David Hathaway No 101 Autumn 2021
70 YEARS OF MINISTRY 1950-2020
2021
E H T E WHER ! S I R E POW
HELD TO RANSOM! David Hathaway
This one verse, John 3:16, has been in my mind so much that I am bursting. I have to speak about it. It’s as if the Holy Spirit is burning something into my mind, and yet it’s probably one verse in the Bible that is preached more than any other: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ This verse was given in answer to a question! If you go back to the beginning of the chapter, you find that a leading Pharisee, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, it seems a member of the Sanhedrin, in any case, a very high ranking Jew, comes to Jesus at night. He didn’t want to be seen! He was a little bit afraid because of his position. And he said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles You do, unless God is with him.” Nicodemus is coming to Jesus at an early point in His ministry. Already a number of the twelve disciples have joined. Nicodemus recognises that Jesus is a miracle worker. But at this point, he is not recognising Jesus as the Son of God. He’s questioning… …WHO IS JESUS? It’s still a question today, definitely among non-Christians, and even in some churches... Yes, we celebrate ‘Christmas’ and ‘Easter’, and everyone recognises it’s all connected with Jesus. But so many, like Nicodemus, don’t recognise WHO JESUS REALLY IS, and why He came! John 3:16 is not an isolated statement, but part of the answer that Jesus is giving to Nicodemus – “For GOD SO LOVED the world…” Jesus, talking with Nicodemus, is identifying WHO GOD IS, in a very strong way – GOD SO LOVED! Throughout history people have worshipped so many gods. I once went to India to preach – I’m not called to India – but I was amazed by their worship of pagan gods. When I asked how many gods, the answer was, “As many gods as there are people!” Paul in Athens recognised that the Greeks had ‘99’ different gods, and that the city was ‘wholly given to idolatry’, so that when he was speaking there on Mars Hill – and I’ve been there dozens of times – he said, “You are so superstitious!” So
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much of religion is superstition, no knowledge of who God really is. In Athens they were so superstitious, they actually built an altar ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’ for fear of offending a god they didn’t know! Paul begins his preaching in Athens, “You are so superstitious! This UNKNOWN God will I declare unto you!” And he preached Jesus! Acts 17:16-32. Of all the gods in the world, every one of them was identified with something, like war or peace or fertility and so on. Only ONE God, right through history, has been identified as a GOD WHO LOVES. Not only a God who LOVES, but a God who SO LOVED that HE GAVE! So loved THE WORLD that He gave! And what did He give? He gave HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON! Jesus is saying that God, as His Father, gave Him, sent Him – to be a ransom to buy us back to God, so that we would not perish! Think about it. God actually gave and sent His Beloved Son into the devil’s kingdom! If you read the Bible, or you read my book on Ephesians, you will understand that Lucifer, Satan, still controls this world! And God allowed His Son to come into alien, enemy territory! I understand what ‘enemy territory’ is! All those years I preached under communism, every time I crossed the border, I was in enemy territory! I could be apprehended, stopped – and I was, quite a few times, even before my final arrest! The world is at enmity with God, the Bible says so! What this means is, God is SO concerned, SO loves – yes, He LOVES you and me – that HE ACTUALLY LOVES THE WORLD IN ITS SIN – enough to send His Son!!! The world is NOT the friend of God! The Scripture is so clear: yes, a man would give his life for his friends, but WHO would lay down his life for his enemy? Romans 5:6-10. In John 3:16, Jesus is saying that God SO loved the world, that He gave the price, the ransom, His Only Son, to buy us back. Why did we have to be ransomed? Because WE – without Christ – are the servants of the devil! You might not like my saying so, but the Bible is absolutely clear, we are born into sin, into a corrupt world, born as slaves and servants of Lucifer. The ONLY way you can be rescued from the hands of the devil is by a ransom. Death is the final goal of the
devil in our lives. This is why God DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE by giving His Son to die instead of us – a blood sacrifice – His Life for ours. When God created the world, He didn’t create us to die. Adam and Eve weren’t created to die. Even after the first sin, before the flood, some lived for nearly 1000 years! Methuselah lived 969 years! We were not created to die. Death only came because of sin! Because Satan, Lucifer, or whatever you call him, is the author of death! I’m intrigued by a story I love to tell, about a boy who, with his dad, made a model sailing boat. They carved and shaped it, painted it, made sails for it, took it to the seaside and launched it. It was wonderful, it floated – but the wind caught the sail and took the boat out of their reach! They couldn’t get it back. It was lost! The boy was so sad. A few days later, looking in a shop window in town, he saw HIS boat! He went into the shop, “Hey! That’s MY boat in the window, I made it!” The shopkeeper said, “It’s mine, you can’t have it, I bought it. If you want it, you’ll have to pay the price!” The boy went home, but of course, the father gave him the money and the boy went back to the shop. Now, clutching his boat tight to his chest, he ran home, shouting to his parents, “This is my boat! It’s two times mine!!! I made it, and I bought it back!!!” ‘Bought back’ – the Bible uses the word ‘redeemed’, as if we have ended up in a pawn shop and will stay there until redeemed. The ONLY way into the Kingdom of God is if we have been REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD of Jesus! What a revelation comes out of this! We are ‘two times’ God’s!!! He made us. But when we were launched onto the ocean of the world, when we were caught by the wind and blown far away, the Bible says, we were lost! Lost! The only way God could get us back was to pay the price and buy us back! So now we belong to God two times!!! Firstly, because He made us, and secondly, at an incredible price, He paid a ransom! We have gangs, terrorists today who kidnap people and hold them for ransom. If the price isn’t paid, so often those people will die! They will be killed. Do you understand?! Unless we are res-
cued, or ransomed – we die! Jesus, talking to Nicodemus about His Father, said God so loved THE WORLD – not the good person, not the Christian, but the SINNER! What I love about this is, God LOVES THE SINNER! Not when we’re ‘righteous’ and ‘good’ and everything we ought to be… He loves us when we’re the worst! And the ones God loves most are the criminals, murderers, evil people – God loves them enough to ransom them back from the control and the power of the devil! God SO LOVED, that He gave HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life! Today God has many sons, I’m a son of God, and if you know Christ, you are a son, a daughter of God! But Jesus was UNIQUE. Absolutely unique. No other before, no other after. No other like Him. He is the ONLY one who is the Son of God, true God from true God, coming from the Father, conceived by action of the Holy Spirit on Mary! The rest of us – we’re adopted into the family of God. Jesus is the ONLY one who has ever been in the world who was directly a Son of God! But God SO LOVED that He GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON. I’ve so often thought about it. If He had had a hundred Sons… But He ONLY HAD ONE! Can you understand the preciousness? In families, if a child dies, it’s a tragedy even if there are others, but the greatest tragedy is if that child dies as an ONLY child… …God gave His ONLY Son – into the devil’s hands… The more I have studied Ephesians in writing my new book, the clearer it is that the world is under the
control of the devil. Don’t blame governments, don’t blame religions, don’t blame communists, this or that. The controlling force in the world, the power in this world is Satan, Lucifer. And what God did was to allow His Son into the hand of Satan! You remember, at the beginning of His ministry, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, where He was tempted of the devil. Satan was allowed to come to Him, as he comes to us, and tempted Him, tested Him, though He was the Son of God. Every one of us comes into temptation, but without Christ, we don’t have the power to resist. That’s why salvation is so important! This God is the ONLY God whose evidence is LOVE! Our God SO LOVED! It’s not ordinary love, it’s not human love. Young people get so taken up with what they think is ‘love’, but it’s infatuation. Love, real love is something deeply emotional, life-consuming, lifechanging. Jesus didn’t just say God ‘loved’ the world, but that God SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE! He gave the most precious thing that He had. And what God wants you to do is give back to Him the most precious thing you have – your own life, your own soul – that’s what He wants in return! Give yourself to Christ… …Because Jesus said, whosoever believes in Him will not perish. I will never die! Yes, my body can die, it can go into the grave, the body is nothing, it’s an earthly vessel, an earthly temple. But the REAL ME will never die! I’m amazed at people who will spend tens and hundreds of thousands to have their bodies frozen in order to preserve them… At this moment they think it might be pos-
sible to ‘resurrect’ the brain, because they’ve experimented with electrodes and been able to bring the brain of dead animals back to life! But what matters is the REAL ME, the REAL YOU that in Christ is NOT going to die. The miracle of Jesus is that He died, and He rose again! Come on! Don’t talk about death, death, death. No! It’s life, life, life, it’s resurrection! Resurrection from the dead! The Bible says, the dead will rise! God gave His only Son that whosoever BELIEVES IN HIM will not die! What counts is the recognition of who Jesus REALLY is! Not a prophet, not a teacher, not a world leader, not just a miracle worker. He is the Son of the God who created us! He created you and me. And this Son has the right, through His death, to buy us back! There is no other way into the Kingdom! That’s why, when answering Nicodemus, Jesus says, “Except a man is born again, He cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:5. It’s so simple. We’ve got to die to the world, just as Jesus died on that cross and was put in a tomb. And the miracle is, He came out of the tomb in Resurrection Life! You and I don’t wait till our bodies die, we have that Resurrection Life now! By faith in Christ. I’m rejoicing in it, that’s why I have so much strength and energy even at my age, knowing I will never die! What a tremendous message this is! Jesus is the Son of God and is the ransom to buy you back – like that boy’s boat – from Satan. And unless you have been ransomed and believe, you are dead. The decision is ours. God bless you. Amen.
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ARE YOU IN A VALLEY? David Hathaway
I really feel at this time that people need a lot of comfort. I’m very disturbed that the number of young people in Britain suffering mental problems has more than doubled under lockdown and the pandemic. For me, it is my Christian faith that has always kept me strong. You may look at me and think, “Everything goes right for him.” No! I’ve had cancer twice, I spent a year in a Russian-style communist prison, and many, many other things. You ask questions, you begin to think, “Why me?” How did I end up in prison?! I saw the prisoners around me in despair – I prayed with them, witnessed to them, shared the Gospel with them. But for myself I sought the Lord and asked, “Why? Why am I here?” But even then, I realised I was in the prison for a purpose, and that God would work something out through it. The miracle of my release after only one year by British Prime Minister absolutely changed my life! It may seem strange to you, but when I look back, I simply say, “Thank God for that year in prison!” My life as it is now, without some of the tragedies, would never have been what it is today. The prison, that throat cancer, that lung cancer – all changed my life. I want to encourage you to seek the Lord in a new way. I know we are going through difficult times. Throughout my life I’ve been through difficult times. But through it all God has always made a way of escape, that’s His Promise. 1 Cor 10:13. In your greatest difficulties, God makes a way through. We’ve not been called to live a life of comfort and luxury, but we are called to ‘live a life’! Right from my earliest days, I’ve prayed over everything. When I was at school, when I was looking for a job to pay my way through Bible College... I remember going to the employment bureau in London, asking for the job with the most money – and I was given a job in a bank, because God had planned a way! He orders our steps. Ps 37:23. From 1961 when I began running the overland tours to Israel
and started the Bible smuggling into Eastern Europe, I had a fleet of buses going up to eight times a year through the communist countries, down into Israel. But when the Six Day War came in 1967, it closed the overland route through Syria and Jordan into Israel! I had two groups with me. I had to get them out in a hurry! As we left, the enemy troops were rolling up the hillside into Jerusalem! As soon as we got through Syria to safety in Istanbul, I left my bus and flew home, because I had a business, a tour company with a fleet of buses on finance, I had staff to pay and people who had booked holidays… I said, “Lord, what’s going to happen? I’m going to go bankrupt!” But by the time I had landed back in England, God had given me the clear answer, exactly what to do. I diverted my buses to do more work in the communist countries, smuggle more Bibles, get more involved with preaching in the Underground Churches... So what appeared to be bad for me, God turned to good!
That’s what Scripture says! The things that the enemy meant for evil, God will turn to good! Gen 50:20. Put your life into the Hands of God, let Him guide you. We used to sing, ‘Lay your life on the altar for God, He’s calling for you today!’ I want to encourage you to lay down your life for God, put your life on the altar. When I was 15, on holiday with a group of young Christians, on the beach one Saturday night, God challenged me and called me, and I had no peace until I said, “Lord, here I am. Take me! Take everything.” And I gave Him everything. It was and is the greatest decision of my life. Many times I have gone back to that same place to thank Him for asking me to give Him everything. I want to motivate you. Wherever, and whoever you are, in teaching, nursing, banking, lay your life on the altar for God! But most of all, I want to inspire confidence in you that God is in control and will give you the desires of your heart if you will commit your way to Him. Ps 37:4.
There comes a time in your life and mine when ONLY God can satisfy. In those teenage years it was simply this, ‘Early will I seek you, my soul thirsts, my flesh longs for You as in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.’ Ps 63:1. Lord, I’m thirsting and hungry for You... I’m thirsting to see ‘Your Power and Your Glory, NOW, as I have seen You in the past, in the Sanctuary’ – this is my heart’s desire, NOW! Just as I have seen the Power of God in the past, I want to see MORE, NOW, IN THE FUTURE. I have to live, I cannot die, they can’t take me until I see HIS Power, HIS Glory, NOW – GREATER THAN ANYTHING I HAVE SEEN IN THE PAST! I want to comfort you with the Twenty Third Psalm, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me...’ The valley of the shadow is more literally translated where the light of the sun is cut off. I love walking in the mountains. On the mountain top the sun can be bright, but when you drop down into that valley, the sunlight can’t penetrate the valley walls – that is the valley where the light of the sun is cut off! I want to tell you that wherever you go in your life, whatever trial, whatever problem, whatever difficulty – even if you feel the light of the sun is cut off – God will not fail you. He says, His rod and His staff will comfort you, and you will come safely through. This applies even when you don’t feel conscious of Him. When I was first thrown into the prison, for a moment I was tempted to think God had forsaken, forgotten me. When I had the cancers, had God forsaken me, had He forgotten me? NO! Even if you have cancer, as I’ve had twice, even if you go to prison, as I have… I have the absolute certainty of the promises of God’s Word! I want to encourage you. When you are praying, go to the Word of God and let God speak to you. Let God Himself speak to you through His Word, and give you your answer, as He’s always done for me. God bless you.
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David Hathaway
When God gives me a prophetic vision, I have to put it into action. And I will continue acting on it, in preparation for the return of Christ. The Church is so silent on two things. One, teaching on the positive return of Christ. And two, at a time of pandemic when we’re so conscious of death, the Church is so silent on the truth of Resurrection. We get many prayer requests and I find that so many elderly, with serious sicknesses, are afraid of death. But if we believe in the Resurrection, why should we be afraid of death? When my wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she was almost 80 years old, 80 years with no sickness. But now that she was stricken down, we did not call upon people to pray desperately with us, because we knew, there is a time to be born and a time to die. If you have reached 80 years of age in peace, if you can die in your own home, in your own bed, surrounded by your family – that’s a miracle! That’s how it was with my wife – myself, our children, our grandchildren and great grandchildren, we were with her right to the end. She died in peace, because she said, “I know where I am going!” Today so many within the Church call themselves ‘Christians’, not because of a born again experience, a new birth, but simply because they are adhering to the teachings and traditions, ceremonials and formats of the ‘Church’. Church, as the world sees it, is more identified by its ceremonial, than by the reality of the new birth. So many things are considered to be the way into salvation, even the Roman Catholic Mass (communion) is seen as a sacrament, adding grace upon grace each time it is received. I take communion – I’m sure you do – but this does not replace Christ’s command that, in order to enter into your salvation and to see the Kingdom of God, you must be born again! In John 3, He repeated this command three times to Nicodemus, the ruling Pharisee who came to Him secretly by night to ask questions. I don’t see this command to be born again being the condition for entering into some Bible Colleges and to some training schools for the clergy... I know that there are within the Church some who are there, not because they have given their lives to Christ and been baptised by total immersion, having been born again by the Spirit of God – but they are there because of their obedience to the tradition of the ‘Church’. This is such a danger…
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As a pastor I used to conduct funerals, but it concerns me that with many funerals the priest is saying something which, taken out of context, is misleading to those who are burying loved ones. As the coffin is lowered into the ground, the officiant says these words, “In sure and certain hope of the Resurrection.” Being buried with a ‘Christian’ burial in consecrated ground is not the door into the Kingdom! Yes, the Bible says that in the last days we will rise (Dan 12:2; Jn 6:39-40), but those who are outside of Christ don’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The ONLY way into the Kingdom of Heaven is by dying to the world and being born again! But the traditions of the Church – simply attend church, follow the traditions and ceremonies, and this makes you a member – diminish this. This is where I disagree with the traditions which baptise infants. This is against Scripture, which says that baptism has to be on confession of your faith! I have baptised many people, I have even baptised in the river Jordan – but it is on confession of your faith! How can a baby confess faith in Christ? Infant baptism is only a ritual… Even the system of godparents is questionable, why are they chosen? It should be the ones who will lead the child to Christ! Not ones most likely to give gifts to the child, and nothing spiritual. The only thing that is critical in your experience as a Christian is that you have found and accepted Christ, that by faith in Him you have repented of your sin, and have been baptised as a sign of your death and resurrection. That ALONE is the way into the Kingdom. Paul begins his letter to the Christians in Rome, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated – set apart – to the Gospel of God, which He had promised in advance by His prophets in the Holy Scripture.” Rms 1:1-2. Paul was not one of the original twelve disciples, he’s very unusual, absolutely unique – it’s amazing how God called and chose him! And set him apart for a purpose – to declare the Gospel of God, which, Paul says, was promised by God in the Old Testament concerning His Son Jesus! Paul is saying here that the Gospel is the revelation of what was hidden in Old Testament prophecy, that Jesus, who was born in the flesh, IS the Son of God, the promised Messiah who has come to
save us! The amazing thing was that the religious Jews, who had the prophets, and studied the Scriptures to the exclusion of all else, did not recognise Him when He came! Paul was among that number. As Paul says, God had blinded their eyes, so that though they had the Scriptures and the prophecies, they still couldn’t see or understand! Orthodox Jews even today study the Scripture in exactly the same way. So much so, that they don’t work, but are supported by the State and are exempted from the compulsory National Service in the army, because their whole lives are devoted to the study of Moses and the prophets – looking forward to a Messiah they have not recognised! There is even a danger that many people who might call themselves Christians, and who read the Bible, can also be blind and not understand the real Truth, which God is revealing through the Scriptures. But Paul was called and set apart to demonstrate and to prove TO THE WORLD who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God and the only hope of salvation. Yes, ‘according to the flesh’, Jesus was of the ‘seed of David’, of the royal line of Judah, but ‘declared to be the Son of God with Power, by the Spirit of Holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead’! Rms 1:3-4. Resurrection of the dead was a major argument between the political Sadducees who didn’t believe in resurrection, and the religious Pharisees, who were looking for it. But to both there came a blindness, and they couldn’t see the miracle of Christ’s birth and His Resurrection – foretold in the Old Testament – had now come to life! But Paul was called and set apart for this specific purpose, to declare who Jesus really is! We also have to realise that this is something God is calling YOU and ME, even as simple believers, to demonstrate TO THE WORLD! This is not just a ‘religion’ – but THE POWER OF GOD released through Jesus Christ! For this reason, when Paul’s eyes were opened, he ‘received grace and apostleship, to promote obedience to the faith in His Name among ALL NATIONS’! Rms 1:5. Not just to the Jew, but to all people everywhere. We need to be obedient to this faith in the knowledge of who Jesus is. The whole of our salvation is centred on
Christ alone! Outside Jesus Christ there is no salvation! Paul wrote his letter to the Romans, speaking to all the believers in Rome, thanking God that their faith is ‘spoken of THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD’ – Rms 1:7-8. Here we are, in the early days of the Church, before Paul had ever visited these believers in person. And we already find that this belief in Jesus Christ – that He is the Son of God and has risen from the dead by a miracle – has so changed these people in Rome, that they are a testimony and a witness TO THE WHOLE WORLD! Where are we today? Our Christian faith should be so dynamic, so powerful that it should be a testimony TO THE WHOLE WORLD – not of ourselves – but of Christ! The religious Church has lost sight of the dynamic of the Gospel which is the Person of Jesus, who lived and died as the Son of God, and by an incredible miracle rose from the dead as the evidence and the demonstration that we, who are in Christ, will also rise from the dead! This is a certainty! But ONLY for those who KNOW Christ! The Christians in Rome were still young in their faith. That’s why, in Romans 1:912, Paul writes, “God is my witness, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request that if by any means I might now come to you. For I long to impart some spiritual gift to establish you, so that to-
gether we might be comforted by our mutual faith.” Paul is concerned in this letter to the Romans to establish them in the faith and make them strong in Christ. This is why Paul writes to them, “I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – for it is the Power of God to salvation to everyone that believes, to Jew and Gentile,” Rms 1:16. I love this verse, because Paul says the Gospel is the Power of God! All the Power of God, as Paul wrote in vv3&4, is in declaring Jesus Christ to be the Son of God! The Power of God should be revealed in the Gospel we preach! Not just forgiveness and salvation – we’re preaching the Glory and the Power that Jesus has and which we can receive from Him! I see more miracles of healing when I’m preaching the Gospel to unbelievers than when I’m preaching in a church! I see them by the thousand. Why? Because the miracles are the evidence of God to the unbelievers! I don’t know any living man who has seen as many miracles of healing as I have. It’s quite normal for up to one third of the thousands, tens of thousands of people listening to me – to be miraculously healed. I preach the Gospel, then I call the people to repent, and then I say, “Now I will pray for the sick! And when I do, and a miracle happens, this is the demonstration and proof to you that the Gospel of the Power of God which I have just preached is true! I’m not a healer, I’m
not a healing evangelist. Jesus – HE is the Healer!” Our Gospel is a Gospel of Power – that’s why I’m not ashamed, because I know, when I preach Christ, miracles will happen! When I was invited to speak with the Holocaust survivors in Israel, I was in an agony, crying out to God, “How can I go to these people – the survivors of the furnaces, the concentration camps and ghettos – how can I preach a God of love, when, in the Name of that God, they were brutalised and slaughtered? Unless You are with me, unless You show and demonstrate Your love, I can’t go…” But the people said to me, “We will listen to you preaching from your Bible on one condition, if your Jesus will heal our sicknesses.” The incredible thing was the hundreds of miracles that took place. So much so, that those formerly unbelieving Russian-speaking Jews presented me with a poster of the photos of those who had died in the Holocaust and, superimposed, photos of some of those miraculously healed in my meetings! So much so, that their leader said, “I want all of my people to hear the words of this preacher!” In this way the Gospel of the risen Jesus Christ is made manifest today, having been contained and hidden in the Old Testament. We’ve got to come back to the Truth, accept and believe the Gospel – in order to come into the Kingdom! God bless you. Amen!
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MIRACLE AFTER MIRACLE
IN UKRAINE! The National Day of Prayer for Ukraine on Saturday June 12th was a phenomenal miracle. With all the Covid uncertainties, preparation was made by faith and much intense prayer over many months. Literally only in the last moments of preparation, we received permission from the Government Ministry of Internal Affairs, from the Mayor of Kyiv and City Administration, and from the National Police to hold this 6th National Day of Prayer for Ukraine. We were not limited in numbers, or anything else, just some spacing, and face masks recommended.
So National Prayer was the first postCovid mass event allowed by the Ukraine Government! This, in the very nation which said they would destroy Christianity, parade the last Christian on TV, and where whole new cities were built to the glory of the Soviet Socialist State – cities without any Christian presence and without access to the Bible… ...This is where God has demonstrated His Power today! Out of a total capacity of ten thousand – 8,000 attended the Prayer in the National Sport Palace, including 400 ushers, 50 police officers, 100 members of special prayer groups, 300 musicians, two choirs, interconfessional orchestras and even 30 members of a children's choir. With slight spacing, the National Sport Palace was filled. The Prayer was broadcast live on four national TV channels (secular and Christian); and five secular national TV channels ran news reports. This was truly a NATIONAL EVENT. And over 50,000 individuals and Prayer groups joined via livestream from around the world. On the night before the Prayer, we received a personal signed letter from the Prime Minister of Ukraine – an incredible letter fully supporting the event and sharing all our values. He sent his personal Representative to address the nation on his behalf, publicly reading the letter to the people of Ukraine. What touched us was that his Representative left his car and security at a distance from the venue, and walked in alone unnoticed with his young son, to respect the sanctity of the place.
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Bishops and Heads of every denomination in Ukraine (including from Russian controlled Crimea and separatist Donetsk region), prayed for the nation from the platform. Prayers were made for the war on Ukraine’s borders and the pandemic to be stopped. “God alone stops war, not politicians, not diplomats, God alone lifts up and puts down… We are also praying for the pandemic to stop, because prayer is always the way out… No steps can be taken other than those based on prayer and faith across the nation…” David had opened by saying that this Day of Prayer was a miracle, the first country in the world to have every Christian Denomination praying together (for the sixth year now), and the first time in Europe since the Covid lockdown that a mass Christian event has been given such freedom. Ukraine must be an example to the whole world! The atmosphere in the meeting was so powerful that people did not want to go home. The worship and prayers, with so much freedom, were outstanding. Two days later, another miracle immediately followed the event: the Government declared freedom for the Churches, no social distancing, no restriction on numbers, singing and music allowed, making Ukraine the first country in Europe to give total freedom to the Churches – a further evidence of the power of prayer! Then on the next day, the President of Ukraine declared the country to now be a green zone, having met all EU criteria in all regions.
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UKRAINE
A MIRACLE BORN IN THE HEART OF GOD AND IN THE HEART OF MAN!
A very special moment in the Day of Prayer was the presentation of a massive handwritten, handbound Bible. Beginning on the National Day of Prayer in 2018 and now presented complete at this Day of Prayer in 2021, a total of 31,598 individuals each wrote at least one verse, including: the last four Presidents of Ukraine; the last five Prime Ministers; three former Heads and 200 Members of Parliament; the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine; three Heroes of Ukraine; Heads of Churches; and so many more. It has been accepted by the Ukrainian Book of Records as unique. On the platform three national awards were presented: for the largest handwritten book ever in Ukraine; for the largest manuscript created by the largest number of participants ever; and for the largest number of pages ever successfully bound together! In addition, the new translation of the Bible into modern Ukrainian was presented. This project began 30 years ago when the Soviet Union collapsed, and took 28 years to complete. A joint inter-denominational project, it was undertaken to penetrate every level and area of society – Christians of every denomination, ordinary citizens,
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families, social groups, hearts. Headed by the Bible Society of Ukraine, this devotion to the Word of God is the foundation of the Unity of all Christians in Ukraine… …All this, in the very nation which said they would destroy Christianity, parade the last Christian on TV, and where whole new cities were built to the glory of the Soviet Socialist State – cities without any Christian presence and without access to the Bible – the nation whose KGB arrested and imprisoned David (for smuggling Bibles on an industrial scale), whose Government attempted to assassinate him after his release from prison, and followed him everywhere he evangelised in the 1980s and 1990s, and again tried to assassinate him on 2 June 1998 – 7 years after the fall of communism! As the current Head of Religious Affairs said to him in a personal meeting only a few years ago, “David, this nation, Ukraine, used to call you Public Enemy Number 1… But now we support you, and we even distribute the Bibles for you!” You see, communism created a hunger and a famine for the Word of God, so that people receive it as it is: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.” John 1:1-4. In his closing message to Ukraine in this Day of Prayer 2021, people openly wept as David said: “It is exactly 60 years ago since I first came to the Soviet Union, on my way by road, through the Iron Curtain countries, to Israel. And something touched my heart: I saw your suffering, I saw you had no Bibles. I began to smuggle Bibles – two tonnes at a time – and I went to prison. In Exodus 3 the Lord spoke to Moses, as today He is peaking to you: ‘I have seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, I know their sorrows – and I am come down to deliver!’ Not I will – ‘I am come down to deliver you!’ Ukraine, that’s what God is saying to you! ‘I am come down to deliver you and show you My Glory!’ We have to stand united around the Word of God – and God will deliver you through war, through suffering – because the God of Heaven, the God of the Bible – IS YOUR FATHER!”
THE WORD OF GOD HAS AGAI
IN TAKEN ROOT IN UKRAINE!
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WITHOUT VISION David Hathaway
Proverbs 29:18, in the King James version says, ‘Where there is no vision the people perish.’ The people die! When I was a student in Bible College I had to preach to the other students, in a church, in front of some young people. Preaching is difficult even to a congregation, but preaching to a bunch of my fellow students – whose great delight would be to pull me to pieces – was extremely difficult! I am afraid we did it to find fault... But I felt led to preach on this very verse. I can’t remember what I said, but I do remember several of the students came up to me afterwards, absolutely amazed, and really felt what I was saying was prophetic, and I do believe that right from the beginning this verse – where there is no vision, the people perish – was to set the direction for my life. We talk a lot about revival – but I want to show you from Proverbs 29:18 that, without a clear vision, we won’t see revival. Revival begins from God as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit – but it usually comes because of someone’s vision in prayer. It is said that is how the Welsh Revival started, in a prayer meeting where a young girl began to cry out, “I love You Jesus!” Somehow her vision caught on and there was a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So many revivals have begun because a group of people got to-
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gether to pray. One of the most outstanding things in the 1904 Welsh Revival was the level of prayer that was going on. They told me that on the Saturday night the people would go up the mountain to pray, taking lanterns with them in the darkness, and you could tell how strong the revival would be on the Sunday and in the coming days, by how far up the mountain these lanterns were! The more the people, the higher the light went – and so would be the level of the spiritual awakening!
to go out there and fulfil the vision! It was not a prophetic vision to be scattered for somebody else to pick up, although that was part of it, but a clear vision of what God wanted ME to do. When I launched my magazine, Prophetic Vision, it was MY prophetic vision, for Europe, Israel and the former communist countries – just as with Hudson Taylor, famous British missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission – his call was with a vision for China. That’s what God wanted HIM to do.
There is a connection between vision and prophecy, but there is a difference. VISION is something you receive, not necessarily from God – people have some very strange visions... A God-given vision is something you SEE, as in a picture, what the outcome will be. Whereas PROPHECY is an anointing, a gift from the Holy Spirit, FORETELLING what will happen in the future, SPEAKING OUT what God is revealing…
But Hudson Taylor also had a vision in 1889 which was prophetic. He was back from China on furlough, preaching in a church, when suddenly God gave him a vision – nothing to do with China – it was a vision of Russia! In the vision he clearly saw two world wars – (which happened 1914-18, and 1939-45) – two separate wars, but which would actually be one. Historians now see that the war which began in 1914 inevitably led, through the 20s and 30s, to the Second World War and didn’t finally conclude until 1945. He also saw in this vision the rise and fall of communism, and – this is the thing that interested me when I heard it – the last great revival would begin in Russia, and from there go into Europe – and would not die out, but lead to the return of Christ!
I feel I have a combination of vision and prophecy. My ministry is called Eurovision Mission to Europe – because it is a vision God gave me for Europe! Eurovision, which began as a theme for the first East/West Karlsruhe Conference in 1988, became the name of my ministry! Right from the beginning the clear vision I had was of the revival that would come in the then communist Soviet territories – that would begin in Russia and move from East to West, into Europe. BUT, I had
The Russians know and believe this vision, though I find in England people hardly seem to have heard of it. I myself didn’t
– PEOPLE DIE! know it until I had started working with my own vision in Russia. But the fact is, vision is so important. I’m DRIVEN by a vision. DRIVEN by the vision God showed me. My documentary, The Rape of Europe, was based on a vision God revealed to me – and every single thing that God was revealing to me, you can see it in that film! Whether the European Parliament building in Strasbourg which was deliberately built as the Tower of Babel, or the Woman Riding the Beast from Revelation 17 – you can’t deny it, you can see it, it’s there! In my life and in yours, we need a vision in three directions. The first is we must have a vision of one’s own self, when you examine yourself and see what you are capable of. If only we could become more aware of the capability God has put within us, and have a vision of what we can do, not alone, but with God! I never hear anyone who quotes the words of Paul who says that, before taking communion, ‘let a man examine himself’! Every time we take communion, every time we take the bread and the wine, there should be a self-examination. I do it! It so impressed me when, still a teenager, working to pay my way to go through Bible College, a wonderful evangelist held a three-week crusade in Camberwell, London, and opened a church as a result. In fact I left my old church to attend this church, and worked with this evangelist and new pastor to gain experience. At the end of that crusade, on the last Sunday, he called us together, new converts and supporting believers, for a great communion service. That must have been in 1949, and I’ll never forget what he said as we took communion, “Whether you are a new convert doing this for the first time, or an old Christian, I want you to feel emotionally when you take this communion that, even for you, old believers, it’s just the same as if this were the first time!” Every time I take communion, I have the sense of wanting the freshness and the self-examination which comes with it. We need a vision of ourselves! But also, we need a vision of Jesus! A vision of His Power, His Glory – of who He really is. I feel so concerned, because people don’t seem to have the vision of who Jesus really is. If you only understood His unlimited Power, His tremendous Glory, all that God has!!! I remember a few years ago when I was in Switzerland,
in the mountains in prayer. I had come down to my hotel and that night I had a remarkable vision. I saw myself in a long line of people waiting to go into a certain room, and I was carrying something very large. Someone came up to me saying, “Don’t let anybody take what you are carrying away from you!” Immediately he said that, I was ushered into the room, jumping the queue! All I could see in that room was brilliant, indescribable light! I couldn’t see anybody, only the brilliance of the light – and the music!!! My whole spirit was filled with overwhelming wonder and blessing. I was thinking, “If only people could hear this music, if only they could experience what I am experiencing, they would give everything they have to be here!” I believe it was a vision of the Glory of God. I fell forward on my face. When we really experience the Glory of God, we would fall on our knees, we would be on our faces before Him! During the whole of my life, right from the beginning, I have been motivated by the vision God gave me of what He was going to do. And so far, He has fulfilled everything! Three days after my trial when I had been found guilty and sentenced to what could have been ten years or more in a communist prison – (their practice was to bring more accusations, there was no early release) – I had a dream, a vision – the same dream on two consecutive nights. I saw myself out of the prison, in the Royal Albert Hall (then the largest auditorium in London), speaking to ten thousand people at the Easter Convention of the denomination I was part of at that time. It was a dream, but it was a prophetic vision that I was to pray into. And in that prison, I had an experience of the Glory of God that I have never experienced before or since. And later, when I was able to smuggle my own Bible back into my cell, the dream was confirmed in the Word of God, even the very day that I would be released – my birthday. And exactly on my birthday, after I flew home with Prime Minister Harold Wilson, I received a phone call, “David, are you strong enough to speak in the Royal Albert Hall on Monday at the Easter Rally?” It was an exact fulfilment of what God had shown me! How wonderful to see the reality of what God is showing us in prophetic vision! We need a vision of ourselves, self-examination as Paul says. The second vision should be of the Power and Glory of Jesus! If you get a real vision of who Jesus is, you will be afraid of nothing! You can take on the world and the flesh and the devil – if you have a real vision of Jesus!
The third vision we need is a vision of the world. Sin is the result of the fact that the world is under the power of Satan! Only Jesus can deliver us! God has given me such a vision of the NEED of the world! What’s happened under lockdown? People are suffering! I was in London in the war when bombs were falling all around – some of my school friends were killed, their houses destroyed. My home was badly damaged twice – but somehow I never had any fear! I was 8 years old when the war started, 13 when it finished – but never a sense of fear. I saw the problem – but all it did, even at that young age, was make me more determined to go and preach the Gospel! I spent so much time in prayer over London praying for revival. Although after the war the churches were scattered and broken, I now speak in some of the large churches that have sprung up in the places where I prayed as a boy! I had such a vision of revival of the Power of God during the war. I prayed into that vision! We need a clear vision of ourselves, not just of our own powerlessness... But a vision of Christ and His Glory and His Power! And a clear vision of the world to which we must go! Hudson Taylor prophesied of something that was to happen after his lifetime. I believe that what I am seeing today in Ukraine and in Russia – and have seen for the last 30, 40 years – is literally the fulfilment of his vision and prophecy. I want to return to my first thought, the difference between vision and prophecy. Prophecy is when God puts something in your spirit, and which you speak out, and it may be that it will happen in years to come. Vision is when God gives you a clear vision of what He and you can do together – and you have to go out and do it! Somebody has to get out there and fulfil the vision, fulfil the prophecy. This is the challenge of Proverbs 29:18 – where there is no vision, the people will die! If we don’t have a vision, that threefold vision, the people out there will die! If I did not have a vision of what God could do in Russia and in Ukraine, what would have happened when I came out of the prison and my own denomination criticised me because I said, “I’ve got to go back”!!? They said, “You’re are a wanted man, you’ll go back into prison, how can you go back and put yourself, your wife and family at risk?” I said, “I HAVE to go back!” And the greatest miracles came – because I went back! A thousand times greater than anything I had seen in the past. Get a vision, act on it and God will be with you – if not, Proverbs says, the people die.
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WHAT PROMISES? Katie Morris Years ago I was given a cheerful sticker, GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES! I wondered, “What promises?” I had no idea, though I had been brought up in church from birth... I had no idea God had promised anything... But having asked the question, God began to show me, and I began to realise, God does everything ‘by promise’. What He says, He does. One of the most dramatic experiences of this in my own life was later on, one Christmas time, end of 2004. I was exhausted, worn out from an amazing and wonderful year in ministry, against all odds and unsolvable obstacles, seeing the most phenomenal things! So, tired as I was, I said, “But Lord, what would You do for me?!” Instantly, from one verse in psalms, God promised me a house of my own and grandchildren. But, because of my age and circumstances, it was impossible for me to get a mortgage, impossible to buy a house. And at that time, I didn’t yet know that it was impossible for my son and his wife to give me grandchildren. Anyway, because of the incredible miracles I had personally witnessed in the ministry since 1991, and because of God’s constant kindness to me through every difficulty, by faith I told my father, “I don’t know how, but next year I will have a house of my own!” And I did! I moved in, only three months later, in March 2005! And only ten years later I owned it outright! I had even replaced the roof, the kitchen, the bathroom, and bought a brand-new car – no loans, no debt! And, as He promised, the Lord also gave me grandchildren during that time too – three by my son and his wife! And later another two by my daughter. GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES, even to me!
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Some come to pass quickly, others in time, and those not yet fulfilled, God will fulfil in His Way and Time. I think a lot about Adam and Eve. We all know, though everything God had given them was good, they willfully disobeyed Him, with instant, shocking results. But think about the grace of God who, in that moment when Eve failed Him, cursed first the source of this evil, Satan himself, and made a promise, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her SEED, you will bruise HIS heel, but HE will bruise your head!” Genesis 3:15. A MESSIAH would come from Eve! I think about Eve’s shame and horror as the beautiful serpent slithered away as a cursed snake. And I think about her bitter, unending disappointment when she joyfully gave birth to ‘a man from the Lord’ – Genesis 4:1 – whom she must have hoped was that Promised Seed, that Messiah who would strike Satan’s head and reverse the curse – but who turned out to be a murderer... ‘A man from the Lord…’ She must have misunderstood how and when God would fulfil His Promise, and she certainly had no idea how far the human race, descended from herself and Adam, would fall and still fall. With opened eyes they saw the unfolding consequences of their sin... But still, despite it all, Adam and Eve must have believed and trusted in the goodness of God to sometime fulfil His Promise and give the victory... Adam and Eve must have died in faith, because we have their record in the Bible, that they were faithful to tell of the Fall, its consequences – and God’s great and precious Promise that a Messiah would come to defeat the devil and save us from our sin. – Their account has reached even us today! Their testimony
still speaks! And though Adam saw how great man’s wickedness became after him, and though he missed seeing Noah by 126 years, he did live to see the early part of the life of Enoch, the preacher of righteousness who pleased God and walked with God... So many of the descendants of Adam and Eve embraced fully the corrupted life, but there were some who held fast to the Promise, so that it passed through Adam, through Seth, to Enoch, to Noah, Shem, Abraham and all the prophets, even to us! I understand, I am by birth a daughter of Eve, and in myself, no better than she was. But like her, my hope and my peace are in God’s Promised Seed, Jesus, the Son of God. God’s Word is always a promise, always a bond, always a guarantee, because His Word is Who He is, the invisible, incorruptible life-source and energy of everything that exists in our visible realm. Corruption only comes from the rejection of God Himself, His Word, His Spirit. BUT HE CANNOT FAIL – it’s a promise! God does everything by promise. The moment He speaks, He sees the end from the beginning, from that very first moment until it comes to pass. Our faith is the guarantee we are included in the promise. Disobedience, unbelief – is the guarantee we have no part in it. We are part way through the fulfilment of the Promise God gave Adam and Eve. We have seen Jesus bruised for our iniquities, carry our sin and give us new life... And we will see Him return to rule and reign, here, over this currently chaotic world – together with ALL His saints who have believed in the Promise. GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES.
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POWER – YOUR INHERI TANCE
THIS BOOK is dangerous, it’s not for the faint-hearted, and not for the beginner. It’s like a fast and dangerous sports car – or a space rocket exploring the unknown…
David Hat
haway
I have preached on the Book of Ephesians many times, majoring on different points. But all this changed when I asked the Holy Spirit, who had inspired the Apostle Paul to write this letter, to really explain to me what Paul is revealing – and what Paul is still hiding from us! IT GIVES ME through the GREAT PLEASU RE to write manuscr by precio us brothe ipt of this book, PO these words after r DAVID HA reading WER – YO THAWAY I know of . This book UR INHERITANCE , no greate is a must r need am understan read! ongst the d the full revealed the Powe Will of Go Body of Christ tod r of their ay Inheritan d for the walk of the than to ce. believer in In the ‘PO WE way it is po R – YOUR INHE RITANCE ’ David Ha past and ssible, despite do thaway sh ctrinal or present, to the ow inheritan wa olo s us the lk gic and liv al mi ce through his as he relates to the e in the power of sconceptions of the our Go marvellous personal experienc demonstra d‐given es. tion of thi I have ha s d the privil eg brother an d a very sp e of knowing Evan together gelist David ecial friend wi . It has be the world th him in various en a joy to Hathaway as a cap and to see this inhere acities in UK and oth have ministered nt power Indeed, in in action. er nations around this time brother Da of pandem season of vid (Eph. 4:11‐12) ic, I can surely say in the rev recalibratio elation of that God has gifted purposes n and rea His of reader can God for our lives, lignment of His Ch Word during this urch, to tak an and all Go truly experience, in d relate them in e the deep a ma d wants the their own lives, all tha nner whereby the m to be! t God has May God for them manifest Yo partake of ur potentia POWER – YOUR IN l in Christ to you in HERITAN a new wa CE! y as you Dennis Gr eenidge, Senior Pa stor, WW MF, UK
Step by step, all my life, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, I have lived the miracles of the Bible! Take YOUR Bible and follow me through the revelation I want to share with you.
David Ha thaway
I now begin to understand why God created us in the beginning – which in 70 years of ministry I never quite understood this way before! It’s as if, when God recreated the world six thousand years ago out of chaos, He created us to live here – because there was a problem in the spirit world which God could only solve with our help…
POWER
YOUR IN HERITA NCE The Boo k of Eph esians explore d
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YOUR GIFT EMPOWERS THE GOSPEL! Please send your gift to: Eurovision Mission to Europe, International Office, 41 Healds Road, Dewsbury WF13 4HU, UK Eurovision is a Registered Charity No 1126438 (a Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England No 6638375)
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PROPHETIC VISION© is published by Eurovision Publications Tel: + 44 (0)1924 453693 email: office@eurovision.org.uk This is a prophetic ministry of David Hathaway Editorial Director: David Hathaway Editor: Katie Morris Designed by: Carl Varley ISSN 1358–698X
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