Leonard Ravenhill Quotes
Ravenhill was educated at Cliff College in England and sat under the ministry of Samuel Chadwick. He regularly taught classes at LDM and was a mentor to the late Keith Green. Among others influenced by Ravenhill were Ravi Zacharias, Steve Hill, Bill Gothard, Paul Washer, and David Wilkerson.
He was a close friend of pastor and writer A. W. Tozer and a prolific writer himself.
Tozer said of Ravenhill:
To such men as this, the church owes a debt too heavy to pay.
The curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives. Rather, the next generation builds his sepulcher and writes his biography – as if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous generation to a large extent ignored.
Leonard Ravenhill passed on in November 1994.
Quotes From Leonard Ravenhill
"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."
If weak in prayer, we are weak everywhere."
"Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?"
"A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning"
"The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising."
"The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity."
"My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list."
"Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy"
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.
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!
David had one of the most blessed experiences in the world, and the blessedness was that he was miserable about his 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.
Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!
I'm sick and tired of (only) reading about church history; let's make (some) by the grace of God!
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).
One said, "If I lead somebody to Christ on the street, which church should I send him to?" (Sending someone to church today is) like taking a newborn baby and putting it in a refrigerator. I want a place that vibrates with God, vibrates with eternity.
"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."
"How can you have a dead service with a living Christ?"
"Fifty years ago, you never heard of a divorce in the Christian church. You never (even) heard of marriage counseling in the church... We're putting up with sin in the church."
"I believe every church is either supernatural or superficial. I don't believe there's any middle ground."
"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."
"The church is supposed to do what? To stop corruption? Is the church doing that? No! The world is corrupting the church!"
"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?"
"We're blind to the fact (that) we have an obligation to five billion people in the world. This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of lost souls!"
"Our blessings have become a curse. They attract us. They take too much of our time and concern."
"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."
"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."
"Young people come to our churches and what are they seeing?) I went to a church not long ago-- they got thirty acres. (So what are their plans with it?) They want their own football field and tennis courts. Dear God, do children go to church to learn to play tennis? God help the preachers! Why can't we get them spiritual so they want prayer and revelation and the Word of the Living God. The young people come inside the church but there's no glory."
"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, i s "Unbelieving Believers."
"(Acts shows us) the church of Jesus Christ before it became fat and short of breath by prosperity."
"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 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 is going to try all my words 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."
"I've heard a million words, sermons, and read books: (and) I'm accountable to God for everything I have. Every moment of my time, every dime of my money."
"You can't help what you hear, but you can help what you say. You're going to be accountable for every word you speak."
"This silly world outside thinks it is finished with Jesus Christ (but) they haven't even started (with Him) yet."
"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 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!"
"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? Expect some reports from earth about football or something?"
"The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Christ's church."
"The devil's aim today is to keep one away from the Bible."
"Sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will keep you from sin."
"Most people are bothered by those passages, which they cannot understand; the Scriptures which trouble me the most is the Scripture I do understand."
"We're going to get into this Word and eat it. It'll hurt us at times (but) it will revive us. It may unclothe us to clothe us, empty us to fill us, cast us down to lift us up and yet this is all we need."
"If we had a super, super revival of a billion people being saved, it would still be too late. Could you imagine a billion people being saved— in governments, in hospitals, in universities, in schools, business people? Yet there would be four billion people in the world still unsaved."
"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."
"The only vision (many) of you have is television."
"America is not dying because of the strength of humanism; it's dying because of the weakness of evangelism! We take people to the cross, (but) we don't put them on the cross."
"I doubt if 5% of professing Christians in America are born again--and that's true of England!"
"Here's the world with millions, millions, millions dying. They were dying while you were sleeping last night, while you were fooling around somewhere! God is saying, "Who will go for Us?"
"Can you remember the last time you didn't go to bed because people were dying without Christ?"
"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."
"We don't preach salvation. We preach forgiveness."
"The biggest job in the world is not running the White House; it's running God's House!"
"You cannot preach unless your heart is full of Christ."
"If the sermon doesn't burn in you (preacher), it won't burn in anybody else, that's for sure !"
"Wet-eyed preachers never produce dry sermons."
"What is preaching? (It is) to open the eyes of the blind; to turn them from darkness to light; from the bar of Satan unto God. How many preachers do that?"
"We have too many preacherettes preaching too many sermonettes to too many Christianettes smoking cigarettes."
"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 alot hangs on the preacher."
"The pastor who doesn't weep for the lost shouldn't expect people to come and weep for their sins."
"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... 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!"
"I use to preach my heart out and people would say, "I haven't slept for five nights." Nowadays, they take you to court and sue you for that."
"If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be any brokenness in the pew?"
"Are you wiser in God (now) than you were last year at this time? Peter says we're to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ."
"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 inte a unholy world and keep him holy!"
"The world is waiting for a practical demonstration of the Gospel of the grace of 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."
"Mrs. (John) Wesley said, "(There are) two things to do with the Bible: believe it and behave it!"
"Faith can't do anything I want; (but) it can do anything God wants."
"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 really 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 can't offend a man that's filled with the Spirit."
"The darker it gets, the brighter your light will shine."
"It's going to demand alot of courage before too long— to really live and maintain the true Christian life according to the Word of the Living God."
"Christ will not stand competition. This vain world should have no pull on us at any level at all."
"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."
"Sin is abnormal in the Christian life."
"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."
"Every day should be a period of exploding with God, getting again into His Word!"
"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?"
"He died to make us examples on earth of the heavenly life."
"It would be a good idea, if every day this year, as far as the Lord lets 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."
"Are you beyond the place where anyone can offend you?"
"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."
"He wants to get us to the place where we'd rather fast than feast; where we'd rather be unknown than known."
"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 simple being a Christian. After all, it's a majestic thing!"
"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 N. 0. T. 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 has become the property of Jesus Christ and you'll give an account of it 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."
"A saint is good when nobody is looking."
"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 will live wrecklessly for Him—not concerned with public opinion or preacher's opinions, but becoming a love slave of Jesus Christ."
"Paul said, "...having nothing yet possessing all things..." Today, we have all things but possess nothing!"
"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. He wants to move you into the place where your steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in the love of God. Only a risen, exalted Christ can make that possible. He's got to have pre-eminence in my living... in my thinking... in my time... in my language... in all things, not some things. Everyday (every second) should be holy for a man who has the Holy Ghost."
"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."
"I'm determined this year, more than ever, to know Jesus Christ in a new way such as I have not known Him before. I want to discover His majesty; I want to discover the glory He had with the Father."
"Partial obedience is disobedience!"
"Good is the enemy to the best!"
"C'mon what really excites you? (What do you do on) Sunday afternoon? (Do you) watch a bunch of dumb guys kick a ball around? When do you give Jesus two hours of your time adoring and magnifying Him?"
"Christianity is NOT a sinning-repenting religion! It's a victorous religion! There should be a place where you quit your sinning!"
"If there's stagnation in your life, it's your fault and not God's."
"Are you living for what people think? God help you if you are."
"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."
"There are three people that live in me and three people that live in you: the one I think I am; the one others think I am, and the one God knows I am... and it only matters what God says I am."
"It's a tragedy when you try and prove your sirituality by things you don't do rather than proving it by the things you do."
"Somebody, some day, will pick this Bible up and will be simple enough to believe it and when they do, the church wilI all be embarrassed."
"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."
"Sinning is not normal in the Christian life. People say you need a little sin to keep you humble... then (why not) have a lot of sin and be real humble."
"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."
"The Apostle Paul never had to deal with Pastors who had spring fever with basebalI and winter fever with the Super Bowl! He never had to deal with that. All he had to deal with was devils! That was easier! You can get people delivered from the devil— drinking and smoking— but you can't get them delivered from sports! It's a strange day isn't it?"
"I'm sick to death of paper theology. I want to see it in flesh and blod!"
"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!"
"There's no cost of being a Christian in America. Good Lord, no!"
"The dreadful possibility (is) if I get out of Iine with the will of God, I can become as corrupt as any man who has ever lived."
"If the saints are the salt of the earth, (then) praying people are the salt of the church."
"If you want to expand your soul, then learn to pray."
"How do you learn to pray? (Well), how do you learn to swim? Do you sit in a chair with your feet up drinking coke learning to swim? (No), you get down and you struggle. That's how you learn to pray. Prayer is our strength; Prayer generates strength; it generates vision; it generates power; and the devil wilI drive you away from the prayer closet more than anything."
"No man is greater than his prayer life."
"Jesus prayed there at the Jordon (at His baptism); He prayed at (the) Mount of Transfiguration; He prays here (John 17) and just before He goes to the cross. Prayer, prayer, prayer all the way! Should I pray less than He prayed?"
"I want to see something that God builds. I want to find some people so hungry for God that every night they want to pray and make intercession. We're not going to move America any other way. We've tried every scheme and every fancy thing and (we) try and work something up, but what we need is (for) somebody to come down. Some Person! Not a new theology, a Person!"
"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!"
"Are we so in love with the Lord Jesus that He could ask anything of you and you'd do it? If God telIs you to get up at 4:00 a.m. and intercede would you do it?"
"What's your prayer Iife (Iike) this morning? Would you like Gabriel to hand me the book of your devotional life for last month and read it to this fine audience?"
"You have to be a man to pray (and) you have to have strength to pray."
"I believe the choice in America (will come down to this): either we concentrate in prayer or (we'll end up) praying in concentration camps. You say it can't happen. It will!"
"Go home and think about this: your saved (and) your daddy's lost. Have you bore your heart out (to God) for him lately? Is your daddy going to sit in hell and see you at the marriage supper of the Lamb? AIl you do is turnover Scriptures and mark Scriptures and memorize verses, and he's perishing! Where, in God's name, is your humanity, never mind your spirituality? What about your unsaved brother... your unsaved sister... maybe your unsaved pastor?"
"If you want a new personality, I'll tell you this: the only 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."
"Not all praying men are prophets, but all prophets are praying men."
"If you don't have a praying pastor, forget it!"
"I tell you what-- we won't be embarrassed at the Judgment Seat that we fasted and prayed!"
"Do you know what the most eloquent prayer is? When you don't say a word!"
"We think we have a message... we have to run there and catch a plane and go there. No, no, that's not the greatest ministry. It's good (if) God has ordained it, but the greatest ministry, I'm sure, is the ministry of intercession."
"Prayer is pre-occupation with our needs; Praise is pre-occupation with our blessing; Worship is pre-occupation with God Himself."
"You young men that came tonight, listen! The most important thing in the world while you're on this side of eternity is that you learn to worship God. If you're going to do it for ever and ever, dear Lord, you ought to practice it now!"
"When you go out of a meeting and say, "I didn't get much out of that meeting tonight." That's not the point! How much did God get out of it? Did He get worshipped? Did He get adoration? Our only business on earth is to glorify God."
"You don't worship God standing up; you worship God on your belly. Worship is speechIess adoration!"
"How much time have you spent with Jesus today? When is the last time you've gone to Him and say, "I'm not going to ask you for a thing; I come to worship you in spirit and in truth."
"You say I'm preaching sinless perfection. You say, "Well, do you think you can get to a place where you can't sin?" I know nothing of the kind. It is not impossible (for a Christian) to sin, but it's possible not to commit sin."
"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!"
"You can never destroy human personality, but you can destroy self."
"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 Ioneliness."
"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."
" Remember, when you say, "I'm sorry" and repent, and become a child of God, you're bought with a price. You have no rights to yourself... no rights to your time. It's not our time, it's God's time."
"There is one qualification that proves we're filled with the Holy Ghost and that's we Iive a holy life."
"You see some bumper stickers ("Christians Aren't Perfect, Just Forgiven); they say Christians are nor sinless, they just sin less. Well, I got news for you; if you're a Christian, you don't sin! You've got victory over sin! The Lord Jesus Christ came to purify us unto holiness and nothing but purity will satisfy Him!"
"I had a man chase me one day because I said that to become a Christian you must renounce your sin... repent... and take up your cross. "Oh no," (he said), "you mustn't tell young people to take up their cross; you'll frighten them." I said, "Why don't you argue with the Lord about that, not me?" That's what the Word of God says— you take up your cross and follow me."
"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 Iuxury 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."
"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!"
"A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument."
"Christianity is NOT morality on stilts!"
"You may fool your pastor; you may fool yourself, but you'll never fool God."
"People say, "We want another Pentecost." I don't believe them for a minute. Pentecost in the New Testament is tied in with persecution, poverty (and) prison!"
"If we have another Pentecost and it was real , we'd all be in jaiI within a month. We're such an accommodating Christianity today. Anyone can live around a Christian. They couldn't in the day (of Pentecost) when these people were around."
"We hear (about) many (who) go to a conference or a meeting and say "Boy, wasn't that good? weren't we challenged?" The question isn't "weren't you challenged?" The question is, "Were you changed?"
"The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity."
"Are you still comfortable sitting in a ball park and hearing someone taking Jesus' name in vain?"
"There is a question children will ask and that's: "Where did I come from?" Somewhere, sometime, you'd better give them the answer because if you don't, someone will give them the wrong answer."
"I was looking at a fairIy recent issue of National Geographic and it certainly had some fantastic photography. Part of it was about SwaziIand and their women, there, lying on the fIoor with a rag around them. Their ribs were standing out; (and) there were corpses of babies all over the place. The country, right now, is in a terrible grip of famine and we, today, can't make up our mind what kind of ice cream we like."
"I am the Way— that is external; I am the Truth— that is internal; I am the Life— that is eternal."
"The Romans didn't put Him [Christ] to death, I put Him to death; you put Him to death and (professing) Christians put Him to death over and over and over again these days (with) careless living."
"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."
"You'll never get me to believe that the church today believes in hell."
"When Jesus was condemned and they put an old, dirty robe on Him and He wore that stinking robe that you might wear a robe of righteousness. How often do you think of that? They put a crown of thorns on His head that you and I might wear an eternal crown. He was separated from the Father that we might be brought to the Father. He took on human nature that we might have divine nature. He left eternity for 33 years so we could go to eternity for 33 billion years..."
"If you want your child to go to hell, buy him a T.V. all for himself and (it'll) destroy him!"
"We're a million, billion miles away from New Testament Christianity!"
"I am very suspicious about people coming to the altar. The altar is about one of two things— death or sacrifice. It's cheap to come to the altar (these days)."
"Only the Holy Ghost can change the world."
"Human history is not written with ink on pages of paper; Human history is written in blood on the parchments on the skin of men and women."
"Every step you make in Jesus Christ enrages the devil."
"If Bible knowledge could change the world, we would've changed it long ago."
"There's going to have to come some heroism in (todays) Christianity. It doesn't necessarily mean burning at the stake, but it could mean that."
"We would never think of stealing somebody's purse, but we'd steal their time."
"Isn't it amazing how we believe in the sovereignty of God until it comes to money— then we send a newsletter."
"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."
"Why worry when my times are in His hands?"
"God is looking for men (who are) committed from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads."
"I think the most awesome thing in the world tonight is a person that dares to say he's a Christian. It makes me tremble I'll tell you that!"
"I've had more accolades in my time, about my books and preaching, but it don't make a hill of beans difference. I made up my mind fifty years ago that no one would flatter me and nobody would flatter me. We're all unprofitable servants— there's so much we don't know."
"The king in America— (you say) there isn't one. Yes there is, his name is King Sport and his wife is Queen Entertainment."
"I think hell had a holiday when Paul died."
"The first thing Jesus did before He could walk or talk is divide people."
"Today, people say, "We want peace on earth." Sure they want peace on earth but they don't want the Prince of Peace!"
"Tell me this: do you wish everyone in your city had as much of the Spirit as you do? Would they do anything if they had? If they had onIy as much love; only as much zeal; only as much passion for the lost; only as much understanding of God's Word? How far would they get?"
"If we're poor materially, mostly it's because we have to be. If we're poor spiritually, it's because we want to be."
"A man came into my office from another nation and he dropped this in my ear, "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."
"God smote Moses with Ieprosy. If God smote us from our gossipping and criticism, we'd have to turn (this meeting) into a healing meeting."
"I persuade myself that every day I live now, somebody dies for Jesus Christ. In Russia or in China or somewhere. We (just) go about our business. 0f course, we have our hardships. Sometimes we go to McDonalds and don't get a very good hamburger and that's a grief; of course, sometimes you get a flat tire, that's terrible. Others are in prison, tormented, suffering beyond anything we can understand."
"It's easy to be bold when everything is going well."
"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!"
"I think one of the serious breakdowns in modern evangelism is this: it has offered us too much for too little. What we do mostly is offer people forgiveness. We need cIeansing! There is no true conversion until a man takes up his cross."
"Jesus doesn't want your sins! What will they do for Him? He wants you! He must be Saviour AND Lord. If Jesus is not Lord of all then He isn't Lord at all."
"Most people can't enjoy their religion; they just endure it."
"We all try to put on a face and appear (to be) more spiritual than we really are... Don't you think so most of the time?"
"Jesus said, "You come unto me, I AM the Water of Life...! He said He was the Bread of Life; He said He was the Light of Life... We can't live without bread; we can't live without water; we can't live without light; and we can't live without God. Without Christ, you can only exist."
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? The man who has a degree? The man who is wearing his collar backwards? The man who stands behind an ornate desk with stained glass windows? No, a man can be plowing in the fields and ascend unto the hill of the Lord. He that hath clean hands— that's our relationship with the world; and a pure heart-- (that's) our relationship to God."
"I tremble at the awesomeness of preaching God's Word. Sometimes I hear preachers read the Bible as if it were a weather report."
"Do you really want an intimacy with God where He shows you the world as He sees it?"
"I'd be happy to go to heaven tonight (but) I want to see God do something awesome before I die. The devil has kicked us around like a football but we're going to have a great Church."
"It's a short journey on the way to heaven. The hour is coming for all of us before too long."
"The supreme joy in my life is to know the will of God."
"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."
"Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount never blessed a material thing! The richer we get in the church, the poorer we get in the spirit."
"Where there is no joy, you have to fill it up with entertainment. The more joy you have in God, the less entertainment you need outside of yourself."
"It doesn't say in Scripture that you lose your first love, it says you left it."
"It's essential you have the witness of the Spirit. Either He witnesses with condemnation and guilt or He witnesses with peace and joy; it can't be both."
"Often when I'm praying by myself, I thank God for the incorruptible Holy Ghost. Nobody can bribe Him; nobody can buy Him! Some of you business guys, if the Holy Ghost could be bought, some of you business guys would pull your check books out, (and) He'd be a board member for you; but you can't do it."
"The mighty Holy Ghost put this book (the BibIe) together!"
"I'm looking for something so majestic (that) no man dare to stick his name on it. If he did, he'd drop dead."
"You never find anybody asking for money in a true revival."
"We fear a Russian invasion; we fear a financial breakdown, but we don't fear God! I want that holy fear!"
"God doesn't answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer! Your prayer life denotes how much you depend on your own ability, and how much you really believe God. The more self-confidence you have, the less you pray. The less self-confidence you have, the more you have to pray. "
"“Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?"
"“I don’t believe there is a man on the whole TV that preaches salvation. They preach forgiveness. Forgiveness is not salvation. They point out “there’s a man in bed with some other man's wife in a Motel". “Oh you know the Lord loves you just as you are.” Well then why get changed? Commit adultery as much as you like. He still loves you. Be a cheat, be a liar, be a thief, and be a failure. He still loves you. But there’s a scripture. Isn’t it the Psalms 7…. where it says “God is angry with the wicked every day.” I heard somebody quote today “God loves you but hates your sin” that’s bunken. God hates you for committing the sin. Is God going to take your sins and judge them at the Judgment and leave you alone?” "
"“Preachers who have homes and cottages by the lake, a boat on that lake, and a big bank balance, still beg for more…These dear, doll-like preachers-boys no longer change their suits once a day, but two or three times a day. They preach the Jesus of the stables, but themselves live in swank hotels. For their own lusts they bleed the audience financially in the name of the One who had to borrow a penny to illustrate His sermon. They wear expensive Hollywood suits in honor of One who wore a peasant’s robe…How fearful will all this be in the judgment morning."
"Paul never glamorized the gospel! It is not success, but sacrifice! It's not a glamorous gospel, but a bloody gospel, a gory gospel, and a sacrificial gospel! 5 minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more!!! Wept more, bled more, grieved more, loved more, prayed more, given more!!!"
"Today's church wants to be raptured from responsibility. "
"How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don’t even have the strength to turn off your TV?"
"Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel to seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously’?"
"When there’s something in the Bible that churches don’t like, they call it 'legalism.'"
"A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience."
"A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way."
"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 shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off."
"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!"
"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?"
"Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel—and just as empty!"
"Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death."
"And there's no room for Him [Christ] in the inn. He got a bit older, there was no room in His family, His family turned on Him. He went to the temple, no room in the temple, the temple turned on Him. And when He died there was no room to bury Him, He died outside of the city. Well why in God's Name do you expect to be accepted everywhere? How is it that the world couldn't get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me? Are we compromised? Have we no spiritual stature? Have we no righteousness that reflects on their corruption?"
"If I was to ask you tonight if you were saved? Do you say 'Yes, I am saved'. When? 'Oh so and so preached, I got baptized and...' Are you saved? What are you saved from, hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebellion against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from?"
"What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?"
"If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there’s something wrong!"
"Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself. "
"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."
"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!"
"The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising."
"The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity."
"My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list."
Add Comment
Comments (1)
So so convicting, absolutely convicting. Brother Leonard warning us to wake up and take Christianity seriously! So needed today.