Hearing His Voice #139

Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. . . . If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

Luke 11:9, 13

Dwight Moody had been crying out to God for His Spirit. He knew he was born of the Spirit, but he also knew his preaching did not have the power of God behind it. He was desperate for greater fruitfulness. Then one day in New York, he had an experience that he described as God revealing Himself, and it was so powerful that Moody had to ask God to stay His hand. He was overwhelmed. Afterward, he preached the same sermons with the same messages to the same kinds of audiences, but everything else was different. Hundreds were converted. Thousands of dollars were now given to Moody’s institutions that had previously been failing. His entire ministry was being moved by the flow of God’s Spirit.

God had not given Moody any direct words or new messages, but He had given him a personal encounter with Himself. The Spirit had spoken with an overwhelming sense of His love, and that love flowed through Moody with every word of every sermon. Once on the brink of burning out, Moody was now energized with a power that would never leave him. He chose repeatedly to honor the Holy Spirit above all other concerns in his ministry, and the results changed history.

When we cry out for God persistently over time, we will get what we ask for. We will encounter Him and experience His power. That encounter may involve words, as it has for many throughout Scripture and history, or it may simply involve an overwhelming sense of God’s nature, as it did for Moody. Whatever it looks like, it will change your life—and very possibly the world around you.

Holy Spirit, I desperately need You—Your touch, Your voice, Your power. Fill me. I yield everything to You in exchange for Your life in me. Flow freely to me, in me, and through me.