Daily Devotional – 4/29/15 “Don’t question your assignment!”

It’s amazing how things come full circle when you think back on them. On yesterday I spoke on memories and on today I revisited the devotional I did on this exact day two years ago and … MY GOD! Now, this won’t make sense to you if you are reading through your natural eyes so I need all my spiritual folk to go with me. See, the weeks leading up to my ordination into the ministry were mind-boggling crazy, to say the least. Not so much as me fighting the calling but just the fact of standing before a congregation of people and then a council of preachers being questioned (not in a bad way) about your calling, is nerve-wracking. And if you aren’t spiritually grounded the enemy will mess you up! But as I started to write my devotional today, I didn’t have a clue (like some days) on what to write so I started flipping back through and here’s how the devotional from 4/29/13 started, “I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what to write and nothing would come to mind. I asked God what He would have me to share with His people on today and still nothing. I saved 2 topics in my phone on yesterday but they didn’t even fit this morning. I thought about not doing a devotional today but even that didn’t fit so here I am wondering yet again. Wondering why someone like me would be an encourager to someone like you. How could I encourage someone? Why was I blessed with this gift but then one of the scriptures I jotted down yesterday came into my thoughts which says in Romans 9:20, “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Ok God, you got me there. Oh but hold up because God wasn’t finished getting me back in line because Romans 9:21 says, “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?”” – Do you see my point?

Who do we think we are to question our assignment or the assignment giver? You may not like what you have to do, so what! Do you think every person who has a job to do love it every day of the week, there is some bad days promised? However, you have an assignment, do it! Yea, I get it, there are some things happening in your life that have caused you to be angry but deal with them and get over it. Sickness has crept in and chemo has taken your hair but it’ll grow back and if not; rock your bald head. Death showed up and took your loved one but baby grieve for them yet also celebrate in knowing that to be absent from this side means to be present with the Lord. The job laid you off; God has something greater in store. Spouse walked off; God has something greater – open the door! My point is this; God never gives us an assignment He hasn’t already equipped us to handle. If we are failing at it, it may be because we haven’t been taking notes during His discussions; studying during His study groups or asking questions when we need too. God is the potter and He made us in His image and likeness and He has destined us for greatness. Yes, we go through hell that causes our clay pots to get damaged in the process but our potter has the ability to make us over – that great news! We don’t have to question our assignment and we surely don’t have to question our assignment maker because He got His part covered and if we are under His covering, we are covered too!

Daily Devotional – 4/28/15 “Past Memories …”

I don’t know how many of you have Facebook but lately it has been allowing you to look back on things you’ve posted from the same date years previously. I mean, it has actually went back to things I’ve posted back to 2009, things they deem as memories. Now, just imagine, for a minute today if God would show up at your door with a “memory book” and allow you to flip back to some of the times you thought you were counted out, forgotten and left for dead; how would you feel now? If God would stand before you now allowing you to flip through the memories of how you used to be strung out on drugs but now He’s allowed you to clean up your act and your bloodstream, what would you tell Him? If God were to be in your presence right now, allowing you to flip through the pages of your life and see how you used to look when you wasn’t fitting to live but wasn’t ready to die; what would you say to Him? If God showed up at this very moment and played your past life story and you saw the memories of how you used to be, compared to how you are now; how would you act?

Oh, somebody ought to be excited about the fact that God don’t dwell on your past. Somebody ought to be acting absolutely crazy with praise every time you think on your present circumstance knowing that your past should have killed you. Yea, somebody should be standing toe to toe with the enemy every time he shows up at your home when you think about all the hell you’ve overcame that didn’t destroy your destiny. Somebody reading this devotional ought to be about to shout, at this very moment, because it was you who God saved just this past weekend from your mess! Yea, stop thinking that your past is years ago because baby your past is yesterday. This is why the bible says in Isaiah 43:18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” What if God allowed us to flip back through our memories and see where He bought us from – how would you act? Maybe then we will remember why we should praise Him for the good and the bad. Maybe then we will see that He is worthy of our thanksgiving. Maybe then we will remember our part in His plan. If your past didn’t pronounce you dead, why aren’t you living? If your past problems didn’t hold you then, why aren’t you acting free now? If your past didn’t get you and you’ve confessed to be one of God’s children, act like it! For our bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Daily Devotional – 4/27/15 “A Change!”

When I say that God has been absolutely blowing my mind lately, it’s an understatement. On yesterday, I was officially ordained as Minister Lakisha Johnson. Wow! For the last week or so, I’d been so nervous that I hadn’t been sleeping well but when I tell you that the Holy Spirit showed up in that place on yesterday. God has a way of making a change in your life, if you allow Him too. I told y’all a few devotionals ago that my next month wasn’t going to be the same and I meant that. I declared at the beginning of this month, greater things beginning next month and God is already opening the doors. Now, I don’t know if you caught that but I said doors because I am anticipating God to move in a number of ways, my expectancy level has been raised and I just believe that God will do it for me. Whatever it is I expect, I believe He will do. Why? Well, because God is just that good and He will do what we ask. For Luke 11:10 tells me, “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

What are you declaring? What are you seeking God for? What are you willing to give up to get it? What are you willing to sacrifice for your change? I was willing to give up me but God gave me Him in place of me. I was willing to give up people but God gave me more like-minded folk so I didn’t even missed those I had lost. I was willing to give up stuff but God simply replaced it with something better. When it all simmered down, I hadn’t lost anything but I gained something greater through my change! What about you? What are you willing to give up for your change? What are you willing to change for your peace of mind? Aren’t you ready for a change by now? Aren’t you tired of doing the same thing, going through the same mess, being the same mean-spirited person, singing the same tired song or throwing the same pity party? Aren’t you ready for your change yet? The song my sisters and nieces song on yesterday says, “A change, A change has come over me. He changed my life and now I’m free.” How many of us can say that? Are you ready to be free? God can do it; all you have to do is commit to the change He can make in your life!

Daily Devotional – 4/24/15 “Marriage”

I don’t know who this is for but somebody needs to know that your marriage is sacred and worth fighting for! Stop basing your relationship on what you see in somebody else house – it ain’t yours. Stop valuing your husband on what her husband does – he ain’t him. Stop comparing your wife to somebody else wife – she ain’t her. Marriage by the dictionary definition is the state of being husband and wife. But I say it’s a relationship between a man and a woman who have decided to be each other’s prayer partner, helper, tag team, confidant, back scratcher, feet massager, cook, company keeper, secret keeper, motivator, stress reliever, encourager and a sex toy (our bodies belong to each other). Yea, when you enter into a marriage, you should go in with a mindset of being a husband or a wife to each other; valuing and respecting the person you’ve taken as your spouse for Ephesians 5:33 says, “However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

I get it, with the days and times now; it’s easier to give up, it’s easier to walk out but baby what’s the sense of investing time, sweat and tears into your marriage if you aren’t willing to stay and make it work? That’s like spending all of your time, sweat and tears working on a project only to get to a point where you can’t get something to go right and you feel like giving up on it. Do you trash all of the hard work you’ve done or do you take a moment, regroup and try again? It’s the same way in your marriage. If you gave up every time your husband didn’t put the toilet seat down or your wife burned dinner, or they made a mistake, the divorce courts would be overflowing. My point is this … Marriage is hard work but if you both go in with God as the head, with a willingness to work, with an open mind and without all the stubbornness of mine; your marriage can be worked out! Men, your woman is your good thang; she is your favor, treat her as such. Respect her, protect and provide for her as you should! Women, you are the rib of your man – you are his protection, do your job! Didn’t you know the rib cage protects most of your main organs, well that means we, in a sense, have a duty to protect our good thang! This is why we have to pray for him or should I say we should be praying for one another. And women, there isn’t anything wrong with standing behind your man; there is where he protects you! Cut out all the foolishness! If your marriage is worth saving, save it! If it’s not, let it go so you both can move on. Stop dwelling on past mistakes and enjoy the present. Love is worth enduring when you love the one you’re with. Love is worth the suffering, if you suffer with the one you’re with. Love is worth the down times because it makes you enjoy the up times so much more. Love abides where God is. Make God the head of your marriage and He’ll head your marriage!

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Daily Devotional – 4/23/15 “The process!”

It’s so late in the afternoon, I almost started not to do a devotional today but then I thought that the enemy would get glory out of knowing he had silenced me for the moment – no sir! My mind got so much going through it … I’m constantly seeing the news of youth dying yet I look around my job at these older folk that the Lord keep sparing and they act like they don’t have anything to be thankful for! Why do they have to be so mean and hateful? It’s so much negativity in some of these folks that I have to yell out sometimes, “Lord, I’m trying to stay saved!” Won’t folk make you go there? I don’t bother nobody yet they’ll bother me but then I had to realize that my blessing is on the way and that’s only the enemy trying to stop my elevation and he can’t. I told y’all at the beginning of the month that this time next month, I wouldn’t be at the same place and in order for this to come true, God has to shake some things loose; this is part of the process. I can’t worry about the naysayers, they come with the process. I can’t even worry about the sayings of the naysayers, it comes with the process.

Somebody today is going through some hell but it’s just part of your process, tell folk to excuse you while you’re going through it. If they can’t understand it then bid them farewell. Yea, somebody is going through a rough patch in your relationship, its part of the process. Somebody is going through hell on the job; it’s a part of your process. Somebody is going through repossession of some things, its part of your process. Somebody had to lose some friends, its part of your process. Somebody lost your job, its part of your process. Somebody is going through being lied on by somebody you thought would never hurt you, it’s a part of your process. Somebody is even contemplating leaving the only church you’ve ever known but baby its part of your process. Think of it like this … You could be boarded up or torn down during your remodeling phase yet you’re still working in process so tell folk to excuse the construction. Yea, thangs might get a little messy but simply tell them to pardon your dust because your foreman, God, is working some things out! Oh baby! You might be going through some things but its part of the process. Your old self couldn’t go where the new self is about to be sent. Your old self couldn’t handle what the new self is about to be a part of. Your old self had to be upgraded so whatever you’re facing … its part of the process!