Faith Builders Devotional

Daily Devotional

March 1 - March 7 2026

Mar1

Just Add Faith

Heb 4:2
2	For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. NKJV Although there seems to be many types of Christians, we have explained how really there are only two types of Christians. There are Cultural Christians and there are Committed Christians. Cultural Christians are people who profess Jesus but they do not walk in His power or authority. They go to church out of a sense of duty and tend to see being a Christian as rules to follow. They tend to become legalist. Committed Christians are passionate people who know Jesus and are more focused on the relationship with God than being attached to rules or tradition. Their worship is lively and you can really sense the presence of God emanating from them. (If I have the choice of going to a Cultural Christian church or staying home, I would stay home and spend time with God there). I love to be around Committed Christians. The interesting thing about both groups is they have all heard the gospel. The difference is the reaction. Basic physics tells us for every action there is a reaction. We have all heard the Gospel but it is a matter of what we have done with it. How did you react to it? Do we see being a Christian as being a package of laws, restrictions, and a burden, or do you see it as freedom and blessings. When you go to a church of Committed Christians you should feel freedom. The Word says in 2 Cor 3:17
17	Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Your life of being a believer does not come down to God and “His will”. Many people get trapped in always trying to guess His will even though it is clearly laid out right in the Bible before them. God wants our lives to be bringing heaven on earth. ‘Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven’. It comes down to you and your will. This is really clear in the Word. I will be blessed, I will get up and be in church, I will tell people about Jesus, I will NOT fear. In Hebrews, we see that the Word worked for some people that heard it. But in the same verse we see it did not work for others. Why not? They did not have faith. We started our church in our living room and quickly moved to a city hall as. We knew that God wanted us to focus on young people and young families but the limitations of the public space (we couldn’t always get the same time or days) was not how God wanted us to operate as a church so we began looking for a place to meet. Financially speaking, we did not have the money to buy or rent any type of facility but we began looking in faith. We found our place but were unable to get the location. By faith, we knew that was the place for church but we could not get in. We believed in faith as we continued to meet at the city owned hall but began preparing to get our space. We started looking for a builder and thinking about what we were going to do once we got our space. We knew that was the place for us so we just thanked God for the space and waited, thanking Him for the space every time we thought about it. It took a year, but by mixing a bit of faith with our plans we were able to get our first building. We are believing God for even more as our church grows and overflows from our first location. Life is so much the same. If you need something, don’t just say, “I wish I had …” Add faith and action to it and really believe God for it. When God created the world He did not just say, I wish I had light. No! He said, let there be light! What happened? There was light. There are two types of people who hear the Word. Those who just hear and those who hear in faith, act in faith, and believe by faith. Add faith to your life today!

Mar2

It’s Just Temporary

2 Cor 4:18
18	..while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. NKJV Everything in the world around you is temporary. We have to realize that what we have is temporary, the situation you are in is temporary, even the weather is temporary. When trouble and stress arise you have to remember it is temporary. It only becomes permanent when you accept something as permanent. If you don’t know Jesus, then the only chance you have is luck in life. Luck meaning, whatever happens, happens. But if you know God, there is so much more. The Word of God says in Hebrews 11:6
16	But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. NKJV If you want to please God, you’ve got to have faith. If you are afraid about that cancer that runs in the family, those kids of yours rebelling, or that you may never marry, then that is exactly what you will get. Fear is negative, fear will take you down, fear will take you were you don’t want to go and won’t let go until you smash it with the power of faith in Yahweh and the power of His Word. Before I went into the ministry and my children were small, I had walked in faith for 5-6 years no longer getting sick. Every time sickness came I would fight it rebuking it every time, and every time I thought about it in the Name of Jesus I would thank Him for my healing. It became my act of faith to fight in the Name of Jesus and then thank God for my health every time I felt any attack of sickness on my body. I had learned to walk in divine health. However, faith is living and active, so if you do not exercise it, it will not work. In those days, I had gotten very busy working on a project in West Tokyo and made no time to get into His presence or seek Him. With every day and week, my faith got weaker. The first of my three children caught the mumps and was sick for about a week. My second daughter also caught the mumps. One morning she was eating toast. In our rush to clean up and get out the door, I ate the toast that she had left there on the table. I didn’t think about it at all, but that Thursday night when I was driving home late from a dinner meeting I began to feel the mumps set in. I did not fight it because I didn’t even think about it. I just thought, “I think I am catching the mumps”. Guess what? I caught really bad mumps. I had asked my wife, but ended up having to call a taxi to go to the hospital as I was in such pain. I was hospitalized for 1 week. My wife was so disappointed in me because I had let sickness get the best of me. I understood her disappointment because I was also disappointed in myself and not walking in the divine health I had learned. I needed encouragement and my parents and in particular, my oldest brother were such an inspiration to me. They showed such love. I started to rebuild my faith during that time in the hospital. I recovered from the sickness but lost a week of time and suffered a lot of pain. I saw who really cared for me as my wife, family members, and parents in the US were visiting me at the hospital or calling and checking on me. I learned how important it is to keep your faith strong, but I also learned to be an encouragement. It was clearly not God’s will for me to get sick. In the midst of the sickness, it seemed it would never end, but after a week I was feeling a lot better and released from the hospital. What a horrible experience! We must have strong faith and not care what people say or do around us. Let me to encourage you to keep your faith strong. No faith? Start building your faith today. How? Romans 10:17 tells us,
17	So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You want faith? It doesn’t come from putting your Bible under your pillow when you sleep at night. It doesn’t come from praying all night long or shouting. Nor does it come because your father was an evangelist or pastor. Faith comes by reading (and meditating) His Word, listening to inspired ministers of God, and communing with the Father. By hearing and hearing and hearing. Are you using your faith in God to change your circumstances?

Mar3

Connecting To The Kingdom

Phil 2:13
13	for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. NKJV God is so awesome! To me, awesome is not a word to describe a day at school, a ride at a theme park, or someone’s singing voice. When I first experienced His powerful presence at a revival in Florida, I decided to reserve that word for Him. YAHWEH is AWESOME! After you repent and turn from your wrong ways, not only do you enter into a fellowship with the Father through Jesus our Messiah, you also become a part of the Kingdom. What is the Kingdom?
Rom 14:17
	for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. God’s Kingdom is not working a job, or working to be holy. It’s not a private club with extravagant parties. I know clubs that you have to pay huge membership initiation fees to get into and monthly membership fees each month to be a part of. They arrange parties, events, and social activities, but what really is the point? You can eat and drink until your stomach is full, but if you don’t know Jesus, you are lost and will not be in the Kingdom of God. This is not God’s Kingdom. God’s Kingdom is all about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. What is that? According to Philippians 2:13, if you believe and are trusting in God, He is working in you. You have now connected to His Kingdom. Your life is no longer just a cycle of waking up, eating, going to work, coming home, and eating and sleeping again. It is so much more than that. After a snowfall last night, the roads were icy and slick this morning. I saw a neighbor woman carefully walking the icy streets towards the station as I left my house to take my daughter to school. I stopped, rolled down my window and asked her if she needed a ride to the station. She gratefully accepted. On the way to the station, she said she saw her Father at the bus stop. I said, “Let’s pick him up”. We picked him up and drove the father and daughter to the station in our car. They were very grateful as the sidewalks were slippery with the snow and ice. After dropping them off at the station, I sensed God’s goodness as I drove back to my house. Grace. God is just like that, even though we don’t deserve a ride on a better road of life, He gracefully picks us up and puts us in His car, which is a lot like His Kingdom. He is SO GOOD! In His Kingdom, there is no lack, there is no sickness, there is no poverty, there is no depression, there is no sexual sin, there is no religion, there is no discouragement, there is no lying, there is no disappointment, there are no thieves. So what is in His Kingdom? What is there for us now? There is unfathomable peace we cannot comprehend, there is joy so amazing we can’t describe it, there is forgiveness so deep that past worries and fears dissipate, there is happiness so full that whatever happens we can stand through the storm through to the sunlight on the other side. His Kingdom is His power for you and I while we are on the earth for our 120 years. Yahweh wants to work through you. He will work through you if you repent and come to Him; you become a Kingdom Child. Is He working through you? He promises that He will. Make some time to be with Him each day and watch the wisdom and revelation flow to you. With Yahweh, the possibilities are infinite!

Mar4

True Acts Of God

Ps 23:6
6	Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever. As companies do business, they need to specify the scope of work for the business and put it in writing. So they write up agreements (or contracts) between their company and other companies. These agreements cover what work is to be done as well as what actions are acceptable, and what actions are unacceptable. Companies have these agreements with individuals as well. For example, on your rental agreement for your apartment you are required to pay your rent. After a month or two of not paying your rent, the company will state in their agreement that they have the right to evict delinquent tenants. One thing I have noticed in agreements is that many times people want to say that their service agreement to maintain or support some facility is exclusive of a natural disaster. That means that if there is a flood, earthquake, storm or some other freak act of nature, they are not required to fix it for free. Sometimes I see this described as an ‘Act of God’. Although this terminology is accepted by the legal profession, I refuse to associate an earthquake with an act of God. I always require them to change “acts of God” to “acts of nature”. Why is this? God is good! He is not killing people through earthquakes, floods, famine, or war. He is righteous and just. Injustice rises up in nations that wander from God because He is justice. Remember when Jesus was sleeping in the boat on the way to the other side of the great lake? Matthew 8:23, 24 says
23	Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Great tempest is translated great storm in some Bible translations, but I like great tempest as it is true to the original Greek. The word great is from the Greek, megas meaning big, fierce or great. Japanese love to use this word. Storm or tempest is actually the Greek word seismos which is the base of English words like seismology (the study of earthquakes) and means a great shaking. So this scripture literally translated would say, “And before they knew it, there was a great earth and water shaking storm that arose on the sea, covering the boat with waves”. What was this and why such a freaky shaking storm? It is very clear this was not just a storm that came up, this was the enemy trying to kill Jesus and His friends. How do you know? John 10:10 says the enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy. If you let them, they will do just that. Jesus gave us the authority and demonstrated that by speaking to the storm that was kicked up by these demons and shutting it down then and there. We have to realize that our God is a good God. He wants us to have the best. He wants us to live long and strong so that others can see the glory of Him in our lives. So they can see that those of us in the Kingdom cannot be stopped or put down. We just have to remember, that you and I can be put down if we just accept whatever ‘storms’ come along and do not fight. You have to act, and you have to fight. His mercy and His goodness will follow you wherever you go and whatever you do if you are in His house. Goodness and mercy are true acts of God. We must remember that God is also justice. Judgment day is coming as well to those who do not believe. Tell someone who doesn’t know God what Jesus is doing in your life today. But remember,
17	Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17 NKJV

Mar5

The Power Of the Gospel

Rom 1:16-17
16	For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." NKJV I hate religion! I hate to be around people who call themselves believers but are so stuffed with tradition that you can’t see God in their lives. They talk about God but yet for some reason you can’t see His characteristics in their lives. Some people are almost completely tradition-based and seem to think God is a credit card company and you need to just pull out His credit card of grace when they sin. In the meantime, they are so busy doing works and trying to be religious that they forget to tell people why they are doing the works. They forget to share Jesus with people. I cannot stand to be in a worship service where no one is worshipping. If being a Christian is just a set of rules and limitations, I am not interested. At the same time I hate to be around people praying to carved or shaped images. How can we as humans think that praying to something we have made has any meaning? God looks at this with such sadness, to His creation praying to something that was made by a human and called a god. On the other side of the coin, there seems to be another extreme. People that love God, but every message turns into a message on giving. The Kingdom of God is all about giving. However, that is not all there is to talk about every week. If every message at your church is about the 30, 60, and 100-fold return, then I wonder what that minister is doing all week. I visited a church in Fort Worth Texas where every message seems to be on giving. Before they received the offering there is a big reminder… almost a push for money. I don’t want to be a part of that. Yahweh is so much more than just preaching a message on giving. It’s not about giving so you can have the latest car or consume every new product that comes out. God is so much bigger. Being a believer is not about you or me, it is all about Him! Don’t get me wrong. If you are not giving your full tithe to your church, you will not be blessed. As a believer, we should give our tithes each month to our church. If you are not faithful with what God has given you now, how can you expect him to increase what you have? Being a Committed Christian is not a religion, it is a lifestyle. We must remember that the Gospel (or good news as it is translated) is no good if we don’t tell them. We are called to be Committed Christians. Lifestyle means how you live each day at home, at work, and at play. We are to live as believers in our Messiah Jesus. If you are a Committed Christian who is doing everything you can to have a lifestyle of faith, then you can expect things to happen. The Gospel is not just a good story. It is the key to life. It is the key to God’s Kingdom. If we want to help people, we can feed the homeless but we also have to share the power of the Gospel. If we hand them a box lunch but don’t tell them why we are showing them love, then they have no hope of escaping that life of poverty they have fallen in to. Romans 1:17 says that the just shall live by faith. Living by faith… lifestyle. A lifestyle of faith is a demonstration of the power of the Gospel to the people around you. When you have a lifestyle of faith, you don’t bail on your marriage because you got tired of your husband or wife, you help those around you with encouraging words, and you are lined up at church bringing people with you every week, you are so filled with God’s power that when you speak words of healing (praying in Jesus’s Name) over the sick, they are healed. It is so easy to fall in the lifestyle of a Cultural Christian. Anyone can make up rules and systems to follow. But we’ve got to remember God hates religion as well, as Jesus describes religion folk;
27	"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matt 23:27-28 NKJV Much like a tomb, religion is dead and devoid of life. There is no life in religion or baseless tradition because it is just some ritual humans made up. Conversely, the Gospel is the power for life as it changes your whole lifestyle if you are serious about knowing God. Don’t live a life of meaningless tradition; the Gospel of Jesus is the power of God. If you don’t sense the power of God in your life, then you need to strengthen your lifestyle of faith.

Mar6

For Husbands & Wives

	CONTENT SUITED FOR ADULT READERS
1 Cor 7:5
5	Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that satan won't be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control. NLT Sex, a subject not readily discussed at churches but a topic constantly hitting us through movies, music, and other media. Usually it is degraded to some physical activity along the lines of going to the gym. Sex is sacred and sex is designed to be something between a husband and wife. It is not just a physical act. It is a physical act of two people becoming one spiritually. Outside of marriage, it is easily perverted. We have to realize that there is a drive among men that seems to peak each month just as a woman has a monthly menstrual cycle. Men are motivated by what they see, while women are more motivated by emotions. The Word recognizes this by telling husbands and wives to not to withhold themselves (sex) from their husbands or husbands to withhold themselves from their wives. Marriage is not just sharing and caring, it is communion between a husband and wife both spiritually and physically. The enemy wants to destroy that and the marriage. If a spouse withholds themselves from the other, it becomes a challenge, especially for men as they are created with strong drive as the spiritual head of the house. When good relations do not exist between a husband and a wife, it is easy for even the most dedicated believer to start noticing the women around him. If he follows his feelings that should be satisfied with only his wife, he can find himself thinking wrong thoughts. Wrong thoughts is where sin starts, in our minds. In Japan, there are many sexless marriages just like any other nation. The percentages seem to be a bit higher as many times Japanese women get married out of a sense of duty, they get pregnant as a sense of duty, and they have children as a sense of duty. Once that sense of duty is fulfilled, meaning she has birthed one or two children, they just sink into that role as a wife but have no passion in their marriage. The husbands and wives live separate lives. Instead of deepening in their love for each other over the years they grow apart because all that holds them together is their children. The marriage becomes dysfunctional. I had lunch with a husband of 50 years of age, his last relations with his wife was 20 years ago when they conceived their 20 year old son. That is heart-wrenching as that is not God’s plan for a husband or a wife. This is wrong. Whose fault is it? I would guess a little bit of each of them. Husbands and wives should sleep together and spent lots of time together talking and sharing. The bedroom is not just for physical relations, it is also a place where spouses can share their thoughts and dreams in privacy with just each other. Unfortunately, this story of sexless marriage is a common occurrence and is probably the root cause of many ‘dating clubs’ married men go to, rises in pornography sales, and people being unfaithful to their spouse. One real estate firm in Tokyo has many managers who are married but also have girlfriends on the side. In some cases the wives reportedly don’t care as long as they get that monthly paycheck deposited in the bank account they control. That is not God’s plan. He wants us to have the best marriages, but good marriages take good work. Is your marriage on the rocks today? Well, it is time to put those priorities straight. Make yourself appealing to your spouse; work hard on your job for them, keep yourself clean and appealing, brush your teeth, put on some perfume or cologne your spouse likes, spend time talking with them, listen to what they have to say, and put a bit of passion back in your marriage. Besides financial difficulty, one of big cause of stress in a marriage is one spouse putting parents’ ideas above that of their spouse. Remember Genesis 2:24
24	Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. NKJV Don’t let your parents or siblings affect your relationship with your spouse. Put your spouse first and put down anything that detracts from your marriage. That may mean cutting back those ladies lunches or putting those weekend golf clubs or baseball bats in the closets on the weekends. Hold your spouse’s hand, give them good bye kisses when you leave the house, put your arm around them at church… show your love. Focus on your spouse and watch your marriage grow. Two believers united in love can do great things. I thank God for a wonderful wife who has a passion for me. God can work in any marriage if we make the effort.

So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. NKJV

When you spend time with God, it will change you. In 2008 I took a trip to Sydney Australia; I wanted to be in Japan and really didn’t want to be in Australia. However, I decided to take advantage of it. I booked a hotel near the site I was supposed to be at all week. After the meetings, I grabbed a sandwich or yogurt and headed directly back to the hotel. In the hotel room, I disconnected the TV and pulled out my notebook and computer and listened to a series of messages via my computer. I would praise Him in the morning and spend time with Him before I walked a couple blocks up the street to my meetings. It was powerful and I could feel my faith grow dramatically each day during those five days. I had plans to meet one guy for dinner on Wednesday during the week, but I felt I needed to get back to my room and into His presence that week. I cancelled that meeting and dedicated my time with the Father.

Moses had a similar experience. He was in the Sinai Peninsula between current day Israel and Egypt. He saw the manifested presence of Yahweh descend on the mountain. He went up to where He was. As Moses spent time in His presence, he was energized. It was not just a spiritual thing. When he returned to his people waiting at the base of the mountain, the people saw the presence of God on him. They not only noticed it, they were afraid of him because He was so permeated with God’s presence. If we get around the filth of the world, it is easy to get dirty spiritually. That is why we need Yahweh. But if we get into His presence each day, we will have the supernatural power of God each day with us.

When I came back from a week of being in God’s presence, I was energized. That Sunday I preached a message and one of the guys came to me after church saying, “Pastor, your face is glowing”. That comment was an inspiration to me. Even though they didn’t know it, I had been in God’s presence especially long that week. The people at our church could sense that something was different.

When you spend time in God’s presence, He gives you joy inexpressible. You are energized and your can sense His presence with you. You can sense His power on you. When you share Jesus with people, you can feel the direction of the Holy Spirit of what you need to say to that individual because God knows their issues. When you pray for the sick, you see healing manifest. When people come to you with issues, you know immediately what is demons, and how to deal with them. You see them flee at the mighty Name of Jesus. It is like the Holy Spirit enhances your senses. What you would normally not sense, you see very clearly around you. You see what God sees.

It is awesome to get into God’s presence. It is a spiritual charge that nothing can beat. Get into His presence each day this week and see what a difference it makes in your life.

Today