For all of my child, teenage, and young adult years I was in
the Baptist Denomination. You might say that I was born on the Baptist
pew. During this time my commitment to Jesus was very shallow at best.
As I went into my young adult years, Jesus was at the bottom of my
priority list, and I kept Him there for many years.
By age 19 I moved to Texas.
Shortly afterwards I met my wife, Kellie, in the Baptist Church that we
both attended and eventually were married. I played the part of being a
good Baptist man, teaching Sunday School and Church Training but was really
only going through the motions of what was expected of me.
Fast-forward a few years.
I am now a father, but there is still no relationship with Jesus. I found myself giving up teaching Sunday
School and eventually justifying to myself that I didn't have to go to church
every time the doors were open because I was just too busy for God.
But the Holy Spirit had something different in store for me
that I would have told you then, "not for this country boy!!" And in
the words of Paul Harvey, "now the rest of the story."
I was living in Bridge City, working in Lake Charles, and made
this commute for 10 years. I was the Service Manager of a new computer
franchise, and I hired three service technicians all of which were part of the
United Pentecostal Denomination.
During lunch they would break out their bibles and workbooks
and have a bible study. I was invited to join but always abruptly declined
because after all I was Baptist, and I didn't believe in all of ‘that stuff.’
Again the Holy Spirit obviously had me hire these men because six weeks
later the bible study was in my office, my eyes were being opened, and I began
to question my denominational beliefs.
Simultaneously, unknown to me, Kellie was having a similar
experience with someone from the Assemblies of God Denomination. In fact,
Kellie volunteered to work evenings just so that they could talk about the Holy
Spirit. I was a very unhappy camper with her new work schedule because I worked
days. But when you’re hungry for God you
will make adjustments in your life.
During a date night our conversation turned from the normal
discussion about our kids to what was occurring to both of us at work. As
we began to share our stories we could feel a stirring within us and knew that
there was more to the Holy Spirit than we had ever known. We decided
right there in the restaurant that we would begin visiting churches, and see
what we could find.
Fast forward to February 12, 1991. We had several friends that
were attending Triumph Church, but none had ever invited us. However,
with my old mindset I wouldn't have stepped foot into Triumph, but now
everything had changed. We accepted an invitation from JD and Tina Nezat
to hear Kim Clement.
Needless to say we were blown away by what we saw and heard and
had lots of questions. After a three and a half hour long service we went
home exhausted, and I was thinking that these people were crazy. After
all, does a church service really need to be more than one hour?
We didn't attend the next night because we were still trying to
process everything. And being a very
analytical person, one plus one was not adding up to two. However, during
that service Kim Clement began to prophesy about a young boy that was having to
take injections for his blood and that he was severely sick. He went on
to say that the enemy was going to end his life that very night, but the Holy
Spirit was going to intervene and heal him so that his father, Kenneth, would
believe. He went further to say that the parents of this child were here
last night but were not here tonight.
Several of our friends recognized that this word was for us and
called us later that night to let us know. Our son, Chad, was born with
severe allergies. We were constantly in
and out of doctors’ offices and specialty hospitals, and we were at the end of
the rope physically and emotionally.
It was around midnight that our son awoke crying, which was a
usual nightly occurrence. However, this time we decided to put God to the
test, and trust His word. We prayed and simply believed. Shortly afterwards our son went back to
asleep and slept the remainder of the night. This started a progression of
healing in our son’s life, and his father believed!!
On March 17, 1991 I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit,
and as a family we joined Triumph on March 18, 1991. Our lives have been
forever changed by what we have seen and tasted through our 22 years. Now that
our children are grown, we are now preparing ourselves for our next assignment. That is to go out, and teach about His
healing power with a demonstration of His signs and wonders.
Mathew
10:8 - Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You
received without paying, give without pay. ESV
Kenneth Miller
Nederland Campus
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