Faith Capsule: Are you shutting your mouth when you need to cry out?

1 Samuel 1

Shouting out is not necessarily the same as crying out.
Calling loud can be a reasonable calling for attention.
At a time when law restricted the movement of lepers, ten lepers needed the attention of Jesus for their healing.
Luke 17:12-14 recorded, “Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.”  
Distance and the law that restricted the movement of Lepers were in place to deny the miracle of healing for ten lepers seeking healing from Jesus.
However, the ten lepers deny distance from denying them their miracle healing by staying afar to cry out for the attention of Jesus.
Jesus gave attention to the ten lepers for them to become cleansed.
Know to trust and hope to gain the visitation of God.
What is it that is standing between you and your miracle?
A thief is a representative of hindrance in the place of healing and deliverance.
John 10:10 records the word of Jesus, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.” 
As an acclaimed believer, let it be registered in you that the enemy cannot be more powerful.
Jesus came and paid it all on the cross for all with knowledge to engage Him, to gain from the abundant life He brought to all.
Crying out can be a reasonable means to gain the attention of God.
Psalm 81:10 testifies, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” 
One that cries out open mouth wide to gain the attention of God.
One who chose to remain quiet on the ground where help is available will not embrace miracle visitation.
The Ten Lepers could not be quiet but were loud when they lifted their voice and called for mercy.   
The Psalmist suggested receiving from God when he stated, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help.” (Psalm 121:1) 
How are you calling on Him?
Could it be Hannah must have been quiet, to herself in her prayers while enduring provocation from Peninnah when she was barren?
On one of her trips to Shiloh, as a result of the provocation she received from Peninnah, she cried to God like a drunkard.  
Eli must have been seeing Hannah coming to Shiloh every year, but in the year of her breakthrough, she prayed like a drunkard and was mistaken for a drunkard by Eli. 
You do not have to afford affliction but resolve affliction by crying out uncommonly, if possible, like a drunkard.  

Prayer for today: Ask God to incline His ear to your prayer.

FAITH CAPSULE: To have joy is a choice.

Philippians 1

Jesus, the living word of God, is the only source of joy for all. 
Jesus told His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11) 
It is a choice when open to become filled with the word for joy.
After Jesus, John, a disciple of Jesus, could not be quiet but confirmed the word of Jesus by stating, “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:4) 
Apostle Paul buttressed, “…Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.” (Philippians 1:18) 
Having joy through the word of God is the only source. 
Think, why are you not rejoicing always?
Is the word gaining entrance? 
Is the word enter to fill you up or to pass out not established in you?
Jesus wants the things He has spoken to gain entrance, established, and joy.
The fullness of joy grants access to the presence of God. 
The Psalmist pointed out, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11) 
The path of life is to have the joy of the Lord to gain and retain the presence of God.
One must be joyful because the word He has spoken is truth, and it can never return to Him void of performing what He says.
Has He promised and not done? 
One that is not rejoicing is the one with worrying, not with the word of God. 
One that has received the word and believes in the word shall have no place for worrying but rejoicing because He commanded, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33) 
What are the things that are causing you not to rejoice? 
Has the word not spoken that, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) 
In times of challenging things, why not engage the word of God, knowing that it will eventually work together as promised in the word of God? 
If you allow the spoken word to fill you and you become full of His word, joy, and rejoicing shall be your portion regardless of the challenging things of the world.

Prayer for today: Ask that you become filled by the word of God, the source of joy.

FAITH CAPSULE: Focus on your source for deliverance, not your surroundings.

Numbers 13

What do you see in confronting challenges?
What one sees determines what one receives. 
What one receives is what becomes of such.
The Israelites were not strangers to the wonders of their deliverance from the bondage of over four hundred years.
The Israelites saw how God dealt with Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt with ten painful plagues that prompted Pharaoh to allow their departure from bondage. 
As they advanced in their journey to the Promised Land, they could not focus on the source of their deliverance but on what they saw around them. 
During their journey, “…when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.” (Exodus 14:10) 
Are you one that lifts eyes to behold confronting challenges with negative confession? 
The Israelites saw fear and failed to cling to the testimonies of how they came out of Egypt. 
In response to what they saw, they confessed negatively by saying to Moses, “…Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11-12) 
How do you see your confronting challenge? 
Do not forget how far the Lord God has brought you.
The Israelites could not cling to the testimonies of their deliverance as they saw and confessed death in their journey. 
Testimonies experienced in your life should become your meditation.
 Psalm 119:2 states, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.”  
Seeing the positive in the face of the negative is evidence of seeking God. 
Joshua and Caleb could not see the negative when they went with their brethren to spy on the land. 
God promised the Israelites the Promised Land, but the spy went and could not keep the testimony of God, but confessed negatively to compromise and complicated the promise of God.
Deuteronomy 32:9-12 documents, “For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. So the Lord’s anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, ‘Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.” 
Joshua and Caleb kept the testimony of God and wholly followed God.

Prayer for today: Ask that the testimony of God shall become your way of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: The man with withered hand at the great and effective open door. 

Luke 6:1-19

With God on your side, an enemy cannot be more powerful.
At every avenue to a miracle breakthrough, adversaries will want to deny and derail one from possessing a miracle.
Apostle Paul testifies in 1 Corinthians 16:9, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”
An adversary is a force or one that opposes or attacks. 
An adversary is an enemy that wants no good to have a place in the life of no one. 
However, one thing is, one that is living for God, the enemy cannot be more powerful. 
The Bible records how adversaries attempted to deny a man with the withered hand at his point of miracle encounter, his restoration breakthrough. 
The book of Luke 6:6  states, “Now it happened on another Sabbath, also, that He entered the synagogue and taught. And a man was there whose right hand was withered.”
The man with the withered hand came across Jesus, but it was a Sabbath day when the Pharisees wanted to put Jesus to the test. 
The Pharisees wanted to find a charge against Jesus for healing the man with the withered hand. 
The man with the withered hand in the presence of Jesus had approached the open door as 1 Corinthians 16:9 confirms, “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”.
The withered man at the great and effective open door, the Pharisees were the adversary. 
In your open door to deliverance or breakthrough, is there any adversary in place attempting to deny you your deliverance? 
The man with the withered hand needed a breakthrough from the state of lack to a state of abundance, and mockery to miracle adversaries was in place for the miracle of the withered man to fail.
To be withered is not complete, but Jesus, the Restorer of the lost, changed the story of withered to healed man by making him whole. Jesus, the Restorer of all, ignored the adversaries.
Luke 6:10-11 records, “When He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. But they were filled with rage, and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.”  
In your life, what do you need to stretch out from? 
Before the withered man received his healing, the Bible records that Jesus said to him, “…Arise and stand here…” (Luke 6:8) 
The man with the withered hand answered Jesus without evidence or demonstration of doubt. 
He rose and gained wholeness of his hand. 
By the miracle of the withered man, Luke 6:11 records that the adversary “…Were filed with rage…” 
Are you willing to take a stand according to Jesus’ word and have your adversaries embrace their shame and disappointment? 
Stand for Jesus; receive your miracle, and have your adversaries become grounded and not rise again.     

Prayer for today: Ask God to frustrate all your adversaries.

FAITH CAPSULE: Life is a journey that can be unplanned.

Genesis 28

Life is a journey.
An unplanned journey can be exceedingly painful but often comes to a gainful end.
For Joseph, the errand to last for hours lasted over thirteen years. 
Jacob (Israel) called on his beloved son Joseph, “And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” So he said to him, “Here I am.” Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.” (Genesis 37:13-14) 
The errand took Joseph away at the age of seventeen. 
What a journey! 
What a life! 
A very long and unplanned journey can be very challenging. 
Are you on any unplanned journey? 
The truth is, it can be exceedingly painful, but it often comes to a gainful end. 
With Joseph, an unplanned journey took him to the center of his divine assignment in life. 
By the time he came back to his father, he was a man in a position of power. 
Joseph experienced a change of story that delivered his whole family from the famine of his time, and they could not suffer a time of the famine. 
Behind every glory is a story of the glory of God.
After Jacob stole the blessings of Esau, he took the position to experience the wrath of his brother by running for his life. 
A time of running can lead to repositioning a man for a glorious ending. The running of Jacob positioned him in an unplanned journey. 
The mother of Jacob gave him to flee to her brother Laban in Haran. Rebekah said to Jacob to go, “And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away,” (Genesis 27:44) 
Jacob entered the journey with no way of turning back.
It was a journey that took him to the center of divine assignment. 
Jacob engaged in the journey of his escape.
Genesis 28:10-12 records, “Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven, and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”  
The arrival of Jacob identified as a “certain” was the place for his divine encounter, a place of the visitation of God with assurance.
Arrival at a “certain place” is assurance to be the center of divine assignment for life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the mercy of God to keep you and not miss the arrival at the divine assignment.