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How dependent are you on God for everything? We all know that God can transform your life, but do we really give Him the opportunity to do that? Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging word for your day. Let’s depend on the Spirit of God fully, 24/7/365 days of this year by being fully immersed in the Word of God, and living fully in tune with the Holy Spirit. Do you know that God has MORE for us than we could think, dream or imagine? Why not start today believing for more in every area of your life. You were made for more, so I encourage you go for it, and live the life that God has for you. Here is your encouraging word for today about more joy.

Have you ever thought about the fact that earth life is short and heaven is long? Our earth life really is like a minute when you compare it to eternity. When we really understand that, we realize that in our day–to-day lives we most often are focusing on all the wrong things. How can we make the most of each day on the earth? Are we living with passion and enthusiasm for each day? Are we enjoying the journey as much as we look forward to the destination? I hope so! We know that true joy is only found in Jesus. You’ve probably heard that before, and maybe you even chuckled when I said that, because it sounds a bit trite. Jesus wants us to live the life we were meant to live, fully satisfied in Him, filled up with His joy. In Acts 16:25-34 Paul and Silas were in jail and after being beaten black and blue, they were bound in chains, guarded by soldiers. That’s what you call extreme bondage! In those dismal circumstances, instead of whining and complaining about their situation, they were singing praises and worshipping God. Without natural freedom, they knew what true freedom was and that it is only found through knowing Jesus. Looking beyond their natural circumstances, they drew from the well of joy that was from within. Sometimes I think we need a reality check. What things are bothering you? What are you whining about? A slow fast food window? A traffic clog? An unhelpful clerk? Rising gas prices? A tight budget? A tight blouse? Think about things in life that really count. Is your home warm? Do you have transportation? Do you have peace in your heart? Do your use your God given gifts and talents to bless others? Do you know Jesus? That is where real joy begins, not in everyone treating you right, or your waist-line shrinking, or having that new thing you desire. Rejoice in the fact that Jesus loves you, and you are His child. He has a great plan for your life. You are safe in His arms. You have everything you’ll ever need in Jesus. Let Him fill your life with joy. Every day is better when Jesus is the center of it.

You were made for more! What do those words mean to you? I hope you can hear them and take your imagination and dream as big as you can for your life, and then multiply it times 10, or maybe even 100. Sometimes we think our dreams are already too big, and may seem far out of reach, but do you know that God has an even bigger plan for your life than you could ever think, dream or imagine? It is true. So set your sights high. Think bigger, dream bigger, and expect more. I know there are people who tell you not to get your hopes up too high, but God tells us just the opposite! We think if we tone things down a little we won’t be disappointed. That certainly is one way to look at it… but why not try to think of it this way. Does God give us a mediocre or average life? Or does He give us life abundant and overflowing? My Bible says that Jesus came so that we could experience life to the full, abundant and overflowing! We know the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy as it says in John 10:10, but the last phrase of that verse says that Jesus came to give, not just a little bit of goodness, but full, abundant, thriving life. So do you believe that you were made for more? I hope that thought gets deep down into your spirit and you start believing it. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Don’t shoot for anything less that God’s very best for you. Make it your aim to make a home run for God with your life. I know you can do it!

As we continue looking at ways to live in the overflow and experience MORE of God this year, another important component is becoming or developing our life of worship. God is looking for those who will worship Him. John 4:23 and 24 says God is seek worshippers. Can He find one in you? I hope He does! He is seeking the kind of worshipper who worship more than just on Sunday mornings at church. A few years ago, my understanding of what it means to worship God was expanded as I sat at an awards ceremony for athletes. The guest speaker was a runner and she began with the verse I just mentioned in John 4 and talked about her running practice as a worship to God. I had never thought of worship in that way. I knew we could worship God with our finances, and we could sing and shout our worship to God, but I had never thought about using our gifts in the natural realm as a worship to God. What a great revelation. When we do what we are called to do, whether it is making music, or running a race, as we develop our God given skills, it can be a worship to God, if we recognize it. I hope that encourages you. It made me realize that even typing on a computer, or the time I study to write an encouraging word for you is a worship to God. Even when I care for my family, or find ways to serve or help my husband, counsel or coach believers within our church body, I can worship God. If we want our life to be an instrument of worship to God, it can be! The music of every aspect of our life can bring honor and glory to God, and be our worship to Him. God is looking for you to worship Him with all of your life.

If we are really sincere about growing in the Lord this year, and being a God pleaser as it says in Col 1:10, we have to keep using our faith muscles! Faith is what pleases God! The just shall live by faith! Without faith it is impossible to please God. We need to be faith filled believers. It means that we are learning to walk in faith, live by faith and exercise our faith on a daily basis. Living by faith isn’t an option for the believer. We are faith people. We believe. That’s who we are and that is what we do! So how can we strengthen our faith this year to be people that God would say have taken a measure of faith and developed it to the place where we are people of great faith? When we look in Matt 8 where Jesus actually said such great faith he had never seen in all of Israel, we see that the centurion said with his mouth, speak the word only and my servant will be healed. He understood the principle of authority and submission. Jesus even offered to go to the servant, but the centurion knew the power of God was available even through the word just being spoken. The revelation we can receive from this powerful message of living by faith is that there is power in the Word, but more specifically in the Word being spoken. We know there is the power of life and death in our words. Let’s be people of faith who speak life words that bring health and healing to people and situations and circumstances. What an awesome way to live!

If we plan on growing spiritually this year, it is important to develop our prayer life day by day. To live well and excel, we need to make prayer more of a priority. Prayer really does change things. We live in a fallen world and on an earth with a curse, and to see God’s will be done on the earth as it is in heaven, we have to pray! To see things change, we make our requests made known unto God, and then thank Him that He hears us and is working on our behalf. If we have a habit of taking time to talk to God all throughout the day, we can live in the place where we actually do pray without ceasing. It can happen as we involve God in our every thought and action. We can have a spirit of prayer that prevails moment by moment. Prayer is really communicating with God. It is back and forth conversation. God doesn’t speak audibly very often, but he whispers revelation and insight of His will to us as we read His Word and listen to His Spirit. Our spirit is our “knower”, and God lets us know on the inside what we need to know. James 5 says that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman makes great power available, effective in its working. To live as believers with the effective power of God available to see things change on this earth, our prayer life needs to be fervent. The word fervent actually means enthusiastic, passionate and zealous. My prayer for your prayer life is that you would makes time with God in prayer a priority and that it would be enthusiastic, passionate and zealous, which would make great power available, effective in its working!

Are you planning on growing spiritually this year? To live up to our ultimate potential as believers, we should be growing spiritually day by day. So as we start the New Year, why not put some habits in place that can change your year, from the very first month. Let’s begin with the daily habit of spending time in the presence of God. So many people think this only happens when you go to church, but spending time with the Lord, really means just taking time to be still. It means worshipping Him on your own, in your home, in your car, or wherever. During your time with God, you tell him of your love and appreciation, you talk to Him like He is your friend, which He is! You still your heart and you listen for His heart. I love the thought that if you want to hear someone’s heartbeat, you have to put your head to their chest. What a beautiful picture of our relationship with God. He wants to be our ABBA Father, which means our Daddy God. Young children need to sit often in their daddy’s laps. Sometimes they fall asleep on their papa’s chest. There they snuggle up and are comforted. There they feel loved. That can happen to us as children of our daddy God. When we take time to just be still, our relationship with God can be strengthened and we can be comforted and feel loved in His presence. So I encourage you, spend time quietly in God’s presence. Make it a daily habit. It has benefits that are out of this world! This habit is one to get addicted to!

How dependent are you on God for everything? We all know that God can transform your life, but do we really give Him the opportunity to do that? Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging word for your day. Let’s depend on the Spirit of God fully, 24/7/365 days of this year by being fully immersed in the Word of God, and living fully in tune with the Holy Spirit. Do you know that God has MORE for us than we could think, dream or imagine? Why not start today believing for more in every area of your life. You were made for more, so I encourage you go for it, and live the life that God has for you. Here is yourdailyeword.

I am praying that you live life well this year. I encourage you excel in everything you set your hand to do. I’m praying this year you will be filled with MORE of God’s best for you. As we embark on this New Year, my desire is that you experience MORE of God. God has so much MORE for us than we can even imagine, in fact exceedingly, abundantly, MORE than all we could ask, think or imagine. I pray for you and me to BE more too, MORE…. authentic, generous, helpful, compassionate, available, committed, disciplined, faithful, etc! One of the greatest ways to experience more, is to serve others more. So along with encouraging you to become equipped, healthy, growing, low maintenance Christians (!!), my desire is that you find a place to serve. One of the greatest joys in life comes from serving others. We are blessed to be a blessing. How can you be a blessing to your church family this New Year? We encourage those in our church to find a place to serve where they are already gifted and use their gifts within the body. And we also encourage them to find other places to be benevolent. In their community, on missions trips, by sending offerings to other ministries, find a way to serve by giving. Serving should be a natural outflow of our overflow! Living life from the overflow takes the discipline of continuing to be filled up. We are filled up as we spend time in the presence of God; reading His Word, praying in the spirit, building up ourselves in our most holy faith, worshipping Jesus. When we live full, and give from the overflow, in fact it often just spills out, and as we find an avenue to serve others, we will live well AND excel! And it is most definitely a wonderful way to live.

It is such a great thing to know that as Christians we have our own personal coach. In I John 2:20:27 –it says that you have received an anointing from the Holy One. He will teach you. That is very personal. We have a personal teacher, or a coach if you prefer. We have received an anointing and that anointing is like oil on a machine. It makes everything flow easier. We have an advantage over those who don’t know God! There are times when even in the natural realm, just having someone tell you it is all going to be ok, or that you can make it can keep us going through rough patches in life. Even though we want MORE of all God has for us, we still live in a fallen world, and on an earth with a curse. That means that bad things still happen to good people. We could just get discouraged and give up, or we could listen to our personal coach who keeps telling us, “KEEP GOING. I have anointed you. I have appointed you for such a time as this. You can make it. You are well equipped to stand against the forces of evil, and with the Name of Jesus and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, be able to overcome. You are not defeated, you are an over comer.” When all of life pours on you, Jesus still REIGNS! So listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He is there encouraging you to live your best life. Receive all of the MORE God has for you today, and this week, and this year. You are a good student and the very best teacher is teaching you….the Holy Spirit of God. How awesome is that!

Ps 32:8 says I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Did your mom ever give you the look? My kids know the look. Most of them are grown up, but when they were small, if they were misbehaving in public, all I had to do what shoot them the look, and they would straighten up. Often when they were just having fun in public, I could shoot them another kind of look that would be one of approval. Isn’t it interesting in this scripture, that God wants to guide us with His eye. That means we are paying attention to Him and are looking at His face! We can’t really see Him eye to eye, but what we can do, is “know” on the inside, because our spirit is connected to His Spirit. I call our spirit our “knower”, and because our spirit is alive to God, we can know right from wrong. We can know that God is whispering something for us to do, and then we can be obedient and do it. One of the best ways to practice that is to ask God to let you know when you are to give something away. God is a giver, and he wants us to have his giving heart. Maybe you have something that someone else needs. Ask God to let you know so that you can bless someone else. Then you will be guided by His eye and can be a blessing to someone else in the process. Isn’t that what we are called to do? We are blessed to be a blessing. That is living in the realm of MORE! And that is a great place to be.

One amazing way to experience MORE in our Christian walk is to be led by the Spirit of God. Romans 8:14,16 tell us just exactly that. If we are God’s sons and daughters, we will be led by His Spirit. That is easy to understand if we look at a father /son or a father/daughter relationship in the natural realm. Parents like it when their kids obey. Good parents give guidance to their kids. They set boundaries. They give them opportunities to spread their wings in little ways before they give the big assignment of life on their own. Kids are looking to be led. With some exceptions, they usually do what they have seen in their own home. If we are God’s sons and daughters, He wants us to be willingly led. It is a pleasure to be around kids who are obedient and respectful and bring joy where ever they go. We should be that kind of Child of God! We are obedient, we follow God’s Word, live by His precepts, and are led by His Spirit. We don’t have to be drug! We follow willingly. We are training our little puppy and he doesn’t like going into the kennel at night. He gets drug in there. It is not willing at this point. He will be obedient, but the willingness is not there yet. I don’t want to be that kind of Christian. Let’s be easy keepers, low maintenance Christians. Let’s be the ones who do listen to the voice of our Shepherd and follow with a willing heart, and quick obedience. That is the path to experiencing MORE in our spiritual life, in our emotional life and in our physical bodies. That is spirit, soul and body experiencing MORE!