FAITH CAPSULE: Give yourself to the word of God as a sacrifice.

Numbers 32

Word of God is certain and consistent to deliver when it is constantly engaged. Joshua is an evidence of giving self to the word of God constantly. After Moses, God commanded Joshua to constantly engage the word. Joshua 1:8 recorded, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” God’s word pointed out to Joshua the importance of meditating on the word as the way for Joshua to be successful in his divine assignment. With constant meditation word is set to impact one’s life and the spirit of faith shall be established. With spirit of faith, following the Lord God wholly shall become one’s identity in the walk of life.
The importance of engaging the word of God constantly as God laid it down for Joshua, Paul the apostle also bolstered the importance of engaging the word of God in 1Timothy 4:15, “Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.” Paul’s command about meditation testifies to the importance of meditation. Meditation is a labor which requires spending day and night, giving oneself to word as a sacrifice. Meditation is labor and labor is a sacrifice. A believer which constantly meditate on the word of God day and night is set to reap from the promising blessings of meditation.
Obviously, constantly meditating the word of God will identify one to wholly follow God. To wholly follow God is also a key to be prosperous and to have good success working the works of God. Such prosperous and good success is to become established getting to expected journey of life God’s promise. (the Promised Land)
Joshua was an example of one with meditating the word of God and was identified with good success to arrive expected end in his life journey. Numbers32:11-12 recorded “Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, expect Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.’” Following God wholly is demonstrating the spirit of faith which Caleb and Joshua did. Does it occur to you the importance of constant meditation over the word of God?
Written word of God is for our profit. 2Timothy 3:16 encouraged, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” As it was profitable to the men of God in the Bible days, so it is profitable to any that makes the choice of meditating on the word of God constantly.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be meditating the word of God day and night.

FAITH CAPSULE: God’s doing is meaningless to the mind of man because man is mindful of world.

Psalm 8, Ecclesiastes 8

Out of curiosity, the Psalmist questioned before God, “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:4-5) Through Genesis to Revelation, it is clearly evident that God is mindful of man. God is so mindful of man when He gave His best to man as it is written, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”” (John 3:16-18) God is so mindful of man to give avenue of salvation for man. God sent His only begotten son for man to be-living in Him and not perish but have everlasting life.
Truly, man of wicked world is not giving self to salvation to avoid God’s judgement which is certain to at God’s appointed time. God gave His begotten Son as an evidence of God’s mindful for man. However, God’s doing is meaningless to the mind of man because man is mindful of world.
Imagine the story of man with offence of murder but on the verge of escaping prosecution. The young man was set to be free of his crime of murder which was certain when sickness came on him as signature of death written over him and no sign of recovery. The young man not wanting to die of his sickness without confessing to his murder, went further to confess as one that committed murder. It was right after confession that the sickness became far and signs of death was distanced from the offender murderer. As a result, he was sentenced to life time in the prison. The story of the young murderer is an evidence of not knowing that God is too great to be undermined. Just like the young murder story above, man under heaven is miscalculating God’s sentence against evil. Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 recorded warning not to be thinking of escaping from doing wicked, “…Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.” (Ecclesiastes 8:11-13) It is important to give self to the fear of God, be-living in Him not to perish but have everlasting life.

Prayer for today: Ask God to be-living in His word and not perish at the time of judgement.

FAITH CAPSULE:  Are you fighting a battle yet looking to human wisdom to sustain you?

 Judges 7

Jerubbaal (Gideon) was set for war against the Midianites when God spoke to him, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.” (Judges 7:1-3) In the physical, there is a need for strong numeric strength to emerge victorious in battle. However, God’s instruction to Jerubbaal was to reduce number of his army. Jerubbaal gave self to God’s instruction  and number was reduced to more than half, from twenty-two thousand to ten thousand.
The God of battle who does not share His glory with man called on Jerubbaal after he had cut down the number of his army saying, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there…” (Judges 7:4) Imagine Jerubbaal communicating with friends about how God has been reducing the number, without doubt friends would have wondered and even considered Jerubbaal as foolish, spiritually insane, overzealous and unrealistic. Jerubbaal led the people to the water as directed by God with the intention to have the number reduced again. At the water, God spoke again, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise, everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.”  And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.” (Judges 7: 5-6). In going against the Midianites, one that considers assigning men that lapped from water over ones that got on their knees to drink water would have been considered foolish.
At all times, regardless of how foolish it sounds, God’s preference should always prevail over our best reference. The number of men to go to battle against the Midianites was eventually cut down to three hundred men from thirty-two thousand; this is foolishness by human reasoning. To man, it is suicidal to go to war after ending up with such a small number. Thirty thousand seems to be the right way and not the foolish way. Always remember the word of Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” Jerubbaal did not take the path that seems right, he simply obeyed God’s word without complain nor doubt and went with three hundred. Are you fighting a battle yet looking to human wisdom to sustain you? It does not matter how tough challenges present itself, focusing on God is enough to be victorious.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to be constantly obedient to God’s word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Direction with focus for every journey of life is certain to arrive at expected end.

Genesis 11:27-32, 12:1-9

Living life is like a journey of life. Receiving direction for every journey of life and having focus is crucial to arrive at expected end of journey. Receiving direction without focus is set to become a victim of distraction, delay, derailment, discouragement or encountering untimely termination of life journey. In reality, journey of life must be cooperated with focus meaning to make journey as a center of activity or attention. Without doubt, it is focus that will give clear vision of life journey to arrival at expected end. Having direction is being loaded with potential. A failure not to arrive the end of journey is having potential and not manifesting the potentiality with focus to arrive at the end of journey.
To learn in the written word of God will mark man not to become a victim in the journey of life. Terah, the father of Abraham’s documentation is for man to learn from and not become a victim of failure which does not arrive at expected journey of life.
Genesis 11:31-32 recorded, “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.” Terah the father of Abraham left for Canaan land ever before God called Abraham for journey to Canaan land. Terah’s journey to Canaan could be Terah’s ambition to move to Canaan. However, ambition can be reason while vision is God’s plan Ambition is also determination but determination without spiritual connectivity is always reason for failure in journey of life. Peter was example with determination not to deny Jesus three times but he denied Jesus three times. It was Jesus’ prayer for Peter not to fail that delivered Peter from his failure determination statement. Jesus’ prayer answered for Peter as his spiritual connectivity.
When Terah engaged his journey to Canaan, there was no record of his plan to dwell in Haran but ended up dwelling in Haran by not getting to Canaan.
It is questioning why Terah started journey to Canaan and ended up in Haran. Could it have been that the comfort in Haran got Terah stagnated to end his journey? Have you engaged any journey or giving up assignment uncompleted? Speculating about Terah is possible to be ambition with distraction the evidence of the lack of focus. It is time to begin to pay attention to God’s direction with focus which is certain to see man through to the center of God’s divine agenda for man’s journey of life.
Imagine, Terah lived for two hundred and fifty years. With so many years on his side he could not get through to his expected journey of life. Gain and retain focus to maintain expectation for arrival at the journey of life.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you in getting to your expected end in the journey of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is in absolute control of man’s life.

Genesis 37

God is in absolute control of man’s life and nothing is able to hide from Him. Joseph journeyed from pain to gain which was empty pit to prime minister. Joseph started journey of pain when his father sent him out to check out the wellness of his brothers. However, when his brothers spotted him at far they conspired against him to kill him. In the place of killing Joseph, Reuben suggested placing Joseph in empty pit. Joseph’s journey from pain to gain was written for our learning to be encouraged in God’s absolute control. It is written, “So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. ²⁴ Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.” (Genesis 37:23-24) God was in position with absolute control when Joseph journeyed from empty pit into chain as slave; from slavery to prison and later promotion from prison to the position of prime minister of his foreign land of Egypt.
From pain to gain was the story of Job. Bible described him, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. ² And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. ³ Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.” (Job 1:1-3) Job was right before God but wrong enough before Satan to ask for his life. Job was not beyond deliverance and protection of God from his pain in the hand of Satan. However, it was painful for Job when he lost everything to Satan but was gainful when God restored him back with abundance. It is written, “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” (Job 42:10)
Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh where abundance was in place. In his effort to run from Pharaoh’s reach after killing an Egyptian on behalf of his Hebrew brother, he ended up in desert (at Midian).  God saw Moses’ through his adversary but he was unknowingly in training as shepherd for God’s people. Where you are going, you do not know. Today, you only know about where you are now. Are you paying attention to God?
Character was in place in the life of Moses. It is written, “Then Moses was content to live with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses.” (Exodus 2:21) 1Timothy 6:6 buttressed the importance of contentment, “Now godliness and contentment is great gain.” With contentment, Moses was in place to engage the calling upon his life.

Prayer for today: Ask God to add with you all it takes not to miss God’s calling over your life.