Lakisha, the Author

Daily Devotional – 12/13/16 “Character reference!”

In Luke 10, Jesus gives a parable of a ‘good’ Samaritan who stopped to help a man in need. A man who had been robbed of all he had and then beaten. A man who laid helpless on the road yet no one offered to help. A man who others had passed by because they “didn’t want to get involved.” You know how we do. We don’t want to get into people’s business so we allow them to lay in their mess. We don’t want to get involved so we walk pass people who are dying in front of us. We don’t want to get tangled into their lives so we turn our heads when we see their need. I’m not going to go deep into this particular scripture, now, but if you read the passage you’ll notice that it didn’t give the identity of the man just that he was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, which leads me to believe He is a Jew. This is important. The bible goes on to identify that a priest and a Levite man both passed by this distressed man without lifting a hand in need.

Yet, here comes this Samaritan who takes pity on the man. A Samaritan who didn’t fool with the Jews because the Jews didn’t mess with them. However, he goes out of his way to bandage this man’s wounds, puts him on a donkey, takes him to a nearby inn and then pays for him to stay there until he gets well. A Samaritan who by culture wasn’t fitting to even eat with. Oh but I’ve come to understand this … Helping someone isn’t about the condition or circumstance of the person in need but it’s really about the character of you whose doing the helping. This is why God will allow things to fall in front of you. God needs to test your character to see if you’re really about this life! God needs to know if you’ll really help, like you claim. God needs to see if you’ll go like you say you will. Beloved, God is simply checking to see if there’s a fire, within you, or if it’s all smoke. This is why, when it comes to helping, it is about you! God can heal, deliver, provide and set free without you but He’ll use you to manifest things simply to see if your character is worthy.

Daily Devotional – 12/9/16 “Jericho walls!”

For the last few weeks, all I’ve been hearing in my spirit is Jericho Walls. I know the story, so I thought, but I couldn’t understand why it being pressed so heavily upon me. Even this morning. So, I got up and I prayed. I prayed for my family, my pastor, my church family and even my old church family and their pastor. I mean calling out names, type of praying because I need God to remove some walls, to break some chains, to destroy some stuff that has been whispered in the atmosphere. I need some stuff done.

Then I opened my bible to Joshua 6 and here’s what I found.

1. You have to trust God and take Him at His word. See, the people who are fighting against you really don’t have a problem with you but they are afraid of the anointing within you. For in Joshua 6:1, it says, “Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in.” Stop fighting them.
2. You have to take God at His word for Joshua 6:2 says, “But the LORD said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.” Believe that God has given you the assignment.
3. You have to have some folk who are willing to stand with you even when it’s not their battle because you can’t do it alone. I don’t care how strong you think you are, you can’t do it by yourself. For it says in Joshua 6:3, “You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days.”
4. You need somebody covering you. For Joshua 6:4 says, “Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn.” Get attached to somebody with some oil. God’s oil!
5. Now get up and go get what’s yours. For Joshua 6:4b-5 says, “On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

I don’t know what walls are preventing you, these walls could be people but beloved, I declare that they can be moved. You just have to be willing to get up and get what’s yours!

Daily Devotional – 12/8/16 “New shade of you!”

When you press a grape, you get grape juice and in some cases, a grape seed. When you apply pressure to an olive, you get olive juice. When you squeeze an egg, it burst. You get my point, right? Well, why are you surprised at what’s coming out of you when God applies pressure? I mean, you knew good and well, you were full of hell before you asked God to make you over. You knew, sure you did, that you were full of anger and resentment before you surrendered saying, “Lord, have your way.” So, tell me again why you’re shocked at what’s now flowing from you. You do know that God has to first remove the mess before filling you with the manifestation of His glory, don’t you? Mark 2:21-22 says, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

See, if God puts His anointing into the old you, it wouldn’t take like He needs it too. If God allows His grace to fill the old you, it may not have as much as an impact. Think about it. You have a red wall and you decide to paint it white. If you put the white on top of the old red, it’ll bleed through. Oh but if you clean the wall, sand the walls and them prim the walls; you’ll be able to paint it white like you planned. This is why God has to allow us to go through the pressure of life, situations and circumstances. It’s preparing us for the new. And you that’s going through, it’s just the process. God is cleaning you, that’s why folks aren’t calling and showing up like they used too. God is sanding you, that’s why you’re feeling pain you can’t explain or understand because God only sands because primer sticks better to a roughened surface. (Don’t believe me, look it up.) And then He’ll prim you, that’s covering you with His Holy Grace that keeps the old you from bleeding through on the new you! Beloved, losing folk, it’s part of the process. The pressure, it’s part of the process. The pain, it’s part of the process. You just need to allow it to happen in order to get to the new shade of you!

Daily Devotional – 12/7/16 “Your sacrifice is not in vain!”

I can remember as a child, waking up on Christmas at my grandparent’s house, excited for the shoe box grandma had decorated and filled with walnuts, pecans, orange slice candy, peppermints, oranges and apples and etc. for each one of us. I was so happy to get that box because it was something that grandma had prepared with her own hands. I didn’t care about the latest technology or fashions, I wanted that box. I told her a while back that if I could get anything for Christmas now, I’d want that box. That’s because I appreciated grandma for her sacrifice. It wasn’t about money, it was grandma’s gift to me. And as I watch her now in her 86 years of living, she still gives, she still feeds and she still helps everybody she can. Grandma gives, even if it means sacrificing her last because she knows her sacrifice isn’t in vain. I don’t know why God gave me this to share but somebody needs to know that your sacrifice isn’t going unnoticed.

All the times you help, it isn’t for nothing because you’re about to reap from that harvest. All those times you picked folk up, it means something and you’re about to get it back. Those times you cooked and fed folk that didn’t even say thank you, you’re about to be repaid. Those nights you went even when you didn’t feel like it, it’s about to pay off. Those many times, dear pastor, that you’ve sacrificed your family only to still hear “you aren’t doing enough,” by the deacon board, it’s about to work in your favor. Sir/ma’am, your sacrifice isn’t for nothing and I need you to know that. I get it, you’re tired of being overworked and underappreciated but the time is now upon you that you shall get back everything you’ve sown. You don’t have to believe me but you know the word says in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Your sacrifice isn’t in vain and it’s about to pay off. Stay faithful and keep serving.

Daily Devotional – 12/6/16 “The blessing in NO!”

You may not recognize this but there’s a blessing in the no and the not yet. I know it’s easy for me to say when I am on the outside looking in but think about it. When God tells us no, it’s to test your faith and usually because He has something greater. When the bank turned you down, it made you grind harder to clear your name and your credit. When folk closed the door on you, it made you hustle harder to ensure the next door was yours. When they said you couldn’t do it, it gave you the extra push you needed to prove them wrong. When he said you’d never make it, you did just so he’d see it for himself from afar. When she said you’d never amount to nothing, you made sure you did and even smiled when she congratulated you. There’s power in NO. You knew you couldn’t afford that car, the blessing was being turned down. You knew you weren’t ready for that promotion and the no gave you time to get yourself together. That eviction, repossession or foreclosure allowed you to see God working. Baby, you were blessed when that relationship didn’t work out and because they denied you, you met your ‘real thang.’

This is why I say there’s a blessing in the no and the not yet. Stop forcing something that’s not meant. Stop searching for stuff that you know isn’t yours. Stop trying to get back what has left. See the blessing in the no and the not yet because it’s there. Affirm today… I, (your name), by the power of the living God, declare that today I will no longer chase what isn’t mine. Today, I, (your name), shall no longer be held captive by the word no for I will embrace the blessing in it. Today, I will no longer hang my head in shame but I’ll rejoice in knowing, it’s not my time yet. Today, I will not be afraid of hearing no. Today, I’ll take the no and the not yet, only because I know the kinks are being worked out of my YES! Today, I’ll see the blessing in no, not yet and even goodbye because I know God’s delay does not mean denial.