FAITH CAPSULE: One who is self-full cannot be possibly steadfast.

Luke 5:1-32

Jesus was teaching when He stated, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Does that sound like you?
The will of Father is to serve by following Jesus fully.
Is it your desire to serve God by following Jesus fully?
To follow Him fully (to serve God) demands to be steadfast.
One who is self-full cannot be word full.
Following fully is not a one time or a on and off engagement.
Following the word demands to be steadfast which is to be fixed in direction, firm in purpose and fixed in intensity.
To be steadfast in following the living word of God is not a self-satisfying engagement and one who is self-full cannot be possibly steadfast.
King David realized the importance and the need for one to be steadfast when he called on God in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
A steadfast spirit is what caused Caleb and Joshua to follow God fully. Caleb and Joshua refused to flow with the crowd confessing negative against the word of God which promised them a land that flows with milk and honey. They followed the word fully and confessed positive in the face of Moses and all the people. By virtue of their positive confession, God declared, “My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” (Numbers 14:24) One who follows the commanding word of God follows God fully.
At the time of God’s calling of Elisha through Elijah, “…He left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?’ So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.” (1 Kings 19:20-21)
Elisha left all behind when he answered God’s calling. In answering, Elisha demonstrated steadfastness. He emptied self by getting rid of all that could have held him back. Elisha used his oxen’s equipment as a boiler to boil the slaughtered oxen. Elisha followed the business of the Kingdom steadfastly. Whatever man cannot forsake for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven is what will cause Heaven to forsake man from becoming a qualified candidate for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Be steadfast in following fully and be rewarded in Him.

Prayer for today: Ask God to create in you a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within you.

FAITH CAPSULE: Sing praises to God while you have your being.

 Psalms 47, 100

Acceptable sacrificial praise is full of joy and it glorifies God in whose presence there is joy forevermore. God is holy and He will not respond where there is sin.
When God sent Samuel to go and anoint David, He sent him with a communication for Jesse the father of David. It is written, “…I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.’ Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 16:5) In this communication it is clear that sanctification comes before sacrifice.
Once, the children of Israel were to present themselves before God, “So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.’” (Exodus 19:14-15) It is proven throughout the Bible that God has to be approached without sin.
What kind of praise have you been rendering to God when you come before him?
Praise is not noise-making, it is not keeping time to the music with our hands, it is not a performance, it is not drawing attention to oneself, and it is not in the choice of nice words with a nice beat. Thank God for Jesus who has taken away our sins. If believers will confess with sincere and genuine hearts, in the name of Jesus, praising Him will bring the presence of God because He is a God that inhabits the praises of His people.
When God is in your praises, your enemies will be ambushed, chains will be broken; victory will become your portion.
Who should praise God? You should sing praises to God while you have your being. The Psalmist said so, “I will sing praises to the Lord while I have my being.” (Psalm 146:2) In several pages of the Bible, it is written that those who fear Him should praise Him. Praise Him with the voice of joy, with harp and melody; praise Him among the people or in your secret closet. Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Praising Him all the time will raise you up to Him.
Whether believers like it or not, God has spoken; He has laid down His expectations that will generate manifestation. He will not come again to lower the standard or raise it. When believers choose to do just as He asked, the result will match His promises. Coloring the word of God, taking the word of God out of context, or adding to the word of God will only take a believer through emotional ruin. Approach the word just as God prescribed and He would be found by man.
God is truly faithful indeed.

Prayer for today: Ask for acceptable praise to God.

FAITH CAPSULE: The word of God is lined up in order.

 Numbers 20:1-13

The word of God is lined up in order and the word is constantly with order. In the word of God there is no compromise to displace order with disorder.
From January till today placing disorder in the place of order will deliver no good or positive result. In life, nothing that is not good is bound to bring out no good but bad. As an acclaimed believer of God’s word, one must take to God’s order instead of disorder. If you have started the journey of the year in order, there is a need to maintain order and get a positive result.
Have you started the year in order?
Have you switched to disorder in the course of the year journey?
If yes, you are bound to set outside of God’s purpose for your life.
With God in place as the leader, there has to be order in place. Are you allowing Him to take the leadership?
God is waiting to take a lead in our life. God is God that acts for those who wait for Him. Are you willing to move according to His order? God’s order is direction; God’s order is the password that will access all to breakthrough in the journey of life. In life, challenges such as opposition, hindrance, confusion are inevitable but taking to God’s order is the overcoming way.
Walking in disorder will deny one from getting to the Promise Land. Once Moses received an order from God but delivered it in disorder. It is written, “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” (Numbers 20:8) Moses went and struck instead of speaking to the rock. He went further and spoke to the people by calling them rebels. Out of God’s order is out of God’s direction. Moses was to lead the Israelites to the Promise Land but was denied from entering into the Promised Land because he went out of order that was given to him by God. Moses was a giant in the hand of God. It does not matter how strong or weak one is in the hand of God, whenever disorder sets in one’s step, one is bound to be off set in God’s divine’s purpose’s for one.
It can never be too late to cry unto God for life to be restored. Turn your face to the Lord and pray for restoration in God’s order.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s mercy that keeps man in God’s order.

FAITH CAPSULE: Waiting on God is giving attention to a jealous God.

Luke 15:11-32

Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking is a demonstration of the evidence of having faith in the One you are looking up to.
Hebrews 12:2 described Jesus, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus the author of our faith gave us the way of waiting by stating, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”(Matthew 7:7-8)
Truly waiting on Him demands trusting and hoping by asking, seeking and knocking before we get the right answer. When there is no waiting on God man often rush away for answer and become wasted.
King Saul could not wait as instructed and it was accounted to him as disobedient.
To obey and wait is to trust and hope on God.
Waiting on God is giving attention to a jealous God. Psalmist admonished, “Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed…” (Psalm 25:3) A believer in God must understand that to wait out endure a period of waiting. Waiting can be a delay but never a waste of time.
God testified about David when Saul failed to wait on God. God spoke through Samuel for Saul’s disobedience, “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 13:14)
David knows the heart of God to understanding what it means to always wait. David, despite of his knowing and understanding of God’s heart he never disobey by not waiting on God before making moves. Number of times David repeatedly ask the same question waiting to get a go ahead direction from God.
The bible recorded about prodigal son that does not know to wait for God’s timing, “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.” (Luke 15:11-13)
Younger son could not wait for father’s timing. Are you going ahead of God instead of waiting on God? Without doubt, waiting leads to wasting. Know and understand to wait on God, keep on asking, seeking and knocking persistently for your answer to come.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of understanding to know God about waiting on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Obedience and fear of God should be residing in our heart.

Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28, stated that blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience to the voice of the Lord. Clearly the voice of the Lord only carries the word of God. The same word of God yesterday is the same word of God today and forever. In blessings the word stated, “…if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2) Also in curses the word stated, “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD,  then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses.” (Deuteronomy 28:58-59)
The point here is to obey the word of God.
What is it that provokes obeying the word of God?
The word of God makes us to know that when we are able to observe the word we shall be able to do according to the word. God spoke to Joshua after the death of Moses and gave the insight of what it takes to know and obey the word stating, “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.” (Joshua 1:8)
Meditate word day and night so as to be able to observe and do according to the word.
We are to obey carefully all that the word commands us. Obeying the word of God is not a choice but a must. A failure not to obey is a passage to self-destruction.
Obeying God’s command is not just in obeying with the mouth. Likewise, fearing God is not just in fearing him with the tongue. God is not interested man’s lip-service. Without the fear of God there is no obedience to His word. Obedience and fear of God should be residing in our heart and it should be a way of living life. Many claim to be obedient and to fear God, but they actually live outside every word of God.
Evidently, those who hear the words of God are the knowledge of the Most High. God is a good God that is not hidden from us but is opened to us by His word.
How often do you spend on His word?

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to draw you more to His word.