Daily Devotional – 12/10/14 “Stop rushing God’s process!”

It takes 9 months to birth a baby.
It takes time to bake cookies, cakes, bread and pies (time varies depending on the type).
It takes time to fill out an application.
It takes time to finish school.
It takes time to complete an interview.
It takes time to read this.

My point is … Stop rushing God’s process. You wait on everybody else but you rush God. He said he’d be there 30 minutes ago yet you didn’t rush him but you’ll rush God. She said she’d call you back an hour ago yet you didn’t rush her but you’ll rush God.

God’s process takes time and there is a process to everything He does in our life. This is why Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” Please understand, if you commit your life to God, He will direct your life.” Will the enemy try to knock you off the path? Yes, every chance he gets because it’s his job, his mission but stay the course and PUSH (PRAY UNTIL SHIFT HAPPENS). God told you 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,” but you first have to be committed in God and then trust in the plans He has for you. Yes, it’s easier to give up and harder to hold on but holding on pays off. I know you are ready for your shift now. I know you are ready for your financial breakthrough to come now. I know you are ready for your spouse. I know you are ready for your own house or car. I know you are ready for your own ministry. I know you are ready for your job/career. I know you are ready for your healing to manifest now. I know you want to be on the bestseller list. I know you’ve wanted to open your business. I know you’ve been praying. Oh but WAIT! It’s not time yet! Stop rushing God’s process. When it’s time to PUSH, He’ll tell you!

Daily Devotional – 12/8/14 “Pray Until Shift Happens! (PUSH)”

When you are in Christ, you should know that every time something happens a shift occurs so instead of saying pray until something happens; we should say pray until shift happens. See, when a shift happens that means God has elevated an area in our life that no living man can do. Yea, when a shift happens; it means God is about to take us to a place no man can take us. Baby, when a shift takes place; things begin happening that we can’t even begin to explain, doors start opening we didn’t even knock on and our gifts/talents bring us among people who we didn’t even think knew our name. When we PUSH, when we Pray Until Shift Happens, a shift happens! Think about it. When we pray for deliverance and it happens, that’s a shift. When we pray for a promotion on our job and it comes, that’s a shift! When we pray for healing and it happens, that’s a shift! When you pray for your husband and he comes, that’s a shift! When you pray for your wife and she comes, that’s a shift! That’s praying for your shift and not just something! Don’t you see the difference?

When you pray until something happens, something can be just anything but beloved when pray until shift happens; shift is elevation, appointment and anointment! Yea, I get it; you’ve been up but now you’re down but PUSH! You were healthy but now you’re sick but PUSH! You had a job but now you’re laid off but PUSH! You were married but now you’re divorced but PUSH! Married but spouse passed away, PUSH! Momma or daddy died, PUSH! Hell in your home, PUSH! Hell on the job, PUSH! Hell in the church, PUSH! Pray and Praise until there is a SHIFT in your personal relationship with God, your family, your finances, your health, your job and your worship! Don’t stop until there is a shift in every part of your life! Deuteronomy 28:1-10 says, “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the LORD your God: Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed. “The LORD will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! “The LORD will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. “If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.” That seems worthy of “PUSH” to me!

Daily Devotional – 12/5/14 “It ain’t about us!”

Every day I pray for God to use me. Every day I pray that when folk look at me, they see the light of God shining through me. Yes, I have flaws in this fleshly body, I’m human but every day I pray that more and more of it dies so that I can walk into the destiny that God has set for me. If I lose friends along the way, ok. If I lose family along the way, ok. My goal is to save somebody who has yet to find God. See, this morning I was minding my own business when I walked into the break room to make some tea but standing in there was a coworker talking on the phone. Now, we work on the same floor but different groups. She can never get my name right but that’s alright, it’s not about what you call me, it’s what I answer too. But anyway, when she got off the phone she started talking to me about a man she met recently and when she met him he wasn’t stable but he got his own place now and she has helped him with some things for it but folk was telling her to leave him alone because he was using her (folk always talking) so she told him that she was thinking about calling it quits. Get this … When she told him this, he told her that if she did, he would possibly commit suicide. Quite possibly this upset her. See, she has been through some things. A lot of things that could have easily taken her out but the way her faith is set up, God won’t let her quit. But I had to stop her and tell her that sometimes God put us in folk lives in order to build them up. It ain’t even about us.

Yea, I didn’t care that folk was coming in the break room because God was using me. See, I had to remind her that what he said, at that moment, wasn’t about her; his spirit was broken then and it needed mending. This is why you have to be careful who you surround yourself with. When she called him this morning, she simply called to tell him she loved him and he told her he didn’t mean what he said the other day. This journey is hard y’all and if we don’t stay prayed up, praised down and knee bent we will get caught up! The enemy is ALWAYS seeking to destroy us. Don’t you get it? Even the strongest person gets weak sometimes. Even the encourager needs encouragement sometimes. Even the one praying need prayer sometimes and even the preacher need to get preached too sometimes. This is why you have to surround yourself with folk who know the Lord, whose spirit is right and who can get a prayer through when you can’t. This is why you have to know that the work you’re doing, this kingdom business; it’s not about you and me. It’s about the God in us manifesting through us to save those who are yet lost through us. It ain’t about us, it’s about the work we are sent to do!

Daily Devotional – 12/4/14 “A Thursday prayer”

Our Father which art in Heaven; holy is thy name as your will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Father, as I come petitioning your throne, I’ve got to first thank you. Thank you for the protection you provided for me, my family and my home from the dangers lurking outside. Father, even when I was too tired to kneel to say my prayers you gave me peaceful rest. With a new day’s dawn, you gave me breath in my body, sight in my eyes, movement in my arms and legs, thoughts in my mind and strength to get up. You allowed my family to rise and I didn’t have any bad news waiting to be delivered. Oh God! I looked up and still had a roof over my head, I had lights, warm water, a few morsels of food in the refrigerator and a few dollars for my son’s lunch. Oh God, thank you! I thank you because I had blessings too numerous to count when it could have been me.

Now Lord, I ask you to bless the person reading this. I don’t know the prayer they’ve been praying but you do. I don’t know the blessing they’ve been asking for but you do. I don’t even know the request they’ve been asking you to fill but you do. Father, I’ll simply ask for you to have your way in their life right now. Father, there is a pastor on the verge of giving up because of the stubbornness of the folk you’ve sent him to oversee, strengthen him to hold on to you so that he can hold out until you move. Some mother is at the end of her cliff and she is tired of crying but she still needs help; give her the courage to let go so that she falls into your grace where her help lies. God, I pray that you hide her in your mercy so that her devotion to you becomes devoted and she finds her way back to you and she never wants for anything again. For that father who is struggling to be the head of his home, give him the endurance to not give up but to press his way through. You made him the head for a reason, show him his purpose. God, we need you! We need you to lift up the bowed down head of those who feel like defeat has won, comfort those whose grief has settled into their spirit, heal those who sickness has taken over their bodies, make a way for those who can’t see their way right now, provide for those who can’t provide for themselves and protect those who can’t protect themselves. I know that you’re able to do it Lord, because I trust in your word that say you’ll never leave nor forsake us. Protect our children. Destroy the spirit of drugs, alcoholism, depression and suicide. Destroy the spirit of senseless killings. Restore minds, increase finances, open up doors and turn that no into yes for your people today. Oh God! This prayer I humbly submit to you on today. Amen

Daily Devotional – 12/3/14 “Start at home!”

You know, I find it perplexing; mind boggling actually how folk are so quick to jump on the bandwagon to help others build their house when their own is falling down. I mean, no offense to the tragedy in Ferguson, but we had over 15 killings over the Thanksgiving weekend here in Memphis alone and yet there hasn’t been one protestor out on the street calling for an end to that violence. We have folk who are over the youth ministry in their church and will do anything for those children and their own children are suffering AT HOME. We have an educational system that is failing our children yet all we are concerned about is who is posting what on social media. Why not start a petition to hold the educators accountable for the crap they are feeding our children, knowledge wise. Oh but we have something to say about the lunch menu. Why not protest the mere fact our children are being passed and cannot read. Do you not understand that we perish when there is a lack of knowledge? It isn’t a race thing, it’s a human thing! How can I teach my children if I don’t know and then how can they teach their children and their children’s children? It’ll be a never ending chain. It has to be broken.

Please get this beloved … I have no issue in helping you with your fight but are you willing to help me with mine? It’s alright to go to your neighbor’s home to help them every now and then but you have to make sure your house is straight too. It’s the same with the place you call your church home. You can’t support someone else church more than you support your own and expect God to be happy because of your effort. It’s about your devotion. Stop church hopping and find a church home (that’s in the church covenant). Look around, times have changed and we all need the Lord! There isn’t anything wrong with helping each other out, that’s the Christian thing to do but charity begins at home which means start with you first, then with your home, then your community and then reach out. That’s all I’m saying. You can’t clothe the needy if you’re naked and you can’t feed the hungry with your stomach growling.