OVER 70 YEARS OF MINISTRY
SINCE 1950
One book in the Bible is not yet finished – it’s the Acts of the Apostles. We’re still living in it today, you and I are writing it! I’m 92 – my whole life is trying to live like they lived in the Acts of the Apostles, like Paul, like Peter and John… Because our lives should demonstrate what we believe! It’s so important for us to get back to the truth of what we believe, as it is written here in Acts Chapter 1.
Jesus DID appear for 40 days after His death, in which time He met with His disciples, spoke with them and even ate with them. And being with them, v4, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but wait for the ‘Promise of the Father’ which He had told them about: “John baptised with water, but you will be baptised in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
the end of the 1000 years, when the earth will be destroyed, and there will be a New Heaven and a New Earth.
The Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke. In Chapter 1:1-2, he refers back to his previous writing – his Gospel – in which he recorded all that Jesus ‘began to do and teach until the day He was taken up into Heaven, having given, through the Holy Spirit, instructions to the Apostles He had chosen.’ If you question the teachings of the New Testament, it is quite clearly stated here, once and for all, that Christ Himself gave these teachings and instructions to His chosen Apostles during His lifetime and in the days before His Ascension.
Jesus chose twelve disciples to follow Him: one, Judas, betrayed Him and perished. To the remaining eleven and to many other witnesses after His death, Jesus showed Himself alive ‘by many infallible proofs’, being seen by the disciples for 40 days, during which time He was still ‘speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God’, v3. There is no question, He rose from the dead and spent 40 days in His Resurrection Body teaching His disciples, and fellowshipping with them!
In my teenage years I read a book called ‘Who Moved the Stone?’ It’s still available. The author set out to disprove the Resurrection, because, if he could, this would disprove the whole Gospel that we believe. No Resurrection, no Gospel. But as he researched and analysed the evidence to disprove the Resurrection, he became utterly and totally convinced that it DID happen – and he gave his life to Christ!
I do not question the evidence of the Bible, nor the evidence of the witnesses as recorded in the Bible, that
The disciples immediately questioned Him: “Lord, will You at THIS time restore the Kingdom again to Israel?” This is a very critical point in Luke’s narrative here, because the disciples had learned from Jesus the tremendous importance of the Coming Kingdom. As an evangelist myself, the more I study the Gospels, the more I realise that Jesus spent more time talking about His Coming Kingdom than He did about simple salvation... Salvation and the Coming Kingdom are inseparable. The belief in the Kingdom and Christ’s return was so strong in the minds of the disciples that when He told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, they truly believed that Jesus would, at that same time, bring about the Kingdom and the salvation of Israel as a nation. This is why, in v7, Jesus has to explain: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own Power.”
Jesus is saying, it is not for us to know in advance the time or the season when He will return. Yes, the Bible writes of a total of 7000 years: from the Creation of Adam to the flood, 2000 years; from the flood to Christ, 2000 years; and now another two thousand years have gone by – 6000. And we know that Christ will reign on the earth for 1000 years. Not for an unlimited time. Not for eternity. But for 1000 years, as represented by the Sabbath in the Jewish week, being the seventh day after six days of work: a day of rest, a day of peace. Peter himself wrote in his second letter Ch 3:8, “Do not forget, a day with the Lord is as a 1000 years –and the Lord is not slow in keeping His Promises.” Only then the lion will lie down with the lamb and there will be no war. When Jesus returns, with help from us He will restore the world to what it was before the Fall when man sinned! The final judgement comes at
So, coming back from this glimpse into the future, in v7 Jesus is saying, Don’t bother about the times or the seasons! Be concerned about TODAY! Because – in v8 we have one of the most important statements Jesus ever made –YOU WILL RECEIVE POWER AFTER THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES UPON YOU! AND YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES IN JERUSALEM, JUDAEA, SAMARIA AND TO THE WHOLE WORLD.
The whole emphasis of Jesus in His last words to His disciples before He is taken up into Heaven is this: “YOU have to be the witnesses! I will send you the Holy Spirit and He will give YOU the Power to do it!”
In one of my prayer walks some years ago I was asking, “Holy Spirit, You know Jesus better than anyone. What was the key to the Power that He had?” The Holy Spirit revealed to me from Scripture – in a new way – that when Jesus was born, He gave up ALL His Heavenly Power and Authority and lived as a man – he was limited as we are limited – Philippians 2:6-7. It wasn’t until His baptism in the Jordan by John that the Holy Spirit came down on Him like a dove. It was from THAT moment He received the Power that transformed even His life.
Here in Acts 1:8, before His Ascension into Heaven, before He is taken away from His disciples, He’s saying to these humble men – including Peter, who at Christ’s trial had denied that he knew Him – “When the Holy Spirit comes on you, He will give YOU the Power that will transform YOUR life, so that YOU can fulfil the ministry that I began.”
And when He had said this, while they watched, He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight, v9. So literally, the last commandment, the last message from Jesus is “Wait” –they had to wait another ten days until Pentecost, the 50th day after the crucifixion – “wait until the Holy Spirit is come. Then everything will be changed. You have no power in yourselves, but
you will be transformed by the same POWER that transformed Me, and YOU will continue the SAME works that I did –and greater!” – John 14.
While the disciples watched and looked towards Heaven as He went up, two men stood by them in white clothes and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into Heaven? This SAME Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven shall come back in the SAME way as you have seen Him go.” This clearly states HOW Jesus will come back! He was taken from the Apostles, they saw Him go. In exactly the SAME way, we will see Him come back!
So, as instructed, in v12ff they leave the Mount of Olives and went back to Jerusalem, where they went into an upper room, Peter, James, John, all of the eleven – and continued in one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers. We don’t read much about the brothers of Jesus in the Gospels, but now here they are! Altogether they were about 120. This was the first gathering of what was to become the Church.
And in v15ff, Peter stands up, and these are his first words, “Men and brethren, the Scripture HAS to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David concerning Judas who betrayed Jesus… This Judas was numbered with us and had a part in this ministry.” Yes, Judas was one of the chosen! Yet Jesus knew from the beginning that Judas was a thief and would betray Him. John 6:64; 13:18. This leads me to the inescapable fact that, even in this, there was a purpose. Somebody HAD to betray Jesus in order that He would be taken and die for our sins. Sadly, it was Judas who fulfilled this role. In v18ff, Peter tells how
he perished. He bought a field with the money he got for betraying Jesus and fell headlong in the field, burst asunder and his bowels came out… Peter says all those living in Jerusalem knew this, and referred to that place as the ‘Field of Blood’… I have been there many times. It’s not far from the Dung Gate. The field that Judas bought was where they tipped and burned the rubbish outside the city – a picture of hell itself! It’s very significant that this is where he died.
To this day, that field is not built on, you can still see it. Peter continued to quote, “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘Let his habitation be desolate, let no man dwell there – Ps 69:35 – and let another take his ministry – Ps 109:8.’” So according to Scripture, someone had to be appointed to replace Judas, someone, Peter said, who had been with them from the very beginning when Jesus was baptised by John, right till the day when He was taken up from them; one of these men must be ordained as a witness of His Resurrection, v21-22. Notice the importance here of being WITNESS TO THE RESURRECTION!
And so, v23ff, they selected two. They prayed, “Lord, You know the hearts of all men. Show which of the two You have chosen, so that he may take part in the ministry and in the apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, fell, that he might go to his own place.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias and he was counted with the eleven Apostles.
In my own opinion, it was not Matthias that God chose. I believe it was to be Paul. Of all the Apostles in the New Testament, the one who is recorded as
doing more, saying more, writing more than any of the others, is Paul. But he was at this time persecuting the Church! He was there at the beginning of the persecution, holding the clothes of those who stoned Stephen, the first martyr. But you know how he was converted. He was on his way to Damascus – the news about Jesus had spread there, and he was going with letters from the Pharisees to arrest these new Christian believers, take them as prisoners to Jerusalem, and if necessary, kill them! But while he was on the way, a Light came from Heaven and Paul was struck down from his horse – and there he met with Jesus! Acts 9. I believe this miraculous conversion of Paul was the appointment of the twelfth Apostle.
We have no record of Paul before the stoning of Stephen. He was a highly educated Orthodox Jew, an outsider who, unlike the other eleven, had not followed Jesus during His lifetime and ministry.
The conversion of Saul/Paul, and the way in which he was chosen, is an illustration of how, down through the centuries following the Acts of the Apostles, God has chosen and is choosing men that He will use in the SAME way that He used an outsider like Paul. It comes through a powerful conversion and a powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit. You see how powerfully God chose to use someone outside the original Twelve! THIS IS A KEY TO US TODAY: God in THIS generation is still choosing men and women to anoint them with the Holy Spirit to be like Paul and reach the world for Christ!
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I am sensing that the Power of God is increasing in me all the time. Humanly, aged 92, most of my contemporaries have died. But I only stopped downhill skiing when I was 80, and I still like sailing. I also like driving, to me it’s like sitting in an armchair. I used to drive to Israel up to 8 times a year, I pioneered the first overland route to Israel in 1961! That was through the Iron Curtain countries and Moslem nations hostile to Israel –6,000 miles return! I still drive myself all over the continent, to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
I’ve lived an adventurous life and still do – because all my life I have wanted to explore the Power of God! Daniel 11:32 in the English says, ‘Those who KNOW their God will be strong and they will do EXPLOITS!’ This is my translation: those who REALLY know God will do all the things nobody else can do, they will do the impossible! You know that, at my age, I have started a whole new Mission Field in Central Asia and the Caucasus –countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, the Caucasus being historically Christian but surrounded by Islam, and Central Asia, historically Moslem. It’s a challenge, but so it was in the Soviet Union under communism!
I’ve worked in the former Soviet Union countries for over 60 years. I’ve never compromised, not even under communism. In 1972 I was thrown into prison for my faith. After my release, in the 1980s I went back to the communist countries, preached openly in churches and stadiums, and saw revival in Hungary and Romania! In Bulgaria, still under communism in 1990 and 1991, a great revival swept the whole nation. In summer 1991, I was evangelising in Ukraine, also before the freedom came. I have worked massively in Russia and in Ukraine, though for more than 10 years after communism collapsed I was still followed by the secret police everywhere I went!
In Israel, where it is against the law to proselytise, from 2001-2017 I was openly evangelising with the Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants. In 2016 we totally
filled the Roman Amphitheatre in Caesarea with unbelieving Jews! The extreme Orthodox fought me on every front for more than a week to stop me. On the day that we took the Amphitheatre, the devil sent a storm on the Mediterranean so strong, the gantry on the platform holding the loudspeakers was swaying 1 metre in either direction. It was so dangerous, the police would not allow the people to come in. I was so mad at the devil, I leapt up on the platform and commanded the storm to stop in Jesus’ Name. It did! I preached Christ. The result? The Orthodox wrote on their website, “Today we lost 5000 souls.” We thought it was only 4000… And I’ve never heard the devil admit to having lost before!!! It’s unbelievable what God can do!!!
My real ambition in life is to KNOW God’s Power – because Daniel said, those who KNOW their God will do the impossible things. I want to KNOW God more and more. I’m living a whole new life – at my age – exploring the Power of God! In Jeremiah 33:3, God says, “Call unto Me and I will show you great and mighty things – greater than anything you have ever seen!” I want to see and experience the REAL Power and Glory that God has. In a vision one time I was transported into Heaven, it was indescribable. But I want to see God’s Power DOWN HERE!
I’m amazed at King David. Under slavery, the Israelites had built the magnificent pyramids and temples of Egypt. Now David had it in his heart to build a Temple that would reflect who God REALLY is! The Bible tells us how much gold was used in this Temple. One mathematician told me this amounted to 144 tons of gold, elsewhere I have read 3000 tons! At more than 2000 dollars an ounce today, that is wealth beyond anything you could imagine!
But the whole of MY desire is to show the world who God REALLY is, what Power He has! Power to work miracles, Power to do the impossible! This is a challenge to YOU. NOTHING is impossible with God! The things that are impossible with men
are possible with God. Moses said in Deuteronomy 4:32ff, the greatest miracle that had ever been seen on the face of the earth – you can ask in time, from the beginning of Creation until now, and you can ask in space, from one side of the earth to the other – was when God took the people of Israel out of Egypt by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty outstretched hand, and by great terrors! If you count the men, women and children, more than 2 million people, not counting all their animals, crossed through the Red Sea – on dry land!!! That was the greatest miracle ever seen in the Old Testament!
And we know the great miracles that Elijah did! There are so many great miracles in the Old Testament. But we can see GREATER miracles NOW! Jesus said so, at the Last Supper!
God is calling US to do the impossible! Get a testimony of the Power of God in your life! DO something! By the Power of God! Until the world can see God’s Power in YOUR life! God’s Power is UNLIMITED. I challenge you, test the Power of God in your life until you have a powerful testimony of what God can do! How did Jesus do it? I find the answer in Mark 11. Jesus was hungry but there was no fruit on the fig tree. He cursed it! Next day Peter was astonished that the fig tree had withered away and was dead. Peter asked why, how?!!
Jesus looked at him and said, “If you command this mountain – the Mount of Olives – to be thrown into the Dead Sea, if you believe in your heart that you will have what you say, that mountain WILL move.” What a challenge! This is an extreme level of faith! This is the goal I have in front of me! I am determined to see how great God’s Power really is! I’m 92, but I’m still a boy at heart. I love adventure, I love doing the impossible with God. This is how I have lived my whole life. But, O God, give me another, greater gift of supernatural faith!
I’m living experimentally with God. And I want YOU to travel this road with me.
Acts Chapter 2 is very important because this is the day when the Church began: ‘When the Day of Pentecost was FULLY come, they were all with ONE accord in ONE place.’ There was a sense of anticipation that something was about to happen. Pentecost was one of the major Jewish feasts – the 50th Day after Passover, the feast of First Fruits, the First Harvest – Jerusalem was full of pilgrims, and because of this, what happened on this day had a very great impact.
‘Suddenly there was a sound of a great and mighty wind that filled the house where they were sitting.’ It was a large place, Acts 1:15 says they were a group of about 120. ‘Cloven tongues as of Fire sat on each of them, and they were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit led them.’
V5ff tells us that because this was a major feast, there were in Jerusalem devout Jews from ‘every nation under heaven’! They had come from all over the world to be there. So when they heard the noise that these 120 were making, a ‘multitude’ came together – we can have an idea how many, because when Peter had finished preaching, more than 3000 were converted in that one day! And the people were amazed because, whatever their country of exile, they heard these disciples speaking their native languages! They were so shocked and amazed, they asked themselves, “How can it be? These are uneducated Galileans, how can we hear them in our own tongue where we were born? We hear them speak the wonderful works of God in our own tongues!” Luke lists the different nationalities: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers from Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Rome, Cretes and Arabians, Jews and converts to Judaism!
It was not just the fact that these 120, under the Anointing of the Holy Spirit, were speaking in tongues, but they were talking about the Power of the Works of God, in effect, preaching the Gospel in languages that the people understood! This is amazing because it doesn’t normally happen like this nowadays when we receive the Holy Spirit (though several times I have heard uneducated people in other countries clearly praying in English, when to them, they were ‘just’ speaking in tongues). And yes, in v13, there are the critics who mocked and said these men are drunk… But in v14ff Peter stood up with the eleven and said, “Men of Judea and all of you that are in Jerusalem. Listen to my words. These men are not drunk, since it is only the third hour of the day. This is a fulfilment of the
prophecy of Joel.” I love Joel’s prophecy in Joel Chapter 2, and Peter is quoting it here, “It will come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out My Spirit on ALL flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.”
Here is Peter, quoting Joel, who prophesied so many hundreds of years before of what was happening right then and there. The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost is a fulfilment both of Joel’s prophecy and of the Promise Jesus Himself gave. Peter continues Joel’s prophecy, v19ff, “I will show wonders in heaven, signs in the earth, blood and fire and vapour of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord shall come…” Joel’s prophecy is clear: when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, that experience was to continue UNTIL the Second Coming of Christ – until that ‘notable Day when the Lord shall come’.
If you look back at Joel’s prophecy and the promise Jesus made in Acts 1:4-8, it is intended that this Outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is to be God’s manifestation of Power in the Church, in men and women – “you shall be My witnesses” – and will last until ‘that great and notable Day of the Lord’ – the Day of Christ’s return! “And it will come to pass that whosever shall call upon the Name of the Lord – under this Anointing of the Holy Spirit – shall be saved!” Acts 2:21
I believe Joel’s prophecy HAS to be taken literally, that there would HAVE to be a repeat of what happened on the first Day of Pentecost! Joel 2:23 says God would send the ‘former rain moderately’ – and the ‘latter rain’! This is a reference to a first and second, final harvest; in Israel when the seed is sown you get the first rain, then you get the ‘latter rain’ to swell the harvest! Literally, the first church received that first rain, the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit as promised by both Joel and Jesus. But the Middle Ages were a time of darkness. Only in recent times has the work of evangelism exploded with the Outpouring of the ‘latter rain’ – as if it is a rediscovery of the Power of the Holy Spirit, a second Pentecost! I believe Joel 2:23 literally.
When as a teenager I received the Holy Spirit, no, I didn’t see tongues of Fire, but on that Easter Monday, aged 14, in the Westminster Central Hall in London when they laid hands on me, it was as if the whole of Heaven opened up and Fire came down – I spoke with tongues, praising God. To me it was the ‘latter rain’ as prophesied by Joel. That experience has never left me in the almost 80 years since
it took place. I still have the same Power, the same Anointing. Or rather, the Power and Anointing are stronger and more evident now that I’m over 90 years of age, than when I was a teenager! I take the literal interpretation of Joel 2:23 as a Power which will increase until all the Harvest is in – and Jesus returns!
And now Peter continues to address the crowd in v22, “You men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did by Him in front of you!” Peter is very clear, the evidence that Jesus was the Son of God was the miracles He did and which the people saw. I’m absolutely convinced that the greatest evidence of the Power of God even today is in the miraculous. When I preach the Gospel, I pray for the sick – and miracles happen. These miracles prove the Truth and the Power of the Gospel I preach. It happens all the time. Not just occasionally. The Power that fell on the Day of Pentecost and the miracles that Jesus worked and greater, still can, and should, happen today.
Now this is important: Peter continues in v23ff, this Jesus was delivered into the hands of wicked men – by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God! The death of Jesus was not an accident but was planned and prepared by God. Jesus was born, not just to heal the sick –but to die. And God “raised Him up, loosing the pains of death, because it was not possible that He, being the Son of God, should be held by it!”
Peter, in his first Gospel message, in v25ff, quotes King David concerning Christ, “I foresaw the Lord always before my face. ..” David in the Old Testament was speaking prophetically about the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus, saying, “You will not leave My soul in hell, neither will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” He was speaking of Christ, not himself. The contrast with King David is in v29, “Brethren, let me speak to you about David. He is dead and buried and his sepulchre is here. But, being a prophet and knowing that God had given him a promise and had sworn an oath to him that from his descendants, He would raise up Christ to sit on His throne, David spoke of the Resurrection of Christ. His soul was not left in hell, nor did His flesh see corruption!” According to His human ancestry, Jesus was this son of David, this descendent. And, declares Peter, “We are the witnesses of His Resurrection!” – v32.
Peter continues to explain to the crowd, “Jesus, being exalted at the Right Hand of God and having received the Promise of the Holy Spirit from His Father, has poured out what you now see and hear!” Through His death and Resurrec-
tion, Jesus received the Promise of the Holy Spirit, and now HE, Jesus, has poured out the Holy Spirit in fulfilment of Scripture! Peter reminds the devout Jews gathered in Jerusalem that their King David did not ascend into Heaven but spoke of Christ’s ascent into Heaven: “Therefore let all the House of Israel know that God has made this same Jesus –whom YOU crucified – both Lord and Messiah!”
The gathered Jews are so impacted by Peter’s words that they cry out, “What shall we do?” And in v38ff, Peter gives the answer, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus, for the remission of sins, and you will receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit, for the Promise is for you, your children and for all that are afar off, to as many as the Lord will call.”
The reason I am speaking to you from this chapter in the Acts of the Apostles is that it is absolutely clear: what happened on the Day of Pentecost CAN and SHOULD happen today! This was not just a one-off. This is an experience that is to last throughout the Church Age as the evidence, demonstration and proof of who Jesus is. Today WE should be the witnesses! I wasn’t alive 2000 years ago, nor was I a witness of the crucifixion and Resurrection. But I know, the evidence is there, Jesus is the Son of God, He died for our sin, He rose from the dead, ascended to His Father in Heaven – and then gave the Holy Spirit to US so that WE also could become the witnesses!
I remember the first time, aged 13, I preached in church. I went home to my father that night and said, “What’s wrong?! I preached from the Bible. I did what you do. But nobody got saved!”
Aged 13, I saw that the whole purpose of preaching is to bring people to Christ. My father said something so profound, “The trouble, David, is that you haven’t received the Holy Spirit!” The Scripture says – these are the words of Jesus – “When the Holy Spirit is come, HE will convict the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.” John 16:8. It’s NOT us. I’m not, as a preacher, the one who convicts the world, it’s the Holy Spirit in me, in Power, in the message, who brings that conviction of sin and righteousness and leads people to Christ.
So I said to my father, “Lay your hands on me and let me receive the Holy Spirit.” That night at my bedside, my father laid his hands on me – but I didn’t receive the Holy Spirit, not at that moment. I entered a time of seeking, I went everywhere, seeking the Holy Spirit, because I realised, HERE IS THE KEY.
As recently as 5 years ago, on one of my prayer walks, I had quite a discussion
with the Holy Spirit. THIS IS KEY: I said, “Holy Spirit, You know Jesus better than we do. Can You tell me, what was the secret of His ministry? I’m an evangelist, I want to be a better evangelist – tell me how Jesus did it!” For about two hours the Holy Spirit opened up the Scriptures to me: I understood in a new way that the Scripture actually says of Jesus that, being born as a man, of a woman, He gave up ALL His Divine Heavenly Power, and for 30 years lived as you and I. Philippians 2:6-8. During these 30 years He did not exercise that Divine Power, it was not in Him! But when He was 30 years old, He was baptised in water by John – and THEN the Holy Spirit came on Him! The whole of Christ’s ministry of the miraculous, of healing the sick and raising the dead began from that moment when the Holy Spirit came into Him. This is why Jesus said, in Acts 1:4-5, “Wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit is come, then YOU will do, not only what I did, but you will do EVEN MORE!” John 14:12. You see, it was the Power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus working the miracles! And it is the Power of the Holy Spirit in US today that works the miracles.
David Hathaway
The whole secret of my ministry right throughout the whole of my life for more than 73 years is the Holy Spirit whom I received as a teenager, when my father told me nothing serious would happen in my life UNTIL I received the Holy Spirit. As a result, as a teenager I sought God and prayed until that Power came on me – the SAME Fire, the SAME Power that was in Jesus, and that fell on Peter and on the 120 in the Upper Room! The reason my ministry continues today, aged 92, is that the Power of the Holy Spirit in me doesn’t change, doesn’t lessen, weaken or diminish. I would say, quite the opposite! The longer I live, the greater the Power in me. Because the more I know about the work of Jesus and the more I understand about the Power of the Holy Spirit, the more I desire this stronger Power that is from God. People who work with me, especially those on the mission field, testify that the Power in me doesn’t get less with age – it gets greater, stronger, and more powerful.
This is the KEY that I want to give YOU! If you really receive your personal Pentecost, that is only the beginning… That Fire, that Power in YOU should increase!
We should be seeing, living the same miracles we read in the Acts of the Apostles! This should be in the Church today! This MUST be in the Church today! I want you to understand, the KEY to the Power is here, in the Scripture!
FOUR DAYS before Putin launched his unjustified war to take and destroy Ukraine, we held a United Day of Prayer for the nation in Kyiv. Should Russia go ahead and invade, I prayed three things: Firstly, that no Russian soldier would enter Kyiv. On 24th February 2022, to the disbelief of the world, a vast Russian army streamed towards the capital city, with tanks, troops and air power, to seize the heart of the nation and replace its democratically elected President and government with their own puppet regime. For one month, Ukrainian men and women held out against their stronger enemy, almost with their bare hands. Remember Bucha, and the occupiers’ infamous crimes against humanity? But then the unbelievable happened, the enemy army stopped on the very outskirts of Kyiv – and by a miracle, vanished back across the northern borders where they had come from! Secondly, I prayed that if Putin’s army entered Ukraine, it would be destroyed, as the Egyptian Army was destroyed in the Red Sea. For two years the world has watched this happen – in occupied Kharkiv and Kherson regions, and on the Eastern front, where hundreds of thousands have been sent, wave after wave, by Putin, to perish in his mad ‘meat grinder’ offensives. Remember Bakhmut and
Avdiivka and the heroes who day after day resisted this senseless onslaught? And thirdly, I prayed that God Himself would judge Putin.
In February 2024, because of the seriousness of the ongoing war in Ukraine, with hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides, I prayed again that God would judge Vladimir Putin. Having worked as an evangelist even more in Russia than in Ukraine, I cannot hate Russians. But Putin is different. I recognise the demonic spirit controlling him. I went to my prayer mountain to pray over this issue. Knowing who this evil spirit is, my prayer was that now is the time for God’s judgment to be on him. As Navalny, Putin’s opponent, was killed while I was in prayer, this confirmed that judgement should be now. All the news reports indicate that Putin will not stop at Ukraine, and the recognised threat is a third world war. I
prayed that God will act now and bring judgment on Putin – and very quickly.
‘Blessed be the Name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. He changes the times and seasons…’ Daniel 2:20-21.
THE BIBLE DESCRIBES AN AMAZING REALITY: a day is coming when the ‘seasons’ of our world will be brought to a dramatic conclusion, and Christ will judge the living and the dead; sin will be no more and there will be an end to evil.
About this ‘end’, Jesus said, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in His own
Power. But – and this is the important thing for us to know and to act on – you shall receive Power after the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses…to the uttermost parts of the earth”! Acts 1:6-8.
Our job is to be proactive and preach the Gospel of Christ’s Coming Kingdom! Mark 16:20 says the disciples preached everywhere – and the Lord worked with them!
“THIS IS THE FINAL CALL for Flight Number 123 to Hawaii. Would passengers X and Y kindly make their way to the departure gate now. Boarding is closing…”
We may not clearly know the times and seasons set by God, but we do know that, from the day the Holy Spirit fell on the 120 gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, they clearly understood that they must immediately announce the Coming Kingdom –and they preached the Gospel everywhere. The expression, ‘Final Call’ always refers to the last opportunity or chance to do something – if you don’t respond during this small window of time, the chance for you is gone forever. For every generation
the final call to share in Christ’s Resurrection occurs only during their lifetime.
Daniel, the great prophet of the destinies of the kingdoms of this earth, foretells the day when God in Heaven will change the times and seasons and will ‘set up a Kingdom that shall never be destroyed…but shall break in pieces and consume all kingdoms and shall stand forever.’ Daniel 2:44.
Many speculate when this will be. But Paul wrote, “Let no man deceive you: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God… then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His Mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
We are not alone – HE is with us! Jesus said, “Go out into the highways and byways and COMPEL the people to come in, that My House may be filled!” Luke 14:23.
But Jesus also said, “You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars – just as we are seeing today – but see that you are not troubled: these things MUST come to pass, but the end is not yet…” Matthew 24:6. Sin, disaster and death will
of His Coming…” 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4,8.
The dead in Christ and those who are alive at that time of His Coming – all those who have responded to The Final Call in their lifetime – will be caught up together – resurrected together – and will live and rule and reign with Christ on earth for 1000 years. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
What then should we be doing? Jesus is our example; we are His followers. When He was on earth, He went about everywhere preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom – His Coming Kingdom –and wherever He went, He healed the sick and the tormented… Matthew 4:23. Jesus said, “This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come...” Matthew 24:14. In our own generation this is The Final Call to preach the Gospel to all nations, to all people, to bring them into the Kingdom now, before Christ comes!
“Behold He comes with clouds – the clouds of witnesses described in Hebrews 12:1 – and every eye shall see Him.” Revelation 1:7. HE is coming back – together with His resurrected saints – to rule the world! 1 Thess 3:13.
continue ‘until the end’. Instead of being troubled –preach the Gospel! Tell everyone about Jesus! Introduce the people to HIM!
“Blessed be the Name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. He changes the times and seasons.”
Acts 3 is a challenge to you and me. It is the immediate follow up to the Day of Pentecost, when Peter, under the Anointing of the Holy Spirit, preached Christ for the very first time and 3000 were converted and baptised that same day! The new converts continued daily in the Temple, breaking bread together from house to house, praising God, having favour with the people – and the Lord added daily to the Church those that should be saved. Acts 2:41-47. I wish that this would happen today, daily!
So now we find in Acts 3 Peter and John going up to the Temple ‘at the hour of prayer’ – they are still following the Jewish routine and traditions. And as they go in, they pass a certain man born as a cripple. Every day he was carried to the Temple and laid down at the gate called ‘Beautiful’ to beg for his living. Obviously, he expected that those who were entering to pray to God would be more willing to give him something… Seeing Peter and John, the cripple asked for money. That’s all he was looking for…
But Peter, along with John, fixed his eyes on the cripple and said, “Look at us!” The cripple looked at them, now he was definitely expecting to get some financial help, but Peter dashed his expectation saying, “Silver and gold have I none, BUT I will give you WHAT I HAVE: In the Name of Jesus, get up and walk!” It’s incredible. It wasn’t a matter of lay ing hands on him, praying over him and
anointing him with oil. This was the direct approach of the evangelist that I use: Peter simply commanded, “In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk!” – And he took the cripple by the hand, lifted him up onto his feet, and immediately his feet and ankle bones became strong! He leapt up, stood and walked with Peter and John into the Temple. I love the description: he was walking and leaping! You know, this man had never learned to walk, I picture him not knowing how to put one foot in front of the other, leaping and praising God in excitement at this miracle!
The crowds in the Temple saw him walking and praising God – they knew who he was and his condition, everybody had seen this cripple sitting every day at the Temple gate. They were so amazed, they rushed towards him to get a better look! But I find it interesting, if this man was lying daily at the gate, and this was the gate that Jesus so often used to enter the Temple area – He must have seen and passed by this man many times – why did He not heal him?!!
Sometimes we get the idea that Jesus just went about healing everybody, indiscriminately. He didn’t. Although, as John wrote in his Gospel, Jesus did so many things, that if everything were to be recorded, the whole world could not contain the books that would have to be written! John 21:25. Still, it is quite clear that Jesus didn’t heal everybody! It is actually recorded that when He went into His hometown, He could do no miracles there because of their unbelief… Sometimes it says He healed all, but there were times when miracles did not happen. In the purposes and plan of God, I believe it was God’s perfect plan that it should be Peter and John who would work this miracle with the cripple.
When Peter saw, v12ff, the reaction of the crowd to the healing of this cripple,
he said, “Why are you so amazed at this? Why do you look on us, as if by our own power or holiness we made this man walk? The God of our fathers has glorified His Son Jesus! – Jesus whom you delivered up and whom you rejected when Pilate was determined to release Him. You denied the Holy One, you killed the Prince of Life whom God has raised from the dead – of which we are witnesses! It’s His Name, through faith in His Name that has made this man – whom you know – strong and given him perfect healing in front of you all. It is faith given him by Jesus that has created this miracle!”
Peter and John are trying to turn attention away from themselves: “It’s not us! We did not work the miracle! It’s the Name of Jesus, through faith in believing who Jesus is, that created the miracle.” When I pray with the sick, I teach the people that I am not a healer, I’m not a miracle-worker. Jesus is the Healer. I’m all the time turning attention away from myself, because people get the idea that I’m some kind of ‘miracleworker’, someone special, some ‘holy man’. I’m not. And just as Peter and John had to turn the attention of the people to Jesus, I always try to make it quite clear that it’s Jesus and faith in Him that works the miracle, not us. He’s the Healer, and the miracles are the evidence that He is alive, and He’s the Son of God with Power!
For this reason, Peter uses this healing as a strong opportunity to preach the Gospel: “Jesus – whom you denied – is the Prince of Life – and we are witnesses of the miracle of His Resurrection. It is faith in this that has made the miracle.” But Peter excuses their ignorance in v17ff, “I understand your ignorance and that of your spiritual rulers, but if you had understood what God foretold through all the prophets that Christ would suffer, you would have known that Jesus is the fulfilment of your Jewish prophecy! Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out!” Conversion is ‘change’. It’s not just ‘believing’, it’s ‘changing’! A complete change! You can change a car and make it float! You can take wood and change it into furniture! Repentance must be accompanied by a change, so that sin is blotted out and you can receive God’s blessing in your
life, ‘refreshing from the Presence of the Lord’!
has the Holy Spirit made in your life?
And then, v20ff, Peter tells the people that God WILL send Jesus back, but that He must remain in Heaven until the times of the restitution of all things as God has spoken through His prophets since the world began! “For Moses,” Peter continues, “truly said to the fathers, God will raise up a prophet from among you whom you must listen to, whatsoever He says, as you listened to Moses. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear the prophet (Jesus) shall be destroyed from among your people.” That’s a serious thing! “Yes, all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed afterwards have likewise foretold these days.”
Peter explains, v25-26, “God gave the promises to YOU through your fathers –you are all children of the prophets and of the covenant God made! Having raised up His Son Jesus, God sent Him to bless YOU, to turn every one of you from your iniquities.” And so Peter used the evidence of the miracle they had seen with their own eyes in order to preach the Gospel to them.
There were three of us when I received the Holy Spirit: myself, my twin brother and a friend. I do not know what happened in that moment either to my brother or to our friend, but I KNOW what happened to me. When I received the Holy Spirit, it was a dramatic powerful experience, and I expected, from that moment, to see everything that happened in the Acts of the Apostles in MY life! The Acts of the Apostles is the story of what Jesus continued to do, after His Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, through ordinary men like me and you – in His Name and by His Power! The Acts of the Apostles shows us how the Church should be today; we should be experiencing all the things we read about in the Acts of the Apostles – and greater!
This was only possible because the disciples had followed Christ’s instructions to wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who gave them Power, making them witnesses, because it is the Holy Spirit who convicts the world of sin and righteousness and judgement and who leads the people into all Truth.
Christ’s last words in Mark 16 were, “Go out, preach the Gospel… These signs will follow those who believe, they will lay hands on the sick and they shall be healed…” When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive Power from God. But that Power needs to be demonstrated! I sense that much of the Church today is not searching for nor seeking the real demonstration of the Power of the Holy Spirit. I would question, what change
Remember, Jesus hadn’t healed the cripple who lay every day at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. But later, when Peter and John saw him, having just experienced Pentecost, they took the responsibility, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, to say to the man, “I have no money to give you, but I WILL GIVE YOU WHAT I HAVE!” This to me is a challenge. Peter had received something so powerful when he received the Holy Spirit, he could turn to that man and say, “In the Name of Jesus, get up and walk!” We have already seen how, when Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, he preached in such Power that 3000 gave their lives to Christ! Now we see the evidence of the Power of God in him being demonstrated in mighty miracles when he said, “In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk!” I love this – Peter commanded the man, “Get up” and encouraged him by lifting him up – and immediately, as he did so, the miracle happened! The man leapt up, and leaping and jumping, he walked into the Temple with Peter and John!
This was such a powerful witness to the crowds gathered in the Temple at the
hour of prayer! And it was in God’s plan that this HAD to happen so soon after Pentecost. Everybody knew the man. And everybody also knew about the man, Jesus, recently crucified. Some of those in the Temple at this very hour of prayer had not just rejected Jesus in His lifetime but were among those who had called for his death! Yet they were all so amazed at what they saw happening, that they ran together to get a better look! And so Peter began to address them, “Why do you look on us? The God of your fathers has glorified His Son Jesus, the One you rejected. You, who are witnessing this very miracle today, are the ones who denied Jesus in front of Pilate. But it is through His Name, the Name of Jesus, that this man has been made strong! It is faith in Jesus that has made this man whole! – And you are the witnesses. Now I’m challenging you: Repent – be converted – that your sin may be forgiven, so that you will receive refreshing from the Lord!” – I believe Peter is referring to the refreshing of the Holy Spirit, from whom they too would receive the Power to work miracles in Jesus’ Name. Acts 4:4 tells us 5000 believed that day!
Jesus, a Jew, born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth – yet approved by God with wonders, signs and miracles! Acts 2:22.
In these very troublesome times – war in Ukraine, in Israel, worldwide turmoil and unrest – let me remind you that at the very moment of this miracle, when Peter is preaching Christ and the Resurrection, he says, v21, Jesus HAD to be taken into Heaven ‘for a time’. But then, when that time is fulfilled, HE COMES BACK! He comes back to rule the world! The Christmas message of Isaiah 9 is that the Government SHALL be on HIS shoulders!
It’s so important for us to get back to the truth of what we believe! Please continue reading the Book of Acts, apply its lessons to your life, and seek a powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit. You can follow my series of podcasts on this topic and many others on:
Until then we have a job to do. We must live our lives in the Power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that our lives will continue, even complete the Book of the Acts of the Apostles! I want to encourage you to really get to know and see the Power of God in your life, in Jesus’ Name.
David Hathaway
In February David held an intensive weekend mission in Warsaw, Poland. On the Saturday over 700 Ukrainian refugees, unbelievers, were bussed in by Christians from all over Poland, and on the Sunday, David ministered in two large refugee congregations in Warsaw, as well as separately to a large group of pastors, leaders and missionaries. The theme: TIME OF HOPE.
ministry over the years. One man had brought an invalid on crutches to one of our meetings in Crimea in the 1990s –the cripple threw away his crutches and walked 20 km back home to his village unaided! Another man’s life was changed, again in the 1990s, when he received a blanket from the ministry –he still has it!
Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, I chose YOU, that you should go out and bring forth fruit and that your fruit shall remain.” John 15:16. In this one weekend in Poland this last February, we saw the fruit of 30 years of ministry in the former Soviet Union countries!
From the earliest days after the collapse of communism thirty years ago, when freedom first came to the former Soviet countries, David has emphasised, “God has given me a prophetic vision of Russia and Europe, so clear, it’s like looking down on a map. I see the devil’s strategy, what he is doing, and I see God’s strategy, what He wants to do. This puts a tremendous responsibility on us to act.”
In just two days in Poland, the ‘big map’ of everywhere David has ministered since the 1990s zoomed up large, just like it does on your satellite navigation map when you approach a major conjunction of roads. With congregations of a thousand in every service, we met with refugees who have fled Putin’s war in Ukraine and Crimea, and missionaries connected to us by the past, as also refugees from Lukashenko's authoritarian regime in Belarussia, missionaries from Georgia, also 50 people who came by bus from Lithuania, and of course from Poland. Many shared their testimonies with us of the amazing miracles they have witnessed in David’s
In all four meetings that weekend, David preached and ministered in great power, and there were powerful healing miracles. Ninety Ukrainian children and teenagers, some orphaned by the war, some who were without parents even before the war, together with their carers, were bussed in from refugee orphanages in Poland. Of these, many came forward to give their lives to Christ, and many were healed: one girl, deaf in one ear, received her hearing, and another girl, blind in one eye received her sight.
In this one weekend, ministering to war refugees, and to missionaries from all over the former Russian/Soviet Empire with a vision for Europe, we had the impression we were seeing the beginning of the fulfilment of Hudson Taylor’s prophecy. World-famous British Mission-
ary to China, back home on furlough in England in 1889, as he was preaching had a vision from God. He began to prophecy, saying: “I saw a great war that encompasses the world. I saw this war recess and then start again, actually being two wars. (World Wars I and II.) After this I saw much unrest and revolts that will affect many nations. I saw in some places spiritual awakenings. In ‘Russia’ – (in those days the Russian Imperialist Empire with all its conquered lands, Ukraine, Baltics, Siberia, Russian Far East, Caucasus, Central Asia, was simply known as ‘Russia’) – I saw there will come a general all-encompassing, national spiritual awakening, so great that there could never be another like it. From ‘Russia’, I saw the awakening spread to many European countries. Then I saw an all-out awakening, followed by the second coming of Christ.”
In those two days in Poland – a free country occupied by the Russian/Soviet Empire from 1939-1941 and from 1944-1989 – we saw the ‘big map’ of everywhere David has ministered since the 1990s zoom up large, as on a satellite navigation map when approaching a major, critical conjunction of roads. We sense we are within reach of a major spiritual turning point or conjunction of events set in motion by God’s Forethought and Plan, despite or even because of the wars and unrest in the whole world at this time.
My latest granddaughter was born a year and a half ago. At only six weeks I was watching her as she looked trustingly into her Mum’s eyes, listened to her Mum’s gentle voice and reponded with a string of baby sounds – their first long ‘conversation’! In her first days and months, in her first year of life, I watched this little granddaughter learning to master her arms and legs, striving to extend her world. The first tottering steps, the first word fragments. As I watched her develop, in my heart I was hearing over and over the words, ‘A body You have prepared for me’!
This was said of Jesus in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 10:5-7: “A body You have prepared for Me… Here I am – it is written about Me in the scroll – I have come to do Your Will, My God!” At His birth even He, through whom all things were made, was a helpless babe like my granddaughter. He too had to learn how to communicate and figure out what to do with His arms and legs!!! He truly was born – and lived – as one of us.
But He came with a burning purpose –to do His Father’s Will, to fulfil God’s Word – all that was written ‘in the scroll’, in the Old Testament!
I love words. As a small child I remember words appearing as it were out of the mist of adult conversation, conducted far above me. I’ve always loved languages. When we’re on the mission field, I love it when foreigners speak to me in their own language, and I reply in mine. I have clear memories of our conversations, but often I have no idea, did I hear it in their language or in English?
I love to understand and be under-
stood. We all do. And we experience pain and frustration when, for whatever reason, we are neither heard nor understood – communication is a fundamental driving force in our lives!
To say speech is important to God is an understatement! Out of invisible speech – it’s just a sound – when He spoke – He created the Universe and everything in it! Seen and unseen. Known to us, and unknown… John says in His Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, through Him, without Him nothing was made. In Him is Life, and in His Life is Light.” God’s Word is the energy that generates and holds together the entire Universe. When God spoke in Genesis 1, whatever He spoke came into being, and everything He made was good, very good!
God spoke and made man in His own image, male and female, and commanded them to multiply. The moment a child is conceived, there is an explosion of energy, of light, and a new life is created out of the combined DNA of the parents, written by God in every cell of the child’s body. “A body you have prepared for me!”
Now this miraculous gift of speech, God has shared it with us. In Genesis Chapter 2, we see God teaching speech to man, and Adam gives a name to every living being… Speech is the key to purposeful activity and creativity in our daily lives. Within the complex context of the world we live in, our thoughts and our words determine the direction we will take – for good or for ill. What we think and say determines all our relationships and all our activities –on a personal, societal and even geopolitical level! The wars in our world
come from the thoughts and mouths of men. So do all great changes, inventions, improvements… From the beginning I understood that when David preaches, he is actually building the path that we will walk on. I learned to pay very great attention to this! And Jesus Himself, at 12 years old, publicly determined the course of His life, saying, “I must be about My Father’s business!” He set the path: “A body You have prepared for me – here I am – I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD!”
When tempted by the devil with thoughts and ideas that would lead Him off course, Jesus replied, “Man does not live by natural things (by bread alone), but by every Word that comes from the Mouth of God!” Matthew & Luke 4:4. The problem with us as a human race is that we often allow our thoughts and words to lead us astray…
The promise of God is to change all this. To me the most beautiful description of this salvation from our tendency to sin is in Jeremiah 31:33b-34; also, Ezekiel 36:26-28; and Hebrews 8:8-12,10:16-17. “I will write My Law in your inward parts and write it on your hearts, and I WILL BE YOUR GOD AND YOU SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.”
There is great power in the thoughts and words of a mature man of God, who has the Spirit of God, and lives in the Plan of God – AND DOES HIS WILL. Look at Moses or Elijah living under the Old Testament! God told them what to say. When they spoke it was a command – and God worked the miracle –every time! Jesus taught, whatsoever you shall say to this mountain and shall not doubt in your heart but shall believe those things that you say shall come to pass – you shall have what you say –that mountain will move! Mark 11:23-24. He said, if you believe in Me, you will do the same works I do, and greater John 14:12. But Jesus also said, wait for the Promise of the Father which I told you about… you will receive Power when the Holy Spirit comes on you… then you will be My witnesses – even to the ends of the earth.
Someone described human speech as the ‘expression of the inexpressible’, of a driving force that lies deep within. I thank God that, like the mother of a newborn child, He understands the things we cannot utter, that lie deep beyond the realms of speech, our motives and feelings. I thank God He understands and responds to our wordless cries, and throughout our lives He always will! But His Plan is to lead us to maturity, where that driving force within is His Driving Force, the Holy Spirit given to us by Christ. So that we who believe may say, “A body You prepared for me. Behold, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD!”
