David Hathaway, Geneva, February 2018 I want to see God at work! I want to see the bigger miracles that Jesus said we would see. When I was in a communist prison, not knowing when I would ever get out, and remember, I had no Bible, what challenged me was remembering Paul and Silas in prison. Paul was the greatest evangelist in those days. They prayed, and God sent an earthquake. It shook the prison, broke the iron chains and broke open the doors! That was 2000 years ago. I know we all say, ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever’. But I don’t quite believe that, I believe God gets more powerful every day! Only it’s not that He gets more powerful, it’s our understanding of Him that should get greater the longer we live in Him! So, in the communist prison, I began to pray, “Look Father, if You could work a miracle so big that You could literally break iron chains” – remember, Paul and Silas were chained to the guards – “O God, if You could work that kind of a miracle, surely You can do a bigger miracle today?!! You can set me free!” Of course, that’s what God did! But the greater miracle was that I wasn’t just set free, God sent the British Prime Minister to rescue me! What I want is not just a repeat of what’s in the Bible, I want to see the bigger miracles. I believe we can! But we’ve got to put our faith in God to the test! When I think of what God has done in my life in just the last two years it is powerful... But I’m not just looking at what God has done in the past, I’m looking at what God is going to do in the future – still greater miracles! I want to bring three scriptures. In Exodus 3:7 God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and this is what He said, “I have seen the affliction of My people in Egypt, I have heard their cry, I know their sorrows – and I AM come down to deliver!” God sees and knows our afflictions and He says, “I’m not just in Heaven, I am come down to deliver!” If God said that 4000 years ago, how much more is He saying it today! “I am HERE!” The Presence of God is with us! Constantly. God is here to deliver us! And He will deliver us, whatever is troubling us. From sickness, from financial problems, every kind of problem. The second scripture is in 1 Corinthians
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4:19-20. Apostle Paul, writing to the Church says, “I will come to you shortly, and I will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the POWER. For the Kingdom of God is not in words, but in POWER!” The Word of God is not just in writing, it’s in the POWER of God to fulfil His Promises. And my third scripture is Numbers 23:19-20. You remember how Balak hired Balaam to curse Israel. Three times Balaam refused to curse. The third time, God spoke through Balaam, who said, “How can I curse those whom God has blessed? – God isn’t a man who can lie. God keeps His Word, He does what He says!” The POWER of our God is not in the theory or the theology, it’s in ACTION! As an evangelist, this is what I am determined to see: GOD AT WORK! God moving, God changing things, God changing people. Many years ago, working in Siberia just after the fall of communism, I was allowed to speak in a prison camp. We had just one hour. While the worship group were singing, the Commanding Officer was talking to me, “I’m a communist, an atheist, how can your God change these men?!! This is maximum security, these are the worst kind of criminals. In front of you are 200 serial murderers, 400 serious sex offenders, and 800 other criminals of every sort, 1400 men. I have a gun and I beat them. How can your talking to these men change them?!!” I knew it was pointless just ‘talking’ to those men, the Holy Spirit had to come. I said to them, “I spent a year in a communist prison just like this. But I know something you don’t know, I know how to get out!” All the men came forward and by now the prison officer was holding onto my arm! I said, “If we overcome the guards and I let you out, the evil spirits in you, that drove you to commit those crimes, will go out with you, and because you have no money, no food, no work and no home, within three months 80 percent of you will be back inside the prison. That’s statistics. God has to change your life!” And I preached Christ with the POWER to change the men. I only had 30 minutes. I preached the simple Gospel of the God who so loved the world that He sent His Son to take the punishment of every single one, rapist, murderer, whoever you may be – Christ
died to deliver you! I prayed with them. All 1400 men knelt on the ground. Even the officers prayed. Then I had to leave. It was a year before I could get back. The Commanding Officer threw open the gates, “After you left, all the men changed!” I spoke to the prisoners, “After you left, all the officers changed!” Not only were they having prayer meetings and Bible studies, but out of that prison we now know, 140 of those men, that’s one in ten, became evangelists, pastors and missionaries! God changed them! The Kingdom of God is not just the words, it’s the ACTION! GOD AT WORK! I could tell you so many stories like this – phenomenal demonstrations of the POWER of God! This is what motivates me! But it doesn’t come easy. Yes, everybody can be an evangelist, everybody should preach the Gospel, everybody should be leading other people to Christ! But if you really want to see the POWER of God, there’s a price to pay. I was saved when I was 8, baptised in water when I was 12, baptised in the Holy Spirit when I was 13, preaching in the street and in the church – but when I was 15, I was with a group of young people by the seafront in England and God began to speak to me. I had to leave the group, because God was saying, “David, I want you to serve Me, I want you to give Me EVERYTHING. Your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your feet, your family, your money – EVERYTHING!” It was a big battle for a 15-year-old. I thought I had already given Him enough, but eventually I gave in, “Lord, I give You EVERYTHING.” I was on holiday, staying with Christian friends. When I went to bed that night I said, “Now Lord, I have given You everything…” I was dreaming, “Next day is Sunday, the pastor will call me and I’m going to preach...” I was thinking of all the things I could do... Next morning I was the first downstairs, so excited, “This is the beginning of my new life...” But the first thing I saw was a row of dirty shoes. I hated cleaning shoes, I still do. And God said, “I called you to serve Me, clean all these shoes!” So the first job I had to do for God was cleaning shoes. I cleaned them as if Jesus Himself was coming down from Heaven to wear them! That was how I began. We begin at
