Week of June 21

Intro
Jesus’ prayer was that God’s will be done on earth, just like heaven. He wanted a taste of heaven to be in evidence on the earth. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with an encouraging Word for your day. God wants heaven to come where we live. That was the original design in the garden of Eden, but we all know what happened when sin entered the picture. Thankfully, Jesus came, to re-established the original, and to reverse the curse for us. This week, be encouraged knowing that God’s will can be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Word for the week: Matt 6:9-13 The Lord’s Prayer – if you haven’t already done so, why not memorize it this week.

Monday
Is heaven in your house? When we look at the Lord’s prayer, we can see that Jesus prayed that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. So are you experiencing heaven in your house? When we hear the word house, we normally think of the place where we live, or your physical address. Really there are three kinds of “houses”. My body is a house. My family is a house. My Church is a house.

I am a spirit, I have a soul/mind, I live in a body
We each have a house or apartment that we live in
We come together as the House of God in your church local fellowship.

How can we know if heaven is in each house? The best answer to that would be the evidence of Divine Order. That is where, as we follow God with all of our heart, the Spirit of God leads, the soul/mind is renewed, the body follows. Divine order really is lining our life up with the Word of God, and making the choice to be obedient. It is making sure that our walk matches our talk. Making sure our actions match the life of God that dwells on the inside of us. Since we are “in Christ” we need to operate in divine order, under authority, yet given authority, servants of God, yet sons and daughters of God. If we want heaven to be in us, in our homes, and in our churches, we have to recognize and operate in the divine order that God established. Is heaven in each of your houses? Let’s make it our goal!

Tuesday
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. That scripture is found in Ps 92:12-14. One of the greatest goals in my life is to encourage people to flourish in life, and this scripture tells us how to do it. If we are planted in God’s house we will flourish…..hummm, flourish, that sounds a little bit like experiencing heaven on earth! Flourish means to thrive, to prosper and to be in peak condition. That is my desire for every one of you. What is very cool is that is God’s desire for you too! In III John verse 2, John penned these words inspired by the Holy Spirit….I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all will go well with you, even as your soul is prospering. Soul prosperity is having a mind that is renewed to God’s Word. It is making choices that lead to abundant life. God gives us the opportunity to taste heaven on earth – that is flourishing. We can flourish more and more as we grow deep roots in the church body where God has planted us. The positive consequences of putting our roots down in the House of God is that our whole life can flourish! We will have a good root system, become a strong tree, with great tasting, lasting fruit. It’s the kind of encouragement we all need to hear!

Wednesday
Plants will only be as successful as the soil in which they are planted. Good soil is important! If we want to flourish in life, we need to be planted with good soil, in a good, Bible believing Christian church. When we are planted we have the potential to have a good root system, to become a strong tree, and to produce tasty, lasting fruit. The best encouragement I could give you for your life would be to get planted! This little lesson in farming really is a life principle that can alter your destiny. No more stony, thorny ground, let’s get on track for God’s best for the soil of our lives. (There is more on that tomorrow) The church is like a greenhouse. It should be a place where there is maximum exposure to light, and where growth is accelerated because of the good seeds that are planted in good soil. We become well-maintained soil, full of rich nutrients, free of rocks and weeds in the greenhouse of the church. It is good to examine your own soil. How well maintained is it? After we examine the soil, we need to make sure the soil is where the seed is being spread. If you aren’t in church hearing the Word, the seed will be sown on some other ground, and they’ll get the benefit, or it will fall on the wayside and be devoured. Are you fortifying yourself, and stirring yourself up to get rid of anything that will hinder the Word from growing in your life? Are you hungering and thirsting for God? Are you staying watered with the Word, and fully exposed to the Son so that you give your life the absolute best opportunity to grow stronger? You have that opportunity….let’s make the most of it!

Thursday
To flourish as a Christian you need nutrients that feed the three dimensions of you; spirit, soul and body. (I Thess 5:23) We need soul food! (III John 2) Mark 4:3-9 is a great lesson in farming! We call it the parable of the sower, but really it is the parable of the soils. What kind of soil are you? Here are the four that are listed in Mark 4.
1. Ground with no soil, the seed is sown on the wayside – the seed never got to the soil, because there was no soil present! Fellowship with believers in your local church is vital, and hearing is the Word is how we grow in faith ….Don’t let the seed be devoured by fowl of air!
2. Stony Ground – The seed was received with joy, but when the seedling came up it died, because of no depth of earth and no root system.
3. Thorny Ground – The seed was choked out yielding no fruit because of the pressure of the cares and a life with too many distractions.
4. Good ground – Who we should be! Productive, exponentially repro-ducing, and abundant! Manifold return which brought forth fruit, 30, 60,100 fold.

To get the Word to produce in our lives, we have to be good ground. Good ground will receive the seed and produce fruit with amazing rates of return. So can we flourish on the earth? Yes! The food we need for our soil is the Word, the best soul food ever!

Friday
I love talking about the House of God. I have loved church all of my life. When the church door swings open, I swing on in! I would be there all the time if I could! I think I love church so much, because it has all of the elements I think you would find in heaven. It is a place of beauty and order. Being a music lover, I love worship with instruments, with voices in choir, or praise and worship teams, all kinds of music that I’m sure is evident around the throne of God in heaven. I love the reverence you feel in church, because people are getting fed the Word of God which is able to save their souls, it is like a feeding trough for faith. I love people being saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, sharing their faith, growing in God, and making disciples. I love seeing people become fruitful as they learn about taking dominion of the earth, operating under submission to the Father and exercising the authority that Jesus told us to operate in. I love church being a place of encouragement for the body, where people finding solutions and answers to life issues, and learn to have a prosperous soul. I especially love church when joy is abundant, jealousy is non existent, and where people feel like they’ve experienced heaven on earth. Just like a plant that will only flourish when it is planted, so it is with our spiritual life. We grow and flourish in life, when we are planted! I hope you love to put down roots, and are growing lasting fruit, in your life. For me, and I hope for you too, that is what I call heaven on earth!

Saturday
Eword for Kidz
Sometimes it is encouraging to look back and remember what it felt like to be a preschooler. They have life pretty well figured out. From the eyes of a preschooler, life is pretty simple! Here are some things they know from the perspective of a 4 year old:

God is Good (I Peter 2:3), the devil is bad (evil).
God gives life, the devil comes to take life.(John 10:10)
Just because stuff happens doesn’t mean it is God’s will. (We can’t blame God
For things He doesn’t do)
God doesn’t hurt people, he helps them!
God can take the bad the devil tried to do, and makes it good. (The devil looses at his own game and is the biggest loser of them all. Na, na, na, na, na, na!)

Sounds simple to me! In Matt 6:9-13 The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus makes it very clear that he wants the earth to experience a little bit of heaven…. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If you haven’t memorized it, why not do it this week? Say it with me if you know it.

Our Father, who art in heaven, holy is Your name
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen.

Let’s remember to keep things simple. Don’t complicate things….adults do enough of that for everyone!!!! As a kid, you can be a doer of the Word, and a believer who believes the Word. You can be a kid who wants everyone to go to heaven, and for them to enjoy a taste of it on the earth. As complex as life can be, let’s try to make life simple. Seal everything with one of those slobbery preschool kisses! KISS…..that’s an acronym for Keep It Simple Sweetie! And let’s enjoy life with a little glimmer of heaven right here on this earth.

Sunday
In Matthew 6:9-13, what is commonly known as The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us how to pray:

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Your name
Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is In heaven
give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
for Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, amen.

It sounds like Jesus’ model prayer gives place for the original design to be re-established on the earth. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” A thought hit me one time that really is astounding….for the believer, earth is as close to hell as we will ever be, but for the unbeliever, earth is as close to heaven as they will ever be. Wow! So for the believer, earth can be really good, plus we have heaven to look forward to, so the best is yet to come. For the unbeliever, without the peace of God in their life, earth can be ok or pretty bad, and there is nothing good past their final breath. For them, this life is as good as it gets. It puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

What does heaven manifested on earth it look like? When I think of what heaven is like, I think of wonderful communion with the Father, a place of rest and peace, joy that is too amazing to explain, worship around the throne all the time, and beautiful ways of communicating our love for God all around, with absolutely no need for anything else. Wow, if heaven is even half of that, it will be abundantly above all we could ever ask or think. So what should heaven on earth look like? Probably a lot of the same things! There would be: Divine relationships, Supernatural peace, Joy overflowing, Glorious Worship Open and loving communication, Every need supplied.

Amazing, those are all things that we have access here on the earth if we are connected to God! We get a relationship with God that tops all earthy relationships. We even get divine connections to other believers who encourage us, and help us grow in our walk with the Lord. We have the peace that passes all understanding…no need for worry or fear. We choose not to worry, because God’s hand is on us, and besides, Jesus told us not to worry, so why go against his will for us? Joy bubbles up from inside of our spirit that is filled up and overflowing with the Spirit of God. We get to praise God will all that we are, with our voices, with instruments, with dancing, and even shouts of victory. We get to communicate from the heart of a servant, demonstrating love through our words and actions. We get to experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give because our God supplies all of our needs. That sounds like heaven on earth! Of course life on earth will have challenges, but you already know that! There will be things that we can’t control or fully comprehend, but when we put it all in perspective, earth for the believer can be a little taste of heaven, and makes us even more hungry for our eternal home. Let’s let the world know what heaven will be like…by giving them a taste of what we have experienced. Taste and see that GOD is good… on earth as He is in heaven!