Daily Devotional – 8/24/18 “Shutdown for the Shift!”

Sometimes, on this spiritual journey, you may find yourself in a place of feeling as if nothing is working out in your favor. It does not matter the amount of time you spend in prayer, you are still being passed over for promotion. It matters not your faithfulness to fellowship, you still have to fight folk who look familiar. You make the plans and do the research and business still fails. Everywhere you turn, no is all you hear and you cannot understand why. Leaving you to wonder, why is nothing working in my favor? Why is nothing going right? Why am I spiritually stagnant when I know God has called me? Well, maybe you been powered down to revive. Maybe this period of your life is a restart and not a rebuke. Think about electronic devices like cable boxes, phones and computers; things we rely on. Occasionally, these devices mess up and in order to get them to function properly, you have to restart them. Most times, it is an easy restart by choosing the option and other times some stuff happens that calls for a “hard restart” by pressing and holding down the power button and it was not your choice. Beloved, maybe the very thing you are going through, right now, is simply to get you back on track and God had to do a hard restart. It was not your choice but take it as God’s way of shutting you down to restart you. Does it feel good? Heck no but after it is over, you will realize it had to happen.

For most of 2017, I tried to finish my book, Dear God: Hear My Prayer. No matter what I tried, the many things I have written before or even the talks I had with God, no book. It did not matter that I had the book cover and the story line because I was stagnant. Truth is, I got mad at God and even contemplated taking a break from releasing anything because it seemed nothing was working, anyway. Why bother, right? Yet, I stayed in and under God. Everything He would give me, I jotted it down in my notes. I did not know it then but I was being restarted for the shifting that was about to take place. God had shut me down in order for Him to restart something new within me and when 2018 showed up, so did I. Dear God was released and it has been one of my best sellers. All because God shut me down to restart me. Why is a restart necessary? Here is what I realized with my work computer. If I never shut it down to restart it, I may miss necessary updates from the network that can only take effect AFTER the restart. Therefore, to you my brother or sister who is in an unexplainable time in your journey, maybe you are in shut down mode because God needs to update what He installed on the inside of you. You do realize things need updating, right? Then you should know if you never allow God to shut you down, you might miss necessary updates from the Master that can only take effect AFTER the restart. Your gift(s) is good but now God has an update that is about to make it greater for the places and people you are about to encounter. Allow the shutdown for the shift!

Daily Devotional – 8/23/18 “The time will come …”

Do you remember what I shared yesterday? For those of you who do not, I shared that not every season is a season to reap. This is still true today but I need to speak to those of you who are in a season of little to no return. Today, I come to speak to those of you who are in a season of feeling defeated because there has been no return on your investment. I am speaking to those of you who are feeling like it’s time to throw in the towel, close the business, tear up the vision, destroy the plans or shut up the blinds and die. I only have four words for you … THE TIME WILL COME! However, here is something I need to ask. What has God told you to do that you are ignoring? Yes, you might be in a dry season but is it because God has retracted His hand or it is simply your season? Speak to yourself for a moment so we can figure this thang out. If it is your season, then you have to work and wait until the season change. On the other hand, if your field is dry and storehouse is empty because God has shut up the heavens, what are you not doing? Are you harboring un-forgiveness, hatred or anger when God has told you to forgive? Are you idolizing something or someone you should have longed gotten rid of? Are you out of God’s will due to your pride? Are you working in iniquity because it is easier than salvation? What are you doing or not doing?

I am only asking because you just might be holding the ability to change your season with the words of repentance from your mouth. I am only inquiring because I know you have to be tired of lugging water to a place that does not have the ability to grow the very thing you are watering. I am concerned because I need you to come out of that desolate place but I cannot do it for you. Please understand, I can feed you from my harvest but at some point, you should want your own and it can happen because THE TIME WILL COME. You don’t have to believe me but take God’s word. In Amos 9, starting at verse 11, God promises restoration to Israel after He had removed His judgment for things they did. Even after warnings, Israel still did what they knew was not right and although it seemed like God had forsaken them, He was still there. Still lingering around waiting on the day, His people repented. Still holding onto the wings of the air, waiting for them to return to Him. Is that you? Is God waiting on you to repent and return? Because when you do, God will say like He did in the prophecy given to Amos in Amos 9:13-15, ““The time will come,” says the LORD, “when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine! I will bring my exiled people of Israel back from distant lands, and they will rebuild their ruined cities and live in them again. They will plant vineyards and gardens; they will eat their crops and drink their wine. I will firmly plant them there in their own land. They will never again be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the LORD your God.” The time will come but you have to be ready to receive it?

Daily Devotional – 8/22/18 “Every season is not to reap!”

Sherry Mackey of 95.7FM said something this morning that I wholeheartedly agree with. Not every season, of our lives, will be a season of harvest or in other words, reaping. Sometimes, beloved, you have to survive on what you have stored in the barnyard (spiritually speaking). I know someone is asking, how do I store up anything when I am barely making it on what I have? Glad you asked. Bible shares in Proverbs 3:9-10, “Honor the LORD from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.” I get it, it is hard to pay out when you barely have enough coming in but this is where your faith should kick in. No, this is not a devotional on tithing but it is one on faith. Faith to trust in God who has never let us down. Faith to trust that God knows what you have and what you need. Faith, the kind that lets you walk into the kitchen with a mind to prepare dinner with no food in the refrigerator because you trust God. Faith, the kind that allows you to drive your car to work, knowing you have 15 miles to empty with no money and its 22 miles to work and back but you trust God. Faith, the kind that allows you write the check for the electric bill knowing there is not enough to cover it because God told you to help somebody earlier in the week but you trust God.

Ma’am/sir, not every season is one of reaping, sometimes you have to sow. This is why bible shares in Ecclesiastes 3:1-3, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, etc.” You know this, right? Then why are you getting defeated in this sowing season of your life? Why are you contemplating giving up when this is simply your season to plant not pluck up? Why are you crying about the harvest not being ready when God is still allowing you to make it on the crumbs? Why are you depressed by the draught when it has not affected your crops? Baby, you are still alive, with a reasonable portion of health and strength and in your right mind. You might not have steak but you got ground beef. You may not have Velveeta cheese but nice and cheesy is still cheese. All you have to do is be obedient to God and lean not on your own understanding because I have seen Him stretch $18 for my family when I did not think it would last. I was looking at what I had in my hands but God was looking at what I had in my heart. I had faith because I know God will not fail us. Moreover, I take comfort in the words penned in Deuteronomy 28:1-13, the blessings of obedience. Read it for yourself but verse 8 says, “The LORD will decree a blessing on your barns and on everything to which you put your hand; the LORD your God will bless you in the land He is giving you.” God will never give us a land He will not bless. God will never send us to a place that will not provide and neither will God call us to curse us. Whatever season you are in, will you trust God because this may not be a season to reap but to sow?

P.S. Check out my new book, Bible Chicks: Book 2 that was released today!

{New Release Spotlight} Bible Chicks: What Would Women Of The Bible Be Like Today? (Book 2) by Lakisha Johnson

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received_1934101326641474Good Morning! Last week, I introduced you to book one of the two-book Christian Fiction series Bible Chicks: What Would Women Of The Bible Be Like Today?. Today, book two, written byAuthor Lakisha Johnson, is available to download. Two amazing authors teamed up to bring you today’s perspective of a very interesting question: What would women of the bible be like today? This book focuses on the following women: Gomer, Hannah and Jezebel.

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Daily Devotional – 8/20/18 “Awake to righteousness!”

God’s assignment will NEVER cause you to sin. I do not care where He has told you to go or what He has given you to say, His instructions will never put you in a position to sin or be outside of His will. It can sometimes hurt, bring some confusion and anger, create restless nights and draining days but not sin. No beloved, the reason things are working out the way they are, for you, is because you allowed flesh to fight a battle only anointing could win. You were in your feelings and made a decision, flesh made look good and instead of owning up to ‘said’ mistake, apologizing and repenting; pride took over and by the time you realized what was happening, you were too far in. Can you guess what happened next? You had to do whatever it took to keep up appearances. You have to keep on playing the game in order to pay for being the boss. Sure, your pictures portray happiness but hell is all through your home. Your flyers are pretty but most of them are premeditated in pettiness. This is why you have to stop making rash decisions, in your feelings. God did not tell you to start that ministry, He never told you to leave your spouse, He never told you to take out that loan and He never told you to say yes to the job or get in covenant with them. Truth is, you were mad and in flesh and you struck out when you should have stayed. Somebody hurt your feelings and you lashed out when you should have left. Somebody removed you from a position and instead of being patient and praying; you permitted the pain to alter your posture.

Ask yourself these questions; is where I am God ordained, is what I doing God’s will for my life, is who I’m with helping or hurting me and is the place I’m residing delivering or depressing me? The most important question, am I still in God’s will? Reality is, you are in God’s will or you are not because there is no in between. And please, whatever you do; do not judge the success of your ability to slay people in the spirit, the amount of money in your checking account, the number of dates filled in on your calendar, the likes on your posts and views on your videos to being in God’s will. Some of you no longer have God’s anointing but are still being booked because of your name, not the oil. The oil of God anoints, it does not anger. The oil of God protects, it does not provoke. The oil of God enlarges, not endangers. The oil of God rebukes not rejects. The oil of God is deliverance not deceitfulness. The oil of God is beholding not betraying. Understand something, this devotional is not against anyone but it is my hope it ignites a fire of change in whoever you are who is in something you know God did not ordain. God ordained you, not for you but for those He knew you could reach. He called you because of the fire in your belly and you said yes, so now you have a responsibility to that yes. What are you doing with it?