FAITH CAPSULE: Anyone occupying your life and not of God shall become permanently terminated.

1 Kings 18

On Mount Carmel, Elijah (an agent for God) engaged four hundred and fifty false prophets of Baal (agents of King Ahab) in a power demonstration. 
In that encounter, Elijah asked the false prophets to call for their god to show power. 
The god of the false prophets was a no-show despite calling for long hours.
When all attempts to call on Baal were exhausted, Elijah placed a call on the God of gods, the only God that answers by fire. 
Without any delay, God answered Elijah, and a consuming fire fell. 
Ahab and his entourage saw the move of God in power demonstration. 
1 Kings 18:39 records, “Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!”’  
Just like the people on Mount Carmel saw the move of God and declared, The Lord is God, have you seen enough of the move of God in your life to begin to declare the Lord is God?
It became evident to the prophets of Baal that the God of Elijah is the Lord God, and there is none to worship but Him.
The victory for Elijah before God, Elijah declared an open war against the prophets of Baal. 
1 Kings 18:40, “And Elijah said to them, ‘Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!’ So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.” 
Where are you? 
Where is your location on the ground of God? 
Have you accepted Him as your only God, the Lord of lords, the eternal Creator, the One that was, that Is, and will always be? 
If you can sing it out from the depth of your heart with the expectation for Him to manifest, then you are in tune with heaven and your Mount Carmel victory. 
Now is the time to take a stand and ask God today that all agents of confusion, delay, and hindrances should all become seized on your behalf, just as prophets of Baal.  
Pray that they shall not escape the hand of God that seized them. 
Ask that all hindrances in your life shall fall as the Baal prophets went down at the Brook of Kishon. 
Anyone occupying your life and not of God shall begin to experience loss in every area of their life.
In the time of calling God for your deliverance, do not the time to spare your hinderance.
With prayer, invade, raid your forces to deny their victory
Know to desire for the move of God on your behalf.
Pray a standing prayer, allow God to work on your behalf, and victory is in for you in the name of Jesus. 

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of strength on your prayer altar. 

FAITH CAPSULE: The command of God is His word, not a suggestion but to engage.

1 Samuel 15

God alone is the Commanding commander. 
The command of God is not a suggestion but must be engaged continually. 
God commanded Saul through Samuel, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:2-3) 
The message was a command, not a suggestion or an idea. 
God did not give a choice to Saul in His command.
Saul made a choice not to prosecute the command of God. 
Saul engaged in disobedience and did not fully carry out the command of God.
Saul went as commanded, “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.” (1 Samuel 15:9) With the command of God, there shall be no disobedience just as Saul did.
Disobedience is a failure for Saul.
The Bible recorded the response of Saul to Samuel, “…Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” (1 Samuel 15:13) 
Saul disobeyed God. 
The excuse Saul was to “…Spared the best and Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.” (1 Samuel 15:15) 
Under heaven, no excuse can prevail. 
Do you have an excuse for the consequence of disobedience to the word of God? 
The excuse of Saul does not go far before God, but it stopped him from going further in the hand according to the divine agenda for His life. 
As a believer, all should know that no excuse is a supplement that can complement any act of disobedience to the word of God. 
The best excuse documented in the pages of the Bible was of Adam when God approached him for having eaten from the Tree of Life. 
Adam responded to God, “…The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12) 
The excuse of Adam was a reasonable one because he did not ask for a woman, but God made Eve for him. 
However, every violation of the command of God is an avenue that complicates the journey of life. 
The command of God is not to be compromised. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you not to live a life of disobedience to His word.

Faith Capsule: Are you shutting your mouth when you need to cry out?

1 Samuel 1

Shouting out is not necessarily the same as crying out.
Calling loud can be a reasonable calling for attention.
At a time when law restricted the movement of lepers, ten lepers needed the attention of Jesus for their healing.
Luke 17:12-14 recorded, “Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.”  
Distance and the law that restricted the movement of Lepers were in place to deny the miracle of healing for ten lepers seeking healing from Jesus.
However, the ten lepers deny distance from denying them their miracle healing by staying afar to cry out for the attention of Jesus.
Jesus gave attention to the ten lepers for them to become cleansed.
Know to trust and hope to gain the visitation of God.
What is it that is standing between you and your miracle?
A thief is a representative of hindrance in the place of healing and deliverance.
John 10:10 records the word of Jesus, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” 
As an acclaimed believer, let it be registered in you that the enemy cannot be more powerful.
Jesus came and paid it all on the cross for all with knowledge to engage Him, to gain from the abundant life He brought to all.
Crying out can be a reasonable means to gain the attention of God.
Psalm 81:10 testifies, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” 
One that cries out open mouth wide to gain the attention of God.
One who chose to remain quiet on the ground where help is available will not embrace miracle visitation.
The Ten Lepers could not be quiet but were loud when they lifted their voice and called for mercy.   
The Psalmist suggested receiving from God when he stated, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help.” (Psalm 121:1) 
How are you calling on Him?
Could it be Hannah must have been quiet, to herself in her prayers while enduring provocation from Peninnah when she was barren?
On one of her trips to Shiloh, as a result of the provocation she received from Peninnah, she cried to God like a drunkard.  
Eli must have been seeing Hannah coming to Shiloh every year, but in the year of her breakthrough, she prayed like a drunkard and was mistaken for a drunkard by Eli. 
You do not have to afford affliction but resolve affliction by crying out uncommonly, if possible, like a drunkard.  

Prayer for today: Ask God to incline His ear to your prayer.

FAITH CAPSULE: To have joy is a choice.

Philippians 1

Jesus, the living word of God, is the only source of joy for all. 
Jesus told His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11) 
It is a choice when open to become filled with the word for joy.
After Jesus, John, a disciple of Jesus, could not be quiet but confirmed the word of Jesus by stating, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:4) 
Apostle Paul buttressed, “…Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” (Philippians 1:18) 
Having joy through the word of God is the only source. 
Think, why are you not rejoicing always?
Is the word gaining entrance? 
Is the word enter to fill you up or to pass out not established in you?
Jesus wants the things He has spoken to gain entrance, established, and joy.
The fullness of joy grants access to the presence of God. 
The Psalmist pointed out, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11) 
The path of life is to have the joy of the Lord to gain and retain the presence of God.
One must be joyful because the word He has spoken is truth, and it can never return to Him void of performing what He says.
Has He promised and not done? 
One that is not rejoicing is the one with worrying, not with the word of God. 
One that has received the word and believes in the word shall have no place for worrying but rejoicing because He commanded, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33) 
What are the things that are causing you not to rejoice? 
Has the word not spoken that, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) 
In times of challenging things, why not engage the word of God, knowing that it will eventually work together as promised in the word of God? 
If you allow the spoken word to fill you and you become full of His word, joy, and rejoicing shall be your portion regardless of the challenging things of the world.

Prayer for today: Ask that you become filled by the word of God, the source of joy.

FAITH CAPSULE: Focus on your source for deliverance, not your surroundings.

Numbers 13

What do you see in confronting challenges?
What one sees determines what one receives. 
What one receives is what becomes of such.
The Israelites were not strangers to the wonders of their deliverance from the bondage of over four hundred years.
The Israelites saw how God dealt with Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt with ten painful plagues that prompted Pharaoh to allow their departure from bondage. 
As they advanced in their journey to the Promised Land, they could not focus on the source of their deliverance but on what they saw around them. 
During their journey, “…when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” (Exodus 14:10) 
Are you one that lifts eyes to behold confronting challenges with negative confession? 
The Israelites saw fear and failed to cling to the testimonies of how they came out of Egypt. 
In response to what they saw, they confessed negatively by saying to Moses, “…Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11-12) 
How do you see your confronting challenge? 
Do not forget how far the Lord God has brought you.
The Israelites could not cling to the testimonies of their deliverance as they saw and confessed death in their journey. 
Testimonies experienced in your life should become your meditation.
 Psalm 119:2 states, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.”  
Seeing the positive in the face of the negative is evidence of seeking God. 
Joshua and Caleb could not see the negative when they went with their brethren to spy on the land. 
God promised the Israelites the Promised Land, but the spy went and could not keep the testimony of God, but confessed negatively to compromise and complicated the promise of God.
Deuteronomy 32:9-12 documents, “For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. So the Lord’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.” 
Joshua and Caleb kept the testimony of God and wholly followed God.

Prayer for today: Ask that the testimony of God shall become your way of life.