Leonard Ravenhill
This is from the blog Craig T. Owens:
“No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shopwindow to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.
“Poverty-stricken as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here, in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, we fail everywhere.
“The two prerequisites to successful Christian living are vision and passion, both of which are born in and maintained by prayer. The ministry of preaching is open to few; the ministry of prayer-the highest ministry of all human offices—is open to all. Spiritual adolescents say, ‘I’ll not go tonight, it’s only the prayer meeting.’ It may be that satan has little cause to fear most preaching. Yet past experiences sting him to rally all his infernal army to fight against God’s people praying. Modern Christians know little of ‘binding and loosing,’ though the onus is on us-—‘Whatsoever ye shall bind….’ Have you done any of this lately? God is not prodigal with His power; but to be much for God, we must be much with God.
“This world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest plane look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our bed for a night of waiting upon God for a world-shaking revival. Our compassions are not moved. We mistake the scaffolding for the building. Present-day preaching, with its pale interpretation of divine truths, causes us to mistake action for unction, commotion for creation, and rattles for revivals.
“The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning. We are beggared and bankrupt, but not broken, nor even bent.
“Prayer is profoundly simple and simply profound. ‘Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try,’ and yet so sublime that it outranges all speech and exhausts man’s vocabulary. A Niagara of burning words does not mean that God is either impressed or moved. One of the most profound of Old Testament intercessors had no language ‘Her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.’ No linguist here! There are ‘groanings which cannot be uttered.’
“Are we so substandard to New Testament Christianity that we know not the historical faith of our fathers (with its implications and operations), but only the hysterical faith of our fellows? Prayer is to the believer what capital is to the business man.
“Can any deny that in the modern church setup the main cause of anxiety is money? Yet that which tries the modern churches the most, troubled the New Testament Church the least. Our accent is on paying, theirs was on praying. When we have paid, the place is taken; when they had prayed, the place was shaken!
“In the matter of New Testament, Spirit-inspired, hell-shaking, world-breaking prayer, never has so much been left by so many to so few. For this kind of prayer there is no substitute. We do it—or die!”
–Leonard Ravenhill, from his book Why Revival Tarries
The Spirit of a Prophet
Leonard Ravenhill Sermons
The Baptism of Fire
_____
The Prophet
“The prophet is God’s detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him.
He has no price tags.
He is totally ‘otherworldly.’
He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile.
He marches to another drummer!
He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration.
He is a ‘seer’ who comes to lead the blind.
He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a ‘thus saith
the Lord.’
He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of
impending judgment.
He lives in ‘splendid isolation.’
He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright.
His message is ‘repent, be reconciled to God or else…!’
His prophecies are parried.
His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void.
He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow.
He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead!
He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with
epitaphs when dead.
He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few ‘make the grade’ in his class.
He is friendless while living and famous when dead.
He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint
by posterity.
He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of
Life to those who listen.
He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years.
He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation.
He announces, pronounces, and denounces!
He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire.
He talks to men about God.
He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men.
He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing.
He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in
the marketplace.
He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual.
He has passion, purpose and pugnacity.
He is ordained of God but disdained by men.”
–Leonard Ravenhill
Great insights by Leonard Ravenhill, Tim! ⭐
There is indeed a connection between prayer and preaching which should not be neglected. Since I thought it would not be the most polite thing to copy and paste a whole blog post of mine, I chose only a part of it which rhymes at that. 🙂 It is not a really funny poem and it was initially adressed to those preachers/pastors who had no idea that they could not do anything (good) for God and their audience without having prayed before. I hope you don’t mind, Tim, that I share this poem here on your blog.
PLEASE PRAY AND PREACH
A preacher who did never pray
Would surely not have much to say
But platitudes and human stuff
Of such bullshit we had enough
No yes-man and no moralist
No self-made man evangelist
No loveless grumpy chatterbox
No faceless coward and no ox
Who’s drawn by selfishness and fame
To play that ugly demon’s game
A man who thinks that dark is light
And trusts in reason’s fooling might
With these tin soldiers, we’re fed up
Up to the brim they filled the cup
For all those hungry, thirsting souls
Who do not know what are their goals
If all those preachers don’t repent
Their preaching will come to an end
God does not need such lifeless talk
He needs a man who shares His walk
Down on his knees he’ll hear His voice
That softly shuts out all that noise
Which springs from human worrying
And fear, and pain, and earthly thing
The Lord alone knows how to preach
And that our hearts are out of reach
Whenever shallow talk comes up
In churchly social gospel club
Please, pray and preach as you are led
After your soul by God was fed
With divine wisdom and His sword
That lifts men up who know the Lord
Discernment and compassionateness
Will help you bring to end all mess
And finally all men will see
This is a man with Heaven’s key
If you have time and like to read the rest article, here’s the link https://enteringthepromisedland.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/prayer-preaching-and-love-do-they-belong-together/.
Thank you very much, Tim! 🙂
CORRECTION ( a little typo 😉 ):
“It is not a really funny poem and it was initially addressed to those preachers/pastors who had no idea that they could not do anything (good) for God and their audience without having prayed before.”
Susanne: Thank you for your poem. There is a big difference between preaching from your brain and preaching in the power of the Holy Ghost. Prayer and intimacy with the Lord is the key.
Yes, intimacy is so important, too. Well said, Tim.