FAITH CAPSULE: In the mercy of God, there is His favor.

Genesis 19

God is a good God.
God is a perfect God.
God oversees the affairs of all.
Revelation 4:11 identifies God, “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”
God is a caring God that will not look away from His children.
It is foolish not to know that God hears and sees all.
Psalm 94:9 points out the understanding, “He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?”
God hears and sees, not to ignore the cries before Him. God answers with yes, no, or wait.
God is a merciful God, and mercy belongs to Him alone.
In His mercy is His favor.
God told Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)
God is a merciful God.
Finding God with favor will encounter His deliverance,
Lot found favor of God for deliverance.
LOT AND THE INCREASED MERCY OF GOD
Lot received the message of deliverance to escape untimely death.
The challenge of Lot at the land of sin and iniquity (Sodom and Gomorrah) demands an escape.
In the plan of God to escape, Lot lingered, not moving as commanded.
Indeed, Lot realized and testified in Genesis 19:19, “Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life…”
Ask that for the remainder of this year, you find favor in the sight of God and not be a victim of sin and iniquity.
Lot found favor before God and could not be a victim of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Lot delayed the command of God to deliver him, but the favor of God delivered him.  
Mary could have been a victim of fear not to become the mother of Jesus, but she found favor from God. Luke 1:30, “Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
Pray against the spirit of the fear of this word not having a place in your life to miss in the divine assignment of God in life.
In the Book of Ruth 2:10, Ruth testifies to having found favor in the eyes of God and being noticed by God.
Ask God for His favor to notice your crying and bring you out of all forces militating against your life.
Lot found favor that delivered increased mercy of God for his deliverance. (Genesis 19:19)

Prayer for today:  Ask for the favor of God that will grant you increased mercy and not become a victim of doubt or reluctance to obey the word of God for deliverance and preservation.
Ask that this month and the coming month, the mercy of God will answer for you to gain the presence of God over your life in all your endeavors.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do you know if you are a wicked believer?

Jeremiah 12

Are you constantly found on the ground of truth?
Many are preaching or writing to communicate the word of God, but far living by the word of God communicated.
Jeremiah asked God about having the word of God in the mouth but far from the heart as wicked.
Jeremiah 12:1-2 records, “Righteous are You, O Lord when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth But far from their mind.”
Are you an acclaimed believer who is a wicked one?
The truth is hard to accept.
The issue that revolves around not telling the truth is deception and manipulation.
One that is not telling the truth is twisting the truth of God.
Living by the truth of God is evidence of knowing the truth of God, not just knowing about the word of God.
One who is not telling the truth of God will be twisting the truth of God as a liar.
Twisting the truth of God is wickedness and not near to God. 
Are you far from God, twisting the truth of God?
Are you comfortable in the company of twisting the truth of God?
There is no excuse before God for twisting the truth.
Do you know the truth of God?
There is a need to answer to the truth of God by testifying the truth.
John 8:32 records, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 
The word of God is God, and His word is truth. 
How near are we to God to be free from the wiles of this wicked world?
Get to know the truth of God to be free in the wicked world.
Truth is the way to live life, answering the calling of God.
John 14:6 records the word of Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 
The truth of God is the only way to walk with God.
The truth of God is not of the world of wickedness.
Truthfully, the truth of God does not compromise with lies and not of the wicked world.
The truth of God makes telling lies uncomfortable wherever it exists.
The truth of God is threatening the world of wickedness. 
When the truth is steady to expose lies, it is often mistaken for being slow. 
Give yourself to the word of God to attain perfection in Christ Jesus as
Colossians 1:28 buttress, “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” 
Search for yourself to determine your stand before God.
One twisting the truth before God is withdrawn from God to live a life as an agent of evil. 

Prayer for today: Pray not to live a life of waste.

FAITH CAPSULE: How one keeps the heart will determine how far one goes with God.

Proverbs 4

The word of God repeatedly warns all to keep their hearts diligently.
Deuteronomy 4:9 states, “Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life…”
To Keep oneself is to keep the heart diligently. 1 Kings 8:61 records, “Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.”
Proverbs 4:23 states, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
How one keeps the heart will determine how far one goes with God.
Keep your heart diligently by opening the doors of your heart for the word of God.
The word of God is His strength, and when His word locates one by gaining entrance into the heart, the strength of God becomes a portion of such.
The heart of one is the center of strength. Jeremiah 15:16 testifies, “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
Having the joy of the Lord is retaining the presence of God.
There is no strength like having the strength of God in life.
The more of giving self to the word of God is to know God and to increase in His strength which keeps one from stumbling to remain stable.
A heart occupied by the word of God will not have the mark of wickedness.
Jeremiah 17:9 admonishes all, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?
Ecclesiastes 9:3, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after they go to dead.”
The Bible demonstrates that the heart is where the rise and fall begins.
It is what flows from the heart of a believer that makes a believer living for God.
The heart of a believer will make or break a believer.
The heart is always the target for the devil to launch its attack.
Judas spent time with Jesus, going to places with Jesus. Despite his entire experience with Christ, his heart was not kept diligently to keep out the enemy.
The book of Luke 22:3-4 states, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So, he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.”
Satan went after the vulnerable heart of Judas to do evil by selling Jesus out of his life.
Invariably, faith will fail when the enemy gains entrance into the heart not kept diligently.

Prayer for today: With desire, ask to be enabled to keep heart diligently.

FAITH CAPSULE: Give thanks to God instead of thinking thanks before God.

Psalm 150

Being alive this far demands appreciation for the goodness and mercy of God.
Expressing appreciation to God for the grace of life should be consistent. Psalm 150:6 states, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
By grace, the hand of the Lord has been keeping all this far.
To be alive is not because of merit but the mercy of God.
Living life is not a right but a privilege bestowed upon all by God.
As the year runs out, turn to God with heartful appreciation instead of thinking thanks, but give Him thanks with understanding.
Word of God admonishes praising God with understanding. (Psalm 47:7) Are you consciously aware that God expects appreciation?
To lack expressing appreciation is evidence of foolishness.
Foolishness is not only in verbal communication but in any other way of communication. Proverbs 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
As the year runs out, is your appreciation to God enough?
Do not be foolish, but thank God, for He deserves thanks.
Are you mistaking your strength as the source of your present location in life?
Do not be deceived by thinking that your strength has kept you thus far.
Do not allow your location to become an agent of self, to deny your expectation from God.
Jesus is the One that converts expectations to manifestation.
Jesus has never been limited or delayed by any location or situation when it is time to visit your expectations with manifestation.
Once in a desert, despite the late hour, where there was no food to feed a multitude, Jesus extended His hand of provision.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
He will extend His hand in any location and situation in place.
Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed a multitude of thousands.
Jesus commanded before the manifestation of the miracle of provision, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”  And they did so and made them all sit down.” (Luke 9:15)
As a believer, are you positioning for the visitation of His miracle?
Jesus did nothing to the loaves and fish until obedience was in place for His command.
After He observed obedience, “Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So, they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.” (Luke 9:16-17)
In obedience to His command, expectation became manifested.
Are you having challenges to obey His commands?
Engagement in obeying God’s word is a way of manifestation of expectation.
Jesus did expectation yesterday and will do it for you in this season.
In this season, express your appreciation to provoke your expectations.

Prayer for today: Give thanks to God with a shout to provoke God’s blessing over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: The Lord God delivers in all challenges.

Psalm 34

With Jesus, one shall overcome.
Rest your case in Jesus!
The challenge of Job testifies for all to know the reason to seek to rest in Jesus.
The book of Job 1:3 records possessions of Job, “…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 was blessed physically, materially, and spiritually.
The word of God described Job as a blameless, upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. (Job1:1)
God blessed Job with seven sons and three daughters. In one day, without warning, Job lost his blessings despite his standing in the Lord.
Job lurched from the pinnacle of prosperity to the pit of poverty.
Disasters became visitation to Job from earth and heaven.
From earth, his livestock and servants were raided and killed by the Sabeans.
From heaven, fire fell and burned up the sheep and servants, and wind destroyed his house and killed his children.
As if the loss of property and children was not enough, his health became a victim of an unexpected attack.
He was struck “…with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.” (Job 2:7-8)
Amid all this, Job did not despise his God.
Job, a blameless and upright man with the fear of God, could not be excused from the challenges of this world.
The three friends of Job represented the world complicating challenges of Job by questioning his sin before God.
The affliction was the request of Satan over Job when Satan went before God stating, “But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” (Job 1:11) God did not deny the request of Satan but responded, “…Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.” (Job 1:12)
True indeed, the devil is an adversary of man before God. Satan has been moving around for whom to devour.
Psalm 34:19 encourages, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
As if the Psalmist is not enough encouragement, John 10:10 records all assurance to deliver, “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.”  
Satan is a liar, a blatant thief.
With Jesus is the rest to overcome.
Rest your case in Jesus!

Prayer for today: Ask that the hand of the wicked shall be denied over your life and all your endeavors.