Where Is the Fire? — Leonard Ravenhill

I would have the lights on all the time, the lights, I don't mind walking in the lights but I can't preach in it. I couldn't see who was here then I saw my three Hebrew friends here Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Came all the way from Tiber isn't that great? Ok, ok, I want you to stand and sing, really sing, holy, holy, holy, two standards, can you play that? Sing it prayerfully, holy, it's adorable, so glad we don't have to build an altar, we don't have to shed the blood of bulls and goats, we thank you for the blood that shall never lose its power.

Till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. We thank you our high priest after two thousand years in your presence still living to make intercession for us. Lord we, I think just now the great statesman years ago who said I wonder what would happen if God got tired of humanity.

Lord we wonder what would happen if you suddenly withdrew your power from your church if you haven't already done that. We blundered in blindness. We've been so satisfied and content. Lord God we've not moved on.

We've not possessed our possessions. We're not mature yet. We're still infants and we cannot inherit our rights in Jesus Christ until we become the true sons of God. Breathe on us breath of God tonight.

Lord wedge us in somewhere between infinity and eternity tonight. Lord do what we've never seen you do before. Give us ears to hear and give us willing hearts. Lord we're in a midst of a, we're a little colony of believers in a world of five billion rebels and sinners.

They love darkness more than right. They love wrong more than right. They love pollution more than, love pollution more than purity. They love to live in a state of constant rebel against laws. They trample underfoot your laws.

Lord God we thank you for your mercy even with America today. We've broken your ten commandments ten million times before after the sun rose this morning and Lord at this very moment while we're here nightclubs are filled, brothels are filled, gambling saloons are filled and your house is almost empty over the nation.

Lord God save us from this horrible one hour of holiness every Sunday morning and the rest of the week in carnality. We can truly say tonight beyond the sacred page we seek thee Lord. Your servant Malachi said the Lord whom ye seek.

Lord we're not seeking miracles tonight. We're not seeking healing tonight. We're not seeking some spectacular thing. We're seeking God. As Wesley said less than by self oh do not give. In might by self within us live come all our heart and heart.

Lord stretch our horizons tonight. Deepen our compassion. Quicken us with the fire that comes from heaven. Help us to realize and even feel tonight our God is consuming fire. Lord God start a fire in some heart tonight that no waters of discouragement will put out.

Start a fire that somebody alive in God will go to some other country and set that country ablaze. Lord God we're not seeking some narrow little selfish blessing to relieve us of a little tension. We're asking to be God filled men, God possessed men, God intoxicated men.

Lord God get somebody here tonight drunk in God who will never become sober again. Lord we can't play games it's too late. We're on the edge of judgment for our nation and for the world. So Lord we pray thee bless your sacred word to our hearts burn it in.

Help us to glorify you. May we remember this and talk about this meeting in eternity. Not just tomorrow not at the end of this crusade or whatever it is. Not at the end of the week or the end of the month.

But Lord in eternity we'll say something began there that night that was not born of man, it was born of God. It was not born for time, it was born for eternity. Lord we don't blush, I don't blush to know you tonight.

I'm greedy for blessing. I'm greedy for anointing. I'm greedy for revelation. Not for myself but for the whole of us here tonight. Lord this meeting is by divine appointment. I don't believe brother Tim called us together, you called us together.

Not to hear the voice of a man but to hear the voice of God. So Lord don't stop our ears. Give us the grace of concentration. Glorify Jesus. That's all we ask. And we ask you for his glory in Jesus name.

Amen. Be seated, be seated. Thank you. As our brother was singing tonight I thought of a meeting I went to some quite a while ago. And the director met me when I got there. And he said you'll be speaking tonight.

I said well that's okay. And he said we have a young man, a very remarkable young man. So I wondered what was remarkable. He said he writes his own songs. I said I'll tell you something more remarkable.

He said what? I said I write my own sermons. We don't have to trade John Wesley's stuff. As good as it was, I'm Martin Luther. Okay. And I'm the only one I have to see. Shall we take a break at midnight?

Would that be alright Braceman? Good, good, good. Don't tempt me. Okay. Okay. I've had a habit for at least 60 of my 83 years of gathering books. I don't have many, maybe I have 3 ,000. I don't have many.

I have two friends who both have 25 ,000. But I'm just thinking of the many volumes of biographies or autobiographies which I like so much written in two volumes. For instance there's a very wonderful life of the founder of the China Inland Mission Hudson Taylor.

A big fat volume. Number one is The Growth of a Soul explaining the expansion of the young man's personal relationship with God. The second one is The Growth of a Work explaining the expansion of the work when he went to inland China without money and saw a marvellous revival of the spirit of God.

There are two great volumes written by Begbie on the life of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. And there are many other wonderful life stories I'd like to tell you about but I need the time.

But only God could write the life story of a man in two words. One of the greatest men that ever crossed the bridge of time. He strangled the economy of a nation. The army turned out looking for a preacher.

He shut up heaven so there would be no rain. He defied hundreds of prophets. He brought fire from heaven. He brought rain from heaven. He brought life where there was death. And yet his whole life is summed up about 3 ,000 years after he ministered in two words in the epistle of James.

He prayed. I wonder how many, we dare write that as an epitaph for how many preachers. Maybe we have to write on their gravestones they prayed not. How many of you men are known as men of prayer I wonder?

Not many. But then when it says he prayed, immediately after it says he prayed again. Because he locked up heaven and then when he prayed he released heaven. Otherwise we may have had no rain until today.

He shut up heaven and he released heaven. But not only did he pray, he prayed again. Not only did he pray, he prayed before he prayed. You know this story makes very real to me anyhow. That God's ways are not our ways and God's thoughts are not our thoughts.

Look for a moment. By the way I usually tell people I'm reading from the, what version now, Bill Cook, what I usually say, Bill. Oh yes, oh thank you. I'm reading from the Living Bible and everybody feels comfortable that you read for that silly revelation.

You know there are only ten versions. Five are wise and five are foolish. Did you get that? I'm just checking to see if you're sleeping. It's warm in here. But I'm not, I'm not preaching from, again that version tonight.

I'm preaching from the Living Bible, yes. No, I'm preaching from the NIV tonight. The never in through version, King James. So you are awake, thank you. OK, reading from this great version. One, the book of Kings, first book of Kings.

And the 17th chapter. And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel before whom I stand, there shall be no rain, dew nor rain upon these ears.

Listen, according to God's word. He didn't say that. What did he say? He said according to my word. You see, there are errors in faith obviously. Many of you read about, how many of you read about something, somewhere he read something about Smith Wigglesworth.

Did you ever read that, some of you? Well, he wasn't a Baptist. I won't tell anybody you raised your hand. He was a Pentecostal, isn't that terrible? But you know that man got so bold in God, a man came into his meeting one night with no feet.

And he wanted prayer. So the man of God looked at him and said, go buy some shoes. What? Joking about me having no feet? The man went home in the middle of the night. He said, that preacher scorned me.

I have no feet. He said, all right. And you imagine the miracle? He said, what did the man of God tell you to do? He said, buy shoes, but have no feet. Well, he said, do as the man says. So he went to a shoe shop the next morning and he said to the man, hey, the man said, can I help you?

He said, yes, I need shoes. And the man said, yes. You've no feet? He said, no. What do you want? I want shoes. What size? He said, eights. What color? He said, black. And he got them and he put them down.

What do you want me to do? Put them on my feet? You have no feet. Well, stick them on the stump. He did and the foot grew like that. What did he think he did? Being a Pentecostal, he was shouting as a Baptist.

He said, well, that's good. So then he said, put your other foot down and he put the shoe on the other man and the foot came. Immediately that man realized that God is the same yesterday and forever. We've been through all that syndrome before.

It's very good. I lived in the days in England in 1925 up to 40, when miracles like that happened continually almost every night. You could get an auditorium that was empty one night and packed to the rafters the next night.

And people got out and went around the building and lined up for the meeting the next afternoon at three o 'clock. That's revival. When nobody wants to go to work. People don't want to eat. They don't want to talk.

They don't want sports. The movie houses. Nobody wanted to go. God was there. You see, we've got to get to the back place again. I believe God is the same. Our God is a consuming fire. And you never have to advertise fire.

Whether it's physical or spiritual. You've got a bumper sticker on your car with a silly doll at the end, smiling, smiling. God loves you. Put at the other end, our God, your God is a consuming fire. You maybe lose your car.

You maybe win somebody to the Lord anyhow. But God is a consuming fire. And the reason millions of billions of people are going to hell fire tonight is the church has lost Holy Ghost fire. Do you know what?

I believe this meeting is the most important meeting in America tonight. If it's not, I'm a fool to be here. I don't have time to come. I'm five years behind on two books I'm trying to write. I could have gone to a conference this week.

Boy, would they give me a check this size. Why can I check that size when Tim will give me one that size. I made a promise and I kept my promise. I made a promise to God weeks ago that from then until Christmas, I'm not going to be public.

I'm not going to take invitations. And then Martha said, you promised. Brother Timmy, I said, well, I'll go because I made a promise. Then on the 24th of this month, I'm going to the little Baptist church there in Common Ground on the Sunday morning.

Apart from that, unless Brother Racey chases me, I'm not going anywhere till next year. I'm going to get away with God and be quiet and hear God's voice. We're living on the edge of the greatest disaster in history.

Look at this for a minute. I'm of the inhabitants of, we don't care a hill of beans where he came from. You don't know his pedigree. You don't know his father. You don't know his mother. You don't know his nationality.

Hardly at least you don't know where he came from. You can't find these. He said, where's that? You can't find it on a Bible map. But there he was. But I say God's ways are not our ways. Why? What does it say here?

Verse 2 says, the word of the Lord came unto him saying, get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook Kirith. Hide thyself? Now look at the conditions this man comes to. Who is this man?

He's in a bracket of the most amazing men that ever walked this planet. Smart men walk on the moon. Men that want to risk their lives walk on the ocean just off the coast of Florida. But men who are smarter than either the scientists or the others, they're the men that walk with God.

This is the man Elijah who walked with God. And God gave him revelation and authority. You see he's in that bracket again. He is a prophet. Did you get that? All over the nation. Last year I got invitations all over.

Come to a prophetic conference. The year before I got one. Come and meet with 120 prophets from all over the world. They're going to meet on Mount Carmel. Come and be with this distinguished group of prophets.

For three days on Mount Carmel. The very place where Elijah stood. And I said to my class, my Friday night class, there's 120 men going to meet on that mountain for three days. I think they're staying in the same hotel that Elijah stayed in.

Do you think they did? Do you think they stayed in a cave with bugs and bats? And rats? This man is one of the most unique men. Do you know how big he is? With all his achievements raising the dead. Turning the nation upside down.

Terrifying a king. Do you know what? He can't get a place in Hebrews 11. What a majestic character. I can't read Hebrews 11 without going to tears. Do you read it? Are you dumb when you read it? Do you realize this man never had a Bible in his hand?

Do you realize the people in Hebrews 11 who subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Not one of them ever had a Bible. You've got every word Almighty God has said.

I'm never going to say. I like the hymn Our Firmer Foundation. Remember when Paul says, what more can he say than to you he has said. If the world lasts another thousand years, God isn't going to add another chapter after Revelation.

He said it. It's finished. Listen, God is not on trial in America. The church is, but he isn't. I think Shraggart and the other guys in P .T .L. broke the heart of God. I believe Jesus will be weeping till he comes back over those men.

They had the world at their feet and tossed it away for a bit of flesh. These men are dreadful men. There's a great American scholar, a Jewish scholar by the name of Bux Basin. And years ago he wrote a very wonderful exposition on Isaiah, or Isaiah if you like.

I'd like to have met that man, but he's long since gone ahead of me. But Bux Basin says this about a prophet. The prophet by the very nature of his calling is a tragic figure. He has a fierce loyalty to God, and he has a broken heart over the sin of the people.

You see we've got hundreds and hundreds of evangelists in America. What's that brother? Where are you from, Carolinas, what's your name? Where is he now? Ralph Sexton. Where are you Ralphie there? Bless you.

Get some of this tape, they stirred me, not many things stirred me. But Ralph's message, I'll tell you why. He's not one of these guys that comes for a one night stand. He stays in the city for 5, 6, 7 and 8 weeks until God moves.

You see evangelists live on God's faithful. Revivalists live on a faithful God. Evangelists normally raise funds. Revivalists live on a faithful God. Revivalists raise hell. America doesn't have a prophet tonight.

I preached at a prophet's conference, my three brothers were there, about three months ago. 1 ,500 men from all over the country. They introduced me as a prophet, which I denied. I'm not a prophet, I speak with prophetic urgency.

Because this is the most difficult hour in American history. It's not only the most critical hour in American history, it's the most critical hour in world history. By 1990 to 1992, America will have changed and it will never change back.

What's the Minister of Education called? Bennett? You know what he said on the news this weekend? He said, listen, we're moving in a new direction. Things are going to change. Now here he is. He said, you know what?

The white man's supremacy in America is finished. By the year 2000 to 2005, the number one population in America will be Hispanic. He didn't say that, I add this on. Number one population in America is Hispanic, number two is black, and number three is white.

Number one language will be Spanish, number two will be English, in the year 2000. So get your kiddies at least to be bilingual. We've had our day of privilege. I think the day of the Gentiles is fulfilled, Bracey.

Do you think that? We've had the majority, I mean majority, we've done as we like, but that's over. But look how this man comes to see. This man is a tragic figure. He comes to an atmosphere that's sold out to sensuality, idolatry, wickedness, violence, corruption of every kind.

Let's run down this thing a minute here. In the same chapter, chapter 17, it says, in verse 30, Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. All right, fifty years before Elijah came onto the stage, the most beautiful nation in the world, the most powerful in the world was Israel.

But they got corrupted very quickly after the dividing of the kingdom. There had been an evil king. After him came a more evil king. The second king was more evil than the first, the third was more evil than the second, the fourth was more evil than the third, the fifth more evil than the fourth, the sixth more evil.

Because he exceeded the iniquity, all the aggregate iniquity of all the people, this one king Ahab defied everybody. He loved everything that was, that wasn't, that didn't have virtue. He loved everything that was vile and corrupt.

And it tells you what he did. In verse 33 it says, Abraham made a grove, verse 32. He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. Ahab made, did more to provoke the God of Israel to anger all the kings that were before him.

And he rebuilt Bethel, it says in verse 34. So here you have this man. And God says to this man, do you get this? It is a man with a heart that flames to seize nation chains. And God says, go hide thyself.

Where's the sense? He's the only man around who's walking with God. Unless you say, Elisha was there. But you see this is the secret of his own life. The Lord says, go hide thyself. In chapter 18 and verse 1 it says, the Lord came in the third year and said, go I will send rain on the earth.

Elijah went to show himself, go show thyself. I was preaching in a certain place a while ago. One of the national leaders of a great movement in America was there. And he said, Mr. Raymond, I went home and I pondered that word that you said, go hide thyself.

God has told me to hide myself. We have a young man coming to our prayer fellowship, which is Thursday mornings now if you pastors want to come. He's only a young man. But recently he earns very good money.

But recently God said to him, you take one third of every day, take eight hours every day in prayer and Bible study. Then I met a man with some famous preachers two or three months ago. And he said the same thing.

God has told me now I have to give eight hours a day to Bible study and to prayer. What kind of men will they be in a year or two if they do that? Isn't it amazing what men will do? In the news the other morning it showed a young man, he's from China.

He's come to learn out of box. He's gone to Gleason's famous, what do you call it, gymnasium in New York where big preachers have gone. And they said to him, well, you come from China? Yes. Do you miss China?

Yes. He said, how long are you here? Till 1992, he said, three years ahead. I'm going to practice so many hours a day. Well, do you like the food here? Not very much. What's the hardest thing? I left my wife.

We've been married less than two years. We have a baby six months old. I won't see my wife for two more years. I won't see my baby, but I'm going to be a boxer. He's so determined to do that. Now I read about these other fellows.

Oh, the energy they put into obtain what Paul calls a corruptible crown. You know, the trouble with our generation, we've lost sight of eternity. We're not living anymore in 2 Corinthians 4 where it says the things that are seen are temporal.

The things that are not seen are eternal. And God takes this man, this dramatic character, and he says, go hide thyself. And he goes into a cave. What do you think he did? Again, he wasn't studying botany.

He wasn't studying rats. What did he do? I believe he prayed. Do you realize where this man is living? He's living right after the glorious days when the Shekinah, the glory of God, used to fill the temple and it's there no more.

We don't see the Shekinah glory. Most of us don't even know what it is. We don't want it. We're happy to have little meetings. We're happy because we don't drink and smoke and swear and do some lousy things.

But where are the God filled men? Where are the sanctuaries where the presence is pregnant with deity and people move out and they don't talk when they leave and they don't light up cigarettes? They know they want God.

So God has to get this man alone. And that's a hard thing. No man will ever be great for God unless he gets alone. Do you realize Moses, a third of his life, was on the backside of the desert? Read the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

He was a genius. He's learning all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He could maybe speak ten languages. He read before he gave the world the Ten Commandments. He made the laws for Egypt, the greatest nation in the world at that time.

And yet God takes him away on the backside of the desert. How long do you think the colors were in his royal robes? He didn't stop and change his shoes. Did he even put on his sports attire? He went straight out of the palace of an angry king to have company with God on the backside of the desert.

But listen, you see God is reserving something. As Peter said, there are some things reserved in heaven for us. God doesn't pay his bills now. Let me go back to this man Elijah for a minute. God had to get him in the quietness so he could hear the voice of God.

And he's there for three years. Do you realize that's over a thousand days? I challenge you to get a thousand minutes alone. You turn the dreadful rotten TV on or you'll call sister somebody or gossip to somebody else.

Spend a thousand minutes in quiet without any noise. Listen to God and see what God says. Can you and I take a thousand hours? Sometime when you have a vacation, instead of going to see the Eastern Sea, the others go get quiet, go in a hotel and say I'm going to fast and wait on God for a number of days, a number of hours, a number of days.

So this man goes and for three years there he is. I don't believe when this man went out from the busy life he had, he left a calling card or followed my mail or sent me some food or asked all the people that love me to send me food.

If there's no food, send stamps. And if they can't send stamps, send me money. This man is under orders from God and he moves. He only moves when God says go. He doesn't ask any questions. Don't you think he could have turned around and said, Lord, this isn't fair.

I'm living in a most vile, corrupt generation of people. They have their sex parties every night. They're drunk every night. They're sensual every night. They're devilish every night. They're just like the people here in Dallas tonight.

It's as corrupt and as lousy as New York, but it doesn't trouble us. We're a broken nation. We've more homes broken with divorce. We've more children's hearts broken over parents who are divorced. We've more broken minds with drugs.

We've more broken bodies with drink. America is held siege tonight like England and the rest of the world. We're held by debt and disease and drugs and devilry and witchcraft. And we've got power. The greatest thing we need now is men who touch God, touch everything else.

Isn't it silly to say the best thing to way to fight crime is to build new jails so that the best way to get healthy is to give everybody a free casket. Isn't that wonderfully logical? You see, everything's out of control.

The economy's out of control. With its trillions of dollars in debt, everything's out of control. Vice is out of control. We don't know what to do with the crime. We're trying to find an answer. We don't need a nation to destroy.

I don't believe Russia's going to send bombs into this country. We're going to kill ourselves. We're on a mission right now to self-destruct. I read this week that at least 100 ,000 people with AIDS in America who are known, and there's many more that are not known.

But look, again, is this man equipped? What's he doing sitting in at that rotten old filthy place? Look at the rats. There he's looking every day. He doesn't run out and say, Lord, please don't let anybody kill the little bird that's been my breakfast.

He wasn't trusting the bird, he's trusting God. Most of the evangelists today, they don't trust God, a faithful God, they trust God's faithful. There's a big difference. You can tell when a ministry runs on money instead of faith, it screams over TV, send us money, or we'll have to go off the air.

Well, help God. Don't send money, let them go off the air. It's the biggest blessing in America if they went off the air. If God doesn't get them off the air one way, he'll get them off the other way.

This is a crisis out in America. Our nation is doomed, and our neighbors are damned, and we don't care. Two things are always very, very pregnant in revival. Number one is a prayer meeting. Number two is a street meeting.

Do you realize the revival that shook England from St. Isaac's Conference under the Westleys was never in a building, it was always in the streets? Do you realize that when the power of God was on in the early days of George Whitefield in this country, the people stood in snow up to their knees for two or three hours to listen to him?

Do you realize the difference between just praying church on Sundays as good as we are? Your pastor hates all the bases. You all went to church yesterday because you knew you didn't hear spiritual nursery rhymes.

You have a nice little pastor, he never upsets you, God pity him. You ought to preach, some days you go home blazing mad. I think some of you will tonight, at least I've prayed you will. You're going to get hurt tonight.

You're going to face issues tonight, not because of me, but because of God. It's later than we think in America, we haven't much time left. By the year 1992, what? Oh, they're going to have what? European Common Market is going to have, what do you call it now?

A universal money system, and it will be greater than the Japanese system. Japan's going out of the picture, Europe's coming into the picture, America won't be in the picture financially. In every other way, we're going to be made to cast ourselves on God.

I was reading today, listen, Ezekiel 14, let me read it quickly. The word of the Lord came unto me, it says in the 14th chapter of Ezekiel, in verse 12. The word of the Lord came unto me, now listen to verse 14, listen very carefully.

Though these three men Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, that's if they pray, they will not save anybody but their own souls. Look again in verse 16, though these three men were in it as I live, said the Lord God, they shall not deliver their sons or their daughters, they only shall be delivered.

And verse 18, though these three men were in it as I live, said the Lord, they shall not deliver their sons or their daughters. It goes down in verse 20, and yes, says the same thing. And yet verse 22 says, yet behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both of sons and daughters.

In other words, there comes a time when God turns away from us. He's been calling us, we won't listen, and we'll call him and he won't listen. In America, did God love the children of Israel? Why did they cut them off in Malachi?

And Malachi to Matthew, 400 years of darkness without any spiritual light, 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice. Listen, we're much nearer judgment than we realize here in America. You can't have more Bible schools in this nation than all the world has outside.

600 million Bibles? How many of them are being used today? How many people really know what a real Holy Ghost prayer meeting is? Some of these good men that are here have come to our prayer meeting for 10 years, 500 Friday night prayer meetings.

There were tears and brokenness, and I treasure their friendship. Not because they're rich and famous, but because when they pray, they move me to tears. I realize the power of God. But listen, here is Elijah.

He doesn't have a book. This isn't a book, it's a library. 66 most precious books in the world. He didn't have them in his pocket. I don't think he sent a word down to Elijah, listen, I'm going to hide in a cave for years, send me some help.

He cut off from Elijah. There are times when God won't let you trust in anyone at all, you do as God says. And so there he was, waiting there. Don't you think he might have said, listen, Lord, this isn't fair.

The first man they ever read of in the Bible was a majestic man. He'd never seen a priest, he'd never seen a sacrifice, he'd never seen an altar, he'd never seen a Bible, he'd never heard anybody preach.

And yet one day he went down Main Street and he yelled at the top of his voice, the Lord is coming with 10 ,000 of his saints to execute judgment. That's the word of a prophet. That's a man who doesn't care a hill of beans about the persecution of the opposition.

He not walk with God. The man who walks with God is never alone. The man who walks with God is never poor. The man who is rich and doesn't walk with God is poor. I don't care how much land he owns. I don't care how big his church may be.

The devil isn't afraid of numbers. He's afraid of God filled men. So Elijah is there in the cave. He'd prayed and prayed and prayed. He doesn't say anything about his tears. You can't walk with God and not have tears.

Don't you think he has... Later, Elijah says, where is the Lord God of Elijah? I think Elijah says, where is the God of Enoch? Please manifest yourself just once. Give us one more chance. Show us your glory again.

Show my generation your she kind of glory. Show us your majesty. Do you remember when the angel came to... When the angel came to Gideon and the angel says, God is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.

Do you know what he did? He turned to the angel and said, do angels tell jokes? What do you mean God is with us? Where are the miracles our fathers told us of? You've gone to church for 20 years and never seen a miracle.

And it doesn't bother you. Either a physical miracle or a spiritual miracle. You see when revival comes, as dear Dr. Chose used to say to me often, remember Leonard, when revival truly comes, it changes the moral climate of a community.

That's what it does. There's a little book being published. I thought I didn't bring a copy of it. I was going to show you it. Anyhow, I brought the details of it. This is from a book that's recently been put out by the Banner of Truth.

It's called Come Down Lord. It's about revival. Listen to this. If I tell you what happened in the days of Whitfield, 200 years ago, well listen, this happened in a country called America, in a city called Denver.

I'll give you the date. It says this. I read in the newspaper recently of an awakening in Denver in 1905, under the preaching of Wilbur Chapman. The Denver Post says in its headline, the entire city, this January 20th, 1905, the Denver Post says, the entire city pauses for prayer even at high noon.

An entire city. Nobody wanted to shop. Nobody wanted to go to the bank. God was moving. They didn't know what the next manifestation would be. Maybe a prayer meeting would break out in Sears Roebox or somewhere.

Suddenly business was transformed and a holy God came in sovereign power. He's not, we're not going to direct the Holy Ghost. Some of these boys in the seminary, they're trying to teach the Holy Ghost.

He came to teach us. We better get into line, otherwise he'll desert us. Forget my English for a minute. A young man came in my office last week, last year rather. Charming young guy. Rough. I want to give him a dollop.

I want to give him 50th century shoes and his hat and everything he had. He had a pack on his back. He and his two brothers had been in Nicaragua. They'd been with the Sandinistas, where bullets were flying past.

And the three men were together, these three brothers. And they told me about the power of God that they'd witnessed there. But this is the thing he said to me. He said, Mr. Ray, you spent more than half a century praying.

Yes, if I live another half, I'll do it. He said, but don't you realize this? God's favor isn't here. He said, look, we've got the greatest army in the world. Now he's an American. Forget my tongue. We've got the greatest army in the world.