David Hathaway

“This is how we know we have come to know Him – IF we obey His Commands!” This is so important: if we know Jesus and the reality of being forgiven, then we need to demonstrate that by obedience to His Commands. Because John says in v4ff, “The man who says, ‘I know Jesus’, but doesn’t keep His Commandments, is a liar – this is a very strong statement – and the Truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His Word, in him the LOVE of God is perfected. This is how we know we are in Him. Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” It’s not just the talk, you must walk the walk. V9ff, “He that says he is in the Light and hates his brother, is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother is in the Light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him”…  V12, John says, “I’m writing to you little children because your sins have been forgiven in Jesus’ Name.” Walk as He walk

John in vv3-4 says the reason he is writing this letter is ‘so that we may have fellowship with him – that’s John – and with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, that our joy may be full’! He says, v5, “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: GOD IS LIGHT and in Him is no darkness at all!” Scripture says, in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the earth, and darkness was over the deep, and God said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” GOD IS LIGHT! That’s why John says, “In Him there is no darkness!”  Now John warns in v6ff, “If we claim to have fellowship with Jesus but walk in darkness, we lie – and we don’t live by the Truth! But if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We’re going through very difficult times worldwide; it needs much prayer. It’s even hard for us to look at the news. Why is there so much senseless violence and war? Satan is still in control, he’s still prince of this world – and that’s why God had to send His Son to die for us, to break the curse that’s on us. Thankfully, those of us who have come to Christ know that Peace which the world so desperately needs. Our world needs Jesus! John’s First Letter starts: “That which was from the Beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have touched, the Word of Life – this Life has appeared, and we have seen it and testify to it…” He’s talking about Jesus!

When you trust God and act in faith, that’s when God begins to cooperate with you and work with you! Aged 92, I’ve tried to be obedient to God’s Word. I listen to Him through the Holy Spirit. Let God speak to you, instruct you, and bring vision and blessing into your life. From my teenage years I’ve lived by Isaiah 30:21, “YOU WILL HEAR A VOICE BEHIND YOU SAYING, “THIS IS THE WAY, WALK IN IT.”” I’ve always heard that Voice, saying, “Go this way, go that way; do this, do that.” Why? When I was 15, God called me, not to be an evangelist or a pastor, but to be a servant. A servant does what his master says.  I’m challenging you, be obedient to the Word of God, KNOW who God is and His Power in your life! THEN, He will answer and deliver you out of affliction and trial and problems! O God bless you. Amen.

We’re facing enormous problems globally. Warfare in so many areas of the world. Unjust autocracies, rebellions, military governments. Economic hardship, poverty. Moses is saying to us, in the tribulations and trials – not in the comfort and the calm – if you call on God, He will answer you. When all these difficulties and problems come on you, even in the last days – and we are living in the last of the last days now – if you will call on the Lord your God AND BE OBEDIENT TO HIS VOICE – He will answer! I believe God is speaking to the world now through the circumstances in which we find ourselves. How? Sometimes He speaks through His prophets, but He reveals Himself and speaks to you and me through the Holy Spirit! When I hear the Voice of God, it’s not God Himself in front of me, but revealed by the Holy Spirit. John 16:13-14; 1 Cor 2:9-14. The Holy Spirit, who is God and dwells in us, reveals the ‘deep things of God’, the things He has prepared for those of us who love Him! We need to have THIS relationship

God is speaking to me now, in our current chaos; I don’t yet know the full response to it, but it’s leading me to speak to you from Deuteronomy 4.29. God is saying through Moses, “If from where you are you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” In so many countries, so many places, desperate people are crying out to God in prayer. How do we seek God, how do we pray? Do you go away alone, or pray with others? Do we need to be in a special, undisturbed sanctified atmosphere? But Moses says simply vv29-31, “If, from where you are, when you are in tribulation, when all these things are coming against you, even in the last days, if you will turn to the Lord and be obedient to His Voice – for the Lord Your God is a merciful God – He will not forsake you nor destroy you” – God will answer!

In Habakkuk Ch 3, the prophet admits, “O Lord, I’ve heard Your speech, and I was afraid.” Yes, when we look at the world, and we see that prophecy of violence and destruction is part of the preparation for the Kingdom of Christ, we are afraid at what we see, afraid of what’s going on. But this is the key: Habakkuk continues his prayer, “O Lord revive Your Work, make Your Work known in the midst of the years and remember mercy…” The prophet is asking God to revive His Work, to bring back to life something that is dead – in the midst of violence! This is the vision God gave me up on the mountain this summer! A revival of God’s Work in our days! This vision is for an ‘appointed time’! I believe we are living in the appointed time NOW! Yes, we’re afraid, but Lord, revive Your Work in the midst of it! Christian, as we see the unfolding situation, this is how we should pray, “O God, revive Your Work! Raise up the spiritually dead, fill the Church with new Power!” This is why, aged 92, I’m fighting on, telling the y

The important thing I want to bring to you is this: Habakkuk, the prophet says in Ch 2:1, “I will stand at my watch and look to see what HE – God – will say to me, and what I shall answer!” This is a challenge to us who know the Lord, to be in prayer, to be watching, waiting to hear and to know what the Lord is showing us for the future! Because in v2ff, the Lord answers, “Write the vision, make it plain and run with it! The vision is for an appointed time! It will not fail!”  God is in control of everything that is happening. He knows the future. He has set the times and seasons. He knew in advance, before He created the world, what would happen today. That’s why the Bible, speaking about Jesus, tells us that before sin entered the world, God had already prepared the answer! Because Jesus is described as the ‘Lamb slain before the world began’ – the sacrifice for our future sin! 

Opening my Bible one morning this summer I was struck how God explains – in the Old Testament – the days that we are living in now! It was in Habakkuk. I was quite shocked when I read Ch 1 – it’s a description of how things are today!  ‘This is the burden which Habakkuk the prophet received’ – and this is his complaint – “How long O Lord must I call for help and You do not listen? Or cry out to You of violence, but You do not save? Why do You make me look at injustice, why do You tolerate wrong?! Destruction and violence are before me, strife and conflict abound…”’ This describes much of the world right now! So many nations simultaneously are facing violence, stress, civil unrest, war… Even in Britain this August, violence on the streets… The same in Europe. As I write in Summer 2024, the Russian terror war against Ukraine continues. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, a woman, had to flee by helicopter to escape the violence in her country. There’s war between Israel and the Palestinians. Changes of government e

‘The Gospel of Christ is the Power of God’ (Romans 1:16). Evangelism should be part of our spiritual walk with God. If I ask you what are the essentials for every Christian, especially new converts, to do, you would quickly tell me – pray every day – read the Word every day – join a real live church. Water baptism and so on would quickly follow, along with serving God, fellowship with the saints and of course to be filled with the Spirit. I would add to this, evangelise – but not the way so many think of evangelism or evangelists. The Gospel is simply the good news. Your first responsibility after conversion is to spread the wonderful news of what God has done for you!  Acts 2:22-36 describes how Jesus was approved of God through the miracles, wonders, and signs that God performed through Him. The Power in the Gospel is indelibly linked with the miraculous. Throughout Jesus' ministry in the Gospels, and then with the disciples in the book of Acts, we read that it was the miracles which was the evidence of the

I see the Power of the Gospel in action – and I want you to understand the effectiveness of true conversion! Our faith is in God through Jesus Christ, and in the authority of His Word. Our Gospel has unlimited power to completely deliver and change men! Until you have such an absolute, powerful experience in your own life – that there is no uncertainty, no hesitation that there is one way only, one price, one salvation, complete and life-changing – you cannot demonstrate Christ to the unbelievers! When you yourself have this absolute experience of total salvation in your own life – then this is the demonstration of the Power of the Gospel! 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes,' (Romans 1.16, NIV). In December 1959, I held evangelism in Dewsbury. The local newspaper, the Dewsbury Reporter, published the following report under the headline, ‘REVIVAL CAMPAIGN CLAIMS SUCCESESS’: ‘Some astonishing results were obtained at the meeting on

The Apostle Paul said: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.” (Romans 1.16). Why are we not ashamed of the Gospel? Because it is the greatest demonstration of the power of God on earth! – It is the power to deliver everyone who has faith to believe! What changes nations is not some new teaching or doctrine. No, it is the simplicity of God’s Word, the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Today we are in danger of underestimating the power of God, and that’s why Paul said, “I’m not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God!”

Jesus said in John 14:12, “If you believe in Me, you will do the SAME Works I do, and GREATER Works, because I go to My Father. And whatsoever you ask in My Name, I WILL DO IT!” Jesus promises to answer your prayer Himself. Why? In order to glorify the Father through YOU. Prayer is not some formality, wishful thinking, or empty repetition. Jesus said, “WHATSOEVER you ask in My Name, I WILL DO IT!” Ask Jesus, ask the Father in His Name. Why do people pray to Mary and the saints? Scripture says they are ‘asleep in Christ’, waiting for the bodily Resurrection, when the dead whose names are written in the Book of Life shall rise first, and we who are alive shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air! Daniel 12:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17. But at this moment in time, Jesus alone is alive bodily in Heaven, the Firstfruits of the dead. 1 Corinthians 20. He alone is able to answer your prayer. Hebrews 7:25.  It is a direct relationship with Jesus that you need – approach Him in absolute confidenc

James 5:16 says the ‘effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails.’ This is the forceful, powerful prayer of an ‘ordinary’ righteous man! It works! The original Greek New Testament has two words for power: energeo and dunamis. Our praying HAS to be strong! It must generate effective energy like a dynamo and like dynamite – an explosive that, when placed against a wall, does not waste its energy on the air, but pushes the hard obstacle down! In coal mining they use it to blast tunnels through solid rock! James is giving us a powerful description of what prayer should be like! It should have an objective, either to generate energy like a dynamo, or like dynamite, to break and remove the obstacle! This is how I see and use prayer in my ministry, and why I see so many unusual miracles. This does not mean that my ordinary, everyday prayer for my family and daily circumstances changes, no. But this is my fighting, overcoming, face-to-face-with-God call for Power! That’s when the miracles happen!

There is not just a ‘need of prayer’, but there’s a need for great power in prayer! Power, when we pray! I’m very specific when I pray, I bring very specific questions – and I get very strong answers.  I find it interesting in the Bible that when God was dealing with people, so many times He would meet them on the mountain – like He did with Moses on Mount Sinai and Elijah on Mount Carmel and Horeb. Even Jesus would come away from His disciples and go up the mountain to pray to His Father. I like to go 10,000 feet, 3000 metres, up the mountains – that’s high! However, I can’t honestly say that you are physically nearer to God the higher you go… He’s Spirit, He’s not ‘up there’! But I enjoy these special times of prayer. I used to go to the mountains once a year, but now I go twice a year – to Switzerland in the winter and to Austria in the summer. But whether on the mountain or in the valley, I need special times of prayer. And all my life, when I’ve come to the Lord in prayer with very strong objectives, I’v

“YOU will do the SAME works and GREATER, NOW!” We’re facing things today that Jesus didn’t face, but our future is secured, Jesus said, “I will go and come again” - preach the Gospel of the Coming Kingdom. The troubles we see are the prophesied signs of the end. We need to win our families for Christ. Preach the Gospel; the Great Commission is not yet fulfilled; we have a Gospel of conversion, new life, everlasting life (John 3.16). There are so many religions, but only Jesus offers life. Look at the Word of God, not at the world. It is so easy to say you love the Lord, much like Peter did in John 13.37, but our love must be demonstrated. For those whose love has dimmed, even though Peter denied Christ, He was the first to speak on the Day of Pentecost, winning 3000 souls.

“Whatever you ask in My Name, I will do it.” The purpose of Pentecost in the Church is so that we will do the same works Jesus did. He is our intercessor, living in Heaven, praying for us, so that whatever we ask in His Name, He will do it, this is so that the Father will be glorified through the Son.  These are the days of the harvest. Jesus told the parable of the Wedding Feast. There were so many empty places, the servants were instructed to go to the highways and byways. One of the lessons we learn from this story is that so few believers will be ready, that we must compel the sinners into the Kingdom. 

'Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.’ (John 14:1-4, NIV.) The whole world is shaking, whether that is political division in UK, USA, Europe and elsewhere, or the wars in Ukraine and now Israel; we are living in turmoil. I believe we are closer to the return of Christ than many imagine. Jesus opens chapter 14 saying, "Let not your heart be troubled - believe in Me - I'm going to prepare a place for you."  Peter, only in the previous chapter had said, "Lord, why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You." We all must lay down our lives for the call of Christ; to follow Him is to take up the cross. Taking up our cross is identification with Christ in His suffering and res

If you study the Acts of the Apostles, you see that Pentecost was not a one-off experience for a select few. It was for ALL who would believe. When Philip the deacon went to Samaria in Acts 8, he preached Christ with miracles following, and all who believed were baptised in water – but the Holy Spirit had not fallen on any of them. When Peter and John heard this, they came down from Jerusalem to lay hands on the new believers so that they would receive the Holy Spirit also. This was such a clear event, so powerful, that Simon the sorcerer offered Peter money to get this same gift of laying hands on people... Peter rebuked him saying, “Your money perish with you!”  Later in Acts 18:24-19:6, we find a man called Apollos, ‘mighty in the Scriptures’, who was preaching Christ ‘accurately’, but only knew the ‘baptism of John’ – water baptism – he had not received the Holy Spirit. Priscilla and Aquila, friends of Paul, seeing this, explained the way more fully to him. But when later Paul came, he found some who pres

From the moment I received the Holy Spirit, I believed I had to live as Paul, Peter, John, Philip and the others did in the Acts of the Apostles. And I'm not just saying this, but I demonstrated it, as I'm speaking to you now, I'm 92 and next year, I'll be celebrating 75 years of full-time ministry. The Power and Authority I have is through the Holy Spirit. I take and use that Power. I have Authority. Why? Because I have received the Pentecost experience myself. After my Dad spoke with me about the importance of the Holy Spirit, aged 14, I was praying and seeking for some time, a year, before I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But when I did, immediately it transformed my experience – I led my teacher to Christ and two classmates went on to become preachers! Aged 15, God called me to give Him everything and live for Him alone! Aged 18 I went to Bible College, and after only 3 months was asked to pastor a church! I was the only student pastoring a church, full-time, the whole time I was in college! How