FAITH CAPSULE: In time of challenge do not walk out of the way of God.

1 Kings 19

Challenges comes like a flood and it comes with warning or without warning. Challenges knows no discrimination but goes with attempt to terminate victim. One thing is clear, challenges does not matter who you are in the Lord but it is certain that a child of God shall overcome. Challenge can be named as affliction. Word of God does not fail to deliver as stated, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19) Just in case any challenge comes your way do not walk out of the way of God.
Elijah executed the prophets of Baal at Brook Kishon and it provoked Jezebel the wife of King Ahab to attempt Elijah with threat. Elijah did not receive the threat of Jezebel lightly but responded to run without seeking God. For Elijah, it was a challenge and he could not handle it with faith when he ran for his life. The bible recorded, “But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die…” (1 Kings 19:4) Elijah’s challenge made him to be naked without garment of faith to wait on God.
As a believer, how are you responding to your challenge? In times of challenge, waiting on God does not lead to wasting away. The bible encouraged us about waiting on God, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run” (Isaiah 40:31) Waiting on God is trusting and hoping on God. Waiting to trust and hope in God is to have taken a position under a shield which never fails. Proverbs 30:5 buttressed, “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him.” God taught Elijah’s waiting on Him when He directed Elijah stating, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD…” (1 Kings 19:11) In your challenge, are you running in the place of walking or you are walking in the place of running? With understanding, know that solution for your stability is the word of God. Isaiah 33:6 speaks loud about stability, “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation…” 
Elijah waited for God, “…the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” (1Kings 19:11) In your challenge, wait on God and He will act at His time not at your time. God cannot be rushed out of His salvation plan.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be waiting on God always.

FAITH CAPSULE: The name of God will not fail for man as a strong tower of safety.

Exodus 6

Power belongs to God and not to anyone. He gives power to man as it pleases Him. The name of God is a strong tower as it is written, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Proverbs 18:10) There is no any other name that delivers like the name of God.  God gave direction to Moses for the release of the Israelites from the hand of Pharaoh. The power that was given to Moses was the strong tower, the Lord. It is written, “And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them.’” (Exodus 6:2-3) Strong tower is power to deliver and the Israelites were delivered out of the bondage of over four hundred years unfailingly.
Pharaoh militated as an agent of the devil against deliverance of the Israelites. He put up all possible opposition to disapprove the effectiveness of Strong tower but failure was his failure. Can you think of any other name that is above the name of the Lord God? With all documentation, there is no prove that the name of the Lord God is a failure. The same power in the Lord God’s name yesterday is still the same power today, tomorrow and forever. Strong tower of God is where to run to in this wicked world. Will you take to God as strong tower? Through the pages of the Bible, God is recorded as Strong tower to perform and perfect when His is run too. Countless miracles testified to the awesome power in the name of God. As the forces of the wicked always go after man; as Goliath is boasting against righteous ones, God is never a failure to deliver righteous ones.
Goliath answered his name as an agent of destruction against as stated, “…come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” (1 Samuel 17:44) David was not created to be a victim in the hand of Goliath. David responded to Goliath with the greatest weapon on earth when he stated, “…you come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 17:45) David terminated Goliath when he ran to the name of the Lord, the strong tower which is in place for the righteous ones.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace not to miss a place of safety in the name of Lord, Strong tower.

FAITH CAPSULE: Doing what is good wrongly in the name of God is an error.

2 Samuel 6

Pleasing self in serving God is nothing but an error. A believer that is serving God should not please self but should please God. Are you one that pleases self in serving God? Lying and deception are rooted in pride. Pride before God can be a way of pleasing self but not God.
Seriously, consider your way of serving God and not be a victim of error in serving God. For example, self-impressive testimonies in the name of God will be an error which will be counted as sin before God. Romans 3:7-8 stated, “For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? —as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just.’” There is no compromising in serving God but to be truly committed in serving right. A true believer should avoid doing right in a wrong way. God must be served right in a right way to get a right manifestation from God. Avoid error serving God.
Error is a deviation from accuracy as in mistake, as in action or speech. Error is the condition of believing what is not true. Error is a moral offense; wrongdoing; sin. It is an error to violate the word of God and it can be a conscious or unconscious error before God. Error is despising the word of God. The bible makes us to realize it that, “He who despises the word will be destroyed…” (Proverbs 13:13)
Have you in any way violated or currently violating the word of God? Before God, there is no excuse for error.
Before God, Adam and Eve committed error by believing the serpent enough to eat against God’s command in the Garden of Eden. They both violated the word of God by their error (a wrongdoing).
When God showed up, Adam and Eve attempted to justify their action before God stating, “Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-13) Their excuses were not enough as they were judged by God. Sinful error committed by Adam and Eve eposes man to numerous pains today.
Doing what is right in a wrong way before God is a sin before God to separate man from God.
Despising the word of God will separate man from God into self-destruction.

Prayer point: Ask God for the grace of God to keep you away from conscious or unconscious error before God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Where is your position in the promising word of God?

Deuteronomy 1

A mountain top is the place of target to see through the journey ahead in the center of divine’s assignment. Every journey to a mountain top should give a mindset not to settle for mountain bottom. Mountain bottom is a possible place of comfort. The disadvantage of mountain bottom is to take away the sight of potential breakthrough to the mountain top which is the arrival to the center of man’s divine assignment.
The Israelites experienced the comfort of mountain bottom in their journey to God’s promised land. God called them out of the bottom mountain as recorded in Deuteronomy 1:6-7, “The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.” It is possible for man to engage comfort and not continue in the journey to possess fully. Are you dwelling in the choice of place instead of God’s assigned ground for you?
At the time of God’s calling of the Israelites out of the mountain bottom was for the Israelites attention stating, “See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land…” (Deuteronomy 1:8) Possessing what is yet at hand demands faith to see in the place of nothing. God’s promises in His word are not visible in the physical until man begins to see in the word of God as true. From today, begin to see in the word of God to know that possibility is certain in the place of impossibility. The word of God has never fail to deliver but only perform perfection. Above all, His word does not return to Him void except man becomes voided in rising and engaging what He has promised to do.
In the journey of life, coming out of mountain bottom without able to see in the word of God is the evidence of fear to fail. Give no room for fear and discouragement. Moses warned about fear and discouragement while emphasizing to the Israelites the need to see in the promise word of God, “Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 1:21) Fear is the opposite of faith. With discouragement in fear, no man can see and possess in the promise of God.
Where is your position in the promising word of God? Are you allowing fear and discouragement to take over the driver seat of your journey from the mountain bottom to the mountain top? God is forever faithful with His promises in His word.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to rise for the glory God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Going far from Him will expose man to every trouble of this world.

Luke 15

How far are you from God? A parable is an everyday truth that has spiritual application. It is an earthly truth with a heavenly meaning. Jesus spoke many times using parables. He gave a parable of the lost son. This parable clearly connotes the mind of God concerning repentance and restoration of man from sin. Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.  But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.” (Luke 15:11-14)
Jesus is the indescribable gift of God for man (2 Corinthians 9:5). Will you receive Him as God’s gift? Having received Jesus the gift of God, will you embrace Him by retaining Him to maintain Him and not be a waste? Jesus went to the cross and shed His blood for our possession as one that is restored living for the glory of God. In the parable, the younger son had his possessions and went far from his father. Today, man cannot afford to have Jesus and go far from the presence of God in this wicked world. Going far is man’s choice to go on his way that seems right. Proverbs 14:12 enlightened about man’s way that seems right, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Going far from Him will lead to a debased extravagant life which is a wasted life. A wasted life will always provoke a life of “want” and “relegation” from what God wants us to be. Going far from Him will expose man to every trouble of this world.
How are you living life? Are you living in the fear of God? Have you gone far from Him like the prodigal son? The prodigal son went far from his father but realized the need to return to his father before his self-destruction. It is written, “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’” (Luke 15:17-19) It is time to come back to yourself just like the prodigal son came back to himself. Man can never be too late to return to God when there is a need for restoration and be walking near to God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace goodness and mercy of God to keep you near to Him.