FAITH CAPSULE: Are you on the way to God’s Promised Land?

Exodus 13: 17-22
 
The children of Israel were lost and down in bondage for over four hundred years before God visited them with favor and salvation.
They were lost and found; they were set for the Promise Land. If you have been found by the grace of God from the depth of sin, He wants to take you to an expected end–a Promised Land that was purchased for us by the blood that was shed on Calvary. He did not find you for untimely death or failure. The God that found and brought the children of Israel out of bondage did not mean for them not to get to the Promise Land. For one to be free from bondage is incomplete until one’s arrival to the Promised Land is realized. Many ways lead to the Promise Land, but the only way that will enable one to get there is the way of the wilderness.
It is not one’s own choice of way. The way that leads to Promised Land is the choice of the one who called all. To get to the Promise Land, one will have to go through the wilderness. The way of the wilderness is a way of no return. Exodus 13:17, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the 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.’”
The way that seems right to man is a short distance. However, it is important to realize that a short –cut will always cut man short from getting to God’s Promised Land. Proverbs 14:12 buttress,“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” 
The purpose of the wilderness way is for one not to return, but to keep one going. It is the way that God has put everything in place for one to travel within a reasonable amount of time. It is a way where one is going to be equipped on how one will live and enjoy where God is leading one to. Are you on the way to God’s Promised Land? Getting to the Promised Land is the reason why Jesus came and went on the Calvary. On the way to the Promised Land, one will bump head with the enemy because the enemy does not want to see no one to prevail. However, if the way you have taken for yourself is smooth, with no ups and downs, no head-on collision with the enemy, it may become a way that seems right to you, but you may also be in the same direction as the enemy. You are no threat to the enemy because you are heading in the same direction.

Prayer for today:Let Your word be a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 

FAITH CAPSULE: Begin to see in the word of God then you will begin to receiveby the word of God.

Deuteronomy 1
 
When God says go it means it is well and settle. When He says it is good it means it can never be bad. However, when He says go or good, a failure to see it as good is an act of rebellion. Before God, rebellion is sin and that is exactly what the children of Israel did when their spy gave them and negative report about the land of Canaan. Moses was speaking after their rebellious act, “And the Lord heard the sound of your words, and was angry, and took an oath, saying, ‘Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and his children I am giving the land on which he walked, because he wholly followed the Lord.’” (Deuteronomy 1: 34-36) Those spies saw negative in the place of positive; sounded out (confessed) negative and they could not enter into God’s positive provision.
Can you imagine disaster caused by a negative sound? After getting out of bondage of over four hundred years, into a wilderness journey that should not have taken more than eleven days, took forty years. Passing through the wilderness was exchanged for their Promised Land.
Are you experiencing stagnation in your journey? Is it true that what is supposed to take a couple of years is taking you more years? Wilderness is a passage not a habitation. Is it possible that your sound has taken over the driver’s seat of your journey in life? You will have to change the sound you often produce. Your sound is delaying and denying you.
The bible describes faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1) When you begin to see things that are not there as being there; when you begin to look at your mountains of hindrances as being leveled; because of your stand in the Lord God then miracles will begin to answer for you. The word of God says the just shall live by faith. Everything that we do should be by faith and without faith, God is not pleased. Today, pay careful attention to Hebrews 11; you will identify that all the giants of faith that were mentioned from the time of the Old Testament to the time of New Testament operated by faith. Understanding was by faith, offerings, sacrifices, moves, obedience, waiting, subduing enemy, seeing, receiving; all were obtained in faith by faith.  
When one begin to see by faith, motion will come to life and stagnation will cease. See, move and receive by the sound of your mouth. Your mouth is the channel of your miracle. Begin to see in the word of God then you will begin to receiveby the word of God.

Prayer for today:Ask God to take charge of you at every time you open your mouth.

FAITH CAPSULE: What you see determines what you receive.

Numbers 13
 
What you do not see you will not receive; what you do not receiveyou do not become.
When Moses directed men to go and spy on the Promise Land, it was with understanding that God was going to give them the land because God already promised them with the land. It is written, “Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, “Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; and whether there are forests there or not. Be of good courage. And bring some of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes.”” (Numbers 13:17-20)Moses knew when God says go, it is good. Take note that in his direction, he specifically asked them to see what it looks like. It was for the spy to see for themselves and make the choice of positive and not negative confession, knowing that God is able to give them good and not evil. For the people to see positive and not negative, Moses also encouraged them by reminding them to be of good courage. Despite the fact that the hand of God saw them through great miracles in and out of Egypt; despite the fact that God has never failed them of His promises in their life, the spy failed to see their Canaan as a take-able for their possession.
It is more than important but very crucial that you begin to see by faith in all that God has ordained for a believer that is seeking God. Those spies failed to see the positive that God has placed for them but negative. They saw inability, defeat, hindrances, and failure that were unmovable. It is time for you to begin to see through the lenses of faith and receive by the grace of God. The spy’s inability to see through faith provoked all kinds of negative confession and discouragement. As a result of negative confession, Caleb responded by faith, “…let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30)   
In the place of challenge, Caleb and Joshua saw victory by faith and they sounded it out. The sound which Caleb and Joshua pronounced (confessed) came to be and they were able to receive their confession.
As much as it is important to see, so it is important about the sound you produce if you are to be receiving just as promised in the word of God. See right, sound right and receive it just as it is written.
 
Prayer for today:Ask God to take over your ways of seeing.

FAITH CAPSULE: Acting against the will of God is a sin and it is also a way of not waiting on God.

Genesis 39
 
Waiting on God is not only in prayer or fasting. Waiting on God can be action taken in a decisive situation that is life threatening. When in the face of life threatening situations, a believer is able to take action that falls in line with God’s Word and the result is always favorable and glorifying to God. For example, when we purpose for God’s name to be glorified in our life, every force of opposition will consent with us against their position. This example is what happened to Daniel and his three friends. While in captivity, Daniel refused to deny their God in his ways of life, but waited on God by his actions. The master of the king’s eunuchs acted according to the king’s instruction when he offered Daniel the king delicacies and of the king’s wine. In response to the master eunuchs, Daniel refused the kings portion for not wanting to defile his body. 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) The eunuch insisted while Daniel persisted not to defile himself. The eunuchs, in his attempt to convince Daniel, confessed, “I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age? Then you would endanger my head before the king.”(Daniel 1:10)  Daniel’s trust and waiting on God was demonstrated when he gave assurance to the eunuch that without eating the kings delicacies, his appearance would become better. With Daniel’s assurance, the eunuch consented to Daniel’s request that was rooted in the trust of His God. Joseph, as a slave in the house of Potiphar, declined to lay with his master’s wife by stating, “…there is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”(Genesis 39:9) Deciding or acting against the will of God is a sin and it is also a way not to wait on God. Regardless of your situation, remember God for His ways. Wait in your actions and He will not fail. The Word testifies, “…For the LORD is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3)God weighs our actions to determine how heavy we place Him in our decisions to act and not to act. God was glorified in the life of Daniel and Joseph and they were both exceedingly favored in their journey of life.
 
Prayer for today: Ask for a heart to always wait on God in your action.

FAITH CAPSULE:God, whose eyes run to and fro the whole earth, has no limitation showing up in our life.

Exodus 3

The uniqueness of how God turns Moses attention to Him was remarkably uncommon through the ages since creation. Clearly, the challenges and the miracles that were revealed in Moses’ passage to the center of his divine assignment were incomparable to any man who was turned to God. As a prince in the palace of Pharaoh, killing an Egyptian for his Hebrew brother caused him to flee from the reach of Pharaoh and end up as a son-in-law to Jethro, the priest of Midian. Without prior plan, Moses shifted from the great palace to the desert. The Bible describes that while he led the flock to the back of the desert, he had an encounter with the Most High God. Exodus 3:2-4, “And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’ So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.””Moses was separated to a ground where distraction could not deny his attention. Having looked and behold, he was able to turn aside. With Moses’ turning aside, God responded by calling him out for his divine assignment and from the time of his calling, there was no way out for him but to answer unto God. God is not a slave master, but rather is a Saving Master. He will not force himself on us, but we can be forced by a situation where a better solution for our situation is glaring in answering to God. Have you been led to a ground where you need to turn aside to God for your turnaround into divine assignment?
All the men that answered to God’s calling through the pages of Scripture had no better choice but to answer God. Also, none of them had any earlier plan in life to become what God called them to be. It does not matter what we have lined up for ourselves to become in life by training. God, whose eyes run to and fro the whole earth, has no limitation showing up in our life.
In life, whatever you have planned to turn yourself to be or whatever you have already turned to will not count until you get to the ground where God is waiting for you to turnaround to the center of your divine assignment in life. Pay attention to Him and He will attend to you in every step of life.
 
Prayer for today:Ask God to take charge of your moments and days so you may be consecrated unto Him only.