FAITH CAPSULE: As an individual, you do have the choice of peace in Him.

John 16

Let your choice the name of Jesus. Anywhere under the heaven the power to heal and to be delivered from every activity of the wicked in life is perfectly in the name of Jesus. It is written, “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” (Romans 14:11) Do you believe that He lives? If you truly believe that Jesus is alive and He is your Lord and savior why not consciously call on His name commanding all which is militating against you to bow? 
In all His messages, there is life and power to anyone who makes his or her choice in the word of Jesus. Let your choice be Jesus and give yourself to hearing in of His word. When you begin to hear, hearing will then bring forth faith. Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Despite all available means of communication, not all are receiving His message. This is why peace and hope is having no proper place in the life of man including most who claim to have received and accepted Him as the Lord and Savior. Jesus says “these things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace, in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) What He said to one, He has said it to all. As an individual, you do have the choice of peace in Him if your choice is in the name of Jesus. That is why He said you “may have peace”. Tribulation is a certainty and that is why He said you will have tribulation in this world. In this world, tribulation will come not only to unbelievers but to all. However, there is a way out of tribulation and the way is to choose Him and encounter that tribulation with peace or you can rather please yourself and the enemy in tribulation without Him.
If you have confessed Christ but your lifestyle does not demonstrate Christ, you are living in self-denial. Is there any doubt about your relationship with Christ? Today is the day of your reckoning; make adjustments where there is a need. Proverbs 12:21, “No grave trouble will overtake the righteous, but the wicked shall be filled with evil.” The days we are now living are days of trouble. Trouble and tribulation will come, but because you have chosen Him, you are bound to overcome because our righteousness is in Christ Jesus.

Prayer for today: Ask the Lord to uphold you in every area of your confession, that you may live a life that is centered in the name of Jesus.

FAITH CAPSULE: Until you lose yourself you cannot be full of Christ.    

2 Kings 5

God is not a slave master who will force us to worship and it makes it the more reason why engaging worshipping God is a choice to be made by individual. Elisha could not substitute anything for following in line of worship when he separated himself fully to his master Elijah. Gehazi, a servant of Elisha was in position to follow fully like Elisha did with Elijah. Gehazi failed because he could not separate himself from material gain. After Naaman was healed of leprosy Elisha refused the entire material gift. It was the same material gift which Gehazi went back to collect from Naaman without the approval of Elisha that caused the termination of Gehazi from following Elisha fully. (2 Kings 5:20-27) Gehazi ended up a leper and could not attain his potential following Elisha.
As an acclaimed believer, what are you full of? Is it material gain or self? What is it that is denying you to worship God fully by following Jesus Christ fully? Jesus said, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Are you following Him fully or will you follow Him fully? Until you lose yourself you cannot be full of Christ.    
Worshipping God is living godly. Godliness is counting on nothing but the One that sustains the breath in us. Counting on only God makes us content. To be content is an avenue to depart from temptation. The bible says, “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” (1Timothy 6:6-8) Living ungodly is placing one’s destiny in line of termination. Above all, worshipping God in truth and in spirit is our only avenue to the great road and it demands we flee from all ungodliness and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. (1Timothy 6:11-12) Living to worship God is engaging a great road. Roberts Liardon put it better stating, “The road that is great before God has the most resistance upon it. You’ll never find greatness in the things of God without a battle; you’ll never find change without confrontation…”  It is important to know that living for God will continue to encounter incessant confrontations and we are to cease not by engaging living for our jealous God who yearns for our attention. Worship God; follow fully; give Him all the attention; He wants to be the Lord of our lives.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to follow fully so that you gain the fullness of Christ.

FAITH CAPSULE: Separation to God is the avenue which leads to assessing and possessing all that God has in place.

Genesis 32

Worshiping God is separation unto God and it is an evidence of believing God. To be separated unto God is to find Him. Seeing God is impossible where one is surrounded by the filth of this wicked world. Seeking (worshiping) God demands all of our being and those that are able to seek Him diligently shall be rewarded because He is a re warder of those who seek Him diligently. (Hebrews 11:6) Separation unto His command is always a high order of worship whenever man obediently becomes separated. Abraham separated as commanded by God when he answered to God’s calling to depart his country, his family and his father’s house to a land unknown to him. (Genesis 12:1-2) Every separation to God counts before God and commits God to count on one for uncommon or special assignment. Abraham’s separation to the word of God was accounted to him for righteousness because it was evidence that he believed God. (Romans 4:3)
Separation to God is the avenue which leads to assessing and possessing all that God has in place for any that is able to obediently separate to Him. Like Abraham, for Jacob to encounter and enter into his divine assignment there was a need for separation from all which he possessed. It is written, “And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok.  He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had.Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.” Genesis 32:22-24) Until Jacob was completely separated from all, God could not engage him on his ground for name changing which channeled him to the center of God’s divine assignment for his life. Elisha needed to be separated from all and follow Elijah fully before he could be impacted with the spirit that flowed in Elijah. After Elisha’s encounter with the mantle of Elijah, he left all but wanted to hold on to his father and mother when he was sent back by Elijah. (1 Kings 19:19-20) Elijah realized the need for complete separation in the life of Elisha when he sent him back. As a result, “Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant. (1 Kings 19:21) Elisha engaged worship when he became separated from all and set himself for his divine assignment, following Elijah fully.

Prayer for today:

Ask God to revive you according to His lovingkindness so that you may be fully obedient to His calling.

FAITH CAPSULE: Meditating day and night is in complete obedience to God’s word.  

Joshua 1, Psalm 1

Worship is obeying God by doing His will. Doing what suits us is coming out of worship; it is disengaging the ways of God by engaging the way that seems right to us. Proverbs 14:12 buttresses, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Being wise is continuously engaging worship by walking in the ways of God which gives life. Giving self onto God’s way is giving God all the attention. God is a jealous God (Deuteronomy 4:24) and the antidote for jealously is to give attention by doing as he pleases. Attend to God by worshipping Him.
Worshipping God is to be conscious in keeping heart with all diligence. The word of God demands that we keep our heart with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23). A heart that meditates day and night is a heart in worship day and night. Heart that meditates day and night is in complete obedience to God word. Hearts which are kept with all diligence becomes pure. It is an understanding in the word that the pure at heart shall see God. (Matthew 5:8) A heart which is deep in worship will become pure enough to access the presence of God and be able to realize all that it takes to live life abundantly as promised by Jesus.
It is how diligent we keep our heart that determines the level of our purity and purity is what determines the level of anointing which flows in one’s life. Among the ways of keeping our heart diligently as stated in Ephesians 5:8-21, “…be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” Whatever fills one is the evidence of what flows from the heart. Man’s filling is what effectively affect how he walks, stands and sits. The Psalmist buttress by stating, “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; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in the law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2) Jesus also states, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) Meditation keeps the heart diligent and makes it to be pure to see God. Engage your heart in worship, be able to see God and be blessed.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to be consistent in obeying the commands of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Every way of seeking God demands commitment.

2 Samuel 24

Worshipping God is rooted in the fear of God. To fear God is to love God; to love God is to adore Him and he that adores God will reverence Him. Any man that truly loves God will devote to serving God. Ones who truly serve God carries no iota of worrying and that is why worship is opposite of worry. Jesus admonishes us, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” (Matthew 6:25-27) Is worrying your passion? Worry does not have a place in worship because what worry does is to replace God with needs or concern instead of placing needs and concerns before God. Obviously, any soul that is occupied with worrying can never engage in true worship.
Worshipping God can be likened to a tree whose branches are: obedient to the commands of God, praise, praying, fasting, and giving offering. Branches of worship are the ways of seeking God. Every way of seeking God demands commitment. Commitment is not convenient and it can always be inconvenient.  It is the cost of inconvenience that counts to make worship become a sacrifice before God. The pain of cost is the gain that comes when God commits to the cause of worship. In the story of David’s census which provoked the anger of God against Israel, we see what it means to give a costly sacrifice in worship unto God. David conducted census against the will of God and the census caused God to send down plague. The consequence of the census demanded a sacrifice which made Araunah to offer David a free threshing floor to build an altar to the Lord that the plague could be withdrawn. David rejected the free offer stating, “…No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” (2 Samuel 24:24) Is your sacrificial offering (worship) reasonable enough to be accepted by God? The story about David’s censor gives the picture about what it means to give a costly sacrifice to provoke a priceless response from God. Worship is costly. The pain of the cost is the gain that comes with God’s commitment to the course of worship.

Prayer for today: Ask God to direct you into a reasonable sacrifice.