Leonard Ravenhill
Very little biographical information is available for Leonard Ravenhill. He rarely spoke of himself which is likely a reflection of his belief in exalting Christ and not self. Most of what we know about Ravenhill is from sources that knew him and the details he provided in sermons. He was an evangelist born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England in 1907 and was used by God in revivals in Great Brittan before moving to American in 1950. Leonard Ravenhill was known for his focus on revival and his writing on the subject including the popular title, Why Revival Tarries.
Ravenhill preached in churches of many denominations, but was not ordained by any. His preaching is marked by calling sinners to repentance, insisting Christians live lives marked by holiness, and encouraging deeper prayer lives. Ravenhill claims to have been saved at age 14, but says he was baptized by the Holy Spirit at age 18 indicating belief in a Pentecostal system. However, Ravenhill also said he never spoke in tongues and said that baptism of the Holy Spirit is the same thing Wesley called sanctification and also said the only evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is holy living. He rejected Christian Perfection, but preached a Wesleyan-Holiness higher Christian life theology. Ravenhill speaks of John Wesley frequently and wrote a biographical sketch of him. Wesley’s influence on Ravenhill is apparent.
Leonard Ravenhill was a mentor to Keith Green of Last Days Ministries based in Texas. Later in his life, Leonard moved to Texas close to Last Day Ministries where he led a weekly prayer meeting and taught classes before dying in November of 1994.
“The apostles had no gold, but lots of glory. We have lots of gold, but no glory.”
“How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?”
“My goal is GOD HIMSELF. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but HIMSELF...my GOD.”
“You can't live wrong and pray right.”
“LORD strengthen me where I am too weak and weaken me where I am too strong!”
“Is the world crucified to you or does it fascinate you?”
“One of these days some simple soul will pick up the book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.”
“If Thou canst do something with us and through us, then please, God, do something without us! Bypass us and take up a people who now know Thee not!”
“If we displease God, does it matter whom we please? If we please Him does it matter whom we displease?”
“The greatest miracle that God can do today is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world and make him holy, then put him back into that unholy world and keep him holy in it.”
“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.”
“One thing and one thing alone keeps us from complete decay in this hour - the church, the true Church.”
“Preacher, keep your knees on the ground & your eyes on the throne.”
“Satan fools and feigns, blows and bluffs, and we so often take his threats to heart and forget the "exceeding greatness of God's power to us.”
“When there’s something in the Bible that churches don’t like, they call it legalism.”
“Entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. ”
“A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.”
“But you know if God should stamp eternity or even judgment on our eyeballs, or if you’d like on the fleshy table of our hearts I am quite convinced we’d be a very, very different tribe of people, God’s people, in the world today. We live too much in time, we’re too earth bound. We see as other men see, we think as other men think. We invest our time as the world invests it. We're supposed to be a different breed of people. I believe that the church of Jesus Christ needs a new revelation of the majesty of God. We’re all going to stand one day, can you imagine it- at the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in the body. This is what- this is the King of kings, and He’s the Judge of judges, and it’s the Tribunal of tribunals, and there’s no court of appeal after it. The verdict is final.”
“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.”
“A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by man.”