Kevin Mills 2.0

Haggai 2:4,5

4 Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty.

5 …And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

As I was reading the Bible yesterday, I happened to turn to Haggai 2. I don’t think I’ve EVER read Haggai before, not even on a dare. But whenever I have a quiet time, I always pray that God will direct me to whatever passage He wants me to read that day, and that I would have a clear understanding of how it applies to my life. (And I have to say, 9 out of 10 times, it applies… boy howdy…)

So what did this verse mean to me? Well, let me give you a short background of what’s going on in my life, first.

At the beginning of the year, I wrote down on my Sony Clie one of my goals. It was to learn how to pray with more vision, more boldness. I don’t think it was just something I pulled out of my head – I think God was actually prompting me in this direction. Either way, the goal was stated and written down, officially. I just had no idea what was in store for me.

A week later, as Kim and I are church searching, we visit one called “The Edge Church,” which we pass by when we go to a nearby park during the week. We were blown away. Not only was the place comfortably small and packed with people we could relate to (read: 30′s and 40s’ with chilluns), but the music was contemporary and the preaching was good, too. What cinched it, however, was the pastor (Israel Hogue) preaching about the new Ministry Campaign they were starting… He kept referring to the “vision” they should have for the future of the church, and how to pray accordingly.

Bam. God’s two by four was pleasantly smacking me. We had found our church home.

Over the course of a month, God continued to spur me on to a greater future, through conversations, prayer and a few books. The two that stand out the most are:

Book #1: Your Best Life Now – Joel Osteen