David Hathaway

‘Where there is no vision the people perish’ (Proverbs 29.18). We talk a lot about revival – but I want to show you from Proverbs 29:18 that, without a clear vision, we won’t see revival. Revival begins from God as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit – but it usually comes because of someone’s vision in prayer. 

We need to see the reviving of the Power and the manifestation of God in the Church! And we need to see the same evidences that were present in the early Church: the speaking in tongues and the miracles of healing that followed the apostles after they had received the Holy Spirit. 

Some Christian groups are reluctant to recognise Pentecost and its importance to us today. The significant sign of the arrival of the Holy Spirit was and is speaking in tongues – and a very strong move of evangelism. 

What we need to see at this present time is a revival or spiritual awakening in the Church. I’ve been searching my Bible for the word ‘revival’ – in the King James Version it appears only seven times, and is the English translation of at least three different words in the original Scripture, depending on the context. Our English word ‘revival’ comes from the French, meaning to live again, to bring back to life, to revive something! You can revive things that look to be dead. You can revive plants, you can revive people that have collapsed. You can revive things that appear dead, but not yet totally dead…

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much”! ‘Effectual fervent’ means this is very powerful prayer. The Greek word used for powerful is ‘dunamis’. We use this word in English for a dynamo (to generate electricity, to generate power, to run your home, your car); and for dynamite (a very unusual explosive which doesn’t waste its energy on the open air, but pushes the wall down, breaks open the rock face). So when we’re talking about prayer, your prayer must not be wasted on the air, but like dynamite, it must be dynamic enough to move the mountain out of the way! 

Faith, like everything else in our Christian experience, must mature and it must grow - and it comes from building a strong relationship with Jesus. Receiving miracles is not dependent alone on ‘faith’, but also on our relationship with Jesus! So when the disciples ask, “Why couldn’t we do it?” – the answer is, “Because of your unbelief. Truly I say to you, if you have got faith as small as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove from here to there, and it shall remove.” And the last bit is so often neglected, where Jesus says, “NOTHING – this is some Power – NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU!” I’m challenging you in your faith, come to the realisation that Jesus ACTUALLY SAID, that IF we fulfil the conditions, IF we act in faith, IF we believe, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE for us. It’s not just moving mountains, not just healing the sick – this applies in EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE! 

Jesus says, if you will SPEAK to the mountain and COMMAND it to move, that mountain WILL MOVE! But it will ONLY do so if you DON’T DOUBT! Too many people think they are speaking in faith – but they are NOT! It has to be an absolute certainty. On many occasions when I have seen phenomenal, absolutely incredible miracles, it has been when there was not a shred of doubt – the Holy Spirit was so STRONG in me that I KNEW that what I said would happen! So there is this condition that you must have NO doubt, but you have to BELIEVE that the things that you say will happen.

“Have faith IN GOD!” THIS is the crux of our faith. Our faith is not in people, it’s not in the preacher or the evangelist. Our faith has to be directly IN GOD! We have to emphasise this when we talk about faith. Too many people look to me, and think I’m some healer… No! God is the Healer. I explain this in every evangelistic meeting before I pray for the sick, “I am NOT a healing evangelist! Jesus is the Healer, He’s the One you have to ask!” And I teach them how to call on Him for their healing.

ALL the earth will see the Glory of God – in us who have believed – WE are to be the Glory of God! We are the witness, we are the evidence! Come on! You and I have to cross that Jordan, you and I must not look at the difficulties, we must go in faith. Look, the problems exist, I don’t deny the problems, God doesn’t deny the problems. But as Joshua and Caleb believed, it doesn’t matter how big the problem, how great the armies are – they have no power over you – God will always give the victory! Come on, rise up in the Name of the Lord!

God is calling us to trust Him. This is a strong challenge to us as believers: How long will it be before we respond and do what He says?!!! Yes, God knows, faith does not come easily, because in Numbers 14.11, He says to Moses, ‘“How long before they will believe in Me, for all the signs which I have shown among them?”’ In other words, God is saying, “Look, I’ve given so many proofs and demonstrations of My faithfulness and My Power, how much more do I have to do?!!!” God is always demonstrating His Power, always calling us to trust Him – and He never, ever fails!

I want to reveal faith to you in a unique way. Some of the greatest illustrations of faith are not in the New Testament, but in the Old. I want to look at the book of Numbers, Chapters 13 and 14. To me, the story of the 12 spies sent to spy out the Promised Land is a tremendous challenge. The children of Israel were still in the wilderness, and it had taken them a long time to get to border of the Promised Land. Now the command of the Lord to Moses is to pick twelve representatives from each of the twelve tribes, and to send them to see for themselves what the future was. I find this very interesting, because they were actually sent out to see the future!

Whether through sickness, trial, or persecution - whatever is happening in your life – through it all we have to realise that holding onto God by faith is the only way into the Kingdom! 

By faith we believe God will do what He promised! Somehow we have to understand and accept THIS challenge in the day in which we live! Whether it’s through Covid, or through persecution, or through whatever is happening in your life – through it all we have to realise that holding onto God by faith is the only way into the Kingdom!

Faith is a tremendous challenge. Because James 2.20, ‘Faith without works is dead!” In other words, if your faith is not something that is operational and practical, something by which you are living, something you are going to DO SOMETHING ABOUT, that faith is NOT faith! Faith is only evidenced by what you do, by how you live! I cannot myself find stronger words than James uses here, faith without the work to accomplish it is dead! Dead! There are so many whose faith is dead. Simply because it only exists in theory, but never in practice.

Your faith is a firm and secure anchor. Faith is not a theory, it’s not a ‘religion’. It’s some thing different. It’s a gift, and it works! James 1.6 says, ask in faith without wavering, because he that wavers – is like a wave of the sea! I’m a sailor. I’m all too familiar with the waves – and the wind that drives the waves and tosses them about. The stronger the wind, the bigger the waves! James is saying, your faith MUST NOT BE LIKE THAT! It’s got to be consistent; it’s got to be stable and strong. Not UP and DOWN, UP and DOWN! So many of us Christians, one day we’re up, and the next day we’re down. We’ve got to be consistent, because v7 says, if we’re not, ‘Let not that man think he shall receive anything from the Lord!” You’ve got to be consistent, and you CANNOT, like so many people, be UP one day and DOWN the next! Your faith has to be – LEVEL!!! God doesn’t waver, God doesn’t get blown about by the wind, God isn’t like the sea! God is consistent and stable. Our faith has to be anchored in that – in the

Faith is more valuable than gold! Even gold can perish and wear out, but faith, when it’s tested through fire, won’t fail. Faith that has been through the test will be found to praise and honour and glory when Christ comes back! When Christ comes, our reward, our witness and our testimony, is that we possess a faith that doesn’t fail! A faith that doesn’t give in, that doesn’t buckle under pressure. We need a faith that doesn’t bend, a faith that is constant and reliable – even when it goes through the ultimate test!

Without faith it is impossible to please God! I have discovered that if I want to please God, I have to let my faith loose, I’ve got to go out and DO the things which God has called me to do. That’s what pleases God! If you want to please Him, go out in faith and to do the impossible! But thank God we don't do these things alone. Hebrews 12 tells us that we are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses to this life of faith, so run with endurance the race God has set before us.

By faith we overcome. What did faith do in the Old Testament? According to Hebrews 11 they subdued kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire… Women received their dead raised to life… Yes, they were even seeing the dead raised to life… (v35). Come on! Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection… This act of faith, what they were seeking for, was something that was still to come in the Kingdom! Others had trial of cruel mockings, scourgings, bonds and imprisonment, they were stoned, cut in two, they were tempted, slain with the sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy… I want to challenge you, live in faith that God will give you the reward in the Kingdom, that you will be part of the Kingdom… We are not citizens of this world. We’re citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom! I’m already living in the anticipation of what is to come, of what will come in the Kingdom. N

We’re living in an age where a large section of the Church doesn’t expect miracles, saying that miracles were for the times of the Bible, they happened for the early disciples, how can we expect them to happen today? But look at how powerful the miracles were, not just in the days of Christ, not just in the days of the early apostles after the coming of the Holy Spirit, but how powerful the miracles in the Old Testament were!!! Hebrews 11.32 says, ‘What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets who – and this is intriguing to me – through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions…’ What was happening? In the Old Testament there is such a level of faith in the promises of God – strongly revealed right through every part of your Old Testament!

Our Faith is in the coming Kingdom of Christ. We make sacrifices now, knowing that what we deny here on earth, we shall receive in the Kingdom! It is this belief in the Kingdom of God which drives me. The older I get and the nearer I get to the Kingdom, the more my faith drives me forward. I’m not looking at the past, I’m looking at the future. We share the testimony of Moses in Hebrews 11, ‘It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.’