Leonard ravenhill quotes

The Bible definitely is infallible, how else could it survive so many years of bad preaching?

Tell me what time you spend alone with God... and I'll tell you how spiritual you are.

Nobody stood by Jesus. Maybe nobody will stand by you. It's a lonely life, but it's a glorious life.

The self-sufficient does not pray, the self-satisfied will not pray, the self-righteous cannot pray. No man is greater than his prayer life.

I've got The Father on my side, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit and 2/3 of the angels. What do you think I'm going to do? Sit down and cry?

A wet eyed preacher will never preach dry sermons

When there's something in the Bible that churches don't like, they call it 'legalism.'

My goal is GOD HIMSELF. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but HIMSELF...my GOD.

The secret of praying is praying in secret. A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning.

I read of the revivals of the past, great sweeping revivals where thousands of men were swept into the Kingdom of God. I read about Charles G. Finney winning his thousands and his hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ. Then I picked up a book and read the messages of Charles G. Finney and the message of Jonathan Edwards on 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,' and I said, 'No wonder men trembled; no wonder they fell in the altars and cried out in repentance and sobbed their way to the throne of grace!'

I have no faith in my faith. My faith is in the faithful God.

The tragedy is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people.

If you want to be popular, preach happiness. If you want to be unpopular, preach holiness.

God doesn't answer prayer, He answers desperate prayer!

Someone asked me, 'Do you pray for the dead?' I said, 'No, I preach to them! I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God).

Men give advice; God gives guidance.

Prayer is as mighty as God, because He has committed Himself to answer it.

There's only one proof of the Holy Ghost in your life and that's a holy life.

To stand before men on behalf of God is one thing. To stand before God on behalf of men is something entirely different.

Paul never glamorized the gospel! It is not success, but sacrifice! It's not a glamous gospel ,but a bloody gospel, a gory gospel, and a sacrificial gospel! 5 minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more!!! Wept more, bled more, grieved more, loved more, prayed more, given more!!!

There is a world of difference between knowing the Word of God and knowing the God of the Word.

If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there's something wrong!

Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age.

There are three persons living in each of us: the one we think we are, the one other people think we are, and the one God knows we are!

The question isn't were you challenged. The question is were you changed?

How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?

Every step you make in Jesus Christ enrages the devil.

John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets.

We live in a day of itching ears, but I have no commission from God to scratch them.

In the New Testament church it says they were all amazed - And now in our churches everybody wants to be amused.

You won't become a saint by studying your Bible; you'll become a saint by living it.

Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. The more joy you have in the Lord the less entertainment you need.

In revival, God is not concerned about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling empty hearts.

Today's church wants to be raptured from responsibility.

Holiness is not a luxury, it's a necessity. If you're not holy, you'll never make it to Heaven [Heb. 12:14].

A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men.

If you kneel before God, you will stand before men.

Quit playing, start praying. Quit feasting, start fasting. Talk less with men, talk more with God. Listen less to men, listen to the words of God. Skip travel, start travail.

The church that is man-managed instead of God-governed is doomed to failure. A ministry that is college-trained but not Spirit-filled works no miracles.

If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.

Smart men walked on the moon, daring men walked on the ocean floor, but wise men walk with God.

There are two kinds of people in the world—only two kinds. Not black or white, rich or poor, but those either dead in sin or dead to sin.

If there are a million roads into hell, there's not one road out.

The sinner's prayer has sent more people to Hell than all the bars in America.

My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil's most wanted list.

Christianity is the only religion in the world where a man's God comes and lives inside of Him!

Most Christians pray to be blessed. Few pray to be broken.

All you have to do is get in a closer walk with God and you'll find your enemies are in your own church.

The more men pray, the less worldly they become. The less they pray, the more worldly they become. I am, of course, speaking of professing Christians at this point.

When you’re sitting in a dark room, you can either sit and curse the darkness—or you can light a candle.

You can't live wrong and pray right.

The less power a church has, the more entertainment it has.

You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.

God has to work in a man before He can work through a man.

If weak in prayer we are weak everywhere.

A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.

The Sunday morning service shows how popular your church is. The evening services show how popular your pastor is. Your private prayer time shows you how popular God is!

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. We have 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, we fail everywhere.

To be much for God, we must be much with God. Jesus, that lone figure in the wilderness, knew strong crying, along with tears. Can one be moved with compassion and not know tears? Jeremiah was a sobbing saint. Jesus wept! So did Paul. So did John. Though there are some tearful intercessors behind the scenes, I grant you that to our modern Christianity, praying is foreign.

Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent.

The law of prayer is the law of harvest: sow sparingly in prayer, reap sparingly; sow bountifully in prayer, reap bountifully. The trouble is we are trying to get from our efforts what we never put into them.

Faith that is going to be trusted is going to be tested.

Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself.

Men of prayer must be men of steel, for they will be assaulted by Satan even before they attempt to assault his kingdom.

LORD strengthen me where I am too weak and weaken me where I am too strong!

If you're going to be a true Christian, I'll tell you one thing amongst others: it'll be a lonely life. It's a narrow way and it becomes narrower and narrower and narrower.

The Church right now has more fashion than passion, is more pathetic than prophetic, is more superficial than supernatural.

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!

The early Church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.

We need more prophets in our pulpits and less puppets

Preaching affects men; prayer affects God. Preaching affects time; prayer affects eternity

Preaching is not a profession, it's a passion! If a man can't preach with passion he shouldn't preach at all.

It is much easier to wear a cross than to bear a cross.

One of the most amazing things Jesus said is that at the judgment seat, preachers are going to say `I cast out devils, and Jesus will say `I never knew you.

Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; it is the battle!

There is a deeper life. It is as deep as a personal Gethsemane and as costly as a personal Calvary.

I'd rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church.

We have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a Book to be explained, whereas first and foremost it is a Book to be believed (and after that to be obeyed.)

Christ cared enough for sinners to die for them. Do we care enough for sinners to live to reach them?

The first essential for the coming of the Holy Ghost into a heart today is that the heart should be cleansed from sin, for the Holy Spirit does not fill an unclean heart. What God has cleansed, He then fills. Finally, whom God fills, He uses. A holy life is the authentic sign of being filled with the Spirit.

Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?

Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally (putting on special clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church—with prayer and meditation?

If we displease God, does it matter whom we please? If we please Him, does it matter whom we displease?

The world does not believe the Bible and the church does not obey it.

God asks the best we have Because He gave the Best He had.

Five minutes after you die you'll know how you should have lived.

Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, 'Leonard, you took Me too seriously'?

The only people who want to change the Gospel are those who are unchanged by it.

The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.

The brutal, soul-shaking truth is that we are so earthly minded we are of no heavenly use.

Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. How many times have you stood and sang, “Take my life and let it be” when you haven't given Him one ounce?

If I was to ask you tonight if you were saved? Do you say 'Yes, I am saved'. When? 'Oh so and so preached, I got baptized and...' Are you saved? What are you saved from, hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebellion against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from?

The most shattering thought I've ever had is my personal accountability to God one day

Christianity is Christ plus nothing!

If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.

What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?

The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world, and make that man holy and put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.

Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?

The secret of praying is praying in secret.

Nobody else can give you a clean heart but God.

Prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings. Worship is preoccupation with GOD Himself.

If you have the smile of God what does it matter if you have the frown of men?

The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Power helpeth our infirmity in prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Life ends our deadness in prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Wisdom delivers us from ignorance in this holy art ofprayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Fire delivers us from coldness in prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Might comes to our aid in our weakness as we pray.

A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.

This life is a dressing room for eternity - THAT'S ALL IT IS!

Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned?

Christ has not conquered my affections if He has to compete for my attention.

If Jesus came back today, he wouldn’t cleanse the temple, he’d cleanse the pulpit.

You know, we're the most undisciplined generation the world has ever knownhow many of you are disciplined? How many go to bed at the same time every night, get up every morning at the same time? How do you discipline your appetites, how do you discipline your tongue? We're the most weak, effeminate Christianity the world has ever had-no wonder nobody wants it. It has no strength, it has no character

How do you learn to pray? Well how do you learn to swim? Do you sit in a chair with your feet up drinking coke learning to swim? You get down and you struggle. That's how you learn to pray.

I believe the place of prayer is not only a place where I lose my burdens, but also a place where I get a burden. He shares my burden and I share His burden. ... To know that burden, we must hear the voice of the Spirit. To hear that voice, we must be still and know that He is God.

We're living in an unprecedented day (when) evil is no longer evil. We've changed the terminology-- iniquity is now infirmity; wickedness is now weakness; devilry is now deficiency.

Finney preached and sometimes the whole congregation would get up and leave! that's good preaching.

Great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone-alone with God. Such loneliness is hard to endure, and impossible to enjoy unless God accompanied. Prophets are lone men; they walk alone, pray alone and God makes them alone.

The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church, grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.

You know, people say that today. "I am a saved sinner." That is like saying you are a married bachelor. That is like saying you are an honest thief, or a pure harlot. you can't be a saved sinner. You are either saved or you are a sinner. He came. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall save his people from their sins."

A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.

The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it.

You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still not have the presence of God.

You must be much WITH God before you can be much FOR God.

You know, we live in a day when we are more afraid of holiness than we are of sinfulness.

The cross is going to judge everything in your life: your eating, your drinking, your sleeping, your spending, your talking. Everything is cross-examined!

Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade him to move things our way, but an exercise by which we are enabled by his Spirit to move ourselves his way.

There's one thing we need above everything else; it's something we don't talk about these days. We need a mighty avalanche of conviction of sin.

The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising.