Why Revival Tarries – Chapter 3

Ravenhill starts this third chapter discussing two indispensable factors for successful christian living, vision and passion.  Men battle human carnal criticism and storm the heights of devilish opposition to spread the Gospel in places where the good news has never been proclaimed.  Why?  Because they have caught a vision and contracted a passion.

He then goes on to spend the majority of the third chapter talking of Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah chapter 6.  He states that his vision is three dimensional:

It was an upward vision – he saw the Lord; an inward vision – he saw himself; and an outward vision – he saw the world.

It was a vision of height – he saw the Lord high and lifted up.  A vision of depth – he saw the recess of his own heart.  And a vision of breadth – he saw the world.

A vision of holiness.  A vision of hellishness.  And a vision of hopelessness.

Oh that the church would grasp this, he throws out many statistics in order to stir up passion for the gospel in our heart, one of which is heart breaking and breath taking, he says almost a million people in the world die each week, most without Christ.  Is this nothing to you? Were you blown away when I stated that there are so many who die each week who have never heard of Christ, if you weren’t, you need to repent and cry out to the Lord to give you a heart for the Lost.  May we be a people, a church who desires that the name and fame of Jesus be spread to every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every where, because He is worthy to be praised by all!

He closes the chapter with a story, I want to quote it and I pray that the Lord would use it to spread a passion in your heart, remember brothers, we are not professionals!

Charlie Peace was a criminal.  Laws of God or man curbed him not.  Finally the law caught up with him, and he was condemned to death.  On the fatal morning in armley jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death walk.  Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses.  The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading.  The Consolation of Religion, was the reply.  Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell.  Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall?  Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase without a tremor?  Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings?  All this was too much for charlie Peace.  So he preached.  Listen to his on the eye of hell sermon.

Sir, addressing the preacher, if I believed what you and the church say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!

Brothers and sisters, where is our passion?  How can we read over these things flippantly, how can we read of the garden of Gethsemane and the Crucifixion of our Lord with dry eyes.  Oh Spirit come and move our hearts to not take lightly these things, come and stir up affections in our hearts for Jesus, please give us a passion for Your Glory and Your Name.  Please let us truly see that everything really comes down to this;  knowing You and making You known!  Forgive us for our lack of passion in evangelism, forgive us for focusing our attention on ourselves, and forgive us for being hearers of your Word only and not doers.

You have had much grace on me and for that I am thankful, please stir up a passion in my life to boldly proclaim the Gospel of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ!  Stir up a passion in the readers for the same, let us be a people who weep for those that don’t know you and who live lives worthy of the Gospel until you come or until we go home to be with You.

Why Revival Tarries – Chapter 2

No man is greater than his prayer life! The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.

Ravenhill starts chapter two off with a bang. It is so easy to read past that statement, so lets look at it again: No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. I am deeply convicted of my lack of prayer as I read through this chapter.

He goes on to say that the church has many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, Ravenhill says, we fail everywhere. I think one of the main reasons for this is our lack of humility. We would rather be seen than labor in prayer in private. Lord forgive us.

He then asks, 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!

Chapter two is a short chapter that discusses prayer, the lack of passionate prayer warriors in our churches and the new testaments concern for prayer over their concern for money. I pray that the Lord would raise up men and women in our churches, men and women who count others as greater than themselves and who don’t care about being known by other men, but that they would be known by you God. That is enough.

I will close this short post with a quote from chapter 2:

The world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest plane look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our bed for a night of waiting upon God for a world shaking revival! Our compassions are not moved.

Why Revival Tarries – Chapter 1

Ravenhill starts the first chapter out by talking about the “Cinderella” of the church today, the prayer meeting.  He says the prayer meeting is neglected because it is unloved and unwooed because it is not dripping with the pearls of itellectualism, not glamorous with the silks of philosophy; neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology.

He then goes on to talk about prayer, saying the offense of prayer is that it does not essentially tie in to mental efficiency, rather it is conditioned by one thing alone and that is spirituality.  He goes on to say that one does not need to be spiritual to preach, that is to make and deliver exegetical sermons.  By a combination of memory, knowledge, ambition, personality, plus well-lined bookshelves, self confidence and a sense of having arrived, almost any person that fits those requirements could stand up in a pulpit and preach.  Preaching of this type is not spiritual but mainly mental.  This type of preaching might affect the hearers morality but it wont change the hearers heart.

“The tragedy of this late hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people!”

The reason for this, Ravenhill says, is preaching without unction.  Preaching without unction kills instead of giving life.  He says the unctionless preacher is a savor of death unto death.  He states that we could well manage to be half as intellectual if we were twice as spiritual.  Preaching is a spiritual business.  A sermon born in the head reaches the head; a sermon born in the heart reaches the heart.  He says when their is a spiritual preacher, he will produce spiritual people.

He continues speaking of unction and states that it cannot be learned, only earned-by prayer.  He compares unction to dynamite stating that spiritual preachers words will explode on the hearers heart.  He closes out the chapter with some pretty strong words, “The prayer meeting is dead or dying.  By our attitude to prayer we tell God that what was begun in the Spirit we can finish in the flesh.  What church ever asks its candidating ministers what time they spend in prayer?  Yet ministers who do not spend two hours a day in prayer are not worth a dime, degree or no degree!”

I was deeply convicted in my lack of zeal and my lack of seeking the Lord in secret.  Matt 6:6.  We say we want the Lord to move yet we don’t seek Him, we say we want to overcome this habitual sin in our life yet we don’t seek Him, we say we want more of Him, or to be made like Him or to desire Him as our all satisfying treasure yet we don’t seek Him like we should.  Father forgive me for my laziness in seeking after you.  I ask that you would continue to stir my heart to return to prayer and study of your word.  I see a passion and stirring up of prayer in our church body and ask for more Lord, would you please raise up men at Love and Justice church.  Men who seek hard after you, men who will live lives worthy of the Gospel, men who will run the race with endurance keeping their eyes on You Jesus, the author and perfecter of our lives.  Please Lord bring more men to our Saturday morning prayer meeting, bring more men and women to our prayer meetings before service on the Lords day.  Father we need Your help, We need you to come and lead us because we do not want to go on without You.  Thank you for convicting my heart and stirring up in me a passion to seek you in secret.  I pray all these things for Your glory, in Jesus most beautiful name.  Amen

Blogging “When Revival Tarries” by Ravenhill

I think I am going to try to blog through Ravenhill’s book, “Why Revival Tarries.”  I don’t know how this will look.  I might just put up powerful quotes, I might put up thoughts or I might do both of those things.  We will see.  For this first post I will post from A.W. Tozers Foreward of the book:

Toward Leonard Ravenhill it is impossible to be neutral.  His acquaintances are divided pretty neatly into two classs, those who love and admire him out of all proportion and those who hate him with perfect hatred.  And what is true of the man is sure to be true of his books, of this book.  The reader will either close its pages to seek a place of prayer or he will toss it away in anger, his heart closed to its warnings and appeals.

I am excited to read this book and I pray that the Lord would have much grace on me and show me areas where I need to repent and I hope that after reading these pages I would be stirred to spend much time alone in prayer with the only one who is worthy of all my time!