Author: debo

Intro:
During this season of Pentecost, we are talking about how the Holy Spirit can impact our lives, every single day. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. The Holy Spirit is our helper, comforter and guide, and He is with us to empower us to do great things on the earth. My prayer would be that each day you would recognize the power of the Holy Spirit more and more in your life. Let’s see how the Holy Spirit works with us in prayer, in fellowship and living our best life for God. Here is Dorette’s daily eword.

Getting together to share a meal was very common during the book of Acts. They liked hanging out together. They had all experienced the same wonderful out pouring, and all were filled with the Holy Spirit. They had resurrection power working in them, and had the power of the Holy Spirit to change their world. They were bold and courageous, and out of their belly flowed the promised living water. There was a lot of unified prayer going on, there were people sharing the love of Jesus, and thousands getting saved. Their lives were permanently altered. The Holy Spirit was alive individually on the inside of each of them. They knew their life had been impacted in a very positive way! After the Holy Spirit has been poured out, dramatic changes were taking place in the lives of those who were there. They would never be the same. They joyfully hung around together. They were excited to see what would happen next. They had positive expectation and continued learning the Word together, eating together, and praying together. This pattern still works today! Get involved in church! Hang out together with believers! Find a way to eat with other believers, pray together, spend time expecting God to do something amazing in your city. You have the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. Great things can happen right where you are!

On this Pentecost Sunday, I want to just take a few moments to write about being the joy of Spirit filled Living. One of my favorite things to do is pray for people to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We need the power of the Holy Spirit in our life more now than ever! So often, believers have no idea that we can have this wonderful power from God today. There is a simple prayer to pray if you want to be filled. The prayer I lead anyone in who wants to be filled is this: Jesus, I ask you to fill me with the Holy Spirit, and I will speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives me the words. Before we pray this prayer, I mention that you can’t speak with two languages at one time, so only speak the words that are coming from your spirit. It usually feels like silly sounding syllables and often you feel like speaking in tongues is just speaking gibberish, but it is a heavenly language and it won’t sound familiar. I encourage the one getting filled to speak up, but often they just start speaking in tongues in a whisper, which is just as good! The beautiful thing about speaking in tongues is that it isn’t like laboriously learning a foreign language; you get the whole language at one time. Amazing! From the moment you get your new prayer language, I always encourage taking time to pray in the spirit every day! Start your day off that way, as soon as you wake up, and every time you can during your day, pray in tongues! It builds you up on your most Holy faith. Of course the best part of being filled is that you have power to witness. So on top of having a beautiful new language to pray perfectly to our Father God, we are energized from the inside to share the gospel! How cool is that! Let’s get filled, stay full and share the gospel everywhere we go. That’s the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you.

What would you do if Jesus personally said to you, “be filled with the Holy Spirit.”? If you ever had any doubt that Jesus wanted you to be full of the Holy Spirit, that question would be answered! Jesus said this to his followers in John 20:20-22

So saying, He showed them His hands and His side. And when the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy (delight, exultation, ecstasy, rapture).
21 Then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you! [Just] as the Father has sent Me forth, so I am sending you.
22 And having said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit!

If you have ever had a doubt that Jesus wants you filled with the Holy Spirit, having a personal experience with Jesus would take all doubt away! I have talked to people who have thought that they were the exception, that everyone else but them could be filled with the Spirit and speak with new tongues. Why would anyone want to be an exception! Let’s get all that God has for us. In the book of Acts, over and over it says, “they were all filled” and “they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Tomorrow is the day that we celebrate the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the earth. It is the day that Christians received power to be witnesses and the power to live life empowered by the Holy Spirit. If you have never asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit, why not do it today!

In John chapter 1, we see that Jesus is the Word made flesh. In verses 11 and 12 it says,

“He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own—His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him.

It must have been heart rendering to know that Jesus came to be received, and many did not receive Him. How much more obvious could it have been that He was The Messiah, The Son of God? But to the ones that did, verse 12 applies.

“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name.”

We have the same option today. We can receive Jesus and the Gift of the Holy Spirit and receive all that God has for us, and the bonus of His power, privilege and rights. Sounds like we get the best end of this deal! Jesus came to us and for us, and when we welcome Him into our life initially, and then everyday give Him the right to our heart and life, we are the beneficiaries of tremendous benefits. The option not to receive seems silly. Let’s get all that God has for us. That’s the way we will live the abundant life that Jesus promised.

It intrigues me to watch guide dogs help a physically impaired or blind person navigate a new area. They have confidence in each other, and they depend completely on the dog’s ability to guide them. Their trust is in the dog, and they know it will not take them into any place where there would be danger, but only into safety. I think of these verses in John 16:13-14 when I think about being led in the same way by the Holy Spirit.

3 But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future].
14 He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

The amplified Bible uses lots of words, some people call it the woman’s bible – touché! Wordy! But these words are true! The Holy Spirit is the one who guides us into the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! He speaks the words of the Father, and reveals important things to us. I also love the word picture of the Holy Spirit giving us light for each step we take. Not only do we have the word of God to bring light to our pathway, the Holy Spirit is there to assist us as well. Amazing! Thank you Holy Spirit for being our personal guide!

The verses in John 14:16-18 are such beautiful words of comfort. Jesus prayed to the Father to give us another comforter when He would no longer be present on the earth. He wanted the Holy Spirit to come to us and live with us forever. His desire was that the Holy Spirit dwell with us and be in us to empower us to do the works of God. We weren’t left without a power source, and we weren’t left with out someone to comfort us. What more could we ask for? If Jesus had to go away, He did the very best thing for us. We all can experience the presence of God because the Holy Spirit has come to stay! He will never leave us! He came to stay. What a wonderful promise. This wonderful gift from Jesus is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to experience His power at work within us. Filled to overflowing, and continuing to be refilled daily by spending time in His presence, and praying in the Holy Spirit. We all have friends or family who have experienced a loss of a family member, and when they leave, they feel lost, just like the disciples did without Jesus. I love the promise from God that the Holy Spirit is here to comfort those who are hurting. When we feel alone, we are not alone. When we feel lost, we are not lost. The Holy Spirit is with us, to live in us and dwell with us forever. Praise the Lord for His amazing comfort.

I love being a part of a growing church. From a handful of people in 1988, that started church in a home for a few weeks, then moved to the Elizabeth Street Y for 5 years, to having our own great Amazing Grace Fellowship facility here in Twin Falls, with lots of growing room across the street from our facility, it is amazing to see what God has done in 29 years. With church plants in other cities and our addition of a campus in Heyburn a few years back, God has proved Himself very faithful. As happy as we are with where we have come from, we are even more excited about what is ahead. All progress seems good! The best is yet to come!

It seems almost unfair that the church in Acts grew by 3000 members in one day. Then 5000 were added another day. Talk about taking it to the next level! I love hearing about churches where people are lined up to get into church on Sunday. How amazing that church is the cool place to be! Can we have that kind of excitement? I think we can! The best place to be each time the church doors swing open is in church! Let’s be enthusiastic, and joy filled as we come to church, and as we determine to bring others with us. Eight out of ten people who are asked to come to church will come. That’s a pretty great percentage. Do some asking! Do some calling! Do some texting! Give it a try. Invite your friends! Let’s start a trend. How many more can we pack in the building? Let’s fill every seat, every service. Let’s amp up our church growth, just like they did in Acts, chapter 2 . Each number is a person, and people matter to God, and my prayer each weekend is that every seat in church would be filled with people who are hungry and thirsty for the things of God. Let’s keep expanding!!!

Intro:
One of the most important and significant decisions in my life after choosing to become a Christian was to become Spirit Filled. We are going to talk about the Holy Spirit and how He can empower us to do great things for God in the coming weeks. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. The Holy Spirit is relevant for us, because Jesus said when He went away, it would be to our advantage that the Holy Spirit would be here with us to stay. What a promise! Let’s learn some more about the work of the Holy Spirit in you!

I am always so amazed by scriptures in the Bible that prophesy something that was to happen later. In Acts chapter 2, the 120 people in the upper room were filled with the Holy Spirit. It was spectacular. There was wind, and fire, and new strange languages. It was unusual to say the least! People on the outside were a little baffled. What on earth was happening? Were these people drunk?

Peter was the first to answer. He said, no they are not drunk, but they are fulfilling the prophesy spoken by Joel, that God had poured out His Spirit on all flesh. This wasn’t alcohol, this was not wine! This was power from on high, that empowered each believer to be bolder in their witness for Christ, and to receive power! Just exactly what this New Testament Church needed. And so it began. Power and anointing began to move whenever the Word of God was preached. People were amazed that Peter who had just a little while before been a wimpy Christian denying Christ, was now a pumped up, on fire, dynamo for God. He was a preaching machine, with amazing results every time he opened his mouth to speak. New wine, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is what made the difference. Are you wanting more power and anointing in your life? Getting filled with the Spirit is the perfect place to start.

This is your moment. Dream Bigger!!! Right now God wants you! Are you sure he wants me? – you may ask. YES! It is you He wants. Your age, social status, body shape, personality, all the things that make you uniquely you – that is what God wants! He doesn’t do copies, and he made you an original. What is different about this moment from any other? It is the moment that you have right now, and now can be the best moment of your life! Why not choose to make it amazing? Think about these Bible principles.

Live for God now! (Eph 5:15,16)
Don’t get stuck in yesterday. (Phil 3:13)
Don’t be waiting for your big break in the future (Phil 4:6)
Choose to be joyful and happy now! Live fully alive today (Phil 4:4)

Now is your time:

To seek God’s face (Matt 6:33)
To become more intimate with God (Phil 3:10)
And then – help someone else with what you learn!

As you celebrate abundant life at your church today, remember what you have endeavored to accomplished for the kingdom of God since coming to Christ. Are you dreaming big, and helping others dream big? Are you helping people? Are you training others to help those around them? Those ideas are included in our churches mission statement. What one can do on their own, we can produce exponentially together. He has begun something great in you. He wants to see it come to completion as it says in Phil 1:6. So live today – full on for God and expect great things! We are then enabled to concentrate on more than just ourselves. Then we really can reach our dreams, and help others reach theirs Greater things are yet to come!

To be a dream releaser, we can use the words of our mouth to encourage, to uplift, and to edify. The ones that you influence (your kids, your co-workers, your neighbors, your fellow church members, etc) all can all be encouraged to fulfill their dreams, by the words you speak into their lives. And guess what happens in the process? As you refresh and bless others, you get blessed and refreshed! My prayer is that you have pinpointed some of your dreams, and are working toward achieving them. I also hope that you have begun encouraging some of the people in your life to fulfill their dreams. Making the decision to help someone else attain their dreams, can make you think that maybe you have “bitten off more than you can chew”. Most of us have a pretty hectic life, and just keeping up with our own things can wear us out. You may be asking, “How can I do anything more? I don’t want to be all used up on others and not have enough for my family.” Those are noble concerns, and truly there are people that serve so much that they have nothing left. Often they have such a heart of a servant, that wherever there is a need, and no one else is meeting it, they feel obligated to step in. There is a good way to keep a balance, and we can find that balance when we know what our purpose is, and choose not to get sidetracked from God’s specific plan for us. The Bible does say we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, it just doesn’t say we can do it all at once! If we can’t do it all, we have to be aware of what it is we should do, and then obediently do it!