Bible Study with David Hathaway - (David's weekly TV programmes)

Preach the Gospel - Heal the sick | Matthew 9 | (WebTV #551)

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!

Exploring the Power of God | 75 Years in Ministry | (TV Audio #550)

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.

Are you living in God’s Power | 1 Corinthians 4.20 | (TV Audio #549)

'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.

How to defeat the devil | Recorded in Slovyansk Ukraine | (TV Audio #548)

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.

God Used a Prime Minister to Get Me Out of Soviet Prison | Slovyansk, Ukraine | (TV Audio #547)

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!  

Faith Tested by Fire: Preaching Christ in War-Torn Ukraine | Slovyansk, Ukraine | (TV Audio #546)

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. 

Don't be afraid, trust Jesus | Matthew 28 (TV Audio #545)

'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.

What must I do to be saved? (TV Audio #544)

'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.

Living by faith | James Chapters 2, 4 & 5 | (TV Audio #543)

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!

Trusting God Against the Odds – Lessons from Numbers 13 & 14 (TV Audio #542)

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.