Leonard Ravenhill (1907 – 1994) was a famous English evangelist who spent his life focusing on the subjects of prayer and revival. He is best known for his fiery preaching style and challenging the western church to live like the church found in the Book of Acts. As I was reviewing many of his quotes the following amusing quote brought a smile to my face and a serious check to my spirit. Below is his quote and my thoughts on it:
“My main ambition in life is to be on the devil’s most wanted list.”1
After a few chuckles over this quote, I began to realize that all Christians should want to be on this list, because being on Satan’s most wanted list means that we are not only doing great damage to his kingdom but helping to advance God’s kingdom. For you see the devil wants nothing more than to keep believers entertained and excited by the things of the world rather than to take him and his schemes seriously. For he knows that when we come against him with our full arsenal of spiritual weapons he knows that his kingdom will suffer massively.
So, my friends, if you want to be on the devil’s most wanted list may I suggest the following:
First, we need to keep our own list and that is a daily prayer list. When we get serious about prayer and pray daily for the needs of others Satan knows that his kingdom is in major jeopardy. Prayer is a supernatural weapon and as much as Satan hates it when we pray fervently, our prayers are received with great delight by our heavenly Father. I believe, when we get into our prayer closets, the devil trembles – and for good reason. Prayer often can accomplish things that no other weapon in our arsenal can bring about. Satan, quite frankly, is no match for consistent, believing prayer!
Second, read, meditate on, and memorize Scripture. When we are constantly in the Word, we can keep the devil constantly on the run. Jesus was clearly on Satan’s most wanted list, and when he came against our Lord, when Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness, we see something very interesting. Each of the three times when Satan tempted Jesus, He came back at him with a quote from the book of Deuteronomy and by the third Scripture verse Satan had to flee. For you see he is no match for the Christian who lives, breathes, and can quote Scripture, when attacked by Satan’s craftiness. I believe that just as the shield of faith can quench all the fiery darts of the devil, so can carefully aimed Bible verses cause Satan’s armor to fail him.
And third, if you want to be on the devil’s most wanted list then make your main ambition in life to live for Jesus and in everything we do, do it all for the glory of God. And just what does a God glorifying lifestyle look like? Well it means we need to reverence God in everything we do. We need to always praise Jesus – in both the good and the bad times. And it means to obey the commandments of the Lord, regardless of the cost to us, at all times. Simply put, a God glorifying lifestyle is when we are more concerned with God getting the glory than we are in getting the credit, and when our greatest joy is in showcasing God’s greatness and goodness for all the world to see.
In closing, living always for the glory of God, is serious business and is guaranteed to land you on the devil’s most wanted list – and praise God that’s one list I want to always be on!
Thank You