FAITH CAPSULE: Understanding the word of God will have a knowing edge over wicked agendas and not be a victim. 

Hosea 4

Hosea 4:6 records, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
One that is lacking is the evidence of one that is not full.
One full of the knowledge of God is bound to go far with God, walking with God or before God to avoid and not become a victim of this wicked world.
To know is to have an understanding. 
Having understanding is rooted in the listening ability to the word of God. 
Do you listen to the word of God constantly or casually?
Jesus asked and answered the reason why there is a listening disability: “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.” (John 8: 43) 
Having understanding shall not lack knowledge. 
With no understanding is the disability of listening to the word of God.
With no understanding, living according to His word is not possible. Listening will understand, knowing to be stable in a wicked world.
Every command in the word of God is doable, not impossible, for one engaged in the word of God.
Understanding the word of God will have a knowing edge over wicked agendas and not be a victim. 
There is no choice like listening and gaining an understanding of the word of God to become full of knowledge and not become a victim of the wicked world.
With understanding and knowledge, give self to repeated do-able directions for self-deliverance to watch and pray.
Matthew 26:41 records, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 
Mark 13:33, “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.” 
Luke 21:36, “Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”  
Just like Jesus said, the apostle Paul also called for the importance of prayer.
Ephesians 6:18 states, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saint.” 
The book of 1 Peter 4:7 records, “But the end of all things is at hand; therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.”  
How is your prayer life? 
Are you one that is serious about prayer? 
Jesus demonstrated the need to watch and pray, and Paul encourages the need for prayer as  Acts 6:4 records, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Be exposed to the word of God and be filled with understanding and knowledge.

Prayer for today: Ask God to fill you with understanding to gain knowledge of His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: Waiting patiently on God can be painful, but gainful to experience the act of God.

Psalm 40

Believing God is having faith in the word of God to be obedient, waiting patiently on God.
The Bible describes faith as “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Do you believe in God? 
Abraham lived a life of obedience because he believed in God. 
Hebrews 11:8-10 states, “By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”  
With faith, Abraham distinctly did things that made him obtain good testimony and live life with an understanding of God: he obeyed by going as commanded by God; by faith, he dwelt in a strange land; and by faith, he waited on the promise of God.
Waiting on God partially without a patient in all endeavors shall not gain the promise of God.
Abraham waited patiently on God to arrive at the center of divine assignment for his life. 
David testifies, “I waited patiently for the Lord, And He inclined to me and heard my cry.” (Psalm 40:1) 
Wait on God with patience! 
King Saul could not wait with the patient when Samuel told him to wait, as commanded by God, for a sacrificial offering before the war against the Philistines. 
The Bible records: “Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, ‘Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.’ And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering that Samuel came…” (I Samuel 13:9-10) 
King Saul violated the word of God by not waiting for seven days as requested by Samuel.
Unlike Saul, Abraham waited patiently in the face of hopelessness but lived life with hope for the glory of God. 
Waiting patiently on God can be painful, but gainful to experience the act of God for the patient ones on Him.
Know to wait like Abraham to claim the promise of God for obedience.
Living right is living patiently, waiting on God. 
Why not live upright?  
Give self to the written word of God as stated, “…no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11) 
Continually, walk upright by waiting patiently in life endeavors, and God will act with answers.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable living uprightly in the life journey.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you fighting a battle outside the direction of God?

Judges 7

Jerubbaal (Gideon) with his people camped for war against the Midianites when God spoke to him, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claims glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now, therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.” (Judges 7:1-3)
In every battle, there is a need for high numbers of soldiers to emerge victoriously. 
God instructed Jerubbaal to reduce the number of soldiers. 
Without hesitation, the Word of God prevailed as instructed. 
Jerubbaal reduced the number of soldiers from twenty-two thousand to ten thousand. 
The God of battle that does not share His glory with no one called on Jerubbaal after he had cut down the numbers saying, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there…” (Judges 7:4)
If you are Jerubbaal communicating with friends about the instruction that God called to reduce your soldiers, how would you react? 
The obedience of Jerubabel to reduce the number, without doubt, His friends would have considered Jerubbaal as foolish, spiritually insane, overzealous, and unrealistic. 
Jerubbaal led the people to the water as directed by God to have the number reduced the second time. 
At the water, God spoke again, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.” (Judges 7: 5-6). 
In going against the Midianites, one that considers assigning men that lapped from water over ones that got on their knees to drink water would have been considered foolish. 
Always engage the instruction of God regardless of how foolish it sounds. 
The cut of number went to battle against the Midianites.
Going to battle from twenty-two thousand to three hundred sounds foolishness by human reasoning. 
For any man, it is suicidal to go to war after ending up with such a small number. 
Twenty-two thousand seems to be the right way and not the foolish way. Remember that Proverbs 14:12 states, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” 
Jerubbaal did not take the path of the assumption that seems right but obeyed the instruction of God without complaint nor doubt and went with three hundred men to fight a battle that initially called for twenty-two thousand men. 
Are you fighting a battle outside the direction of God?
No one should replace the instruction of God.

Prayer for today: Ask that the instruction of God shall rule your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: All must continually hear the word of God to be able to fear God.

2 Kings 6

Faith is rooted in hearing the word of God; faith is the source of fearing God. 
Failure to hear the word of God leads to living in fear of evil.
Living as a believer of God is hearing the word of God for keeping the word of God. 
Romans 10:17 informs all, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 
Without the effect of hearing the word of God to have faith, the evil way will have its place. 
God wants all to hear His word to fear Him. 
Ecclesiastes 12:13 emphasizes the need to fear for God, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.” 
All must continually hear the word of God to be able to fear God.
Evidence of the importance of hearing the word of God to fear God through Moses: “…Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.” (Deuteronomy 4:10)
One must be hearing the word of God to give self to the fear of God.
To fear God is evidence of having faith in God to depart from evil doing. Job 28:28 said it well, “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’”
Fearing God is taking a position to be experiencing the blessing of God.
Psalm 128: 4, “Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”
Have a desire to fear God.
Isaiah 35:4 encourages fearing God as a way of life, “Say to those who are fearful-hearted, “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.”
One with a fearful heart for God is living by the fear of God.
Become hearing and keeping the word of God to have faith to fear God. 
A heart of faith in God will be mindful of God, not of the evil way of life.
With prayer, faith will rise while fear of challenges will subside.
For example, when the challenges confronted Elisha and his servant, the servant was overcome with fear.
With fear, the servant asked Elisha about what to do, and Elisha said:
Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:16-17)
Give yourself to the word of God for you to have faith, not living fear in the rampant fear of the wicked world.

Prayer for today: Ask that the word of God shall become established in your heart. 

FAITH CAPSULE: Listen, watch, and wait to find God that is not far.

Psalm 75

Consistently, make it your way of life to find God, for keeping, to lead you, and preserve you not to become a waste of the life He has given you. 
God is near to all, and none should not be far from Him to be finding Him. 
To find God more is knowing more of God, not just knowing about God.
AMONG WAYS TO FIND GOD:
LISTEN TO FIND GOD
Listening to God will provoke the blessing of God by keeping His ways, hearing the instruction of God not to despise His word to find God.
Blessed is one that listens, while the curse is for one that fails to listen to God. 
Without listening to God, there will be no understanding evidence of not finding God. The word of Jesus in John 8:43 points out, “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.”
To hear is not listening, but hearing and hearing by the word of God is one that listens. 
Listening will understand and find God, living life right before God.
WATCH TO FIND GOD
The word of God that sounds in the direction of one to find God demands attention to see or observe God in His words. 
Joshua 1:8 records meditation: “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.”
Meditating is communicating with God to find God.  
Watch and pray will lead not into temptation for sin. 
Without sin, one will see God, and with sin, no one can see God.
God is near for all that give attention to see Him by identifying the work of His hand. 
Psalm 75:1 testifies, “We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.” 
Keep in mind that the work of God is His Word, and calling His name for His word, is evidence that He is near.
Know that in seeing God is found in the work of His word.
WAIT TO FIND GOD
It takes waiting on God to claim expectation for seeking from God.
The manifestation of expectation in God is the evidence of one that finds God. 
God is a good God that will wait to act for those who wait on Him.
The recording of waiting on God is the testimonies of finding God.
Isaiah 64:4 records, “For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
One waiting on God is with the testimony of one that finds God.
Wait on God, find God to experience His grace, mercy, and the blessings of God.

Prayer for today: Ask that God will enable you to find Him.