Bible Study with David Hathaway - (David Hathaway’s weekly TV programmes)

(Recorded in Germany) In 1972, when I was in prison for Bible smuggling, my heart was full of desperation and pain. One day, as I was praying, a miracle happened: it was as if Heaven had opened, the cell was filled with a brilliant light, all the angels of Heaven seemed to crowd into that cell, and I began to praise and worship the Lord. I got to my feet and began to run around that cell singing, “Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee, how great Thou art!” The glory of God filled my heart, changing me, the sadness and the pain were gone! I was locked in a prison cell, yet I was in the presence of God, experiencing the glory of God, something greater than I had ever known in a church – it was as if I was transported into Heaven!

Filmed in Germany: I’m so thankful to God for allowing me to serve Him for 75 years. God has been so faithful to me. From childhood, I wanted every day and every part of my life to be under the direction and control of the Holy Spirit. Now when I look back over 75 years of ministry I know with absolute certainty that there has been both purpose and direction in my life. God has been in control of all my days and all my experiences. Everything that has happened in my life was foreknown in His plan.

Recorded in Germany: From my youth, I have had a vision burning in my soul – a vision of Europe won for Christ: ‘Eurovision’. This vision is God’s vision, God’s desire – my vision – to see His Power, His Glory in Europe. I cannot rest until God fulfils this vision that He has put within my heart.

Jesus made a very strong statement in Acts 1.8. He said, “YOU WILL RECEIVE POWER! You will receive Power after the Holy Spirit is come on you!” I want to challenge you of the necessity in the Church of POWER! Power motivates and drives everything God does and everything that we do. We NEED the Fire and Power of God! There are three sources of Power open to us. ONE: you will receive Power after the Holy Spirit is come on you, (Acts 1.8). TWO: there is Power in our prayer. The prayer of faith will save the sick, James 5.14, and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man ‘avails much’ - it is the Power that will move mountains! James 5.16. Elijah was no different to us! James 5.17. He prayed there would be no rain in Israel, and there was no rain for three and a half years until he prayed that it would rain. And it did! From my earliest boyhood I’ve experienced the Power of prayer. I learnt from my father! I’m the product of his powerful prayers. All my life I’ve experienced the Power of answered prayer. There’s corporate prayer, yes, but there’s private prayer when YOU get to grips with God! Still today, through the Holy Spirit, prayer, communication with God, is the source of my power. THREE: the Power of the Blood. Reading through Corinthians recently, where Paul is writing about the Communion, he says, 1 Cor .10.16, “Is not the cup of Blessing which we bless - the Communion - a participation in the Blood of Christ?” At the Last Supper Jesus told His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” In Cor 11.23ff, Paul writes, “I received from the Lord what I have passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He said, ‘This is My Body broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way after supper, He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My Blood, do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’ For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes!”

Jesus comes into Capernaum, and a centurion comes to Him – he’s not a Jew, he’s a Roman soldier, an officer in the army that is occupying the land. But this officer comes to Jesus saying, “My servant is at home, sick of the palsy – paralysed – and grievously tormented.” Immediately Jesus responds, “I will come and heal him.” That’s Jesus – the willingness – He would even go to a Roman and heal his servant. But the Roman says, no, I’m not a Jew, I’m not good enough for You to come to my home. Yes, I’m an officer – but I’m not worthy of You! You can imagine what those Roman officers got up to, believe me! They weren’t normally kind, gentle people, they had the power to be brutal. Yet – and this is very interesting – he says, “I’m not worthy to have You in my house, but SPEAK ONLY A WORD, and my servant will be healed!” He recognised the AUTHORITY Jesus had! Stop here for a moment. You see, it wasn’t just the centurion who recognised the authority of Jesus, but the ordinary people, back up on that mountain in Chs 5,6 &7, THEY saw the authority He had! You see, the scribes studied and taught ‘from the Book’. But even the ordinary people saw that there’s a vast difference between ‘teaching from the Book’ and speaking with AUTHORITY as Jesus did – not from intellectual study, but from a life lived with practice and experience. Matthew 7.28-29.

'I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings. Don’t you realise that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.' (1 Corinthians 9.23-27, NLT)

Paul speaks to the Corinthians as a spiritual father, correcting them out of love. His goal is restoration, not punishment. He reminds them that the Kingdom of God is not just talk, but power – genuine faith produces transformed lives, not just impressive words. 'So Apollos and I should be looked upon as Christ’s servants who distribute God’s blessings by explaining God’s secrets. Now the most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to. What about me? Have I been a good servant? Well, I don’t worry over what you think about this or what anyone else thinks. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. My conscience is clear, but even that isn’t final proof. It is the Lord himself who must examine me and decide. 'So be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether someone is a good servant or not. When the Lord comes, he will turn on the light so that everyone can see exactly what each one of us is really like, deep down in our hearts. Then everyone will know why we have been doing the Lord’s work. At that time God will give to each one whatever praise is coming to him. 'I have used Apollos and myself as examples to illustrate what I have been saying: that you must not have favorites. You must not be proud of one of God’s teachers more than another. What are you so puffed up about? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if all you have is from God, why act as though you are so great, and as though you have accomplished something on your own?' (1 Corinthians 4.1-7, TLB.)

Paul had a problem with the church in Corinth. They were still ‘babes in Christ’ - 1 Cor 3.1. Anyone who has been a parent knows the struggle it is to bring children to maturity - to potty-train them, to train them to eat nicely, to share, and everything else… When you come to Christ, you leave behind worldly things to live in a ‘Christ dimension’ - a dimension so distinct and different from the world we grew up in. That’s why Jesus said you’ve got to be ‘born again’ - come on! You’ve got to die to the old, and, like a new-born, you’ve got to start and learn the basics. That’s why Paul says in v2, “I gave you milk and not meat, because you were not able, and you’re still are not able. You still behave like worldly people do…” Let’s face it - there are many in the church who live and speak like the world, like they did before they became a Christian… No difference. The biggest problem in Corinth was the strife, envy and division. That’s not Christ. Christ is one. In Him is no division. But some of the people in Corinth were saying, v4, “I follow Paul”, and others were saying, “I follow Apollos.” That’s not of God!

I don’t read anywhere in the New Testament that Jesus or the Apostles engaged in ‘spiritual warfare’, binding demons BEFORE they could minister freely somewhere. Talking to our Heavenly Father, yes. Seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, yes. Because, through Jesus, by the Spirit we have DIRECT access to the Father - Eph 2.18! The promise of the Father is that when we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive power to become Christ’s witnesses, anywhere on earth, wherever He calls us - Acts 1.4-5,8! It’s simple. Paul, writing the believers in the pagan city of Corinth, said, 1 Cor 2, “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That’s a powerful statement! I’m sorry to say that today our preachers preach all sorts of things that I would question. But Paul is very simple. Though he was a highly educated Jew with Roman citizenship from the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor, though he was a Pharisee, trained to a very high degree in Jewish Scripture, theology, teachings and traditions, and equipped with much ‘eloquence and superior wisdom’ from his studies in Jerusalem - when he came to these Corinthians, he came very simply, resolved to know and preach nothing else, but Christ and His Crucifixion. This is a challenge to the Church today, because I fear we’ve gone far away from the basics.

'I can never stop thanking God for all the wonderful gifts he has given you, now that you are Christ’s: he has enriched your whole life. He has helped you speak out for him and has given you a full understanding of the truth; what I told you Christ could do for you has happened! Now you have every grace and blessing; every spiritual gift and power for doing his will are yours during this time of waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he guarantees right up to the end that you will be counted free from all sin and guilt on that day when he returns. God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, even Christ our Lord.' (1 Corinthians 1, TLB.)

What happens when we die? As Christians we believe in the resurrection of Christ. We know from reading the Gospel that there were many witnesses to the resurrection. And because Christ was raised, we can know with certainty that we too will be raised from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15 is Paul’s extended teaching on the resurrection, written to correct confusion in the Corinthian church and to anchor their faith in the core of the Gospel.

God says, “I have seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, and I know their sorrows, and for this reason I am come down to deliver them.” (I preach on this verse in Ukraine!) The children of Israel are in affliction, they’re slaves in the land of Egypt. In the English, God doesn’t say, “I WILL come down,” but “I AM (already) come down!” He’s already here. He is the God of the past, the present and the future! His promise to the predecessors was to deliver Israel, to take them into Canaan and give them their own territory. God’s Name in Hebrew can equally be translated as ‘I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE’, as Biblical Hebrew has no future tense, instead a continuous present. I am whoever I want to be, whatever I want to be, whenever I want to be. Whatever I want and say, I do. I am EVERYTHING. I am EVERYWHERE. Hence the fact that in Exodus 3, God is in the burning bush! And speaks from the fire! But to Elijah God does not speak from the wind, earthquake or fire – but in a still small voice.

In Luke 4.14 it says, ‘Jesus returned in the Power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about and He taught in their synagogues being glorified by all.’ He’s been baptised by John; and full of the Holy Spirit, He’s been led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He was tempted for 40 days by the devil! In v9, the devil takes Him to a pinnacle of the Temple, it’s the last of the temptations, saying, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down!” It was a challenge of course and Jesus resisted him, saying, “It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” There’s a big lesson here that we must be careful we don’t ‘tempt’ God in the wrong way by attempting to do something that is not in His Will for us. And the devil, having finished tempting Jesus, departs from Him – ‘for a time’! I want you to understand that when we have the Anointing and Power of the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit of the Lord is on us, we have Authority. The reason I was able to do all those crazy things in the former Soviet Union under communism is because I have Authority – from the Holy Spirit! Even the hardened communists, my biggest opponents recognised the Authority that I had. We are Christ’s Ambassadors; in His Name we have ALL the Authority of HIS Kingdom through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Use it!

‘I said to the One who stood at the Gate of the Year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the Unknown.” And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way.” So I went forth gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of Day…’ (Minnie Louise Haskins) This is so applicable to us all today. For myself, in 2025, I was looking back over 75 years of full-time ministry. But we’ve got to stop looking back; I’m looking AHEAD to the coming years, to the responsibility and ministry in front of me. Paul says, Phil 3:13-14: Forget those things that are behind… press forward to the goal, to the prize, to the high calling of God! 2 Corinthians 4:1 - this message is for you and for me: “Wherefore, seeing we have this ministry, seeing we have received mercy, we faint not.” We have received mercy, we have received a ministry - so we must not be afraid, we must not faint when we look at the enormity of the task in front! I must not faint when I look at the enormous task that is still in front of me in my ministry. Paul says, v3-4, the devil hides the Gospel from the lost and has blinded them, lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shine on them... But this is the Light we are called to bring to this dark world!

Our world is in turmoil and distress. Millions of people are in distress. I want to give you a word of comfort from Psalms.

The message of the angels to the shepherds was 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men'. We don't have that yet. Everything about the Bible is a prophetic vision of the future. Isaiah 9 talks about trouble, distress and violence in the Land; this is appropriate for the days in which we live; there is so much chaos. Yet we do not despair, we have a hope in Christ. Isaiah chapter 9 is a very prophetic chapter: part of it was fulfilled in the Christmas story, which we celebrate during this season, but what I want you to understand is, the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy will be at Christ's Second Coming.

An interesting ‘window’ on faith is found in Numbers 13. Moses and the whole of Israel had halted on the borders of the Promised Land after their arduous journey. There they were, within sight of their goal, the fulfilment of all God’s promises within their grasp. Surely this was all that they could ask for, the ultimate reward for the sufferings which they had endured both in the last days in Egypt and in the travelling. This was the reason why God had performed all the outstanding miracles both in Egypt and in the crossing of the Red Sea, in order to give them deliverance and to fulfil His promise to give them this land.

The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah whilst he was shut up in prison, ‘Thus saith the Lord, the Maker – that formed Heaven and earth – to establish it, “Call unto Me and I will answer!”’ Come on! So many pray in doubt… Remember how amazed the disciples were when Jesus cursed the fig tree and it died from the root? Jesus explained to them in Mark 11.22-24, “If you will speak to this mountain (the Mount of Olives) and command it to be cast down into the sea (the Dead Sea), if you speak it and believe in your heart without doubt, what you say will be done!” It’s time today, in the 21st century that we believed that God will honour His Word and do what He says!!!

For me the most important chapter in the Bible on healing is Matthew 8. Jesus came down from the mountain and thousands followed Him. A leper came and said, ‘If You want to, You can heal me!’ Jesus said, ‘I want to!’ and it was done. Then Jesus came into Capernaum and a Roman centurion came to Him, ‘Lord, I have a sick servant at home.’ Jesus said, ‘I’ll come to your house.’ He said, ‘Don’t, I’m not a good man,’ and I don’t suppose he was if he was a Roman centurion! But the officer said the most amazing thing, ‘One word from You and my servant will be healed! I’m a man under authority, an officer in the most powerful army in the world. I have authority from those above, and over those under me. My men obey me! Jesus, I recognise in You the same authority.’

Acts 2.22-36 describes how Jesus was approved of God through the miracles, wonders, and signs that God performed through Him. The Power in the Gospel is indelibly linked with the miraculous. Throughout Jesus' ministry in the Gospels, and then with the disciples in the book of Acts, we read that it was the miracles which was the evidence of the message they preached. In 1994 I was preaching in Khabarovsk, Siberia. The Crusade on the Saturday night saw us under a powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit, and many hundreds crowded into the open-air of the football stadium as the praise and worship team ministered. Then when I made the appeal almost every person came forward, so many, that surely everyone who had come into that stadium, lonely, lost, without faith or hope, and without Christ, found Him that night. Their hopelessness and despair had changed into the glory of the reality of knowing Him who loved us with a dying and undying love.

In June 1991 I was, by a miracle, in Ukraine. The invitation came as a direct approach from the Soviet Union. Ukraine was still a part of the USSR, they didn’t declare independence until 24 August, exactly two months after our crusade. Somehow, they’d heard of me through people I was working with in Czechoslovakia, but they hadn’t really believed I would come… I arrived at their church in the middle of a prayer meeting – and found they had made no preparations at all. But the Holy Spirit undertook. The pastor got on the phone straight away to someone he knew who got us permission to use the open-air theatre in the park. The city administration broadcast advertising for our meetings all over the city through the old Soviet public announcement system – loudspeakers on the lampposts. Even the actual meetings were broadcast this way, including my preaching and prayer for repentance. It all took place that same weekend that I arrived. Miracles of healing were outstanding; I remember five blind people received their sight – and I met one of them many years later in some other city in the former USSR; he simply said, “Do you remember me? In Rovno? You prayed for me, I was blind. I can still see!”

Our God answers prayer – and He works miracles. I know miracles will happen when I pray; I don’t have any question about it. It’s no different from knowing that every morning the sun will get out of bed and show itself at my window. God works miracles every day – but it’s for us to believe that He can, and will in our lives. This is where faith becomes so important.

(Filmed in Kazakhstan, 2025) As I celebrate 75 years in ministry, my job is not yet done, I’m still asking what will it be next time, what will happen this year? I still don’t have enough Power, I’m still not satisfied that God has answered me fully. How much longer must I live to get all the answers? I know that these answers will only come as I continue seeing God in action – that’s why I cannot stop, must not stop, He has so much more to reveal. All I know is that it is step by step by step, and I have not reached the end of the road yet; tomorrow will be more exciting than today.

(Filmed in Kazakhstan 2025) 'For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power,' (1 Corinthians 4.20). I live not by word, but through the power of God. I also want to share with you Romans 1.16, 'For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.' The Gospel is Good News. This is the key which I want to share with you, all the power of God is in the Gospel we preach. If you want to see miracles, lives changed, the power to work these is in the Gospel. Never neglect the simple Gospel message of Jesus Christ. I have experienced the power of God all my life.

(Filmed in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2025) 'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know,' (Jeremiah 33.3, NKJV). God is challenging us to believe for greater miracles - to do the greater works that Jesus promised! Is your faith strong enough? Is mine? Will the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing on the sails of my little boat push me further into the greatness of God? Like Columbus setting out into a vast and unknown ocean – I want to go where no one had ever gone before. I want the Holy Spirit to fill the sails of my tiny boat and take me into a spiritual world unknown and unexplored! Today it’s time that we began to rise up and recognise the power and authority that we have in Jesus’ Name. Power to preach a life-changing Gospel, power to bring healing miracles in order that He might receive the glory, and so that we as ‘ordinary’ people might have something dynamic to demonstrate in our lives! When Jesus healed the paralytic man (Matthew 9.6) He said, ‘So that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth... rise up and walk!’ Today we must become men and women of action to continue the demonstration begun by Jesus, so that non-believers will desire to have what we have!

(Filmed in Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2025) Too many people think when they are advanced in years that they have learnt everything, but I want to challenge you: I am 93, and there is still so much to learn and discover. This year I am celebrating 75 years in full-time ministry. All my life I have wanted to see how far God could/would reveal His Power – if I stepped out in faith. God HAS more miraculous Power available than any living person including Moses, Elijah, David and the Old Testament prophets has YET seen. Even the Apostles and first disciples in the New Testament only tapped the surface. It’s like a sailor setting out into a vast ocean in a tiny boat – the vastness of God’s Power is unbelievable, greater than anyone can imagine. Why has no one ever realised that, with the Holy Spirit, God’s Power is an unexplored ocean? I’m a sailor, and I want the Holy Spirit to fill the sails of my tiny boat and take me into a spiritual world as yet unknown and unexplored! Like Christopher Columbus, I want to go where no one has ever gone before. Now, aged 93, I have not reached the limits of God’s Power HERE, ON EARTH! But the faith driving me is not in my head, it’s in my heart. I want to share this passion with you.

(Filmed in Kyiv, Ukraine | July 2025) I want to challenge you: God has called you! We don’t all have to be preachers, but the fact is that we are saved to live for God. I want to emphasise that God called me, I did not choose to serve God. Jesus said in His own words, ‘You did not choose me, I chose you.’ He called us in order that we might serve Him, and I believe that He called every single born-again believer to serve Him. And once you are called into service you will need the Holy Spirit’s fire and power, because you cannot make it on your own!

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1.16, ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Gospel which is the Power of God to deliver everyone who believes’. All the Power of God, through the Holy Spirit, is in the preaching of the Gospel! It is the Gospel that is the Power of God – and this Power is in you! It’s not an emotion. When the Power of God falls, when the Spirit of God comes on you, you will fall on your knees, on your face and cry out to God.

'For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.' ( 1 Peter 2.21-25)

There are three visions, three perspectives you need to have if you want to work for God: a vision of God, of the world and of what God can do through you. Most of you are younger than me, so I want to talk to you as a father, grandfather! I want to show you what vision can do in your life. If you do not have a clear vision and purpose, you will achieve nothing for God. I want to give you a clear vision for your future, of what God wants to do, and I want you to live with this vision for the rest of your life! ‘Where there is no VISION the people perish!’ (Proverbs 29.18, KJV). Only the King James Version is so clear, so blunt. In other languages, in other versions, it’s watered down. But without that VISION of who God really is, you are spiritually DEAD! The Power and the Authority that I have only come through the VISION of KNOWING who God is!

This is the prophetic challenge, God is saying to us in Haggai 2.3: ‘Who is left among you that saw this House in its first glory – and how do you see it now?!!’ This is the challenge to the Church and to our nations: something HAS to happen to dramatically CHANGE us. There have been times in my own life when I have had to experience this dramatic change and transformation. It was never a change of direction. My staff will tell you that what I wrote when I was fifteen in my magazine ‘The Evangelist’, is EXACTLY what I say now. What God put in my heart then, is EXACTLY what God is fulfilling in my life now. So the direction has never changed – but I have had to have the renewing. Without those times when God has stopped me, put me in a prison, laid me aside, cancer, or any other thing – there has had to be that dramatic realisation in my life of the need of change. God is today saying to the Church EXACTLY what He was saying here to Israel through the prophet Haggai! I want to challenge you, every one of you – who is there still here in Britain (or wherever you are) who saw the Glory of God in this land, who saw the Power of God in the churches, who saw the repentance, who saw the demonstration of the Holy Spirit? I would say to you, what do you see now? Desolation. You don’t hear a call to repentance, you don’t see the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I would say to you – the Glory has gone. And God is saying in this Scripture in Haggai, the Glory has departed from the House of God! WE are the House of God. And the Glory has gone! We have got to bring back the Glory and the Power into the House of God!

Where is the Power in the Church? I am concerned that the Church has lost sight of the power and effectiveness of the Pentecost experience. We all need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. The Christian who wants to be effective in ministry first needs to be filled by the Spirit. The more I study the life of Christ, the more I realise the influence and the Power of the Holy Spirit working in Him, in His life and ministry. Just as the disciples had to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came before they could begin their ministry, so Jesus Himself did not begin His powerful public ministry until after He had received the Holy Spirit! Matt 3.16- 17; Mk 1.9-12; Luke 3.21. That same Holy Spirit who was in Christ should be in us! And the Holy Spirit who has begun working in us, will continue until the Day Christ returns!

'Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God – my God – will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord,' (1 Chronicles 28). The hunger in my heart, which has driven me all my life, is still the underlying reason for the whole vision which burns so deeply in my heart today: the desire to see the Power of God poured out today in greater measure than at Pentecost!

"God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it," (Numbers 23.19-20). Balaam was paid by Balak to curse the people of God. But this is what Balaam said, “God is not a man that He should lie, neither a son of man that He should repent (change His mind) – what He said, shall He not do it, and what He has spoken will He not make it happen?!” God cannot lie, He cannot change what He has said. And in the next verse Balaam says, God has blessed, no one can change it! When you have learnt power with God, God will begin to bless your life, your home, your family, your finance, your job – everything about your life! God will bless you. No one can change it, no one can reverse it – your life is under the power and blessing of God!

I have seen many miracles. In a period of five years, only in Russia and Ukraine, we recorded more than 20,000 healings! I have a very long record with the KGB! One year I arrived in a city in Russia and they were waiting to stop me preaching – but their biggest problem was not the preaching, it was the miracles of healing! They are not afraid of preachers – they are afraid of the Power of God! They asked me, “What is your authority to heal the sick?” We opened the Word of God and showed them Mark 16, “This is what God tells us to do, it’s in the Bible, ‘Lay hands on the sick and they WILL be healed!’ We’re going to do what the Bible says,” and they couldn’t stop us! In these last days God is saying to the church, NOW, “I am prepared to do something greater, bigger, more miraculous than anything that has ever been seen before in the earth, or in the church.” God is about to do the greatest miracles the world has ever seen. He’s going to raise up men like Elijah, men with an anointing to do the greater works than Jesus did! – John 14.12. Why? Because we are living in the days of the return of Christ, when we’re going to see Revival Fire bursting on the church, until we are working and believing and moving into spiritual victory – all in the preparation for the glorious return of Jesus!

I am very emotional when I preach the Gospel. In Matthew 9, when Jesus said to the paralysed man who had been laid at His Feet, “Son, your sins are forgiven”, the religious Pharisees accused Him in their hearts, “Only God can forgive sin!” Knowing what was in their hearts, Jesus made this amazing declaration, “So that you may know that the Son of Man has Power on earth to forgive sin” – He turned to the paralysed man and commanded him – “Get up and walk!” Jesus, in His own words said that He healed the sick to PROVE that He could forgive sin. How then can we separate healing and salvation in evangelism when Jesus linked them together so closely? And Matthew 8.16-17 records of Jesus that He healed all that were sick to fulfil the words of Isaiah the prophet, He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. Jesus bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. There is no limit to God’s Love – Salvation, Healing – it’s already done – take it!

I grew up with George Jeffreys and was dedicated by him as a baby. I knew the miracles in his and in Smith Wigglesworth’s lives. But all my life, I have believed there is more Power available from God than anything yet seen on earth. I grew up surrounded by what those who had received the Holy Spirit’s Power had achieved – the miracles – the thousands saved. Yet as I read the prophecies of Joel Chapter 2, I sensed there was an even greater Power available – which Joel calls the Latter Rain. But GREATER than the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the 20th Century, which everyone assumed WAS the Latter Rain. Aged 14, I had received the Baptism of Fire after a year of prayer and fasting – but in my heart I believed that there was MORE. No one, not even the first disciples had ever seen the real Power I saw in parts of the Old Testament. I wanted to see how much Power the God of the Bible really had, the God who created the whole universe from nothing and formed man from dust. That’s why, in 1961, I risked my life to get to Jerusalem for the Conference on the Day of Pentecost which was to be held for the first time in 2000 years in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. I was simply believing that I could receive what Joel referred to in Chapter 2. When I first received the Holy Spirit, I had asked for the Gift of Faith – now I wanted to see how far God could/would reveal His Power – if I stepped out in faith. My adventure going to Jerusalem in 1961 was the start. Going where no man had gone before. The first in the world to make the unknown and dangerous overland crossing behind the Iron Curtain, through the communist countries and Arab nations on a war-footing with Israel, I received a medal from the Israeli Government when I arrived, and I was on TV when I got home! Now, aged 93, I have not reached the limits of God’s Power HERE, ON EARTH! But the faith driving me is not in my head, it’s in my heart.

'For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power,' (1 Corinthians 4.20). This is the essence of the Bible - people doing the 'job'. The Bible is a practical Book, a book of action, an adventure story: Creation, Israel, the prophets, the stories, the Kings, the nation - the fights - the prophecies relating to Israel and Christ. I believe in action. God has called us into the Kingdom, and if you are a born-again, baptised, Spirit-filled believer, God has done that for a reason. God doesn’t save you and call you so that you can sit at ease – we are saved to serve! Not just to have a wonderful life. In the 1960's, God gave me a strong challenge one morning after preaching to my church in Dewsbury: He said, shut up, stop telling others what to do… go out and do it yourself… live by faith, demonstrate it works, then come back and tell others how do it. The Apostle James wrote, 'Show me your faith by your works.' What do you believe? Even the devil believes in God. We must demonstrate our faith in God by the way we live. I grew up with George Jeffreys and was dedicated by him as a baby. I knew the miracles in his and in Smith Wigglesworth’s lives. But all my life, I have believed there is more Power available from God than anything yet seen on earth.

As a boy, my father taught me how to defeat satan. It must have been one summer when I was together with my parents on holiday in Eastbourne. I think it was 1946, so by now I would have been 14 years old... What a lesson I had learned as a young teenager. The Bible says, ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ I had found that God’s Power will defeat Satan every time, and I have gained the victory over the devil ever since. Many times, Satan looks as big and dangerous as Goliath did to David, but our God is greater and more powerful than any enemy who tries to stop us. I have the Holy Spirit in me, and He gives me the victory, and has done ever since that challenge on Beachy Head when I was only 14 years old.

When I was in prison for smuggling Bibles into the USSR I was sentenced to what could have been ten years. I was not allowed a Bible, but I reminded the Lord that in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were imprisoned, they began to praise the Lord, He sent an earthquake and freed them. By faith I asked the Lord to do the same for me – He answered – and opened my prison doors by a miracle!

In March, David spent four days on the Ukrainian frontline. In Kharkiv and Donetsk regions we visited villages destroyed by the Russian army, met with the people still living there, and with military at their posts. We brought humanitarian packages for the needy, and practical gifts to assist the military. And most importantly, David brought a message of encouragement to all, preaching Christ and praying with the physically and emotionally sick. On the Sunday 500 packed the church in Slovyansk. James 5.16 says, ‘The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.’ Powerful prayer works! The original Greek of the Bible often uses a special word for power: dunamis – it signifies miraculous, wonder-working power. From it we get the words dynamo (which generates power), and dynamite (the explosive). If you want prayer to work, to change your circumstances, then it must generate power. And it has to be like dynamite. If you put an ordinary explosive against a wall, its energy disperses into space. But dynamite does not dissipate its energy – it pushes the wall down! That’s what our prayer must be like. It’s got to move mountains! We must learn how to talk to God, until our praying will move every mountain, every obstruction, everything that stands between us and the fulfilment of God’s promises.

'The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.'"' (Matthew 28.5-7) I am never afraid because Jesus is with me. My real experiences with God have never been in a church, or in a conference. It was first in my teenage cry for God – then in my cancer – then in my prison that I found God. The next step of power in my ministry began when God touched my life in that prison! God is always a God of miracles! Yes, I have experienced the power of God in my life! Not some emotional experience in a conference, but step by step walking closer to God – my teenage cry for fire, the cancer, the prison – and many other problems and miracles. What amazes me is the disciples' reaction to the resurrection. Even after walking with Jesus, they were shocked when the tomb was empty. In Matthew’s Gospel, it says there was an earthquake, and angels rolled away the stone. The authorities feared the disciples would steal His body, so they sealed the tomb and posted guards. Yet even with all they’d seen – Jairus’ daughter raised, Lazarus resurrected – they didn’t believe Jesus was alive until they saw Him. That’s the truth: conviction comes through personal experience. We can believe in God, sure – but so does the devil. What we need is a personal encounter with Jesus.

'Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.' (John 3.5-6) When Jesus called me to serve Him, aged 15, everything changed. I was now in the Fifth Form in Selhurst Grammar School, Croydon; it was to be my last year before I left school. For some reason they had separ- ated my twin brother and myself, so it was just me in that particular class. I remember that year very clearly; for our weekly religious lesson, we had a master who was what one might call a ‘modernist’. He denied that the miracles in the Bible happened; he didn’t even believe in the miracle of Creation but leaned to Darwin’s theory of evolution. This upset and annoyed me very much, because I had been brought up to believe in God as Creator of Heaven and Earth and to accept the Bible totally – with all the miracles. Week after week I challenged him on the Authority and Divine Inspiration of the Bible. One of my favourite texts was, ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration from God.’ Every week I would counter him with Scripture, and if I didn’t know the an- swer I would go home and ask my father, who could always find the correct verses to help me. The boys in my class seemed to enjoy this, as we were the only class in school that never followed the curriculum; the whole Scripture lesson consisted of my arguments with the teacher. At the end of just one term, he came to me and suggested that we start Bible study and prayer in the school. I’m sure that he had accepted Christ, as every lesson I always brought in a clear call to salvation. Later I also found that two boys in the class went on to become preachers of the Gospel. As well as bringing the Truth of the Bible to my teacher in my last year at school, I kept up my preaching to the boys in the playground – I was a real ‘Hell-Fire’ preacher. In fact, I was so strong, and I have never forgotten, that two of my school friends, rejecting my offer of salvation, shook hands and declared that they would go to hell together.

We talk about faith, we have to have faith! I laugh, because my wife used to complain that I jumped into bed. But that was an ‘act of faith’ that the bed wouldn’t collapse! We all have to use an element of faith. If you get in a car and somebody else is driving it, you need faith! Faith in its simplistic sense is part of everyday life! It’s the trust you have. You trust people, you have to trust your doctor, the police, your government – though often they fail us – they are only human. But if faith is trust, faith in God is faith in the unfailing God!

An interesting ‘window’ on faith is found in Numbers 13. Moses and the whole of Israel had halted on the borders of the Promised Land after their arduous journey. There they were, within sight of their goal, the fulfilment of all God’s promises within their grasp. Surely this was all that they could ask for, the ultimate reward for the sufferings which they had endured both in the last days in Egypt and in the travelling. This was the reason why God had performed all the outstanding miracles both in Egypt and in the crossing of the Red Sea, in order to give them deliverance and to fulfil His promise to give them this land.