Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

This SCM 2010 has totally impacted our staff and volunteers. Even though many of us are tired and feeling the effects in our physical bodies, conversations still roar throughout the office about how amazing this camp meeting has been!

From the music, to the funny speakers, to Pastor Joel’s amazing testimony, everyone here has been changed by this camp meeting; so many got touched by the power of God. I have heard so many people make the comment that they will never be the same because of this camp meeting.  Everyone I am sure has their personal story to tell about what the camp meeting has done for them, but the resonating theme throughout the RMI community is that we have all been called for a purpose. That we are a part of an awesome ministry and no matter what we face in our lives, we must continue on. That God has called us for such a time as this, and we will go through things in life; but as long as we remain obedient to what He has told us to do, we will be fine.

As mentioned earlier, many of us are suffering from fatigue and exhaustion (smile) that’s usually what comes when you enjoy every service! But the one thing I know, no matter how tired we feel, or how drained our bodies are, we would not trade this experience for anything. I remember speaking to a former intern and we were saying that we couldn’t tell one day from the next, but that it didn’t really matter. Our lives are being changed and touched by the power of God!

This camp meeting also showed the staff, within our diverse setting, that God does not have a particular person He wants to use, or someone who looks a particular way, but those who are willing and obedient! Nothing more, noting less!

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

Soul winning outreach at The River Church and at RBI has been life changing. Reaching out to the lost in the inner city projects areas, the streets the nursing homes, schools and the local Tampa area has ignited a deeper passion within me. It’s awesome going with a team of people who has such a passionate heart and love for souls. Using the script makes it so easy to win souls. Just be a willing vessel and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. We have to go out and compel people to come into the kingdom of God.

There are many people that think just because they are a good person or that they go to church they’ll go to heaven. A lot of people aren’t sure where they‘re going when they die. God said the people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge” The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that wins souls is wise” (Proverbs 11v30). The Lord knocked on the door of my heart and I was made righteous through Him the world is the searching for the truth. The love of Jesus. It’s commissioned by God that all believers are to go out into the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16v15).

Words can’t express how much I have been touched by sharing the good news with people. To see the face of men, women and children light up with tears coming down their cheeks when they receive Jesus into their hearts and He wraps his arms around them with His love. Their countenance changes from darkness to light instantly. Seeing the ones I’ve witnessed to come into church, getting into the Word, getting filled with the Holy Ghost and touched by the power of God. Hearing them glorify God with their testimonies of what He is doing in their lives. It’s phenomenal! It’s an honor and blessing to be part of what God is doing here in Tampa, Florida My prayer is that the fire of God burns likes an inferno in my heart and yours to reach the lost at any cost. The harvest is ripe!

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

When I first got saved we started going to downtown Orlando handing out tracts. I cannot remember anyone coming to Christ. Three months after I got saved at the River I was preaching in a nursing home. I did see results there but it was still within the four walls. I started traveling the country and the world with another Evangelist. I used to think we had to get people to come to the meeting and answer the alter call to get saved. It was happening but I still knew deep down inside there was more.

My life changed in September 2007 while attending The Great Awakening in Maui, Hawaii. In just less than a week I led 70 people to Jesus Christ one on one. That year I was still traveling but I was also able to attend The G.A.T.’s in Miami, Cocoa, Orlando, Sanford, Brandon and Fort Worth. I still remember a precious lady in a nursing home in Fort Worth. Her name was Elizabeth, after talking to her and praying for her she accepted Jesus as her savior and her whole countenance changed. After I left her room I realized Elizabeth had been lying there for years thinking she was going to hell. Now Elizabeth knew she was going to heaven. This situation fueled my fire and passion even more.

Since then I have had the honor to lead thousands to Christ and train many to do the same. I have had the honor been given to me to travel to place like Indonesia, Argentina, and Brazil having meetings and training and compelling the Christians to go out and win the lost. I have had Acts 1:8 altar calls for people who wanted God to touch them with His Spirit to go and reach the lost. Like Pastor Rodneys says it is not the great suggestion it is the Great Commission.

The Lord has taken me on the ride of my life from being on buses in Tampa, Taipei to Japan. Going into Muslim villages with a youth group and seeing God heal people who did not even know who Jesus Christ was. We had to tell them, all they knew was this Jesus had healed them and gave them peace. He has taken me from the streets of Argentina training one person to preaching to tens of thousands in Brazil. I know understand that scripture If we are faithful with little God will make us ruler over much. The best part is I never tried to enrage any meetings myself. That is why I know it is not by might not by power but by His Spirit. Zachariah 4:6

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

Soul winning has really taken on a different meaning for me. I remember soul winning prior to coming to the River and RBI/RSW. I had witnessed to plenty of people, but could never close the deal. I never saw anyone saved. It didn’t bother me too much. The people I talked with around me seemed to be in the same boat. Some had actually leaded a person or maybe even two to the Lord. Wow, I used to think. This is amazing. However, knowing that others had led people to the Lord or the fact that I had tried and had not succeeded didn’t make me feel any better about it. I also had been taught, in a subtle way, that really, seeing people saved was the pastor’s job. You get them to church and he will get them saved.

That all changed when I came to the River and RBI/RSW. First off, I really learned that we were all called to seek and save that which was lost. Its one thing to know it. It’s another to believe it. I began to believe it. The second thing I learned was to soul win you had to make a conscious effort to go find lost people. People who needed Jesus. I don’t think you ever forget the first person you pray the prayer of salvation with. I haven’t. The final thing, and this was the real clincher, was that you need a good tool; something that worked. I remember talking to someone who had actively gone soul winning every Thursday night for 2 years and never won a soul to the Lord. I told him it was like fishing. Don’t tell me you are a fisherman and you haven’t caught a fish in two years.

Finally, soul winning has become very natural. We can talk about the weather or sports. How about eternity? People need Jesus. So why not tell them.

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

Soul winning has been a life changing experience. All we do is step out and God does the rest. We share the good news of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit works on the people’s hearts. Before coming to the River Bible Institute I hadn’t lead anyone to the Lord, honestly I didn’t know how and I was afraid of what people may think of me. When I first heard about the script I thought that it wasn’t really going to work. I was wrong. I gave the script a try, and it works.

The script works because it uses the word of God. I have seen hundreds of lives touched and changed on the streets by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is amazing to walk up to someone, read the script, lead them to the Lord and see their entire countenance change. Not only are people being lead to the Lord but people are also being healed and set free. Really going soul winning is just doing what the Bible tells us to, we are called to preach the Gospel to every creature, and to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover (Mark 16:15-18). Before I came to school I wouldn’t have imagined the anointing flowing through me while on the streets sharing the Gospel, but it does. All I do is step out.

There is nothing better than the Lord using you. The Lord has changed my life and when I go out on the street I get to see the Lord change others lives. The truth is there are tons of people out there in the world who are lost and searching for truth, when we go soul winning we are leading them to that truth. People’s lives are completely changed and all it takes is a step from us.

Worship Soundtracks from RMIRiverSong on Vimeo.

What can I say about soul winning? Soul winning changed my life and my family’s completely; there is no way to be the same again after you see people been saved and touched before you, and you see God using you to do that! The Bible says that who win souls is wise, and that is true, I feel so privileged to be able to share with people about the One who came with a unique purpose, and that is to save the world.

God’s heart beats for souls. As His true followers we need to obey His Great Commission (Matt.28:19,20) and by doing that we not only bring salvation to those who are lost but we bring joy to the Father’s heart. The same power and authority that was given to Jesus is available to every believer, but I couldn’t understand that until I really got a revelation of it. Once I did, I started to see fruits coming out of the times I would go out soul winning. Soul winning became a life style to me instead of just a program. I will never forget one of the times I was ministering to a couple and after they had said the prayer of salvation with me I asked if they would also like to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and they said yes. I prayed with them and boom they started to speak in unknown tongues.

The lady was so touched that she didn’t know what to do. She jumped, she laughed, she cried, it was an amazing experience! I always have a good time when I go out soul winning; the truth is that I never know what God is up to! I encourage you to give it a try for yourself and see how your life will be changed forever. Let God use you and be blessed!

There are so many powerful ways the Lord has touched my life through Pastor Rodney’ ministry, but let me share this with those who may be new to the move of God and the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s power is real and it has a lasting effect! It’s now March of 2007 and back in late 1993, not sure of the exact date, I first came to some meetings of Brother Rodney in St. Louis. I had never heard of the church he was ministering at. I had never heard of him or seen the power of God in such a way, and had only been saved and filled with the Spirit less than a year. But in that first meeting, the Presence of the Lord was so strong and he preached on, “Have YOU had a Pentecost?” from Acts 10 and 11. There came a time in the service when he called those who wanted hands laid on them to come, so my friend and I did. When Pastor Rodney came and lightly touched me, the power of God came all over me and I fell under His power. As I lay there with my eyes closed, my hands became heavy and I saw in a vision the anointing (it seemed like a golden liquid) all over my arms, flowing down into my hands where it rested.

They were SO heavy! I laid there a long time and the Lord spoke some wonderful things to me for my personal life and ministry that was to come. He knew the hunger of my heart to see people healed and touched by Jesus as I laid hands on them, and was so good to help my faith. He spoke to me as I lay there that, “Tonight I have allowed you to see and feel my power in your hands to help your faith; now, when you go and lay hands on people, think back and remember this moment so you will KNOW no matter if you feel any power or not that My power is in you and in your hands. Then just believe as you lay hands on them that this heavy anointing you feel tonight will go into them and do a mighty work.” I understood that if I believed, and could get the person in need to believe, then the power that is always in me would manifest and touch them. And I want to testify to the glory of God that since then the Lord has used these hands to heal cancer, arthritis, uncontrolled and soon to be terminal diabetes, back injuries, a growth on a lady’s hand, internal bleeding that the doctors couldn’t find the cause of or fix, and many other things. People have been filled with joy; they have fallen under God’s power, they have felt the “heat” and the “fire” (their words) as I have prayed for them.

One friend of mine I asked to hold my Bible for me as we walked into work on day, and as soon as he took it from me he jumped saying it was hot and it felt like it was on fire, just from being in my hands that the Lord flows through. I could give so many testimonies, but what I really want people to know is that, this was over 13 years ago and the touch of God lasts! IF you keep the fire for Jesus and the gifts of God in you stirred up all the time, that power will always be there to meet your own needs and to bless, heal, set free, work miracles in, and impart fresh fire of love for Jesus to others whenever you let Him work through you. I praise God for Pastor Rodney, but what impressed me most in that first meeting of his, was that the focus wasn’t on him; he seemed to be in the background and it was the Holy Spirit Himself just ministering to the people all over the church. I was so excited about it that I told all my friends and brought a bunch of them the next night, telling them this anointed man was preaching, but really just allowing the Spirit of God to freely come and touch the people in a very real way. But KNOW that whatever touches you are receiving from the Lord at the River, in the River Bible Institute, and other RMI meetings, they are not by the hand of man, but by the hand and power of the Spirit of God working through a yielded vessel, and what He, the Lord does in your life will not only last, but the flow of power increases over time as you grow in your knowledge of and walk with Him. All honor, glory and praise to our great and glorious God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the wonderful Spirit of the Living God! His power is real! And the effects of it last! Rev. Bryan E. A, Anointed Love Ministries, Belleville, IL

The Bible is stuffed with references to water. From the creation account where we read that “the Spirit of God was moving over the outer surface of the waters” ( Genesis twelve ), all of the way to the last chapter of Revelation where we’re told of “a brook of the water of life, clear as crystal” that’s flowing from God’s throne ( Revelation 22:1 ), we find masses of occasions where water is discussed in the Scriptures. Because water plays such a big part thru so many scenes found in the Bible, it shouldn’t be surprising to us that water is critical to our well-being and health. It not only cleans our bodies from impurities, it refreshes and satisfies us when we are parched.

But we must not overlook a spiritual dimension. So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Do those words express your feelings? Do you end up parched for a deeper relationship with the living God? Has your world become seared and barren, leaving you like that deer, puffing for the kind of water that may satisfy your soul? Jesus once made a statement that is worth heavy consideration : “If anyone is parched, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture declared, ‘From his innermost being will flow brooks of living water’” ( John 7:37-38 ).

    Be certain that you do not overlook the significance of “living water” in your inner life as you become aware about the price of water in your physical body. People who hope to be fit to serve God need to keep both in balance.

Before you move on with your day, pause and contemplate this : am I giving acceptable time and attention to the cultivation of my inner life? If not, what changes are required to bring my inner life and my outer life into balance? 

God goaded and poked the mulish pride of Saul—that Pharisaic ox. Day after day he kicked against those goads, till ultimately he got the message.

God will do whatever is needed to bring us to a point of comprehensive dependance on Him. He will be able to relentlessly, patiently, faithfully goad till we ultimately and happily submit to Him.

Let’s accept it, you’ll qualify as the best person on your block. You do not cheat on your taxes or purposely lie to your other half. You’ll have never committed what we’d call an outrageous act, saying nothing of seriously wounding someone you adore. You are living a life that is provoking to others, but you are light years from being righteous before God.

Until you’ve surrendered your life to Christ, you are as lost as Saul was on the Damascus road. If you have never made that call, what a great moment this would be if you would set this book aside, bow your heart before the living Christ at this sweet moment, and receive Him as your Savior. You could have been a Christian for some considerable time, but you are adhering to the reins of your own rebel will. You must know that God will goad you too. He’ll bring you to a place in your life where you realize there is not any point in continuing to kick against the goads.

Allegedly, “to kick against the goads” was a standard expression found in both Greek and Latin literature—a agricultural image, which rose from the practice of farmers goading their oxen in the fields. Though unfamiliar to us, everyone in that day accepted its meaning.

Goads were sometimes made of slim pieces of timber, blunt on one end and pointed on the other. Farmers utilised the pointed end to urge a dour ox into motion.

Often , the beast would kick at the goad. The more the ox kicked, the more probable the goad would stab into the flesh of its leg, causing bigger agony. Saul’s conversion could seem to us as having been a unexpected skirmish with Christ. But based totally on the Lord’s expression relating to his kicking back, I think He’d been working on him for ages prodding and goading him.

I think the words and works of Jesus haunted the enthusiastic Pharisee. Equivalent in age, they would be contemporaries in a town Saul knew well and Jesus often visited. The more it goaded him, the more that he resisted God’s proddings. His words and works follow you deep in your conscience.

That is the reason why I inspire folk who are heightening their attempts to withstand the Gospels’ claims to look at the life of Christ—to inspect scrupulously His charming words. The general public who sincerely pursue them can’t leave Him without at least reevaluating their lives.