FAITH CAPSULE: Understanding is not of the mouth but the heart.

Psalm 106

In the journey of life, lack of understanding of the wonders of God is so critical to terminate arrival at the promise of God.
With the lack of understanding of the wonders of God, one will not remember the mercies of God. 
One that does not remember the mercies of God is bound to become rebellious to the word of God.
Psalm 106:7 records the testimony of the lack of understanding of the wonders of God by the Israelites, “Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of your mercies but rebelled by the sea-the Red Sea.”  Lack of understanding is the root of rebellion and the complaint, particularly a negative confession.
For example, Numbers 14:1-4 records the complaint of the Israelites,“…And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt…?”
As the Israelites were with the lack of understanding, are you of the same that is complaining negative before God? 
The complaint before God is a sin that will provoke consequences like that experience of the Israelites with the complaint with negative.
God responds to the complaint of the Israelites, “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness…” (Numbers 14:28-30) 
Are you with the understanding of God not to live a life of waste?
Understanding is not of the mouth but the heart. 
Understanding is critical to living life for the glory of God.
Understanding of God’s wonders will cause one to remember and eliminate rebellious nature. Proverbs 16:22 testifies that “Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it…”  
Wellspring is a source of abundant supply. With understanding, you will have an abundance of life that Jesus brought for all. 
The Israelites lack the understanding to become wasted in the wilderness.
Forgetting the works of God cannot be separated from the lack of understanding of the doings of God. 
As regards to the Israelites, Psalm 106:13-14 points out that, “They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.”  
One that is not mindful of the works of God will forget the doing of God to become of sin before God. The Israelites forgot; they could not wait on God but died in sin and did not get to the Promised Land.
One with the lack of understanding of the doings of God will not remember, forgetful but will fail to believe in what God has done and what God can do. 

Prayer for today: Ask for the understanding of the doing of God in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: The Word of God is God.

Joshua 6

The Bible speaks that, in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John1:1)
The Word of God is sent for man to behold God in His Word.
The ability to listen to God in His word is what will make man behold (see) God for direction, to live life for God.
The Word of God is God. 
Without a doubt, when one listens to the Word of God, one must behold (see) in the word of God and be built up with boldness and character.
In the Word of God, there is a direction that never fails. For example, Joshua needed to behold (see) the word of God to gain boldness and character for winning over Jericho. 
Jericho posed as an enemy’s attempt to stop Israelites advance to the Promised Land. Joshua 6:1-2 records the calling of Joshua to see (to behold) in the Word of God, “Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.”  Until you see in what the Word of God speaks to you, you cannot receive what you see, to become of you.
Joshua listened; he was able to behold (see) direction in the word of God as he gained character and boldness to become winner over Jericho. 
God wants all to see in Him (His word) to engage direction not to be a failure. 
Are you seeking for direction by listening to God’s word to gain boldness and character in the face of challenges? 
Jacob was to engage a journey, his course of running away from his brother, and he needed boldness and charter to succeed in his journey. God responded to the need of Jacob when He commanded him to behold (see) in His word stating, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” (Genesis 28:15) Today, listen to see (behold) in the word of God, to obtain the boldness and character, having trust and hope in God.
To behold (to see) in the Word of God, one shall replace fear with faith that is rooted in boldness and character gained in the Word of God.
God magnifies His word above His name. (Psalm 138:2) 
The Word of God is worthy to deliver; His word is mighty and will preserve one that beholds the word of God.
Do you listen to God?
Listen to see in the word of God, and gain boldness and character that makes one to be a winner for the glory of God.
God is power; God that delivered Israelites is still in the business of deliverance and preservation if one will take a position that one sees (behold) God in His word.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to always you to see in His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: The desire for God must be in the mind of all.

1 Samuel 13

Desire is to express a wish to obtain, a strong feeling that compels to attain what the heart set up to have. As a believer, what do you desire?
Do you desire to be a churchgoer believer or to be a believer with sincere for God? 
Do you desire to be a churchgoer believer or to be a believer with sincere for God? 
What you desire is what you seek after. 
One that desires to live heaven on the heart will seek after the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Jesus declares it, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
The whole matter that counts and works perfectly in life is to fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
To fear God and to keep His command is to desire to seek God. 
Listen to word that states about fear of God and heart: “Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.” (1 Samuel 12:24)
Does your heart sincerely desire to seek God?
Do you question yourself if you are serving God in truth with all your heart?
God has done great things, and He is doing more for all to the reason to have the desire for God, with heart. 
God only sees and moves by the act rooted in the heart of all. 
God once corrected Samuel in his attempt to make the brother of David as the king, “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) 
David was sought by God and saw that his heart desires for His name. 
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. 
King David knows what is best to desire when he stated, “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, think if you sincerely desire of the Lord.

Prayer for today: Ask for the desire for God to become rooted in your heart.

FAITH CAPSULE: Fear God to serve Him diligently.

John 12:23-32

The book of Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 states, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.” 
To fear God and to keep His command is encased in seeking God. 
When all know to seek God, all will serve God. To serve God is to follow God in His word.
Jesus points out, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”(John 12:26)
The conclusion of the whole matter is: Fear God, seek God, serve God, and follow Him so that the Father will honor you.
Seeking God leads to serving Him. 
In serving God is to follow Him. Jesus declares clearly, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”(John 12:26)
Are you serving God fully?
Are you serving God for your material gain?
Search yourself to identify how you are serving God.
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, let your serving God be acceptable before God alone. 
Do not serve God casually but to serve God by following God fully as Jesus requests saying, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me…” Following Jesus means putting all away to follow him. 
Following Him is stepping after the same way that He stepped while He was on the face of the earth. 
The expectation of Jesus from His disciples to follow Him records, “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34)
Do you have a desire to come after Jesus? 
Jesus made fishermen of those who desired to follow Him. The book of Matthew 4:19 records, “Then He said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” 
Serving Him is following Him. 
Following Him is a sacrifice by giving up everything for Him. 
To follow Him is not to be a spectator but to learn and to become fishers of men. Jesus’ request from man to follow Him does not identify Him as a slave master. 
Matthew 19:28 records the reward for all that follows Him, “…Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”  
Serve Him fully to experience the fullness of the reward for following God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to serve Him fully by following Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Who are you in Christ?

2 Timothy 2:1-13

Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or by the act? 
A Christian soldier need not be introduced as a soldier because his warlike disposition will always point him out as one who is operating as a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
What kind of a soldier are you? 
Are you a soldier who will always need a constant introduction as a soldier? 
A soldier should be one that contends or serves in any cause as a soldier of the Lord. Soldiers are to persist steadfastly in their cause and to persevere until an assignment, as expected.V
An eligible and qualified soldier for Christ has to be a sold-out soul for the cause of the cross that Jesus carried to Calvary.
Paul, the apostle, admonished Timothy by using an illustration of a soldier. “You, therefore, must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4)
Paul’s illustration for faithfulness is that a soldier (follower of Christ) must endure hardship. Unfortunately, Christian soldiers today do not want to endure hardship but will like to enjoy worldly pleasures or live lives of convenience and not commitment. 
Are you an acclaimed Christian with no iota of desire to live life to experience the endureth life of Christ?
Endurance can be painful and can generate unwanted suffering.
Enduring hardship is what qualifies a Christian soldier as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 
Every Christian soldier must know to experience how to endure; Christian soldiers cannot escape hardship in this world of wickedness. 
The Christian soldiers without endure of challenges in this world are soldiers that often entangle themselves with the affairs of this life. 
It is evident in the word of Paul that no soldier engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life and answered to the cause of Christian soldiers.
In the book of Peter 2:11, the word warned against fleshly lusts: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” Among the affairs of this world that can derail a soldier for Christ is fleshly lust. With lust, it is not possible to answer as a sold-out soul for the assignment of Christ. 
Undoubtedly, fleshly lust is a principal target which Christian soldiers should not take for granted because it launches its attack regularly. 
Are you working not to walk living lust?
Living lust will present great or small temptation that does not spare grave
for fleshly lust ones. It is so deadly that it only goes after its target that is the soul of every Christian soldier.
As a soldier of Christ, you become captured by the enemy of all, the evil one, then your role as a soldier will mark you as a victim soldier in the hand of the chief of all wicked, the evil one himself.
Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or one with a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to live life for Him.