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Oh, America, America!
Leonard Ravenhill

Leonard Ravenhill (1907 - 1994). British-American evangelist, author, and revivalist born in Leeds, England. Converted at 14 in a Methodist revival, he trained at Cliff College, a Methodist Bible school, and was mentored by Samuel Chadwick. Ordained in the 1930s, he preached across England with the Faith Mission and held tent crusades, influenced by the Welsh Revival’s fervor. In 1950, he moved to the United States, later settling in Texas, where he ministered independently, focusing on prayer and repentance. Ravenhill authored books like Why Revival Tarries (1959) and Sodom Had No Bible, urging the church toward holiness. He spoke at major conferences, including with Youth for Christ, and mentored figures like David Wilkerson and Keith Green. Married to Martha Beaton in 1939, they had three sons, all in ministry. Known for his fiery sermons and late-night prayer meetings, he corresponded with A.W. Tozer and admired Charles Spurgeon. His writings and recordings, widely available online, emphasize spiritual awakening over institutional religion. Ravenhill’s call for revival continues to inspire evangelical movements globally.
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Sermon Summary
The sermon transcript discusses the importance of the Holy Ghost in preaching the word of God. It mentions a preacher named Bob Phillips who had a powerful impact on the audience during a meeting, leading to repentance. The transcript also criticizes the lack of focus on the Word of God in modern evangelism and emphasizes the need for true revival. It shares a story about two girls from the Salvation Army who labored diligently in a poor city, eventually witnessing a breakthrough in spiritual barrenness. Overall, the transcript highlights the importance of relying on the power of the Holy Ghost and the Word of God in preaching and revival.
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Sermon Transcription
...from India. Would you like to pray with us now? Thank you. Our dear and gracious Krishna, with His daughter, and whom we exalt with our praises, we offer You our love. Thank You, Lord, for leading us together in the way of Your creation. Thank you. Pastor Karma, they... I forget what they call it now. Christian Community Fellowship, I believe it is... Pardon? Community Christian. Upside down. I think he's in hospital, isn't he? Is he going to have surgery? Well, he's in hospital anyhow. If any of you would rather be there, you've time to go right now. You know, we don't thank God enough for our health, sight, senses, and all the other things we have. We take them for granted. We pray for our brother tonight, Lord. We pray he'll feel Your presence. Be his comfort in his distress. Be his light in this dark spot. We thank You for his ministering. We thank You for his vision. And we ask that you'll just triumph in this circumstance, that he may emerge from it stronger in God. With a new sense of Your love and Your grace and Your mercy, we pray for others who are afflicted and needy. We think of the hostages tonight, weary, tired, pushed around like cattle. We pray that somehow something may break through there, that someone there may realize that they can call on the name of the Lord. We think of their relatives and friends who watch their torture, aged mothers and fathers. We pray that they'll find peace and rest in this time of need. We thank You for Your Word, this lamp for our feet and this light for our path. Speak to us, Lord. As the hymn writer said, speak to me by name, O Master. Let me know it is to me. Speak that I may follow faster with a step more firm and free, where the shepherd leads the flock in the shadow of the rock. Speak to me, thou least and lowest. Let me not unheard depart. Master, speak, for thou knowest all the longings of my heart. Knowest all its truest need. Speak and make us blessed indeed. In Jesus' name. Ten pleas to the gospel recorded by Luke in the 19th chapter. Luke chapter 19. Verse 41. And when he was come near, he beheld a city and wept over it. Why? Why should he weep over it? He just had an amazing standing ovation coming through the city. All the city was excited. It says in verse 37, when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples, notice there's a big difference between disciples and apostles, only twelve apostles, many disciples. But there was a multitude of disciples, unquestionably, they'd gathered round and increased during his ministry. They'd watched him with eyes wide open, maybe mouths wide open, as he conquered death and sin and demons. Conquered the whole domain of the devil. The multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen. Again, that's the whole range of his miracle ministry. His majesty, he was in subjection to nothing and nobody. He trampled demons underfoot, disease underfoot, death underfoot. You know, if the church of Jesus Christ was alive, she'd do the same thing. The biggest tragedy in the world tonight is not the hostage's blessing. It's not the Ethiopian. The biggest tragedy in the world tonight is a sick church in a dying world. There's no hope for the world unless the church is revived. She's the channel through which God comes. They rejoiced and praised God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, saying, blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said, I tell you, if these should hold their peace, even the very stones would immediately cry out. Wouldn't that be fun? I wish we'd done it. Some stubborn old Pharisee and suddenly the rocks beneath his feet start yelling hallelujah. One of those sad Sadducees. You see, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. That's why it was a Sadducee. Think about that tomorrow, but anyhow. When he was come over near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Josephus, if he can be trusted, I think sometimes he can, sometimes he can't. He said at the time that Jesus came around the shoulder of the hill and saw the city, it was still a splendid spectacle. The temple had been thrown down. At least much of it had, parts of it had. And yet he says it sparkled like snow and like gold. The rocks of the temple, some of them were 60 feet long and 40 feet broad and 10 feet high. How did they move them? They didn't have our gear. And then it says he wept over it. Why did he weep? Was he weeping because he was going to his doom? No, he was weeping because they were going to their doom. I'll tell you why he was weeping. Look at the 13th chapter of Luke, verse 34. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together as the hen gathereth her brood under her wings and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you desolate. Or as one translator put it, all that is left is yourselves and your empty house. And it's going to stay like that. Until ye shall not see me until the time cometh when ye shall say blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. He's weeping over the history. Of this privileged nation. He's looking at the very streets where Jeremiah taught, where Isaiah taught, where Isaiah taught, where the man of prophets taught. They had had the greatest display of divine love and divine power of any nation under God's heaven. But now he, as he looks back, he remembers the awful judgment for the light they've had. The privileges they've had. And he weeps over it. Remember last week we took Hannah, the woman that said she wept. And she continued weeping and she wept until she was sore. There's no question about it that weeping is an integral part of revival. Again, the reason we don't have revival tonight is we're content to live without it. David Wilson has a rather startling book out. Some people have praised it. Some people have cursed it. Most people have ignored it. That's what it's all anyhow. Supposing we change the language here. Instead of saying, oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets. Supposing we say America, America. Thou that killest the prophets. We say we don't kill prophets. We've killed hundreds of prophets in the last four or five years. Preachers we don't like. We starve them out. We won't support them. Won't give them offerings. And they have to take back to some job and they shouldn't have had to do that. We storm them with our criticism. We storm them without abuse. We storm them by ignoring them. And yet Jesus is weeping over the city. He's looking at the temple where once the glory of God was so majestic. It was the most awesome building ever made. It was the most costly building. It was overlaid with gold, not plaster. Everything about it was typical of majesty and glory and power. Solomon, you remember, made his offering. Built his altar. Made his sacrifice. He needed one thing. Only one. That was the fire of God to fall. Dear Lord, did the church ever have more equipment than we have now? I have a whole shelf. I must have about 30, 40 books on the Holy Spirit. We have every means of transmitting at least a message. But Solomon knew after all the years of labor, after all the cost of that building, ships that had brought marvelous wood from other countries. He built his throne. He had strutting peacocks. He had all kinds of wonderful things. But this awesome day when they would all get, the priests were there in their garments of glory and beauty. They wore a grass plate with 12 stones on. Each stone had the name of a tribe. And the priest went into the Holy of Holies. Once, one day for one nation. This is the spectacle of all spectacles. There's one thing missing. We never miss the Holy Ghost because we've never seen him. We've got a wonderful brother coming to preach up at our little fellowship on Sunday, if you can get a seat. Get there by 10 o'clock. Bob Phillips. He was preaching last night when a woman screamed out in the meeting in grief, in anguish over her sins. And immediately the audience broke up into repentance. We have to manipulate and pull. Oh, we'll sing, Room at the cross for you. Though millions have come, there's still room for one. Sloppy, sentimental stuff. In evangelism, you have to make an altar call. In revival, the people make the altar call. Read the third chapter of Luke. What does it say? It says the soldiers, as Kipling would say, the lesser breeds outside of the law. When they heard John Baptist, they'd never heard anything like that in Rome. And they cried out, what shall we do? And the people cried out, what shall we do? And the publicans cried out, what shall we do? They weren't trained. It wasn't orchestra. They were so smitten. They were so devastated. Felt as though they were hanging over hell. Felt this is my last chance for mercy. Oh, we comfort people. Well, dear friend, don't put it off. Till next week. Are you suggesting, God's your servant, that you whistle for him next week, and he come? Do you wonder that Hebrews, the epistle says, today if he will hear his voice. How do I know this isn't God's last call to some man here? God owes you nothing. He's warmed you. He's welcomed you. He wept over the city. Maybe again, he weeps over some of us tonight. It's maybe his last call to us. It says in the gospel of John, if you turn back to it for a moment. Most people remember this chapter as the chapter of the marriage in Cain of Galilee. Verse 13 says, the Jewish Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changes of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, sure he goes in with a scourge of small cords. It's not the lichter's lash that the Romans had. He goes there with authority. He moves that small little thing, a little staff with cords on, symbolic of the judgment that will lash that people. I believe he walked through that temple weeping. Do you know why? Because a bit later, he's going to be lashed in the same place. But not with a petty little thing, but with a thing with about five horrible lashes on it and a spike at the end made of copper that's going to tear and rip his back like a plowed field. He comes there with gentleness. He comes there with mercy. He drove them out of the temple which was merely symbolic. And he overthrew the tables with the money changers. Here is God's only son. There is the Christ of God, the Lord of glory. And he's looking at his father's house and instead of the glory that was there in the days of Solomon, it stinks of urine and dung from animals. I suggest you to act in all sincerity as God will judge me. He looks down on many churches tonight and finds them as offensive with their urine and dung of this world. You build a family center next to the church so the kids will be away from home. So they'll fool around for hours instead of learning a catechism or something. I had the privilege many times of praying, usually between 5 and 6 in the morning with Duncan Campbell, the man God used in the Hebrews revival. He would sit there and he'd talk to me. His eyes would fill with tears or as Bunyan would say, the water stood in his eyes. I'd ask him about the visitations of the spirit. I asked him about the people. Were they drunk? Were they disorderly? Did they break the Ten Commandments? No, they were self-righteous. That was a problem. But the spirit of God came on whole communities. Taverns closed down, never to open again. Dance halls closed down, never to open again. We haven't an evangelist in America today. There's not one of them can go to a city and see all the devil's strongholds closed down. They're so busy picking up money with no time to pull anything down. But Duncan said one morning in his broad Scottish way, Brother Len, the folk out there, every day in the house of those stuffy, if you like, Presbyterians. Every morning the Word of God was brought out and Father read it. Every night after supper, the dishes were lifted and put into the sink. And the children were on the Word of God. Every one of those children had to recite what they called the Shorter Catechism, which is basically the Word of God. It's doctrinal. You could get kids at seven and eight years of age and talk to them about the atonement and the understudy. We've got guys coming out to Dallas seminaries that don't understand it. God's house is a dunghill tonight. It's a dunghill of poor theology. It's a dunghill of worldliness. And Jesus weeps over it. Behold, your house is left unto desolate until the day that ye say, Blessed is he that cometh in. And they thought they were getting rid of him and he got rid of them. I've tried to gather you, would not so get out of it. Where are the Jews tonight in captivity? What does the scripture say? When you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, know that the end is not far off when she's surrounded with armies tonight. She doesn't know which way to turn. You talk about impotence. We've mobbed billions in aircraft and aircraft carriers and bombs. We can't do that one with a bunch of hostages. A dozen fanatics can tie America up, tie its government up, tie its economy up, tie its army up, tie its navy, tie its air force. We can't do a thing. Yet we still trust in flesh. We have in God we trust in our coins, but we trust in the government far more than in God. We're more afraid of Russia than we are of the wrath of God. God's house is desolate tonight. The glory is God. We had a brother prayed here last Friday night. With a broken heart, he moved me to my toes. He prayed with anguish over America and its corruption, its vice, and its violence, and its vulgarity, and its viciousness. And while he was saying that, I was saying there's one reason for that. The glory has departed from the sanctuary because the glory has departed from the home. Come on you parents, don't start blaming humanism. You're the fault. You have no altar in your home. Why should your children listen? You don't listen to God. Why should they listen to you? It's a day of disorder. It's a day of everyone doing that which is right in his own eyes. The Jews are going through more trouble, I know that. I'm quite sure that the toughest days for America are still ahead of us. It's only God that can deliver us. He wept over Jerusalem. Hannah wept, why? Because she was barren. No consolation that she got better clothes than her sister, or got more time with her husband than her sister. You find the same thing in the life again in the 30th chapter of Genesis where Rachel one day forgets all about her pretty hairstyle and everything else, and she throws herself at the feet of her husband. She's barren, she's ashamed. People point the finger and say God is disgusted with you. God doesn't own you. God doesn't take you as one of his children. So she throws herself at the feet of her husband and says give me children or I die. Remember John Knox paraphrased that? Became a classic phrase when he said give me Scotland or I die. It wasn't a passing sentiment. As I said, I should have said last week when Hannah got pregnant, she, the pregnancy disrupted her family life, disrupted her physical life, disrupted her social life, disrupted her religious life. You see she'd been scorned year after year after year. Every time she went up to Shiloh they laughed and she's here again, she's not pregnant. She's no more chance of any chance. God's disgusted with her. You see God loves a hopeless situation. Rachel is barren, give me children or I die. And she got a wonderful son, Joseph, a prime minister. Hannah prayed and got a wonderful son, a prophet. Menorah's parents prayed and got a child by the name of Samson. He pulled down the stronghold alright. You get that barren patch between Malachi and Matthew, 400 years of sterility spiritually, of deadness, of blindness, of emptiness. And yet in that situation of total barrenness, God comes through a barren woman, brings to birth John Baptist, whom Jesus said is the most remarkable man that's walked this earth. The difference between them and us is we have no shame. I almost said an ugly word there but I won't. We don't care that the world repulses us. We've no glory so we get entertainment. We've no power so we sing and try and work up an atmosphere. And singing's beautiful, I love it. We sing here as good as anywhere, I'm sure. If I could turn the tap on and make you all weep tonight, I can't do that, I don't want to do it. Some of us older folk need to weep because we're glorious God and we don't weep about it. We're content with something less than God. We're content with an atmosphere. We're content with something sweet. Instead of the living presence of the living God. Some of us knew that glory, it's gone but it doesn't make us weep. Some of us have never had that glory and we can dangle it before you as we like but it doesn't make a hell of a difference. There's a precious brother in Titusville in the Baptist church there. I've preached in that wonderful church a number of times. I think one of the best men in the country, Peter Lord, some of you have heard him or heard his tapes. Peter recently got a copy or two copies of the Refiners Fire that Dave Wilkerson put out. He read an article that got all of his heart and put a squeeze on him until he could not rest. He had his church office run off about 1,500 copies of that one article and called the church to prayer. Stopped all services. Stopped the choir. Stop. We've worked in the energy of the flesh. We've talked with expectation instead of hope. Instead of faith. And so for two weeks the church has there been on its face. What a place. If you know a place in this town like that, let me know, would you? Do you know one of those big shot assemblies in Dallas that's always supporting the great speakers? Who's coming up? Everybody goes but God. And as long as they clap and somebody has a word of knowledge, doesn't matter about the word of God, a word of knowledge which may be a guess or it may be truth. But you see, we're not hungry. We're not concerned. It's blessed are those who hunger and thirst. There's nothing magic about revival really. It's a divine intervention for sure but there has to be something there so basic. I think one of the most awesome things ever committed to any man, I've never heard anybody preaching it, was given to John Baptist when God says, you prepare the way of the Lord. He says, what do I get a committee? He says, no forget it. Do I get somebody to back me financially? Forget it. You've got behind you. The Father's behind you. The Holy Ghost is behind you. And the word that you've read so often is no weapon that is formed against each apostle. Dear God, every weapon in the world is hacking the church to pieces tonight. Maybe right now Jesus is weeping over this meeting. I'm so content with good meals, a nice thing, something I'm getting tomorrow. My birthday's coming. I'm getting a new watch or something else. I've told you before, let me repeat it, about a lady that's laying dying in California right now. Dear precious woman has her hair on her head. She's had different treatments for cancer. Some people went in to see her and her face they say radiates like a lamp. Doctors have been going. Atheists have been going. Jews have been going. People outside the hospital have been coming in. There she lies, not saying a word most of the time. But she said to the nurses and staff one night, you know last night Jesus came to the bottom of my bed there. Beautiful, radiant. And he said this, I love my bride. I love my bride. I would like to come for her tomorrow. But she doesn't love me. She hasn't made herself ready. Now that's not your church, it's you. That's not your preacher, it's me. I've been almost tortured these past few nights. Praying instead of sleeping. Or weeping instead of sleeping. What are you going to take for Almighty God to invade Van and all this area? Or Tyler? Or Texas? He's weeping for the past. They've had prophets, they've had teachers. They've had miracle workers. They've had the tallest men that ever lived. Spiritual against Isaiah and Jeremiah and all those others. And they forgot all about it. But he's not only weeping over that, he's weeping for what's coming up. He's going to Jerusalem. And stupid men are going to take a whip and tear the flesh off the back of the Son of God. Can you imagine them at the judgment seat? I preached on the judgment seat last Sunday morning. My brother told me he's had a troubled week all the week. He's had to go put things right with people. That's wonderful. That prepares the way of the law. Prepare the way in your life. Pull up the roots. Don't wait for God. Go and get going. Make that apology. Make that phone call. Make that letter. Send that letter. As Christians we have one of two options. Either to humble ourselves before God or be humiliated. If I fall on his word it will break me to pieces. If his word falls on me it will grind me to powder. See, when the Holy Ghost is present this word begins to live. It begins to kick. It begins to bite. Often when I pray I say, Lord, let your word bite my heart right now as I pray. There's a sense in which Almighty God can't do any more for the world. He's given us every word he's ever going to give us all in this book. He's got nothing to add to it. He's got nothing to revise. Stupid men try and improve it. God has said it. He's weeping over them. Why? Time is running out. I was in Australia taking a plane, I think, to fly to New Zealand and I saw a crowd around the table agitated in the newspapers. And the headline showed a picture of John Kennedy bending over the table in the Oval Office. And it said, Mr. Kennedy said when he got the book, The State of the World, he just said this, Time is running out on us. That must be 15 years ago. I mean, you didn't wake up this morning expecting you'd die before the end of the day, did you? We take for granted I'm going to live. I've lived all the others. Oh, mercy, I've lived nearly 80 years now. I expect tomorrow I'm going to live again. Doesn't mean I will. I've soon to go to the final checkout counter, the judgment seat. I read sometimes in the paper there's going to be an official investigation. A fact finding commission. The greatest fact finding commission will be at the judgment seat of Christ. There won't be an error. There won't be a misjudgment. There'll be no court of appeal. The sentence is eternal. Judgment is not time out, it's time finished. Jesus is mourning over them because he's looking at that temple. He's looking where the saints have trodden. He knows in a few years. Remember he said to some people further back, this generation is going to witness judgment for the blood of men from Abel. Righteous Abel to Zechariah who was murdered between the doors of the temple and the altar. For what? Because he preached righteousness. I guess every one of you have heard a message on the second blessing. You've heard one on the second coming. You've heard one on the second birth. I make a safe guess not one of us ever heard a sermon on the second death. The death that never dies. Why do we get so angry with sinners that they're not concerned? Why in God's name do we get angry with ourselves? How concerned are we? How much praying? How much fasting? How much weeping do we do? It says he looked over the city and Jesus wept. And when Paul looked around and saw the infiltration in his day of wrong teaching, he says I tell you even weeping they're enemies of the cross of Christ. There were never more enemies of the cross of Christ than today. The enemies of the cross of Christ not in the tavern now. They're in God's house. They're in some of our theological seminaries trying to water down the word of God. Roman Catholics enemies of the cross of Christ. Why? Because they say Mary is co-redemptrix. They make a lot out of the cross sure enough. But they're enemies of the cross because they say Mary shares the redemptive virtues of Jesus Christ. So they're enemies of the cross of Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses enemies of the cross of Christ. Mormons enemies of the cross of Christ. Pardon this if you don't I'll say it anyhow. Most of the major modern rotten religions were born in America. We boast about evangelism. We boast about how many Bibles we have. How many radio stations? Three thousand radio stations every day say something about the gospel. Mormonism was born here. Mormonism makes three million dollars a day by their own admission. A billion a year. Which they spend propagating error. They're going to build a church down in Tyler. They're going to build a temple in Dallas. A friend told me sent me wrote to me from Denmark. No Norway. No no Sweden. Got it now. A plane landed yesterday with 220 missionaries in. 220 Mormon missionaries and two protestant missionaries. Jesus said in his day they're so zealous they'll go around the world to make one more convert and land them into hell with themselves. What is our zeal? Jesus is looking over this city. He's weeping over it. This God privileged city. This that has the main temple of God in it. And he said this generation will not pass away before the whole place is running with blood. In the year 70 AD 70 Titus came and raped the whole city. Ravaged it. And the city ran with blood. You say well brother Abner we're not facing Titus. No we're facing hell. If you believe me if you want to have it politically. Listen to Mr. Reagan. He says there's a danger of us being barbecued. Read David Wilkinson's new book. It's very good. Parts I can't agree with. The first page shocks most people. He says America is going to be wiped out. I don't see that at all. America is being wiped out tonight. It's being wiped out with false religion. It's being wiped out with broken vows. Broken homes. It's being wiped out because of David being flushed down with John. And I'm not humorous about that. We pray sometimes for the Holy Ghost to come. Do you know what he did if we do if he came? We'd run to the door. If he came in tongues of living flame. If he came and began to unlock our hearts and show us all the misery that's there. And all the carnality that's there. We'd either run for mercy or we'd escape out. Oh Jerusalem. You killed the prophets. You killed God's anointed men. Your house is empty. And you're empty he says. Oh for he says in essence you're empty in an empty house. You can disagree if you like. I don't mind that. I believe God will look down on every church in America or England this Sunday and say your house is empty. Where is the living vibrant power? That like that precious meeting last night when a woman suddenly realized God had a grip on her heart and she stood up in front of a congregation and screamed for mercy. And the meeting broke. We ought to organize it. Oh wait till the end. We'll sing just as I am. You know you can come sweetly. I don't ask anybody to come to altar with their eyes closed. Jesus didn't say would you please close your eyes while I go to Calvary. He met a spitting scornful crowd. Why weren't they there on either side of the road as he went down to that hell that he was going to? They deserted him. Somebody snatched his beard. He didn't pull the hair out. He pulled the flesh of his mouth. They beat him up and God stood on one side and did nothing. We think because God isn't shaking the earth with earthquakes and other things right now we're in a good state. We're not. I read again in the 17th chapter there of Acts just today. And I get to right here. Paul is standing before all the geniuses. It tells who they are. The Stoics and the Poets and Epicureans on Mars Hill. The intellectual capital of the world. And he tells them about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he says you're looking for an unknown God. I know him. I want to get hold of this. I want to preach on it sometime. Do you know what he says? He says in him the one you sang about tonight the immortal invisible God only wise unresting unhastening and so forth with indescribable glory and majesty. Paul says in him I live and move and have my being. I don't just meet him Sunday morning for an hour. I don't step out of his presence when I go down the street. He's living in me. If Christ isn't living in you, you're not saved. You may be good morally. It won't get you to heaven. We've got to get a bunch of people that make a vow somewhere I think by the day that from this moment by the grace of God whether I live the next 10 days or 10 hours or 10 years I go on to get up every morning go to bed every night and say at the end of the day today I've lived and moved and had my being in God. I've seen the world as Christ saw it. The disciples didn't weep because they'd never seen it as he saw it. We sang a hymn the other Sunday morning I think over it. Our little fellowship ought to be like thee. Do you know what I mean that? Do you want 40 days of fasting in the wilderness? Do you want to go down the road and suddenly the Holy Ghost says stop your car pull over and you weep over a church there that you know is a God forsaken church? It has a formula. It has a theology. It has a smart preacher. But the living presence of the living God is not manifest and will not be manifest until we vow to God like Hannah made a vow unto God and said I'll not give you rest until I get a child. It meant fasting. It meant weeping. It meant traveling. I was telling a friend this week and I'm still with this. In my early 20s I pastored a large church in England. I love to go through past the Salvation Army building. It's the largest Salvation Army building outside of London. There's a block of stone as large as this square here and chiseled in the stone it says William Booth of the Salvation Army opened this core as they call their churches C-O-R-P-S core. Gives you the date 1910. On the other stone it says Kate I forget the other one Mary Jackson were the officers in this core. They went to that city which is a poor city. They spin cotton and they weave cotton into cloth and all kinds of things. It was on the poverty level. They labored there for a couple of years and nothing happened. It used to be a slang phrase in England to go to the Salvation Army for soup and soap and salvation because they give out these things to the poor. Gave them cans of beans. Gave them soap. Gave them clothes. These girls labored. They worked diligently. They went to bed exhausted at night and they prayed. Well they said we've been here long enough. We've done everything we know. We've preached all we know. We've prayed all we know. We've been merciful. We've helped the needy. They wrote to William Booth. Would you kindly move us to another station? We're so tired. We're so disheartened. We've tried everything that we've been taught to use. Please move us. He sent a telegram back with two words on. Try tears. And they did and they had revival. Those girls went to traveling prayer. Not just prayer but traveling prayer. Prayer with anguish in it. Prayer again like we had last Friday night in the Mercy of God. There never has been a revival in history. It hasn't been paved. The road, what do you say? The road to hell is paved with this. The roads of Venice are paved with water. The road, the streets of heaven are paved with gold. The road to revival is paved with tears and brokenness. We changed the start of our meeting. It's nine. We're going to sing our final verse here. And when we sing it, you're free to move out and go home. You'll be able to pick up the tape as you go out. I understand that it made. If you want to stay, you can stay. If you go out, please don't. Well, talk but be quiet. Because we find out now when we change the meeting this way, people are not just worrying to get home. We prayed till 11 o'clock last week. We may do that this week. We may not. There's no timetable. Something has to give. And before it gives, we have to give. We have to give him undivided attention. We have to let him search our hearts and say, there's nothing hidden there that I know of that is hindering revival in my life personally. I want to live, move and have my being in God. If I do, you know what will happen? Instead of having to work something out, which I never tried to do in a prayer meeting anyhow. You come here so loaded with God, so loaded with passion, so loaded with vision. We'll hardly be able to sing some night. Somebody will drop down and pray and start praying. That would be great. I don't care. The order of revival is disorder. Let's sing our hymn. Write this truth deep in our hearts. On the fleshy table of our hearts, as your word says, put such a hunger and thirst for God in our hearts that nothing else will charm us. All the vain things that charm me most and help me least, may they be banished forever. We want this wicked and adulterous generation to know there is a God. We want these empty dunghills of churches to be cleansed. You cleanse the temple. You whip the money changers out. And yet a couple of verses afterwards, it says they listened too attentively. How miraculous. You could cleanse all the filth out. And though they vowed to take your life, you stood there in your moral majesty, in your spiritual glory, and nobody there lay a hand on you. I believe, Lord, you're going to raise men up like that. Although people threaten to take their lives, I think of two of them right now, precious men that you've burdened me for this week. God, in mercy, show us what your glory is. We talk about it. We sing about it, but we never know it. It's a glory to be broken in your presence. It's a glory to be humiliated in your presence. It's a glory to be emptied in your presence. God, we don't need evangelism. We don't need TV teachers. We need your glory. We need you to leave us so far behind that men won't dare even knock their mouths. I pray you'll walk in that meeting last night. You'll break in a thousand meetings like that. This nation so needs it. The whole world so needs it. The world staggered when these men came out of the upper room. It said they were unlearned and ignorant. They weren't college men. They weren't degree men. They weren't men of financial standing or social standing. They were just nobodies who became somebodies. Now they're known by everybody. Do it again. Be with those who will leave us and let your hush fall upon us, Lord, as we stay to pray. Give us the spirit of intercession. You're free to leave if you wish to read right now.
Oh, America, America!
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Leonard Ravenhill (1907 - 1994). British-American evangelist, author, and revivalist born in Leeds, England. Converted at 14 in a Methodist revival, he trained at Cliff College, a Methodist Bible school, and was mentored by Samuel Chadwick. Ordained in the 1930s, he preached across England with the Faith Mission and held tent crusades, influenced by the Welsh Revival’s fervor. In 1950, he moved to the United States, later settling in Texas, where he ministered independently, focusing on prayer and repentance. Ravenhill authored books like Why Revival Tarries (1959) and Sodom Had No Bible, urging the church toward holiness. He spoke at major conferences, including with Youth for Christ, and mentored figures like David Wilkerson and Keith Green. Married to Martha Beaton in 1939, they had three sons, all in ministry. Known for his fiery sermons and late-night prayer meetings, he corresponded with A.W. Tozer and admired Charles Spurgeon. His writings and recordings, widely available online, emphasize spiritual awakening over institutional religion. Ravenhill’s call for revival continues to inspire evangelical movements globally.