A Voice Clarified - Leonard Ravenhill
Dear reader, it was for good reason that Leonard Ravenhill said,"The last words of Jesus to the church (in Revelation) were 'Repent!'"It is startling to consider the last words of Jesus Christ, as seen in Revelation 2-3.
Biblical TheologyDec 12, 2019Updated Sep 3, 2026
Leonard Ravenhill
Multitudes of people have acknowledged Leonard Ravenhill as a prophet sent by God, but have we really heard what he said?
Dear reader, it was for good reason that Leonard Ravenhill said, "The last words of Jesus to the church (in Revelation) were 'Repent!'" It is startling to consider the last words of Jesus Christ, as seen in Revelation 2-3. These letters were written to true and authentic converts of biblical Churches, and yet Christ's predominant burden was, "Repent!" Approximately 2,000 years have past since then, but I assure you, this very same word is burning upon the heart of the living and ascended Christ! I entreat you that you would listen to the following videos with an ear to understand why...
VIDEO #1: "To the Preacher" - The Idolatry of Intelligence, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #2: "To the Preacher" - Anointed by God, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #3: "The Church" - The Arena of God's Immediate Sovereignty, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #4: "Suffering" - The Marks of God's Approval, by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #5: "To the Calvinist" by Leonard Ravenhill
VIDEO #6: "The Coming Revival" by Leonard Ravenhill
"To the Preacher" - The Idolatry of Intelligence by Leonard Ravenhill
- We call it intelligence, God calls it pride.
- My heart is full of Christ, not my head is full of theology! My heart is full of Christ and longs this glorious message to declare!
- You don't need know your Bible... You don't need to know the word of God, you need to know the God of the word!
- Where is the confrontation of the MEN OF GOD?
- Prayer grasps eternity. It doesn't demand a colossal intellect. It doesn't demand a vast vocabulary.
- Do you think you can find a Church on earth that fits into that pattern?
- We are boasting about something we don't have!...It's Theology. It's a Phrase. It's a Technique.
- Do you know, in those revivals, never once was there an altar call? Do you know, when there's a revival you don't make an altar call?
- Listen, there isn't a Pentecostal Church in America today!
- There isn't a revivalist in America today... not one!
- No mention of the pew, it's all on the pulpit. Let the priests weep... Let them rend their hearts. Let them howl. But where in God's Name do you get taught to howl in prayer?
- If you want to know how popular a Church is, go Sunday morning. If you want to know how popular the preacher is, go Sunday night. If you want to know how popular God is, go to the prayer meeting.
- Listen. Forget our seminaries! There's no anointing in them!
- Do you know what you do when you go to seminary? You get a swollen head and a shrunken heart.
- I say, if your preacher doesn't weep, you weep over the preacher!
- Tell me this, do you have a course on weeping for them? And if they graduate, do you have a course on howling?
- It originates in God. (Speaking of the Anointing, Gift, and Call to Preach)
- Would like to pass your mantle on to me? No, but I'll share you some of my sackcloth... and I never hear from them again.
- They were unlearned and ignorant men... the Holy Ghost came upon them. Not intellectuals, bishops, & presidents of colleges.
- God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long... I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now.
- The Church has become so carnal... the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!
"To the Preacher" - Anointed by God by Leonard Ravenhill
- WE NEED PROPHETS!
- It was in the darkest and most desolate hour that God raised up His prophets!
- They see like God, they love like God, they hate like God... they have a holy anger.
- I know when He speaks... I know when He breaks my heart... I know when He gives me anger... which I need.
- Not a profession... a passion.
- What's the condition in America like spiritually tonight? ZERO. Why?
- Because we've got blind men coming out of seminaries... as blind men, they lead the blind.
- The enemies of the cross of Christ are not in the tavern now... they're in God's House.
- I believe God will look down on nearly every Church in America or England this Sunday and say, "Your House is empty."
"The Church" - The Arena of God's Immediate Sovereignty by Leonard Ravenhill
God's immediate sovereignty, what is it?
"People do not leave the sanctuary for hours."
"You can't explain it, you can't predict it, you can't direct it... God becomes sovereign!"
God's immediate sovereignty is not "Christian Humanism":
"We'll do it, You bless it Lord."
"We put personalities up, just like the world does."
"He said, 'I want to tell you that if God withdrew the Holy Spirit from my church today, it would function tomorrow the same way we wouldn't even know He'd gone...'"
"Come our way..."
God's immediate sovereignty is when, suddenly... God comes:
"When he prayed God just came down as though He jumped into the audience."
"He prayed the whole night for the anointing for the next day."
God's immediate sovereignty is when God is in control and His burden manifest:
"And I just walked forward and sat on the floor - didn't go to the pulpit:...and I began to weep."
"My spirit just groaned, and he stayed there 50 minutes weeping."
Instead of God's immediate sovereignty we've become carnal and mechanical:
"The Church has become so carnal...
the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!"
"When did you last tip-toe out of the sanctuary and say, 'Surely God is in this place, and that to bless us!'"
"They don't expect Deity to invade the place. They don't expect to tip-toe out of the holy place..."
"God only had one problem in the Old Testament, and that was Israel. And I believe Almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight, and it's not communism or romanism, it's the Church of the Living God!"
"The Glory has departed!"
What must we do?
"I'd like to see 300 pastors come together, for a whole week and stay prostrate before God."
"TOTAL control by YOU."
"If we stay here it doesn't matter whether we die here."
"Our people don't feed on God, they feed on meetings."
"So I am praying this morning that suddenly God will come."
We must rediscover worship:
"I haven't been in a Church in England where they know how to worship God."
"Sometimes the glory comes down..."
"Maybe before you die, you'll see people coming from foreign countries to show us what New Testament Christianity is all about."
"There's not a flood of revival in America today."
"God is bypassing us, provoking us..."
"Suffering" - The Marks of God's Approval by Leonard Ravenhill
Are we willing to suffer?
"..we raise our hats to the martyrs, and we thank God for the last drop of their blood but we won't give Him the first drop of ours."
In what circumstance will we suffer?
"What about when God does it with you? In your Church, people begin to ridicule you... but that's the way you make character."
To what end will we suffer?
"If you're going to be a prophet you'll have to preach repentance, and before you start - dedicate your head to heaven."
"You get filled with the Holy Ghost, and watch it, where will you go? You'll go where those other men have gone... they've put them in prison."
"He went to cities and he had one of two things: Revival or Riot"
Who is suffering?
"There isn't a prophet in America today that I know of."
"Immediately he takes up that mantle of prophesy - he gets the full load of the love of God and the full anger of the people."
Will a prophet suffer persecution from the Church, the saints, and godly people?
"Don't care about public opinion. Don't care what godly people say or what the ungodly say:...till they get a hold of the will of God and they run with it."
"If you stir hell up, the devil will stir everything he can against you: you'll get misunderstood, misrepresented... if you're not mature enough, it will get you down. It's not the contradiction of sinners... It's the criticism of saints that gets you down."
What success can come from suffering?
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed bed of the Church."
Should we expect suffering?
"We are fools for Christ's sake" -
"Why do you expect to be accepted?"
Can this suffering be described and specified?
"They were most despised, discredited, disappointed, disillusioned men in the world."
"Pentecost in the New Testament meant to be married to: Poverty, Persecution, Privation, Prisons, Pain."
"People say, 'We want another Pentecost.' I don't believe them for a minute. Pentecost in the New Testament is tied in with persecution, poverty (and) prison!"
"The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity."*
"To the Calvinist" by Leonard Ravenhill
The Major Burdens
The Idolatry of Church History:
"We've too many preachers studying Church History, and too few preachers making history. Studying Church History is an indoctrination which, very often becomes I think... 'brain washing'."(beware of"blind indoctrination")
Is modern Christianity the blood-bought Church?
"He didn't die for this freak of a thing! This powerless thing!This pale, pathetic, powerless, putrid Protestantism that dares to label itself with His Name!"
Is the Holy Ghost always with a man?
"The Holy Ghost may not come back to you...
Some of you preachers are preaching a theology and you're sheltering behind a denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelations God has given you..."
"God's going to do a new thing in this generation."
How does a Saint Backslide?
"Resist. Strive. Grieve....when you finish that, He leaves you. You can't get back to God when you want."
Blood Atonement:
"I have to put off the old man.
I have to put on the new man.
I have to renounce this world..."
"We're living in bankruptcy as the Church of Jesus Christ, compared with where we ought to live."
"Paul says, you're to put on the whole armor of God - it's not something automatic you've got to put it on."
(shun over-simplistic definitions of The Atonement)
To the Backslider:
"Tonight, in one act of mercy, He can take your record and cast it behind His back forever..."
"He'll be weeping until you come back. You said no to His blood."
(a backslider is a regenerated man under the guilt of unforgiven sin)
Cleansing From Sin:
"Lord, I'm glad that Fountain is still open tonight..."
(cleansing from sin is a present continuous experience)
We're Going to be Found Out:
"But if I am living now with eternal life, why should I need to change before I get into heaven?"
"’Don't you worry, God will never forsake you... it doesn't matter, you may leave Him but He will never leave you.' That is entirely against the scripture."
"If the Spirit troubles you this morning, thank God He is troubling you... before you go to hell."
What Pastoral Burden?
"You think they'd go into that sin if they had an eye on the Judgment Seat?"
(that the fallen would be restored by rediscovering the Judgment Seat)
The State of the Church:
"The Church is asleep today."
"God only had one problem in the Old Testament, and that was Israel. And I believe Almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight, and it's not communism or romanism, it's the Church of the Living God!"
"The Glory has departed!"
(the Church has fallen asleep... are you awake?)
The Church needs God:
"You're too late, I'm getting rid of you. Your House is left desolate.
You say America needs God, no she doesn't... the Church needs God! If the Church gets God, America would soon feel it - she'd be staggering."
"There's one promise God hasn't kept... I think He's about to do it: He said He'd spew us out of His mouth."
Who's the Bride of Christ?
- Him that overcometh.
- Those of us who are living in victory
- Walking in the Light.
- Walking in the Spirit.
- No bitterness.
- No defeat.
- Your living in union with the will of God.
- People hate you and despise you.
"You don't want Jesus to come as you are now..."
The State of the Church:
"Your Church has no vision, because you have no vision. The Church has no passion, because you have no passion."
"He's not coming for a limping, lame, ragged woman..."
"The hindrance to His coming tonight is that the Church is impure."
"Do you think Jesus died for this dirty, rotten system we call 'Christianity'” (preacher, have you prepared the Bride?)
A Midnight Cry:
"There is only one reason that the world is going to hell tonight, and that is because of the unbelief of the Church."
"I believe almost (not all), almost every pulpit in the land is an insult to the Lord Jesus today." (will you respond to the cry?)
"The Coming Revival" by Leonard Ravenhill
- He's going to anoint your sons and your daughters, not your bishops sir... No, I'm sorry bishops.
- He's going to show us the Church anointed again in the Spirit of the Living God!
- When the Church is healthy... hell trembles.
- They must be young people.... working class people. Not the elite.
- (They will be people like): Fishermen of Galilee, A Tax Collector
- We're going to see men in our generation that have never been on the earth.
- God's going to raise some super holy men... people aren't ready.
- Folk don't want my message anyhow.
- There's going to come another"Upper Room". You young men are my hope.
- God wants some people crazier than I am.
- There's not a flood of revival in America today. God is bypassing us, provoking us...
- The Church has become so carnal... the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!
- God's going to bypass organized religion and systems before very long... I believe that many denominations are breathing their last right now.
- I am convinced that God's going to do a new work...
The Holy Ghost may not come back to you... []. Some of you preachers are preaching a theology and your shouting behind a denomination, and you're scared stiff to preach the revelations God has given you...
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