R.T. Kendall > Quotes

“The happiest pillow on which you may rest your head is the knowledge of God's will. I cannot imagine a more miserable situation than consciously to be out of God's will.”
― R.T. Kendall

“Martin Luther spent two hours a day in prayer. John Wesley spent two hours a day in prayer. According to a recent poll taken on both sides of the Atlantic, the average church leader, pastor, priest, evangelist, teacher today spends four minutes a day in prayer and you wonder why the church is powerless.”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“grief. We do and say strange things—sometimes bizarre things—when we are swallowed up in grief. No one should be hard on us when we say thoughtless and selfish things when we are in grief. Both Mary and Martha accused Jesus of being the cause of their brother’s death by not responding immediately to their request: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32). Jesus did not rebuke either of them. Instead, He wept with them (see John 11:35). So with all of us. He knows our frame; He remembers we are dust.”
― R. T. Kendall, These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things

“Detached forgiveness—there is a reduction in negative feelings toward the offender, but no reconciliation takes place. Limited forgiveness—there is a reduction in negative feelings toward the offender, and the relationship is partially restored, though there is a decrease in the emotional intensity of the relationship. Full forgiveness—there is a total cessation of negative feelings toward the offender, and the relationship is fully restored.”
― R.T. Kendall, Total Forgiveness: When Everything in You Wants to Hold a Grudge, Point a Finger, and Remember the Pain - God Wants You to Lay it All Aside

“God made only one you and He threw the mold away.”
― R.T. Kendall

“It is my opinion that the greatest absence in the church today is the fear of God.”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“The ultimate proof of total forgiveness takes place when we sincerely petition the Father to let those who have hurt us off the hook—even if they have hurt not only us, but also those close to us.”
― R.T. Kendall, Total Forgiveness: When Everything in You Wants to Hold a Grudge, Point a Finger, and Remember the Pain - God Wants You to Lay it All Aside

“If you do nothing but read your Bible, you will dry up; if you only pray, you will blow up; but if you read your Bible and pray, you will grow up.”
― R.T. Kendall, Did You Think To Pray: How to Listen and Talk to God Every Day About Everything

“If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. —A. W. TOZER (1897–1963)”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.1 —MAHATMA GANDHI (1869–1948)”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“THERE HAS BEEN A SILENT DIVORCE IN THE CHURCH, SPEAKING generally, between the Word and the Spirit. When there is a divorce, sometimes the children stay with the mother, sometimes with the father. In this divorce you have those on the Word side and those on the Spirit side. What is the difference? Those on the Word side stress earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, expository preaching, sound theology, rediscovering the doctrines of the Reformation—justification by faith, sovereignty of God. Until we get back to the Word, the honor of God’s name will not be restored. What is wrong with this emphasis? Nothing. It is exactly right, in my opinion. Those on the Spirit side stress getting back to the Book of Acts, signs, wonders, and miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit—with places being shaken at prayer meetings, get in Peter’s shadow and you are healed, lie to the Holy Spirit and you are struck dead. Until we recover the power of the Spirit, the honor of God’s name will not be restored. What is wrong with this emphasis? Nothing. It is exactly right, in my opinion. The problem is, neither will learn from the other. But if these two would come together, the simultaneous combination would mean spontaneous combustion. And if Smith Wigglesworth’s prophecy got it right, the world will be turned upside down again.”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“When the Word and Spirit come together, there will be the biggest movement of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed the world, has ever seen.1 —SMITH WIGGLESWORTH (1859–1947)”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“Time with God will open up His ways. Reading books won't do it. Reading theology won't do it. Studying the creation won't do it. Going to church won't do it. Listening to religious music won't do it. Listening to great preaching won't do it. Even worshiping through hymns and songs won't do it.”
― R.T. Kendall, Did You Think To Pray: How to Listen and Talk to God Every Day About Everything

“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we don’t need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don’t fire cannons to call attention to their shining; they just shine. —D. L. MOODY (1837–1899)”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to succeed before he is ready. —D. MARTYN LLOYD-JONES”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“As C. S. Lewis put it, “Aim at heaven and you will get the earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“But there is another change coming for you and me down the road. Are we ready for this? There will come a day—sooner or later—when God will say, “Your time is up.” We all have to die. What is more, everything that we are doing in this life should be getting us ready for that day. So I am now going to ask you: Do you know for sure that if you were to die today, you would go to heaven? It is the most important question anybody can”
― R. T. Kendall, These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things

“we have the Word without the Spirit, we tend to “dry up”; if we have the Spirit without the Word, we tend to “blow up”; if we have both Spirit and Word, we tend to “grow up” and “fire up.” But when each is properly joined in common union, there is explosive power to be had.”
― R.T. Kendall, Word Spirit Power: What Happens When You Seek All God Has to Offer

“Elijah wanted the crisis to be dealt with, and the boy was raised from the dead. Answered prayer is better—and more important—than answered questions: If you demand answers to your questions before you affirm the blood of Christ, you will lose your soul.”
― R. T. Kendall, These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things

“When speaking to or about another person, ask yourself if what you are about to say will meet their need: Necessary – Is it necessary to say this? Encourage – Will this encourage? Will it make them feel better? Edify – Will it edify? Will it build them up and make them stronger as a result of what you would say? Dignify – Will it dignify that person? That’s the way Jesus treated other people; he gave them a sense of dignity. Criticism”
― R.T. Kendall, Total Forgiveness: Achieving God's Greatest Challenge

“The Bible was not given to replace the supernatural or miraculous; it was given to correct abuses.”
― R.T. Kendall, Did You Think To Pray: How to Listen and Talk to God Every Day About Everything

“The Kingdom cannot be learned like other subjects, such as science, geography or history. The Kingdom is learned only through revelation by the Spirit. It cannot be explained, contained or controlled—thus it is unexplainable, uncontainable and uncontrollable. It is not taught as much as it is caught—and only through the Spirit can it be caught. It cannot be embraced, explained, applied, pursued or entered without the Spirit of God.”
― R.T. Kendall, Word Spirit Power: What Happens When You Seek All God Has to Offer

“Elijah was vindicated then and there as being a true man of God. Not everybody gets vindication that soon. For some it takes years. For some, vindication takes place after he or she has gone to heaven. Jesus never was universally vindicated—on earth, that is. His vindication was “by the Spirit” (1 Timothy 3:16). One day He will be openly vindicated—when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord (see Philippians 2:11). Every person will then say, “Now I know.” But until that final day, Jesus will remain the most misunderstood and “unvindicated” person who ever lived.”
― R. T. Kendall, These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things

“Repentance (Greek, metanoia) means "change of mind." So as we get to know God, we get to know ourselves.”
― R.T. Kendall, Did You Think To Pray: How to Listen and Talk to God Every Day About Everything

“nine out of ten people I have had to forgive sincerely do not feel they have done anything wrong. It is up to me to forgive them from my heart – and then keep quiet about it.”
― R.T. Kendall, Total Forgiveness: Achieving God's Greatest Challenge

“Fearlessness is when there is simply no fear. I wish I felt this way every day. But I have known this—at times. There is nothing like it. It is when the Dove comes down and the whole landscape changes, like a sunrise that reveals what was hidden in the night. Fearlessness. As the hymn “Like a River Glorious” puts it in verse two: Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand, Never foe can follow, never traitor stand; Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care, Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.2 —FRANCES R. HAVERGAL”
― R.T. Kendall, Holy Fire: A Balanced, Biblical Look at the Holy Spirit's Work in Our Lives

“Holy Spirit, please overrule in my life that I will never quench the fire that You have caused to burn. Let me never pour water on wood You may want to ignite. I pray on bended knee that You will come unquenched into my heart and stay there without any hindrance from me. In Jesus’s name, amen.”
― R.T Kendall, 40 Days With the Holy Spirit: A Journey to Experience His Presence in a Fresh New Way

“Elijah’s question was not answered, but his prayer was. Which would you prefer, an answer to your question or an answer to your prayer? I am sure that the widow did not particularly want her question answered; she wanted her son back, and that is what she got. Had Elijah waited for his question to be answered he would have never prayed. I have had countless people say to me, “When God explains to me why He allows suffering I will believe in Him.” The result in that case will be that you will never know the answer to that question here on earth. So are you going to lose your soul and be eternally lost? Or will you pray the prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” without your questions being answered?”
― R. T. Kendall, These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things

“I cannot imagine a greater motivation to pray than that God enjoys having me in His presence. He enjoys my company. He delights in listening to me! He doesn't get bored with my repeated requests. He doesn't moralize me if I get it wrong in what I ask for. He doesn't laugh at me if I put out silly, even impertinent, requests. He never makes me feel stupid. There is no rejection, only total acceptance.”
― R.T. Kendall, Did You Think To Pray: How to Listen and Talk to God Every Day About Everything

“synagogue and read from Isaiah 61:1–2, which He said meant Himself, Jesus then referred to this very episode in the life of Elijah: “I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.” Luke 4:25–26 Why did Jesus speak those words at that particular time? It was an unsubtle hint that His ministry would be shared with and welcomed by Gentiles.”
― R. T. Kendall, These Are the Days of Elijah: How God Uses Ordinary People to Do Extraordinary Things