FAITH CAPSULE: Know to engage the word, meditating on the word of God.

Joshua 1

GIVE YOURSELF TO THE WORD OF GOD
Psalm 143:8 testifies, “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning. For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk for I lift up my soul to You.”  Hearing, observing, and obeying God in the morning will make the difference for the day. Make provision for hearing the word of God first in the morning. Trust and hope in God for daily endeavors. 
Give yourself to the word of God to lead you with deliverance.
KNOW TO AVOID SELF DESTRUCTION
Pride is a route to self-destruction.
Pride will deny one not to hear and give ear to the word of God. 
Jeremiah 13:15 buttresses, “Hear and give ear: do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken.” 
Search yourself to identify what is denying you from giving yourself to the word of God.
Whatever seems right but not the word of God is not right before God. Proverbs 14:12 warns, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
Pride is going against the word of God.
BE RESPONSIBLE TO PURSUE GOD 
Pursuing God is a responsibility, which is the ability to act on your own without supervision. Pursue God to become godly. Today, acclaimed believers are not conversant in the word of God but conversant in the things of the world, having a form of godliness but lacking the power of God. 2 Timothy 3:5 states, “having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! Be a responsible one to pursue God by living godliness with the evidence of the power of God in your life.
RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE GOD IS THE PRICE OF GREATNESS
The venture of David to save Keilah from the Philistines made David inquire about the direction from God. 1 Samuel 23:2 records, “Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?”. 
David heard from God, “…Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” 
Inquiring from God for unfailing direction is evidence of one responsible before God. 
Get to know that responsibility is the price to be great in the hand of God.
Be responsible, seeking the direction of God.
LIVE LIFE FOR THE CALLING OF GOD
The one who obeys the direction of God will be connected to God to arrive at divine assignment in life.
However, answering the calling of God will mount with challenges, but obedience to God will deliver in it all. Psalm 34:19 encourages, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” 
In the journey of answering the calling of God, stagnation will delay, and mockery will mount to discourage, but the miracle of victory will answer.
Are you called by yourself or called by the world?
Live life for God!

Prayer today: Ask God to enable meditation of His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Why not desire to become one eaten up by the zeal of God?

John 2

The zeal for God is dedication or passion for the things of God.
The documentation of the life of Jesus is what it means to have a zeal for God.
John 2:13-17 records the zeal of Jesus, “Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up”.
To have the zeal for God is to live life for God by seeking God diligently.
The documentation of the zeal of Jesus is learning to know what it means to live life for the glory of God.
Zeal for God is the evidence of boldness and character, a winning combination for a believer in the word of God.
One with no zeal for God will hardly activate boldness and character to flush out activities of the world in the temple of God. 
Are you zealous for God?
One with zeal for God will always stand against the world of disobedience by looking into the word of God with action. 
Jesus could not look away from world activities in the temple but drove, poured, and overturned all wicked world activities outside of the temple of God.
The Bible identifies the temple of God, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)  
With the zeal for God, one will recognize that the acclaimed house of God is not the house of merchandise.
The zeal for God does not accommodate the world activities ongoing in the church.
Jesus demonstrated the boldness and character that prompted His disciples to state, “…Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up” (John 2:17) With desire, let let the things of God eat you up to be full of God!
To be eaten up by the zeal for God is also rooted in meditating on the word of God day and night.
Why not desire to become one eaten up by the zeal of God?
It is wise to engage in prayer, not a determination to become one with the zeal for God. 

Prayer for today: Ask for the Zeal of God to eat you so that you will live life for God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not compromise the word of God, but live life to claim the blessings of God.

Psalm 1 

Three ways to gain the blessing of God are rooted in:
Walking, Standing, and Sitting.
The question is, how are you walking?
Where are you standing or sitting in your way of living?
Psalm 1:1 records, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful…” 
WALKING
Walking in the way of righteousness should not be walking in the counsel of the ungodly. 
Ungodly do not accept God, answers as wicked do not conform to religious tenets but align with sinful ways of life.
Ungodly will counsel to live a life that does not consider right doing before God.
When a believer begins to receive counsel from an ungodly one, walking astray from the blessings of God becomes inevitable.
Do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly that will direct you outside the path of God. Proverbs 3:6 admonishes, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” 
Take your counsel seriously to set you up for the glory of God.
STANDING:
The evidence of taking the same position as a sinner is in the way of a sinner. 
When a believer begins to endure or tolerate (pacifying) the act of a wicked way of life, it becomes evident that such a believer is not standing for God, not living right before God.
Standing in the path of righteousness will stand out, upholding the way of life that glorifies the name of God.
One that stands in awe of the word of God is with the character of righteousness and counts before God.
Is your standing found with an association that only progresses the testimony of God? 
Are you taking a stand that depends and rests on God in the face of challenging trouble?
As a believer, the word of God demands to ponder what to stand for in the path of life. The walk leads to what one stands for, not hidden from God. Proverbs 5:21 states, “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, And He ponders all his paths.”
How are you standing before God?
How one stands and walks for God is the determinant of where one takes a sitting before God.
SITTING:
Sitting in the seat of scornful will eventually embrace the evil way of life. A believer who takes a sitting position of righteousness must hate evil. Proverbs states, “…the fear of the Lord is to hate evil…” (Proverbs 8:13). In the life of journey, avoid taking a seat that is not of God.
The blessings of God are obtainable by your walk, stand, and sit identified above. 
Do not compromise the word of God, but live life to claim the blessings of God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live by the word of God. 

FAITH CAPSULE: The Zeal for God moved Phinehas to please God.

Numbers 25 

Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, demonstrated the evidence with the zeal for God.
It happened during the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, sinning before God took over their life. 
It happened during the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, sinning before God took over their life. 
The sin provoked the anger and wrath of God when the Israelites joined Baal of Peor.
The zeal for God in Phinehas answered for the deliverance of the Israelites in Numbers 25:6, “…One of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” 
The point here is that the Israelites were experiencing the wrath of their sin when one of their brethren repeated the same sin against the command of God. 
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, with the zeal for God, responded to the sin in Numbers 25:7-8, “…Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So, the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.” 
The zeal for God in the life of Phineas was the way of his life.
The zeal for God in Phinehas made him see wrongdoing when he responded with right doing before God for the glory of God.
Today, acclaimed believers look away from wrongdoing in the things of God because they lack the zeal for God to react by doing right in the place of wrong before God.
The Zeal for God made Phinehas rise from among the Israelites against wrongdoing in the congregation. 
The Zeal for God moved Phinehas to please God to gain uncommon blessing from God as God spoke to Moses, “…Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel because he was zealous with My zeal among them so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel’” (Numbers 25:10-13). 
Do you have a zeal for God?
One with the zeal for God will experience the presence of God.
One who does not have the zeal for God will lack the strength of God to answer the calling of God in life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the Zeal for God to make you a vessel for His glory and the uplifting of the business of His kingdom. 

FAITH MAIL: Acts of the complaint do not have a place before God.

Exodus 16

Give thanks to God at all times to gain the attention of a jealous God.
Have you been complaining more or complimenting God for what He has done or doing in your life?
Acts of the complaint do not have a place before God.
Complaining can be a quick turnaround from complementing for victory in place of a setback.
Does that speak to you?
Regardless of an unexpected challenge, always remember there is nothing impossible for God to turn around for good. 
God destroyed the Egyptians on behalf of the Israelites at the entrance of the Red Sea. 
Moses and the children of Israel declared a new song to praise God. 
The praise states, “Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.” (Exodus 15:6) 
Indeed, the right hand of God is still with power, as it was then.
The right hand of God has not changed to lift His children. 
However, after crossing the Red Sea, the hand of God that saw them through was enough not to complain and look back. 
Have you been complaining more or complimenting God for His mercy? 
Complaining became a pattern of engaging challenges by the Israelites. At the place called Marah, the Israelites could not turn to God with compliments, but the complaint became their way before God. Exodus 15:23-24 records, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”  
The complaint of the Israelites against Moses was an indirect complaint before God.
The Israelites could not count on the blessing of God that brought them out of the bondage of over four hundred years.
Despite the complaint, God gave them water through Moses. 
After the Marah Episode was the drama of crying for what they had left behind in Egypt. 
Getting to the Promised Land involves leaving behind the past to claim the Promised Land. 
The Israelites complained about meat when God showed up to meet their desire for meat. 
God attending to the Israelites should have been enough not to generate any more complaints about the lack of their journey, yet they complained about water. Exodus 17:3 records, “And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”  
Complaining was the confession of death when they died, with none seeing the Promised Land.
Give yourself to compliment God for all He has done, doing all He will do in your life.

Prayer for today: Ask to enable your thanksgiving at all times.