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Woe, Lo, Go - Isaiah 6
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
This sermon emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and the need for a deep spiritual revival. It touches on the reality of suffering in the world, the significance of genuine prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the urgency of living a life fully surrendered to God's will.
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Okay, take out my enemy. He did very well to us. My voice isn't very good, it will get better, I'm sure. I think the first thing we should do is remember that while we sit in peace and you've had a good supper, we should remember that people are dying in Bosnia. I remember a few years ago there was a conference at a place called Camp David. You may remember Manaken Begin, the leader of the Jews, and Mr. Karcer, who was the president, clasped their hands together with somebody else and declared that this was a period of peace from here to the end of the world. Mr. Bush told us that the what he called Desert War was over. The fact is that at this very moment there are 35 places in the world where there's war. I have a few heroes. One of them is a young man that came to my office just a couple of months ago. He'd just come back from Bosnia and he said it's the most terrible sight he ever saw. He'd been in Vietnam. He'd been in the Central States when the Sandinistas were fighting. But he said to go down the street in Bosnia was terrible. Here's the body of a young lady and there's a head over there. There's a river of blood down Main Street. Two of them were starving and the amazing thing is he's gone back again this week. He doesn't have any church behind him. He's a very wonderful individual. And there are others like this. I'm going to ask that we just quietly all of us have a minute of prayer and pray particularly for the Christians who are in Bosnia that are suffering so much. Everybody's suffering. Religion doesn't make any difference. Suffering comes to everybody whether you're black or white or rich or poor. But we're living by doing it. I don't know why we sing God Bless America. Do you know some women in India? You're in India. Women in India gathered cow dung today to bake a meal tomorrow. God Bless America. Why? You have two ovens or do you have three? You have two cars or do you have three? You have two telephones or do you have three? Do you know how rich we are in America? We flush our toilets with drinking water. Did you ever think of that? What you put down the toilet every day will cost a stack of money. Oh but I'm an American. You know the greatest fear I have I'm not afraid of death. I've been at death's door many times. I'm afraid that God will withdraw his spirit from America. He says my spirit shall not always strive with man. I checked at Billy Graham's office and they're pretty accurate there. I said how many Bible schools are there in America? How many seminaries? Well as you know America and Canada are joined together. America and Canada have 450 Bible schools and 250 seminaries. Did Sodom have one Bible school? Did Gomorrah have a seminary? I said children never battle, let them all go. All go if you want. Don't break up the meeting. I'm afraid we don't treasure what we have. Some parts of the world don't. I have one page of this sacred book. We have 26 translations. My judgment on the Bible is this. It's either absolute or obsolete. You can't believe what you want like David was saying. Believe this part, forget the other. Forget the dispensation of this. The Christ I serve is no older than he was 10,000 years ago. He lived before creation. He's the only potentator who lived before he was born. The only potentator who lived after he died. Unlike the emphasis David made on the throne. The British throne is in tatters just now. It's a mockery to the world. I go back again and again and again to a Hebrew's one. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Dave didn't dwell long enough on that this morning on worship. I'll spank you afterwards. Well, I'll tell you what. I don't give you a list of how much older than I am. You'll never hear a better preaching than you heard this morning. People asked me about this conference months ago. I said, if you only come to one meeting, don't come Saturday night, come Friday night. David has a rare combination of being a teacher and a preacher at the same time. And today he reminded us about the throne in that wonderful fourth chapter of Revelation. What did he say? Who sits on the throne? Jesus. Who sits with him? The Virgin Mary? Forget it. The Catholic would suggest he does. You know, one day Jesus will not bow the knee to the Pope. The Pope will bow the knee to Jesus. Will the Virgin Mary sit on the throne with him? No. Who will? Those that what? Tell me. Overcomers. People say sometimes, oh, you know, I'm a survivor. I say, I'm not. I'm an overcomer. Surviving means you're going down for the third time, somebody drags you by the hair and saves you. No, brother. I'm not living to celebrate eternal life up there. I've got it now. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Well, I listened very attentively this morning, and I listened to that message again. I get the tape, I'm sure. They often tell Martha, I say many days to her, darling, we're rich. After the meeting this morning, a man said to me, you trained your son very well. He's a good preacher. No, he isn't a good preacher. He's a great preacher. And his brother's great. And her mother's great. One of the largest hospitals in England. For three years, she helped to do all the main surgery, everything, because she's skilled in that area. I don't have that genius. Two boys, two of the best preachers in the world. The other one is one of the big chiefs at Smithsonian Museum. Mixes with kings and princes and people, multi-millionaire, and it never phases him at all. He's never lost. What? Kipling called a common touch. But you know, if you strike, if you take a piece of metal and put it in a furnace, the first thing is, the metal goes into the furnace. Then the furnace goes into the metal. I used to watch at the blacksmith, and he'd take a piece of metal, and I won't use your watch, David, plunge it into the fire, and he'd pull it out, and it was red at the end. Then he'd put it back and turn up the bellows, and before long, you'd look in the furnace, you can't tell one from the other. Not only does the metal enter into the fire, the fire enters the metal. You see, we've sung, many of us, for many years. There's room at the cross for you, forget it. I changed, I have a little card. I sent it all over the country. Not there's room at the cross for you, there's room on the cross. The trouble, most of us have never been crucified. I remember, dear Dr. Chaucer said, one thing he knew about a man going down the street carrying a cross, he's not coming back. It's a one-way ticket. Well, David, I want to tell you, this morning I was richly blessed. I couldn't follow you very much all the way, because just when you put a piece of metal in the fire, and the fire enters the metal, and then you strike it, sparks fly off in every direction. I preached in a conference to preachers, one of the best-known authors and preachers in America was there, and he said, God really spoke in that meeting. I said, how do you know? Because while you were saying one thing, the Spirit was saying another to me. Well, I was doing the same thing. There's a little, such a book here. See this beautiful book? It's nearly as old as me. That's why it's falling apart. I was going to say I won't sell you it for a hundred dollars. I was going to say I'll sell you it for a thousand, and give the money to missions, but a man came in my office, and he looked down, he saw a book. He said, I've wanted that book for years. I said, I brought that from England. I said, well, you can't have it for a hundred dollars, I'll sell you it for a thousand. Oh, he grabbed his wallet, and wrote me a check for five thousand. I've still got some books for sale. But I gave the book to missions. This is an old, old Methodist hymn book. I've taken it around the world. I read something every day. But there's a book at the back. Jack has some, I think. Where's Jack? Raise your hand, Jack. Good. Do you have Dr. Chaucer's book? I can't hear. Oh. Well, you didn't get Dr. Chaucer's book. It has many of the hymns that are found in this book. Dr. Chaucer's book is called The Christian's Book of Mystical Verse. He's gathered lots and lots of hymns. I'm saying this, let me put it right here. When David was talking about worship, I remember going to a town called Bradford. I never went for three-day meetings. There are churches in England standing today that we started 60 years ago. We went to towns, took a tent, slept in a tent, ate in a tent, prayed in a tent, fasted in a tent. Walked from city to city. Wesley left London to go north to Newcastle. Came back to London, went to Bristol. He rode on horseback. I didn't have a horse. So I walked him. I walked him with five other young men. For three years we walked through England. 22 to 30, 22 to 25, four miles a day. Now I can hardly walk across the room. But I'd do it again if I could. But we went to Bradford. I remember going to Bradford for this reason. They made the best cloths there and I was in the clothing business. I was a tailor. While we were there we met one of the world's most wonderful men, Smith Wigglesworth. Any of you ever read about Smith Wigglesworth? Boy, any of you ladies pregnant, be careful. He was in a meeting one day, not far from my home, and here's a woman, obviously something wrong with her. Had a great big tummy. So he went down while the people were singing, they shouted in the rear, Are you pregnant? Who? Who? What about this? I've got a big ulcer. A tumour. A big tumour. A tumour, it's growing and growing. Smith Wigglesworth says, Shut your eyes. And they punched him in the belly like that. He said, You're healed. Oh, she's either healed or dead. He didn't worry him a bit. He's going down the street with a few of his friends in France and a boy comes through the garden gate and he's stepped back. A little fella, that terrible boy. Well, I had this talk a while ago which interfered with my voice. And this little boy had a terrible, he couldn't speak. And he said, Lord, don't let these men speak to me. Everybody makes fun of me. Smith Wigglesworth had never seen a kid in his life. And he comes up and says, Son, come here. Little boy came forward and said, Speak! And he talked right away. We could do with him around right now. With so much fake healing, it'd be nice to have some faith healing. Okay. I went to Bradford. There I met this wonderful man. But then the lady came to our meetings. Oh, mercy. Teenage oil of a lay from her head to her feet. She was on the front row when noses were given out. She had a nose like a banana. I'd often said, she wouldn't win a, she couldn't win a beauty competition at Crocodile Farm. And to my amazement, she said at the end of the meeting, and she had a horrible voice. Boy, I thought she'd be made up all the way round. And she just said, Would you come to my house for some tea? I said yes. So we went to her house. I can't forget it. You wouldn't give her $10 for anything in the house. And then she said what I wanted her to say. Let us pray. So we knelt down at this wooden table. She had a living room to live in. She had a bed over the bath in the toilet. She had a kitchen stove in the toilet. And she lived in that little cubicle kind of thing. And she began to pray. Boy, I got over that table. I felt as though I was in the upper room. And somebody said to me, This woman does nothing but pray. I thought about what you were preaching this morning, David, because I heard a man talking about something David said this morning, just kind of nailed down what I'd been saying during the week. One thing, since this is Saturday afternoon, 80 years ago today, I went to a Methodist Bible study with my mother, precious praying woman. And I got mad. I can tell you the names of dozens of men. They tell me that they know me. And they ask me, Do you know so-and-so? No. Well, he preached with you. Well, you hadn't had dinner with him. Well, I don't know him. Are you getting old? Yeah. Why don't you know him? So one reason only I never heard him pray is one thing for me to stand here and talk to you about God. It's another thing to talk to God about you. And if I want to, as I started my life over again, I'd give more time to prayer, more time to Bible study. But again, I listened to that precious old woman pray. I've never forgotten it. And the other thing, as David said this morning, I was going to say, I have a whole shelf of books on how to be filled with the Spirit, fruits of the Spirit, gifts of the Spirit, love of the Spirit, joy in the Spirit. Except, David, I've never heard anybody ever mention the grief of the Holy Ghost. If all your experience of the Holy Ghost is clapping your hands and stomping your feet, you didn't get the real thing. There's an old saying, Laugh and the world laughs with you. It's true, laugh and the church laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. But the key to revival is what? It's in this book. You don't need a new book. You don't need to buy those wonderful books at the back, except mine. But, what does it say? The key that goes forth, what? Weeping. Isn't it amazing? Paul says to Timothy, I remember your tears. Did he give him five lessons on weeping? What does it say? In Jude, praying in the Holy Ghost is not praying in tongues. Some tongues are made, I believe in tongues, but some are made chatter. Praying in the Holy Ghost is praying with the strength of the Holy Ghost, the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, the grief of the Holy Ghost. Jesus wept. Are you better than Jesus? David mentioned this morning, what, Genesis 34 you mentioned, but Genesis 32, Moses comes down from the mountain. What did he do? Well, he'd been with God. You get like the people you live with. He'd been with God. What did God say? These people have seen signs and wonders and miracles. They forgot all they needed was a golden calf. They blotted the world out. Aaron, the anointed of God, was leading half-naked people. He's shown back to it. They've seen the sea divided. They've seen signs and wonders. And Moses starts praying for them. God says, go down the mountain, see what your brothers have done. I'm angry with them. What does it say there? I'll tell you what the paraphrase of it says in the Methodist hymn book. Let Moses in the spirit groan, and God cries out, let me alone. Did God ever say that when you prayed? You wanted to pat him on the back and say the most sanctified person on earth, the best preacher, gift of tongues, you sing at big meetings and on the baloney. Later in the chapter, the high priest says to Moses, not only says God was angry, he was exceedingly angry. He was very angry. And Moses says, I stand here between a living God and a dying people. And it says, God says, Moses, let me alone. Do you think he said that without tears? Do you think that most amazing prayer, a little bit further in the chapter where he says, God, let me die. Wasn't your wonderful hero Nathan Hale who said, I'm sorry I have only one life and one body to give to die for my country. The wicked English killed him. The reason we don't get revival is we don't pay the price for it. One word is the key, as David said, I don't like keys either, David. One word is the key, obedience. This is David's first time here. I'm sure he'll come again. It's such a blessing. Everybody who's gone around the world, they want him back. This may be my last trip. I'm not sure. If I could have my choice, I don't care if I never preach again. What I'd like to do, I've got a precious, wonderful, gifted wife. She lived in a home where they had servants. Now she's a servant to everybody. A woman, 83 years of age, works from 7 in the morning and hardly goes to bed before 10 at night. We get 20 to 30 visitors a week to the house and now she serves everybody. Puts me to shame. I'd like to find a little house somewhere, quiet where nobody knows my address. Every week people come from the ends of the earth to talk. What do you do when a man calls from Australia and says, will you talk to me for half an hour if I fly over? I said, yes, he came. We took him to a prayer meeting and some of those great prayer meetings, Jack Morrison was in and his wife, men would pray. We took the man home to supper. He stayed the night. Mother said, Doctor, he's a medical doctor, do you have prayer meetings in Australia? He said, oh yes, we have prayer meetings in Australia, but we don't get upset. He thought praying with tears and agony was being upset. How do you think the Apostle Paul prayed in Romans 9? I could wish myself a curse. We don't want to die, do we? As Paul said, we won't die. The Lord sanctified a bit of me, but he said, sanctify you wholly. Okay. I count one of the greatest honors of my life to talk time and time again with Dr. Tosa. One day, as I went in his office, well, he said, don't ever come to Chicago without talking with me. So I went down to his office one day and he said, I've told this so often, look at the rug. Well, at that time, there was no Kmart. There was a place called Kresge's and he told me, I think he paid 59 cents for that little rug made up of twisted bits of cloth. So I looked at the rug. I wish I'd offered him some money for it, but I might have made a fetish of it. To me, he's the greatest man of God I've ever met, not the greatest preacher, but he had an intimacy with God. And he just said this to me, and you see, the rug hasn't shook. He said, I come in my office at 8 o'clock in the morning. He used a good old Bible word. I get down on my belly at 8 o'clock. I get up at 12 o'clock and I haven't said a word of prayer. I've just worshipped. You'll find in this hymn book, I'm trying to put a hymn book together with Lydian Harvey. We've quoted quite often from one of the favorites of Dr. Tozer. I can't think of his name right now. Oh, William Faber. Faber wrote, and Tozer often quoted how big his toes are on his belly for hours without saying a word of prayer, gazing. That's the very thing that the greatest missionary that went to China said, gazing, gazing. Thou hast bid me gaze upon thee and thy beauty fills my soul. For by thy transforming power thou hast made me whole. But Tozer would quote over and over again, laying there, as though Christ were visible. How beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be. Thine endless wisdom, boundless power and awful purity. Oh Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say, for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Burn, burn within me, love of God. Burn fiercely night and day till all the dross of earthly life is burned and burned away. If you want to go and get sanctified, put your knees to the ground, raise your hands, there are millions of people filled with... Come on, be honest. Aren't we here to talk truth? How many people are in the upper room? About what? About what? A hundred and twenty. I have it written in my office. I know the man that broadcasts to the world every Sunday, Dan Betzer, you know that? He's in Florida anyhow. And he's written in it, he sent me the book, he's written in it, there are now one hundred and twenty million Pentecostals and Charismatics in the world. He came to my office. I jumped on him. I said, Dan, listen. You say there are one hundred and twenty million black, white, yellow in Asia, Asia Minor, Africa, New Zealand, the islands of the sea, the Solomon Islands, the Netherlands. A hundred and twenty million people in the world with only a hundred and twenty million people. My God, what's wrong? Is there another Holy Ghost that we don't know? Or is it... We should have areas in our life. Lord, touch this. Take the bad things, take the failure after my life, but there's something to leave. You know, almost every magazine in the last year has had something about Jezebel. Have you read those things? Jezebel is worldly. Jezebel is this. Listen, I'll get the whole place on my head. I'm going to do it. The Jezebel spirit is worldliness. A very famous preacher came to our house, as lots have done. Well, what time do you eat in the morning? I said, well, we take breakfast at eight o'clock. My wife has everything ready by eight o'clock. Wonderful. He comes out shaved, dressed up. Wait a minute, is your wife coming? No, she takes a little longer. His wife came out at ten o'clock. Good Lord, she's as much paint on as the Queen Mary, the big ship. Her cheeks were flaming red, her eyes were black. Women used to be ashamed with their black eyes. They thought, your husband punched you. Now they go buy the stuff to make black eyes. No wonder women are late for church. They put pencil eyebrows in, stick on the false fingernails, get in the false teeth, put on the wig. Before you go to church you need to say, are you the real you? Is someone normal? You know what made me angry? We went to a house and a little girl said, we've got a new pastor. Oh, I like his wife. She's blonde hair. She was what you call, I call, tell me about it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, she's a kind of blunt, but she's what I call, a, a suicide blonde. Died by her own hand. My precious. Recently I saw that a woman said, she's introducing women to wear more trousers. Do you know why? Because a woman sticks her hands in her pockets, like then she's straight. She thinks she's masculine. I married a woman, I don't want a man. And somebody said, Adam W. Eve, not Steve. I've never seen my wife with a spot of powder. On her face. Do you know why? Because when I was a little boy, we made up a poem. Little dabs of powder, little drops of paint, make a girl's complexion something what it ain't. You see, every time you spend two hours with all the men you're making up, you're insulting God. You didn't make me right. I'm not attractive. Why do you get made up? Do you think God stands on duty? The door is as he judges them? God looks on the outside appearance. My God. You think he did these days? You go to a church, you sew makeup, you think you're trying to rehearse for a film contract. Oh, you're meddling? Sure I'm meddling. How long does it take you to get ready to go to church Sunday mornings? When you put that time into prayer? How much money have you spent in the last ten years on makeup? Come on, why do you give it to men? It's all right. I talked the other day with a man. I said, how was your meeting? Wonderful. Boy, I went to them. I told them the greatest statistics in America on abortion. How many people die every year of smoking? How many people die every year driving cars when they're drunk? How many people do this? Boy, boy. Did they thank me afterwards? Sure, because you're seeing a man out there. If I told you about vanity and makeup, you fellas would be off the hook. Listen, lady, don't make yourself up to come to church. Make yourself up before you go to bed. I tell fellas, don't look at that girl twice at 7 o'clock at night. Go 7 o'clock in the morning and look at the old rank. You get cheated. Why are you stressing this? Because one of my favorite chapters is about the bride of Christ, I think, David. Isn't it Psalm 45? The king's daughter is all glorious what? In a hairdo? Some of you women in the past few years have spent more on hairdos than you give to missions. There's going to be a day when we're all disgusted and shocked and amazed at the gentleman's seat of Christ. A lady not far from us, don't you know her name? I won't tell you. Why not? Paul is not afraid to expose people, is he? Oh, I'd like to go to a Pentecost meet, would you? Listen, I'm going down the street and there's Peter, William, John. I say, hey, Peter, I want to ask you a question. Boy, you had an anointing Sunday morning. I never thought Ananias was such a hypocrite and Sapphira. Good Lord, I went home and said, our pastor killed a couple this morning. Now, Peter, don't you go home and kill all the hypocrites in your church because there's going to be no day left. How many people went to church the next Sunday? David used a phrase I learned this morning. I used to say to my class, my Friday night class, I want to so live that Jesus is comfortable living in me. One of my tutors at Cliff College used to use, well, David used again this morning, by the way, the epistle of James. He used, I'm going to so-and-so. No, no, no. You don't know even tomorrow. Never mind next year. It says, if God wills, I'll go. If God wills, I'll go. How many times do you get up? You're going to jump in a car. It only takes you half an hour. If it's a horse and buggy day, it'd take a day to do it. Now you're doing it in the biggest enemy some of us have is our automobiles. I'm getting more stingy about my time. Maybe I don't have much left. I'd like another two years to write two very interesting books. But what about the time God gives us? We don't think about that. So I'm just telling you what David was starting me off. I've done some thinking this afternoon. I've got enough out of that message this morning to keep me going for a week. Thinking about worship and adoration. I believe that the highest form of worship is speechless. Like Dr. Sauter said, I can gaze and gaze and gaze. Remember an old hymn that says, I shall know him. I shall know him. When redeemed by his side, I shall stand. I shall know him, I shall know him by the prints of the nails in his hand. A quick thing. I didn't plan a lot of stuff to say just to kind of stir your minds up tonight. I don't know much about opera. But I know that Verdi played his opera Aida in the great, what do you call it, in Milan, in Italy, in the opera house. And when he finished, the people clapped and cheered. They unhitched the horses from his carriage and let them go down. They pushed his coach and they pulled it down the street yelling all the time, Verdi, Verdi, Verdi, Verdi. That was ten o'clock at night. They were still shouting at midnight. They were still shouting at three o'clock in the morning. He went to the window and there were people dancing in the street and shouting Verdi, Verdi, Aida, Aida and trying to sing as the Italians do. All because he wrote an opera David talked about making vows. It's easy to make them in the heat of a meeting and then tomorrow there's no atmosphere. You face the world of flesh and the devil. You won't gain an inch of ground in this meeting but what the devil will try and get five inches back. So here's hundreds of people shouting Verdi, Verdi. They're intoxicated with joy because he wrote an opera. Wait. There's a man. He's in a tomb. They put a stone on the tomb. They put wax over the stone. They put sixteen soldiers. They put all the sin of the world there. They put every demon in hell there. Christianity hangs on one thing and not on the cross. You remember the chorus? Living he loved me. Dying he saved me. Buried he carried my sins far away. Rising he justified freely forever. But David, I don't know if you've done it. I'd like to hear you do it. I never once heard a sermon on the ascension. Jesus has to more than die. He has to ascend to the Father. Every demon in hell is nervous and shaking when he rises from the dead. Every angel is waiting to proclaim it. And suddenly the tomb broke. I don't know why we only sing as days. David said, Why do we only sing up from the grave he rose every Easter time? We ought to sing it every Sunday. The most disappointing day in the life of Jesus when he rose from the dead. Nobody was there. Not one of the lepers he healed was there. Not blind Bartimaeus was there. Nicodemus wasn't there. His own mother wasn't there. How many times did he tell them destroy this body and I'll rise again. And there was nobody there. Do you think he didn't feel it? The simple question, did you thank God today that he rose? Isn't it amazing? In a Christian kinder like America the outstanding Sunday is not Easter Sunday or Christmas Sunday. It's what? What do you call that Sunday? Football Sunday? Yes, Super? Super Bowl Sunday. Everybody lives for Super Bowl Sunday. They spend so much time watching football and spend about Jesus. Up from the grave he arose. Do you know what I believe somebody needs to do? Somebody needs to go to America and preach the new birth. I don't believe 5% of all the Christians, Apostolic, Pentecostal, Methodist, Nazarenes are saved. And that's true of England. You go to your own pastor and say, Pastor, I want to ask you one question. Do you have a witness of the Spirit? John Wesley, one of the greatest men that ever lived. Do you know who he is? I read it today. Charles Wesley put John Wesley's theology to music. And one thing that Charles Wesley wrote, My heart is full of Christ. And long as this glorious message... Do you know what John Wesley says? I went to London. I went to Birmingham. I went to Mantis. I offered men Christ. We don't offer Christ. We offer them heaven. Do you want to go to heaven? Raise your hand. Do you want forgiveness of sins? Raise your hand. The one battle David didn't tell you, he had three cruel years of conviction of sin. Why? Because, as Paul said to Timothy, you've known the Scriptures from being a child. Your mother knew it. Your grandmother knew it. We took David and the family every time we could, to England, to conferences. And in Ireland we did. And in America we did. David didn't tell you. He's a very skilled artist. He does wonderful painting. But his battle was, he wanted to design his own studio, a follower. But he knew, a Scripture that stuck with him then, he often preaches, no English, you're not your own, you're bought with a price. So he dropped his brush and never picked it up since. And I appreciate that. But, 300 years ago, there's a great preacher in Scotland by the name of Philip Dalbridge. He wrote the greatest thing ever written outside the Bible on regeneration. And he wrote that lovely hymn we hardly ever sing anymore, we're not too up and going. Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away. He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. Happy day. And he goes on to sing happy day. And when he got from his knees, he'd had wrestling stew. But when he got up, he put it on record forever. I was singing it hundreds of times. My granny sang it in the fireplace. She's done the great transactions, done, I am my Lord's. And he is mine. Don't come in my office unless you're living and walking with God. I'll put my finger out between your eyes and say, does Christ live in you? Well, Anna Methody, I didn't ask you that. I got the vaccine, I didn't ask you that. Does Christ live in you? Does Christ weep through you? How do you think God looks down on a hell of a world like this? He looks on Bosnia tonight running with blood. One of America's most gifted preachers, he doesn't count generations by 40, he counts them by 70. He says, we had 70 years and then judgment came on America. What was it called? The Civil War. Then we had another 70 years, we had judgment. What was it called? It was called 1929, the crash of all the banks. Another 70 years goes to 1998 or 9. We're ready for another thunderous, devastating demolition that God gives. Nobody's going to escape. Our precious other son, he had to go do some business for Smithsonian Museum in Italy, so they put him under one of the Rockefeller's multi-million dollar mansions. He's up in the third story, manicured lawns, fabulous scenery, and he had to write an article there. But the next crash, these guys won't get through it. Do you know, he put a new man in office. Do you know, let me tell you something. A fellow, used to be a Baptist preacher called Bill Moyers. Bill Moyers has been around the world with David Rockefeller, a billionaire. Do you know what he said when he came back? This world is run by 15 men, that's all. They regulate the price of money, regulate the price of everything else. Do you know what happened these last three weeks? Do you remember? Gold went up 40 dollars an ounce in three weeks. So there's something brewing in the world. 15 men control this world. No, no, no. I thought I'd go to bed in a nightmare if I believed that. God rules this world. The earth is the Lord's. And he's going to collect the rent for it soon. He's loaned a bit of it to you, loaned a bit to me. Well, come on. You see, I don't want to wait to get to heaven and be put in a dance's class. I don't want to be a stranger when I get there. I want to know him. I want him to indwell me. I want him to say no and say yes and govern me and rule me. Because, unless you're going to do that, there are going to be times when I'm, just as I have ecstasy that I can't bear, there are going to be times when I'm broken and I can't do anything but weep and grieve. There aren't enough demons in hell. There aren't enough sinners on earth to hinder revival. The hindrance to revival is in this room. It's in your disobedience. It's in your rebellion. It's in your unwilling to suffer. Those amazing Christians in Scotland were hunted all over. I'm not hunted. If Jesus came back to earth today, what would he do? Crucify him? No, ignore him. The world doesn't crucify us, it ignores us. You think Clint never worries or Mr. Gore will sit down and say, what will the Christians say? No, sirree. I grieve over all the illegitimate kids on the board. I've got a precious granddaughter, the last thing I do when I go to sleep at night I pray for my precious granddaughter, Lisa, in China. Oh, it's wonderful. Our second generation. Now, David and Nancy have a daughter there and another girl that's been around the world. She wants to find God's will. It's wonderful. Every day I feel there's an extension of my life through David, an extension of his life through Lisa. She knows God. And then I read in the paper the new threat of the government in China is they're going to wipe out the underground church. Now what? Do I worry and cry my granddaughter may be slaughtered? No. I say God is over all. If you had a Holy Ghost revival that shook Dallas, what would you do? You get hold of the man, book him up to go to New York, book him up to go to Philadelphia, book him up to go somewhere else. There's a Holy Ghost revival in Scotland in the time that what's his name now? Robert Mary McShane was there. Robert Mary McShane, a friend of mine, a neighbor went up there recently and he said he stood outside of St. Peter's in Aberdeen in, is it Aberdeen? Aberdeen, I think. And he said, look there. Then I went inside. I saw outside a stone about six feet long with one word, eternity. And every time the preacher went in to preach, he looked on the stone, eternity. He put his elbows on the desk, put his head in his hands and wept and wept and wept and had a broken heart for years over that city. Then God took him away. He got a call. He said God took him to speak to the Jews over in Israel. And while he was there, W.C. Burns came. W.C. Burns. The whole city shook with the Holy Ghost revival. St. Peter's was packed with people. They'd revival in the schools. They'd revival in the university. They'd revival in the business houses. Conversation wasn't football. Conversation wasn't sport. It was God. It was eternity. All through a little man who had prayed and prayed. So what do you do? Book him up to go to London, New York, nursery. God takes hold of him and drops him in China. He died in China unknown. What happened? Jonathan Goforth, American, went in that area and had revival. Because the fallow ground was broken up. The seed had been sown. One man sows, another man reaps. This man comes in and reaps in a harvest. He died unknown. When I was in India, I don't know how far you went, but I didn't get to any Carmichael's area, which I had. That woman took a single ticket from Ireland out there and eventually had 350 children. We had Jackie Pullens in our house. She took a single ticket at 19 and got off the boat in Hong Kong. She's still there. She got married three months ago at 46 years of age. She played the hobo. She was a classical scholar in the Royal College of Music in London. The Queen gave her a knighthood. What's the equal? Gave her an order of the British Empire anyhow. She's lived in poverty by choice. She's lived in a slum. I talked to her and felt totally amazed at what God would have done to a woman. The handle thing. Even the very clothes off her back she gives away. She said, Brother Lane, the last thing I did, I went into China. I saw a man, shaky, 86 years of age. His wife is 82 and they're both legally blind and they haven't furniture worth a dollar in the whole house. And I talked to him and he said he didn't know his wife was in prison. He didn't know his wife was alive. She'd been in prison 23 years. He'd been in prison 26. They'd never seen each other. And they'd talked about the Lord. And he said he walked and felt across the room to an old pump organ and he got there and shuddled his feet and said, Oh, is this how you sang? Martha, remember? So that leads me. Martha, you can't remember again. You must be getting old, dear. What was he saying? It's one of the greatest old hymns we have in here. It's about... Oh, that was it. Thank you. All the way my Saviour leads me. And there's the old man feeling for the organ. And he sat down and pebbled and played and he cried and she cried. All the way my Saviour leads me. What's the verse? What have I to ask beside? What's the last verse, though? Well, all the way my Saviour leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercies? And he forgot them for 25 years in jail. He never been to a meeting. That's why you need to still the Bible in your mind. Thy word abideth in my heart. It always protects us. But also, there's danger coming to America. All the way my Saviour leads me. Well, it's almost time to quit. No, it's not yet. I didn't give you my text. I beg you, my text. What I want to do is talk about vision because vision is the most vital thing that we have. If you have a vision without a task, you'll be a visionary. If you have a task without a vision, it's drudgery. If you have a vision tied to a task, you'll be a missionary. The greatest missionary we feel in the world, you're living in it, is America. It's so confused with false doctrines. There are 1,000 cults in America today. Okay, Isaiah 6. I'm reading from the NIV, the never-improved version. King James. Good old King James. Isaiah 6, 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up his train, filled the temple. I thought it stood the seraphims, each one had six wings, with two in each of his face, with two in each of his feet, with two in each foot. All right, look at verse what? Five. Then said I, Woe, after what I've reached in God. Verse five, woe. Then what?
Woe, Lo, Go - Isaiah 6
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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.