[b]LOOKING FOR THE GLORY LEAVING THE CROSS BEHIND[/b]

Here are several excerpts from L. Ravenhill's
sermon entitled:
"Are we willing to drink His cup?"

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye
able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with
the baptism that I am baptized with? Matthew 20:22

"You see, there is no place in the whole wide world where you can
put the Upper Room before the Cross. The Cross comes before the
Upper Room, but we try to turn that around."

"Very often we’re asking people to tarry in the Upper Room who
have never knelt at the Cross. They get a false experience
and it evaporates. We shun the Cross."

"He might bring you up this week and ask you drink of the cup
"Can you share my baptism?"

"My baptism is a baptism of sorrow;
a baptism of desertion,
a baptism of pain,
a baptism of loneliness,
a baptism of darkness."

It’s all combined.
Well, can you drink it? Or do we try to make some excuses? "
Quote: L.Ravenhil

"Are we willing to drink His cup?"
By Leonard Ravenhill
10-25-85

Luke chapter 12, verses 49 and 50:

I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be
already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and
how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Some people never get past "gentle Jesus." But Jesus is associated
with fire. The next time He comes, says 2 Thes. 1:7, He’s coming
with flaming angels—thousands of them!

Here He is saying to these disciples, "I am come to send fire on
the earth..."

Again, the symbol of the church is fire.

Our God is a consuming fire.

What hindered Him from giving them the fire at that moment?

A baptism.

A baptism of sorrow.

A baptism of anguish.

A baptism that we call Gethsemane.

"I have a baptism to be baptized with. But I want you to receive
a fire that will change that degraded will of yours.

It will endue you with power.
It will give you energy.
It will give you life."

He says, "I want to do that, but I am straitened. I wish
it could be accomplished, but it cannot be done yet."

There are people who think that God is only around to help us.
We have a great utility God, they think. You pray, and He does this!
You pray, and He does that! You pray, and He sends you money.
You pray, and He gets you out of a jam. He’s not somebody you
worship in speechless adoration, but He’s a utility God! And some on
TV are exploiting that to the maximum.

Jesus says, "How can you receive blessing of God when you
receive honor one of another?"

Let’s go back to Matthew 20.

What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons
may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye
able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with
the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are
able. (v 21,22)

So, He took them at their word.

The fire of hell is unquenchable.
The fire of the Holy Ghost is unquenchable.

William Booth said, "I found that I ebbed and flowed until one day
the Holy Ghost came in his fullness." Then he wrote that marvelous
battle hymn that today’s church doesn’t know.

The Salvation Army was a penniless organization that went into
seventy countries in ninety years. Not seventy cities,
but seventy countries! Men and women left their castles
in England. Professors left their professions. Why? Because they
could see that fire as clearly as Israel could see that pillar of fire
at night.
The Holy Ghost was there! And old William had them going down
the streets at night marching and singing:

Thou Christ, the burning cleansing flame, send the fire!
Thy blood-bought gift today we claim, send the fire!
Look down and see this waiting host
Give us the promised Holy Ghost
We want another Pentecost.

I’m not sure we want it. We need it! You see, the thing between
where you are now and this baptism of fire is a "cup."

He’d been baptized in the Jordan, but He wasn’t talking about that.
The man who introduced Him to the world said, "I baptize you with
water." That baptism was external. When He comes He will do
something internal. He’ll baptize you—the literal Greek says—"with
Holy Ghost fire", not "with the Holy Ghost and with fire." You can’t
separate them. God is a consuming fire.
He shall baptize you with Holy Ghost fire.

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

You see, what people are seeking today is a painless Pentecost.
There isn’t such a thing.
What happened immediately after Pentecost? They prospered—yes?
No! -- They went to jail! It wan’t prosperity; it was prison, pain,
privation, and persecution.

"Leave all and follow me."

The indwelling of the Holy Ghost, to me, is the most majestic
thing this side of eternity.

Between here and there is a Gethsemane, a cross.

Read again Joel 2 today. We quote it so often "He’s going to pour
out his Spirit on all flesh…" But wait a minute! The price is
tremendous: Lay all night between the altar and the doorpost.
I’d love to see a couple dozen preachers who would get together
and lay between the altar and
the doorpost, two nights a week, for the next three weeks, with
the Holy Ghost coming upon them. Not "speaking in tongues" in the
sense that so many people think, but speaking with a tongue we’ve
never heard: speaking of travailing

What you’ve got in Romans 8 is beyond language.
It cannot be uttered.

It’s God the Holy Ghost groaning through us.

I believe that Jesus, right now, is groaning in heaven. If He’s the
same yesterday, today, and forever, don’t you think he groans
over the Church as it is today?

He said, "The way into My kingdom is:
If you want to go up, you must go down.
If you exalt yourself, I’ll abase you.
Be abased, and I will exalt you.
Save you life, you’ll lose it.
Lose you life, you’ll save it." It’s reverse logic.

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life… Matt 20:28

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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon