FAITH CAPSULE: Be lonely in your world, to be alone with God.   

Genesis 22

Are you one that feels lonely for not having friends?
Why not give yourself to having God as your friend?
Having God as a friend is not with any risk.
Having God as a friend is possible but is a sacrifice living strictly by the word of God, not the way of the world.
The word of God testifies possibility of having God as a friend:
Exodus 33:11, “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”
John 15:14, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant, does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
James 2:23, “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”
Are you with a desire to have God as a friend or the world as a friend?
Today in the wicked world, having the world as a friend is like opening yourself to the activities of the world.
Are you a believer feeling lonely and prompted to have friends?
It is better to be lonely and not have flocks of friends.
Be lonely in your world, to be alone with God in His word.
One with God will mount up not to live a life of waste.
Having a flock of friends, the world, can be a foolish move.
Proverbs 9:6 encourages, “Forsake foolishness and live, And go in the way of understanding.”
With a desire to be a friend of God, ask to live by the command of God. 
The word of Jesus in John 15:14 states, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
Are you one that is willing to put aside all for the command of God over your life?
One that gives self for the command of God is counted as a righteous one.
Abraham lived life and gave himself to doing the command of God. 
Genesis 12:1 and Genesis 22:2 records the command of God to Abram: “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great, And you shall be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1)
Genesis 22:2, “Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2)
Abraham obeyed God with all his heart.
Obedience to the command of God is the key to living life as a friend of God.
It is possible to live life as a friend of God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live life for God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Until one builds by the word of God, such cannot answer for divine assignment in life. 

Jeremiah 1 

Honestly, search for yourself to identify and know what is building you.
The word of God is power and communicates power.
The power in the word of God will transform anyone who believes in the word of God. 
No one should not compromise the word of God. 
Compromising the word is despising the word.
Are you available to be built by Jesus?
Matthew 16:18 records, “… I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”  
A temple of God not built by His word will not be able to contain what He purposed for your life to carry for His glory. 
Will you allow Him to build you up for His glory? 
He will build His church, and nothing shall prevail against it. 
Do not prevent yourself from being built by the word of God.
In Acts 20:32, Paul admonishes all, “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” 
Jesus, the word of God, is the One that builds and gives life abundantly. 
How can the word build you? 
The word of God must be planted and grow in you. Psalm 119:11, Thy word have I treasured in my heart that I May not sin against thee” Before Jeremiah could become what the Lord wanted him to be, he gave himself to the word of God that sounded in his direction to build him.
Jeremiah 1:5 records about Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” 
The same word that identified and called Jeremiah out informed him what he was before he was born. 
The word of God caused him to begin to see from where he could not see. The word of God prepared him and positioned him into the center of his divine assignment. The Bible documents the word which built him up into boldness: “Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 1:8). 
The word guided Jeremiah to be bold, answering his divine assignment for his life. 
Just like Jeremiah, Ezekiel also encountered the word. “And He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.’ Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him who spoke to me.’” (Ezekiel 2:1-2) 
No one hears God indeed and doubts Him. 
Having doubt is the evidence for not being built by the word. 
Allow the word of God to build you.

Prayer for today: Ask the word of God shall build you up for His glory.

 FAITH CAPSULE: Give meaningful thanks and praise to God.

Psalm 92

Thanking and praising God is not a thinking engagement. 
Give thanks to God in every moment of engagement. 
Giving thanks and praising God cannot be separated and carries weight to glorifying God.
Psalm 92:1, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name…” 
Are you thinking of thanks instead of giving thanks? 
With understanding, giving thanks to God is the key for all things to work together for good. 
Give well-meaning thanks and praise to God, not thinking thanks and praise. 
The Psalmist buttresses praising with understanding, “For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.” (Psalm 47:7)  
When understanding backs up conviction, it delivers an undeniable miracle. 
Know that when thanking and praising God without understanding, it becomes empty emotion.
Thanking and praising God is always an act of declaring the goodness of God.
The Psalmist buttresses, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High. To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, And Your faithfulness every night.” (Psalm 92:2) 
Giving thanks and praising God is not limited to the guidelines of anyone to provoke the move of God.
 Psalm 92:3 identifies a way of giving thanks: “On an instrument of ten strings, On the lute, And on the harp, With harmonious sound.” 
King David also demonstrates giving thanks and praise by leaping and whirling before the Lord. (2 Samuel 6:16) 
Thanking and praising God can be like King David’s dance before God. 
It is never too much to be giving God ceaseless thanks and praise. 
The Psalmist declares why all should thank and praise God: “For You, LORD, have made me glad through Your work; I will triumph in the works of Your hands. O LORD, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.” (Psalm 92:4-5) 
God is worthy of thanks and praise worship to declare His work.
Giving thanks and praise is also evidence of giving God attention due to Him. 
Volumes and pages of books will never be enough to identify the goodness of God. 
Giving thanks and praise will gain the attention of God. 
God inhabits the praises of His people.
Give thanks and praise to God for all He has done.
Give thanks for all things.
Give thanks for all He is doing and for all expected from Him. 
Are you expecting God to move concerning your expectation?
Jesus believed God to bring Lazarus back to life from death. 
Jesus did not wait for Lazarus to rise before He gave thanks to God for Lazarus to rise from the dead.
John 11:41-42 records, “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me”  
Your Lazarus will rise. 

Prayer for today: Ask to be giving thanks and praise to God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Hardness of heart does not live life by the demands of the word of God.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

The word of God inhabits the blessing of God.
Jesus, the living word of God, declares, “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.” (John 10:10) 
Indeed, Jesus, the living word of God, brought healing and deliverance. Testimony of the word of God is deliverance. 
God sent His word to heal and deliver from destruction. (Psalm 107:20)    Jesus, the living word of God, is here to bless all that will obediently live life by the word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 describes the word God as “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” 
The word of God is promising and able to deliver without fail. 
However, the word of God will not deliver promises for disobedient ones. 
Obedience is a password to open the door of blessing from God. 
Unceasing and steady is to obey God, with no place for half obedience.
The character of one with half obedience seeks God only at convenience.
Obeying the word of God at all times is pleasing God, the evidence of faith. Obeying God to please God to deliver obedience from the unnecessary, costly, and painful situations in the walk of life.
Among many reasons for disobedience is pointed out in the book of Nehemiah 9:17, “They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of Your wonders that You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion…” 
The word of Nehemiah 9:17 refers to the children of Israel but also speaks to all. 
It points out that an act of disobedience is caused by not being mindful of the wonders of God, which leads to the hardness of the heart. 
A hard heart will cause one not to live life by the word of God.
In the word of God, there is a way. 
Jesus is the Word, and He is the Way. 
A hardened heart lacks the belief to deny faith from having a place in the life of one.
Hebrews 4:2 made it clear that the word not mixed with faith becomes unprofitable. 
The word of God is the source of faith.
Romans 10:17 testifies, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 
Are you a vessel with a hardness of heart? 
It is possible to be a vessel of a hardened heart unconsciously. 
Today search your heart to determine your stand in the word of God. 
One with a hardness of heart is evidence of unbelief.

Prayer for today: Ask against the spirit of the hardness of heart not to have a place in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: A place is the place of divine encounter.

Genesis 28

Jacob stole the blessings of Esau and needed to escape from the wrath of his brother by running away for his life. 
The running away of Jacob was unplanned for him but repositioned him for a glorious ending. 
Rebekah, the mother of Jacob, directed him to flee to her brother Laban in Haran, stating, “Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away.” (Genesis 27:43-44) 
Jacob obeyed his mother to enter a journey to escape from the wrath of his brother.
It was a journey that placed Jacob in his center of divine assignment. 
It was a journey of escape that positioned Jacob at a place as recorded in Genesis 28:10-12, “Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven, and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:10-12) 
A place is the place of divine encounter, of the visitation of God for assurance.
To arrive at a place in life journey is possible to arrive at the encounter for divine assignment in life journey. 
Jacob arrived at a place of divine assignment.
Jacob sent his son, Joseph, on an errand.
An errand of hours lasted for over thirteen years for Joseph.
Jacob (Israel) called on his beloved son Joseph, “And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” So he said to him, “Here I am.” Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.” (Genesis 37:13-14) 
Joseph went on an errand at the age of seventeen.
A very long and unplanned journey can be very challenging. 
Are you on any unplanned journey? 
An engaging errand can be exceedingly painful, but it often comes to a gainful end. 
With Joseph, an unplanned journey took him to the center of his divine assignment in life. 
Joseph came to his father when he was in a position of power. 
Joseph experienced a change of story that delivered his whole family from the famine of his time, and they could not suffer.
Meditate on the story of Joseph in every journey of life.

Prayer for today: Ask to be filled with wisdom and knowledge in the word of God.