Quotes From Leonard Ravenhill

As I was writing a post on Christian’s zeal without brokenness I came across Leonard Ravenhill’s quotes.  He is one of those timeless preachers that I like to listen to because of His intimate knowledge of and relationship with God. The funny thing is, in my post which now I feel the need to change, almost every word seems to come from Leonard’s quotes. The whole idea about shoddy Christianity as we live the christian life without truly knowing God, the zeal we possess  for His work and the so call truth that we claim we are after. Yet, we are tripping on all of it every day, we are no wiser because of our lack of brokenness, and lack of surrender

 So, I thought his quotes could be very useful to read over.  

QUOTES FROM LEONARD RAVENHILL

Nobody else can give you a clean heart but God.

There's one thing we need above everything else; it's something we don't talk about these days. We need a mighty avalanche of conviction of sin.

Are we sorry for grieving the heart of God... for denying God the right to own our personality... to own our mind... to own our thoughts... to own our emotions?  If not, we’re robbing God.

A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.

We're living in an unprecedented day (when) evil is no longer evil. We've changed the terminology-- iniquity is now infirmity; wickedness is now weakness; devilry is now deficiency.

A Roman Catholic priest startled us not very long ago by saying that for 25 years he had been sitting in the confessional, listening to the confessions of men and women. He said he heard of murders, rapes, adultery, and fornication. He met men and women who have broken every law of God and man with repetition. But never in 25 years had anyone ever confessed to be covetous. Covetousness! We wrap it up and call it ambition. We may call it business or something, but right down in the middle of those things is a rotten word called "covetousness." Paul called it idolatry!

John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets.

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!

Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church with prayer and meditation?

Someone asked me, "Do you pray for the dead?" I said, "No, I preach to them!" I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God).

We've got people today that are very happy to celebrate Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost Sunday as long as nothing happens.

If you know a church on fire for God, tell me and I'll go. A church where (after) you've gone in, you don't come out the same, believing that God is there (and) you've been in His holy presence!

God is taking His hands off of America. We've had so much light and we've rejected it.

The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.

You hear people say in church, "Lord, You're welcome!" If the Holy Ghost came to some churches, there would be a stampede to the door.

Sunday morning (attendance) shows how popular the church is; Sunday night shows how popular the preacher is; (Wednesday) prayer meeting shows how popular God is.

One good Baptist (once) said to Dr. Tozer, "If God withdrew the Holy Spirit tomorrow, my church would function just the same; we wouldn't even know He was gone."

If I don't believe the Word of God, why should you believe it? If we don't believe it, why should the world believe us?

There isn't a "Pentecostal" Church in America. If there is, tell me where it is.

In the early church, signs and wonders and miracles followed. They cast out demons, blindness and paralysis. That's normal Christianity! We're so sub-normal, if we ever became normal, they (the world) will think we're abnormal.

I'm astounded, bewildered, confused, baffled when people tell me there are 75 million people in America that are filled with the Holy Ghost and we're the most rotten nation on earth.

"Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them."

I want to see a fellowship where your burdens become mine! Your grief over your children becomes my grief! Where we really bear each other's burdens; where we love each other and let the world come and see that we are the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus who cared only to do the will of His Father.

I wish, in America, (that) we were as concerned about separation from church and sin as we are about separation between church and state. Church and sin-- it's a monstrous problem.

I'd rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church. I want to see the glory of God come so our young people don't have to be told to go (to church), (but when) they just long to get to the sanctuary where God.

Do you go to church to meet God or to hear a sermon about Him? How many come to church expecting a confrontation with Deity?

The best title of the (professing) church of God today, in my judgment, is "Unbelieving Believers."

I'm embarrassed to be a part of the (so-called) church of Jesus Christ today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a Holy God !

I'm sick to death of the so-called Christianity of our day. What's supernatural about it? When do people come out of the sanctuary awed and can't speak for an hour because God has been in glory there? Dear God, as soon as they get out, they're talking football, or sports or something or there's going to be a big sale downtown or somewhere. We are not caught up into eternity!

We speak thousands of words every day and all these words are accumulated: the good words, the bad words, the criticized words... we're so flippant with our words; we're so easy with our criticism. We stab and we injure and we hurt, and God i s going to try all my word before a thousand-million people. Every word you say is going to be played back some day. The Word of God says man shall give an account for every word that he has spoken.

Ten million years will not put a strain on the clock of eternity.

The surest thing in the world is not death and taxes, it's death and eternity. Yet, we're so unconcerned.

We are not eternity conscious enough.

I read through Hebrews 11. These staggering men and women through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtain the promises, stopped the lions; women received their dead raised to life again. All the devilish things (they endured) and not one ever had a Bible! Well, in God's Name, (what) are you and I going to do when we stand before Him?! When I get there, I'll have to face up to having the whole revelation of God.

Finney didn't have a bigger Bible; Wesley didn't have a bigger Bible, but somehow they got nearer to the heart of God. They got a revelation from God, they got convictions of the Spirit and they laid their lives on the line.

I still believe in the majesty of that eternal court. Oh the awesomeness of it... God will say to some, "Come ye blessed!" and (to) the rest, "Depart from Me !" I don't want to stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and God say to me, "I left you a book of blank checks signed in the blood of Jesus and you didn't use half of them!"

I can think of one thing when I get to the Judgment Bar and Jesus will look down and say, "I had many things to tell you but you couldn't bear them." We're too busy running our own lives: praying when you want to pray, eating what you want to eat, going where you want to go, spending what you want to spend, reading what you want to read, (Do you) call that a spiritual life? Brother, it is carnal as carnality!

I've had something burning in me for years and it burns more fiercely than ever to write this book (on the Judgment Seat of Christ). There are times (when) I can't go in my office'I'm awed with the awesomeness of God and the task that we're right on the verge of tremendous judgment unless we have a tremendous, tremendous, earth-quaking revival. I know people say, "Why don't you pray and ask God to take it (the burning) away?" I've prayed for 60 years to get it! I'm not going to ask Him to take it away! I'm asking Him to deepen it! I'm asking Him to intensify it!

Once inside eternity, we'r e going to be very embarrassed at the smallness of our faith.

What are you going to do when you get to eternity, if you can't stick in an hour with God down here? In God's name, what are you going to do in a million year s in God's presence?

The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Christ's church.

The sinner's prayer has sent more people to hell than all the taverns in America.

We've gone into other countries... have we taken the Gospel? No! We have not taken the Gospel; we're giving them American Christianity or English Christianity! Bible-Christianity: it's the most costly thing in the world; it's the most beautiful thing in the world; it's the most glorious thing in the world.

There should be a birth chamber in every church; (it) should be a room for travail.

There are three worlds looking into this meeting tonight: there is a world of angels- the Angelic world; there's a world of demons- a Satanic world, and there's the ordinary world outside, and everyone of them is going to feel the result of some decision you make tonight.

I doubt if 5% of professing Christians in America are born again--and that's true of England!

I think one of the serious breakdowns in modern evangelism is this: it has offered too much for too little. What we do mostly is offer forgiveness. We need cleansing! There is no true conversion until a man takes up his cross.

David Hume, who was a Deist, didn't believe in any inspiration or revelation or the Son of God or in the Bible. About five o'clock one morning, he was going down the street in London. He came around the corner and went straight into the hands of another man who said, "Why aren't you David Hume?"

"Yes.''

"Where are you at this early hour ?"

"I'm going to hear George Whitfield preach," replied Hume.

"You don't believe a word Whitfield preaches," said the man.

"No," Hume answered, "but he does!"

Even the Deists knew when a man is not just talking theology.

If a preacher is not known in hell, he ain't worth a hill of beans.

Every meeting, people go out damned or delivered, and a lot hangs on the

preacher.

Do you know what's wrong with modern preaching? It's missing three things: one, it has no intensity; two, it has no majesty; three, it has no eternity.

I'm convinced that the greatest thing about those Puritan preachers (is) they lived in eternity six days a week and came down to earth on the seventh! Our preachers, today, are golfing on Saturday and "goofing" ( around ) the other five days... It's a profession to most of them (when) it should be an obsession with them!

We put men into pulpits because they have degrees. But you can have 32 of them and still be frozen! "Oh," you say, "we got a new pastor. He's got a B. A." I've got a B. A. too, I'm born-again! Today, there is such an emphasis (on education) isn't there?

We're so far removed from God's way of doing things-- we think a man is a good man if he can draw a crowd these days. Do you know what Finney did? Finney preached sometimes, and the whole congregation got up and walked out on him. That's a good meeting! He sent them out horrified! I only preach for two reasons these days: either to send people out that door blazing mad at me or blazing with the peace of the Holy Ghost! That's all!

If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be any brokenness in the pew?

One of the old Puritans said that one of the agonies of hell is the Holy Ghost will be there still convicting men of sin and there will be no place to get rid of it.

Isn't it amazing that God gives breath to a man who is going to blaspheme Him all day!

The wonder of the grace of God is that God can take an unholy man out of a unholy world and make that man holy and put him back into a unholy world and keep him holy!

The world is waiting for a practical demonstration of the Gospel of the grace of God!

Three things faith does: it reckons on God; it risks with God (and) it rests in God.

Faith is taking God at His Word.

F. A. I.T. H. As children in England we used to say: Forsaking All I Take Him.

Faith that's going to be trusted is going to be tested.

I have no faith in my faith. My faith is in the faithful God.

We try and get people saved who don't even believe they are lost.

There are two kinds of people in the world-- only two kinds. Not black or white, rich or poor, but those either dead in sin or dead to sin.

I don't ask people if they're saved anymore; I look them straight in the eye and say, "Does Christ live inside you?"

Listen, if a man is real1y born-again of the Spirit of God, it is the most radical thing this side of eternity. He becomes a new creature! He has a new heart! He has a new mind!

I heard a famous preacher and he's an Englishman (say), "You came here

tonight and the Lord is merciful. He will forgive your sins tonight-- He will forgive your past sins, your sins of today, and your sins for tomorrow." (I thought) "Isn't that nice?

Can you imagine going up to a judge and the judge says, "You've been charged with stealing a lady's purse, did you steal it?"

"Yes," replies the man, "it had $100 in it."

"Are you sorry?" the judge asks.

"Yes, I'm sorry," answers the man .

"Well," the judge says, "You're forgiven. I forgive you for all the purses you've stolen in the past, all you've stolen today and all the purses you'll steal the rest of your life."

Wouldn't that be insane?!

You can go to hell at the communion table or the gambling table if Jesus hasn't saved you.

I don't want to be saved just to make it into heaven; I want to be saved from sin; I want to be a God-directed man that in the life I have, I may live for the glory of God. For the devil has enough people to give glory to his rotten name. He's got more people that has given every beat of their heart, every bit of their money, (and) every thought of their mind. Every instinct they have, they are sold out to the devil.

If you're going to a mission field-- wherever that is-- if you don't have this love, you'll break down within six months. You'll be a casualty there; you'll be a liability instead of an asset. The mission field isn't dying in want of missionaries, it needs ones with anointing; ones with a love that surpasses all things-- a selfless, an undying love, an unbreakable love.

The original missionary went out on a one-way ticket-- no return trip ! They didn't go down to Guatemala for a weekend to hand out tracts believing they did God a favor.

If you have a task without a vision, it's drudgery, but if you have a task with a vision it's a missionary.

You have no right to sin. If you have sin in your life, you've got something which is illegal in the sight of God; you're giving the devil a hand in your life.

You can't say, "Christ is all I need," until Christ is all you have.

What is Christianity? It's not giving up lousy sins;.it's not just confessing my sins. Sure I have to be cleansed before He comes (but Christianity) is inviting Jesus to be the Master and Lord of my personality. It's the life of God in the soul of man! That is the greatest definition of Christianity outside of the Bible.

Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. How many times have you stood and sang, "Take my life and let it be" and haven't given Him a scrap?

It would be a good idea, if every day this year, as far as the Lord let s us live, you asked the Lord, "Have you lived comfortable in me?" You think He is? Would you have to retrace your steps?

You can't love theology; you can't even love your Bible. You can only love a Person.

This moment can be a turning point in your life if you not only come to the cross, but get on it! Get rid of your pettiness and your jealousy! Get rid of your erratic living that you get when you come to a conference and you're down in a valley (the) next week! That shouldn't happen if Christ is indwelling in me. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever! He keeps me in peace; He keeps me in joy; He keeps me in power.

If you're going to be a true Christian, I'll tell you one thing amongst others: it'll be a lonely life. It's a narrow way and it becomes narrower and narrower and narrower.

God didn't come to be a shareholder, forget it! God doesn't want to share your life, He wants to own it! He doesn't want partnership, He wants ownership of every part of my being!

It's not simp1e being a Christian. After all, it's a majestic thing!

There's so much land ahead to be possessed! So many more revelations to be given! So many more burdens to carry! Life is short and I guess you think you have a long way to go but you don't know that.

There are progressive revelations-- if you walk with God, you'll find there are things (which) will be unveiled this coming year (that) you never thought about the past two or three or four or five years.

We've reduced God to a minimum. Most of us are trying to get to heaven with minimum spirituality. If we looked after our business like we look after our soul, we'd be bankrupt years ago! The materialism has crept in and it's blinded us! It (has become) a way of life.

All we have (today) is a sinning-repenting cycle. That is not what Jesus died for! We need to shout from the housetops and tell people everywhere today--in the church and out of it-- that Christianity is NOT a sinning religion.

A brother was telling me this week when he got baptized, it was kind of a sudden thing and he went down into the water and suddenly realized that he had his wallet in his pocket. There's not many wallets that get baptized (these days). We kind of say, "Lord, you look after our sins (and) I'll look after the rest. Every penny you earn since you've become property of Jesus Christ and you'll give an account of before God. He doesn't just take your sins; He takes your (whole) self; He takes (over) the government of your life.

All you have to do is get in a closer walk with God and you'll find your enemies are in your own church.

I want to so live that God doesn't have to have to give me one minute's notice to step out of time into eternity. Let me tell you as an old geezer that I am: there's not one thing in life worth having outside Jesus Christ. If you (can) really sing, "Thou 0 Christ is all I want," you've got it made!

God is looking for people who wi1l live wrecklessly for Him--not concerned with public opinion or preacher's opinions, but becoming a love slave of Jesus Christ.

We're not here to get to know the Word of God but to (get to) know the God of the Word.

People say, "I read my Bible everyday", but when was time last time they studied it?

You forfeit God's love as soon as you get fascinated with the world (1 John 2:15). God wants you to move into fullness.

If you want to Iive sloppy and slip, thinking your time is your own. It isn't! (Not) anymore than your breath is your own. He has to have pre-eminence in every aspect of my life.

Partial obedience is disobedience!

Good is the enemy to the best!

It's easy for you to pour contempt on your (own) pride; it's when somebody else pours contempt on your pride is when you're in trouble, isn't it? Can we put our heads up at this time and rejoice? This is a time to prove our spirituality.

It's a tragedy when you try and prove your spirituality by things you don't do rather than proving it by the things you do.

I have this in black and white-- where the Communists said in their manifesto: Christianity is certainly more powerful than anything we have. Jesus Christ can do more than Karl Marx, but the (professing) Christians don't believe it, and secondly, they won't sacrifice for it.

God has only one standard for His people-- He wants a holy people. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto saIvation.

People today want a painless Pentecost. After the apostles were filled in the upper room, they were persecuted... (and) they went to prison for preaching the Word. Immediately (when) you're filled with the Spirit, it doesn't matter what area you yield your life, the devil will fight to get back the ground he lost in your 1ife.

I'm sick to death of paper theology. I want to see it in flesh and blood! The trouble with our theology is it's all on the blackboard; our theology is all in text books. It has no life! it has no breath! It has no power! it has no authority!

I stand over a hundred of preachers and I see them shrink and I see them fall on the ground and cry because they have no prayer life. They're so busy with all the affairs of the church and they're not ministering to Him!

If you want a new personality, I'll tel1 you this: the on1y way to get it is to have a prayer life. You can't pray and be unclean; you can't pray and hold a grudge; you can't pray and have bitterness. We blame the devil so much, (but) many of us sabotage our own prayer lives.

Wouldn't be wonderful to have a few men like Paul? He said, "I'm dead!" Dead to self... dead to ambition... dead to feelings... dead to be offended... dead to be flattered... dead! Paul died to everything!

If you're not walking in holiness, you're not walking where God wants you to walk. The very nature of God can be ours.

All (of) God's great men have been very, very lonely men. The price of being a prophet is loneliness.

Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. Jesus didn't die to save us from hell. That's a fringe benefit! He died to get total occupation of us. To be holy in speech... in actions... in everything. We want to give God our lousy sins. What do you think He does with them? He wants your will... He wants that career of yours ... He wants that selfish heart not to live in selfishness.

AIl you have to do is decide to walk a 1itt1e closer to God and you'1 l be criticized more in the church than in the tavern down the street.

Holiness is not a luxury a it's a necessity. If you're not holy, you'll never make it to heaven.

If the Son of God needed the anointing, how in the world do you expect you and I will get by without it? We need that anointing everyday; we need that quickening; we need that motivating power of the Spirit strong in us everyday.

Unction. It's that mysteriousness something that God is pleased to put upon those who will travail and wait for that anointing. Without it, preaching has no power and no authority.

Ordination. What good is it? It's an abomination unless God's given it. There's only one ordination (and) that's in John 15 (verse 16, where Jesus says), I have ordained you, and if God has ordained you then all hell can't stand against you!

The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.

The cross is going to judge everything in your life-- your eating, your drinking, your sleeping, your spending, your talking. Everything is cross examined!

My goal is God Himself-- not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but God!

God wants to bring us into a glory we know nothing about.

One thing that really crushes me is when I think that America has 500 evangelists and not one revivalist; not one that can shake a city.

If Bible knowledge could change the world, we would've changed it long ago.

It's not the imitation of Christ that you and I need, it's an impartation of Christ (that we need ). Christ in you the hope of glory.

God is looking for men (who are) committed from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads.

"Christianity began in Palestine and it became a religion; it was transferred to Greece and it became a philosophy; it was transferred to Europe-- to England-- it became a cult and it was transferred to America (and) it became big business. Our young people have never seen (true) Christianity.

Why do we send people to other countries? We can't even save our own country! A little guy on T.V. says, "Give me more money, my message should go, into Japan." Why? Do you know how many murders they have in Japan for a year? Twenty! We have that many in a day in New York State! They'lI say, go back and clean your own country up!

People accept Jesus as a teacher but not as Saviour. WelI, why don't they accept His teaching? He said, "You must be born again." It's not an option.

If I'm not known in hell, I'm not worth a hill of beans much good. The demon said Jesus I know and Paul I know (Acts 19:15). (Is there any better compliment than this?)

Do you really want an intimacy with God where He shows you the world as He sees it?

The one thing I want the Lord to say to me when I die is, " You are my beloved son."

The greatest loss in life is not losing an arm or losing a friend or losing a fortune, it's losing your relationship with God.

God is going to restore the power and authority in His church starting with the pulpit (with) brokenness (and) confession. If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be brokennss in the pew?

Sources:Sermonindex.net

gospeltruth.net

 & preach-the-gospel.com