UKRAINE, DELIVERANCE
AND JUDGEMENT TO COME
WITH GOD. DO YOU?
David Hathaway
I’m trying to reassess the authority I have with God.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with the birth of Jesus, and by Ch 3 we come to Jordan, where Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist and receives the Holy Spirit, and in Ch 4, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be ‘tempted by the devil’. Oof!
From there, Jesus leaves for Galilee. This is immediately after His baptism in the Holy Spirit and His temptation by the devil. Now He begins His ministry. Ch 4:23 says He went about all Galilee, preaching the Kingdom in their synagogues, healing all manner of sickness and disease – and His fame, went out so widely, v24, it reached all Syria, and great multitudes came from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from Trans Jordan to hear Him! So even at this early stage, His ministry is so strong, it’s already reaching a vast area and great multitudes! And seeing the multitudes, He takes them into a mountain to teach and minister to them – Chs 5, 6 & 7.
Now in Ch 8:1-4, He comes down the mountain, followed by the crowds. A leper comes to Him and says to Him –I’m quite fascinated by this – “If You WANT, You CAN heal me of my leprosy!” What a strong, bold statement! Leprosy was incurable! So, already at this stage, there is an incredible level of faith in what He can do! And yes, of course the leper was healed. Jesus says to him, “I will!” And He does!
Next, in v5, Jesus comes into Capernaum, and a centurion comes to Him – he’s not a Jew, he’s a Roman soldier, an officer in the army that is occupying the land. But this officer comes to Jesus saying, “My servant is at home, sick of the palsy – paralysed – and grievously tormented.” Immediately Jesus responds, “I will come and heal him.” That’s Jesus – the willingness – He would even go to a Roman and heal his servant. But the Roman says, no, I’m not a Jew, I’m not good enough for You to come to my home. Yes, I’m an officer – but I’m not worthy of You!
You can imagine what those Roman officers got up to, believe me! They weren’t normally kind, gentle people, they had the power to be brutal. Yet –and this is very interesting – he says, “I’m not worthy to have You in my house, but SPEAK ONLY A WORD, and my servant will be healed!” He recognised the AUTHORITY Jesus had! Stop here for a moment.
You see, it wasn’t just the centurion who recognised the authority of Jesus, but the ordinary people, back up on that mountain in Chs 5,6 &7, THEY saw the authority He had! You see, the scribes studied and taught ‘from the Book’. But even the ordinary people saw that there’s a vast difference between ‘teaching from the Book’ and speaking with AUTHORITY as Jesus did – not from intellectual study, but from a life lived with practice and experience. Matthew 7:28-29.
In His teaching, in healing the sick, in His life, Jesus SHOWED who He was by the AUTHORITY that He had. The crowds following Jesus sensed this. I don’t suppose that the centurion had been on the mountain, but he must certainly have heard of Christ’s reputation. As a soldier, he understood authority. He had to respond to the authority of his superiors. And in turn, he had authority over those under him. It’s the chain of command. Under the authority of Rome, he only had to say to his soldiers, “Obey! DO IT!” – and they did! A soldier HAS to obey his commanding officer. When he says, “Go, do this!” – he does it! When the centurion said to Jesus, “You have authority; I’m a man under authority, and I’ve got soldiers under me” he understood, in a very practical way, the authority that Jesus had!
In the early days, when I had been a pastor for 15 years already, the Lord said to me, “Shut up! Stop talking, I’m tired of listening to you!” For the Lord to say that to me through the Holy Spirit was pretty damning! He said, “Go out and DO everything you talk about and tell other people to do – AND DON’T COME BACK TILL YOU’VE DONE IT!”
My whole life has been putting into practice what I have believed – and I’ve gained unbelievable experiences with God. All my life, whether it was the cancers, the communist prison, all my ministry, the whole of my life has simply been putting into practice what I believe.
So I think we ourselves need to reassess the relationship we have with God through Christ. Everything that Jesus did in all His human ministry, was under the authority of His Father! I’ve been looking at His relationship with His Father. It’s the same relationship of command and authority that the centurion had. Jesus had authority to command, because all the time He was on earth, He was under the authority of His Father. Jesus obeyed Him. One of the last things He says to His disciples before He leaves them is this, “While I was with you, you asked Me, and I gave you what you asked. But when I’m gone, you will ask the Father, direct – in My Name – He will give it to you – and I will do it!”
He’s passing on the authority to heal the sick to His disciples. He says, “You used to ask Me, and I gave you what you asked. But now, I’m giving you a DIFFERENT level of authority! Ask the Father direct, in My Name, and it will be done.”
YOU too can ask the Father. DIRECT. You don’t need to go through anybody else. You go DIRECT! You don’t need to pray to saints, you don’t need to pray to Mary, or go through anybody else, NO! We have DIRECT access to God THROUGH Jesus! Do you understand? Jesus says His Father will give you what you ask – if you ask in His Name, in the authority that’s in the
Name of Jesus!
I was meditating on this the other night in bed. I’ve been a preacher for 75 years, but I’m still learning! The reason Jesus could say, “When I’m not here, ask the Father in My Name and it will be done” is because HE had authority with His Father. Why? He had authority because of His obedience, because of what He did. He earned this authority: He obeyed His Father and did what His Father said! That’s the key!
God the Father will respond to what you ask in the Name of Jesus, not because of who you are. We don’t get the answers because of who WE are. We get the answers because of who JESUS is. We are IN HIM! We come to the Father THROUGH HIM! We have that same level of authority Jesus had on earth! Yes, I’ve known this all my life. It’s why I could do all the things I did in the communist countries – I had an authority from God, through Christ. And this authority comes when I OBEY HIM!
Jesus was OBEDIENT to His Father! He followed everything His Father wanted, even to the extent that His Father sent Him to die. Yes, he sacrificed His Life! Come on! God the Father sent His Son into the world – to live and die! Yes, He sent Him to heal the sick and raise the dead. But the ultimate obedience was when Jesus gave His life on the Cross. That’s what purchased our salvation. You are not saved by your works, by what you do. You’re not saved by your praying. You’re saved because Jesus died for you. It’s His Blood shed on the Cross that paid the price of your sin and brought you into a relationship with God. We mustn’t forget that!
There’s no authority in religion, following rules, regulations and traditions. No. Matthew 7:29 says, Jesus taught as one with authority, not as the scribes.
They had learning, yes, they were religious, yes, but they had NO authority. They could not do the things that Jesus did.
This question of authority is something we all need to reassess. I’m trying to reassess this in my own life, because I know that the power I have with God comes simply from obedience. As Jesus had to obey the commands of His Father, so I have to obey the commands He gives me! I act under authority. When He says go, preach, I go! Even when it’s impossible!
For more than 30 years I was preaching the Gospel – alone – not under the authority of any church, any organisation, but under authority from GOD. Without support! But God had called me!!! And I did what He said. When I took 400 missionaries with me to Siberia in 1994 – just after communism had collapsed – I had no money, I was struggling to raise the money even for one-way tickets. For the 200 Ukrainians who joined me, Siberia was a land of punishment, of gulags and death camps – they went gladly, even though I could only promise them hardship because I had no money and the conditions out there were desperate. When the Westerners asked, where are our return tickets, what could I tell them?!! I could only tell them, “Jesus said, ‘Go out into all the world and preach the Gospel – from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth!’ Siberia is the end of the earth. But Jesus never said, ‘Come back!’” It’s true! All 400 went – and of course, they did come back! Because I had authority from God! I was doing what He said do.
Through all the years, what has helped me in my ministry to unbelievers and the outcast is that I’m acting under authority. GOD told me to preach the Gospel! So when I was wanting to take
stadiums under communism and they refused to let me have them, I simply persisted – because I had AUTHORITY FROM GOD to demand the stadium –and I would get it! When it was forbidden, I could do it! I had power to do the impossible because the plans and the timings were not mine, they were God’s! I was able to exercise authority, because I obeyed HIM!
The centurion KNEW Jesus had authority to heal his servant, just by the word He spoke! But Jesus was amazed at the centurion! Absolutely amazed. He said in 8:10, “I haven’t found such faith anywhere!” Not in Galilee, not in Syria, Decapolis nor Trans-Jordan, not in Judea nor Jerusalem, not in all the places where He was working with Jewish people. He said bluntly, “I’ve not found such great faith in all Israel!” You see, your religion without faith in God, in Jesus, without relationship, without obedience – is nothing. He says in v11, “Many will come from the East and the West and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven…” Outsiders will enter the Kingdom! But the religious, those who think themselves to be ‘children of the Kingdom’ will be cast into outer darkness, where they will weep and gnash their teeth!
To the Roman centurion Jesus said, “Go your way, and it will be done as you have believed.” And his servant was healed at that very same moment. THAT’S the authority God has given us THROUGH Christ.
Jesus had authority because of His obedience to His Father. If we follow His example, we too can ask the Father – in the Name of Jesus – for whatever we want – and He will give us what we ask. It’s incredible! BUT we must ourselves be willing to be OBEDIENT, whatever the cost, and so follow Jesus.
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YOU NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT!
I’m looking at the start of the ministry of Jesus. In Luke 4:14 it says, ‘Jesus returned in the Power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about and He taught in their synagogues being glorified by all.’
He’s been baptised by John; and full of the Holy Spirit, He’s been led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He was tempted for 40 days by the devil! In v9, the devil takes Him to a pinnacle of the Temple, it’s the last of the temptations, saying, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down!” It was a challenge of course and Jesus resisted him, saying, “It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.” There’s a big lesson here that we must be careful we don’t ‘tempt’ God in the wrong way by attempting to do something that is not in His Will for us. And the devil, having finished tempting Jesus, departs from Him – ‘for a time’!
That is very significant. The devil hasn’t left Him – only for a time.
So now Jesus returns from the wilderness, from being tempted, in the Power of the Spirit, and goes into Galilee. I want to emphasise: Jesus Himself NEEDED the Power of the Holy Spirit in order that He could fulfil His ministry. By v16, He arrives in Nazareth, His hometown where He grew up, and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and got up to read. They gave Him the book of Isaiah and He found the place where it is written, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He – the Spirit of the Lord – has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He’s sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those that are bruised, and to preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord.” He closed the book and said, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled!”
What He reads from Isaiah covers the whole of His ministry! For some of us, this is
OUR ministry. It certainly is mine! I would say, as an evangelist, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and for 75 years this has been my ministry. 75 years ago, He anointed me to preach the Gospel. To the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance, to heal, to set at liberty those that are bruised – and to preach the Acceptable Year of the Lord. In other words – JESUS IS COMING! This is the whole of the Gospel that we preach! And as I read the New Testament, I find that Jesus spends more time talking about His Kingdom than He does teaching about healing and salvation.
In Nazareth, v22, the people were intrigued by Him, but they knew Him, he grew up in there, with them. Isn’t this Joseph’s son? And they became so indignant, they tried to throw Him off the cliff on which the town was built! But of course, He passed through the midst of them and carried on His way down to Capernaum, v32, where again, they were intrigued and astonished at His doctrine – BECAUSE HIS WORD WAS WITH POWER!
There was an evidence of Power in His ministry! In Nazareth they rejected Him, yes, but He came into Galilee ‘in the Power of the Spirit’. He read from Isaiah, saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me!” Thank God for the Anointing and thank God for the Power of the Holy Spirit! If you want to be effective in ministry – I want to encourage you – you NEED the Anointing and Power of the Spirit!
I started preaching as a boy aged 13, nothing happened, nobody repented –and my father said, “You NEED the Holy Spirit.” When I received the Holy Spirit, it transformed me! I became a preacher and an evangelist in the school where I was. I told the boys the truth, that without Christ you go to hell. That there’s only one way into Heaven – through Jesus. Jesus said you must be born again.
There’s no other way! Saved by the Power of the Blood! That’s the truth. Good works don’t save you, being ‘good’ doesn’t save you. We’re not born ‘good’. The Bible says ALL have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Repent and be baptised in the Name of Jesus – that’s the Gospel I preach, that’s the way into the Kingdom. Two of the boys in my class went on to become preachers. I hadn’t been to Bible College – but I had received the Power of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel!
In the synagogue in Capernaum, v33, there was a man with an unclean spirit, a devil, which cried out, “You are Jesus of Nazareth! Have You come to destroy us? I know You are the Holy One of God!” (Even devils know who Jesus is – even though the people in Nazareth didn’t know or recognise Him for who He really is.) Jesus commands the evil spirit to come out of the man, and the devil came out of him and hurt him not. The people in Capernaum were amazed, “What Word is this, for with Authority and Power He commands unclean spirits and they come out!”
Jesus left the synagogue and went to Peter’s house where He healed Peter’s mother-in-law. By the end of the day the people who’d been in the synagogue brought all their sick family and friends to Him and He laid hands on every one of them and ALL were healed.
I want you to understand that when we have the Anointing and Power of the Holy Spirit, when the Spirit of the Lord is on us, we have Authority. The reason I was able to do all those crazy things in the former Soviet Union under communism is because I have Authority – from the Holy Spirit! Even the hardened communists, my biggest opponents recognised the Authority that I had. We are Christ’s Ambassadors; in His Name we have ALL the Authority of HIS Kingdom through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Use it!
David Hathaway
PROPHECY OF ISAIAH –
In October last year we were in Baku, Azerbaijan, where, together with the local Christians I held 3 days of evangelism in a prestigious venue in the city centre. It’s a bold step of faith to preach Christ publicly in a culturally Moslem country, and there was a fear, at government level, of some backlash and provocations. So no, we were not allowed the larger arena I had hoped for, but the Minister of Religious Affairs did give his full support and attended the opening night. This was the first time in the history of Azerbaijan that Christians have been permitted to hold a meeting, open to the public, in a public venue.
Islam is the predominant religion, practiced by about 97.3% of the population. Christians make up approximately 2.6% of the population, while other religions and those with no religious affiliation each constitute less than 0.1%. Christians, estimated between 280,000 and 450,000, are mostly Russian and Georgian Orthodox, but it is the tiny Protestant Christian community which is actively sharing the Gospel, and most of
these come from Moslem backgrounds and understand how to share Jesus – Isa Messih – with their Moslem counterparts.
Each night the Gospel I preached was confirmed by repentance with tears, and many shared their miracles of healing from the platform with great joy! Eyesight, pain from various diseases and injuries, every sort of miracle. This is the evidence to them that Jesus, the ‘Isa’ of the Koran, is in fact the Son of the Living God who loves them and gave His Life for them. I believe in Heaven and hell –in an eternity after death – and I don’t want anyone to go to hell, that’s why I preach the Gospel of salvation and healing with such passion. And especially here, in Azerbaijan.
to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, and the miracles followed!
Moslems are afraid to come to Christ because the Koran states ‘God has no need of a son’ – because God can have ‘no equal’. They do not understand that Jesus is not a mere prophet like Mahommed but was one with God from Creation. In Genesis 1:26 God says, ‘Let US make man in OUR image’, which is plural. Just as we are ‘body, soul and spirit’, so God is in three persons, ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’. Jesus is the Son of God sent by the Father as prophesied, and could not commence His ministry until, aged 30, He received the Holy Spirit. He is part of God from the Beginning, but did not grasp for equality, instead He humbled Himself and became a man like one of us, lived like us, so that when He died, it was God in the Person of His Son who gave His Life for us – so that every tongue may confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father! Only in the extremity of their need do Moslems dare to turn to THIS Son of God, THIS Lord of Life, for help – and they receive it!
Our meetings were broadcast live online. On the second night a man testified from the platform how he had been watching my message on the opening night at home – too ill to be in the venue – but God had instantly and miraculously healed him during my prayer for the sick, and he came to prove it! On the final night, the place was full, a great crowd came forward
“THOSE THAT WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT”
“WE FIGHT SO WE MAY LIVE”
This is Ukraine: your house is being burgled, the police don't come to help. Instead, the police tell you to surrender your house to the villain breaking in. Whilst Trump and Putin continued their December ‘peace’ plans to devour Ukraine between them, David was ministering on the Frontline.
This is already the fifth winter of Russia's illegal invasion. Russia doesn't just ‘occupy’ the towns and cities of East Ukraine; it obliterates them from the map. From the safety of Russia’s own territory, the invaders target Ukrainian civilians, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, bus and train stations, energy infrastructure – across the whole nation. For 4 years, dependent on weapons supplied from America, or from Britain and Europe with American components, Ukraine was not allowed to return fire into enemy territory. Ukraine had to defend herself with her hands tied behind her back.
It is no easy thing to enter and travel the length of Ukraine: 3 days from UK to the Ukrainian Front, and 4 days to be sure not to miss our flight home for Christmas. We arrived midday Friday in the fortress city of Kharkiv – to the sound of the air alarm. It’s normal. We left Kharkiv on the Monday afternoon, again to an air alarm. Bombed out housing and factories, Kharkiv remains a bustling city, fully alive. Slogans on the walls declare, ‘Be brave like Ukraine’, ‘Bravery is stronger than bombs’, and ‘We're different, we’re Kharkiv people’.
Now Ukraine has developed her own long-range capabilities independent of the West. This is the first year, the first winter that Ukraine has been able to hit back at the enemy on its own soil – NOT targeting the civilian population as Russia does – but taking out critical military infrastructure and striking the lucrative oil refinery and export trade which, despite Western sanctions, still finances Russia's war.
Our days and hours in Kharkiv and Donetsk military regions were packed with travel and ministry. Travelling on military roads covered with anti-drone netting, zig-zagging across pot-holed village roads, in Izyum David ministered in a growing church planted immediately after the city was liberated from the invaders in 2023; he visited and ministered to the Military Unit of Unmanned System Forces of the 26th Artillery Brigade (the observation post protecting the whole of this part of the Front); and then, further up the Frontline, to commanders of the 26th Artillery ground units, who gathered in another secret location to meet us and to hear the Word of God. As we passed one of the fortified towns, it seems the Russians picked up our Western mobile signals and sent a large drone; God protected us, although our minibus jumped at the blast. No one was injured, but we did drive faster after this! In Slov’yansk David ministered to chaplains who live and work on the Front with the military. On Sunday he ministered in a packed church (5-600) that daily ministers to the spiritual, social and material needs of the people of the city now living under daily bombardments. And on Sunday evening David fellowshipped with and encouraged over 20 pastors and leaders from the surrounding towns and villages.
Pastor Oleksandr, his family and church cared for us during our stay. In 2014 when Russia temporarily occupied Slov'yansk, two of his grown sons were tortured and brutally murdered. In 2024 a Russian drone killed a third son delivering humanitarian aid. The city is under constant attack. It was too dangerous for our team to stay in an hotel, safer scattered in apartments! The pastor says, “We work against all the negative here. We continue to hold our services, we provide special events for kids, education, rehabilitation, employment. We make bread, we supply food. At the church we have a purification plant where people can take free city water – in the summer we distributed 30 tonnes of drinking water every day. Even the military know the difference we make to morale in Slov'yansk. How can I leave? If I did, the people would be lost. So I stay.”
Destruction is ever present. But what struck us was the busy, orderly daily life of ordinary people. As the poster at the military command centre said, ‘We fight so we may live in peace’.
Three world nuclear powers – Russia, the US and the UK – signed the Budapest Memorandum in December 1994: a security agreement prohibiting any of these three nations from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine. Because of this, Ukraine signed – and surrendered all her nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at that time. If she had retained those weapons, Russia could never have seized Crimea and occupied Donbas in 2014, nor launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. But Ukraine is NOT defeated.
We stand in faith that God is with Ukraine – and He will drive the invaders out.
UKRAINE, DELIVERANCE –AND JUDGEMENT TO COME
David
Hathaway – October 2025
the time’.
The United National Days of Prayer for Ukraine that we have held since Putin’s first invasion in 2014 form one of the greatest miracles in my ministry. Putin expected his second, full-scale invasion on 24th February 2022, to be over in 3 days. After America, his was the 2nd strongest army in the world! He didn’t expect the West to get involved – nor did they want to – they waited to see what Ukraine would do. The unexpected success of Ukraine to repel and destroy this overwhelming evil army –liberating the whole of Kyiv region in just 5 weeks – demonstrates the power of united prayer in the nation! It was a miracle of the highest magnitude! Someone should tell Putin Ukraine has a prayer-answering God – he cannot fight against a praying nation!
I believe this is what God says in Isaiah 58:8-9 to Ukraine and to the praying Church in Ukraine: “Your light will break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you, and the Glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer!”
There are Christians in the West who believe that Russia is waging a holy war against a sinful, rebellious people who deserve to be cursed and punished in the Name of God. Sources quoted by the Financial Times –European officials privy to the details –reported that a critical meeting, held on Friday 17th October 2025 at the White House between Presidents Trump and Zelenskyi, repeatedly descended into a ‘shouting match’, with Trump reportedly ‘cursing all
I have worked consistently in the former Russian-controlled Soviet empire for over 60 years. I have seen for myself the disdainful and insulting attitude common among Russians towards Ukrainians. The centuries of bloody aggression, Russia against Ukraine, are recorded in history for all to study. What the world has seen on the territory of Ukraine since 2022 is evil played out by Russia on a massive political scale – even if the world does not understand it.
So many in the West are unfamiliar with the background and history of Ukraine, a nation struggling – at great cost to themselves – to come free from Soviet/fascist corruption these 34/35 years since the freedom came in August/December 1991.
But Trump commanded Ukraine to surrender its internationally recognised territory claimed by Putin, to Russia forever.
1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “The Kingdom of God is not in word, but in Power.” God is not just a God of promises, but a God of action! He DOES what He says – in Power! I liken Ukraine to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament; they were at war and God COMMANDED them, “DRIVE OUT the enemy!” It’s a warning to Ukraine! Because the Israelites failed to drive the enemy out of the land, Israel suffered wars and defeat for hundreds of years. I believe God is commanding Ukraine as a nation to drive Russia out of every corner of their land! If the enemy remains on one part of the land, Ukraine will continue to suffer war on all its territory. If it was a command to Israel, it is a command to Ukraine.
HOWEVER, we do well to remember, Jesus did not come to raise up nations. He clearly said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” He came 2000 years ago to save souls from hell on earth and in eternity. The kingdoms of this world do
not yet belong to our Christ, ONLY when Christ returns. Our commission is to bring the Gospel of Salvation wherever He sends us, so that His House may be full when He comes.
My vision of Ukraine is of a people crying out to the Living God in repentance. I will not rest until God answers. Father, I come in Jesus’ Name, I stand on the Authority of Your Word, and I declare: You have blessed Ukraine; no curse can come upon Ukraine. Whom God has blessed, no man can curse. We declare, no man, no army, shall stand against Ukraine. No man, not even Putin, can stand against you, because God is with you. God is here, He is defending you. God is working miracles by the Power and Authority that is in the Name of Jesus. Ukraine, you will be victorious, the enemy will be defeated, Putin will be removed from power. Lord, by the Power and Authority that is in Your Name and in Your Word, we declare that the world will see Your Glory, here in Ukraine. In Jesus’ Name. Amen!
Yes, there is trouble ahead for Britain, for Europe, for America, the whole world. Hatefulness that is nursed and allowed to grow within the heart of any individual, of any confession, of any nation, becomes a mortal sickness of the soul. Proverbs says, ‘Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life’! Jesus Himself warned, Matthew 15:19, “Vipers! Out of the heart come evil thoughts… murder…”
And yet, God so loved this fallen world, He so loves His Creation, He so loves you and me – that He gave His only Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life! What a gift!
God commands all men everywhere to repent because He will judge the world. And ONLY when Israel cries out in its own desperation at the end of these fearful days, “Oh, that You would rend the Heavens and come down,” will Christ come, and Israel, as a nation, be saved.
I AM – AND I WILL BE
In Exodus 3 we find Moses keeping his father-in-law’s sheep and he comes to Horeb, the mountain of God. He sees a bush on fire but not consumed by the fire. Fires burn and destroy, but not this one. So he comes closer, and God calls him from the fire, “Take your shoes off, you are walking on holy ground,” and He introduces Himself, “I am the God of your father, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God is revealing Himself to Moses in a very personal way, as the God who has revealed Himself to, and been known by, the predecessors.
God says, “I have seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, and I know their sorrows, and for this reason I am come down to deliver them.” (I preach on this verse in Ukraine!) The children of Israel are in affliction, they’re slaves in the land of Egypt. In the English, God doesn’t say, “I WILL come down,” but “I AM (already) come down!” He’s already here. He is the God of the past, the present and the future! His promise to the predecessors was to deliver Israel, to take them into Canaan and give them their own territory. (One of the miracles of the Bible is that, today, after more than 2000 years, Israel is once again a sovereign nation.)
But here God commands Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt!” Moses is just a shepherd, a man who had fled Egypt, because 40 years before he killed an Egyptian. So humbly he says, “Who am I that I should do this?” This is a question we all must ask. I know God has called me, I know what He has called me to do, but who am I? God’s promise to Moses is, “I WILL BE WITH YOU.” In 75 years of ministry, God
has always been with me, there has never been a time when I’ve not been conscious of His Presence, His Power, His Leading.
Moses continues, “When I come to the children of Israel and tell them that the God of their fathers has sent me, they will want to know, what is Your Name? What shall I say? Who ARE You?” God replies, “I AM that I AM – Ehyeh asher Ehyeh.” I AM THAT I AM is the English translation, and I’ve always been intrigued by it. I AM is EXISTENCE. God always has been, in the past, and always will be – in the future! Not created. He EXISTED before the very beginning of time. We cannot imagine it, but God has always been and always will be! He says to Moses, “Tell them, I AM, Ehyeh, has sent you.”
God’s Name in Hebrew can equally be translated as ‘I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE’, as Biblical Hebrew has no future tense, instead a continuous present. I am whoever I want to be, whatever I want to be, whenever I want to be. Whatever I want and say, I do. I am EVERYTHING. I am EVERYWHERE. Hence the fact that in Exodus 3, God is in the burning bush! And speaks from the fire! But to Elijah God does not speak from the wind, earthquake or fire – but in a still small voice.
When we preach the Gospel of Jesus in the Power of the Holy Spirit, GOD is in the Power, He’s in the Fire!
He’s in the miracles! God worked the
David Hathaway
miracle that got me out of the communist prison in 1973 when British Prime Minister Harold Wilson came for me. When I was healed of throat cancer in 1964 and lung cancer in 2003, God was there. GOD did it!
When God is speaking to Moses, He’s saying, “I existed BEFORE your fathers, BEFORE Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I existed before everything, and I AM the Creator of everything. This is my Name forever!” He’s making known His Eternal Presence! Without beginning, without end. He has and is ALL Power, ALL Authority – that’s who we worship!
The Power of Vision
There are three visions, three perspectives you need to have if you want to work for God: a vision of God, of the world and of what God can do through you. Most of you are younger than me, so I want to talk to you as a father, grandfather! I want to show you what vision can do in your life. If you do not have a clear vision and purpose, you will achieve nothing for God. I want to give you a clear vision for your future, of what God wants to do, and I want you to live with this vision for the rest of your life!
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WITHOUT A FATHER…
David Hathaway – August 2025
What affected me in Central Asia last summer 2025 was that I learned, out of 100 people, only 2 will have had fathers who were actively present in their lives; but to break with Islam (in Central Asia you are born into Islam) and become a Christian brings the ire of both relatives and the community – with severe beatings to ‘save the lost soul’ of the new convert. The man who drove me everywhere told me he has scars all over his back from when the men in his family locked him in the cellar and repeatedly beat him up. In any Kazakh congregation, he told me, 50% are secret Christians for fear of their families.
And it was in this context that the Summer Youth Conference began with a message on the ‘Forgotten Commandment’ – Exodus 20:12 – honour your father and mother that it may go well with you. The speaker (and host of the conference) came from such a dysfunctional family and such a community and has learnt the
power of forgiveness. On screen he shared photos of the Christian leaders who have come alongside him since his teenage years and fathered him in the faith. Then he handed the microphone over to me, to minister to this spiritual and physical need of a father. This is how I began:
I love to pray on the mountains. Today I was on your mountain here in Kazakhstan. Why? Regardless of my age, I was asking God for at least another 10 years here, in your country! He’s my Father and I ask Him!
I know what it is to have a father in your life. I’ll tell you, everything I do, everything that I am is because of my father. He was a great man of God, one of the pioneers of the Pentecostal revival in Britain. A great preacher, a great teacher – but it’s not for this that I remember him. I remember him for his praying. My bedroom was above the kitchen. Before anyone else was up, my father would go to the kitchen alone, and he would pray out loud. Every morning, I would wake up to hear him praying. I knew he was praying for me. Everything I have, everything I am is because of my father’s prayer. So I know how important fathers are, and I want to be a father to YOU.
Fifty years ago I was thrown into a communist prison, strip searched, sentenced to what could have been 10 years in prison: 5 years for Bible smuggling – because they found 2 tonnes of Russian Bibles in a secret compartment in my tour bus – and another 5 years for preaching the Gospel in the communist countries.
I can tell you, it upset me! I was thrown into the prison at four o’clock in the morning and stripped naked. I wasn’t allowed anything personal, not even my clothes, my shoes or my watch; the only thing I was allowed were my glasses. My father had died by that time, but I was married, had 3 children – the oldest,
twins, 16, the youngest only 3. Now I could be away from my family for 10 years! My wife alone, no money no food. Nobody supported my family while I was in prison – they suffered! And I was in a notoriously bad prison; they were still executing Christians in there even 10 years after I left.
I remember how I prayed, crying out to God. I prayed for food, and there was none; I prayed for my wife to be allowed to visit me, but in the whole time I was there, she was not allowed; I asked God for help, I asked that I would be released. After months of praying, everything I asked for, the answer was “NO”!
We were locked in our cell 24 hours a day and the lights were left on all night so they could abuse us. There came a day when I said I can’t pray anymore. I said, “O God, I pray, but You don’t answer me, it’s as if Heaven is shut up against me, like brass. Solid.”
Normally there were 4 of us in the cell, but I couldn’t communicate – I didn’t speak their language. And I didn’t understand, when the guards shouted at me, what their commands were, I didn’t know why they beat me. I remember one day, when the other three men had been taken out for exercise, the agony I felt when I cried out, “O God, I can’t pray anymore. You don’t answer me. I’m alone. I’m facing 10 years in here, my family’s suffering. I’d be better dead than here! I can’t pray anymore.”
Then it was as if the Holy Spirit said, “When the disciples didn’t know how to pray, Jesus taught them ‘The Lord’s Prayer’!” But I could never pray that prayer, because when I was a boy at school, we had to say it collectively every morning before lessons started and the boys used to change the words into blasphemy, so since then, I never could pray it. But the Holy Spirit said, “If you don’t know how to pray, pray that prayer Jesus taught His disciples!”
So I began to say, “Our Father…” But I was so rebellious, so angry, I said, “How can I say ‘OUR’, that’s plural – I’m alone here, I can’t say ‘Our’ Father, I can only say ‘MY Father!” As I said this, I realised –God IS MY FATHER! My own father was dead, he never saw the ministry that I have today. But GOD is MY FATHER!!!
Still rebellious, I came to the next phrase, ‘who is in Heaven’, and I complained “O God, You’re in Heaven, You’re surrounded by angels, You’ve got music, You’ve got the Glory. But I’m down here in this
FATHER…
filthy, stinking cell. No food, not even a proper toilet, just a hole in the ground. I’ve got nothing. I’m in hell down here!!!” And then I remembered, God SO LOVED US, that He sent His Son to be in a prison… I’ve been to Israel many times, I’ve seen the very prison Jesus was held in, I know how they beat Him, how they tortured Him – so bad, He should’ve died under that beating in the prison alone. And then the Cross. Yet God is HIS FATHER, and He allowed Him to suffer… For me…
Then I came to the next phrase, ‘hallowed be Your Name’. I said, “What does this mean, ‘hallowed’?” Then the Holy Spirit said, “This is where you have to worship God!” But I’m not in church! There’s no music, no spiritual atmosphere. I’m alone in this filthy cell! How can I praise God?! I was so rebellious, I just sat there. Then with my mouth shut, my teeth clenched, I tried to mutter, “Praise the Lord.” Suddenly, as I began to say it, the miracle happened! It was as if the roof came off the prison and all the Glory of God came down! I saw my cell full of angels, I could feel the Presence of Jesus! It was so powerful!!! I could hear all the music of Heaven, and I jumped up and I ran around that tiny cell, singing at the top of my voice the chorus of the famous song, “O God, how great Thou Art! How great Thou Art!” – And that day my cell was changed, I felt I was in Heaven! I have never experienced such Glory in any church, I’ve never experienced it anywhere on earth like I did that day.
After that, everything changed. Everything! God began to answer! I began to get food, and the more I prayed the more I knew the miracle would happen. It is recorded, I only discovered this later, that the British Government didn’t want to do anything to get me released. But God worked the miracle!!! I didn’t stay 10 years, not even one full year. I came out of that prison with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson – it was a powerful miracle!!!
I experienced the Glory of God in that communist prison! I want to tell you, however dark your day, however difficult your life, however much you face rejection –GOD IS YOUR FATHER! He is! Wherever you are. When I was in prison, God was still my Father. I learned, God as Father loved YOU so much – ME so much – that He let His own Son suffer in order to pay the price of My sin, the price of yours…
Family means everything to me. But you know, my wife suffered, my children suffered. Yes, God worked the miracle, and I came home exactly as He prom-
ised. But nobody supported my family whilst I was in prison. They had to sell my car. They wanted to sell my house. My girls had to leave school to get a job to support their mother. They know what suffering is.
But God is faithful as a Father. After I came out of prison, because everybody wanted to know my story, I was invited to travel the world. In those first 2 years I reached more than 2 million people and led a quarter of a million to Christ – all because of my time in that prison! Without it I would’ve had no miracle, and I wouldn’t have the ministry I have today: I wouldn’t have reached the whole of the former communist bloc as I have, I wouldn’t see the healings and the miracles that I do… But God had appointed my earthly father to pray for me when I was growing up, and God answered HIS prayer!
Because in the early years, when my children were growing up, I was only home for about 3 days in every month, at some point I had to have a meeting with my family. I said, “I want to apologise. I’ve spent so much time away from home, with the travel company and the Bible smuggling, then the prison, then travelling all over the world, then giving so much time to the former Soviet Union and the communist countries. Forgive me.” Within the family something broke and my girls put their arms around me, “Dad, we know why you did it, and we love you all the more.” And I love them all the more because of this.
When we celebrated my 90th birthday, I was surrounded by my whole family, every generation, my daughters, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. I know the price they had paid, and they knew the price I paid. We took a big hotel room with an enormous table. Every member of my family! Celebrating what God has done in my long life. It was the same last year when I celebrated 75 years of fulltime ministry. Again I took a
big hotel, this time I filled it for the day with my closest supporters, and all my kids were there – my youngest great grandson playing with his older sisters on the grass outside. Yes, I understand what it means to be a father. I thank God that I’m a father, and that my family love me – despite the price that they have had to pay. I’m so grateful to be a father and have a family.
I want to be a father to YOU, to your nation, to your people, wherever I evangelise. Why? Where did I find God? Not just in my home, not just in church; it was in a terrible prison cell, in the loneliness, in the darkness that I found God to be MY Father! A Father to ME. God wants to be a Father to YOU. Whatever your circumstances. However much pain you have, even in your darkest hour, God is still YOUR Father.
Why? Because He allowed His own Son to suffer to save YOU from your sin. Do you know why I preach the Gospel with such passion? For a very simple reason: that prison was like hell on earth. When I came out of prison, my church organisation said, you can’t go back to the communist countries. I said I have to go back. They said, you’ve got a wife, a family, you’ve got to stay at home. I said, “NO, I HAVE TO GO BACK.” Because I learned to love those men in prison. My best friend was a murderer, I was with every kind of criminal. And if hell is worse than a communist prison, I will spend my life saving people from hell. Yes, I’ve tasted hell on earth, and I will give my life to save YOU, your people. I want to be a father to you.
But, however hard your life, GOD is your FATHER. All you have to do is call on Him, as I did in that prison, and say, “MY Father!” – Call on Him!
This message set the whole conference alight with the Fire and the Power of God, until they said, they had never experienced God’s Glory as they did during those few days together.
PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PRINCES!
Katie Morris
Who among us does not realise that we’re living in deeply troubling times?! Aggression, unrest, war; lies, deception and manipulation of hearts and minds aided by the ‘algorithm’ and the swift development of AI.
Disturbing me is ‘Christian Nationalism’ – which existed in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945, which is in Putin’s Russia, in America, and now growing in Britain.
My father used to teach me, “Katie, do not put your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men in whom there is no help.” Ps 146:3. Our hope cannot be in any political leader or human being – all are flawed, and their plans lead to nothing.
Just recently I was in a powerful church meeting where the preacher took as his text Isaiah 6. The prophet in a vision sees the Lord God, seated high and lifted up in His Temple, and is convicted of his own desperate unworthiness, “Woe is me, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Surely today the Lord sees how great man’s wickedness is, and that the thoughts of man’s heart tend to evil all the time…
But sensing the direction the preacher was going, I allowed myself to be distracted by something in his opening remarks which I instantly fact checked, that Isaiah was a cousin of King Uzziah. I didn’t know that, but yes, it looks like this was possibly true. And I remembered another preacher who used to say of the opening line, ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw…’, that ‘UZZIAH’ means pride and verse 1 can be read: ‘In the year that PRIDE
died…’ So, whilst the preacher was still describing the Glory of the King of kings, seated on the Throne, I was checking into this too…
Actually, I found that Uzziah in Hebrew means ‘THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH’ or ‘my strength is in the Lord’. And I found that in his early days as king, Uzziah loved God and had great success. Only 16 years old when his father died, he began by doing ‘what was right in the sight of the Lord’ – as his father had done before him. 2 Chronicles 26:5 says he ‘sought the Lord, and God made him prosper’. God helped him! Sadly, v15 records that when he became strong, ‘his heart was lifted up to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God...’
Isaiah, cousin or not, saw the fruits of King Uzziah’s pride and fall – the whole nation was affected! “Woe is me,” Isaiah wept, “because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Uzziah, having fallen away from God through pride, left a spiritual vacuum in the nation. Who should sit on the throne? Who is worthy to govern? And Isaiah saw in a vision –the Lord God Almighty! He alone is both worthy and able to rule this world. HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His Glory! Yes, even now in our chaos, the Lord God Almighty rules, and will rule, from His Throne.
Later, like Isaiah, John too saw the Lord in His Glory, the ‘One who sits upon the Throne’, Revelation 4. And he saw the heavenly host fall down before Him, saying, 4:8-11, ‘HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord God Almighty, who is and was and is to come! … You are worthy, O Lord, to receive Glory and Honour and
Power, for You created all things, and by Your Will they were created and have their being...’
In Revelation 5 John saw that He ‘who sits upon the Throne’ had a sealed Scroll in His Hand. A mighty angel asks, ‘Who is worthy to open the Scroll and loose the seals? No man in Heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth is worthy to open and read the Scroll, nor to look on it …’ John wept and wept until he sees a Lamb, slain … ‘YOU are worthy to open the Book – because You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your Blood – out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation … and You have made us to be kings and priests to God and to rule on the earth…’
…BUT NOT YET! Where we stand today in our corrupt, broken world, NO man is yet ready, NO man is yet fit to rule and reign. We are NOT yet called to rule the nations with Christ’s rod of iron (Revelation 2:27). The kingdoms of this world do NOT yet belong to Christ. Revelation 11:15. Remember, Jesus Himself was shown the kingdoms of this world – by the devil – who correctly said, Jesus could only have them if He would bow down and worship him – the devil, Matthew 4:8-9 – shockingly, that was the only way at that time. And when Jesus ascended into Heaven, Acts 1:6-7, He said to His disciples, this is NOT YET the time to restore the Kingdom! The Father, Jesus said, alone has the power over the time and the season when this will happen.
And it can ONLY happen when Christ comes back, bringing with Him those who have believed in Him and have taken part in the First Resurrection. Revelation 20:1-5. Amen, come Lord Jesus!
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