John The Baptist and The Fire of God # 3

John The Baptist and The Fire of God # 3

I say again, this man John the Baptist has no pattern before him. I believe this man walked up and down amongst the wild beasts, and there he is, he doesn't eat much. Some big flies, you know, a bit bigger than these horrible things that eat my garden up, grasshoppers. Big, big things, he caught them, put them on a rock and roasted them. Three times a day he had locust burgers. Nothing else to eat except locusts and wild honey. And yet the people come near to hear him. I'll say it again, for my comfort if not yours: You never have to advertise a fire. Whether its spiritual or a physical fire. The most self-advertising thing in this world is a fire.

I remember getting home between one and two o'clock one morning. I said to my wife, "Sweetheart, one of the big mills in town is on fire, lets go! It's nearly two o'clock, there'll be nobody there." Everyone in the city woke up with the same idea, so they all went. We couldn't get within three blocks of the place. I said, "Sweetheart, we'll go round..." We went around in our little car, you know, those tiny little things. Well, we got half way down the street and it was so fierce we could not even stand there, the fire was so terrible in its majesty. This huge mill burning. 

I wonder how many of us have really seen a man who is on fire for God?

When the Holy Spirit came in the upper room, how did He come? Did He come as a dove? When Jesus received His baptism the Spirit came as a dove upon Him. There was nothing in Him to purify! He comes to us in fire because we need purification.

I remember a night in Gillingham, east of London. We rented a church. I'll tell you who came. If you've read "Gods Smuggler", he talks in there about a man called Uncle Hoppy. Well, Uncle Hoppy "hopped in the meeting that day. He came in the most broken down automobile I've ever seen. He was nuts, pardon the phrase, but he was sanctified nuts! He came in clothes that were almost worn out. He bought all his clothes at the Salvation Army. This old car came wheezing up the street, rheumatism in all the wheels and asthma in the motor. It was sobbing and groaning as it came up the hill...but he was giving thousands of dollars away to missions!! He stayed with us for a half night of prayer.

I'll never forget that night of prayer. There were surgings of blessings. There were times when God so came in power, I was afraid to open my eyes. We started praying at nine o'clock. Between one and two in the morning we were going out. There was an old lady at the back, sitting in a wheelchair; a white haired lady. "Oh brother," she said, (she didn't know any of our names.) "Wasn't it wonderful!" I said,k "It was." "One of the best I've been in many prayer meetings, this was one of the greatest, most powerful. Wasn't it wonderful!" I said, "Sure, I said that. Did you feel anything different about one o'clock?" I said, "Yes, I felt a hand or something came I felt a quickening in my spirit." "It was just then." "Just then what?" "You didn't see it?" No, no, I was with my head down praying." She said, "A tongue of fire came down on the head of the first, went to the next, went to the next, went to the next, right to the end. It was awesome." No wonder everyone of us felt a wonderful insurge of the life of God...Or the power of God, define it as you will.

You see, there is a great deal of difference between revival and evangelism. I am so sick to death, I hardly read any reports of meetings that come to me. Everybody is getting half of America saved. If you add all the lists of people saved, everybody in America, the whole population has been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit about six times in the last ten years. And yet we are as dumb and as dead and as damned as we were when we started off!

You want to know what preaching is? Study this third chapter in the Gospel of Luke, and when you've read that read the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where Paul is standing before a heathen king in a pagan court and says, "God called me to preach." And he summarizes what preaching is: its to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.

People come to the altar, yes, but meet them at the door and ask what happened. "Oh, ah, ah, ah, ah. I confessed my sins." There is not one evangelist in fifty in America today preaching salvation. They are preaching forgiveness. "Just come and get forgiven." That is not salvation. Jesus came to do more than forgive us our sins. He came for something more. He came to rescue us from sin and sinning. Not just our past sin, but to stop this damnable business that makes God so sad. "He that is born of God does not - N-O-T" commit sin." You say its impossible not to sin. It is possible for us not to sin.

What happened when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost? What does it say? They were pricked in their hearts. After that Stephen preached. And when he preached the same thing happened. Peter on the day of Pentecost says to the men he had ran away from: "You crucified the Lord of glory. You killed Him." Stephen says, "You murdered the Son of God."

That is preaching!

~Leonard Ravenhill~

(continued with # 4)

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