A Heart on Fire — Leonard Ravenhill

The Church’s Lost Alarm and Need for God’s Fire

The one thing that alarms me in America and England is that there is no alarm in the church. Most of you can't handle the light you've got now. Why should you hear more? And I believe God is holding back.

I think David wrote this morning, I can't live another day without the fire of God. You need the fire of God to pray. You need the fire of God to see visions. You need the fire of God to recognize. There's no help for us.

Seeking God’s Presence Before the Judgment Seat

I don't want to cry as I've done so long. Like David in Psalm 80, O thou that dwellest between the cherubims, Lord, don't stay there. Come down here. We need God here. Does it matter if it breaks your heart today?

You're going to have a million, millenniums in eternity. There'll be no sorrow there. You can't patch up your prayer line when you get to the judgment seat. You can't sacrifice when you get to the judgment seat.

You can't weep when you get to the judgment seat. It's all between here and there. This period we're in now is a dressing room for eternity. That's all it is. You need God this morning. Some of you disobeyed God all the week, and this is the day, the valley of decision.

A Lost Voice, Spiritual Distraction, and the Call to Obey

You'll go back more after today than ever you've done in your life unless you obey God. As I said to you more than once, I'm troubled every morning I wake up for this simple reason. I live in a world.

I live in a world that has lost its way and a church that has lost its voice. That voice has to come. You think the devil isn't a clever guy? How he tricks people he never shows in the end. He just shows in the beginning.

God's going to give us a new breed of men. And every time in that prayer meeting I would say this, Lord, at the judgment seat, don't stand there in your majesty and read the record of my poor life and say, son, I had many things to tell you but you couldn't bear them.

You were too occupied. Your ears were catching other voices but not mine. That's why that damnable TV has to get out of the way. You're hearing more about men than you hear about God. You're getting more vision.

That's television than you are about the vision of the almighty God. That's all got to change. I believe many of you are going to a new lease of life from this meeting. You'll be amazed when you wake up.

You'll be amazed how the Bible speaks. You'll be amazed how the Holy Ghost speaks. You'll be amazed how all your interests and other things are withered. Do you want to disappoint God? I don't want to disappoint God.

Intimacy With God and a Heart on Fire

I disappoint some people, I'm sure. But one thing I want to live for, Lord, I don't want to disappoint you and I don't want you to be disappointed in me. Let me say this this morning again. Listen. You are just as spiritual as you want to be.

A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men. That's true, Bible. When you can't sit through the meeting, you feel you've got a burning cancer. If I don't get to the cross now, I may die before the meeting's over.

I don't want a warm heart. I want a heart on fire. For the simple reason he's coming for a bride, he's not coming for a widow. And if you don't keep fire going, it goes out. He says, still let me guard the holy fire.

Then he says this awesome thing, enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart with boundless charity divine. So shall I all my strength exert and love them with a zeal like thine and turn them to a pardoning God.

You see, he's not asking for a theological definition. He says, I want a fire. Listen, if our God is a consuming fire, and he is, if he takes up residence in you, you'll burn till you die. God won't die in you.

And all he's asking you this morning is to let the walls down, let the fire in. I can't live in coldness anymore. I can't live in blindness anymore. I can't be indifferent to a dying world. Every preacher who has lost the fire, you should be on your face down here.

Repentance, Holy Fire, and the Work of the Spirit

You used to burn, but you got so busy with organizing the fire has gone out. Come on. I believe God's going to breathe on us this morning. I believe you're going from this place. I believe you're going to have to say, I'm in the valley of decision.

Thank God. Consuming me everything that's un-Christlike. Consuming me everything which hinders. God is brooding over us. Don't insult the Holy Ghost. He stood at the door in Revelation, said, if any man will come, I don't care how backstabbed you are, how disobedient you are, there's enough fire in the Holy Ghost to burn up every bit of gloss in you, every bit of failure, every bit of coldness.

Holy Fire for Mission and Spiritual Renewal

God needs a torch of holy fire in your house. He wants the fire of God your neighbors will know. I'm sick of theology and words. We need God to move in our midst. What does it matter? Surrender everything.

It's purging you and stamping you and claiming you for his own. You'll never be the same after this morning. I won't. Then, Lord, take us out and give us a vision of a lost world. Some of you have held out on him for five or ten years, and this morning he's got right in your life.

Lord, let these men bring life where there's death. Bring freedom where there's bondage to drugs and prostitution. Dear God, many of our people go to church every Sunday. It's only a custom. They don't want God.

Find some people that want God. Find some young men in Hong Kong who've been to hell and back. They're just about worn out. But, Lord, you lift the beggar from the downhill and make him a prince unto God.

Refusing to Go Backward After the Valley of Decision

It's either going forward or backward after this. We refuse to go backward. We refuse to let the devil throw the dust of time in our eyes and blind us to eternity. You can't patch up your prayer life when you get to the Judgment Sea.

If I don't get to the cross now, I may die before the meetings are over. This period we're in now is a dressing room for eternity. That's all it is. Do you want to disappoint God? Don't insult the Holy Ghost.

I can't live in coldness anymore. I can't live in blindness anymore. I can't be indifferent to a dying world. You used to burn, but you got so busy with organizing that fire has gone out. Come on! I think you're going to have to say, I'm in the valley of decision.