A Vision That Caught me Off Guard

Before we started our big trip across the country, we first accepted an invitation to minister for a few days again in Booneville, Arkansas.

After those meetings ended, we stopped at Fort Smith to stay the night with friends on our way back to Tulsa. That night, something unexpected happened that dramatically affected our lives and ministry.

To be honest, I was filled with fret about many things at this point in our traveling ministry. I wondered, Will we be able to schedule enough meetings to keep us busy and pay our way as we start our traveling ministry across the nation? Denise tried to encourage me, but I found myself eaten up with worry nevertheless that we would not be able to schedule enough meetings to keep us busy or that we would run out of money along the way on the first big leg of our new faith adventure.

 That night at our friends’ house in Fort Smith, I couldn’t sleep because I was so consumed with worry. I tossed and turned until about two o’clock in the morning. I took authority over restlessness and commanded worry to leave. Finally I decided to get up and spend some time in prayer. I walked to the back of the house where there was an enclosed porch that had been converted into an in-home office.

 I began to walk back and forth in that room as I prayed in tongues. I surprisingly soon found myself pressing very deep into the Spirit. In fact, I began to pray so deeply in other tongues that I felt lost in tongues. I remember thinking that I was going into a spiritual place that was deeper than I had ever experienced.

After a time of prayer, I opened my eyes and saw that I had stepped across the very thin line that separates the natural realm from the spiritual realm, and I found myself in another dimension. I could not see the room anymore — it was gone. If someone had come into the room at that moment, perhaps that person would have seen me, but I would not have seen him or her because my senses and spiritual sight had been shifted to another realm.

To my sight, it looked like this spiritual dimension stretched around me “forever” into eternity. Then suddenly in the far distance, I saw a very small light. As I focused on it, it drew closer to me and grew stronger and brighter. When it finally reached me, I saw Jesus — and when I saw Him, I dropped to my knees and bowed my head.

When I lifted my head to look again, Jesus was seated on a throne before me. He reached out and took one of my hands, placing it in a layered fashion between His two hands. Then He did the same thing with my other hand, placing one of His hands, palm side up, directly under my hand — and His other hand, palm side down, on top of my hand so that my hand was sandwiched between His.

The Lord spoke and said, “See today, I give you an anointing of love mixed with hate.”

Two Elements That Release the Flow of Divine Compassion

I had never heard of that, so I asked, “What is an anointing of love mixed with hate?”

I heard the Lord answer, “It is a flow of divine compassion. Divine compassion is divine love mixed with divine hate. When these two mingle together, they flow like a river of love toward people: divine love for the individuals mixed with a divine hatred for what the devil has done in their lives. As the two of these mingle together, it creates a divine flow that brings deliverance and healing.”

Again, I heard him say, “Today I’m giving you an anointing of compassion that will bring deliverance into people’s lives.”

Anyone who has had an experience in the spirit realm knows it’s difficult to explain spiritual experiences, but I will try to tell you what happened next. All of a sudden, I saw myself walking through what looked like the ward of a hospital — a very unusual hospital that was filled with people who wore clothes like I had never seen before. They wore old, tattered clothes that were grayish in color. I saw that the people in that hospital ward were those who were hurting — who had suffered in life — and that they were crying out for God to move in their midst. It was clear that these were not physically sick people, but they were hurting people, nonetheless, who really needed special care and attention.

I wrote about my experience with an angel when I was in college, in which it was revealed to me that I would one day minister to people who had suffered for their faith in difficult parts of the world. But in this vision in Fort Smith, I saw myself walking through the midst of that same people group with an anointing of compassion, and I understood again that God would eventually call me to take His compassion and power to a people who were not my people, but who had suffered much and needed God’s special care and attention.

Fullness of Ministry and Finances

As I told you at the first of this section, I worried that no one would want us to minister in their churches and I worried incessantly about finances. I would frequently ask Denise, “How are we going to schedule meetings when we are unknown, and how will we pay for this ministry as we’re getting started?” That is why the following episode that also occurred during his visitation was so impactful to me.

Suddenly, I heard the Lord say, “Behold, I give you fullness of ministry — so much ministry that it is already amassing more ministry for your future.”

In an instant, I received into my heart the words of Jesus and understood that it would never be a problem for us to have something to do in the ministry. Jesus was giving us ministry that was already amassing more ministry — and that’s the word He used: amassing. Instantly and supernaturally, I knew it was going to mean greater, greater, and even greater responsibility as the years passed.

Then just as quickly, I heard the Lord say, “And behold, I am giving you finances for your ministry. It is wealth on a measure that is already amassing more wealth for you to fulfill your ministry assignment.”

Jesus was giving us finances that were already amassing more finances. And, again, that’s the word He used: amassing. Those words also entered into my spirit, and in an instant, I believed God would provide financially for us. I instantly understood that He would massively provide for any assignment He ever entrusted to us. I knew that even though I couldn’t see or touch those finances at the moment, God was providing finances that were already amassing more finances so that we could do any job He would ever give us to do.

In a matter of mere seconds, I felt fullness of ministry and fullness of finances enter me. Then just as Jesus had come, I saw Him walk back into the distance. I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, I was once again “in the room” where I had gone to pray.

 The room where this occurred was an office with a typewriter on the desk, so I immediately put a piece of paper into the typewriter and typed out everything that had just happened to me. I still have that piece of paper that I finished writing within minutes of this experience. I wanted to be sure that I would never forget a single word of what Jesus said to me that night.

This vision was so vivid that I clearly understood Jesus had given us fullness of ministry and fullness of finances. It was such a pivotal experience in my life. In moments when I’ve been tempted to wonder, Can I financially do what God is asking me to do? or, Where will the money come from to do what God is asking us to undertake? I have remembered that night. Most important are the promises in the Bible that God will provide everything we need — but in addition to these precious Bible promises, God had given me a divine encounter that became a rhema, a spoken word of revelation from Heaven, that has encouraged me over and over through the years.

Today our ministry touches people all over the world, and God really did specially call us to people who once suffered terribly for their faith and who needed special care and attention. When God called our family to the Soviet Union, He connected us to the very type of people I had seen in that hospital ward in my vision. And He sent us with divine compassion to bring them healing and deliverance.

The ‘Ring of Fire’ Begins

Before we started on our trip to follow “the ring of fire,” I scheduled one last appointment with Pastor Bob to let him know what we were doing. I gave him a cassette tape of my most recent teaching because he had never heard me speak publicly. I said, “Pastor Bob, I know you have a lot to do and people probably give you all kinds of things to listen to, but if you ever get an opportunity to listen to this, I think you might enjoy this teaching.” He eventually listened to it, but I’ll get to that part of the story in a few more pages.

The day finally came when we began our long-awaited “ring of fire” trip around the perimeter of the continental United States. We started on the road to our first meeting at a large Assembly of God church in Kansas City, Missouri. I packed our luggage, a tape duplicator, a typewriter, and boxes of blank cassette tapes into the car so we’d have them on hand to duplicate from church to church. Our vehicle was so small that there was nearly no room left in it for us!

Our first meeting far exceeded our expectations. In fact, the pastor asked if we could prolong the meetings for a few days. So Denise and I ministered for several days there, and every night we watched people load up with our teaching materials as they left the building. It thrilled us to see people leaving with our materials because we really wanted the teaching to get into people’s hearts and affect their lives for a long time to come.

After we ministered in Kansas City, we drove to the next meeting in Minneapolis. While we stopped to gas up at a filling station, someone stole my wallet. Ugh! What were we supposed to do now? I had no wallet, no driver’s license, no credit cards. We only had the cash that we had from the product sales at our Kansas City meeting. But we refused to be moved because we knew we were on track with God’s plan. I had always heard, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” So we got creative and figured out how to keep moving with no credit card, and we did it.

After we experienced a great meeting in Minneapolis, we then drove to our next meeting in Janesville, Wisconsin. I called the pastor to let him know we had arrived and asked if Denise could do a sound check in preparation for singing on Sunday morning. He sent someone to pick her up for a sound check while I sat with the boys at the hotel. Denise went to the platform with a microphone in hand to rehearse, and when the pastor heard her sing, he said, “If your husband preaches anything like you sing, we’re going to need to extend this meeting a few more days. Can you guys stay a few days longer?”

Those meetings, too, turned out fabulous. The pastor asked us to stay and do morning and evening meetings every day for a full week. We were thankful for the opportunity and for everything God was doing on our first big trip!

 When we wrapped up those meetings in Wisconsin, we started out to our next meetings in western Canada and in the states of Washington, Oregon, and California. A huge blizzard hit the northern states en route, so we had to drive at a snail’s pace through blizzards and snow drifts.

After we closed out our meetings in Canada, we ministered near Seattle at a church that would become a hub for Denise and me in the years to come when we would travel often to the West Coast to minister. The people we met in that first meeting became friends and partners, and they are still friends and partners to this day.

From Washington, we drove to the Oregon cities of Portland and Seaside, where we conducted multiple day-long meetings. We finally came to California for meetings, where we saw the power of God do remarkable things — including perform several major healings. On that trip, we particularly enjoyed the meeting in San Francisco for a Filipino congregation. They were wonderful people filled with faith, and the church was packed completely full for that meeting. Denise and I viewed that meeting as the icing on the cake for our whole trip! Wow…what we were experiencing was wonderful beyond description!

A Big Break in Tulsa

By this time, our family of four had been on the road in our small Isuzu for two full months. Because we had a short pause in our calendar before the next meetings started, we decided to drive back to Tulsa to rest for a few days. Back then, mobile telephones didn’t exist, so I stopped at a filling station just outside San Francisco to call home to let everyone know where we were on our journey and to give a report about what was happening in the meetings. That’s when I heard my mother say on the other end of the line, “Bob Yandian is urgently looking for you and needs to speak to you today.”

I wondered what Pastor Bob would urgently need, but I put a quarter into the pay phone and dialed his number. When he answered, I said, “Pastor Bob, this is Rick Renner. Are you looking for me?”

 He said, “RICK! I just listened to that teaching tape you gave me, and I am speechless. I had no idea what kind of teacher you were. This Sunday I cannot be at my church, and if you are available, I’d like to ask you to speak in my place in the Sunday morning and evening services.”

It was my turn to be speechless. Did Bob Yandian just say he was impressed by something I had taught? And did I really hear him say he wanted me to speak in his pulpit at Grace Fellowship?

We were about 1,700 miles from home, and I knew it would take us thirty-plus hours to get to Tulsa if we drove nonstop. The call with Pastor Bob happened on a Thursday afternoon, and I knew if we started immediately and drove nonstop, we could arrive in Tulsa in time to do the meetings on Sunday. So I said, “Of course, I’m available, Pastor Bob. I’m so honored that you would ask me. You can count on me to be there this Sunday on time!”

When I hung up the pay phone, I rushed to the car and told Denise about my conversation with Pastor Bob. She said, “Rick, we’ve got to get moving right now if we’re going to get there on time to do that meeting.” So we put the car in drive and drove nonstop to Tulsa. I knew we would need to have teaching tapes available for people, so when we finally arrived home, I worked fervently to duplicate teaching tapes for the people who would be in the meetings.

Finally, Sunday came. Denise sang and I ministered in the Sunday morning and evening services and taught a two-part series called, “Walking in the Spirit” that was based on Galatians 5:16. At the end of the evening service, we laid hands on hundreds of people and went home to our tiny apartment in downtown Tulsa. There, we unloaded everything we’d taken to the meetings — then I vomited for two days because of physical exhaustion!

A Suggestion That Reignited a Call and Changed Our Ministry Again

Soon Pastor Bob was on the phone with me again, but this time, he said, “Rick, I just heard the messages you preached while I was away. This is some of the best teaching I’ve ever heard on the subject of walking in the Spirit. I had no idea you knew New Testament Greek so well. I’d like to schedule you to do a four-day meeting at our church. I want to start on a Sunday morning and run it to the following Wednesday night so you can have five services to teach a whole series.”

That first time at Grace Fellowship, Pastor Bob was away ministering somewhere else, but this second time, he and Loretta were on the front row for every meeting. He sat there with a pen and a pad of paper and took notes almost like a student listening to a teacher. I was amazed at his humility and openness to learn. I was stunned to see someone like him willing to sit, listen, and learn from someone like me. But it showed his hunger and his love for the Word of God and the teaching of the Bible. I was deeply impressed with this man of God before that, but now I was even more moved.

In those five meetings in four days at Pastor Bob’s church, I taught a brand-new series that I called, “Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Demons.” It was based on the kinds of spiritual error the devil would try to smuggle into the Church at the end of the age. I also addressed the New Age movement, which was growing in popularity at that time. For four days, I poured my exegetical studies into the hearts of the people who attended those meetings. Many walked away with armloads of my teaching tapes. But for me, it was most important that when those services concluded, Pastor Bob and I had become friends and we remain cherished friends to this day.

 But then I heard Pastor Bob say something that would radically affect the future of our ministry. He said, “Rick, I believe the messages you preached this week are so important that you need to put them into written form. People everywhere will be helped if you’ll write a book on this subject.”

Then he added, “If you write the book, I’ll write the foreword for it.”

I was momentarily stunned. But in another flash of a second, I was mentally transported back in time to my younger years when I’d written my first book called, The Perfect Gift. And I felt a pang of emotional hurt almost as sharply as I’d felt it more than a decade before.

In 1978, I had heard the Holy Spirit say, “Write, write, write, and I’ll prosper what you write….” But a national prophet had reprimanded me for attempting to write a book on the subject of fivefold ministry at such a young age. That encounter was so traumatic that I allowed it to “swallow me up” in my emotions and completely shroud the sacred instruction from God Himself that I’d received. And after that terrible experience, I exclaimed to myself that I would never attempt to write another book.

But now Bob Yandian was telling me to write! In fact, God was speaking to me through him, ordering me to return to the call He had placed on my life years earlier. Bob Yandian was my pastor, so I told him I would do as he recommended. But because of my previous bad experience, I reluctantly agreed to take the message “Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Demons” and put it into book form.

However, in order to do it, I had to overcome a spirit of fear about writing because the stinging words of that prophet still vividly echoed in my memory. Although I was trained to write and I surely could have written the book myself with no problem, instead I searched for a writer to help me craft my first book. After months of wrangling with that writer’s style, which I never liked, I finally agreed to a finished manuscript and sent it to the printer along with Bob Yandian’s foreword. Many years later, I let the book go out of print, but not before I mined the treasures of its pages and expanded on them to use in other books — especially relating to end times — including How To Keep Your Head on Straight in a World Gone Crazy.

But what a turnaround of events! Pastor Bob’s first letter of recommendation had been based entirely on my sister and brother-in-law’s reputation. But now Pastor Bob wrote the following foreword for my first published book:

Rick Renner preached this series at Grace Fellowship. I am pleased to see it being published in a book. It was one of the most timely messages I have ever heard, and it has impacted many of my sermons since. This book is an accurate insight from Paul’s letter to Timothy of the day we are living in. Rick paints a clear picture of Satan at work in the world today in the New Age movement, imitating the role of the Church. He also tells of Satan’s attack in the Church itself to lure believers away from the foundation of the Word of God and chase only after miracles and the supernatural. Rick brings a balanced truth to those who long to hear the Word of Truth rightly divided. It is a pleasure to recommend Rick Renner as an able minister and my friend.

Before I go any further, I want to say how thankful I am for Pastor Bob Yandian’s encouragement in my life years ago and for his continued friendship over many years. God used this precious man to play a vital role in my life and in the expansion of our ministry. Knowing what he did for me has made me want to return the favor by being helpful to others over the years. Small words of encouragement put a lot of gas in the tank of people’s lives that strengthens them to keep going!

Because I believed in giving my best to whatever I’m called to do, I decided that if I was going to put a book into print, I also wanted to give my best efforts to see it get into as many hands as possible. Many authors write books with no marketing plan, and their books sit in boxes in their garages and never reach the people who need them. I didn’t want that to happen to my books, so I searched for a way to get Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Demons in front of potential readers.

In those days, one of the best ways to advertise any Christian product was to run an advertisement in Charisma magazine. So we took a leap of faith and purchased a full-page ad to run in Charisma for two months. Purchasing books online didn’t exist at that time, so to place an order, buyers had to cut out a little coupon usually positioned at the bottom of a page, fill it out with the correct address and contact information, and mail it to the ministry with a check. It was a long process that could take weeks. The advertising department at Charisma warned me not to expect big results because I was a new author and people were not familiar with me or my books.

But those who predicted low results were completely wrong. In one month, more than ten-thousand orders arrived, which surpassed my wildest imagination! My book became a hot topic, and the advertisement was designed in such a way that it really captured people’s attention. So before the first month passed, we already needed to place a second order for another twenty-thousand books! Then those twenty-thousand books sold quickly, and within three months, we were already into the third printing.

By 1988 standards, Seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Demons was a bestseller — and it was my first book to be published and marketed. And when those thousands of books started arriving in homes and churches, the phone began to ring off the wall from pastors who wanted to invite us to come minister in their churches and conferences all over the country.

In those years, Denise and I did all we could to minister in as many churches as we could physically get to. We were laying hands on as many people as possible in those services, and we were flowing in the gifts of the Spirit. I was teaching with an emphasis on the New Testament in its original Greek language, Denise was giving her all as she ministered in music, and God was touching lives in our meetings.

We didn’t realize it at the time, but we were also building relationships with churches and pastors that would stay with us for decades. We ministered in large churches, middle-sized churches, and small churches. It didn’t matter what size the church, we walked through any open door because we wanted to minister to people. Although it’s not physically possible to accept every ministry invitation we receive these many years later, we have that same attitude today.