Leonard Ravenhill was one of Britain’s foremost
outdoor evangelists of the 20th century. God used him
to help bring thousands of people to Christ throughout
Britain. Unlike the case with many of today’s
evangelists, the conversions that Leonard helped to
bring about were generally lasting conversions. That’s
because he did not water down the Gospel when he
preached it. Later in life, Leonard and his family
moved to the United States, where he worked with
Bethany House Publishers. In the 1980s, Leonard and
his family moved to a home near Lindale, Texas, a
short distance from Last Days Ministries. Leonard
regularly taught classes at Last Days Ministries, and
he was a mentor to the late Keith Green.
A. W. Tozer, who was a friend of Leonard, said this
about Leonard: “To such men as this the church owes a
debt too heavy to pay. The curious thing is that she
seldom tries to pay him while he lives. Rather, the
next generation builds his sepulcher and writes his
biography—as if instinctively and awkwardly to
discharge an obligation the previous generation to a
large extent ignored.
“Those who know Leonard Ravenhill will recognize in
him the religious specialist, the man sent from God
not to carry on the conventional work of the church,
but to beard the priests of Baal on their own
mountain-top, to shame the careless priest at the
altar, to face the false prophet and to warn the
people who are being led astray by him.
“Such a man as this is not an easy companion. He is
not the professional evangelist who leaves the
wrought-up meeting as soon as it is over to hurry to
the most expensive restaurant to feast and crack jokes
with his retainers. Such evangelists will find this
man something of an embarrassment, for he cannot turn
off the burden of the Holy Ghost as one would turn off
a faucet. He insists upon being a Christian all the
time, everywhere. And again, that marks him out as
different.”
I first met Leonard in 1989, when he was eighty-two
years old and in frail health. At first glance, I
would not have thought that God could still use this
fragile, white-haired man. He walked slowly and
unsteadily, and he sometimes needed help to get up and
down from his chair. Yet, as soon as he opened his
mouth, I immediately realized that my initial
impression was wrong. At eighty-two, Leonard still
spoke with fire and conviction, and it felt like his
eyes were piercing right through to my soul.
During the last few years of his life, Leonard
moderated a prayer meeting held once a week (later
once a month), which was attended primarily by pastors
and evangelists. Some of these men made a four-hour
round trip to attend those prayer meetings. I attended
those prayer meetings from 1989 until they ended in
the summer of 1994, a few months before Leonard’s
death. During the years that I attended those prayer
meetings, I never once left without being deeply
challenged by what Leonard had said.
One of Leonard’s gifts was his ability to
spontaneously create insightful spiritual maxims as he
spoke. These were short, memorable observations about
God, the church, and the world. I always took a
notebook with me to these meetings to write down some
of his observations and maxims. Here are some of
Leonard’s spiritual insights from those meetings:
“A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true
prophet reaches your conscience.”
“The last words of Jesus to the church (in Revelation)
were ‘Repent!’”
“A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely
point the way.”
“You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes
running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church
is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The
community will already know it.”
“Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel—and
just as empty!”
“John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet,
he was greater than any of the Old Testament
prophets.”
“I doubt that more than two percent of professing
Christians in the United States are truly born again.”
“Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust,
materialism, and other sin.”
“There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in
sin and those dead to sin.”
[Concerning the darkness that has enveloped most of
Christendom:] “When you’re sitting in a dark room, you
can either sit and curse the darkness—or you can light
a candle.”
“Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not
what Matthew 7 says.”
“Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour
preparing for church externally (putting on special
clothes and makeup, etc.). What would happen if we all
spent the same amount of time preparing internally for
church—with prayer and meditation?”
“Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from
age.”
“What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if
you have been using your tongue during the week to
curse and gossip?”
“Would we send our daughters off to have sex if it
would benefit our country? Yet, we send our sons off
to kill when we think it would benefit our country!”
“The only time you can really say that ‘Christ is all
I need,’ is when Christ is all you have.”
“The Bible is either absolute, or it’s obsolete.”
“Why do we expect to be better treated in this world
than Jesus was?”
“Today’s church wants to be raptured from
responsibility.”
“Testimonies are wonderful. But, so often our lives
don’t fit our testimonies.”
[Concerning one of the new “movements” in the church
that was causing a stir among Christians:] “There’s
also a stir when the circus comes to town.”
“My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil’s most
wanted list.”
“You can’t develop character by reading books. You
develop it from conflict.”
“When there’s something in the Bible that churches
don’t like, they call it ‘legalism.’”
“We can’t serve God by proxy.”
“We must do what we can do for God, before He will
give us the power to do what we can’t do.”
“There’s a difference between changing your opinion,
and changing your lifestyle.”
“Our seminaries today are turning out dead men.”
“How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you
don’t even have the strength to turn off your TV?”
“Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled
when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as
Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death.”
“If a Christian is not having tribulation in the
world, there’s something wrong!”
[Concerning the fixation that today’s church has with
numbers, with growth at any price:] “The church has
paid a terrible price for statistics!”
“Any method of evangelism will work—if God is in it.”
“Church unity comes from corporate humility.”
“You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still
not have the presence of God.”
“Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so
seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment
Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, ‘Leonard, you
took Me too seriously’?”
“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers
preach today, He would never have been crucified.”
“You can know a lot about the atonement, and yet
receive no benefit from it.”
“If the whole church goes off into deception, that
will in no way excuse us for not following Christ.”
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