53 Leonard Ravenhill Quotes

Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?

The question isn't were you challenged. The question is were you changed?

A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.

My main ambition in life is to be on the devil's most wanted list.

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.

A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.

Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent.

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'?

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.

Today Christians spend more money on dog food than missions.

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?

As long as we are content to live without revival, we will.

Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and other sin.

A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.

If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ.

The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising.

Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age.

Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned?

How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don't even have the strength to turn off your TV?

If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there's something wrong!

No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off.

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?

If Jesus preached the same message minister's preach today, He would have never been crucified.

Today's church wants to be raptured from responsibility.

If I was to ask you tonight if you were saved? Do you say 'Yes, I am saved'. When? 'Oh so and so preached, I got baptized and...' Are you saved? What are you saved from, hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebellion against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from?

Any method of evangelism will work if God is in it.

When there's something in the Bible that churches don't like, they call it 'legalism.'

But have we Holy Spirit power - power that restricts the devil's power, pulls down strongholds and obtains promises? Daring delinquents will be damned if they are not delivered from the devil's dominion. What has hell to fear other than a God-anointed, prayer-powered church?

You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict.

The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church, grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. He is disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil.

The self-righteous never apologize.

No faith is required to do the possible; actually only a morsel of this atom-powered stuff is needed to do the impossible, for a piece as large as a mustard seed will do more than we have ever dreamed of.

To be much for God, we must be much with God. Jesus, that lone figure in the wilderness, knew strong crying, along with tears. Can one be moved with compassion and not know tears? Jeremiah was a sobbing saint. Jesus wept! So did Paul. So did John. Though there are some tearful intercessors behind the scenes, I grant you that to our modern Christianity, praying is foreign.

Is the world crucified to you tonight? Or does it fascinate you?

The secret of praying is praying in secret.

Many of us are hunting mice - while lions devour the land.

That world outside there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.

John the Baptist never performed any miracles. Yet, he was greater than any of the Old Testament prophets.

Our seminaries today are turning out dead men.

The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Power helpeth our infirmity in prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Life ends our deadness in prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Wisdom delivers us from ignorance in this holy art of prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Fire delivers us from coldness in prayer. The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Might comes to our aid in our weakness as we pray.

Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says.

You can have all of your doctrines right - yet still not have the presence of God.

The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it.

The Bible is either absolute, or it's obsolete.

Let the fires go out in the boiler room of the church and the place will still look smart and clean, but it will be cold. The Prayer Room is the boiler room for its spiritual life.

One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.

There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in sin and those dead to sin.

There's a difference between changing your opinion, and changing your lifestyle.

This much is sure in all churches, forgetting party labels; the smallest meeting numerically is the prayer-meeting. If weak in prayer we are weak everywhere.

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!