FAITH CAPSULE: Wait on God and wait patiently.

Psalm 40

It is written, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” (Psalm 2:11) It is absolutely impossible to serve God when there is no fear of God. Also, without the fear of God, seeking God will not be in place in the life of man. Seeking God is waiting patiently on God. In every decision to wait on God there should be no backup plans. Waiting patiently on God is taking a position to receive from God; it is the evidence of faith. “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! (Psalm 27:14) When there is knowledge of the awesomeness of God, there will always be a persistence in place to replace the failure of not to wait.

As a believer, many times you ask and miss the response because of the inability to wait for a response. Trusting in God is ignoring negativity around you while focusing on all the positives that are evident in the testimonies of God. Trust is what will enable waiting and when trust is not in place; waiting will not have its way. King David testified in Psalm 40:1, “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry”. King David knew that in his waiting God had given him a response because he was brought up out of a horrible pit; out of the miry clay. His feet were set upon a rock and his steps were established (Psalm 40:2). In waiting on God, instruction and teaching will come to lead and guide the waiter into the manifestation of the waiter’s request. This is what happened to King David. His situation was turned around because he received a leading and guidance from where he was to where he wanted to be.

Have you been asking for a long time without any result or the result has been a negative one that could not turn your situation around into a new page? God is a faithful God. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The same God that did it in the life of King David will not fail in doing it for you. Ask God for the grace of waiting whenever you request or call on Him for His deliverance. Waiting on God will no doubt turn around the page that is not working in your life to a working page for His name to be glorified. Wait on Him and wait patiently. Your waiting on God will never be waste.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of enablement to know and to wait on Him when there is a need for waiting.

FAITH CAPSULE: When we fear God He will always find us out.

Proverbs 14

Fear of God is different from the fear which is: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Fear of God is to have an overwhelming feeling of reverence or admiration for God. It is a blessing to fear God and not the author of wickedness and his wicked agents. When we fear God He will always find us out. He who fears the wicked one will be found out by the wicked one.
The situation which one fears will find one out. Job was testified by God, “…Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1:8) Can anyone imagine a man of great stature in the hand of God being reduced by fear? After the death of his children he gave his testimonies, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.” (Job 3:25) It is possible to be afraid but one should not be reduced by fear.
Without the fear of God there is no seeking God. Seeking God is serving God. One must know (not know about) the fear of God to serve God. Serving God is worshiping God. (Worshiping God is non-stop as long as there is breath of life) Worshiping God is sacrifice. Not every sacrifice is reasonable before God. Reasonable sacrifice is one that is rooted in the fear of God.
Do you know what it is to fear God? How do you know the one you do not study?
It is written, “The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.” (Psalm 14:2-3) Get the understanding to fear God. The wisdom to fear God rests in the heart of one who has knowledge and understanding to fear God.
King David a man identified by God as one after God’s own heart volunteered to teach the fear of the Lord when he stated, “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.” (Psalm 34:11) David knew what he was up to when he made his statement to the ones who has ear to hear. The fear of God kept him and saw him through life’s terminating challenges.
Without doubt, to know and to fear God is encased in knowing Him through His testimony, His testimony is His word. To be hearing and knowing His word is having Faith. Having faith is the evidence of knowing and having the fear of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deposit His fear in your life that you may live for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not assume help from God but resume to asking from God.

Exodus 2, 3

When the children of Israel began to groan and to cry out for their deliverance, God responded in Exodus 3:7-9, “And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.”

Taskmasters were the agent of pain for the Israelites. Taskmasters represented horrible pit. The Horrible pit is not a pleasant place to be but a place of pain, oppression, sorrow and agony. At a point in time, the children of Israel spent time in the horrible pit while they were in bondage in Egypt. Are you experiencing a taskmaster in your life? Whatever represents taskmaster in man’s life is not enough to deny man from crying out to God neither is it enough to deny man from God’s deliverance plan.

As the children of Israel were spending time under their taskmasters in Egypt, they lifted up their voice and cried to the Lord. Are you crying out to God against your taskmaster? Are you assuming or asking? The Bible points it out, “He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? (Psalm 94:9) God hears when we ask do not assume help from God because God will not violate His word which states, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) Any time man is assuming to receive from God without opening mouth and ask is an attempt to have God violate His word. The book of Proverbs 12:6 buttress, “…But the mouth of the upright will deliver them.” Indeed and in truth, cry of the children of Israel did not find a deaf ear because the Lord responded to their cry and extended His hand of deliverance through His servant Moses. When you cry out to God, wait patiently for God to respond on your behalf. Cry out today!

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s hand of deliverance to come upon you in every challenging pain from taskmaster.

FAITH CAPSULE: Pride is exceedingly destructive.

2 Kings 5

Naaman was a remarkable figure and was filled with praises which described his character and his ability. All of Naaman’s great remarks were in the eyes of his master and not in the eyes of God. It is written, “Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.” (2kings 5:1) Just like Naaman, are you a man of great remarks in the eyes of your pastor or your boss at work? How do you fare in the eyes of God? What you are in the eyes of God is that which matters. At the time he came to Elisha he did not know God and his great exploits were only limited to man. Despite all, there was a “but” in Naaman’s life and his but was leprosy. Naaman needed a cleansing that would get him to know about God. What is the “but” in your life that needs the kind of cleansing that will cause you to know God and not just know about God?
The “but” in Naaman’s life that needed to be cleansed was leprosy on the outside and pride in the inside. The pride in the inside was exceedingly destructive. More than the “but” that is visible in Naaman’s life. Pride is the opposite of humility; pride kills; pride does not give life and pride goes before destruction. At the juncture of Naaman’s healing, “… Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’” (2 Kings 5:10-11) The pride inside Naaman almost denied him his healing when he became furious and left in rage.
Pride has many branches such as, anger, rage, malice, bitterness and all could operate as a silent killer. Silently, Naaman could have walked away because of his pride and died as a leper. As God would have it in Naaman’s life, he was persuaded by his servants to go back and act according to the word of the prophet. Naaman responded and went and got cleansed in the Jordan River “And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel… “(2 Kings 5:15). The leprosy of Naaman gave up because obedience entered him and Naaman testified to knowing God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from whatever is representing leprosy inside and outside of your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Entertaining fear is blessing’s terminating route.

Matthew 14: 22-33, 1 Kings 17:1-16

Entertaining fear is terminating one’s own blessing. Have you consciously or unconsciously allowed fear to come between you and your miracle deliverance or miracle provision?
Once, at late hour of the day, in the middle of the water, storm took over the journey of life of the disciples. They were on a journey to the other side when the storm took over. While they were been tossed around by the wave, Jesus showed up to rescue them. It is written, “Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.” (Matthew 14:25-26) Peter must have requested for deliverance out of fear when he asked Jesus to command him to walk on the water. Jesus responded to Peter’s request by commanding him to come. The Bible records, “…and when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:29-30) Peter, in his obedience to walk on water, took his eyes away from Jesus and he gave it to the troubling storm. Fear took over Peter while faith was discharged. Peter simply entertained fear and his deliverance was set for termination until Jesus intervened.

During a season of famine across the land, the Zarephath woman was set for miraculous provision when God sent Elijah to her as a route for her miracle. The Zarephath woman was approached by Elijah and he requested, “…Please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink.’ And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’” (1 Kings 17:10-11) Evidently, the woman of Zarephath only had just enough for herself and her son to eat because it was a time of famine in the whole land. In her sincerity and honesty, she responded to Elijah’s demand stating that she only had enough for herself and son to eat and die; meaning that after they ate, there would be nothing coming forth. Elijah responded to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’”(1 Kings 17:13-14) The encouraging word of Elijah denies fear from denying the Zarephath woman of her God ordained miraculous provision.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to help you increase in giving love offering when it matters.