Excerpts from "Heart Breathings"
By Leonard Ravenhill

Strings for Your Harp

           GOD'S MEN ARE IN HIDING UNTIL THE DAY OF
           THEIR SHOWING FORTH. They will come.

           Let him be as plain as John the Baptist.
           Let him for a season be a voice crying in the
           wilderness of modem 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, non-self-seeking, non-
           self-projecting, non-self-righteous, non-self-
           glorying, non-self-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!

     Part IV. The Imperatives

        A. Prayer

           The need of the Church today is for spiritual
           millionaires who can bring down the wealth of
           the world above on this stricken church age.

           It is my solemn conviction that the Lord put
           the Church to groan in this groaning creation
           (Rom. 8:26) that she might reach millions who
           would otherwise groan for eons in a devil's hell.

           Are we (who still have coals of fire on our altars)
           measuring ourselves by the fireless altars of
           neighboring churches instead of checking on
           the praying blaze of our saintly forebearers?

           THE NAME OF CHRIST
           If we today could rediscover
           The virtue in that Name,
           The victory in that Name,
           The violence in that Name,
           We could set this world alight for God.

           A sermon born in the head reaches the head;
           A sermon born in the heart reaches the heart.

           No Christian is greater than his prayer-life.

           The pastor who is not praying is playing;
           the people who are not praying are straying.

           The two prerequisites to successful Christian
           living are vision and passion, both of which are
           born in and maintained by prayer.

           The ministry of preaching is open to few;
           the ministry of prayer - the highest ministry of
           all human offices - is open to all.

           Prayer grasps eternity!

           The understanding soul prays;
           the praying soul gets understanding.

           The secret of praying is praying in secret.

           Elijah was a man skilled in the art of prayer,
           who altered the course of nature,
           strangled the economy of a nation,
           prayed and fire fell,
           prayed and people fell,
           prayed and rain fell.
           We need rain, rain, rain!
           The churches are so parched that seed
           cannot germinate. Our altars are dry,
           with no hot tears of penitents.
           Oh for an Elijah!

           Elijah was a man
           subject to like passions as we are,
           but alas, we are not men
           of like prayer as he was.
           His whole life is summed up in two words,
           "He prayed." (James 5:17)

           Watch and pray,
           or rust and decay.

           No amount of prayer
           will deliver us from temptation,
           but it will deliver us in temptation.

           Prayer is the language of the poor in Spirit.

           The self-sufficient do not need to pray;
           The self-satisfied will not pray;
           The self-righteous cannot pray.

           Prayer produces courage and joy
           to do God's will
           even if tears are shed doing it.

           The man who kneels in prayer
           has some standing before the Lord.

           Many ask God for help.
           Few ask God for mercy.

           We need preachers
           who can preach up a storm,
           but our greater need is for pray-ers
           who can pray down the fire.

           Most Christians pray to be blest
           few pray to be broken.

           Prayer is not argument with God
           to persuade Him to walk our way,
           but an exercise by which He enables us by His
           Spirit to walk His way.

           Who can tell the measure of God's power?
           Prayer is as vast as God
           because He is behind it.
           Prayer is as mighty as God,
           because He has committed Himself to answer it.

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