SEE THE WORD AS YOU HEAR

It is written, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;  For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.” (Proverbs 4:20-22). In regard to the scriptural verses above, it is thoughtful to say that the word of God that one hears with ears and not able to see with eyes will not stay in one’s heart. Information that does not stay in the heart does not bring transformation. Word that gains position in the heart becomes an agent of manifestation. The word of God is meant to be retained in the heart because out of the heart comes forth the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). The Bible makes us realize that the words of God are life and not just letters. John 6:63 declared, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” 2 Corinthians 3:6, “…For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

How much does it require of you to begin to receive the word of God as life and not just letters? It is how you receive the word of God that will determine how it answers for you in this wicked world. If the word is received as life, just like you receive a direction to navigate your way to a destination, life will be straight forward at every juncture and void of getting lost. Citing an example of how you receive the word with your ear and see it with your eyes: If to get to point “A”, direction is being laid down for you by the one directing you, and you are also able to hear with your ears when and where to turn. Having heard with your ear, you begin to see in the midst of your heart where and when to turn. Your response to the one giving you direction will be “oh yes I see, I see”. When you begin to see before getting to the location of direction, then it means that the word of direction has entered your ears. Your eyes have seen it (before getting to the location directed) and it is already programmed in the midst of your heart.

What is making it difficult for man to receive the word of God as direction to engage the journey of life? A film director or producer that presented the movie, Passion of Christ was not alive when Jesus went to Calvary. However, he was able to receive the word with his ears and it became a picture which could be seen as if he was there. The picture that he produced was fitting and almost true to life because he must have seen the word which he heard. When word is communicated through reading or preaching, heart must receive and retain it to become see-able.

After the separation of Abraham from Lot, God told Abraham to see. Abraham must have seen it for it to become real for Him. “For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” (Genesis 13:15) The word that you receive and are able to see as being there will determine what you become. Job was repeatedly described by God as blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. (Job 1:1) He heard from God number of times but the striking difference was not made in his life until he was able to see the word spoken to him. He testified in Job 42:5-6, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” There is a need for the grace of having the eyes of the heart to open. When the eye of the heart is opened, word will begin to give a clear direction to navigate or engage the challenges of this world by the power encased in the word of God. Give attention to the word you receive, let your heart retain it and you will keep His command and have life abundantly.

FAITH CAPSULEThere is a need for the grace of having the eyes of the heart to open.

KEEP YOUR DESTINY IN SHAPE

To keep your destiny in shape and not miss God’s promise for your life, it is important that your thinking and spoken word are right before God.
What are you thinking?
The engagement of Jesus with a paralytic man teaches the need to pay attention to how we think.
A paralytic man was brought to Jesus for healing. The Bible documents that when Jesus saw the faith of those who brought the paralytic man, Jesus declared that his sins were forgiven. Just as Jesus made His declaration, some of the scribes said within them, “This man blasphemes!” (Matthew 9:3) It was not an outspoken statement but a statement in their inside; it was their thought. Jesus heard them despite the fact that it was in the in the heart. The Bible records Jesus’ response to their thinking. “But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘why do you think evil in your hearts?’” (Matthew 9:4) What are you thinking? As a creation that cannot hide from the Creator, are you shaping your destiny by thinking what is right and not evil? As a believer who trusts in God, in the face of challenges, are you thinking positive instead of negative? God sees and hears our thought clearly. In your thinking, let Him know that nothing is impossible and He shall be provoked to move on your behalf for a positive result. Our thoughts are not hidden from God and that’s why we should abstain from thinking anything evil but rather think good at all time. The Bible warned in Zechariah 8:17 “Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor…”
Before God, thinking negative is the same as thinking evil and God hates evil. Whatever we think is the evidence of how we keep our heart. This is the reason why the Bible warned us in Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. The Bible points out for us, know it that as a man thinks in his heart so he is (Proverbs 23:7) Think right and it becomes right for you.

KEEP YOUR HEART AND AVOID NEGATIVE THINKING
Among the ways to keep the heart is documented in Joshua 1:8, God spoke to Joshua after the death of Moses, “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.” The word of God that is power will not depart from your mouth only when it becomes what you think (meditate) on day and night. Meditate on His word day and night so that the word you meditate will flow out of your mouth. Occupy your thoughts with the word of God and your ways shall be prosperous with good success.

What are you saying?
What you say is your confession and it will find you out.
It is very important that you know and pay attention to what comes out of your mouth. When thinking right becomes of one, speaking right will become one’s portion. The Israelites could not think right enough to remember how God brought them out of the bondage of over four hundred years. They forget all the miracles before Pharaoh in Egypt. Pharaoh and his forces could not stop them; the Red Sea failed to trap them. However, the words of their mouth which they spoke to their life terminated them from getting to their Promised Land. They said, “’If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!  Why has the Lord brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?’  So they said to one another, ‘Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.’” (Numbers 14:2-3) Imagine those who had seen great miracles but yet could not fashion their thinking and their spoken word to be a positive one? Are you shaping your destiny right with right thinking and right communication? How you think and what you say determines how God will respond to you.
God responded to the Israelites negative confession (word). “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the Lord, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:  The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above. Except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun, you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I would make you dwell in.” (Numbers 14:28-30)
God is a good God. Without faith we cannot please God. If without faith we displease Him, with faith we shall surely please Him. It is lack of faith for a believer to be thinking negative or to be speaking (confessing) negative in the face of impossible challenges. God promised that with Him, all things are possible. At all times and in all situations, we should know not to confess negative but rather positive. Indeed, we should constantly keep our heart with all diligence for out of our heart springs forth every issue we engage in living life.

FAITH CAPSULE:
How you think and what you say determines how God will respond to you.

KEEP YOUR HEART DILIGENTLY

The Word of God has never proved to be a waste in any issue of life. In fact and in truth, every word in the pages of the Bible addresses every area and issue of living life. The Word of God cannot be broken. The Word of God is true to perform and to perfect according to His promises. Jesus is the Living Word of God and He came stating, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) The abundant life was brought to life as a gift by Jesus for man. However, man must know to keep his heart with all diligence in order to fully possess living life abundantly. The book of Proverbs 4:23 buttressed, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Those that know to keep heart with all diligence wholly trust in God for His promises that never fail. Those that know to keep heart with all diligence establish the promises of God in their heart before it actually physically manifests. Trusting in God is not rushing to receive but rather resting on the promises of God that never fail. Trusting God in the absence of something can be challenging. Also trusting God when time is absolutely not on our side can be exhausting. Trusting on God for a way where there is no way can be exceedingly stressful, but it is trust when we remain strengthened by His word.

However, in going 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 that left Egypt for the Promised Land. Caleb and Joshua survived because they saw hope where there was no hope. They both remembered the Lord’s doing and trusted in what the Lord was capable of doing. Caleb and Joshua trusted God enough and took an odd stand among their brethren who failed to trust in God’s promise. Caleb by virtue of his trust in God’s promise stated, “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.” (Joshua 14:7)  Evidently, 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 in the physical, no matter how loud or consistent is being communicated. Unlike Caleb and Joshua, the people who went to spy the land failed to trust because their heart was not diligently kept.

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)Clearly, the Word of Joshua 14:7-8 pointed out the importance of keeping our hearts with all diligence. A Heart that is well kept will not fumble into negative confession when addressing the issues of life. A Heart that is well kept will diligently see into the promises of God while they are yet to be manifested in the physical. A Heart that is kept diligently will receive the promises when no negative confession is made. A Heart that is kept diligently is the heart that wholly follows through with God; it is the heart that operates in a different spirit, a spirit like that of Joshua and Caleb. A failure to keep the heart diligently is a passage to missing out in what God promised. Those that went to spy in the Promised Land with Joshua and Caleb made the heart of the people melt. (Joshua 14:8) A melted heart misses out on the promises of God. A melted heart is the evidence of not keeping the heart with all diligence. The heart of the Israelites was not kept with diligence when it melted as a result of the spies’ negative report. By virtue of their melted heart the issue of life became terminated on their behalf.

Trust only in God and not in man. Trust only in God and His promises. Trust only in God and not in what people consider as majority. The majority failed to trust God for His promises because of what they saw on the ground and not because of what was spoken from above to all who were on ground. Joshua and Caleb refused to flow with the majority but with what was spoken from above because their hearts were diligent. As a result of their diligent heart , they entered into the promise of God. Have you received any promise in the Word of God? Keep your heart diligently and it will address the issues of your life.

Trust will not only deliver needs, but it will also bring preservation into the life of one that trusts God for His word. Caleb’s trust in God made God to keep him and he testified, “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.” (Joshua 14:10) There is no other way out to the expected end but only in trusting in God. Until trusting God graduates from one’s mouth to the heart, one is only operating in one’s own understanding.

FAITH CAPSULE:
A failure to keep the heart diligently is a passage to miss God’s promise.

ENGAGE HEAVEN DISTINCTIVELY

Every distinct action commands Heaven’s attention. Distinct action will provoke instant attention from Heaven. There have been instant attentions such as healing, undeniable deliverance and unstoppable moves of God’s hand recorded through the pages of the Bible.

Imagine four men carried a paralytic man to Jesus’ crusade hoping for healing in the hand of Jesus and as a result, “…when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying.” (Mark 2:4) The four men engaged a distinct action when they lifted the paralytic man up to another level by engaging a roof-tearing faith. The Bible records, “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’” (Mark 2:5) Jesus saw the roof-tearing action and the Bible records it that Jesus saw their faith. Can you imagine your miracle breakthrough? One who can imagine must be able to think through receiving their miracle. The Bible admonishes us, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7) As a believer, begin to imagine and think through your miracle as a done deal.

Faith is see-able because faith is action before God. Faith is acting out the word of God which one hears. Faith is behaving what you believe. As believers, we are to take a position to hear, believe, behave and become. It is important to always keep in mind that God is a God of knowledge and by Him all actions are weigh (1 Samuel 2:3). Our action that is rooted in the knowledge of God is the evidence of understanding the power of God and that is what God is looking for. So many provoked Heaven by engaging distinction action (action that is not common) by virtue of their thoughts and spoken word.

The three friends of Daniel (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego) provoked Heaven by their distinct spoken word in response to King Nebuchadnezzar’s attempt to cause them to deny their God. A decree was made against any who declined to worship the gold image of King Nebuchadnezzar. When the three friends of Daniel refused to worship, it was made known to them, “…but if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” (Daniel 3:15) The three friends of Daniel without hesitation or any sign of fear, spoke distinctively in response 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.” (Daniel 3:17-18) Distinct response provoked Heaven and Jesus made the choice to come down instantly instead of sending angel for their deliverance.

The Bible documents the testimony of an unbelieving king Nebuchadnezzar to the distinct provocation in the statement of Daniels’s three friends, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”(Daniel 3:25) Heaven will react in response to how we exercise faith distinctively in the face of challenges. Give Heaven a distinct action by your thinking or how you speak and Heaven shall surely respond on your behalf with a distinct attention.

FAITH CAPSULE:
Every distinct action commands Heaven’s attention.

ENTERTAINING FEAR

Entertaining fear is terminating one’s own blessing. Have you consciously or unconsciously allowed fear to come between you and your miracle deliverance or miracle provision?

Once during the late hour of the day and in the middle of the water, a storm took over the journey of life for the disciples. Jesus’ disciples were on the journey to the other side of the sea when the storm took over. While they were being tossed around by the wave, Jesus showed up to rescue them. It is written, “Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear.” (Matthew 14:25-26) By virtue of fear, Peter must have requested for deliverance when he asked Jesus to command him to walk on the water. Jesus responded to Peter’s request by commanding him to come. The Bible records, “…and when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.  But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ (Matthew 14:29-30) Peter, in his obedience to walk a difficult walk (walking on water), took his eyes away from Jesus as he gave his attention to the troubling storm and fear took charge while faith was discharged. Peter simply entertained fear and his deliverance was set for termination until Jesus intervened.

During a season of famine across the land, the Zarephath woman was set for miraculous provision when God sent Elijah to her as a route for her miracle. The Zarephath woman was approached by Elijah and he requested, “’…Please bring me a little water in a cup that I may drink.’ And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’” (1 Kings 17:10-11) Evidently, the woman of Zarephath only had just enough for herself and her son to eat because it was a time of famine in the whole land. In her sincerity and honesty, she responded to Elijah’s demand stating that she only had enough for herself and son to eat and die; meaning that after they ate, there would be nothing coming forth. Elijah did not hesitate when he responded to her. “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’”(1 Kings 17:13-14) The encouraging word of Elijah denied fear from denying the Zarephath woman from her God ordained miraculous provision. Fear would have provoked doubt and doubt is the agent of denial. The woman of Zarephath responded well to the word of Elijah. How often have you unconsciously allowed fear to give way to doubt and deny your miraculous provision?

The Zarephath woman had reasons to turn down the request of a strange prophet. However, she had no good reason not to trust or respond to a stranger in the name of God. In these days of fake and self-appointed messengers of God, it is easy to denounce a strange prophet in the fear of being cheated. However, we do have evidence that when means of provision seem to be over, God often provides in ways that might not seem to be meaningful to us. In response and full compliance to Elijah, the Zarephath woman denied fear and, “…went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.” (I Kings 17:15-16) God is beautiful for situation! Trust in Him that nothing forms against you; not even a deceiver shall prosper. In the time of lack, do all that is within you in the name of God for your neighbor and God will not overlook your area of need.

FAITH CAPSULE:
How often have you unconsciously allowed fear to give way to doubt and deny your miraculous provision?