David Hathaway

Paul is saying, v3, he came ‘in weakness and fear and much trembling’. Why? Perhaps because even here in pagan Corinth, Paul is also facing up to educated Orthodox Jews, trained as he had been, who rejected the crucified Messiah and persecuted His followers. So he’s ‘in weakness’, because he wants to present something he hadn’t been brought up with, that he himself had violently rejected, but was more powerful than anything he’d ever known. He didn’t use wise and persuasive words - no, he came with a demonstration of the Spirit’s Power! Why? So that their faith might not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s Power! What we need in our Christian ministry is a practical demonstration of God’s Power. Not just words. I was a pastor for 15 years. One day God said to me, “I’m tired of listening to you. Stop talking. Go out and put into practice what you preach. And don’t come back until you’ve done it!” That’s why I’ve spent 60 years of my life ‘out there’, doing it. And I’m still doing it!  I take the Book literally.

If you want to meet with God, you don’t have to wait until you have done this or that. I would never have become an evangelist, never seen a miracle of healing if God had waited until I was perfect before He answered my prayers. I call on God, He deals with me where I am. That’s why I was healed, not because I was ‘holy’. What God looks at is the deep desire of your heart.    I was asked once, ‘How many hours a day do you pray? How much do you read the Bible?’ The truth is, there are some days when I can hardly pray, because I’m tired, exhausted, I’m travelling. If I’m coming from Siberia, there are thirty-six hours in my day! Even the young men find it difficult to keep up with my punishing travelling/preaching schedule. Yes, believe me, when I’m in a crisis, I do fast and pray! But in some crises when I’m travelling and ministering, I just can’t fast – but God is right there in my crisis. We’ve got to search for God and find Him right where we are! We have a covenant relationship with God. It’s not simply b

I hate the devil, and I fight him by demonstrating the power of God. You must fight him, not allow him to stop you receiving. Some look to the church for ceremony, for a formula, for peace – but I find God most, not in the calm, but in the reality of my life. I discovered a long time ago that the most important thing which creates character is not WHAT happens to us so much as OUR REACTION! Moses encourages the people in verse 27, ‘If from where you are…  you will seek the Lord your God, you WILL find Him, if you seek Him with ALL your heart.’ So, in the midst of every distress, fear, want, even sickness – whatever situation you are in – there you will find God! So often we are told that if you want to find God, you’ve got to be ‘holy’, to give up everything, separate yourself, shut yourself up like in a monastery. No, the reality is that spirituality is not isolating yourself, not trying to be some kind of ‘holy’ person – it’s YOU dealing with GOD right where you are!

Exploits! Do we as Christians really understand what this means? Daniel says, 'In these evil days that are coming - the people who KNOW their God won't be weak! They won't be defeated! There'll be on FIRE! And they are going to do exploits!' Exploits are the things other people can't or don't do! If you're going to do an exploit, it's something that your friends don't do, something that even the Church doesn't do, something that other pastors, other evangelists don't do. It's going to be something bigger, more powerful! 'Matthew 24' and 'He shall reign' used by kind permission of Vinesong

Deuteronomy 4, Moses warned the people first that they must go in and possess the Promised Land, but that then (verses 26-27), once they were in, he said, ‘You’re going to go through difficulty and trial.’ When I preach the Gospel, I am a realist. I do not tell people that coming to Christ is suddenly an end to all their problems, everything will be transformed, living on cloud nine, twanging a harp! Let’s be realistic, the church is called into battle to fight for the Kingdom! Yes, me as an evangelist winning people for Christ, but also you, like me, fighting for those things which are our right to possess, like healing and deliverance. We’re at war with an enemy who is fighting to prevent us possessing! I hate the devil, and I fight him by demonstrating the power of God. You must fight him, not allow him to stop you receiving. Some look to the church for ceremony, for a formula, for peace – but I find God most, not in the calm, but in the reality of my life

Jesus said, ‘When you pray say, “Our Father in heaven… Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”’ I was telling the congregation in the football stadium, if you want forgiveness, we have to forgive those who have sinned against us; amongst the 20,000 in the stadium, there were the former members of the secret police who persecuted you and your family. God is speaking, and this is what He says, ‘If you want forgiveness, you must forgive, even the police.’  Suddenly, there was a stillness, and the power of God came down. The congregation began to weep. They came forward in their thousands to receive Jesus, because they had understood that the message of God is forgiveness.

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:ff, “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

Jesus said, ‘When you pray say, “Our Father in heaven… Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”’ If we want forgiveness, we have to forgive those who have sinned against us. I can remember one of the most memorable meetings I've been in, it was in Timisoara, Romania, just after the collapse of communism. Under Ceaușescu there was terrible persecution. The secret police had tortured and killed so many people, and then in those early days of the freedom, I was in a big football stadium, and I was talking about the love of God and His forgiveness.

From the very first ‘EuroVision’ East/West Conference the Holy Spirit gave me a ‘Vision’ of what God could do if I had the faith to believe in a God of the impossible! That Vision has been in my heart for almost 40 years – and is not yet completed. That’s why God has called me to work in the outer parts of that Soviet Empire – and the same miracle which led to Ukraine’s freedom and revival will lead to the same freedom from Russia and revival in Central Asia! So, we, with your support, will be evangelising with over 5,000 in Kazakhstan in June, then back in Kyiv in July, before Poland in September! To make a donation: eurovision.org.uk/donation 'Prayer Anthem' and 'Holy Spirit Move Me Now' performed by Vinesong

Dear brothers, I beg you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. For some of those who live at Chloe’s house have told me of your arguments and quarrels, dear brothers. Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul”; and others say that they are for Apollos or for Peter; and some that they alone are the true followers of Christ. And so, in effect, you have broken Christ into many pieces. But did I, Paul, die for your sins? Were any of you baptised in my name? I am so thankful now that I didn’t baptise any of you except Crispus and Gaius. For now no one can think that I have been trying to start something new, beginning a “Church of Paul.” Oh, yes, and I baptized the family of Stephanas. I don’t remember ever baptising anyone else. For Christ didn’t send me to baptise, but to preach the Gospel; and even my preaching sounds poor, for I do not

Next morning, Sunday, I woke early with the memory of what had happened the previous night burning within me. I got out of bed with such a sense of excitement, this was to be the first day of my new life. I was the first to go downstairs that morning, full of expectation that a major event was about to happen – maybe the preacher wouldn’t turn up and they would call on me – but whatever happened, it would be part of my ex- citing new life wholly surrendered to Jesus and fulfilling all my new dreams. But as I stood downstairs and looked at the kitchen, all I could see was a row of dirty shoes. All my senses were in rebellion, as I knew that the Lord Himself was telling me to clean those shoes – how can THIS be my dream of serving God with all my heart and mind? But I learned the hardest lesson of my life – absolute obedience – DO whatever He says and don’t ask questions.

The devil was saying, ‘Don’t listen to God, you are doing enough. You are a Christian, preaching the Gospel; that is enough.’ And God said, ‘No, it isn’t!’ He said to me, I want you! I could get no peace until I turned to the Lord and surrendered everything to Him. God did not tell me to be an evangelist. He didn’t call me to be a pastor. What God said to me that day, when I was 15 years old, was, ‘David, I want you; I want all of you; I want your life, your time, your money.’

So many people say that they want the power of God - power to see their prayer's answered, power to see healing miracles, power to be delivered from all that is wrong in their lives - I want to show you that the power is in the Gospel, and once you have received that power, it should be increasing. With each new day, and each new miracle, the power of God should increase in your life.

I was 15, already preaching the Gospel, evangelising in the school. I can remember being on holiday, my brother and I were staying with some Christians, and on the Saturday night we were on the beach. I knew that God was talking to me. I could not get any peace until I left the others: I could feel a battle in my heart – the devil was saying, ‘Don’t listen to God, you are doing enough. You are a Christian, preaching the Gospel; that is enough.’ And God said, ‘No, it isn’t!’ He said to me, I want you! I could get no peace until I turned to the Lord and surrendered everything to Him. 

Jesus said, You did not choose Me, I chose you! Do you understand the significance of this statement? I am an evangelist, but this wasn’t my choice, I knew from the beginning, God had chosen me. He had called me for a purpose. 

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. But, dear brothers, I beg you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop arguing among yourselves. Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church. I plead with you to be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. (1 Corinthians 1.7-11, TLB)

Why are you afraid? God is in control! When Jesus is in the boat with you, even if He is asleep, it doesn't matter the severity of the storm, one word from Jesus and all will be well. All will be well with your family, health, finances, employment. Jesus will speak peace into every tumultuous situation. I believe the challenge to every one of us today is, why are you afraid? What are you afraid of?

Your sacrificial giving in this time of soaring costs and financial hardship, has enabled a powerful event to take place in Batumi on the Black Sea coast of Georgia in the Caucasus, where we are working together with a missionary church of Moslem converts, Adjarians who themselves all came to Christ through powerful miracles of healing or deliverance from drugs and alcohol.  'Fire of Revival' and 'I behold Your Glory' used by kind permission of Vinesong.

Paul opens by greeting the church in Corinth and reminding them that they are called by God to belong to Jesus Christ, enriched with spiritual gifts as they wait for His return. He thanks God for His grace toward them and assures them that God is faithful and will keep them strong. Paul then addresses a serious problem: divisions in the church. Believers are lining up behind different leaders and arguing over who they follow. Paul urges them to be united, reminding them that Christ is not divided and that it was Christ – not any human leader – who died for them. He explains that God did not send him primarily to impress people with clever speech, but to share the message of the cross. That message may seem foolish to those who rely on human wisdom, but to those who are being saved it is the very power of God. Paul emphasises that God deliberately overturns human pride. He often chooses what the world considers weak, foolish, or insignificant to show His power and wisdom. Because of this, no one can boast befo

My father said that it is not just preaching which brings people to repentance. He said you’ve not yet received the Holy Spirit; he told me, the Bible says Jesus taught His disciples the first lesson in evangelism when He said, “When the Holy Spirit is come, He (not you, David), He, will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.” My father said, you need the Holy Spirit. I want to emphasise; it is the Holy Spirit who convicts the world. I believe God is once again going to pour our His Spirit, just as He has done in previous revivals. This is why the Apostle Paul taught in Romans 1.16 that all the Power of God is in the Gospel. It doesn’t matter which country you live in, God is in control, He has Power and He has authority.