FAITH CAPSULE: Daniel made Himself fully available to be used by rejecting the world.

Daniel 2:24-49
 
God’s willingness to use man for His attainment is stronger than man’s desire to be used by God. Man is too busy for the Lord while the Lord is busy searching for man. Are you available to serve God? It is written, , “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.’” (2 Chronicles 16:9) Hanani was letting King Asa know how God operated when he relayed the above message to him. Indeed nothing can stop the eyes of the Lord from running throughout the whole earth without ceasing. The same God then is still the same God today and forever. It is a testimony to how God is willing to use us. Daniel made Himself fully available to be used by rejecting the world. Daniel 1:8, “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 gave his all to God. The Lord God, whose eyes run to and fro, spotted Daniel and showed Himself strong on his behalf. Daniel, a slave, came to a position where his captors began to fall prostrate before him. Daniel 2:46, “Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him.” Daniel’s availability for God is an example of Jesus’s demand that states, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:33-34) Seeking God is working the works of God. Working the works of God is the evidence of believing God for His word that never fails. Seek God; work His works and He shall visit you with salvation and remember you with favor. Ignore your challenges and remain focus on God with all your heart; God will see your heart, and your challenges will fall at your feet. What a wonderful and awesome God we serve? For King Nebuchadnezzar to have eventually fell on his face and prostrated to Daniel testifies to what can become of any force that militates against those who makes themselves available to God.
 
Prayer for today: Ask God that your challenges will fall prostrate in Jesus’ name.

FAITH CAPSULE: Allow God to rise on your behalf.

Exodus 14:10-31, Psalm 68
 
Are you attempting to fight your battle by yourself or you have engaged your battle by yourself? The more you take away your battle from God, the more you give way to defeat. Will you allow God to rise on your behalf? David, by virtue of his experience in life battles stated, “Let God arise,let His enemies be scattered;let those also who hate Him flee before Him.” (Psalm 68:1) Have you not known that what touches every committed child of God touches God? Every enemy of God’s child also takes a place as God’s enemy.
We know that we have never seen or heard of God losing a battle on behalf of His children. We also know assuredly that any battle that is lost is the result of our not letting God arises on our behalf. When trouble comes to one’s way and one begins to lose one’s rest, it is an indication that one is taking one’s battle away from God. When you lose your rest, you will fail from being able to stand still. When you are no longer standing still, you are not far from falling down. Many have fallen; many are falling as regard to confronting battles such as finances, health, and marriage because they have not let God fight the fight. The Israelites experienced what God can do when He fights on behalf of His children, but in the face of challenges they could let God arise at the crossing of the Red Sea stating 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? 12 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) “…do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The LORD will fight your battle and you shall hold your peace.’”(Exodus 14:13-14) Does it sound like this verse is addressing you? It is time to step out of fear; stand in faith and allow God to rise on your behalf. At every time we take our stand by allowing God to rise on our behalf, we shall be able to see and receive the accomplished victory. The words of the Israelites are not that of ones that allow God to rise on their behalf. Moses responded in faith,
 
Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to let God arise on your behalf so that enemies become permanently and eternally terminated by being scattered.

FAITH CAPSULE: Choose to go the right way in life and not just the way that seems right.

John 10:1-18   
 
The word of God conspicuously warns, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21) Without any doubt, confessing positive in the face of negative is operating the power of the tongue. The Bible makes us to realize that faith only comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. (Romans 10:17) To become one that consciously engage confessing positive in the face of negative one’s antenna of faith must constantly be active. Without faith in place, confessing positive which is speaking life and not death becomes a man’s challenge. Have you been saying life is difficult, or have you ever consider life to be difficult? Life is not difficult and it cannot be difficult; you are the one that has been living life in a difficult way. Life can be challenging, but you can always overcome the challenges of life if you choose to go in the right way and not engage the way that seems right to one.
There is a way to live life and to live it abundantly; there is a way to live life and to live it with challenges that will not overtake you. That way is for one to enter life by taking the right steps in deed and in truth. In your entrance, you will not be a pretender and you will stay away from religion but engaged Jesus reality. Jesus said in John 10:9, “I am the door, if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” If you have entered that door at any time in your life, and you are misrepresenting challenges as difficulties, ask Him to open your understanding. Also, it could be that you have allowed the thief a place in your life. Jesus warned in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, I have come that they may have it more abundantly.” Does He answer your question? What He has said, He meant. He has never lied, and He will not lie. Take a moment and begin to re-trace your steps to see if you have entered through the wrong door. If you have entered through the right door, you will be prepared to overcome any challenges because He is fighting your battles. Lift your eyes up unto Him today and ask Him for help. He is a compassionate God and He will have compassion on you.

Prayer for today: Ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

FAITH CAPSULE: Rebellion has its root in rejecting the word of God.

1 Samuel 15
 
When there was a great need for water for the Israelites, God commanded Moses, saying, “…speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water…” (Numbers 20:8) God’s command is His word, which should not be violated. Moses went to the rock as commanded by God.At the rock, “Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock…” (Numbers 20:11) Moses struck instead of speaking to the rock. God responded, “…Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them” (Numbers 20:12). Every action upon the word of God counts before God.
God also commanded King Saul to go and attack the Amalekites with a specific command that stated, “…utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill bothman and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, and camel and donkey.” (1 Samuel 15:3) God’s command is God’s instruction and it cannot be diluted. God knows better than the one who delivers the message. King Saul went and destroy all but sparred the best sheep and oxen. Saul committed an act of incomplete obedience. Incomplete obedience is also a failure to obey God. In response to King Saul’s act of disobedience, the word of God came for him through Samuel, “…has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:22-23) Incomplete obedience is rejecting the word of God. Rebellion has its root in rejecting the word of God. Is it possible, in any way that you are having a trace of rebellion in your approach to the word of God? There is a way out of rebellion and that way is in hearing the voice of God that is, hearing what the word has to say or what the word of God is saying. “For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice: “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,as in the day of trialin the wilderness.” (Psalm 95:7-8)
Despite all that the Lord God did in bringing them out of the bondage in Egypt, the children of Israel entered into rebellion and became lost in the ways of God. To be lost in His ways is to gain an exit out of His rest.
 
Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you not to be a vessel of dishonor; not to work the works of a rebellious one.

FAITH CAPSULE: On your journey, it could be that you are yet to face challenges or you are already facing challenges.

Exodus 13:17-22
 
To those that went on the journey of the wilderness, it must have been as if the journey would never come to an end. Are you feeling the same on your journey of life? Do you question when all the confronting challenges will be over? On the journey of life, challenges will not be over, neither shall they go away, but the grace that is available is more than enough to make you grow over challenges. The issue of challenges cannotbe spelled out better than inPsalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” God always honors His word and He will not fail to perform it. Interestingly enough for the children of Israel, the Lord led them through the safest route. It was a route that avoided war with the forces of the enemy when they were not yet ready; a route that would prevent them from becoming captive at the hands of enemy. It was a route that took them from going back for the worst. Does that speak of your present route? Above all, God led them through a route where there would have been no reason for them to go back into the captivity of Egypt. Exodus 13:17-18, “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.” In their deliverance from entering a war route, they turned on to the war of complaint and disobedience against the One that led them from bondage. The children of Israel could have taken the worst route, but they did not recognize it. As a result, they were unable to acknowledge what God had done as they turned to complaining and disobedience.
On your journey, your situation could be much worse right now, consider yourself blessed and keep on trusting God. On your journey, it could be that you are yet to face challenges or you are already facing challenges. The truth is that challenges will come to make you up and not to break you up if you do not complain. Turn your face to the grace and mercy of God that will carry you through.Today, encourage yourself in the Lord; let it be clear to you that God will get you to where He is taking you if you do not step out of His command.

Prayer for today: Ask for deliverance from every agent of distraction in the journey of life.