Since the beginning of this year, 2006, God has been doing amazing things. Real, personal, powerful moves of His Spirit in my life, in my family, in my church, and in the lives of many people I know. From my perspective, it started when the leader of my home group said that he felt God speaking to him that things have stayed the same because he (the home group leader) keeps doing the same things. If we want things to be different, we need to change what we're doing. So he is going to be making some different choices this year. (He's already made some changes in his life, and has seen God move in his life in many powerful ways because of it.)

That same day, a challenge was issued to our home group, encouraging everyone to be faithful to meet at the church for prayer before the service on Sunday mornings. For years, our pastors have been encouraging our congregation to gather for prayer, and for years the numbers have been dismal. And honestly, I believe the biggest reason that so many people don't go is because they really don't want to. Most of us will find a way to do the things we really want to do. And for most of us, any excuse is good enough to not do something we really don't want to do.

Prayer is vitally important in the life of any believer. Prayer and Bible study are two of the most effective ways to learn to know God more intimately. They're not the only ways, but they are very important.

The following Sunday at our leadership potluck after the morning service, the same call to prayer was shared with all of the leadership who were in attendance. The following Sunday, there were more people in prayer than there had been ever before. When we had been seeing 8, 10, 0r 12 people before then, that day we had 38 people in attendance! Praise God! And ever since then, there have consistently been at least 20 people there, and usually more than 30.

Not long after that, another member of our home group, along with another member of our church, started meeting at the church for prayer early on some weekday mornings. Those prayer meetings have grown also, and now there are several people meeting faithfully for prayer at those times.

As people are praying, things are happening. Our youth pastor is going to start his own church. Hallelujah! While some people are disappointed or uncomfortable with this (change, after all, is uncomfortable for most people), I am so excited to see God moving in this way. Our church is not dividing, it's multiplying! And I can't wait to see the fruit that this move of the Holy Spirit is going to bring about.

I believe 2006 is a year of change, and in my heart, the title of this year is "The Year of Abundant Life!". I can't wait to see what's going to happen next!