“Baptism of Fire” Part X by Leonard Ravenhill

“He shall baptize you with Holy Ghost and with Fire.” God always works with the minority. You’ve got a wonderful list in I Corinthians 15 of people who saw Jesus in His resurrection power. And then it ties the knot at the end of the cotton and it says He was seen of 500 brethren at once. And I am convince in my spirit it was those 500 to whom He says, “Tarry ‘til ye be endued with power.” How many went? 120! 380 of them never bothered. It’s always like that. God uses a minority.

There’s only a few people want to go outside the camp.  There’s only a few people that want to die with Him.  The only freedom that lepers had was to walk outside the camp. It was a place where all the sewage of the city went. It was a place where they threw dead bodies and dead animals. It was a stink hole. And the Holiest man that ever lived went outside the camp that you may go inside of it! And Yet you have to whip some people to church almost. If I went to the church they go to I’d want whipping too. Isn’t it tragedy, almost blasphemy to go to a meeting and you say, “Oh, boy that meeting was cold”? “The meeting was so dead.” How can you have the living Christ in a dead meeting. Or put it the other way, How can you have a dead meeting if the living Christ is there? How can you go out? After all, our business is to know about eternity, is to talk about a time when there is no bonds and no other stuff materialistic, it’s all vanished. We are going to a Kingdom that knows nothing of these material things, and yet, we are so slack and so careless about the eternal things.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army., just about got kicked out of the Methodist church. That day he walked outside and put his arm around his wife’s shoulder, and said, “Darling we are going to raise up an army.” “From where?” “We’ll take all the cast off, or drop outs from the churches, we’ll go to the gutter.” And he wrote a wonderful hymn:

Thou Christ of burning cleansing flame, send the fire. (We ought to learn that.)  Thy blood bought gift today we claim, send the fire.  Look down and see this waiting host, give us the promised Holy Ghost.  We want another Pentecost, (I am not sure if we do, but we need it.)

To make our weak hearts strong and brave, send the fire.  To live a dying world to save, send the fire.  Oh, see us on Thine alter lay our lives, our all this very day  To crown the offering, now we pray, send the fire.