"The Church" - The Arena of God's Immediate Sovereignty | by Leonard Ravenhill

God's immediate sovereignty, what is it? 
"People do not leave the sanctuary for hours." 
"You can't explain it, you can't predict it, you can't direct it... God becomes sovereign!"

God's immediate sovereignty is not "Christian Humanism":
"We'll do it, You bless it Lord."
"We put personalities up, just like the world does."
"He said, 'I want to tell you that if God withdrew the Holy Spirit from my church today, it would function tomorrow the same way we wouldn't even know He'd gone...'"
"Come our way..."
 
God's immediate sovereignty is when, suddenly... God comes: 
"When he prayed God just came down as though He jumped into the audience." 
"He prayed the whole night for the anointing for the next day."

God's immediate sovereignty is when God is in control and His burden manifest: 
"And I just walked forward and sat on the floor - didn't go to the pulpit: ...and I began to weep."     
"My spirit just groaned, and he stayed  there 50 minutes weeping."

Instead of God's immediate sovereignty we've become carnal and mechanical: 
"The Church has become so carnal...
the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the Temple!"
"When did you last tip-toe out of the sanctuary and say, 'Surely God is in this place, and that to bless us!'"
"They don't expect Deity to invade the place. They don't expect to tip-toe out of the holy place..."
"God only had one problem in the Old Testament, and that was Israel. And I believe Almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight, and it's not communism or romanism, it's the Church of the Living God!" 
"The Glory has departed!"

What must we do? 
"I'd like to see 300 pastors come  together, for a whole week and stay prostrate before God."
"TOTAL control by YOU." 
"If we stay here it doesn't matter whether we die here." 
"Our people don't feed on God, they feed on meetings."
"So I am praying this morning that suddenly God will come."

We must rediscover worship:    
"I haven't been in a Church in England where they know how to worship God."
"Sometimes the glory comes down..."
"Maybe before you die, you'll see people coming from foreign countries to show us what New Testament Christianity is all about."   
"There's not a flood of revival in America today."       
"God is bypassing us, provoking us..."