FAITH CAPSULE: Engage the right word at the rough time.

2 Kings 4:8-37

Every word of God is a declaration not a decoration to hang on and not produce after its purpose. Bible was not playing with word when it declares that, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21) Are you speaking positive or negative in the face of your challenges? What you speak is what becomes of you. Jairus’s daughter was sick to death and Jesus was approached for healing. Luke 8:50, “But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.” Jesus’ response was a positive confession. Jesus then spoke to the child and the child rose from dead. For the children of Israel, the bondage of over four hundred years and Pharaoh failed to deny the promise of God. The negative confession of their mouth denied them from getting to their Promised Land. In their complain were negative confession that caused God to respond, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you.” (Numbers 14:28) The children of Israel had nothing positive to say when the journey seems to be challenging but negative such as calling for death. A barren Shunammite woman was in a location where she positioned herself to be a blessing to the Man of God Elisha. When Elisha decided to return to her with favor, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, suggested that she was barren and her husband was old. Elisha prayed for the woman and she conceived and had a son. The child grew and one day he had a headache while he was with his father and the father sent him to his mother, “When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.” (2 Kings 4:20) The child died and the Shunammite woman decided to go and look for Elisha and her husband said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.” And she said, “It is well.” (2 Kings 4:23). Knowing fully well that the child is dead, she did not confess any negative. When she approached Elisha, Elisha sent his servant, “Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” And she answered, “It is well.”(2Kings 4:26) The Shunammite woman repeatedly confessed positive, she had the right word at the rough time; she refused to allow her challenge to take over her. Always confess positive in the face of every negative challenge.

Prayer for today: Ask God for a quickening mind to always confess positive.

FAITH CAPSULE: Complaining instead of complimenting could cause greater pain than what you are complaining about.

Numbers 14

Are you complaining about what you have not yet received this year? Regardless of what your challenges are, know for sure that complaining does not settle well before God. Complaining is sin and God will not overlook sin. He did not overlook it when the children of Israel complained against Him then, and He will not overlook it now. Complaining instead of complimenting the work of His hand could cause greater pain than what you are complaining about. For the children of Israel, a journey of eleven days went on and on for forty years. It was not forty hours or forty days. Neither was it forty weeks or forty months, but forty years. The children of Israel were to travel through the wilderness to their Promised Land for eleven days, but the journey went on for forty years. Are you experiencing a time of wandering around in a wilderness situation? Have you been complaining in any way that you have taken? Wilderness is a route to pass through, but not to live like the children of Israel did. Wilderness journey is not a journey that you plan for but a journey that puts you in the plan of God for your life. Wilderness journey is a journey of trial and temptation and it is the only avenue that leads from the promise of God to getting to God’s Promised Land for His children. It is a process ground for the promises of God. An attempt to avoid the wilderness journey will make a believer become a wanderer and not a wonder in the area of divine calling. In the wilderness journey, a failure to progress by faith will lead to a passing on to termination. The complaining of the generation that came out of Egypt caused them to live, wandered and died in their wilderness journey. Acts of complaining are acts of rebellion, self-destruction, and termination. Are you complaining about your situation? God responded to complaining in Numbers 14:22-23, “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it.” God promised to take them to the Promised Land. He showed them great and mighty signs in Egypt, and on their way out of Egypt. Can you count your blessings so far this year? If you cannot, begin to meditate on the testimonies of God. His testimonies are more than enough to transport and bring you out of your challenges to the promises of God for your life. 

Prayer for today: Ask God for deliverance from the spirit that causes one to complain.

FAITH CAPSULE:To fear God should not only be in word memorization.

Psalm 112

Having being blessed with wisdom and knowledge from God, King Solomon was able to enjoy all the finer things that life had to offer. Despite God’s blessing, he turned from God’s commandments and later came to this conclusion, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandment, for this is man’s all.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13) Without a doubt and by virtue of Solomon’s report, keeping the commandments of God can be impossible without fearing Him. Also fearing God is all that matters to live a blessed life. To fear God is to love God; to love God is to know God; to know God is to wait on God. Isaiah 40:31 stated, “But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” In fearing God, there is more to gain and nothing to lose. In this world of wickedness, the wisdom to navigate successfully and the wisdom to run and not walk where situation demands running is inhabited in the fear of God. Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” To fear God should not only be in word memorization but word meditation which brings forth manifestation. The word of God is consistently true, “The fear of Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; he will not be visited with evil.” (Proverbs 19:23) Fearing God is not a fake-able task, those that truly fear Him shows the evidence by their day to day actions. Blessing to fear God cannot be emphasized enough as mentioned in Psalm 112:1, “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.” Fearing God is a blessing, it is not a thing of determination. Determination failed Peter when he denied Jesus three times as predicted by Jesus. Where there is a desire God is the one that will deposit what it takes to fear Him. God spoke in Jeremiah 32:40, “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.” As an acclaimed believer desire the fear of God and it will be deposited in you. Are you (speaking of others) a gossiper? How about switching from gossiping about others to gossiping about the Lord? The Bible encourages gossiping about God when it states, “…those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.” (Malachi 3:16) Indeed there is nothing to live for but the fear of the Lord.

Prayer for today: Ask God to put His fear in your heart.

 FAITH CAPSULE: Temptation, confrontation, aggravation, only increase when one’s journey gets closer to the Promised Land.

Numbers 20: 1-13 

Temptation, confrontation, aggravation and every other agent of termination will bring forth failure or untimely death. Agents of termination never cease in every journey especially when the journey is of God. Temptation, confrontation, aggravation, (agents of distraction) only increase when one’s journey gets closer to the Promised Land. However, as much as the work of the agents of termination persists, God will also continue to give mercy to carry you through. God’s mercy will not and does not run out; it is only His creation that often runs out of His mercy. The higher the level of your calling, the greater the level and the intensity of the enemy will be in attempt to stop or deny the manifestation of your calling. Moses was called by God to lead the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years. Moses’ calling was close to touching God, but yet the enemy made him to exhaust patience. God, however, did not allow the enemy to be exalted over his life when He allowed him to see the land but not to step on the land. From the beginning to the end of his calling, it was an encounter with the enemy using the children of Israel as the instrument of getting to Moses. Rebellious acts were the pattern that was consistently used, but Moses was always on top of it. At the Red Sea, the crying and the fear in the life of the children of Israel was enough a provocation for Moses, but it did not prevail. As they complained and confessed negative against Moses for hunger so they did for water and every other discomfort in their journey. It is written, “Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. And the people contended with Moses and spoke, saying: “If only we had died when our brethren died before the LORD! Why have you brought up the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? (Numbers 20:2-5)This kind of provocative complaint cost Moses his Promised Land. Moses’ response to the pressure of providing water from the rock was not in line with God’s direction. Having flourished in overcoming many confrontations and aggravations, Moses faltered just at one of the last stops before getting into the Promised Land. Moses spoke and struck the rock with rod instead of just speaking as the Lord commanded. You are closer to your miracle than when you first started the journey. In your last step to where God is taking you, be very conscious, focus and not to falter.

Prayer for today: Ask God to help you in keeping His word and obeying His command that you may stand and not fall.

FAITH CAPSULE: Crowd clouds destiny.
Luke 19:1-10

So many love to call on Jesus but very few are willing to pay the price to invite Him into their house. The price to pay in getting an invitation across to Him is way too much for the majority because of sacrificial demand that is not convenient. Also, there are too many invitation interceptor and they are deliberate weapons to deny anyone’s attempt to invite Jesus into their house. Zacchaeus was a tax collector with every form of limitations that can deny anyone from getting invitation across to Jesus. Tax collectors were hated because they have the reputation of overcharging and they were considered as dishonest people. Besides his status as a tax collector, his stature was also a challenge in his attempt to get his invitation across to Jesus. It is written in Luke 19:3-4, “And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.” Zacchaeus was short and he was in the midst of crowd. Zacchaeus needed to see Jesus because his seeing Jesus would help to deliver his invitation to Jesus. The crowd and his short stature stood between him and Jesus. Just like Zacchaeus, the crowd is all that surrounds you; the crowd is everything that is taking away your time for Jesus and the crowd is all that is clouding you from seeing and to understand the need to spend more time in His presence. The crowd in place does not settle well with a short stature. With the crowd in place and short stature a factor, that puts Jesus in a far location from you. Zacchaeus acknowledged his great dilemma and knew that without making an uncommon move, Jesus would never receive His invitation. As a result he refused to accommodate his dilemmas. “And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him,[ and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.” (Luke 19:5-6) Do you sincerely desire to have Jesus invited into your house? Just like Zacchaeus did, all believers can do. By getting away from every representation of a crowd and by looking for a higher ground or place where Jesus is conversant, where He is always passing through. In all Zacchaeus’ running and climbing, his invitation came to Jesus and Jesus became a guest to Zacchaeus.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace that will enable you to give all that it takes to invite Jesus into your house.