FAITH CAPSULE: Turning away from the word of God is turning away from His presence.

Jonah 1

The word of God is God. The way of God is in His word. The way of God is His presence.  Asking to know His way is asking to know His presence. Moses’ asking for God’s way is indirectly asking for His presence. Moses requested from God, “Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” (Exodus 33:13) God responded to Moses’ request, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) Obviously, the word of God is His way; His way is His presence.

When God speaks, His word cannot be denied. He is God whose word does not return back to Him void. (Isaiah 55:11) Turning to the word of God is the evidence of obedience and it adds blessing with no evil. Joshua 21:45 testified of God’s word stating, “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.” Obeying the word of God is what delivers the promises inside of His word. However, turning away from the word of God that sounds in man’s direction is an act of disobedience that sets man up for self-destruction. Interestingly, man is constantly and consistently violating the word of God consciously or unconsciously by turning away from His word. Turning away from the word of God is turning away from His presence. There is no excuse to turn away from where God is turning man to but painful consequence is always the reward for turning away.

The book of Jonah 1:2-3 recorded, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Half obedience is same as failure to obey. In the above scriptural verse, the word of God was referred to as God’s presence. Jonah rose as commanded by God but his rising was in opposite direction to the presence of God. Are you rising in opposite direction to the word of God? Know to always turn to the word of God and maintain His presence. In getting to expected end in the journey of life the presence (word) of God is deliverance and preservation to see man through. It is time to turn back to God from where you have turned away from His presence.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of constant and consistent obedience to His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Embrace His ways and meditate His acts to be blessed.

Jonah 1

It is written, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7) The ways of God are in the word of God. The words of God are the acts of God while His acts are His direction and His testimonies. Living life in the word of God is living in the ways of God. Also living in the acts of God is living by keeping the testimonies of God. Man should never live life in assumptions that seems right. The bible stated, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12) Are you allowing assumptions to take you for ride in the journey of life?

Just like Moses, those that walk in the ways of God walks in His law and they are blessed. Psalm119:1 buttressed, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!” Ones that keep the testimonies of God live by the ways of God and they are blessed. Psalm 119:2 also buttressed, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.” The word of God cannot be broken. Get to know His way, keep His acts that are His testimonies to enable you to seek Him diligently. For those who seek Him diligently, the word of God promised, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.” (Proverbs 8:17) “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.” (Hebrews 11:6) As an acclaimed believer, embrace His ways and meditate His acts to become a diligent seeker of the Lord God.

Are you answering to your calling? When the Lord calls you, be rest assured that, God does not call anyone to hide. Those that hide are those who turn their back to Him. Those that hide are those who walk away from His presence.
It is time to answer fully to the word (way) of God and not turn to your way. Jonah turned to his way despite hearing from God and the presence of God deserted Him. It is written, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord…” (Jonah 1:1-3) God has made His ways and acts known to us and it is for us to engage it and have testimonies for His glory.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His grace to constantly turn you and return you to God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Jesus is the gift of God to us from God.
John 4:1-26
Among challenges that revolves in acclaimed believer’s life is the inability to know who they are or what has been made available for them as gift from God. One that does not know what is available will not know how to engage the gift before him/her. One who does not know to give will not know how to receive.
Bible makes us to realise, “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20) The honor bestowed on man is a gift from God. For those that see it as gift and engage it, cue into it will always claim it for their good.
The gifts of honor are listed in Psalm 8:4-6 “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels,and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”
Do you know to embrace what God has given to you when it becomes unwrapped (revealed) to you?
Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman that came to draw water.  “…Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”  For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.” (John 4:7-8) The Samaritan sure has excuse not to receive since she does not know how to give when she responded to Jesus’s request.
No reasonable excuse before God.
It is written, “…the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”” (John 4:9)
Clearly, ignorance is what makes a destitute of a believer. Jesus answered to the ignorance of the Samarian woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)
Jesus is the gift of God to us from God.
It is not enough to know about the gift of God but to know the gift of God. Those who fully knows the gift of God often launch into God’s gift to engage the blessings of God’s gift. Any man that accepts and launch into the gift of God takes a stand on a solid ground which cannot be shaken or violated. It is impossible to have accepted God’s gift and maintain a status of a vessel to be pitied.
Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to know and engage the fullness of His gift at all times.

FAITH CAPSULE: Multitude is a great source of complaint to God instead of complimenting God.

Numbers 14:1-35

Are you advancing in the plans and promises of God for your life? In life, among the major hindrances of man arriving at the center of divine assignment is engaging multitude. A failure to disengage multitude is an engagement to failure not to arrive. The bible recorded, “Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.  A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.” (Exodus 12:37-38) Evidently, when the children of Israel were coming out of the bondage of over hundred years, multitude accompanied them and played a major role denying them from getting through to God’s Promised Land for them.
As they progressed on journey, the effect of mixed multitude manifested negatively. It is written, “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)

Mixed multitude was the source of intense craving for what was not important in their journey to their God Promised Land. Imagine coming out of captivity or bondage and not focusing on promises of God in life? Does that sound like you? Are you focusing on where you are heading to or looking back to the past which added nothing to you but pain? The Israelites began to count on what was in the past instead of counting the miracles that brought them out of their past. It is important to note and constantly meditate in the journey of life that whatever God performs, He is more than able to perfect it when focus on Him is maintained. The craving of the Israelites dug the grave for twenty years above (except for Joshua and Caleb) and their Promised Land became a termination.

Mixed Multitude among them was a great source of complaint to God instead of complimenting God for His grace of deliverance. God responded, “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.  Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:27-30) Pay attention to deny agents of multitude in your journey to breakthrough.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to identify and deny every agents of multitude in your journey of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: True love for God is to truthfully fear Him.

Deuteronomy 6

The word of God is the work of God. At the time of creation, God demonstrated that His word is His work when He spoke for creation to have a place. Also, the word of God is His command. God alone is the Commanding commander and there is none like Him. Among the purpose of His command is stated in Deuteronomy 6:1-3, “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the LORD your God…” God’s command is to teach us to fear Him. To fear God is to love God. For the command to teach us the fear of God observing the word is to come first. A serious student of the word of God must get the understanding that meditating the word is the key to observe and do according to the word.

Failure to obey God is not to fear Him. God expects us to love Him just as it is recorded in His word, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) Sin and sinning is rooted in disobedience. Without doubt, sin simply came to be as a result of failure not to eat of one tree out of varieties of trees in the Garden of Eden. It is written, “…the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) Adam and Eve engaged a blatant act of disobedience which does not have any reasonable excuse but consequence.

Since the time of Adam and Eve, man continues to sin. God simply wants us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. Abraham loved the Lord God and obeyed as was commanded by God. It takes loving God with all heart to rise and depart to a strange land and not hold back. At age seventy five leaving behind a comfort environment, with no child, is the evidence of the fear of God and obedience to God’s command. Word of God testified Abraham’s fear in Genesis 22:12 “…Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:12) How are you serving Him with all your love? True love for God is to truthfully fear Him.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace that your heart will retain His word to obey.