FAITH CAPSULE: In your God appointed position, have you lost the presence of God?

1 Samuel 16

The word of God is true to perform and perfect. The word of God cannot be broken and they give life to those who take to it as commanded by God. God declared, “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.” (Isaiah 55:11) God is true to His word. David a man after God’s own heart testifies that God magnified His word above all His name. (Psalm 138:2) A failure to obey the word of God is a straight passage to self-destruction. Are you disobedient to any of His word of command? Proverbs 13:13 declares, “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.” To despise His word of command is the evidence of lack of fear of God. To despise the word of His command is an avenue to destruction.

King Saul was appointed by God as the first king over His people. During the course of his reign, disobedient on his part set him apart from God. After having disobeyed the word of God in the second year of his reign, he remained as King for forty years. King Saul was king for a long and reasonable time, but with no reasonable time with God. King Saul violated God when he despised the word of His command. After he despised God’s command,
“… the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Surely, a distressing spirit from God is troubling you.” (1 Samuel 16:14-15) Saul became evicted from the presence of God while he was still serving as God’s appointed one for God’s people. In your God appointed position, have you lost the presence of God? In Saul, it was evident that he was at the seat of power but power had left him. Does that sound like you? It is possible for any man to have lost it with God and not know. In the case of Saul, after he had lost from the presence of God, he became exposed to acute mental suffering, affliction, and distress became his portion.
When God’s presence is withdrawn there can never be anything to make up for Him. Attempt to use David, a skillful player; a mighty man of valor was not enough to make up the presence of God which departed Saul. David playing an instrument was only instrumental for temporary solution; God cannot be substituted in any situation or under no circumstances. Despite skillful play by David, King Saul’s distress spirit could not depart. King Saul despised God and destruction became his portion.

Prayer for today: Ask for deliverance from every spirit of destruction.

FAITH CAPSULE: Crying out to God is not a sign of weakness.

Matthew 18:21-35

We serve a good, caring, gracious and merciful God. He is the God with good purpose; the God with plans to save and preserve His children. Out of the act of His goodness and mercy, He promised His children a new heart. His promise states, “…then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.” (Jeremiah 32:39-41) It takes a good and gracious God to have a good plan and purpose for His rebellious children. He was God in the Old Testament, He is God in the New Testament and He will continue to be God in Future Testament. He is worthy of all thanks and praise!

Peter asked the Lord Jesus about the issue of forgiveness stating, “…Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Matthew 18:21) Jesus, out of His goodness and mercy responded to Peter, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22) Surely, God made room for His children not to miss Heaven. Imagine 7×70 (490) times of going back to ask for forgiveness. God is definitely worthy of a reasonable sacrifice of thanksgiving on a regular basis.

Rebellious act (sin) is not enough to separate His children who cry out to Him with a heart of repentance. Forgiveness is in place for all that will cry out to Him for forgiveness. Crying out to God is not a sign of weakness but rather of strength that never fails to get God’s attention. Is your challenge rooted in sin? A cry out unto God as the Israelites always do whenever their sin separates them from God is a way of getting God to attend to you. God is a good God who will answer and attend to all who cry out to Him regardless of one’s background. Psalm 86:5 testifies, “For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” Turn to God, call upon Him by crying out to Him and He will not disregard your call.

Prayer for today: Ask for His goodness and mercy to answer for you in every area of living life.

FAITH CAPSULE: It should never be of any man’s heart to take the position of judging others.

Job 2

God wants our heart to be constantly engaged on Him. A heart that is engaged on God must be a joyful heart. Hannah testifies, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.” (1 Samuel 2:1) What are your heart engagements? Among all kinds of heart engagement we are to consciously avoid judging others. In your environment, is your heart the judge of every acts or man?
The word of God strictly warned us to stay away from making judgment regardless of the picture we are getting in our environments. The book of Matthew 7:1-3 warned us “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?” Concluding or assuming on other people’s situation could be an indirect ways of making a judgment on others in our heart. It is only God that knows the reason for every occurrence which is not clear in the physical and it should not be for any man’s heart to take the position of judging others.
Imagine Job living in today’s world. Job was a man of great integrity and richly blessed with wealth. The word of God described him as, “…Blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1) Gaining understand of the character of Job, at the beginning of the story of Job makes it easier to read through the story of Job without taking a position of judging him to be a sinner. In this life, it is easier to take a position of a judge when a tragedy like that of Job manifest in life. The beginning of Job’s story took away what could have granted us the sentencing of Job’s adversity to be the result of sin and iniquity that he must have committed. Job was a man testified of by the Creator as a man of great integrity but the adversity presented a picture of someone that must have sinned somewhere unto God.
Job’s kind of situation is not a kind of situation which any acclaimed believer wants to live or experience. The bottom line of this for every believer is to learn and know that in the midst of painful challenges, it could be very wrong to be judging others directly or indirectly. Are you facing any painful challenge? Just as we cannot judge others judging our self should also be avoided.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be focus and obedient to all of His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not be a victim of temptation.

Acts 12

Devil’s failure not to get man directly into temptation will possibly provoke him to tempt man against man. King Herod must have fallen for temptation by virtue of his attempt to terminate Peter after his successful termination of James.
Peter followed Jesus all through His ministry but gave himself up to a cheap untimely death attempt. He went to sleep where there was a need for him to be awake watching and praying. Jesus identifies the antidote of temptation when he was with His disciples. Jesus was having a prayer session in the garden with His disciples and while He was praying the disciples were at sleep. It is written, “When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:45-46) If active engagement in watching and praying is what it takes for man to avoid temptation, it will also deny man not be a victim of other’s temptation. Jesus, in His word makes us to know it that watching and praying is the antidote for temptation. It does not matter the manner of temptation or the avenue it takes to affect us. A believer that does not sleep but give self to watching and praying shall prevail over every agent or avenue of temptation that leads to life termination.
Imagine Peter, a man who spent time with Jesus day and night and could not prioritize his life when to sleep and when not to sleep. Peter’s life documentation with Jesus clearly points out that determination cannot prevail but prayer with the help of the Holy Spirit shall make man prevail and not fail.
It is written, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.  Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.  And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also…” (Acts 22:1-3) King Herod, after having killed James, must have been tempted to think the same for Peter. He went and put Peter in prison, intending to kill him just as he killed James. In the face of death, Peter was sleeping instead of praying. Thank God for the church’s prayer of deliverance on behalf of Peter. He lost focus by not watching and praying and entered into a sleep of death. The Bible states about him, “And when Peter had come to himself, he said, ‘Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.’” (Acts 12:11) As a temple (church) of God, are you asleep? Times we are living is time to be awake and be able to deny temptation in every area of falling for temptation.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to keep you so that your faith will not fail.

FAITH CAPSULE: Among the ways of engaging the journey of life is by our walk and our race.

Psalm 1, Hebrews 12:1-24

Life is a journey. Among the ways of engaging the journey of life is by our walk or our race. The most important thing about engaging it is to maintain continuity regardless of challenge on the way. Continuity is the rule of the race of life. Any man who fails to continue is disqualified while ones who continue to the end qualify. How you walk or run is the key to your getting to the expected end. The manual of life (Bible) points out what it takes to walk or run the journey of life.
The Psalmist identifies how and what we get when we walk in the Lord’s approved way when it states, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” (Palm 1:1-3) How are you walking your walk in your journey of life? How you walk will determine where you sit or stand. Also, how you walk determine how far you go and who you are. In the walk of life, when a believer begins to seek ungodly counsel, such believer is set for self-destruction.
Hebrews 12:1-2 identifies how we run the race of life, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Is there any conscious or unconscious engagement of sin and sinning in your race in the journey of life? For man to be able to run and get to the expected end, endurance must be in place.
The journey of life is a race of life. Running the race is not by strength or by determination, but only by the grace of God. Are you getting weighed down in the journey of life? Be encouraged and do not be discouraged in the race of life. Hold on to Him by keeping your eyes on Him and He will see you through. With Jesus, you will walk or run with peace and find rest.

Prayer for today: Ask God to cause you to remain focus in the journey of life.