Prevailing Prayer

We must prevail in prayer until God answers. In Numbers 14 we see Moses' power with God. Probably one of the greatest dialogues ever recorded between man and God is this one commencing with verse 11, where God speaks very directly to Moses complaining of the lack of response and the disobedience of Israel. Their lack of faith prompts God to say, "How long will they not believe Me, despite all the signs which I have worked amongst them?" As a result, He threatens to destroy the whole nation. But in verse 13, in one of the most amazing scenes in Scripture, Moses dares to argue with God! He says, "If you do so, then the Egyptians will hear and tell the other nations, all of whom have heard and seen the miraculous deliverance and mighty signs which You have worked in their midst. They will not blame Israel for their lack of faith and disobedience, but will blame You, saying that You did not have the power to deliver them." Then Moses demonstrates the power which he has with God as intercessor saying, "Pardon the iniquity of this people!"

God answers, "I have pardoned, according to YOUR word," verse 20. Moses 'made it happen'! Do you see what the intercessor has done? Moses as the intercessor has challenged God so that instead of turning His back on His people because of their weakness, because of their sin, because of their failure to evangelise and their failure to win the world, God says, "Because of the intercessor I will renew My Covenant, I will renew My Power, I will renew My Glory. I will send the Power of My Spirit on them, backslidden as they are, fallible as they are - because you have stood before Me!"

Then God says in verse 21, in confirmation of the further power of the intercessor (especially when compared with Elijah who called down God's fire in 1 Kings 18), "All the earth shall be filled with the GLORY of the Lord!" This Glory is the FIRE which surrounds God, and it will fill ALL the earth.

God is calling on you to pray for your nation! 'If My people will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven...' God is talking to you and me, not to the sinner: God is wanting His people to repent! When we pray, God says, 'I will answer!' - That is the Covenant we have with Him. When Solomon based his prayer upon the Covenant, what happened? - 'When Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven... (2 Chronicles 7:1). God will heal and restore your nation because you prayed!

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When Heaven is shut

'And there appeared an angel unto Jesus from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.' (Luke 22:43-44, KJV)

All of us go through difficult times, circumstances that are hard to bear; often we have prayed and prayed, yet there seems to be no apparent improvement. The Apostle Paul faced similar feelings. In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Paul repeatedly prayed that God would remove his 'thorn in the flesh', yet all God would say is, 'My grace is sufficient for thee'. In those hard times all you need to do is walk with Him one day at a time. It is for good reason that Jesus said, 'Take no thought for tomorrow' (Matthew 6:34, KJV). Don't worry about tomorrow's difficulties; His grace and mercy will carry you through today - and the good news is, there will be new mercies available to you tomorrow. Each day's mercies are tailored to that day's troubles.

When I was imprisoned for Bible smuggling I prayed each day that God would get me out. I imagined the various scenarios that God could use; I would tell God my latest idea; I would even 'plan' out the details. Yet that was not God's plan for me. After a few months of 'planning' I became disillusioned. We were always woken brutally, but this one morning, the appalling nature of what was happening finally hit me. The heavens were like brass. I had been praying for food parcels, but they were never allowed; I prayed for a visit from my wife, but there was none. I was praying to get out, but I was never released; in actual fact, I had been warned that the communist authorities were preparing a further case against me. I was in a depressed state. I was sitting on my stool, crying out to God: I can't pray! I said: If You don't answer me, what is the point in asking?!

I had done everything I could to get God's attention. I was in utter despair. The answer I got in my spirit was there came a time when the disciples had to turn to Jesus because of frustration over prayer. They said: Lord, teach us how to pray. Jesus replied: Say Our Father... As I remembered this, I began to argue: How can I say 'Our'?! Its me alone in here! It's 'my' Father! Suddenly I realised what I was saying: My Father! He is not just God, He is mine; the revelation of that relationship flooded my soul. For the first time I understood the reality of God's love; He loved His Son so dearly, yet He wanted to express His love for me. He sent His only Son to to go through what I was going through. The cross was Jesus identifying with me. In my utter despair, I realised I was loved. 

Suppose God had organised things 'extremely well' and got me out of prison on my timetable, I would not have the ministry I have today. The longer I stayed in prison, the bigger the miracle became. In the end it was the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who came to Czechoslovakia just to get me out! The whole miracle took one year to prepare. I didn't let go of God, even in the darkest days of despair, I knew, I believed, but it hurt and it was hard; the frustration of waiting for my answer even caused me to have a heart attack. 

Hold on. Don't let go of God! God WILL do it, even if it takes three months or three years. But in the waiting period don't become bitter and sour. Faith trusts God even when life doesn't make sense. The Bible says, 'The secret things belong to God' (Deuteronomy 29:29); not everything can be understood. The good news is, all things will be resolved and become apparent at the return of Christ. - At the moment we see through a glass darkly; but a day will come when we see in full (1 Corinthians 13:12). 

Be encouraged as you listen to this week's podcast: VICTORY

Prayer Answering God

Our faith is not faith until it is put to the test! Without testing, without proving it, it's just something in the mind. Peter wrote, '...so that the TESTING OF YOUR FAITH, being more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ!' - 1 Peter 1:6-7.

God puts this test of faith in all our lives. He tested my faith. How did I react in 1964 when, after 3 months of prayer, God did not heal my throat cancer? Did God already know that I would pray in desperation, "If You want me to stay in England, don't heal me - but if You want me to leave the security of my home, church and ministry and go to Russia and Israel - I need an immediate miracle to heal me"? It took three months before I came to the spiritual place with God where the miracle happened - three months in spiritual growth, followed by a sudden revelation - an explosion - and in that moment the healing was instantaneous! When I was in a communist prison thirty years ago for Bible smuggling, I was almost one year in the prison, believing that God would work the miracle to get me out - but that year was the best year of my life! Yes, I was separated from my wife and my children, my youngest daughter was only three years old - but I grew all the time in my experience with God! It was a testing of my faith, but when God did it, it was sudden, a big miracle! I travelled the world for two years afterwards, talking about that miracle. I preached to more than a million people, sometimes ten thousand at a time - a quarter of a million came to Christ because of that testimony! But the miracle took one year of prayer.

Imagine if He had answered my first prayers and released me from the prison within one or two days, what would have happened? Suppose God had organised things 'extremely well' and got me out of prison really quickly - I would not be evangelising in Russia the way I do now, I would not have the ministry I have today. The longer I stayed in the prison, the bigger the miracle became - in the end it was the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who came to Czechoslovakia, just to get me out! I was not thrown out of the 'back door'! I was released in a blaze of publicity! That's God! But the whole miracle took one year to prepare. I didn't let go of God even in the darkest days of despair - I knew, I believed - but it hurt and it was hard. It's the same with you. Hold on. Don't let go of God! God WILL do it! Even if it takes three months, three years, God WILL do it!

Listen to today's podcast: PRAYER ANSWERING GOD



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We have authority!

We have a tremendous authority here on earth which comes from Christ through His Word: in two places we can find evidence. First, Jesus called twelve disciples in Luke 9 and then seventy in Luke 10. His command to them was simple, "Boys, no one knows who I am, so before I come, go into all the towns and villages and in My name, preach the Gospel, heal the sick - so that when I come, they will know who I am." Notice that here, in the command to the evangelists, He does not say "PRAY" for the sick, simply "HEAL THEM!" This requires AUTHORITY, and is confirmed by the report these evangelists gave when they returned. They reported that "even the demons are SUBJECT to us!" Why? Because they had authority and used it!

The second evidence of our authority in Christ is in Mark 16 when Jesus, after His resurrection, commands His disciples to "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel…" adding "These signs will follow those who believe, they will lay hands on the sick and they WILL be healed." Finally Mark says, they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, confirming His word with SIGNS following. THIS was the demonstration and proof God used to confirm the Gospel and establish the Church! I do not believe that God has changed! If we go in His Name, believing, He will confirm His word again today with SIGNS and WONDERS.

Further confirmation of our authority comes in the promise of Jesus, "These things shall you do and greater, because I go to my Father" - John 14:12; and Acts 1:8, "You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you!" Our power with God is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and through our relationship with God in prayer following that experience.

I have recently returned from Ukraine. The situation is desperate. The devil has divided families and communities against each other; so many have needlessly died, even more have suffered terrible emotional scarring. We need to pray for that nation on the authority of God's Word. Please join me in taking authority over this chaos: 'Father we come in the greatest Name in heaven and on earth. We come by the power and authority of the Name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. We pray that You will touch Ukraine. Oh holy, mighty God of power, God of the Ukraine, stop the war, stop the fighting, bring peace, bring forgiveness. Oh God, in Jesus' Name we cry out: deliver Ukraine, bring salvation, bring healing. Through the mighty Name of Jesus we bind the power of war, we bind the spirit of death, we command the spirit of fear to leave Ukraine! And we call upon You oh God, bring love, peace and a new hope, and a new prosperity. In Jesus’ Name, Amen!'

Listen to today's podcast: Prayer for Ukraine


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Think God, think big!

I have written in my office, 'Think God, think big!' How big is your God? My God has the greatest power in heaven, earth and the whole of creation. There is nothing He cannot do! For my God there is no miracle too big, no question too hard, nothing is impossible. The Bible says that the things which are impossible with man are possible for God.

It takes faith to possess all that God has given and act on it. Real faith does not come easily, it is a specific gift from God through the Holy Spirit and you can ask for it, as I do. First, you must come into an experience of receiving the Holy Spirit, then you can receive His gifts. In 1 Corinthians 12 there are nine gifts. One is speaking with other tongues, when you receive this, why not also ask for the gift of faith? If you will fight this spiritual battle, God will give a miracle - but choosing to have miracles is the hard way! Not many people have the faith to fight this battle and win. Spiritual warfare is not merely against the devil, it is also when you fight your own unbelief. My God answers prayer. If you are totally convinced, God CANNOT fail. But it takes a lot of faith to believe God to work miracles.

Listen to today's podcast: Believe Big! 

Faith moves mountains!

I want you to be the strongest believers anywhere in the world: people with fire, people with power, people who pray, people who will change the world! 

When there is a crisis in our lives our only hope is Christ, our only strategy is prayer. You - we - have to get an answer from God! When Jesus was on the earth, people asked Him direct for what they wanted. - We have to do the same, but through prayer. We have to learn again the power and effectiveness of prayer. We also have to learn how to get an answer to our problems.

Mark 11:22-23 is so revolutionary, so powerful, it will change your life! Jesus said: "Have faith in God!" Did you hear? - Have faith in God! Then He said (v23): "Truly I say to you, whoever you are, look up, see the mountain over there - if you have got faith in God, you will say to that mountain 'be cast down into the sea' and if you don't doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will happen, you shall have whatever you say!" Wow! If you really believe what you say, you will speak - and the mountain will move! Whatever you say, if you speak with faith and authority, and don't doubt, you will be healed, your family will be blessed, your financial burden will move - even if these things are mountains in your life!

Do you want God's blessing, healing deliverance? If you believe what you say, and don't doubt in your heart, you will have the answer you are looking for! Jesus said it! Do you have mountains in your life? Have faith in God! Command them to go! God's in the business of moving mountains! But you must declare (and actually believe, with no doubts), that in the Name of Jesus, they shall be moved!

We've got to begin to understand the positive! Too often we fill our minds with negatives! Speak words of faith and victory - then the mountain will move!


http://davidhathaway.podbean.com/e/faith-moves-mountains-featuring-vinesong/

Prayer Works!

James 5:16 says, 'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.' Powerful prayer works! The original Greek of the Bible uses a special word for power: dunamis. It signifies miraculous, wonder-working power. From it we get the words 'dynamo' (which generates energy) 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.

When we are dealing with the things of God, we are dealing with impossibilities, because the Bible says that the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Over the years I have learnt that if you are going to ask God for something, ask Him for the impossible! When you are praying for something that is possible, your own mind recognises that it’s possible, it can happen. If I were spend the night in prayer asking for £10, it's quite reasonable that somebody could give me £10. But if I were to ask God for £10,000, that's almost impossible. A quarter of a million pounds – I don't know anybody who can just write a cheque for that amount. When you are in the realm of the impossible, you are getting into the realm where only God can answer. The exciting thing about living as a Christian and working for the Lord is that we are dealing with things that are impossible to men; so when the answer comes, we know that only God could have done it! I believe God allows problems to come in order to drive us to prayer. - It's when we are in our extremities of need that God steps in and takes over. Then when you receive your miracle, you'll realise there are no impossibilities, only limitless possibilities with God.

The regions beyond

I want to challenge you to go to the regions beyond - the regions beyond in your faith, the regions beyond in your service. The regions beyond in your prayer life. Don't be satisfied with your prayer life. Don't be satisfied with what you are doing. Let's go higher. How do you get up this 'mountain'? There is no chairlift and there is no cable car. There is only one way up this mountain. You do it by setting the pace and keeping it up step-by-step. So long as you keep moving, Jesus will guide you, leading you on, bringing to you hope along the way.

The regions beyond: We get stuck at the thought that mortal man could move anything bigger than himself! We agonise over the reality of moving that mountain - call our friends to stand with us in believing prayer - because this mountain is proving harder than we thought to move. Then when it happens - that miracle, that healing, or financial solution - we become so excited (as I experienced so many times personally), that we drop the real key down the drain in our excitement!

In Matthew 17:14-21, the disciples had missed the opportunity of releasing the greatest power into their lives - Jesus was putting a key in their hands, and if they would only use this key, their lives would never be the same again! For me, searching and hungry for more of God's power in my life, I saw what I have been waiting for - there is a spiritual 'region beyond'.

We need to realise God has a power and a glory far greater than anything we have ever seen yet! Are we, in our spiritual experience, ready to cross the barrier, to move into something so big we could hardly dream about?

Of all the gifts of God, faith is the greatest - it's the key to the 'normal' Christian life! There are nine gifts which you only receive after you have been baptised in the Holy Spirit (have you received... since you believed?): three VOCAL gifts, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy; there are three INTELLECTUAL gifts, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits; and there are three PRACTICAL gifts - I love the practical gifts - healing, working of miracles, and the gift of faith, 1 Corinthians 12. These are the normal every-day gifts of the Holy Spirit to the believer. By the same power with which you speak in tongues, you also heal the sick and work miracles! Paul asks, does everybody work miracles? What a challenge! Does every church work miracles? But this is the NORMAL Christian life! Cry out to God that He will fill you with the Holy Ghost and power!

Faith is what you DO! Are you living a normal Christian life? Do you have the gift of faith? This is NOT an intellectual gift. Faith is nothing to do with your education OR with what you think – it's what you DO. Faith is ACTION. Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as SUBSTANCE and EVIDENCE, something solid. It's not something intellectual, it's the most PRACTICAL gift God can give.

To listen to today's podcast 'The Next Level' visit
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My 'mountain' was lung cancer

In December 2002, as part of the process of getting a resident’s permit in Ukraine, in order to prove I did not have TB which is endemic out there, I had to have a lung X-ray. But the doctors called me back, took more X-rays, and then told me I had a shadow on my lung and that I had pneumonia. Probably I had already had it for over a month, because I remember a fever had started on the last day of October while I was evangelising in Siberia.

Back in England I was treated with antibiotics, but after two courses of treatment I went again for X-rays and the patch on my lung was bigger. The doctors became extremely worried, they didn’t want me to travel overseas and they set up exhaustive tests in a hurry. They said bluntly, "It's not pneumonia, you have lung cancer."

I prayed about it, and I did go overseas to carry out my ministry, but the day after I got back the hospital process started. On the Thursday I had the CT (computer tomography) scan and it showed the cancer.

I believe in prayer and in a God of miracles. But I am faced with a challenge: do I really believe God or not? On the following Monday I had to go for a bronchoscopy when they would put a camera down my lung and take a sample of the growth. The doctors had already fast-tracked me into a process which would lead to an operation to remove all or part of my right lung – on the Wednesday I was booked to go in for the final verdict. The only question, how much of my lung they would take away?

I said, "Lord, how can I go back into Russia and preach like I preach and say that You are a mighty God of miracles who's got power to do everything, including healing cancer, if I have got half of my right lung cut out, followed by chemotherapy? If You have finished with me, if my ministry is over, then don’t heal me, because if I can no longer evangelise I might as well die, I have no other reason to live! But if You want me to go back into Russia and Ukraine and finish the work You gave me to do, then I want You to heal me completely!" But I only had a few days, from Thursday to Monday!

God said to me, "David, you've got a mountain in your life that you've got to move - and that mountain is to get that cancer out from your lung. If you can believe that without an operation you can be completely healed, then nothing will be impossible from there on." Now desperately seeking God's answer from Scripture, I was reading from Jeremiah 33:6, "I will bring health and healing"; and Jeremiah 33:20-21, "I will not break my covenant with David"; and Psalm 89:35, "I will not lie to David"; and "Is anything impossible with God?" - Jeremiah 32:17&27.

On the Monday I was in the hospital, tubes down my lung looking for cancer - but God had already given me the answer, I knew it was gone. The doctors looked at me in amazement and said, "You have no cancer!"

I didn't go to a healing evangelist, I went to the Word of God and God completely healed me - no operation, no treatment - I only had God and the Bible, and that's all I needed to confound the doctors. They were shocked, they didn't believe God - but I do, I believe in a God of power, of miracles.

The Bible is very clear. Isaiah 53:5 says Jesus was wounded for our sin, bruised for our iniquity and with His stripes we are healed. Matthew 8:16-17 says Jesus healed all that were sick to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. So healing is to fulfil Bible prophecy! I talk about Bible prophecy, I write about it in Prophetic Vision magazine, but part of Bible prophecy is healing the sick. I believe Bible prophecy. Some people say that healing was only for the time of Jesus. But this prophecy is not ended. Jesus only healed for three years. There are more miracles of healing today than at any time in the history of the church – all over the world!

If you are sick or know someone with a terminal diagnosis, this 'Healed of Lung Cancer' podcast will strengthen your faith as you believe for a healing miracle. 13 years ago God dramatically healed me of lung cancer, and He can do the same for you when you believe and stand on His promises! God is not a man that He should lie, nor will He change His mind, what He has said that will He do (Numbers 23:19). You can be certain of this one thing, God answers prayer!

Jesus said 'lay your hands on the sick and they shall recover'. If you are in need of healing put your hand where the sickness is and say this prayer in faith and with conviction. - Then do what you could not do! I know Jesus is alive! I believe the Bible: God cannot lie! Your Word says Jesus took my sickness and healed me - so by faith I take my healing. In Jesus' Name I will fight in prayer and in the Word of God until I am healed! I command you devil, get out of my body! My body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit. Devil, get out of my life, my home, my family! In Jesus' Name I defeat you! I will not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord! And I will live in health and victory until Jesus comes! Amen!

Listen to my testimony, and be inspired by the beautiful worship of Vinesong as together we declare God's healing power over your life.

http://davidhathaway.podbean.com/e/healed-of-lung-cancer-featuring-vinesong/

'God answers prayer' and 'Run to the Father' used by permission of Vinesong, www.vinesong.com