FAITH CAPSULE: A steadfast spirit enables Caleb and Joshua to follow God fully.

Numbers 14

One that follows God follows the word of God to serve God.
Are you serving God not to miss heaven?
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) 
Does that speak to you? 
The will of the Father is to live by the word of God. 
Is it your desire to serve God by following Jesus fully? 
To follow Him fully (to serve God) demands to be steadfast.
One who is self-full cannot be steadfast in serving God. 
Following is not a one-time or an on-and-off way of life. 
Following the word demands to be steadfast, to fix in direction, or to be firm in purpose. 
To be steadfast in following the living word of God is not a self-satisfying engagement, and one who is self-full cannot be possibly steadfast. 
King David realized the importance and the need for one to be steadfast when he called on God in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
A steadfast spirit is what caused Caleb and Joshua to follow God fully. Caleb and Joshua refused to flow with the crowd and did not confess negatively against the word of God that promised them a land that flows with milk and honey. 
Caleb and Joshua were positive to follow the word of God in the face of Moses and all the people positively. 
By their positive confession, God declared, “My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” (Numbers 14:24) 
Following the command of God follows God fully.
When God called Elisha through Elijah, “…He left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ And he said to him, ‘Go back again, for what have I done to you?’ 
So Elisha turned back from him and, took a yoke of oxen and, slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.” (1 King 19:20-21) 
Elisha left everything behind to answer the calling of God. 
In answering, Elisha demonstrates steadfastness. 
He emptied himself from all that could have held him back. 
Elisha used his oxen equipment as a boiler for the slaughtered oxen. 
Elisha followed the calling of God steadfastly. 
Whatever one cannot forsake for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven will disqualify such to answer as the candidate for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Be steadfast in following fully, and God will reward you.

Prayer for today: Ask for a clean and renewed heart and steadfast spirit within you.

FAITH CAPSULE: It is always a foolish act to disobey the command of God.

Psalm 37

Being foolish will not announce to oneself that it is with foolishness.
Proverbs 9:6 warns, “Forsake foolishness and live, And go in the way of understanding.”
Foolishness is not communication alone, but a foolish act might not known when being foolish.
To be disobedient, not waiting on God, is a foolish act with painful consequences.
King Saul disobeyed by not waiting according to the word of God.
Samuel instructed King Saul to wait for lawful sacrifice before going to war against the Philistines, but he could not wait.
As the Philistines gathered together to fight the Israelites, King Saul could not wait for seven days, as instructed by Samuel.
1 Samuel 13:9 records, “So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering.” 
King Saul tragically disobeyed the Law of Moses (Leviticus 1) as instructed by Samuel.
Are you experiencing challenges not to wait on God?
Get to know the truth, waiting in obedience to instruction rooted in the word of God to culminate expectations.
Samuel arrived at the location where Saul disobeyed by asking Saul, “What have you done?” 
Saul answered, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” (1 Samuel 13:11-12) 
To obey the word of God, ignore the compel of distraction.
Waiting for God is giving attention to a jealous God. 
Psalmist admonishes, “Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed…” (Psalm 25:3)
A believer must understand waiting on God to endure a period of waiting without a doubt.
Waiting on God can be a delay but never a waste of time. 
In a time of waiting, among what to exercise as a believer must engage are:
Be of good courage; rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him; do not fret; keep His way; let your soul wait silently.
The above truth about waiting is identifiable in the scriptural verses listed below:
Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord! (Psalm 27:14)
Psalm 37:7 says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
Psalm 37:9, “For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord, They shall inherit the earth.”
Hosea 12:6, “… wait on your God continually.”
All situations waiting on God shall experience the glory of God.
God answers when waiting on Him patiently by abiding in His word obediently. 

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled with the strength to wait on God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Never too much to have more reasons to pray before God.

Jonah 1, 2

DO NOT COMPROMISE WRONGDOING

The word of God is His command that is not negotiable and is not to be compromised.
With no exception, all should live life according to the command of God to gain and retain a positive relationship with God. 
One that redirects the word of God to please oneself but not to please God is the evidence of a lack of understanding to serve God diligently.
Are you engaging the command of God not to compromise the word of God? 
Do you have faith in pleasing God without compromising His command?
Giving yourself to the word of God is to gain faith and live life according to the command of God. Hebrews 11:6 buttresses, “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Are you compromising the word of God consciously or unconsciously?
Before God, there is no legitimate excuse not to live life according to His word.
To compromise His command will complicate the journey of life.
Compromising God will violate man before God.
The world is deceiveable, but not God.
One with a lack of truth is a deceiver.
It is a sin to compromise iniquity.
Do not compromise with iniquity.
Judas compromises and does not rebuke iniquity (evil).
Judas was numbered as disciples but not counted.
Anyone that is compromising iniquity is complicating themself in the journey of life. 
Iniquity is evil. The word of God warns: “The fear of God is, to hate evil…” (Proverbs 8:13)
Know and pray to live truthfully before God, who does not sleep, and He shall see you.
PRAYER
Ask God to enable you to live a life of truth and be counted as one who lives for His glory.
Just like Judas, pray not to be a vessel of compromising wrongdoing.
Judas was numbered as one of the disciples but not counted when it mattered before God.
Ask God to enable you not to compromise and engage in wrongdoing.
MORE THAN EVER TURN TO THE WORD/PRESENCE OF GOD
Pray that, more than ever, you want to turn more to the word of God.
The word of God is God (John 1:1).
The word of God is His presence (Jonah 1:1-3).
Are you walking away from the word of God?
The word of God locates Jonah with direction, but he went in the opposite direction.
Walking in the opposite direction from God is a route of challenging storms, the experience of Jonah.
One can survive by disobedience to God, but none can hide from the consequences of disobedience.
Disobedience calls for repentance.
Attending to worshiping God is not enough.
Return to walk the word of God that sounds in your direction to avoid the storm of destruction.
PRAYER
Ask God to enable you to turn to Him more than ever, to live by Him.
Ask that the spirit of God will activate in you to walk in His word that sounds in your direction and not be a victim of the storm of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Continue to pray for more reasons before God.

Matthew 6

Do not stop to pray for reasons before God.
When your prayer focuses on living for God, it shall become established.
Know to seek first about the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 6:33 states, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Ask before God is seeking, searching to gain from God according to His word.
ASK FOR THE PRESENCE OF GOD TO OCCUPY YOU.
Know to ask for the reason carrying the presence of God.
God is a saving master, not a slave master.
What you desire before God is what He will deposit in you.
Let your desire set before God to occupy you.
What is your desire that is as good as asking for the presence of God to occupy the life He has given you?
With the occupation of God in your life continually, fully experiencing God becomes your portion.
Proverbs 6:22 records what to experience when God occupies you.
“When you roam, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep you; And when you awake, they will speak with you.”
PRAYER
Ask that your desire for God (the presence of God)occupies you continually so that you become full of God’s presence.
Ask that the lead of God over you in all your endeavors shall be continual.
Ask that in all your sleep, the occupation of God in your life shall answer against forces that locate one in sleep, and no evil shall have a place in you.
Ask God to enable you to hear when He speaks to you.
Take a position of one that knows God, to become occupied by the presence of God.
Ask that the presence of God occupy you to live for His glory.
IT IS UNDERSTANDING, WITH A DESIRE TO ASK FOR GOD TO OCCUPY
Mark, understand that your desire to be occupied by God shall be provoked and manifested.
Asking to be occupied by the presence of God, not to impress your world.
Pray with understanding to gain the attention of God.
The understanding that Jesus is the Lamb of God.
Revelation 21:23 states, “The city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.”
Jesus is the Lamb of God, the light of God.
Have the desire to be occupied by the glory of God.
God shall enter anyone who opens for Him. 
Revelation 3:20 states, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
PRAYER
Ask to be occupied by the presence of God that you will live for His glory.
Ask that you be a vessel of God occupied with light and not be a victim of the darkness of this wicked world.

FAITH CAPSULE: There are many reasons to pray before God.

Psalm 14

Have the understanding to exercise a knowing edge.
Two points to be encouraged are paying attention to and backed with prayer not to become a victim of ignorance in the wicked world.
Ignorance makes a destitute of a believer.
FOOLISHNESS OF A FOOL HAS CONSEQUENCES BEFORE GOD
Among ways of living wasted is living as foolish, consciously or unconsciously.
It is worthy to pray against not to live as foolish.
Living life outside of the word of God is ignoring God, the character of a foolish one.
Psalm 14:1-2 records, “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. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.”
Action, thought, or communication outside of the word of God is evidence of foolishness. 
Pharaoh is an example of a blatant fool.
The actions and ways of Pharaoh in response to the Israelites ignored the message of God through Moses. 
God said, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness.” (Exodus 7:16)
Foolishly, Pharaoh ignored God to bury his people in the Red Sea.
Be wise, and live by the word of God. 
PRAYER
Ask God to take over your mind so as not to live foolishly.
Pray that in all your thoughts and actions, you will not entertain foolishness against the word of God.
Pray not to act foolishly (like Pharaoh acted against the Israelites) by denying the word of God in any way of life.
KNOW AND LIVE TO COMMIT TO GOD ALONE!
God alone is available for all to live a life of commitment to Him.
Looking away from God is not committed to God.
No one can engage one eye to the world and the other eye up to God in His word with the expectation to gain the presence of God.
Psalm 37:5 advises, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” 
The wife of Lot looked away from God, an act of no commitment to God.
Lack of commitment to God is open to self-destruction.
The Bible records that Jesus did not exempt disciples and none He committed to.
John 2:24 warns, “But Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men.” 
Know to walk along with man, but be committed to God alone.
PRAYER
Pray that your desire for the spirit of God, which enables commitment to God continually, shall be your way of life.
Ask that in all your looking up to God, distractions that lead to failure shall become your portion.
Ask not to be a victim of commitment to the evil world. 
Ask that this year, the leading of God over your life have a place in you so as not to become a victim of destruction like the wife of Lot.
God answers prayer. Open your mouth to pray from the depths of your heart.