FAITH CAPSULE: For us to live, we are to live by every word of God.

John 1:1-18, 10: 1-10

The will of God in Christ Jesus for us is to live and have life abundantly. God is not an authoritarian nor a dictator but a creator. He is a creator whose word is perfect. He is the Commanding commander, Healing healer also an Unchanging changer. God is referred to and He has demonstrated many times, He is still demonstrating as a Longsuffering God and that testifies to the fact that the Almighty Creator is neither an authoritarian nor a dictator because no dictator can be identified as longsuffering. The Bible declares in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God is concerned for us having life but if you cannot concur with His concern you have condemned yourself unto losing life. God wants us to live as the year, month, week, and days rolls on He does want us to have life and to have it more abundantly. Jesus clearly stated when He declared to us, “…I have come that they many have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) How are you living in order to have the life that He has come to give? It does matter that we live according to the will of the Lord of Host, the Ancient of days, the only God that inhabits eternity. To live according to His will is to fear Him. Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, in response to the Satan during the time of wilderness temptations, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4:4) For us to live, we are to live by every word, not the word that is most convenient, not only the word that we chose to live but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Do you wonder why the word of God is so important to live? The word of God is the power of God and also is the power from God that is enough to navigate in the journey of life. The power that is in the word of God is the power that created the world, Jeremiah 51:15, “He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heaven by His understanding.” Remember, there was no record of Him using a bulldozer or caterpillar or hiring any contractor in creating the earth as recorded in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 but by the same word of His mouth that has been given to us. Why not take the word and embrace it with constant and consistent mediation then wait to see the result?

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to turn fully to His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: That thing which robs you of prayer time is a sleep. 

Judges 16

Watching and focusing cannot be separated. Watching or focusing is the secret of failure impossibility. Watching or focusing can also be identified as the central point of attention. Jesus knew exactly what He was talking about when He emphasized the need for Prayer and watching. In life, everything we do demands watching. In watching, sleeping does not have a place. Whenever sleeping occupies a place in our watching it is no longer a thing of watching. Prayer demands watching, fasting demands watching, working demands watching every avenue to enter breakthrough and maintain breakthrough demands watching. In living life and living abundantly to the fulfillment of destiny, watching has to be constantly in place. The case of Samson demands that watching instead of sleeping will give life and not untimely death. Time and time again Samson could not be brought down by forces of the wicked. Judges14:5-6 testifies to the kind of power in Samson when it states, “So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand…” (Judges 114:5-6). The spirit of God never stopped to locate and deliver him from trouble. Samson was a mighty man of God. He was above all who attempted to take his life because the hand of God was upon him, keeping him awake and alive. Despite all that God blessed him with in his life, he did himself in by revealing to Delilah that which was to be kept secret. Samson did not see the warning signs when he started to have a relationship with Delilah, whose name means “lustful”. Lust and temptation are birds of the same feather. All that it took for Samson to die before his time was to enter into a sleep that would bring forth temptation. Samson could not watch and guide what the Lord deposited in his life. Indeed, he entered into sleep after revealing the source of the power that God had bestowed upon him. After he was lulled to sleep, Deborah said to him, “…The Philistines are upon you, Samson! So he awoke from the sleep, and said, ‘I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free! But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.” (Judges 16:20) A soothing sleep delivered Samson into the hand of his enemy. What kind of sleep are you sleeping? That thing which robs you of prayer time is a sleep. Samson’s lulled sleep was his self exile from the presence of God. It is time for you to become alive in your prayer time.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deal with you bountifully that you may keep His word and live.

FAITH CAPSULE: Your frequent falling into temptation is directly rooted in too much sleep.

Luke 22:39-46

Sleeping and prayer does not correlate. Every believer that is not consistent in prayer should be considered as a sleeper. When a believer, who is at a place and time of prayer, cannot stay awake to pray, it can be regarded as “sorrowful sleeping.” Jesus demanded from His disciples at the Garden of Gethsemane, to stay up and pray. What He said to them still speaks now to us as believers. Luke 22: 39-40, “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” Are you a prayer-less or prayer-full believer? If you are indeed a prayer-less believer, you have allowed temptation to become your constant companion. Jesus wants to know why you sleep in place of prayer. While He was busy in prayer, His disciples were busy in sleeping. Jesus responded to the disciples by saying to them, “…Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:46) There is a place for prayer and it is not a place to sleep. One of the places of prayer, as Jesus has said, is where two or three gather together in His name. Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Watch out for sorrow sleeping, because it can terminate a miracle. Sorrow sleeping will substitute the blessings of the sleeper with temptation. Your frequent falling into temptation is directly rooted in too much sleep. That is, your time is limited in the Word, and a limited time in the word will result in powerless prayer. Luke 22:45, “When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found then sleeping from sorrow.” So many activities in the church and among believers but achieving for the Lord are what counts. With prayer, much is achievable but with sleep nothing is achievable. Prayer not sleeping is all that makes the difference and all that prevails in a Christian journey. It is possible for one to be awake and active but sleeping in sorrow because one’s prayer life is not where it should be. Paying attention to the world around us is enough to tell the time we are living. Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. Awake, you who sleep andknow that the days are evil challenges and trouble cover every ground. The first book of Thessalonians talks about sleep when it stated, “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

Prayer for today: Ask God to keep you that your faith will not fail.

FAITH CAPSULE: Avoid taking chances that can change your life for a worse experience.

2 Samuel 11

To be at the right place at the right time will always produce a positive result. In other words, being at the wrong place at the right time or the right place at the wrong time can be exceedingly destructive without the Word of God in place. To be at the wrong place at the wrong time is evidently the cheapest way to self-destruction. The right place at the right time is the only right with no iota of wrong having its way. King David, as greatly as he was used by God, got caught up in the right place at the wrong time. As a result, he failed to stand in the command of God. The Bible recorded, “It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle…” (2 Samuel 11:1) While David was suppose to be at the battlefield like other kings he, “…Arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” (2 Samuel 11:2) King David’s standing at the right place at the wrong time caused an outstanding mark of pain on him that endured all the days of his life. To King David, it was the mark of adultery that had a great negative impact on his life journey. As an acclaimed believer, are you conscious of your present location? Avoid taking chances that can change your life for a worse experience. God cannot be hidden from and His presence will always locate you. As an acclaimed believer, where are you standing? Just as we pay attention to where we are standing giving attention to what we stand for is also important. What do you stand for? Where you are standing or what you are standing for can usher you into an unending journey of pain or an unending journey of great gains. In King David’s wrong standing, he entered into an indirect killing of Uriah when he ordered Uriah’s killing at the battlefield. King David, “…wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, ’Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.’” (2 Samuel 11:14-15) David creating a set up for the destruction of Uriah was an attempt to cover up his adultery that brought forth an unexpected seed. David’s adultery brought to life a child that he did not expect. King David’s standing was not acceptable to God because he violated the command of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s divine guidance through every walk of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Honoring God is not in quoting the word but living and behaving the word of God.

Genesis 39, Daniel 6

After all that Eli could do for his children’s violation of God’s command was only warning, the Lord sent His servant to Eli, stating, “…for those who honor Me I will honor…” (1 Samuel 2:30) God is a faithful and His word cannot be broken. God confirmed the validity of His word when He spoke, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) Knowing that honoring God will no doubt bring honor to you, is there any conscious and uncommon step that you are taking to honor God? Through the pages of scripture, some men took deliberate steps to honor God and God honored them beyond their imagination. Joseph, a young man that was sold to slavery by brothers of the same birth had no reason not to honor God when God’s name deserved to be honored. Joseph had a good reason to despise God but he honored God. Joseph was in position to become the master of the house whenever his master was absent from home because the wife of his master’s persistent attempt to lie with him. The Bible recorded, “But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, 12 that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.” (Genesis 39:11-12) The reason why Joseph reacted the way he did was because of His honor for his God. Joseph sated, “…how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) Honoring God is not in quoting the word but living and behaving the word of God. God does not move by just the words of our mouth but by the actions behind His word in our mouth. Remember, the Bible described God, “…For the LORD is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3) Our actions and reactions is what measure us before God. Daniel knew the gravity of denying other gods to honor his God when he went to his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. (Daniel 6:10) Both Joseph and Daniel honored God and were greatly honored by God. Joseph went from prison to presiding over the whole land while Daniel had dinner and spent all night with hungry lions with out a single scratch. How are you honoring God? Honor God and He will honor you.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be a vessel of honor.