Lakisha, the Author

Daily Devotional – 12/16/16 “If you were to fall …”

At night I plug my phone up to charge and lately it’s been in the bed, under my pillow. This morning when I got up I realized that my phone had fallen and was hanging over the side of the bed. I don’t know how long it’d been there because, well I was asleep. All I know is, it didn’t fall because had it fallen, I’m pretty sure it probably would have cracked. Yet the connection was tight enough that the cord didn’t slip out and the cord was strong enough to hold it in. Chile, you know this started my spiritual wheels to turning. See, I started to think about all the times we’ve being hanging over the cliff but never falling. I started to think about all the times we’ve being dangling over the give up bluff only to somehow still make it. All the times we’ve been hanging off of, “I can’t take it anymore,” mountain yet never falling into suicide valley. Or the many times we’ve slipped over “I’ve messed up again,” yet never falling into the gorge of “I can’t be forgiven.”

And you know why that is? It’s because our connection to the God of another chance is tight enough to not let us go. Our Father is strong enough to keep us even if it’s hanging over the cliff. Our God is mighty enough to hold us even if we happen to be in a jacked up place again. This is why you have to stay connected to the right source. And this is why you have to make sure your connection is strong enough to hold you through the difficult circumstances you’ll face in this life. This is why you can’t just put your hope in everything and anybody. See, had I had a cheap charger, my phone wouldn’t have stood a chance but because I invested in something stronger, it held on. So I ask you the question, who are you connected too? If you were to fall over the cliff, would you be in good hands to hold you? If you were to fall, again, is your faith connection to God strong enough to keep you? If you were to fall, would you survive? Or would you end up at the bottom, cracked up and unusable?

The Family that Lies Book Release

My sister and I cannot thank all of you enough for the support of The Family that Lies. It has been amazing.

We celebrated over the weekend with a few family and friends and I wanted to share it with you.

As always … We wouldn’t be the authors we are without the support of you! Please don’t stop.

Happy Reading!

Lakisha

Daily Devotional – 12/14/16 “Let the good deed work for you!”

Please don’t take this the wrong way but you don’t have to tell every time you’re a blessing to someone else. I get that you’re not trying to prove anything to anybody. I get that you can post/share what you want. I get that it makes you feel good. I get that it’s your money. I get that it’s your time but do you have to tell it, every time? Don’t you know the bible says in Matthew 6:1-4, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Listen, I am not bashing those of you who post your good deeds but when you post the blessing you’ve given, you take the power away from the person who actually received the blessing. There’s a testimony brewing in the person who received the good deed, don’t shortchange them by telling it before time. Plus, when you allow someone else to share it, you get double honor; from God and from the person receiving. This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:5, “That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message.” Sometimes you need to hush and let your good deed do the work it was intended to do because it can go farther than you could ever imagine. It can repay you faster than you could ever believe. And it can reach places you don’t have access to yet. Don’t stop being a blessing, just stop posting every time.

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!