Collection of Prayers 1 — Leonard Ravenhill

Come with boldness to the throne of grace. And yet, Lord, our boldness is in humility, with a consciousness, Lord, that before Thine everlasting throne we have no luster of our own. We think of the seraphim and cherubim and others that bow down before Thee.

We're glad, Lord, that they don't have to break off and go here and yonder, because Your Word says that the holy beings cease not to say by day and night, holy, holy, holy. Father, we thank You for these awesome things that we've sung tonight, that mild He laid His glory by.

Christ’s Humiliation, Crucifixion, and Rejection

Lord, there's no explanation except love and mercy that He should lay aside His crown to wear a crown of thorns. There's nothing sensible about Him laying aside His majesty, ceasing to be worshipped, to come to earth to be whipped by wicked men, sacrificing the majesty and holy presence of His Father, and yet coming to this sin-cursed earth.

And He was despised and rejected of men. He came to His own. It had been warned for hundreds and hundreds of years that a virgin would bring forth a child, that His name would be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And yet when He came, they'd already had an outline in Isaiah 53 there of that marvelous crucifixion. They'd already been warned of a millennial age that would come, and it was all before them, and yet they saw Him not, they understood Him not, they received Him not.

But Lord, that's no worse than our blind generation. It's no worse than our preachers that are blind leading the blind. It's no worse, Lord, than the earth which is so cursed with heresy and corruption and lying and falsehood.

The Spirit’s Sovereign Movement

We're sinking in a sea of gross immorality and darkness and materialism and humanism. And Lord, there's no answer for this situation. We know not how the Spirit moves. Your blessed Word says there in John 3, The wind bloweth where it listeth.

Nobody knows the birth of the wind. We can't predict where it will go or what it will do. It's inscrutable in many ways. But Lord, we bless You, the Spirit of the living God is exactly like that. You come upon whom You will, where You will, when You will.

And Lord, we're looking for that moving of Your Spirit in this very area. Lord God, again we say in the language of Your Word, don't let us die in our sins. Don't let Tyler go to hell, Lord, because we haven't lifted up a standard in Your holy name against it.

Prayer for Divine Intervention in Tyler

Lord, we do bless You tonight for stopping that concert. I believe, Lord, it was a divine intervention. I know men worked, but Lord, those men were so mad and so concerned about getting their money and so determined that they said, it's not possible that it should be done, but You've done it and we give You praise for it.

Lord, I'm convinced it would have ended in bloodshed. These men who are threatening the pastor now. These men who are saying they'll do this and they'll injure somebody and they'll put a bomb there. I believe if it got into place, it would have been a riot.

It would have been a bloodbath. But Lord, in Your mercy, again, this very city of Tyler is a debtor to God, that You didn't pour out Your wrath, that You hindered this horrible thing from happening. And Lord, we bless You tonight that You're still the miracle-working God.

Paul’s Conversion and Unshakable Faith

Lord, there's no reason why You shouldn't get hold of Oswin, whatever his name is, Oswin, and save that man. Lord, You did that on the Damascus road, the man who had been tearing Christians apart, driving them, He said, to strange cities as He stood there before Felix.

His hands were bloody too, but You slipped away from the throne, as it were, and intercepted him on the road to Damascus. And oh God, what a miracle. If it happened out of a man there flowed rivers of living water, it was out of that man.

We think of the travels He made without jet planes and cars. And then He traveled to Asia Minor and as far as Spain, as far as we see in Italy. But God, we know too You're still in the miracle-working business.

Lord God, we ask You to show us Your majesty. Lord, we have such a puny idea of You. We need our horizons stretching. We need our hearts stretching to contain more. More love, more passion, more fervor, more vigor, more ambition, more holy hatred for sin, and more love for a holy God.

God, I think again of the Apostle that out of His innermost being, He's only reached Asia Minor. You reach us tonight through the epistles He left, written in stinking, horrible prisons, and yet saying to people who might be discouraged, rejoice.

And again I say rejoice. We thank You for a man with a faith like that, a faith that's unshakable, and a love that's unbreakable, and a joy that's unspeakable. I don't wonder, Lord, He prayed that everybody that He'd ever written to or knew should know all the fullness of God.

Spiritual Growth and a New Pentecost

Lord, we're still in waters to the ankles most of us. I am anyhow. We want to move to waters to the knees, and then to the loins, and then into total abandonment. But Lord, this generation may see something that no generation has ever seen.

Lord, we need a super Pentecost. Again, a Pentecost, Pentecost, Pentecost. We want to see old factories, Lord, instead of singing the songs they sing, stopping to pray, stopping to sing the songs of Zion, where lunch meetings in the different canteens they have in these places, in industry, where people will strike up hymns as they did in Welsh Revival.

And it was a continual song and praise of Magnificat to the Great Holy God. Lord, we're tired of the devil's dominion over all men. We pray again with the psalmist when he said, quicken me according to thy word.

Do this tonight for us, we ask, and we'll give you praise in Jesus' name. Thank you. Proceed then. Father, bless us as we explore your word, and as one said, write it deeply in our hearts with an eternal pen.

We're terribly obligated to our generation. We're awfully guilty if we withhold anything at any time, in any way. Help us to see the majesty of our Lord Jesus. Help us to realize, Lord, that this word, which quickened the pioneers of faith, and some who didn't have their word of God, this word is our God, and this word is your word, still valid, still powerful, quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Glad when thy gracious smile we see, and blessed when our faith can hold thee fast. We thank thee for assurance tonight. We thank you that like the Apostle Peter, we can say we have not followed cunningly devised fables.

The Authority and Permanence of God’s Word

We thank you, Lord, that you establish this book. This incredible book, written over centuries, even millenniums, and yet by men that didn't see each other, and yet they harmonized, non-contradicted the other.

And you say that your word will last forever and ever. Now, thy word, O God, is forever and ever. We thank you for a kingdom that is forever. It's not subjected to debates in Geneva or anywhere else. You've said it.

We don't care whether men can prove it archaeologically or other ways. The Bible isn't true because men think so. It's true because God says so. Risk our eternity on your word. The biggest gamble a man could ever make, in one sense, and yet the biggest surety a man can ever make.

We will say in the language of that old hymn tonight, beyond the sacred page, we seek thee, Lord. Our spirits pant for thee, thou living word. We thank you that this is manner indeed from heaven upon it.

With the psalmist, we want to say and mean, open now thine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. We praise in Jesus' name. Father, we thank you for the privilege and the honor of being children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Seeing the Invisible Christ and Practicing the Word

We thank you for this word, O Lord. Not what I've said about it, but what your word says about itself. Help us to be like Moses. See him who is invisible. Know a Christ that's real unto the world, and even after people in the church, he's only a theory.

He's only a figure that lived centuries ago. We want to be doers of the word and not hearers only. We want to be living epistles, as your word says, read and known of all men. We have to dismiss from each other, but not from your presence.

And this is our comfort and joy. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. We thank you for exposing to us the men like Cain and the simplicity and obedience, because your word says he gives the spirit to those who obey him, to throw aside every foolish imitation, everything which looks good but has no good, no life in it.

The High Priest, the Lamb of God, and Freedom Through His Blood

The priest, the great high priest, the Lord Jesus. Lamb of God. This lamb availed apparently just for the sin of one man. Innocent. We think of the one who of holy rise and to behold iniquity. We don't understand how God became man, lest do we understand how he became sin for us.

And because of that, we're free through that precious blood. We're guarded by your promises and we're aided by your Holy Spirit. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord, we thank you for the examples of these precious people before us.

They certainly humiliate us. We think again of this Enoch in the midst of all the corruption that just proceeded the ark, a world so filthy, you washed it all away, you drown it. And yet he lived amidst that corruption and violence and impurity and homosexuality and every other devilish thing that was there.

At the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, thank you that we can walk in newness of life day by day. We want to do it. Help us to determine in our wills that supremely we'll do the will of God. Because he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.

We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Father, we thank you for your word. We realize an awesome responsibility in knowing the way and not guiding others, in having light and not letting it shine. Pray for these precious young folk.

You'll quicken their minds and their hearts and their consciences. But above all, deepen their love. May they say that himself, as thou hast died for me, so may my love to thee, pure, warm and changeless, be a living fire.

Thank you for your presence with us in Jesus' name. I run over time. I'm sorry. It's the first night I've done it, but you're listening so well. So shall I hold my love exert and love them with the zeal like thine and turn them to a pardoning God and quench their brand in Jesus' blood.

A Holy Fire of Love, Faith, Hope, and Zeal

Kindle a fire in this meeting tonight. There'll be a wall of fire so that people will not look a hellfire. Let love burn in us like a fire. Let faith burn in us like a fire. Let hope burn within us like a fire.

Let zeal burn within us like a fire. Again, Lord, make this a bad night for the devil. Make it a glorious night for our Lord Jesus Christ. We give you praise in his name. Thank you. Father, we thank you tonight that while you are the high and lofty one who inhabited eternity, in majesty incomprehensible to us, yet we bless you that you, through the miracle of your Son Jesus Christ, come descend to dwell in humble and kind hearts.

We thank you that you've veiled your majesty in flesh. Concerning Jesus, Wesley said, mild he laid his glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.

Seeking a Divine Invasion and an Encounter with God

Maybe there's not one person here that isn't acquainted with the gospel tonight, but they still may be unacquainted with your holiness and your majesty. They've witnessed blessing, but never shared a meeting in which there's been a divine invasion.

We welcome you tonight, holy spirit of God. We bless you for this indestructible, infallible, inerrant book called the Bible. We think of how through the ages men have burned it and banned it and banished it, and yet it stands at the graveside of all its persecutors.

Because you have said that your word, that heaven and earth may pass away, but your word will never pass away. We thank you for one more privilege to bow in your presence, one more opportunity to hear your voice, and truly we say with another point tonight, beyond the sacred page we seek thee Lord.

We ask that we may lose sight of the preacher, lose sight of each other. Lord, we ask you that somehow you'll transfer us into eternity tonight. We're so earthbound, we're so conscious of visible things, and so unconscious of the invisible.

Again, so conscious of the temporal and so unconscious of the eternal. Do some miracle in our hearts tonight. Let nobody leave this place as they came in. Make every one of us to have an encounter with God.

Again, we thank you for this word, and we turn to it with expectation, and pray the spirit who inspired it, inspire the holy men of God who were moved by the Holy Ghost, that we may be moved by that same spirit as we read this awesome word.

We come in with you, we'll give you the praise in Jesus name.