FAITH CAPSULE: Today, know it that lifted up heart opens up door for hardened spirit of pride.

Daniel 5

God does not have plans for those with pride but to pass them unto destruction. God addressed pride through Jeremiah, “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.”” (Jeremiah 13:8-10) In this wicked world, pride has taken a prominent position. The word of God pointed out that pride is evil. With pride, man refuses not to hear God. Man is position to hear but makes the choice not to hear the words of God. Many are lifted by God but pride of the heart becomes the agent of man’s destruction.
Uzziah was an example of pride destruction. When he was sixteen years old he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem because God lifted him. Uzziah did right in the sight of God. He sought God as God made him prosper. Later as King, “…he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.” (2 Chronicles 26:16) Have you been lifted up by God but now you are lifting up your heart and become hardened? Uzziah as king is wrong to burn incense to God as priest. Uzziah became angry in response to Priest Azariah’s opposition for his wrong doing. In the process of his angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on Uzziah’s forehead. God lifted Uzziah, pride of the heart lifted Uzziah to destruction. It is written, “King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord…” (2 Chronicles 26:21)
Among ways not to become a victim of pride is to keep heart with all diligence. (Proverbs 4:23) King Uzziah was a victim of hardened heart. Nebuchadnezzar was also a great king until he became a victim of pride through his hardened heart. Daniel 5:20-21 recorded, “But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him.  Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses.”

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace not to live life as a victim of pride.

FAITH CAPSULE: Let no one deceive you by any means.

1 Samuel 28

There should be no leader outside or inside of church with vices of deception leading man. Are you a leader that is adopting deception, lying or manipulating in the name of God to be leading man?
Saul the King of Israelites was anointed by God but yet adopted deception. When he could not hear from God at the time of onset of war against the Philistines, Saul needed to inquire from mediums and the spiritists. Saul approached a medium with deception as recorded, “So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes…” (1 Samuel 28:8) Disguising is a deception and it is not of God at all level. The medium woman responded to Saul’s request, “…Whom shall I bring up for you?” and he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” (1 Samuel 28:11-12) Saul disguised to get his answer from the woman.
If you are God positioned leader, let it be registered in your heart that disguise is a deception. Saul a leader of the people by God adopted deception and he could not escape curse from Samuel as stated, “Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 28:19) Saul’s deception despised the word of God as he was destroyed with his sons as stated by Samuel.
Are you leading man to become a victim of deception or you have turned to become an agent of deception in the name of God?
As a believer or non-believer, adopting self-deception or deceiving other is an attempt to mock none other but God. Unfortunately for the victim or agent of deception, God is a God that cannot be mocked. Galatians 6:7 stated it clearly, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
Are you one that testifies the goodness of God by adding or taking off word to lift God in lies for His glory? Romans 3:7-8 identified for understanding stating, “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?  And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.”” Telling lies is deception. Deception dilutes the word of God. When word of God is diluted through deception, manifestation of God’s power shall not answer to deception.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of His direction in the place of deception.

FAITH CAPSULE: Deception is of the devil’s way of life.

Genesis 3

Deception is dangerous. God has created man not to be a victim of deception or be an agent of deception. Deception a relative of lying and manipulation are encased in pride which is the identity of devil. Is deception your way of living life? The word of God does not accept deception. Adopting deception is disengaging the word of God; deception is despising the word of God. Without doubt, despising the word of God is the avenue of destruction as Proverbs 13:13 declared, “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.”
Man frequently adopts deception to deliver deceitful message in the name of God. Devil, the father of liars, the master of deception interacted deceitfully to derail man from the route journey of life through Adam and Eve. God gave word of command to Adam, “…Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) The devil by his skill of deception came in place to twist the word of God, “And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) The temptation of the devil is a deception of interaction for Adam and Eve to violate God. Devil deceitfully added and took out from the word of God to twist Eve’s response. As a result of evil deception, “…the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13) Deception is of the devil’s way of life and so it is the way of life among acclaimed believers and non-believers.
Living life as a victim of deception or operating as an agent of deception is a way of getting displaced in the presence of God just like Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were displaced from the presence of God as stated, “…He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24)

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace not to be a victim or an agent of deception.

FAITH CAPSULE: Listen attentively to no man but to God’s word of promise.

Numbers 13

Only listen attentively to the word of God. There is no how long man have been dislodged or displaced; God is more than able to reverse the irreversible. Man’s trouble might be too hard but God is more than able to resettle man for better. If you will listen attentively God’s word, wait on the word of God, be renewed in strength and not faint. God alone made the heavens and earth by His great power that cannot fail. Will you listen to wait on His word?
For over four hundred years, the Israelites were displaced into bondage. For over four hundred years it seemed as if there was no way out but God spoke through Moses, “…I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:17) If man will listen attentively to the word of God there shall be no failure. God has spoken, God is still speaking and what He says is a done deal. Are you listening to His word? The Israelites could not listen attentively.
Since the pollution of man in the Garden of Eden by the deceiver, man has continued not to listen attentively for God’s word. The children of Israel did not take Him for His word as a result, they failed to move and possess all the promised word of God. Numbers 13:1-3 recorded, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.’” Moses played his role by relaying the message as delivered unto him for the Israelites. All that the children of Israel needed to do was to go and spy out the land which God was giving them.
In life, listening attentively will deliver result in the promise of God. The spies checked the land and came back with negative report. Giving negative report of God’s promise was making the word of God a liar which is the evidence of lack of faith. The spy reported negative confession, “…The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are great men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we are like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we are in their sight.’” (Numbers 13:32-33) All the people who received and believed spy’s report died. Listen attentively to no man but to God’s word of promise.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to enable your listening attentively to His word for your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: What is your security or your stability in this wicked world of today?

Psalm 37

Without doubt, the whole world is unstable more than it was unstable in the past years. God identified the root of instability ever since the day’s Old Testament stating, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6)
Wickedness reigns all over and there is none that is safe but ones that abide in God. The word of God does not lie nor return void to God but delivers promises for security and stability in this wicked word. For man that sincerely and truly abide in the commandments (word of God) of God, security answers for man. 1 John 3:24 stated, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in Him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” The word referred to “now” not just then in the past. Today, begin to keep His commandments and He shall abide in you for your security.
The word of God is wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1:30 makes us to know that Jesus is our wisdom stating, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God…” Why not truly take to wisdom from God for security in the wicked and instability world of today? Word of God surely promised security stating, “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation…” (Isaiah 33:6) Jesus, the living word of God is our wisdom from God. Many know about the word of God but do not actually know the word of God (there is a difference between to actually know and knowing about). Many are conversant with the word of God by the mouth but are far from the word in the heart. Without knowing wisdom of God in true, knowing by having edge over wickedness world shall not be in place. What is your security or your stability in this wicked world of today? The word of God is the will of God for man’s security if man will keep His commandments. God is true and His word is wisdom for security for man. In life, do not be deceived but decide for God that will act for those who seek Him by waiting on Him.
Listen and hear what is true about God as stated 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.” For your security in this wicked world of today, seek Him by waiting on Him.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to keep eyes only on the word of God.