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

What happened at Pentecost? (TV Audio #525)

The revolution when you are baptised in the Holy Spirit, has to be LIFE-TRANSFORMING! In the Acts of the Apostles the disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit – instantly they were no longer frightened and ineffective, but filled with boldness and fire! That’s what we need today in the church – a new boldness, a new authority, a new power – which is the result of a baptism in the Holy Spirit! 
When the Holy Spirit filled that early church, a boldness came on them, they lost their fear, they preached the Word – like Philip in Acts 8.5-8,14. Every time they were filled with the Holy Spirit, miracles happened! When the apostles prayed for the new converts, power came on them! If you are not seeing miracles, get a fresh baptism! Read the Acts of the Apostles! It is the story of a transformed church, a church motivated, with a purpose, on fire with the power of the Holy Spirit! The Word of God says, Jesus will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire! Church, where is the fire, the boldness, the miracles today? 
This question of a ‘baptism of fire’ is not a matter just for the church collectively, but rather it is an individual experience that each one of us needs to experience. Jesus, speaking to His closest disciples in the aftermath of the drama of the crucifixion and the miracle of His resurrection realises the situation facing them. They realise that despite these miraculous events He is leaving them again, until His final return as Messiah! They now face a leadership crisis – they need inspiration, direction, but most of all someone who will perform the miracles and empower them!
His answer was for them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift promised by the Father – “John baptised with water but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.” Later, as they questioned the meaning, His answer was simple, “When the Holy Spirit comes, you will receive power and become witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth!” Wow! Then He was gone! (Acts 1.4-9.)

How much Holy Spirit do you want? (TV Audio #524)

At the Last Supper Jesus taught: ‘It is better for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He has come, will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin and judgement, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see Me no more.” – John 16:8. 
This was a serious lesson which changed my whole life – and it remains with me: “Without the Holy Spirit I can do nothing!” I realised I needed the Fire and Power of the Holy Spirit in order to see lives transformed. If lives are not changed, what is the point of preaching? 
How much Holy Spirit do you want? 100 percent? How much self?!! Aged 13, God told me to empty myself of everything, of all my ideas and hopes. I was crying out, “I need this Holy Spirit, I need fire, I need power, I need God, I need Jesus, I need the Holy Spirit! God, fill me, fill me, fill me!” A few days before my 14th birthday, I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, it was a powerful experience, a revolution in my life. It did not come lightly. When it came, it came ‘direct from source’. From that moment on, I began to see people repent and lives changed under the Power of the Holy Spirit. And every day, to this very day, I ask for a new infilling of the Holy Spirit, a new gift of faith.

Jesus needs you! (TV Audio #523)

'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,' (Romans 12.1, NKJV). God is talking about ‘normal’ service, nothing exceptional – for every believer – the ‘norm’! Today the churches talk about being ‘normal’, take care of yourself, don’t work too hard... But the challenge given by Paul is that ‘reasonable’ service – means giving your WHOLE life as a ‘living sacrifice’! EVERYTHING! Give God EVERYTHING! God did not call me to be an ‘evangelist’ or ‘preacher’ – He said He wanted ALL of me!”
When I was just 15 years old, with a group of young Christians walking along the beach in Brighton, when the Lord spoke to me, drew me aside and challenged me. A spiritual battle started in my life. I knew that the Lord was calling me, challenging me, ‘David – I want YOU!’ But the devil was saying, ‘Don’t you realise you’re saved, you got baptised in water, filled with the Holy Spirit – that’s enough!’ But God was saying, ‘David, I want YOU, all of you, EVERYTHING! – Your life, your family, your time, your house, every single thing – I want the lot!’ I had no peace until that night I gave Him everything.
Give Jesus everything! The more I give Him, the more I receive in return! Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. That is why God says, the only ‘reasonable’ thing is to present your body as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God! – And this is only the beginning, the ‘norm’, the ‘reasonable’ bit! I want the un-reasonable, extra-normal! I don’t just want to receive the Holy Spirit like everybody else, I want a double portion, a treble portion, ten times, a hundred times more! I’m hungry for God! I need that anointing, that power! Jesus told of the servant who did what was ‘reasonable’ – everything that was expected of him, but the master did not thank him – it was expected of him! But I want to receive! I’m hungry. I’m thirsty. The more you give, the more God gives back! I remember that tremendous challenge, when God said to me, ‘David, I want YOU!’ That night, I had to say, ‘Lord, I give You everything!’

Get to know Jesus! His Power and Glory (TV Audio #522)

I want to challenge everyone from the youngest to the oldest, get to know Jesus. So many people have heard about Him, but few really know who He is. Believer, do you REALLY know Him? 
Prayer is essential to our Christian lives. I learnt to pray as a boy. I learnt to be specific in my praying. You must target a goal and achieve it. I saw the absolute necessity to back everything we do in prayer, but having prayed, you must do something! Prayer and action go together!”
From my boyhood, soon after I became a Christian, I have had the same vision in my heart that David in the Bible had. The testimony recorded of David in the Bible is that he was a ‘man after God’s own heart’ – he had the same heart God has! (1 Samuel 16.7; Acts 13.22.) David is the ONLY man in the Bible of whom God says, ‘He is a man after My own heart.’ And this was David’s vision, his heart, these are his words in Psalm 63.1-2, ‘O God, You are my God, early will I seek You, my soul thirsts for You, longs for You, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water – TO SEE YOUR POWER AND YOUR GLORY – as I have seen You in the sanctuary!’ (KJV.) David in the Old Testament had seen the Power of God in the sanctuary – but he wanted to see it openly, here, on earth! 
“All through my early days, before I became a pastor, an evangelist, all the time I was growing up, when I was in school, when I was in church, this was the most important verse in my whole life! I said what David in the Bible said, ‘O God, You are my God, I will seek for You from the early part of my life, I will search You out, O God, wherever You are, in Heaven, on earth, I will search for You, O God! I want to know who You are, I want to find You!’ – I spent my youth searching for God, not because I was not a Christian, since I became a Christian when I was 8 years old. But when I became a Christian, I didn’t want to be a ‘normal’ Christian – I was searching for the truth, the reality, the Power and Glory of God! I wanted to find the God of the Bible, the God of Heaven, I wanted to KNOW Him! All my life I have searched for God’s Power and His Glory! It was the dream of David the shepherd boy to see the Glory of God here, on earth! It’s my dream too!”
(Recorded at Sozo Youth Conference, Central Asia)

Blessed through obedience / 1 Kings 17&18 (TV Audio #521)

If we obey the Word of God, what we have will not run dry until God fulfills every promise. There is a great responsibility on us to obey God; our obedience will affect unbelievers. If we as individuals, and collectively as the Church, are disobedient as King Ahab was in 1 Kings 16.33, then God's anger is roused. We are called to be 'salt and light'. Salt is a purifer and preserver; if the salt loses it's saltiness, it is of no use anymore. There is a danger today that the Church is abandoning the commands of the Lord to adjust to society; I cannot overemphasise this need to obey God's Word.
Let’s look at the story of Elijah when he called down Fire from Heaven. Although I would normally major on the Fire that fell, I want to first look at 1 Kings 17.1. Because of the wickedness and idolatry of King Ahab, Elijah says to him, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, the rain and the dew will be stopped and there will be no more – until I give the word!”

The Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit / 1 John 5 Bible Study (TV Audio #520)

'By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit,' (1 John 4.13, NKJV). The Spirit of Jesus, or the Spirit of Christ, sometimes referred to as the Spirit of God, is the Spirit we receive at conversion. Receiving the Holy Spirit is a totally seperate baptism. You can only receive the Holy Spirit after you have received Christ. The first Scripture I want to refer you to is from Romans 8, 'Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death,' (v1-2). In this passage it is clear that through Christ we receive the Spirit of Life, this is your conversion.

God so loved us / 1 John 4 Bible Study (TV Audio #519)

'Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.' (1 John 4.)

Children of God / 1 John 3 Bible Study (TV Audio #518)

'See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
'Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
'Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.' (1 John 3, NIVUK.)

The Sacrifice, the Temple, and the Kingdom / 1 John 2 Bible Study (TV Audio #517)

'My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.' (1 John 2.1-2, NKJV.)
Chapter Two of John’s letter begins with a sense of danger, John is troubled: “My little children, I WRITE TO YOU THAT YOU SIN NOT.” He’s possibly writing even as much as 100 years after the birth of Christ, so he’s an old man – which entitles him to address his readers as ‘little children’… But maybe here he’s also addressing some who are still ‘spiritually children’. What he says relates to anyone of us today, but in this case I am sensing John is writing particularly to Jewish people who had become followers of Christ; Jews, who when they believed, had accepted something that had been ‘hidden’ from them in their Jewish Law/Scriptures, something so completely new to them, they are  now finding it hard to fully accept, and that is: JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD, HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH HAS PAID THE FULL PRICE OF SIN!

Light and darkness, sin and forgiveness / 1 John 1&2 Bible Study / (TV Audio #516)

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!
John’s description of his time with Jesus is so very clear and emotional. It’s real. The message of Jesus is reality. John is saying, I’ve seen it, heard it, touched it! In my life – and this year I’m celebrating 75 years in ministry – it’s my testimony too. No, I’ve never seen Jesus, never spent time with Him like the disciples did. Yet in my ministry, I’ve ‘seen’ it, ‘touched’ it – it’s been so real to me. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh! John writes, “The Word of Life – what we have seen and heard, we declare to you!” John says, “The LIFE appeared, we’ve seen Him, we testify to it, we proclaim to you the ETERNAL LIFE which was with the Father.” Yes, what John is saying, is that Jesus IS ETERNAL LIFE!