FAITH CAPSULE: Getting to the mountaintop will require an unwavering focus on God.

1 Samuel 18

You might have seen it clearly that the Lord is taking you up, but you cannot tell which route it will take you to get to your mountaintop. God told Abraham to go and offer Isaac on one of the “mountains of which He will tell” (Genesis 22:2b). Abraham knew that he was going to get to a mountain top, but he never know which one of the mountains as commanded by God.
Getting to the mountain top will require an unwavering focus on God.David, by the hand of God upon him, went from being a shepherd boy to putting a giant into termination. At the time he put Goliath into permanent termination, one will assume that David would take an easy and unchallenging ride to his God ordained mountain top for his life. The story of getting to his mountain top became a challenge and he had to remain focus on God as he journeyed through his mountain and valley. When David was anointed to become the new king, he could not take over the reign without rains of challenges falling upon him. King Saul repeatedly attempted to kill David when he saw the hand of God upon David’s life. The hand of God over our life will always entice the wicked one in attempt to terminate us. David’s challenges were aggravated when the women began to sing praises of David about the killing of Goliath. “Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?”” (1 Samuel 18:8)Pride inhabits anger, negative jealousy and evil devises. Pride set into Saul’s life. Saul did all in his power to offset God’s calling upon David, but David was set by God for the mountain top and no man would have been able to stop him except if he chose to stop himself by walking out of the fear of God.
Saul threw spears to pin David to death a number of times. He set him up against the Philistines so as to kill him and all went in vain for Saul because David remained focus on God. If God has privileged you and you have seen yourself as getting to the mountain top, there is a need for you to readjust your focus directly onto God. David could not have been able to get there, but his behavior prevailed for him. 1 Samuel 18: 14, “And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the LORD was with him.” David’s wisdom was rooted in his fear of God and he was able to behave wisely. Maintain focus on God, fear God and wise behave shall guide you.

Prayer for today: Ask God to cause His fear to reign and rule over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Failure to keep eyes from the past will pass any believer into a self–destruction. 

Numbers 14:1-35

Revelation 22:18-19 gave a strong warning about adding or taking away from the Word of God. God is not a joker and His command is not to add or subtract from His Word. Disobedience to the Word is equal to deciding for a personal destruction. After God had decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the sinful nature of the land, He sent warning to Lot and his wife. “…Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.” (Genesis 19:17) How could it have been better said? An escape from self-destruction demands setting off sight from the past. The command was obviously too difficult for Lot’s wife to obey because she decided to disobey the Word of God. The Bible records that Lot’s wife looked back behind him and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:26)
What is in your past that cannot be forgotten and has caused you not to move forward when God commanded you to move? Looking back comes in different ways. For example, the inability to forgive, forget and move forward is an evidence of looking back when God repeatedly command us to forgive. Also, when God moves you forward to a different ground for your deliverance purpose and you allow complaint to occupy you, it becomes a failure to letting go of the past.
The children of Israel were taken out of the bondage of over four hundred years, but their bond with the house of bondage held on to them. The children of Israel vigorously complained, “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!’” (Numbers 11:4-6) Complaining does not settle well with God and they did not stop in their complaining. At a point their complaining turned to negative confession before God. God responded in Numbers 14:28, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: 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 14:28) When God says move forward, your looking back is disobedience to His Word. Failure to keep eyes from the past will pass any believer into a self-destruction.

Prayer for today: Ask God to take your days to direct and lead you.

FAITH CAPSULE: What the Lord said He will do is a done deal.

Exodus 5, 6:1-9

When the sight for breakthrough suddenly looks like a break-down, do not let any aguish spirit have a place in you. Anguish is a great suffering from worry, grief or pain. Keep up hope. What the Lord said He will do is a done deal. God was set to bring the children of Israel out of bondage of over four hundred years. Moses was the vessel in the hand of God to carry out the mission. God met with him and gave him His word. In Moses’ hand was the rod that has been branded with the power of God. All that Moses needed to do was to deliver the message of deliverance. Moses approached Egypt and Pharaoh the first time since he ran away from Egypt because of his murderous act. Moses was not just returning to a new Egypt but he was returning with a great assurance from God when the Lord told him, “Now the LORD said to Moses in Midian, Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”” (Exodus 4:19) The Old Pharaoh and all that could stand against Moses are no longer in place. Moses, having laid down the message of deliverance for the children of Israel, provoked high expectation for freedom for the children of Israel. However, Pharaoh did not accept Moses’ package because he did not know the God that sent Moses for the deliverance of the children of Israel.
When breakthrough and deliverance supposed to be nearer it turned out to become far and bleak with no hope but more difficulty. Pharaoh rejected Moses’ first approach and increased the labor of the children of Israel. What seems to be coming to an end suddenly turned around and appears to be impossible. Does that sound like your case? As a result of what seemed to be a failed attempt to the children of Israel, the children of Israel does not want to entertain Moses any longer, “So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses because of the anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.”(Exodus 6:9) As one that believes in God’s power let it be registered in you this day that the Lord is still on the throne and He will not leave you nor forsake you. Be encouraged by His word that never fails. Let your mind stay on Him just as it is written, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”(Isaiah 26:3) Hold on to His promises and by the time you know it this season shall pass. It passed for the children of Israel and deliverance had its way. Your deliverance is nearer more than ever.

Prayer for today:  Ask for the grace to deny anguish spirit over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: You may have the clock in your hand but God only moves by His time.

Luke 1

There will always be reason to be afraid but reacting in fear results in reducing our faith.  Every time faith is reduced, fear will increase and God will withdraw. The appearance of Pharaoh and his army charging at the Israelites at the Red Sea called for enough reason to be afraid but not to react by giving in to fear. With fear they confessed negatives saying, “…Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Numbers 14:11-12) The Israelites waited for their miracle breakthrough but they could not celebrate it and died in the wilderness except for Caleb and Joshua. God is not pleased when faith ceases.
God remains the same yesterday, today and forever. Zacharias a priest whose wife Elizabeth, was trusting God for the fruit of the womb, did not believe when at the appointed time for manifestation of his prayer an angel of the Lord appeared to him. At the appearance of the angel, he was afraid. The Bible recorded, “And When Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.” (Luke 1:12) Indeed, there was reason to be afraid, but allowing fear to trouble him reduced his faith. Despite his fear, the angel encouraged him, “…Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John…”(Luke 1:13-14) Zacharias prayed and God answered, but failed to celebrate when he began to question the angel, “…How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” (Luke 1:18) Just as his reaction was displeasing to God, so it was displeasing to the angel and he was prompted to pronounce the spirit of muteness and inability to speak upon him until the time of the birth of his son John. Are you holding on to your expectation from your prayer? You may have the clock in your hand but God only moves by His time. When manifestation is delayed by days, weeks, months or years, today is not the time to give up. God is also a God of the eleventh hour. Take to the word of God because it works. Present your request through prayer, position yourself by meditating and you will celebrate and not be mute and speechless when your miracle shows forth.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to keep you from giving up hope.

FAITH CAPSULE: Have you receive and believe in Him? It is possible to believe Him and not receive Him.

John 1:1-28

Jesus declared in John 10:10, “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.”  Jesus is not just coming to give life, He came already and it is for us to take all that He brought for us. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Jesus is the grace of our Lord God for every man that chose to believe and receive Him. John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12)  Knowing about Him is different from knowing Him. Those that know Him know Him enough to receive and believe in Him as their Lord and savior. Have you receive and believe in Him? It is possible to believe Him and not receive Him. Many saw and many heard about the work He did, they know about Him but they choose not to receive Him as their Lord and savior. For example, “…Among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.”(John 12:42)
Inability to confess Him is a demonstration of not having received Him. To confess Christ is living a life that demonstrates the confession that is made about Him. Jesus is the unconditional love of God, the grace of God that came to give life abundantly to those that care to receive and believe in Him. Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,” Clearly Jesus is the unconditional love of God and the grace that came for us. However, to enter into the unconditional love of God, there is a need for us to condition ourselves by taking the right position. Taking the right position will deliver unto us the fullness of His abundance grace. Positions to be taken are: to love and to be forgiving. As a believer that worships the living God, we are to love and not hate. Many times in the pages of the Bible, the command to love is constantly and repeatedly emphasized. We are to love our neighbors and to know how to forgive, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18) Clearly loving and forgiving cannot be separated neither can the love for God be compromised.

Prayer for today: Ask for the hand of God to help in living according to the word of God. Ask that the grace of God that brought you this far not to expire in your life.