FAITH CAPSULE: There is nothing that can easily distort a believer’s destiny like sleep.

Joshua 6:1-21

The Psalmist stated, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You.” (Psalm 63:1) Also, the Book of Isaiah stated, “With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early.” (Isaiah 26:9) Evidently, seeking God early is not a secret to those that spend time in His Word. Just as rising early is for us to seek His voice, He also wants to speak to us early. God expressed His desire to speak to us early when He spoke in the book of Jeremiah, “For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, “Obey My voice.” (Jeremiah 11:7)Without a doubt, an early hour of the day is not a sleeping hour for any believer who understands that speaking to God and hearing from God should be a regular part of their life. It is important to know there is nothing that can easily distort a believer’s destiny like sleep. Are you a believer that likes to sleep during the early hour into the late hour of the day? The main agenda of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy. One that likes to steal will not strike when he can be stopped but rather will strike at the sleeping hour. Sleep will do what the devil wants to do and that is to distort one who loves to sleep. In these days of horrendous challenges, a believer does have a need for seeking God early because it is evident that an early hour more than any other hour is a time to seek and hear from God. The Bible recorded in Genesis 22 that when God called Abraham to go and sacrifice Isaac, he responded early in the day. It is written, “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.” (Genesis 22:3) Seeking God is obeying God. Abraham consistently sought Him early. Joshua and many others with great exploits patterned their seeking God to early rising because of their experience with the move of God. Moses, at the time of receiving the commandment, had a rising early encounter as it was recorded, “…Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there…” (Exodus 34:4-5) Pattern your day with rising early and God will not fail in responding to you. 

Prayer for today: O Lord, deliver me from sleep that distort man’s destiny on earth.

FAITH CAPSULE: Insist on your miracle and persist in expectation.

Luke 11:1-13

Have you been calling but have not yet seen the hand of God move in your direction? Not haven’t seen His hand move in your direction is not an indication that His hand will not eventually move for you. God is God and He clearly knows your deadline. He will not fail to respond on your behalf. Keep faith! Do not give up because He does have early hour and the eleventh hour of responding. The more reason why giving up is not a solution is because there is no other one to look up to but the One and Almighty God. He declared in Isaiah 45:22, “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”What this means is to be persistent in looking up and not down for God in His mercy will eventually look down to reach you. If giving attention to a jealous one is an antidote to jealousy, being persistent in asking will get the attention of the jealous one. When you are asking, remember that God is a jealous God. As a result, give your attention by being persistent in your asking. Jesus narrated a story, “And He said to them, ’Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.” (Luke 11:5-8) The story of Jesus depicts to us the importance and the need to be persistent and not give up on looking up to God. Psalm 145:15 states that, “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season.” Looking up and not giving up from looking up is persistency. God is a good God and will not fail to honor His Word. Looking up to God is waiting on Him. Isaiah 64:4 stated, “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”Be encouraged and not be discouraged. Insist on your miracle and persist in expectation. It is not time to give up.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to persist in your expectation.

FAITH CAPSULE: “In sin there is no grade. No small lying or big lying, but all lying is sin.”

Luke 22:31-62

Among acclaimed believers in the Word of God, lying, deception and manipulation are conspicuous in every area of daily interaction. Also, unbelievers cannot be excused from being identified with lying, deception and manipulation. The three are without doubt agents of the wicked one; the father of all lies. As a believer, if you will be honest with yourself, search and see if any of the three lodges within you. The truth about the three is that if you are a liar you can be very true to yourself that deception and manipulation does have a part in you as well. It can be concluded that none of the three (lying, deception manipulation) can be separated from each other because they belong to the same master. Just as lying is lying, so is deception is deception and manipulation is manipulation. In sin there is no grade. No small lying or big lying, but all lying is sin. However, sinful acts do not discriminate as to who to activate themselves in. Jesus once predicted, “…Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. But he said to Him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.’ Then He said, ’I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.’” (Luke 22:31-34) Indeed and in truth, just as it was predicted by Jesus, so it was when Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed. The point here is that if Peter, who saw it all in Jesus, could deny Jesus in a deceptive way every believer should take a serious watch. When Peter was approached, he bluntly denied Jesus deceptively. In one of his denying response to a woman he stated, “Woman, I do not know Him.” (Luke 22:57) A clear deception was Peter’s way of relating to the Master. It can be concluded that lying or deception is a failed faith. The word of Jesus was true when He predicted the action of Peter and backed it up by stating, “I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail”. Consider how often you have been denying him by your ways of life around fellow believers and unbelievers. The good thing about Peter was that he came out of it and did not remain trapped in the sinful act. We can always come out just like Peter did if there is sincere repentance in our hearts and actions. However, we are not to continue in sin that grace may be abounded. (Romans 6:1-2)

Prayer for today: Today I ask O Lord my God help me and do not allow my faith to fail.

FAITH CAPSULE: God can choose to delay His judgment but He cannot be deceived.

Proverbs 6

Do you care to know if you are wicked? Jeremiah posted his question before God, “…Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?” (Jeremiah 12:1) After his question, he followed through by identifying the character of the wicked. “You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind.” (Jeremiah 1:2) Inside the character of the wicked ones as identified by Jeremiah is knowledge of God with the Word of God near in their mouth, but with the Word far from their heart. Indeed, it is pure wickedness to be near Him by having the Word in your mouth but doing with your heart all that is against the Word of God. Are you wicked? Do you speak the Word on Sunday and speak another from Monday through Saturday? God can choose to delay His judgment, but He cannot be deceived. The identity of the wicked cannot be emphasized enough as in Proverbs 6:2, “A worthless person, a wicked mouth man, walks with a perverse mouth.”  If you are one considering that none of the above can be identified in you, it is better to look further into six characters of the wicked ones as identified in Proverbs 6:13-15. The first one is winking with his eyes. There are many that will run into you with the Bible in one hand and show you a flash of light winking, but it does not come from the heart; just from the eyes. The second one is shuffling his feet. This is an ambiguous trick to deceive a fellow brother by making you think they are there while they are not. The third one is pointing fingers. A demonstration of pride is the inability to accept fault. The fourth one is perversity in the heart. This entails being persistent in what is wrong. Only pride will make man to be persistent in what is wrong. The fifth one is devising evil continually. When there is no application of the Word of God, to continually operate as evil genius becomes inevitable. Lastly, the wicked sows discord. Those who seek discord are self-seekers and do not love. Not loving is an act wickedness. As a believer, do not assume escape if you have engaged in any character of the wicked. The portion of the wicked one as stated in Proverbs 6:15 is, “Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.”

Prayer for today: Search my heart O Lord and see if there is wickedness in me. Deliver me and lead me in the way everlasting.

FAITH CAPSULE: The devil will not shy from attempting you, but failure is his portion.

Matthew 6:25-34, Luke 10:38-42

Heaviness is a spirit and one of devil’s strategies to terminate man from the journey of life. Inhabited in the spirit of heaviness are: worry, trouble, concern, anxiety and many more. The devil is stubborn and never shy to attempt man. Although his attempt is not a guarantee to terminate you, he will not stop looking for opportune times to try. Once, he attempted Jesus but failed. In the devil’s failure, the Bible records, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13) The point here is that the devil will not shy from attempting you, but failure is his portion. Is heaviness having a place in you without your knowing? Could be that you have invited Jesus into your house but do not know that heaviness agents are at work. Martha invited Jesus into her house, but then agents of heaviness were also in disguise as guests. The Bible records that Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. (Luke 10:39) While Jesus was in the house, Martha was overwhelmingly distracted and had to take her complaint to Jesus.  She said, “…Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” (Luke 10:40) Martha welcomed Jesus into the house while forces of heaviness were also active in the house. Does this sound like you? Jesus, the Lord of all, knows all and He identified the problem of Martha with the response, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.”(Luke 10:41) In Martha’s helping and operating as one that enjoyed serving the Lord and Savior, worry and trouble, the avenue for heaviness, was at work in Martha’s (house) life. Can you carefully examine yourself, identify and deny the silent agent of the spirit of heaviness in your life. If Martha, with Jesus in the house, could be trapped, not even your title in the church would be enough for you to take a cover from the spirit of heaviness. It does not matter what your concern or worry is because Jesus said not to worry about your life or about anything because with worrying, heaviness will have its place. Heaviness will derail the flow of fellowship at every given time you have given yourself to it. Heaviness will not announce itself before or during his visitation because it is the character of the thief that has come to steal, kill and to destroy. Listen to the Word of God from Paul, the apostle, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Prayer for today: Deliver me O Lord from every spirit of heaviness.