David Hathaway No 77 Autumn 2015
Revival means to bring back to life. This is the challenge to the Church today – bring the life back into the Church! The German and the French word for ‘revival’ means to ‘wake up’! An awakening! Wake up! Come back to life! I grew up with the ‘Great Commission’ of Mark 16:14-15. Jesus appeared to the disciples as they sat at meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them which had seen Him after He was risen! But it is very interesting that, in the midst of their doubting and unbelief, He gave them a commission: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!” We must realise the importance of this – the commission, given by Jesus to the remnant of the believers! The Church wasn’t yet born! Understand the seriousness of the situation! These believers had seen their leader, their Messiah, crucified. They were enormously discouraged. Not long before Peter had, in fear, denied he even knew Jesus! These remaining eleven, the closest disciples of Jesus, were suffering from fear and from unbelief! If we think about revival in the Church today, I know the Church ‘appears’ to have joy, life... – Now I’m not criticising, but at my age, having been born again when I was 8 years old (recently I found amongst some old papers the certificate of my conversion, 75 years
ago, in March 1940 – so before you were born, I was a Christian), I HAVE to look at the whole Church. I’m an evangelist, I have the largest evangelistic mission in Europe, and we can still fill stadiums with unbelievers! I speak with some authority when I say that, although in outward appearance the Church is alive and full of joy, the Church as a whole needs a REVOLUTION! If you are hungry and seeking for revival, my answer is clear: I HAVE the fire of God! I HAVE this revival in my life now! The demonstration, the evidence is in my ministry, in the tens of thousands who come to Christ! I want to show you that you can have that same fire, that same power that I have! Last year in Poland I preached to more than 80,000 in a single day. Not only that, the evangelism was broadcast live on national TV to the whole nation – a first in Europe! It was a miracle! I am concerned about Europe. My father was a great preacher and a founder of the Elim Churches under George Jeffreys. My eldest brother was called to India, my sister to Africa. But I knew from my earliest days that God had put Europe in my heart. In those days Europe wasn’t a mission field. I first went to Switzerland and France in 1954. I preached in the Institute Géographique in Paris and I still remember 300 gave their lives to Christ. I was just 22 years old. God had given me a clear vision for Europe. There are clear reasons why
2
we have to evangelise. The first is that it is the only real commission from Jesus, the first thing He commanded His fearful, disillusioned, unbelieving disciples after His resurrection. Yet first He rebuked them for their unbelief! – Mark 16:14! “Why did you not believe the reports of those who saw Me alive?!” His commission – and His rebuke – to the Church, remain the same today. The fastest growing religion in Britain is Islam. In the town where I live, in April this year, the newspapers were asking, how is it that two teenage Moslem boys became so radicalised that they left the town and joined the war in Syria? But why weren’t they asking, how is it that two young Christian boys left the country to preach the Gospel and evangelise in Syria, in Europe?!! No, two Moslem boys left the town where I live, to kill and to die. To follow a dead prophet. The conflicts raging in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen, are the result of a division between the followers of the dead prophet. Shia and Sunni both claim to be the true descendants of Mohammed. When we in the West support one side against the other, we become involved in a war which has nothing to do with Christians. – Instead we need to be involved in a ‘battle’ for Jesus Christ! Islam and Christianity do not have common origins, they are not the same, Allah is not our God, he is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through whom Jesus came! In the town where I live, we have more mosques than Christian churches! Do you see the challenge?!! And today Christians are the most persecuted minority in the
Prophetic P rophetic
world! Even our British politicians, government, church leaders and secular newspapers acknowledge this... ...So what is wrong with the Church?!! This is so serious! We have the most powerful, life-changing message in the world! It does not kill the unbeliever, it offers life, eternal life!!! The message that the Christian Church has forgotten is – FORGIVENESS! In March I was in Ukraine – where Ukrainian people are killing Ukrainian people. There is hatred. They curse each other. Kill each other. Kill the pastors. Two of my friends – shot, killed. Churches where I have evangelised – taken, destroyed. People fleeing, in hiding. This is in Europe! And I am going back to Ukraine. Why? Because the message we have is the only message that can solve the world’s problems! The Gospel of Jesus Christ! Not the politicians, not the military – but YOU! Christian believer, YOU have the answer! Jesus Christ is the answer! In Estonia, after my evangelism there in 2008, the government built a Christian prison, I went to visit it whilst it was being built, members of my staff in Estonia were involved – because the preaching of the Gospel does something the politicians, the secular government cannot do! In Britain 80% of prisoners return to their crime (and many are converted to Islam and radicalised in prison). But in Estonia, 80% turned to Christ! A new life, the power of God in them! You see, there is something we have forgotten about our Christian message. It is the ONLY way to change men and women. Under communism in the 1960s and 70s, I had licenses to travel with my tour buses in all the communist countries. Before my imprisonment in 1972, I smuggled 150,000 Bibles and New Testaments, preached in their underground churches. After my imprisonment I continued to go back, even held open evangelism in Hungary in the 1980s! The result was that, immediately after the collapse of communism, when President Ceausescu in Romania had just been brutally executed at the Christmas, shortly after I was in a football stadium, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I came to the point of making the appeal, telling the people
they had to repent. I told them what Jesus taught us to say, ‘Forgive us our sin, as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us!’ I said, “Amongst the thousands of you here in the stadium, the person sitting next to you, or behind you, is a member of the Securitate, the Secret Police, and he was probably responsible for putting somebody in your family in prison. Maybe they killed your son, your husband, your father. But God says, you have to forgive them – if you want God to forgive you.” My translator was a young man from the Bible School. He looked at me, “I cannot say this. I know what the Securitate have done. How can I tell these people that they must forgive?” But I said, “If you want God to forgive you, you have to forgive!” He couldn’t translate. Fortunately the pastor, who wasn’t fluent in English, saw and understood what was happening. He stepped forward and translated for me so strongly, I’ll never forget what happened. The power of God came down, thousands repented, it was a miracle – God had changed their lives! That’s what conversion is. A change. Transformation. It is not enough to say ‘I was converted.’ Jesus said, “You must be born again!” When I was 8 years old, I was born again! This is the miracle of evangelism! I want to show you how in Romans 1:16, Paul says the most amazing thing: ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because IN THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD!’ The power of God in the Church is the Gospel you preach! The power in my life – is the Gospel I preach! The authority of the words I speak – is the Gospel of Jesus Christ! My power, my authority, my strength, my evidence – it’s in the Gospel I preach! A Gospel of power and authority. I have authority in Jesus’ Name, authority even over the weather. Many times, when preaching in the open air, especially in Russia and Ukraine, I have commanded the wind and the rain to go. Sixteen years ago in Asbest, on the opening night in the stadium, a black storm came. I commanded it to go; it rained all around the stadium, but in the stadium it was dry! An unbelieving man
was there with his believing wife. Next day he told his wife (to her surprise), to get ready to go to the stadium! Why did God allow the rain to come on the Friday? – So that He could show the extent of His power, that it is not limited to material or spiritual things, that the God who can control the weather, can control men! Why? Because there is power in the Gospel! That unbelieving man said to his wife, “I have heard many preachers, they had no conviction. I have never before heard a preacher who could command a storm to go away!” That night he gave his life to Christ – because he saw the power in the Gospel! A few years ago I was preaching in a football stadium in Amsterdam. Again the same thing. By the time the music programme was coming to an end, the rain began. I told the people, “Don’t leave, God will stop the rain!” Huw Priday, the opera singer, was on the platform with the stage director, who was tracking the storm on his computer. When I commanded the rain to go in Jesus’ Name, they both saw on the meteorological website on the computer a hole appear in the clouds above the stadium! The rain was all around, but in the stadium it was dry! This is the demonstrative power and authority of the Gospel! An enormous miracle has happened in my ministry. Every country where I evangelise, the government accepts what I do in an incredible way. So much so that in Poland last year, although the government is largely ‘Catholic’, and the Church in Poland is Catholic, the government authorised all 5 State TV channels to transmit 2 days of the 3day evangelism live to the nation! That has never happened in the history of Europe! Nothing like this. Ever. Why? Because two years before when we first
3
For David Hathaway’s interactive magazine and newsletters
Weekly Web TV: eurovisionweb.tv / eurovisiontv.org.uk Radio: eurovision.org.uk/radio UK Broadcast Schedule: Loveworld UK: Saturdays 18:30 Revelation TV: Sundays 14:30, Sky 581 Premier Radio: Sundays 17:45 Europe and Rest of World: Anixe: Saturdays 11:30 CET Rheinmain: Thursdays 09:00 CET www.glorynet.eu: Tues, Weds, Thurs 20:00 CET CNL-Europe: Sundays 19:00 CET; Hotbird Satellite 13°E; 10815 H MHz CNL-USA: Sundays 13:00 EST; Galaxy 19 Satellite 97°W; 11966 H MHz CNL-Russia: Sundays 21:00 Moscow Time; Hotbird Satellite 13°E; 10815 H MHz Botswana TV: Weekly Top TV Uganda: Thursdays 22:00 Local Time
David’s on-demand TV programmes / LIVE webcasts / repeat webcasts / documentaries
eurovisiontv.org.uk
4
Prophetic P rophetic
evangelised on a large scale in Poland, the result was so powerful, the government SAW the EVIDENCE of the POWER of the Gospel! Do you see? The Gospel we preach has POWER to change nations, to transform men, to work miracles. I want you to understand that the WHOLE of the power of God is – in the GOSPEL! Paul said, “The power of God is in the message you preach!” – Romans 1:16! What was the power of Jesus? It was the message He preached! Read the whole of the Acts of the Apostles – I challenge you! Read it! Read it again! It’s not just a ‘book in the Bible’. It’s the story of the first Church – and it should be the story of the Church today! That’s the revival I have! Evangelism is my life! I first preached as a boy in church aged 13. We did everything – printed flyers, handed them out, had a worship group, people came in, I preached from the Bible. But to my shock nobody repented! I went home to my father, “What was wrong? I preached from the Bible like you, I talked about Jesus, but nobody repented!” My father said something which has directed and controlled my life ever since, “In the Bible, Jesus gives you the answer. He says, ‘When the Holy Spirit is come, He – the Holy Spirit – not you the preacher – will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement to come.’ The Holy Spirit will do the work!” – John 16:8. “Son, you need the Holy Spirit!” He laid his hands on me. Nothing happened. It took me three months to receive – in those three months I learned my next lesson – to empty my life of all self-will, so that there would be room for the Holy Spirit to totally fill me. Those three months are the reason I am who I am today. There is something else the Church has forgotten. In my early days all the preachers preached Heaven – and hell. Pastoring my first church aged 18, I lived in lodgings. One time an elderly Christian came to stay in the same house. It was near the south coast and I took him in my car to the sea. He wore an old black suit, although he had
money, he never spent any! When we got to the beach he insisted on walking the whole day, up and down the promenade, in a sandwich board! The placard on the front said, ‘You’re going to hell!’, and on the back, ‘The end of the world is nigh!’ I was a young man – I didn’t spend two seconds with him! Yes but, the problem is this, we have run away from the truth! As a young pastor I sometimes had to take funeral services, a wonderful opportunity to preach the Gospel! Recently I watched the funeral of a celebrity, and afterwards someone accosted the minister, because that famous man was an ungodly unbeliever. Many preachers, pastors, priests lose all sight of the Bible and lie when they conduct a funeral! They talk about the resurrection of the dead as if all who have a ‘Christian’ burial will have eternal life. A child dies. What do they say? That child is now a star in the sky. Atheists and unbelievers, most have some kind of belief in an afterlife. The truth is, when you die, you either go to Heaven – or to hell! There IS life after death. Every man, every woman will appear before the judgement seat of Christ, and the end is Heaven or hell. No rites, ceremonies or masses after death, can change your eternal future. The decision is made here! You decide for Christ, or you reject Him. Jesus said, “You MUST be born again. Unless a man is born again, he CANNOT enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” – John 3:5. What a challenge to preach the Gospel! The responsibility is not just on people like me, it’s on YOU also! What if, when we get into Heaven, Jesus will ask, “How many did you bring with you?! You came alone, yet the Gospel changed your whole life?! Didn’t you tell somebody?!” It’s wonderful to be a Christian, but one minister said to me, ‘The Church is singing and dancing and rejoicing – whilst the world is going to hell. There is no concern. They are not interested in evangelising.’ But my whole life is to bring other people into the Kingdom.
sis. Absolute confusion. Nobody knows what will happen. We face disaster. The government legalises much of what is sin in the Bible, justifying it. The Church in general doesn’t believe the Bible; leading theologians say we have to understand the Bible in the ‘light of modern civilisation’. Homosexual marriage – it’s a way of life, even for church ministers. It is not politically correct to quote the Bible on these issues. You can be sent to prison. How much longer have we got left to preach the Gospel? I was praying over this at the beginning of this year, and I believe God said to me that we have a maximum of six years! The strongest things that will stop you and me, under European law, are ‘freedom of speech’, ‘sexual equality’, ‘political correctness’. You cannot any longer say sin is sin. But the Bible says the greatest sin is to reject Christ! The biggest threat to the Church is secularism. According to former French President Chirac, secularism creates a dry river bed of atheism which draws in a flood tide of militant religion. So the biggest problem in France today is – militant religion! France has the largest Moslem population in all Europe. We’re facing tremendous problems! I need to shock you and shake you! The situation is desperate! When we die there is no second chance. Oh God, raise up evangelists! I want to pass my torch on to someone else. Father, light a fire in people’s hearts. Church, we’re living in the last days before the return of Christ! We have a phenomenal opportunity, maybe a last opportunity, to preach the Gospel! Holy Spirit, wake us from our sleep! Save Europe by the preaching of the Gospel!
The world is in a crisis. Britain is in a cri-
5
I have a flame I want to pass on to you, and I want you to become involved in evangelism. In recent years I have held large-scale evangelism in Lithuania and the impact on the nation was tremendous. We had the cooperation of all churches and denominations. After we had finished the second mission (we had 15,000 attending every day), I received a letter signed by the heads of every single participating denomination – Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Orthodox. They thanked me for the tens of thousands who received spiritual consolation and comfort. They said, ‘Every participating church received many new believers.’ And they thanked me for uniting every Christian denomination in a common purpose in Christ! But it was not just ‘mass’ evangelism – we taught ‘personal’ evangelism – so that every church became involved, and after the tens of thousands came to Christ, all the churches continued evangelising! Last year in Poland, the most important part of the mission was that, for one year before the big event, we had 250 people working together, teaching street evangelism; 17,000 were won for Christ on the streets before the mass evangelism! My job is not only to evangelise – but to encourage YOU to do the same thing! Personal evangelism is so important – it’s what YOU do! A study has shown that more people are converted by personal contact than by crusades, except when there is revival! It is important in evangelism that Christians publicly stand together. We MUST have a united front. Jesus, in His last instructions to His disciples – and to us – before His crucifixion, said it is our unity that demonstrates who He is! So in evangelism we must work together! The one thing in the whole of the history of Lithuania that brought the churches together – was evangelism! Forget your theological differences – one thing we should agree on is preaching Jesus Christ! I don’t care what denomination you are. If you believe the Bible and you preach Christ, then I am one with you.
6
When the churches get back to this, we’ve taken the first step towards revival. And the world outside will see! As an evangelist I need to find out what unbelievers say about the Church. Unbelievers say two things: one, you’re not united; and two, you have no message! To the person outside, the Church does not appear to have a message! One criticism made of Jesus was that when He had dinner in the local restaurant, He wasn’t eating with religious people, He was with the sinners! The danger with the Church is that we have lost sight of the world outside! There was a strict group called the Plymouth Brethren who took the Scripture that we don’t fellowship with unbelievers to such an extreme, that one believing wife I met was not allowed to eat dinner with her husband! What impact did that have on the husband?! – He didn’t want to know the God his wife worshipped! We mustn’t isolate ourselves from the world. For 30 years I was working with the underground churches in the communist countries. They developed a persecution mentality – it became a question of just ‘holding on’ to the faith. For 30 years they lost the sense of evangelism, just ‘survival’... Today in Britain churches are getting smaller and older because they don’t evangelise – and it is said that within 15 years the majority of state churches will have closed. I had to teach the Russian churches to come out of this persecution mentality and not be afraid. Some of my most successful ministry in the communist countries was under the most extreme persecution! For example in Hungary in the 1980s the Catholic churches invited me! We couldn’t advertise, but I preached Christ and miracles happened! The numbers grew from church to church, village to village until so many people came, the priest and I couldn’t get in the door! Eventually we took the Catholic Cathedral in Budapest! Under communism we had 5000 people! The government banned me and punished the priests – but after 3 months, they called me back! And the Communist Minister of Religious Affairs himself asked me to hold a large crusade – on one condition, that I bring every denomina-
tion in the country together! And it was the government who set up the meeting with the heads of every church denomination! That’s the power of God! Even the communists saw the blessing when all church groups work together! Thousands came and I had complete freedom to evangelise! People ask why I hold these big missions. Firstly, time is short. God has called me to reach the whole of Europe. I don’t know anyone with quite this vision. It has to be big because I don’t have time now to do what I was doing under communism. In Russia after the freedom came, I evangelised in over 250 towns and villages – tremendous! I used to spend 3 months at a time in Russia! But I can’t do that now. So when I evangelise, it has to be big. And then there is the urgency of the desperate times we live in. But what is the purpose of evangelism? – We will never convert the world! Even Jesus in His ministry didn’t convert the whole of Israel. He used to preach to more than 10,000 people at a time. How many were left? In the Upper Room at Pentecost only 120. So what is the responsibility of the Church, of the Christian, and of the evangelist? As a teenager I argued with my father, night after night, “If, after we die, we go either to Heaven or hell, God MUST give every person a chance! How can God judge people and condemn them to a lost eternity if they have never heard the truth?!” But the Bible says, ‘how shall they hear without a preacher?’ This became a major issue in my life, driving me with a sense of responsibility – the same responsibility of every Christian – to tell the people round us who Jesus is! The world outside NEEDS to hear about Jesus, and every person must then make their choice. You chose when you came to Christ! Will you serve Jesus – or the devil?! Will you live for yourself, or for Christ? But somebody told you about Jesus! Your decision was to accept Him. The ONE thing that drives me so PASSIONATELY is to reach tens, hundreds of thousands! I know that not everyone will receive Christ. But I want the world to know WHO Jesus is and the way of salvation! The biggest sin is not murder! Not terrorism! It’s the rejection of Christ! But how will they accept or reject if they have never heard? To me, this is the issue facing the Church: not that everyone in your city will be converted, but
Prophetic P rophetic
that everyone in your city WILL HAVE A CHANCE – to accept or reject Christ. God put me in a communist prison to learn the truth. It changed my life, because for a year I was living with the worst criminals and sinners – my best friend was a murderer. But I realised how God saw those men. He didn’t see their crime, He saw their potential, what He could do with them. One time evangelising in Russia, I had lunch with the pastors in the city, all except one had been in prison, the one exception – his father was secretary to the communist party! Worse than the rest! You see, God doesn’t look at the sinner as being ‘impossible’ – He wants to change men! God’s touch made them powerful ‘shepherds’! Some people become discouraged with evangelism. They tell me, the reason they don’t evangelise is because some of the converts go back into the world. But Jesus said, the Christian is like the sower. Only some seed falls on good ground, some falls amongst the thorns, some on stony ground. So even Jesus said, not everyone will accept! But they must all hear! What changed me was when my father said, the Bible says, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” But you don’t have to be like me to be an evangelist. Every one of you can be a witness: the majority of Christians in Britain were not converted by an evangelist, but by personal witness – of their family, their friends, work colleagues. You have a responsibility. If we could wake the Church up! – The responsibility of every born again believer is to tell somebody about Jesus! I didn’t start as a ‘big evangelist’. As a teenager, every Sunday after church, we would go in the street, start singing, then talk about Jesus! Only last year in London a man came up to me, “David, 70 years ago I was an unbeliever and I heard you speaking in the open air in the street and I laughed at you! But today, I love your Jesus!” That’s an encouragement to YOU! This could happen with YOU! When I was 18 at Bible College, every Friday we would go to Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, in London – and preach the Gospel! Every week we won people for Christ! I learnt how to get a crowd by talking about Jesus!! Too many make the mistake of ‘preaching theology’. But I want to tell you that every one of you has the potential to be
a better evangelist than me. Many years ago a wise man told me, “If you preach religion, people will argue with you. But if you give your testimony, nobody can argue!” The most powerful witness to an unbeliever is when you tell them what Jesus has done for you. We’ve lost our message – YOU are the power of the Gospel! Every one of you is a miracle! Tell people that the Jesus who saved you, can save them! Jesus delivered me! – People would rather hear me talk about that, about my experience, than all the preaching on religion. Forget it. Talk about Jesus! Tell the world about Jesus! YOU are the power, YOU are the evangelist! YOU will reach people I will never reach. Pray over your family, pray them into the Kingdom. A woman told me about her son, a drug addict, “He goes out and I don’t know where he is...” I said, “Every night when he’s out, go to his bedroom, pray over his pillow, weep tears – and you will win him for Christ. Don’t condemn or criticise him, pray him into the Kingdom!” God will hear and see the tears of every praying mother. – If only you realised the power that you have with God to win your family, your friends, your loved ones! Personal witness! I want to tell you, YOU have a more powerful message than I have – because YOU know what God has done in YOUR life! It’s time YOU began to tell the world! Who will work the miracles? Not the pastor, not the evangelist, not even you. It’s Jesus! So let’s talk about Jesus! When you’re at that dinner party – talk about Jesus! When you’re with your friends – talk about Jesus! Then see what God will do!
Jesus will set him free. Churches, for God’s sake – get TOGETHER! Plan some evangelism. Let the world see we believe in the SAME Jesus! Individuals, you have a powerful testimony. I had a year in a communist prison, and I was preaching the Gospel in the prison. I determined that I had to show those ungodly men that God answers prayer. So I began to pray, “If You could get Paul and Silas out of prison by a miracle 2000 years ago – that’s what the Bible says – You can do it today!” I prayed my way out of the prison! Instead of ten years, after one year God sent the British Prime Minister to arrange my release, and I flew home on the airplane with him – an ungodly man, but God touched him! And because of that miracle, I was invited to travel all over the world: everyone was asking the same question, “Why did the Prime Minister rescue you from prison?” – I told them, Jesus is alive! As a result of this miracle, I preached to hundreds of thousands and in 2 years I led a quarter of a million people to Christ! Why? It was my testimony! Not preaching! But look at how many people YOU could win! With YOUR testimony! I am passionate, I have emotion, passion in in my heart – I LOVE JESUS! I love Him with a passion! So often, people come to Christ because they understand my passion. Not my words, but the passion. I LOVE JESUS! I want people to fall in love with Jesus! Be passionate, be emotional – live your life so positively, that people will want what you have!
The important thing is not to preach at people, don’t condemn the drug addict, the sinner, and say, “You shouldn’t do it.” – He already knows he shouldn’t do it. Why is he a sinner, a drug addict? Because he doesn’t know Jesus!
7
May 2015
In his message – because it was live to the whole nation of Israel, and in the context of the current Middle East conflict – David said the following:
will never be defeated – God will not allow it. The God of Israel will deliver your nation – be ready to receive Him! I know the exact moment when He comes – it’s when you cry out as a nation, “Oh that You would rend the Heavens and come down!” – Isaiah 64:1. – He will come when you call! And He will deliver you now, you don’t have to wait – He wants you, He wants you to call on Him now, because He is concerned about your nation, and He is concerned about you! God loves Israel, He so loves you, He sent His Son to forgive your sin and heal your sickness!’
‘You owe your existence in Israel to a miracle. Out of suffering God brings victory. Israel was born out of the suffering and desperation of the Holocaust in fulfilment of prophecy. God is a Deliverer. In Egypt, God saw the suffering of His people and He came down to deliver. The God of Abraham – who sent Yeshua 2000 years ago – will always deliver Israel, whatever the crisis. Yeshua, your Jewish Messiah, is coming back in your crisis today. Israel
The entire audience stood to call on the Name of Yeshua, Jesus, their Messiah! One of our organisers said afterwards, “David when you came in 2011, 2012, 2013, you opened a door of evangelism to unbelievers in Israel that no one thought possible – now others can go through that door. This time in Israel you have broken open a new door of evangelism on a level so high, no one ever dreamt it could be opened!”
Israel Monday 4 May – Yes TV, the equivalent of Sky 1 in UK, broadcast David’s message live to the whole nation! This was a first ever in history! From the most prestigious venue in Jerusalem, against the most iconic background, David told the Jewish people, Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, about their Messiah.
8
9
I want to pay tribute to the people who organise my evangelism for me. I couldn’t do it without those whom God has brought to me! To me, evangelism is like David of old, building the Temple. He asked Nathan the prophet, “Do I do it?” Nathan’s reply is significant to pastors and evangelists today: “Do what is in your heart!” If it’s not in your heart, you’ll never succeed. The Gospel is in my heart. It’s my whole life. I’ve been preaching from the age of 12. When I entered Bible College aged 18, I was impatient: “Jesus is coming, I should be out there, preaching the Gospel!” – God saw my heart. I had only been in college 3 months when I was asked to take over a church whilst the pastor was away. Hallelujah! Then three months later, it was the summer vacation. For the other students, holiday. But for me, college is on vacation, I’ve only got the church, what do I do?! My first thought: borrow a tent, put it up in a field – and evangelise! None of the students would help. Holiday! The only people I could find were 2 war refugees, a Russian ballerina and a Polish man who had been forced to serve in the German SS! Every time I spoke, people got saved! My ministry, what I do today, is based on Joel 2:28-29, ‘It shall come to pass that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, AND on the servants and handmaids...’ The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not just on the people at the top! Verses 30-32 get me excited, ‘And I will show wonders in the Heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, and in the remnant (outside Jerusalem) whom the Lord shall call.’
I love the fire and the power of God, the excitement when God is working! I love to ‘provoke’ God into action! God responds to that! One reason why I got out of my communist prison after only one year – by an absolute miracle – was because I was all the time ‘provoking’ God, “Oh God, if You could get Paul and Silas out of prison by an earthquake 2000 years ago, Your power isn’t any less today!” But most people think it is!! The attitude of the Church is that God cannot do what He did in the Bible! But to me, God becomes bigger, more glorious, more powerful every day that I live! The Bible says, ‘Jesus Christ – the same yesterday, today and forever’ – God doesn’t change! But my understanding of God is changing, increasing – from glory to glory, from power to power. If God did it yesterday, I expect Him to do more today! Not less! After God got Peter out of prison, he knocked on the door where the church were praying, but they said, “It can’t be Peter, he’s in prison!” Even the early Church had their doubts and lack of expectation about God’s ability to answer prayer and do what they asked!! God HAD to get me out of prison, because I said, “I’m preaching Christ and I need a practical demonstration that this God I’m talking about will get me out – then they’ll believe!” And God worked the miracle! One of the reasons I’m accepted in Israel by the Holocaust Survivors is that the first time I went, they said they would only come IF this Yeshua, the Jesus of the Bible that I preach, IS the Messiah, then He MUST work miracles! I agonised in prayer. Everything depended on God doing what He says! It was a tremendous test of my faith. Afterwards I asked if they were satisfied? They said God worked more miracles than they expected! A former KGB Colonel, a Russian-speaking Jew and head of one of the Survivor organisations said, “All my people must hear the words of this preacher!” The significance of Joel 2 is that God says, “In the last days I will pour out My Spirit on ALL flesh!” That means you can go into any country in the world, to any people, and take the Word of God with you, and God will pour out His Spirit! In Israel, Russia, Poland, Europe, wherever I go, I KNOW God will pour out His Spirit! He said so! When the Bible says it, God cannot fail, He does what He says! I am so strongly reminded of the words of Balaam (Numbers 23: 19-20) who was paid, bribed, to curse
10
Israel. He couldn’t do it! They raised the bribe so high, made so many sacrifices – and still Balaam couldn’t do it! Then this ungodly man Balaam says the most amazing thing, something the Church has forgotten, “God is not a man, He cannot lie, GOD ALWAYS DOES WHAT HE SAYS. Whom He says He has blessed, I cannot curse. God is stronger than I am, He will override and overrule me, and He will bless!” If only you knew, the moment you come into the family of God, into the covenant of God – all the demons in hell cannot curse you or destroy you! You are a child of God, you’re under protection, under grace – and even if we commit sin, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us! My father taught me, “When you are saved, you are saved from your sins of the past, of the present, and even the sins of the future are under the Blood!” The Bible says Jesus is alive at the right hand of the Father, constantly interceding for us – prayer going on at the highest level, Jesus pleading with His Father, “Look, I gave My life for them – forgive them for My sake!” You are blessed, you cannot be cursed! I think one reason Christians do not evangelise is that they are not certain enough of their own salvation! If only you were as certain and as positive as I am! I KNOW God cannot lie and cannot fail... I have such a wonderful salvation, I want to share it! I have so much to thank God for, not only that He delivered me from sin, but from prison, cancers... There was so much betrayal under communism... several attempts have been made on my life... God has saved me so many times, from every danger, until I’m conscious that my life is in His hands... I’m part of the power and glory of God! The Word of God says in Joel 2, ‘I will show wonders in the Heavens, blood and fire – before the great day of the Lord comes...’ This great outpouring of the Holy Spirit precedes the return of Christ! It is for TODAY, it’s what we must EXPECT! The Church must expect, not only miracles, but signs and wonders... It is quite normal in my evangelism when I pray collectively for the sick, to see one third to half the people in that meeting instantly healed. Of every kind of disease. But I have seen this all my life. And not just healing. Miracles of every kind. You should read my book, ‘Why Siberia?’! It’s the story of all the miracles that happened in a period of only three months – 21 years ago. God answered prayer so significantly – transport and airplanes and money, every single thing we needed. We went out there, 400 of us, on one way tickets, we didn’t have the money to come back! But God paid all the bills! Church, go by faith!
Prophetic P rophetic
EXPECT the miraculous!!! Unity is key. On the day of Pentecost – when the Church was gathered TOGETHER in ONE place – suddenly there came a mighty wind and filled the house – with fire from the Holy Spirit. Then Peter stood up and in Acts 2:16 says, “This is that which was prophesied in the Old Testament.” God is fulfilling His Word, He’s fulfilling prophecy! Even in the life of Jesus, so often when miracles happened, it is recorded that they happened ‘in order to fulfil the words of the prophet’. Matthew 8:16-17 says Jesus healed all who were sick – in order to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 53: ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities – the chastisement that brought us peace was on Him, and by His stripes we are healed.’ So even the healing ministry of Jesus was the fulfilment of prophecy. The Church today is called to fulfil and to live in the outworking of Bible prophecy! I am determined to prove the truth of every prophecy in the Word of God! Why? – Because of the words of Balaam, an ungodly man, yet who said, “God is not a man that He should lie!” He says so emphatically: GOD DOES WHAT HE SAYS! – Church, get back to this realisation! TAKE GOD AT HIS WORD! Get into the Book, find out what He says, then see what God is able to do! I believe from Deuteronomy 4:32-34 and Jeremiah 16:14-15, God is about to work the greatest miracles ever seen on the face of the earth; so great, that the miracle of the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt will no longer be remembered – because of what is about to happen in the land of the north (Russia) and in Israel!!! That’s why I went to Russia! Not just to evangelise, but to see the power of God! Church, get involved in the action!
them! They don’t get saved till you bring them in! That’s the principle I still work on today. The danger is, the Church is waiting for God. Many prayer meetings, but no action. Wake up! God is waiting for YOU to act!!! Jesus will not come back to preach the Gospel, He comes back to deliver the Church. The responsibility to preach the Gospel is on YOU! Most people agree that the five wise and the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25:1-5 are the Church! If they are the Church, all are asleep when the Bridegroom comes, and only five get in the Kingdom! There will be no time to buy oil when the Lord comes back. GOD IS THE ONLY ONE WHO ALWAYS DOES WHAT HE SAYS. In Acts 1:8, Jesus says, “You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit is come on you!” When I wanted to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, nothing happened; why did I have to wait three months to receive the Holy Spirit? God had to show me that, if I wanted to be filled with Holy Fire, I was too full of myself, I had to empty my life first... Do
you fill a jug with milk that is half full of dirty water? No! You clean the jug first. – Do you want to be half Holy Spirit and half self? No! If you want the fire of God, empty your jug! You’ll give God more room for the fire! That’s why I waited three months. Emptying the jug. That Baptism, when it came, was so mighty, so powerful, it seemed the roof of the building came off, and the angels came down! That was on Easter Monday. But when I got to the church meeting on the Tuesday, I felt as flat as a pancake! All the emotion, all the fire – gone! Nothing. Then I remembered the Word of God, ‘You SHALL receive power after the Holy Spirit has come on you.’ And I learnt from that day as a 13-year old that it’s not your feelings, not your emotions, IT’S WHAT GOD HAS SAID! So when I began to act, the power was there! Step out in faith and use it! If you’ve received the same Holy Spirit I have, the power is only there when you step out in faith and use it! What’s the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for? – Power to go out and bring the people in!
When I was 14, in the war, there were only 20 people in my church. I would go an hour before the Sunday evening Gospel service – and I would pray, “Oh God save thousands.” God said to me, “I’m tired of your praying. Every week, when you get up off your knees, you put out the same 20 chairs, so you’re not expecting the answer! Change your praying. Say, ‘Bring one’ – and then YOU go out and get that one!” With my friends, that’s what we did, put out the extra chair, went out in the street, saw a young fellow, said, “Come with us!” He did. And he got saved. And the next week we prayed, “Oh God save two...” Went out in the street. Stopped two. “Come with us!” The miracle is, they came and they got saved! I learned the first lesson in evangelism. You first pray them in – and then you go and fetch
11
Ivan Komarov talks with David Hathaway in Jerusalem, May 2015 Ivan is an ordained Evangelist of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith, founder of Interdenominational Healing Ministry ‘Jesus Always Heals’, and the organiser of the Russian Association of Healing Rooms (HR). That association helps to spread the Healing Rooms Ministry in churches and cities all over the world. Ivan Komarov organised HR Ministry in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Lithuania. In the past, Ivan was KGB, a General of Civil Aviation, a Senior Flight Commander of Barnaul Air Complex of Altai region and Republic of Altai, Russia, Director General of ‘Altai Airline’. He was an Academician of ‘International Real Economy Academy’. Now, he serves Jesus Christ full-time, and considers all his past achievements to be loss, compared to the knowledge of Christ. The power of God’s Word and love of the Father gripped and changed him, his heart and mind, his family and his entire life, and brought him into ministry.
12
‘Brother David, I am excited by everything you do and say. It’s always so interesting, so wonderful – and you get good results. For me you are a legend of evangelism in Russia – you’ve done more than you realise. It’s true! When you were ministering in Russia, we didn’t have such a healing or deliverance ministry, or mass evangelism the way you did it. So you were a great example to me, and we started a ministry similar to yours – and now we run it all over the world; evangelising, preaching the Gospel, even in Moslem countries. I was ministering for one whole month in Indonesia, and in many other countries. Thousands are repenting. So in a sense, we’re part of your ministry because we continue what you started. God is performing powerful miracles, just like in your ministry – the blind see, the deaf hear, the paralysed are able to walk, people get out of their wheelchairs, are healed from cancer and AIDS, many miracles – even artificial prostheses dissolve in human bodies. Even miracles in nature… Two years ago there was a wildfire in Bratsk, the forest was on fire – they couldn’t stop it. We have a branch of our ministry ‘Healing Rooms’ in that region. The forecast was another week of temperatures over 30 degrees centigrade, but we prayed, and on the following day
heavy torrential rain started and the fire was put out! ‘Today you were saying it’s not easy to preach the Gospel, people don’t want to come the churches – and that’s why we started this ministry ‘Healing Rooms’, in order to attract unbelievers, to get them saved, healed and set free. They don’t want to go to ‘church’ – in Russia they’re told it’s a ‘sect’ – but anyone can come to the ‘Healing Room’ – atheists, Moslems, Buddhists, anyone. And they all get miracles, and they all receive Christ! After that they find churches – they no longer have questions or doubts, who the Living God is. ‘That’s why we draw so much from you, from your ministry, from you personally. You charge us with new energy. The anointing you passed on to me in Barnaul in 2005, when you blessed me and my ministry, continues working! One year ago I was ministering here in Israel in different congregations – we saw many miracles, and many people got saved. That’s why I would like to express my great gratitude to you, that you don’t spare yourself – you are so dedicated to the Lord! How do you do it?!’
David ‘Very simple – I don’t do it in my own strength. We need strength from God. I pray all the time for strength from God. Even the doctors are amazed at my health. When I was praying for healing from lung cancer in 2004, God promised me two things from Jeremiah 33:6 – health and healing! The first miracle was that He healed my cancer; one night the whole cancer came out – I was staying in my German office, and afterwards they had to burn the bed! But God promised me health – this means, you don’t get sick! You and I both see miracles of healing. But a bigger miracle is health – especially when you get to my age! I have the heart function of a young man!
‘As an evangelist, one can count the number of people who receive Christ. But I want to be remembered for the number of people – like yourself – who came to Christ and now do what I do! You came into ministry, you received the same anointing, you do what I do, AND MORE! This is what Jesus said to His disciples, “The miracles that I do, you will do – and you will do BIGGER MIRACLES, because I will go to My Father, and I will send the Holy Spirit!” – The Church has lost its greatest asset – GOD WANTS THE CHURCH TO SEE AND TO WORK MIRACLES! We all read the Acts of the Apostles – but it’s the only book in the Bible that has never been finished! All those miracles – that was the beginning of the Church! But if we are the Church today, we need to see the same miracles! It’s been a challenge all my life to continue the Acts of the Apostles today! The only evidence of the existence of God is the miraculous! For the Jew, the whole of their experience is based on their writings and the comments of the scribes – their written and oral traditions. To me, the evidence of God is what you see – the miracles. Often in my meetings, I say to the unbelievers, “If what I am saying about Jesus
and salvation is not true, there will be no miracles. But if it’s true, God will confirm it – by miracles!” ‘People ask me, why did the Welsh Revival die out? Why do Revivals stop? The answer is, because they stop evangelising! We’ve got to wake up the churches to their responsibility! Each day in all the world 50,000 people receive Jesus, 20,000 of them in China! But it’s a shock, they say every day 80,000 become Moslem!!! Why? Because we’re asleep! We’re not evangelising. We’re not telling people about Jesus! ‘Look! You don’t have to be a preacher, you don’t have to be an evangelist to do the job. What about your family, your friends, people you work with? You don’t have to take them into church. Now listen to me! NEVER argue religion! ONLY TALK ABOUT WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU! Whoever you are, you can be the most powerful evangelist in the world when you stop talking about religion – and get excited and tell people WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU! Get excited until they want what you have!’
13
Katie Morris
At the beginning of 2014, God said to me clearly, ‘If you will hold on, I will give you everything I have put in your heart.’ I believe He said it for a reason – because that year was going to hold some discouraging surprises which would definitely not look in line with the fulfilment of God’s promises… But despite what I saw, I decided, I WILL hold on to all God has said and put in my heart, even if I don’t ‘get the picture’ and things don’t look like they should… I’m not talking about things people have ‘prophesied’ that are not actually from God, and because they are not the Word of God they have no life in them and will never be fulfilled... I’m talking about what I KNOW God has said! Joseph had a prophetic dream from the Lord – twice – of who God would make him to be, exalted, honoured by his family. Of course, his brothers hate him for this, they plan to leave him for dead, but softening, sell him as a slave instead… Faithful as he was as a slave, he ended in prison… And faithful as he was in prison, he was overlooked and forgotten – until the time God chose to remember him, and lift him into the fulfilment of the prophecy. Psalm 105:18-19. Now I am not a Joseph, and the promises I have in my heart are concerned with the ministry I serve and the family I have. But I must confess, I don’t always like the way things appear to be... Still, I have learnt I’m not in control of the unfolding of God’s Word – it will unfold according to His plan, His way, His time. When I was pregnant with my children, all I could do was keep them in my womb and treasure them, love them and bless them – I had no influence over what was written in their DNA – what they would look like, what character, what destiny. Each child was born as something of an amazing surprise! In the same way when we are pregnant with God’s promises, we cannot influence the unfolding, the development, what it will take to get from where we were when we received the promise in our hearts to where we must get to in order to receive the fulfilment of the promise.
14
Mary knew her son was the Son of God, she pondered this: she remembered what the Angel had said, what Elizabeth her cousin had said, and the shepherds, what Simeon and Anna had said; how Jesus, at 12 years old, had stayed behind in the Temple, spoken for 3 days with the Teachers – and what He said to her when she found Him! She knew the prophets, what they had said about the expected Messiah. She identified with Hannah (Luke 1:46-55; 1 Samuel 2:1-10) – she believed the Angel, she knew in her heart that her son was the Messiah, Saviour of His people Israel – and of the Gentiles. So when the wine ran out at the wedding feast in Cana, she KNEW her son had divine authority to solve ANY problem. She told the servants, ‘Whatever He says, do it!’ But shortly after, she began to think in the natural way, until she and the family wanted to stop Him, they thought He was out of His mind! – Mark 3:21&31. Only because she didn’t know how God would unfold and fulfil the thing He had put in her heart… Peter also knew by revelation that Jesus was the Son of God, but almost immediately after, he too misunderstood how this was to unfold. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus had replied, ‘Blessed are you Peter, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father.’ And then He began to tell His disciples about His crucifixion and resurrection – at which Peter reacted in the natural way and rebuked Jesus strongly, ‘Not so Lord!’ – Jesus had to say to Peter, ‘Get behind Me Satan, you’re just thinking like a man and not God!’ Matthew 16:16-17,21-23. So too I misunderstand how God will fulfil His Word, but still, like Peter, I know God’s Word is Life, Eternal Life, and I’m not letting go, I’m not going anywhere else! John 6:67-68. I’m staying with what God has said. And I have come to recognise that my thoughts are not His thoughts and His Ways are not my ways – my thoughts are fruitless – but His Word works! Isaiah 55:8-9,11. Abraham obeyed not knowing. None of us knows all the details – we must just obey.
“ALL ISRAEL IS ASKING THIS QUESTION…” Last time I was in Tel Aviv, my taxi driver asked me, “Who was this ‘Jesus’? He was a good man. He healed the sick. Why did we kill Him? Was He Messiah? All Israel is asking this question!”
The Ministry of
David Hathaway
HE PEOPLE! T O T T IS R H C G IN R B YOUR GIFT HELPS US
TO T IF G R U O Y D N E PLEASE S
Eurovision Mission to Europe International Office, 41 Healds Road, Dewsbury WF13 4HU, UK Tel: + 44 (0)1924 453693 Fax: + 44 (0)1924 465326 email: uk@propheticvision.org.uk
UK Bank Transfers: Eurovision Barclays Bank, PO Box 14, Halifax HX1 1BG, UK Sort Code 20–35–84, Acc No 80000221
International Bank Transfers: Eurovision Any Currency
Sterling IBAN: GB56 BARC 2035 8480 0002 21 SWIFTBIC: BARC GB22 US Dollar IBAN: GB96 BARC 2035 8443 4348 66 SWIFTBIC: BARC GB22 Euro IBAN: GB89 BARC 2035 8455 8597 22 SWIFTBIC: BARC GB22 Eurovision is a Registered Charity No 1126438 (a Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England No 6638375)
Online Donations:
www.propheticvision.org.uk/securedonation.htm
15
If undelivered please return to: Eurovision, 41 Healds Rd, Dewsbury WF13 4HU, UK
Your gift enables us to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ – with signs and wonders – to Jew and Gentile alike.
S N IG A P M A C T X NE
L E A R S I – E N I A R K U – A I K A V O L S Please send your gift to: Eurovision Mission to Europe, International Office, 41 Healds Road, Dewsbury WF13 4HU, UK
Eurovision is a Registered Charity No 1126438 (a Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England No 6638375)
Telephone donations: +44 (0)1924 453693 Online donations: www.propheticvision.org.uk/securedonation.htm
Donations can also be made by bank transfer: UK Bank transfers: Eurovision Barclays Bank, PO Box 14, Halifax HX1 1BG, UK, Sort Code 20–35–84, Acc No 80000221
International Bank transfers: Eurovision Sterling IBAN: GB56 BARC 2035 8480 0002 21 SWIFTBIC: BARC GB22 US Dollar IBAN: GB96 BARC 2035 8443 4348 66 SWIFTBIC: BARC GB22 Euro IBAN: GB89 BARC 2035 8455 8597 22 SWIFTBIC: BARC GB22
PROPHETIC VISION© is published by Eurovision Publications Tel: + 44 (0)1924 453693 Fax: + 44 (0)1924 465326 email: uk@propheticvision.org.uk This is a prophetic ministry of David Hathaway Editorial Director: David Hathaway Editor: Katie Morris ISSN 1358–698X
www.propheticvision.org.uk eurovisiontv.org.uk Twitter: @DavidGHathaway facebook.com/DavidGHathaway google.com/+EurovisionMission YouTube.com/EurovisionMission
All intellectual property rights however arising in relation to this publication including its name which may exist in any law throughout the world are vested solely in David Hathaway