Why God Used D. L. Moody - pt 4: Freedom from Love of Money, Passion for the Lost & Enduement with Power
The fifth reason why God used D. L. Moody so powerfully - and something that is incredibly relevant for today - is that he was free from the love of money. Torrey writes,
Mr. Moody might have been a wealthy man, but money had no charms for him. He loved to gather money for God's work; he refused to accumulate money for himself. He told me during the World's Fair that if he had taken, for himself, the royalties on the hymnbooks which he had published, they would have amounted, at that time, to a million dollars. But Mr Moody refused to touch the money...Millions of dollars passed into Mr. Moody's hands, but they passed through; they did not stick to his fingers.Sixth was his Consuming passion for the salvation of the lost. Moody was so full of passion for the lost that he "made the resolution, shortly after he himself was saved, that he would never let twenty-four hours pass over his head without speaking to at least one person about his soul."
This is the point at which many an evangelist makes shipwreck, and his great work comes to an untimely end. The love of money on the part of some evangelists has done more to discredit evangelistic work in our day, and to lay many an evangelist on the shelf, than almost any other cause.
Torrey tells the story:
Once, when walking down a certain street in Chicago, Mr. Moody stepped up to a man, a perfect stranger to him, and said: "Sir, are you a Christian?" "You mind your own business," was the reply. Mr. Moody replied: "This is my business." The man said, "Well, then, you must be Moody." Out in Chicago they used to call him in those early days "Crazy Moody," because day and night he was speaking to everybody he got a chance to speak to about being saved...
Oh, young men and women and all Christian workers, if you and I were on fire for souls like that, how long would it be before we had a revival? Suppose that tonight the fire of God falls and fills our hearts, a burning fire that will send us out all over the country, and across the water to China, Japan, India and Africa, to tell lost souls the way of salvation!
The seventh and final reason given is that D. L. Moody was definitely endued with Power from on High.
Torrey states that Moody had "a very clear and definite baptism with the Holy Ghost...he had no doubt about it. In his early days he was a very busy man; he had a tremendous desire to do something, but he had no real power. He worked largely in the energy of the flesh.
But after "seeking the baptism of the Holy Ghost," Torrey states,
The power of God fell upon him as he walked up the street and he had to hurry off to the house of a friend and asked that he might have a room by himself, and in that room he stayed alone for hours; and the Holy Ghost came upon him, filling his soul with such hoy that at last he had to ask God to withhold his hand, lest he die on the spot from very joy. He went out from that place with the power of the Holy Ghost upon him...Moody would get discouraged when others squabbled about not needing a definite baptism of the Holy Ghost, saying:
Why don't they see that this is just the one thing that they themselves need? They are good teachers, they are wonderful teachers...but why will they not see that the baptism with the Holy Ghost is just the one touch that they themselves need?Oh, if we could recapture and put into practice these 7 areas, imagine how the Lord might move among us! But this isn't easy - it requires a death to self, a putting away of distraction, a holy focus and fervor that the world will mock and oppose and attempt to quench.
Yet may Moody's life stir us to action and zeal in these seven areas and may we would follow him as he followed Christ!
Why God Used D. L. Moody:
- A fully surrendered man
- A man of prayer
- A deep and practical student of the Bible
- A humble man
- Freedom from the love of money
- Passion for the lost
- Definite enduement of power from on high.
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