Pursuing the Authentic

Hey! Hey! Hey! 👋🏽😃

Happy Monday folks! 🙂

How was your weekend? What were you up to?

I spent my weekend drafting blog posts and you know what? I am really excited because since I got back to writing, the streams have been opening up! Woo-hoo! 🙌🏽 All glory to God! 🙏🏽

Today’s message will be delivered to you by a special person, chosen by God to #SpreadTheGospel. 🙂 My avid readers have virtually “met” him before as I have alluded to him in a few of my articles and he is also the very same one I featured in my inaugural Book Review. 😉

So have you figured out his identity yet?

Ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to have Lamu Maundu on my blog again! Yaaassss! 🙌🏽🎉

Here’s a little backstory – I first met Lamu in Zambia on the 16th of August, 2016. Lamu is quite the animated story teller and our first conversation left me in stitches, not because he is a violent man but a very funny one! Hilarious I must add! 😂😅

At first glance, people think he is my brother because we purportedly look alike but I don’t know… Could it be spectacles perhaps? 🤓 Or is it the cheeks? 🤔

Pastor Tee was the name I ‘baptized’ Lamu with soon after we started talking and now…. [drum roll] …. Lamu is a full time minister of the Gospel! Interesting turn of events, right? Talk about plot twist! Indeed, God’s plans for each one of us are beyond human understanding because it is only God who  knows our tomorrow.

This man, Lamu, is such a powerhouse for Jesus and if you would like to meet him in person, he will be attending the upcoming East Africa Faith Conference that will be held at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, Kenya from the 28th – 31st May, 2019.

With that brief re-introduction, let’s listen to the Word of God from Mr. Maundu…

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Hey!

Lamu here…

I had been asked by Amanda Namayi to write this piece a few weeks ago. On the day she asked me, it bore witness to me that indeed it was time to write something. And as you read this, I pray to God that you get to understand why am writing this piece.

Father, I give myself to the Spirit of God as an absolutely yielded vessel, that You may use me to write divine notes that will edify, exhort and comfort someone as they read this piece. Help me not to judge anyone but to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ in boldness, love and a sound mind, in Jesus name. Amen.

Of late, I am learning not to move a muscle unless I get instructions from my Father. It is a daily prayer to God and I thank Him that He answers all prayers that are as per His will. I have started to notice more and more manifestations of this grace upon my life and I give all glory to God. We are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

‘But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.’

James 1:22 NLT

I just concluded reading a book called “Listen to Your Heart: Hearing God in a Noisy World” by Kenneth W. Hagin.

It is a great book and it lists 4 ways that you can train yourself to listen to your heart:
1. Meditate on the Word of God
2. Practice the Word
3. Give the Word first place in your life
4. Instantly obey the voice of your spirit

So, as I mentioned, a lot has happened between the time Amanda requested and the time I concluded writing this piece.

I accepted to write this piece because:
🔸 I heard from God about my role in speaking to the youth. A very specific instruction was given to me a while back and I didn’t take note of it until this season.

🔸Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV tells us that “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” I believe that the season is here for this Youth Ministry engagement. All glory goes back to God.

🔸I actually got another confirmation after being with some youth friends and what we discussed came upon me as a very heavy burden that needs to be spoken about and dealt with immediately. Furthermore, Faith is Now!

I am following what I have been told to do since by God’s grace, I know of some things that He has allowed me to know… and I wanna share them. So, let’s get on with it!

Pursuing the Authentic
That’s the title of my piece this season.

What have you been pursuing in your life? Has it been authentic or have you been chasing shadows? Taking the fake and calling it real!
(The “fake-it-till-you-make-it” strategy that has never worked)

I worked for a long time in the advertising industry and I knew for a fact that I would “retire” in that career in old age. So to me, that was absolutely what I was born to do. Little did I know that I was “Being Your Own Boss (BYOB)” by deciding this thing on my own terms. I was ignorant and thought that I owned my life.

Jeremiah 1:5 tells me that “Before I was formed in my mother’s womb, God knew me; before I was born, He sanctified me; He ordained me a prophet to the nations”.

I had been ignorant and did not know this Word – I would never have understood it unless I was born again and my spirit had been recreated – so I had been walking blindly for such a long time.

Truth be told, even if I had read that bit of Scripture, I would never have understood it because “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 But I thank God for salvation through His only begotten Jesus. Romans 10:9-10

‘If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.’

Romans 10:9-10 NLT

Now the mysteries have been unlocked and God reveals Himself to man if we ask Him. (Ephesians 1:17-18)

So, what are you doing in your life right now and are you sure that it’s what God formed you in this generation to do? You can only understand what it is you are meant to be if you allow God to be God in your life. To be Lord over all matters in your life. To be your every-moment guide in ALL things that you do.

Do you remember what Saul of Tarsus was doing with so much zeal before he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus? He zealously persecuted Christians and had gone to great lengths to kill and imprison as many as he could.(Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-2) But Yahweh, the Almighty, Omniscient God, had a totally different plan for Saul (Acts 9:10-20).

God, who knows all things, knew that Saul was His great servant. The Bible says that “Paul immediately preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” Hallelujah! And to imagine that this guy, a.k.a. Paul, who was persecuting the body of Christ, is the writer of almost half of the New Testament books…. Yoh!

🔴 An Interesting Interaction

I went to record a Voice Over recently with a colleague of mine and we met some young guys at the studio. We got talking and as we discussed Christ, I got to understand that a lot of the youth know the Word of God. They can quote Scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 and everything in-between!

That got me excited because I know what the Word can do to anyone who He abides in it. So in my excitement, I asked one of the guys how many people he had healed through the laying on of hands (Mark 16:17-18).

That’s when my excitement was dashed by the answer I heard. He told me that the one guy he ‘tried’ to heal a few years ago “was still sick to this day.” He added that, to him, it was clear that he wasn’t able to heal anyone. But the Bible says that if you believe, these signs shall follow you, you shall cast out demons, lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So why was he trying to heal and not healing the person? You know those are two different things, right?

Anyway, that prompted my colleague and I to ask them if they had been baptized of the Spirit of God with the evidence of speaking in tongues. (Acts 2:1-4) And at that very moment, it seemed as though we were speaking a foreign language. 😧

‘And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.’

Acts of the Apostles 2:4 NLT

It dawned on us that inasmuch as one is able to quote the entire Bible, there is a big difference between understanding what the Bible says and the Power that it gives to the believer. Basically, having Revelation Knowledge.

Let’s look at a great example:

Jesus of Nazareth didn’t do much until Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10 or John 1:32.

Let’s refer to Matthew 3:16 NKJV “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'”

I love this part “…the Spirit of God descended like a dove and alighted upon Him.”

Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV was a prophecy about the Messiah. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord , And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord , that He may be glorified.”

Matthew 3:16 is when that prophecy was fulfilled. Glory to God.

And you know what? This same Scripture belongs to all believers out here. It is yours to believe in and speak it upon our lives. This is who God created you to be.

Notice that it is after this period of the Spirit of God descending like a dove upon Jesus, that Jesus began His earthly ministry.

How many agree that His first miracle was the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-11)?
(I know a lot of you love this Scripture but we won’t go into the matter of the wine today. Ha!)

Therefore, if that was His first miracle, it means that He hadn’t done any miracle before the Holy Spirit came upon Him like a dove, right?

So in three-and-a-half-years of ministry on earth, the Bible in John 20:30 NKJV says that “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

So, Jesus needed to be anointed with the Spirit of God in order for His earthly ministry to begin.

Thank God that before this instance, He had been increasing in wisdom and stature, and favour with God and men (Luke 2:52). He did this by studying the Word of God. The Old Testament at that time. (Yes, the Old Testament had already been canonized!) You too should be studying the Word of God that you may grow in wisdom and stature.

2 Timothy 2:15 says that “We are to study to show ourselves approved of God, workers who do not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”

Then when you get the Power (i.e. the Holy Spirit), you also will be able to  manifest Isaiah 61:1-3 and Matthew 28:19-20. Seek to be baptized in the Spirit of God that you may receive Power to “go into cities and villages, teaching in various places, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

Do you have what God has ordained for you or are you living your own thing? It might look ‘good’ but is it the authentic?

Pursue the authentic, yearn for what God created you to do.

Allow Christ to be your Lord and Master. Allow Him to be your Shepherd for He will guide you to lie down in green pastures and lead you beside still waters.

I have a lot to share and I will as the season progresses.

May the Father reveal Himself to us that we may glorify Him in this generation, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Lamu Maundu

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