FAITH CAPSULE: Ignorance should not be an excuse live life foolish.

1 Samuel 13

Fool is foolishness; fool is a fall guy and a fool-full one is not God-full. Psalm 14:1 identified fool, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.” It is foolishness to be saying, “there is no God”. Also, disobeying God’s word identifies man as fool.
It is foolishness to be living life as fool by despising God’s word. Despising the word of God is disobeying and dishonoring God. Proverbs 13:13 warned, “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.” Despising the Word of God is also a demonstration of lack of fear for His commands. Obeying God leads to obtaining the blessing of obedience from God while disobeying God is engaging the curses of disobedience. The word clearly warns, “He who despises the word will be destroyed…” God is forever consistent and will never lower the standard of His word to violate His word that does not return to Him void. All that God says He will do is a done deal.
King Saul despised the Word of God by his act of disobedience and the consequence of his disobedience was fully executed in his life. When the Philistines gathered to fight against Israel, Saul could not wait for Samuel’s instruction to wait seven days for Samuel to carry out the burnt offering. Saul went ahead to carry out the burnt offerings which was a violation of God’s command.  As a king, he was not in the place to offer burnt offering which was a priest’s assignment as commanded by God. As simple as Saul’s violation appeared to be, Samuel responded to Saul’s disobedience stating, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (1 Samuel 13:13-14) Saul despised God’s command and his lineage was forever terminated from becoming king. Before God, a sin is a sin and there is no minor sin or major sin. Plan to live life abundantly by abstaining from despising God’s command and you shall not be destroyed.
To disregard the works of God is another way of dishonoring God. Dishonoring God is despising His word. Are you one who is disregarding God consciously or unconsciously? It is a sin to disregard God; before God there is no excuse for sin but only repentance.
One of King David’s psalms testified, “Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.” (Psalm 28:5) With no excuse before God, it is foolish for man that is living consciously or unconsciously despising the works of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you not to live foolishness before Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Living for God is the way to the expected end.

Exodus 13

It is written, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12) The only way that seems right is to live by His word. Jesus is the word of God. He wants to take man to an expected end which is a Promised Land that was purchased by His blood shed on Calvary. Living for God is the way to the expected end. It is better to be lost and found than to be found and then get lost. Jesus did not find man for untimely death or failure. The God that found and brought the children of Israel out of bondage did not mean for them not to get to the Promised Land. For one to be free from bondage is incomplete until one’s arrival to the Promised Land is realized. Many ways lead to the Promised Land, but the only way that will enable one to get there is the way of the wilderness.
The way that leads to Promised Land is the choice of the One who called all. Just as the Israelites went through the wilderness to the Promised Land, all shall go through the wilderness. Any other way outside of wilderness is the way back to Egypt.
The way of the wilderness is a way of no return. Exodus 13:17 recorded, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, ‘Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.’”
The way that seems right to man is a short distance. However, it is important to realize that a short–cut will always cut man short from getting to God’s Promised Land. The purpose of the wilderness way is for one not to return, but to keep one going. It is the way that God has put everything in place for one to travel within a reasonable amount of time. It is a way where one is going to be equipped on how to live and inherit where He is taking one to.
Are you living life for God to keep on the way to God’s Promised Land?
Getting to the Promised Land is the reason why Jesus came and went on the Calvary. On the way to the Promised Land, one will bump heads with the enemy because the enemy does not want to see anyone prevail. However, if the way you have taken for yourself is smooth, with no ups and downs, no head-on collision with the enemy, it may become a way that seems right to you, but you may also be in the same direction as the enemy. You are no threat to the enemy because you are heading in the same direction. Living for God marks man to be threat because the truth of God is threatening to the enemy. Man, with focus on God shall overcome in all.

Prayer for today: Ask from God to teach and lead you in all your going from today.

FAITH CAPSULE: Confronting challenge is meant to distract man from maintaining focus on God.

Exodus 14

King Pharaoh, out of the abundance of his atrocious evil heart, refused to let go of the Israelites. God intervened using Moses as a vessel, but Pharaoh remained determined in pursuing the Israelites beyond his border. After the let go of Israelites from Egypt after over four hundred years of bondage, Pharaoh and his subjects could not let go but went after the Israelites. When the Israelites saw that they were being chased to where there was no way to escape, they took their eyes off their Sustainer; they resolved to negative confession and could not count on God’s leadership through Moses. It is written, “And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:10-12)
Is there any representative of Pharaoh and his cohorts that will not let you go or give up on chasing your life?
Take to Moses’ word of encouragement to the Israelites: Do not be afraid; stand still; see it (even when is not yet there) that the salvation of the Lord is in place to terminate and never to see the Pharaohs of your life no more. (Exodus 14:13) The most striking point in Moses’ word to the Israelites is, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” (Exodus 14-14)
Wickedness is rooted in the lack of fear of God, the evidence of not believing God.
Do you believe God?
In Moses’ Word of God, there is a condition to have God fight for a believer against wicked ones. The condition is to hold on to peace knowing that God never lose a battle for man that is committed to Him. Every confronting challenge is always a designated wicked agenda against man. Confronting challenge is meant to distract man from maintaining focus on God and to deny the plans of God from becoming established over man’s life. God is not a man that He should lie neither shall His word go back to Him void. The key in all is to truly believe. With privileged of God to face the coming days; weeks; months; and years know that no man is immune to challenges, but man can possibly become an over-comer of confronting challenges. Kick out fear; Keep faith by meditating the testimonies of God’s awesome ways of deliverance; preservation and you shall be established. Remember, the Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace by believing (behaving) His word to be established for the glory of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable your focusing only on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do you trust Him and know that He is God that acts for those that wait on Him?

Proverbs 18

Trusting God is to wait on God. To wait on God is to have trust in His might. Trusting on God without waiting on Him or waiting on God with not having trust in His name is not complete. Do you really know His name enough to trust Him?
Do you trust Him enough to bring you out of challenges?
Do you trust Him and know that He is God that acts for those that wait on Him?
Proverbs 18:10 testified in God’s name, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe.” Do you know Him enough to truly trust and call on His name?
Among the forces that deny man from trusting in the name of God are:
Doubt will deny man from trusting;
Pride will cloud man from looking up to Him;
Leaning on one’s own wisdom will withdraw man from trusting His name.
What is it that is stopping you from trusting in His name?
It is worthy to take time out and look outside and see how His works declare that His name is near. (Psalm 75:1)
Truly, those who trust God will know to wait on God. Bible describes those that wait on God, “…those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Do you trust Him enough to wait on Him for your breakthrough miracle?
When do we trust in His name?
Trusting God’s name should not be limited to when there is no challenge. His name should always be trusted.
Job, during his days of unimaginable challenges declared, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15) If Job can trust God during his challenges, what is preventing you from trusting Him? Are your challenges more than what Job experienced?
Psalmist, by virtue of his experience testified, “Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.” (Psalm 125:1) What is it about Mount Zion that those who trust in God can be compared to Mount Zion? Obadiah 1:17, “But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.” With the word of Obadiah, it is safe to conclude that anyone who puts their trust in God would be assuredly delivered and possessing the possession as promised by God is certain.
Is your trust in the Lord easier said than done?
To trust in the Lord is to rest in the Lord; not to trust in the Lord is to rust in the world of challenges. Trusting God is crucial to cruise through the challenges of this world without compromise. Isaiah 57:13, states that “…he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain.” God is true to His word only if we can live truthfully in His word.

Prayer for today: Ask from God to open your understanding to trust Him for His wonderous might.

FAITH CAPSULE: When focus is not properly fixed on God (Word of God), enemy will occupy.

Philippians 4

When anxiousness sets into man’s life, enticement is set to move into man’s life making man not to wait for God’s appointed time. The warning of Philippians 4:6-7 is for man to have a knowing edge by waiting patiently before God. It is written, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
The enemy is the master of deception and he has been around long before man.
The enemy attempted Jesus but failed because Jesus, the Word of God was full of word that was more than enough to deny devil. Be assured that if enemy could attempt Jesus, we are no exception for him to attempt. Thank God for the word of deliverance.
If one’s focus is not properly fixed on God (Word of God), the enemy’s enticement will tie one down for destruction. It does not matter how strong you are standing in the Lord; the enemy will knock on your door with the purpose of knocking you down. The enemy is still knocking on doors and having men with huge and small ministries down.
The enemy knocked on King David’s door, but he was too careless to give devil’s enticement all the room to occupy. He knocked on Adam and Eve’s door and all Eve saw was good in evil and the enemy achieved his goal. He knocked on Jesus’s door, but Jesus was too full of word and denies devil a space to occupy Him.
Samson, as strong as he was, was enticed, and was brought down from where God placed him. It is written, “And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, ‘Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.’” (Judges 16:5) Samson was a miracle child born with special instructions from heaven. As regard to Samson, the Bible documents in Judges 13:5, “For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” The man, Samson, ended up blind, because he could not be obedient according to the Word of God. Enticement produced a hole in Samson’s strength. The hole in Samson’s strength caused his power to become deflated from what God had pumped into him before he was born.
God will answer our prayer today, in Jesus’ name.
Did the word not promised that, my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus? (Philippians 4:19)
Do you believe?
Prayer for today: Ask for God’s hand of deliverance in every area of life where you have become a victim of enticement.