"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see." — Hebrews 11:1 (NIV) Faith means trusting God even when you cannot yet see the answer. It is believing that His promises are true, even when your circumstances seem difficult. Sometimes we pray for healing, a breakthrough, a new opportunity, or restoration, but nothing seems to change. Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that faith is choosing to believe that God is working behind the scenes, even when our eyes cannot see it. God has never failed to keep His promises. His timing is always perfect, and His plans are always for our good. Every delay has a purpose, and every trial can strengthen our faith. Don't give up because your breakthrough may be closer than you think. The Bible encourages us in 2 Corinthians 5:7"For we live by faith, not by sight."* We are called to trust God's Word instead of our fears or circumstances. God also promises in Jeremiah 29:11"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."Even when you don't understand what God is doing, you can trust that He is leading you toward His perfect plan. Finally, remember Isaiah 40:31: "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Today, choose faith over fear. Keep praying, keep trusting, and keep moving forward. What God has promised, He is faithful to fulfill. Your season of waiting is not wasted—God is preparing something greater than you can imagine. Trust Him, because what is impossible with man is always possible with God.

"You can be materially successful and still miss what God uniquely entrusted to you. Success is not always the same as inheritance. Prosperity is not always the same as purpose. Influence is not always the same as calling. And yet, the greatest tragedy isn't losing money. It's gaining everything the whole world celebrates while slowly losing sight of what God called you to carry."

📘 Daily Devotion — August 25 | Acts 21:13 (NKJV) 💯 Faith That Counts the Cost As Paul journeyed toward Jerusalem, fellow believers warned him of the suffering that awaited him. Out of love, they pleaded with him not to go. Yet Paul remained steadfast because he knew God had called him to continue the mission. His devotion to Christ was greater than his fear of suffering or even death. Paul's response reveals the depth of his commitment. He had surrendered every part of his life to the Lord and was willing to endure hardship if it meant remaining faithful to Jesus. His courage was rooted in his confidence that God's will was worth every sacrifice. For believers today, this verse reminds us that following Christ may require difficult choices. While God does not promise an easy path, He does promise His presence, strength, and eternal reward. A surrendered heart trusts God's plan even when obedience comes at a personal cost. Reflection Questions 1. Is there an area of my life that I have not fully surrendered to God? 2. Am I willing to obey Christ even when it is difficult? 3. How can I grow in courage and faithfulness each day? Prayer Lord God, thank You for the example of Paul's unwavering faith. Help me to surrender every part of my life to You and to follow Your will with courage and trust. Strengthen me to remain faithful, no matter what challenges may come. In Jesus name Amen. Practical Application ● Pray for courage to obey God in difficult situations. ● Trust God's plan even when the future is uncertain. ● Encourage someone who is facing trials for their faith. Takeaway Thought A heart fully surrendered to Christ finds strength to remain faithful in every circumstance. #LordsbookDailys #DailyDevotion #August25 #Acts2113 #FaithfulToTheEnd #CourageInChrist #LivingForJesus #BibleInspiration #GrowInFaith

DAILY YOUTH CHARGE Topic: GOD'S GOODNESS NEVER CHANGES Anchor Scripture Psalm 100:5 (KJV) "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; And his truth endureth to all generations." One of the most important truths you can learn as a young person is this: God is good—not only when life is good, but at all times. There will be seasons when your prayers are answered quickly and seasons when you have to wait. There will be moments of celebration and moments of disappointment. But God's character does not change with your circumstances. Today's scripture gives us three reasons to trust Him: the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to every generation. GOD IS GOOD God's goodness is not dependent on what He gives us. He is good because goodness is part of who He is. Nahum 1:7 (KJV) "The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." When you face difficult moments, don't allow your circumstances to convince you that God has abandoned you. He remains your refuge and strength. Romans 8:28 (KJV) "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." HIS MERCY IS EVERLASTING Every day we experience God's mercy. We don't receive everything we deserve; instead, God continually extends His compassion and forgiveness toward us. Lamentations 3:22-23 (KJV) "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." That means yesterday's failure does not have to become today's identity. When you sincerely turn back to God, His mercy is available. Psalm 103:8 (KJV) "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." HIS TRUTH ENDURES TO ALL GENERATIONS Everything around us changes. Trends change. Technology changes. Opinions change. Society changes. But God's Word remains true. Isaiah 40:8 (KJV) "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." As a young person, don't build your identity and values entirely on what is popular today. Build your life on God's eternal truth. Matthew 24:35 (KJV) "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." God's goodness was not limited to the generation before you, and it will not end with your generation. His mercy and truth remain available to every generation that seeks Him. Takeaway When life changes, remember that God doesn't. When circumstances are uncertain, His goodness remains certain. When people fail, His mercy remains everlasting. When opinions change, His truth remains forever. Trust Him. Praise Him. Build your life on His Word. Prayer Heavenly Father, thank You because You are always good. Thank You for Your everlasting mercy and unfailing truth. When circumstances change, help me to remember that Your character never changes. Teach me to trust Your Word, depend on Your mercy, and live every day with gratitude for Your goodness. May my generation know You and experience the reality of Your faithfulness. In Jesus' name, Amen.

KNOW YOUR POSITION AS A SOLDIER A soldier must know his position. Many soldiers become wounded because they leave their assigned positions or move into positions they were not instructed or promoted to occupy. In the kingdom, there is a place for promotion, but until you are promoted, you must remain faithful in the position God has assigned to you. If you have not been promoted, do not abandon your position for another position. If you have been called to be an intercessor, stay in your position. If you have been called to be a gatekeeper, stay in your position. If you have been called to be a watchman, stay in your position. If you have been called to be a minstrel, stay in your position. There is protection in staying within your God-given assignment. Leaving your position without divine instruction or promotion exposes you to unnecessary battles and wounds. Keep your space. Keep your position. Stay faithful to your assignment. Mighty soldiers are arising. Intelligent and competent soldiers are emerging. And as they take their rightful positions, the kingdom of darkness is suffering a great loss. #gospel #jesus #soldierofchrist

There are different levels of friendship 😉 😜😁. You can have friends 🧔🏾‍♂️👩🏻‍🦱👩🏻‍🦰👩🏽‍🦲who are with you 😉 for a season. Then there are friends 🧑🏽‍🦳👱🏻👱🏾‍♂️👴🏼who stick around for a reason. Your true friends 😇😊😁however are the ones who stay for life 🧬. Those ones will be there no matter what happens to you. In good times and bad times. The problem however is that, sometimes we can't tell the difference between the three. We confuse the seasonal and reason -based friends with the lifelong 🧬 friends. This creates shock waves 🌊 that can hinder progress. Until you learn to distinguish the levels of friendship, you will get heartbreak 💔 😞 upon heartbreak 💔 😞. In John 6:67, Jesus asked His disciples if they will leave Him too. This was after some people 👩🏾‍🦳👵🏻👩🏽‍🦲🧑🏽‍🦳turned and walked away from Him. You would think 🤔 💬 that Jesus would try and pamper the rest to stick around... but He asked if they will leave too. This is because He understood that not 🚫 everyone will go with you 😉 to the end (If people walked away from Jesus 💞 they will walk away from you too). Therefore He didn't handle them all the same way. Among the 12, there were times He selected only Peter, James and John(the 3) 👱🏻👱🏾‍♂️🧔🏾‍♂️to be with Him. Even among the 3, John👱🏻 was called the beloved apostle who could put his head on Jesus' chest(JN.13:23). Learn to distinguish between the levels and types of friends in your life 🧬 and save yourself trauma 😵‍💫 upon trauma 😵‍💫. If you don't do that, you can even lose the ones 👩🏻‍🦰🧔🏾‍♂️👩🏻‍🦱who will want to stay with you 😉 for a lifetime because you will end up treating them like everyone else. Friendships 🤝 🤝 are supposed to make our lives better but can really be a problem 😨 if you don't know how to handle it. Know how to treat people based on these differences and your life 🧬 will be so much better. Have a lovely day 💞 ❤️ 💖.

Luke 10:39: "She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said."

Mephibosheth was only five when the news came that his father, Jonathan, and his grandfather, Saul, had died. In the confusion of that day, his nurse picked him up and fled. But she dropped him, and he became lame in both feet. Imagine growing up carrying a wound you did not cause. Imagine having to live with the consequences of a fall that was never your fault. Years passed, and Mephibosheth lived in Lo-debar, a place whose name itself speaks of barrenness. But one day, David called for him. And when Mephibosheth came before the king, he did not come with the confidence of a son of royalty. He came saying, “What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?” 2 Samuel 9:8 KJV Look at what pain had done to his language. He was the son of Jonathan. He belonged to a royal house. But his wound had taught him to see himself through the lens of his misfortune. Yet David restored to him what his wound had made him forget. He was still a son of the house. Sometimes life wounds you so deeply that you begin to introduce yourself by what happened to you rather than by who you are. But listen Your wound may explain your limp, but it must not define your identity. Mephibosheth could not change what happened to his feet, but he could change what he believed about his place at the king’s table. And perhaps this is the wisdom hidden in some wounds You may never change what happened, but you can decide what it will produce in you. Do not drink the bitterness of the wound. Drink the wisdom. Let the pain teach you compassion. Let disappointment teach you discernment. Let rejection teach you where your identity truly comes from. Let the scars remind you, not of what you survived, but of the grace that kept you. A wound can become a well of wisdom, but only if you refuse to drink from its bitterness. Travel light. Take the lesson. Leave the baggage. #apostlejohn #travellight

LOST IN THE CHURCH [BEING LOST IN CHURCH] Part Eight The Name of Jesus There are many things that are closely associated with the Lord Jesus, and some have even been given His great name. However, people need to understand that these things are not Jesus Himself. Therefore, building one's faith upon such things or worshipping them can be a great deception. Being close to the Lord, or even being called by His great name, does not necessarily mean that something is worthy of our worship. This means that a person can become lost before the Lord—or even become lost in church. Satan spent all his time in the presence of the Lord, enjoying His glory, beauty, and blessings; nevertheless, he fell. Judas Iscariot was privileged to eat at the Lord's table. He heard the profound wisdom and extraordinary words that the prophets of old longed to hear; yet he also perished. This happened because they gave created things the place that belonged to the Lord. The name of Jesus is an extraordinary gift given to the true Church throughout the world for salvation. However, we must understand that Satan has also been permitted to use that very same name on earth for evil purposes and destruction. Therefore, the Church must be extremely careful. Not everyone who mentions the name of Jesus Christ, or identifies themselves by that name, is from God. Not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is truly a Christian in their heart. Not every institution that bears the name of the Lord has come from God. One of the greatest things I have observed in this world is that the Lord Himself can bless an institution, a church, a person, or a thing without actually dwelling in it. And that is one of the saddest dangers! Remember Ishmael, the son of Abraham. God blessed him even though he was not the one through whom God's covenant purpose would be fulfilled. > Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.” Genesis 17:18–20 And concerning Ishmael, Scripture clearly says that the son of the slave woman will never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman. Read Galatians 4:30. The meaning here is that the Lord blessed a person who would nevertheless not inherit eternal life together with the children of God through the covenant represented by Isaac. My brothers and sisters, among the most frightening forms of deception taking place in the Church in these last days is the misuse of the name of Jesus. If a person cannot discern the spirit behind every minister who comes before them, then they are already in serious danger. > “For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.” Matthew 24:5 One of the difficult statements in the Bible that I thought I understood well—but which took me many years to understand properly—is this statement in Matthew 24:5. For a long time, I thought those false ministers would come in His name claiming that they themselves were Christ. But that is not necessarily what the Lord meant. The correct meaning is that these false ministers would come in His name while openly acknowledging that He—Jesus—is the Christ. They would not necessarily claim to be Christ themselves. In simple terms, these false ministers would come into the world confessing that Jesus is Lord and Savior, and they would use the name of Jesus in their ministries, yet they would actually be agents of Satan. Do you see how dangerous that is? What makes it even worse is that we have often interpreted this Scripture incorrectly. But the Lord said, “many will come.” He did not say a few would come. He said many. And notice that He did not say these people would belong to only one particular category—such as prophets, apostles, or miracle workers. Therefore, we should understand that He was warning about many different kinds of ministers: prophets, apostles, teachers, pastors, evangelists, miracle workers and those who do not perform miracles; those leading large churches and those leading small churches, and so on. I say this because there has been a deception among people who think they only need to fear miracle workers, false prophets, large-church leaders, or apostles. But beloved, let me tell you something: in my experience, one of the greatest forms of deception I have seen in the Church is being under a false pastor. And may God help me as I say this! Deception does not exist in only one place. Everyone can be prepared for a particular kind of deception—according to what they believe, what they understand, and what they are looking for. There is no weapon that is always used from a distance. Scripture says: > “A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” Matthew 10:36 If you fear today's miracles, false prophets, apostles of anointing oil, and similar things, you are certainly right to be cautious. But understand this: those may be weapons that are too distant for someone like you. Satan, who is full of cunning and deception, a master of lies and the father of much deception, may never use such obvious weapons to trap someone like you. Instead, he may send you a false pastor who performs no miracles at all, someone whose ministry perfectly matches your beliefs, so that you can trust him completely. Then you may gradually be fed false teachings that have no life—teachings that have an outward appearance of godliness and reverence for God, yet are built upon false wisdom that contradicts the power and priorities of the Holy Spirit. That, my brother and sister, is where you can truly become lost. Also understand clearly that the false ministers I am speaking about can be of two kinds. There are those who have consciously made an agreement with Satan and therefore know exactly what they are doing. And there are those who do not even realize that they are false ministers. They themselves have been deceived by false teachings. They are also products of false teachers. Many of these are the religious leaders of our time—the Pharisees of the Pharisees of this generation. And these can be among the most dangerous people, because they were the very kind of religious leaders who even participated in the rejection and crucifixion of the Lord. Therefore, submitting yourself blindly to such ministers is a truly frightening thing. May Almighty God have mercy on us all. Amen! #ToBeContinued... Mwl. Ernest Nyalula +255752057664 #LostInTheChurch #Discernment #ChristianFaith #TruthOfTheGospel #JesusChrist #SpiritualDiscernment #BiblicalTruth #Christianity #FalseTeaching #KnowTheWord

THE HARD TRUTH ABOUT ETERNITY “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” —Matthew 28:19–20  A Christian father who was terminally ill called his three sons to his bedside. To his two sons who were believers, he said, “Goodbye, my sons. I will see you in the morning.” Turning to his third son, he simply and sadly said, “Goodbye, my son.”  The young man was deeply disturbed. He said, “Father, why is it you said to my brothers, ‘I will see you in the morning,’ and you only said to me, ‘Goodbye, my son’? Why didn’t you say you would see me in the morning, too?”  His father replied, “Son, you have never asked Jesus Christ into your heart to be your Savior and Lord. And that is what breaks my heart the most. I will never see you again.” That son began to ask his father how he could be saved, how he could see his father again. His father told him how. The son prayed and received Christ into his life. Then his father said, “Now our family will be together in eternity.”  That can happen for everyone who has put their faith in Christ. It will be a great reunion one day in the future. But what does the unbeliever have to look forward to? Judgment after death and a miserable, empty life on earth. There might be some fun in sin—for a while. But payday comes. The hard truth about eternal life is found in the apostle Paul’s words in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death” (NLT).  That’s why believers are called to share the gospel far and wide, as the Christian father in the story did with his son. In what’s known as the Great Commission, Jesus gave His followers these instructions: “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20 NLT).  Eternal life is the hope believers cling to when the things of this life start to overwhelm us. There’s a reason that John 3:16 is perhaps the best-known passage in all of Scripture. Jesus’ words to Nicodemus still resonate powerfully today: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (NLT).  If you do not commit your life to Christ, ultimately you will look back on your life and realize that you wasted it. But don’t wait until the end of your life to figure that out. Figure it out now.  God bless you