Faith Builders Devotional

Daily Devotional

June 7 - June 13 2026

Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. NKJV

If you ever meet someone that sounds like a believer but your conscience tells you something else, it is always good to go with your conscience. Sometimes it is better to work with unbelievers than to work with someone masquerading as a believer that doesn’t know King Jesus. When it all comes down to it, it is ALL about Jesus!

The other day I was at the gym. There is a little guy who is an American/Israeli national that I see from time to time. He is a big talker so if you get distracted by him you may not get much of a workout that day. He knows I love Jesus and am a committed Christian. From time to time he likes to chat with me. For the most part, I politely keep away from him because by the Holy Spirit (via my spirit of course) I can sense that he is not open to the things of God. He just likes to talk and debate things.

That particular day, he started talking to me about Jesus. He said it didn’t matter whether or not he believed that Jesus was the Messiah. He joked that when He died and went to heaven he would ask Jesus if He was the Messiah. With Holy Spirit boldness, I responded, “That will be too late. If you don’t know Yashua as your Messiah now, you will be lost forever”.

With religion, if you want to know if people are right with God or not, you can ask them one very targeted question. I ask, “What do you think of Jesus? Who is He?” If they say, “Jesus is the Messiah the Son of the living God who died and rose again to make me right before God” then I know we’re good. If they acknowledge that Jesus is only way, then I know that they are heading in the right direction. However, if they say He was a ‘great man’, ‘a prophet’, or something else that denies He is God, then I know that it is just religion a potential waste of time.

In Matthew 12:6, Jesus visited the temple in Jerusalem. I am sure it was an amazing building at the time, because many people would go there to meet, make sin offerings, praise offerings, prayer, baby dedications and many other things. It was a bustling place. When King Jesus went there, He said something very profound. He said that something greater than the temple was there. What was He talking about?

He was talking about Himself as the Son of God. You see, our churches are great but without the Son of God we would have no reason to get together. We would still be doing animal sacrifices. Without King Jesus, there would be no Holy Spirit in our worship services, because the Son of God’s resurrection made us right before God so that we could receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Remember the veil in the temple? Without the Son of God and His death and His resurrection, you and I would be helpless and hopeless. We would have no hope and no future. Every thing that matters comes down to King Jesus. If you don’t know Him personally, you are lost.

Be praying, be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit each day. The next time someone tells you that there are many ways to God, or that all religion leads to the same place, be ready. By the direction of the Holy Spirit tell them where it is at. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. There is only one way to be in the Kingdom of God and that is now with a decision for Him. There is no one greater.

Jun8

Working Miracles, Passion For People

Matthew 10:8
8	Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. NKJV Does going to church make you a Christian? If you can recite the Lord’s prayer, are you in tune with God? Does being born to committed Christians parents make you a believer as well? Furthermore, if you have prayed with someone to repent, turn to Jesus, and come to God, does that mean that you can sit and just watch the rest of the world go by? The answer to all these questions is no. Being a believer is a lifestyle. It is a daily thing. It is not a club, religion, or even a social thing. Your life should be active, living each day in faith and victory. Some folks would tell you that the signs and wonders that happened in the book of Acts were something that died with the people of that time. The problem is that these things have continued happening ever since. The ‘died with the times’ crowd have likely not seen God’s power working in their lives, so they try to explain away this powerlessness. Don’t believe this lie! If God’s power changed after the Bible and the New Testament believers passed, then the Word would have told us that. It doesn’t, because nothing has changed. Mark 16 tells us all authority and power has been given to us so that we can go make disciples of all the nations. King Jesus commands His friends in Matthew 10:8 to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons. He tells them that they freely received these prayers so they should freely give the same thing to others. I have seen hundreds of people healed, many demons cast out, but I haven’t dealt with lepers or raised the dead yet. Looking forward to seeing someone raised from the dead!! As you read this Word in Matthew 10:8, think on these things. As a committed Christian, you are supposed to be praying for the sick, you are supposed to be casting out demons, you are supposed to be a giving the freedom you have to others. Even though I have seen hundreds of healings, I am still always excited when I see someone we pray for receive their healing. I have put my hands on people and prayed over them and seen things happen. However, think about this: If I see someone who has a physical need and I just ignore them, wouldn’t that be sad? If I knew that a couple couldn’t get pregnant and did not pray for them, wouldn’t that heart wrenching? That couple may very well end up never having children because I didn’t exercise my faith for them. This year, as you read the New Testament notice how Jesus was ‘moved with compassion’ when He saw people in need. Check out Mark 1:41, it says
41	Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." NKJV We are also to be compassion people. Helping people get completely well and right with God, this is the passion that our King Jesus has for people, and we are supposed to have it as well. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your spirit and soul today. As Him to give you direction on who needs His compassion and touch. Never forget, you are His hands and His feet. If you don’t touch people today, who will?

Jun9

A Singing Spirit

Matthew 2:13
13	Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." NKJV There is something powerful about dreams, especially when you have a reborn spirit. Joseph, King Jesus’ step father, had not received the Holy Spirit. He was not right with God yet because Jesus had not died and resurrected for Him yet. However, he had a dream and an angel delivered a message to him. When you sleep, your body is sleeping but your spirit/soul can sometimes be awake. When I was in Washington as a teenager, I had been in the Word and listening to some worship music in my car and at home. One song I had heard was a beautiful song called, “You Have Been Good”. It was really nice, it was sweet worship to Yahweh. I remember one morning waking up singing. There was a song in my spirit and I just woke up singing. I am not sure if my mouth was moving or not, but when I woke I was singing “Oh, Lord, You have been good, You have been faithful, To all generations, Oh Lord...” I have never taken drugs so I am not sure what that ‘high’ that people get before they get the nasty bite of the drugs is, but whatever I was experiencing there was AWESOME. I say awesome (a word I reserve for God), because it was a God experience. What happened? I was permeating myself with the power and presence of God and my spirit knew it. I will never forget that morning on my bed, it was such a powerful experience that I would love to experience again and again. Being in God’s presence is so addictive and powerful, you never want to leave. That is why those people who have died and come back to talk about it have always said, “Lord, do I have to go back to the earth?” Then they are back in that body that they had left. Joseph was directed in a dream to move his wife and step son to Egypt. God spoke to him in that dream. Why? We don’t know for sure, but that was probably the only time God could speak to Joseph. He was probably busy working and not really sensitive to God’s voice. God speaks a lot to me via my spirit in my prayer time. Notice He spoke to Joseph through an angel. We should not be afraid to talk to angels, we just better make sure that they do not say anything contrary to the Word of God. If they do, and we follow it we could end up in spiritual shipwreck. Angels should reflect the presence of God and do His Word. Remember Psalms 34:7 that says,
7	The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them. NKJV Just remember that demons sometimes try to impersonate heaven’s angels and even dead relatives. If you know Jesus, an angel coming from the presence of God will have a sense of holiness and purity and be reflecting the presence of our God that he has just left. We don’t know that much about dreams but I have learned if you fill your soul (mind, will, and emotions) with the things of God those things of God will get into your spirit. That is exactly what happened that day when I work up with my spirit singing.

Jun10

Spiritual Drivers

Proverbs 28:5
5	Evil men do not understand justice, But those who seek the Lord understand all. NKJV When you go to a country, you can visit the airport, stay in a hotel, visit the organization that you went there to visit and have not gotten a real understanding of what life is like in that country. If you want to know what life is like, one really good way is to see how those people drive. I was a young foreigner, just arrived in Japan. I was driving my father-in-law’s car South on Route 4 into Tokyo. It was a Sunday morning and I was driving towards church in central Tokyo with my wife. Sunday morning tends to be a day when much of Japan sleeps in. The traffic was good and I was cruising along in this sedan with my wife. As I entered the outskirts of Tokyo I saw a car starting to pull into the outside lane of this four-lane street (2 each way) we were traveling on. There were cars traveling next to me so there was no where for me to go. I gave a friendly honk to let the guy know that I was coming up quickly. However, this guy pulled partially into the street and stopped. I had to stop my car suddenly because of his aggressive nosing out into traffic. He rolled down his window, put his head and arm out looking back at my car, and started yelling words I will never understand. He was clearly a yakuza (Japanese mafia) or at least a yakuza-wanna-be. I was amazed that someone would drive so rudely and block others. For a few years I was so impressed with people from this nation because of the hospitality of those who hosted me when I first visited with the US Judo team I was on. Clearly, this guy was not a good person. He then realized that I was not Japanese and was surprised, by that time I was motioning for him to just go ahead. He pulled fully into the street and started to drive on. We all continued on our way. When you meet people like this in your day to day lives, it is a good idea to pray for their salvation. I pray that that guy will meet people that can lead him to King Jesus. However, we need to realize there are some rude, inconsiderate, and even evil people out there that only care about themselves. When you become self-centered to that extreme you are on your way away from God. Proverbs 28:5 makes it clear that these people don’t even understand justice. This is why as society gets darker and darker, the crime gets worse. People lose track of right and wrong. Isaiah talks about this chapter 5 verse 20.
20	Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! NKJV Don’t let your spiritual light go dim with the world. Connect with King Jesus. Pray that the Holy Spirit fill you to overflowing. Be a light to the people around you. If that day of driving in Tokyo would happen to me now, I know I am ready to deal with it. I recently had someone tailgating (driving very close behind) me. Rather than getting upset or concerned I just pulled to the side so the guy could pass. As he went by I prayed that he would meet believers wherever he went and have a chance to repent and turn to Jesus. Don’t be a follower of the world, be a spiritual driver!

Jun11

Shining Descendants Of Promise

Isaiah 60:1
1	Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. NKJV Arise! There are so many believers that are stuck in some situation, some bad lifestyle, some bad habit, some difficult relationship... When you compromise you get stuck! The Bible says that God has given you all things that pertain unto life and godliness. That’s right, all things! King Jesus has done everything He was going to do to make you right before God and bring you into complete abundance. You have got to arise, stand up by faith and grab a hold of His promises. What promises?
Galatians 3:29
	And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. NKJV If you belong to Jesus, you are a descendent of Abraham. If you are a descendant of Abraham that means you are included with Abraham’s inheritance. What is an inheritance? An inheritance is the possessions, the money, the social status, the debts, everything that is left behind by someone when they die. As a person of faith, you complete access to the father of our faith’s inheritance. Genesis 12:1-3 gives us 7 promises in our Abrahamic inheritance. What are they? 1) I will make you a great nation 2) I will bless you 3) I will make your name great 4) You shall be a blessing 5) I will bless those who bless you 6) I will curse those who curse you 7) In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Arise! Stand up and get moving. Don’t just sit there in your faith. Start to speak faith over your family, your job, your spouse, your future. Pray this prayer with me! Thank You heavenly Father for making me a great nation! I thank You that You will bless me. I thank You that I can make You famous and You are great. I praise You that I am a blessing. I thank You that You bless those who bless me and curse those whose try to curse or harm me, my family, my church, or my business. Thank You that through me, all the families of the earth are going to be blessed by Your Word, Your signs, and Your wonders. Arise, shine and let the glory of God and his works in your life be demonstrated to all those around you!!

Jun12

True Faith Equality

Gal 3:26-28

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. NKJV

You are a son of God! You may say, “But pastor, I am a female. How can I be a son of God?” Before God we are all equal, male or female. There is total equality. It also doesn’t matter if you are from a rich or poor family. Whether you are from Asia or Africa or wherever makes no difference. Our Father God is just and fair, we are all equal before God.

It all comes down to just one thing. Are you are of faith or not? Faith means an active believer. If you are of faith, when your job situation looks dangerous, you can confidently say, “I thank you God that I have the best job with the best salary, no matter what the economy is doing. I thank you my company is blessed because I work there and because Your Word says blessed are those who bless me!”

As a committed Christian we are to be practicing our faith (believing every day), we must be baptized in water, and we must be loving God with everything we’ve got in us. If you are believing in faith, you are a son of God in Christ Jesus.

How do we practice our faith? We demonstrate our faith in our daily lives by
-Speaking what we expect not what we have.
-Loving people even when they don’t deserve it.
-Giving our seat to the elder person that gets on the train or bus.(Showing kindness and respect for elders)
-Getting to church every Sunday even if we don’t feel like it.
-Saying what God says about us, not what the world says.
-Praying the bad weather away that would try to block your outreach to others
-Speaking words of encouragement and faith to our children.
-Putting action to faith, faith to our vision, vision to our victory.

With God we are all equal before Him. We have a choice to succeed or we can mess up. We can be healthy or we can be sick. We can be rich or we can be poor. We can be joyful or we can be sad. It all comes down to YOU! It doesn’t matter where you are from and it doesn’t matter if you are female or male.

In Mark 11:22-25, we are told that by faith we speak to our problems. We speak to those mountains in our life. You have to SAY and believe what you SAY will happen, and you will have what you SAY. The problem for most people is about 3cm underneath their nose... their mouth. They are not saying what God says. If you want what God has for you, you have to be saying what God says about you.

Jun13

Already Judged

John 12:48
48	He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him — the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. NKJV When you travel around the world you will meet all sorts of people. When you are in a huge metropolitan area, you will find that people are very distracted. They may be busy working for some company, trying to start their own enterprise, or even heavily involved in politics. One day in Tokyo I had coffee (well, juice for me) with an foreign entrepreneur. He seemed like a nice guy, but when he found out I was a follower of Jesus and The Way, he went on the attack. He asked how I could believe in God and ridiculed me as if committed Christians are not intelligent, or even a bit loopy. I sensed the Holy Spirit on me and God’s love for this guy. About that time he asked, “How can you believe in God?” I responded, saying, “because I talked to Him this morning.” He was dumbfounded. I could tell that he was completely blinded and not open to knowing God. It reminded me of the wise words in Proverbs 15:14 that says,
14	The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, But the mouth of fools feeds on foolishness. NKJV It is very easy to get distracted by what you are doing in your life, or even just your job or family. In the US in the Pacific Northwest where I came from, there are many people who are thoroughly preoccupied in the summer by all the lakes and mountains. Fishing, hiking, hunting, backpacking, waterskiing, windsurfing, rock-climbing, boating, and many other sports, keep these people from faithfully charging themselves up on Sundays. God’s creation is beautiful, but if your priority is nature over getting into God’s house every week, then you are setting yourself up for spiritual shipwreck. One summer, I remember one of my family members was not going regularly to church. When I saw them, I encouraged them to get back to church. I encouraged them to find a spiritually fit church if they stopped going to church because their previous church got stale. The response was, “I’ll go back to church when the weather starts to get bad again.” That meant they were going to go to church when there was nothing else to do. That was a very sad thing for me to see. The enjoying the outdoors, His creation, was more important than enjoying the Creator? The Word makes it very clear that we are not to forsake the gathering together of ourselves with other believers. It is like not going to the gym. When you stop going to exercise, you begin to feel weak. When you are not weekly strengthening yourself by using that body, that heart, those lungs, and those muscles, you will find that your strength even for daily activities will start to dwindle. The more out of shape you become, the more chance of injury you have with that body. That injury could hurt for the rest of your life (back trouble is a huge issue for many). This is the physical side, your spiritual condition affects every part of your life, your job, your relationship with your friends, and even spouse. You need to have what I call, ‘Face Time’ each day with the Father. Even just a few minutes to start will get you going. Start by telling Him how good He is, keep a list of your answered prayers and thank Him for answering those prayers. Tell Him your concerns, your hopes, your dreams and listen to what He has to say. When you do this, people will see the spiritual strength in your eyes, your talk, and even in your physical condition. Not everyone will come to the truth and know King Jesus to enter the Kingdom. If they don’t their judgment is decided. Our job is to tell them and pray for them so the Holy Spirit and the angels will have license to draw those people closer.

Today