FAITH CAPSULE: Taking a seat of obedience will bring forth your abundance.

Luke 9:12-17

Only the grace of God will move and turn every frustration into celebration, stagnation to motion, and mockery into miracle. God alone is the Healing Healer and the Eternal Surgeon. Only God inhabits eternity, He cannot fail and His living word cannot be broken. What else does a believer need to hear in order not to give up waiting on God? Lay a claim for your blessings because He is a merciful God that cares for His children. In your expectation eliminate crowd (multitude) influence. The inability to ignore the crowd often leads to disobedience and the eventual termination of expectation. God does not sleep nor slumber. As you begin to expect from the hand that has been keeping you by grace, and not by work, do not allow your location or situation to become an agent that terminates expectation. Jesus is the One that converts our expectation to manifestation. Jesus has never been limited or delayed by any location or situation when is time for Him to convert our expectation to manifestation. Once in a desert, despite the late hour, where there was no food to feed a stranded multitude, Jesus extended His hand of provision. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He will extend His hand in any location and situation that you have found yourself. Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish to feed a multitude that was not less than five thousand. Before the miracle there was a command in place that was to be activated before manifestation. Have you been following His commands? Before the miracle of the loaves and fish, Jesus gave a command, “For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” (Luke 9:14-15) And they did so, and made them all sit down.” As a believer how have you positioned yourself in your expectation for the visitation of His miracle? Jesus did not do anything to the loaves and fish, until after His command to the disciples was carefully delivered and responded to by the multitude. With the multitude’s obedience, “Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.” (Luke 9:16-17) In obedience to His command, miracle followed in the area of their need, miracle became a manifestation where there was no hope for provision. If you will obey His commands the direction of getting your expectation will become a simple one. Taking a seat of obedience will bring forth your abundance. Claim your blessings. He has come to give life abundantly.

Prayer for today: Ask God to for the grace to continue waiting on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Pleasing God is living faithfully

1kings 3: 3-15

Faith is also putting God’s Kingdom business up before any other business. The Bible makes it clear that, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”(Romans 10:17) Jesus, the living Word of God said to our hearing, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 7:31-33) What are you asking God to do for you? What one asks from God is the evidence of one’s desires. Asking for what will evidently make one to become a better and effective server in God’s kingdom business will undoubtedly please God. Pleasing God is living faithfully and it is what we live for. It is written, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him…” (Hebrews 11:6) He definitely desires to be pleased with how our life is constantly conducted. Please Him in your lifestyle; please Him in your meditation and please Him in your asking. As you go about in all areas of your life pleasing Him, He will bless you beyond that which you can imagine. King Solomon was the son of David and the third King of Israel. King Solomon is best known for his wisdom and for building the Temple. He pleased God with his speech, and that provoked God to endue him with great wisdom which became his identity forever. He went to sacrifice at Gibeon when God appeared to him. When God inquired of Solomon to ask Him what he wanted he asked, “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”(1 Kings 3:9) He had the business of God at heart; self was not in place when he asked from God. What would you ask for if He showed up in your dream? Will your request be a God-serving purpose, or self-achieving purpose? If you are an acclaimed believer, professional minister, or a minister for the Lord’s business, consider your request in these days of self-centeredness. Solomon did not hesitate to ask pleasingly and God was pleasingly provoked to bless Him beyond what he could have ever imagined. It is written, “The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.”(1 Kings 3:10) God did not just give Solomon understanding, but added wisdom to the understanding. Please Him in all that you do and His blessings will never leave nor forsake you.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to remain focus on all that is God’s Kingdom business.

FAITH CAPSULE: Activity is good but achievement is what moves God.

2Corinthians 4:1-15

Here comes the month of December. It is the month when Mr. Christian, Ms. Christian, Brother Christian or Sister Christian can be easily identified as Christ follower. Indeed it should be a time of accountability for the grace of the past months. It is not only a time to count our blessing but also a time to reflect on how much we have done to bring glory to the name of our Lord and Savior. How many souls have you witnessed the grace of God to in the past months? It is important for us to know that activity is good but achievement is what moves God the most. Speaking the word and not backing it up with our action is a demonstration of wickedness. (Jeremiah 12:1-2) Conduct is a strong way of communication. As believers of Jesus Christ our conduct should reflect all through the year and not only in the month of December. As believers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our conduct is what will serve as communication to our neighbors. Christianity is not about what we are against; it is about communicating what we stand for. As a believer, you make too much noise in communicating what Christians are against and less noise communicating what Christians stand for. This is because your conduct is not loud enough for an unbeliever to see Christ in you. If for example, at your workplace, there is a call for the persecution of believers in Christ, would you be identified as one that confesses Jesus? Do you think your conduct as a follower of Christ will be enough for your fellow worker to identify you as one to be persecuted, or will there be no evidence for anyone to identify you as a Christian? Think about it; are you a hidden cross carrier? Some kinds of religion can easily be identified by their dressing, haircut, or jewelry. What is it that will identify you as a Christ follower? Paul the apostle certainly could not have been living in your neighborhood without being recognized as a believer. Even if he chose to be silent, his conduct would identify him. How do you conduct yourself? It is written, “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.”(2 Corinthians 1:12)  It is time to quit hiding by being silent in every walk of life. The conduct of a believer should not keep observers guessing whether you are a Christian or not. The twelfth month of the year is too long to wait for your identity to reflect and deliver a positive effect. Let your conduct bring out the message of the Gospel.

Prayer for today: Ask God to make you a consistent word living believer.

FAITH CAPSULE: Keep on waiting on God and your enemy will continue to fail.

Nehemiah 1-2

Nehemiah received news about condition in Jerusalem and news concerning the Jews who had escaped and survived the captivity, “…The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.” So it was, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 1:3-4) Nehemiah was disturbed about the condition of his brethren and Jerusalem. His concern provoked his desire to rebuild. Nehemiah waited on God in prayer. He testifies, “So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” (Nehemiah 2:4-5) Waiting in prayer is communicating with God and it opens heaven. Rebuilding the wall was his major agenda because life‘s difficulty for the people in Jerusalem was due in large part to the wall. The point here is Nehemiah’s attempts were carefully propagated by waiting on God in prayer. Nehemiah was granted his desire by king Artaxerxes. All that was needed to rebuild the temple was in place. The project continued and God’s hand of favor did not fail to manifest. Do you have a project coming up? It is important to commit every involvement into the Lord’s hand so that His good hand will answer for you. During the construction of the wall, there were all kinds of opposition and the enemies meant to deny the construction of the wall of Jerusalem. There was opposition through ridicule, opposition through threat of attack, opposition through discouragement, and opposition through extortion. When the wall was completed, opposition did not cease. The enemy will never stop working its evil ways. The completion of your project will not discourage the enemy to stop coming after you. The completion of the wall did not stop the enemy’s continuous attacks. It is written, “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.”(Nehemiah 6:15-16) You would think that the enemy would give up after the completion of your project, but that is not true. It was not true concerning the wall of Jerusalem. After you have completed your project, do not cease from your waiting in prayer to God. Keep on waiting and the enemy will continue to fail concerning every other project.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s instruction and teaching in the way you should go.

FAITH CAPSULE: Commit your request into His hand and he will exclude the options that are not for you.

Daniel 3

The word of God is consistently true and it cannot be broken. Jesus meant what He said and He will do what He says when He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receive, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”(Matthew 7:7-9) Do not stop asking He will answer your prayer. When He answers yes it good and when He answers no it is also good because He sees the end from the beginning. Is it deliverance you want? He alone will deliver it to you. God alone is God and He alone knows the best response to your request. It does not matter how long you have been praying or what you are asking for, the will of God is always the answer, not how you think or feel the answer should be. An order was put in place for whoever fails to fall down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s gold image, “And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning furnace.”( Daniel 3:6) Daniel’s friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego) refused to fall down before the image in worship. Despite being in captivity, their hearts did not depart from their God. There was no bitterness against God who was able to have denied captivity before they were taken captive. The love that they had for God was so intact that they could not fall for any god. They were ready for the death penalty by the fiery furnace. They were serving God, and in that situation they needed to trust God. It is one thing to serve God; it is another to stand in trust for what He can do. They would not bow so they responded, “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 3:17-18) They knew that only God could deliver, yet they acknowledged the fact that even if they did not get what they hoped for from God, He could not be diminished in their lives. He knows the best for you and He has the best answer. Let the will of God be done. Commit your request into His hand and he will exclude the options that are not for you.

Prayer for today: Ask Him to deliver you from the hand of the wicked and the grip of the terrible.