FAITH CAPSULE: Do not compromise the word of God, but live life to claim the blessings of God.

Psalm 1 

Three ways to gain the blessing of God are rooted in:
Walking, Standing, and Sitting.
The question is, how are you walking?
Where are you standing or sitting in your way of living?
Psalm 1:1 records, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful…” 
WALKING
Walking in the way of righteousness should not be walking in the counsel of the ungodly. 
Ungodly do not accept God, answers as wicked do not conform to religious tenets but align with sinful ways of life.
Ungodly will counsel to live a life that does not consider right doing before God.
When a believer begins to receive counsel from an ungodly one, walking astray from the blessings of God becomes inevitable.
Do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly that will direct you outside the path of God. Proverbs 3:6 admonishes, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” 
Take your counsel seriously to set you up for the glory of God.
STANDING:
The evidence of taking the same position as a sinner is in the way of a sinner. 
When a believer begins to endure or tolerate (pacifying) the act of a wicked way of life, it becomes evident that such a believer is not standing for God, not living right before God.
Standing in the path of righteousness will stand out, upholding the way of life that glorifies the name of God.
One that stands in awe of the word of God is with the character of righteousness and counts before God.
Is your standing found with an association that only progresses the testimony of God? 
Are you taking a stand that depends and rests on God in the face of challenging trouble?
As a believer, the word of God demands to ponder what to stand for in the path of life. The walk leads to what one stands for, not hidden from God. Proverbs 5:21 states, “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, And He ponders all his paths.”
How are you standing before God?
How one stands and walks for God is the determinant of where one takes a sitting before God.
SITTING:
Sitting in the seat of scornful will eventually embrace the evil way of life. A believer who takes a sitting position of righteousness must hate evil. Proverbs states, “…the fear of the Lord is to hate evil…” (Proverbs 8:13). In the life of journey, avoid taking a seat that is not of God.
The blessings of God are obtainable by your walk, stand, and sit identified above. 
Do not compromise the word of God, but live life to claim the blessings of God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live by the word of God. 

FAITH CAPSULE: The Zeal for God moved Phinehas to please God.

Numbers 25 

Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, demonstrated the evidence with the zeal for God.
It happened during the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, sinning before God took over their life. 
It happened during the journey of the Israelites to the Promised Land, sinning before God took over their life. 
The sin provoked the anger and wrath of God when the Israelites joined Baal of Peor.
The zeal for God in Phinehas answered for the deliverance of the Israelites in Numbers 25:6, “…One of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.” 
The point here is that the Israelites were experiencing the wrath of their sin when one of their brethren repeated the same sin against the command of God. 
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, with the zeal for God, responded to the sin in Numbers 25:7-8, “…Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So, the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.” 
The zeal for God in the life of Phineas was the way of his life.
The zeal for God in Phinehas made him see wrongdoing when he responded with right doing before God for the glory of God.
Today, acclaimed believers look away from wrongdoing in the things of God because they lack the zeal for God to react by doing right in the place of wrong before God.
The Zeal for God made Phinehas rise from among the Israelites against wrongdoing in the congregation. 
The Zeal for God moved Phinehas to please God to gain uncommon blessing from God as God spoke to Moses, “…Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel because he was zealous with My zeal among them so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel’” (Numbers 25:10-13). 
Do you have a zeal for God?
One with the zeal for God will experience the presence of God.
One who does not have the zeal for God will lack the strength of God to answer the calling of God in life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the Zeal for God to make you a vessel for His glory and the uplifting of the business of His kingdom. 

FAITH MAIL: Acts of the complaint do not have a place before God.

Exodus 16

Give thanks to God at all times to gain the attention of a jealous God.
Have you been complaining more or complimenting God for what He has done or doing in your life?
Acts of the complaint do not have a place before God.
Complaining can be a quick turnaround from complementing for victory in place of a setback.
Does that speak to you?
Regardless of an unexpected challenge, always remember there is nothing impossible for God to turn around for good. 
God destroyed the Egyptians on behalf of the Israelites at the entrance of the Red Sea. 
Moses and the children of Israel declared a new song to praise God. 
The praise states, “Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.” (Exodus 15:6) 
Indeed, the right hand of God is still with power, as it was then.
The right hand of God has not changed to lift His children. 
However, after crossing the Red Sea, the hand of God that saw them through was enough not to complain and look back. 
Have you been complaining more or complimenting God for His mercy? 
Complaining became a pattern of engaging challenges by the Israelites. At the place called Marah, the Israelites could not turn to God with compliments, but the complaint became their way before God. Exodus 15:23-24 records, “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”  
The complaint of the Israelites against Moses was an indirect complaint before God.
The Israelites could not count on the blessing of God that brought them out of the bondage of over four hundred years.
Despite the complaint, God gave them water through Moses. 
After the Marah Episode was the drama of crying for what they had left behind in Egypt. 
Getting to the Promised Land involves leaving behind the past to claim the Promised Land. 
The Israelites complained about meat when God showed up to meet their desire for meat. 
God attending to the Israelites should have been enough not to generate any more complaints about the lack of their journey, yet they complained about water. Exodus 17:3 records, “And the people thirsted there for water, and the people complained against Moses, and said, “Why is it you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”  
Complaining was the confession of death when they died, with none seeing the Promised Land.
Give yourself to compliment God for all He has done, doing all He will do in your life.

Prayer for today: Ask to enable your thanksgiving at all times.

FAITH CAPSULE: The calling of God is with no exception.

Genesis 37

The calling of God broke Joseph before the manifestation of God’s blessing over his life.
Joseph answered God’s calling over his life without knowing the journey of God’s calling ahead of his life. At age 17, the answering of Joseph to Jacob (his father) was the route for his divine assignment. Jacob said, “…Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring back word to me.” So, he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.” (Genesis 37:14) The answering to Jacob led Joseph into the calling of God without prior announcement for Joseph.
The book of Psalm 105:17-22 confirms that Joseph’s journey was his answer to God’s calling as the Bible states, “He sent a man before them Joseph who was sold as a slave.” They hurt his feet with fetters, He was laid in irons. “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him; the ruler of the people let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his elders wisdom.”  
Joseph, at 17 years old (Genesis 37:2) could not see his beloved father, Jacob, until over 30 years of age. (Genesis 41:46) 
Joseph, the beloved of Jacob (his father), answered the calling that set him as a priced slave to become prime minister. 
Regardless of where you are today, do you know if you are answering the calling of God?
Joseph became a slave; he could no longer move at his own will.
Joseph came under the authority which he could not control. 
Calling of God will lead the called one into an unknown route where learning is waiting for the called one to know and become obedient to God. Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered. 
When God calls to send you, there will be the experience of a pain of restrictions in movement.
When He sends you, input from you to control time and timing becomes of God alone. 
Joseph could not come out of prison before the time of God when he pleaded to the butler (whom he interpreted as his dream) to remember Him for help to come out of the prison in his own time but not knowing the time of God for his move. 
Butler failed the expectation of Joseph to be free from prison. (Genesis 40:12-15)
With no exception, experiencing challenges with failure or delay, mockery, stagnation, embarrassment, and ridicule of being lied against the called one are always in the journey to answering the calling of God.
In answering the calling of God, are you experiencing challenges like those of Joseph? 
Take to the word of God with trust and hope as Psalm 34:19 encourages, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

Prayer for today: Ask for the strength to answer for His calling fully. 

FAITH CAPSULE: To fear God is rooted in giving attention to the word of God.

Job 1

Give your heart to fear God. 
The command of God is for all to fear Him because time belongs to God for His doing. 1 Timothy 6:14-16 admonishes all, “…that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” 
There is no exception for no one not to fear God.
God treasures those who fear Him.
“…The fear of the Lord is His treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6)
Fear God by walking in His way.
Living in the fear of God is taking a position not to fail in the life journey.
To fear God is rooted in giving attention to the word of God by inclining ear, keeping the word of God in the depth of the heart, not just in the head.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 identifies for all to live by the fear of God, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.”
Are you one who keeps the word of God in the head with no space for the word of God in the heart?
In life, let the fear of God become your identity before God. 
The fear of God is the identity of Job before God as God testifies, “…there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still, he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.” (Job 2:3)
To fear God in the heart will have a pleasing life before God.
Have a heart of fear for God to live life for God.
It is the will of God for all to fear God and know to train children that will live life in the fear of God.
Know and understand to fear God in every way of life, the conclusion of the whole matter.
The word of God that speaks to one speaks to all to fear God for the ways of living life as Job 28:28 records, “…And to man, He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding…” Jeremiah 10:7, “Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. “
Know to fear God. 
Give yourself to prayer that the fear of God becomes established in your heart not to depart from God. 

Prayer for today: Ask God that His fear becomes established in your heart.