FAITH CAPSULE: Just like Judas, are you open and available for Satan to use?

Matthew 26:1-25

Jesus described thief, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” (John 10:10) Without any doubt, a thief is no one but an enemy. It is very certain that thief must gain an entrance before it strikes. Often time, when thief strikes, thief always operate with the aid of an insider that serves information for thief to gain access.
The thief which Jesus was talking about was active then and is still active and alive today. Jesus was not talking about fictional thief but the thief that is active, aggressive and always looking for one to devour. During the days of Jesus the thief was active and today the thief is actively active more than ever before. The thief then is the same today and that thief is the Satan himself. The thief needed an opening to gain entrance to get to Jesus according to God’s divine agenda.  The thief visited the disciples of Jesus, he was looking for whom to use in selling Jesus. In Judas, the thief was able to locate an opening that granted him entrance for his agenda, Luke 22:3 stated, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.” Satan was able to enter into Judas because Judas was available with an opening. Judas’, opening was the result of his material preoccupation.
The bible recorded, “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.” (Matthew 26:14-16) Just like Judas, are you open and available for Satan to use? In these days of prosperity preoccupation, there is tendency to have an opening that Satan could enter into. It does not matter who you are or how long you have been following Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior, when the thief locates an opening, he will not waste time to operate from your inside until you are counted out of among those that are called. Satan’s entrance caused Judas to go out of the Way into his own way. Do not sell the only Way that leads to life; set yourself against the wiles of the thief and have your doors tightly shut. The word encourages us stating, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”(Proverbs 4:23)  Disallow any issue that causes man to sell out Jesus. 
Are you seriously paying attention to yourself so that there will be no any conscious or unconscious opening that will give a place for the thief? Stay close and not walk outside of the Way He will lead you into life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace not to be an open avenue for Jesus to be sold for your material preoccupation.

FAITH CAPSULE: Be accountable and not count yourself out through disobedience.

Exodus 17:1-7, Numbers 20:7-13

The first time the Israelites complained about the lack of water God commanded Moses, “And the Lord said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”” (Exodus 17:5-6) Moses was attentive enough to get the command right. When the children of Israel began to thirst for water again, after the first experience God commanded Moses, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,  “Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” (Numbers 20: 7-8)
The first attempt to get water called for striking the rock while the second time called for speaking to the rock. At the first attempt Moses followed God’s command by striking the rock. The second time Moses failed to follow as commanded by God.
The bible recorded that, “Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” (Numbers 20:11-12)
Striking is not same as speaking. Failure to fully obey is an avenue to self-destruction. No man can calculate God; God is not a mathematics whereby we add two plus two and get four; He is a God that we must be perfect in our accountability to His command. Have you been playing God instead of placing God’s command before His congregation? Are you one that is paying attention to details in every area of His command for your direction? Moses was a giant in the hand of God; he was a man of great exploit by virtue of God’s calling but he missed out of God’s Promised Land on account of the children of Israel. To man, Moses did all that was enough to get him through to the Promised Land. To God, he missed it on account of the children of Israel. Be accountable and not count yourself out through disobedience.

Prayer for today: Ask for the mercy of God to be fully obedient in all areas of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Be positive; see life in the place of death.

Exodus 2:1-10, Psalm 1

At every time man walks, stands, sits, or sees in line with the counsel of God, blessing of the Lord is bound to locate man. Psalm 1:1-1 buttress, “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.” Going by the above scriptural verse, it is considerable that seeing, walking and talking are also channels of blessings when they lined up with the word of God. A believer that can talk; see walk and confess positively and not negatively in the face of confronting challenge is consciously operating faith. The Bible recorded how the positive seeing of a mother in the face of life claiming challenge delivered one of the greatest man of God to his center of his divine assignment. It is written, “And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.” (Exodus 2:1-2)  
The daughter of Levi bore a son named Moses. At the time Moses was born the law in the land called for killing of Hebrew male son. Just as all other women must have been giving up their male child up for killing, the mother of Moses saw beauty in her son and she could not release him for an untimely death. The daughter of Levi (Moses’ mother) saw beauty in her son and decided to deny negative occurrence that was going on in Egypt. The mother of Moses saw that her son was a beautiful child. She saw him as, unqualified for death and found it unacceptable for him to be killed. Often time, when man sees well it becomes well and when man sees wrong it becomes wrong. What do you see? Whatever a man sees is what determines what a man receives and what a man receives is what become of man.
After she could no longer hold on to him in hiding, she set him up in an ark in the direction of where he was picked up by the daughters of Pharaoh. At the time he was picked up every identity revealed that the baby belonged to a Hebrew family yet Pharaoh’s daughter had compassion on the baby. “And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” (Exodus 2:6) Moses that was supposed to be killed was raised and cared for by the house of Pharaoh. Have you been marked for a situation that is not your portion? Begin to see life in the place of death.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to always be on the positive side by virtue of your way of living life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Fear God constantly and consistently to dwell in His secret place.

Psalm 91

It is written, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”(Psalm 91:1) Interestingly, it is anyone that makes the choice to dwell in the secret place of the Most High that will be located under His shadow. However, the secret place of the Most High is not a physical place neither is it in a church building. The word of God identifies where the secret place of the Most high is situated when it states, “The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” (Psalm 25:14) Without any doubt, having the fear of God in one’s life is having the key to unlock the door of the secret place of the Most High.
Among the blessing of dwelling in the secret place of the Most High God is uncommon protection in the face of confronting challenges. The Jews that went back to rebuild Jerusalem after the captivity were confronted by adversaries that were attempting to deny them from rebuilding. All attempt to stop them failed and they testified, “But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, so that they could not make them cease till a report could go to Darius.”(Ezra 5:5) The Bible states it in Psalm 33:18, “The eye of the LORD is on those that fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.” Evidently, to be under the watchful eye of God that is not visible to a naked eye is to be in His secret place. Do you fear God indeed and in truth or you fear Him just at your mouth?
What does it mean to fear God? To fear the Lord is to love the Lord. God wants us to love Him because He Himself is love. Deuteronomy 30:6 buttress by stating, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” To fear the Lord is to love Him, and to love Him is to live. Obviously, those that dwell in the fear of God are in His secret place. To have a place in the secret place calls for dwelling, not entering and departing on a regular basis. One cannot fear God today and not fear Him tomorrow expecting to be dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. Dwelling in the secret place demands to be living constantly and consistently in the fear of God. Without the fear of the Lord, there will be no abiding in the secret place of the Most High.

Prayer for today: Ask God to put His fear in your heart so that you may abide under the shadow of the Most High.

FAITH CAPSULE: Believing God is to be able to see it that God is always there on your side.

Daniel 3

An acclaim believer who often states, “The Lord is on my side” but is consistently living in fear or constantly entertaining fear in every area of confronting situation is only making a false statement or self-mockery in the face of the devil. With mounting challenges and with one being surrounded by impossible situations, giving to fear is highly a possibility for man. However, an acclaim believer who is able to restrain oneself from fear is one who actually knows that the Lord is on his/her side. Also, it is one who has stepped out of religion and into Christ reality.
Believing God is also seeing that God is always there at one’s side to deliver, regardless of confronting challenges. Any believer that operates at the level of knowing that God is always on his/her side shall truly not entertain fear of what man can do.
The three friends of Daniel (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego) could not entertain fear when they were sentenced to death through a burning fiery furnace. The three friends responded to their persecutor’s sentencing, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3: 16-18)
The evidence of seeing God and knowing that the Lord is with one is to be bold in the face of any kind of confronting challenge rather than one being built up in fear. The three friends of Daniel ended up in the fiery burning furnace as commanded by the king that did not know about the God of the three friends. While in the burning fiery furnace, the king saw the unusual and he reacted when, “…he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’ ‘Look!’ he answered, ‘I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’”(Daniel 3:24-25) The three friends could not be stranded in the burning fiery furnace because their God was always on their side and the unbelieving King was privileged to see their God with them with his naked eyes. If one will come out of religion and begin to live Christ reality, the world of challenges shall become one’s own world to live and to have dominion.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to come out of religion and live Jesus reality.