What Is Your Life - Part 9 — Leonard Ravenhill

Brother Andrew and the Cost of Gospel Mission

Orphanages. Sure he made money. He printed Bibles. Sure he made money. He compiled with Charles the Methodist hymn book. And there goes orphanages. And he died worth about $30. How many of you heard the little man down the road?

Oh, he wasn't here. He was at the other place Sunday morning. Brother Andrew. Did you hear him? How many of you heard him? Some of you. Good, good, good, good. I remember him when he wasn't Brother Andrew.

Nobody knew him. He came and I called the staff. I was working with Dave Wilkerson in New York then, nearly 20 years ago. Brother Andrews called me. He said, Len, I'd like to come and see you. I said, well, come.

By the way, we have a staff prayer meeting. Will you speak to us? Where are you coming from? He said, Cuba. I said, you can't come from Cuba. It's not legal. He said, well, I went from Cuba to Mexico City, changed planes and came into America.

You can always find a way. I introduced him that night. I said, this is Brother Andrew, a friend I've met before. Very strange man. He's God's smuggler. And he gave his book that name. I told him the other day, I said, hey, remember I gave you the name for that book.

I mean, it's no good being humble if people don't know, is it? Would you have thought a few years ago that little man from Holland, he doesn't look like the heavyweight champion of the world, does he?

About the only weight he had to make a paperweight. That he'd been in and out of countries, that he'd been arrested. He told me, I don't know if he told you one time he went in, not the last time, the time before that I think it was.

And he's coming back out of Moscow. He'd taken in about 800 bibles. He's coming back and they see a car coming. You never see cars. There's only a gas station every 100, 150 miles. And he says to his friend, ah, ah, ah, ah, here's somebody.

And the car stopped. And they were two Dutchmen from his own native city. And he said, have you any food? They said, no. We have something to drink, but we've no food. He says, well, we've got food and nothing to drink.

So they made a meal at the side of the road. And he gave them a track to eat. Six years after in Holland, there was a knock at the door. His wife went and, is your husband in? Yeah, I'd like to see him.

Brother Andrew goes to the door and the man says, you remember me? No. Remember meeting two men halfway on the road to Moscow one day? Yeah. And he said, as they were coming out from Moscow, when they got home, they heard that two Dutchmen had been arrested and put in prison.

And he said to his wife, you know, I stopped and talked with those two men, I'm sure. The man comes six years after and says, you know what? You gave me a tract and you gave my friend a tract. They arrested us and gave us eight years in jail.

But we got out after six years because of our good behavior. But he said, you know, in those six years, I read that tract and read that tract until Jesus Christ became my own personal savior. Would you think that man had been in and out?

Courageous Witness and the Hidden Potential of Ordinary Believers

He told me this last trip he was on, he went to Russia, then he came back and he went to, I don't know. And there's that other little guy who'd been here, he's about this width all the way up. You know, he's a tall fellow, about that height.

Dear little George. I'm sure all demons in hell will get a day off when he dies. The Lord will say, the demons will say, we'll not see a fool like him anymore. That guy sets off to go into fifteen countries behind the Iron Curtain, never thinks he might get turned back.

He just walks in and says, you should be glad to have me. Do you know I'm of royal birth? Do you know who I am? I represent the king of kings. Oh, you know what? Gabriel, if you're looking down from heaven, I want to tell you something.

You don't know the hidden potential in this meeting tonight, only God knows it. There are vast areas of the Amazon where nobody has been yet. The last time I flew over the South Seas, the plane didn't fly too high.

There are three hundred thousand islands and nobody knows if they're all occupied. And I wondered how many people are squatting in the trees there. Then you have that new area up there to the north of New Guinea there, north of, yeah, off New Guinea there.

New England and New Ireland and New Scotland. Vast areas of the world. What are you going to do when you go to heaven and say, Lord, I gave out six copies of the four laws every day of my life for the last six months.

And I'd like my crown right now. Do you ever wonder if there are two heavens? Come on, athletic guy, when you stand at the judgment seat, oh, I hope it's not me, I hope it's you. I hope David Brainerd is judged right before you and then you stand up and say, but I play softball for the church, I've not more home runs in our league.

All the angels say, oh, your excellency, oh. Will they say that or will they say, you idiot? Hmm? Oh, I know it's revolutionary, that's what God wants. What the church has had in the last twenty-five years has not moved this nation or this world to God.

Radical Surrender and Life in the Spirit

It's time for something new. And God wants some men who are really drunk, intoxicated with the spirit of God, who have a love life with the Lord Jesus, that he can ask anything of you and you'll do it.

Well, how many of you guys are eating up with lust? Hmm? You women eating up with jealousy, with pride. Or is it just chronic laziness? You've no appetite for this love letter of God's. Because the only way you can grow is by eating this word.

Prayer, Spiritual Discipline, and Accountability

And the other thing is prayer, which is the Christian's vital breath. You see, your lifestyle changes. You don't talk about your social life and your financial life when you get saved. You talk in other categories.

You talk about your devotional life and you talk about your prayer life. You know, I will have one of the most merciless interrogations when I stand at the throne of God. For I stand over preachers, often with hundreds of preachers I have to preach to, and I see them shrink and I see them fall on the ground and cry because they've no prayer life.

Because they're so busy with all the affairs of the church and they're not ministering to him. Lord, we thank you tonight for this privilege of exploring some of your word. I wonder how many people in the Gulag archipelago would sit here and weep and rejoice tonight to hear the truths of God.

How many of the lost millions in China would hear joyfully? Lord, we've ill-treated your word and we've ill-treated your voice very often. We've accepted our decent living for spirituality, but inside we're dead.

A Call to Experience Christ's Indwelling Life

We've no life. You don't live in us and move in us and walk in us and talk in us and love through us. God, get hold of that life of that young man tonight, that young woman. It's stale. If they were honest, it's really boring to go to church because that's all they go.

They don't meet the Christ there, risen and exalted. I'm going to ask you a simple question tonight. How many of you are here tonight? You've come from many parts and I'm asking you to keep your eyes closed, not look around.

How many of you say tonight, I do not know that Christ lives in me? Christ is not indwelling me, I know that. God bless you, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Any others? How many say, well I profess to be saved, but all the self-life dominates me?

Yes, hands go up, hands go up, hands go up, hands go up, hands go up. You see, if I quoted the context where he says, what is your life? Immediately before that, you say, we'll do this and we'll do that and we'll go here and we'll buy it, we sell.

Surrendering Tomorrow and Seeking God's Will

When you don't know what tomorrow is and you haven't asked God's will. I'm going to pray for you tonight and I'll tell you what, I'm going to pray a very strong prayer. I'm going to ask you all to stand with heads bowed and eyes closed.