Lakisha, the Author

Daily Devotional – 10/13/15 “Are you praying?”

Every time you open up your email or phone, there’s a breaking news story on more violence. Every time you turn on the television, there’s another report of someone being gunned down. Every time you open up social media, there are more RIP statuses than ever before. This bothers me! It bothers me that with the current state of our cities, the worship places are empty and yet we want to blame the pastor. “He/she didn’t preach worth nothing today,” when the truth of the matter is; you just didn’t worship worth nothing. Please understand, I am not saying that going to worship will automatically stop the surge of violence but it is my prayer that it’ll automatically shape the person whose coming. This is why for those of you seasoned Saints; who has your favorite seat in the church that nobody can sit in, who will tell anybody that you know more than the person who has been assigned to lead you, who will challenge any change that occurs, who act like they built the church brick by brick and then called folk, who will chase folk away because you don’t like how they look, who will sit the children down because you don’t like their choice of music, who will keep your mouth on folk because you simply talk too much and who will choke out the religion in those trying to learn it; you need to sit down somewhere!

It’s time that we, as believers of God, start fighting in the spirit as believers of God! (Read that again.) See, you can’t change folk but God can. You can’t help everybody but God can. You can’t be everywhere but God can. You don’t know it all but God does! Baby, you can plan out your day and then death will show up and throw you a curve ball. You can plan your future but then life happens. This is why the bible says in Matthew 6:34, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Philippians 4:6 says this, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” I won’t say that time is winding down, I don’t know that for sure but what I do know is this … when a common man doesn’t think it to be so, I know it to be true; prayer changes things! Are you praying?

I know who I am!

Hey! I’m Lakisha, a preacher of God’s word who still, sometime, cuss, I still make mistakes, I still sin, sometimes; I stay up later than I should, I procrastinate on some things, when I get mad I shut down, I don’t like to argue, I have tattoos, I love preaching, teaching, going to worship service and studying God’s word, I absolutely love my family and friends and I write fiction books about sex. I’m not perfect but guess what … God still loves me! God still uses me! God still finds favor in me! God still deems me worthy! God still counts me as His! And I’m still blessed in spite of what man thinks!

Why did I share that? Because somebody got up today feeling like you can’t be used because of your past or maybe even your present state. Somebody told you that God couldn’t have called you, with your reputation. Somebody is probably in your text messages right now telling you not to step out on faith because of how folk might see you but baby, you’ve got to start trusting God and taking Him at His word. Stop allowing the enemy to speak death over your life when God had blew fresh anointing into you. So what if you have more than one baby daddy or baby momma, so what if you had a child out-of-wedlock, so what if you drink, so what if you are behind on your bills, so what if you don’t know how to pray, so what if you don’t know what the scriptures mean; start somewhere! Make the first step and God will make the next one. Stop being worried about how folk look at you because God will make you over from the inside out and what you look like on the outside won’t matter anyway. Yea, you’ll still look the same to you but you’ll look different to everybody else; that’ll be God’s anointing shining through. Remember this beloved… God says in John 15:16, “You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.” It’s God’s name that counts, not yours!

Daily Devotional – 10/12/15 “I know who I am!”

Daily Devotional – 10/9/15 “Get up!”

I started a new shift in my new position; 7:00am in the morning. Baby, this takes some getting used to, let me tell you. It’s a struggle most days when that alarm goes off at 5:45am but only because I’m a night owl. However, even in my struggle to get up in the morning; once I’m up, I’m ok. Getting up is just the hard part. Then something donned on me; somebody like me is struggling to get up in some area of your life and the struggle has been real but get up. Yea, you’re struggling to get out of debt, to get out of sickness, to get out of a bad relationship, to get out of a dead-end job, to get out of your own way and to get out of your spiritual war; well, get up! When a baby is learning to walk, he or she is determined to get this thang down, they’ve made up in their mind. Yea, he or she struggles to stand, at first, so they grasp at the nearest thing or person to help pull them up. Once they are up, they stand there for a minute to give their legs time to balance, they scope out their surroundings and finally they take a step. Sometimes, in their learning, they fall a few times but if you watch them carefully, they’ll go back to the nearest thing and start the process all over again.

What am I saying to you today? First, you need to have a mindset to want to get up. There’s no need in me trying to teach you, if you aren’t willing to learn. Second, you need to find something (the Word of God) or someone who can help pull you up. Then you need to stand there for a moment and get your balance. Yea, you need to allow the word to process in your spirit and you need to hold that person’s hands until you’re comfortable with letting it go. Then you need to scope out your surroundings. What good is it to get up only to walk into some mess? Finally, take a step. Yes, my brother; yes, my sister; you may fall but get up again. You may stumble but shake it off and keep on going for the bible says in Proverbs 24:16, “The Godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.” Though you fall, the failure is in you not getting up. The word tells me that I am, “persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:9).” You are not out nor are you any less than the next person, when you happen to fall. You simply had a momentary moment but all you have to do is get up. It hurts while you struggling to stand but once you’re up, breath and take a step!

Daily Devotional – 10/8/15 “Spiritual Chaos!”

Beloved; we are in a state of chaos, in our spiritual realm and if we don’t do something about it, there will be more Christians perishing. Look, you don’t have to take me at my word; look around. Young folk dying of heart attacks, strokes, aneurysms; younger people are being diagnosed with cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, migraine headaches and diabetes. I can bet you, if you count the number of funerals you’ve attended lately, it’s been more young than old. We are in a state of chaos. If you read your bible, in the Old Testament when God defeated whole armies of people, He sent confusion to cause chaos in their camp and all the defending army had to do was sit back and watch them kill themselves. Saints of God, open your eyes; this is what the enemy is doing at this very moment! He is stirring up chaos in the lives of supposedly saved folk and right now it looks as though he’s winning.

Where are the prayer warriors who don’t mind going to war, in the spirit? That means you have to turn off some stuff and turn on some prayer. Where are the Saints of God who don’t mind going to church any day of the week to let the devil know, NOT TODAY SATAN? Where are you, oh Saint of God? Where are the willing workers? We are in a state of confusion. The bible says in Romans 1:12, “That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Where is my faith partner? Where is the person I can count on to pray with me or pray me out of stuff? Where are you Saint of God? We’ve got to start fighting because the enemy believes he is about to be victorious in this thang. Where are you Saint of God? It’s time now to get away from, she’s a woman, God surely didn’t call her because baby, if the truth shall be told, half the men He called are worthless so God had to use some women. But know this, it’s not about gender but it’s all about God! Y’all better start throwing away some of these old customs and get accustomed to praying. We need it!