FAITH CAPSULE: Are you one that is giving thanks to God without your obedience to His word?

John 11

Obedience with thanksgiving to God is a powerful combination to gain life in the place of death.
At the time of Jesus’ arrival to Bethany, Lazarus was dead, Mary and Martha were into mourn and with no hope for Lazarus to come out of his death.
Jesus’ response for Lazarus’ death was His command for the people to obey and His thanksgiving before God, to bring Lazarus back to life.
Bible records, John 11:38-44, “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”
Are you one as Martha, with lack of hope and not obey God’s word of command?
Jesus responds to the unbelief of Martha:
“Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” Martha does not believe, but the people obeyed Jesus, “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, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Obediently, the people took away the stone as Jesus’ thanksgiving gave life to Lazarus in the place of death.
Obey God continually, give self to giving thanks as a way of life before God, and live life for the glory of God.
In your journey of life, through the wilderness where there is no provision, where lack persists, look into God’s word with obedience for the direction to convert lack into plenty.
When Jesus was approached in the wilderness to feed the multitude, there was no enough but with obedience to Jesus’s command, and thanksgiving, the lack was converted to plenty.
Mark 8:6-9 records, “So He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and they set them before the multitude. They also had a few small fish; and having blessed them, He said to set them also before them. So they ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets of leftover fragments. Now those who had eaten were about four thousand. And He sent them away.”
In the life of lack, when the combination of obedience and thanksgiving is engaged with understanding, lack will be converted to abundance.
Giving thanks without obedience to God’s word is the evidence of a lack of understanding that will not deliver manifestation for expectation.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s righteous hand upon your life to be living right before Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Give thanks to God for all things and all things will work out good.

Psalm 107

It is a man’s responsibility to be giving God thanks with understanding.
Understanding comes when one gains wisdom in the word of God.
With wisdom in place, understanding will deliver one to having a known edge (Knowledge) in the journey of life.
Giving thanks with praise demands understanding as Psalm 47:7 records, “For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.” Are you giving thanks without praise or praising without thanks? Praising God and thanking God cannot be separated.
God is a jealous God; He is God with the expectation to always receive constant thanks from all man.
Jesus demonstrated an expectation of receiving thanks when He healed ten lepers but only one out of the ten lepers returned with thanksgiving to Him.
Luke 17:14-18 documents, “So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.  So, Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?  So, Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
Are you one that is not returning thanks to God?
There should be no one that does not return to God with thanksgiving continually. With understanding, giving thanks to God for all things will prompt all things to work together for good.
Giving thanks to God should not be at your comfortable time, pleasing self but not God.
Giving thanks to God is a sacrifice before God. With understanding, sacrificial giving thanks to God is not thinking thanks but offering thanksgiving that is acceptable before God, 1 Chronicles 23:30 identifies sacrificial thanks “to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and likewise at evening…”
Are you offering sacrificial thanks to God with understanding?
Leviticus 29:22 records, “And when you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, offer it of your own free will.”
David engaged a costly sacrifice for his sin of the census he conducted over the Israelites, which is against God’s command not to count His people.
2 Samuel 24-25 records about David’s demonstration of costly sacrifice, “Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.”
Will you start offering God a costly sacrifice, to provoke God’s visitation for the manifestation of expectation?

Prayer for today: Ask from God that giving His thanks continually will become your way of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Be upgraded by giving self to God’s word and not become a victim of wicked world.

Matthew 6

Give your self a chance, give yourself to God’s way to become changed, to live life for God. In the way of God, there is deliverance and preservation. The way of God is in His word. The word will keep you and keep you to be upgraded in His word, as an overcomer in this wicked world. His word can come as a warning for one that will give self to God’s word for deliverance and preservation
King David was upgraded in his fellowship with God, he was able to “walk” and not run “through the valley of the shadow of death” without fear. (Psalm 23:4) Are you running where you need to walk? If yes, it is time to get upgraded and not become a victim of weariness or fainting.
Matthew 6:19-21 warns, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Does the word of God speak to you in this wicked world where desire always outruns possessions, no matter how vast acquisitions may grow? Word of God does not lie, engage God’s word for self-upgrading in the things of God.
Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith warned in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation…” He warned again in Luke 21:36, “Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  As if the warning was not clear enough, Peter, a disciple of Jesus, also warned, “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.” (1 Peter 4:7) Sincere constant and consistent watching and praying is a way of getting upgraded to be an overcomer in the wicked world of today. To watch and pray will enable and improve one’s trust and hope in God.
Jesus did not suggest fasting but identified it as a must-do by stating, “When you fast…” (Matthew 6:16) As an acclaimed believer, fasting and humility before God get man upgraded. In the wicked world, get upgraded today; be built up in the word of God. Apostle Paul identified the need to be built up in Acts 20:32, “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” It is worthy to commit self to the word of God and be upgraded with continual prayer and to the ministry of the word.
Living in this wicked world of today demands constant and consistent upgrading by seeking God. Seeking God is pleasing God. Pleasing God is to be living by the word of God.
Be upgraded by giving self to God’s word.

Prayer for today: Ask from God that you desire to live by giving self to His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do you live life for God?

1 Corinthians 13

All man should have faith to love as commanded in the word of God.
Do you love others as commanded in the word of God?
Have you taken some time out to search your heart if indeed you love God? Do you love God?
What does it mean to love God?
1John 5:3 identified what it means to love God, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” To be Keeping God’s commandment is the evidence of loving God.
With sacrificial commitment, obedience to God’s commandment is possible.
Loving God is a sacrifice.
Sacrifice is not cheap but it is giving unto God what is costly.
King David demonstrated what costly sacrifice before God means, 2 Samuel 24:24 records, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” The buying the threshing floor instead of accepting it free from Araunah, was David’s effort to sacrifice before God.
The sacrifice was meant to deliver the children of Israel from death that was caused by David’s census of Israel, against the command of God. David’s costly of sacrifice before God is a proven mark of love for God.
Sacrifice to God is worshiping God with love.
To be faithful to God is worshiping God, faithful is about one’s love for God. Jesus’ question about faith is a question about love. He questioned, “…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  With faith, there is love, without faith there will be no love.
Do you have faith? Do you have a love for others?
Is there love between children and parent; between husband and wife; between children; between neighbors between believers?
Without having faith in the word of God, the love commanded by God will not be in place. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 records God’s love, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”
Worshiping God, loving God is supposed to be a continual way of life before God.
God did not just ask for love rather He gave us a standard of acceptable love when He stated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” To love God means to give Him our all.
Through the pages of the Bible, men, and women that gave self to love according to God’s command were able to live life for the glory of God.
Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and other giants in the hand of God loved God with all their heart, soul and strength. Truly, one with love for God are with faith to love all man.

Prayer for today: Ask for hand for you to live life by His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Conscience is responsible for conviction in man’s life.

1Timothy 1

What does it mean to have a good conscience before God in the journey of life?
Having a good conscience before God is living obediently before God as commanded for all man to love.
The commandment of God for all man is to love one and other.
To love one and other is possible for only one that knows to understand the love for God.
It is not possible to love all others except you love God indeed and in truth!
1 John 4:8 says it all, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Do you love God?
Do you love one and other?
Bible records, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
Among the reasons for the commandment of God for all man is to love from a GOOD CONSCIENCE. Word of God confirms, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk.” (1Timothy 1:5-6)
Having a good conscience is having God in your conscience that will mark you for God in your journey of life. Among all of God’s will for all man is the purpose of the commandment from a good conscience.
Do you have a good conscience in all your ways before God?
Having love from a good conscience will be striving for good conscience to live life for the glory of God.
Having good conscience is the sense of doing right but not doing wrong before God. It is a good conscience that governs one’s thoughts and actions.
Conscience is what convicts’ man to turn man from what is not right.
One with no conscience will live life in empty pride consciously or unconsciously, the evidence of no love as commanded by God.
Conscience is responsible for conviction in man’s life. The Pharisees are the example of lack of good conscience when they approached Jesus for judgment over a woman caught in the act of adultery, but Jesus ignored the Pharisees’ request. (John 8:7) The need for good conscience by the Pharisees was evident in Jesus’ response, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one…” (John 8:9)
Man is to strive for good conscience and not become a victim of a lack of love before God.
Paul in his defense before Felix made it known in his statement that good conscience is to be strived for. Paul testifies, “This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.” (Acts 24:16)
Having conscience without offense toward God and man is a good conscience.
With understanding in the word of God, learn, strive to have the good conscience, to love, according to the purpose of God’s command.
Paul’s testimony confirms that striving for good conscience as commanded in God’s word will work for man’s deliverance. From today, consciously examine your conscience, be of good conscience which is pleasing to God. Ones that are misplacing the purpose of God’s command are set to be displaced and not experience God in their challenge.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you with a mind full with good conscience.