Bible Study with David Hathaway (TV Audio Podcast)

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. 

'While He was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before Him and said, ‘My daughter has just died. But come and put Your hand on her, and she will live.’ Jesus got up and went with him, and so did His disciples. 'Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak. She said to herself, ‘If I only touch His cloak, I will be healed.’ 'Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Take heart, daughter,’ He said, ‘your faith has healed you.’ And the woman was healed at that moment. 'When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and the people playing pipes, He said, ‘Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.’ But they laughed at Him. After the crowd had been put outside, He went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region.' (Matthew 9.18-24, NIV) For those of us who know the Bible this story seems so simple but yet I feel that it touches all of our lives. I want you to understand why these stories were written. Firstly, these were actual incidents that happen in the life of Jesus, they were not parables or illustrations: they were things that actually happened. What occurred here was totally unexpected because Jesus was on his way to do something else – the ruler of the synagogue in that town had come to Jesus to ask him to heal his daughter. Yet somehow in the middle of the journey, this desperate woman intrudes into the scene. You can understand her position, lonely, desperate for a miracle. It is not so different today, people tired of the formality of religion, of the moral uncertainty created by the state, of the inexorable slide into moral chaos, of their own hopelessness, need Jesus.

We’re facing a world which is turning upside down. Everything we thought was right is wrong, and what we thought was wrong is right. Incredible, disturbing changes are taking place. BUT ‘let not your heart be troubled!’ What a challenge! These were the words of Jesus – to us – at the end of His ministry. It was the feast of Passover. And Jesus– John 13.1 – knowing that His Hour was come that He would depart from this world to the Father begins to speak to His disciples powerfully. He says, “NOW is the judgment of this world!” John 12.31. He said clearly: two thousand years ago, the judgment of the world began! And, He adds, “The prince of this world WILL be cast out!” When Jesus is talking about ‘the prince of this world’ He’s talking about Satan.  Jesus says, in John 14.30, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world comes – and has nothing in Me.” The devil has no hold over Him! This is such a strong statement! No hold over Jesus – and for those of us ‘in’ Jesus, the devil has no power over us!

I want to look at the importance of prayer – what effect prayer will have in your life, how we can enact it, live it out, see the results. I want to show you the pitfalls, the difficulties, the fight to fulfil it – and the phenomenal result of the power of faith through prayer in action. Mark 11 is so revolutionary, so powerful, it has changed my life! 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. 

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralysed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, ‘Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.’ At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, ‘This fellow is blaspheming!’ Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, ‘Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ So he said to the paralysed man, ‘Get up, take your mat and go home.’ Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man. (Matthew 9.1-8, NIV)

'Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralysed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 'At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 'Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralysed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.' (Matthew 9.1-8, NIV) This miracle in Matthew 9 started with the fact that Jesus ‘saw their faith’. We see this so many times in the four Gospels, and particularly in this chapter. We see a dead girl raised from the dead after a woman, who had been bleeding for 12 years, touched His garment and was healed. Her faith was so strong, she didn’t need Him to respond, just reaching out and secretly touching His coat would bring the miracle! She believed her touch, not His, would heal her. This was an incredible demonstration of faith. Both times with my cancers, I prayed for 3 months before I got my miracle, but I didn’t give up. I had simple faith, reaching out to Jesus, KNOWING THE MIRACLE WILL HAPPEN. It’s a question of what is your faith? Some Christians who come to me for healing have been prayed for so many times before without result. But you see, I’m not a ‘healer’. In every meeting when I pray for the sick, I always emphasise, I am NOT A HEALER! Jesus is! I can’t heal anybody, but I have the faith to know that HE, Jesus, can! Your faith HAS to be that God will work the miracle. What am I saying? Jesus Himself linked salvation and healing when He asked, “Which is easier, to say your sin is forgiven, or to say, get up and walk?!” ONLY God can forgive sin, only God can heal. But salvation is a miracle MORE IMPORTANT than the healing.  When Jesus told the sick man, “Get up and walk” He did not simply demonstrate His Power to heal, but through the healing He was demonstrating His Power to forgive sin, and that ONLY through Him can forgiveness of sin and salvation come! The Bible is clear, there is no other name under Heaven by which we may be saved, except through the Name of Jesus.

Paul instructs Titus, his fellow worker, to appoint qualified elders in Crete who are known for their integrity and strong grasp of sound doctrine. He warns against false teachers who lead others astray with corrupt and selfish motives. In chapter 2, Paul emphasises the importance of teaching sound doctrine to all age groups, encouraging believers to live self-controlled, godly lives that reflect the grace of God. Christian behavior should make the Gospel attractive, as believers wait for the return of Christ. 'An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless – not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it... 'For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 'These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.' (Titus 1.6-9; 2.11-15, NIV)