FAITH CAPSULE: The purpose of the command is to love. 

1 Corinthians 13

One who does not know how to love does not know God.
God is love.
Love belongs to God.
Love is demonstrated by action but rooted in faith. 
The purpose of the command is to love. 
God gave His commandment so that love can exist among all. 
One who abstains from stealing, lying, or deceiving others testifies to God’s love.
The purpose of God:“Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk.”  (1Timothy 1:5))
Before God, are you living life with love? 
In the world of selfishness, living as commanded to love is not possible.
Claiming to love without loving with a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith is empty love. 
In a world of self-centeredness, living in the love of God with sincere love is lacking.
Are you living as commanded by the word of God?
When the love of God is not in place, fulfilling God’s command to live becomes questionable. 
Paul the apostle identifies the importance of love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 
Apostle Paul points out that a believer can demonstrate the gifts of God, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, and reaching out to the needy, but yet not with love. 
All demonstration of love that is not rooted in the heart is empty and carries no weight before God. 
Many know about it but do not know how to live by the command to love.
Are you open to the word of God?
The word of God speaks to all the heart.
Are you demonstrating as a prophet but not evidence of loving in your way of life?
Matthew 7:22-23 records what to expect from the Lord at His appointed time, stating, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” 
Today, look into the word of God; see your right or wrongdoing.
Live the life of the love of God.
Man can always deceive man, but not God.

Prayer for today: Ask that living by the word of God be established in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: God will not overlook sin committed.

2 Samuel 12

Come out of sin; live life by the word of God.
The Case of the sin of David and Hezekiah:
King David saw and sent for Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. The Bible records, “…and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” (2 Samuel 11:4-5)
David was wrong in his attempt to cover up his doing with Bathsheba when he sent Uriah to the front of war for his death. It was a wicked act by David.
David, a man after the heart of God (1 Samuel 13:14), was not excused from living the consequences of His sin.
God will not overlook sin committed.
King David’s sin before God called for the Prophet Nathan to go and rebuke him. When Prophet Nathan approached David, David repented of his sin. 2 Samuel 12:13 records David’s response: “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.  
Repentance will bring forth redemption.
David repented before God. 
God did not withdraw His spirit from David or cut off His word from him. 
Proverbs 1:23 testifies to the goodness of God: “Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.” (Proverbs 1:23) All need to learn from turning to God to gain the presence of God.
David was rebuked and repented, and retained the hand of God over his life. 
Hezekiah was sick with the mark to die when the word of God rebuked him through Prophet Isaiah stating, “…thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’” (Isaiah 38:1) The bible records the response of repentance by Hezekiah, “Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD.” (Isaiah 1:2) Just like David, Hezekiah repented at the rebuke of Isaiah, the prophet of God, and the word of God gave life to Hezekiah in the place of death.
What stops you from turning away from sin to God?
Follow the word of God to keep you away from the path of sin. 
One who follows the word of God does not despise God but takes a position to see God. 
Despising the word of God is an avenue for self-destruction. (Proverbs 13:13) 
In life, one who despises the word of God will sink into sin. 
With sin, one is not seeking God and will not see God. 
One claiming to seek God diligently while telling lies to deceive and manipulate will not experience the manifestation of expectation.
Does that speak to you?

Prayer for today: Ask not to be silent or a blatant liar.

FAITH CAPSULE: An obedient and thankful heart provokes the hand of God for good.

John 11:17-57

Know that obedience and thanksgiving offered to God will provoke a miracle. 
With obedience and thanksgiving to God, the miracle of lack shall convert to abundance.
At the feeding of 5,000, Jesus asked His disciples not to let the people depart empty-stomached. 
In a desert with no provision to meet the need of the people, “Jesus asked Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat?” (John 6:5)
A disciple informed Jesus that a lad had five barley loaves and two small fish.
What the lad had was not enough to feed the population in the desert.
Are you struggling to meet your needs? 
Are you at a life juncture experiencing a desert, with no provision in your life?
Understand and know, with faith, there is always possibility out of impossibility. 
Jesus responded to the answer of doubt to the lack of bread for the people in the desert in John 6:10-11, “Then Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.” 
To provoke a miracle of abundance in the desert, Jesus commanded the people to sit down.
The people obeyed, sat down as commanded.
In response to obedience, Jesus gave thanks to the Lord for the provision of five barley loaves and two small fish.
The little provision to feed thousands of people became plenty, with abundance to be fed. 
The people obeyed, and Jesus offered thanks for the miracle of abundance. 
As obedience and thanks to God turned lack to plenty, obedience and thanks raised Lazarus from the grave of death. 
John 11:41-44 records obedience to the given command and thanksgiving before God.
The people responded to the command to take the stone away at the tomb of dead Lazarus. 
In addition to the moving stone in obedience, Jesus lifted His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
Obedience and thanks replaced death with life.
Giving obedience to the word of God and giving thanks will always provoke provision and restoration, the evidence of an undeniable miracle in the face of life challenges.
Give yourself to obeying the word of God and offering thanks.

Prayer for today: Ask for the strength, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to provoke the move of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: His word is His way, His presence.

Deuteronomy 33

Are we living in God’s way or in our way?
One who lives in one’s own way is not living for God.
God showed His way of deliverance to Lot and his wife, but his wife walked in her own way to experience life termination.
PRAY
Ask that the hand of God shall continually keep you in His way,
Ask that whatever way you engage shall cease answering for you as your way.
God is not a partial God.
In Deuteronomy 33:12-14, Moses prayed for the way of God, and God answered him, stating, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
PRAYER
Ask God, who is not partial, to show you His presence and grant you His rest.
Ask that the deliverance and His preservation be established in your life,
God is God.
His word is Him.
His word is His way, His presence.
Serving Him in His word, not in your own word/way, counts before Him, not just being numbered for Him (answering with a title with no task to count before God)
Giving regard is giving yourself to Him.
Are you giving regard to Him, to your pastor, or yourself?
God is a jealous God.
The antidote for jealousy is attention.
A failure to give God attention, not to give regard to God, has consequences from God.
Psalm 28:5 records, “Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.”
Giving regard to the works of God is giving to His word.
The word of God is His work. The work of God is word.
Giving regard to God demands commitment to be built up.
In Acts 20:32, Paul the apostle speaks to all, “So now, there brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” 
PRAYER
Ask that God give you the strength to be committed to the word of God.
Ask that giving regard to the work of God become your way of life.
Pray the word of God, as prayed before Him.
Pray the word of God, reminding God that He does not forget.
In the challenges of the world, pray the word of God as recorded
Isaiah 33:6 states, “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.”
Make it a prayer point, asking for wisdom and knowledge rooted in God be established in your life.
In Colossians 1:9-11, Paul prayed for the importance of wisdom and knowledge, stating, ” For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord…”

Prayer for today: Pray that wisdom and knowledge of God will enable you to live a stable life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Boldness, boasting in God, is the character of calling on God

1 Samuel 17

Besides God, who are you boasting?
Boasting in God is claiming or flourishing in the name of God.
Boasting in God is the character of a believer who knows God, not just knows about God.
A boaster of God has faith to act with boldness and character.
With understanding and knowledge, boasting of God is the character of glorifying Him.
David’s life testifies that his strength is in boasting of God, his words, and his actions.
David personalizes and repeatedly speaks as if he is the only one for God, and God belongs to him alone. 
The book of Psalms testifies to the words of David that personalize God as the father to him alone:
Psalm 4:1, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.”
Psalm 13:3, “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God…” (David personalizes God as the character of boasting God.)
Psalm 86:1, “Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me; For I am poor and needy.”
It is glaring in his prayer that he reminds God that He is his own.
Be bold for knowing God if you know Him.
Boldness, boasting in God, is the character of calling God by His word does not return to Him void.
Isaiah 43:26 records the word of God, “Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted.”
David had the knowledge and understanding of God to personalize God as his father.
David knew how to connect with God, and nothing denies him.
Gaining God’s word will gain undeniable attention from God.
Besides God, who are you boasting?
Are you boasting about your strength?
Knowing how to boast in God is rooted in understanding that God is mindful of the created one, who has a place for God in the heart.
David knows the mind of God. He knows to boast of God for all his God-given life, and God knows the mind of David.
Once, God testifies of David as a man after His own heart. (1 Samuel 13:14)
David knows the mind of God when he approached God to ask in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” 
The documentation through the Bible is for learning and understanding
for one who will give self to the word of God, having the patience and comfort of the documentation.
Grow to know God.
Let the word build you; have the boldness and the character of knowing God.
Continually, let your strength be rooted in boasting in God. 
Boasting about God is a way of glorifying God with praise. 
To acknowledge God is praising God. 
Psalm 50:23 buttresses this: “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” 

Prayer for today: Ask that God enable boasting in Him to become your way of life.