FAITH CAPSULE: Do you understand the purpose of gift of God for man?

1 John 5

In this season of the year, giving gift and receiving gift does not have meaning of understanding of giving gift.
Do you understand what God’s gift for man is about?
Do you aware that knowing to do good but not doing good does not count before God. James 4:17 stated, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
In the parable of the good Samaritan, Priest and the Levite had the chance to do good but missed out. The title (Priest and Levite) was not enough to motivate them in doing what is good before God. Just like Priest and Levite, once a worship leader (minister) of a church had a life threatening sickness and went into comma. By the grace of God he came out of life threatening sickness, after he had spent days in coma. On his first week back to work, while on his way for lunch he spotted a homeless man coming in opposite direction to him. According to his testimony, he perceived that the homeless man was going to ask him for alms. The worship leader with the good gift of God for him to come out of comma attempted to cross to the other side of the road and avoid the homeless man.
Imagine a worship leader missed the chance to do good by not giving good.
The worship leader was not able to cross but he fell down flat.
Do you wonder who came to his rescue first? The homeless man that worship leader had been trying to avoid was the one who picked the worship leader minister up from the ground where he had fallen.
Are you engaging giving in the season of the year for your own self-interest?
Do you understand the purpose of gift of God for man?
1 John 1:10-11 testified, “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”
Evidently, the main reason why Jesus was given to us is for us to inherit eternal life.
Every step taken to inherit eternal life is exactly what we are doing or giving back to Jesus.
How are you giving back to God?
The minister worship leader could give homeless for God’s sake. The minister worship leader could not give good for God’s sake that brought him out of life threatening sickness.
In this season, running around stores to get gift does not count as doing good without knowing and accept God’s given of His Son.

Prayer for today: Ask for understanding of gift of God for man.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not be far from God but draw near to God.

Daniel 3

It is good to draw near to God. One that trusts in God hopes and rests in God.
Trusting and hoping in God prompts one to declare the works of God.
Knowing to declare the works of God causes man to be decorated with presence of God.
To declare the work of God is to be obedient to God and disobey the gods of this world.
The three friends of Daniel (Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego) demonstrated what it means to declare the works of God and be decorated by God. The three friends of Daniel disobeyed King Nebuchadnezzar by not worshiping a gold image.
With King Nebuchadnezzar, whoever does not fall down to worship gold image was to be thrown into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Attempts to get them worship gold image did not work and the king questioned: Who is the god who will deliver the three friends from his hands?
The three friends of Daniel, in the face of untimely death declare the wonder-working God stating, “…O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18) It is impossible to declare the wonder-working God in the face of a challenging confrontation like that of the three friends and not have God decorate the declarer of wonder-working God.
God decorated the three friends immediately in an uncommon way in the history of creation when He came down to deliver them in the fiery burning furnace. It happened while they are in the burning furnace that God Himself came down instead of sending an angel for their deliverance. When the king saw the God whom he did not know before, he was astonished and he stated, “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” (Daniel 3:25) They were highly decorated and the king could not resist from announcing the awesomeness of God.
The three friends of Daniel could not become victim of the wicked as they remained close to God.
The three friends of Daniel trusted in God and their hope could not become hopeless.
Ignore the wicked; focus and hold onto God in these days of rising challenges and you shall remain standing.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to be focus and not far away from God.

FAITH CAPSULE: In these days of spiritual wickedness, there should be no substitute for prayer.

Luke 3

God is the Lord God of heaven.
Prayer is the key that opens heaven.
Prayer as a key to open heaven must be driven by faith because without faith God is not pleased. Hebrews 11:6 confirmed stating, “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.”
Are you praying for answer?
Is faith having a place in your prayer?
Word stated right that, without faith God is not pleased. Evidently, with faith God must be pleased to reward prayer that is seeking for Him.
Jesus, the author of our faith showed to us that prayer is what opens heaven. It is written, “When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened.” (Luke 3:21) Jesus prayed with faith for answer from heaven and He received an answer. The bible recorded, “And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, ’You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.’” (Luke 3:22)
The prayer by Jesus is a testimony to the fact that when a prayer finds door to heaven, the Holy Spirit, which represents the presence of God, will come down and descend on the one praying. With the Holy Spirit descending, the voice of God will then sound in the direction of the one praying. The voice of God is what speaks direction if the one praying has the ear to hear the voice of God. There is a need for the grace of God to hear God’s voice when it sounds in our direction. When the heaven was opened, Jesus heard the voice from heaven saying to Him, “You are my beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” Remember, it takes faith for us to please God.
God is a prayer answering God if His children will take the time to call unto Him in prayer just as demonstrated by Jesus.
How is your prayer life?
The word pointed out what it takes with prayer. Psalm 109:4 of David stated, “…But I give myself to prayer.” Just as stated by David in Psalm 109:4, the book of Acts 6:4 also stated, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
As a believer, how is your prayer life? A prayer-less believer is like a vehicle driving in the dark without the headlights turned on. It will only take a moment before disaster happens when driving in dark without light (prayer). In these days of spiritual wickedness, there should be no substitute for prayer.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of understanding the need and engaging prayer time.

 FAITH CAPSULE: Allow fear of God and make satisfaction your abiding position.

Ezra 7

The Psalmist testified “You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145:16)
Is the satisfaction in His hand your abiding place?
If the fear of God is man’s portion evidently, satisfaction becomes a man’s abiding place. Proverbs 19:23 stated, “The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be visited with evil.” The right hand of God is all that we need to ask to for. In the hand of God there is deliverance, preservation and all that it takes to be satisfied. It was with His mighty and outstretched hand that brought the children of Israel from slavery of over four hundred years.
God spoke when the Israelites were in the hand of Pharaoh of Egypt, “So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.” (Exodus 3:20)
“And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” (Exodus 7:5)
The hand of God is power and no force under heaven is able to deny God’s hand. Indeed, through Moses as a vessel, the hand of God delivered mighty deliverance for the Israelites.
Ezra testified the hand of God as the agent of being granted every request during their quest of rebuilding Jerusalem (Ezra 7:6) Ezra also testified to the hand of God as gracious (good) when they were able to get to Jerusalem. (Ezra 7:9) In Ezra 7:28 the word recorded, “…So I was encouraged, as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me…” Ezra could not stop but testified again, “And the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from ambush along the road.”(Ezra 8:31)
What would one do without the hand of God in life?
Allow fear of God and make satisfaction your abiding position.
The book of Ecclesiastes also testified, “Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.” This testimony of Ecclesiastes 2:24 add to the truth that everything that has to do with living life abundantly is in the hand of God.
Jesus’ position must be the right hand of God. It is written, “So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.” (Mark 16:19) Let the right hand of God be your portion.

Prayer for today: Ask for the hand of God to reign and rule in your living life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Allow positive word of testimony to become your constant confession.

John 10:1-30

Jesus declared, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” (John 10:9-11) In His word there is positive to meditate and to make it a testimony. Jesus said in Him we shall go in and out and find pasture; in Him there is life to have life abundantly; He is the good shepherd that gives for the sheep. It is clear that if deliverance and preservation in the word of Jesus have a place in your heart by meditation day and night, it will not depart from your mouth for confession.
What man confesses is a declaration. It is a declaration that sounds as testimony.
Do you have the word that you diligently meditate in your heart?
What are your testimonies in the face of wicked world?
King David, by the word of his testimonies, had a great and mighty deliverance when he overcame Goliath. In his attempt to go and fight Goliath, King Saul was discouraging when he said to David, “…You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” (1 Samuel 17:33) David refused to be discouraged, but gave account of what he was able to do as he responded to King Saul. “…Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.” (1 Samuel 17:34-35) David was not intimated by the confronting challenge that was posed by Goliath neither was he slowed down. Instead, David dwelt on what The Lord his God had enabled him to do in the past and he gave a testimony, “The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:37) David, by the word of his testimony, was able to overcome the giant challenge of Goliath that was before him.
God is a good God. He is a God that distinctively pays and hears the words of mouth to honor for His name alone to be glorified. As a believer, allow good treasure of heart bring forth good by confessing, declaring testimonies of the word of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to constantly meditate and confess for positive result.