Lakisha, the Author

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!

Daily Devotional – 4/22/15 “There is hope for our children!”

There was uproar the other day about this video that was circulating of children dancing to secular music in the church. Yesterday, yet another video of children fighting in school was going viral on the news … Now, I don’t know about you but I’d rather have my child dancing in church than fighting in the world any day! See, folk are so quick to make it about race but it isn’t a race issue, it’s a generational issue – these kids needs hope! It’s not all parents because I can guarantee that some of these kid’s parents are as tired of dealing with this mess as you are tired of seeing it. You can raise children in a great home, with two parents, give them the best of everything and they still stir up all kinds of hell. You can punish them, take away this, whoop their butts, send them here or there and they still get to school and end up making you look like you haven’t instilled in them any morals and values. You know how I know, I’ve been there! But let me tell you what we did, in our house … we stopped allowing the enemy to win, we started fighting back! Wherever the kids acted up at, I did too. If it was school, I showed up and showed out; with them, not the school officials. If it’s outside of school, I can show out there too. You want to embarrass me, well I can embarrass you. Ask them, they’ll tell you. My bible says in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

See, I declared before God, to the enemy that he could not have our children! Yes, it’s a battle some days but it’s one I’m willing to fight. With the way the world is today, we have to be willing to fight with our children – when they are wrong and for our children – when they are wronged! We sat our son down and told him when he wants us to stop fighting for him to let us know and we would because we couldn’t fight for him if he wasn’t willing to fight for himself. We let him know that we were on his side until he told us to stop, his choice! But I get so tired of folk wanting to blame the parents, society or poverty on the reason kids are acting like savages. I graduated from a North Memphis high school and I’m proud of it. I look at my graduating class and we produced some great success stories. We didn’t have much but we made it work with what we had because we wanted more for ourselves! Yet now days, girls set out to get more likes on a picture than college acceptance letters and boys have more baby mommas by high school than prom dates. What in the hell is going on? The mindset of our children has changed and that’s the problem. We are burying more youth without them being baptized and that’s because we are giving them an option on knowing God because most of us use God as option. There’s something wrong y’all. God should be our priority not an option. These kids need hope and that’s God! As parents we need to start walking through our home; praying over everything that belongs to our children, everything they touch, everything they sleep on and casting out the enemy and we need to be mindful of the company they keep – most of them is the enemy we need to cast out! Our children need hope but there is good news, God is the answer!

2 Chronicles 7:14, “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

A Fellow Blogger shows love …

I had an opportunity to share with the men and women of the North Memphis Library, here in my hometown (Memphis, TN) over the weekend. It was their 12th Annual Real Men’s and Women’s Conference and I was asked to facilitate the workshop, “Be Careful Who You Love”. Me! Wow! Of course, I said yes because they have always supported me. They were the first local book club to support me as a local author so I will always support them.

While I was at the conference, I had the chance to meet a new local author, Faith Simone and today in reading her blog, I was blown away by the wonderful things she had to say about my workshop at the conference. I have to share it with you guys. See, I am just a regular person doing what I love and for someone to take a moment and give me a shoutout, I am grateful and honored. So, please take a moment and visit her blog and see for yourself the kinds words she shared!

– – You never know who’s watching and listening!

Her blog is http://www.faithsimone.com and the link to the post is HERE! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Also, Faith has a new book out called, When the Real Thing Comes Along and it is available on Amazon. Check her out!

If you would like to reach me for book club events or speaking engagements, email me at authorlakisha@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting my blog.
– Keep Praying and Keep Reading!
Lakisha

Oh, I also got the chance to meet author Mary Monroe.