FAITH CAPSULE: Faith is acting out before God to gain His attention.

Mark 2:1-12

God is a jealous God. Deuteronomy 4:24 confirms, “For the Lord, your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” 
Know that the antidote for jealousy is attention.
Are you giving God the kind of attention enough to provoke the hand of God over your life? 
How is your action communicating your desire to gain the attention of God?
A wise statement, “Action speaks louder than a voice.”
The story of Hannah testifies to the truth that action speaks louder than voice.
Hannah was barren because the Lord closed her womb. (2 Samuel 1:5) During one of her trips to Shiloh, her action caught the attention of Eli. The Bible records, “And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.” (1 Samuel 1:12-13)  
The action of Hannah called for the attention of Eli.
Eli responded with prayer for Hannah by calling on God on her behalf to open up her womb. 
Are you looking up to God for an open door?
Matthew 7:7-8 speaks to all, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” 
Action speaks before God to gain the attention of God.
2 Samuel 2:3 confirms, “For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him, actions are weighed.”
Gaining the attention of God is not in how loud to communicate in prayer. (This is saying it is wrong to pray out loud) 
Calling on God is encased in how the heart connects with God. 
Hannah spoke in her heart, and God heard the cry. 
Are you speaking from the mouth to impress?
Action is seeable, the evidence of having faith. 
Faith is acting out the word of God, and God will hear.
Once, Jesus reacted to the action of a paralytic man who came to Jesus tearing through the roof for healing. 
Mark 2:5 records, “When Jesus saw their faith; He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (Mark 2:5). Jesus saw the faith. Undeniably, faith is what is seeable because faith is an action. 
The response of Jesus to the faith of the paralytic man is called action. The action is a faith demonstration that testifies that God sees faith.
Keep the testimonies in the word of God. 
Keeping the testimonies of God will add to the blessings of God. 
The psalmist admonishes, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!” (Psalm 119:2) One that keeps His testimony will know to be persistent by giving God all the attention. 
Give God all your attention for God to attend to you.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live life by His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Your walk will identify you before God.

Psalm 1

Your walk will identify you to determine the mark for your blessing before God. 
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.” 
Mark it when a believer begins to seek counsel from one who is not a believer.
Begin to redirect the walk before God is to continuously engage selves in the word of God by meditating on His word. 
The word admonishes all that there is delight in the law when meditating in the word is in place day and night. (Psalm 1:2)   
Life is a journey.
What surrounds you will determine what you get out of life. 
The word you meditate on in your life journey will enable you to the expected end. 
Whose word do you believe in? 
Do you believe the word of God or man? 
The word of God is a sure counsel that leads one from walking, sitting, or standing for the name of God to become glorified.  
When the counsel of God begins to cause delight in life, it becomes evident that the word of God is meaningful to navigate in a journey.
Meditate on the word of God day and night. 
Meditating on the word of God is the avenue not to walk outside the word of God.
Man is like a vehicle driven by meditation on the word of God.
Without steering, stagnation exists, and there is no transportation; where there is no transportation, the transformation ceases. 
The Psalmist identifies the blessing of walking, sitting, and standing in line with God “He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3)
Live life for the glory of God by paying attention to how you walk, sit, and stand in His counsel, and He shall attend to you with blessing. 
Are you working but not walking in line with God?
An acclaimed worker for God whose walk (where he sits and stands) is not backed by walking in the way of God is bound to miss the blessing of God. 
One doing the work of God is God-enabled.
God can use anyone or anything to get work done, but walking His way is in obeying His commandments. 
The way of God calls for more serious attention to avoid missing heaven. Heaven is not accessible by work alone but also by how we walk. 
There are many working wonders in the name of Jesus, but walking outside of His ways by going astray in their hearts. 
Many are working in the gathering of believers but not walking with God.

Prayer for today: Ask that the hand of God shall enable you to work and walk in His way.

FAITH CAPSULE: Desire to gain entrance to the dwelling of God and not be a passer-by of His dwelling place.

Psalm 91, Isaiah 57:15-21

God is Holy.
1 Samuel 2:2 testifies, “No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.”
He that is holy must also dwell in a Holy place.
None that is not holy shall not see God to have a place in Him.
God spoke in the book of Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” 
There is no better than having a desire to dwell in a place of the Lord God. 
He mentioned by Himself in the book of Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” 
The high place belongs to the High and Lofty One, and it is also the place of believers with a contrite (repentant) and humble (one whose shoulders are not rising above the head) spirit.
Psalm 34:18 confirms that “the LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit”.
To dwell in His place is to be near to Him.  
God gives promises that do not fail and will never fail to remember His children. 
As a believer, have the desire to gain entrance to the dwelling of God and not be a passer-by of His dwelling place. 
If one desires to enter and begin to dwell in His secret place, abiding under His shadow will not elude such. 
A dwelling place is also in the word of God that is secret for anyone that does not seek God in His word.
Psalm 91:1 states, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” 
Indeed, and in truth, there is no place where a believer should desire to abide under the shadow that does not expire, that is continuously constant and consistent. 
It is a shadow that covers one from every form of evil agenda. 
It is a shadow that answers for deliverance and preservation.
To abide demands a step into His dwelling place. 
The word of God reveals His secret. 
His word is not a secret to those who embrace studying and obeying. Engage and embrace His word to have a place and dwell in the high and holy place. 

Prayer for today: Ask that God will enable you to be constant and consistent in studying the word of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Foolishness is purposely engaging with self-direction, not of God. 

1 Corinthians 1

God is not foolish but full of goodness and mercy.
The authenticity of the word of God is the evidence that God does not waste a word. 
Inside the documentation of the word of God, there should be no assumption for the story but engage as the secret to living as an over-comer. 
The story of Jerubbaal reducing men of war from twenty-two thousand to three hundred as commanded by God is enough to acknowledge the wisdom and power of God. 
Most of the time, the instruction of God might sound foolish, but in it, all are with delivering victorious power. 
The book of 1 Corinthians 1:25 buttress, “…the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 
Are you acting wise and nursing a feeling of outsmarting God by contending with His wisdom? 
Contending with His wisdom is purposely engaging with self-direction instead of the direction of God. 
Are you violating Him by acts of wickedness, assuming God is nowhere to expose your ignorance? 
God is not a fool, but His word states, ”But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” (1 Corinthians 1:27) 
Imagine one that demonstrated being wise, committed murder, and escaped being prosecuted. 
Is God not wise enough to have him exposed and not escape being convicted? 
After many years of escape, he fell sick with the signature of death written all over him and no sign of recovering from his sickness. 
In his “wise” mind, while on his sick bed, it was time to confess the killing he committed many years in the past. 
After confessing as the killer, death became far from him, and the signs of death far from him. 
The supposed wise man was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. 
God is too great to be undermined. 
The fact that God is in the position to respond or not, according to the timing of the act of man, is not a measurable way of disregarding His wisdom and power. 
Be wise to understand that “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.” (Ecclesiastes 8:11-13) 
The move of God that is meaningless to the eyes of the world is mindful of God. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to open your understanding and fill you with knowledge.

FAITH CAPSULE: If anyone desires to love God, God will deposit such with what it takes to love God.

1 John 5 

Do you love God?
What does it mean for you to have love for God?
Many songs have been composed about love for God among the believers and non-believers. 
Among such is the song that says, “Oh how I love Jesus 3x because He died for me.” 
Have you taken some time out to search your heart if you love God? 
Do you love God? 
What does it mean to love God?
LOVING GOD
1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” 
Keeping the commandment of God is living by the command of God, either doing His will or being obedient to His will. 
It takes sacrificial commitment to the commandment of God. 
Loving God is a sacrifice. 
Sacrifice is not cheap but costly. 
King David once stated in 2 Samuel 24:24, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” 
King David was responding to Araunah when he offered David a free land to make a sacrifice to God. 
The sacrifice was to deliver the children of Israel from death caused by the census ordered to be conducted by David. 
The census violated the command of God. 
The rejection of free land from Araunah was a clear demonstration of what a costly sacrifice before God should be. 
Engaging in a costly sacrifice is a proven mark of love for God. 
With God, there is a standard for every area of His expectation for all. 
God did not just ask for love but gave all a standard of acceptable love as stated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” 
To love God is to give Him all. 
Through the pages of the Bible, men and women who gave Him all were able to live a fulfilled life and accomplish great exploits to the glory of God. 
Men like Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and other giants loved God and were able to do great exploits. 
The approaching of the giant in the hand of God concerning the issues of life depicts what it is to love God with all of their heart, soul, and strength. 
God has not asked all that is not doable.
Are you willing to love God?
To love God should not be a word of the mouth alone, but to love is rooted in the heart. 
If anyone desires to love God, God will deposit such with what it takes to love God.
Love God and have life in Him.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to love God in ways of living.
Also, pray against the spirit that causes one to cease loving God.