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.

FAITH CAPSULE: Declare the word of God to decorate your destiny for the glory of God.

2 Chronicles 18 

Declaring the word of God is the character of those who know God.
Those who know God fear God and are conversant in the secret place of God. 
A child who truly fears and dwells in the presence of His father does not take a step away from the presence of God without inquiring from the father, who knows much better. 
The Psalmist states: The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. (Psalm 25:14) 
To live in the fear of God is evidence of self-conduct in this wicked world, not to become a victim. 
Growing in life continues from the time of birth to the time one departs from this world. 
No growing child who truly fears his father takes a step away from the presence of his father without asking for permission. 
Ask for permission comes with direction for taking steps or making moves that cannot fail. 
When faith comes into one, fear of God resides in such. 
To truly fear God testifies that one is faithful. 
King Ahab requested the assistance of King Jehoshaphat in the war against Ramoth Gilead. 
2 Chronicles 18:3 records, “So Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?” And he answered him, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war.”  
King Jehoshaphat wanted to support King Ahab but inquired from God before going to war. 
King Jehoshaphat responded to the request of Ahab, “…Please inquire for the word of the LORD today.” (2 Chronicles 18:4) 
Have you been consciously asking for direction from God in all your going?
Psalm 32:8 states, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” 
The word of God is not for decoration but a declaration to decorate man for a glorious destiny. 
Asking God for direction can be very challenging when there is a ready-made decision about what to do before asking. 
King Ahab knew what he wanted to do before King Jehoshaphat requested for inquiring God for direction. 
King Ahab set up his mind to go against Ramoth Gilead without inquiring from God and was not ready to move by the word of God. 
As requested by Jehoshaphat, King Ahab gathered prophets who answered his desire. 
The effort of King Jehoshaphat to get go by the direction of God was frustrated by King Ahab.
Ahab had the mindset to go by his desire and not by the instruction of God to direct him. 
King Ahab went to war outside of God and did not return from the war.

Prayer for the day: Ask that the spirit of God will continually answer over your endeavor.

Faith Capsule: None engaged the Way of God and ended in destruction. 

Exodus 33

Jesus is the Living Word of God that was with God in the beginning. 
John 1:1-3 records, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made.”  
The Word of God is God. 
The Word of God is also the Way of God. 
Jesus testified in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” 
The Way of God is the Word of God. 
Take to the way of God for Him to take you beyond your expectations.
Jesus is the Word of God for every believer. 
Walking the way of God allows the Word of God to take leadership. 
God cannot become deceived from the beginning to now.
God cannot become mocked by anyone.
God, the Creator of all, sees the ways of every man. 
Which of the ways are you going? 
The Way of God is in His ways, and His ways are in His words.
God has His way, and His ways are in His words. 
Any way outside the ways of God is the avenue to self-destruction. 
At a point when Moses was leading the children of Israel to the Promised Land, there was a need for him to know the ways to go under the leading of God.
Moses cried to God, “Now therefore, I pray if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” (Exodus 33:13) 
The way of God is deliverance, and it is preservation. 
Through the bible, none engaged the Way of God and ended up in destruction. 
The way of God is the presence of God. 
When there is a will or desire to walk in His ways, He will guide the feet to walk in His ways. 
I Samuel 2:9 buttresses, “He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength, no man shall prevail.” 
Walking in the ways of God is not by determination; it is only by the grace of God. 
Are you considering which ways you have been walking? 
Take to the way of God, and God will take you beyond your expectations.
Live a life that pleases God by walking in His ways because “When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7) 
The Lord God has given Word to be encouraged by going in the ways of God. 

Prayer for today: Ask to become open for the Word of God that leads in His ways.