Battle-Ready

"Like a sailor I once saw pounding a soldier 'because', said the sailor, 'he insulted my mother,' so my Lord is insulted and His Church slighted. And, believe me, under this double injury, I smart. The Church has many adversaries. Can my sword sleep, then, in my hand? Never!"

~ Leonard Ravenhill ~
Why Revival Tarries

Sisters in Battle,

One of the greatest compliments - and challenges - spoken over me was by my children several years ago. You see, we have always loved movies - battle movies in particular. Among our favorites is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. These films are rich in spiritual allegory and I believe they are a gift to the Bride to remind her of her many foes and her call to defend, liberate, and to advance - that ours is battle, not respite.

The compliment? The challenge? That I remind them of the warrior princess of Rohan, Lady Eowyn. Her highest scene - protecting the injured King of Rohan from the witch king and his nazgul. Facing great terror. Cutting off the dragon's advancing head. Killing the witch king as no man could. (Scene) Indignant, the witch king seized her throat hissing, "No man can kill me!" At the same time the little hobbit who, all but Lady Eowyn believed had no business being in battle thrust his dagger into the witch king's leg, compelling the evil one to let go of Eowyn's throat. Now freed from his grip, she ripped off her helmet to reveal the powerful truth hidden behind the armor - and defiantly announced, "I am no man!" as she thrust her sword through his helmet killing the beast.

This battle was for the little hobbit.

This battle was for Lady Eowyn.

My sons paid me that compliment as they gave me a trading card of Eowyn. A prized possession from their collection. I keep this card my wallet - to remind me of who I've been crafted and called to be. A warrior princess of the Great King and His Kingdom. The picture of the Christian life is likened to the soldier in battle. Do we see ourselves as soldiers in battle?

Ours is not the time for the summer soldier and sunshine patriot, for the battle for Truth and liberty is fierce in our land, in our day. We must not deny. We must not shrink back. We must be people of emergency. So much is riding on it....

I pray you are invigorated and animated by what you have read so far in Let Us Highly Resolve and When A Nation Forgets God. One is the why; the other the how. Are these books stirring you? Are you getting a fire in your belly?

As you know, I am the kind of person who reads several books at once. I have books everywhere I frequent so I can make the most of my time - powder room, master bath, night stand, coffee table, car, purse. Presently, I'm reading our books for September as well as gift book from our own Katy Kelton titled Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill. I find it hard to read this silently and find myself many times wanting to jump up and shout with joy in affirmation. A powerful read! A needful read! Yesterday, it's message broke me to tears and drove me fervent prayer. THANK YOU KATY!

I want to share some of this treasure with you. From the Foreword:

"Great industrial concerns have in their employ men who are needed only when there is a break-down somewhere. When something goes wrong with the machinery, thees men spring into action to locate and remove the trouble and get the machinery rolling again.

For these men a smoothly operating system has no interest. They are specialists concerned with trouble and how to find it and correct it.

In the kingdom of God things are not too different. God has always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown, the decline in the spiritual health of the nation or the church. Such men were Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi, and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke, and exhort in the name of God and righteousness.

A thousand or ten thousand ordinary priests or pastors or teachers could labor quietly almost unnoticed while the spiritual life of Israel or the church was normal. But let the people of God go astray from the paths of truth, and immediately the specialist appeared almost out of nowhere. His instinct for trouble brought him to the help of the Lord and of Israel.

Such a man was likely to be drastic, radical, possibly at time violent, and the curious crowd that gathered to watch him work soon branded him as extreme, fanatical, negative. And in a sense they were right. He was single-minded, severe, fearless, and these were the qualities the circumstances demanded. He shocked some, frightened others, and alienated not a few, but he knew who had called him and what he was sent to do. His ministry was geared to the emergency....

.... Those who know Leonard Ravenhill will recognize in him the religious specialist, the man sent from God not to carry on the conventional work of the church, but to beard the priests of Baal on their own mountaintop, to shame the careless priest at the alter, to face the false prophet and warm the people who are being led astray by him.

Such a man as this is not an easy companion. The professional evangelist who leaves the wrought-up meeting as soon as it is over to hie him to the most expensive restaurant to feast and crack jokes with his retainers will find this man something of an embarrassment, for he cannot turn off the burden of the Holy Ghost as one would turn off a faucet. He insists upon being a Christian all the time, everywhere; and again, that marks him out as different...." (A.W. Tozer)

Wow!

That was just the Foreword.

Leonard was born to godly parents. His mother laid hands on her two-hour-newborn infant and asked that God make him a preacher or not let him live. How God honored her request! The boldness of a mother! May there be found some mother Ravenhill in us as we raise and disciple our children.


Some Leonard Ravenhill quotable quotes:

I'm astounded, bewildered, confused, baffled when people tell me there are 75 million people in America that are filled with the Holy Ghost and we're the most rotten nation on earth.


Someone asked me, "Do you pray for the dead?" I said, "No, I preach to them!" I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God).


I'm sick and tired of (only) reading about church history; let's make (some) by the grace of God!


I'm embarrassed to be a part of the (so-called) church of Jesus Christ today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a Holy God!

I read through Hebrews 11. These staggering men and women through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtain the promises, stopped the lions; women received their dead raised to life again. All the devilish things (they endured) and not one ever had a Bible! Well, in God's Name, (what) are you and I going to do when we stand before Him?! When I get there, I'll have to face up to having the whole revelation of God. Finney didn't have a bigger Bible; Wesley didn't have a bigger Bible, but somehow they got nearer to the heart of God. They got a revelation from God, they got convictions of the Spirit and they laid their lives on the line.


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What shapes your thinking, shapes your living!


For Christ's Crown and Covenant & His Kingdom Advanced ~

Jill Grier
Visionary Christian Home Educators
http://www.livingwaters.com/good/
http://reformedgirlcrusader.blogspot.com/
http://www.carepages.com/carepages/NicholasWilliamBraveheart
www.V-CHE.info
Isaiah 58:11-12, Nehemiah 4:14
“I am. I can. I ought. I will." ~ Charlotte Mason