Overcoming The Challenges Of Self-Love, Part 3: Accepting The Love Of God With Lateef Manigault

The Love of God is far and wide and all-encompassing and knowing that, it becomes easier to see your worth from His eyes. This is how today’s guest overcame the challenges of self-love. Lateef Manigault is a faithful follower of Christ. He is also a Spoken Word Artist, going by Lateef “The Oracle” with a Youtube channel, Grace and Truth Collective. Join his chat with Dr. Kim Grimes as he opens up about his journey with Christ and how falling in love with Christ allowed him to accept himself and his gifts. Tune in as Lateef also shares one of his staple pieces: a beautifully raw and honest six-minute spoken word performance.

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Overcoming The Challenges Of Self-Love, Part 3: Accepting The Love Of God With Lateef Manigault

Falling Madly, Madly.. Did I Say Madly In Love With Who You Are!

In this episode, we’re still in our series of overcoming the challenges of self-love. I have a special guest for you. I can’t wait for you to meet him. I am so excited. Before that, I need to share and go over the discussion overview so everyone reading can be reminded of what we’re talking about. You are you unapologetically means being true to how you were created and not allowing people’s opinions to affect how you show up in life.

People are going to talk regardless, so we’re just going to let them talk because you have no time whatsoever to be intimidated by the presence of others and begin to think little of yourself. When you show up without pretense and hesitation, the world can’t dim your dreamer. Most importantly, you will be inspired to shine your light, share it and help others to tap into their own brilliance because we know society’s rigid expectations. It could be hard to find your true identity.

The feeling of being lost in this day’s clashing ideas, conflicting beliefs, flood of information and the COVID pandemic can be overwhelming. Most people dumb down, hide or run from who they really are. As a result, it pushes them into going with the flow, just being there, rather than expressing themselves authentically. There are many opinions and ideas now that make it hard for you to find your true self. Most of all, we find ourselves going with the flow. It stops you from being creative and finding your true self. It dampers your creativity because you’re trying not to show up the way you are.

We all want approval from other people, but we want you to find your own approval from yourself and your inner core here. When you do that, it is so empowering. It’s empowering, just like the guest that I’m going to introduce to you now. I’m so excited. Lateef Manigault, first and foremost, is a follower of Christ. He’s a Jesus follower. I love to say and know that. He is the proud husband of his best friend and high school sweetheart, Kerria Manigault. He is a grad student at Regent University, Master’s in Law program and rising 1L at NCCU School of Law.

He’s going to tell you what that NCCU is because it’s just here. He has been a spoken word artist for the last couple of years. He goes by the name of Lateef the Oracle. Lateef spends time studying, writing and performing poetry. Outside of that, his life is dedicated to outreach, going out into the darkest places of the world, displaying and preaching the truth.

He’s sharing the love that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The summation of all of this is that Lateef is called by God to be a voice and proclaim the gospel to all that had ears to hear from the courthouse to the street, from the stage to the pulpit. Please help me welcome my dear mentee and friend, Lateef “The Oracle” Manigault, to our show. Welcome, Lateef.

What’s up?

I’m so excited that you’re here. Thank you for accepting my invitation to be on the show. You’re in store for something that is juicy and sweet. Lateef, we go back. I want you to share with the audience how we met. When we touched on it, I was like, “It’s been that long.” Go ahead and share that with our audience how we met.

I first met Ms. Kim when I was 13 or 14 and I was a freshman in high school. I was either starting or had just finished my freshman year. I was part of this program called the Young Diplomats Program at Hampton University. I remember she had come to speak to us and seeing her like, “I want to do that. I want to speak to people. I want to encourage people. I want to give people hope.”

As soon as she’s finished speaking, I went down and said, “My name is Lateef. I want to do what you do,” and the rest is pretty much history. Years later, we’re still building that relationship. I’m sure it’s been crazy for you because you’ve watched me change so much from this shy, quiet kid to now this outspoken, bold individual. It’s been dope.

To hear and see you speak gets me giddy because I watched you grow up and it’s been an honor. I’m so honored to be blessed by your presence. Let’s jump into the interview because I want my audience to get to know who you are. Even though I said it’s an interview and I have some questions for you, but it’s a discussion. I want you to share. What does it mean to you to be you unapologetically? What does that mean to you when you hear that?

I want to start by reading a verse from 1 Corinthians 1:16. It says, “For by Him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.” I want to focus on that last part where it says, “All things were created through him and for him.”

That Him is Christ. When we understand that, what that means is that all of us were created for Christ. For me, that means who I am is to be a child of God in my life, and my sole purpose is to glorify God. The way I do that will differentiate from person to person, but who I am is a child of God and my purpose is to glorify him.

You’re sharing you are you unapologetically because of who you were created to be by God. It’s clear that’s who you are because you were created for him and to glorify him. When did you first figure out who you were and what did that process look like for you?

This was a gradual process. It started off when I first started writing poetry, which was back in high school. This was at the end of my sophomore year. It was at that moment that I knew when I first started writing poetry and performing that I realized I wanted to be a voice and speak for people. I also didn’t realize what that looked like and how that was. At that point, I was the only Christian by name, not by practice.

This idea of being a voice developed over the years. It hit its culmination when I became a freshman in college at Regent University. Being around that environment got me to start taking Christianity seriously. It was the moment when I started to delve into my word and spend more time with God that it was like, “I’m not a voice for people. I’m a voice for God.” What that looks like is me upholding the imago Dei, the image of God that we are all made in. It wasn’t like this a-ha moment. It was a gradual, developmental process.

This process that you’re sharing was gradual. Correct me if I’m wrong. It had to be a part of you, and you said it. You’re acknowledging your gifts, talents, and something about that you were unique in your own self. Acknowledging that, was that not part of the process? If so, share a little bit about that.

In terms of acknowledging the gift and that I’m unique, that was honestly the most difficult part. To be a little bit transparent, I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression for almost all my life for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I wasn’t able to identify that at the time, but I still what I was dealing with. When I started doing poetry, I was like, “This is nothing special. This is something I can do.” I didn’t think anything of it. What changed were two things.

There’s a saying that says you can’t love other people without loving yourself first. I disagree with that because, for me, I learned how to love myself or begin to learn how to love myself through understanding how God loves me and, more importantly, understanding how my wife, my girlfriend at the time, loved me. Even now, I still struggle with this. I felt like there were so many different things wrong about me and messed up like, “I wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t this. I wasn’t that.”

The way she loved me was like, “You’re probably not good enough. You’re probably not perfect. You might not be any of these things, but nonetheless, I love you anyway.” We like to put qualifiers on why we love people, but the reality is there isn’t a qualifier. It’s just you love them because of them. It was that that helped me acknowledge the gift that I have, that love that I was experiencing and made me realize like, “This is something special. This is important because it’s a part of me and I’m important. I am loved by God and by my wife.” That realization helped me acknowledge the beauty of the gift that I was given in me.

Can we elaborate a little bit more? You shared about your struggle. I know that you were not alone and I know people are not alone. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the struggle so that our audience can connect with what you went through? We both can say and agree that there are people out there that are struggling. To know that you’re not alone is when you hear someone else’s story, and that story resonates with you. What was the hardest part? You share that it was the love of God and the love of your then-girlfriend. Share with us the struggle and what it looked like. Paint that picture for us.

I’m originally from Bronx, New York. My mom is a devout Christian and my dad is a devout follower of the Nation of Islam. At the time, they were not married, and they’re still not, but my dad was in and out of my life because he was with the Nation of Islam down in Louisiana. That affected me. The only time I would see him was when he would come up periodically. When he did come up, it wasn’t always positive. I remember watching him fistfight with my mom. I remember all the arguments my mom would have with my dad about, “You need to do this. You need to do that.”

I remember one moment in particular when I was growing up, where I was scared to death because my dad came over drunk and was begging for money. My mom wrote a piece about this. She could see the fear that I had and it pushed that fear she had down. She said, “Let’s go to the bank. Let’s do what we got to do.” This is the defining moment for me. Around the time, I was eight. This moment changed my life. I remember when my mom walked out the door. I remember going into my bedroom, crying and bawling my eyes out. I was like, “I’m never going to see my mom again.”

At that moment, I was like, “If she comes back up here, I’m going down with her. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t know how it was going to happen, but I’m going down with her. I’m going to protect her.” When I hopped in the car, they were going back and forth, arguing, cursing and carrying on the whole thing. I remember my mom saying, “Stop. Troy’s in the back.” That’s my middle name. My dad was like, “I don’t give an F about Troy. Give me money.” That has affected me to this day. With my dad, I felt like I would never be able to meet that standard of manhood.

It was always the question of, “Why aren’t you around? Why aren’t you there? On top of that, how could you say that about me?” For me, I had always struggled with whether or not I am a good man, lead a household or if I’m generally worthy to get that love. For a long time, and even now, to a certain degree, I push people away and stay within my own square and my own boss. I have a line where I say, “Both made me prefer being sad over happy because when you’re happy, you begin to expect better only to be disappointed. At least when I’m depressed, I already hate myself enough to not expect anything from anyone else.”

I carried that mindset with me for a long time. That was a struggle. Even now, there was a later situation when my mom remarried and I relive the situation with my dad. I’ve always been in this space where I’m always questioning whether or not I’m a good man. That’s at the crux of it. When it came to poetry, for me, it was like, “This is too emotional. As a man, I can’t be emotional.” I have this skewed idea and I didn’t figure out how to navigate all that.

The struggle has been working through that. The unfortunate thing for me is the way I viewed my dad also translated how I began to view God as well. I already was feeling like, “My dad doesn’t care about me. He wants something to do with me. If I make a mistake, whatever love he may have is going to be gone.” That same attitude, I would translate towards God. That’s still a struggle. That’s still something I have to fight and work through. That is the struggle for me. It’s at the crux of it.

It’s realizing and trying to understand that, “Am I good enough?” What helped me realize and get through that is this. It’s understanding that according to scripture, I’m not good enough, but there’s someone who is. Christ is good enough. He looked at me in my sin while I was yet his enemy and said, “I’m going to die for you. Not only am I going to die for you. I choose you.”

Whenever I’m feeling insecure and feeling some type of way with my dad or anything else, I remember like, “According to scripture, there’s nothing good about me. Despite that, God still says, ‘I choose you. I want you. You are mine.'” That you are mine has always made all the difference. It removed this pressure to try to be something that I’m not because no matter what, there’s nothing I could have done to earn that favor from God.

There’s nothing I can do to lose it. It allows me to move in a space where it’s like, “I don’t have to prove myself to anyone. I may feel like that, I may feel like I have to, but at the end of the day, I know in my mind and heart that I don’t have to prove myself to anyone because the only opinion that matters is God. He says I’m his.” It has changed the way I live. It has changed the way I view God. It has changed the way I move and walk.

It transformed everything about the way I think about myself, even when it comes to pressure. Don’t get it twisted. I still struggle with depression and anxiety, but it becomes so much more manageable when I realize that’s okay and I don’t have to force myself to get over it. We tried to put ourselves on these deadlines for healing and stuff when God doesn’t even do that. He’s like, “Step. Come to me. We are going to work it out.”

That’s a lot. That was not only empowering but feeling as well. You answered a part of this question, but I’m going to ask it anyway. What advice would you give to our audience who are still trying to find themselves, who are still struggling and can relate to what you were dealing with? What advice can you give them?

I’ll give a perfect example. Do not look to yourself for identity because when you try to look for yourself for identity, all you’ll see are your flaws. Don’t look to other people because if you look to other people, you’ll start people-pleasing. What I fell into it as I began to look at goals as to where I found my identity. I would say my identity is to be an attorney such and such. My identity is a poet. Both those things are a part of me, but that’s not who I am. I’ll give you a perfect example.

I got accepted into North Carolina Central University School of Law. That’s NCCU. That has been a dream of mine for such a long time to get into law school. I struggled with the LSAT. I could tell you stories. That was a struggle. Over time, two things had happened. One, my dad went to law school. Part of it was I was trying to be me getting in is my way of saying, “I don’t need you. I’m better than you.” I was trying to prove myself to somebody. The other part of it was I was also looking at it as a way out. My mom remarried and that whole situation has caused a lot of heartache for me. To put it out there again, he swung on me. It was a rough situation.

Eventually, I ended up moving out of my mom’s apartment. That broke me. I was almost homeless for a little while. If it wasn’t for my aunt and my girlfriend’s family at the time, I don’t know where I would have been. Law school, for me, became a way to get away from everything, all the heartache, pain, frustration and anger. When I finally got in this past Christmas, I thought I had let go of a lot of that and I did, but I was still holding onto it. Watch what happens. I get in this excitement. I’m telling everybody, and I’m over the moon and yet, this is the most depressed I’ve ever been.

I got what I wanted, everything that I’ve been striving and fighting for, yet it didn’t make me feel any better. The problem, pain and hurt were still there. My advice is do not seek identity and hope in yourself, the world or some goal, none of that. At the end of the day, it’s not tangible and consistent. It can be gone in a flash. What is tangible, consistent, what is, has been and will always be, is God. The Bible tells us that God is not like man that he would lie or change his mind. He is constant. He does not change his character or nature. That is something that you can place your hope in.

When you place your hope in something that is unchanging, your hope is locked in. It’s not going anywhere. You’ll have your struggles, but it’s not because of the inconsistency of where you have placed your hope. It is because of the lack of faith that you have in what you’ve placed your hope on. That’s my advice. Don’t place your hope in the world, yourself or these abstract goals. Place your hope in God. I truly believe that that will help you get through so many different obstacles because what happens is you’re not trying to figure out a plan on your own.

This is the joke that I have all the time. I’m always learning because now it’s completely changed. I used to believe that I knew exactly how my life was going to go, which direction I was going to go, where I was going to be, all of these. I used to know everything with a clear understanding. What changed all that is I somehow ended up at Regent University, this private Christian institute. I always thought I was going to go to the HBCU, but here I am at Regent University.

I knew I was going to law school and would get in. I didn’t get in the first time I applied. At this point in time, I was looking at it as my way out. This was, in a way, my salvation in a weird way. It became an idol for me. When I got the night, it was like, “My hope is gone now. What am I doing?” I was forced to put my hope back in God. What I found was this. We are horrible fortune tellers.

We can barely see the next hour. It’s a little bit arrogant for us to assume that we can see years down the line. I’m not saying we can’t have a general idea of where we want to go, but to believe that we can get super specific and know with 100% surety with every day is going to look like is a little bit naive and prideful in a sense. The whole situation taught me was God knows where I’m going fully and completely. The running joke for me is I have these plans and goals, but at the end of the day, I can’t see past the next couple of months. I can’t even see past tomorrow.

Even as I say that, I feel like that should give me so much anxiety, but it doesn’t. It fills me with so much peace. Why? It’s because I’m not walking blindly. I’m being led by God, who was good, holy and righteous. Therefore, wherever he leads me is going to be good, holy and righteous. It’s always going to be in my best interest, even if where he leads me might be painful. Understanding that helped me through a lot.

You blessed me tremendously by sharing your story, so I know those who are reading are truly going to be blessed. In this discussion, I cannot and would not without you having an opportunity to share your gift because you are the Oracle. You are that spoken word artist. I would love for our audience to get a taste of your brilliance. Have you got anything?

I have a few pieces. I’m thinking about which one to choose from.

Let me know because I want them to know all of that you had shared and how empowering it was, even sharing your struggles. Even now, we have to take it one day at a time to get to where God wants us to be. I always say, “Be present to the moment. Don’t worry about tomorrow until tomorrow becomes today.” That’s something that I always say. I would love for you to share your gift with our audience.

I have a six-minute piece that is a staple piece of mine. It’s the details of all of who I am. Again, I go by The Oracle. The hood is integral to who I am as an artist.

Let me introduce you as The Oracle. Ladies and gentlemen, my devout readers, I want you to take a moment and pause to introduce him to you. You’ve been learning from Lateef Manigault and he’s been sharing, but now, you’re about to hear from Lateef “The Oracle.” Please help me welcome The Oracle to our platform.

“I used to believe sadness was all I am. I would wallow in self-pity then put on trauma like a badge as if without the pain of my past, I would no longer be qualified to help heal wounds. I believed that I would never be able to bring light to the darkness unless I lived in darkness. The irony is that if one lives in darkness for too long, eventually, the fire of our candle will burn out. We will have nothing left to give to those in need because we will become just like them, those who are trapped in darkness, unable to see hope, blind to the light at the end of the tunnel.

That is exactly what happened to me. I found comfort in my pain while the pain was conspiring with comfort to make me come until sin. It almost worked. I found myself in a toxic relationship with a beautiful woman. Her name is trauma. She was the hand that fed my appetite for self-hatred. She abused me, beat me until I came to the end of myself. It was an excruciating pleasure. She gave me meaning, but eventually, all the pain would outweigh all the pleasure trauma gave me. We would break up, but I would always come running back whenever.

Rumination became my passion, so I could hear trauma whisper her seductive sweet lies into my mind to my heart to pretend it’s being mended. I love to watch her leave, but I hate to see her goal because trauma is an expert at being vindictive. Every time she leaves, she takes everything she ever gave to me, the false perception of being a perfect Christian, the false sense of security, familiarity, my very identity. Sometimes, I feel like Samson and Delilah cut his locks. Instead of my locks being the source of my strength, it was anxiety and depression that pushed me forward.

When me and trauma split for what I pray is the last time, she did not take anxiety and depression with her. No. She found a way to take back all the strength that anxiety and depression ever gave me and leave. All the shock was the brokenness behind. All I was left with was the question. ‘If trauma does not motivate me, if drama is no longer my refuge, if trauma is no longer where my self-worth or my identity resides, and all I have is a pile of broken pieces that don’t fit with each other, who am I?’

Today, like many of you right now, I am searching. Searching for something new to redefine me, searching for new fuel to reignite the fire that is slowly flickering out inside of me. I think this time, I will let the potter of this clay give me shape continually. Here I am, God. I’m crying out to you. I surrender. I thought I knew everything, but it turns out I know nothing. I realize now that you know better than me and my wisdom is a facade. If I don’t fear you, my body, my mind, my very soul are not my own.

They were bought by a price that is Christ, so I no longer want the drift. I want it to be driven. I’m asking you, who am I? Seek and you shall find. Ask, and you shall receive. In the darkness of my mind, I heard the answer. Listening to a spirit, I put pen to paper and there before me, I saw the answer, but what should have given me comfort filled me with so much fear that you think I heard a professing Christian’s worst nightmare the part from me I never knew.

On the contrary, that couldn’t be further from the truth written in ink, “You are my child in whom I am well pleased,” a reiteration of a burst found in the gospels to coat off my heartstrings. It’s amazing how the ancient word is written in modern ink from the point of my pen to play me like a fiddle as if I was reading it straight from the source, as if I was hearing the word straight from the mouth of God who spoke them.

I guess it isn’t the embroidery of the Bible that makes it holy, but rather the power of God by men to put ink to papyrus and let men welcome persecution, like an old friend with a taste of praise for Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior, lingering on the tongues of death but I digress. I was taken back. I didn’t understand how God can be pleased with me when earlier that day, I was practicing sin, knowing full well the wickedness within my actions. We search for meaning and purpose in the most overcomplicated places.

We reject the righteousness of God’s word. We say the Bible is flawed, yet we are willing to read self-help books that please our wicked flesh as we profess the author’s words is authoritative, only to fall back into a depressive mind state when the tactics of mindfulness no longer satisfy us or are rejecting the authority of the scriptures when it says we cannot help us save ourselves, but with God, all things are possible.

It’s more than probable that God, as the second person in the trinity, Jesus Christ, who humbled himself to take the appearance of our wicked flesh, all while being innocent and sinless to the penalty of death for our sins on the cross of the cavalry, so whoever believes in him as Lord and savior will not perish but have eternal life guaranteed by the holy spirit. If that wasn’t as convincing and convicting as it should be, then consider this. All who believe are then capable of being free of condemnation, being viewed as clean, holy and righteous. They accord a new creation and so they are a new creation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood with the heavenly inheritance that awaits in the presence of God, his eminence.

Jehovah-Jireh’s Sabbatic work has been finished. It cannot be taken from or at a to, so I stand here before you, no longer enslaved by anxiety, depression or addiction. Confident in this, I am a child of God who is fearfully and wonderfully made, who was undeserving yet unconditionally loved by the father, saved by the son and filled with the holy spirit to use my voice to speak God’s words to the nations, so that God’s light may shine and call out to his lost sheep. This is who he says I am, so this is who I am. My only question for you is, who does God say you are, his creation or his child?”

I’m giddy and silly because of your gift. I always tell people, “When you walk in who God created you to be, you will bless those who are around you.” It’s not an intentional thing. It just happens. Thank you so much. You have been blessing me for years. You don’t know it, but I’m telling you. You have been such a delight, such a person to watch you grow from a young boy into a man that is dedicating their life totally to Christ. What an honor for me to be blessed to see such a thing, and what an honor it is for me to know you. With that, please share with our audience how they can connect with you, get to know you and reach you because I know they want to.

First and foremost, I want to promote my YouTube channel, Grace and Truth Creative Collective. It serves two purposes. It’s for artists to be able to realize that if you’re a Christian, and you’re a poet, you draw, sing or whatever creative art you have, you can still preach the gospel and talk about Christ in that. You can still be a dope artist, successful and good at what you do.

Oftentimes, we feel like we can’t mix religion with arts, but you can because God is a creator. He’s the ultimate creator. Why would he not want us to create as well? That’s the first thing. The second thing is I teach Christian theology. Oftentimes, we have this very blind faith, it’s very experiential and we don’t know why we believe the things that we believe.

We don’t understand that there are centuries worth of historical documents and theological work to prove the truth of the Bible and the gospel of Christ. As a Black male growing up, I always heard that Christianity was the White man’s religion. I wish growing up I would have understood. As a matter of fact, we were Christians before slavery. That’s the first thing. The person who was taught in Christian colleges and universities, St. Augustine, although he may be something to be depicted as a White man, he is a Black man from Northern Africa.

That man, St. Augustine, has shaped Christian thought as we understand it nowadays. I wish I knew that. On one end, I want to be able to offer that to people within the Black media, “There is proof for why the gospel of Christ is the only truth.” There is a reason why we believe what we believe. In general, to increase the theological literacy of Christians is so important. It’s important that we understand why we believe what we believe and defend why we believe what we believe because the scripture tells us that when we’re ready to make a defense, we honor Christ.

Unfortunately, there’s this reality that theology is for academia when it’s not. If you have a religious belief, whether a Christian, atheist or Muslim, you are working from a theological framework. Theology is just the study of God. The moment you have a thought about who you think God is, you are working from a theological standpoint.

Grace and Truth Creative Collective on YouTube is to show Christian artists that you can be a creative and also a Christian at the same time. That’s number one. Number two, it’s also to show Christians as a whole, particularly Christians within the Black community, that there is a rich history of why we believe what we believe. It’s not blind faith. It’s the most reasonable thing in the world. That’s the first way to connect with me, through Grace and Truth Creative Collective on YouTube.

The second way is through Instagram. You can follow me on Instagram from @LateefTheOracle. You can shoot me a DM. Hit me up. For me, I’m willing to pray with you. Tell me what your deepest darkest secret is. I will do what I can to come alongside and walk by you and figure out how I can be used by God to speak into your life. The other way is if you don’t have Instagram, you can also connect with me on Facebook. Type in Lateef Manigault. Hit me up a messenger or DM me on Instagram. I’ll do my best to get in contact with you, chop it up, talk to you, and try to encourage you with the word of God. It’s simple as that.

You have been so amazing, and I am grateful for what you have shared. We want this show to serve, give, heal, lead, and help those who are hurting and those who don’t know. You crossed every T and dotted every I. You hit the ball out of the park. Thank you so much for feeding us the way that you did because that’s one of the things Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” It’s to take care of his people and you did that because that’s who you are and that’s who God created you to be. I’m honored to know you. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

We want to say thank you to Lateef “The Oracle,” who have shared so much. We hope that this show has truly blessed you, but we’re not done with the series. We still have more people that we want to bring to you and have them share challenges of overcoming their challenges of self-love. What we know is that it’s not something that you just wave a one, and it’s done. It’s something that we’re working on every day.

We want you to know that you’re not alone. You have someone here to support and help you in whatever it is that you need. Lateef “The Oracle” did it. He brought it. Thank you so much, Lateef. I appreciate you. That’s it for now. Thank you so much for your time. We’re honored that you used to spend your time with us. We are grateful for that. We look forward to seeing you on our next episode as we’re continuing the series of overcoming the challenges of self-love. See you when we see you. Thanks again and take care.

Important Links

• Young Diplomats Program
• Grace and Truth Creative Collective – YouTube
• @LateefTheOracle – Instagram
• Lateef Manigault – Facebook

About Lateef Manigault

First and foremost, I am a follower of Christ and a proud husband to my best friend and high school sweetheart Kerria Manigault. I am a grad student in Regent University’s Masters in Law program, and a rising 1L at NCCU’s School of Law. I have been a Spoken Word Artist for the last seven years, going by the name Lateef “The Oracle.”

I spend my time studying and writing and performing poetry, but outside that my life is dedicated to outreach, going out into the darkest places of the world, displaying and preaching the truth and love that is the Gospel of Christ. The summation of all of this is that I am called by God to be a voice and proclaim the Gospel to all that have ears to hear, from the courthouse to the streets, from the stage to the pulpit.