“Pray to your Father Who is in secret…”  Matthew 6:6

It has been rightly said that intercession is wholly a secret service!  Intercession does not have the snares that many areas of ministry contain.  There is no publicity, so few know the names of those who cry out in secret, thus pride is not a factor.  Neither is greed!  Intercession is not trying to convince God to give something to someone He doesn’t really want to give, but it is first finding out what God desires to do in a life and agreeing in believing prayer.  Jesus said, “Pray then in this way: Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven”!

After the great Chicago fire of 1871 pastor D. L. Moody went to London while his church building was being rebuilt.  He was invited to preach in a large church, but it was hard preaching.  At night it was the same thing until halfway through the sermon it seemed the windows of heaven opened.  The meeting was extended for ten days.  Four hundred were added to the church, and every nearby church was affected!

What was the explanation?  It was not Mr. Moody’s doing!  A woman who had been diagnosed terminally ill had asked, “What can I do shut in my home flat on my back”?  She said, “I can pray”!  One Sunday her sister came home to announce a visiting preacher from the U.S. named Moody had preached that morning.  Over a year earlier she had been given a copy of a paper published in Chicago that contained a sermon by D. L. Moody, and she was led to pray that God would send him to her church.  As the months went by, no one knew but the woman and God!  By the way, any student of church history knows the name of D. L. Moody, but no one remembers the name of that woman!

Jon Moore