Last Day, That Great Day of the Feast - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

I have to make it to one thing and say it must be this, but it's not isolated, it's not the singular, it's total. Artificial thought is not to leap over for a minute into the 47th chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel is a topic of degrees.

Everything is done in, in, in, in purity of the mind. Master of God could have made the world in a day, he could have made it in a second, he could have spoken, it would have rolled off the end of his tongue as it were, but it pleased the Lord to take six days over it.

Spiritual Growth Through Stages

He could bring us to maturity quicker, but he doesn't. He works out his processes in our lives. Spirit of God moves in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. You, you remember the spirit moves over a valley of bones and instead of bones now they come together and you have a valley full of skeletons.

And then the spirit moves again and instead of skeletons you have sinew on the skeletons. And then the spirit moves again and you have flesh on the bones and the sinews. Spirit moves again and you have skin on the flesh and on the bones and on the sinews.

He's moving a little bit, it's not a complete miracle, but it's a series of miracles. And then finally instead of having a valley full of bones, you have a valley full of corpses. You've got lovely eyes, lovely hands, lovely feet, but it won't do anything.

And then finally the spirit grieves on them and they become an exceedingly great army that God did it in stages, he didn't do it in one act. You've got ten chapters in the same book of Ezekiel. And again he's going by the years.

The River of Life in Ezekiel 47

He sees a river, and through the door of the sanctuary. Sometimes we've offered again some kind of blessing, some kind of anointing by the spirit at a cut rate price. We say to people, I know your problem, you're vexed with an unclean spirit, you're fooling around with sex, you've got something else, it's eating your life up.

Now you see your problem is this, you made Jesus your saviour, you didn't make him your lord. Now do you understand if you didn't make him lord and saviour, you didn't make him a saviour? Because there's no such thing as saviourhood without a lord and a saviour, Jesus Christ.

And there he said to these ten people, you come and consecrate, consecrate what? Corruption? You can't consecrate, you can't consecrate in four times the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The promise God is wanting to give is a promise of the family to receive.

It was a promise of Joel, to receive the promise. But you said, Joel, what are you up to? Ezekiel 47, he saw a note of death and he goes out. And the Lord said, I was lying so no one could hear me. He says, I have a problem.

You've got a problem? The man of God says, I shall bring you to Jesus. I'm actually got a strong, swelling head, I'm not afraid of walking. I walk the length of England, which is 400 miles. You walk the breadth of it, more than men, preaching, street preachers, anywhere else the Lord open doors.

Go to the park, pull a cart with our goods in, and I'll tell you, walking 20, 25 miles a day is really rough on your ankles. You need good, strong ankles. But water to the ankles. When God comes, He's known to walk in the Spirit, and then we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

And then He mentions a thousand cubits, and it was water all to the knees. It wouldn't be unreasonable to suggest that this is the Spirit leading a person to the flesh while his knees become operative, when He learns to pray in the Holy Ghost, making them know praying without it.

Prayer and the Power of the Holy Spirit

The prayer meeting is the driest meeting in the Church. Because Lucy's on tonight, and of course I do love Jesus, but I love Lucy as well, and I hope we can get home in time. No, sir, no, sir, no, sir.

He used to talk about two famous pastors. I've forgotten his name for the moment. Petrus, like Louis Petrus in the Scandinavian countries. But this man was remarkable for his prayer life, that there was another man by the name of Pastor Bloomheart.

And Bloomheart became famous not because he was a brilliant, eloquent preacher, he became famous because he could pray. The foundation of Cooper in the day in which you and I live is a church that puts them fanatics in Pentecostal because the devil is afraid of genuine Holy Ghost operation.

That's right. Since the time when some rascal that came along, and he did some miracles, but boy, he's still got the biggest offering that's been ever asked. And he spent an hour a day taking an offering and only 20 minutes preaching.

Oh, he knows for a fact he's been drunk more than once. Oh, son of a scoundrel, that might say that every Pentecostal preacher in the country will hear him. I say it with respect because some of the Buddhist and Holist men are more Pentecostal but you've got more freaks and frauds and fanatics in Pentecostal world because Satan wants to infiltrate the genuine work of God if he can and he threatens people, he scares them off, he says, I can only do one thing in the Holy Ghost and God is my witness.

Before even preaching, if I were linked up to every home in America or the whole world tonight, if God gave me a choice and said you can only do one of two things, I would rather pray in the Holy Ghost than do any other thing.

If I never came out of the room as long as I live, and face up to it and say, you know, my church isn't in within a million miles of the New Testament. They're not kids going to sleep at the back and putting their arms round doors and not on the pew when the Holy Ghost is brooding in the assembly.

They're afraid of the Holy Ghost. It might be at times that there's an awesomeness about the Spirit working. There's a verse or there's an epistle there, he talks about praying in the Holy Ghost. I wish we stressed this as we stress other gifts and other signs that we believe, many of us, some people believe this is an authentic sign that's here with the Spirit.

Look, brother, I don't care if you speak your tongues and raise your dead, if you can't really pray in the Holy Ghost, I know that you're not going to fascinate me anyhow. If you're going to pray in the Holy Ghost, you're going to bite the rug.

There are times you'll wet that floor with your tears. There'll be times when your family wonder if you're really saying what you're saying. There'll be times when you go on to realize that Jesus Christ has given us Holy Word and revelation.

He's given us, God hasn't given us, in Jesus Christ. We need to bloom her. Stick them on the wall. Pop his head in the morning. As long as there are constant reminders, lest he should forget. Around 1810, they knew about this one man of God that had power to prevail against the past.

He could go back and burn the past. Oh, come on, let's be honest about it. We're not here just to have a vacation. We're here to rediscover some of the power of God. And doesn't God say that if we ever look poor, I give you power over all us?

Doesn't he say that with Jesus, he has truly given us all that we want? In a few days, people fall. Very nice, beautiful Baptist churches with their spires to heaven, or our holiness churches, or even our Pentecostal churches anymore.

Recovering the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

We send them to the psychiatry. Psychology, psychiatry, and modern science, and very often a doctor's work. We have to do that only because the church is lost. The secret of operating, and I use that word wisely, operating the gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Got a good, intelligent group there, but in a way, he has a wonderful little book here for a dollar, read it. Read the chapter that's in the prime minister of the book. A wonderful book, I know, on the subject of gifts of the sin.

My heart knew what God and some of you guys are preaching, and maybe God never should have had a prime minister. You should have had a ministry casting out demons. You should have had a ministry on revelation.

You should have had a ministry of prophecy. You don't have it. It's a one-man ministry. When you were sick and that hospital had a thousand beds and only one doctor, would you go to it? If it had a thousand beds, how do you think one pastor can manage a church with a thousand people, who are mostly sick, who all have different needs and need intelligent instruction?

This store, if you had a Macy at the corner of the street, or a Gimbles, or a Seuss Robex, a Monkey Robes, and they only had one man serving on every counter in that vast store, you wouldn't go. Do you think somehow we can function in the church with one minister doing everything?

You can't do it, because it's not New Testament, that's why. Oh, brother, don't think we're going to get revivaled by God just coming and talking to time. We can't get a breakthrough. In our generation, I'm convinced of this.

And somewhere, we've got to rediscover. And if you're discovering man, you keep that man in your assembly as long as you can. Get some people now to pray in the Holy Ghost. To Bloomheart, we prayed, and the demon wouldn't come out.

He fasted, and the demon wouldn't come out. For as I remember it, he appointed eight hours a day to concentrate on the deliverance of that one girl. That's compassion, isn't it? That's vision. As we call an even scum, we say, that means that this man can come to pray.

Catch you if I get a bit of bottom of hell to get you, and I'm going to strangle you by faith in Jesus Christ, and you're going to have to let go of this girl. Get through that door for the next week.

Going Deeper Into the River

There's so many spiritual cripples going to get, trying to get through it. You'll have to go to the back of the line. Put her to the knees. He begins to take you by one hand, but he doesn't take your pastor that way, and he doesn't take you a bit older that way, and your wife doesn't understand, and your husband doesn't understand.

And he's leading you all just to the knees, and then water to the knees. The servant in the altar said, all right, all right, my son, don't get one. Look, out of those loins of yours, I'll bring a peeper from the water to the knees, and you get to the place to water to the loins.

That's the glory. It'll look like he likes money to you anyhow. Yes, we've got all the truth, and you know there's no derailment on the ball as much as we are. Well, I think the ball must be busted. You've been sitting on it that long, and nothing's happened.

You can't believe you're on the ball. Absolutely, you've got to have good, strong loins. Do you see those restless boys outside? They're quite sure they'll get to know what headquarters is, and if they get to know you're convincing that you're a little bit of trouble in your church full of the Holy Spirit, that's awfully dangerous.

And they start converting any second, and I don't care what you call it, friend, but I'll tell you something, as Jimmy said, if you don't want to call it friend, you can forget it, but we need something in this game which we live.

And then finally he measures another thousand cubits, because you see whether you've got water to the ankles or water to the feet on the bottom. One foot on the bottom. Oh, I could swim and kick like this and splash, and the teacher would say, well, no, you've still got your foot on the bottom.

You know, if you've only a pound of water, you've a pound of security. When you walk in the Spirit, that's all right. And when you put in the Spirit, that's all right. And when you get water up to the loins and you're moving in that water, does the Spirit, that's all right.

And then the Lord says, now you're going to take one more step, and I've got news for you. There's no bottom. You're asking for this. Water to the ankles. Water to the knees. We can't anyhow. They're not going places.

You've tried. And he may say, well, you get on the street and start a fellowship in a little house with a few really redeemed people who know how to pray. And no, he may not. Interpretations on the work of the Holy Spirit.

Crisis, Process, and Continual Renewal

One of the most popular preachers in the country preached on the Holy Spirit not long ago in his TV program. To the fact I receive the bachelor of the Holy Spirit. I challenge you to find me one miracle that the disciples did after Pentecost they didn't do before Pentecost.

They cast out devils before Pentecost. They healed the sick. They opened the eyes of the blind. Even devils have changed their minds. They've become a famous personality. It's certainly not true. Because you don't know what even some of the disciples went after.

They were full of the Holy Ghost. You can only trace half a dozen of them at the very most. What happens with the other 120? I don't know. Maybe they were the powerhouse. They're pouring in the Holy Ghost while these men went full.

Because, you see, on one occasion the disciples were still in Jerusalem but what happened to the other? They were dispersed. They went everywhere preaching except the apostles. You can't find in the New Testament where some of those men were born again.

You couldn't find it if you tried because it's not there. They sang a song, but when they got to the other place and crossed God and they died in their deliverance from Satan and they sang a song and the breeze blew away.

I promise they put a permanent memorial that will save many of them. But I can tell you this is the very spot where they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And I've met many a man and I never questioned it.

I met the Marichal, the oldest daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. She was 80 odd years of age. Burning for God. And I heard her say, when I died I was five years of age. I never remember the time I was born again but I know I loved Jesus and I've had a prayer life since I was five years of age.

She never really knew that she knew the time when the Holy Ghost came upon her and His fullness anointed her. We have a crisis experience because every experience we have in God is a process and then a crisis followed by a process.

There's no finality to it. We're all just coming and seeking the fullness of the blessing and getting filled with the Holy Ghost and this is something that lasts permanently. No, there has to be a constant renewal.

There has to be a constant endowment. There has to be a constant joy upon God. But I'll tell you this that when the Holy Ghost comes among those there's this compassion that's going out of him. He knows when rivers of pride are going out of him.

It's out of him. It's drying up on the churches of fooling around either with sex or even with drugs these days. If you're a teacher or a Christian welcome to the altar in a crowd of people like this so don't you bang such one you worry about anybody else.

A Businessman Counts the Cost of Consecration

Christ doesn't come and spend his prayer life he goes away I don't care. I'll finish with this. Years ago I had no money outside of movie houses up until the early hours of the morning and saw people need brokenness and contrition manager there in fact the owner of the place very much like Macy's a great department store was a wonderful man of God.

He'd been saved had a chat now and again he said look when I read of what happened in the New Testament church when I read of how the Holy Ghost came upon men when I discover that God can do more than deal with my sins he can deal with sin and cleanse me and endure me and I can have a God inspired life a God regulated life.

This office we search our own hearts. We're very lenient but he let God search him. One of the most famous businesses in London. I wanted to put it there on the altar. Remember that the river of life proceeds from the altar the place of death.

Have a reputation. Put your reputation on the altar and put your bank book on the altar. You're a wealthy man. The Lord began to make claim after claim and he did it from his feet. An old preacher down in my Dr. Harry Jessup some of you may have read some of his books.

One of the finest old holiness preachers I ever heard. He's 85 years of age. I was saved under him as a matter of fact shone like a face of Moses. And Harry Jessup wrote a book with this title. I met a man with a shining face.

I met that man after his cautious experience with God saved as he was after he'd laid everything on the altar. After he'd asked for cleansing. After he'd asked for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Everybody knew he was indwelled.

One day another business man came into his office. They talked business. This man David Thomas witnessed for the Lord and as they were leaving the business house and taking a cab the man turned round and threw his briefcase in the bag took off his hat and he said to David Thomas everything that I own in this world to have and a stick of lightning.

David Thomas said friend that's exactly what it cost me to get through with the Holy Ghost with a ring of gold on it when they had the glory when they had the fire the glory that came to the Joseph Street the glory the mausoleums used to be called Pentecostal Holiness but they maybe got a bit nervous and called it Pentecostal but when they had the glory in those old days they moved over this land like a streak of fire.

Repentance, Prayer, and the Church's Lost Power

The church is an object of really the only way to simpleness. I'm not just teasing tonight Lord speak to me and then I said after that I promise to keep those promises something that people say who do you think was at the altar last night he did the Spirit put his finger and showed him there was a lot of dryness and emptiness and foulness fruitlessness and he was all in water up to his ankles where he'd been standing for the last 10 years he hadn't really moved up to water to the knees Gabriel should look in his book and couldn't find the last night your pastor was spent in prayer and if Gabriel.

And of course, I heavenly here, and did what David said, store my tears in my goblet, and find the last tear you'll cast to shed over a lost world. Oh no, no, no, no, he couldn't do that. David told, and I finish right here, told me this, that this Baptist preacher said, you know, if the Holy Ghost left my church today, it would function exactly the same.

You wouldn't even know he'd gone. That's not merely true of many Baptist churches, it's true of most churches in the country, but I'm convinced of this. It's a big price to pay, isn't it? Or is it? A little shiny at the knees, a little prematurely old.

Every time you get to your knees, they have to press the panic button in hell, and say, hey, you know that pastor? We should have kept him from Mildred Thompson. That's where he really got on fire again.

My, my, my mind doesn't tremble when we preach to the gayness of gender. The only group, the only people who can make hell fall is our men who know how to pray, and they said you should take a piece of paper, and he said we should write on that paper what we know is wrong with ourselves, our failure, our weakness, our prayerlessness, our fearlessness, our dryness, our lack of compassion, our selfishness, our covetousness.

Write them all down. And when you don't mind anything else to write, strike a line under it. And then pause and say, Holy Spirit, will you show me what's wrong? And he'll begin to show you things you didn't know were there, and he'll add those on.

And then when there's nothing else, you put a line at the bottom and say, Lord, that tonight through the blood of Christ I claim cleansing. Will you tell God right now and tell the devil and testify to the world that after this night you're not going to be a dangerous Christian.

You're not going to be a prayerless Christian. Then instead of reducing the prayer meeting in your church, you put an extra prayer meeting on and you start, at least two or three people start a half-night of prayer every Friday night from 9 o 'clock till 11 or 12, and you'll see how it all really grows.

A Call to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit

Well, that's a bit of the Holy Ghost that doesn't. Is there anything flowing out of you tonight except complaints and grief and bitterness and unhappiness and sorrow? Answer me tonight, tomorrow. We're nearly at the end of the dispensation.

Jesus doesn't want to come to a bankrupt church. He wants to come to a church that's moving in the power of the Holy Ghost. You once had the anointing, you lost it. Well, that's why I brought you here tonight.

Maybe that's why we've got a better speaking system and there's more comfort and it's more congenial and there's more atmosphere. I brought you here tonight because he wants to get through to you. He wants you to leave your bankrupt life there and go out into a stream of blessing and you'll be better to live another six days in the Holy Ghost than six years that you've been living in the past.

You're going to say to him tonight, Lord, I don't care about this. It's my concern. I might underestimate the privilege of being gathered together like this. There are many countries in the world where this could not happen, but here we are, not by accident, but by divine order.

Right in the perfect will of God. You've brought us here. You want to speak to us and meet us tonight. Oh, it's wonderful country. It's feeding to destruction. And the answer is not, we know, legislation or any other thing, but the obedience of your church.

To come back in humility and in tears and in brokenness and confess our failure. Lord, I think of the man just now. When the tree was going to be cut down. And he said, Lord, don't let them cut the tree down.

Spare it just one more year that I may fertilize it. And if it brings forth no more fruit, then cut it down. Lord, maybe some of us are on our last year. Oh, God tonight. Do what preaching is going to do.

Bring that conviction of our personal bankruptcy, our personal dryness, our personal emptiness, our personal lack of love for the lost world, our personal lack of consideration. Lord, for most men and for to know the completeness of God, build our own apartment on our spirit.

Give us our most biggest feet, please. And speak, dear Lord, until we know that we're cleansed and filled with the spirit of God. I'm going to ask that our heads bowed and eyes closed, that we sing just once.

Spirit of the living God, pour all the flesh on me. And usually don't make them. But there are some that have come out already, and I'm going to ask you if you want to join them as we sing this once just quietly.

Don't look around to see who's coming. You say, tonight I've got to meet God. I'm desperate. I don't want blessing. I want to be broken. I want to die. I want to be cleansed. I want him to fill me. I want him to empty out the not much that you can count.

Let's say it in a whisper. A new rising come, as we sing. Melt me.