Daily Devotional – 2/17/15 “Who are you hooking up with? “

People often time ask my husband what it’s like living in the house with me now that I’ve accepted my calling into ministry, “what is it like living with a minister”? I don’t know what people think changed in our household because I am still the same person; I just have a different path, purpose and position now, yet I didn’t accept it without my husband being fully aware of it. Truth is God knows our destiny because He created it which means, He knows who our spouse will be to handle it (if we allow Him to lead us to the one we are destined to be with). This is why we have to be careful who we attach our spirits too. This is why we have to be mindful who we hook up with. Everybody isn’t capable to walk this spiritual walk with us and we can’t expect them to. Being spiritual, being a Christian, a Saint of God is a day-to-day thing that we have to prepare for daily and it isn’t easy when we have to fight against spiritual evil that tries to destroy us. Now, imagine having to fight against spiritual wickedness and somebody in your own home. You shouldn’t! This is why you have to make sure the person you are hooked up with is hooked up to the right source which is God. You need to make sure that when you can’t get a prayer through, your spouse can. You have to be sure that when you don’t know who to call, they can call Jesus louder than you can.

Baby, listen (I don’t know who this is for) but you can’t be a Christian and your fiancé/spouse/significant other doesn’t believe in God; it won’t work. That’s like buying a car that runs off gas but you don’t believe in gas; it doesn’t make sense. You have to be equally yoked with a person in order for your physical and spiritual relationship to survive. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” Yea, I know you thought you could change them but baby it took God to change you; you can’t change nobody, you don’t have that power! Yes, this spiritual thang is hard and I get frustrated sometimes and even though my husband isn’t the chairman of the deacon board, he understands but it was God’s doing, not mine. This is why you’ve got to be careful who you hook up with because they’ll start putting stuff in your spirit that’ll have you second guessing your purpose, questioning your vision, and rethinking your path. Be careful who you attach yourself too because they’ll have you getting fed from the wrong bed of nourishment. Be careful who you hook up with, they may not be getting the same watts of power as you!

Daily Devotional – 2/13/15 “It has gotten real!”

I often time find myself looking back over devotionals I’ve written years ago and sometimes I can’t even remember writing some of them. Most times when I began to write, I never have a topic in mind; I simply put my hand to the keyboard and allow God to be manifested through me. See, I am just a nobody, a simple person living a regular life who was plucked up out of the pit I was in, shook out, the cracks in my clay pot were fixed and I was shined to look like new, (although I was the same on the outside, my inside was brand new), and God stood me back up on my legs and told me to go forth because there was work to be done. Yea, He pushed me and said go. Y’all this thang got real! He didn’t give me an assignment because He says it’ll change daily you just have to be willing to work; I am. He didn’t give me a place because He says there are people who need saving everywhere you just have to be willing to go; I’m willing. He didn’t give me a topic, He just said take this book with you and it’ll give you the Basic Instruction to Battle Life Effectively (Bible), I did. He even changed where I was, it’s called elevation. It got real! When I stopped running from His calling, I started reaping. When I stopped playing like I had time to get it right and actually start accepting God’s calling over my life; my possessions, positions, propositions, places and people changed … it got real!

Somebody will miss this but for the somebody who will get this … Stop playing with what God has told you to do, it’s about to get real! In the midst of you playing, your tears are about to turn into a full shout. In the middle of you playing with the gift that God has given you, He’s about to take you to a place that will blow even your own mind. Yea, in the middle of you playing with the anointing that has been cast over your head, God is about to rise up a king or a queen in the middle of the ghetto, a place somebody said you wouldn’t be nothing; watch this! In the middle of you acting like you don’t have anything to say, stop playing and open your mouth! Keep acting like you don’t have what it takes. Keep playing if you want, this spiritual thang has gotten real! In the middle of you playing, the Holy Spirit is about to set your spirit on fire! It’s not about to get real, it has gotten real! You just need to catch on… When will you stop playing?

Daily Devotional – 2/12/15 “Kingdom Broadcast System!”

I sometimes wonder if we, as Saints of God, would stop and listen if God would interrupt our day-to-day activities with one of those messages that say, “This is a test of the Kingdom Broadcast System!” Yea, I just wonder if we would turn down for a moment to see what He was saying when He would interrupt the music playing on the radio with “This is a test of the Kingdom Broadcast System!” Oh, I wonder if we’d be mad when He interrupts Scandal or Empire with a message from the “Kingdom Broadcast System” that couldn’t wait until a commercial. I wonder if we’d sit long enough to listen to the entire message without trying to mute the television or turning down the volume of the radio. I’m just using my spiritual imagination for a moment and playing in my mind if God would interrupt us for a moment, if we would listen. I mean, does God have to really lay us on our backs to get us to see Him? Does God have to stop us in the middle of traffic facing a car that should have hit us head on to know that He is real? Does God have to heal us in order for us to know that He is indeed the healer grandma speaks of? Why does God have to prove His trust when it’s never been broken? Why can’t we take Him at His word, first?

Isn’t it something that you’ll trust the tax man who promises to get you back thousands and you just met Him but you won’t trust the man who stepped out of nowhere and created the Earth? You’ll trust the woman you met on Facebook yesterday because she had a cute profile picture with your entire life but you won’t trust the man who gave you life and all He asks for is your heart. We will trust a chair with 3 bad legs but not the master who holds all power in the palm of His hand. I’m just thinking out loud; wondering if we’ll listen, wondering if we’ll see the blinking light of the message or wondering if we’ll turn the volume up before it’s too late. Will we? Will you? This is a test of the Kingdom Broadcast System … are you within range to hear the message of the master?

Daily Devotional – 2/11/15 “Thank the pumper!”

My uncle tells this story from time to time … “There was this famous organ player who traveled all around the world playing for sold out theaters. Every time he would get on stage he would thank all those who he says have made it possible for him to play music but he would never thank the most important person who, without him there would be no music. See, he could never see this person because he was up above him, hidden; he was simply called the pumper and he was responsible for pumping the air into the organ that made the beautiful music the organist got credit for playing. So, this night after doing his nightly ritual, he sat down to play but when he touched the keys, nothing came out. He tried again and nothing. Then he looked up into the rafters of the theater and remembered his pumper. He jumped up and began giving thanks to the one who makes it possible for the music that he plays. And this time when he sat down and begin playing, the pumper began pumping.”

The moral of the story, don’t forget who pumps you up! Yea, I know man can sometime fill you up but don’t forget the one who favors you. Yea, I know the world can sometime pump and prime you but don’t forget the one who picks you up when the world lets you down. Yea, I know the world can sometime toot your horn but don’t forget the one who turns your tests into testimonies and your transgressions into triumphs. Don’t forget about your pumper! Just because He doesn’t give up on us as easily as man does, it still doesn’t mean we should take Him for granted because the next minute may not be granted unto us. Every now and then we need to look up into the rafters and remember our pumper. And every chance we get, we need to thank our pumper for the bible says in Mark 8:38, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” Stop taking your pumper for granted! Some of us aren’t worth the mercies that He sends new every morning but He still pumps them into us! Some of us aren’t worth the strength He places in our legs, arms, hands and feet; yet He still pumps it into them! Some of us aren’t worth the sight in our eyes, the taste in our mouth and the knowledge in our brains, yet He continues to pump it into us! Some of us wasn’t even worthy of the gift He entrusted us with yet He pumped it into us anyway so, isn’t the pumper worth a shout out? Isn’t the pumper worthy of thanks too? Ephesians 5:20 says “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Daily Devotional – 2/9/15 “Where is our praise?”

Yesterday was a day for me. It was a day where my spirit just wasn’t right and no matter how I prayed, I just couldn’t get into the right spiritual frame of mind. Have you ever been there? Yea, I know you probably have it all together but baby, I’m human and I sometimes struggle with this spiritual thang because every moment is a battle against not flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness that is trying to destroy kingdom workers. Yes, I know you expect those of us who stand in the pulpit to deliver God’s word to have it all together but you do understand that we are human, right? Yes, we have a higher standard but don’t you get the fact that we have 999 different kinds of spirits to deal with, with a smile and a prayer? When was the last time you prayed for the pastor, the co-pastor or the pulpit clergy members? When was the last time you prayed for the first lady or the first husband? You do know she or he has to deal with the pastor after he or she gets home from dealing with us, Christian folk, right? And you do understand that not all Christian folk act and talk like Saints, don’t you? I’m just trying to get you to understand that the encourager sometimes need encouraging too.

See, a dead worship service to a Pastor/Minister is like a dead club to a person in the world; they don’t stay long. Yea, they’ll find someplace else to party that’s jumping. Wouldn’t you? What’s the sense of going to God’s house without the intention of getting your praise on? Didn’t you make it through the hell from the week, didn’t you survive when someone else didn’t, and didn’t you come through with your mind when you know you should have been crazy, didn’t you still have all your senses and didn’t you have activity of your limbs? Every Sunday in God’s house should be a praise party because somebody should have something to celebrate and then we should be ready to join in to help them. The bible says in Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” We might not get next Sunday.