Tonight I read a message from God ... and I have not ceased weeping.
I have been increasingly burdened for the people of God of late. He has been giving me dreams related to that burden. And tonight he brought me to the following Facebook post by an unknown author.
First of all, it's about one of the greatest yet least known men of God of the century many of us were born in. He was a true humble unassuming man of God whose ministry was often invisible but the products of which transformed so many ministries. I have learned from and greatly admire this man who impacted more great pastors and peachers than I can name. Who was he? His name was Leonard Ravenhill and he went home to his eternal reward in 1994. But his words, his life, his message lives on because God aimed them at our day, right now.
Second, it contains words that fit exactly with the dream I recounted in Anything Goes about 6 weeks ago-- that there is no life in most churches today because there are no more tears ... in the pulpit or the pews. We have lost the ability --indeed we can't see the necessity-- to weep ... to weep, to mourn over sin, over the lost, over the world, over all that burdens the heart of God. Instead we have been distracted by the world and the idea that the Church can be a friend of the world because the world can be a friend of the Church. "Kumbaya, my friends, kumbaya! Let's group hug over charitable deeds and the wonderful things we do to help people. We aren't really different from you: we're all the same, we just know Jesus and, if you know Him, He can make your life wonderful, too."
No! That's not the Gospel! The true Gospel begins with REPENT! Salvation starts when are willing to believe and turn to God. And it continues with FOLLOW! Yet how can we follow Christ and His path if we are still entangled with the world's path?
These are the things God has been laying on my heart. And the burden is becoming too great to bear in silence.
The title of this part of CCF is From The Pastor's Study, but this message is not the product of my studies or my time in my study. It's the product of what God has been speaking into my heart through prayer, meditation and unsought-for dreams. And it is a burden that God is definitely and increasingly laying on me as a pastor. It is now a fire that I can no longer continue to hold locked in my heart. It is time for me to begin speaking.
I am going to share the message that impacted me tonight (and is still impacting me with tears I cannot seem to stop: they keep restarting) because it is confirming everything the Holy Spirit has been burdening me with over the past days and weeks. I am not seeking to burden you with guilt. I am not attempting to add works to your faith. But as the pastor God called to humbly lead and care for every member of this fellowship, I am asking you to take the message contained in everything you have read --and will read-- here to God in prayer. Ask HIM if this is for you. And be willing to humble yourself before Him and do what He requires ... should He confirm this is for you too.
Thank you, and may God speak His Will to you as you seek Him on this.
____________
HE WARNED US FOR 50 YEARS – WE DID NOT LISTEN
He warned us long before our generation drowned itself in noise — long before saints traded intercession for entertainment, long before scandals became normal and holiness became optional.
Leonard Ravenhill saw something coming. And when he spoke of it, his voice didn’t sound like an analysis or commentary. It sounded like a man staring into the future and trembling. He once said, “The church is preparing for a picnic, but God is preparing us for a war.”
People thought he was exaggerating — too intense, too old-fashioned, too extreme. But the deeper he went with God, the heavier his warnings became. And the older he grew, the more his words stopped sounding like sermons and started sounding like prophecy.
Now, in 2025, his warnings feel less like history and more like headlines.
Ravenhill’s prophecy was not about governments, elections, nations, or economies. It was about something far more terrifying—it was about us, the church, the people who say they love Jesus, the generation that sings about fire but knows nothing of the altar.
Ravenhill never called himself a prophet. He didn’t chase titles, applause, or platforms. He didn’t market his reputation or build an empire. He didn’t care who praised him or who hated him. But he carried something inside him — a burden so heavy men shook when they stepped into his living room. He prayed like a man fighting for oxygen. He wept like a man carrying a nation on his chest. He preached like a man who had seen eternity and lived to tell the church it was not ready.
People didn’t come to him for leadership strategies. They came because when they looked into his eyes, they felt judged by heaven.
He once whispered to a young minister, “The last-day church will be the most distracted church in history.” He didn’t say the church would be wicked or heretical—he said it would be distracted. Distracted by comfort, entertainment, activities, noise, and good things that suffocate the God-thing.
Ravenhill believed our generation would drown in blessings and starve in burden. He said we would lose our tears, lose urgency, and lose the agony that births revival. The future church, he said, would be full of motion but empty of devotion. Loud on stage but silent in prayer. Talented in music but poor in repentance.
Then he gave his first prophecy—not to excite or motivate, but to warn. “A shaking is coming. A divine confrontation. A holy interruption.”
He said God would pull back the curtain and expose everything fake. Look around today—scandals, moral failures, spiritual dryness, churches with fog machines but no holy fire, pastors building platforms but losing their souls, Christians who love Christian content more than Christ Himself. If you listen carefully, you can hear the tremors. The ground is already shaking. Ravenhill said, “The church lost her voice because she lost her tears.”
Our generation lost the ability to weep over sin, to tremble before God, to groan for souls.
But he wasn’t done. Because just before he went deeper, he revealed the second prophecy—a prophecy that terrified pastors and upset religious leaders. He said God would bypass many churches, ministries, and platforms.
That He would walk past the lights, titles, and crowds and choose the hidden ones: the unknown intercessors, burned-out missionaries, prayer warriors with no followers, grandmothers praying in the dark, teenagers who cry at midnight, preachers nobody invites, believers nobody sees.
Ravenhill said, “When God can find a man who will pray, He will shake nations.”
This second prophecy was not destruction but divine selection. When the shaking hits, God will raise an unseen army—people the world ignores but heaven knows by name.
But the third prophecy, which he spoke only in whispers to men who could handle eternal weight, was the most terrifying of all.
He said that before revival comes, a cleansing will come. Not political or social or economic cleansing—but cleansing inside the church. Cleansing of motives, pride, pulpits, worship, doctrine, secret sin, spiritual laziness, and diluted gospel messages.
God would expose false fire, false holiness, false conversions, false altars, false repentance, false anointing—not because He hates the church, but because He is preparing her.
He said judgment would begin in the house of God. And if you look at the rising hunger for holiness worldwide, the longing for truth, and the exhaustion with spiritual entertainment, you can almost hear Ravenhill’s voice echoing in the whirlwind: God is cleansing His bride.
But here’s the part people miss. Ravenhill didn’t just warn of shaking, cleansing, or divine confrontation—he promised something else. Something radiant, violent, and unstoppable. He said a generation would arise that would burn hotter than any before it. A generation God could trust with His fire. A generation of unknown revivalists—people who pray more than they post, weep more than they perform, fear God more than opinions, carry more hunger than hype, and pursue holiness more than applause. A generation defined not by talent but by tears, not by gifting but by groaning, not by skill but by surrender. A generation forged in secret rooms where God breaks a person until only fire is left.
This is where the story turns, because the next part is not revival theory but revival legacy. Leonard Ravenhill never built a megachurch. He didn’t chase fame or build a brand. He lived simply, prayed deeply, and carried eternity in his eyes. Yet his influence was explosive. It spread quietly like embers in the wind, landing on hearts prepared by God.
The first man to catch those embers was David Wilkerson. Wilkerson visited often—not to learn branding, strategy, or audience growth, but for burden, holiness, tears, and brokenness.
But the greatest thing Ravenhill ever gave us wasn’t a book, sermon, or prophecy—it was three dangerous truths: truths sharp enough to carve pride out of a generation, heavy enough to wake sleeping Christians, and powerful enough to ignite revival.
Before revealing the first, he looked a young minister in the eyes and said, “Son, you will never know real revival until God breaks you first.” That was Ravenhill—blunt, holy, terrifying, freeing. He believed revival begins with a funeral. And the first coffin is your own. You cannot revive what has not died; you cannot resurrect what still clings to life. “Before God uses a man greatly, He kills him deeply.”
Ravenhill believed the greatest obstacle to revival is not demons, governments, or darkness, but the uncrucified Christian.
Then his second truth: A man cannot rise above his prayer life. Not his preaching, gifting, talent, or influence—his prayer life. “A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men.”
Power does not come from sermons, platforms, charisma, or talent. Power comes from surrender, groaning, tears, and secret prayer. He said, “God never anoints laziness. God never crowns apathy.”
If you want revival, you must want God more than sleep, comfort, entertainment, opinions, or applause.
And then the third truth: God uses ordinary people with extraordinary burdens. He is not looking for talent, genius, fame, or influence. He is looking for burden—hunger, brokenness, desperation, holy obsession.
Someone who cries when nobody watches, who groans for souls, who burns in secret, who refuses to be entertained while the world burns. Ravenhill said the next move of God will come from nobodies—unseen, forgotten, hidden ones—not from stages, but from prayer closets.
He said, “The greatest tragedy is a sick church in a dying world.” And he cried for revival until his last breath because he knew what revival could do—turn cowards into soldiers, rebels into intercessors, lukewarm believers into burning witnesses, ordinary Christians into nation-shakers. Revival, he believed, was the only hope for a sleeping church.
And now the prophecy becomes personal. Ravenhill didn’t warn America or governments—he warned the believer. The one watching TV late at night, scrolling because something inside is restless and hungry.
Revival begins not with crowds, but with corpses—believers who dare to die so God can live through them.
Believers who dare to break, to surrender, to pray until heaven bends and hell shakes.
Maybe you are part of the remnant Ravenhill saw—one God wants to set on fire, break and rebuild, use to shake your generation. Are you willing to be the one God sets ablaze, even if nobody else follows?
I have been increasingly burdened for the people of God of late. He has been giving me dreams related to that burden. And tonight he brought me to the following Facebook post by an unknown author.
First of all, it's about one of the greatest yet least known men of God of the century many of us were born in. He was a true humble unassuming man of God whose ministry was often invisible but the products of which transformed so many ministries. I have learned from and greatly admire this man who impacted more great pastors and peachers than I can name. Who was he? His name was Leonard Ravenhill and he went home to his eternal reward in 1994. But his words, his life, his message lives on because God aimed them at our day, right now.
Second, it contains words that fit exactly with the dream I recounted in Anything Goes about 6 weeks ago-- that there is no life in most churches today because there are no more tears ... in the pulpit or the pews. We have lost the ability --indeed we can't see the necessity-- to weep ... to weep, to mourn over sin, over the lost, over the world, over all that burdens the heart of God. Instead we have been distracted by the world and the idea that the Church can be a friend of the world because the world can be a friend of the Church. "Kumbaya, my friends, kumbaya! Let's group hug over charitable deeds and the wonderful things we do to help people. We aren't really different from you: we're all the same, we just know Jesus and, if you know Him, He can make your life wonderful, too."
No! That's not the Gospel! The true Gospel begins with REPENT! Salvation starts when are willing to believe and turn to God. And it continues with FOLLOW! Yet how can we follow Christ and His path if we are still entangled with the world's path?
These are the things God has been laying on my heart. And the burden is becoming too great to bear in silence.
The title of this part of CCF is From The Pastor's Study, but this message is not the product of my studies or my time in my study. It's the product of what God has been speaking into my heart through prayer, meditation and unsought-for dreams. And it is a burden that God is definitely and increasingly laying on me as a pastor. It is now a fire that I can no longer continue to hold locked in my heart. It is time for me to begin speaking.
I am going to share the message that impacted me tonight (and is still impacting me with tears I cannot seem to stop: they keep restarting) because it is confirming everything the Holy Spirit has been burdening me with over the past days and weeks. I am not seeking to burden you with guilt. I am not attempting to add works to your faith. But as the pastor God called to humbly lead and care for every member of this fellowship, I am asking you to take the message contained in everything you have read --and will read-- here to God in prayer. Ask HIM if this is for you. And be willing to humble yourself before Him and do what He requires ... should He confirm this is for you too.
Thank you, and may God speak His Will to you as you seek Him on this.
____________
HE WARNED US FOR 50 YEARS – WE DID NOT LISTEN
He warned us long before our generation drowned itself in noise — long before saints traded intercession for entertainment, long before scandals became normal and holiness became optional.
Leonard Ravenhill saw something coming. And when he spoke of it, his voice didn’t sound like an analysis or commentary. It sounded like a man staring into the future and trembling. He once said, “The church is preparing for a picnic, but God is preparing us for a war.”
People thought he was exaggerating — too intense, too old-fashioned, too extreme. But the deeper he went with God, the heavier his warnings became. And the older he grew, the more his words stopped sounding like sermons and started sounding like prophecy.
Now, in 2025, his warnings feel less like history and more like headlines.
Ravenhill’s prophecy was not about governments, elections, nations, or economies. It was about something far more terrifying—it was about us, the church, the people who say they love Jesus, the generation that sings about fire but knows nothing of the altar.
Ravenhill never called himself a prophet. He didn’t chase titles, applause, or platforms. He didn’t market his reputation or build an empire. He didn’t care who praised him or who hated him. But he carried something inside him — a burden so heavy men shook when they stepped into his living room. He prayed like a man fighting for oxygen. He wept like a man carrying a nation on his chest. He preached like a man who had seen eternity and lived to tell the church it was not ready.
People didn’t come to him for leadership strategies. They came because when they looked into his eyes, they felt judged by heaven.
He once whispered to a young minister, “The last-day church will be the most distracted church in history.” He didn’t say the church would be wicked or heretical—he said it would be distracted. Distracted by comfort, entertainment, activities, noise, and good things that suffocate the God-thing.
Ravenhill believed our generation would drown in blessings and starve in burden. He said we would lose our tears, lose urgency, and lose the agony that births revival. The future church, he said, would be full of motion but empty of devotion. Loud on stage but silent in prayer. Talented in music but poor in repentance.
Then he gave his first prophecy—not to excite or motivate, but to warn. “A shaking is coming. A divine confrontation. A holy interruption.”
He said God would pull back the curtain and expose everything fake. Look around today—scandals, moral failures, spiritual dryness, churches with fog machines but no holy fire, pastors building platforms but losing their souls, Christians who love Christian content more than Christ Himself. If you listen carefully, you can hear the tremors. The ground is already shaking. Ravenhill said, “The church lost her voice because she lost her tears.”
Our generation lost the ability to weep over sin, to tremble before God, to groan for souls.
But he wasn’t done. Because just before he went deeper, he revealed the second prophecy—a prophecy that terrified pastors and upset religious leaders. He said God would bypass many churches, ministries, and platforms.
That He would walk past the lights, titles, and crowds and choose the hidden ones: the unknown intercessors, burned-out missionaries, prayer warriors with no followers, grandmothers praying in the dark, teenagers who cry at midnight, preachers nobody invites, believers nobody sees.
Ravenhill said, “When God can find a man who will pray, He will shake nations.”
This second prophecy was not destruction but divine selection. When the shaking hits, God will raise an unseen army—people the world ignores but heaven knows by name.
But the third prophecy, which he spoke only in whispers to men who could handle eternal weight, was the most terrifying of all.
He said that before revival comes, a cleansing will come. Not political or social or economic cleansing—but cleansing inside the church. Cleansing of motives, pride, pulpits, worship, doctrine, secret sin, spiritual laziness, and diluted gospel messages.
God would expose false fire, false holiness, false conversions, false altars, false repentance, false anointing—not because He hates the church, but because He is preparing her.
He said judgment would begin in the house of God. And if you look at the rising hunger for holiness worldwide, the longing for truth, and the exhaustion with spiritual entertainment, you can almost hear Ravenhill’s voice echoing in the whirlwind: God is cleansing His bride.
But here’s the part people miss. Ravenhill didn’t just warn of shaking, cleansing, or divine confrontation—he promised something else. Something radiant, violent, and unstoppable. He said a generation would arise that would burn hotter than any before it. A generation God could trust with His fire. A generation of unknown revivalists—people who pray more than they post, weep more than they perform, fear God more than opinions, carry more hunger than hype, and pursue holiness more than applause. A generation defined not by talent but by tears, not by gifting but by groaning, not by skill but by surrender. A generation forged in secret rooms where God breaks a person until only fire is left.
This is where the story turns, because the next part is not revival theory but revival legacy. Leonard Ravenhill never built a megachurch. He didn’t chase fame or build a brand. He lived simply, prayed deeply, and carried eternity in his eyes. Yet his influence was explosive. It spread quietly like embers in the wind, landing on hearts prepared by God.
The first man to catch those embers was David Wilkerson. Wilkerson visited often—not to learn branding, strategy, or audience growth, but for burden, holiness, tears, and brokenness.
But the greatest thing Ravenhill ever gave us wasn’t a book, sermon, or prophecy—it was three dangerous truths: truths sharp enough to carve pride out of a generation, heavy enough to wake sleeping Christians, and powerful enough to ignite revival.
Before revealing the first, he looked a young minister in the eyes and said, “Son, you will never know real revival until God breaks you first.” That was Ravenhill—blunt, holy, terrifying, freeing. He believed revival begins with a funeral. And the first coffin is your own. You cannot revive what has not died; you cannot resurrect what still clings to life. “Before God uses a man greatly, He kills him deeply.”
Ravenhill believed the greatest obstacle to revival is not demons, governments, or darkness, but the uncrucified Christian.
Then his second truth: A man cannot rise above his prayer life. Not his preaching, gifting, talent, or influence—his prayer life. “A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men.”
Power does not come from sermons, platforms, charisma, or talent. Power comes from surrender, groaning, tears, and secret prayer. He said, “God never anoints laziness. God never crowns apathy.”
If you want revival, you must want God more than sleep, comfort, entertainment, opinions, or applause.
And then the third truth: God uses ordinary people with extraordinary burdens. He is not looking for talent, genius, fame, or influence. He is looking for burden—hunger, brokenness, desperation, holy obsession.
Someone who cries when nobody watches, who groans for souls, who burns in secret, who refuses to be entertained while the world burns. Ravenhill said the next move of God will come from nobodies—unseen, forgotten, hidden ones—not from stages, but from prayer closets.
He said, “The greatest tragedy is a sick church in a dying world.” And he cried for revival until his last breath because he knew what revival could do—turn cowards into soldiers, rebels into intercessors, lukewarm believers into burning witnesses, ordinary Christians into nation-shakers. Revival, he believed, was the only hope for a sleeping church.
And now the prophecy becomes personal. Ravenhill didn’t warn America or governments—he warned the believer. The one watching TV late at night, scrolling because something inside is restless and hungry.
Revival begins not with crowds, but with corpses—believers who dare to die so God can live through them.
Believers who dare to break, to surrender, to pray until heaven bends and hell shakes.
Maybe you are part of the remnant Ravenhill saw—one God wants to set on fire, break and rebuild, use to shake your generation. Are you willing to be the one God sets ablaze, even if nobody else follows?
