In Your Ship: Depression

Depression. It is a word all by itself. It leads to a world of mental and physical disaster. It can literally destroy your body, and even worse, it is contagious. It is a piece of baggage that will surely keep your rocket from blasting off full speed into the promises of God because it clouds your vision.  If you or someone you know has been in a pit of depression, keep reading.

Depression is one of Satan’s forbidden fruit. It is one of his most prevalent, yet unrecognized tools that he uses on the saints. Our minds were so trained to think negatively before we knew Jesus, that we easily let negative thoughts creep into our minds and before we know it, we agree with them. DO NOT AGREE!

Many times we blame the negative emotions on our flesh because our flesh is where ALL of our emotions lie. So, with that being said, who said that we had to activate the negative emotions? (anger, sadness, worry, anxiety…etc.). Your emotions follow what you allow yourself to think. If you allow yourself to think depressing thoughts, then you will become depressed and so on.

Good News! This works the opposite way as well. If you think uplifting thoughts, then you will be uplifted.  Someone is saying as they read this,” I don’t know how or it’s difficult”.  Below are six helpful things to do in order to encourage yourself during trying times.

1. Cast Down the Negative Thought(s)

First and foremost, when a negative thought (a thought that does not magnify what God has promised you in his word) comes into your mind cast it down. Rebuke the thought and replace it with a positive one.

Ex: Negative thought: “This is too hard, I’m tired of trying” 

Replacement thought: “ Nonsense! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

2. Cry out to God

Take this literally. I have been in this situation plenty of times and I know how it feels to not want to include someone in your pity party. God wants to be included. He wants you to cry to him and tell him you worries and all your dirty fears, but He wants you to give them to Him and allow Him to take them away. David cried out to God in Psalms all of the time.

3. Count Your Blessings

Again, take this literally. Once you begin to count your blessings starting from waking up in the morning, you will begin to see why you should trust God to bring you out.

4. Read Scriptures on Depression

That stuff works. Go look up every scripture on depression and meditate on them. You can look them up online or some Bibles have them listed in the front or back. You will begin to realize that you are not the first person God had to bring out of the depression pit so He has plenty of experience.

5. Give Yourself a Pep Talk

In Psalms 42:5-6 you see the writer, who was depressed, talk himself out of it. It is the basis of what we should do when we feel Depressed. Go read it.

6. Talk to a Saint

Find someone that you know is in God FOR REAL and talk to them. They will be able to offer you great encouragement. As I always say, Contact me via email kekerockette@hotmail.com .

Peace,

Keke Rockette

WARRING against Suicidal Thoughts

My heart has been heavy for the last three days ever since young upcoming hip hop mogul Freddy E committed suicide. Reading his last tweets revealed his last thoughts of despair and they were followed by his goodbyes to his family. His family has truly been in my prayers.

You can clearly read through the lines (of his tweets) that he had a lot going on in his life and  he felt he couldn’t handle it. I didn’t know him, but something in my spirit felt his pain and despair because I, as well as others, know what it feels like to want to end it all.

Life can get to the point where it is too heavy to carry. That is where Jesus comes in. Some of us find Him, and some of us already know of Him, but we just don’t know how He works.

After watching some of Freddy’s videos (warning some of the content is explicit), I saw that as a child he grew up in church and he knew of Jesus. By his suicide, we now know that he didn’t know how Jesus works. You may say, “ How does Jesus Work?” Well, let’s get into it.

1.    Suicidal Thoughts

Suicidal Thoughts are thoughts of taking one’s life. Many of us have had them.  It is the enemy (Satan), seeing our weak areas and convincing us to look at them. He tells us things like “ you can’t handle this. This is too much for you. The world will be better off without you. Nobody loves you. Everyone is against you. If you die then it will all be over. You are tired of living.” This doesn’t mean that you are crazy, in fact, that’s what the enemy wants you to think. He wants you to think that it is your idea to kill yourself. IT IS ALL LIES! It is when YOU AGREE to the things he is telling  you that you become suicidal. You spiritually agree to let that suicidal demon in to control your thoughts. Next thing you know everything is horrible to you. Mc Donald’s messed up your coffee and you think to yourself “ The whole world is against me! I wish I was dead!”  This is by no means a JOKE.

Satan wants to destroy you. Regardless of who you are. Even if you don’t even believe in God, he will use you until he can’t USE YOU anymore and then he will destroy YOU TOO. You thought Satan hated you?  You only exist in his mind because God made you. He hates who you represent: God. He could care less about your life and whether you prosper or go downhill. It brings no glory to him.  Your life brings glory to God. He is weak, he can’t kill you on his own, so he attempts to make you self-destruct.

2.    Your Purpose

God has a purpose for your life.(Jeremiah 25:11 NIV 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.) Satan knows the lives you will bring to Christ. He knows the impact you will have on others lives. Of course he wants to get rid of you! He wants to tell you that you are nothing and make you believe it so that you take yourself out of the equation. Then how will you bring your friends or family to Christ?

You have an amazing purpose for your life and if you just hold on, you will make it and those problems will not be the Great Wall of China that Satan made them out to be.

Jesus wants you to be free from all that stuff. Read your word. If you don’t know where to start, Inbox me @kekerockette@hotmail.com

3.    Exposing Satan

Once you get the fact in your head that you are being bamboozled and that it is not you who is saying these nasty things about yourself, expose Satan. Rebuke him! Reject those thoughts! What does that mean? Physically say to yourself “That is a lie! Get out of here! I send you back to the pitts of Hell where you belong.” If there was ever a proper time to tell someone to” GO TO HELL!”,  this is it. Tell Satan to go to Hell!  That’s what God does, (Zechariah 3:2The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! ) go read it. Then RUN!  Run to your bible and into prayer. Confess to Jesus that he is Lord (if you haven’t already) and tell him about your thoughts. You will hear the total opposite. You will hear what you really are; VALUABLE. You are valuable to God. You have great value in the world.

4.    Life wont end

After you die, you don’t just go out of existence. If we did, everyone would just kill themselves. I don’t know the fate of anyone; however, you will have a fate. The whole reason for killing yourself is so that it will all be over. What happens when it’s not? Have you ever hated working at a job so much, that you quit that job for another job and then realized that the job you had at first was so easy. It seemed so hard at the time didn’t it? However, when you tore your drawers (underpants) with the manager, by quitting, you made a mistake. I believe in heaven and hell, and by all means, I don’t want to tear my drawers with God. I definitely don’t know the fate of a person who self-murders. It’s 50/50. I wouldn’t want to quit this job, where you can prosper, for a hard job with a dead end road. Are you willing to take that chance?.............Don’t take that chance.

5.    There is Hope

Although we go through dry seasons where we feel like we can't make it, there is HOPE.  There is hope that everything will get better. Jesus came to give us life so that we may have it more abundantly.(John 10:10 The thief [satan] cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I[Jesus] am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.) Jesus is our hope. His grace and mercy overwhelms us. Therefore, there is hope. Nothing is worth your life. Many of us get so upset over things as little as money. If we read our word, we will see that Jesus even wants us to have money, (2 Corinthians9:11 NIV “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.) He just doesn’t want us to put ANYTHING  above Him. (Matthew 6:33 NIV “But seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”)  There is a lot more that Jesus wants us to have. We have to have faith. It wouldn’t be faith if we could see everything good that is coming our way. (Hebrews 11:1 KJV “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”)

Jesus has granted us grace and mercy. You may feel like you have commited the ultimate sin in your life and maybe that’s why you think you can't go to God. I’m here to tell you this: That is exactly why it is called Grace and Mercy. We don’t deserve it. Nobody deserved it.  Sister Watermelon from church didn’t deserve it either. She may be all holy now, but at a certain point sister watermelon was in your position and she didn’t deserve it. We never earn it. Jesus’s grace and mercy is for you too. You can be forgiven.

6.    Peace

Peace was promised to you. (John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.)

When you are a child of God you are not exempted from attacks, in fact, you are prone to them. Satan already uses the ones who don’t accept God. He needs to use you. God PROMISED you peace beyond your own understanding.

There is no method or technique for tapping into that peace other than spending time with Him and placing your problems in His hands. Become vulnerable to Him. He won’t tell. Pour out to God. It is just that simple.

Peace,
Keke Rockette

Giving Your Friends Advice with LOVE!

Everyone has that friend that comes to you for advice when they are hurt and broken, but after you put a lot of energy into giving your long speech about how to fix their problem and how Jesus loves them, it goes in one ear and out of the other. Right?

When you are in your flesh, it can make you angry. It can make you want to even say, “You know, what don’t call telling me your problems anymore! You don’t listen!”

It can be very tempting, but it would definitely run him/her off and he or she will never talk to you again. How will you share Christ then? It tells you in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 that your concern should not be whether your friend takes your advice, your concern should be that you are giving he or she the correct advice.

You are planting a seed, and it is not up to you to make it grow. God gives the increase. So, the next time you have the feeling that you want to quit on a friend because you don’t see any change, think about how God will never give up on you. In Hebrews 13:5 it said NEVER will He leave YOU nor forsake you. If that is what God thinks about you, then I’m sure you can find it somewhere in your heart to not give up on your friend. Think like Jesus who DIED on the cross for you and gave you salvation. Philippians 2:5 says, (KJV says it beautifully) “Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus” or in more simple terms (NIV) “ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.”

Don’t misunderstand me. Don’t give up on your friend but, don’t consume yourself in his or her problems” No! You have one purpose and that is to demonstrate Christ. So if you are running off with your friend to go burst Ray Ray‘s windows out of his car because he cheated on her, then you are becoming consumed. If you were happy when you got on the phone with your friend and when you get off the phone, you are mad and can’t go on with your day because of her problem ,which you cant fix , you are becoming consumed.

If you cannot give advice without becoming consumed, I suggest you go back into your prayer closet and ask God to further prepare you for that task. By no means should you jeopardize your relationship with Christ.

I say that because you know Christ. You know that He will fix the problem, so why let those negative spirits jump on you and then you run out and go off on the bag boy at Piggly Wiggly (I’m from a small town lol).

I once had a friend who came to me about her guy very often. He would do some of the meanest things that clearly said “I don’t care about you.” She would come to me and every time I was there, angry at him. I would give her these long speeches and it seemed like she would take my advice. She needed that attention at the time. Of course she went right back to him and there I would be angry at her for taking him back and I found myself holding grudges against him. (We can sometimes hold grudges and we may not realize it at the time. Ask God to search you and reveal anything that is unlike him.) By getting angry and allowing it to become a grudge I put myself into trouble. 

Heather Lindsey, founder of the Pinky Promise Foundation and author of Pink Lips and Empty Hearts, always says your heart grows things and she is indeed correct. The smallest things will sprout into something bigger.

Anyway, I had to remove myself from the position of advice giving until God further built my spirit up to stand against the things I would encounter with it. I didn’t just stop answering her phone calls, but I prayed before I spoke to her and I just listened. That’s all she wanted anyhow. She didn’t always want advice. She needed me to listen and to tell her that it was injustice. Even if I had to tell her, “I’ll call you back” that’s what I did, but I could no longer allow myself to become consumed.

I was on my face telling God to give me what to say to her because I knew that as a Christian I was entitled to bear fruit (see fruit of the spirit: Galatians 5:22-23) so that she and others could pull from my tree (see Matthew 21:18-22 when Jesus curses the fig tree.) God started revealing things to me like the scripture I mentioned earlier (1cor 3:6-9).

So there is nothing wrong with admitting that you can’t handle the heat, just make sure you go back into your closet and let God make you fireproof. Be patient, it is a virtue. Also, know that your strength is worthless compared to God’s (1 Cor 1:25) and that when you are talking to your friend, you should always consult the spirit. The Holy Spirit won’t allow you to get angry with him or her, It naturally carries those fruit and It will guide you through it.

Be prayerful and keep the faith,

Keke Rockette

This is me and one of my ABC's on our Youtube Show "The SahKe Show". Go check it out! @sahke12

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