FAITH CAPSULE: The truth is man is made to be in honor.

Psalm 8

The word states, “He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (Psalm 107:20) The healing word is the delivering word. God sent it and it is already here for those who make the choice to embrace It. Jesus came and declared, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Jesus, the living word of God, does not say He is coming because He is here to give life to whomever desires to have life in Him and have it abundantly. What is stopping you from embracing the word that gives life and delivers from every evil agenda?

God made every possible need to live life abundantly available in His word. God owes no man anything. God can do without man to attain His plans. He needs no man for His attainment; it is man who rather needs God for attainment. What else does man want God to do for man that is yet undone? The truth is man is made to be in honor and the sad truth is man does not know about God’s honor upon man. The psalmist identified man as one in honor but yet does not understand is like the beasts that perish. (Psalm 49:20)

Evidently, it is the lack of knowledge for man not to know who man is in the hand of God. Knowing God is the source of having knowledge. To love God is to fear God; to fear God is to gain wisdom. It is not possible to love God when the fear of God is not in one’s life. To love God is to seek God. Those who love God will give themselves to serving God. Claiming love for God is not a mouth talk but it is for action to talk.

The word of the God is proven and it is perfect. None of God’s word ever returns back to Him void without performing perfectly. He made man to be in dominion at the time of creation. He spoke in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” David, a man after God’s own heart, could not comprehend enough about how much God had invested in man when he requested from God, “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. (Psalm 8: 4-6) David could see it all in man but man cannot see through God’s investment in man.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to understand who you are.

FAITH CAPSULE: The hand of God is power to perform and perfect

Exodus 3

The hand of God upon man’s life represents God’s presence backing man up in every area of life. The hand of God is power to bring all kind of increase which glorifies God. After the persecution of Stephen, the men who continued preaching were not reduced but increased because of the hand of God. Acts 11:21 testifies, “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.”

Ezra needed to overcome discouragement while in the process of building the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. God who does not disappoint those appointed to build the business of God extended His hand to Ezra. It is written, “…so I was encouraged, as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me; and I gathered leading men of Israel to go up with me” (Ezra 7:28) If you will ask for God’s hand with understanding, God will not deny Himself by answering and extending His hand. The hand of God answered for Nehemiah and he testified about the hand of God as the reason for getting the project of reconstruction through in Jerusalem. Nehemiah 2:18, “And I told them of the hand of my God which had been upon me, and also of the king’s word that he had spoken unto me…” The hand of God is encouraging when locates man to do good for God. Absolutely nothing answers perfect in life when the hand of God is absent.

What do you desire? Psalmist declares in Psalm 27:4, “One thing I have desired of the Lord…” Desire is a choice. Making the right choice will set a man right on the journey of life. If there is anything to desire, it should be for the hand of God. The hand of God is mighty and great in restoration. It was the hand of God that brought the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years. God knows the end from the beginning when He forewarned Moses in Exodus 3:19-20, “But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.  So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.”  In the hand of God there is great deliverance. Without the hand of God in operation, it would have been impossible deliverance for the Israelites through Moses.

The hand of God is power to perform and perfect in the life of anyone that engages it for attainment to the glory of God.

Pray for today: Ask God to cause His hand to locate you; to reign and rule over your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Allow joy and rejoicing to be your mark of living life.

Philippians 4

Praising God without joy is like attempting to open a locked up house without a key. Rejoicing at the time of praising God is the way to assess to God’s presence. Praising God can be likened to one who is attempting to open a house that is closed up while joy and rejoicing can be likened to key that opens door into a closed house. To be constantly joyful when praising God is assessing the presence of God. The Psalm 16:11, buttress, “You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  God cannot survive a joyless environment because in His presence is fullness of joy. By this virtue, praising Him must be constantly rooted in joy. Praising, not shouting is what it takes to access His presence. Are you a worshipper indeed and in truth? Be mindful of the truth that understand is what it takes to praise God joyfully. It is not possible to praise God with understanding and not be accessible into His presence.

The psalmist revealed, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” (Psalm 100:4) Thanking God with understanding will get one as far as to His gates. Praising God with understanding is what takes man into the presence of God. It is never enough to go as far as the gate and not get through into the court. Are you assessing the gate and not enter into His court?

Engaging praise worship with understanding is exposure to the throne of grace because the Bible makes us to realize, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3) 

Praising God in the fullness of joy is rejoicing in His salvation. Ones who rejoice in His salvation will have their horn (strength) exalted in the Lord. They will smile at every representative of enemies such as failure, sickness, and every other kind of challenges that Paul advised us not to be anxious about. Praise God with joy and engage His presence that will carry man through in the world of challenges. In the world of challenges, the path of life where there is God’s presence, the sojourner will get to their expected end. Also where God’s presence is absent, death will be present. To journey in the path of life successfully, God’s presence will have to be consistently in place.

Apostle Paul did not just ask for joy but he asked for it with emphasis when he commanded, “Rejoice always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) Allow joy and rejoicing to be your mark of living life.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of God to deposit in you all that it takes to be constantly joyful.

FAITH CAPSULE: A reasonable sacrifice is in steadfast obedience.

Genesis 23

Moses knows the ways of God more than any among the children of Israel. The Bible testifies, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7) Indeed, Moses knew the ways of God more than the children of Israel when he was leading them to possess God’s Promised Land. Once, Moses was admonished the Israelites about loving God and keeping His commandments always when he stated, “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess.” (Deuteronomy 11:8) To possess God’s promise demands positioning self in line of God’s command with full obedience. Possessing God’s promise demands no compromise but commitment. The Israelites must keep the commandment because it is the source of strength. Obeying God’s command is what will keep man going in the journey of life. Obedience to the word of God is a sacrifice. A reasonable sacrifice is in steadfast obedience.

In life, there is no possession, without sacrifice. This is to say that, behind every gained possession, there is a reasonable sacrifice invested. Sacrifice might happen in different ways, but sacrifice is inevitable before rightfully possessing.

Before Abraham could possess his land of choice he paid a price. After Sarah’s death, Abraham needed land to bury Sarah. Abraham requested a land from the sons of Heth to bury his wife. The sons of Heth responded to Abraham, “Hear us, my lord: You are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead.” (Genesis 23:6) Abraham insisted and requested for the price to be paid. Abraham got a quoted price for the land to bury his wife. It is written in Genesis 23:17-18, “So the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place.””  The land did not become Abraham’s possession until he paid a reasonable sacrifice (price). Every reasonable sacrifice is costly, and could be in different forms. Also, obeying the commandment is a sacrifice because it will take man out of his way into God’s way.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to give a reasonable sacrifice which grants grace to possess all possessions.

FAITH CAPSULE:  With hearing in place, learning to fear Him shall have its place in man.

1Thessalonians 4
To fear God is to love God. To love God is seek Him. To seek God is to know and understand God.

Without any compromise, the will of God for man is to fear God. Hearing and learning the word builds faith and faith in place is fear in the heart. The word of Deuteronomy 31:12-13 clearly points out hearing and learning as the way to fear God, “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” The word of God remains forever the same. He is the unchanging changer. Also, what He has spoken to them He has also spoken to us. The will of God is for man to fear Him. Man could not fear Him in the past and most especially today because man no longer hear and learn from the word.

It is written, “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!” (Joshua 24:14) Where there is failure to hear and learn from the word, no one can fear Him and serve Him reasonably.

The book of 1Thessalonians 4:3-8 documents, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.” Everyone who fears the Lord will take to the word of 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 as stated above. What the Old Testament is saying about the fear of God is nothing different from what the New Testament is saying. However, it is important for every believer to understand and know through hearing and learning that the fear of God is crucial to not missing their heaven. Do you fear God? With hearing in place, learning to fear Him from all of His word and work cannot be displaced in the life of a believer.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to fear Him in every area of living life.