My name is Makhado Sinthumule Ramabulana. I am the grandson of Chief Makhado Ramabulana. I grew up in a Christian family. My mother and father are pastors. I went to the Bible College and studied Theology because I had this passion about preaching the word of God.
It was not about faith during that time. It has nothing to do with what we see today. It was about fulfilling the calling within your heart. You felt fulfilled when you do what you were born to do.
When I was doing my third year in the college, something in my heart just said you need to start a church in Pretoria, South Africa. My theological training was done under the Apostolic Faith Mission, that’s where I did my three years training.
I felt this desire of planting a church in Pretoria, at a very young age. I was not married and I had this faith that I’m gonna start a church in Pretoria.
During that time I had personal pressure where I thought that by preaching I would fill the chairs. You think because you are good at talking or you are good at preaching, so if you preach every chair in your church will be filled with people. It was not so because there were empty chairs and that’s where the problem started.
When I started to see other ministries, they’ve got their own overflow every Sunday. People were coming in great numbers but here I did what I thought is right. In the Bible College, we were told that “you need to fast, you need to live a holy life and you need to make sure that you are focused”. Those were all the recipe that I did but when I looked at the result, it was not what I expected.
And guess what, I took a decision to invite these people. This is because in ministry it is like a soccer league, there are those that are under, there are those who are above and those who are high.
I realized that I was under, the bottom link, where nobody knows you, no matter how powerful you are, how much you bring revelation, they’ll just say “Oh! who are you? Where do you come from?”
So I started to associate with those who already got a name in ministry. I started to be their friend. I started to buy into their friendship.
Sometimes it’s very costly to buy into their friendship as you need to do certain things for these people so you can be in their standard and when I was there, I tried to invite them to the church and they came.
These people when they come, they bring crowd. For the first time I saw the church growing in attendance. Remember when we talk about church growth, we don’t talk about number, we speak of spiritual maturity, that is the element of church growth.
During that time I thought that the number represented the church growth. Then I was struggling because I hate this spirit of competition. Sometimes you allow the enemy to enter you, you want to be the man of the place. You want to be the man of the zone. You want everybody to talk about you, that is where pride came into me. It sneaked in and I was not aware. I wanted to be bigger than what God has called me for.
I started befriending these other people. Most of my friends were from outside South Africa. I was closer to Nigerians because I saw what they symbolize. It was success in ministry. They were driving big cars and they had this sense of authority.
Their churches were big and some of them, they’ve got big titles, so I thought by associating with them it will also lift me up.
I remember when I spoke to this big prophet, I said Man of God, I really want the power that you have. I need the anointing. You know from the Bible College, you think of Elijah and Elisha, that if you serve this one, if you polish their shoes, if you wash their car, if you carry their Bible, what they have will come upon you. This was what I did.
I was close to them but one thing I discovered and what destroyed me was their lifestyle. When you come close to them their life is full of sin. I want to say it again, most of these powerful prophets, powerful pastors, from a distance, they look nice, they look holy and well respected but when you come close to them, their life is full of sin.
When I came closer to them, I started to adopt their kind of lifestyle. They drink, commit adultery, have lots of girlfriends yet when they stand on the pulpit, they preach fire down and I don’t know what kind of fire that was. When they preach, people will scream, everyone will feel the anointing but when you get closer to them, you realize these people are not really serving the God that we serve.
They told me that for me to have what they have, they must take me to Nigeria and by that time I had adopted their lifestyle. I was married by that time and I thank God for my wife who has been very supportive through all these years. If she was someone else, I could have been standing here as a divorcee or a single father but because she believed in the gift in me, she believed what I went through was an entire process. She stood the test of time.
So, I decided to go to Nigeria. Before travelling down there, they gave me a black soap with an offensive odour inside a plastic. They told me to “Use this to church, bath with it on Saturday midnight 12’0 clock. Take a bucket full of water. When you get there, start using the soap from your head as your destiny is there.”
As I took my bath with the soap that midnight, I’ll rub it on my head and confess all I wanted to see. As a young person looking for power, one thing I kept repeating was I want people to fall as I pray and blow out breeze. I thought that was what symbolize power in ministry. These powers were what made me to seek occultic power so I can use them in the house of the Lord.
In the morning, I went to church after bathing with that soap. During that time, I get to church very late. We don’t partake in the worship or intercession session as we’re not part of them spiritually. Once you become part of the occult world, you don’t connect with the body of Christ.
You are told that you need to come when it’s your time to ascend the pulpit. That is when you come with your force. You don’t have to come and start with the service during the beginning of the service.
That Sunday I came when they were singing this song and I parked the car, everybody got excited on my arrival. Then I walked inside the hall. They clapped their hands unknowingly to them that I had used the black soap.
They looked at me as the man of God but they did not know that as I pass by I was followed by evil spirits. I stood on the pulpit with the microphone. I started praying. I kept on saying “touch them, touch them”. Immediately I said that I called on the ushers to create a vibe.
I told the ushers to move around. Within two minutes I started to hear people screaming and some were falling. In my heart I said this black soap is working.
Sometimes when we see all these things happening in our churches and the body of Christ, we think it is the power of God but I want to tell you as you are listening to this testimony that what I went through did not symbolize the power of God.
From there I saw that it was working. They also gave me some oil to use. Oil that you will open, you talk anything you want. Those were the kind of things I used before I went to Nigeria.
Time came, I took all my savings and went to Nigeria because I had to pay for the pastor who came from there. He was taking me to the occult. This is more of a family set of pastors, preachers from all over the world. They come there to get their powers.
The following morning we had to go into this village where I was introduced to what was called”The Ifa. Ifa is more of a religion in Nigeria where they worship Ifa as a god. It’s a spirit or a demon I’ll call it.
On getting there, we consulted the Ifa priest who did some incantations and was able to predict certain things upon my life. It convinced me and I said this man can help me. From there they did the ritual. They told me of certain things to buy, the goat, fowl and others to make the covenant.
From there they took me to a boiling drum of water in fire. As the steam was coming out I caught it and they took me and put me inside the boiling drum but suddenly when I touched the water it was cold. They closed it and did some incantations. After which they took me to several gods. One was the god of thunder. This is the reason why people fall in church and the prophets shout the god of thunder, it is not the God of heaven.
When you make your sacrifices on the altar of the god of thunder, you say everything that your enemy has sent to you must go back to the sender. I had to do all those things. Everytime when you hear such kind of prayers as “back to sender” ask yourself where it is in the bible? Which verse talks about it? Where does such doctrine stand in the Bible? “Back to sender” is usually practiced by occultic people because of the god of thunder.
Furthermore, we went to the god of iron. There a duck was sacrificed. So, when I see people eating duck in a church I know that is what has been sacrificed on the god of iron. I had to eat duck I even wrote about this part. From there we went to the water spirit in a river where I had to take some cowries and seashells.
I had to speak to one and carried the other one wherever I went and took it home. On travelling back to South Africa, the first thing they asked me to do before going to church was to go to the stream. I had to introduce the spirits from Nigeria to the spirit of the place in the stream. So, I went to the stream and I spoke saying “I want this spirit to help me fill the church”.
I was also given the head of a pig to bury inside the church which I did and in less than a month we saw a lot of people coming to church.They told me earlier that when the pig starts to rot the number of worms coming out will be the number of people coming to church. If you ask anyone around they’ll confirm that on Sunday morning there is usually traffic jam as a result of people coming to church.
On the road you’ll see people in white in the traffic coming to church. I knew that these people were not here for the word of God but they were brought by the occultic powers. One sign to know that people are not here by the word of God is that they do not need the word. They are just after miracles and prophecies.
When you preach the gospel they sleep off and that is why during that time I did not invite any preacher. I made sure not to contradict my gospel. My preaching was not about Christ but healing and miracles.
The moment I stand to say can I prophesy? The whole place shakes. Everybody stands up and say prophesy but when you teach the word of God they sleep off. This is what the spirits have brought them to church to do .Don’t be fooled when you see multitude of persons in a church. Ask yourself what are they looking for? Then you will know if they are of God because a lot of persons who fill the stadium, arena, overflow are there for miracles and prophecy and the devil can give prophecy.
The book of Acts talks about a young woman who used python spirit to prophesy and she came to the Apostles but they rebuked her. A lot of Christians are filling the church where they are hooked up with spiritual principalities.
I had several offices where people do pay a certain amount of money for consultation or to see me.The reason they paid was because I usually place their money on the altar. That is why you need to be careful about where you take your money to. I take the money and place it on those gods. The money had to lay there in order for the person who has given that one to keep giving. That is why people who are under occultic influence only think of giving everything they have to that church as soon as they’ve given on that altar.
I was selling oil, water, candles, anything that I could think of or see in the bible. I’ll bring it as a doctrine.These were the stuffs I did to generate money. One day policemen came and said we are arresting you for mutilation. During that time there were lots of cases where people were found dead without some body parts. It was rumoured around that area that there is a man who is strengthening business people and other churches because alot of pastors and traditional doctors usually come to me for consultation.
I’ll give them powers and even till this date, some of those churches are still standing on what I’ve given to them.
Immediately I came out others said you don’t have to mention our names or churches.The police came that fateful morning, Are you Makhado? I said yes. They said they are arresting me for mutilation.They took me to the police station in handcuffs and the news blew like wild fire. Press men came, they documented alot.
I was not granted bail at any time. I stayed l in the prison for about three months undergoing trial. In my heart I knew I did not do anything like that. It was during the period of trial I knew I had to come back to my senses. One man inside the prison said to me this is not the place for pastors. There he spoke into my purpose. Sometimes God will allow a prisoner to speak freedom to you. What the man said kept on ringing in my heart. This is not the life I was called into.
There are different churches in the prison. I attended one sermon where another prisoner was preaching to us. Right there I raised up my hands that I wanted to accept Jesus Christ again and that was where my total change began. A prisoner gave me freedom.
Later, I was acquitted from the case. I came out. Meanwhile, the case had a community interest. When I was undergoing trial, people would march to the court, burn tires, chant my name, the police had to restrict them from gaining access to me.
When the judge said he didn’t find me guilty, they freed me. The crowd outside was an angry mob. I had to walk through them as they were shouting my name. My life, my blood, I prayed a prayer. “Lord I need you to protect me”. The miracle I saw here was that I walked passed them unnoticed. I was not with my car then, I took a cab and I went home.
The policeman called me asking if I was home. I said yes. He said I should be very careful because the community residents were planning to come and burn my house. I called my wife. I was totally depressed and down. I said to my wife, I thought that God has delivered me but here comes another one which we can’t prevent. They are coming to burn the house and they’ve hired a bus already.
About an hour later, I got a call from that same policeman saying the bus the people were coming with to the house was punctured and they were unable to make it to my house. I said Lord I thank you for the power of protection upon our life. Sometimes when we pray we don’t know how God operates but he does protect us.
We might not be able to see the shield that is upon our life but there is a shield of angel upon our life, that is how I saw the protection of God’s hand.
Indeed I’ve travelled to Nigeria like I said and also been to Zimbabwe. Once you are introduced into this power, you’ll start wishing for more powers because power makes you to seek more power. You are no longer satisfied with what you have. You want to be greater than other prophets in Pretoria or in your place.
I remember that I wanted to increase the power I had. That’s how I was introduced to a man in Zimbabwe. I heard he’s able to take things out of people’s body, snake living in people’s body. I don’t believe in them anymore because I know there are no such things. Snakes live in the zoo and your body is not even a zoo. How can a snake live in your body? I used to do this then and I know how it’s been done.
The man said let’s go to Zimbabwe where you would be initiated. On getting there, they said “you came at the right time. We just had a funeral because you are going to use the spirit of the dead.” These are just demons with different names and titles.
We waited for midnight. When they come, they just tell you to do something and if you decide to stop in the middle of it, they’ll tell you that you’ll lose your sight, senses or something bad will happen.
When they came, I stood and they asked me to take off my clothes which I did. They gave me a white cloth to tie and we went outside. It was very dark. When we got to the grave side, they asked me to strip completely naked. I asked again and I did as I was instructed. They asked me to lie down on top of the grave.
I did and they said they were connecting me with the spirit of the dead. They left me there saying they will come and pick me. I had this fear that if the community just come and find me in that kind of place, they’ll say they have caught a witch, because imagine a sane young man lyung on top of a grave. A man who grew up well, a South African national who doesn’t speak their language. they will think I came there with a broom, all those stories ran through my head at that moment.
The protection of God was there also because nobody came. The guys came and said now I am strong. They gave me a flower and instructed me to put it in my office, put some sweets on it and pour milk on the flower as it represents the dead child I slept on its grave. In my house, I had a room where nobody could enter. I secretly keep calabashes, powers and everything associated with the occultic world there because I realized they wanted their own space.
Sometimes I could hear the sound of a child crying in the house while my kids are asleep. I knew they were demonic forces coming from where I took those powers. It did not end there.
I went to Mozambique, another man introduced me there. They gave me power which I named “by fire by force”. This power comprises a male and female. I was told that if I take only a male he will sleep with my wife and if I take only a female, she will sleep with me. It is mandatory to give them names.
Since I was using them for church set up, I had to give them names similar to church names. I had to call them “by fire by force”. I took them inside my office. The night that these powers came, I saw a vision of a short man who said I must marry a second wife. They came in the physical and said the power is looking for a second wife so I must marry a second wife. I said I cannot. I can’t go to my father and tell him I wish to marry a second wife as he was a strong christain. He would look at you, remove his glasses and say what are you trying to say?
I disputed that motion because everything I’ve done so far has been secretive. I did not want my wife,, parents or anyone to know. During that time, my wife wasn’t fully aware of this whole voodoo part. She was aware of people coming to take holy bath inside a bathtub I made. The holy bath is meant for people who want to go for interviews, those who are looking for life partners and people do come to testify that after taking the holy bath they see changes.
The truth is if you ask me now whether the power was working I’ll say no, it’s your faith. If you put your faith to anything it works. So the faith of these people was channeled to these powers and it then looked like the power was working whereas it was their faith.When you put this same faith in God, you will see things happening and this is what happened in my life.
Immediately I came out of prison, I decided to stop this whole thing because my life was focused on helping people but I realized that in helping people, I was destroying my life and my family. I made a decision to quit because Jesus has saved me. Later, I went home to see my parents, they welcomed me and prayed for me after which I took all the occultic things in my office and burnt them.
From there I made a decision to quit the ministry because I felt in my heart that I was a failure. I had failed the gospel and the body of Christ. I had to stay at home with my parents for deliverance and rehabilitation because during that time, when I’m sitting alone, I’ll hear voices talking to me. I’ll run to my father at the front house from the back room about 10 times in a minute to ask if he called me. He’ll say no and it occured to me that I needed support.
Remember, do not look at a person who needs support as the devil. Look as him as the victim. Anybody going through demonic trauma or oppression needs love. Love is the key to their freedom. The devil will try to bring rejection from amongst those who love them in order for the demons to be stronger in their lives.
The love I received from my father’s house was the one that embraced me. I went through the prayer sessions. The church people supported me and believed in me. Everytime I met them, they’ll call me Pastor Makhado. Sometimes when you call someone by their purpose, you are reminding them who they are. It does not matter what is happening in their life in that moment. As they kept on calling me with my purpose I identified my life with my purpose again. I became bold enough to say I’m going back.
I wrote back to the Apostolic Faith Mission saying “here I am, I want to be accepted once again.” The church took a while to respond. I kept on waiting until they finally responded. They referred me to a region where I had to be under the supervision of Dr.TJ Kosana. I served under his church for about a year when he had the full assurance of my being okay. I received a call from a church where they were in need of pastors. I went for the interview also with other pastors, I was chosen to be the presiding pastor there.
I want to thank God for this wonderful church who stood and believed in me. I appreciate my wife and family for their undying support. I appreciate my three kids for their love.
This is the story of my life. Today I’ve authored a book “Church Mafia” and it’s doing wonders. It’s been sold worldwide and it can be delivered to your door step.
Several companies have approached us wanting to publish the book in French and Portuguese, we experience this daily because of the high demand of the book.
It is true,I’ve experienced the most, went through hell and I’ve seen the hand of God picking me up. In the book “Church Mafia”, I exposed my previous life and occultic priests who used occultic powers in the house of the Lord.
NOTE: The confession of Pastor Makhado was titled “Shocking truth of how I got secret powers as a fake pastor- I’ve been through the most – Ps Makhado” on YouTube. The transcript was made by Oke Orhonigbe for Emerald News.
This is an exclusive pproperty of Emerald News. Permission to republish online NOT granted. Editor of Emerald News
