Excerpts from "Heart Breathings"
By Leonard Ravenhill

Strings for Your Harp

     E. The Leaders

        1. Overcomers

           The explanation for the Christians'
           overcoming life in Christ is:

             a. Their covering (Rev.12:11), "the
              blood of the Lamb,"

             b. Their conviction,
              "the word of their testimony,"

             c. Their covenant, "They loved not their
              lives unto the death."

           The reward for this overcoming is:

             a. Rev. 2:7, "to eat of the tree of life."
             b. Rev. 2:11, "shall not be hurt of the
              second death."
             c. Rev. 2:17, "to eat of the hidden
              manna."
             d. Rev. 2:26, "to him will I give power
              over the nations."
             e. Rev. 2:28, "I will give him the morning star."
             f. Rev. 3:5, "the same shall be clothed
              in white raiment."
             g. Rev. 3:12, "Him.... will I make a
              pillar in the temple of my God."
             h. Rev. 3:21, "To him that overcometh
              will I grant to sit with me in my
              throne." That's the ultimate reward
              and glory.

          You may give a man an office in the church,
          but you cannot give him authority -
          nor can you withold it.
          Divine authority is divinely given.

          Romans 8:37, "more than conquerors,"
          is an exclamation of jubilation
          for the soul's emancipation!

        2. Preachers

          A preacher is a man
          with a message from another world
          to people in this world
          who are going to that other world.

          The successful preacher does not end
          his sermon with the congregation on
          its feet applauding him; but rather,
          he leaves it on its knees adoring Him.

          Our preachers must be filled with the Spirit
          before they fill our pulpits,
          or else they will fill the people with chaff.

          The message of the preacher
          is not always scathing,
          but it is always searching -
          if it is Spirit-energized.

          The effective preacher is the man
          who trembles at His Word,
          but who stands untremblingly
          to deliver that Word.

          The preacher must taste the powers of another
          world, if he would preach to men of this world
          who are blind and deaf
          to the claims of the next world.

          We have an abundance of "men of the cloth";
          few - too few - men with sackcloth.

          Wet-eyed preachers never deliver dry sermons.

          A preacher cannot get "off the ground"
          until he prays,
          and he cannot keep on the ground
          after he prays - his preaching will soar!

          The petty Peter of pre-Pentecost days
          became the prophet-preacher
          of post-Pentecost days.

          There is much more to preaching than merely
          being loaded with theological savvy and elastic
          vocabulary.

          The pastor's task is to feed the flock,
          not to produce it.

          Giving a man an "R-E-V" does not sanctify him
          any more than giving him a Ph.D.
          can edify him.

          I am tired of preachers who act like lions
          in the pulpit,
          but play like kittens outside of it.

          Some preachers spend so much time walking
          theological picket lines that they never enter
          the areas of true worship.

          An evangelist with his eye on the "Jackpot"
          Should be afraid of being labeled a "crackpot."

          Pity him and pray for him - the preacher who
          can mouth eternal truths to eternal souls
          without pain, or tears, or burden.

        3. The Prophets

          The prophet in his day is fully accepted of God
          and totally rejected by men.

          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 prophet is God's detective seeking for lost
          spiritual treasures. The degree of his
          effectiveness is determined by the measure of
          his unpopularity.
          Compromise is not known to him.
          He has no price tags.
          He is totally "otherworldly."
          He is unquestionably controversial
          and unpardonable 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 with 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.... I"
          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 established as a "saint" by posterity.
          Daily he eats 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.
          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 other-worldly.
          The man rejected by other men,
          even other good men,
          because they consider him too austere,
          too severely committed,
          too negative and unsociable.

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