Faith Builders Devotional

Daily Devotional

May 24 - May 30 2026

May24

How God Protects His People

Isaiah 54:17
17	No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. NKJV Living in a fallen world, life can be somewhat scary. There are people that want to take what you have, there are others who want to get you to do something wrong, and there are even those who want to kill you just for the thrill of it. The root of this evil is the enemy. That is why we as believers need to make sure we stay uncorrupted in this very corrupt world we live in. No one is perfect, but as a believer when you mess up (or sin) then you should go to God immediately and ask for forgiveness. Our God forgives us. There is nothing like that. Believers need to keep themselves pure and holy before our God and be a good example to the unbelievers around us. As we stay in tune with God, you’ll see things start to happen in your lives. We understand what God wants us to be doing. We understand why we are where we are, and how He is working through us. One of the best examples of Yahweh’s goodness to His people is His protection. Being a believer is not just about something spiritual. As a believer, Psalm 91 promises that God will put His angels around us to surround us and keep us from evil. God wants to protect you from physical harm and He also wants to protect us against things that come against us that are anti-Christ. In my business, we deal with many different types of people. The majority of people are wonderful to deal with, but we do have people lie about all sorts of things from time to time. There was an American president of a company that we dealt with that was very shifty. He would say one thing, then a day, an hour, sometimes minutes later he would say he did not say or promise what he had just promised. He purchased things from our company, then said he was not going to pay because it was not what he asked for. That’s after using it for a month! If you are going to use a copy machine or printer for a month, then say it is not what you ordered, that is dishonest (as the distributor can’t put a used machine back in stock). Rather than helping the sales person to fight for the order, we decided we better get praying. The Word is clear that most of our fight is not against human personalities. Check out Ephesians 6:12-13 which says,
12	For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. NKJV As believers, we have to be praying before we start fighting. God wants to fight our battles for us, but we have to engage Him then the angels will not be working on our behalf. If you pray, things will happen. If you do not pray, then nothing will happen. As long as you are in this world, you have to fight, you have to stand. You have to take up God’s spiritual armor and protect yourself. Check out Ephesians 6 for more. So we prayed regarding this company president trying to cheat us. We stood against the lying and stealing spirits and bound them in the Name of Jesus. Guess what? Just out of the blue, the guy authorized the payment. We didn’t have to fight for it. We just told him it was wrong, and God fought our battle. Later on, this difficult guy was removed from his company by his head office in New York. Very interesting. The purpose of any business we do is for it to be blessed so that we can finance getting the Gospel and God’s goodness known around the world. If you cheat me, you are cheating the Father because it is all His stuff anyways. I will be a good steward with His things while I am on this earth, but everything we have is His resource. I have seen people come against us in business reassigned to other departments, have to leave the company unexpectedly, or even get fired. Why? If we are doing God’s will the enemy can not stand against you. No weapon formed against me shall prosper! I confess this scripture over myself, my family, my church, my business; over everything 5-6 times a week. You should too. Be a blessing to your church, your neighborhood, you city, your state, your nation, and your world. Leave a great legacy of faith and confess His Words over those around you every day.

May25

How To Make Angels Happy

Luke 15:10
10	“Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." NKJV I have seen, and see many miracles all the time. I have seen horrible weather disappear immediately, people healed of incurable diseases, deaf people receive their hearing, words of knowledge telling people exactly what they need (when nobody knew but the individual), crowds of people fall down as the presence of the Holy Spirit becomes so strong. God is awesome. All these things make me so happy. It is awesome, so awesome to see His love for us. However, the most awesome thing I have ever seen is when someone turns to Jesus. I have seen it so many times and it is always so fresh and beautiful. As a minister, I have had the opportunity to pray with a few hundred people in my lifetime so far. We should not be afraid to tell people they need Jesus. I have seen people pray to start their relationship with God through Jesus, at church, at restaurants, at coffee shops, in airplanes, at airports, in cars, at the park, at home, in supermarkets, I have seen this almost everywhere and it is amazing. King Jesus actually confirms that in Luke 15:10 when He is talking about the lost. He says even the angels get happy when they see people turning to God through Jesus. So do you want to know how to make angels happy? Tell someone about Jesus! That’s right! When you tell someone about Jesus and they turn to Him, angels are celebrating. When I read the Word there in Luke, I better understood that it wasn’t just me that was bouncing away from that meeting, the “divine appointment” (time you meet someone looking for God), that person I met on the street that said “Yes” to receiving Jesus. I grew up hearing people saying, “I will just show Jesus to people in how I live”. It is good but the hope was that someone would see how you live and ask “What is different about you?” will severely limit you. I have had people ask me, but I have never led anyone to Jesus through that or by just quietly being a good example in life. It is definitely good to have a good witness to unbelievers, but you will rarely lead anyone to Jesus if you don’t tell them. When I left my home state in the US and started living abroad, I learned that I have to tell people about Jesus. We are His hands and His feet that have to get out there. We are His mouth on this earth for a time, and we have to tell them. I have told many people and although not all have made the right choice, I can never be judged for not telling them that without Jesus, they will be eternally separated from our good God. You should do the same. When you think about it, if we don’t tell people they need Jesus, who will? Make a goal to make a difference. Pray for the opportunity to tell 3 people a week about Jesus. Even if only 1 person responds a week, that will be 52 people in one year! There will be a lot of very happy angels! Today’s Reading-
Romans 4
Proverbs 16

Let all things be done decently and in order. NKJV

God is the God of order. He ordered the universe. He set the stars in their orbits around the sun. I have walked into my children’s room after they have left for school and I have seen disorder. Unmade beds, clothing lying on the floor, dresser drawers unclosed and things just not where they should be. We have dealt with it, and now my children know that things need to be put back after use. They know that everything has its place. However, left to ourselves most of us tend to get lazy and just leave things that we don’t want to deal with. Yahweh is not like that.

On a Sunday, our church packed up everyone into four vans and went to the mountains. Our purpose was to give those who had not been baptized yet a chance to do what King Jesus has commanded us to do. We were able to find a destination that was a “prayer mountain” type of camp that was designed for believers. We all met at the church early that Sunday morning to get to this location that we had not been to before. Our purpose was baptism first and foremost, but we also wanted to sing praises to God a bit, be encouraged, have a BBQ, and play a bit of volleyball. We did our part and went got in those vans by faith.

When we arrived to the camp site, as a group we talked about what we were there to do. It worked out that we were able to use the small chapel on the grounds. There was a drumset, grand piano and a sound system that we were offered to use. So we used it. Four of our team did an amazing worship with no advance planning, we had a mini-message that the Holy Spirit gave to me while we were worshipping, and we stood prayed over, blessed, and agreed with the people who wanted to be baptized that day. Everything flowed so smoothly it was like it was planned.

The Holy Spirit reminded me that God is the God of order, not disorder. When He is involved in things, it just all comes together. That was a beautiful day. We had prayed away the coming rain the day before, a baby was healed of a bad cold, and we were able to celebrate the baptisms of three more great people. We had a wonderful time. God is SO good!

Do you feel like your life is in a shambles sometimes? Do you wonder why things are all over the place? Proverbs encourages us to roll our cares on to the Lord. What does that mean? Go to Yahweh with whatever you’ve got, and commit everything to Him in Jesus name and what seems like a mess is going to come together even better than before. You have to trust Him by faith and believe Him. Every time you think of that situation, just tell Him, “Thank you Father that you are working in that situation, and everything is coming together because you love me. Thank you!”

It is really amazing how our awesome God can take something that looks like it blew up and put it all back together. You want a perfect solution, commit your concerns to the perfect Being and He will make it come to pass.

May27

The Big Lie & Discernment

Matt 2:8

And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also." NKJV

In heaven, according to the Word, there won’t be any liars, cheats, the sexually immoral, or people that pray to false gods (Ephesians 5:5). But if you live on this earth you are going to have to deal with these types of people. An Arizonian told me at a lunch in Tokyo that he just trusts everyone until they do something bad. Well, one thing of many things I admire about my beautiful wife is the discernment she has. That type of logic just doesn’t work. You will be ripped off. People will lie, cheat, or try to rip you off and you need to discern the good people from the bad folks.

Having a sense of discernment is a wonderful skill. My wife has a good natural sense, but I have been able to develop a spiritual sense of discernment by listening to the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. The way to make my sense of discernment stronger is by spending more time with Him, praising Him, thanking Him, sharing my heart with Him, and just talking with God. Evidently, a cultural Christian-type person evidently asked Smith Wigglesworth how long He prayed every day. I am sure that person was expecting a response in hours and minutes and was going to compare Smith to themselves. I believe Smith discerned that as he answered something like, “I don’t pray for more than 30 minutes, but then I don’t go for 30 minutes without praying”.

In Matthew, we see the wise men, as they are traditionally called, go to meet with the Roman appointed political ‘ruler’ over Israel, Herod. Herod was not just one man but much like the Louis kings of France, a couple guys with the same name. From history, it would seem this Herod we are talking about here in Chapter 2 was a bit unstable. These wise men were actually from a group called the Magi. They were not just intelligent men, they were philosophers, scientists, and had a lot experience on the application of knowledge (wisdom is the application of knowledge). By the time, these Magi arrived, I have discovered that Jesus was already a toddler. (What? That’s right, the nativity scene of the babe in the manager, the animals, the shepherds, and the wise men, was not exactly how it happened. Check it out in the Word).

Like gentlemen, the Magi went to meet the ruler of the land. Herod said he wanted to worship the new-born King. Whether he meant it or not at the time, Herod didn’t want anyone to take away his power. Having a king born in the land was a threat. The Magi recognized this and after locating King Jesus, gave their gifts and went straight home. They did not go back to Herod and tell him where King Jesus was. Later, Herod went to kill every child in Nazereth under 2 years old. I think it was because Jesus was already a toddler. How evil it is to do wrong to children.

God wants you to have a sense of discernment. The New Testament actually calls it a spirit of discernment. As you pray today, ask God to direct you by His Holy Spirit through your spirit and soul. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to begin to discern the intentions of the people around you. As for wisdom and discernment to see the whole situation.

Whether or not you have to deal with a liar like Herod today, will not matter. If you become sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, if you get that spirit of discernment, you are going to save yourself a lot of time and avoid a lot of unnecessary pain and stress.

Try thanking God every 30 minutes today, become sensitive to the direction and discernment of the Holy Spirit, get in fellowship with a powerful group of believers. If you are consistent here, you will never be taken by a big lie.

May28

Grace & Action Faith

James 2:19
19	You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble! NKJV The famous German reformist Martin Luther talked a lot about grace. You see, he had seen a lot of abuse in the Roman Church. He saw people crawling up stairs just to pay something at the top to gain “forgiveness”. He saw people being told that if they paid a certain fee to a representative of the Roman church they would receive entrance into heaven. He saw a lot of people being told that they had to go somewhere and do something. He saw a lot of abuse in the Roman church. Therefore, his message was very strong on grace. This is very evident from the Word as well. Ephesians 2:8,9 says
8	For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. NKJV I believe some real righteous indignation rose up in Martin Luther as he saw those abuses of the Roman church in Germany and back in Italy. As times change, the things that affect people may change. However, while everyone struggles with similar things, the “issue of the day” will change. James has some pretty shocking things to say about faith. James shows that faith without works is dead. If there is no action to your faith, then it probably is pretty small faith. It has been said that Martin Luther didn’t like the book of James all that much. I think it is because the theme is faith and Mr. Luther had seen so much abuse in the Roman church that he could’t stomach the thought of works so much. As a young boy saved in a Baptist church, I have heard a lot about grace but didn’t understand faith until getting into university. I wanted more of God and was not satisfied with what I had. Moving abroad and sharing the Word has put action to my faith and the more I read the Word the more I saw how it is permeated with faith. I once took a blue marker and highlighted every scripture in my Bible on faith. I had a very blue Bible from Genesis to Revelation. As I have done into ministry I have seen many people latch onto that faith and grow incredibly. Then I have seen others just come to church when they “feel” like it. I sometimes describe these people as credit card Christians. Why? These people use God like a credit card. They try to pull this God charge card out of their wallet whenever they get in trouble but other than that you never see them at church or helping with any ministries of the church. They think that God is a Santa Claus and they just have to ask Him for gifts when it is ‘that time of the year’. Just because you believe in God doesn’t mean that you have a relationship with God and you are going deeper with Him. When sharing Jesus with people, I have heard hundreds of people say ‘I believe in God’. Evidently James heard this type of thing too. He says in James 2:9 that even the demons believe in God. Just believing in God means nothing if you don’t know Him. I believe the Emperor of Japan exists, but do I know him? No, I don’t know him. Today, when you share Jesus with someone you may hear them say, that they believe in God. Ask the Holy Spirit how to respond, but you may want to respond with the question, “Do you know God?” That is what it is all about.

May29

What About Sex?

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. NKJV

Everywhere you turn, someone is talking about sex. Sex is short for sexual intercourse which is part of the intimate relationship between the husband and wife. It is not a physical exercise, nor is it something that people want to do as a part of the so-called “dating process”. Sex is sacred.

Why is it that we are permeated with sexual things in our media? Why is it that you can turn the channel on secular TV station in the US and watch a sit-com (situational comedy) that doesn’t have a sexual innuendo? Why is it that when you take the train in Tokyo, you have to see images of women with oversized busts or weekly magazine adverts that try to sell copies of their magazines with “Sex” written on it? The enemy wants to get you tangled up in lust and sexual sin so that they can pull you from God.

As adults, we all have sex drive. It is built in to us. That drive is stronger with the husband than with the wife. Men are driven by what they see while women are driven more by their emotions. Ephesians tells us that there is a battle on. As long as we are in this body, we will have to deal with the functions of this body. As a young adult, the last thing you want to do is feed your soul (mind, will, and emotions) with movies, images, and other things that get you out of balance. These images can eventually get into your spirit and lead you away from the spiritual. We are wonderfully and fearfully made, however if we are going to live soulishly (‘by the flesh’ as the Word calls it), we are never going to be satisfied. As a believer, we need to be led and living by the Holy Spirit, then we’ll be satisfied with everything and sex is just one benefit of being a husband or wife.

My wife recently went for a check up to a gynecologist. On the wall of this secular doctor’s office in Japan there was a sign encouraging women not to have sex with multiple partners. It was saying have ‘one partner’. Even the doctors recognize that our bodies are designed for sexual relations just between a husband and a wife. Many diseases and epidemics have broken out because people do not obey God’s design and people have multiple sex partners.

For God’s intention, I always like to look back at the Garden. God made Adam and Eve. God’s plan is for one man and one woman. Polygamy (marrying multiple husband or wives) is not God’s plan, because if it were we would see that in the Garden. We don’t. We see people getting in trouble when they are polygamists. Remember Isaac and Ishmael? The problem from this sexual relationship exists today in expanded form in the Arab-Israel conflict. We know who wins in the end, which is those who trust Yahweh.

Don’t let the enemy distract you with sexual innuendos, jokes, lustful thoughts, pornography or anything else that you know would lead you away from God. Matter of fact, Corinthians tell us to run from this type of lowliness. Get away from it. Don’t dwell on it. You see sexual sin (for example fornication, sex between two unmarried people) is not just a sin like lying or cheating, it is actually a sin against your own body. In sexual intercourse, the body and the spirits unite with the end result of the conception of an all new body and spirit (a child).

If you are in sexual sin, remove yourself from that situation. Get away from it. God will forgive you but don’t wait until it is too late. Ask Him to forgive you right now and proclaim the blood of Jesus over your life, thanking Him that His blood washes you clean from all sin, including sexual sin. But just as King Jesus said to the prostitute, “Go and sin no more”, you should do the same. When you realize, make the change so the sin doesn’t separate you from God.

If you have trouble controlling your sex drive, the Word encourages us to marry (1 Cor 7:9), then you can focus that passion on your spouse. The Word is also clear that neither the husband or wife should withhold sex from the other except for a time by mutual consent.

It is a tough world we live in. In the 1950s people talked about death but never talked about sex. Today, people are talking about sex all the time and never talking about what happens when they die. Many people are very deceived. It has gone so far that there are even people trying to justify having relations between men and men, or women and women. Historically, when a society begins this descent into immorality, it is the beginning of the end of that society. Romans 1 shows us where that is coming from.

Keep sex sacred between you and your spouse. Don’t buy the lie of the enemy and get caught up in this sin. It is deadly. Jesus said that He came that we might have life AND that we might have it ABUNDANTLY.

May30

The Faith Body

James 2:26

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. NKJV

Millions of people get great ideas for business. I knew a guy who was working in the accounting section of large shipping and freight company in Japan. Years ago, he shared his idea with me to become an accountant and have his own accounting firm. I encouraged him to go for it if that was what he felt he could do. Now, years later, he is still working in the accounting section of that shipping company still doing the same thing. Well, you ask, what happened? He got distracted.

The Word tells us faith without action is dead. If you want to do something different and you are already working with a family to support, then it is going to take a bit of work to get yourself to the next level. In this story, what you should be doing is studying to become a certified accountant, thinking about how to get some customers, and looking to learn as much as you can.

There are millions of people with great ideas, but the vast majority are never realized because people can’t figure out how to implement. Implementation is action. Faith without works is dead.

Have you ever seen a dead body? My uncle in Oregon died so I went back to attend the funeral as he and his wife had been very active in my life as a kid growing up. Thankfully they didn’t have a “viewing” which is where they have the casket sitting there open so people can see the corpse. However, even if they did it wouldn’t matter. That guy was not there. He had made a decision to repent and turn to Jesus before He died so He was in a much better place. However, I get the point of James 2:26 much clearer. Our bodies are just a shell, if we (our spirit and soul) do not occupy the body then that body is going to die.

Faith is action. If you want to start a company, you need to be thinking about what business you want to do and begin studying to strengthen yourself as an expert in that area. If you see yourself as a famous musician, you need to practice with drive and intensity and get yourself into auditions for various bands, orchestras, and other professional groups. If you want to be a great parent, you need to read books of good parents and look at people that you know who have solid families with the children obeying them to prove it. It is all about action.

Faith is not just some word to describe something religious. Faith is action. Put your faith to work for you today. The Bible tells us it starts with the words that come out of our mouth (based on the Word of God). When you speak His Words, even if you were a spiritual corpse, God will bring His life into your daily activities. Why not come to life now? You can start with;

I am blessed because I contribute to my local church in many ways.
I am healed because I feed on God’s Word and His words are life to my whole body.
I am joyful because I get into God’s presence that is full of joy.
I have peace because I love and serve Him and He has promised me peace that is so deep I can’t even completely understand it.
Father I am yours, help me to worship You in spirit and truth more each day. Thank you Father!

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