Intercession
From his conversion in 1855 until his death in 1899, the American evangelist D.L.Moody saw at least 750,000 people come to Christ. One of the reasons for this success was that he knew how to live a surrendered life. Another reason was his experience of being baptised in the Spirit. A third reason was the power of prayer.
Moody was in London in 1872 when he was asked to preach at a local church. The morning meeting was uneventful but with the night meeting, everything changed. The atmosphere was charged and when Moody asked any who wanted to receive Christ to stand, almost the whole congregation rose. Thinking they must not have understood, he asked those who were ready to be born again to leave their place and step into an adjoining room. Again almost everyone did. After praying for them, he asked those who were really in earnest to come the next night to meet with the pastor. More turned up the next night than had been in the original Sunday night meeting. Moody returned soon after for ten days of meetings. Four hundred people were added to that church alone.
A little later Moody met Marianne Adlard, an elderly bedridden believer, who had taken up the burden to intercede for him, a task she had given herself to for years before Moody ever set foot in England, and which she persisted in every day until her death. The church where everyone had responded was her church.
Moody later added a midday prayer meeting to every Crusade he preached. These prayer meetings at their height drew thousands of believers every day into the habit of praying for souls to find Christ. Moody’s success was due, in no small measure, to the numbers of praying people gathered to intercede. Prayer made the preached word come alive. It still does.
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