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Sharing input with one another is part of our Christian journey. We can partner together. In the family of God we are better as a team. You can be on my team. I can be on yours! The Bible says that one can chase 1,000, but 2 can chase 10,000. Its not basic addition, it is multiplication. The same is true when we come together in prayer, we can be in agreement, and experience the presence and power of God as 2 or 3 are gathered in His name, or even when multitudes are. As a family, as a team, as partners together, when we invite God in our relationships, they get better! We see greater results. We have more fun! Life is definitely more exciting with others in our life. God never intended us to do life by ourselves. We have the opportunity to share insights and revelation with others on our journey. “One body, one Lord, one Spirit, one Word, we are members in particular! Let’s let this message be heard.” Those are words from a song my husband wrote. We are not in competition, or trying to out do each other, we are working toward the same goal, and bringing as many people with us on our way to heaven as we can. Let’s learn to cooperate. Let’s have a heart for the house, no just for our own way! Let’s get in agreement in prayer, and see mighty things happen. Let’s be the winning team God’s wants us to be, and do the job God has for us here on earth. Together we are better!

Intro:
This week we will talk about how we can experience authentic relationships. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week’s encouraging word is all about partnering with others on our journey, and finding buried treasure in each other as we grow in our relationships. More than anything, my prayer is that we can be more aware of how we can build the relationships in our life, through being real and authentic. Sounds like the best kind of relationship to have! Here is your daily eword.

Submit to one another in love it says in Eph 5:21. I love this passage in the message Bible, it says, out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. Richard Foster says submission is this: the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to be right. I love that! Those words make me smile. I know there are lots of us who like to be right and prove it on a regular basis. Isn’t it good to know that we don’t have to be right all the time? It allows someone else to be able to lead, and it lets us set the heavy burden of being right or having the last word down. What freedom that brings! Submission to one another is a result of love. We can choose to lay down our lives, and give someone else the opportunity to take the lead. When we submit our lives to God first, then we all can easily submit to one another. Teamwork makes the Dream Work! When we partner together, and help one another, we can let go of competition and struggling to prove ourselves. We respect each other, and are happy to let someone else win. We can see our God dreams and visions come to pass! It is a win for all parties! Submission isn’t a dirty word. It really is a word, when in the context of love, that brings victory and freedom!

During each of these seasons, we can take the opportunity to grow in our personal lives. I hope you have discovered that you are mighty because you’ve connected with God, and that your strength is multiplied when you band together with others. We are part of a body, and as a family, we can reach out and love our world into the kingdom of God.
It is usually pretty easy to love other believers (most of the time!). We are not just called to love those who already know and love God. We are to love those who are still lost. Love cares about the destiny of others. We know the final outcome of unbelievers. There is no pretty way to describe the hell that awaits those who reject Christ. We say it often and loudly that we want no one from our area to go to hell. We want to make it hard for them to get there. We want it to be easy for them to find and follow God. You can be a part of that process. We can change our world, one life at a time!
10 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also,[a] and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. 2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.
During this season, I encourage you to go into all of your world, and be a part of bringing in the harvest.

Healthy churches grow together – not only are we maturing and growing in the Word, we are there to expand together – as we represent excellence to our community, people will be drawn to the life that we have found in the house. Let’s get the party started! Healthy houses bring support to each other – not only are we like a warm comforter to the ones who are hurting, we are the welcome home blanket to those who are returning back to the house. We offer love, acceptance and forgiveness, as well as a safety net, and the arm of correction when needed. We are there through every season….good and bad, happy and sad, and like family, the house will function at it fullest capacity when we as a house, act like a healthy, functional, supernatural, magnificent family. We are part of a “house” because we really are better together! As a body of believers, connected to a house, we can flourish, and help others come into contact with heaven on earth through a relationship with Christ! It is time to roll up your sleeves and be prepared for an awesome invasion of souls…the harvest needs a house!

In the book, Heaven is in this House, by Bobbie Houston (Pastor’s wife of Hillsong Church) relates the church, to the family, with these characteristics. (I thought they were so good, I’m going to list them all)
Healthy families produce magnificent, functional human beings.
Healthy families produce supernatural people.
Healthy families possess what the world longs for.
Healthy families eat together.
Healthy families play together.
Healthy families grow together.
Healthy families support each other.
Families aren’t designed just for casual relationship to one another. Families are connected for life. As a church family, we are connected to “do life” together, and there should be no disconnecting or bailing out of the magnificient, functional family to whom God called you together to do life with. The people that are produced through faith in Jesus Christ are supernatural people. Not only are they turned on to God, and now connected with Him because their spirit has been made alive unto God, but they are remarkable. They will do greater things than we have done, because they are part of an emerging church that is strengthened by the power of His might, and is willing to bandage and mend the broken lives that result from living outside the parameters of a healthy spiritual family. This life is what the world longs for! People are drawn to healthy functional families. Spiritual families sit together to eat. We get our spiritual nourishment at each service, from the life giving Word that builds our faith. Just like a meal around a table, there should be laughter, connection and a sense of contentment in having shared something good together. Healthy ‘Houses” play together…..we love God, love people, and love life! We are spontaneous and free to have fun. Life is too short (and to long) to do it without the freedom and laughter, joy and playfulness. Enjoy!

If the House of God really is the gateway to heaven, and is awesome, and is a place that feels like heaven on earth, and really is a place where we can encounter God and learn to know Him, what kind of people would you find in a place like this? Should the people of the house have some distinct characteristics that set them apart as different that marks and separates them from the average, mediocre person experiencing life on this earth? Most definitely yes!
The house should be filled with people who are full of character – in our case at AGF we have people who are…..full of it, and definitely characters…..(just kidding – we have awesome people at our “house”). Character should be the hallmark of the people of the “house”. A person of character has a servant’s heart with a revelation of unconditionally serving others. They realize that their gifts have come from the Father, and it is for His use that they were given. Servant hearted people are willing to lay down their lives to bring God’s finest to others. As servant hearted people, they are literally prepared to do whatever it takes to facilitate God’s will on the earth. They are generous, faithful, dedicated, and loyal…..from the people who help park the cars, to the nursery, to the children’s departments, to the youth workers, to the administrative staff, to the ministry staff, to those who grace the platform. They want nothing more than to please God and to be a blessing to His body, and to see His body expand exponentially. A person of character is brave hearted. Bravery is defined as the ability or readiness to face danger or pain. It takes brave hearted people to advance the kingdom of God. Bravery is necessary when you align yourself with truth and take a stand for the King. It takes a brave hearted person to become a radical, passionate follower of Christ, who is willing to die for “the Cause” of Christ. Remember the line in the movie Gladiator when the men were led into battle and the Roman General Maximus declared, “what we do in life echoes for all eternity”. Brave hearted people of character understand and believe that. A person of character is tenderhearted. We serve a passionate God who is loving affectionate and moved with compassion. Tenderhearted people passionately embrace Jesus as their first love. The tender heart within them continually draws them closer to their Savior, and in the process that tenderness spills out onto others in the “house”, and on the streets.

What we call the church is really a living organism, with Christ as the head. The New Living Translation of Genesis 28:16-22 gives an awesome picture of what the House of God should look like.
Then Jacob woke up and said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I wasn’t
even aware of it. What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God – the gateway to heaven. ……He called the place Bethel – which means HOUSE of God!
Perhaps you remember the story of Jacob when he found himself in an environment far from home. Worn out, he laid down in the dust and rested his head against a hard stone and started to dream. He saw a ladder reaching from heaven to earth, with the angels of God going up and down the ladder. God spoke to him and confirmed the promises that belonged to his ancestors before him and the generations that would follow, and when he awoke, he said this is an awesome place…God was here all the time, and I never even knew it. This place is the House of God, the GATEWAY TO HEAVEN. This very place of memorial became a place where people could worship God, and bring a tenth of their income as an offering. Jacob had encountered heaven in his dream, and realized that what God’s house is, an encounter with heaven.

A healthy church should be an encounter with heaven. An encounter is a collision with the unexpected. We come “smack dab” into contact with heaven when we come into the house of God. Truly the connection with heaven happens at the new birth, but each time we celebrate in the “house”, we should feel the dew of heaven resting on our shoulders. It should never become “old hat” or merely tradition to be a part of what God is doing on the earth through the church. His “house” is where heaven touches earth, and as my husband says….where we get caught right in the middle of the smack. Don’t miss the amazing things that God is doing in and through His church….His House!

What does this scripture from Matt 16:17 mean to you? It says, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Whenever I think of those words, my heart is enlightened and enlarged. THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST THE CHURCH! God is all about seeing His family prevail against the works of the wicked one. God wants to see the church continue, prevail, prosper, accomplish the task set before the “house”, and see that it becomes truly a place fit for a king.

We call the church the “House of God”. We call our bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit. Awesome isn’t it? We know that as Jacob said in the book of Genesis that truly the place where He lay his head was an awesome place… it was God’s house. What can we say about the “house” where we are connected?
Is it a house or a church …
that reflects His nature, His love and His character?
makes His name glorious, and proclaims His goodness, His splendor and His majesty?
that beats with His heartbeat, and serves through our hands and our feet?
that is beautiful beyond description that reflects His creativity?
that lives and moves and breathes because of Him?
empowered with authority from on high?
where the Spirit of God is welcome and celebrated?
marked with compassion that effectively draws the lost into her embrace?
of healing for body, soul and spirit?
of prayer for all people and nations around the globe?
of victory over death, hell and the grave?
that is kissed by heaven and truly is awesome?
where people see what heaven looks like?
My prayer is that the answer to every question would be yes, yes and AMEN! The house of God is an amazing place. God instituted it for a purpose; as a place for His people to worship, to pray, to embrace, to learn, to grow, to connect, to rejoice, and to hear His Word taught so that faith can grow in our hearts.

Intro:
Our focus is going to be about how awesome it is to be a part of God’s family and God’s house, and how amazing it is that we can live an abundant life. Hello, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging word for your day! Because of Jesus, we can now have a relationship with God, and then have authentic dynamic relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and the family of God in our local churches. What a great mission statement this would be for each Bible believing church…..to reach and influence the world by building a home for God’s family that changes mindsets and empowers people to lead and impact others for the cause of Christ in every sphere of their life. Let’s do it! This is your week to join a TeamLife Group! Here is your dailyeword.

I love being out doors and making things beautiful in my yard. I love growing…. vegetables and herbs, flowers and bushes, and fruit trees, really just about anything. Even at the end of the growing season here in Idaho, there are so many lessons we can learn from the garden. A few important things are: prepare thoroughly, plant selectively, maintain religiously, and water regularly. Cultivating fruitfulness can happen the same way. First prepare your heart and be ready, then find places to put your seeds in, pull weeds that come up and prune as necessary, and continue to shower your seeds with good words. Okay, that may be a little simplified, but we can make a plan to be fruitful, just like we plan a garden. One of the things I have grown in my flower beds are boxwood bushes. I usually had to trim them 2-3 times in the growing season, and it was quite fun. I keep them shaped, and any new growth that gets out of the planned shape gets cut off. That can be in our lives like the time we mess up in our actions and all of the sudden unkindness raises its ugly head. Take out those trimming shears and cut it off. Don’t allow it to keep growing. In our life, that probably means asking for forgiveness, and then promising to God to watch our tongue more carefully next time. If we want our life to look like a carefully trimmed boxwood, we have to cut off what isn’t appealing and encourage growth in the areas that are desirable. What is interesting with plants is that you can train them to go the way you want them to go. And guess what, we can be trained as well. Let’s be trained to be fruitful.

John 13:35 is such a powerful scripture. It says the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples by the love we have for one another. Amazing how often the opposite is true. Christians churches don’t like each other because they believe differently. Or they preach against another doctrine because they interpret scripture in another way. Or someone else doesn’t have as much revelation as they have. What a shame that the world has to see that. We are to be supportive and encouraging of one another. I love how every time we do communion at AGF we talk about discerning the body of Christ. That is not only the physical body of Christ that was bloodied, broken and bruised so that we could have a relationship with God, but also sensitive to the body of Christ worldwide. We have brothers and sisters in Christ, not only around the world, but across town from us. As believers in Jesus, who have given our heart and life to Christ, and have chosen to follow Him all the days of our life, we have to realize that heaven is big enough for all of us. God’s arms are opened wide. The prerequisite of heaven is to be born again. You can get to heaven sick, you can get to heaven without speaking in tongues, you can get to heaven poor, but you can’t get to heaven without Jesus. So let’s concentrate of the majors! Christians are on the same team, fighting the same enemy, and the enemy is the devil, not another church! Let’s let the world see love in us!