WORK THE WORK
John 6:22-29

Luke 4:32, “And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.” As an acclaimed follower of Jesus Christ, are you teaching or ministering the word of God in your daily walk? A Christian does not necessarily have to be an ordained pastor or bishop before going about and ministering the word. However, it is important that the word that is being ministered is backed with the power of God. In most cases, ministering the word no longer have the backing of power that is enough to set a captive free and the sick comes into church and leave to go back home still sick. You wonder what is going on with the Word of God. The Word of God is still the same and it has not change, it is the world that is changing from the Word. Also, a believer that does not work for the Word, the Word will not work for such believer. Jesus’ disciples once asked Him, John 6:28, “What shall we do, that we may work the work of God?” Have you ever figured out what has to be done to work the work? John 6:29, “Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.” When there is no trust, there will be no obedience to the Word. Without obedience, faith is absent and belief does not have a place to reside. It is not possible to pick and choose the work that is convenient for us and get the result that is inhabited in working the word of God. To see the word backed with power requires a full commitment to working the work of God which is in following Him fully. While Jesus was on the face of earth many came to Jesus, but very few followed Him. Today, many claim to know about Him but few actually know Him. Can you locate where you are in your faith? Are you following Him or are you flowing with those that are actually following Him? The price is too costly to follow. Christianity today is convenience, not commitment from the heart. The most glaring identity of Christians, the self-acclaimed born again today is: lying, manipulation and deception. Among the believers, the sign does not follow any more because lifestyles do not reflect and character can not carry the one that is following the Master. Many acclaimed believers are very much conversant to the Word of God, but they no longer let the Word convert and use them. Billy Graham once said that, if the Holy Spirit is taken out of the church, 95% of church activities would be going on without any noticeable change. God, however, in His infinite mercy, continues to be patient with His children. Today is a day of self-examination; to work the work is to be-living (believe) the word of God. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In the same book of Romans, it is also stated, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? ( Romans 6:1) Let us ask Him for enablement to follow Him fully.

COURAGE AND CHARACTER
Daniel 1

It is written in John 10:10, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” He has already come that we may have life and that we may have it more abundantly. It is not a command to have life, but it is rather of choice to take what He has made available for us. He has spoken and He will not increase or lower His standard if we make the right choice to do what it takes to have the life He brought for us. How are you taking to the word of His provision? Are you positioning yourself in the word of God so as to pass into His promise or are you positioning yourself outside of His word so as to miss it diligently? The grace to take the life that Jesus brought is not just by memorizing the word of God because memorization without meditation will not bring forth any result. However, having been able to meditate is what will make us to be able to observe and do the word that will bring forth the result of His promise. 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Without the operation of courage and character that is in the word of God, it will be absolutely impossible to take the life that Jesus has made available for us. It only takes courage and character to live the life of abundance. Life of abundance is a life that is full of the power of God, love and of a sound mind. Daniel lived a life of abundance. He was unshakeable in all decision-making and that obedience set him up to be in the center of his divine assignment. Daniel, when he was to be down in self-pity after having become a captive at a young age, rather encouraged himself by trusting God enough to reject what does not glorify God. Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” After this response of Daniel, his story changed for good because he provoked the hand of God and while in captivity, lack could not have a way in his life; only abundance could. Daniel 1:9, “Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.” How could life be more abundant than to have favor and goodwill while in captivity? Daniel had the courage and the character that is rooted in trust in God and as a result, nothing could have possibly brought him down. Do you lack the courage and character that is rooted in the word of God? Is it a desire for you to have a life of abundance? Ask God today for He alone can deposit your desire in you.

GOD LEADS
Exodus 13:17-22

God alone is the Leading Leader who will not fail or abandon His own children in our time of challenging journey. God is the way and the truth that places those who go by His way on a right footing. When God leads, there is no shortcut or cutting short, but the journey can be shorter than expected when there is no rebellion and/or an act complaint. The children of Israel, coming out of bondage of over four hundred years, could not make their long journey short because of their rebellious act of complaint. Exodus 13:17, “Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” No matter how long a journey is or how challenging such journey can be, when you let God take the lead, the journey will eventually turn out to be like the shortest journey that has ever been made. When God decides to take you through a journey, any attempt to take a shortcut will eventually cause the one on the journey to be cut off short. That is to say: avoid a shortcut so that you will not end up being cut short and not get to the expected end. He that created the whole world that inhabits different ways and locations surely knows the way to avoid and the ways not to avoid. Why worry about how long the way ahead is going to be or worry about why you have been in the journey for what seems to be such a long way? Here with the children of Israel, God deliberately choose to lead the children of Israel in the way of life and not of war. No one among the children of Israel, not even Moses, could have seen the better way than the Only One who is called the Leading Leader and the Almighty God who never fails. When God took the leadership role concerning which way the children of Israel were to go, it was the longer road not the shorter one. It was a way that was to keep them from losing their mind by what they saw. God avoided the land of the Philistines that was near, “So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 13:18) God knows what He is doing concerning the journey you are in and concerning the challenges that seem to have no end in your life. Just because you know that He knows, you can consider your way safe and secure. Today, if you will learn from the children of Israel who left Egypt, you will know not to be rebellious in the way He is leading you or else you will be cut short from getting to the expected end just like those who left Egypt. Be content trusting God on your journey because it is well in the Name of Jesus.

BLESSING OF GOD
Joshua 14

Jesus Christ, the very love of God, came without any condition. He came in love for love that we may have life and have it through His salvation plan. The blessing of God is the one that came with the condition that has to be in place before the blessing is manifested. God will always give His word and back it up by bringing it to pass. This is what makes Him the One and only true God. After forty years, the plans of God were still pending for Joshua. Joshua 14:7 – “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.” Caleb had remained in the walk that he was walking before God gave His word of blessing to him. Before He promised to bless you, have you been taking a conscious step in the direction of His word while you are waiting for the blessing? Are you still walking His walk? Have you taken any step to violate His promise? Caleb did not digress but rather progressed in walking the walk that moved the hand of God to what was promised for him. When it was time for the manifestation of the promise of God for Caleb’s life, he was still walking in the center of God’s assignment for his life. Are you in the center of His assignment for your life? It is never too late to call on Him and ask for His mercy if you have stepped outside of His line that leads to the center of His blessings for your life. After forty years, His plan for Caleb did not change one bit. God and only God can be so perfectly constant and consistent in delivering all He has promised to do. God will not only bless, but His blessings always come without any iota of pain or regret. Proverbs 10:22, “The blessing of the LORD makes one to rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” When it was time for Caleb to inherit and possess all that the Lord had promised him, he was as strong as he was when the promise was made mentioned by God. After forty years, Caleb was so sure of his strength that he testified, “As yet I am strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both going out and coming in.” (Joshua 14:11) After forty years, nothing was on ground to rob Caleb of the Lord’s promise of blessing neither was there any reason that made him to receive what the Lord had for him in pain and/or grief. The word of God is true and His promises always come without sorrow. Has the Lord promised and not yet done it in your life? He is a faithful God and He will never fail to deliver except there is a failure in your receiving department. Play your part and God will act His word and do His part.

TRUST NOT RUST
Joshua 14

Trust is easier said than done among the believers and non-believers. Trusting God is not to rush, but rather to rest on the promises of God that never fail. Trusting God in the absence of nothing can be challenging and trusting God when time is absolutely not on our side can be exhausting. Trusting on God for a way where there is no pathway can be exceedingly stressful. However, in the journey of life and through the wilderness of life, the only way out to the expected end is rooted in trusting God to show up at every juncture where there is no sign for survival. Caleb and Joshua were the only survivors among thousands of the children of Israel who left Egypt going towards the Promised Land. Both Caleb and Joshua were able to survive because they saw hope where there was no hope. They remembered what the Lord had done and that provoked in them what the Lord was and is capable of doing. As a result of their conviction, they took an odd stand among their brethren who failed to see hope. Purpose in your heart today that it will not matter if you are the only one who takes a stand, even among thousands, on the promises of God to bring to manifestation the Word of His mouth. Caleb stated in Joshua 14:7, “I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart.” In this statement of Caleb, it cannot be confused that trust is heart activated and mouth driven. Trust is not just a thing of the mouth, but it is also from the heart. If it is not rooted in the heart, it will not stand no matter how loud or consistent it is being voiced out. The people who went to spy the land with Caleb and Joshua failed to trust in the heart and did only from the mouth. Caleb testified, “Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the LORD my God.” (Joshua 14:8) Trust will not only deliver needs, but it will also bring preservation that cannot be substituted in any way neither can it be compared in any form. Because he was able to trust, it became possible for Caleb to wait and not waste in the promises of God. He was kept by God based on the level of his trust in what God can do. Joshua 14:10, “And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old.” Caleb was able to testify to the grace of preservation because he trusted in God. There is no other way out to the expected end but only trusting in God. Until trusting God graduates from your mouth to the heart, you are only operating in your own understanding.