DON’T BE AFRAID
David Hathaway
Jesus says in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me!” The whole world is shaking right now, and I believe we’re much closer to the return of Christ than any could realise. We’ve waited 2000 years for this, so I can understand that people hesitate to name dates or even think it’s coming… But we’re facing the possibility of an imminent Third World War; our British military experts say we have just three years to re-arm… But Jesus says, “Don’t be troubled! You believe in God, believe also in Me.”
Going back a few verses to John 13:36ff, Jesus is talking to His disciples at the Last Supper. After Judas has gone out to betray Him, Jesus says, “I’m going away.” Peter asks, “Where are You going?” Jesus replies, “Where I am going, you can’t follow Me now –but you will follow Me later.” Peter protests, “Lord, why can’t I follow You now? I would lay down my life for You!” He’s saying, “I want to follow You, however difficult it might be, I will lay down my life for You, I would die for You!” Jesus counters, “Will you? Really? Before the cock crows you will deny Me three times!”
But Jesus continues in John 14, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me… I go to My Father’s House to prepare a place
for you – yes, even for Peter – and if I go – it was still a choice even for Jesus – I will come again take you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also.”
When the disciples ask in v10, “Show us the Father,” this is what Jesus replies, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe in Me for the Work that I do? Truly, he who believes in Me, the SAME Works I do, he will do also!” This is a very strong statement! Here, Jesus is setting the scene for the development of the Church, preparing believers for the Coming Kingdom, talking about Heaven: “I go to prepare a place for you. But when I’ve gone to My Father, the truth is, you will receive the SAME Power that I have, so that YOU can continue My Work after I’m gone.”
Here Jesus is forecasting Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Understand what He is saying in v12: “Whosoever will believe in Me – ‘believing’ is so much more than nominal acceptance – it's REALLY believing who Jesus is and that there is a Coming Kingdom, and that the whole of our time here on earth is a preparation for the Kingdom – whoever will believe in Me will do the SAME Works that I do, and GREATER.”
I believe this, and have demonstrated it in my life! After all, it was the Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus: we CAN
do the SAME and GREATER Works than Jesus did – after HE, the SAME Holy Spirit, is come on US! I don’t often see the ministry of Jesus literally fulfilled in the Church. Yes, the greatest gift is love – 1 Corinthians 13:13. We must love and comfort one another and do good works, but where is the preaching of the Gospel with changed lives and signs and wonders following? The ministry of Jesus is so much stronger than good works. He healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, made the cripples to walk and raised the dead – because it was the miracles that proved who He was! Even He said, v11, “If you don’t believe Me because of what I say, believe Me because of what I DO.”
Jesus is saying to the disciples, the evidence that I am the Son of God, that I am the Messiah, is that I do things nobody else can do – only God! He’s saying to the Church, to YOU: you can do MORE than Me! You can do GREATER Works, because I go to My Father!
Jesus says in v13ff, “Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son! If you ask anything in My Name, I will do it!” The whole purpose of Pentecost in the Church, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, is so that we will be able to
do the SAME Works Jesus did and GREATER! We CAN!!! Jesus is not only our Saviour and Redeemer, He is our Intercessor, living in Heaven, praying for us, so that, using His Name, whatever we ask of Him, He will do it, so that God the Father will be glorified in what WE DO in His Son’s Name!
This is so important for the Church today to understand. These should be the days of Harvest! These are the days Jesus referred to in His parable of the Wedding Feast when the invited guests fail to turn up, but all make excuses… There are so many empty places, Jesus says, “Go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in!” These should be days of the greatest Harvest, the final ingathering into the Kingdom of God, ready for Christ’s return! Church, go out and compel people – even people you think aren’t worthy – to come into the Kingdom!
All those years ago I felt this urgency when Jesus was telling me to go into the Soviet Union. It was difficult to get in, difficult to work there. But I went because I felt driven by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes I had more success in renting stadiums and bringing the people in – when it was impossible – than I have now! In the days of the Cold War between East and West, I was in Bulgaria, in a city called Yambol. The Power of God came down on the Sunday morning meeting and the Holy Spirit revealed to me to tell the pastors to take the football stadium! They said, “It’s impossible, you can’t.” But with God, all things are possible! I took them with me to the stadium and we asked to rent it for evangelism. The directors said, “No, it belongs to the communist party, we cannot allow this!” I argued with them, but still they said, “No, it’s impossible.” I was praying and asking God for a miracle. The Holy Spirit came on me so strongly that, when I insisted, the Holy Spirit fell on those men until one last time they said, “No, we cannot rent the stadium to you, but there’s nothing to stop us giving it to you for free!” Can you imagine?! That was an incredible miracle! Under communism, here we were, being offered the stadium absolutely FREE!
We got everything organised. On the night before taking the stadium, when we had nothing else to do, we set up our sound system – without permission – on the steps of the communist party headquarters – and something like 10,000 people came and filled the square, drawn by the wonderful worship music! Next day, and for 3 days,
these people filled the stadium morning, afternoon and evening. The Power of God fell, not just in the stadium, not just on the city, but on the whole of Bulgaria! Some years ago, someone opened the KGB files on this event and found that the KGB, despite their initial concerns, after it was over concluded they had found no problem with it! The result was that, for 2 years, revival swept from one side of the country to the other! Under communism!
You see, it was because Jesus said, when I’ve gone to My Father and you’ve received the Holy Spirit, you will do the SAME Works I do and GREATER!
We’re facing things in the world today that Jesus didn’t have to face. But through the Holy Spirit, we can demonstrate the Power of God NOW! This is why God is calling us NOT to be troubled, not to be upset by what’s going on around us. Our future is already secured because, before His death and Resurrection, Jesus said in John 14:3, “I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will come again –for you!” THIS IS ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN.
Church, let’s get on with the job, let’s preach this Gospel about the Coming of Jesus! However hard things get in the world – DON’T be discouraged! DON’T be troubled or disturbed by what you see, by wars and by rumours of wars, by earthquakes and storms –all these things are prophesied in the Bible as heralding the time of the end before Christ comes.
GET EXCITED at the thought of His Coming! We will be delivered from this world and hell. Let’s get on with the job and win our families. Preach the Gospel! We’ve got to fill that Kingdom! I’m excited. That’s why, at 92 years old, I will not stop! I’m expecting to go on preaching for as many more years as God gives me strength – because THIS job is not finished!
THIS JOB is to evangelise, to bring people into the Kingdom – in the Power of the Holy Spirit with miracles and signs and wonders! In my many years working in the former Soviet Union, it has always been the miracles that bring the people in! It’s not just the preaching, it’s the Power of God, the miracles that they see that convince them. They had never seen anything like this before, they did not know that this is the simple message of the Gospel – the Bible message fulfilled in the 20th and 21st Century!
I want to stir you up. DON’T be troubled
by what’s going on in the world. The fact that all these things are happening today is proof of the truth of Bible Prophecy and that Scripture will be fulfilled, and Jesus really will come back –sooner than you expect! Let’s get on with the job! It’s not enough to comfort people, speak nicely to them, teach them to love one another – yes, that’s right – but first and foremost, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, preach the message of repentance from sin, with conversion, change! People need to be converted and accept Christ, not by your words, but by the Holy Spirit!
When that rich ruler came to Jesus at the beginning of His Ministry, Jesus said very simply in John 3:7&16, “You must be born again…” We have to believe and start all over again with a new, everlasting life! Paul put it very simply, “If you will confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved.” We have to confess Jesus –and believe He is raised from the dead!
We’ve got so many religions and philosophies. But the Christian faith – faith in Christ – is the only faith that offers hope and life, now and in Eternity. The older I get, the more I sense the responsibility I have, we have, to preach the Gospel in the Power of the Holy Spirit – as Peter did at the beginning.
We’re living in challenging times, as it was when Jesus was about to leave the disciples, and Peter was saying, “I want to go with You... I love You so much, I would lay my life down for You!” – But the reality, only hours later in the Judgement Hall when a servant girl says, “You were with this Man!” –Peter denies he even knows Him!
Christian, it is so easy to say you love the Lord, and still don’t do what He says. If we love Him, we must demonstrate it by our faith and by what we do! Love in a relationship is wonderful, but it is demonstrated by what we do. Our love for God, our love for Jesus must be demonstrated, not just by what we say, but by what we DO – in the Power of the Holy Spirit! Peter as a man failed Christ. But this same Peter, on the Day of Pentecost when he’d received the Power of the Holy Spirit, was the first to jump up on the roof and preach the Gospel – in Power – until 3000 were saved! This is the transformation that you and I need. That’s why I’m challenging you. Don’t look at the bad things in the world around you… You CAN do the GREATER things that Jesus promised – if you would only believe! Come on. God will bless you!
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STRONG PRAYER
There is not just a ‘need of prayer’, but there’s a need for great power in prayer! Power, when we pray! I’m very specific when I pray, I bring very specific questions – and I get very strong answers.
I find it interesting in the Bible that when God was dealing with people, so many times He would meet them on the mountain – like He did with Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel and Horeb. Even Jesus would come away from His disciples and go up the mountain to pray to His Father. I like to go 10,000 feet, 3000 metres, up the mountains – that’s high! However, I can’t honestly say that you are physically nearer to God the higher you go… He’s Spirit, He’s not ‘up there’! But I enjoy these special times of prayer. I used to go to the mountains once a year, but now I go twice a year – to Switzerland in the winter and to Austria in the summer.
But whether on the mountain or in the valley, I need special times of prayer. And all my life, when I’ve come to the Lord in prayer with very strong objectives, I’ve received powerful and unusual answers! Most of you know, twice I was healed of cancer. In 1964 it was throat cancer. It was an incredible miracle, because the doctors said they could see where ‘somebody had cut it out with a knife’! It was the Hand of God! In answer to prayer! Twenty-two years ago, I had lung cancer – it came out of my mouth! One of the greatest miracles I’ve experienced was the way God released me from a communist prison – He actually showed me in a dream, six months in advance, the date of my release – Easter 1973! But having received that promise, I had the audacity to ask Him to work an even bigger miracle and send me home on my birthday, which was a few days before Easter that year. As I prayed into it, God confirmed it from Scripture... And that’s exactly what happened. I flew home on my birthday – with British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson!
I’ve seen so many miracles. More than ten times I have seen storms stopped through prayer. Mostly it’s been in the former Soviet countries where I’ve worked so much, but I remember one time it was in a stadium in Holland. The stage manager warned me a heavy rainstorm was imminent, he could see it on his computer monitor. He told me I had only a matter of minutes before the downpour. I hadn’t started preaching! I could feel the first drops! I went to the platform and told the people, “Don’t go, stay! In the Name of Jesus, I command the rain to stop! No rain will fall in this stadium!” It didn’t! The stage manager saw it was raining all around in the city, but on his screen, he actually saw a hole open in the cloud above the stadium – and no rain fell! It had such an impact on that man – he was a backslidden Christian – he gave his life back to Christ!
James 5:16 says the ‘effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails.’ This is the forceful, powerful prayer of an ‘ordinary’ righteous man! It works! The original Greek New Testament has two words for power: energeo and dunamis. Our praying HAS to be strong! It must generate effective energy like a dynamo and like dynamite – an explosive that, when placed against a wall, does not waste its energy on the air, but pushes the hard obstacle down! In coal mining they use it to blast tunnels through solid rock!
James is giving us a powerful description of what prayer should be like! It should have an objective, either to generate energy like a dynamo, or like dynamite, to break and remove the obstacle! This is how I see and use prayer in my ministry, and why I see so many unusual miracles.
This does not mean that my ordinary, everyday prayer for my family and daily circumstances changes, no. But this is
my fighting, overcoming, face-to-facewith-God call for Power! That’s when the miracles happen!
Jesus said in John 14:12ff, “If you believe in Me, you will do the SAME Works I do, and GREATER Works, because I go to My Father. And whatsoever you ask in My Name, I WILL DO IT!” Jesus promises to answer your prayer Himself. Why? In order to glorify the Father through YOU. Prayer is not some formality, wishful thinking, or empty repetition. Jesus said, “WHATSOEVER you ask in My Name, I WILL DO IT!” Ask Jesus, ask the Father in His Name. Why do people pray to Mary and the saints? Scripture says they are ‘asleep in Christ’, waiting for the bodily Resurrection, when the dead whose names are written in the Book of Life shall rise first, and we who are alive shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air! Daniel 12:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17. But at this moment in time, Jesus alone is alive bodily in Heaven, the Firstfruits of the dead. 1 Corinthians 20. He alone is able to answer your prayer. Hebrews 7:25.
It is a direct relationship with Jesus that you need – approach Him in absolute confidence for the answer! Your strong dynamic prayer will avail, it will work! That mountain in your life will move! Jesus said, “Have faith in God. For truly I say to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I tell you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.” Mark 11:22-24.
Be specific. Be strong. Pray with faith. God will answer you.
David Hathaway
THIS IS HOW
The Church began in the Acts of the Apostles with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s the story of the birth of the Church, how it was formed, how it developed – and I believe it’s how the Church should be today. I believe we should live as they lived in the Acts of the Apostles, in the same Power of the Holy Spirit – it’s the Power behind my ministry of evangelism. In Joel 2 the prophet speaks of the first rain and the last rain. I believe, and many would agree, this refers to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost when the church began, and now in these last days before Christ returns.
Aged 13, I took my church to preach the Gospel, but I went home to my Dad disappointed – no one had repented. He simply said, “The problem is, you’ve only been baptised in water, you have not yet been baptised in the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught, when the Holy Spirit is come, HE –not you, David – HE will convict the world of sin, righteousness and coming judgement.”
Acts begins in the period after the Resurrection, before His Ascension into Heaven, when Jesus was still appearing to His disciples. He tells them, wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes. Acts 1:8. Why? Because everything changed when the Holy Spirit came on the disciples at Pentecost! Look at Peter, after Jesus was arrested, when just a servant girl approached him – he was so afraid, he vehemently denied he knew Jesus. After Christ’s crucifixion, even after the Resurrection, there was a panic, what to do now? Peter’s idea was ‘let’s go fishing’! Yet when he received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, it was Peter who was the first to leap up onto the roof of the building and preach Christ! Three thousand repented and were baptised! The Power Peter now had was in the Holy Spirit!
To go back ‘fishing’ was not God’s call on these men, it was an instinctive human reaction now Jesus was gone. Jesus KNEW they needed the Power and
the Authority to do the job: it happened at Pentecost and should still happen today. The Power and Authority I have is through the Holy Spirit. I take and use that Power. I have Authority. Why? Because I have received the Pentecost experience myself. After my Dad spoke with me about the importance of the Holy Spirit, aged 14, I was praying and seeking for some time, a year, before I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But when I did, immediately it transformed my experience – I led my teacher to Christ and two classmates went on to become preachers! Aged 15, God called me to give Him everything and live for Him alone! Aged 18 I went to Bible College, and after only 3 months was asked to pastor a church! I was the only student pastoring a church, full-time, the whole time I was in college! How could I do it? Not because of what I was learning in Bible College – it was what I received from the Holy Spirit! And though I was only a student, so many members of my congregation received the Holy Spirit whilst I was there, that my Dad said, I saw more receive the Holy Spirit in those 2 years, than he had in his whole life!
If you study the Acts of the Apostles, you see that Pentecost was not a one-off experience for a select few. It was for ALL who would believe. When Philip the deacon went to Samaria in Acts 8, he preached Christ with miracles following, and all who believed were baptised in water – but the Holy Spirit had not fallen on any of them. When Peter and John heard this, they came down from Jerusalem to lay hands on the new believers so that they would receive the Holy Spirit also. This was such a clear event, so powerful, that Simon the sorcerer offered Peter money to get this same gift of laying hands on people... Peter rebuked him saying, “Your money perish with you!”
Later in Acts 18:24-19:6, we find a man called Apollos, ‘mighty in the Scriptures’, who was preaching Christ ‘accurately’, but only knew the ‘baptism of John’ –water baptism – he had not received the
Holy Spirit. Priscilla and Aquila, friends of Paul, seeing this, explained the way more fully to him. But when later Paul came, he found some who presumably had come to Christ through Apollos’ earlier teaching. He asks them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” The answer: no. So Paul laid hands on them and they received. You see, when you receive Christ, you must also then receive the Holy Spirit – with evidence following.
Peter said in Acts 2:38-39, you must repent, be converted, be baptised in water in the Name of Jesus – and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… This gift is for ALL whom God shall call.
Water baptism is symbolic of death. Paul writes in Romans very clearly, when you are immersed in water, you die to your old life. When you come out of the water, you come out to Resurrection life. But after water baptism, you need – as Jesus did – the infilling of the Holy Spirit!
Now Paul was brought up as a very strict Jew, a Pharisee. Pharisees believed from Scripture in the coming of a Messiah, in the Resurrection, and they practised strict adherence to the law in preparation for this. But they didn’t recognise the fulfilment of their Scriptures and laws in the death and Resurrection of Jesus!
When Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4&5, it was to forbid them to preach Jesus and the Resurrection! As a strict Pharisee, Paul pursued and persecuted believers everywhere to stop them! This is why he, Paul, had to be converted, be baptised in water – and had to receive the Holy Spirit!
The job of the early Church was to preach Christ and the Resurrection of the dead, that the Messiah had come, had lived, had died and been raised to life as prophesied in Scripture! Jesus was seen alive for 40 days before He ascended into Heaven. Paul tells us He was seen by more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time! 1 Corinthians 15:6.
IT’S DONE!
The fact is, I believe if we want the Power of God today, if we want to see the Holy Spirit move, we’ve got to get back to live and preach what they lived and preached in the early church: Christ and the Resurrection – confirmed by signs and wonders following.
I have told many times that, some years ago, in my late 80s, I was on one of my prayer walks in Austria, and I was asking the Holy Spirit, “Tell me the secret of the ministry of Jesus.” Over a period of more than an hour, the Holy Spirit was revealing this to me from Scripture: Jesus was the Son of God, born of Mary by the Holy Spirit – but saw no miracles and had no ministry – as Philippians 2:6-7 says, He had ‘divested’ Himself of all Heavenly Power to live just like us until, aged 30, He was baptised in the river Jordan – and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit! From that moment, the miracles began –demonstrating that the Power behind Jesus was not His human self, but the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, even Jesus could not work the miracles. That’s why He was saying to the disciples, “When I go, I want you to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes. When the Holy Spirit has come – and this is what my father taught me – HE will do the work in/ through you!”
The Power that I have is not of myself. I would be as powerless as the disciples before Pentecost. But from the moment I received the Holy Spirit, I believed I had to live like Paul, Peter, John, Philip and the others in the Acts of the Apostles. I’m not just saying this, I’ve done it. I’m 92, next year I will be celebrating 75 years in ministry. In all this time I think I have seen more miracles than any other living man I know! Tens of thousands of miracles of every kind, just like in the Bible… Cripples, the deaf, the blind – healed, cancers gone, every kind of disease healed, just as happened in the Acts of the Apostles. Why? Because when I first received the Holy Spirit, I believed that this is what would happen! That I would be able to live like the early believers, like Jesus Himself! The Acts of the Apostles is an incred-
ible story of the transformation of ordinary men and women.
Yes, they suffered. Even within this early Church, there’s controversy and argument. Some Jewish converts remained legalistic and believed the Gospel was only for Jews who obeyed Old Testament law. Peter was the first, and then Paul, to preach the Gospel to Gentiles. But they had to justify this to the Church Elders in Jerusalem, proving that God worked just the same with Gentiles as with Jews, and poured out His Spirit on both alike. It was a dispute within the Church. Then we find, ‘some were with Paul, and some with Apollos’. Internal division and faction. But none of this can get away from the fact that the Acts of the Apostles sets the pattern for today’s Church. We’ve got to get back to the Word of God, the Bible – and experience, expect to see, exactly what the Apostles saw!
Yes, they were persecuted. I’ve been persecuted. I was sentenced to ten years in a communist prison for preaching the Gospel and bringing Bibles into Eastern Europe. But God released me by a miracle, just as He did with Peter and John, Paul and Silas. I said, “Lord, when Peter was in prison, he prayed, the Church prayed, and You worked a miracle and got him out.” Based on Scripture, I challenged the Lord, “If You could do that 2000 years ago, You can do the same today!” And God did! After only one year, He sent the British Prime Minister and got me out of prison – by a miracle!
I live, believing that what happened in the Bible CAN HAPPEN TODAY! And it does! The same miracles! Because Jesus said to His disciples, “You’ve seen all these miracles I’ve done – when I go to My Father, I will send the Holy Spirit, and you will do the SAME things and GREATER! Through the Holy Spirit! And whatever you ask the Father in My Name, I will do it!”
The Church should see and do
everything that’s in the Book! What’s wrong with us? In Britain today the Church has turned away from the basic truths of the Bible. This undermines the authority of the Bible. As a result, sin has overtaken the nation. Revelation 22:1819 says you cannot compromise with Bible Truth!
Yes, Paul suffered many hardships, went through shipwreck, was put in prison more than once, was persecuted all the time. He rejoiced in it. There have been four attempts on my life. Literally. One of them involved the government of Ukraine in the early days of the ‘freedom’. It was the Minister of Religious Affairs, and he admitted it to me! Not so long ago I was talking with the new Minister of Religious Affairs. He laughed and said, “David, at one time you were public enemy No. 1 in Ukraine, but now we distribute Bibles for you.” That’s the Power of God.
Do you understand? I want to live as they lived in the Bible. I want to experience in my life the Power of God. I take the Bible literally and I try to put it into practice. All my life, I have tried to demonstrate the Truth of Scripture, that it actually works! When I preach the Gospel, I call the people to repent and I pray with the sick – and always there are powerful miracles of healing. Not me. It’s the Holy Spirit. My ministry in Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet countries began sixty years ago when God miraculously healed my throat cancer. Twenty-two years ago, when aged 70 it was discovered that I had lung cancer and I was asking God, was my ministry finished, He said, “No” – and confirmed it again by miraculously healing me, the cancer came out of my mouth! I have lived, and I will go on living, to demonstrate that the Power of God is GREATER today than when the Church began!
I believe everything in the Book is true. And I want to challenge you, read the Acts of the Apostles, ask for the same Holy Spirit the Apostles had, Jesus had –and live in that Power! God bless you!
SO ZO
YOUTH CONFERENCE FOR CENTRAL ASIA
In August David was the key-note speaker at SOZO, the all-Central Asia Youth Conference. Participants came from 73 cities and 16 countries worldwide: from the 5 Central Asian ‘Stan’ countries, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and also from Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, India and several Western countries, like ourselves from the UK. Your generous support made this event possible. The participants are very grateful to you.
The name ‘SOZO’ is Greek for salvation. It is the vision of one young man, father of a young family. He saw that only in unity across the whole of Central Asia can the work of revival be prepared. 7 years ago he initiated these United Youth Conferences – always under KGB (state security) surveillance. Their agents are in every meeting. Last year, he was stopped at the border on trumped-up charges and was not allowed to attend his own SOZO conference which, that year, took place in Kyrgyzstan. This year he was told, if he showed his face publicly from the platform, they would arrest him immediately and close the conference down. Even on the opening day, two of his helpers were in fact arrested and taken to the police station. It took a lawyer to secure their release.
This is the price believers are paying to do the Lord’s work in these countries.
When the freedom first came to the communist countries in the 1990s, there was a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Central Asia. Living congregations and churches sprang up everywhere. At the same time, active oil-rich Moslem countries vowed to rebuild Islam in Central Asia with a massive, unimaginable outpouring of petrodollars – thanks to which, they could lean heavily on the organs of local government and KGB to crush the Christian revival.
Today there is a new move amongst the Churches and the youth who are looking to David, with his life’s experience, to spearhead Holy Ghost revival. Now is the time. They say, “David, you are building a spiritual bridge between all our leaders, and your faith and energetic example is touching the hearts of our young people.”
David writes: “I am working intensively in Central Asia. All my time in ministry and in fellowship here is in preparation for an all-out spiritual breakthrough. The older generation of leaders, who were faithful under persecution in the communist days, are passing away, but these young ones, also living under persecution, albeit a different one, desperately want the Fire and the courage to evangelise that I have. Time is short, Jesus is coming. Money to do the work is short, God’s Power is unlimited. Yes, I admit, the older I get, the more I need His Power to overcome my human weakness – but I am determined. I will not stop until my work is done. Thank you to you, our dear supporters – without your help, we cannot do the work God has called us to. With your help, whatever God says ‘do’, we will do!”
Symbol of CentralAsi a
David Hathaway
Opening my Bible one morning this summer I was struck how God explains – in the Old Testament – the days that we are living in now! It was in Habakkuk. I was quite shocked when I read Ch 1 – it’s a description of how things are today!
‘This is the burden which Habakkuk the prophet received’ – and this is his complaint – “How long O Lord must I call for help and You do not listen? Or cry out to You of violence, but You do not save? Why do You make me look at injustice, why do You tolerate wrong?! Destruction and violence are before me, strife and conflict abound…”’
are being dealt with. You can see a general rebellion rising up. Here. In Europe. In America. In Third World countries and in aspiring new power blocs. Everywhere.
This describes much of the world right now! So many nations simultaneously are facing violence, stress, civil unrest, war…Even in Britain this August, violence on the streets… The same in Europe. As I write in Summer 2024, the Russian terror war against Ukraine continues. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, a woman, had to flee by helicopter to escape the violence in her country. There’s war between Israel and the Palestinians. Changes of government everywhere…
In v5, God answers the prophet, ‘“Look at the nations, watch – and be utterly amazed! For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told!”’
This is interesting! It follows straight on from my time on my prayer mountain when God promised me from 1 Chron 28 to reveal the details of His plan to build His ‘Temple’, His Kingdom on earth… Leading me so soon afterwards to Habakkuk, I believe this is literally what God is doing now, today, in the age in which we live. Not the distant future, NOW! And it’s something we would not believe, even if we were told!
This is what God reveals in v6, “I’m raising up the Babylonians, a ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. They are a feared, dreaded people, a law unto themselves who promote their own honour…”
At this very moment right across the world there is an upswell of violence and unrest. People are unhappy, dissatisfied with governments, with laws, until it appears there is no answer. In Britain issues of social contention have remained unresolved for decades, despite the promises of succeeding governments; people are not satisfied that their key concerns
In Russia, could its illegal expansionist aggression against Ukraine come to an end from an internal destabilisation? An uprising within the multitude of different people and power groups that make up the vast landmass we call Russia, an implosion, a rebellion against Putin? Historically autocratic rule in Russia has ended in rebellion. Look at the Russian Revolution in 1917 when, dissatisfied with their conditions and the way World War I was going, Lenin led a communist uprising of the people and overthrew the old Czarist regime. In much the same way, the communist regime itself was brought down by a great move of the people between 1989 and 1991.
We are seeing disturbances throughout the world. But I believe these are an indication of two things. One, that the return of Christ is near, and two, that the Lord is saying today to you, to me, to the world, just as He said in Habakkuk 1:5, “Look at the nations! Watch and be amazed! For I am going to do something in your day, NOW, that you would not believe, even if you were told!”
Prophetically, because of sin, God is allowing evil to rise up as a precursor of the days when Jerusalem will be surrounded by the enemy – at the very gates –and the very existence of Israel will be threatened by a massive invading army. At that moment, Jesus comes back to the Mount of Olives – to defeat the enemy and rescue Israel! It will cause a major earthquake, the Mount of Olives will split in two, creating a seaway from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, bypassing the Suez Canal, and the Dead Sea will be healed – the Bible tells us the exact level the waters will rise to! Water will even flow out from Jerusalem! And at that moment when the Mount of Olives splits, Jesus will enter Jerusalem through the East Gate – the Golden Gate – which has been sealed since the destruction of Jerusalem.
BEFORE all this happens – I’m warning you prophetically – in v6 God says, “I’m raising up the Babylonians – a ruthless and impetuous people who will sweep across the whole world, seizing dwellings they don’t own – feared and dreaded, they are a law unto themselves and promote their own honour…” In v8 it says
‘their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves, their cavalry gallop headlong, their horsemen come from afar, they fly like vultures swooping in to devour’ – all this is a description of massive modern warfare.
Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the innovative use of drones, by both sides, has changed the whole face of war. Without a navy and without an airforce, Ukraine has destroyed the Russian navy in the Black Sea! And because there is a ‘spy in the sky’ watching, following, soldiers can’t hide... Everything has changed.
Can you see what will be next? Habakkuk the prophet saw something of this, “They are bent on violence, their hordes advance like the desert wind, they gather prisoners like sand, they laugh at fortified cities…”
BUT the important thing I want to bring to you is this: Habakkuk, the prophet says in Ch 2:1, “I will stand at my watch and look to see what HE – God – will say to me, and what I shall answer!” This is a challenge to us who know the Lord, to be in prayer, to be watching, waiting to hear and to know what the Lord is showing us for the future! Because in v2ff, the Lord answers, “Write the vision, make it plain and run with it! The vision is for an appointed time! It will not fail!”
God is in control of everything that is happening. He knows the future. He has set the times and seasons. He knew in advance, before He created the world, what would happen today. That’s why the Bible, speaking about Jesus, tells us that before sin entered the world, God had already prepared the answer! Because Jesus is described as the ‘Lamb slain before the world began’ – the sacrifice for our future sin!
Before God created the world, He knew the sin and wickedness of man; He knew He had to prepare an answer! Abraham is the picture: God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. You know that Isaac was a miracle child – because by the time he was born, Sarah was already 90, and Abraham 100 years old. Isaac was the fulfilment of a promise from God, that Abraham would have a son and become the father of a great nation – even though his wife was bar-
ren! Yet afterwards God commands Abraham to take this son, possibly now 12 years old, and sacrifice him! So great was Abraham’s faith that God had promised to make him the father of a great nation through Isaac, and believing, as Hebrews 11:19 says, that God could raise him even from the dead, he lays his son on the altar and raises his knife to kill him. Only then, at the last moment does God intervene and strike the knife out of his hand, and reveal the male lamb, the ram that HE, God, had prepared for the sacrifice! Isaac is a picture of Jesus! All through the Old Testament we have these pictures/types of salvation.
Every promise of God, every prophecy will be fulfilled literally – by a miracle! Though Habakkuk is only a minor prophet, unlike Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and others, yet I believe Habakkuk is prophesying about the days we are living in NOW! It’s so significant that God revealed this to me after my time on the mountain this summer. The prophet says in Ch 2:3, THIS prophecy is for an appointed time –God knew in advance all these things would happen in our days – and though it lingers, wait for it, it will not delay, it will surely come!
The prophecy is not just about the violence, the terrifying things that will come, but about what God will do in the face of it. In full face of the violence, God says, “THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH!” We’re not talking just about ‘salvation by faith’ but we’ve got to get back to LIVING by faith that God will fulfil EVERY prophecy, ALL His Promises!
In Habakkuk Ch 3, the prophet admits, “O Lord, I’ve heard Your speech, and I was afraid.” Yes, when we look at the world, and we see that prophecy of violence and destruction is part of the
preparation for the Kingdom of Christ, we are afraid at what we see, afraid of what’s going on. But this is the key: Habakkuk continues his prayer, “O Lord revive Your Work, make Your Work known in the midst of the years and remember mercy…”
The prophet is asking God to revive His Work, to bring back to life something that is dead – in the midst of violence! This is the vision God gave me up on the mountain this summer! A revival of God’s Work in our days! This vision is for an ‘appointed time’! I believe we are living in the appointed time NOW! Yes, we’re afraid, but Lord, revive Your Work in the midst of it! Christian, as we see the unfolding situation, this is how we should pray, “O God, revive Your Work! Raise up the spiritually dead, fill the Church with new Power!”
This is why, aged 92, I’m fighting on, telling the young people everywhere, this is the time when God will fulfil the vision! And this is the vision: “Look at the nations, watch, be amazed! For I am going to do something in your days that you wouldn’t even believe if you were told!” I take this very strongly. It’s a challenge to me, in my life. God is going to do something in MY days, something amazing!
Shortly God will bring the war in Ukraine to an end, by a miracle. I know that. God is going to bring salvation to places and people in the world that have not heard the Gospel. As for myself, God is sending me to far-flung places in Central Asia where Paul and the Apostles once spread the Gospel, but where faith died – here God is go-
ing to do something powerful today…!
…And this is what God has put in my spirit – though there is violence and disturbance all over the world and we are threatened with a third world war. God sees and knows all these things… BUT He’s given us the vision: He is about to do something miraculous, that even those of us who know God could not anticipate or imagine. it’s going to be so big, so powerful…
BUT, we must surrender the control to Him! We used to sing a beautiful song, ‘All to Jesus I surrender, all to Thee I freely give, I will ever love and trust You, in Your Presence daily live… I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Thee, my blessed Saviour, I surrender all!’ That’s what I’ve had to do all my life, surrender the control to Him. As a boy, I had gone to bed, but I could hear this heavenly music coming from downstairs. I got up, stood at the top of the stairs, and these are the words I heard: ‘Hear the Lord of Harvest sweetly calling, “Who will go and work for Me today? Who will bring Me the lost and dying? Who will point them to the narrow way?”’ Then came the chorus, ‘“Speak my Lord, speak My Lord, speak and I will answer, “Lord, send me!”’ And that’s exactly what I did, aged 9, at the top of the stairs, I said, “Lord, send me!”
Father, help us understand the challenge of what You are saying in Your Word. Aged 92, open my heart, open my eyes to see it! And send me.
PRAYER FOR CENTRAL ASIA Revival is coming!
Symbol of CentralAsi a
David writes: “Prayer is very important to me, I do nothing without prayer. I ask God – He instructs me what to do – I explain to Him it’s impossible – He ‘pushes me off the mountain’ – and the miracle always follows! Central Asia is a critical part of God’s plans for these days. That’s why we, as a ministry, support the ‘Prayer for Central Asia’, so that in September I was again in Kazakhstan – a strong powerhouse for the coming revival – to pray together with leaders and intercessors from every ‘Stan’ country for the whole region.
“Launched at the initiative of local Pastor Yuri when the persecution to crush the revival of the 1990s first
broke out, this is the 20th year in a row that he has gathered 1000 Christians from all Central Asia here in Almaty, to call for the breakthrough: it is coming now! All my life, wherever the Lord has led me, I have stood on His Promise: ‘I will pour out My Spirit on ALL FLESH.’”
From Joel 2, David prophesied to the 1000 intercessors: “Rejoice, you leaders of Central Asia, God has given you the former rain moderately, and He will pour out the second rain! He will restore the years that the devil has eaten up since the end of the 1990s until now. He will again pour out His Spirit on your lands – in more Power than anything you have ever seen – on ALL FLESH – if we will stand, and go, by faith!”
EVANGELISM FOR KAZAKHI PEOPLE!
95% of Kazakh people are from a Moslem background. 27 years ago, Pastor Ivan from Almaty, together with one Kazakh convert, set up in his existing church, a separate congregation to meet the needs of Kazakhs. These have been 27 difficult years, with both congregations under constant threat of closure by the KGB. But on Sunday 15 September, unbelieving Kazakhs filled the building, having travelled from all over the vastness of Kazakhstan, some more than 2,000 miles, by plane, by train, by bus, accompanied by believers who had invited them. Rarely have we been in such a vibrant, receptive, joyfilled, Spirit-filled meeting! Kazakhs poured forward to receive Christ in response to David’s Gospel message, and miracles of
healing happened all over the building. God’s Power was unrestricted!
Later in the evening, a young woman was brought by car to David’s hotel, desperate for prayer. Suffering from an inoperable spinal hernia, the car seat had to be laid out flat and the woman cushioned with pillows to soften the pain. David took authority, simply and quietly –Meruert was in shock! First, she laughed, then she cried, hiding her face in her hands. She could walk – and went home, sitting upright in the back seat of the car – no pain – all gone, what a miracle!
The whole of Central Asia spiritually is a battleground. Part of the Babylonian and succeeding empires described by Daniel, this area was evangelised by Thomas and the early Apostles long before Islam came as a conquering force in the first years of the 8th century. Today Central Asia sits in the crosshairs of 6 power blocs: Russia, China, India, Turkey, the oil-rich Middle Eastern Moslem countries, and the West. But God too has His Eyes on these lands and peoples, and His Command is, ‘The invited guests won’t come to My Wedding Feast – go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come in that My House may be filled!’ We are doing just that!
SPEECH IS THE DRIVING FORCE…
Katie Morris
For as long as I have known David, he has set time aside every year to go to the mountains to get answers to the things that are on his mind. He goes with specific questions and gets strong answers that set the direction for, and bring the Power of the Holy Spirit into his ministry.
This summer, at the very moment when he drove into the Austrian village for his time of prayer, the skies suddenly opened, and he and his car were in the epicentre of a violent hail and thunderstorm. In fact, a young man was fatally struck by lightning, and the mountain remained shrouded in dark cloud all the next day. A little reminiscent of the time when God warned that the people should not even touch the base of the mountain but called Moses up the mountain alone to speak with Him… Exodus 19.
From childhood, David has had experiences with God on the hills and mountains. But the key is not about being ‘up there’. He learnt how to pray in the family kitchen. Growing up, he would help his Dad with the evening dishes and would ask him every question to which he had no answer. “Is it true, once saved, always saved?” “What happens to someone who dies without having heard the Gospel?” David’s Dad would show him the answer in Scripture, and they would discuss it. This became the model for his relationship with his Heavenly Father – and still is today. Discussion. A son with his father. Question and answer. And David’s experience is that the Holy Spirit, who understands everything, reveals the answer in Scripture and explains it.
Don’t feel this is not for you. The Holy Spirit will do this for all who believe.
The desire – and need – to communicate is not just key to a relationship with
God, it is a fundamental driving force within every living being. Clear communication demands, and results in, action! Just look at our office cat!!! He was brought to us as a tiny kitten too young to leave his Mum. He had been abused, blinded in one eye and thrown out into a wild winter’s night storm. He looked so sad, we couldn't reject him. He’s supremely grateful to have been rescued and to be loved! We call him ‘Buddy’ because he’s become our little friend! Without speech he ‘talks’ to us, wordlessly, through his face and expressive eyes, and by using quite graphic body language. When he’s hungry he rubs against your legs. If you ignore him, he will nip your ankle. And if you still ignore him, he will leap up on you and frankly tell you how rude you are! But mostly he walks around with his tail up in pure happiness! This is a basic but vital gift of communication God gives to all living creatures through emotion and intuition. In this way we understand what Buddy wants, and he understands us. Psalm 19 even says the WHOLE of Creation ‘pours out speech’, including the heavenly bodies, which speak about God Himself.
But God has given us human beings an incredible gift which goes far beyond basic forms of communication. Articulated speech. It begins with simple words that name things and actions, then two or three words strung together, then phrases, and ultimately complex sentences. It’s this ability to put words to complex inner thoughts and goals that enables men to land on the moon and explore space. To diagnose and treat illnesses. In fact, to create all the ‘infrastructure of life’ that we have today.
It’s amazing and it’s a fact, every living thing, human or animal, WANTS to communicate. But HOW we human beings communicate through our speech is critical. It’s not always working out well for us. Small children all go through the
stage when, for lack of words and ability to express themselves, they scream and stamp with frustration! It’s also frustrating later in life for those who lose their hearing. No hearing aid can yet hear like the ear God made, able to choose to hear what we want to, and tune out those things we don’t want to…!
But think about it: what are you actually using speech for? To express yourself clearly? To mask what you really think and feel inside and are too timid to express? Or even perhaps to hide secret intentions? What spirit lies behind the way, the how and the purpose of our speech? Do our words lead to positive, useful action and creativity, and to healing and rebuilding where needed? Or do we sometimes copy words out of the devil’s playbook? He spoke as a liar and acted a thief and a murderer from the beginning… Speech always has some result – one way or another, for good or ill. Our speech can do great harm…
Jesus warned, be careful what you say. “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good, and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is evil: for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks…” Luke 6:45. Words create either light or darkness: “See to it that the light within you is not darkness…” Luke 11:35. Speech creates and destroys many outcomes…
Like the Universe He created, God is ‘pouring out speech’ all the time. There is a reason why He put you and me here on this earth: He has a plan, a rescue plan. There are things He wants us to do. So He wants to talk, have a two-way conversation with you, like David and his Dad used to have in the family kitchen. Question and answer. Discussion. And the Holy Spirit, who understands everything, will reveal the answer in Scripture and explain it to you.
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The most important read in this current world crisis – the biography of
DAVID HATHAWAY
A Man after God's Own Heart
Available on Kindle and in Paperback
War in Ukraine – confused, afraid? – This book traces over 70 years of David’s unique ministry in the former Soviet Union which began under the persecution of communism.
In his own words: “God has given me a vision of Russia, Europe and Israel so clear, it’s like looking down on a map of the devil’s strategy, but I also see God’s strategy, what He wants us to do. This puts an awesome responsibility on us to act.”
David is known as a living legend and a hero of faith in all the former communist countries. This book reveals God’s heart, which has driven David from his earliest days – and still drives him today. We trust it will give you some clarity on prophecy as it unfolds before your eyes – and that it will inspire you to follow Jesus in the same spirit – for it is the Gospel which is the Power of God to save all who will believe. Katie Morris
OVER 70 YEARS OF MINISTRY SINCE 1950
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