110+ Vance Havner Quotes On Prayer, Revival And Evangelistic

Vance Havner was an American Clergyman and evangelist who was active in the early to mid 20th century. He was known for his wit and wisdom, and his sermons often focused on the need for Christians to live a life of holiness and service. He was also a popular speaker and author, and his books remain influential today. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Vance Havner on prayer, revival, evangelistic.

Top 10 Vance Havner Quotes

1. The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps — we must step up the stairs.
2. At the rate America is decaying morally, we shall have to change our national symbol from an eagle to a vulture.
3. The devil is not fighting religion. He´s too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it.
4. Christians, like snowflakes, are frail, but when they stick together they can stop traffic.
5. It is not our business to make the message acceptable, but to make it available. We are not to see that they like it, but that they get it.
6. A preacher should have the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros. His problem is how to toughen his hide without hardening his heart.
7. Salt seasons, purifies, preserves. But somebody ought to remind us that salt also irritates. Real living Christianity rubs this world the wrong way.
8. Salvation is a helmet, not a nightcap.
9. The middle of the road is a poor place to walk. It is a poor place to drive. It is a poor place to live.
10. If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.

Vance Havner Short Quotes

• The Word of God is either absolute or obsolete.
• Men love everything but righteousness and fear everything but God.
• Taking it easy is often the prelude to backsliding. Comfort precedes collapse.
• Some preachers ought to put more fire into their sermons or more sermons into the fire.
• Our Lord approved neither idol worship or idle worship but ideal worship in Spirit and truth.
• One hour in heaven, and we shall be ashamed that we ever grumbled.
• The devil will let a preacher prepare a sermon if it will keep him from preparing himself.
• If we don't come apart; we will come apart.
• Worse than blind leaders of the blind are bland leaders of the bland.
• No life is great that does not point to Christ.

Vance Havner Quotes About Prayer

The thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting. — Vance Havner

If you can't pray as you want to, pray as you can. God knows what you mean. — Vance Havner

The devil is in constant conspiracy against a preacher who really prays, for it has been said that what a minister is in his prayer closet is what he is, no more, no less. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Quotes About Revival

Real revival does not begin with joyous singing. It begins with conviction and repentance on the part of Christians. — Vance Havner

A revival is the church falling in love with Jesus Christ all over again. — Vance Havner

Revival precedes evangelism. The church must first repent. This is the blind spot in our eye today. — Vance Havner

Nobody in pulpit or pew needs a revival more than a bitter-spirited fundamentalist with his dispensations right and his disposition wrong. — Vance Havner

Revival is simply New Testament Christianity, the saints going back to normal. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Quotes About Inspirational

People used to blush when they were ashamed. Now they are ashamed if they blush. Modesty has disappeared and a brazen generation with no fear of God before its eyes mocks at sin. We are so fond of being called tolerant and broadminded that we wink at sin when we ought to weep. — Vance Havner

When a man makes alliance with the Almighty, giants look like grasshoppers. — Vance Havner

Our efficiency without God's sufficiency is only a deficiency. — Vance Havner

We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God. — Vance Havner

What our Lord said about cross-bearing and obedience is not in fine type. It is in bold print on the face of the contract. — Vance Havner

We need a dedicated minority who, like the apostles of old, are willing to be called the scum of the earth and a spectacle to the world for the scandal of the cross. — Vance Havner

The tragedy of today is that the situation is desperate but the saints are not. — Vance Havner

When the Lord's white sheep become dirty gray, all black sheep feel more comfortable. — Vance Havner

The world does not hate its own. It does hate our Lord. It hates His followers. Where do you belong in this lineup? — Vance Havner

The preacher who jests and jokes with his people all week will soon find that he cannot stand in his pulpit on Sunday with power to reprove, rebuke and exhort. He may be the life of the party but it will be the death of the prophet. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Quotes About Church

When I pastored a country church, a farmer didn't like the sermons I preached on hell. He said, Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus. I said, That's where I got my information about hell. — Vance Havner

A mortician can make a dead man look better than he ever did when he was alive. So churches like Sardis may appear very much alive when they are dead in the sight of the Lord. God knows the difference. — Vance Havner

Too many church services start at eleven sharp and end at twelve dull. — Vance Havner

The church is so subnormal that if it ever got back to the New Testament normal it would seem to people to be abnormal. — Vance Havner

One of the greatest errors in the church today is the artificial distinction we have created between accepting Christ as Savior and confessing Him as Lord. We have made two experiences of it, but the New Testament makes them one. — Vance Havner

It is one of the ironies of the ministry that the very man who works in God's name is often hardest put to find time for God. The parents of Jesus lost Him at church, and they were not the last ones to lose Him there. — Vance Havner

The last word of our Lord to the church was not the Great Commission. The last thing He said to the church was 'Repent.' He said that to five out of seven. — Vance Havner

The same church members who yell like Comanche Indians at a ball game on Saturday sit like wooden Indians in church on Sunday. — Vance Havner

You have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it. The Church suffers today from Christians who know volumes more than they practice. — Vance Havner

I'm tied of hearing about temperance instead of abstinence, in order to please the cocktail crowd in church congregations. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Quotes About People

Many people have the right aim in life, they just never get around to pulling the trigger. The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps -- we must step up the stairs. — Vance Havner

Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, Shake well before using. That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable. — Vance Havner

We have suffered from the preaching of cheap grace. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. People will take anything that is free, but they are not interested in discipleship. They will take Christ as Savior but not as Lord. — Vance Havner

I preach on specific sins because people are not convicted by sermons on sin in general. It was when our Lord said to the Samaritan woman, 'Go call thy husband...' (John 4:16), that she really faced up to her sinfulness. — Vance Havner

When God's people are removed from this earth, you might as well try to dam up Niagara Falls with toothpicks as to stem the flood of lawlessness that will engulf mankind. Thank God for the restraining Spirit today! — Vance Havner

Many people are in a rut and a rut is nothing but a grave--with both ends kicked out. — Vance Havner

Many people are in a rut and a rut is nothing but a grave - with both ends kicked out. — Vance Havner

Most people would not want to live where there are no churches but many people live as though there were no churches. — Vance Havner

People get so used to the dark that they think it's growing brighter. It's possible to fraternize with unbelievers until false doctrine becomes less and less objectionable. — Vance Havner

People get so used to the dark that they think it is growing brighter. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Quotes About Lost

You haven't lost anything when you know were it is. Death can hide but not divide. — Vance Havner

Before we can strengthen believers or win the lost, we must be converted from the self-life to the Christ-life. . . "Not I, but Christ." — Vance Havner

It is only the life that is lost for Him that is found in Him. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Quotes About Jesus

A wife who is 85 percent faithful to her husband is not faithful at all. There is no such thing as part-time loyalty to Jesus Christ. — Vance Havner

A picture of Christ was hung in the back of a pulpit. When the minister rose to speak one Sunday morning, a little boy asked his mother, 'Mother, who is that man who stands so we can't see Jesus?' — Vance Havner

Jesus Christ demands more complete allegiance than any dictator who ever lived. The difference is, He has a right to it. — Vance Havner

God's deepest secrets often miss the wise and prudent and are revealed unto babes. We say, "Children, be like your parents." Jesus said, "Parents, be like your children." — Vance Havner

Any man who takes Jesus Christ seriously becomes the target of the devil. Most church members do not give Satan enough trouble to arouse his opposition — Vance Havner

Jesus is all we have; he is all we need and all we want. We are shipwrecked on God and stranded on omnipotence! — Vance Havner

When we are weakest and most despondent, Jesus is most considerate. When there is a break in our progress or we have a spell of depression, he sees the whole of our lives and in the light of that He is longsuffering with discordant details. — Vance Havner

I can conceive of no greater, more romantic and interesting adventure than to undertake to live like Jesus in this complicated day. — Vance Havner

There are many who say they want to be victorious Christians, but few are willing to endure the discipline necessary to make one a good solider of Jesus Christ. There is a prize to possess, but before we possess it there is a price to be paid, and few will pay it. — Vance Havner

It is a matter of whether one wants to get rich or be rich. We can be rich in Christ Jesus or perhaps get rich in Egypt, but we cannot do both. — Vance Havner

Vance Havner Famous Quotes And Sayings

Abraham did not know where he was going immediately, but he knew where he was going ultimately. He did not know the Whither but he knew the Whom. He believed God, and, being sure of his destiny, he did not worry about his destination. — Vance Havner

No man can be a Christian by knowingly and willfully taking Christ on the installment plan, as Savior now, and Lord later. — Vance Havner

There is a trend today that would put a new robe on the prodigal son while he is still feeding hogs. Some would put the ring on his finger while he still in the pigsty. Others would paint the pigsty and advocate bigger and better hog pens. — Vance Havner

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be on the Lordship of Christ. When we get right on that point we are right all down the line. God honors the exaltation of His Son. — Vance Havner

We may never be martyrs but we can die to self, to sin, to the world, to our plans and ambitions. That is the significance of baptism; we died with Christ and rose to new life. — Vance Havner

God isn't a talent scout looking for someone who is "good enough" or "strong enough." He is looking for someone with a heart set on Him, and He will do the rest. — Vance Havner

I'm tired of hearing sin called sickness and alcoholism a disease. It is the only disease I know of that we're spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year to spread. — Vance Havner

We are suffering today from a species of Christianity as dry as dust, as cold as ice, as pale as a corpse, and as dead as King Tut. We are suffering not from a lack of correct heads but of consumed hearts. — Vance Havner

Where are the marks of the cross in your life? Are there any points of identification with your Lord? Alas, too many Christians wear medals but carry no scars. — Vance Havner

We are so prone to expect to become good Christians by some sudden experience that lifts us all at once to higher ground without the gradual climb. We forget that we are to "grow in grace" and that normal growth is not a matter of fits and starts. — Vance Havner

What we love usually manages to get into our conversation. What is down in the well of the heart will come up in the bucket of the speech. — Vance Havner

Let it never be forgotten that, although we may do nothing about the Word we hear, the Word will do something to us. The same sun melts ice and hardens clay, and the Word of God humbles or hardens the human heart. — Vance Havner

The temple of truth has never suffered so much from woodpeckers on the outside as from termites within. — Vance Havner

The only way to meet the modern demon-stration of the powers of darkness is by a demonstration of the power of God. — Vance Havner

Because the Lord loves us He chastens and rebukes us. Modern sentimentality has reduced God to a tolerant indulgent grandfatherly being who winks at our transgressions. — Vance Havner

Too many Christians live their Christian lives inside their heads; it never gets out through hands and feet and lips. — Vance Havner

Christmas is based on an exchange of gifts, the gift of God to man - His unspeakable gift of His Son, and the gift of man to God - when we present our bodies a living sacrifice. — Vance Havner

God has a place and purpose for you, somewhere for you to be and something for you to do. You never will be happy elsewhere, nor can you please God anywhere but there. — Vance Havner

Civilization today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a room full of dynamite. It looks like the monkeys are about to operate the zoo, and the inmates are taking over the asylum. — Vance Havner

Our Lord holds the keys to the doors of Christian service. You don't have to chase 'key men' around if you know the Keeper of the keys! — Vance Havner

One cannot help the evil thoughts that come, but it is the thoughts we cultivate that make the difference between good or evil. We don't have to open the door to the devil and say, "Make yourself at home." — Vance Havner

Nothing is needed so much as a holy indignation against sin. It is true that there is not enough love for God, and one sign of it is that there is not enough hatred for sin. — Vance Havner

I know that some are always studying the meaning of the fourth toe of the right foot of some beast in prophecy and have never used either foot to go and bring men to Christ. I do not know who the 666 is in Revelation but I know the world is sick, sick, sick and the best way to speed the Lord's return is to win more souls for Him. — Vance Havner

We honor God by asking for great things when they are a part of His promise. We dishonor Him and cheat ourselves when we ask for molehills where He has offered mountains. — Vance Havner

Satan is not fighting churches; he is joining them. He does more harm by sowing tares than by pulling up wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition. — Vance Havner

We are not bearing our crosses every time we have a headache; an aspirin tablet will take care of that. What is meant is the trouble we would not have if we were not Christians. — Vance Havner

I wouldn't cross the street to hear Ingersoll preach on the mistakes of Moses, but I'd love to hear Moses preach on the mistakes of Ingersoll! — Vance Havner

A preacher who is too big for a little crowd would be too little for a big crowd. — Vance Havner

Christ is most concerned with the direction in which you habitually are going and not with a spasmodic eruption either good or bad. — Vance Havner

We are not to be isolated but insulated, moving in the midst of evil but untouched by it. — Vance Havner

Somehow the idea has gotten around that it is unchristian to take a stand against heresy. Some of us need to read the New Testament again. — Vance Havner

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. — Vance Havner

Progress is a farce because man's head and hand have created wonders that stun the imagination, but his heart does not keep step and his morals undo all that his mind has wrought. — Vance Havner

We need to take down our "Do not disturb" signs... snap out of our stupor and come out of our coma and awake from our apathy. — Vance Havner

An old minister explained the smudges on his sermon outlines by saying they were caused by sweat and tears. And without those two marks, a sermon is not a sermon. — Vance Havner

Too many are not willing to give the Gospel a fair trial. They are too ignorant to speak wisely but not wise enough to speak ignorantly. A man is not a sinner because he is a skeptic; he is a skeptic because he is a sinner. — Vance Havner

Popularity has slain more prophets of God than persecution ever did. — Vance Havner

Most church members live so far below the standard, you would have to backslide to be in fellowship with them. — Vance Havner

It is debatable which is causing us more harm - hot-headed ignorance or cold-hearted intellectualism. — Vance Havner

There never has been a culture since this world began in which a New Testament Christian could feel at home. — Vance Havner

To build character of purpose and integrity is our high mark, and that cannot be done in a world where there are no adverse elements. — Vance Havner

A true preacher is best measured not by how many bouquets have been pinned on him but by how many brickbats have been pitched at him. Prophets have been on the receiving end of mud more than medals. — Vance Havner

Self, service, substance is the Divine order and nothing counts until we give ourselves. — Vance Havner

We must live in all kinds of days, both high days and low days, in simple dependence upon Christ as the branch on the vine. This is the supreme experience — Vance Havner

God is on the lookout today for a man who will be quiet enough to get a message from Him, brave enough to preach it, and honest enough to live it. — Vance Havner

Men seek fame and high places only to learn that they were happier in obscurity — Vance Havner

Beware of being a religious poseur, trying to live up to a dramatized version of yourself. — Vance Havner

Life is like a grain of wheat: to plant it is to recognize its value; to keep it is to destroy its value. The 'planted' Christian counts life dear not unto himself but unto God. — Vance Havner

To some Christianity is an argument. To many it is a performance. To a few, it is experience. — Vance Havner

Life Lessons by Vance Havner

1. Vance Havner encourages us to live a life of faith and trust in God, and to not be afraid to take risks and step out in faith.
2. He teaches that we should focus on the eternal, not the temporal, and to use our lives to serve God and others.
3. He reminds us to be humble and to remember that all of our successes come from God, and that we should use them to glorify Him.