FAITH CAPSULE: Knowing God or knowing about God is not the same.

Philippians 4

Know God to remain steadfast in the Lord.
To know God is not just knowing about Him.
The difference between knowing about God and knowing God is:Knowing about God:
One who knows about God only reads about God, but does not live by the word of God.
One who knows about God is not living in the fullness of God.
One limitation of the knowledge is the same as a lack of knowledge.
Hosea 4:6 states, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”
One who lacks knowledge is prone to be heartless toward the word of God.
Knowing God
One with the knowledge of God is with the character of studying the word of God.
One who gives to studying will gain the ability to become steadfast in the things of God.
It is a self-deception claiming to be a believer but just knowing about God and not knowing God.
Do you know God?
Do you know God to be steadfast with God and have faith to walk with God?
The journey of the Israelites was an example of a lack of steadfastness and unfaithfulness to God.  
Psalm 78:37 records, “For their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant.”
Knowing God is to remain steadfast in the Lord.
Meditating on the word of God day and night is evidence of being steadfast in the Lord.
Meditating day and night will help one to gain and retain the presence of God. 
God did not hide the secret of meditation when He approached Joshua, after the death of Moses. 
Joshua 1:8-9 records, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” 
Get to know God steadfastly, learn to retain the presence of God, and become a candidate for doing exploits to the glory of God.
Retaining the presence of God is the avenue to carry out great exploits, knowing God. 
Are you one who knows about God?
Knowing about God will not move anyone far in this wicked world.
In this wicked world, knowing God will mark one to live life for the glory of God. 
Know God to live without doubt about the goodness of God.
In this wicked world, put aside every logic or philosophy to believe that there is God.
God is the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, with no reason to prove Himself.
The goodness and mercy of God are with the testimonies of God that speak loudly to one who will hear Him.
Make it clear that knowing about God is not the same as knowing God.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the renewal of steadfastness for Him in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Know to live in the fear of God.

Deuteronomy 10

One who knows about God will not know God for His expectation from His creation.
Do you know God for what He wants from you?

What God says to one speaks to all.
Deuteronomy 10:12 identifies what God requires from all, not just from the Israelites, stating: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” 
Fear God, walk in His ways, love, and serve God diligently.
Do you fear God? 
Psalm 96:4 informs all why to fear God: “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.”
To fear God will be able to keep His command.
Deuteronomy 6:2 records, “that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you,”
To fear God is to do according to His command.
Hebrews 11:7 states, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household”
One who fears God will seek God diligently with all heart and with all soul to walk in His ways.
God specifically demands to fear Him, speaking, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.” (Jeremiah 32:38-40) 
God wants from all is to fear Him, to be able to live for the glory of God.
God is a good God.
To fear will love God to be obedient to His word. 1 Samuel 12:14 admonishes, “If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God.” Have the desire that the fear of God reign and rule your life. 
Do you have faith? 
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17) Without faith, it is not possible to fear or love God.
Do not just have faith, but be a faith-full believer.
Claiming to know about faith does not make one faithful.
Psalm 139:14 of David testifies, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
One who fears God walks in His ways, loves, and serves God diligently to live for God.

Prayer for today: Ask God in His mercy to enable you to fear Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Enticement is the music of temptation.

2 Samuel 11

The devil is the architect of enticement.
Enticement is a cunning device of the devil with no respect for anyone, sparing no one.
The devil will engage its victim with enticement to distract and destroy.
Enticement and temptation are the same.
Know and not dance to the sound of enticement but remain focused on the word of God.
Enticement lures victims away from the point of focus.
The temptation is not sin, but falling for temptation will cause a man to sink into sin.
King David did not accidentally fall for the sin of sexual immorality, which he committed with Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah). It was through seeing (which is the anchor of enticement) that King David entrap himself into sin.
2 Samuel 11:2  records, “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.”
David, at the right place at the wrong time, trapped himself with sin.
David fell for sin when he saw a woman bathing.
David could not resist the temptation of sin but went on to inquire about a woman belonging to another man.
Getting carried away by enticement will lead to a deadly avenue of sinning before God.
David was identified as a man of the heart of God, but could not avoid sin.
No one should trust themselves against the devices of the devil but trust and hope in deliverance and preservation of God.
The enemy of all is the master of deception that has been around long enough to draw one into the sin of destruction.
When Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. 
Matthew 4: 3-4 records, “Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
Temptation will fail when enticement is ignored.
Today, be warned and wise to know that if Jesus experienced the enticement of the enemy, no man is above the cunning enticement of the enemy.
Which of your needs is leading you to become a victim of the enticement of the devil?
Give to the word of God to deny the tempter.
Take to the admonition of Paul as stated in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” 
Abstain from seeing in the wicked world; take to the Word of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of God not to expire over your life to become a victim of the enemy.

FAITH CAPSULE: See God in His word that is His promise.

Genesis 13

The word of God is God.
One in a position to hear the word of God should activate oneself to see in the word of God.
The word of God is His promise.
Among the evidence of looking up to God by seeing in his word, shall be to be settled in the promises in the word of God.
When God makes a promise, those who fail to see in the word of God shall miss out on His promise.
Has God promised and not delivered?
The word of God does not fail to deliver.
Isaiah 55:11 records the unfailing promise of God, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Waiting on God is seeking with patience, the character of seeking God diligently.
Seeking God diligently in His word is looking up and seeing in Him to live life for His glory, to be in the center of His divine assignment.
God commanded Abraham to look in the direction of nothing but to trust and hope for the manifestation from God. Bible recorded:  And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your [c]descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.” (Genesis 13:14-17)
Abraham heard the word of God to see the promise of God.
Abram was able to look in the word of God to see land for children while he was yet to have a child in his life.
After the word of God that sounded in the direction of Abram, he rose and walked in the promise of God as evidence of the faithfulness of God.
The word of God commanded Abram to hold on to faith, to have children when he was past the age for children.
God spoke to Abram: “And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall  not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” (Genesis 15:4-5)
The belief of Abram is the evidence of his righteousness.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to see God in His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: With listening ability, one is to gain understanding.

Ezekiel 3

Wait on the word of God, understanding God, in His word, will live for God.
The destination of the word that sounds in the direction of all is the heart,
while the conveyance is the ear to hear.
It is hearing and hearing that will enable one to understand.
God spoke to Ezekiel, “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears” (Ezekiel 3:10).
Every time there is a hearing of the word of God, the heart ought to work in tandem with the ears to receive the word of God.
Hearing sound from within earshot or from a distance may not be the same as listening with the ear and, ultimately, receiving into the heart.
God always wants to talk to His creation that will give attention.
When God wanted to speak to Moses, Moses was “busy” taking care of the flock.
Being busy is a common feature of every moment that makes listening and receiving from the word of God practically impossible.
The attention of Moses was the evidence to listen to God. (Exodus 3:2)
The word or information that passes from one individual to another is not the same as the word that enters and finds a place in the heart.
On every occasion the word of God enters, it ought to produce like a seed planted on the good ground and produce fruit in multi-fold.
The evidence of hearing with the ear and receiving it into the heart was glaring in the assignment of Ezekiel, as documented in the pages of the Bible.
Ezekiel testified that when the Lord spoke to him, he heard a thunderous voice.
Hearing “a thunderous voice” was an indication to receive into the heart.
The testimony of Ezekiel is evidence that when any man hears from God, there will be no denial of having heard from God.
Ezekiel testified, “…I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: ‘Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place!” I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise.  So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me. Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days” (Ezekiel 3:12-15).
In this testimony, Ezekiel received from God and lived for the glory of God.
The word that came to him lifted him and took him away to the center of the assignment of God.
In life, understanding is rooted in the ability to listen.
Hearing from God is upholding the communication to live for God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the word of God to carry you and set you for His glory.