Want a new car? A house? A special word from God? Florida evangelist Rich Vera—and reputed healer and prophet—says God will provide not only material goods but your very own “life changing” prophecies.
That is, if you donate.
Vera, who was designated as televangelist Benny Hinn’s protégé in 2017, is using the same kind of lingo Hinn once did to raise money. But starting in the fall of 2019, Hinn swore off the prosperity gospel, acknowledging it was wrong to promise material blessings in return for donations. In 2024, Hinn repeated his apology for using fundraising gimmicks.
It’s clear his disciple did not get that memo, though. In exchange for money, Vera promised in a letter to supporters to send them three personally designed prophecies that he’s already typed and sealed in a special envelope.
But if the proverbial check is not in the mail, Vera may throw the envelope away.
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“Mail this with your best offering,” Vera stated. “If I don’t hear from you, I will get rid of it. I don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.”
Vera leads a ministry called Voice of Healing Outreach and pastors at the Center Arena in Orlando, Florida, which burned to the ground in 2023. The congregation has been renting various venues while waiting for the church to be rebuilt, according to church administrator Denise Jordan. Vera also runs a school of ministry.
Prophets like Vera are part of a new generation of preachers, many from the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement. Despite the massive failure of the so-called “Trump prophets” in foretelling the 2020 election, they now throw in prophecies to gain influence, manipulate people, and build their own wealth, says author Holly Pivec.
The Fairbanks-based author of “Counterfeit Kingdom: The Dangers of New Revelation, New Prophets and New Age Practices in the Church” (co-written with Douglas Geivett), says millennial and Gen X prophets use some variation of a “pay for prophecy” scheme.
“That’s essentially claiming greater authority than the Bible’s apostles,” she said. “Then there are just all kinds of sad stories, tragic stories of spiritual abuse.”
Vera’s fundraising pitches are familiar to anyone who’s been on certain evangelistic mailing lists.
Followers must act fast to receive their blessing, Vera wrote in a recent appeal letter. Readers must insert their names and how much money they need on a special “breakthrough mantle” handkerchief and set the handkerchief next to their wallet overnight.
Then they write a check first thing the next morning and send both the check and handkerchief to Vera’s ministry immediately.
“If you follow these special ‘faith instructions,’ TODAY is the day that will mark the end of all your troubles and the beginning of the BEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE!” Vera wrote.
‘God will reveal things to me’
Born in Hawaii of Argentinian parents, Vera, 52, moved to Orlando when he was 18. A nominal Catholic, he was saved in July 1990 and immediately knew he had a special calling from God, he told a VICE reporter in 2021. That interview went on to describe his alleged out-of-body trip to heaven in 2005 and a miraculous healing said to have occurred during a summer missions trip to Peru.
Vera is best known for prophesying on charismatic TV personality Sid Roth’s show “It’s Supernatural” in March 2016 that Donald Trump would have a major role in exposing government corruption. Three months later, Trump would formally enter the presidential race. Vera would later tell the VICE reporter that he knew Trump would run.
“I had an eight-hour vision with him that he was going to run to become a Republican,” Vera said. “That’s what put me in America on the map as a prophetic voice because God will reveal things to me.”
Closer to home, his own in-laws have been skeptical, and most of the family didn’t attend his 2011 wedding to his wife, Leslie.
“They thought he’s a fake, he’s a phony, he’s just marrying you for your money,” Leslie told VICE.
Somewhere along the way, Vera managed to catch the attention of Hinn, who is 20 years his senior. Hinn’s star has been fading in the past decade as he’s been dropped from Trinity Broadcasting and Daystar networks and last year, his wife, Suzanne, filed for divorce a second time. (The couple had divorced in 2010 and remarried in 2013.)
Still, the Benny Hinn endorsement in 2017 was crucial for Vera, who has taken on much the same mannerisms as his mentor, such as causing rows of worshippers to drop to the floor after waving his hands over them.
“The healing anointing that is going to come on you will be even greater, Richard, than what I saw,” Hinn said in a video that captured a “passing of the mantle” to Vera. “Be bold, brother. Be bold. Be strong like a lion.”
Vera appears to have taken Hinn’s advice to heart. With 88,000 Facebook followers, Vera claims to be a spiritual advisor to unspecified “presidents, heads of state, government officials, TV personalities, and leaders around the world.”
He didn’t respond to TRR’s question about who those leaders are and whether his appeal letter is an appropriate use of prophecy.
Neither Pivec nor Matthew Taylor, senior scholar for the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, have heard of Vera. Taylor, based in Baltimore, recently wrote about NAR’s influence on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in his book, “The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy.”
“I haven’t encountered Vera before, so I wouldn’t call him an A-list charismatic celebrity prophet, but that’s not unusual,” Taylor told TRR. “There are hundreds, maybe thousands of these figures with new ones coming out of the woodwork every day. And what you’re describing with manipulative appeals is all too common in these circles.”
The letter’s claims
In a 2019 interview with Charisma magazine, Rich Vera claimed to occupy the actual office of prophet with “thousands of testimonies” to prove it.
“I’m a prophetic revivalist,” he told the outlet. “God has called me to open territories, to demonstrate the raw power of God to my generation. That God can still heal now. That God can speak now and change your life. . . . That is what God has called me to do. To demonstrate the prophetic in the now with miracles, signs and wonders that will impact my generation and the nations.”
Judging from the lack of news coverage and word-of-mouth, Vera does not appear to be churning out miraculous healings six years after that interview.
What his Voice of Healing Outreach is churning out is high-pressure mailings, an example of which was sent to TRR. One was a letter addressed to Avinash Sreenivasan, an absentee landlord who lives in India but rents out properties in Texas. One of his tenants, Robinson Samuel, who is allowed to open and deal with his landlord’s mail, opened the letter.
“Dear Avinash, I have been seeking God for you,” Vera wrote. “I am very sensitive to the Spirit of God about your needs and that special blessing you so desperately need God to give you.”
Vera spoke vaguely of knowing about Sreenivasan’s needs (and Sreenivasan has given Samuel permission to share the contents of Vera’s mailings).
“DEAR LORD JESUS, YOU KNOW HOW AVINASH HAS GONE THROUGH A SEASON OF LACK AND HURT,” Vera wrote in all caps.
Vera gave an example of a woman who gave $100, and God blessed her with $10,000.
“LORD, YOU REMEMBER SHE MAILED IT ON A MONDAY AND THAT FRIDAY SHE RECEIVED AN UNEXPECTED CHECK IN THE MAIL,” Vera wrote.
Vera wrote confidently that all would make sense for Sreenivasan soon.
“Everything in your life will soon fit together, like a key in a lock of a door that’s about to be opened,” Vera wrote in bold. “I believe you won’t recognize your old life before the end of this year, 2025.”
The letter included a “prayer page,” where the recipient can choose from a list prefaced with “Prophet Vera, I believe God to prosper me. I am believing God for —”
Suggested items include a new car, a house, furniture, retirement money, and funds to pay bills, education, and get out of debt.
The next list the donor must check is how much they’re sending to help Vera “preach the Gospel.” Suggested amounts range from $25 to $1,000 or “other.”
“Now, give God a sacrificial offering,” Vera wrote. “Give your biggest bill, check, or credit card. . . . God is in this letter and is speaking to you now while you read these words. Please obey His voice.”
The more people sacrificially give, the bigger their faith, he added, “. . . and the greater size of your blessings.”
By obeying Vera’s “faith instructions” to return the handkerchief with a sacrificial donation, Vera will return the correspondence with the three prophecies. Then everything will finally “click” in one’s life, Vera promises.
Samuel declined the offer.
“Hopefully this reaches people who need to hear this,” he told TRR. “All I’m doing is lovingly saying, please be careful about who you’re following.”
Rebecca Hopkins is a journalist based in Colorado.
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14 Responses
“Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray;
When they have something to bite with their teeth,
They cry, “Peace,”
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths
They declare holy war.
Therefore it will be night for you—without vision,
And darkness for you—without divination.
The sun will go down on the prophets,
And the day will become dark over them.
The seers will be ashamed
And the diviners will be embarrassed.
Indeed, they will all cover their mouths
Because there is no answer from God.”
~Micah 3:5-7
Elisha and Gehazi are significant figures in the Bible, particularly in the Books of Kings. Elisha was a prophet who succeeded Elijah and performed numerous miracles, while Gehazi was his servant. Gehazi is known for his initial role in the story of the Shunammite woman and her son, where he accompanied Elisha and was involved in the miraculous resurrection of the child.
However, Gehazi is also noted for his greed and dishonesty, particularly when he deceived Naaman, a Syrian general, into giving him gifts after Elisha had healed him of leprosy. As a result of his actions, Elisha cursed Gehazi, leading to his permanent leprosy.
The story of Elisha and Gehazi serves as a contrast between integrity and greed, highlighting the consequences of dishonesty.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the TRUTH, and be turned aside to fables.”
Simony is a theological term for buying and selling spiritual powers. This term derives from the magician Simon Magus described in the book of Acts who wanted to buy the gift of The Holy Spirit from Paul.
The prosperity (false) gospel is a simony. It is wicked, because it tries to counterfeit The Holy Spirit for personal aggrandizement and power, typically by seducing gullible people often who are facing personal dilemmas. It leads these people onto a false faith.
Benny Hinn has been in Kenya recently. President Ruto invited him to come for a week paid for by the government. People came by the thousands. Last week he was in Uganda. He goes to South Korea quite a bit for conventions by the sounds of it. He connects with the teachings of the late Yonggi Cho from South Korea.
The worst thing is not that there are so many false prophets and wolves in sheep’s clothing, Jesus told us that would happen.
The worst thing is that so many Christians believe and follow them.
I highly recommend the book “Counterfeit Kingdom” mentioned in this article.
Looks like Rich Vera has not only gone the way of Hinn but also Robert Tilton who discarded prayer requests from thousands of his followers and was more interested in cashing their checks.
After acknowledging his ‘wrongdoing’
-fleecing the flock in my opinion- did Benny Hinn ever return any of the money? What an affront to God and those who fell for this.
Such a scam artist. Stay away from this man if you want to keep your life savings! I found this out the hard way!
And, my cousin Richard remains healed! “Whether this man be a sinner, or not, I do not know: But one thing I do know: Once I was blind, and now I see!” John 9:25
Thank You Yahshua for Your servant Benny Hinn and for his obedience to worship You and then to see the resultant healings as we worship and praise You! AMEN
Amen & amen. He’s a healing ❤️🩹 Jesus who changes not.
Pastor Benny Hinn is a holy man of God who would never, ever grieve the Holy Spirit. Do not hold Hinn accountable for what other “self proclaimed prophets” declare. Pastor Benny Hinn would never call himself a prophet. Hinn walks in obedience and delights in YAHWEH’S laws decrees. Hinn loves JEHOVAH with all his heart, soul and mind.
Whitley S has reached out to Rich Vera attended his services and performed in singing praise to the Lord and I don’t know if he or his followers have anything to do with her decision to isolate. She will not engage with any of her family. She is loved and missed and she is needed. If you know her please ask her to contact her family. 321.616.0801