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One reason this study speaks called Fresh Air so much to me is for the last month, I have had a hard time breathing. Starting with an infection, then having the smoke from the Idaho fires in our valley really made it hard for many people to breathe, including me. Breath is essential to life. You can’t breathe, you don’t live. It works like that in our spiritual life too. If you need some fresh air in your sail, you will be blessed and encouraged by this new series. Even if you walk into a house that hasn’t had the doors and windows opened for a while, the air feels stale. We don’t want our Christian walk to be stale, and we certainly want to be able to breathe. So let’s air out our “house”, Jesus did say we are the temple of the Holy Spirit! Let’s let the fresh breeze of the Holy Spirit blow out the stale, and become an inhabitable home again for our comforter and teacher to feel at home in. It would be easy to try to cover up the stale smell with an air freshener, but let’s not just do a cover up. Let’s let the wind of the Holy Spirit sweep through our doors and windows and become a “house” that is fresh and clean. Thank God for the fresh air of the Holy Spirit.

Every person determines their personal speed of spiritual growth. You have probably noticed that someone can be saved for many years, and still be a baby Christian. And on the other hand, you might have known someone who just recently has been saved, and have grown leaps and bounds, because they have dug into the Word of God, they have gotten involved in church life, spent time in prayer and have planted themselves in a life giving small group. Those really are four keys to personal spiritual growth! Let’s talk about them. 1) Be a person of the Word. Dig in, find a good study program, do word studies, get in a Bible Study and really make the Word of God your life. YouVersiion.com makes it so easy if you like doing your study on your phone or tablet. 2) Finding a life giving local church is vitally important too. You want to be in a church that is equipping you to do ministry, a place where teaching the whole Word of God is central, and where you can call your church home. A third key is having great communication with God through prayer. Prayer really is just a conversation, but it is with the person who has your best interest at heart and loves you the most. And lastly, getting involved in a small group really helps you grow, iron sharpens iron, and you grow spiritually in a small group, bringing fresh air to your life!

Intro:
Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your daily eword. Today we start a new series that I hope will be a wonderful blessing to you. I think we all have been in a dry place before, and need to be refreshed. In the coming weeks we will be talking about breathing a breath of fresh air in our life. Our church is doing the study this fall by Chris Hodges, and I hope these daily encouragements designed to harmonize with the study, will help you take a deep breath and breathe in all that God has for you. Be encouraged today! If you haven’t joined periscope, I encourage you to do so today. Frequently I plan to be pericsoping to you about your dailyeword.

This week is the beginning of a really exciting Bible Study that you can be involved with if you like. The study is called Fresh Air and you can find the weekly video lessons on Right Now Media if you would like to join us. The introduction really is a great reminder of how important it is to have life giving relationships around us, and to be involved in a small group where we have accountability and encouragement. Why should you be in a small group? Because if we look at the pattern of Jesus, he had the initial small group. He had 12 men around him to were there to help and bless him, but also they grew and were blessed just by being around Jesus. So how about you identify a small group where you can grow. Follow the pattern of Jesus and find a group where you can study and grow together. Our groups are starting this week at AGF, so jump in, get involved!

Release heaven into this earth life through prayer. One of my favorite verses in the Bible says Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. For the believer, this earth life can be wonderful. Of course there will be bumps along the way, we live on a fallen planet, and our earth has a curse, but we can rise above, even the difficult moments of our life. Think about this, we have the right and the responsibility to pray for everything this is God’s will that we don’t see manifested on the earth just yet. Our prayer can be what releases God’s power to do immeasurably more than we can ask or even imagine. That stretches my thinking! I have a huge imagination, and I come up with enormous ideas, but Eph 3:20 says that God wants to increase us beyond what we can even imagine. He wants life to be amazing. We can see that accomplished when we take off any limitations we might have, and let our spiritual imagination take over. God’s will for us is way bigger than we can even think. My prayer is that we can grab ahold of that. So many of us live so far beneath what God has for us. Let’s not wait until we get to heaven to realize it. Let’s reach for that immeasurably more that is available, right now….. More power, more anointing, more ability, more provision. God is more than enough

Has anyone ever asked you to pray for them, and you see them the next week at church and realize you forgot to pray at all? I have an easy remedy for that!!! PRAY immediately when they ask you. I have made it a habit of doing that, and so I pray in some very unexpected places. I pray over the phone, I pray in Costco, I pray at a track meet, I pray in the pew right before church starts, I pray in the kitchen, probably even in the bathroom! I look for people who have needs. You can tell by looking when someone isn’t feeling well, or they have a heavy burden, ask them if you can pray for them! Then make a point to follow up. Sometimes we don’t know if a prayer was answered just because we forgot to follow up. What an amazing faith builder answered prayer can be! Follow up and get that praise report. If it’s not a praise report yet, continue praying. Keep standing in faith. Keep thanking God that he heard your prayer and is working on the situation. Make prayer a part of your daily life. I pray in the spirit before I get out of bed. I pray as I get ready, as I drive places, when I am alone, before meals, before bedtime, there are opportunities to pray all day long, each and every day. Take them, and find people to pray for, and then take the time, to check back with them and find out how they are doing. That is one anothering!

When I prayer with others, or especially on my own, I love to pray the Word of God. Whatever the topic, I want to have scripture and verse on each item I am praying for. So if it is the favor of God, provision, healing, walking in joy, or whatever, I like to find a scripture that corresponds to the topic I am praying about. Paul’s prayers in the New Testament books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are a perfect place to start. If you are needing a clearer revelation, Eph 1:18-20 talks about the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. Eph 3:16-21 is a prayer for spiritual strength. Colossian 1:9-12 is a prayer that helps to process our priorities. Phil 1:9-11 is a prayer for guidance, and I Thess 3:11-13 is a prayer about abounding love. We can pray these prayers over one another. Your family, your church family, your pastor, even those in leadership in our government. We can also pray the Word over people who are in the midst of struggle. Is 40:31 is a prayer for strength. Ps 55:22 is a reminder to cast our care on the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-23 reminds us of God’s unending faithfulness. I know there are scriptures that have been a source of strength to you in your life, and perhaps have even become your life verse. Make it a daily habit to pray the Word over your own life, the ones you love, and especially those who don’t know Jesus yet. Your prayer could be a life changer!

Pray from your heart is what the Lord asks from us. So often we have the mistaken idea that God values our word usage, more than our compassion. The opposite is true. God would rather see you pray from a heart of compassion than to pray a perfectly worded oratory! So relax! Take it easy on yourself. I know there are times when I just stop praying in English, and just begin praying in my heavenly language, so I can relax and not think so hard, or so much! Praying in tongues is perfect communication with the Father, so when in doubt, pray in the spirit. Paul told us to pray often and regularly in the spirit. Do it every day! It helps me relax, and even helps to segue from one subject to another when I am praying in English. So let the pray flow from your heart. God loves to hear your voice! Just like we love to hear the voice of our beloved, God loves for you to talk to Him. Share your heart with him, let Him know how much you love Him, in prayer! Take time to express your gratitude, for what He has done for you, and thank Him for His tender loving care that He has shown toward you. His heart of compassion is open for you, and He loves it when we show compassion toward others. Don’t get hung up on the words you pray, just open up your mouth, and let your words express your heart towards God. That is what God wants from you.

I love to pray with a group of people. There is great power when we pray with others. The Bible tells us that when 2 or 3 are gathered in prayer, that God is there in the midst of them. So pray with others, and pray in unity. When praying with others, we can see how each others hearts are connected to the situations and people we are praying for. It can be like climbing a mountain up another path. We can have our set pattern for how we pray, and then when we pray with someone else, we hear the perspective they pray from. You can hear their heart, and you can also be led to pray one after another and build on the other’s prayer. With so many different things to be praying for, a list of family and friends that need the Lord, those who need healing, or those seeking employment, or those struggling in the marriages, our government, the nations of the world who need Jesus, and the list goes on and on, our daily prayer time can seem like overwhelming. When we pray together, we can take a section, and pray the Word over that situation. Then another person can pray the Word over another area. When we combine our prayers together, great power can be made available and it says in James chapter 5.
Power in this instance comes from the word dynamite, and truly, the dynamite power of God can be at work in us to change us, and the situations we are praying for. God can work through us as we pray together, in unity.

Pray from your heart. As a kid I used to think that our prayers needed to be eloquent and have great big words in them to be effective. I was so glad when I discovered that God is so much more about heart than any other factor. He wants our heart, and when we pray from our heart, we are letting the real us show through to a real God who is really concerned about our real life. Prayer isn’t a performance, we don’t get graded on how well we do, or sound, or the manner in which we speak. God loves to hear our voice, praying from a heart of love and concern, speaking to His heart. So erase all those thought that you can’t pray in front of someone else, or that you don’t pray as effectively as someone who has a college degree or a bunch of letters after your name. I see a child expressing concern about an owie that their friend has being beautiful in the ears of God. God wants us to come to Him in childlike faith, believing that He hears us, He answers us, and that things on this earth are subject to change because God is able and willing to act on our behalf. He sees the big picture and knows the end from the beginning and wants our prayer to be answered so that we can experience a little more of heaven on earth. So let the spirit of God guide you as you pray. Have your list is you want, but be willing to be prompted to pray for something or someone you may not even know the details about, just because you are prompted by the Holy Spirit. Spirit directed prayer can change things on this earth!

Intro: Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week we are talking again about the one another’s of the New Testament and how we can experience authentic relationships. Our focus this week is praying for one another. It is near and dear to my heart, because I love to pray! I know God hears and answers and prayer changes things on this earth. I encourage you the Word for one another regularly! You can keep it real in prayer! Here is your daily eword.
James 5:16 is such a great scripture. It tells us to pray for one another, that we will be healed. What I love about prayer is that it not only changes the circumstances of the other one another’s we may be praying for, but it can change us in the process. This verse speaks to me that I don’t have to be 100% well to pray for someone who needs healing. In fact it says that they will be healed, and the one praying will be healed! When I got that revelation a few decades ago, is when I got turned on to prayer in a significant way. God can use me, when I open up my heart in prayer for someone else. When we take our heart’s concerns to the Lord in prayer, God’s power and ability, his wisdom and instruction can be released into our life. We get to grow by praying, and at the same time, the ones we are praying for get to see changes in their life too. I have a plaque in my home that says prayer changes things. It does, but it also changes people. It starts when we open our heart up to God, and he begins working in us. At the same time, He is working on the situation, or the people involved and things can begin to change from that moment. You’ve heard me say this before. If it’s not good yet, it’s not done yet. Keep standing in prayer. Things are going to get better. Don’t loose hope. Hang in there and keep on praying.