Faith capsule: God’s command is not a suggestion but to be engaged.

1 Samuel 15

God alone is the Commanding commander. God’s command is not a suggestion but a must that must be done. God commanded Saul through Samuel, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel 15:2-3) The message was a command not a suggestion, or an idea. Saul made a choice not to prosecute the command of God. Saul engaged disobedience not to fully carry out God’s command.
Saul went as commanded, “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.” (1 Samuel 15:9) After carrying out part of the command, Samuel condemned Saul for his failure to fully obey as commanded by God. The bible recorded Saul’s response to Samuel, “…Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” (1 Samuel 15:13) Saul clearly disobeyed God. Saul’s excuse was to, “…Spared the best and Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”” (1 Samuel 15:15) Under heaven, there is no excuse that can prevail.
Are you having excuse for the consequence of disobedience to God’s word? Before God, Saul’s excuse does not go far before God, but it stopped him from going further in the hand according to God’s divine agenda for His life. As a believer, it is important to know that no excuse is a supplement that can complement any act of disobedience to the word of God. The best excuse documented in the pages of the bible was of Adam when God approached him for having eaten from the tree of life. Adam responded to God, “…The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”  (Genesis 3:12) Adam’s excuse was a reasonable one because he did not ask for a woman it was God that made Eve for him. However, every violation of God’s command is an avenue that complicates the journey of life. God’s command is not be compromised.

Prayer for today: Ask God for grace and mercy to walk in the line obedience to His command.

Lift Up Your Voice!

Faith Capsule: Are you shutting your mouth when you need to cry out?

1 Samuel 1

It is written concerning Jesus, “Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” (Luke 17:12-14) The lepers deny distance from denying them their miracle healing. The word stated that they stood afar. Do you trust God for a miracle breakthrough in any area of life? As a leper, law restricted their movement. What is it that is standing between you and your miracle when Jesus said, “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.” (John 10:10) As an acclaimed believer, let it be registered in you that the enemy cannot be more powerful. Jesus came and paid it all on the cross for us and we have to know to engage Him to possess the abundant life He brought to us.

The Ten Leper did not only devise a way to circumvent the law that restricted them from getting closer to Jesus but they also cried out loud. Are you shutting your mouth when you need to cry out? The word of God stated in Psalm 81:10, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” Often time, confronting challenges demands opening mouth wide. When man makes the choice to remain quiet on a ground where help is available, man’s challenge will continue to embrace man. If you will know to open your mouth wide, God will not deny you His attention. The Ten Lepers could not be quiet but were loud when they lifted theirs voice and called for mercy.
The Psalmist suggested about how to receive from God when he stated, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help.” (Psalm 121:1) How are you calling on Him? Hannah must have been quiet to herself in her prayers while enduring provocation from Peninnah at the time she was barren. In one of her trip to Shiloh, as a result of provocation she received from Peninnah she cried to God like a drunkard.  Eli must have been seeing Hannah coming to Shiloh every year but the year of her breakthrough, she prayed like a drunkard and was mistaken for a drunkard by Eli. You do not have to afford affliction but resolve affliction by crying out in uncommon way.

Prayer for today: Ask God to incline His ear to your prayer.

Faith Capsule: Think about it, why are you not rejoicing always?

Philippians 1

Jesus, the living word of God is the only source of joy for man.
Jesus, In His speech to His disciples confirmed that His spoken word is the source of joy when He stated, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11) After Jesus John, a disciple of Jesus could not be quiet but confirmed the word of Jesus stating, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:4) Paul the apostle buttressed, “…Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” (Philippians 1:18)
Having joy through the word of God is the only source.
Think about it, why are you not rejoicing always? Is the word entering you? If yes, are you being filled by the word that is entering? Jesus wants the things He has spoken to remain in us so that our joy may be full.
It is important to know that fullness of joy grants access to God’s presence. Psalmist pointed out, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11) One must be joyful because the word He has spoken is true and it can never return back to Him void.
Has He promised and not do? One that is not rejoicing is the one with worrying in the world. One that have received the word and believe in the word shall have no place for worrying but rejoicing because He commanded, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33)
As one that claims to have accepted Christ as Lord and savior, one that is called according to purpose, what are the things staging challenges for you? What are the things that are causing you not to rejoice? Has the word not spoken that, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
In time of every challenging thing, why not engage the word knowing that it will eventually work together as promised in the word of God? If you allow the spoken word to fill you and become full of His word, joy and rejoicing shall be your portion regardless of challenging things of the world.

Prayer for today: Ask that the spoken word of God shall have place in you that your joy me be constant.

Faith Capsule: How do you see in your confronting challenge?

Numbers 13

What you see determines what you receive. What you receive is what becomes of you. The Israelites were not strangers to the wonders of their deliverance from the bondage of over four hundred years The Israelites saw how God dealt with Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt with ten painful plagues which prompted Pharaoh to allow their departure from bondage. As they advanced in their journey to the Promised Land they could not keep focus on the source of their deliverance but on what they saw around them. During the course of their journey, “…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.” (Exodus 14:10)
Are you one that lifts up eyes to behold confronting challenge with negative confession? The Israelites saw fear and failed to cling to the testimonies of how they came out of Egypt. In response to what they saw they confessed negative by saying to Moses, “…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.” (Exodus 14:11-12) How do you see in your confronting challenge? The Israelites could not cling to the testimonies of their deliverance as they saw and confessed death in their journey. It is written, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.” (Psalm 119:2) Seeing positive in the face of negative is the evidence of seeking God with whole heart. Joshua and Caleb could not see negative when they went with their brethren to spy the land.
God promised the Israelites Promised Land but the spy went and could not cling to God’s testimony but confessed negative that compromised and complicated the Israelites’ journey. Moses spoke in Deuteronomy 32:9-12, “For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them.  So the Lord’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying,  ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.” Joshua and Caleb kept the testimony of God and wholly followed God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to cling to His testimonies.

Faith Capsule: Pouring out our soul before God is laboring in prayer

Luke 1:1-25

Where there is a closed door that needs to be opened laborious prayer is the key. Truly, the bible is written for our learning only if we study it and engage the demands of the word of God. Prayer is labor and not a fun fare. The word of Paul in his letter of greetings and appreciation for his beloved workers pointed out that prayer is labor when he wrote, “ Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”(Colossians4:12) The bible also testified about Jesus’ prayer session stating, “He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44) Prayer is not a funfair. A closed door will answer to laborious prayer that is not filtered with doubt. It is doubt that builds up for one to become afraid on the prayer altar. Are you one that labor in prayer but partners with being afraid?

A certain priest named Zacharias was warned to do away with being afraid concerning his prayer. The bible recorded that the certain priest and his wife were righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.  But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. (Luke 1:6-7) The priest and his wife were experiencing a close door that needed to be opened. While prayer was being rendered to God, “Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.  And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to 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 1:11-13) Imagine a priest in prayer of expectation getting warned not to be afraid? The angel’s approach to Zacharias testified that to be afraid is a prayer hinderer. Prayer and being afraid cannot go together. Prayer opens heaven for the extension of God’s hand over every door (opened or closed). Absolutely, there is no door that prayer cannot open. Barrenness will succumb to laborious prayer that is, a prayer rendered to God without being afraid.
Pouring out our soul before God is laboring in prayer and it will open every door that has been closed. Barrenness represents closed door but will respond to prayer. In the life of Zacharias and Elizabeth, prayer opened door and they were blessed with fruitfulness. Are you experiencing barrenness in any area of life? Today be encouraged, in your experience, experiment with laborious prayer and see God move on your behalf.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of strength on your prayer altar.