GIVE SELF TO GOD’S WORD

FAITH CAPSULE: With understanding, give yourself to God’s word.

2 Kings 7

Give yourself to the word of God with understanding not to become a victim in the challenges of this wicked world. Understanding is the ability to listen carefully and be in charge of what comes out of the mouth. 
Truly understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. (Proverbs 16:22) 
Are you considering the importance of listening ability and not live as a potential fool? 
Bible warns, “A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.” (Proverbs 18:7) If indeed mouth can lead to destruction, understanding will be leading mouth out of destruction. Bible also warned in Proverbs 13:3, “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” Again, it is understanding that causes the mouth to preserves life. 
With understanding, are you taking charge of your mouth to avoid troubling challenges over your life?
Once, in the time of Elisha, a severe famine reduced the land to a place of lack. The shortage was rampant across the land. The Bible records, “Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. Thus, says the LORD: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’” (2Kings 7:1) To one of the officers with Elisha, the word through Elisha sounded like an impossible task. 
To the officer, the word of Elisha sounds as impossible.
The officer could not be in charge of his mouth; the officer lacked understanding; the officer took a stand like a fool. 
The ignorant officer responded to Elisha’s prophecy when he spoke out of his mouth with a lack of understanding, “…Look, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, could this thing be (2 Kings 7:2)?” Imagine the demonstration of lack of understanding which caused doubt from the ignorant officer.
Do you doubt what God can do? 
Can you imagine yourself waking up in the position of abundant instead of waking up in the place of famine? 
With understanding, if you know that God is forever on the throne, allow faith to know that miracle is not beyond God. 
Just Elisha said, the officer saw the miracle with his eyes, but could not touch it. The officer lack understanding, his mouth could not deliver him from a troubling challenge which took his life. 2 Kings 7:20 records, “And so it happened to him, for the people trample him in the gate, and he died.” 
At the time God opened the window of abundant, the officer’s lack of understanding marked him with destruction.
With understanding, give self to the word of Jesus’ assurance of the possibility of God in the place of impossibility.
Matthew 19:26 records the word of Jesus, “…With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” 
With understanding are you taking charge of your mouth, by giving yourself to God’s possibility in the place impossibility?

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from lack of understanding.

FAITH CAPSULE: God wants all to love others.

1 John 3

Do you love others?
1 John 3:11 stated, “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” Many claims to be a believer but loving one another are not in heart.
Are you living by the word of God obediently or disobediently?
One that is living life by the word of God is answering to God’s command, to love. The Bible records, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this, we know that we are in Him.” (1 John 2:5) Loving should be the key to the life of the believer.
Jesus gave the parable, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.” (Luke 10: 30-33)
A man in the parable was attacked and wounded by thieves.
While a priest and a Levite passed by, they saw the wounded but passed on the other side.
Do you love the kind of priest and Levite that passed on and not give love to help?
Unlike believer Priest and Levite, an unbeliever, a certain Samaritan demonstrated love as it is in the word of God for all to love others stated in Luke 10:33, “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
Acclaimed believer, in the name of love, walked away but the sinner, a certain Samaritan, answered to God’s command to love for others.
The sinner had compassion like Jesus, the love of God.
Are you being deceived by others not to love others as commanded by God?
One can be a Priest or Levite and not answer as commanded by God’s word for all to love others. However, know that title can be irrelevant in life but engaging the task of the title is relevant.
A certain Samaritan gave care when he supplied materials and paid the bill in full.
Can you answer the Lord’s question? Luke 10:36 questions, “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
Serving to please God is not only in religious activity but in Christ’s love, to love others.
John 13:34-35 buttresses, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.”
To love others is a command of God.
Living by His command is the evidence of a true follower of Jesus.
Live life by loving others as commanded by God.

Prayer for today: Ask God from the depth of your heart that you want to love others.

FAITH CAPSULE: Deliverance of God is in the word of God with His instruction and teaching.

1 Samuel 15

The word of God that gains entrance to the heart of one will deposit direction for deliverance. The word of God that entered into the heart of Moses took Israel out of the bondage of over 400 years.
When it was the time for God to bring the Israelites out of the bondage, Moses was reluctant to lead the Israelites.
God spoke to Moses, “Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.” (Exodus 4:15-17) According to the verses above, the word of deliverance that made Moses as God over Aaron was the deliverance of over four hundred years of bondage.
The word of God for direction is with instruction that does not fail.
Psalm 32:8 testified instruction of direction, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
The word of God for deliverance was with teaching in the way for the Israelites. Exodus 13:17-18 records, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.”
Are you giving self to God’s word as instruction and for leading you in the journey of, not to be a victim of bondage?
God sent Samuel to tell Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now, therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. 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. 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 15:1-3)
Saul did not give self to the words of God in his heart.
Saul rejected the word of God as a result, God rejected him. (1 Samuel 15:10-35)
Allow the word of God in your heart to instruct and teach you not to become a victim of the wicked world.

Prayer for today: Ask that your faith in the word of God for your life shall not fail.

FAITH CAPSULE: Who are you in the presence of God or who are you in your world?

Acts 5:1-11

As a believer, what is your identity or character before your world?
Man can be deceived but God sees all things and nothing is hidden from God.
Just as smoke cannot be separated from a burning fire, deceit and telling lies cannot be separated from the majority that is claiming and quoting the word of God.
Who are you in the presence of God or who are you in your world?
The story of Ananias and Sapphira depicts the majority of believer’s skill to deceive or lies for arrival self-ambition, in the name of God.
The book of Acts 5:1-2records, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Ananias and Sapphira’s sold their possession voluntary without force on them.
Ananias and Sapphira acted good of heart but it wrong when evidence of deception and telling lies were revealed. Both of them opened for the devil to fill them with evil’s agenda.
Ananias and Sapphira’s lies became a revelation for Peter to respond by speaking, “…Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4)
Ananias and Sapphira must have been lying long before it caught them, to expose them before brethren.
Are you living as a liar?
Telling lies can go for a long period or a short period but it will only take a day for the truth to prevail. Before God, there is no small or big lie. A lie is a lie and the end, therefore, is a sin. Sin offers nothing but death. Both Ananias and Sapphira died instantly.
The word of God reveals that deceitful is sin and will not be accessible to the presence of God. Also, a liar that is attending church regularly is not the evidence of accessing the presence of God.
The book of Psalm 101:7-8 says, “He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.”
Claiming to be a believer of God’s word needs to come out of telling lies to move into the truth of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His mercy in the area of walking in sin.

FAITH CAPSULE:  Are you experiencing any challenge?

2 Samuel 6

Challenges in life are inevitable.
Challenges can be predictable or unpredictable when it comes to one’s life.
Challenges can be painful and persistence in one’s life.
Challenges can be avoidable or unavoidable.
Challenges can expose the weakness or the strength of man when it comes to one’s life.
Challenges can be a source of discouragement in life.
Are you experiencing any challenge?
Challenges can come as an affliction such as sickness, conditions or disorder in one’s life, but one with the fear of God can be encouraged as Psalm 34:19 records, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
In a time of challenging issue, keep the focus on God that will deliver all.
2 Corinthians 4:17 speaks to all challenges of affliction in one’s life, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Challenges will question a man’s faith in God when it becomes persistently remains as pain in one’s life.
The agent of challenges of your life will ask about your faith, to mock you by asking the whereabouts of your God?
In your response to mockery question, let the agents of challenges in your life know that “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.” (Isaiah 59:1)
God has not ignored your challenges, keep the focus on God.
The agent of challenges over your life will attempt to discourage you by reminding you or questioning you saying, “how long will you wait on God with no end or answer to deliver you from your challenges?” 
Do not keep quiet to the agent of your challenge, speaking out that, “God is worthy to be thankful for bringing you thus far in life but not your present challenge that will direct your attention away from focus away from God. ”
What is the root of your challenges?
Often, the challenges of today in one’s life can be the result of a decision made on behalf of one by parents or grandparents, not knowing the consequences of challenges.
Also, one’s own wrong decision can be the cause of ongoing challenges in one’s life.
In the journey of life, one’s challenge can be the cause of doing wrong in the place to do right.
Uzzah’s challenge that terminated his life was the evidence of doing wrong in the place to do right. At the time of transferring the ark of God, at Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Uzzah did wrong in his attempt to do right provoked the hand of God against his life. 2 Samuel 6:7 records, “Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of God.”
Remain focus on the word of God to live in the word and know that regardless of the cause of the challenge, God will deliver.
God reverses irreversible.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His hand to locate you for deliverance and preservation.