Introduction: By: Gary R. Kane
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Beloved in Christ Jesus,
The message below, is by my dear
late friend, Leonard Ravenhill, which most of you know was a tremendous
man of God. I thank God for his friendship, and the many times we shared
together in his study, talking about the things of God, and the coming
of the Lord Jesus.
In this day we are in, where there
is so much watered down word in the pulpits, and men are fearful to
speak the 'whole truth,' so they skip over many parts of the Word of God
to please the people, and amuse them with many stories, and different
things in the church to keep them coming, while they speak in a way,
that may sound right, they "rob" the sheep of the complete
truth of God's Word. There is "nothing to
challenge" the people in the pews, no one to look them in the
eye and say 'thus saith the Lord', no one to hold them accountable to
walk in holiness, and righteousness, for this is considered today as
"being hard, being mean, putting pressure on people."
It may run them off!
Beloved, those who are devoted to
Christ, know that we need the whole truth in the pulpit. We need
the prophetic fire from heaven to fall on us, our hearts exposed and
tested and tried. We need men who will "challenge us with the
truth," and fear not to encourage, exhort, or rebuke, when
necessary! This was Paul's instruction to Timothy!
But today, most are content to sit
each week, where they 'do not have to be challenged', no one is walking
with them as a brother, or Pastor, to help them stay accountable. I
'do not' at all mean 'playing Holy Ghost,' but I am talking about "Discipleship."
To be 'disciples, you must be
willing to be accountable, to God, but also to the one, or one's who are
discipling you. Buy accountable, we mean, there should be
honesty, and openness, and the willingness to be transparent at times,
and to be teachable, and even be corrected.
This is just not found in many
churches today. People do not want to be corrected, or admit their sin,
or be dealt with for their laziness to seek God, or serve Him.
They just want a "Comfortable" journey, with their boat never
rocked, and their flesh can enjoy the smooth ride. God send
us Prophets, men who will stand up unafraid, and speak what they hear
from God in their secret closet of prayer. men who have the Word of God,
not agendas, and gimmicks, and soft words that will comfort sinners in
their sin, but the Word of God, that will lift the skirts of those in
the church who love their flesh, who want a "Sunday only
Jesus", that is rarely ever mentioned in the work place, or even in
the home, and they are ever learning but deny the power of the truth.
In other words they do not want to
truly repent, truly change, or be completely devoted to God, and the
things of God. They are Pretenders, they have been "Bewitched by
Jezebel," and led astray by their own fleshly desires. They
are "part time," Christians! The sad part is....
There is no such thing as a "part time Christian."
Don't despise the "true
Prophet" God sent to you, to bring God's Word, and gives all the
glory to God, not men.
Be aware of those "False
Prophets," who come to further their career, white collar
pulpitiers, who have no real heart for the sheep, who have no true
desire for discipleship, except to draw disciples unto themselves, and
build up their own kingdoms.
Beloved, I pray the Lord bless you,
edify you, and guide you, as you read this, and the word from brother
Ravenhill below. Hold fast to what is true, what is real..... We are in
the "Great falling away," of the Church, the great
"Apostasy," and we need discernment like never before. Pray
that God raise up men who will 'fear no man,' and cannot be bought, and
will not change his mind, and position, concerning the whole truth of
God's Word!
God bless you all.
Gary R. Kane
LVM
"TRUE PROPHETS" BY: LEONARD RAVENHILL The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God and totally rejected by men. Years back, Dr. Gregory Mantle was right when he said, "No man can be fully accepted until he is totally rejected." The prophet of the Lord is aware of both these experiences. They are his "brand name." The group, challenged by the prophet because they are smug and comfortably insulated from a perishing world in their warm but untested theology, is not likely to vote him "Man of the year" when he refers to them as habituates of the synagogue of Satan! The prophet comes to set up that which is upset. His work is to call into line those who are out of line! He is unpopular because he opposes the popular in morality and spirituality. In a day of faceless politicians and voiceless preachers, there is not a more urgent national need than that we cry to God for a prophet! The function of the prophet, as Austin-Sparks once said, "has almost always been that of recovery." The prophet is God's detective seeking for a lost treasure. The degree of his effectiveness is determined by his measure of unpopularity. Compromise is not known to him. He has no price tags. He is totally "otherworldly." He is unquestionably controversial and unpardonably hostile. He marches to another drummer! He breathes the rarefied air of inspiration. He is a "seer" who comes to lead the blind. He lives in the heights of God and comes into the valley with a "thus saith the Lord." He shares some of the foreknowledge of God and so is aware of impending judgment. He lives in "splendid isolation." He is forthright and outright, but he claims no birthright. His message is "repent, be reconciled to God or else...!" His prophecies are parried. His truth brings torment, but his voice is never void. He is the villain of today and the hero of tomorrow. He is excommunicated while alive and exalted when dead! He is dishonored with epithets when breathing and honored with epitaphs when dead. He is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, but few "make the grade" in his class. He is friendless while living and famous when dead. He is against the establishment in ministry; then he is established as a saint by posterity. He eats daily the bread of affliction while he ministers, but he feeds the Bread of Life to those who listen. He walks before men for days but has walked before God for years. He is a scourge to the nation before he is scourged by the nation. He announces, pronounces, and denounces! He has a heart like a volcano and his words are as fire. He talks to men about God. He carries the lamp of truth amongst heretics while he is lampooned by men. He faces God before he faces men, but he is self-effacing. He hides with God in the secret place, but he has nothing to hide in the marketplace. He is naturally sensitive but supernaturally spiritual. He has passion, purpose and pugnacity. He is ordained of God but disdained by men.
Our national need at this hour is not that the dollar recover its strength, or that we save face over the Watergate affair, or that we find the answer to the ecology problem. We need a God-sent prophet! I am bombarded with talk or letters about the coming shortages in our national life: bread, fuel, energy. I read between the lines from people not practiced in scaring folk. They feel that the "seven years of plenty" are over for us. The "seven years of famine" are ahead. But the greatest famine of all in this nation at this given moment is a FAMINE OF THE HEARING OF THE WORDS OF GOD (Amos 8:11). Millions have been spent on evangelism in the last twenty-five years. Hundreds of gospel messages streak through the air over the nation every day. Crusades have been held; healing meetings have made a vital contribution. "Come-outers" have "come out" and settled, too, without a nation-shaking revival. Organizers we have. Skilled preachers abound. Multi-million dollar Christian organizations straddle the nation. BUT where, oh where, is the prophet? Where are the incandescent men fresh from the holy place? Where is the Moses to plead in fasting before the holiness of the Lord for our moldy morality, our political perfidy, and sour and sick spirituality? GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come. The prophet is violated during his ministry, but he is vindicated by history. There is a terrible vacuum in evangelical Christianity today. The missing person in our ranks is the prophet. The man with a terrible earnestness. The man totally otherworldly. The man rejected by other men, even other good men, because they consider him too austere, too severely committed, too negative and unsociable. Let him be as plain as John the Baptist. Let him for a season be a voice crying in the wilderness of modern theology and stagnant "churchianity." Let him be as selfless as Paul the apostle. Let him, too, say and live, "This ONE thing I do." Let him reject ecclesiastical favors. Let him be self-abasing, nonself-seeking, nonself-projecting, nonself- righteous, nonself-glorying, nonself-promoting. Let him say nothing that will draw men to himself but only that which will move men to God. Let him come daily from the throne room of a holy God, the place where he has received the order of the day. Let him, under God, unstop the ears of the millions who are deaf through the clatter of shekels milked from this hour of material mesmerism. Let him cry with a voice this century has not heard because he has seen a vision no man in this century has seen. God send us this Moses to lead us from the wilderness of crass materialism, where the rattlesnakes of lust bite us and where enlightened men, totally blind spiritually, lead us to an ever-nearing Armageddon. God have mercy! Send us PROPHETS!
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| COPYRIGHT (C) 2003 LEONARD RAVENHILL |