Soul winning should be our number focus. It’s all that is going to matter when we stand before our king. It’s not a program, it’s a passion, it’s the great commission of our lord, and it’s about sharing life to a lost and dying world. It’s about giving salvation, new life to a world, that’s in need of Jesus, the only savior. We have that life, freely given to us and Jesus said freely we should give!!!
Soul winning is the reason why I came to bible school. On our way here from South Africa, we missed our plane, and I got frustrated and asked myself how could you miss a plane?? Little did I know that a couple of hours later there was a man in need to hear this good news at the airport, we went to sit down to eat, and I saw this man, and I felt to share the gospel with him, so I went over and shared Jesus with him… coming to know at the end that he wanted to give up his life, and he called his wife over the phone, he was weeping, she was in England and both of them gave their hearts to Jesus. That night god answered my question… “How do you miss a plane??” Because he wanted to show me the reason why he was sending me to Florida, to be under the sold out for Jesus and the great commission ministry. “To win souls!!!! I really can’t thank god enough for sending pastor Rodney to South Africa…to stir up the reason why i was born the one reason, to win souls… the heartbeat of god is souls…
So easily it can become a program if we allow it and it has happened to me, but every time we go to the streets, or knock on doors from neighborhood to neighborhood, and to see a heart turning to its maker, there really is no greater feeling, no greater satisfaction!!!! Soul winning at the river church is the number one focus, and it has changed my whole life… thank you Jesus, for sending me here…thank you so much!
Soul winning has been an amazing experience for me. Before I came to RBI for Bible school, I had never really been a person for one on one soul winning. Since coming here, I’ve seen so many awesome things happen on the streets; however the thing that I’ve come to realize is what God is doing through us, as a school to impact the people on those streets. One story that stands out to me, was actually only a few weeks ago for Super Soul Winning Saturday. We had been knocking doors in a complex, and we were really getting nowhere.
The people were either already saved, not interested, or just not answering their doors. In the natural, it would have been easy to give up, but in my heart, I felt the tugging of the Holy Spirit on my heart, just to press in for the souls of that complex. I knocked on the next door and a younger guy answers. He prays with me and gets saved. I then went to the next door, and it was open. I knocked, and a man, his wife, and his 2 kids are sitting there on their couch.
I greeted them and started to go through the script, when the power of God starts coming on the lady. She starts crying. I continue to go through the script and their whole family prayed with me. I took down their information on my “Keep Me On Your Prayer List” form, and invite them out to church. I left that day, rejoicing for the souls of that complex. The next day at the River, I was sitting in the foyer, when a little girl comes up to me and says “Hi Do you remember me?” It was the little girl from that family. I look up and I see that whole family in church that Sunday morning. God is good, and it’s necessary to press in for souls so that others can know how good God really is.
When I first came to RBI my favorite way to serve God and to live for the Lord was to win souls. I had been winning souls since I was saved in 2004. I came to RBI because I heard amazing testimonies of how people were winning thousands of souls and I wanted to be part of these exploits. Using the script is an awesome way to preach the Gospel with such focus and intent that it simply tells the whole Gospel and then brings people to the point of making a decision in just a few minutes. For me personally, I had prayed many times that God would use me to bring thousands, even millions of souls into the kingdom.
This was more than a prayer, but a deep cry of my heart that God put there, and I know that he has begun to fulfill this desire and prayer by bringing me to RBI and The River Church. Preaching the Gospel is such a crucial part of being a Christian, and I am very excited to be able to teach others what I’ve learned scripturally about our responsibility to preach. There is much deception and fear about this central part of the Gospel in the body of Christ, and I believe that with what I now have learned in the Bible about winning souls, I will be able to help others walk this out as well.
Many people in the body of Christ are unfulfilled and lacking joy because they are missing out on preaching the Gospel and having the kingdom manifest through them, because this is what every person was created to do.
When I first started soul winning seriously is when I first came to RBI. Soul winning has changed my life. I remember the first time I used the soul winning script, wow I was nervous. I walk right up to this group of people; they were just standing there outside their house. All of sudden the Lord just gave me boldness when I started reading the script and all seven of the people that were standing there said the prayer with me. I was so amazed, that was it for me, I was hook!
That scripture in Mark 16:15, really came alive to me, Jesus is calling me to preach the Gospel to every creature. That day change everything for me, the Lord open my eyes to see this is what it’s all about. All I wanted to do is soul win everywhere I went. I really have a heart for the lost. Since I was going to RBI and now I’m almost done with the first year, I can tell you so many stories what I seen during this year.
I remember one time when we went out to this place in the projects of Tampa and it was a rainy day, but that didn’t stop us. It was awesome for me, that day was really a big day for me , I prayed with like twenty something that day, and I remember this one moment, it started to rain and we were getting ready to leave and all of sudden I see this field of kids practicing for football, and I was like thank you Jesus! I didn’t care if it was rainy.
The Lord gave me such boldness, I ran out there. All the kids look right over at me and I started reading the script to them and they all said it with me, and even the coaches did too! Then I ran back to the van , I started laughing, the Joy of the Lord starting to hit me. There are so many stories I can say about this year about soul winning but all I know is that the lord change my life and open my eyes about souls and made me to realize that it’s not a program it’s a lifestyle!
On Sunday, December 13, our church, the River of Tampa Bay, my wife and I helped out with a large outreach to the local communities of Tampa Bay. One of the tools our church uses to bring in the lost is our bus ministry. My wife and I have personally been soul witnessing on one particular route, route 3, almost every Saturday. The bus we were on serviced this route. As we were driving from the church to the bus route 3 area to drop off the local residents, I struck up a conversation with an older man. He had an interesting story as he told me about his family and the Pentecostal church they owned back in Tennessee and how he had gotten away from the Lord for many years while he worked for the circus hustling people. He said that he gave his life to the Lord in 2006 and gave all indications that he was saved. I began to share my testimony with him, about how God had brought me from a long way. I spoke of the goodness of God. I spoke of winning souls in his area. As we passed, certain areas I told him about the different people I had meet and seen saved. Street after street. Block after block. I noticed that he had a Spanish soul winning script and asked if he had an English one. He did and I asked him if someone had prayed with him using the script. He said no, so I thought I would do some training with him so that he might possible use the script himself. I went through the script and he answered no if he would go to heaven. I figured he was just working with me on the script. It was not until we were half way through the prayer of salvation that I realized for him, it was real. At the end of the prayer I asked him if he really prayed the prayer. He said yes. I presumed that he was either witnessed to either on the way to church or answered the alter call at church. Sometimes you just never know. Luke 15:7.