FAITH CAPSULE: Where or who are you looking to in the challenges of the world?

Exodus 33

Are you looking up to God or looking down from God?
Look up to God continually, give Him regard, the antidote for a jealous God, the evidence of not seeking any other god. 
Leviticus 19:31 records the word of God against seeking another god, “Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” Know God and not look outside of Him at all times.
Looking up to God is the character of waiting on Him without a doubt. Know that God is a caring God that will not ignore such that waits on Him. Isaiah 64:4 testifies that God “…acts for the one who waits for Him.” 
Let it be that you will be looking up to God continually and shall not become wasted in ways of life.
Looking up to God is the way of acknowledging Him for all He has done, all He is doing, and all He will do.
Are you looking up to God or looking down from God?
Looking up to God is living life with the fear of God. 
With understanding, look to God to find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:5) 
Looking up to God is action (faith) that God sees all and measures as weight. 1 Samuel 2:3 testifies of God as, “…For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him, actions are weighed.”  
Ask God to enable you to be living life by His word.
One that looks up to God is seeking God. Seeking God will know to call upon the Lord God consciously consistently. Psalm 18:4 encourages, “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So, shall I be saved from my enemies.”
One that is looking up to God will know to keep eyes on God to experience His hand.
Looking up to God is seeking Him diligently for His way, not assuming the way to go. Moses, a man great in the hand of God, demonstrated the evidence of looking up to God for direction in the calling of God. 
Exodus 33:12-13 documents about Moses looking to God, asking, “Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now, therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
Exodus 33:14 records the answer of God, for Moses, “And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Who are you looking up to consciously or unconsciously?

Prayer for today: Ask that you will know and understand to be looking up to God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Sin before God does not move forward. 

Joshua 7

The covetous character is a greedy, acquisitive one with a strong desire for, especially material possessions. 
Covetous implies inordinate desire often to possess what belongs to others. 
Covetousness is rooted in the lack of contentment.
One with covetousness is in sin against the word of God, the evidence of the lack of fear for God.
The Bible records, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.” (Exodus 20:17)  
Covetousness will stand against one from going forward in the journey of life. 
Covetousness is a sin before God.
It is a sin to deny or hinder one from moving forward in all endeavors.
Are you one with covetousness?
What is it that is hindering you consciously or unconsciously from going forward in your journey of life? 
Covetousness is also a sin to deny one from obtaining promises in the word of God.
The obedience of the Israelites to the word of God not covet gave them victories over their enemies as disobedience is the reason for their loss against the people of Ai with lesser might of the military.
The Israelites assumed victory against the people of Ai, not knowing that their sin was before God, to deny them victory.{
Are you assuming right in the place of being wrong before God?
Are you with sin that is enough to deny your victory where victory should not be your portion?
The loss of Israelites was the result of sin before God.
Joshua before God as stated, “And Joshua said, “Alas, Lord GOD, why have You brought these people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!” (Joshua 7:7) 
Joshua did not know that sin was their fall but was curious why their past situations were better than their present challenge.
Are you feeling that your past is better than your present, not knowing that sin replaced you? 
It could be that God has departed from you just as He departed from the Israelites due to their sin of covetousness.
On behalf of the Israelites, Joshua pleaded before God as God told him about the sin of Achan of covetousness. 
Achan transgressed the command of God that was rooted in deception. (Joshua 7:10-11) 
The sin of covetousness brought the Israelites down, not able to stand before their enemies but turned their backs before their enemies. 
In your challenging battle, are you turning your back before your enemies?
Consistently, obediently engage the word of God that does not fail.
Know that the obedience to the word of God yesterday will not count for the disobedience of today. 
The victories of the Israelites in the past were the result of obedience, while defeats suffered later was the disobedience which denied them victory over the people of Ai.
Do not embrace covetousness and not be denied from the presence of God.

Prayer for today: Ask against covetousness in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: What do you desire? 

Psalm 27

The desire for God must be in the mind of all and not just in the mouth.
If you have a desire for God in your heart, God will deposit the grace to become devoted to Him and become decorated by His presence in your life. 
King David knows what is best to desire when he said, “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
As an acclaimed believer, search for yourself to know if you have the desire for God.
Let your desire be of seeking God.
Seeking God leads to serving Him. 
Are you serving God fully?
Are you serving God for your material gain?
Search yourself to identify how you are serving God.
Serve God diligently the evidence of fear for Him.
Apostle Paul encourages, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)
With understanding, know to serve God sacrificially and let your serving God be acceptable before God alone. 
It is costly to serve God sacrificially, not at the convenience but demands commitment. 
Does your heart sincerely desire to seek God?
Will you question yourself if you are serving God in truth with all your heart?
God has done great things, doing more, which is the reason to have the desire for God, with heart. 
God only sees and moves by the action rooted in the heart of all. 
God saw Samuel with his attempt to make the brother of David as the king and spoke to him: “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.” (1 Samuel 16:7) 
Without doubt, the heart of David is what God saw when His word declared, “…The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people” (1 Samuel 13:14) 
God saw the desire of David. 
What do you desire? 
The desire for God must be in the mind of all and not just in the mouth.
If you have a desire for God in your heart, God will deposit the grace to become devoted to Him and become decorated by His presence in your life. 
Do not serve God casually but serve God by following God fully as Jesus requests: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me…” 
Following Jesus means putting all away to follow Him is evidence of having a desire to serve God. 

Prayer for today: Ask to live life with a desire for God.

FAITH CAPSULE: The question for self.

Philippians 2

Is it possible that your selfishness has closed you not to be mindful of God and not know Him the evidence of living life as a foolish one?
To live life, do not be fooled because it is foolish to say there is no God. 
A selfish heart that is not mindful of God is bound to be far from God. Proverbs 14:1 identifies, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.”
As self-minded, such is not with the fear of God, to become self displaced from God, the automatic route into the path of eternal damnation.
Without any compromise, the will of God for all is to fear God. 
No one is born to this world with the knowledge to fear God.
The knowledge to fear God comes from learning in the word of God. 
Deuteronomy 31:12-13 informs all, “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” 
To live a life with the fear of God is encased in the humble and become obedient to God continually.
The word of God will cause tenderness of heart to be a place for humility. 
Without humility, obedience is not possible. Philippians 2:8 records of Jesus, “…humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” 
The humble will fear God. 
How would selfish-minded, one with selfish ambition as in selfishness, self-centeredness that is not of God shall know to fear God? 
Do you fear God indeed and in truth? 
To be lost from the word of God will be disobedient to lose the rightful position in God.
Pray to Know God, to fear Him.
Deuteronomy 4:29 identifies what it takes to find God, “…seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” 
Do not be deceived but fear God from the depth of your heart.
Today, search for yourself to know your stand the way you live life. 
Living a life that is all about you is evidence of selfishness and not being mindful of God.
Come out of selfishness, live life to reflect the mindset on God.
It is not right to live a life of selfishness.
Selfishness can be unconscious for self-destruction.
Live life for God, not for yourself.

Prayer for today: Pray before God to enable you to live a life for His glory. 

Faith Capsule: How are you running before God?

Jonah 1

Running from God is running against God.
Whichever way to run is not possible to run outside of God.
Anyone that is running from the calling of God is with a plan to hide from God.
There is no running that is beyond the reach of God.
The running of Jonah and Apostle Paul was not beyond the reach of God.
Jonah was in an attempt to run away from the calling of God.
Hiding from God is with lack of understanding not to dwell and abide in the secret place of God.
The secret place of God is in the word of God, for healing, deliverance, and preservation for one that believes to receives the word of God. Psalm 107:20 confirms, “He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.”
Why not appreciate the word of God and know not to run against the word of God when it sounds in your direction?
Are you ignoring the word of God?
Are you running away from the word of God by going in the opposite direction of God?
Jonah is a prophet of God that disregards the word of God to go in the opposite direction of God.
Jonah disobeyed God by going from the presence of God.
Jonah 1:1-3 documents the act of disobedient of Jonah before God, ” Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
By running away from God, taking a step from God shall displace one from the presence of God.
Search yourself to identify where you are going against God.
There is no excuse for disobeying the word of God, but repentance for disobedience will count before God.
Are you running against the word of God by going in the opposite direction of God?
The running away from the word of God landed Jonah in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 
Jonah cried out to God with repentance, and God answered with deliverance.
Jonah returned to God from running away. 
With running from God or running against the work of God, there will be no place to hide.
At the appointed time, God shall catch up with running runners from His calling or that is against His work.
Are you a runner that is not running for God?
Jonah attempted to run from the calling of God.
Stop running from God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live life by answering to the calling of God.