David Hathaway

We all experience the waters of affliction. In your life and mine, there are many times when we need the power of God to deliver. God’s timing is perfect, coming at the darkest hour, when the storm is at its fiercest, and our need is the greatest. Jesus said, "I will be with you always." Every day, every hour, in the middle of every storm, in the middle of every sickness. There’s never a moment when He is not there. You may need Jesus, like you’ve never needed Him before. He is walking towards you, to help you right now. Step out into the security of His arms! Consider the words of this wonderful hymn: 'What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer.'

The Coming of the Lord will be as a thief in the night. The Apostle Paul wrote, 'Of the times and the seasons you have no need that I write to you, for you know that the Day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they say ‘Peace and safety’, sudden destruction shall come on them, as travail on a woman with child, and they shall not escape.'' So the final moment of the return of Christ is sudden and unexpected. As Jesus said, there’ll be two in a bed, two in a field – two in a factory – one taken, the other left. That’s how sudden it will be, even for the believer. Paul exhorts us to be ready, to live according to God’s standards: Warn, comfort be patient toward all, do good to all, rejoice, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you; quench not the Spirit…

Jesus spoke more about the Coming Kingdom than He did about salvation. Salvation is the way in, but the main thing He was talking about was the Kingdom! The Bible describes it as our Inheritance! We inherit the Kingdom with Christ. In many of the parables which Jesus told, He was trying to describe something that is mysterious, unknown – but yet it is a Kingdom that we are to be part of. He said, His Kingdom is ‘not of this world’ – it’s true. But we are looking for this Coming Kingdom.

Revival and Persecution often come hand-in-hand. The greater the persecution, the greater responsibility we have, to go everywhere and preach the Word. We must do, as Jesus said, "Go out, into the highways, and byways, and compel them to come in!" We have to fill the Kingdom! Look at Ukraine. They are now, under intense persecution. Threatened and dying. Yet, the Gospel is preached. Many are prayed with. Communion is shared. And wounded souls receive Christ. 

If you want your faith to grow, you’ve got to nurture it, practice it, act on it - and then it will grow! That’s what has happened in my life. How did I have the boldness in the prison to pray, "Lord, 2000 years ago when Paul and Silas were in prison, You worked a miracle, broke down the prison walls and set them free. If You could do it for them, You can do it for me, get me out!"?!! I prayed like this, not just because I knew the Scripture, but because, in the back of my mind, it was only 8 years after my throat cancer had been miraculously healed! Because of this I could say, "Lord, You delivered Paul and Silas, You healed my throat cancer - and You can get me out of prison!" You see, my faith grew - experimentally! 

How do we grow our faith? - This is such an important question. How do you grow anything? By feeding it and practising it. I’m hopeless at cooking; but how do you become a good cook, a chef? It’s by putting into practice what you have learnt. No, not everybody will make a good cook, but we can all learn the basics! I know how to turn an oven on, and use the microwave; but if you want to be a good cook, you’ve got to work at it! If you want to grow faith, you must put it into practice: by using it, by working with it. Yes, 'faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God' - but once you have heard it, the key to growth is, how you use this knowledge. 

In Ukraine, prayer continues, often in Church basements, and the people are desperate for Bibles. Our staff, have formed a team called, 'Angels of Kyiv’, to organise, and undertake, high-risk evacuations, and the purchase of urgently, needed supplies. In just one day, our team evacuated, hundreds of people, from the horrific fighting in Irpin. We are feeding these evacuees, providing shelter, and medical supplies. Pray for Ukraine’s deliverance! Believe for a miracle! We need your financial support, more than ever, at this critical time: eurovision.org.uk/donation

Do you want the Fire of God? It will only come as you present your body as a living sacrifice. In Romans 12:1, Paul writes, "Brethren, I beseech you that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." There is a call to us to become a part of a sacrifice, to make a sacrifice of our lives, in order that the Fire will come. So many people are talking about revival, looking for the Fire to come back in the Church. Yes, we need revival. We need the Fire. But it will only come back when there is a sense of sacrifice. 

Seeing the problems in the world today, I want to look at what happened in those famous verses, so often linked with revival, when Solomon had finished building the Temple. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 tells us, when the musicians were as one, praising and thanking the Lord, and saying, “He is good and His mercy endures forever,” – the House was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister, for the Glory of the Lord had filled the House! 

Our hope is in Christ! Only He can bring peace to Ukraine. Despite the war, the churches are still active. Ministering to hurting people. Distributing Bibles. Administering humanitarian aid. The war has caused so much damage to infrastructure, but an even greater damage to people's souls. Families are separated. Women and children are fleeing to neighbouring nations. Many are trapped in cities, bombarded by bombs, and hiding in underground shelters. Will you help them?  For over 70 years, David has poured all his efforts into all the countries of the former Soviet Union. Many were born into a world of darkness, but are now reborn into the Kingdom of Light through the preaching of the Gospel. In the early years, following the collapse of communism, David personally held, over three hundred evangelistic missions, in the former Soviet countries, with hundreds of thousands of people saved.  To support our work in Ukraine https://eurovision.org.uk

Until Christ comes back, we have the Holy Spirit: He is our Comforter, our Helper, our Intercessor. And He also empowers us! When I’m asking for the Holy Spirit – and I’m always asking for more of Him in my life – I say, “Jesus, You said when You went to Heaven, You would ask the Father and He would send the Holy Spirit. I’m calling upon You Jesus now, to send a double portion of the Holy Spirit on me, to change nations in Your Name! Jesus! You are so wonderful, so glorious, You are the One we worship, no one else, nothing else. Only You, Jesus!” I'm urging you to call upon Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit: the 'Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf].'

Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us! With His bodily wounds and scars, He stands before the Father and pleads on our behalf. I want you to really understand this reality: Intercession is made in Heaven for us – by Jesus! HE is the One who intercedes for us!  Who better to pray for you and me than Jesus?! And Jesus will come back for us. We are not abandoned here on earth, we have a heavenly Kingdom. 

What is happening now, in the very words of Jesus, are the signs and the evidence of the times immediately before His Return. God knows what is happening here on earth. He is not distant or remote. The only lasting peace will be when Jesus returns. When we look at the horror of war, it is easy to give into despair. But, JESUS IS COMING BACK! And I believe this must be very soon. I want to tell Christians and non-Christians, if Jesus is coming back to rule the world for one thousand years – as the Bible says – then God, who is in control, KNOWS what is happening here now. When Christ returns to rule the world, there will be PEACE for a thousand years – an end to all fighting, religious and political – ONLY Jesus can do this! Not priests, preachers, evangelists or presidents. This miracle can ONLY happen in and through the Person of Jesus. God is in control, and all these things are leading up to Christ’s Return!

The promise of Jesus is that He will return! Acts 1v11, two angels say, “Why are you gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus that you have seen go up will return, in the same manner as you have seen Him go.” So, when Jesus leaves, the promise is – THIS SAME JESUS IS COMING AGAIN. From the beginning to the end, the emphasis is on the Person of Jesus! Who was, and is, and is to come.  

We are living in one of the most difficult, testing, periods for the Church. And what we desperately need is revival! This word ‘revival’ occurs in the King James Version about seven times. In Psalm 13:3 David says in effect, ‘O Lord my God, revive ME or I DIE!’ I echo those words sometimes, ‘Unless YOU revive me, and quicken me with Your Power – I DIE!’ And in Psalm 138:7, and in Habakkuk 3:2, ‘revive Your Work O Lord!’ We need God to move today – in a miraculous way – to revive His Work! The Church needs to be revived! ‘Revived’ means to be brought back to life, something that had life and has lost it… Whatever you think about ‘revival’ – we desperately need the Church to come ALIVE! We need the people of God to come ALIVE! 

In our worship and in our living, we have to be fulfilling the prophecy of Scripture! Peter said in Acts 2, quoting Joel, that God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh! We need to see this outpouring of God on all flesh! And that must come with signs and wonders – your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. At my age, 89, I’m not old, I’m still seeing the visions, I’m not ‘dreaming’… Joel quite clearly also said, God will show wonders in heaven and signs on the earth, blood and fire and vapour of smoke…

After the Holy Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:14-21 Peter stood up and spoke to the multitudes, "These people are not drunk, but this is the fulfilment of Joel's prophecy where God says: it shall come to pass in the last days, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh… And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." This was the beginning of the Church! The Church did not really exist until this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was accompanied by remarkable signs and wonders

Right from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, He was talking about the coming Kingdom of God! In John 3, where Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, comes to Jesus by night, saying, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, because no man can do these miracles that You do, except God be with him.” - Firstly I want to say, the miraculous was the evidence that God was with Jesus. Secondly, Jesus replies very simply, “Truly I say to you, except a man be born again from above, He cannot see the Kingdom of God!” There is a coming Kingdom, and the actions we take today, determine whether we will be part of it.   

Jesus came to preach the Good News of the coming Kingdom. In John 3, where Nicodemus, a leader of the Pharisees, comes to Jesus by night, saying, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, because no man can do these miracles that You do, except God be with him." Do you understand what Nicodemus said? The miracles were the evidence that God was with Jesus. But Jesus replies very simply, "Truly I say to you, except a man be born again from above, He cannot see the Kingdom of God!" 

There is a generation, according to the prophecies of Jesus, that will not pass away until it sees the fulfilment of the return of Christ. I believe the things which you and I are seeing and experiencing, are the signs that the age in which we live, is the age immediately before the Return of Christ. And because I want to be, and expect to be, part of Christ’s Kingdom, I’m not afraid of what I see!