Thursday 12 February 2015

Wanted: Burning and Shining Lamps

He [John] was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. John 5:35
I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire... Rev 3:18
Last year I discovered a classic revival work by Leonard Ravenhill on a friend's bookshelf. I borrowed the book and have been slowly making my way through it. Last night, I read these insightful and encouraging words...

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"John the Baptist was in God's School of Silence, the wilderness, until the day of his showing forth. Who was better fitted for the task of stirring a torpid nation from its sensual slumber than this sun-scorched, fire-baptized, desert-bred prophet -- sent of God with a face like the judgment morning? In his eyes was the light of God, in his voice was the authority of God, and in his soul was the passion of God! Who, I ask, could be greater than John? Truly 'he did no miracle,' that is, he never raised a dead man; but he did far more -- he raised a dead nation!


This leathern-girdled prophet with a time-limit ministry so burned and shone that those who heard his hot-tongued, heart-burning message, went home to sleepless nights until their blistered souls were broken in repentance. Yet John the Baptist was strange in doctrine -- no sacrifice, ceremony, or circumcision; strange in diet -- no winebibbing nor banqueting; strange in dress -- no phylacteries nor Pharisaic garments.

Yes, but John was great! Great eagles fly alone; great lions hunt alone; great souls walk alone -- alone with God. Such loneliness is hard to endure and impossible to enjoy unless God-accompanied. Truly John made the grade in greatness. He was great in three ways: great in his fidelity to the Father -- training long years, preaching short months; great in his submission to the Spirit -- he stepped and stopped as ordered; great in his statements of the Son -- declaring Jesus, whom he had never seen before, as 'the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.'

John was a 'Voice.' Most preachers are only echoes, for if you listen hard, you will be able to tell what latest book they have read and how little of the Book they quote. To reach the masses, we need a Voice -- a heaven-sent prophet to preach to preachers! It takes broken men to break men. Brethren, we have equipment but not enduement; commotion but not creation; action but not unction; rattle but not revival. We are dogmatic but not dynamic ...

... Unctionized by the Spirit's might, John cried, 'Repent!' And they did! Repentance is not a few hot tears at the penitent form. It is not emotion or remorse or reformation. Repentance is a change of mind about God, about sin, and about hell!

Nature's two greatest forces are fire and wind, and these two were wedded on the Day of Pentecost. Thus, just like wind and fire, that blessed 'upper room' company were irresistible, uncontrollable, unpredictable -- Then their fire started missionary fires, quenched the violence of fire, lit martyr fires, and started revival fires!"

Excerpt from: Ravenhill, L. (1959) Why Revival Tarries., Minnesota: Bethany House Publishers 1996, pgs. 108-112.

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