FAITH CAPSULE: Listen to the direction of God first and foremost to avoid failure.

1 Samuel 16

God is not a careless God to send or call with accuracy.
When God calls you for His assignment, no one shall be able to offset one that listens to gain unfailing understanding.
Have you looked ahead before listening to move for God?
Know to listen before looking outside of the direction of God.
Samuel, a prophet of God, wrongly looked before listening for the direction of God.  
God sent Samuel to anoint David as a king of the Israelites after King Saul disobeyed the word of God. 
At the arrival of Samuel at Jesse, the Bethlehemite, he looked for David instead of listening to look for David.
In your assignment of God, are you looking before listening to deliver as directed by God?
In every direction of God, it is an error to look before listening.
1 Samuel 16:6 records, “So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before Him!”  
When God sends you, listen for His specific direction before looking. Samuel did not wait when he attempted to make a wrong selection for God, he looked, but David was not in sight. 
1 Samuel 16:7 states the response of God to Samuel when he looked before listening, “But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Always listen to God before moving by your look (by what you see). 
When God sends you, allow Him to be in charge because He is the God that calls you, and you do not give a call to yourself. 
After the error of Samuel, by looking at their physical appearance, he responded to God to move by listening for the direction of God. 
Samuel saw all the children of Jesse but could not complete the assignment because David, the king after Saul, was absent. 
Samuel knew that God did not make any selection among the children of Jesse that was on location.
Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” (1 Samuel 16:11b) 
David was called, not on location, but none of his brothers could replace him from the calling of God.
Your calling in life shall not elude you. 
In the absence of David, at the waiting of others for his arrival, all remained standing. 
Today, all that belongs to you by the appointment of God shall wait to manifest.
The direction of God for you shall not fail.
Where ever you are or whatever the situation on the ground is, the calling of God shall always wait for you. 
The calling over for David waited for his arrival. 
Regardless of your surrounding struggle, you shall settle in the calling of God over your life.

Prayer for today: Ask that you shall live life to the glory of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Gain understanding not to be a fool.

2 Kings 7:1-20

Understand and know to confess positively to experience the consequence of confession.
Truly understanding is a wellspring of life to one who has it. (Proverbs 16:22) 
Consider the importance of having a listening ability to have understanding and not live as a potential fool. 
Proverbs 18:7 informs, “A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.”  
Evidently, by the word of God, the mouth can indeed lead to destruction, but understanding can lead one mouth not to experience destruction.
Ask that you gain the understanding rooted in listening.
Proverbs 13:3 warns, “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” 
Take note and know that understanding will cause the mouth to preserve life. 
With understanding, are you taking charge of your mouth not to react negatively to troubling challenges or confess negatively in the place of positive?
For example, during the time of the prophet of God, Elisha, a severe famine reduced the land to a place of lack. 
While the shortage of needs was rampant across the land, “Then Elisha said, “Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the LORD: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.’” (2Kings 7:1) 
In response to the word of Elisha, with doubt, one of the officers of Elisha responded negatively to question Elisha by asking how a breakthrough be possible in the face of severe famine. 
The officer was without understanding and failed to control his mouth by stating negative but took the place of a fool. 
The officer foolishly responded to the prophecy of Elisha speaking out of his mouth with a lack of understanding, “…Look, if the LORD would make windows in heaven, could this thing be (2 Kings 7:2)?” 
Imagine the demonstration of a lack of understanding that caused doubt from the officer.
Do you doubt what God can do? 
Can you imagine yourself waking up in plenty, not in a place of lack? 
With understanding, if you know that God is still on the throne, then believe that miracle is not beyond God. 
Just as Elisha has said, the officer saw with his eyes but could not touch. 2 Kings 7:20 records the end of the officer, “And so it happened to him, for the people trample him in the gate, and he died.” 
God opened the window of plenty; the lack no longer exists. 
The officer had no control of his mouth confessed negative, and destruction became his portion.
Jesus was pointing out the possibility of God when He states, “…With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) With understanding, know to be in charge of your mouth with a confession.
With your positive confession over the negative, the possibility in the place of impossibility is not beyond God to answer for you.

Prayer for today: Ask that you gain the understanding rooted in listening.

FAITH CAPSULE: Mark and seal of God deliver.

Isaiah 5

The work of God is by His word.
Isaiah 5:12 records, “…But they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor consider the operation of His hands.”  
One that disregards the word of God does not regard God but rebels against God consciously or unconsciously, the evidence of not knowing God and not considering God.
One that does not regard God is as one that is laden (loaded) with iniquity (sin, evildoers). 
Not to regard God is forsaken God and will provoke God for one to become backward. 
Pray against backwardness not to be your portion.
Get to know God and gain the knowledge to be having an edge in your ways of life.
One with the lack of knowledge is one the way of captivity. 
Isaiah 5:13 confirms, “Therefore my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished (wanting, lacking), and their multitude dried up with thirst.”
One that knows to give self to the work of God will not be a victim of captivity.
Walking in line with the word of God is giving regard to God to gain the deliverance and protection of God.
Through the pages of the Bible, God orders to mark and seal upon those that walk with Him not to be a victim of evil occurrence. 
Ezekiel 9:4 records, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”
Give regard to God, crying out against the wicked world, and God will mark you for deliverance and preservation.
Mark of God is also the seal of God, commanded by God to be placed upon ones He set aside for deliverance and preservation. 
Revelation 7:2-3 records, “Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
Also, God commands in Revelation 9:4 for seal, “They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”
God is aware of ones with His seal to be sealed not to become a victim of captivity.
His word will not return void to Him. God promises all to remind Him as Isaiah 43:26 records, “Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.”  
Give regard to the word of God, and know to remind God of claiming His word of promise for deliverance.

Prayer for today: Ask for the word of God to mark you and seal you for your deliverance against destruction.

FAITH CAPSULE: Boasting of God should be the evidence of knowing God.

1 Samuel 17

One can only boast in whom one knows. 
Boasting one you do not know is like an empty barrel making noise. 
Who or what do you know to boast about one?
Who do you know that is worthy of boasting about all day? 
The Psalmist testifies, “In God, we boast all day long…” (Psalm 44:8) 
In this life, there is none to boast about compared to boasting about God.
Boasting God is giving regard to God. 
God is the One and only almighty God, the great I AM, that is worthy of all-day boasting.
Boasting of God is giving attention to God. 
Boasting God will also gain attention from God. 
Boasting about God is announcing that with God, all things are possible. Boasting about God is rooted in boldness to look in the face of opposition with no fear. 
Boasting of God should be a way of life, and not only boasting when there is a confronting challenge. 
Boasting of God should be a constant engagement to gain the attention of God.
Boasting with an understanding of God from the heart and not from the mouth will boast about God. 
Boasting God all day long will boost up one where others are grounded. Indeed, know to boast God all day long.
The armies of the children of Israel and their God experienced verbal abuse by Goliath, the leader of the Philistines.
In response to the abuse of the Goliath, the Israelites became emotionally and physically grounded before Goliath and the Philistines.
Are you experiencing abuse in the face of your enemy?
Fear over the Israelites as Goliath stood to boast of his strength states, “…Why have you come out to line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” And the Philistine said, “I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.” (1 Samuel 17:8-10)
When David got to the battleground, he responded to Goliath by boasting about his own God, “…You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you…” (1 Samuel 17:45-46) 
Know your God, boast in Him all day long, and He will boost you over your Goliath.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to know Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not doubt the word of God, do the word of God.

Deuteronomy 28:1-14
Doubting is the avenue to self-destruction. Do not doubt, do not limit, or despise the power of the word of God. Proverbs 13:13 warns, “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.”  
With patience, living by the word of God will terminate struggle or challenge in any area of life. Psalm 34:19 buttresses, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” 
The word of God is the power to do and undo as directed to life challenges. 
Hebrews 4:12 describes the word, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” 
Give yourself to the word of God to deny doubt in your thought or action.
Word is indeed living, powerful, and sharper to terminate challenges to the glory of God.
Will you give yourself to the word of God that converts the challenge of mockery to a miracle?
The Bible records the word of God, “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29) The word of God is truth.
Give yourself to the truth of God to experience the power of God.
Why do you allow doubt?
Jeremiah testifies the identity of the word of God, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16) 
Do not doubt to limit or despise the power of the word of God.  
Turn to the word of God to answer you if you will work the word of God.
Working the word of God is labor. 
Laboring the word of God is obeying the word of God diligently; laboring the word of God is choosing to do the word of God instead of doing what the world says. Deuteronomy 28:1-2 states, “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. The word confirms the reason to engage word laboriously and not doubt the word of God. 
To labor in the word of God will deny a doubt to claim the blessing of God.
Do not doubt the word of God, do the word of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to open your ears of understanding against doubt.