God wants to fill you with fire

God wants to fill you with fire and power! I was so excited when I read in Leviticus 6.13 that when the priests lit the fire they were told it must never go out! I received the fire of God when I was 13 and it has never gone out! I've seen too many people who allow the fire to fade, but if the fire and power is from God, the command is that you must not let it go out! How did the priests keep the fire burning, by adding sacrifice; if you want the Fire of God to burn in you, then you have to add more sacrifice.

I have met with God. I know Him. I have seen the fire. More than that, the fire is in me, burning in my soul. There is a power that transforms me when I preach the Gospel so that I am not the ordinary David Hathaway. I have a power - yes a fire - from God. That is why, when I declare the Word of God, miracles happen. It's not me; it's God. He wants you to know, to see the evidence of His fire.

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Fire from Heaven

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is essential if we are to be effective in our Christian witness. When I was a child, I prayed 3 months without receiving the Spirit. But I knew that without the power, the fire, the anointing of God, I could never see men's lives converted. At Easter we used to have three Pentecostal Conventions in London. I determined to go and not leave until I had received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit! The preaching was so long in the morning, there was no time to pray for people to receive the Holy Spirit! As a 13-year old I went up to those great men of God on the platform and said, "I only came to receive the fire, pray for me!" They took me to a small room, laid their hands on me, but their minds were on their lunch! I did not receive the Holy Spirit.

I was searching for something which does not come from men, the real power of God. One of those pastors saw my heart, opened the Scripture to me, then when he prayed and laid hands on me, it was as if the roof came off the building, I saw the Glory of God and felt the fire! The fire of the Holy Ghost, the power of God and the Glory of God came into my life! Now I had to become an evangelist! I had to preach Christ, and see the Power! That baptism was only the beginning! - If you want to be effective in ministry, you MUST be filled with the Holy Spirit!

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Prayer and Revival

My father, (a great man of God, converted in 1905 during the Welsh Revival, a great Bible teacher), taught me when I preached as a boy of 13 and no one repented, that Jesus said, "When the Holy Spirit is come, He will convict the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment to come!" He said, "Son, you haven't received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit yet!" It was a lesson which changed my life - because what I needed was the fire and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, conversion and a changed life when I preach! I asked my father to lay hands on me. He did, but I didn't receive the Holy Spirit. As a result, I spent the next three months in an agony, 13 years old, crying out to God, fasting and praying that God would give me FIRE and POWER through the Holy Spirit. When finally, I received the Holy Spirit just days before my 14th birthday, it totally revolutionised my life. From that moment God took control, things began to happen, people began to repent. But in order to receive, I had to be emptied of my self; God had to cleanse me and make me new. I needed to learn to submit to God, to seek Him, to desire His Spirit more than anything else. I spent months reading His Word, praying the Scriptures, desiring the Spirit. I was determined to receive the same Baptism that the disciples received at Pentecost! It's important to realise that the disciples spent weeks in prayer before the Spirit fell like flames of fire; you must be earnest in prayer too.

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The Latter Rain

Through the prophet Joel, God says, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...' He goes on to talk about the first and the latter rain. I believe that the first rain fell 2000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost, and that today we are living in the days of the latter rain. As a young man I was determined I would have an experience with God that was incorruptible, that could not be destroyed, that would last until the appearing of Christ! In the late 1950s, I heard that the first World Pentecostal Conference in Jerusalem would be held on the Day of Pentecost, in May 1961. - I was determined to be there to receive a new baptism of fire! My Bible says that the church of God began in fire on the Day of Pentecost, and the church will end in fire when Christ returns!

When I got there I was so disappointed. I had gone for only one reason: to be in Jerusalem believing God would send another Pentecost. There were 3000 in the conference: 2999 tourists, and me! Nothing happened, nobody laid their hands on me, I didn't fall over, I didn't feel any power, nothing. I had done everything to be there, spent two years organising, in order to meet with God, and nothing, absolutely nothing happened! And I came home.

Exactly forty years later, May 2001, I was again in Jerusalem in the same hall, this time to evangelise! Before it started I spent days walking round the hall praying and crying to God, "40 years ago I was so hungry, so determined to receive new power from the Holy Ghost, but You didn't do anything! I didn't receive the new fire! What was wrong?"

God answered me, "Forty years ago, after you came here, what happened?" I said, "My whole life changed!" I became a missionary to Israel, coming up to eight times a year, bringing tourists. In order to get to Jerusalem I had to go behind the Iron Curtain, through the communist countries, and God opened my eyes. I made contact with believers, people were pleading with me for Bibles and God began to put a new power in my life. I thought my ministry was just Israel, but God said no, it's with the Russian speaking peoples.

My real experiences with God have never been in a church, or in a conference - not even in Jerusalem, although Jerusalem changed my whole life. It was first in my teenage cry for God - then in my throat cancer - then in my prison that I found God. What will it be next time, what will happen this year? I still don't have enough power, I'm still not satisfied that God has answered me fully, what will it be next? All I know is that it is step by step, and I have not reached the end of the road yet.

Listen to today's podcast: PENTECOST

The Holy Spirit

We need to be changed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. When I first travelled to Ukraine they used to get their milk delivered not in a carton, but in a large container on the back of a carriage. When the housewives saw the man in the street with the milk, they didn't take the first jug they saw in the kitchen which was half full of dirty water, no, they took out a clean empty jug. It is the same principle with the Holy Spirit. We need to be emptied of ourselves so that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit! Our prayer needs to be: 'Lord change me now, not in part but the whole, Jesus touch me once again, as Your Spirit flows over me.'

The revolution when you receive 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 our lives and in the church - a new boldness, a new authority, a new power.

This baptism is not just an anointing or a feeling or an emotional experience - it has to be a complete life-changing miracle: it will change your thinking, habits, relationships for the better; it is a complete physical and spiritual change.

'The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.' (1 Samuel 10:6, NIV)

Listen to today's podcast: The Holy Spirit



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Fire through sacrifice

Everyone wants the anointing, we all sit in prayer meetings, but few will make the sacrifice of a life devoted to God. There is a price to pay in service to God, there is a cross we have to carry. The Apostle Paul describes this sacrifice as 'reasonable' (Romans 12:1). Once God fills you with fire, it's your responsibility to keep it burning! The older I get, the more power I have, the more fire I have! I'm more on fire now than when I was first baptised in the Holy Spirit. That's how it should be! The fire shouldn't go out, it should burn brighter! How do we keep the fire burning? Sacrifice. The more sacrifice you put on God's altar the greater the fire of God in your life. What was God's command to the priests in the Temple? Don't let the fire go out! And how were they instructed to keep it burning? Sacrifice (Leviticus 6:13). It is the same in your life and mine.

Many believers are seeking a new anointing, a new power, something extra to what they already have, some new spiritual phenomena. I went to Jerusalem forty years ago without receiving a new anointing. Why? What I am seeking is already within me! I have it now, I am not waiting for a new anointing, I have all the power I need in my spirit now! How? 70 years ago I was seeking to be filled, baptised with the Holy Spirit. When I received, it was a manifestation of fire, of power, speaking with tongues like they did on the Day of Pentecost - and miracles soon began to follow. What a baptism of Power and of Fire I received that day! I received the Holy Spirit, all the mighty Power of God, everything. Now that powerful anointing which before had been outside of me, that third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, was now IN ME! There is only one Holy Spirit - HE is IN me! Not outside, I am not waiting for another Holy Spirit - HE, the Spirit who raised up Jesus from the dead, who was in Paul and Peter, that mighty, miracle-working power of the Great God I am boasting about, is in me now, and HE has been in me for over 70 years! I cannot receive any greater power than that I already have, in me now! That is why I do not seek a new experience and that is why the FIRE has not gone out for 70 years! Yes I am different now to what I was 70 years ago. But notice HE is not different, I am! During 70 years HE has cleaned out a lot of myself and pride, my own works, and because I am not perfect, He will continue to do so until I am raptured into glory.

http://davidhathaway.podbean.com/e/fire-through-sacrifice-featuring-vinesong/



'Peace like a river' used by kind permission of Vinesong

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Why do we need the Holy Spirit? Jesus said it is the Spirit who convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come (John 16:8). - It is not the preacher who convicts of sin, it is the Holy Spirit! Without this 'Baptism' we are powerless and ineffective. The whole purpose of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is to fill us with power so that we can win the lost! The 'Baptism' is not so that we can sit at ease in church in a 'holy huddle', but to preach the Gospel with power and authority! What was the first thing Peter did when he was baptised in the Spirit? He won 3000 for the Kingdom! What did you do when you first received the Holy Spirit?!

My father, (a great man of God, converted in 1905 during the Welsh Revival, a great Bible teacher), told me when I preached the Gospel as a boy of 13 and no one repented, "Son, you haven't received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit yet!" It was a lesson which changed my life - because what I needed was the fire and power of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, conversion and a changed life when I preach! I asked my father to lay hands on me. He did, but I didn't receive the Holy Spirit. As a result I spent the next three months in an agony, 13 years old, crying out to God, fasting and praying that God would give me FIRE and POWER through the Holy Spirit. When finally I received the Holy Ghost just days before my 14th birthday it totally revolutionised my life. From that moment God took control, things began to happen, people began to repent. Even as a student in Bible College I used to go every Friday to Hyde Park Corner in London. We'd set up a 'soap box', preach the Gospel, and every week, right in the centre of London, people would repent.



http://davidhathaway.podbean.com/e/baptism-in-the-holy-spirit-featuring-vinesong/

'Holy Spirit move me now' used by kind permission of Vinesong, www.vinesong.com

Baptism of Fire, Power and Authority!

We've got to be changed, transformed, by the fire and the power of the Holy Spirit! If you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, if you want to be filled with the power of God, you have got to be emptied first; only then can God fill you with all His power, fire and glory! God baptised me with the Holy Ghost and fire! And I want to tell you that the fire and power is stronger now than it was 70 years ago! I often say that God gets more wonderful every day - but no, He doesn't change, I do! The reason God gets more wonderful and powerful is because each day He reveals Himself to me more and more - and every revelation shows the reality of who He is!

You and I have to reconsider what it means to be Baptised in the Holy Spirit. We need God to baptise us again WITH FIRE, TO PUT POWER BACK INTO US! TO PUT THE FIRE AND THE POWER BACK INTO THE CHURCH!

In the Old Testament, in Leviticus 6:9,12-13, God gave the command to the priests: when you bring the meat offering to the altar - you light a fire and it burns the sacrifice. But the command of God was that THE FIRE ON THE ALTAR MUST NEVER GO OUT! Today, if you want to receive this Fire from God, then your life needs to be the sacrifice on the altar of service to God, then I believe that the command given thousands of years ago still applies today, that fire must NOT go out. At the age of 13 years, I was baptised with the Holy Ghost and FIRE! I will not let that fire in me go out! I'm over 80 years old and this is the secret: what the priests had to do to keep the fire burning on the altar was to KEEP ADDING TO THE SACRIFICE! You've got to keep putting more sacrifice on your altar, more and more - that's what we need today! The tragedy today is that too many believers claim they are baptised in the Holy Ghost - but where is the evidence of the fire?!

Listen to today's podcast: Baptism of Fire! 

I want to prophesy: what we are about to see over the coming weeks and months is the power of God as never before! But first we need to begin to pray and seek God; in response to our earnest intercession He will send the fire of the Holy Spirit! 

The Fire of the Spirit

God has ALL power, and that power is within the Gospel. The Gospel is literally good news! I am not ashamed of the Gospel and I don't want you to be ashamed of the Gospel, because the Gospel IS the power of God! When we see the crisis in Ukraine, the politicians cannot solve it and the military cannot solve it, only God can resolve the chaos in that nation. We need the fire of the Spirit to bring revival to our lives. We must cry out from the depth of our spirit: 'Holy Spirit we need You, fire deep inside.'

I was so excited when I read in Leviticus 6:13 that when the priests lit the fire they were told it must never go out! I received the fire of God when I was 13 and it has never gone out! I’ve seen too many people who allow the fire to fade, but if the fire is from God, the command is that you must not let it go out! The Apostle Paul told his protégée Timothy: you must fan into flame the gift of God (2 Timothy 1:6). It's your responsibility to keep the fire burning.

• Listen to today's podcast: THE FIRE OF GOD http://davidhathaway.podbean.com/e/the-fire-of-god-featuring-vinesong/ 

All the power you'll ever need in your life comes from the Holy Spirit: power to preach the Gospel, power to heal the sick. This baptism of fire is not just for the church collectively, it is an individual experience that each one of us needs. The only evidence of the existence of God is in the miraculous. There is no other evidence. You can't see Him, can't touch Him. You may say He's in heaven - but He's everywhere, He's here through the Holy Spirit.