David Hathaway

Mark 11 is so revolutionary, so powerful, it changed my understanding of prayer. Jesus saw a fig tree full of leaves and He came hoping to find some figs, but he found none. So what did Jesus do? Jesus said, “Let no man ever eat fruit from you again!” And the disciples heard what He said. Next morning, this is verse 20, as they came from Bethany to the Mount of Olives, they saw the fig tree was dead. Peter commented, “Jesus, the tree is dead already!” And Jesus looked straight at Peter, and at every one of us, and this is what He said in verse 22, “Have faith in God!” Prayer has to be something which comes out of your heart in faith.   

Prayer is essential for every believer. It is how we build our relationship with the Lord. In Luke 11, when Jesus had finished praying, one of His disciples came to Him saying, "Lord, teach us how to pray!" All my life I have been seeking to understand the power of prayer, and especially, prayer that gets an answer. When I was in prison for Bible smuggling in 1972, I reached a point of such desperation that I cried out, "Lord, teach me how to pray my way out of prison!"

God has laid down a pattern for your life! In 1 Chronicles 28, it was in David’s heart to build the Temple, but God said it was for his son Solomon to build. I am intrigued by verse 19 where David says, ‘“All this,” David said, “I have in writing as a result of the Lord’s hand on me, and he enabled me to understand all the details of the plan.” For me, as I look back over 70 years of ministry, I can see God’s plan. Everything was interconnected; there was meaning and purpose in all that God ordained. Whatever the circumstance, whatever you are facing, God will not fail you! Be strong and courageous and do the work of the Lord. Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord God is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the Lord is finished.

God has chosen you to be His child. He has become your Father. This is the relationship God ordained for Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28. In verse 9, King David admonishes: “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.” Our work is to preach the Gospel. I live to see the Glory of God. But we have got to trust Him. God is not going to let you grow weary, faint or die, until you have completed every task, He has called you to do. 

What is in your heart? Are you longing to see the Glory of God? Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. In 1 & 2 Chronicles the original desire to build the House of God was in the heart of King David. He had a passion and a desire. The Israelites had travelled with the Ark of the Covenant through the wilderness. As the Ark moved so they moved. The Ark went before them into battle. As the Ark went into the river Jordan the waters opened. The Ark was the Covenant that God was with His people. When Israel began to build their cities, King David said the Ark of the Covenant of God must not remain in a tent form. They must build a permanent place where God could dwell with his people.   God said he could not build the temple because of two things: One, King David had actually sinned against God, and secondly, he was a man of war. The task was given to his son Solomon. During the temple dedication Solomon says,  “Now it was in the heart of David,  my father, to build a house for the Na

When we are seeking and following God, the source of our supply will never dry up. What I need, what I lack, will not stop the supply of the Anointing Oil of the Holy Spirit and the Bread of the Word of God in my life. The Word of God and the Anointing of the Holy Spirit will never fail me, even in a time of drought. There is never a time when God cannot speak to us, or use us, or work miracles through us. I will show you why. When Elijah prayed, “Let this boy’s soul come into him again” – the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of the boy came into him again - and he REVIVED! The use here of the word REVIVED (which is connected to our English word ‘revival’) is very explicit in what it means. The child was DEAD. For him to be revived, he had to come back from DEATH to LIFE. When the church has turned away from God and is dead – (much of the church today accepts and tolerates sin) – REVIVAL brings NEW LIFE into what is dead!

God works miracles, signs and wonders. And my prayer is that God would reveal Himself to you through the miraculous. - "Father I pray that everyone reading this will see the truth of Your Word and Power. O God speak to us through signs and wonders. In Jesus Name, Amen."

God will not fail you! We’ve had Covid and the difficult consequences following worldwide lockdowns. Now war in Ukraine. The whole world has changed. Historically the world does go through periodic political, financial, spiritual upheavals. And it never goes back to how it was before. I draw comfort from the story of Elijah. Not just when he called down fire from heaven – but the sheer number of phenomenal miracles that took place in a very short period before that which intrigues me. In 1 Kings 17 Elijah is speaking prophetically, under the command of God: “THE LORD GOD HAS SAID that the barrel of flour and the cruse of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain.” Elijah, the prophet who commanded the rain to stop, prophesies to the woman, “THE BARREL OF FLOUR AND THE CRUSE OF OIL WILL NOT FAIL YOU…”

The main theme of the preaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God. Resurrection. This is why Jesus was prepared to suffer and die on the cross. He knew there was life beyond death. He knew that He would rise from the dead. He knew that He would receive eternal life. For those of you who are struggling, in pain, or are facing death, this is only a gateway into eternity. Look forward to the resurrection and your new life in Christ. 

We are living in troubled times. I am convinced, by faith, that the Ukrainians will win the war and drive out the Russian army and that the next month will see incredible changes. I can also see that there is a threat of a 3rd World War and the release of a radioactive nuclear cloud worse than Chernobyl. Remember that the Ukrainian word Chernobyl means wormwood: this is the name of the star in Revelation 8.10-11 which fell from heaven and made the waters bitter, and many died. According to Scripture this is only the ‘beginning of sorrows’ and when that finally happens, only for the sake of the elect will the torment be shortened. We must take every opportunity to preach the Gospel now; the Bible says that there is an end to the ‘times of the Gentiles’ and then all Israel shall be saved.

God uses physical, demonstrative signs to convince us and to show others that He is God. Often I find that people read the Old Testament and don’t realise its relevance to our lives today. Yes, we are New Testament believers – we are saved by grace through faith – but the God of the New Testament is also the God of the Old Testament. He is our God!

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection! This is the joy of my life. It’s knowing Jesus, not just knowing about Him, but knowing Jesus personally, as the Son of God. And the verse goes on to say, to know the power of the resurrection. We believe, not just in an afterlife, but the resurrection of the dead, simply because Jesus Himself rose from the dead. He is described in the Bible as the first fruits. In other words, God demonstrated that there is life after death by raising Jesus. Jesus Christ, Son of God, was crucified on a cross, but on the third day, He arose! For that reason on my wife’s grave I had inscribed, ‘In my flesh I shall see God’. We will see God in the flesh. I will see my loved ones again, but when I do, we will be together in the Kingdom! As the Scripture promises, ‘We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.’ 1 Thessalonians 4.  The Apostle Paul wrote, in Philipp

The Lord is our Rock, our Stability; He is our healer, and our provider. "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord!" This is what the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:1. Jesus is the only One, the only Person in whom, and in which, we can rejoice. Paul adds, "To write the same things to you, rejoice, is not grievous for me, but safe for you."  “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him!” This life is nothing; length of life is nothing (I’m 90!) – because I will live forever with Christ! Our sole focus should be on hearing the Lord say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant." - The whole of my life has been focused on fulfilling the plans and purposes of God.

Prayer is a conversation with God. I'm fascinated by reading the conversation between God and Moses in Exodus 3. There was a dialogue between the two of them. So often we assume that to hear from God we need a prophet or some ‘Holy’ person, but this was not the pattern revealed here in the Scripture. Exodus 33 reveals the wonderful nature of the relationship between them, ‘the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.’ – That is what I desire in my own life, that God would speak to me as His friend; and that is the relationship I want you to have with the Lord – friendship. 

Jesus came to solve problems. He came to set people free. And he looked at the blind man, in John 9, spat on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” Jesus told him, “Wash in the Pool.” So, the man went and washed, and came home seeing. In the midst of your trouble. Even in your sin. In your pain, and your suffering. Jesus is the only one in the whole world who take that problem and use it to bring the solution. This man could’ve laughed at Jesus. How is someone supposed to see with mud on their eyes? Yet the man did as Jesus said. His testimony became, 'once I was blind, but now I can see.' Isn’t that the testimony of all of us? Jesus has redeemed our lives. We may not have been physically blind, but we were spiritually blind, and God restored our sight.

God wants to use you to reveal His Power on earth. We are in a battle against the devil. Fighting against sin and sickness. And we win by the Power of Jesus Name! We need a restoration of the miraculous into the church, because without the miraculous, the church loses the very evidence of the Power of God. Jesus didn’t just come to tell us to live a good life, but to challenge us to do the works of God. Jesus said in John 9:4, 'As long as it is day, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming when no one can work.' We are all limited by time. Even Jesus was conscious of this. He knew His ministry was restricted to three years - He knew His night was coming. This is why the psalmist prayed, teach us to number our days.

God wants to reveal His Power in your life. In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" When we face problems, we all asked the question, 'Why?' Why did this accident happen? Why do I have problems in my life? Why am I sick? It is so easy to ask the question 'why did it happen to me.' Jesus was very straight with the disciples, '"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."' Jesus is not so concerned with the causes of the problem, as He is with providing the solution. His response is very simple. He says, I bring light, and healing to the world. And that is the message of Jesus Christ to you today.

'Display Your Power, O God, as You have in the past!' Throughout the Old Testament we read such incredible miracles, yet why are they not happening today? I want to see something of the magnitude of the miracles we read about in the Old Testament displayed today. And I am going to seek God until I see incredible, unbelievable miracles happening today, as a demonstration that God is alive in Power. And I believe God can do more today than He’s ever done in the past.

God still works miracles today. He reveals Himself through the wonders He performs. In my own life, God has used miracles to confirm His will. In 1964, I was dramatically healed of throat cancer, but this was to confirm God’s instruction to leave the pastorate and evangelise communist Europe. Then aged 70, God healed me of lung cancer, again in confirmation of the calling on my life. When we read Exodus 3&4, God used miracles to demonstrate His Will to Moses, and His intention to free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Psalm 103 says, ‘He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.’ I believe, God still today, demonstrates who He is by miracles, signs and wonders.

The promise of God to us today is, even in the most difficult times and circumstances, the oil of the Holy Spirit, His anointing and power, will not fail us, until the time the Lord provides the final answer. Even in times of famine and crisis, the Lord will not fail you, He will provide.