This week has been an amazing week at the ministers and leaders conference. Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne has been really talking about America and how there needs to be a great awakening not only in the church but in America itself. Pastor Rodney has been talking about the corruption of the money system in America and even the merchandising of anointing in the church. He has also had guest speakers talk about certain subjects, for example Chaplin John Butler who has been in the military for over 40 years and is a very respected in the military field and has experience in disaster relief. So Chaplin John Butler has been giving certification classes for the pastors and those who want to be certified if there was a disaster in the near future. Pastor Rodney wants the river church to be in place of refuge if something were to happen. Also Pastor Rodney has asked Corey Erman, a minister from the nation of Turkey who is in constant threat because of his faith in God. The past couple days he has been teaching on God’s word concerning the money changers, which is the banking system of the world or even in America.

–Xan

Well for me, God has blessed me so much in many different ways, for one when I and my wife came down from Georgia. We had no other choice but to trust the word, believe, and have faith in Him. Reason being is that we had no place to live, stayed in a hotel twice since we’ve been in Tampa afterwards we were back on the streets. So for about a week and an half we lived in our car believing God for a place to live and a job. So one day while asleep in the car a member from the church came to the car and asked if we needed a place to stay (Glory to GOD) and invited us to stay with them until we got jobs.

–Freddie

Personally, I tend to worry about all of the responsibilities I have and what’s to come in the future. But I know that God has told us not to worry about tomorrow. So I need to dig into the scriptures more and get a clearer revelation of how much God loves me and how he is going to take care of me. When I get that deep into my heart, I won’t constantly be worrying about tomorrow, and the seed sown in my heart will not be choked. When I become accountable to the word that is sown in my life, I can be the good soil. This is where I can hear the word, accept it, and produce crop, and that is where God wants me to be.

–Grace

As I sat in class at the Bible school, the Lord pricked my heart concerning something in my life.  Wow, I was just sitting there and He brought it to me.  A bad seed would have taken root if the Holy Spirit hadn’t spoken to me.  The instructor wasn’t even lecturing on the thing that was brought to light for me, but the Holy Spirit was working.  So what did I do?  I took care of it right then.  Thank goodness I spend time in the Word, prayer, and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying.  In a couple of minutes it was uprooted and gone!

Then there’s been the time when a word is spoken and I have taken that and let it be sowed into my heart.  The devil has tried to say that this blessing will not come into your life.  “Who do you think you are anyway?” he would whisper to me.

The promise is mine.  I have to water it with the Word and stand firm.  The truth takes root and the harvest is coming in.  I am not anyone or anything special in this world, but with the Lord God Almighty….I am His child.  I am a joint heir.  I am more than a conqueror and I am called by His name.  He has a wonderful plan for me and He’s called me by name and He is going to bring it to pass in my life.  Why?  He loves me.  His love is so great that it is beyond comprehension.  I must keep letting the Word and the Spirit work on me and committing my way unto Him.  He is ’STRONG’ in me and I will accomplish all that He has planned for me and will receive all His blessings!

–Marjorie

Since I grew up in church I’ve been hearing the Word of God from a very young age. But because my heart, for the most part, wasn’t open to change or correction I wasn’t able grow. I heard the Word so much that I got used to hearing it and I got comfortable listening to it instead of taking it personally and applying it to my life. But when I got the wake-up call that Christianity is not just a hobby for Sunday mornings but it’s the way live my life the other six days of the week too, I started to open my heart up to God and let Him change things in me I saw huge changes in myself. The Word only works if you let it. Some people think the fire of God is only a weird sensation you get in a revival meeting but it’s so much more than that, it’s giving God complete trust, opening yourself up to Him to change you and burn the nasty stuff of the world out and part of that comes through getting in the Word. In Matthew 13 Jesus talks about the farmer who sowed the seed that fell on different types of ground. The first three types represented people whose hearts weren’t really open. The seed, or the Word; came to them but they wouldn’t receive it so it didn’t benefit them. But the fourth one was good, soft, receptive ground that took the seed and it grew and made a difference.

–M.K.

That same morning Pastor Rodney asked everyone to stand and gave an alter call and said, “If you feel that your suppose to be going to the school or if you didn’t sign up yet due to finances then come up here right now.” Well I stood in my seat not sure if I wanted to do this or not and Pastor Rodney said “There are more of you I no it” come down right now!! So I said ok God if I’m going to do this I have to step out of my comfort zone and put my trust in you!! So I came down and decide that I was going to school.

Like this particular Pastor said so far it’s been one of the best choices I could have made for myself. Since starting school I have learned so many things. I saw that I was relying more on friends then I was God. It took me being taken out of my comfort zone to see that. It was like one of those I had to be taken out of the picture so I could see my own picture but from the outside. I have been taken out of my comfort zone already and am learning to put all my trust in God and no body else but him.

Because with God by my side I can get thru anything!! I have made lots of new friends that have helped me thru things that I was going thru by sharing there testimony of things there going thru. God put who I needed in my path at the time I needed them. I just had to trust in him that he would. I now have a better understanding of things and have grown a lot already in my relationship with God. I had that same friend who told me I should go to the school tell me that I am looking like a total new person. How that since going thru this school so far I have so many more smiles and I just look awesome!!

Hearing that encouraged me all the more and encouraged me that I had made the right choice. I am really learning a lot about everything and all the while a lot about my Faith and how to use it more. I no that my God is bigger then any fear I have!! I just have to step out and know that he is there to catch me when I fall. As well as being there with continued encouragement when I have to step out of my comfort zone. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me thru this next year. I no that the best is yet to come…..Naomi H.

In order to understand what the Lord has done for me, you must first know what He has delivered me from. Growing up, my family was always involved heavily with whatever church we were attending at the time. After moving from Texas to North Carolina, we joined a church, which we attended for several years. Pastor Rodney visited this church one night, and I was baptized in the Holy Ghost and went home laughing with the joy.

Several years went by and my family moved again, to the beaches of NC. We moved to a very small town where there were only a handful of churches. We quickly learned that none of them were spirit?filled. As we all led this search for an on fire church, our own fires dwindled. Soon, we did not go to any church at all.

For around the next eight years I was a back?slidden Christian. During this time many troubles occurred, including my parents getting divorced. I slipped further and further into the world. At a young age, I used drugs and alcohol and began partying. At the age of sixteen I was attending nightclubs and lying to my parents regularly.

When I went off to college, I only got worse. My life became a constant blur of parties and drinking. During all of my struggles, my sister was praying for me to come back to the Lord. At the time, I knew I had once been saved, but I no longer knew if I would go to Heaven.

I grew up in church all my life and at the age of 16 I decided I wanted to try things on my own. By the age of 23 I had been living a life trying to find my own pleasures, anything that would make me happy. I can remember one night I was getting off of a shift of bartending at 5:30 A.M. Sunday morning and thinking to myself “I think I want to go to church today”. So I went to church and as soon as they started playing the first song I knew right away that this is what I was missing.

3 years of working out my salvation went by until I answered the call to go to a Bible school in Oklahoma. When I was almost finished with that school I knew that I was supposed to go to a school for worship but I didn’t know where. Dr Rodney came to a town close by and I went one of the nights and as soon as he said that they had a worship school my Spirit man just about jumped out of my belly to get one of the pamphlets. I knew that the River School of Worship was the next step for me and this is where I was to learn the flow of the Holy Spirit in worship. So I finished out the school in Oklahoma and came to the River…Justin S.

I had been attending The River for a few months prior to the start of RBI, thanks to The Great Awakening. I received a scholarship from Pastor Rodney one night after sharing my testimony of being radically set free from crack addiction while watching from my home one night. The changes since that night had been monumental, but the first weeks of RBI revival brought a much deeper level in my relationship with the Lord and a greater awareness of the Holy Ghost!

The week prior to school, I lost my job. Since I am a single mother of three children this was a huge concern in the natural, but somehow I kept feeling an amazing sense of peace. If I had been working, I would not have been able to be at revival. With all of my bills due, and other needs screaming at us, I greatly awaited my last paycheck for 2 weeks of work! It came one day in the mail and I picked it up on the way to service. I was in service and during the offering God spoke to me and told me to go get my paycheck out of the car and sow it in the offering.

I ran out to the car and signed the back of the check and dropped it in the bucket. The next day, he told me to give the ring diamond ring my son had given me for Christmas. This was my alabaster box. God spoke to me and said, “Your paycheck was your security, and your ring represented your heart, now I have all of you which is what I require!” For me this is huge, because I come from lack. God has broken me. He wants to know that He is first and that I will trust in Him! I don’t know how He is going to come through, but I know He will!

This is the beginning days of great testimonies, of what the Lord is doing in me.  So far what has happened is in one word “Freedom”. I’m being freed up from religion, tradition and rituals.  In the whole time I’ve been saved I’ve never heard a teaching on ritualism.  Always been taught, “you better put the whole armor of God on every day and I did, including all the other stuff!  Never taught that I never take if off!   So why do I have to put it back on?  That teaching alone, so, freed me up, more ways than one. I received these revelations whole heartedly and immediately put them into practice.

Pastor Daniel McGhee gave a message on “Freedom” last Thursday evening.  WOW!  That message was for me!  I went down under the power of God and shook nations; let alone myself being shaken from one end to the other, inside out.  The Holy Ghost is freeing me up going down to the very “V” and cleaning those places out, even with a divine tooth-pick!  LOL   Man, I felt like I just got out of a boxing ring with the devil.  I got so angry laying on that carpet – I was killing giants one after another.  When I got up I felt exhausted.  But when it came to announcing the winner – both my hands were up, Praising Jesus.  Hallelujah!   The violent take it by force.

I know this is the Holy Ghost boot camp, it’ll be tough; but I’m pressing in these next three years (to life!) to be forever changed from glory to glory for His Glory.  Thank you Pastor Rodney and Adonica for the privilege of being trained to flow with the Holy Ghost; making soul winning a lifestyle with passion; living in the Fire of God and having an intimate relationship with Jesus.

I’m forever grateful to you both and Jesus – Carol S.