Woe, Lo, and Go - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

The Threefold Vision: Deity, Depravity, and Duty

Here you have a threefold vision. Vision is almost the greatest dynamic in the world. Here's a threefold vision, get it? Verse 5, woe. Verse 7, love. Verse 9, go. Here you have a vision of deity. Isaiah saw the Lord.

High. Here you have a vision of depravity because he saw inside himself. Here you have a vision of duty because he saw lost world. Upward vision of holiness, an inward vision of helplessness, a world outside in hopelessness, and the only answer to it is a revelation of God.

You can have a vision without a task, you'll be a visionary. If you have a task without a vision, that's drudgery. But if you have a vision with a task, that makes you a missionary. The greatest bundle of people have ever lived, live in the world at this moment.

Five billion people, that's never been before in the history of the world. So I need this threefold vision. One of the Jewish scholars, what they call him, Dr. Bux Basin, he wrote a wonderful commentary, commentary on Isaiah.

The Need for Prophets Who Walk With God

You know, we have some wonderful people in the world today. We have people that walk on the bottom of the ocean. They've discovered four hundred million dollars in gold off the coast of California. Somebody will be after them to tithe.

And they have four hundred million dollars. And on our TV, show these men walking around finding dollars and everything, put them in a bag. We've got men walk on the bottom of the ocean. We've got men that walk on the moon, but we need men that walk with God.

And that's exactly what prophets do. Bux Basin says this awesome thing. You talk about the prophet, he says the prophet, by the very nature of his calling, is a tragic figure, because he has a reckless devotion to God, and he has a broken heart over a lost world.

Where are the prophets today? The prophet suffers for the people, he suffers with the people, he suffers by the people. There's no shortcut for a prophet. A prophet is an abomination in the sight of men.

The man who claims to be a prophet, if he's going to be a true prophet of God, he better get ready to get out of this world, because this world doesn't want him. The greatest prophet that ever lived was Jesus, the holiest, purest man that lived.

The world couldn't put up with him. Why in God's name do you expect better treatment from this lousy world than he got? Are you holier? It brutalized him from the moment he came into the world. I hang on to that.

The prophet suffers for the people, he suffers with the people, and he suffers by the people. In the year that King Isaiah died, you see, Isaiah had been captivated by this political genius, this man that transformed the whole nation.

The Church’s Lost Authority

He brought it out of poverty into riches. People would say, let's get the right men in Washington, dear God. They can't even run Washington, never mind run the church. Half of them are thieves. We had two of the most prominent men in the country, in our state.

Mr. Wright had the third highest position in the government, and he lost it all. What was his senator? Forgotten his name now. Towers, said Towers. I don't know why the name like that, I was only five foot one, he didn't tower.

But these men, they say, if we get the right men, God never intended that godly men should run this world. We can't even run the church, God help us. Our glory has departed, our authority has departed.

The people in the world laugh at the church. We're about as strong against a tide of iniquity that's pouring over the world just now. We're about as strong as a, what do you call it? What's the stuff that blows about in the wind?

Fun? No. When you're going up, tumbleweed. You should be disgusted. It took an Englishman to describe it. Tumbleweed blows here, blows there, goes up, goes down. The church is like that. Paschal said in 1500 that when Jesus revealed himself to him in a vision one night, he went to pray, and he said that exactly half past ten, Jesus came in person and spoke to him and said, when I hung on the cross, I was thinking of you.

And he says from that very moment until Jesus comes back again, he's been weeping in heaven. I don't believe he's weeping over abortion. I don't believe he's weeping over drunkenness. I don't believe he's weeping over broken families with divorce.

I believe he's weeping over his church. He's left us riches we don't know. He's left us strength we've never fathomed. We're so content to again have a few lousy sins. Isn't it almost an embarrassment to say that Christ lives in us when the devil is running the whole show outside?

Isn't it ridiculous to say grace is he that is in us? Somebody said the other day, you know what, the scripture says in the last days, Daniel says the people that do know their God should be strong and do exploits.

Entertainment Versus Spiritual Strength

Dear Lord, we don't even know our Bibles, never mind God. Exploits? Strength to do exploits? I guarantee that 99 of you men here that watch the wretched game, what was it, in the toilet bowl? No, in the, what was it, sugar bowl?

What was it called? Well, I've forgotten it now. Oh, Super Bowl. Thank you. You talk about doing exploits. You didn't have strength to turn the thing off. Let me tell you what I thought of today. Very classical, of course.

Do you know what the TV is in most homes? It's their life support. If you pull that plug, you'll kill the family. The kids would go mad. They'd throw the sugar basin at you. They'd throw the milk jug at you.

They'd throw everything. It's their life support. It's tragic. It's true and it's tragic. But I'll tell you what, when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we won't need entertainment. Joy is greater than entertainment.

You don't have to run over to Hollywood milking the wretched cow over there every day. In a year, the King Uzziah died. This man has had his vision obstructed by success and triumph. I say again, as long as he had success and was able to control it, okay.

But more people fall through success than through failure. When we're in failure, we struggle. We were talking last night. We had a wonderful meeting, I thought last night, because Jack did most of the talking.

I did a bit. But we had a wonderful meeting. And I believe that, you know, when people say, you know, I go into some meetings, I get into condemnation. You don't. The man who has faith never gets into condemnation.

He fights out. He knows God is greater than that thing that's crushing him, that so-called condemnation. Forget it. We're made to be conquerors over the world of flesh and the devil, okay. Vision. Doesn't the Bible say, where there is no vision, the people perish.

Holiness as the Foundation of Worship

We need a vision of a holy God. It's good to shout and clap and all this noisy stuff that they have around here. But you know what? You can't worship God without holiness. Worship the Lord in what? The beauty of holiness.

John, I've cried more. I've cried more this three weeks than I've ever in my life. Not always for sorrow, but often for joy. A lady this morning described the high priest going into the holy place. What does the Bible say?

He had on sackcloth, garments of glory and beauty. Pomegranates and golden bells. It was music going in. It was beautiful. He had a breastplate. It had 12 stones. On the stones were the tribes, the nations, the tribes of Israel.

And he went to the holy place, lift up hands, and he looked beautiful in the sight of God. And he says, worship the Lord in the beauty. You can make all the noise you like, 10 ,000 times noisier than it was.

And if you do, I hope I'm not here, but anyhow. But even if you do, you may not be worshiping at all. You can worship God in silence. Dear brother John used to be in his early days in the Quakers. I've been to Quaker meetings.

They were beautiful. I'm not saying I go every week forever, but there's a stillness. The Bible says, be still and know that I'm God, which is as vital as being filled with the Spirit. You see, God can't get to some of you.

You preach your boys. You book up. Just before he left, a guy sent me a letter. And he said, I want you to see. Last year in 52 weeks, I held 50 revivals. In 52, he didn't hold one. He just gave God a shopping list.

To me, that's arrogance at its highest. Lord, I want the Holy Ghost on my meeting Wednesday to Wednesday. Then I'll be traveling three days till I get to another place. Turn up, Lord. Forget it. One of these days, you'll have enough sense to wait on God.

Longing for Genuine Revival

Repeatedly, I've heard people say, you know, we haven't broken through yet. There's a glory to bury thee. I'd believe that with all my heart. I'd die if I didn't believe that. We haven't touched the glory of God in our generation.

We haven't gone to meetings where the lights don't go out for three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten weeks. We haven't seen men come into town penniless. You can't put stuff over on me. I'm not a chicken.

I don't eat chaff. I want the seed. A little man came into a town near where I lived in 1935. He didn't have a penny to his name. Nobody knew him. And he started a meeting, would you believe, Monday afternoon, good night, wash day.

Starting a meeting on Monday. Five o 'clock in the morning, God woke him up and said, there'll be a boy in the meeting with a boot six, five inches deep. When you make an appeal, nobody will want to be saved.

When you say anybody want to be healed, the boy's mother will raise her hand. He said to the song leader at three o 'clock, looking at the auditorium, how many people are there? None, he said. No, no, no, no, he said.

What does it hold? Oh, it holds over 3 ,000. Who? Oh, well, he said, he said there may be 120. He said, let's get out of town. We won't get enough offering to pay for the lighting. And dear little Welshman, Stephen Jeffreys said, there's a boy in the meeting with a shoe five inches deep.

He said, when I pray, ask anybody want to be saved? Nobody will raise their hand. When I say anybody want to be healed, mother will go like that. And so he preached. And he never preached very passionately, I must assure you.

But he said, well, anybody want to be saved? No hand raised. Anybody want to be healed? The woman went like that. So he said, well, bring the boy up on the platform. And he said to the boy, have you heard about Jesus?

Yes. Well, what would Jesus do for you? Oh, he said, mister, he'd heal me. He said, well, I'm Jesus ambassador. And the boy had his shoe off and he said to the congregation, pray. And everybody, would you believe, that all 120 remembered the same text at the same time, watch and pray.

He knew they were watching because the leg went down. Everybody said, oh! You don't do that in England. They don't do that in Pentecostal churches. Never mind Church of England. That's not devout enough.

And then the little boy put on his shoe, ran out. His mother ran after him. Congregation ran after her. That night there were 3 ,000 people. Listen, this is revival. Do you know why? Because at the end of that meeting at night, people went round the building and lined up to get in the afternoon meeting next day.

People carried chairs on their backs every day. A man would go at the end of a meeting, go home, he had a chair, sit in that chair in rotten English weather at 10 o 'clock at night and be there at 5 in the morning.

And then his wife would come and save the seat for her. And he'd go to work and she'd come and take the place. And that went on for three weeks. There was no TV. There was no advertising. You never have to advertise a fire.

All you have to do is get the fire. I don't know. Let me ask these theologians, Jack, after. Tell me, what did those people, they saw a pillar of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. One of these nights, this place will burn with holy fire.

These altars will be crowded with men that say, I'm tired of preaching. I'm tired of words. I'm tired of theology. We need God. And our God is a consuming fire. Those three men, Stephen Jeffreys, George Jeffreys shook England.

Prayer, Pentecost, and the Power of the Holy Spirit

Nobody had ever heard about healing and miracles. You talk about Azusa Street. There's a little guy in Azusa Street, a black man. What was his name? Thank you, sir. Seymour. Well, that's his name. He did Seymour.

He saw more than anybody else. Thank you. Wasn't that smart? Do you know before the fire of God fell, Seymour was praying two and a half hours a day? I've got it on record. And he said, Lord, what can I do?

The Lord said, increase it to five hours. There's a little black man with his head in a shoebox praying five hours a day. My precious son, David, where were you last week? Up in Portland? There's a man in Portland.

Dick, what's his name? The praying man, Simmons. Has Dick Simmons been here? You need to have him. He's backslidden. I mean, would you believe this pastor, Brother John? He's dropped from 16 hours a day praying to 10.

Isn't that terrible? Dave Wilson came to see me a few weeks, years ago before he left. He said, Len, do you know about Dick Simmons? I've heard of him. He's a man of prayer. He said, well, I was praying this morning.

The Lord said, send him $2 ,000. I said, well, I don't know where he is. He said, well, I don't. The next day he came, he said, I got a letter from Dick Simmons saying, Brother, I don't want to go back to work, but I can't pay my rent.

I can't buy food for my family because I don't have money. And he said, I've been praying, asking God for $2 ,000. It was ready in the mail. That man has gone around this country and he demands, if he comes here, all the church meets with him at six in the morning, and you'll learn more about prayer in a month through that man than all the textbooks you've ever read.

Why? Because he prays. And he prays in the Holy Ghost. And there's no way of praying in tongues. He prays with the wisdom of the Holy Ghost. He prays with the strength of the Holy Ghost. He prays with the love of the Holy Ghost.

You talk about phenomena. You talk about the Westleys. You talk about what's a fellow, that miracle man that was in England, Martha David. Wigglesworth. Wigglesworth's a thousand miles ahead of me, but John Lake was a thousand miles ahead of Wigglesworth.

If I could pray one prayer and know God would answer it in an hour, I'd say, God give America, give the world a thousand John Lakes. I'm tired of paper theology. I'm tired of you telling me it's going to happen.

They told me that 60 years ago. It's going to happen. It's nearly there. Our Paul said the other week, Daddy, we keep asking God for something that's almost at our fingertips and we don't want it really.

We want it in here. I don't want revival in you. I want revival in me. I don't want you to weep for the lost. I want to weep for the lost. I'm going to eternity for a thousand millenniums. So can't I bear suffering and hardship and travel?

I wouldn't take a singing team with me anywhere. I took praying teams with me around England and the churches we established 60 years ago are still there in the power of God. But you see, the thing that drives you again is vision.

William Booth, Catherine Booth, and Salvation Army Revival

If I were to ask you about one of the greatest revivals in history, namely the revival by the Salvation Army, what would you say? Who launched it? You say a man who was half Jew and half Gentile by the name of William Booth.

But William Booth had a woman behind him. It was a tower. She was a divine energy. She prayed. She traveled. And she had a curvature of the spine and they had no money. All they had was hardship. And he steps out into the gutter with no backing.

The Church of England mocked him. Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to him and said, Mr. Booth, your work won't stand. Number one, you don't baptize your converts. Number two, you don't celebrate communion.

So he wrote back and said, Archbishop, thank you for the advice. But if my work won't stand, yours won't. Because you say we don't baptize and we don't give communion. And he said, God won't bless you because you don't wash each other's feet.

That stumped the preacher. He never said a word after that. And the revival was 70, 90 years. The Salvation Army went into 70 countries. But you know what? I believe God's going to do more in the next two weeks than have been done in the last 50 years in America.

I believe. Otherwise I wouldn't be here. I believe that God's going to raise up men who came into this meeting strong and he's going to make them weak. He's going to get men who are weak and make them strong.

He's going to take the somebodies and reduce them to nothing. He's going to bypass the multi-million beggars that we have. There's more talk about faith now than ever and never as much begging. There's more talk about revival than ever yesterday.

The Promise of a New Revival

That's going to turn around this week. I told dear brother John when I talked with him, up with brothers, with a Bickle and company. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll give him a handle. Bishop Bickle. I said, John, I believe that February this year God's going to birth something here.

And I whispered when I came in, I believe we witnessed something on Friday afternoon. I've never seen anything like that. I've been in big meetings. I've been to Keswick meetings in London, preached them in London, preached them in Australia and all over, but never sensed God as we sensed him.

There wasn't a preacher there. I don't think hardly. They were just very ordinary people. Doesn't God say that? He's sick to death of our professionalism. I'll pour out my spirit and all flesh, your son Archbishops.

Does he say? Oh, I got the wrong version. I got the perverse version. It doesn't say that. It says your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Young men see vision. Old men dream dreams. I believe the next revival, I don't know what Bob thinks, a new day for, I believe the next revival will be short, but dynamic and powerful beyond anything we've ever had.

The age is closing in us. Okay. I heard a man on TV the other night said to Martha when we got home, she said, I said, darling, turn on the TV. There may be news. It was just on the hour. He said, that was a guy talking about the Bible.

Didn't the stupid guy said he talked about the Berlin wall cost millions of dollars. And he said, it's been moved because it's a historic fact. Listen, you bear me record. Let God in heaven bear me record at this moment.

God moved the Berlin wall for John Wimber. You say how? I'm not sure. I'm not sure what, I thought there's a man in here. I'm not sure what God wants for my life. I know when God told us to leave England and go to Ireland, leave Ireland, come to America, leave America, go to Bahamas, come back now at 80 on the age of 84.

I don't know where I'm going, but I do know this. Moses was only my age when he started preaching too. And I tell you what I think, Bob, that John should drive. This is a foretaste. This is a sample. It should go from here to London, from London to Germany.

And the reason God moved the Berlin wall was so John can have a holiness convention there and everybody in Europe can come. People say the Berlin wall was moved by politicians. Forget it. It was moved by God.

It isn't political strategy. It's divine strategy. I don't know. I'll get through this. What time's the meeting in the morning? Okay. John, I need to talk with you, John. I really have to talk seriously with you.

Vision That Leads to Obedience

How many of you have this book, Power Encounters? Do you have it? Is it on special, John? It's on special, but there's something more important. Do I get commission on this? There's a chapter in here that's worth the whole book.

It's driven me to tears. It wakes me in the night. Well, I've had two escorts this week. They've been wonderful. Jack and Todd. I said something about women the other day. They thought I was against women.

I'm not. My mother was one and I married one too. Oh, he says, I thought you were going to tell us the story about the man who said, what do you say? He, come on, stand behind your statements or sit behind it.

Oh, I said one or two thing about women and he said, oh no, you're too hard on the women. He said, I thought you were going to tell about the man who said, I never found happiness till I was married. Then it was too late.

You see why I get never asked to address women's meetings. But listen, if you offered me a seven course dinner at Buckingham Palace tomorrow, or the chance to go to Jackie Pullinger, I go to Jackie Pullinger for seven cups of tea.

Even if I got one, I'd be satisfied. To me, she'd become a heroine. It's one thing to have vision. It's another thing to obey. When the very gates of hell are locked against you. Here's a little petite English lady, 20 years of age, has a wealthy family, could marry into society.

They're struggling to get a degree in the university. And suddenly she said, I got tired of going to church. Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. And she told her pastor and he discouraged her. She told her dad and he said, no.

Then the Lord said, you get on a boat and get off where the boat stops. So she got on the boat and it stopped 14 ,000 miles away from home in Hong Kong. She was 20 years of age. She's still there now, what, she's 44?

She'd been there 24 years. But listen, this one I'll tell you. This is what John Wimber wrote. Talking about Jackie, she got the baptism of the spirit spoke in tongues. And then she says, I asked God to help.

I asked the spirit to help me intercede. She's not looking for power to show off. Show me how to travel. Show me how to pierce those terrible barriers of the devil. Show me how to make hell tremble. I'm a funny boy.

Sure I am. I'll tell you what a friend of mine looked into hell and he said, I wake up at night. I can see the horror there. Do you know what I prayed this week? I prayed it publicly and privately that this place was so blazed with the glory of God that whenever a demon in hell looks down, he'll get nervous.

Turn the tide on the devil. We're the biggest challenge in history. We're not going to do it by little meetings. We're going to do it by men full of faith of the Holy Ghost.