Cost of Discipleship - Part 10 — Leonard Ravenhill

Courage Through the Empowerment of the Holy Spirit

Suddenly sprang to life on the edge of the sea. She says, I remember being in the Cherryfield Mission in Dundee, Scotland one afternoon. I went to hear a certain preacher. He couldn't come. Ravenhill Preach.

No, that can't be that little red-haired woman. I used to be afraid to go out in the dark. A mouse ran over the floor. I never understand why a woman weighing a hundred and forty pounds jumps on a chair when a mouse weighing half an ounce is going to knock her over.

You'd think it was a bulldozer coming. I didn't face a mouse. I didn't face the darkness. I didn't want to be lonely. And she said, hallelujah, that afternoon. All I did was sweep the floor in the factory and the devil said, you know, the baptism of the Spirit, the endowment with power is only for intellectuals and ministers and preachers and prospective missionaries.

It's not for servant girls. It's not for a girl sweeping the factory of a floor. You've no education. But Ravenhill said, bring what you have and let God burn it up. And she said, that was my lifeline.

Deliverance from Fear and Transformation for Mission

I ran to that altar that afternoon. And she said, the fire came and consumed all my desires and all my fears and all my tomorrows. I'm just back from Africa. I've been there nearly 15 years. Oh, I'm not afraid of mice, she said, some night.

There's a lion at the door. Oh, she said, I turn over and say, go off. I'm not on the menu tonight. Sometimes I have to walk on the log in the middle of the night with a man holding lights in front of me.

And there's a hippo with his mouth open or a crocodile. I deliver a baby and he says, I'll go back with you because there's a man eating. No, no, it's all right. She says, I come back singing your blessed assurance.

He took away my fear of man. He took away my fear of death. He took away my fear of consequences. And she said, when I, an illiterate girl, went to the Bible school in Birkenhead, I topped, I was in the top ten students in languages, in English, and I couldn't write before I went there.

I went to the International School of Languages in Paris and I came out on the Dean's List again. And now in the wilds of Africa, living by myself in a hut where I would have been terrified. I'd have died the first day.

I don't want to stay in Scotland. I want to get back to Africa where God's working. And she said, that little hut is filled with the glory of God like the Shekinah Temple. All out of a life that was so useless, still I laid it all at God's feet.

Costly Consecration and Obedience to God's Call

One last thing. This will give my age away, but back in the 1930s, I know, you know, I'm over 21, so that's all right. But back in the 1930s, we were, we were preaching, doing crusades in England. We had a man by the name of Dan Phillips.

Dan had a tremendous voice. He'd been as wild as any man in World War I. And he bore the scars of it, both in his mind, in his conscience, in his body. One day a young lady stopped him and talked to him about the Lord and he got marvelously saved.

She was a beautiful young lady. And she coached him along and they went to meetings together and finally fell in love with her. And they fixed a date for marriage. They went and bought all the furniture and stored it away.

He was standing in a meeting one night and they were singing what the man said was a hymn of consecration. Is that my paper? Did I write on that? I had one. I wrote a verse that I was trying to remember.

Oh, it's on the inside. Oh, I've got it here. Thank you. Okay, the man's name was Dan Phillips. There's a wonderful atmosphere in the tabernacle in Manchester. Everybody felt God was moving. But Dan felt specially because they were singing this verse.

Here I give my all to thee, friends and time and earthly store. Soul and body thine to be, only thine forevermore. Let's sing that verse again, said the leader. Here I give my friends, and the Lord said, look, look this side.

Here's the girl he's going to marry in so many months. Here I give my all to thee, friends. I want your friend. Time, I want your time. Your earthly store, all that furniture, sell it and go to college.

And going out, he said to her, I've got to tell you something. It's very important. Why didn't you tell me last night? I didn't know. I didn't know until a few minutes ago in the meeting. In the meeting, yeah, yeah, as we were singing, here I give my all to thee, friends and time.

I've sung that a hundred times, but I didn't sing it like today. We've got to postpone our wedding. Are you sure? Yeah. I tried to back off, but the Lord said, do you love her more than you love me? Well, I'll make it up to you.

You can get married. You know, I won't slay you, but my perfect will is that you postpone your marriage and you sell your goods and you go to Bible school. Well, she's a human being. Paul said, none of these things move me.

He didn't say none of these hurt me. Her eyes filled with tears and she said, Dan, that's beautiful. I'm glad you love the Lord more than you love me. He went to Bible school. He was the most illiterate man in the Bible school.

A friend of mine was at the college at the same time.