FAITH CAPSULE: Ask for His presence in your daily journey.

Exodus 33

The way of God for man is His word. The word of God is God. Moses asked for 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) In the way of God there is direction, deliverance and preservation. Are you asking for His way in your life? It does not matter how long you have been taking to your way, but it is true and certain that the way of God cannot be wrong. The way of man cannot be compared to the way of God. In the way of God there is life but in the way man there is death. Proverbs 16:25 buttress, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” God cannot be mocked; God sees from where man is coming from to where man is going. Which way are you going? Taking to a way outside of the way of God is a way with no rest which can lead to self- destruction.
God answered to Moses request for His way, “And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) The word of God is God and His word is His presence. The way of God is written in the pages of the Bible. Moses asked from God and he received answer from God. Psalm 103:7, “He made known His ways to Moses…” Are you asking for His way to answer for your way?
God cannot be deceived as man adopt to God’s way without fail. It is impossible to take to the way of God and end up in destruction. However, it is evident that when man take outside of God’s way self-destruction becomes possibility. In the journey of life, there are so many ways that seems right but not all leads to life. The ways that seems right to man are outside of the way of God.
Give yourself to self-examination and avoid self-destruction. The book of Proverbs 16:2 stated, “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the spirits.” Will you be sincere with yourself and let God direct or redirect your steps into His way? God wants to be pleased with how we walk in His way because it is the evidence of having faith in Him. Proverbs 16:7 admonished us, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” The Lord God has spoken, it is left for man to ask and know to walk in God’s way.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be asking for His way in your walk daily.

FAITH CAPSULE: Desperate for God in the heart is to experience His hand.

Nehemiah 1,2

Man, with desperate heart for the glory of God will experience the backing of good hand of God for God’s glory through man. There is no heart activity that is hidden from God. Psalm 44:21 buttressed, “…God knows the secret of the heart.” As regard to heart, it is written, “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” (Proverbs 20:27)
How is your heart desperate for the glory of God? Daniel’s heart was desperate to give it all for the glory of God and God’s hand backed him to do great exploits for the glory of God. Daniel 1:8 recorded, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” Daniel purposed in his heart for God’s glory and he lived to do great exploit (Daniel 11:32) because of his heart activity. Daniel’s heart set him for great exploits later in his life. How is it with your heart that is not hidden from God? It is written, “As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.” (Proverbs 27:19)
How is your heart desperate for the glory of God? Imagine Nehemiah a cup-bearer’s heart activity.
The heart of Nehemiah was with genuine concern for Jerusalem’s welfare but not for self-interest. Nehemiah was a cupbearer with desperate desired heart for better life for his brethren. If a cupbearer could provoke profound change, claiming believers of today should be able to do for the glory of God as a salt agent (not bitter agent), light (not darkness) doing good for the glory of God.
It is clear in the heart of Nehemiah for God to see his desperate desire, touching life for the glory of God. Awesome God invested in Nehemiah as a vessel for reconstructing the broken wall of Jerusalem. The report of what was going on in Jerusalem caused a burden in Nehemiah’s heart and he began to intercede on behalf of the land and his people. The bible recorded in Nehemiah 1:3-4, “And they said to me, ‘The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’ So it was, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah poured out his heart in prayer on behalf of his people and his homeland. He asked for nothing that had to do with self-interest, but rather petitioned for things that had to do with a better life for his people. Believers need to quicken heart for God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of God to set your heart desperate for the glory of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: To be-living outside of God is compromising His word.

1 Samuel 2:12-36

Compromise can be described as: An agreement reached by adjustment of conflicting or opposing claims or principles.
Today, compromise over re-direction of the word of God is the evidence of lack of fear of God and lack of understanding among believers and unbelievers. Compromise exists in the church and outside of the church. Serving God as it pleases man is a way of compromising the word of God. Compromising the word of God can be a lack of faith. Without faith God is not pleased but with faith He is pleased. (Hebrews 11:6) Compromise is not of God. Clearly, compromising the word of God’s word is the devil’s tool for confusing believers and unbelievers. Compromise will corrupt man’s journey in life. Compromise is a conscious or unconscious way of embracing evil and not living in the fear of God. A believing believer that does not restrain wrong doing is taking to a position of compromise. Such believer is one that knows what is good and not do according the word of God. James 4:17 buttressed, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
Are you compromising the word of God to impress your member; your pastor or compromising the word of God to be complementing an eminent member to avoid eminent one from departing from member?
Also, compromising wrongly between parents and children is taking position charge just as it was in the life of Eli and his sons. The Bible recorded about the corruption of the sons of Eli in 1 Samuel 2:12-15, “Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord.  And the priests’ custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand while the meat was boiling. Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.  Also, before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw.”
Compromising the word of God by the sons of Eli was recorded as great sin before God because Eli did not restrain his children.
When God called on Samuel, He identified the sin of Eli’s son and His judgment of Eli stating, “In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.” (1 Samuel 3:12-13) Eli compromised before God and it counted as his sin before God. Eli’s destiny was corrupted, and his sons were terminated.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of God to deliver you from every ground of compromising His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: In God’s calling upon your life, what are you withholding from God?

Genesis 12

Jesus confirmed, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” What He called us to be is what He meant for. To be light as stated by Jesus is to be Shinning for the glory of God. Answering as light, shinning is rising in response to His calling. Isaiah 60:1-2, “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.” Answering to the calling of God should not have any reasonable excuse not to answer God. When God calls, He is evidently more than able to back up called one. Rising in obedience is to shine for His glory. Indeed, deep darkness will show to discourage or deny man from rising. However, God is always at work for the heart that desires to rise unto His calling upon creation. God promised in His word that He will rise over the called and His glory would not be denied. Rising in response to the word of God is all that made Abraham. Abraham could not possess all that was promised to him by God until he rose to God’s command. What is keeping you down from rising for the glory of God? In God’s calling upon your life, what are you withholding from God?
Abraham rose for God when God said to him, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1) Abraham did not hesitate, he did not exercise doubt, neither does he questioned God’s command which sounded in his direction. Are you getting a call which demands from you to rise?
God promised Abraham for his rising, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3) Abraham could have doubted God but he rose and went just as commanded by God. Without doubt, calling demands for a great extent of commitment. Abraham’s commitment to God’s calling made him to possess the promises of God’s calling.
Rise for God, shine for His glory. Commitment to God is not convenient. Commitment for the calling by God is a total obedience to God’s command. Commitment to rise for God is emptying self for God to fill one. Be established for God’s calling; take a position to possess the blessing of God just like Abraham.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to rise for God’s calling upon your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Is negative confession with the manner of complaint before God your pattern?

Numbers 14

What we give ourselves continually will become our pattern in life.
In the face of challenging situation, man should be self-disciplined by not confessing negative with a manner of complaining before God. Confessing negatively can be our way of complaining negatively consciously or unconsciously. The Israelites’ pattern of life was complaining and ended with negative confession stating, “So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night.  And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” (Numbers 14:1-4) The negative confession of the Israelites was a complaint before God. Complaint was in response to spy’s report of the Promised Land in Numbers 13:26-29. Negative complaint is not acceptable before God but positive is compliment that is acceptable before God.
Complaining begets rebellion.
Giving to complaining will complicate the journey of life.
When the Israelites were set for journey out of bondage of over four hundred years to God’s Promised Land, complaint was their pattern of life. When negativity becomes a pattern in any journey of life, man is set to complicate journey. The truth is that God is true to perform and perfect His Word but worry, doubt, anxious will lead to complaint and a way of taking God for lie.
Avoiding compliant before God is to be discipline trusting and hoping on God. One that knows to trust and hope in the Lord is in a position to be blessed regardless of challenging situation. Jeremiah 17:7 stated the importance of trusting and hoping, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.” Calling on God for His intervention is trust; waiting and not doubt is having hope. Man calls on God for intervention but not able to avoid complaining with negative confession. Are you confessing negative in a manner of complaining?
Avoiding complaint before God is the discipline to wait, knowing that God waits to act for those who waits on Him. Isaiah 64:4, encouraged us to wait stating, “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” Through the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, complaint was their pattern of life. Complaint terminated the Israelites and not get to their Promised Land. Our challenges in every journey is to avoid complaint but engage with trusting and hoping; waiting and not worry but worshiping before God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from negative confession and the spirit of complaint before Him.