FAITH CAPSULE: Count on God for your victory.

2 Chronicles 20

Praising God with understanding is a weapon for victory. 
Praising God will deliver victory than multitude in the face of battle. 
The multitude is not with assurance for victory. 
Are you counting on multitude for your victory in battle? 
Is it high numbers that have risen against you in battle?
Once, King Jehoshaphat of Judah had to confront a battle that he could not encounter. Jehoshaphat received a message of fear, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is EnGedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.” (2 Chronicles 20:2-3) 
The fear of the wicked world drove Jehoshaphat to seek God for deliverance from the multitude before him.
Who are you seeking for your deliverance from the wicked of your word?
The daily journey is a battleground. 
The daily battle comes with a multitude that can be powerful to engage but, with God, victory is certain. Without a doubt, seeking God with trust and hope will provoke God to battle on your behalf. 
Jehoshaphat feared God, sought God instead of seeking a multitude to fight his battle.
2 Chronicles 20:17 records the message for him to fight, “You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.” (2 Chronicles 20:17)
In the face of battle, with the fear for God, victory is in place to the glory of God.
2 Chronicles 20:21-22 records the plans of Jehoshaphat in God, against the enemy, “And when he had consulted with people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: Praise the LORD For His mercy endures forever. Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.” 
For Jehoshaphat, taking a position was to engage praise with understanding before God. 
Praising God with understanding brings man to the presence of God, where victory becomes undeniable. 
Jehoshaphat gained confidence by standing still as he prepared his people for the battle.
Jehoshaphat, seeking God with fear, gained an undeniable victory. 
The daily battle will come but plan to gain and maintain the presence of God will deliver. He is God that enthroned in the praises of His people. Psalm 22:3 buttresses, “But you are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.” Praise Him, and let victory become yours today. Get the understanding to be praising God as Psalm 47:7 records, “For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding.”

Prayer for today: Ask God to fill you with understanding to seek unfailingly.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you disregarding the calling of God?

Numbers 20

The Word of God is God. (John 1:1)
The command is His way.
The command of God, the way of God, the Word of God is His presence.
Are you giving yourself to the presence of God to occupy you?
Know to give yourself to the Word of God, be careful keeping to the ways of God.
Proverbs 19:16 admonishes, “He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, but he who is careless of his ways will die.”  
Give to the way of God that will guide you to arrive at the expected end without failure or destruction. 
Is it your ways that you are keeping instead of His ways? 
It is worthy not to look over the word of God as His command in every step of life. 
Jonah chose to look over the word of God, a careless choice to disobey God.
Jonah 1:1-3 documents, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of God, made his choice over the choice of God.
Jonah was careless for the word of God as he stumbled to a position of self-destruction. 
Regardless of any challenging situation, the business of Jonah was to answer as commanded by God.
Are you disregarding the calling of God?
1Thessalonian 5:24 warns, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
God called Moses out to lead the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years. 
Moses was careless not to be careful to the word of God. 
Moses reacted to the rebellious act of the children of Israel towards God instead of letting God be God against the wrong of the Israelites.
Moses took it upon himself to strike the rock instead of speaking to the rock for water. 
Before God, no excuse for wrongdoing before God.
There was no excuse for Moses before God when he took to his word above the word of God. 
God responded to Moses, “…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 20:12)
Do not be careless before God, be concerned, and not be corrupted in responding to the calling of God.
Disallow your concern; allow the command of God established. Regardless of who you are before God, remain careful consistently attend to God fully.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live life by the word of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: This month, occupy me, Lord God.

Joshua 1

Matthew 7:7-9 records the encouraging word of God for one with a desire to gain from God, to retain the presence of God, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?”
What is your desire that is good as asking for the presence of God to occupy the life He has given you?
With a desire, ask to be occupied by the presence of God. 
PRAY BEFORE GOD:
From this moment, through the new month, the days God bestowed upon you, ask for the presence of God to occupy you.
God is a prayer-answering, a caring father.
Revelation 3:20 records the caring of God wanting to enter, to occupy anyone with the desire for His presence, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Are you with a desire to be occupied by God?
Psalm 119:130 identifies one with a desire to be occupied by the presence of God shall experience the entrance of God into the life of such states, “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.”
The word of God is God. (John 1:1)
God is light. (1John 1:5)
Ask from God to occupy you that His presence shall take over your life from this moment.
Proverbs 6:22 records what to experience when one is occupied by the presence of God, “When you roam, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep you; And when you awake, they will speak with you.”
Know God, a position to be occupied by the presence of God.
One that knows to gain and maintain communication with God meditates continually, keeping the presence of God day and night.
God told Joshua, “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5)
God with one is the evidence of one that carries the presence of God.
Word of God testifies that He was with Moses.
Moses meditates the word of God day and night. Like Moses, Joshua also receives a command to meditate, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)
In this new month, are you with the desire to be occupied by the presence of God?

Prayer for today: Pray to give self to meditating the word of God, doing according to the word of God. 

FAITH CAPSULE: Embrace the hand of God not to miss His promise.

Deuteronomy 1:1-22

God shall see you through. 
God is a faithful God; lying is not in His character; deception does not have a place in Him or before Him.
Whatever God says He will do is a done deal. 
God is faithful to His Word. Jeremiah 29:11 records the word of God, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.” 
God that promises will purposely build one and not turn around to pull such down. 
The children of Israel had deliverance from the bondage of over four hundred years, evidence of God as a mighty Deliverer. 
The hand of God was carrying the Israelites to fulfill the possibility of His plan (Promised Land) but, the Israelites constantly fold up their hands not to receive and embrace the hands of God.
The sins of the Israelites folded their hands not to embrace the deliverance hand of God.
Moses encouraged the Israelites, “Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your father has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 1:21) 
The response of the Israelites to the encouraging of Moses was in vain.
They had a different mindset of getting to their Promise Land. 
They did not take to heart the word of Moses, the mouthpiece of God. The children of Israel were nearer to the Promised Land but, they were too far in the heart not to claim the promise of God. 
As the Israelites were supposed to be looking up to God, they turned to look at their challenges. 
In the journey of life, a challenge to claim the promise of God can be a distraction in life.
Without a doubt, distraction will deny, delay to destroy, and not claim the promise of God.
Why not unfold your hand to embrace the hand of God to carry you and see you through? 
Package your word with positive to ask for His intervention when negative comes like a storm to destroy. 
God will perform His promise with perfection. 
Do not look away from the promise of God not to miss out on the promise of God.
The Israelites did not respond to the direction of Moses that states, “Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come (Deuteronomy1:22).”
The plan and direction of God were to take the Israelites to their Promised Land but not to be paying attention to their world.
Has the Lord God spoken and not come to pass? 
Allow God to take you through just as He promised.

Prayer for today: Ask that the mercy of God shall answer for your life not to miss out on the promise of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: A lie of years is expose-able in a day.

2 Kings 5, Acts 5:1-11

There is no small lie or big lie.
A liar is a deceiver, a manipulator. 
Have you been getting away with lying or perfecting deceiving others for so long?
Have you convinced yourself that lying and deceiving others is not of God? 
Lying and deceiving can be destructive to the one telling lies as a way of life.
To be telling lies to deceive others reigns outside of the church or inside of the church. Acts 5:1-2 records, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” 
There is no indication that Ananias and Sapphira had to sell their possessions, and it was a demonstration of a voluntary move to sell their possessions. 
So, why lie? 
Are you a believer that will lie, fake, or deceive to get attention or to impress fellow believers? 
In life, every conduct of man is not hidden from God but accountable before God. 
Peter knew that Ananias and Sapphira were lying, faking, and deceiving. The Bible records, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?’” (Acts 5:4) 
What is worth doing for the Lord is worth doing truthfully in truth. 
Ananias and his wife might have engaged good intentions but lying as their garment exposed them naked and set them away from the presence of God. 
The bible states in Acts 5:5, “Then Ananias hearing these words fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.” 
Lying to deceive others took the life of Ananias and Sapphira. 
After the healing of Naaman, Elisha refused to accept gifts from Naaman. Without any direction from Elisha, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, deceitfully went after Naaman to tell lies, “My master sent me to say, ‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’” (2 Kings 5:22) 
Gehazi accepted a gift from Naaman outside of the direction of Elisha. Elisha knew and about the action of Gehazi.
Elisha responded to the deceptiveness of Gehazi, “…was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes—or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves? Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.” (2 Kings 5:26-27) 
Whenever lying and deceiving others goes unnoticed for years, it will only take one day for the truth to expose the years of telling lies. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver and preserve you from the spirit of lying.