Baptism Of Fire

Baptism Of Fire

You have to be careful what you pray for.

IN 1871 D. L. Moody was a well-known evangelical leader in Chicago. Seven years before, at the age of just twenty-seven, he had founded the Illinois Street Church, which today is Moody Memorial Church. In the late 1860s he served as president of the Chicago YMCA and had a central role in building the first YMCA building in America, Farwell Hall, which had a seating capacity of three thousand. He preached on Sunday nights in Farwell Hall since the attendance had outgrown the Illinois Street Church.

At the time Moody was struggling with what God was calling him to do. He knew that he had to decide between being a social-religious organizer through the YMCA and being an evangelist. Deep down, Moody felt that God was calling him to a national evangelistic ministry, but rejected the idea because his ego was tied up in his Chicago projects.

His inner conflict began to diminish the power of his preaching. This became especially clear to two women in his church, Sarah Anne Cook and a Mrs. Hawxhurst. Cook, a recent immigrant from England and a Free Methodist, became convinced that Moody needed the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. The women began making this a matter of earnest prayer. They sat in the front row and prayed whenever he preached.

The women shared their concern with Moody and eventually set up a regular Friday afternoon prayer time with him. Finally Moody’s spiritual frustration was so great that on October 6, 1871, as they met for prayer, he rolled on the floor and tearfully asked God to baptize him with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The next Sunday night, October 8, Farwell Hall was full as Moody preached on “What then shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ?” He closed his message by saying, “I wish you would take this text home with you and turn it over in your minds during the week, and next Sabbath we will come to Calvary and the cross, and we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth.” Following the sermon his song leader, Ira Sankey, sang:

Today the Saviour calls,

For refuge fly

The storm of justice falls,

And death is nigh.

Suddenly his voice was drowned out by the sound of fire engines rushing past the hall. Shouting could be heard in the streets, and Moody hurriedly closed the service.

Moody and Sankey left through the back door and saw flames reaching the sky to the southwest, upwind from the city’s downtown. Moody rushed home to his family as the southwest wind reached almost hurricane force. It was the Great Chicago Fire, and it lasted until the following Wednesday. The fire destroyed Moody’s house, the Illinois Street Church, and Farwell Hall.

Everything that held Moody to Chicago was in ashes. The only chain still binding him to Chicago was his own will. Weeks later as he quietly walked down a busy street in New York City, that last chain snapped, and he surrendered his will to God. Moody went on to become the leading evangelist in the English-speaking world at the end of the nineteenth century. He traveled over one million miles and presented the gospel by voice and written word to more than one hundred million people.

On the twenty-second anniversary of the Chicago Fire, Moody spoke reflectively: “I have never seen that congregation since, and I never will meet those people again until I meet them in another world. But I want to tell you of one lesson I learned that night, which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach, to press Christ upon the people then and there, and try to bring them to a decision on the spot. . . . I have asked God many times to forgive me for telling people that night to take a week to think it over.”

Reflection

When we pray it is of utmost importance that we pray that God’s will, not ours, be done. God desires that we conform our will to his. Moody learned this lesson the hard way. Remember to be careful what you ask of God because you just might get it!

May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:10