FAITH CAPSULE: Jesus will arrest at His will. 

Acts 9

Celebrating the birth of Jesus without surrendering to the word of God is not complete but is living a wasted life.
Apostle Saul (Paul) was an illustrious murderer of followers of Christ.
On his journey, he surrendered to Christ, and his name changed to Paul, titled Apostle Paul.
He became a celebrated writer of the New Testament.
Apostle Paul was the writer of most of the New Testament.
Paul surrendered to Jesus despite his passion to go after followers of Christ to persecute them.
By your words or actions, are you surrendered to Christ, not a persecutor of the followers of Christ?
Are you an acclaimed believer of God but not surrendered to Him?
Your surrendering for Christ is coming.
Paul went after the followers of Christ to persecute them when the Spirit of God arrested him.
Acts 9:1-2 documented, “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
Saul (Paul) was full of threats and murder agenda against the disciples of the Lord.
He had permission from the high priest to the synagogues of Damascus to find the man or woman and bind them to Jerusalem.
Interestingly, he lost sight and became surrendered unto Jesus.
Saul (Paul) was a serious-minded persecutor of the followers of Christ as he went outside of his area looking for followers of Christ to persecute. Saul’s mission to Damascus encountered the power he surrendered to. From persecutor to a propagator of the kingdom of God’s business became the identity of Paul (Saul).
Without a doubt, no man under heaven is above God’s redirection.
God’s direction will reverse the irreversible.
The agenda of Saul brought him to Damascus when “…suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.” (Acts 9:3)
In the light shone, Saul (Paul) encountered, to become surrendered to Jesus.
Saul (Paul) trembled but requested from the Lord what to do for the Lord. 
The Bible records Saul’s surrender, “Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” (Acts 9:8-9)
After Saul’s surrender to Christ, Saul (Paul) gained a new sight; he took steps to serve God; Saul answered to a new name (Paul). God will put you to surrender in His time.
Man can run and will not hide for the only Creator of man.
God will arrest man in His time and in His way. 
Surrender to Jesus to live a life of celebrating Him continually  

Prayer for today: Pray that you live life to the glory of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Asking will deliver answering as a solution to a question.

Daniel 3

The book of Matthew 7:7-8 informs, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  
The word of Jesus informs all there is no unfailing answer.
The responses for answering, seeking, or knocking are YES, WAIT, or NO.
Are you waiting for an answer to your asking, seeking of knocking?
Do you know to wait for an answer without giving up not to gain expectations?
The key to waiting is to wait patiently.
David testifies to his waiting experience before God, stating, “I waited patiently for the Lord, And He inclined to me and heard my cry.” (Psalmm 40:1)
In the New Testament, James gave an analogy of waiting patiently on waiting for expectation before God.
James 5:7 records, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”
Know to be waiting patiently to get an answer from God.
What is stopping you from asking from God?
Can it be that you are asking from God in doubt?
One with boldness and character in the word of God will know to ask from God and not doubt but receive from God.
The three friends of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, had the knowledge of God in His word that built boldness and character to ask with expectation.
When three friends refused to serve or worship the gold image, marked with an untimely death by the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, the word of God answered for them as a garment of deliverance.
Daniel 3:16-18 records, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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.” The answer to the three friends prompted deliverance from death in the burning fiery fire.
In life, asking will deliver an answer.
How are you asking from God in your time of challenges?
Are you asking wrongly?
The Bible makes all realize the possibility of asking wrongly. James 4:3 states, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
Three friends asked by seeking God for His glory in their deliverance.
Asking of three friends delivered them from untimely and sudden death in a burning fire as the unbeliever Nebuchadnezzar testified the glory of God.

Prayer for today: Pray to be praying from the depth of your heart, by the word of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is a caring God and is worthy to wait on Him.

Matthew 7

In waiting, ask, seek, and knock persistently for God’s appointed time to experience the opening of God in your manifestation for expectation.
Waiting on God is not a waste of time, but believing in the word of God. The Word of God might sound foolish but do not fail in God.
It is the word of God to ask, seek and knock.
Asking, Seeking, and Knocking for an answer from God is evidence of having faith in God and looking up to Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 records, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus is the author of our faith, has given to all the way to receive by stating, “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 receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
Waiting on God demands trusting and hoping by asking, seeking, and knocking before the manifestation of expectation. When there is no waiting on God, man always rushes away from God’s answer and turns to waste.
King Saul could not wait as instructed for him to receive his expectation.
To obey and wait is to trust and hope in God. Saul could not wait on God.
Waiting for God is giving attention to a jealous God.
Psalmist admonishes, “Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed…” (Psalm 25:3)
A believer in God must understand waiting before God.
Waiting can be a delay but never a waste of time.
God testifies about David when Saul fails to wait on God. God spoke to Saul’s disobedience through Samuel, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (1 Samuel 13:14)
David knows the heart of God and understands what it means as he consistently obeys God by waiting on God before making his moves.
The Bible records about a prodigal son who could not wait for God’s timing, “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” (Luke 15:11-13)
Younger son could not wait for the appointed time to receive the good that fell to him.
Indirectly, the prodigal son moves outside of the timing of God for his life.
Ask, seek, and knock persistently for God’s appointed time.

Prayer for today: Ask that the understanding and strength to wait on God shall be your portion.

FAITH CAPSULE: God will fight for you!

1 Samuel 17:25-49

David fears God and becomes qualified to call and get support from God against his confronting giant.
Daily life journey is not without a representative of a giant.
Encountering giants in all going and coming is inescapable, but one with the testimony of God is bound not to be a victim of the giant Goliath of this world.
David, a young shepherd, could not avoid Goliath before arrival at the calling of God.
When David encountered Goliath, he refused to take on any form of weapon from the world against Goliath.
David considered the weapons before him as burdensome. 
As a result, David turned to heaven as his source of weapons to battle his giant. 1 Samuel 17:45 records, “Then David said to the Philistines, ‘You have come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled’”
Today, go and lift your voice to Almighty God. 
Speak to the giant that you have come to deal with him in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.
Confronting any representative of a giant does not require the world to fight on your behalf, but the name of the living God is more than enough.
Call on His name in just the same manner as David did.
In your calling, declare what you want to become of a giant before you.
After David had called on the name of God, he declared the kind of day he had wanted for the giant (Goliath) by saying, “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” (1 Samuel 17:46)
The same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is alive and active today.
He is still in the business of answering prayer if you will believe and commit Him in prayer.
Jehovah God will fight for your battle.
Gain an understanding of God as One that will fight on your behalf.
Above all, the fear of David qualified him to call and get the support of God against his giant Goliath.
Are you walking before God or outside of God?
Deuteronomy 13:4 buttresses, “You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.”
Walk before God is walking after God.

Prayer for today: Ask that you be enabled to live to fear God.

FAITH CAPSULE: In the mercy of God, there is His favor.

Genesis 19

God is a good God.
God is a perfect God.
God oversees the affairs of all.
Revelation 4:11 identifies God, “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”
God is a caring God that will not look away from His children.
It is foolish not to know that God hears and sees all.
Psalm 94:9 points out the understanding, “He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?”
God hears and sees, not to ignore the cries before Him. God answers with yes, no, or wait.
God is a merciful God, and mercy belongs to Him alone.
In His mercy is His favor.
God told Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)
God is a merciful God.
Finding God with favor will encounter His deliverance,
Lot found favor of God for deliverance.
LOT AND THE INCREASED MERCY OF GOD
Lot received the message of deliverance to escape untimely death.
The challenge of Lot at the land of sin and iniquity (Sodom and Gomorrah) demands an escape.
In the plan of God to escape, Lot lingered, not moving as commanded.
Indeed, Lot realized and testified in Genesis 19:19, “Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life…”
Ask that for the remainder of this year, you find favor in the sight of God and not be a victim of sin and iniquity.
Lot found favor before God and could not be a victim of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Lot delayed the command of God to deliver him, but the favor of God delivered him.  
Mary could have been a victim of fear not to become the mother of Jesus, but she found favor from God. Luke 1:30, “Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
Pray against the spirit of the fear of this word not having a place in your life to miss in the divine assignment of God in life.
In the Book of Ruth 2:10, Ruth testifies to having found favor in the eyes of God and being noticed by God.
Ask God for His favor to notice your crying and bring you out of all forces militating against your life.
Lot found favor that delivered increased mercy of God for his deliverance. (Genesis 19:19)

Prayer for today:  Ask for the favor of God that will grant you increased mercy and not become a victim of doubt or reluctance to obey the word of God for deliverance and preservation.
Ask that this month and the coming month, the mercy of God will answer for you to gain the presence of God over your life in all your endeavors.