highlights the relational and communal dimension of faith—a relationship formed between God and those who receive Jesus as Lord and Saviour. As Barth (1966, p. 19) affirms, “In God alone is there faithfulness, and faith is the trust that we may hold to Him, to His promise and to His guidance”. Faith, then, is an act of trust that involves “rely[ing] on the fact that God is there for me, and to live in this certainty” (Barth 1966, p. 19). In addition to trust, Barth (1966, p. 22) emphasises that faith also involves knowledge. This is a crucial theological point: in Christian theology, faith is not a blind leap into the unknown but a deliberate, personal trust in a knowable and revealed God—namely, the God who has made Himself known in Jesus Christ. As Barth (1966, p. 23) states, “God is always the One who has made Himself known to man (sic.) in His own revelation, and not the one man thinks out for himself and describes as God”. To trust and knowledge, Barth adds confession. He writes

For Christian faith is faith in God, and when the Christian Confession names God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is pointing to the fact that in His inner life and nature God is not dead, not passive, not inactive, but that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit exist in an inner relationship and movement, which may very well be described as a story, as an event.

(Barth 1966, p. 28)

This statement affirms the active, relational nature of faith, through which Christians practically demonstrate and declare what God is doing in their lives. Faith, therefore, is inherently confessional—a conscious and public expression of trust in God, made visible through their actions. For Barth (1966, p. 28), confession is vital because “God Himself is not suprahistorical, but historical”, meaning that God is not a distant or hidden force in the lives of believers; rather, he is publicly active and visible through the actions and words of his people, prompted by their relationship and encounter with him. Faith is confessional because it encourages Christians to act and speak in ways that reveal the reality of God in their personal lives.

The relational spirituality of faith in Christ should compel Christians to resist the manipulative and destructive utilitarian religiosity found among NPPs—one that demands that individuals possess material wealth, such as gold, to connect with God, and that encourages them to fake spiritual experiences in the hope that they will eventually become real. A critical relational question that must be posed to prophets like Makandiwa is this: at what point did the God of grace—who, according to Ephesians 2:1–10, saves not by works but through faith in Christ; who, in his holiness, took on human flesh and dwelt among sinners; who indwells his people through the Holy Spirit; and who declares a preferential option for the poor by identifying himself as the Father of widows and orphans—suddenly change and demand that he will only reveal himself and bless those who possess gold and engage in strenuous acts of spiritual hustling?

Furthermore, Makandiwa (2016a)’s audacious claim that “Gold attracts the divine”, which he constructs by erroneously linking the gold in the Ark of the Covenant in the Hebrew Temple to the image of heaven with its streets of gold, must be challenged by asking at what point did God replace faith (belief, trust, and obedience) with gold as the sole condition for bringing God and humanity together? In a footnote, Kruse (2012, p. 74) refers to R.M. Moody’s assertion that the declaration “the just shall live by faith” in Romans 1:16–17 indicates that the phrase “by faith” qualifies both “righteous” and “shall live”, as that passage serves as an introduction to the entire letter, which deals with more than just faith in its initial role of justification and addresses the role of faith in the ongoing Christian life as well. In other words, the Christian is saved by faith, and the Christian life itself is lived by faith. Therefore, a Christian religious system that promotes a spirituality of dealmaking and spiritual hustling rather than a spiritual life grounded in faith in a personal God must be challenged to recognise that, just as Christian salvation is by faith in the personal triune God, daily dependence on God for our needs and desires is also by faith. This calls for the defence of the relationality of God (Banda 2020a).

7. Conclusions

This article attempted to analyse the utilitarian religiosity of NPPs, demonstrating how it subverts the relationality of God by promoting a spirituality rooted in dealmaking and spiritual hustling. By endorsing such practices, utilitarian religiosity advances a works-based understanding of salvation, which stands in direct contradiction to the foundational biblical teaching that salvation is received through faith and sustained by a life of faith in God. The growth of the NPPs’ utilitarian religiosity shows that the Reformational rejection of salvation by works and the insistence on personal faith in a relational God is an ongoing task for the church, particularly in Zimbabwe where utilitarian spirituality is gaining strength through the NPPs. The Zimbabwean church must do all it can to defend the biblical declaration of salvation by faith in God. Faith is important and must be safeguarded because it promotes and protects Christian relational spirituality—emphasising personal belief, trust, and obedience to God—rather than dealmaking and spiritual hustling, which demand that people sacrifice themselves.

However, relational religiosity does not suggest that believers should refrain from giving their money or material possessions to God, nor does it deny the importance of sacrificial service. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, the giving of material gifts—even sacrificially—is integral to biblical worship. Yet, as in biblical times, God accepts such offerings only when they are given out of genuine faith and love. He rejects attempts to manipulate him through wealth and religious activities used to justify sinful or self-serving agendas.

This means that acts of service and sacrifice performed by Christians are not utilitarian in nature; they are expressions of a loving relationship with God. These are not efforts to earn divine favour but responses to the favour already shown by God to the believer. Such acts arise from commitment and devotion rather than desperation to gain approval. As acts of surrender, they are fundamentally theocentric rather than anthropocentric. Therefore, rather than promoting dealmaking and spiritual hustling, NPPs must champion a relational spirituality grounded in personal faith in God.