ANOTHER KINGDOM
THE TEMPLE AND
David Hathaway
First Letter of John Chapter 2 that is: JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD, HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH HAS PAID THE FULL PRICE OF SIN!
John’s First Letter was probably written when he was already towards the end of his life and begins in much the same way as His Gospel, saying in wonderment: “We declare to you the One who was from the Beginning, whom we heard, whom we saw with our own eyes, and touched with our hands! We are witnesses that HE is the Eternal Life that was in the Father – HE appeared to us – and we declare HIM to you so that your joy may be full!” John saw and touched the Son of God when HE was in the flesh! It changed his life forever.
But Chapter Two of John’s letter begins with a sense of danger, John is troubled: “My little children, I WRITE TO YOU THAT YOU SIN NOT.” He’s possibly writing even as much as 100 years after the birth of Christ, so he’s an old man – which entitles him to address his readers as ‘little children’… But maybe here he’s also addressing some who are still ‘spiritually children’. What he says relates to any one of us today, but in this case I am sensing John is writing particularly to Jewish people who had become followers of Christ; Jews, who when they believed, had accepted something that had been ‘hidden’ from them in their Jewish Law/Scriptures, something so completely new to them, they are now finding it hard to fully accept, and
I’m sensing that this is why John wrote, “My little children, I write to you that you sin not.” Under the Law of Moses, they had not known an absolute freedom from sin but needed the priesthood and the daily sacrifice of the Temple to atone for their sin – sacrifices which were only temporary and while each sacrifice atoned for individual sin, it did not stop the sinning, so had to be regularly repeated. But prophetically the sacrifices looked forward in faith to the coming ultimate sacrifice of Christ who died once and through His resurrection broke the curse of sin, which is death. This teaching was completely new to them: that Jesus is the Lamb of God slain once for our sins. Slain (sacrificed), before the foundation of the world, and He has become the Living Eternal (continuing) Sacrifice for sin. So, salvation came before sin! Now there is no need of any more sacrifice because the Living Sacrifice is already in Heaven!!!
NOW THEY MUST NOT GO BACK INTO SIN! Under the old Jewish Law, they could. And get away with it! Under the Old Covenant their sin was not blotted out. Under the New Covenant it is! Let’s go to John 2:12, where John says, “I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His Name’s sake.” The High Priest and priests had to
make atonement continually. But now Jesus has made the One Final Atonement. We can and must now live free from sin.
It seems there are degrees of maturity in the family of God. John emphasises in vv13-14, “I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him that is from the Beginning. And I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the Wicked One. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the Beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you.”
John is teaching that in Christ, we now have victory over the Wicked One, Satan, who first caused Adam and Eve to sin in Genesis 3. This is a whole new teaching that John is emphasising – but it is also an old teaching, from the Beginning, when God revealed that there will come a ‘Seed’ from the woman who will bruise his head! That’s the only way to kill a snake! Christ is the fulfilment of God’s Plan to save mankind from ‘the world, sin, the devil’ – and death. Now we come to v15, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” John is referring, not to the world God created in Genesis 1, but to the world as it became after the fall, when mankind was corrupted with the know-
ledge of good and evil and the way to the ‘Tree of Life’ was closed, lest we might live forever in this fallen state.
The danger with these Jews who had lived under the Old Covenant, is that they were in danger of loving the ‘things of the world’, of ‘going back’. After the miraculous escape from Egypt, when Moses was alone with God on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, the Jewish people in the valley below longed to go back to what they had known in Egypt! To their old life. They didn’t look at the suffering in Egypt, but at the ‘leeks and onions’ they were given to eat! In the long 40-year journey from Egypt into the Promised Land, so often they wanted to go back! It is said that when the Jews came out of Egypt, Egypt was still in them! And that it was harder to get Egypt out of them, than to get them out of Egypt!
The same is true of Christians today. Don’t love ‘Egypt’. Don’t go back to your old life! “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” If you ‘love the world’, your old life, the love of the Father is not in you. This is what John is saying, v16, “For all that’s in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” John is emphasising so strongly that what these Jewish converts had under the Old Covenant was ‘of this world’, completely different to the new life. They must not go back to the old, it’s ‘not of the Father’ – He has sent Christ. We must not go back on our faith.
John writes, v17, “The world passes away, and the lust of it, but he that does the Will of God lives forever.” The whole message of the New Testament is of a new birth! That’s what Jesus said to the rich Pharisee, Nicodemus, “You must be born again, from above!” We have to ‘die to the old’. Unfortunately, this is where Christian teaching is failing today, so many don’t understand: WE HAVE TO DIE TO THE OLD AND BE BORN INTO THE NEW.
Paul says the same in Romans 6:3-4, 8-9: “Aren’t you aware that we who are baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” When you are baptised you are submerged/buried in water, into Christ’s death, just as He was buried in the grave. And you come up out of the water into a new, eternal, resurrection life in Christ. Born again. By faith in Him.
John is correcting a serious misunderstanding. We are no longer under the old law of sin and death with its religious
rituals. V17, “the world has passed away…but he that does the Will of God will live forever!” And the Will of God is to believe in Christ Jesus, His Son whom He sent – John 6:29. Under the laws of Moses, under the Old Covenant, the gift of eternal life was closed to men. Genesis 3. But I am certain from Scripture, those who died under the Old Covenant looking forward to Messiah WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE IN HIM! Daniel 12:1-2. The gift is retrospective, I’m sure of it –they will have new life in the Kingdom, just as we will. 1 Thess 4:16-17 / Hebr 11:39-40 are clear: all those Heroes of the Old Testament, ‘having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the Promise, but will be made perfect together with us, and together with us, will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air’.
John continues in v18 – this may be 60 or 70 years after Jesus ascended into Heaven – “Little children, it is the last time. You have heard that Antichrist shall come, and even now there are many antichrists...” There is no question, before Christ comes, first the Enemy of Christ, Antichrist, comes.
So strong was the teaching of Jesus about His Second Coming and the Kingdom on earth, the early disciples believed that He would come in their lifetime. But we must not go to the other extreme, saying that, having waited 2000 years, His Coming is still far off… NO! There is plenty of evidence that we are living in the last of the last days now. The Bible is clear, and Orthodox Jews believe this, from Creation to Messiah coming as King is 6000 years, ‘six days of the week’ – and a day is as 1000 years. The 7th day is the Millennium, the 1000 years of Christ’s reign on earth. In our calculations, it was 2000 years from Creation to the Flood, 2000 years from the Flood to Christ, and now approximately another 2000 years has passed. Orthodox Jews reject Jesus, but recognise a ‘Messianic age’ preceding the Kingdom as beginning at about the time when He came and preached the Coming Kingdom 2000 years ago!
John writes, that even in his day, vv1819, “There are many antichrists. They went out from us, but they were not of us.” A number of people who had apparently accepted Jesus as the Messiah, had gone away from the faith. “If they had been of us – if they had truly been born again – they would have continued with us.” This is not ‘churchhopping’. No. “They went out, making it clear they were not of us.”
“But,” John writes in v20ff, “you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” The Holy Spirit, whom we receive after being born again, reveals the Truth to us. John says, “I have
not written this to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you know it, and no lie is of the Truth. Who is a liar, but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ?!! He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whosoever denies the Son, does not have the Father.” John is very, very clear. The one who denies that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, believes a lie and is ‘antichrist’ and can have no relationship with God the Father.
After the destruction of the Jewish Temple, and since the beginning of Islam – interrupted by the crusader period – the whole Temple compound has been a site of Islamic worship, known to them as the ‘Noble Sanctuary’. I’ve been in their Dome of the Rock several times. By Jewish tradition, this is Mount Moriah, where God spared the life of Isaac, Abraham’s ‘promised son’ – through whom Christ was to come – and Himself provided a ram, foreshadowing the death of His Son, on Calvary. But Islam commemorates instead the sparing of Abraham’s son Ishmael. Some years ago, my TV crew were able to film the inscription that runs around the inside of the Dome. It says in bold Arabic lettering: GOD HAS NO NEED OF A SON. This clearly marks the people who follow Islam as ANTICHRIST. That’s what Apostle John, who saw Jesus in the flesh, says!
For centuries, Islam has sat on the top of the Temple Mount, proclaiming Allah and his messenger, Mohammed. Today key leaders within the Christian Church are saying there are three peoples ‘of the Book’, Christians, Jews and Moslems, and that all religions lead to God. But John wrote, v26, “I have written these things to you concerning those who seduce you.” … v22, “He who denies that Jesus is the Christ is a liar! He that denies both Father and Son is antichrist!” Hmmm. That’s a very strong statement, but clear.
But if you have been born again, John says, in vv20-28, “You have an unction from the Holy One and you know the Truth, you do not need anyone to teach you. The Anointing – the Holy Spirit –teaches you all things, and as He has taught you, abide in Him, so that when Christ appears, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His Coming.” Keep in that relationship of listening to the Holy Spirit. If we are guided and led by Him, we can have confidence when Christ comes!
I want to encourage you: Father, let Your Holy Spirit so guide those who have read these words, that they would not be led astray by false prophets or false teachings, but inherit the Kingdom when Christ comes. O God grant it, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
BORN INTO ANOTHER FAMILY, ANOTHER
David Hathaway
First Letter of John Chapter 3
John, whose Gospel and three letters we have today, was one of the first to follow Jesus, one of the three closest disciples who – along with Peter and James – witnessed the Glory of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. He sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper, and he was the one to whom Jesus committed His mother as He was dying on the cross; and John was the one to whom Jesus gave the end-time prophecies of the Book of Revelation when he was a prisoner in exile for his faith in the Island of Patmos in his old age. He had such an experience of who Jesus really is!
This is what he wrote in 1 John 3:1: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Can you imagine how great the Love of God is in calling us ‘sons of God’?! This is a tremendous gift, a demonstration of His unlimited Love!
But this is the downside: John says, the world doesn’t know us – because the world doesn’t recognise who God is! People of this world don’t recognise us as children of God, though they may consider us to be ‘Christian’ and ‘religious’. But the reality is, we are children of God. We are! We’re born again as God’s sons and daughters!
This is who we are now, but, John says in v2, we don’t know what we, one day, will be like… When Christ appears, we shall see Him, as He really is, and we shall be ‘like Him’! But what will this be is a mystery. In the beginning, in Genesis, God said, “Let US create man in Our Own Image”! And when the disciples asked Jesus, “Show us the Father”, He replied, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father!” Now, when Jesus comes back, we shall be ‘like Him’... I don’t think this means we lose our individual appearance, but rather that our
earthly bodies will be transformed to be like His Resurrection Body… Remember, Jesus was able to ‘appear in their midst’ after His resurrection – without opening the doors! Because He was fully spirit, as well as flesh… So will we be.
John goes on, v3, that everyone who has this hope of being like Jesus, of having an eternal body, ‘purifies himself’. Because the Lord is pure! If we want to be like Him, literally, physically, spiritually, then we have to purify ourselves, just as He is pure! Just as He, in His flesh, also had to resist the devil’s temptations, so must we! John is clear, v4, “Whoever commits sin transgresses also the Law…” Jewish converts were often uncertain of their relationship with the old Jewish Law. Jesus and the early apostles made it clear, in Christ we are not bound by the Law of Moses. But if we commit sin, we also sin against the old Jewish Law.
John says, v5, “You know that Jesus, who is sinless, came to take away our sin!” There is no sin in Him! V6, John says, “Whosoever abides in Him does not sin!” This is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again, from above!” John is dealing with a very serious issue: that what we have is not religion, not ritual, not rules. We have Christ. We are born again now, with His sinless nature. When we believed, we died to sin, to self, to the old life, and we are born again as sons and daughters of God! And if we are born of Him, then just as Jesus did not sin, neither can we! John says, v6, “Whosever abides in Him does not sin! And whoever does sin, has not seen Him or known Him!” This is strong! We have to crucify the old nature, it’s a battle we have to fight. We have to live and walk ‘in the Spirit’. Galatians 5:16-25.
You can be very religious, you can be in a religious position, you can be a priest or a pastor - but unless you are born again, you do not have the life of Christ in you! There are too many ‘in the Church’ who are not born again, and therefore are not set free from the life of sin.
V7ff, “Little children, don’t let anyone deceive you: he who does what is right, is righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But he that commits sin is of the devil: for the devil sins from the beginning.”
We all need salvation, we all need to be born again, because all are born into a world controlled by Satan. I’m a dad, grandad and great grandad, and I know, if you leave children uncorrected, THEY WILL DO WRONG. Oh, oh, they do!!! It’s like it is with your garden: if you say, ‘God created this garden, so I’ll leave it to Him’, I’m sorry, but you’ll soon find out, you’ve only got weeds!!! Every single one of us is born into a sinful world controlled by Satan, under Satan’s influence. From our earliest childhood, though we were born with a conscience, we’re not born to be good, but with a ‘knowledge of good and evil’ –under the control of Satan! That’s why we have to be born again. We’ve got to get rid of the sin! Water baptism – baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection – signifies this, you are buried in the water – dead – and you rise up out of the water to new life in Christ! You have to live in this new life!
That’s why John writes, “He that commits sin is of the devil!” That’s how you were born in the natural way! The devil sinned from the beginning, and we, and our children, are born with that sinful nature. Children are lovely – I love them, we all do – but we all know, they’re not perfect!!! Children need correction! And so do Christians, even after we are born again! Throughout his letter, John refers to us as ‘little children’. Spiritually we have the same problem as all little children do: we are tempted. Even Jesus has to resist the temptation to sin. But this is important, v8, “For this purpose was the Son of Man revealed that He might destroy the works of the devil.” And yes, in Christ, as an evangelist, as a believer, when I call upon Him, He DOES destroy the works of the devil!
V9ff is very strong, “Whoever is born of
ANOTHER KINGDOM
God doesn’t commit sin, for the seed of Christ remains in him.” Something happens when we believe. We have a new nature, the nature of Christ. “Whoever is born again – into God’s family – does not commit sin, because this new life, this seed of Jesus now lives in him – and we cannot sin, because we are born of God. V10, “In this the children of God are made manifest – revealed – and so are the children of the devil...” You can see the clear difference: those who are born of God and walk in the Spirit cannot sin, and those that are born of the devil are going to sin!
V10ff, “Whosever does not do what is right is not of God, neither he that does not love his brother. For this is the message we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” Love is of God! But Cain was ‘of the wicked one’, he had the evil of Satan in him and slew his brother. Why? Because Cain recognised that his own works were not accepted by God, but his brother’s were! Cain typifies the sinner, and Able typifies the believer who obeys God and is of Him.
Cain hated Abel. So John writes, V13, “Don’t be surprised my brothers if the world hates you!” It will!
But, v14ff, “We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. Whoever does not love his brother, abides in death. He who hates his brother – this is very strong – is a murderer like Cain, and no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know the Love of God, because He laid down His Life for us!” God in Christ laid down His Life for us. God, who is Life, could not physically die, but as Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” So when Jesus died, it was in fact as God in the flesh, dying on our behalf. Jesus and the Father are One.
John continues, v16, “We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Whosoever has this world’s goods – possessions – and sees his brother in need, but
closes his heart of compassion and doesn’t help him – how can the Love of God be in him?” It’s very clear – we need to show the love that we have in a very practical way and demonstrate that love even to those outside of Christ – that’s the only way we can show that the Love of God is in us. If we have more than we need and fail to supply the need of others, we fail to demonstrate God’s Love!
John is trying to teach us, as spiritual children, born into this new life, into the Family and Kingdom of God, what God expects of us, His children. This is life within the Church, in the heart of the individual. John is writing to the believers, to you and to me, as to little children, born again as sons and daughters of God, v18, “Little children, let us not love in word or in speech, but in what we DO in Truth.” It’s so easy for us, who consider ourselves to be born again from above, to speak a lot... Talk, talk, talk… But God requires of us more than talk… He requires action.
Words without action are meaningless. There must be preaching of the Gospel in the Power of the Holy Spirit with the same miracles as were worked by all the early apostles. In my life as an evangelist, I’ve had to learn that it’s not enough to talk the talk, I’ve had learn to do what I’m talking about. I had to learn from an early age to put into action in my own life, everything that I tell others to do.
It’s our actions that count. V19ff, “Hereby we know that we are of the Truth and can assure our hearts before Him, because if our heart condemns us – if in our own hearts we know we are doing wrong – God, who is greater than our heart, also knows. If our heart condemns us, God condemns us also. But the converse is true, v21, if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God – that He does not condemn us! That puts a big responsibility on us, on how we live our lives. Our life re-
flects our true relationship with God. V22, if we keep His commandments, we do what pleases Him.
We need to live a life to please God. Come on! But this is not about keeping the Law, it’s not about religious observance – that’s just ‘Churchianity’. It’s not pleasing the priest or the pastor, fulfilling some ‘religious duty’ – it’s about pleasing God. “Do those things that are pleasing to God”, v22.
What is it that pleases God? A young expert in the Jewish Law asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?” To which Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39. John put it like this in v23ff, “This is His Commandment, that we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He commanded us. He who keeps God’s Commandment, dwells in God and God in him. And this is how we know that He lives in us, by the Spirit He has given us.”
This takes us back to Ch 2:28 when John writes, “Now my little children, abide in Christ so that when He shall appear, we may have confidence – certainty of our salvation – and not be ashamed before Him at His Coming.” It’s how we are living. If we are living right, that gives us the confidence that we are pleasing God, and the certainty that when Jesus appears, we shall rise with Him and live with Him. Because, as John said, Ch 2:29, “If you know that Christ is righteous, then you know that everyone who does what is right is born of Him.”
What a challenge we have! Remember, John was in prison, he suffered for Christ, he lived in exile in Patmos – and this is where Jesus gave him such a wonderful revelation of the Coming Kingdom of God. Oh, that God would give us great revelation of who we are in Him! God bless you!
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THE UNPOPULAR QUESTION OF ‘SIN’
First Letter of John Chapters 1&2
We’re going through very difficult times worldwide; it needs much prayer. It’s even hard for us to look at the news. Why is there so much senseless violence and war? Satan is still in control, he’s still prince of this world – and that’s why God had to send His Son to die for us, to break the curse that’s on us. Thankfully, those of us who have come to Christ know that Peace which the world so desperately needs. Our world needs Jesus!
John’s First Letter starts: “That which was from the Beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched, the Word of Life – this Life has appeared, and we have seen it and testify to it…” He’s talking about Jesus!
John’s description of his time with Jesus is so very clear and emotional. It’s real. The message of Jesus is reality. John is saying, I’ve seen it, heard it, touched it! In my life – and this year I’m celebrating 75 years in ministry – it’s my testimony too. No, I’ve never seen Jesus, never spent time with Him like the disciples did. Yet in my ministry, I’ve ‘seen’ it, ‘touched’ it – it’s been so real to me. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh! John writes, “The Word of Life – what we have seen and heard, we declare to you!” John says, “The LIFE appeared, we’ve seen Him, we testify to it, we proclaim to you the ETERNAL LIFE which was with the Father.” Yes, what John is saying, is that Jesus IS ETERNAL LIFE!
He is the very Word of God and the evidence, the substance, the source of ETERNAL LIFE – He died for us and rose again – because He IS Eternal Life! The reason I work as an evangelist is because Jesus is so real to me. He’s a Person, He’s not a theology, He’s not a religion. We’ve got to get away from doctrine and see
WHO GOD IS! Jesus is the Living Word of God, Life and Light. By living here, He demonstrated who God really is.
John in vv3-4 says the reason he is writing this letter is ‘so that we may have fellowship with him – that’s John – and with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, that our joy may be full’! He says, v5, “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: GOD IS LIGHT and in Him is no darkness at all!” Scripture says, in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the earth, and darkness was over the deep, and God said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” GOD IS LIGHT! That’s why John says, “In Him there is no darkness!”
Now John warns in v6ff, “If we claim to have fellowship with Jesus but walk in darkness, we lie – and we don’t live by the Truth! But if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
V8 is strong, “If we say we have no sin –this is a very important statement – we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John is not speaking here to the unbeliever; he’s speaking to believers. V10, “If we say we have not sinned, we make God to be a liar, and His Word is not in us.”
Unfortunately, we are still living in a sinful world, and we are tainted by what we see and hear – sin is all around us! That’s why it’s so important: if we confess our sin, God will forgive. Chapter 2 begins, vv1-2, “My little children, I write these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, (like a lawyer pleading for us), Jesus Christ the Righteous.” He is with God in
Heaven and speaks to the Father in our defence! He is pleading for us, and not only for us, but for the sins of the whole world!
It's an important point John is making, that as believers, we must not claim to be totally pure and holy… But if we do sin, Jesus, who died once and for all for our sin, now lives to make continual intercession for us in Heaven. Heb 7:25. We NEED His constant intercession, He’s standing before His Father saying, “Father, I died for these people, forgive them!” We HAVE to be honest with ourselves, and if we confess to Him our sin, then He is ‘faithful and just to forgive us’. He is our continuing sacrifice. All the time we live down here –saved by grace, yes – but we still need an Intercessor in Heaven to stand before the Father on our behalf!
This is the simple test of our relationship, v3, “This is how we know we have come to know Him – IF we obey His Commands!” This is so important: if we know Jesus and the reality of being forgiven, then we need to demonstrate that by obedience to His Commands. Because John says in v4ff, “The man who says, ‘I know Jesus’, but doesn’t keep His Commandments, is a liar – this is a very strong statement – and the Truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His Word, in him the LOVE of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” It’s not just the talk, you must walk the walk. V9ff, “He that says he is in the Light and hates his brother, is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother is in the Light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him”…
V12, John says, “I’m writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven in Jesus’ Name.” Walk as He walked. Amen.
David Hathaway
“RAIN IS COMING!”
Ukraine is the victim…
At the end of October 2024, we were again in Ukraine to pray for the nation, this time in Lviv, West Ukraine. Historically, West Ukraine has been the bastion of Ukrainian identity, resisting the cruelties of Russian Imperialism, not just for decades, but for centuries. We visited Lonsky prison: there were other prisons for criminals, but Lonsky was used by the invad-
ing Russian forces, from 1939-41 and again from 1944 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, exclusively for the interrogation and torture of men and women, never charged with any crime – only guilty of being Ukrainian, Ukrainian intelligentsia and ordinary men and women. We were told, “There is no family in this region that has not lost someone to this cruel Russian regime.” Nothing has changed.
The unjustified invasion of Ukraine – the most important conflict in today’s world…
Last September Yuval Harari, author and historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in an online interview said: “Russia’s war in Ukraine is the most important conflict that is now happening in the world, maybe since the end of the Cold War, because it calls into question all the basic values and norms of the world order. It’s basically a situation like in a school when a bully picks out a weaker kid and all the other kids in the school stand round in a circle to see what will happen. If the bully is allowed to get away with it, to win, then this is the new norm of the school. You will see more and more such bullies... If Putin is allowed to win, we will see more and more ‘putins’ pop up – all over the world. If, on the other hand, order is restored, the bully is stopped and punished, then it is clear that you cannot behave like that. What is really at stake is the fate of world order, of peace, of international law. What we are seeing in the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the return of one of the worst ‘monsters’ of hu-
“God
will hear and answer our prayers…”
Two and a half thousand filled the magnificent Golgotha Church in Lviv. Worship was led by an inter-church choir, and prayer was led by pastors from Lviv region. The Governor of Lviv Military Region, Maksym Kozytskyi, also addressed the people gathered to pray: “Our enemy is a terrorist country that, throughout history, has invested all its resources in creating an illusion of ‘greatness’ – built on fear. And finally, because of its own fear of our freedom, faith and unity – which Russians have never had – it attacked Ukraine. The national prayer for Ukraine in Lviv, held at the
“Go tell your master – rain is coming!”
David’s words and prayer, 27/10/24: In 1961, God first gave me a vision for your country and the whole of the former Soviet Union as it was then. I’ve spent a lifetime working in Ukraine. I’m working to a vision – and this relentless invasion of Ukraine is a spiritual battle against the devil himself. As Elijah did on Mount Carmel, we are challenging the power of the devil. Elijah laughed at the prophets of Baal, trying to call down fire from heaven – their gods did not answer! Elijah, in his turn, did not call down fire, instead he said, “Hear me, O Lord, so that these people will know that You are God.” Only then, the fire fell!
man history. We thought this monster was already vanquished, but it is coming back. This monster is Imperialism. For most of human history the basic condition of life, of all humans on earth, was that at any moment, the neighbours might invade our territory, kill our people, and simply conquer and annexe our land. This was the situation throughout history, and this was the original meaning of Imperialism. In recent history this became the biggest taboo of our international system – still wars, still conflicts, but this idea that you can invade and conquer another country because you are stronger – this became the biggest taboo.”
Like Hitler before him, Putin has wrapped himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy and has, against all international law, gone to war. In his day, Churchill quoted the true and wellknown saying: All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing…
initiative of the Ukrainian Church of Christians of the Evangelical Faith, has become a tradition. I am grateful to the Senior Bishop of the Church, Mykhailo Panochko, for his continued spiritual support to Ukrainians. A special tribute to Evangelist David Hathaway from Great Britain who has devoted more than 50 years of his life and ministry to our country. Thank you for your documentary ‘Ukraine was before Russia!’ And thank you that you strongly encourage all your listeners – eager to hear your words of wisdom – to support of our nation. Thank you everyone for your spiritual unity. I believe that God will hear and answer our prayers.”
O God, seven times, every Christian denomination in Ukraine has met together to call on You. You cannot be defeated.
Ukraine, God will not fail you, God is with you, He will answer you. God is in Heaven – there is a sound of the end of the war... I pray, O God, You will send confusion into Russia, raise up an internal rebellion, answer prayer. However great the enemy, You have more Power! O God hear me, that this people may know You are God. Destroy the enemy that is against them, show the world You are God! Do again what You did in the days of Elijah! This nation has prayed! Rain is coming, the end of the war is coming...”
Ukraine was before Russia! YouTube Video
WHAT
During one of my recent times of prayer, when I was asking the Lord to show me something of His Plans for the future, He did reveal to me several significant issues which I have pondered over since. God is speaking to me very much about the situation in which we find ourselves in the world today.
Looking back on my 75 years in ministry in post-war Europe, it is significant that when God has called me to do things, often reckless, unusually difficult to fulfil – sometimes I was condemned for doing them –it was always at a specific period, the ONLY time that that job could have been done
Most significantly, 36 years ago in 1988, I called the first of four prophetic East-West Conferences; 600 from the Iron Curtain countries crossed into West Germany (as it was then), every one of them by a miracle! A total of 4000 took part. I called these Conferences at this specific time in response to a revelation and to proclaim in faith that the Iron Curtain, that since World War II divided Europe, would fall and that the Soviet Union itself would collapse by a great move of the Holy Spirit! The Iron Curtain fell in 1989, weeks after our second conference, and the Soviet Union began to collapse in 1991, the very day after our third conference ended!
As God showed me, revival swept the whole of East Europe and the Soviet Union! I was part of that! By the early 1990s I was working intensively in Ukraine and in Russia. In 1994, in the chaos of the newly liberated Soviet Union, I took 400 missionaries with me to Siberia and the far East of Russia, it was the only time when we could do it! The miracles that happened at that time were absolutely outstanding. In some meetings, every person who came forward for healing was instantly healed, sometimes healings were happening at the rate of one a minute –just the time to pray and get the testimony! What God did in those days
has never been forgotten out there.
God is speaking to me now, in our current chaos; I don’t yet know the full response to it, but it’s leading me to speak to you from Deuteronomy 4:29. God is saying through Moses, “If from where you are you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” In so many countries, so many places, desperate people are crying out to God in prayer. How do we seek God, how do we pray? Do you go away alone, or pray with others? Do we need to be in a special, undisturbed sanctified atmosphere? But Moses says simply vv29-31, “If, from where you are, when you are in tribulation, when all these things are coming against you, even in the last days, if you will turn to the Lord and be obedient to His Voice – for the Lord Your God is a merciful God – He will not forsake you nor destroy you” –God will answer!
IF you will be obedient…! This is a massive challenge to us, and this is why in this magazine I have written so much from John’s first letter in the New Testament about what God requires of us. We hope, we expect God will keep His Promises. He says He will. And He does! But I also believe it is conditional on us – if we want that blessing from God, we ourselves must be obedient to His Voice and keep our promises to Him. It’s so easy to make promises but not keep them! I’ve had to make a determination that if I make a promise, especially on the mission field, I must keep it. If I say I will be there, I will be there. Even before Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, I received an invitation to hold evangelism in one of their cities. But when I got there, they hadn’t really believed I would come, they hadn’t expected me! Fortunately, the Holy Spirit had prepared a great miracle – somehow, we got permission to take the open-air Summer Theatre, and the meetings were advertised and transmitted city-wide on their Soviet loudspeaker system from every lamp-post! Six
blind people received their sight! But it’s a lesson, if we want God to fulfil His Promises to us, we must be faithful to fulfil our promises to Him.
We’re facing enormous problems globally. Warfare in so many areas of the world. Unjust autocracies, rebellions, military governments. Economic hardship, poverty. Moses is saying to us, in the tribulations and trials – not in the comfort and the calm – if you call on God, He will answer you. When all these difficulties and problems come on you, even in the last days – and we are living in the last of the last days now – if you will call on the Lord your God AND BE OBEDIENT TO HIS VOICE – He will answer!
We’re living in a time where so many major churches are turning away from the Word of God. John the Beloved Disciple is concerned with this matter of sin in the church. I’ve read a report that today in America 11% of evangelical churchgoers are uncertain about and unfamiliar with the Old and New Testaments. And I certainly know this, that many church leaders, in allowing same-sex marriage, are not obedient to Scripture. It is absolutely forbidden in Scripture! God created men and women for a purpose, Genesis 1 & 2. Mixed-up sexual relationships are not from Him. Yes, God is Love, and love is shown by our love for one another. Yes. But not in disobedience to the Word of God. If we want God to answer us, we have to be obedient to His Word.
Moses moves on, v32ff, “Ask now of the days that are past, since God created man on the earth, and ask from one side of heaven to the other, has there ever been any such thing as great as this is, or has ever been heard like it?” – Moses is reminding the Israelites of their deliverance out of Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea – the biggest miracle ever seen in the world! If you count the women and children, it must have been 2 million people –plus all their animals and possessions! And the miracle is all the greater, because when Pharoah’s army tried to follow them, the waters closed on them and they were destroyed! Ex 14. – “Or did ever people hear the Voice of God speaking
TO DO IN A TIME OF CHAOS!
David Hathaway
out of the midst of fire, as you have heard and lived?” Moses reminds the people of when they heard God on Mount Sinai speaking as out of a fiery furnace. Ex19.
Moses continues in v34, “Has God assayed to take for Himself any nation from another nation by tempatations, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty Hand, and by a stretched-out Arm and by great terrors – as God did for you in Egypt?” These things were within living memory! I want to remind you, from Creation God has ALWAYS worked by signs and wonders! And when I look at the ministry of Jesus, in every case, God confirmed the ministry of Jesus by the miracles He worked.
The one thing that has empowered my ministry is the miracles God has done when I obey Him! I’ve seen the most incredible miracles, just exactly as Jesus said would happen. In the midst of trouble, God moves in a mighty, powerful way! Why? V35 gives the answer, “These things were shown you, that you might KNOW the Lord is God!”
In our world today, in so-called ‘Christian’ countries, we are losing sight of the fact that there is ONLY ONE TRUE GOD. He is Creator – and He is our Father. We are His children. Yet other religions – for whom God is not Father and has no ‘sons’ – are spreading rapidly, becoming a voice in countries which were once known as Christian.
The word father’ is often used in the sense of someone who has invented something. We say someone is the ‘father’ of aviation for example, in the sense that he was the beginning, creator and foundation of it. We have to come back to the fact that our God is the God who CREATED EVERYTHING IN THE BEGINNING. Today scientists, researching into the stars and the planets, are planning to set up colonies on the moon and Mars. There is so much we don’t fully understand. But God CREATED EVERYTHING! He is Creator, the Beginning of EVERYTHING!
Moses says to the people of Israel in v35, the great miracles you have seen, were
shown to you that you might KNOW that our God is Lord, there is no other! In v36, “Out of heaven, He made you to hear His Voice that He might instruct you, and on earth He showed you His great Fire, and you heard His Words out of the midst of the Fire.”
God is speaking to us, sometimes even through tribulation and war! In my life, God spoke to me through cancers, through my imprisonment in a communist prison. Yes, He spoke to me through these things.
And I believe God is speaking to the world now through the circumstances in which we find ourselves. How? Sometimes He speaks through His prophets, but He reveals Himself and speaks to you and me through the Holy Spirit! When I hear the Voice of God, it’s not God Himself in front of me, but revealed by the Holy Spirit. John 16:13-14; 1 Cor 2:9-14. The Holy Spirit, who is God and dwells in us, reveals the ‘deep things of God’, the things He has prepared for those of us who love Him! We need to have THIS relationship with the Holy Spirit so that He CAN speak to us! He will lead us into ‘all Truth and reveal the things to come’. So often we are consumed with all our other issues and don’t hear the Holy Spirit...
But Moses continues in v36ff, “Out of Heaven, He made you to hear His Voice to instruct you. On earth He showed you His great Fire and you heard His Words out of the midst of the Fire. Because He loved your fathers, He chose their seed after them – and if you believe, in Christ, YOU are His seed – and brought you out of Egypt with His mighty Power.” God wants to demonstrate who He is by the miracles that He works! For you! V39, “Therefore know this day and consider in your heart that the Lord is God in Heaven, and on the earth.” God is not just God in Heaven, but God is here, He is present through the Holy Spirit. With us. God, through the Holy Spirit, is with me, in me. And in you.
Jesus’ last words to us, His followers, before He ascended into Heaven were, wait until you have received the Holy Spirit! He’s the Power, He’s the Voice,
He’s the Witness.
But we must keep His Commandments! God through the Holy Spirit is revealing them to you. It’s so important! Moses is very strong, v40, we must keep His Commandments, that it ‘may go well with you and your children’! If you want the Power of God in your life, you have to obey Him! Deuteronomy 4:2 and the last words of the Book of Revelation agree, do not add or take away anything from the Commandments of the Lord your God, if you take anything out of the words of this Book of Prophecy, your name will be taken out of the Book of Life!
To those who are trying to change the Bible and change what God says, if you do, God will take your name out of the Book of Life! Some say, because God is Love, He tolerates and approves what is in fact sin. But God says in Revelation 22:18, “If anyone adds to these things, God will add to them the plagues that are written in this book.” Why is God so defensive of His Word? He is God. He knows the Truth. We know good and evil. But God created all things by His Word and He is true to His Word. You cannot change it.
When you trust God and act in faith, that’s when God begins to cooperate with you and work with you! Aged 92, I’ve tried to be obedient to God’s Word. I listen to Him through the Holy Spirit. Let God speak to you, instruct you, and bring vision and blessing into your life. From my teenage years I’ve lived by Isaiah 30:21, “YOU WILL HEAR A VOICE BEHIND YOU SAYING, “THIS IS THE WAY, WALK IN IT.”” I’ve always heard that Voice, saying, “Go this way, go that way; do this, do that.” Why? When I was 15, God called me, not to be an evangelist or a pastor, but to be a servant. A servant does what his master says.
I’m challenging you, be obedient to the Word of God, KNOW who God is and His Power in your life! THEN, He will answer and deliver you out of affliction and trial and problems! O God bless you. Amen.
Post-War Europe, Communism and the Iron Curtain – AND NOW
DAVID’S WORLD
SJ Morris
David was a boy during World War II. He was 13 when the war ended, seeking God and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Hitler and the evil of Nazism, (most notably with the holocaust of six million European Jews), were defeated by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Europe now lay shattered, divided ideologically, politically and physically by an ‘Iron Curtain’ – dividing East from West.
The 1945 Yalta Conference settled the shape of post-war Europe. Stalin – the Soviet Leader – took control of East Germany and all the East European states, leaving West Germany to the Western Allies, the Americans, French and British. This was the first political shot fired in what was to be called a Cold War. Two alliances underpinned the hostilities: NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), formed by the West European and North American countries in 1949, and the Warsaw Pact, created by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the East European countries in 1955. It was Winston Churchill who first described this divide as the descent of an Iron Curtain across Europe.
It was to break the power of Germany that the 1945 Yalta Conference divided the country into four occupation zones: Soviet, US, British and French. Berlin, deep within the Soviet zone, was divided into four occupation zones in the same way. In June 1948, Soviet forces blockaded access to Berlin from the West, cutting off the life-supply to the American, French and British zones within the city. The city was only kept alive by a massive airlift from the Western Allies which lasted over one year until the Soviets again allowed access by a land corridor. Finally, overnight, in August 1961 (just months after David made his first overland trip to Israel), communist East Germany erected the Berlin Wall, totally isolating the East from the West of the city.
For decades, the Soviet Communists kept Eastern Europe under an iron grip;
brutally suppressing uprisings in Hungary, Czechoslovakia (David was imprisoned in the hard days very soon after the Soviets had crushed the uprising here), and Poland – until, in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. Russia’s huge economic problems compelled him to reform – with a free market, democratisation, glasnost (or ‘openness’) and perestroika (or ‘restructuring’). In 1989, by a miracle the Iron Curtain dividing Europe began to fall, and the first Russian Parliament (or Duma) since 1918 was held.
In 1990, immediately after the Berlin Wall came down, a formal declaration at the ‘Conference on Security and Co-operation’ in Paris marked the end of the Cold War in Europe.
In 1991, after an attempted coup and the demise of the Soviet Union itself, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the new Russian Federation. Communism had collapsed and was replaced by private enterprise and a free market economy – but mafia-style. Capitalism caused prices to soar, savings were wiped out overnight and Russia struggled to build a democracy and free market economy.
The end of strict Soviet control of Eastern Europe coincided with the march to closer economic and political union in Western Europe. The former communist countries turned to the European Economic Community (as today’s EU was then called) for political and economic help. The EEC supplied aid, but would not immediately allow them to join the EEC.
Nevertheless, following all this political upheaval, an intergovernmental conference to pursue closer European unity, resulted in the 1991 Maastricht Treaty to form the European Union – the modern EU –into which the former communist countries of East Europe could be integrated.
From the end of World War II there had been two world superpowers – America and the Soviet Union, the Evil Empire as the West called it. Now there was only one world superpower, America, and, at
the request of the East European countries, NATO began to place its bases on every former communist territory of Eastern Europe, right up to the borders of Russia itself.
David Hathaway’s Ministry behind the Iron Curtain
One Englishman, David Hathaway, saw and lived through these political and social upheavals in a unique way. He first travelled behind the Iron Curtain into communist Europe and Russia with his travel company ‘Crusader Tours’ during the 1960s and 70s.
It wasn’t just that Eastern Europe had no political freedom – they didn’t have religious freedom! To possess a Bible, let alone confess to being a Christian, resulted in persecution, often imprisonment and torture. Yet, David Hathaway, an evangelist who loves the Word of God, smuggled more than 150,000 Bibles (literally, by the tonne), in his travel buses behind the Iron Curtain, before being arrested and imprisoned in a Czechoslovak communist prison, in 1972. He was released in 1973, only after the intervention of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson; but then in the 1980s, David set up a mission to evangelise openly in Eastern Europe–even before communism fell!
David worked under the rigours of communism for 30 years and has continued to do so for more than 30 years since. His ministry has been a catalyst for an extraordinary Christian revival which continues today. His focus is Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Poland – and has never forgotten that revival must come to Europe.
The revival of faith in the former communist world can be traced back to the sacrifices made by many Christians like David Hathaway who took risks and smuggled Bibles into the communist countries, when it was forbidden.
SJ Morris, extract from David Hathaway’s Biography, 2017 Edit, Katie Morris
A PROMISE – AND A WARNING
Katie Morris
This is the vision and promise David had, when he first called the East-West Conferences in West Germany: “God spoke to me clearly. He told me that the Iron Curtain that had separated East and West Europe for so long would be melted by the Power of the Holy Spirit. How do you break iron? Only by fire. The Fire of the Holy Spirit. And God promised, a new great move of the Holy Spirit would then sweep across Europe, uniting East and West, that this would not be an act of man, but a sovereign act of God, moving in such demonstration that we would recognise it only as God’s Power.”
Immediately the Iron Curtain began to break, David was in there, holding large-scale evangelism and seeing revival in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, then Ukraine and Siberia.
The world was euphoric, but God spoke to David again. This time a warning. He wrote as early as April 1990: “Time is so short… this is only the beginning. I feel so strongly in my heart that the East is not yet really free, that these people have to face far worse yet than anything they have experienced in the past. Another curtain will fall across Europe by economic collapse, by military might and by spiritual force. But I stand by faith on God’s promise: He said, “In the last days I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.” Wherever I go, I claim that promise.”
Nevertheless, we have seen possibly only the beginning of the warning, the largest armed conflict since World War II raging on European soil. The aggressor, Russia, The victim, Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic States at risk.
From here on, I’m quoting extracts from our Spring edition of Prophetic Vision 2005:
“Ukraine struggled from the beginning (that is, from the collapse of communism in the USSR in 1991) to throw off its Soviet shackles and communist mentality. At first when the freedom came, little changed. The same men remained in control – perhaps they had changed their ties, that was all! Ukraine was a ‘banana republic’ – a lawless country that could be bought for money – if you had it – and was still ruled by force.
“But from the beginning of our evangelism in Ukraine in 1991, we prayed that God would work a miracle to change the WHOLE nation, from top to bottom, like the Wesleyan revival in Britain. At that time Britain was at its lowest ebb economically, politically and socially, a nation rejecting God, on the verge of being swept away by the secular ideologies of the 1789 French Revolution. But the Wesley brothers had an experience with God that changed the WHOLE nation, restoring it in EVERY way.
“In December 2004 we were on crusade in Russia with our Russian and Ukrainian evangelistic team as the peaceful Orange Revolution was unfolding on the streets of Kyiv.” (November 2004 to January 2005; ultimately, this and the 2014 Revolution of Dignity were to prove to be a political and spiritual breakthrough in the history of this deeply troubled nation.) “Ukrainian members of our team told of the wonderful atmosphere in Independence Square and in the streets of Kyiv during those peaceful demonstrations. They said you could feel the very presence
of God on the streets – Christians of every denomination prayed round the clock, political rallies began with prayer – such friendliness, such kindness, such support – crime down by a third in the whole nation. Even the media – still a propaganda tool of the old regime –changed in a most remarkable and public way. The journalists together made a joint appearance on all the channels to ask the people of Ukraine for forgiveness for lying to them! “We will never do this again.””
Russia seized Ukrainian Crimea and occupied parts of East Ukraine in 2014, armed conflict continuing till the full invasion of Ukrainian sovereign territory 2022 – breaking all international law. Beginning in 2015, David began to call all Christian denominations to come together in unity to pray for their nation. There is no other nation on earth where this has happened before. God will answer Ukraine’s prayer.
In May 1992, as the first evangelist ever to hold evangelism in the famous Dynamo stadium in Kyiv, David prophesied over Ukraine from Jeremiah 33:36, “Call unto me and I will answer you… For thus says the LORD concerning Kyiv and all the cities of Ukraine… behold I will bring you health and healing, and I will heal you and reveal to you the abundance of peace and truth… And you shall be a name of joy, of praise and honour before all the nations of the earth which shall hear of all the good that I do to you.”
Please pray that despite everything that has happened, despite whatever happens, this prophecy will be fulfilled in Ukraine. To God be the Glory.
Katie Morris
HOW CAN WE KNOW THE TRUTH?
Listening to David preaching on John’s First Letter, and later transcribing his messages for this magazine, I found I could not easily move on to other thoughts afterwards. It’s hard for me to put into words even now.
Sin – what is it? What is sin and what is ‘righteousness’? How can we personally, as Christians, live without sin? John says we can.
And then, there’s other Christians… There are some we are sure are followers of Christ, ‘walking in the light’, working alongside us to the same end; in reality we may later discover they were working against us and against Christ Himself, workers of darkness… It happens in politics – people who pose as defenders of Christ in the public sphere. Hitler rose to power with the support of the largest churches... And it happens in the ministry…
I can give two examples. First. When David was miraculously released from a communist prison (he was in prison for having personally smuggled Bibles into Russia and Eastern Europe between 1961-72, up to 2 tonnes at a time, more than 150,000 in all), his fellow prisoners said, “David, do not forget us, nobody in the West knows about us.” Spurred on by this challenge, David organised a successful political campaign to spearhead the release of Christian prisoners from the Soviet detention camps – all held in contravention of the Helsinki Accords on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion that the USSR had just signed! The case went to the United Nations –this caused a global embarrassment to the Russians, an unforgiveable thing to do! Not long after, a key worker in the Bible-smuggling, a Bulgarian, invited David to a personal meeting in a London hotel room. He pulled out a gun, “I’ve been sent to kill you.” David knew him as a Christian, sharing in the con-
stant danger of being discovered by the KGB. That’s what David thought. In fact, he was a KGB plant and a traitor to Christ. The trade-off for David’s life –to cease from all political work against the Soviet Union. But David had already done what was needed; the target prisoner of his international campaign was symbolically and publicly released. He simply now passed the political work over to another organisation and – despite having been in a Soviet prison – returned to his real mission, evangelism behind the Iron Curtain!
Second example. One of David’s closest friends in Ukraine today was Head of the All-Union Council of Baptist Churches in Moscow in the 1970s/80s; all his co-pastors – well-versed in Scripture, good preachers – in reality were KGB agents, but he had the courage to dismiss every one of them! Shortly afterwards this brave man was hospitalised; poisoned – like so many others who resist that evil regime still today.
How should we live our lives? – And who, ‘out there’, is who? On the Internet, where so many of us form our opinions, there is so much scandal and gossip, also so much elevation and adoration. How can we know what is right and what is wrong?
John says, we CAN know, because we have an Unction, an Anointing that teaches us how to recognise everything! 1 John 2:20-29. He says, you KNOW the Truth! Keep it. Don’t be seduced away from the Truth. Don’t let yourselves be tricked. You KNOW that the ‘Lie’ is NOT the Truth!
Jeremiah prophesied of a future time –now – when we CAN and DO know the Truth, 31:33-34, saying you won’t need to teach one another, saying ‘Know the Lord’ – you shall all know Me from the least to the greatest!
This has been fulfilled in Christ, Hebrews 8:8-13. Because this is what Jesus promised, John 16:13, “When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth.” This is why we must pay attention, not only to our new birth in Christ, but to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that must follow. He alone, the Holy Spirit, can train us up in the way that we should go and so use us to do the same works that Jesus did – and greater works, to glorify the Father and the Son! We have to take this work of the Holy Spirit most seriously in our lives.
But how can we be sure we are living in the Truth? Concerning ourselves, Paul said, 2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?” Concerning other people John writes, 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because there are many false prophets.”
Having been in David’s ministry for 30 years, having travelled everywhere on ministry with him as a witness, I can say, there are some things the Lord does not tell us, but protects us from; and there are some things He tells us but that we nevertheless must go through in order to achieve His Plans and Purposes in this world. There are troublemakers and disappointments along the way – yes, we must examine ourselves – but of other people Scripture says, 1 Timothy 5:24, some people’s sins are obvious to you in advance, and some are only revealed later… In God’s eyes, however, nothing is hidden.
Spend time in John’s First Letter. As a man who knew the Lord both in the flesh and by the Spirit of God, he has much to say to us.
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 The most important read in this current world crisis – the biography of
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.”
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