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
