FAITH CAPSULE: Gain and maintain focus to arrive in God’s divine assignment.

Genesis 19:12-26, Daniel 1

It is important to be steadfast in the things of God by maintaining focus. Maintaining focus is crucial to making advance in the calling of the Lord. Focus will keep man from distraction. A failure to gain and maintain focus leads to distraction. Distraction can derail to deny arrival at man’s center of divine assignment.
Young Daniel in captivity was able to maintain focus when he purposed in his heart not to defile God. It happened that the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them. It sounds good for a young captive to accept provision of the king. To Daniel it was considered as anti-focus when he made the choice to maintain focus. It is written, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” (Daniel 1:8) Daniel kept himself to become a vessel for God and he made advancement everywhere he turned to. Daniel engaged his journey in captivity with a purposeful heart. He allowed God to reign in his life when he refused to defile his body (the temple of God). Daniel was steadfast not to contradict his journey to advance.
Lot’s wife could not let the past be in the past she disregarded the command of God which was warning to direct and position her in God’s grace of deliverance. Bible recorded, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” (Genesis 19:17) Lot’s wife did the opposite when she looked back and became a pillar of salt (Genesis19:26) Whatever Lot’s wife was looking for in her past represents a multitude (unnecessary baggage). The multitude in her life caused her to become a pillar of salt and not escape as ordained for her by God. There is no one that goes forward by looking back to arrive in the expected end of journey. This also testifies that we cannot set sight on the past and be able to see what is ahead. The case of Lot’s wife is that of a shifted focus. Lot must have been steadfast looking forward to where the Lord was taking him and his family. Daniel could not allow any distraction because he gained and maintained focus. It is time to advance in your calling and allow God’s name to be glorified over your life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to gain and maintain focus in the journey of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Fear is the initiation of Satan’s visitation.

Job1, 2:1-10

The Bible identified two types of fear. The first type is positive and is to be encouraged. The second type is a disadvantage, harmful and is to be overcome. The first type of fear is fear of the Lord. This type of fear does not necessarily mean to be afraid of something. Rather, it is a reverential awe of God; a reverence for His power and glory. The fear of the Lord is to acknowledge God by knowing His attributes. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and leads to good understanding. (Psalm 111:10) However, the second type of fear is not of God and is not advantageous to have such fear. 2 Timothy 1:7 recorded, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” When the spirit of fear overcomes man, fear will rise while faith will sink.
Job is described “…blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.” (Job 1:1-3) Job was indeed a man of God and was blessed with wealth. Job was straight with God, but he was not sure of his children’s walk with God. Job always sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all making and making a statement, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” (Job 1:4-5)
After Satan was allowed by God to attack Job, he lost his properties, he lost all his children and his health was attacked. Job, by his adversities, he deplores his birth by cursing the day of his birth. On top of it all, Job gave a testimony, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.” (Job 3:25-26) Spirit of fear is evident in Job’s testimony when he lost his children and properties. Fear is not of God; fear is the initiation of Satan’s visitation. Fear and faith does not complement each other. Not knowing the extent of God’s protective covering over the affairs of man’s life will possibly expose man to fear and not faith. Clearly, God is not pleased without faith. Unfortunately, Satan knew the extent of God’s covering over Job when he mentioned that God has made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side. (Job 1:10). When God makes man to be impenetrable, spirit of fear will make man to become penetrable to the Satan. Have faith and know that God is mindful of man. (Psalm 8:4-5) Know who you are and disallow spirit of fear in your life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of God not to be a victim of spirit of fear.

FAITH CAPSULE: God alone is Jehovah Sharma that answers to His Name.

Jeremiah 52

It is written, “Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.” (Jeremiah 52:31) God used Evil-Merodach, the king of Babylon and son of Nebuchadnezzar, to lift the head of Jehoiachin. Regardless of circumstances behind man’s captivity God alone, at His appointed time will raise man out of captivity. God will use anyone to lift man out of every challenge that is keeping man’s head down. God alone is more than able to change man’s story from prisoner in the hand of persecutor to be presiding over persecutors. Evil-Merodach was in the hand of God to lift the head of Jehoiachin out of captivity. It is certain that when God remembers, He also rescues.
It is written for our learning, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1) God turned the heart of Evil-Merodach to rescue Jehoiachin.  God also made Evil-Merodach to change the garment of Jehoiachin from garment of prisoner to the garment that is fit to be eating regularly before the king all the days of his life. God is true to perform, and He performs to perfection.
There is nothing which God is incapable of doing and His capability has no measure.
In your captivity challenges, are you praying but not watching? Jesus in His word repeatedly warned to watch and pray just to pray alone. Watch and pray demands waiting patiently before God. To watch and pray demands trust and hope but not only trust. Jeremiah 17:7 buttressed, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.” In captivity challenge, keep watching and praying by waiting patiently; by trusting and hoping for God’s divine intervention. God hears, He is a prayer-answering God. God is a gracious God, know it and make it a note in your heart, get the understanding of God’s character as described in Isaiah 64:4, “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” God is true to His word, He performs to perfect! Believe and behave by knowing that God will convert man’s challenge to a glorious change. Stand in faith so that faithful God will show on your behalf. With faith God is pleased, without faith God is not pleased. Take note in His word, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7) Jehoiachin had been in captivity for thirty-seven years when enemy, the Evil-Merodach king of Babylon had enough peace to bring prison captivity to an end in the life of Jehoiachin.
With faith, God is more than able to see you through. God alone is Jehovah Sharma that answers to His Name.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His divine intervention over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Engage living life according to the word of God.

John 10

It is worthy to ask self, what have I done for Jesus lately? That is… “What have you been giving back to Jesus”? Do you not think you owe Jesus?
The main reason why Jesus was given to us is for us to inherit eternal life.
Every step taken to inherit eternal life is exactly what we are doing or giving back to Jesus. Every acclaimed believer should walk in His righteousness by walking obediently in His word as giving back to Jesus.
In life, giving is sowing, sowing is serving. What are you giving…how are you serving Him? When there is no understanding to be giving self is better than having understood to be giving self and not be giving self.
It is true that what a man sows he will surely reap. God is a perfect Manager and He perfects in managing each of His creation by virtue of allowing His creation to reap from what they sow. In life, it is impossible to sow the seed of deception and expect to reap the fruit of perfection.
Any man who sows the seed of lie will reap the fruit of being deceived. It is worthy to live life as one who knows Him and anything short of living life as one who knows Him is living life as a liar. It is written, “He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1John2:4-6)
God invests so much in us while we extend so little to Him. Nothing passes outside of God, He sees all and man shall reap from whatever man sows. What kind of seeds are you sowing? When it is reaping time, prayer time might have expired and too late to avoid the consequences of failure to sow. It is written, “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. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:10-11) Celebrating the season of events in the life of Jesus is not an evidence of sowing any good which glorifies God for all He has done. However, living life to the glory of God is what provokes the hand of God in the life of a believer. Engage living life according to the word of God to provoke the blessings of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to give self to the word of God.