Daily Devotional – 4/3/15 “What are you willing to sacrifice?”

It’s Good Friday and I know I should tell you about all the hell Jesus endured on this day as He sacrificed Himself for us but don’t you know the story already? Don’t you normally hear about the death, burial and resurrection on Sunday as Pastor closes out his message? Don’t you know the story? Don’t you know the sacrifice? Don’t you know? Didn’t you learn about it in vacation bible school? Didn’t grandma tell you? Haven’t you read it for yourself a few times? Didn’t you watch the movie? Yet, you still don’t get it? Or maybe, you get it but you’ve yet to take it serious. I mean, how’s the view from where you are? How is your life going? Is “your year” taking shape yet? Has your vision started to pan out? Well, what have you sacrificed? Yea, what have you sacrificed to God? Abraham was willing to sacrifice the only son He and Sarah had. Job offered up everything he had, everything but his faith. What have you sacrificed? You complain about tithing when God says I only want ten cents (10) and you keep ninety (90). You complain about timing when God says, come when you are ready and I’ll wait for you. You complain about the man or woman God has sent to Pastor the church yet you won’t even open a bible on your own to know if what they are teaching is even true and you surely won’t stop to pray for them. So again I ask what are you sacrificing? What are you willing to give God as your service for Psalm 50:14 says, “Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.”

You want God to lay your destiny out before you yet you won’t dare do anything to show Him you want it. You want God to show you your purpose and then you run from it. You ask God to increase your finances but then complain when they call you in on your off day. You ask God to send you a husband but then complain when the guy from the garage that fixes your car keeps asking you out (all because he doesn’t fit your standards). You ask God to open up a door for you but you can’t see it because you’re still looking out the back window at what you lost – baby, it’s gone. You ask God to deliver you from your addiction but you’re still hanging with the addicted. What are you sacrificing? See, I’ve learned that you have to sacrifice some stuff and some people to get to where God needs you to be. Oh, but don’t worry; God replaces EVERYTHING you lose in the process of your move! Call it mover’s insurance. But you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice those things and those people. Are you willing? What are you willing to sacrifice to the Lord? “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. – Romans 12:1”

Daily Devotional – 4/2/15 “Make up your mind!”

It’s April 2 and some of y’all are still playing the fool. You still think you can’t get caught up in the game you’re playing but guess what, you already have. Beloved listen, the enemy wants you to believe he’s blessing you for free but he’s not; you’re paying the cost. Keep playing the fool. Yea, I get it; you are no longer being attacked by the enemy, well that’s because he no longer needs to chase what belongs to him; he has you now. I know, he allows you to go to church every now and then but that’s only so you can corrupt the folks that’s there. You don’t go for the message, only to pass mess. You’re not going to pray, you’re going to prey. You’re not going to get God’s grace, you’re going to gossip. You’re not even going to get the biblical text because all you do is text the entire time. It’s really a shame though. Yea, it’s really a shame when the bible says all we have to do is submit ourselves to the Lord and resist the enemy and he will flee (James 4:7). Yet, here comes the enemy dangling stuff in your face and you go running like a dog chasing a bone and there he stands laughing. (Please understand I’m not innocent in this because I make mistakes too but we’ve got to do better.)

The enemy’s job is to keep us off course. It’s his responsibility to bless us so that we think we don’t need God. It’s the enemy’s main goal to get us on his side but he can’t do that without our help. See, the enemy is a spirit that can’t move without being attached to something and he will use your weakness to attack you. What is your spirit attracting? Don’t you know the enemy will use your heart’s desire to depress you, your thoughts to tempt you, your children to convict you, your mess to minimize you, your sickness to turn you to suicide, your anger to alcoholism and your doubt to drug addiction? That no good, lying, conniving, good for nothing enemy will even have you thinking that God has forgotten about you, wants nothing to do with you, doesn’t love you anymore, can’t stand a sinner like you when you know good and well that’s the furthest from the truth but he’ll do it. All it’ll take is a lonely night and some late night thoughts and you’ll forget that Deuteronomy 31:8 says “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Look, when all the hell simmers away and the smoke clears; the enemy won’t stop doing his job; it’s his job but when will you stop falling for his tricks? When will you get up out of that ditch of despair, that gully of gloom, that waterhole of woe or that manhole of mess? When will you stop being a contract worker for the enemy when you can be a free agent for the Lord?

Daily Devotional – 4/1/15 “Stop playing the fool!”

It’s a new month and while you’re playing April fool’s jokes on folk the joke is actually on you …what are you doing? When will you quit playing with this thang called life and actually realize you got some living to do? When will you stop taking this spiritual thing as a joke and understand that one of these old days the jig will be up? At some point in your life, you’ve got to stop playing the fool and get serious about everything! You can’t keep blaming the man for holding you down when no one is actually holding you there. You can’t keep blaming society for the downfall of your children if you aren’t trying to raise them. You want to place the blame on generational curses when they can be broken; destroy them! You want to blame the church when the church wasn’t the one who hurt you, folk did; place the hurt where it should be and then deal with it. You want to say the schools are failing your children and they are, yet you won’t show up at the school board meetings, PTA meetings, parent choice rallies, etc., to voice your concern but you’ll pack out 2 for 1 Thursdays. You never go to church yet you got the audacity to blast the Pastor of your grandma’s church as soon as he/she buys a new car because you say they are stealing the tithe money; have a seat … stop playing the fool! We’ve got to do better! It’s time out for playing the fool y’all for Proverbs 1:7 says, “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

All I am saying is this; there are games that are meant to be played, play those but don’t play when it comes to your life and your purpose. And please don’t play with the enemy thinking you can get away because it never happens, you always get caught up. If you have to play with something, join a sports team but get your life together. Stop playing with God as if He isn’t real because the last thing you want to experience is to be chastised by God because baby, let me tell you … It can happen. God will bring you to a point where all you can do is call on Him. He will lay you on your back where all you can do is look up to Him. He will even allow you to be in a situation that no one can get you out of but Him. For Psalm 37:23-24 says, “The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.” I know because I’ve been there. Stop playing the fool because it only makes you look and sound foolish! “Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble. – Proverbs 13:20”

Daily Devotional – 3/31/15 “This time next month…”

As this month slowly closes out, I declare and decree that my life won’t be the same this time next month. Yes ma’am, yes sir; I am declaring even greater things than what is already taking place because I have that kind of faith! If you don’t believe in the power of faith that you have in the God that’s in you, what you got Him for? Baby, I believe that God will do everything I need Him to do. I just trust that God will do supernatural things in my natural life! Why? Well, I’ve seen His miraculous works. Chile, I know Him to be a wonder-working God and He said all I had to do is ask with the faith as if it’s already done and it shall be. So, I am decreeing that I always keep God first. I am declaring that a door shall open that will elevate my career in Jesus name. I declare that folk will know my name in ministry and that souls are saved through me. I declare that my books will be bestsellers. I declare that folk will know my name even before I know theirs for the good. I declare that my body will be healthy. I decree that God will continue to guide my family, my household and my finances so that we stay out of debt and never lack for anything. I decree that we shall no longer rent anything but shall own that which He would have us too. And I cannot be selfish for I am speaking a financial breakthrough for our church that gives us the means to build the fellowship hall we need with minimal out-of-pocket cost. I am speaking continued health for our Pastor and First Lady in order for them to do the work they have been called to do. I speak a renewed refreshing over every member of our church so that our worship is made greater in Jesus name. I speak deliverance over my family so the ones who don’t know God like they should, can get to know Him, that finances are increased, debts are decreased, sickness are healed and hurt and anger is broken. Oh it shall be done!

And I decree to you reading this … your life too shall be better, this time next month; if you believe. How do I know? Because I have faith that it shall be. John 14:12-14 says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” I am asking of these things today with the faith that they shall come to pass, why can’t I believe that they will be? What about you? God has given us the power to come boldly before Him and ask of Him anything that we need, we lack because we slack! We can’t blame Him. Today, I am declaring that my tomorrow won’t be the same. You can sit back and wait if you choose that’s you but as for me; there’s more that I need from the Lord because there is more that He requires of me. This time next month … Oh, I believe it to be so! Just wait!

Daily Devotional – 3/30/15 “It’s for a reason!”

It’s almost a new month … what have you accomplished so far this year? Are you still in the woe is me slump you were in at the beginning of the month? Are you still claiming this to be your year but you’ve yet to get up? Are you still wandering around in your pit of should haves? Or have you gotten up? Yea, I know you’re in your storm, you’ve seen your share of tribulations, you can’t seem to get anything right, every time you take a few steps forward you get knocked back, each time something good happens there is bad attached to it or every time you get ready to walk through the door it gets shut in your face but listen … God isn’t using these momentary trials to take you out but He is trying to get you to tap into your destiny! Yea! Don’t you know that if God wanted to snatch the life from your body by now, He would have? If God was ready for your number to be called, He could have done it already. Look around you; aren’t you still being blessed in spite of your situations? I already know the answer because you’re reading this; all you have to do now is get out of the test what is being taught! Are you listening? Are you taking notes? Are you ready to be elevated or is fear still running or should I say ruining your life?

Beloved, God is using the areas of your life that are causing you hell to assess the strength of your faith in Him – How strong is it? God is using your trials to test your strength – will you pass? God is allowing storms to show up in your life to see if you’ll still be claiming Him when they are over – who’s set you claiming? I mean; are you a ride or die Saint or you just a wimp who allows the enemy to defeat them? What are you doing? You know the verse that says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” yet every time the enemy shows up you start to doubt. God is not a man who has to lie and He doesn’t need to make false promises to get you on His side because He said He’ll make rocks cry out for Him yet He gives us chance after chance to get it right. What are you waiting on? It doesn’t matter what you’re facing right now, if you are of God; it isn’t to take you out but if you aren’t doing what you know you should be doing then it maybe to get you to see that your destiny is ahead and you’re missing it. God doesn’t punish us but He will use things to get us to see the potential in our purpose, the depth of our destiny and the cause of our calling IF we are willing to see it. It’s not to hurt, kill or destroy us but it’s all for a reason. Take time to find out what your reason is.