FAITH CAPSULE: Is pride a hidden identity that is clouding your destiny?

2 Kings 5

God is near to all man at all times. However, sin is an agent of the devil denying a man from reaching unto God while pride is like the driver unto sin and sinning. Are you living life as a sinner which is rooted in pride before God?  Leprosy was the most dreaded disease in the Bible days that kept one with leprosy away from others.
Leprosy is a type and picture of sin.
Interestingly, the Bible repeatedly does not speak about leprosy healing but talked about being cleansed of leprosy.
Luke 5:12-13 documented a case of leprosy cleansing not mentioning healing: “And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.”
Are you conscious or unconscious if there is a need for your cleansing of sin (leprosy) to become able to get near to God?  Pride is a sin. Completest submission is a condition of cure while pride is a hindrance.
Leprosy takes a position of cloudiness over the testimony of Naaman while pride represents crowd as the agent of a hindrance in his life. What is reducing you from answering fully to what God has called you to be?
The case of Naaman:
The pride was a hindrance that clouded Naaman’s cure and the evidence of many with pride, especially among believers. When Naaman approached Elisha for his healing the cloud in his life stood between him and the word of the prophet. The Bible recorded, “Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” (2 Kings 5:10) Naaman’s avenue for his cure in the word of God through Elisha stated: “wash and clean” The power of cleansing for Naaman was not in the Jordan but in the word of the prophet that was released into Naaman’s life. The clouding hindrance in Naaman denied his listening ability. The Bible recorded the pride of Naaman’s response for his cleansing: “But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal leprosy.’  Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.” (2 Kings 5:11-12)
The word of God is like a mirror for all man. When you look into the mirror of the word of God do you see yourself or you only see others? Until you begin to see yourself in the mirror of the word of God for self re-address, the word of God will not become your frame.

Prayer for today: Ask God for your hearing and receiving His cleansing word over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: God wants to be pleased, He is a jealous God.

1Kings 3

Pleasing by doing according to the word of God is the signal of faith in the life of one that pleases God. The book of Hebrews 11:6 buttress the importance of pleasing God: “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” God wants to be pleased, He is a jealous God. He alone wants to be pleased in how we engage life. Pleasing God is living life by faith as required in Habakkuk 4:2, “…the just shall live by his faith.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 also points out that we watch and stand by faith. Without doubt, one that is standing and watching by the word of God is the one with a character which pleases God.
Are you conscious of how you live life? Do you pay attention to how you stand and how you watch? Are you hearing enough of the word of God to keep you walking, watching and standing in faith?  It is important to please God with your lifestyle by meditating the word of God which will enable your observing and doing according to God’s word. When one goes about his/her way of living life, one must exercise faith to please God.
King Solomon was the son of David and the third king of Israel pleased God by his doing before God. King Solomon is best known for his wisdom and for building the temple. He was able to please God with his speech which provoked God to add him with great wisdom as his identity forever. It happened to be that Solomon went to sacrifice at Gibeon when God appeared to him. God asked Solomon, “…What shall I give you?” (1Kings 3:5) King Solomon responded to God’s question, “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge is great people of Yours?” (1 Kings 3:9) He had the business of God at heart; self was not in place as a result, Solomon asked for what it takes to carry out God’s divine plan for his life. Solomon, by asking, he pleased God. What are you going to ask from God if He shows up in your dream? Will your request from God what it means to be a God-serving vessel or self-achieving vessel before God? Solomon in his word pleased God and God was provoked to bless Him beyond his imagination as recorded: “The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.” (1 Kings 3:10) Please God in all areas of living life and His blessings will never run out of your life.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the strength to live a life which pleases Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you righteous or are you wicked?

Psalm 139

Fear God to obey Him. Obedience is serving God. Serving God is not the evidence of attending church, being a church member for thousand years or leaving in church 24hours. Serve God with fear! Psalm 2:11 said it all, “Serve the Lord with fear…”
Serving God right is the evidence of being righteous before God. Also, serving God wrong is the evidence of being wicked before God. It is certain that God cannot be deceived. How are you serving God? We are to ask individual this question: Am I serving God right or serving Him being wicked?
David always search his service before God to re-address himself for doing what is right before God:
Psalm 77:6, “I call to remembrance my song in the night; I meditate within my heart, and my spirit makes diligent search.”
Psalm 139:1, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me.”
Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties.”
Word of God demands from all man to be righteous before God, doing right at all times. Also, all man should restrain self from serving God, doing wrong but wicked before God.
Isaiah 3:10-11 records God’s mind as regard to how individual serve God:
“Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them, For they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, For the reward of his hands shall be given him.”
In living life, how a man is serving God is what a man is sowing to reap. One that sows what is well will reap fruit that is well and satisfactory. If one’s serving God is wrong but wicked before God, the result of such serving will deliver woe and ill to wicked ones.
Who are you before God? How are you serving God?
Are you righteous or are you wicked?
Interestingly, a simple answer that will settle all man as regard to how one is serving God is not hidden but in the word of God.
The book of Jeremiah 12:1-2 recorded, “Righteous are You, O Lord when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind.”
One that is wicked cannot possibly be righteous one before God.
The wicked ones are quick to quote the word of God, but the word of God is far from mind with no fear of God. One with the mind of God’s word answers as righteous ones with the fear of God.
The judgment of God for our way of serving Him is in Isaiah 3:10-11 as stated above.
Fear God by knowing His word to be doing His word, without knowing God to fear God it is not possible to serve Him for Him to be pleased with us.
From today, watch it, there is a judgment for how we serve Him!

Prayer for today: Ask from God that you want to serve Him right to be righteous before Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Humility cures worldliness.

Deuteronomy 8

One that humbles self before God is positioning self for God’s blessing. James 4:10 buttressed, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
Do you know what it means to humble self before God?
First, if you are a hindrance or acting as an agent, hindering any man to serve God, you are one that does not humble God and will not experience the blessing of God. Pharaoh the king of Egypt was a hindrance and he denied the Israelites from serving God. The bible recorded, “So Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” Pharaoh repeatedly denied the Israelites from serving God to experience curse situation but not the blessing of God.
Second, admitting your wrongdoing before God is confessing your iniquity and it will cause God to remember you, to visit you with His promises that is good. The word of Leviticus 26:40-42 for the Israelites speaks to all it is what it means to be humble and be blessed by God, “But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt— 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.”
Thirdly, the word of God identified Moses, “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3) What prompted Moses’ identification as humble could not be more than being a man with content. Exodus 2:21 reported Moses’ content: “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.” With no doubt, to be humble must be rooted in content. Any man with content is satisfied regardless of a downgrade position in the way of life. The challenge of Moses made him flee from the Palace of Pharaoh in Egypt to Midian. Moses’ content spirit humbled him to be available for God’s calling over his life. What a blessing to live in God’s divine assignment? Moses was content, he was humble and was blessed.
Fourthly, do not be discouraged or withdraw yourself before God because of your challenges. Are you experiencing troubling challenges? Deuteronomy 8:2, “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Challenges can be training for a man, to become humble before God and be blessed by God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to visit you and give you a heart to be humble for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you on course for your breakthrough journey?

Numbers 11

The Israelites failed to disengage multitude as they engaged their breakthrough journey. Exodus 12:37-38 records: “Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them…”   For the Israelites, a mixed-up multitude is an unholy mix-up. At the time of departure, it does not seem dangerous for the Israelites to have a mixed multitude among them on their breakthrough journey. As they progressed on the journey, the effect of mixed multitude caused trouble for the Israelites. The Bible records in Numbers 11:4-6, “Now the mixed multitudes who were among them yielded to intense craving; so, the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”  Mixed multitude’s trouble for the Israelites was the initiation of Israelites complaining before God. The multitude was like an agent of trouble in the journey of Israelites. God responded to the complaint of Israelites as stated: “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.  Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:  The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.  Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:27-30)
Interestingly, in the breakthrough of Israelites, Pharaoh and his chariots could not deny the Israelites’ breakthrough, the Red Sea could not hold back the Israelites from breaking forth. However, mixed multitude set them up for their journey termination. Are you on course for your breakthrough journey? Is there any mixed multitude with you as your company?
Here are some warning signals that you have allowed mixed multitude on your journey:
Mix-multitude will keep reminding you of the past when you need to focus on where the Lord is taking you.
Mix-multitude will only cause you to crave for what you do not need so you will cave into complaining instead of complimenting God.
Mix-multitude will cause one to worry in the place of worship.
Mix-multitude will direct one’s focus on world activity instead of focusing on God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from all that represents mixed multitude in your journey of life.