Faith Builders Devotional - Victory Word Center- Tokyo, Japan

Daily Devotional

January 4 - January 10 2026

Jan4

Knowing God More - The First Step

James 4:7-10

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. NKJV

Isn’t it interesting how God says to draw near to Him, and He will draw near to you? Yahweh puts the first step as your responsibility, because He is a gentleman. Love is a choice, therefore He wants people to freely choose Him of their own will.

I’ll never forget in university when I began to hunger to know more of God. I told God, ‘I want to know You and hear Your voice more’. God is so faithful to us even though we don’t deserve it (that’s grace!) and He hears us. God began to move things around me. He connected my wife and I with a great Bible teacher at church. It is interesting how He had let her know that we were coming as well. We began Friday night Bible studies and began to learn about Yahweh, the authority of the believer, what Jesus accomplished when He died and rose for us, and so much more. Those Bible studies made church even more powerful to us because we knew our Abba Father God better with each week.

God wants to know you. He loves you. He wants to be involved in your life. It is so easy to get distracted in this world these days. We have information overload; hundreds of TV stations, motion pictures, novels, electronic information accessible from anywhere, athletic competitions… The list of potential distractions from our relationship with Yahweh go on and on. These things are not necessarily bad. You have got to make time to be with God. I call it ‘Face Time’ as I need it to get into His presence. I noticed the more Face Time I have, the fewer errors and mistakes I make in my day to day life.

Interesting thing about James is the passage says to ‘Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you’. As long you live in this world, you are going to have to submit to God.

Submit what? Submit your thought-life, submit your words, submit your relationship challenges… give it all to Him. It doesn’t just end there. You also have to resist the enemy (the devil and his demons) at the powerful Name of Jesus. You have to resist discouragement, poverty, sickness and disease, unforgiveness, depression, and whatever else rises up against God’s plan for you to be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Can you imagine how the world will be as believers submit themselves to God? That Face Time will not only change your life and your family, but change your neighborhood, your workplace and even your church. Draw near to God today. He is waiting for you.

Jan5

Being Filled

Eph 5:18-21

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God. NKJV

In the world today, there seems to be various types of Christians. We have people Christmas and Easter ‘Christians’ who only show up during a season, occasional ‘Christians’ who just use God like credit and go to church when they need Him, and family ‘Christians’ who say they are a believer because their family members go to church or they grew up in church.

Really, there are only two types of Christians. There are Cultural Christians and there are Committed Christians. Cultural Christians are people who are at church because they feel they have to be. They haven’t gone deeper with God, don’t read their Bible much, and sometimes feel guilty if they don’t go to church. They help out but mostly because they feel like they need to justify their ‘ticket’ to heaven.

Committed Christians are people who have a passion for God. They love Him, they are in to His Word, they are at church every time the doors are open, they are helping others, always telling people about what the Messiah has done for them, praying and talking to God all the time, and downright hungry for more of God and His ways. People see them and the love in what they are doing and say, “God is with them, I want what they’ve got”. We should all desire to be Committed Christians. Committed Christians bring people into the Kingdom by their actions.

After a person repents from their old ways and confesses Jesus (Jesus) as the Messiah, there is one step that the Word tells us we must do. We most be filled with God’s Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). God’s Spirit is the source of our spiritual power, our never ending joy, and our victory. You must be filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

Ephesians says to “be filled with the Spirit”. You know what that means? From top to bottom God’s presence is in you. Be filled means we have a choice to be filled and led by God’s Spirit, or to be filled with the spirit of this world. As a student of the Greek in the New Testament, you learn that the majority of the time, New Testament is written in the present progressive tense. We sometimes lose that in the translation. A more direct translation of the Word is, “be being filled with the Spirit be speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, be singing and be making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

What does that mean? When you spend time in His presence each day, you are connecting your spirit to God’s Spirit and making yourself sensitive to His guidance, His wisdom, and His power for that day. ‘Be being filled’ means that it is something you need to be doing every day. As you spend time on your face, waiting on God, you will see your situations change.

Change your world. Be a committed Christian who is being filled with the God’s Spirit each day and you will see miracles begin to happen in your life. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom 8:14)

Jan6

Temple of the Holy Spirit

1 Cor 3:16-17

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. NASU

According to 1 Thess. 5:23, humans are a three part being. We are a spirit, we have a soul (which is our mind, will, and emotions) and we live in a body. We are a spirit-being.

Have you ever met a Christian that you know loved God, but yet had their life in shambles? I think we all have. Before, I never really understood how someone could be ‘saved’, but be such an emotional wreck. Well, the answer is very clear.

When you repent from your evil and wrong ways (we all have) your spirit becomes new. This is the new creation we hear about in 2 Corinthians 5:17. But you (like everyone else) have to get your mind renewed. You’ve got to get your mind out of the world’s way of thinking (the spiritual gutter) and think the way God thinks.

As you come into fellowship with God, you’re life will change. The lives of the people around you will change as well as they look at you. See, you are the temple of God. You are God’s hands and feet until Jesus comes back for us. If you don’t tell people the people around you about the Messiah and how He changed your life, who will?

We are God’s temple on this earth. The church of the Living God is not a building. The church is you and me. That is why we need to take good care of our bodies. Demons attack our minds and our emotions to try to discourage us. Their goal is to discourage us to the point that we will quit and do nothing to change. Their ending goal is death. They want discouragement to turn into depression, and depression to suicide.

King Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and that you have it more abundantly (John 10:10). God is all about life and fullness, not death and brevity. If you want to live long and live strong, you have to take care of your body, the temple of God. You have to feed it things that are natural and not man-made. You need to break the habits of the world that rip up or destroy your body. God’s plan is fullness and life. Are you taking good care of your temple?

Prayer-
Father God (Yahweh), I thank you and praise you for life. I repent and confess my wrongs before you. Please forgive me. Right now in the powerful Name of Jesus, I confess my habit of ______________ to You. I break it right now in Jesus’s name! By the power of the Holy Spirit, I will overcome. I thank you that with long life you will satisfy me and show me your awesome salvation (Psalm 91:16). I proclaim and stand for victory in my life over ______________ everyday.

Jan7

Joy In His Presence

Ps 16:11

You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. NKJV

Do you feel unsettled in your spirit? Are you emotionally upset? Is something bothering you? Are you thinking about the same thing? These are pretty common things with our emotions. We are spirit-beings who are very much guided by our emotions.

Of all the emotional states (happy, sad, upset, apathetic, joyous, determined, and so forth), my favorite feeling is the feeling of joy. It is so great to feel happy and fulfilled. Some people are always looking for some place, some one, or some thing to satisfy them. If I just have that new car… Once I get married… After a glass of wine … After the baby is born… If I just get a new job. The list goes on and on. But there is never, and will never be any lasting fullness or joy through relationships with people, things, or places.

There is only one place where you can have a joy that is never ending. A joy that is so full and satisfying that no matter what happens you are set. You are happy with your life. This joy comes from regularly getting into His presence.

The most important part of my day is the time I spend waiting on the Father. How do you do it? Turn good worship music done by Spirit-filled believers that starts with faster praise music that works into worship. I like to follow the PSALM guide. Each letter of the word PSALM represents a word to guide you as you spend time with the Father each day. It works like this;

Praise- Praise Him for His goodness, praise Him for His love for you, Praise Him for His blessings on your family. Praise Him for what you’ve got. Praise Him!

Surrender- Surrender your worries, cares, concerns… anything and everything that bothers you. Surrender it to Him. Don’t hold on to anything. He said give everything to Him.

Ask- Now is your chance. Ask him for those things that you need.
Listen- Most people stop at asking. God doesn’t want to be a “Santa Claus” god. He wants to fellowship with you. Train your spirit to listen to God’s spirit speaking back to you.

Meditate- Don’t be in a rush. As you hear good worship, your spirit is sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. Think about what He has said to you. Meditation is to keep thinking on something. If you are going to be thinking about God things, you will have good things.

The Word of God says that in God’s presence is fullness of joy. I can certainly testify to that. Spend time with God regularly and watch your situation change. It is hard not to be happy when you are the creator of the universe.

This year as I was spending time with the Father it became clear to me. If I would just spend more time with Him, I would make far fewer mistakes with people, investments, and even time. But more importantly, as I spend time with Him I become stronger as miracles and victory come to and work through me. Father work through me! Make that your prayer today and watch real change come.

Jan8

Joy Inexpressible

1 Peter 1:8-9

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. NLT

Yahweh first called me into the ministry at summer camp. I will never forget being at that church camp near Everett Washington and sensing God speaking to my spirit that He had called me as a ‘different kind of missionary’. I remember being so excited as a teenager then to see God’s coming plans for me.

If you have ever met a Cultural Christian, you know there is no power in their lives because they are full of religion with no real relationship with the Almighty God. Once an unbeliever or a Cultural Christian repents and get filled with the Holy Spirit, watch out demons! Committed Christians have mountain moving faith. Don’t tread on me because ‘Greater is He that is in me, than He that is in the world’ (1 John 4:4).

You can have the worse day ever, but if you are a Spirit-filled believer things are never the same. The joy you get from being in God’s presence changes you. You have a peace that people can’t understand. You can lose your job or even be fired and know that God is going to turn it into something better.

As a Committed Christian, it is so awesome when you get filled with the Holy Spirit. You can make it through anything. Hallelujah! The neat thing is as the more you are committed to God and His Kingdom and spending time with Him, the quicker you can turn a negative situation into a positive victory.

I remember driving down my usual road to head back from shopping one Saturday afternoon. I sensed the Holy Spirit telling my spirit to turn early and go down a back road. Instead of using the main thorough-fare, I thought the back road was slower and would take me a few extra minutes. I got home no problem but later heard from someone about the huge accident that blocked both lanes heading my direction. I could have sat in traffic for hours if I would have not listened to the voice of the Spirit.

It is so awesome that even though I have not seen God’s with my physical eyes, the visions, the dreams, the direction in my life is so evident. I have a joy that the world can not understand. It is joy inexpressible! You can have that same joy too!

Jan9

Spiritual Power Lifters

Heb 10:23-25

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. NKJV

As a pastor or a minister, sometimes you feel like your church is a drive-thru. Many people come and go. However, there are many people that are there and always wanting to be a blessing and help build the Kingdom of God through your church and ministry. Those people honor God.

If you are seeking Yahweh with your whole heart, you have to learn to not take the “drive-thru” folks actions personally or be offended. More importantly, you have to realize there are varying degrees of commitment even among Committed Christians (remember the two types of Christians are Cultural and Committed). We have to get to the point where we realize that we are hungry for spiritual things and need God.

Many times you will meet people who think that they can be a Christian and not be in church every Sunday. It sounds good, and maybe they ascribe to ‘Christian’ principles but you will find that these people are far from God. If you want to know God and His ways, you MUST regularly be around people who are like Him. Hebrews 10:25 says that we must not forsake the gathering together. In other words, don’t blow off church.

You can’t expect to go to the gym once a month a call yourself a power lifter. You’ve got to be dedicated if you want to be strong. It is the same with spiritual things, if you want to be spiritually strong you’ve got to be regularly in fellowship with other believers each week. Ideally, every day is even better because that is what the early church did, as we see in the book of Acts.

You have got to find a good church, get yourself there every week, and be committed to encouraging and building up your spirit and soul (mind, will, and emotions areas). Your church should be a place where you can spiritually recharge yourself for the week back out in the world.

I love church. I love to be around God’s people; people who have a passion for Him and His ways. If your church is not feeding you spiritually, there are two things to think about. First, are you doing much to help at your church? What can you do? You can helping with clean up and the facilities, teach the kids, help with the worship, the AV, special events, start a Bible study or home group… there are so many areas that churches need help with. God will reward you for making the time to be in His House with His people each week. The second thing may be necessary if your church is dead. You may need to leave to find a living church with deep worship and a powerful message.

If you have to work Sundays, God has something better for you. Believe God for a change in the job schedule or position so that you can be in His House each Sunday. Ask in faith, keep believing, and He will make it come to pass.

Get yourself to God’s Gym every week and watch your spiritual muscles bulge. Hallelujah!

Jan10

What About Reincarnation?

Heb 9:27-28

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. NKJV

Have you ever met someone from a religion that thinks we evolve from one life to the next? Some groups think that you start out, as say a bug. If you are a good bug, then you can be reborn as a dog. Then if you are good when you die you can evolve and be reborn as a horse. As a human, you can evolve to a higher level of human in each life. If a human does evil, they think that you will be reborn, or ‘reincarnated’ as a beggar for example. Although the explanation is over simplified, the idea of reincarnation is really illogical. If everyone has these multiple lives, then why does no one remember their previous lives?
This idea of reincarnation binds people to a life of poverty as others assume that if you are born into a poor family. Then you are just reaping the consequences of your previous life.

This is what is sometimes called your ‘karma’. This way of thinking is a lie from the pits of hell because it condemns people to hard lives and denies the fact that God will deliver you if you repent and accept the work of Jesus the Messiah. People with more resources don’t help those in need because the struggling are getting what they ‘deserve’ from their past lives… or so they think. What does the Bible say about our incarnation, our lives on the earth?

Hebrews 9:27 says every human dies once and is judged. There is only one life to live. You have to live it to the fullest and go for God and His Kingdom 100%. There is no second chance, no second life. If everyone is a birth and death cycle, why did Jesus the Messiah die and come back to life for us?

Once your spirit leaves your body, that is the end of your time in your ‘earth suit’ on the earth. Without a body, you cannot stay on the earth. When you are absent from your body, you are going to be present with the Lord or eternally separated from Him (2 Corinthians 5:8). Ghosts are not long lost relatives, but demons trying to trick folks by sometimes doing impersonations of people we (and they) once knew.

What are you doing with your time on the earth? Are you seeking His Kingdom or more focused on the job and career? Are you putting time into your kids or spending more time with dinners with visiting executives or friends? Are you telling people about Jesus the Messiah and His love for them or are you being silent?

As the “spirit-beings” God created us to be, we really have a limited time on the earth. Since the flood, the Bible and doctors peg that at about 120 years that we can live (Genesis 6:3). God wants you to live full and blessed, but not so you can get fat. He wants you to be a blessing to others as His heart is to bless and care for His children. There are so many people that are lost and dying around us. Are you telling them about Jesus and what He has done in your life?

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