Moody's Greatest Spiritual Experience

During the winter of 1871, while in New York City, Dwight L. Moody had a singular spiritual experience.  Two godly women came to his meetings regularly. After one service, they told him, "We have been praying for you."  He inquired why they did not pray for the people instead.  They replied, "You need the power."  He was astonished.  His ministry was hugely successful with the largest congregation of Chicago.  Still, the women prayed for him and talked with him about "anointing for special service."

Moody asked them to meet with him.  They knelt and prayed that he might receive the Holy Spirit's anointing.  He recalled, "I did not know what it was.  I began to cry as I never did before.  The hunger increased.  I really felt that I did not want to live longer if I could not have the power of service."

Not long after this experience, the great Chicago fire occurred.  He said the loss of his house did not affect him so much as his desire for divine power.  All the time he went about his regular ministries, he was pleading that God would fill him with His Spirit.  Then, Moody said, 'One day, in the city of New York - oh, what a day - I cannot describe it.  I seldom refer to it;  it is almost too sacred an experience to name...I can only say God then revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand."  Moody would not have described this as a second blessing, and there is no evidence it was a charismatic experience.

As to the effect of his preaching, Moody testified, "I went to preaching again.  The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths; and yet hundreds were converted.  I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world."

(Taken from Preaching magazine)

Desperation and hunger will always precede greater works of the Spirit in our lives.  Are you satisfied with the current activity of God in your life?  If you are, you will never go further.  But if you are hungry and desperate, then God will meet you at that place of need.  And God permits many things to happen in our lives to drive us to desperation and we miss it.