Minutes with the Master: A Devotional for the Revelations of Life

By Lisa M. Faulkner

Minutes with the Master is a 21-day devotional written by Communications Professional and Minister, Lisa M. Faulkner. Each devotional is a testimonial from Lisa's life that reveals great insight that only comes from a connection with God. As Lisa journeys from childhood to adulthood, the reader is inspired to journey through their experiences as well through thought-provoking questions at the end of each devotional. This devotional is great for the believer and non-believer alike because everyone seeks to be awakened through the experiential that results in true transformation. Take these 21 days for a devoted transformation you won't regret.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798989021215

Lisa M. Faulkner

Lisa M. Faulkner, author of Minutes with the Master and Principal Consultant for PenStar Communications, a communications consultancy. Lisa is also an Ordained Minister, a veteran in her field, and Masters accredited expert. She presents to groups and professionals on Communications, Marketing, Professional and Spiritual Development. Most importantly, Lisa enjoys consulting with clients to provide writing, producing, and marketing that communicates their greatest potential with strategies that increase their brand awareness and earning potential. MEDIA EXPERT: Lisa has been innovating in her craft throughout her career and fulfilling client objectives with foresight and strategy that identifies gaps in organizational and communication efforts. Lisa's innate passion for featuring the human experience became evident in her early career days as a News Staff Writer for the Birmingham News Human Interest section of the paper and has continued throughout her career featuring and developing storytelling platforms that serve others. Lisa's thorough and dynamic efforts have coined her "an amazing storyteller" and a developer of highly innovative approaches and plans. Lisa's other career work includes being Senior Producer for Creflo and Taffi Dollar Ministries; Senior Producer and Marketing Manager for In Touch Ministries with Charles Stanley; and Producer for WTTO-TV Birmingham, AL. GAME CHANGER: Lisa's prized endeavor, Game Changers with Lisa Faulkner, started as a live global radio talk show on WAEC Love 860 AM. Lisa is also the Executive Producer and Talk Show Host of Game Changers with Lisa Faulkner, originally a Radio show that became an on-demand streaming TV show. It is now in syndication as a podcast on many major podcast platforms. Game Changers with Lisa Faulkner is also available per podcast on its exclusive rich magazine Libsyn Podcast, iHeartRadio, Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, and Tumblr. Game Changers with Lisa Faulkner features game changers from across the world in the studio and remotely. Listeners enjoy feature interviews conducted by Lisa Faulkner with well-knowns like Visionary, Sam Chand, Political Leader, Stacey Abrams, Indecent Proposal Novelist, Jack Engelhard, and more entrepreneurs, executives, entertainers, ministers, and advocates for positive change. It is devoted to encouraging and informative spotlights from professionals who have found a successful niche in today's marketplace. ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Lisa has notable career mentions for her seamless efforts in writing and producing human interest pieces on the homeless and the African American Male. She has numerous career and religious certificates including an Ordained Minister License from The Worship Center Christian Church, Birmingham, Alabama; a Real Estate License, Alabama Real Estate Commission; University of Alabama Special Studies; a Radio Marketing Associate Diploma; a Project Management Certificate; and a Primerica Fast Start District Leader Award. Lisa's civic and service awards include a Councill Elementary School Citizenship Award; a Radio Bible School Diploma; a Christian Growth Diploma; and a Discipleship Ministry Certificate of Completion. Lisa's work and bylines are featured in national magazines including Parade, the Discipleship Journal, and The Army Times. Lisa's expert media article, The Art of Storytelling, has been featured in more than 100 online business news circuits. EXPERTISE | EDUCATION: Lisa's background and experiences have allowed her to make significant organizational impact and independently gain a prestigious media client base who continue to hold her in high esteem. A proud alumnus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Lisa earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a specialization in Broadcasting. She also earned a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA.

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COPYRIGHT © 2024 Lisa M. Faulkner

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, and in a renewal system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the Author.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version®. Scripture quotaitons marked NIV are taken from the New International Version®.

For foreign and subsidiary rights, contact the author.

Print ISBN: 979-8-98902-120-8

eBook ISBN: 979-8-98902-121-5

Printed in the United States of America

Minutes…sometimes all it takes is a minute to glean God’s goodness. To understand His awesomeness. To realize you are a part of His master plan. Hence, God’s long-time title for this work is most graciously my Minutes with the Master.

~ Lisa M. Faulkner

Dedication

My Magnificent Mother, Eleanor C. Faulkner, who continues to endure as my staunch supporter. Also, to my siblings, Pamela D. Colley, Marcus L. Clark, and especially our youngest brother, Eddie Faulkner, Jr., who will live forever in my family’s hearts. Eddie died unexpectedly while this devotional was being written.

About the Author

Lisa M. Faulkner, M.A., Principal Consultant of PenStar Communications, has a pioneering spirit and believes the art of storytelling is the winning edge to all effective communications.

Lisa is also an Ordained Minister and presents to groups and professionals on Communications, Organizational Leadership, and Spiritual Development. Lisa has written and produced countless promotions and feature stories throughout her career, specializing in seamless integration, and storytelling. Her internationally published article, The Art of Storytelling can be read on Small Business Trendsetters and several online news publications. Lisa is also the Executive Producer and Talk Show Host of Game Changers with Lisa Faulkner, originally a Radio show that became an on-demand streaming TV show. It is now in syndication as a podcast on many of the major podcast platforms.

Lisa’s other career work includes Senior Producer for Creflo and Taffi Dollar Ministries; Senior Producer and Marketing Manager for In Touch Ministries with Charles Stanley, where through her years of writing and producing integrated broadcast, marketing, public relations, and public affairs efforts, as well as voice and on-camera talent work; she reveals, Storytelling is a captive communicative device that lives on in powerful ways long after the story has been told.

Minutes with the Master (A Devotional for the Revelations of Life) has impeccable elements that create emotional resonance with the reader with relevance through timeless messages and intellectual nourishment. Faulkner believes one of the real, sustainable ways to reach others is through the art of storytelling.

Compelling communication tops Lisa’s expertise. She believes in the process that allows storytelling to unfold following comprehensive research in light of hindsight and foresight. Lisa’s thought process is extraordinary, with exceptional communication for everyone and anyone.

Written in an engaging, authentic elegance and deep insight of spirit, Lisa precisely resonates with all those who are in some way seeking answers. Minutes with the Master is more than worth a read. It is a keeper for the revelations of life.

Table of Contents

Devotional 1 ~ In A Twinkling

Devotional 2 ~ Walk in God’s Direction

Devotional 3 ~ Now that He Has Your Attention

Devotional 4 ~ My First Ministry

Devotional 5 ~ Daddy’s Girl

Devotional 6 ~ The Date or The Destination?

Devotional 7 ~ Waiting on the Train…

Devotional 8 ~ A Mother’s Protection…

Devotional 9 ~ The Best Decision I Ever Made

Devotional 10 ~ It’s Not About You

Devotional 11 ~ Born into Sin with a Desperate Innocence

Devotional 12 ~ God Is Faithful

Devotional 13 ~ My First Love

Devotional 14 ~ Miracles

Devotional 15 ~ Stitches & Surgeries

Devotional 16 ~ What’s in a Name?

Devotional 17 ~ The Prayer Phenomenon

Devotional 18 ~ The Teacher

Devotional 19 ~ Goodbye Daddy

Devotional 20 ~ Use What’s In Your Hands

Devotional 21 ~ The Churches

Devotional 1 ~

In A Twinkling

I am linear by nature. Everything happens chronologically for me. My mother would call it a one-track mind. I cannot move on to anything else until there is clarity and closure. I cannot mix it up. I am afraid it will get lost in the shuffle, and we will not get back to it. Understanding that you will understand why I can sometimes go back to the earliest Minutes in my life to reflect on God’s hand in my life. It is also paradoxical I have also erased some of those earliest memories in my life. Nonetheless, my linear way of thinking keeps me present today and forms who I am in Christ and who I am as a woman to those I love and myself.

I dedicate this Minute to how God can spare us in a Minute. How, otherwise, in that minute, we can get taken out by the enemy…but God, in His infinite wisdom, spares us. God decides, above all the circumstances and players, to give us another chance.

The first memory of God’s plan for my life started to occur in my late thirties. I continued to remember a happening around the time I was six years old. It was the first memory of my birth father. I could not recall the entire occurrence, but I continued to remember the minute, the time my father held my family and me in a lineup, at gunpoint, in my grandfather’s kitchen. I could not have imagined this. But just in case I did, I had to ask my mother if daddy really did this? She said, Yes, he did. It really happened, and I did not remember the before or the after; I only remembered the Minute God spared my life. He made my dad fold and spared my life to serve the Lord.

I do not want you to be as captivated by the magnitude of the situation I described as much as I want you to recall just one Minute God spared your life. One Minute He turned things around and said, No, or maybe one Minute He finished things, and whatever it is, cannot haunt you anymore. It is gone. And God did it. Take some time to reflect on it today and thank God for His all-knowing plans for your life.

The truth is there isn’t much I could do to control the events happening around me at age six. That is why those matters I could not control or bring closure to; I tucked them away in the recesses of my brain until I was strong enough to just accept them. As I reflected on my life, I realized since my childhood, God’s helping hand had been there to catch me. Our lives are in the hands of the Lord, and he sends in every good asset we deserve. The course of our lives gets a little dicey with the choices we make.

I have also come to realize it is not always necessary to fret over every little thing in life and always look for closure. Granted, holding his family at gunpoint in a lineup, was no little thing my dad did. We will get back to him in later devotionals. If things are not going your way, just know they are going as planned, considering God’s grace is sufficient for every situation. Yes, it is natural to feel some discomfort and distress during hardships, but this should not stop us from making progress.

Think about all those events in your life you have held on to. The moments and weight you still carry maybe like I did, after many years. It is not for you to bear it. Give all your tensions to the Lord and believe in his plans!

I thank God his handprint and His footprints that are meticulously on the events of my life. I can let go and trust Him with my life. I am grateful. I have learned my role is to follow His purpose for my life, and not to get hindered by every event that happens in life. On Devotional 1 of Minutes with the Master, learn how to let go and trust God. You can thank me later. It has taken me a lifetime to learn to let go, and you get to learn how on Devotional One.

Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version)

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.

Have you ever reflected on God’s hand in your life? Please take some time to journal about your experience.

Has there been a turning point in your life you have truly learned to let matters go to the will of God?

Devotional 2 ~

Walk in God’s Direction

Do you want to hear from the Lord? Of course, you do! You got a Minute? It is how God speaks…in a Minute. And sometimes, we want to hear it again. God confirm it. Let’s make sure it is what You said. Blah, blah, blah….

God does not operate for your assurance. He operates for your faith and your obedience. We need to be obedient and move on to what God tells us in a Minute.

God will often say it to us one time. I cannot say how He talks to you, but He talks to me in several ways. He talks to me through people. He talks to me through situations. He talks to me through my inner self, and it happens in three ways – through a sense of reckoning and reconciling, through a sense of peace, and lastly, in a small, inner voice. I can count the latter times on one hand. But in either of those ways, there is only a Minute in which He does it. It is up to us to continue repeating it; to remind ourselves; to reaffirm it in our actions. But God says it, and He is done.

Remember, the most important part for us is to be obedient because when we are not, we are postponing greatness. I know God told me in a very transformative minute in my life, I would probably never work a regular job again. I had been laid off from a job in Atlanta, and I was on my ride home for a visit to Birmingham. I was worried, of course. I did not want to be, but I was. I did not want to bring my worries and concerns home, and I was praying to God on my ride. I remember where I was at the bend in the road when I heard Him say, you’ll probably never work a regular job again. I leaned my head out the window, looked in the rearview mirror, and said, What God? I brought my head back in the car and wondered what He meant.Why did He say those words to me? I could only speculate, but I do know He said it. Since then, nothing has been the same, and there has been nothing regular about my employment. I am sure regular meant it was up to me rather I operated in His permissive Will or his perfect Will from there on. It was shortly thereafter that God started to lead me in my work to ministry, and I learned I would work in my field of communications for God. Prior to that time, I had not considered the two. In fact, I was concerned. I believed the Lord was going to send me away like he did Jonah to preach, and I would have to give all of my energy to ministry and leave the