T.H.R.I.V.E – Let’s Trust God
This year, we’ve been going through a series called THRIVE. We’ve learnt that in a year when many are planning to survive; in a year when many are hoping to just get by; God doesn’t want us to survive – He wants us to thrive!
We’ve looked at the letters of the acronym, ‘THRIVE’; ‘Trust in God’, ‘Hold On To The Dream’, ‘Relate Wisely’, ‘Invest Strategically’, ‘Value Add Always’ and ‘Enjoy The Journey’. These are our keys to thriving in 2012!
Today just like I told you last week, we’re going to be doing things a little differently. Instead of a sermon, we’re going to be praying for you to THRIVE this year. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 18:18-20 ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I tell you that if two of you agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them’.
Today we want to stand on this promise and take God at his word. How many are asking God to show you how to trust him in your situation in 2012? How many are asking for strength to hold on to the dream? Are you praying that God would give you real friends in 2012? How many are trusting God with specific risks, plans or investments this year?
PRAYER POINTS
1. For Our Businesses (those not working pray by faith)
For your boss/supervisor/employees to thrive
For colleagues and co-workers by name to thrive
For that company to thrive because you are there – wherever Joseph worked thrived because of him
2. For Our Families
For your parents and siblings by name – 2012 is their year of thriving!
Bind any spirits of discouragement, defeat, strife – pray for great relationships!
For the marriages in your family – pray against divorce
3. For Our Nation
Pray for peace and justice to prevail
Pray that our constitution will be implemented well and equitably leading to all Kenyans feeling included
Pray that this nation will prosper and be a blessing to the region
Pray that God will raise leaders of integrity and selflessness
4. For Ourselves Pray that we will…
Trust in God – regardless of what situation we find ourselves in 2012
Hold on to the dream even when things are tough – if don’t yet know your purpose, pray that this year you will discover it
Relate wisely – pray that God will give you great kingdom relationships
Invest strategically – pray over the investments and risks you’re taking in 2012 – that God will give you prosperity this year in every area of your life!
Value add always – pray that you will be an MVP wherever God places you
Enjoy the journey – pray that the joy of the Lord will be your strength!
Blog.Mavuno 
January 30, 2012 at 10:49 am
May God just be with me because this year is gonna be one of the most significant years of my life. I am very scared coz the things he is asking me to do Pastor? they are quite mind boggling. What a weekend!!! I know it is He who speaks. How can a friend and my care Pastor tell me the same same thing? to even make things more complicated or is it clear, last Sunday, a prayer counselor read my life like a book confirming all these.
Please note: all this was in a period of 3 DAYS!!!! I know there is greatness in me, but the risks involved and the timelines – its just not adding up. I’m very scared and i know i can’t do this on my own. I’ll need ya’ll to stand with me. I don’t see it yet but i am trusting in God all the way. I still can remember the words he said to me, “your greatest asset is not your job, its not even money, or your education or the people you know, your greatest asset is your FAITH. nuffsed!!!
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January 30, 2012 at 11:46 am
Hello Mavuno
I being a Loyal Mavunite i felt bad when i was speaking with one of my friends about how
Our church was,and how it has made me grow,Despite that all i got was a friend who Doubted
what Mavuno as a church teaches us. but being mature at heart and mind i never made a fuss
out of it, i smiled and told myself i will not listen to what others say about my Church Mavuno,
I will support it with all My heart,like i Support Liverpool,and i will give my all despite
negative accumens from my frends(Close ones), ( i think i should practice choosing my buddies wisely)
As the month of Prayer and fasting comes along. I pray that i will challange myself
to fast and Give it my all.Lets Do it Mavuno
Thank you
You willl never walk alone
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January 31, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Hi there,
l am a Mavunite damu too, and just like you i ve through the phase of super excitement about stuff happening at church, and telling these stories on the mountain only to have people look at me like im loco. this had happened so often that i’d come up with a rehearsed response to any doubters. then it hit me. its okay for them to doubt.
you know the change that has happened in your life, and trust me even those around you have too, and that is why you will keep them as your friends. besides having friends is not about surrounding yourself with people who’ll always agree with you, i think its about keeping that fire burning bright enough for them to see. so if you did initially think that you’d chosen your friends well, then keep them, and keep doing what you’re doing. in time, it wont be about the doubt, they’ll want to get involved.
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January 30, 2012 at 12:15 pm
Wow, this month’s series has been many things, but timely is one of them.
i ended 2011, thinking okay well that’s over lets strap our boots for the next one. i must be honest that my heart was heavy, like there was this thick immobile mist hanging over me, i felt like things ought to be moving and although i didnt want to admit it, i was tired of being in the same place year after year, with piece-meal changes. i did make a few resolutions most of which were financial, inspired by the what you mama dint teach you about money series. i resolves to save more, something have been terrible at. it seemed appropriate since i have always thought money or the perpetual lack of it, to be the biggest barrier to getting to the next level.
then Pastor M. said something; that i shoulnt ask God for the money to get what i need, but simply ask for what i need. i hadnt realised that he was talking about faith.
then through the month and the launch of Secure Occupy Own, it hit me that Mavuno is a community of faith, as a church, we really do have s story, and faith is the only explanation for why we are where we are and how we got here. it really is amazing.
But in the real, these are experiences that the church has experienced as a whole. i badly want the same for myself. im tired of merely making it, i want to THRIVE. I feel God telling me that since ive been playing by my rules and the result has been the same, i need to make a drastic game changer. i truly feel him telling me to test him and see.
see here’s the thing, even if is saved all my salary all year, i still. wouldn’t be able to achieve the things i am hoping for this year.
So to THRIVE i have decided to live on faith. i am going to commit to give sacrificially for to Mavuno for the move to the new land. i will give that which i was to save. whether this is smart, i dont know..
logically it would be great to have security as a church and operate on land we own, the room for growth will be unfathomable. but this is not why i am giving. i am giving as an act of faith. im giving and telling God, here’s my trust. I am getting in full throttle, lets see what happens. i choose to place in your hands all that i am hoping for this year. Besides whats there to lose. worst case scenario is that i’ll be at the same place i am now, and ive been there i know what its like and i dont like it!!
its time for change!!
PS: I am scared, but praying for God to help me in my unbelief.
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January 31, 2012 at 1:43 pm
@Vania Kibui
You have just read my mind…the part about you playing by your rules and not Gods and things haven’t changed. I also needed to make a drastic change in the way i have been doing things and i just did. Thanks for sharing.
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January 31, 2012 at 12:04 pm
Is Mombasa Diaspora!! Thank God we’ve got organized pastors!! I was waiting for the sermon notes with baited breath every Sunday afternoon. refreshing my facebook page after every three seconds. sure they came through!!
Yani mere lepers saved the whole country from starving to death? I may be an underdog but God has sure used me (leper) to do marvelous things that i couldn’t fathom. If God can use me!! sure he can use anything. That’s what I got this month. You have to keep your relationships in good check to get you to the next level. A lot to say lakini lets stick to this. If you wanna walk farthest,keep your relationships in check!! they’ll make you THRIVE!!!
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January 31, 2012 at 12:22 pm
I believe the THRIVE series was the best way to start my year after one hell of a year called 2011!!
If I was to use one word to describe 2011, it would be “I SURVIVED” (well those are two…) but yeah, it was one hell of a year when everything that could go wrong went wrong, it was like my life was the perfect manual for Murphy’s law application!!
Then came the THRIVE series and this dark cloud that was hovering over me, lifted! I realized that it was not over until the fat lady sings! That word “survive” has been scrapped from my dictionary from now henceforth!! The past is gone and the new has come so the world better watch out coz this lady has been unleashed and is swimming in the joy of the Lord, ready to thrive and enjoy the journey every single day!!
God bless you Pastor M.
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February 1, 2012 at 7:25 am
This is my prayer thru’out this month of prayer. Thanx Mavuno for the guidline too
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February 1, 2012 at 8:17 am
THRIVE..One of the best sermons av listened to at mavuno.This is indeed the year to THRIVE and not just Survive.
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February 1, 2012 at 9:26 am
Praise God. I came for the worship night and the following two days things started happening. Now as I start the month of prayer my heart and mind are expectant and ready for God and the working He is ready to do through me.
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February 1, 2012 at 12:03 pm
January was a good month i smiled for real again and all the preachings and everything around me shows I will thrive in 2012. I have been coming to mavuno a few times. I was introduced by a guy I liked who ended up hurting me to death. Funny enough i still love that man to the core ( Dont judge and trust me am not mad). Anyway on new years i came for service and heard peoples testimonies and I cried the whole service not cause i was touched because i thought will God ever give me a chance to give a miraculous story’s like those people. So i decided i will try and come to church this whole month and see if I will also be touched and trust me ladies and gentlemen I thrived in the month of January. I smiled again, I got my self confidence again , remembered who i was again and DRUMS ROLL!!!! GAVE MY LIFE TO CHRIST. So here I am giving my testimony exactly one month later of what God has done for me YIPEE!!!!!. So better believe I am now a full Mavuno member I feel refreshed and I have syke for this months fast and preachings. So I believe that the first of every month I will be telling the world of the marvelous things God has done for me. As for the big step Mavuno wants to take, don’t worry mavunites will be in the new premises by the 1st of one of this wonderful months of this year. Thank you for being a lovely family and home Mavuno>
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February 4, 2012 at 10:12 am
Hi all,
i honestly believe God is working a miracle at mavuno and the THRIVE sermon was very timely.my prayer is that when God is moving none of us shall be left behind.
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February 6, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Hi ya’ll,
Beginning of this year I sort to ‘Look FROM the place where I am at’. I need several new beginnings and I cannot search for a new beginning without looking from where I am.
Looking from where you are is looking further ahead; to see that which can be even if it currently is not, as if it is.
I can’t pass the buck on this one and neither can you…Look from where you are and take the leap.
http://thafero.wordpress.com/
Blessed year!
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March 7, 2012 at 6:11 am
Pastor M allow me to begin with one expression you use so much and funnily i do too WHAT!!!as in WHAT!!
Okay towards the end of last year and beginning of this year, a long lost good friend of mine had been trying to be in contact with me he was inboxing me on facebook and writting very good, weird things like i love you and i miss you on my wall, and i say weird because it had been over a year since we talked and this seemed like ‘hints’ to me so on the first of january i remember i gave him my phone number and asked him that we keep in contact,meet up and all then he told me he had something very important to tell me,hehe i dnt know why but i was convinced in my head that maybe he was going to declare his undying love for me and how he realized over the years he loved me,just somwhere along those lines you know,shock on me
my friend!!!he informed me that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the skin, non-melanomic, and doctors had given him 8months to live, what!!
I have never been this scared,i cried because i have never imagined that such a thing could happen to anyone i knew and to top it up i hadnt even been keeping contact ,8mnths and all this time i hadnt known ,i remember coming to church throughout the thrive series and you telling us to thrive in all sectors of our life,and i used to pray and encourage him each day with what you told us every sunday ,it was hard for him he was in pain he didnt know how he would thrive in his situation but i told him to just trust in God,just that and he would be okay and on the prayer sermon i remember i prayed and asked God to bless my friend to a point of disbelief for him to come through for him,but it seemed things were only getting worse, over time doctors detected a tumor in his head and his cancer cells kept increasing in his body from 7% to 15% he was told he had to go for surgery and radiation and the side effects would be major he would be autistic.
All the people i told about my friend kept telling me “aki woiye huyo atakufa tu all u can do is be there”i was not going to give up on God i always prayed for him its all i could do,then i came across 1peter 1:6 ,it blessed me and i asked my friend to use it as an encouragment point, to cut the long story short as he was going for his regular checkups towards the end of febuary doctors were checking to see how far the tumor had gone in his head believe it or not the tumor was nowhere to be traced they did all sorts of tests on him nothing to be seen, doctors couldnt explain it,he was asked to go to kenyatta and nairobi hospital same story pastor M they just told him his cancer cells are inactive WHAT!!,they cant explain it2 weeks now his hair has started growing back,8months to live remember,tell me if this is not thriving i am soo happy and what the power of trusting in God and power of belief can do, thriving is what this year is all about and i am blessed by this.i hope that people will be encouraged not to ever give up on God and just trust him
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March 7, 2012 at 6:15 am
No survival mavunites just thriving
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