FAITH CAPSULE:A mind that is set on God will not be a stranger to peace.

Colossians 3:1-17

Believing God is not only in the confession with the mouth. Believing God is behaving the word of God. Among the ways of word-behaving believers is seeking and set minds on things that are above. Paul pointed out, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2) As a believer, what you seek and set your mind on is what will make you up in the journey of life. In all your seeking,“Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  (Matthew 6:33) The word of God is true and never fails. When you seek the kingdom of heaven first, not second and without any other agenda, the result will be true to God’s word. When we seek Him, it should be with all diligence with all that He has given us. God did not ask from us what we cannot offer. God knows what we are capable of giving Him.Deuteronomy 4:29, “…seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Have you in deed and in truth given your life to Him? Seek Him with all diligence and He will bring to pass all that He promised. What about setting your mind? Remember, it is about setting and seeking and neither can be separated from one another. It is not possible to seek and not set; neither is it possible to set and not seek Him. A mind that is set on God will always wait and look up to God for all answers. A mind that is set on God will not be a stranger to peace. It is the setting of minds on things from above that will upset the world of wickedness from having its place in the life of any believer who chooses to seek and set it all on Him. What a believer seek or set is where the mind is. If your mind is on the kingdom of God, you will live heaven on earth and if it is on the kingdom of this world, you will have no choice but to reap from where you seek and set. It is written, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)The position of a believer is seeking and setting of the mind on things that are above. As a believer in the word of God, there is only one place we should constantly dwell and that is seeking and setting our all on the Lord.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to constantly seek and set it all on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not count on your reasoning to lead you but count on His revealed way.

Exodus 33

When Moses was leading the children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land, it was not by his own reasoning but in the way of God. Human reasoning will fail but the way of God will prevail. The way of God is God. At a point during the journey to the Promised Land, Moses was asking God to show him His way, “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”(Exodus 33:13) God’s response to Moses request for God’s way stated, “And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) Evidently, the way of God is God’s presence. God’s presence is God. Jesus also stated when He referred to Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”(John 14:6) In the way of the Lord there is direction, victory, peace, power and there is no failure. When the way of the Lord is not revealed, the journey is bound to be a failure. Moses was seeing the way of God and he could not fail in leading the children of Israel at every juncture where there was no way. The word of God declared in Psalm 103:7 “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” He was close to God in all his steps while the children of Israel were far from the Lord in all of their steps. The children of Israel were walking in complaint and in rebellion and could only see where and when Moses has completed assignments. Returning unto God will turn on the ways of the Lord. It is written, “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD and He will have mercy on Him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)The word of God is revelation that reveals and shows the way of God. It is good to be seeing His acts or witnessing His acts, but it is not enough until you begin to see His way. It is time that you begin to position yourself in the word of God so that His way will become a revelation to you. God is not a partial God if He can show His way unto Moses, He will show it to you. Do not count on your reasoning to lead you but count on His revealed way.

Prayer for today: Ask God to show you His way as you continue to navigate the journey of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Prayer does not have to be in multitudes of words.

2Samuel 10:6-14, Matthew 6:9-13

Prayer can be likened to a labor and the evidence of its manifestation cannot be hidden nor be denied. Among many believers, prayer is not often engaged because it is a sacrifice that demands more of commitment and less of convenience. Proverbs 14:23 stated, “In all labor there is profit…” Evidently prayer is profitable for those that constantly engage in praying. Prayer does not have to be in multitudes of words. A prayer is not limited to time or to location. Prayer dose not have to be in repetition; it does not matter if prayer is loud or if it is quiet. Simple prayer that is backed with power is the prayer that is rooted in the word of faith. Faith has its source in the Word of God. Throughout the Bible, many mountains were moved by prayer of faith. Jesus taught about prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. He spoke about the power of prayer in Mark 11:22-24, “…Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Is your mountain being moved by your prayer? Do you wander why your mountain is not moving? Are you holding to the word without full obedience? Indeed Jesus mentioned more than prayer of faith as the force that moves mountain when He stated in Mark 11:25, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” Stand in prayer after forgiving those that have sinned against you, then the mountain in your life will be moved. Among the simple prayers of faith that resulted in great deliverance was prayed by Joab. Joab was a commander of the army of Israelites under King David. Joab was caught up in the line of battle having Ammon before him and Syrians behind him. In the case of Joab and the Israelites army, there was no where to turn but to God in prayer. Joab prayed in 2 Samuel 10:12, “Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the LORD do what is good in His sight.”  This prayer of Joab delivered the Israelites army from their enemies. The Lord is a good God and His thoughts for us are peaceful and good. They are not of evil (Jeremiah 29:11).

Prayer for today: Pray that the Lord will do that which is good in His sight in all your goings and comings today.

FAITH CAPSULE: Engage the right word at the rough time.

2 Kings 4:8-37

Every word of God is a declaration not a decoration to hang on and not produce after its purpose. Bible was not playing with word when it declares that, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21) Are you speaking positive or negative in the face of your challenges? What you speak is what becomes of you. Jairus’s daughter was sick to death and Jesus was approached for healing. Luke 8:50, “But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.” Jesus’ response was a positive confession. Jesus then spoke to the child and the child rose from dead. For the children of Israel, the bondage of over four hundred years and Pharaoh failed to deny the promise of God. The negative confession of their mouth denied them from getting to their Promised Land. In their complain were negative confession that caused God to respond, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you.” (Numbers 14:28) The children of Israel had nothing positive to say when the journey seems to be challenging but negative such as calling for death. A barren Shunammite woman was in a location where she positioned herself to be a blessing to the Man of God Elisha. When Elisha decided to return to her with favor, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, suggested that she was barren and her husband was old. Elisha prayed for the woman and she conceived and had a son. The child grew and one day he had a headache while he was with his father and the father sent him to his mother, “When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.” (2 Kings 4:20) The child died and the Shunammite woman decided to go and look for Elisha and her husband said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “It is well.” (2 Kings 4:23). Knowing fully well that the child is dead, she did not confess any negative. When she approached Elisha, Elisha sent his servant, “Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” And she answered, “It is well.”(2Kings 4:26) The Shunammite woman repeatedly confessed positive, she had the right word at the rough time; she refused to allow her challenge to take over her. Always confess positive in the face of every negative challenge.

Prayer for today: Ask God for a quickening mind to always confess positive.

FAITH CAPSULE: Complaining instead of complimenting could cause greater pain than what you are complaining about.

Numbers 14

Are you complaining about what you have not yet received this year? Regardless of what your challenges are, know for sure that complaining does not settle well before God. Complaining is sin and God will not overlook sin. He did not overlook it when the children of Israel complained against Him then, and He will not overlook it now. Complaining instead of complimenting the work of His hand could cause greater pain than what you are complaining about. For the children of Israel, a journey of eleven days went on and on for forty years. It was not forty hours or forty days. Neither was it forty weeks or forty months, but forty years. The children of Israel were to travel through the wilderness to their Promised Land for eleven days, but the journey went on for forty years. Are you experiencing a time of wandering around in a wilderness situation? Have you been complaining in any way that you have taken? Wilderness is a route to pass through, but not to live like the children of Israel did. Wilderness journey is not a journey that you plan for but a journey that puts you in the plan of God for your life. Wilderness journey is a journey of trial and temptation and it is the only avenue that leads from the promise of God to getting to God’s Promised Land for His children. It is a process ground for the promises of God. An attempt to avoid the wilderness journey will make a believer become a wanderer and not a wonder in the area of divine calling. In the wilderness journey, a failure to progress by faith will lead to a passing on to termination. The complaining of the generation that came out of Egypt caused them to live, wandered and died in their wilderness journey. Acts of complaining are acts of rebellion, self-destruction, and termination. Are you complaining about your situation? God responded to complaining in Numbers 14:22-23, “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” God promised to take them to the Promised Land. He showed them great and mighty signs in Egypt, and on their way out of Egypt. Can you count your blessings so far this year? If you cannot, begin to meditate on the testimonies of God. His testimonies are more than enough to transport and bring you out of your challenges to the promises of God for your life. 

Prayer for today: Ask God for deliverance from the spirit that causes one to complain.