D. L. Moody's Powerful Experience with God

Monroe County

Often, as I am preparing to preach, I feel a sense of God's empowerment. The sense that God's Spirit is upon me. That God is going to take what I present and make it far greater than I am capable of.

It's upon me this Saturday morning, as I place my studies and efforts and prayers into the hands of God. God, make this sermon better than what I, in my own strength, am capable of!

D.L. Moody had many years of successful ministry, when one day he had a powerful experience with God. Moody writes: 

"I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it, it is almost too sacred an experience to name… I can only say God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand. 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; it would be as small dust in the balance.” (In Dallas Willard, Hearing God, 49)

After this experience, says Willard, "the effects of Moody's ministry were so disproportionate with his limited personal qualities. He was ordinary looking, quite uncultured and uneducated—even uncouth and crude to many—and not ordained by any ecclesiastical group." 

Thank God, this is not about style or appearance, but about His multiplying presence.