FAITH CAPSULE: Strive to gain the wisdom of God that unlocks understanding.

Proverbs 4

In the life journey, wisdom and understanding will give a knowing edge to arrive at the calling of God.
The word of God requests to ask, and God will not deny.
Jesus is the wisdom of God for all. (1 Corinthians 1:30)
Many claim the wisdom of God but lack the understanding to have a knowing edge.
Proverbs 4:7 buttresses, “wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.”
In this challenging, unstable world of wickedness, a believer living by the word of God shall have an understanding rooted in wisdom and knowledge to be stable. 
In all you are getting, in addition to the wisdom (if you have it), you must get understanding.
To have understanding, with prayer before God, not by determination, ask from God.
What to ask for in understanding?
Know to ask for an understanding heart to discern.
An understanding heart is what all need to be able to discern between good and evil. When King Solomon went to Gibeon to sacrifice, God appeared to him in a dream to ask him what to do for him.
King Solomon asked God, “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” (1 Kings 3:9) 
The request of Solomon pleased the Lord.
PRAYER
Ask for an understanding heart to discern just like King Solomon did.
Understanding the heart to discern will be able to see and detect in the endeavors of this wicked world.
Know to ask for understanding to avoid a pathless wilderness.
Job, in times of painful challenges his life responded to the critics over his life, “He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, And makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.” (Job 12:24)
Has your wilderness journey exposed you to unceasing critics asking about your distance from God?
A wilderness journey of life comes with a path and is with the prescription of God to arrive at the promise of God. God directed the Israelites in the wilderness journey that leads to the Promised Land. Exodus 13:17-18 records, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt.” 
It is the understanding of God that will lead in the path of wilderness to arrive at the calling of God.
PRAYER
Ask God to enable you not to walk in a pathless wilderness of the life journey. 
Ask for the understanding to hear and do according to the direction of God.
Gain understanding from God that is a source to live life for the glory of God. 

FAITH CAPSULE: Jesus is the truth of God, the word of God.

John 8:1-32

To know some truth about truth is rooted in knowing the truth.
Truth is the quality of being true.
Truth is the facts about a situation, a reality.
To know the truth is free, not be in bondage.
Truth does not lie. 
Truth is threatening. 
Truth can be bitter and not appealing to be accepted.
The truth will always embarrass falsehood.
Truth is challenging but not confusing.
Truth is not popular to gain a place in the company of liars.
Truth is not evil and yet not acceptable by the majority.
The majority cannot stand the truth to accommodate but rather stand with the lie.
Truth is naked, not hard to locate, while lie is covered to deceive and manipulate.
Standing with the lie is accommodating, deception, pacifying the devil, and not being free before God.
Is it your desire to be free?
Why not give to the truth of God as your value?
To be free, let the truth become your value.
Become an advocate for truth as your value that does not hide but stands for ways of life. 
Behave your value, the evidence of believing the truth in the ways of life.
In ways of life, be steadfast in the truth by which Christ has made all free.
Living as an advocate of truth is evidence of fear for God, diligently God, putting away the gods of this world.
Remain abiding in the word of God, Keep growing in the truth of God, and live a life free to the glory of God.
Do you know about the truth of living a free life before God?
As an acclaimed believer, do you know the truth?
Thomas spoke on behalf of his brethren, not knowing the way.
John 14:5 records, “Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus responds to Thomas, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
Jesus is the TRUTH, the way, and the life.
Do you know Him, or do you know about Him?
When Jesus walked through the earth, many thronged Him but did not know Him.
Today, many are claiming His name but do not know Him.
Many acclaimed believers are not free because they do not know the truth.
Are you an unbelieving believer who is not free? 
Many THOMASES of today do not know the truth and are not free indeed.
What does it mean to be free indeed?
Jesus declares what it means to be free, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32)
One who lives by the word of God as a way of life dwells and abides in the truth of God.
Jesus is the Living WORD of God, the truth of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the truth of God to become your way of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: The word of God that says ask is the evidence of provision in place.

1 Samuel 1

Hannah engaged the word of God to experience her open-door breakthrough.
God wastes no word.
Perceive the word of God (be aware of His word); receive His word into your life; give prudence, and then understanding will bring forth a knowing edge.
With a knowing edge in place, open doors come to life.
The word of God declares, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9)  
Are you experiencing closed doors in any area of life?
Hannah experienced a closed door, but she engaged the word of God, and the open door answered on her behalf. 1 Samuel 1:6 records, “…although the LORD had closed her womb.” Without any distraction, Hannah asked, sought, and knocked to have her door opened by the mercy of God.
Hannah had all the comfort from her husband Elkanah, but the comfort from her husband could not keep her silent from seeking God for her opened door. Hannah refused to waste away because she needed to possess her possessions in the Lord.
The word of God is a command.
The word of God represents a key in the hand of one to insert, turn, and push a door to open. However, when all one can do is insert and not turn nor push, one is bound to fail and not get the door opened.
God meant all of what He said and the ones He is still saying for those who will take to work the word of God by walking in His word (believing His word).
God wants His word to be received and operated for an effective and infallible result that is undeniable.
The word of God saying ask is evidence there is provision for every need and know to ask.
It is asking that will bring forth the provision.
He also said seek because He enjoys being sought for in times of desperation because He alone is God.
In seeking Him, He will not hide from one who seeks Him diligently.
The command for all to knock where there is a need is to gain entrance to a closed door in an area of life.
Often, believers limit themselves by asking only and not seeking or seeking and not knocking when the situation demands asking, seeking, and knocking.
Hannah was going to Shiloh every year with a pressing need, but her situation changed when “…her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb. So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.” (1 Samuel 1:6-7)
Hannah came out of complacency and stepped up into asking, seeking, and knocking.
God opened her womb, and she had Samuel.
Hannah testifies to naming Samuel meaning, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:20)

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to remain constant in asking, seeking, and knocking before God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Know to believe in the word of God.

Hebrews 11

For one who believes in the word of God, His secret is to dwell and abide in the word for deliverance. 
Abraham lives the life of a believer.
Romans 4:3 testifies, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
The word of God requires obedience and no compromise. 
To obey, dwell, and wait on the word of God is the testimony of the life of Abraham.
The Bible records Abraham, “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.” (Hebrews 11:8-10)
Obedience: When God called Abraham out from his country, family, and father’s house to an unknown land, he obeyed fully by launching out as commanded by God.
Abraham believed when there was no idea about his journey of obedience.
Abraham had no reasonable excuse to decline the calling upon his life but obeyed God by moving from certainty to uncertainty. 
Are you obeying to obtain good testimonies?
Dwelling: Abraham dwelt on the word of God. 
The character of living by the word God dwells in the secret place of God. Psalm 91:1 buttresses, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” Are you a truthful believer who knows to dwell in the word of God? 
Abraham dwelt in the word of God by not looking back to his country but went forward according to the calling of God over his life.
Abraham dwelt under the shadow of the word of God and was able to move forward in the calling of God. 
With faith in the word of God, Abraham moved to a foreign country, and his faith caused him to obtain good testimonies.
Those who engage the word of God as a story are limited in understanding.
Dwelling and abiding in the word is a way for deliverance. 
Waiting: Abraham obeyed God; he dwelt and waited by walking before God.
Those who know to dwell in God know to wait patiently on God. 
Hebrews 11:10 records the waiting of Abraham on God, “For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Indeed, Abraham lived by waiting for the future that was not in sight.
Waiting on the promise of God can be painful but is gainful for obedient ones.
In the documentation of Abraham, gain understanding and knowledge to live for the glory of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to learn right from Abraham.

FAITH CAPSULE: Many know about the truth but are not free.

Matthew 7 

Many know about the truth but are not free.
One who knows the truth is free.
Do you know about or know the truth?
The truth of God is the assurance to wait on God without regret.
One with the truth of God is on the side of the word of God that does not fail.
Jesus is the truth of God that never fails. (John 14:6)
Are you a believer in the word of God?
John 8:31-32 states, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 
Abiding in the word of God is possible when there is knowledge of the truth of God. 
Knowledge is the application of wisdom. 
Understanding is paying attention to wisdom because wisdom is instruction.
Jesus wants all to know the truth that will make free possible.
Waiting on God will know the truth.
What is it about waiting on God?
Waiting is not fun when there is no knowledge of the truth about waiting.
The time of challenges demands to remain calm until expectation becomes manifested. 
Waiting on God can deliver answers such as yes, no, or to wait.
With knowledge of the truth, it is understanding to ask, seek, and knock for the intervention of God. 
It is true to ask, seek, and knock to gain the attention of God.
God will always act for those who wait on Him with knowledge of the truth. Isaiah 64:4-5 testifies, “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. You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways…” 
Isaiah 64:5 identifies three ways of truth that will provoke God for one that waits on Him:
God meets with one who rejoices.
God meets with one that does righteousness.
God meets with those who remember His ways.
Apostle Paul knows the truth of waiting and having God act when he repeatedly encourages rejoicing in the Lord. (Philippians 4:4) 
The truth is to be awake, do right, not sin.
The word of God is truthful for one who engages it to become free, not to be a victim of a wicked world.
The word of God encourages all to remind Him concerning the work of His hand. (Isaiah 43:26)
The word of God is not just a story but a secret that will deliver the answer to a believer. 
A believer with knowledge of the truth of the word of God will know to wait on God with expectation without frustration. 
Get knowledge and know that God acts for the one who waits for Him.

Prayer for today: Ask God to be open to the truth of God.