BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing English E-magazine Aug 2019 | Page 6

We Plead or We Perish!
Leonard Ravenhill
Since the first day that Communism was
born, its cheap jibe against Christianity has been, "It's
pie in the sky when you die." Now we are hearing much
from a people who as Christians say, "It's pie on your
way to the sky." These interpreters of the spiritual life
offer an experience in grace that is a summer without
any winter, a rose without any thorns, a sea without
any storms, a bliss without any battles. They are totally
anti-biblical in this interpretation.
Jacob's famous night of wrestling in
spiritual power saw him changed into prince with
Godit also brought him a limp! Samson had the most
blessed of all gifts known to men "the Spirit of the Lord
came mightily upon him" (Judges 14:6), but there was
a lion in the deal, too. Our blessed Lord cried, "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me." He never ministered
until the anointing came, but with it came the forty
days of massive temptation. Pentecost saw the Upper
Room disciples transformed, and immediately after
came a storm of persecution. Heads rolled, but the
believers did not foldthey flamed: "We ought to obey
God rather than men!"
It's time to leave the "prayer" breakfast
and banqueting circuit for the battlefield. We have
feasted long enough; now is the time to fast and to
fight. We have clapped hands long enough; now we
must let those bands cling to the sword of the Spirit as
we battle against principalities and power. The hours
ahead of us will demand a showdown of strength. The
underpinning of truththe Bible is the infallible,
inerrant, indestructible Word of the Lordis being eaten
away in the seminaries and schools by the acid
rationalism of so-called intellectual progress. Such a
battle of the Bible is not won in the lecture halls. It is
won in the prayer closet.
From every pulpit we should hand this
boldly written text: "For the nation and kingdom that
will not serve Thee shall perish: Yea, those nations shall
be utterly wasted" (Isa 60:12).
It took ten vicious plagues to shake
Pharaoh from his grip on Israel. Will it take ten plagues
to shake us from our materialistic complacency and
our spiritual sleep? Must God rain fire from heaven
upon us to stop our mad rush to the fires of hell?
"While men slept the enemy sowed the
tares." While we sleep in the church the devil sows his
tares, sets his snares, and weighs folks with cares. Folks
heed the politicians more than the preachers these
days. Materialism has mesmerized us, and we count
our calories more often than we count our blessings.
Time is running out on us, liberties are
drying up. Privacy is withering. Soon there will be no
private holding of funds. Federal peeping at bank
holdings is very near. I am told of a millionaire who,
after the invasion of his country by the Communists,
looked back at his once-prosperous material empire
saying daily, "I wish I had used that money for the
Lord." Shall we sigh that way?
God has said that He will yet shake the
heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. The
earth is the Lord's; let no man or government forget it.
He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger
forever. Yes, He loved Israel; and He delivered Israel
into the hands of the Midianites, also.
The web of impurity tightens alarmingly
around the nations. The cup of iniquity is filling rapidly.
Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the
people. We are contesting now against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, with the unfruitful works of
darkness obstructing our every step. We believers
have been called out of darkness into His most
marvelous light"Ye brethren are not in darkness." In
His light we see light. We see what the world cannot
see either in blessing or in cursingcoming judgment.
The world wars did not shake the world as
it is being shaken at this moment. Will the Church sleep
on while mankind heads for the rapids? A
longsuffering God cannot wink at our iniquity much
longer. He lets men go so far and then, as they
announce their triumph, He intervenes.
Belshazzar had it all wrapped up. He
defiled the temple vessels; he defied God; he deified
himself. And when the party was a roaring success,
when the flesh strutted and the people acclaimed him
the greatestthen he saw the handwriting on the wall.
August 2019| www.bymonline.org | page 06