Daily Devotional – 1/8/18 “Cease and desist”

Dearly beloved,

I’ve heard you have been involved in some backbiting, lying, stealing, cheating, gossiping and bragging. You’ve been named the prime suspect in sowing discord among folk. You’ve taken it amongst yourself not to speak to family members. You decide when you’ll be loving and when you’ll be mean. You decide when you’ll serve and when you will not. You concoct plans of wickedness and you glory in the suffering of others. Yes, you look as if you’re holy but underneath you’re hellish, very hellish. And I cannot stand by and watch it go on another day. It is a new year and you need to become a new you, for real this year, so ma’am/sir, this is an official notice for you to cease and desist. Read it carefully because today you shall cease in doing things that dims the light of God within you and you shall desist, which means you ought not to restart doing them. For the bible describes people with actions such as this in Proverbs 6:12-14 saying, “What are worthless and wicked people like? They are constant liars, signaling their deceit with a wink of the eye, a nudge of the foot, or the wiggle of fingers. Their perverted hearts plot evil, and they constantly stir up trouble.”


Woman/man of God, are you not tired of being caught up in mess? Are you not sick of spending days fussing and fighting for things that do not benefit you, anyway? Are you not fed up with always speaking negative of folk? Are you not at your wit’s end with being labeled a confusion creator, malicious messenger or babbling bone bringer? Are you not worn out from having your hand in the demise of folk? Yes, I know your ego is boosted when people say you’re the one who has no filter on your mouth and who will say the first thing that comes to mind without caring about folk’s feelings. Okay, you are the one who doesn’t mind getting into it with folk or putting people in their place. You’re the one who doesn’t mind dabbling in the affairs of others. But is it really worth it? Is having that kind of label tied to your name worth the few minutes of fame? If not, then may I suggest you cease and desist because as with any cease and desist order there are consequences if you do not comply. For the next verse, Proverbs 6:15 says this, “But they will be destroyed suddenly, broken in an instant beyond all hope of healing.” If you didn’t know, things that have no hope of repair are often discarded without a second thought.

Signed,
Thee Messenger

Daily Devotional – 1/5/18 “Be careful what you speak against!”

Beloved, I’m just going to come right out and say this (well, type it but you get my point) … You will never make it speaking against someone else. What makes you think God will give you the very thing you keep speaking against? You want to be a business owner yet you keep your mouth on that girl’s business every time she post something about it because she used to talk to your baby daddy. You want to be a barber yet you criticize the man who is doing the exact same thing because you haven’t liked him since high school. You’ve been praying for God to send you to lead a 500 member church yet you sit around on Sunday bashing other preachers who do. Baby, your mouth is blocking your blessing. Understand me clearly. I am in no way saying you should be wishing for what someone else has but stop speaking against it. No, do not covet someone else blessing but don’t bash it either. Celebrate with them until your time comes, even if it is from a distance, because the Bible shares in Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

And if this isn’t enough, stop laughing and celebrating when someone falls, it could be your turn next because, again, bible shares in Proverbs 24:17-18, “Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall; don’t be happy when they stumble. For the LORD will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them.” We all have a destiny, a plan perfectly put together by God and at His appointed time, we will get what is rightfully ours. And it will not come by slandering, speaking against, stepping on, laughing and/or sabotaging someone else destiny. Whether you want to hear this or not, there will always be somebody doing something greater than you. This doesn’t make what you do any less, it is just what it is. And on the flip side, just because somebody is doing something bigger than you doesn’t mean it will stop your shine. Do you think the company that makes Bentley’s stop just because Rolls Royce comes out with a new model? Baby, do your thang and be doggone great at it but stop the negativity because your come up/come back will never work at someone else expense.

Daily Devotional – 1/4/18 “CTRL + X”

You know how, sometimes, you can be writing something and when you read over it, there is a word or phrase that doesn’t quite fit? When that happens you can choose to delete that which doesn’t fit or you can use CTRL + X to cut it. Well, as I was thinking about this, sometimes you have to CTRL + X some folk and stuff out in order to balance. Now, here is where I need you to pay attention. Notice I didn’t say delete but I said CTRL + X and I’ll tell you why there is a difference. There will be some times when people and stuff will not fit your NOW but it does not mean they won’t fit your LATER. Think about it. You have a friend who is loud and has a filthy mouth. He/She hasn’t quite figured out how to use their inside voice or how to control their emotions. They will shoot off on social media, call folk and be ready to fight and will show up. Then there is you, who is starting a business, trying to build clientele and maintain your reputation. As you survey the situation, you realize this person needs to be CTRL + X. He/She doesn’t fit your now. But you’ve kept in touch because you’re both still friends and a little while later, they’ve matured and changed. They no longer show up at your business functions acting a fool. Unlike before, they add balance now and all you have to do is CTRL + V because you only cut them, temporarily instead of deleting them permanently.

Please understand me, sometimes the cut you’ll have to make will hurt like you wouldn’t believe. It may be a close friend or family member but let us be honest. Sometimes in order to survive and keep your sanity, you may have to CTRL + X some things that do not balance out your now. It doesn’t mean you love them any less. This doesn’t mean you think you are better than they are but that CTRL + X may save your life. When you have high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease; you have to cut some stuff out in order to survive. After you’ve gotten things under control, you might be able to add back a little of what you cut out, in moderation. Because although it doesn’t fit your now, it may just work in your later. Ecclesiastes 3:1, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” What are you holding on too that needs to be cut from this season? What/Who are you looking at, you know don’t balance yet you’re afraid to cut? Yes, it hurts but the good thing about CTRL+X (cut) is, you can CTRL + V (paste) when the time comes.

Daily Devotional – 1/3/18 “Now what?”

A New Year … now what? This one line could be the entire devotion because ‘Now what,’ is a valid question a lot of us have yet to answer. Yes, the year changed but now what? Yes, we lived to see it but now what? Yes, we’ve made the resolutions and created the vision boards but now what? Do you know the number 18 means bondage, biblically? It does but I believe this year, God is about to release some strongholds. I just believe, with every fiber of my being that God is about to do something in 2018 for somebody who has been faithful even when it seemed like all you were doing was fighting. God is about to shift someone’s ministry who has struggled. Somebody’s business is about to do an about-face, suddenly. Somebody’s health is about to turn, for the good, and it’s going to blow the mind of the doctors. Somebody who has been in the background is going to be thrust into the light, this year. Some things you’ve been praying for are about to come to pass. Beloved, God is about to do a release for the faithful and obedient. And when those around you try to speak on you and doubt God’s ability, He’ll ask just like Luke 13:16, “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”

And God is going to use the unlikely, the overlooked, the underpaid and the downtrodden this year. How do I know? When Israel again did evil, God gave them over to Eglon for 18 years but bible shares in Judges 3:15, “But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD again raised up a rescuer to save them. His name was Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed man of the tribe of Benjamin.” I need you to understand something. Being left-handed, then, was considered a defect yet God used Ehud, a left-handed man to save the children of Israel; after 18 years. Signifying to me that God is about to use those often overlooked to do a major thing in 2018. Is that you? This is why I asked the question, in the beginning, now what because now, what you should do is trust God to move. Now, what you should do is believe that God will do what He says He will. Now, what you should do is have faith that God can do for you what He’s done for others. Can you? Will you? ‘Now what’ is being shifted from a question to a statement of ‘now, what’ by simply changing how you say it and believe it.

Daily Devotional – 12/29/17 “You are not alone!”

She walked the streets, some days out of her mind and talking to herself. Sometimes she would even give herself to the dude on the corner, when he was willing to give her what she needed to stop the voices in her head. Other days, she’d sit in one place staring out as the worst day of her life flashes before her. The day her uncle took her virginity, forcibly. She was 13 and at home by herself because her mom had a work thing. She didn’t think anything of her favorite Uncle Joe stopping by, so she let him in. But what she didn’t see was, Joe wasn’t his usual self, instead he was the monster that heroine turned him into. And that day, he changed her life. She told her mom but she just cleaned her up and told her to never speak of it again. She didn’t but it did not stop it from replaying over and over again, especially when he’d do it, over and over again. Now at 18, she can’t bring herself out of the depression that calls her name. She tried to get help but it never worked, they just didn’t understand. She tried to forget but how can she, when Uncle Joe is still invited to family functions. Tired, she stole cocaine from the dude at the corner and a syringe from the pharmacy. She went into the nearest alley and fixed it up, the way she’d learned. She pulled the belt, tight, around her arm and she stuck the needle in. As the drugs filled her veins, her head fell back and she whispered, “Lord, I’m tired,” before her eyes closed.

When her eyes opened, she was in the alley, belt tied around her arm and the needle still in place. She sits up, looking around because surely she must be dead but then she hears people talking and cars passing by yet no one comes into the alley. She throws the belt and needle into the dumpster and walks out toward the street where she bumps into a girl she knows who asks where she’s been the last few days. Confused, she walks in circles until she gets to the free neighborhood clinic. When it’s her turn to be seen, she tells them what happened, saying the drugs must have been bad. The nurse laughs and says, “Girl, it wasn’t the drugs, it was God.” For somebody who is trying to silence the voices of abuse and molestation, erase the images of losing a loved one or forget the terrible things you’ve been through and the enemy is telling you suicide is the option; it’s not! God is mighty to heal you, if you’ll let Him. God is powerful enough to let you sleep the effects of the sleeping pills off when they should have killed you. God is strong enough to make the gun jam when the bullet should have torn through your skull. God is great enough to take the sting from death just to let you live. And this time when you wake up, your story will change. For you’ll be saying like Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” Your suffering can and it will save you, if you let it. This holiday season, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You are not in this alone.