Slipping

By: Shwanda Jones

King James Version:
"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence."
1 Corinthians 1:27-29



Are you in the same place now that you were last year?
Are you still dealing with the same ole defeats? same ole weaknesses? same ole attitudes? same ole emotions?
Do you still not speak to everyone at church?
Do you still got Child Church Syndrome where if the preacher isn't finished by a certain time, you're ancy or "retago"?
Do you find yourself praying the same ole prayer?
…you my friend, my brother and my sister…are slipping.

I chose the above scripture from a Daily Verse website I often visit and I thought it be appropriate, especially for young people. It's so funny because we claim and profess to be the individual's that are "most on fire" for God and we love to shout, praise, dance and cry, which is fine; spiritual cleansing and praise is much needed, worshiping God is a must; however, we are still slipping and being trapped up by the same things after we're done. We go to church and lay out in the floor then we leave, but next week, we're laying out for the same thing. (I'm talking to myself too) When are we going to start to hold ourselves accountable? When are we going to realize the reason we're not being fruitful is because we're still in the same state of mind as we were when we were in the flesh? We use the saying, "we all fall short" but what happened to "God created man in His own image"? We still have nasty attitudes, we're still gossiping, we're still selfish, always putting our own agenda first, we still wanna fit into the world…it's okay if we let the N-word slip or if we're around unsaved friends and they're being heathens and we just gone and conform? Right? no. And we wonder why we're not at the next level. *inserts humility*

What I'm saying is, either you're in or you're out. Being saved is fun and should be, but nobody said it was a playground…there's a time and place for everything. We have to not only profess salvation but we have to live it, through and through. If we start letting little mentalities slip through, little weaknesses, little quirks, soon or later the enemy is going to be sitting right beside us, playing video games with our life. We cannot slip and allow the enemy to come in and make us stagnant or take us back to where we came from. We have to change thoroughly. Not just by going to church, reading the Bible here and there, yes we must do all those things but we have to check our hearts too and make sure they are right and especially our attitudes, as well as increase our prayer life. We have to pray for change and deliverance from our weaknesses. Before we can even sin we have to ask for forgiveness, instant conviction. Some of us are so used to our fleshly ways (even if they're not considered sins) that we don't even recognize they're wrong or hindering us. How are we going to be Christians and we still don't treat everybody the same or only deal with people when we want to? That isn't God-like. What if God only dealt with us when He wanted to? What if God caught attitudes with us? What if God had a time limit on our prayers?

Stop letting little things slip before you find yourself back to where you started. Don't let the enemy in with small mistakes that can be corrected through prayer, worship, reading and allowing God to change us, inside and out. Stop slipping…

Peace & Blessings everyone,

The Joke’s on you..but don’t let it be you!

By: Fred Reid

I don’t know about ya’ll but I’m always impressed with my titles hehehe anyways let’s get to it! This one is about the people that live a lukewarm life. While there are many reasons for this ultimately I’m going to focus on the results and the IMPORTANCE of living a called out life as one whom God as called (not pulled) out of darkness.

Matt 7:22 “Many will say to me in that day Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?

In the verses before and after this one Jesus was describing the scene on judgment day and how many people that think they are going in will not actually be going in. This particular scripture sticks out to me because like my friend Walt said he heard some preacher say “God is the only person that will fire you and let you keep working”. Meaning sometimes God will let you keep your position even though you have been removed from the kingdom. The people Jesus addresses in this scripture have SUCCESSFULLY prophesied AND cast out devils AND done wonderful works…but aren’t going to heaven. Similarly when David was selected to be King it wasn’t because King Saul was dead, or sick but instead because of his evilness Saul was rejected as King. Saul was simply holding the spot until God prepared David to take his place.

I think this relates to present day scenarios because just about EVERYBODY claims to be saved. Instead of a savior people have chosen to treat Jesus like a popular person at school or a celebrity from their home town, simply name dropping. People are so excited to know Jesus name and throw a couple scriptures together when really its MOST important that Jesus knows you! As the scripture for this devotional proves; if doing miracles in Jesus name doesn’t guarantee access I doubt simply name dropping or going to church Sunday and paying attention will!

So what does get you in to heaven? Dedicating your LIFE and your WILL to the Father! You can tell who really has a relationship with Jesus by the changes that are taking place in their life. Jesus IS change! Where did Jesus go that stayed the same after He left? He even had to changed things up in the temple! Similarly, inviting Jesus into your heart will begin to change your behavior. Giving your mind back to God will change your approach to live and giving your will to the Father will allow you to be a vessel used by the Most High.

I definitely don’t want to scare anybody into thinking they aren’t saved, or that God is setting them up for failure, simply pointing out that you can’t get over on the Father. Just think of the leaders in the past year that have claimed God and later were exposed to be living secret lives. So as the title points out these people want to claim God but live a contrary lifestyle 6 days out the week, or sometimes 6 days and 22 hrs lol Take up your cross and follow Christ! Which is only possible AFTER you deny yourself! God wants you to live! And live forever in heaven so He will guide you! But “be not deceived God is not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall He reap” Gal 6:7 (paraphrase)

Over and Out J

Are you Married?

By: Monique Smith

1 Corinthians 6: 16-20: ^16-20There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one." Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never "become one." There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

When reading through the Bible, we see where husbands and wives went to consummate their marriages by having sex. That still holds true to this day….but so many people blatantly ignore the marriage part. They fall prey to satisfying their flesh with the type of sex mentioned in verse 17, the kind that avoids commitment and intimacy….and actually leaves us MORE lonely than ever. Why? One: Because the flesh feeds off of that sexual addition and one may never feel satisfied until they have sex again. Two: If there is a knowledge of Christ in one’s life, they know they have went against a command from our heavenly Father. Allowing flesh and lust to overrule the gift of eternal life. Three: Because the people who slept together have no title or commitment (such as husband or wife) to each other, BUT have spiritually made that covenant by having sex.

Every time you have sex with someone outside of marriage, you are spiritually marrying them. Your soul is tied with their soul, you took on the act of consummating a marriage, that doesn’t even exist, and you are left with the emotional and physical baggage that comes with that sin. Now think back to that fact we heard in high school health class “If you have sex with Bob, and Bob has had sex with 5 people prior to you, then after you have sex with him, you would have slept with a total of 6 people”. In high school, I thought that fact was weird, but didn’t really seem like a big deal. But now, that I understand spiritual things…that’s CRAZY! To be hooked up with all those spirits and things?! No wonder the world is on a downwards spiral!

Getting back to the title of this devotional, think of all the people you are spiritually “married” to. How does that make you feel? Are you proud? Are you only married to Jesus? Are you married to 10 random females? Would you really want those dudes to father your children? Many of us are slobbering on our pillows at night, praying for “the right one”, but God isn’t going to send your true match in your life if you aren’t spiritually single. Why would he complicate you in the spirit even more, especially when he wants more of you in that area! A Facebook relationship status doesn’t define your “relationship status”, your heart and soul does. If your heart is still in your past relationship or if you haven’t asked God to break the soul ties from the previous relationship, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’re allowing that tie to block spiritual things to flow in that area and you’re also blocking God from lining you up with your proper spiritual mate. I hope you all got something from this and are encouraged to divorce some “unholy” matrimonies that have taken place in your life.

Prayer: This prayer should be one of self reflection and seeking God on the issues that you uncovered in your life. If you find yourself in a soul tie, if a sin was the cause of it, then repent. Renounce and Break the soul tie in Jesus’ name. You may have to fast to break the soul tie. You may have to rid your life of gifts connected to that person. Pray to God and seek wisdom on how to move forward and commit to not doing the same sin again. There is grace for you, so do not condemn yourself, but do not let your mind and flesh overlook the gravity of this issue.

Process vs Purchase

By: Fred Reid

Short Version: There is a process we must all go through to become what God has created us to be in the kingdom but we must be careful that we are not trying purchase this purpose through works.

Basically this one is about self-righteousness vs the will of the Almighty. That sounds really heavy and obviously bad right? But there are a lot of people who flirt with this problem way more than you’d think! As usual I can tell ya’ll about myself cuz I know me quite well, I often find myself WORKING trying to earn or be worthy of the things of God. I punish myself when I do things wrong or I try to go the extra mile doing something else so I can feel worthy of the gifts and blessings the Lord has given me. As it turns out this is really quite backwards and a insult to the sacrifice Jesus has made for me. But let’s get biblical!

John 19:30 and Rev. 21:6

Both of these scriptures deal with the phrase “it is finished”. The first is Jesus saying it right before He died. This was to signify that His life was over and He was in the proper place to be the sacrifice for the world’s sins. He needed to die so that He could be resurrected and go from operating as a sacrifice to being a savior. It’s important to remember a dead Jesus differs nothing from someone like Moses; but in His resurrection is the power and salvation. But let’s not get distracted, in Rev. 21:6 God tells John that it is finished and that He is Alpha and Omega and all who have overcome will be his sons and live in with Him while sinners while take part of the lake and the second death (ouch smh). I point these scripture out to prove that Jesus has done His work and the Father has cosigned that it is finished! Think of scripture limited to “it” because generational curses, fleshy desires, debts, depression, all manner of evil, etc, would have made the bible longer than it already is and people already struggle to read it lol But seriously ALL these things are included in the “it”! What is there left for you to try to do? Walk in the victory Jesus has provided. Think of it as Jesus defeated sin, hell, and the grave…and then left instructions on how you can do it. Why create a whole new strategy when the one proven to work is provided for you?

Gal 5:4

“Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are justified by the law YE ARE FALLEN FROM GRACE”

HEAVY!! I’ll try to make it quick. The letter KILLETH but the SPIRIT giveth LIFE! To judge yourself or others by the law is to kill yourself and others! Complete opposite of Jesus. He came to give life! Not to say we don’t have to follow God’s commandments (see previous devotional lol) but rather emphasize the significance of grace! It is grace that restores! It is a combination of love and grace that brings about change! If you get to the point that you feel like you are such a good saint that you live by the law perfectly you are trying to live above grace…and thus it won’t help you! My example is I research fasting at one point and found out that in the old testament some people fasted after they sinned to clean themselves off. I liked that idea so that’s what I started to do. The first time it went great and I felt good completing the fast and was back on track. The next time I didn’t feel as great so I fasted longer and the feeling never changed. Then it dawned on me I was trying to EARN my forgiveness; basically saying Jesus your innocence in death wasn’t enough for me I need to fast to really be forgiven. Yikes! Fasting is definitely necessary for righteous living and can be used to arrest the flesh if you feel yourself getting out of control; but it’s not a substitute for repentance. Which is an apology and CHANGE in behavior.

This is way too long so I’ll go over the process in the next jawn lol last thought I want to leave ya’ll with is that we are a people that walk by faith and not by sight! We take action based on who God is and what WE KNOW of Him, not what we see or how we feel! You may not feel worthy but God says you are! If that’s hard to understand or believe than you lack knowledge of the Father and need to find out how often the things that He says are right. (Hint hint:all the time)

Over and Out J

It’s the Little Things Folk

By: Fred Reid

Although this is a commonly tweeted statement by me; it also relates to kingdom principles. I’ve been thinking about this for a while but never got around to actually typing it out; but Mo/Shwanda’s message kinda confirmed it for me so I hope this makes sense to ya’ll.

Short Version: This one is about consistency with the Father in the “little things” and how they GREATLY impact your life!

Scripts: Matt 25:23, 1 Thess. 5:17-18, Philippians 1:6

Basically what I want to point out here is that if we aren’t consistently in our word, praying or spending time with the Lord then we are slowly but SURELY losing ground. It’s great to have a good church service, go to another bible study or service during the week and maybe even have a holy conversation with a friend at some point but in order to truly be going forward you have to have daily contact with the Father. Genuine, unrushed, untamed interaction with the Creator of all things! I’ll put myself on the forefront as an example. The weeks when I don’t really read my bible, or the days when I only pray for my meals and say some rushed scripted prayer before I go to bed I struggle more with my old ways of thinking and acting. I’m convinced this is no coincidence! It’s the fact that I am not keeping my mind stayed on Him that is allowing it to wonder elsewhere. But lemme get bible so y'all know I’m not just putting some nice words together.

Matt 25:23 “…well done, good and FAITHFUL servant; thou has been FAITHFUL over a FEW things I will make thee RULER over MANY things…”

From this scripture we see that if you are faithful over the things we have then we are able to come into MANY things. Pause for a second and think what does God mean by many things? Like what does many look like on God’s scale of thinking/operating? I’m sure its FAR greater than we can even imagine! Anyways this relates to what I was saying earlier because the “things” could go beyond possessions to spiritual deliverance, spiritual gifts and blessings. If you feel you have recently received something from God (a promise, a renewal, etc) but you aren’t faithful in the word to learn more about it, continue on the straight and narrow, you could lose it!

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”

This scripture is just an example of how often and how much time we should spend with the Lord. He is the ultimate time and the only thing holding us together! Without Him we can do nothing right! So while you may not be able to walk around all day long saying a prayer to the Lord, at least stop a few random times when you find yourself not really doing much (rather in class, driving etc) and whisper a few thanks.

Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”

Here lies one of the reasons to stay on ya Christ grind; the Lord has BEGUN a work in you and will CONTINUE this work aaalllll the way until Jesus comes back. So be careful of feeling like you have received something and you good. Or you stopped doing something you so finally on top. This is a on going process!! We NEED to spend time with the Lord in order to continue the work. If you aren’t going forward you’re going backward!

So reading a chapter or two each day may be seem insignificant but when you put it in perspective it is one of the only things that is going to keep you put together. You may already have your schedules figured out a certain way and may think it too hard/too late to fit in some time for praying, singing, or reading but when your life depends on it? I’m sure you can work something out. Finally the beautiful thing about it all is that is not a traditional religious practice. You don’t have to pray a certain way for a certain amount of time; simply reach out and make time. You could read the bible, you could sing your favorite song, you could pray whatever is on your heart at the time. But do something! Make it part of your daily routine and I promise it’ll be easier to stay sensitive to the holy spirit and harder to entertain your temptations.

Over and Out : )

It Don’t Take All That!

By: Fred Reid

Traditional phrase used for churches that have LONG services or church people who “do that most” lol but fitting for this devotional because it’s only about one verse. And it’s not all super deep but MY GOD if it aint make me feel real good down in my spirit!

Today’s text is Psalms 100. Though you’ve heard it a lot and it only consists of 5 verses I want to concentrate on verse 5

“For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations”

Cue the shouting music! Lol Seriously though this verse has EVERYTHING in it just that easy! The Lord is GOOD in its most truest definition and that’s still an understatement! Next His MERCY! Where would we be without His mercy! Even if you haven’t been that “ratchet” of a person the bible says if you’ve committed one sin you’re just as guilty as if you committed them all (James 2:10)! So you still needed mercy! If you’re like me though and KNOW you got a good bit of sin that was piled up, most of which was AFTER you knew you were sinning you REALLY appreciate His mercy! And last but not least His truth endureth to all generations. That’s good to me on a couple levels. 1.) God is a consistent truth that is always right and always works no matter when you apply Him! For years and years, situation after situation, generation after to generation. You are guaranteed His results so He is good to pass to your friends, family and even your kids! 2.) The same way God is expecting us to live now is applied to everybody. It’s not like the rules ever change or exceptions are made for some people like in the world’s system. God extends everyone grace that brings about change and then rewards obedience. And disobedience is punished. Simple as that.

Not the deepest revelation but definitely something to encourage your heart…hopefully.

Over and Out J

It’s a Love Thing

By: Fred Reid

Mainly this one is about avoiding sin. And the key to that is Love. Often it is presented to us that we have to avoid doing things that it feels natural and enjoyable to do, and the only reason why we shouldn’t do them is because they are bad. As we mature in Christ and get more knowledge we learn that sin just leads to death and on that road it tends to bring about very unfortunate circumstances. But I may have been the only one to notice that this does not make that much less appealing. If anything it just makes your sinful acts more informed which is worst. But there is hope! Staying away from sin involves having the holy spirit on the inside of you, but a large part of it also is renewing your mind and genuinely loving the Father. Which brings us to our scriptures:

John 14:15 “IF ye love me, keep my commandments”

Yea that’s in red because its Jesus that is speaking, I done got fancy on ya’ll lol But notice that He says your love for Him is exemplified by your obedience to His commandments. This may seem like a heavy task but when you think about it its good that the way to show love for Jesus is so clearly defined. As much as He does for us everything we do is on a small scale, so to know what He is looking for out of the relationship is relieving! He doesn’t say If you love me you’ll pray 5 times a day for 20 minutes, give $100 each month, give everything you have to poor people, but instead simply says obey His commandments. The other activities definitely wouldn’t hurt your cause, but the Lord is looking for people that love Him enough to make their life about Him.

What are His commandments?

Jesus explicitly states that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt 5:17). Jesus came to live by the law because nobody else could. He showed the example of what our lives would be like if we lived the way God originally intended. He didn’t lie, fornicate, nor any of the sins that we do thus He was the example of the rules that are STILL in place. More plainly explained:

Matt 22:36-40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ³⁷Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

I didn’t write it, it’s in your bibles!” That’s from that Stuff that Preacher’s say video lol but Jesus tells it is MOST important that we love God will ALL that we have and furthermore that all the other commandments are encompassed in that love for the Almighty. Loving God with your all your heart will allow you to love your neighbor as yourself. Loving God with all your heart will keep you from stealing, drinking, smoking, lusting, coveting, gossiping etc. Seems to simple huh? Let’s make it real. Think of someone you love, a parent, significant other, or a friend; would you purposely do things that 1.) you know they don’t want you to do or 2) hurts their heart to see/know you’re doing? Even if it is something that you enjoy doing you will SACRIFICE your ways for one’s that are pleasing to them..if you love them enough. How much more than should we love and sacrifice for God? He did sacrifice and apply a WORLD’s worth of sin upon His holy word on a cross..He’s already sacrificed…our turn.

Over and Out J

Conclusion: Sin will ALWAYS be appealing. It WILL always present itself. It will always pull; even if it is a very weak pull it’ll still pull BUT love Jesus enough to deny yourself and obey His commandments. There are blessings in Christ Jesus. Loving Him means keeping His commandments, the greatest commandment He gave us is to love Him and He’ll take care of us nice how that works right?