FAITH CAPSULE: God is our shield.

Psalm 94

Truth is the year 2016. Jesus spoke the truth to those who believes (not just the Jews), “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)
Engaging truth is the entire vessel to get to expected end of the year.
Prayer remains as the undeniable key of vessel.
Truthfully will you engage prayer and be watching in the journey of 2016?
Prayer Points
To God, express your appreciation to provoke your expectation.
Life should not only be about what you expect from the Lord but also how you express your appreciation to the Lord. By grace, the hand of the Lord has been keeping through days, weeks, months and year after years.
The hand of God upon you is not because of merit but mercy.
Living life is not a right but a privilege bestowed upon us by God.
Why not turn from expectation to expression of your appreciation?
Are you consciously aware that God expects our appreciation?
When there is a failure to appreciate it becomes an evidence of foolishness. Foolishness is like saying there is none to appreciate.
Psalm94:8-11, “Understand, you senseless among the people; and you fools, when will you be wise?
He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?
He who instructs the nations, shall He not correct, He who teaches man knowledge?
The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.”
Prayer: Ask God to direct your heart into appreciation of His hand upon life He has given you.
God is our shield. Consciously, consistently call Him your shield in your prayer and meditation.
Psalm 3:3 stated, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head.”
In this wicked of world, for deliverance and preservation, God should be called our shield. What you ask in His name is what you get from Him.
Genesis 15:1 stated, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
Psalm 18:35 stated, “You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great.” Indeed God is our shield, our salvation.
Prayer: In the coming days, weeks, months and years. It is worth to commit our head into His hand for Him to be lifting up our head from where 10s, 100s, 1,000s are falling down in this wicked of world.
As our shield, we are going to ask Him to help us not give self to afraid which often revolves to fear.
God is a faithful and He shall answer when we ask, seek and knock.

Prayer for today: Give God glory and ask for the grace of strength on the prayer of alters to God in Jesus name.

FAITH CAPSULE: Your prophecy shall come to pass if your prophet is speaking from God.

Matthew 2

Have you heard personal word of God in the course year that is running out?
Is there manifestation of what you have heard?
Isaiah 55:10-11 recorded the word of God with distinct clarity that requires no translation, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. ” Whatever word of God in your direction in the course of year shall accomplish and prosper in the thing for which He sent you. It is not the time of complaining but be complementing the hand of God in all area of your living life.
The word of God cannot be more true than the prophecy of the Messiah’s birth in Isaiah 9:1-2, “…By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” The prophecy that came from God through Isaiah was spoken years before the birth of Jesus. King Herod fashioned against the prophecy but could not prevail. Just as Jesus’ birth was prophesied is exactly how it came to be. Joseph, after his time expired in Egypt, headed back home to Israel in an attempt to settle at home but his situation took a different turn in direction for God’s prophecy and not for Joseph’s plan, “…When he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:22-23) Joseph turned towards the direction of the word of prophecy that was released before the birth of Jesus and that made Jesus came to be of the city of Nazareth in the region of Galilee.
Have you heard personal prophecy word of God in the course year that is yet to manifest?
Take note that the prophecy concerning your life will come to pass if your prophet is speaking from God.
God alone is our glory and the One who lifts up our head not a man. Word of good God shall be manifested.
As the year runs out, offer sacrifices of joy and sing praises to the Lord.

Prayer for today: Ask God that His Word that is blessing and favor shall come to pass to the glory of God over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: A journey of distance is like a journey of a year.

Exodus 14

When a journey of distance approaches the end a new journey unfolds.
When a year is folding up a new year begins to unfold. For a man to be alive at the folding of a year journey, it is nothing a merit but a gracious mercy of God. God is a gracious merciful God and power belongs to God alone.
Do you have power to be alive?
Absolutely it is the grace of God that has brought you this far and it is the grace of God that will see you further.
Every new beginning is like a new year. Every new beginning is always the race with boldness that is rooted in the word of God’s promise. However, in the course of the journey, different scenes start to unfold.
The children of Israel left with boldness but it did not take long before it evaporated and fear became incorporated into the lives of the children of Israel. The Bible recorded in Exodus 14:10, “And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.” Despite the children of Israel went out with boldness, their boldness turned into fear.
Are you looking the ahead of journey with fear?
When God places His calling upon one’s life, it has to be answered with boldness and character. The children of Israel believed, but they could not behave what they believed. The same word of God that brought the Israelites out of the bondage of over four hundred years is same word that delivers man to salvation today. However, when one fails to live the word, no character of the word will be able to be seen in one’s life.
In journey, complaint is the root of rebellion and the substitute of disobedience. The children of Israel had boldness and complaint instead of having boldness and character. They could not hold on to the victory the Lord placed in their hand. As a result, they became lost as a nation. God said to them, “The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.” (Numbers 14:29) Without any doubt, the race is for those who finish it. If you have received the grace and mercy to be alive, continuity is the rule of the game; a purposeful heart is the officiator. Run the race with boldness and character and you shall become a winner to the glory of God. Trust and be hopeful in the hand of God that has brought you this far. God will back you up if you will not back yourself out of the promises of His word.

Prayer for today: The grace of God that brought you this far shall not expire over you in Jesus name.

FAITH CAPSULE: Have you allowed mixed multitude to turn your celebration season to commercial season?

Romans 1

Are you a true believer?
A failure to accept the Lord Jesus as a gift of God for salvation of man is forgetting the work of God. God sent beloved son, “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.” (John 3:16) Are you a true believer that has forgotten and not remember that the gift is not a commercial celebration?
If we fail to be mindful of God and the works of his hands then the spirit of forgetfulness will reign. Paying attention to the works of God is giving jealous God His due exaltation. It is a blessing to be paying attention to the works of God because it gains God’s attention. The children of Israel could not wait for God they took to their own ways. It is comforting to know that the way that is perceived as right to man, only lead to death. (Proverbs 14:12) The book of Psalm 106:13-14 recorded about forgetting Israelites, “They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.”
Evidently, not waiting on God will lead to wasting away just like the children of Israel that died in the wilderness and not get to the Promised Land. Their lust for the past prevented them from the remembering the wondrous acts that brought them out of bondage. God was leading them to a better future but they were reserved to their ugly past all because they forgot His wondrous works that delivered them.
A mixed multitude will mislead celebration of the gift of God to commercialize God’s gift. Exodus 12:8 recorded about a mixed multitude that went up with Israelites on their journey to Promised Land. As the journey advanced, the mixed multitude caused them to a state of lust.
Their lust is revealed in Numbers 11:4-6, “Now the mixed multitudes who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” The children of Israel could not wait for what God was doing and what He was set to do in their life out of the bondage of over four hundred years.
Focusing on the works of God prevents one from forgetting and not sinning to God. Today, mixed multitude are not focusing on Jesus as a God’s gift for salvation but commercial celebration. It is time to avoid mix multitude to avoid commercial celebration of God’s gift.

Prayer for today: Ask the grace of understanding and not be a victim of ignorance.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is a gracious and merciful God.

Genesis 39

God cares to give His love but man care less to know about God’s loving care for man.
Bible recorded, “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. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)
Do you know about the love of God or do you know the love of God? To know the love of God is identified in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” Keeping God’s commandment is doing His will, obeying the word of God. It takes sacrificial commitment to obey God’s commandment. With God, there is a set standard for every area of His expectation for us. God did not just ask for love rather He gave us a standard of acceptable love when He stated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” To love God means to give Him our all. Through the pages of the Bible, men and women that gave Him all were able to live a fulfilled life and accomplish great exploits to the glory of God. Men like Abraham, Joseph, Daniel and other giants loved God and were able to do great exploits. The giants in the hand of God’s approach to the issues of life clearly depict what it is to love God with all of their heart, soul and strength.
Do you know Jesus the love of God or you know about Jesus?
Are you identified with elaboration of celebration of the birth of Jesus or you are identified with lying, deception and manipulation?
The truth is that God cannot be deceived. Joseph by virtue of his challenge and temptation to deny his love for God he decided not deceived God.
Joseph the dreamer found himself in pit because his brothers hated him. He was sold as a slave to Potiphar’s house where he was tempted by his master’s wife. He could have become the object of his master’s wife when she could not resist from asking Joseph to lie with her. Joseph refused to sleep with his master’s wife. Joseph’s excuse not to take on his master’s wife was, “…how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God.” (Genesis 39:9)
Joseph love God and refused to enter into a way of wickedness towards God.
Joseph love God.
Every time our love for God overrides our love for self, heaven would be provoked for our lifting up. For Joseph, favor could not depart from him because he loved His God and demonstrated His love for God by not giving in to Potiphar’s wife.

Prayer for today: Ask God to help you to love Him fully.