Holiness And Prayer

By Leonard Ravenhill 

    In prayer we are known only to God.  We do not even know ourselves.  How unflattering is our social standing here.  All Christian men are not equal in the prayer life.  Not even all spiritual men.  Spirituality alone counts here.  God cannot be threatened.  He cannot be cajoled.  He cannot be corrupted, nor bought, nor bargained with.  The laws of prayer are His.  “Shut the door!”  No spectators are allowed here.  No windows display the prayer closet.

    Vain repetitions are obnoxious to God.  The conditions for prayer are set by God Himself.  Duncan Campbell, used of God in the Hebrides Revival of the 1950s, was preaching one night when the ­heavens seemed like brass.  Duncan stopped preaching, and he called on a young man to pray.  The “laddie” halted before he prayed to say, “Ach!  What’s the use of praying if we are not right with God?”  He then recited the 24th Psalm.  The fear of the Lord came upon many.  The “fire” fell and the area knew that the Lord had ­visited His people.

    How demanding the Lord is in this 24th Psalm!  God says we cannot “ascend into the hill of the Lord” (come into His presence) in an unholy state.  “Who shall stand in His holy place?”  God gives the answer:  “He that hath clean hands, and pure heart...” (Psa. 24:4).  Without ­holiness, “no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

    – From Revival God’s Way.