David Hathaway

I want to challenge you today concerning the Holy Spirit. You need to seek God in a new way. You need a new power, a fresh baptism, but above all, you need a baptism of fire! We need the fire of God, the power of God, working in our lives today.

Throughout the Bible, we read how God led the Israelites through the wilderness at night with a pillar of fire. Where is that pillar of fire that we are following today? It is the presence of God, leading us towards Him.

And what happened on the Day of Pentecost? They were baptised with fire!

We need to revisit our Pentecostal experience until we truly receive that baptism of fire and power in our lives.

I could challenge you further by looking at how Jesus performed miracles. He said, “The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” Jesus promised that His followers would continue His ministry and do even greater works because He was going to the Father.

He told His disciples that while He was with them, they could ask Him and He would answer. But when He had returned to the Father, they would ask in His name, and the Father would give them what they asked.

That means you have an authority to come before God and ask for power, ask for fire, and ask for that anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Am I challenging you? Let me simply say this: I am so challenged that, even at the age of 94, I am still searching for more power and more fire in my life.

And I will not give up, because I have never had enough. I will never have enough power. I will never have enough fire!

And I plead with you: seek God, and you will discover that He will answer you. He will reveal Himself in your life by fire!

Watch the YouTube version: https://youtu.be/3oVC7c4R6bo 

For more information on the Ministry of David Hathaway https://www.eurovision.org.uk 

Based on the book of James chapter 5, David gives you some simple keys to living through affliction. Firstly, keep praying; and secondly, find a reason to be thankful and sing songs of praise to God.

In James chapter 5, God gives us practical instructions for walking in integrity and triumphing over trials:  

Trials and opposition are real. In my own life, I have faced severe affliction – surviving two cancer diagnoses (in my throat and in my lung), enduring imprisonment where officials warned I would not leave alive, and surviving four separate assassination attempts. Yet through every danger, God proved faithful.  

Whatever circumstance you find yourself in today, bring it to the Lord: if you are walking through affliction, lift up your heart in prayer; and if your heart is glad, sing songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.  

Based on the book of James chapter 5, we are reminded that we will see Jesus face-to-face. But until that time, be faithful in your service.

In Job 19:26, Job proclaimed: "In my flesh shall I see God." Long before Christ walked the earth and preached the coming of the Kingdom, Job possessed a profound revelation of the bodily resurrection. He understood that he would stand in God's presence not as a ghost, a disembodied spirit, or an ethereal shadow, but fully alive in a resurrected body.  

Many imagine heaven as entirely ethereal, yet Scripture shows that we will possess physical, glorified bodies. Our ultimate proof is Christ Himself: after His resurrection, Jesus was visibly seen, immediately recognised, and invited Thomas to touch the scars in His hands and side. His resurrected body was truly tangible and immortal.  

James then gives practical guidance on how to live in light of our eternal hope:  

Remain faithful in your service, steadfast in truth, and anchor your heart in the blessed hope of seeing Jesus face-to-face.

One of the greatest miracles today is that God calls you His son, His daughter. God loves you, He is calling you to come home to His Kingdom. God's Kingdom is home for me, it is home for you. I believe that God is calling upon us to pray, for He says, if you will call upon My Name I will answer you, I will heal your land, I will defeat your enemies. You should have no fear for today or tomorrow, God is with you, for He Himself has said I will never leave or forsake you.

'We come before Your throne' used by kind permission of Vinesong.

For more information on the Ministry of David Hathaway https://www.eurovision.org.uk 

Based on the book of James chapter 5, we are reminded that God's plan is for good. We have hope in this life, and in the life to come, when we will see Jesus face-to-face.

James 5:11 tells us: "Behold, we count them blessed who endure." True victory in the Christian walk is about remaining steadfast and faithful to the very end, just as the saints and prophets did throughout Scripture.  

James points directly to the example of Job: "You have heard of the patience of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord." Job walked through devastating losses, yet the conclusion of his story was far greater than its beginning. The restoration God brought into his life – including daughters described as the fairest and most beautiful in the land – far exceeded what he had lost. What God gave him at the end was far more glorious than what he possessed at the start.  

Even in the depths of unimaginable affliction, Job uttered words of remarkable revelation – words that I personally placed on my late wife's headstone: "Yet in my flesh shall I see God." Long before the earthly ministry of Christ and the proclamation of the Kingdom gospel, Job already anchored his soul in the promise of bodily resurrection. He knew he would not stand before the Lord as a mere phantom or disembodied spirit, but raised to life in the flesh.  

Whatever trials you face, remember that God’s ultimate purpose is redemptive. Hold fast and remain faithful, knowing that our eternal hope is secure and we will one day behold our Lord face-to-face.

Based on the book of James chapter 5, we are encouraged to look to the saints of old, who endured and remained faithful to the Lord.

Turning to James chapter 5, Scripture offers critical counsel for how we ought to live while we wait:

Just as the prophets remained unwavering, let us stay faithful to the very end. 

If you are seeking revival – if you are seeking a genuine experience with God – you need to know how to follow the fire. God has used fire on many occasions. When I went to Jerusalem in 1961 to be there on the Day of Pentecost, it was the first time in 2,000 years that we had been able to gather in the Upper Room in Jerusalem on that day. I was looking for fire, and I believe I received it, because the experience changed my life. Everything changed. Fire changes things; it should change things. Whatever is burned is transformed.

When I think about fire, I am intrigued by Solomon’s building of the Temple. The vision began with David. David desired to build a glorious temple – something more magnificent, powerful and beautiful than anything else in the world. 

David went to the prophet Nathan, shared his dream and asked what he should do. Nathan replied, “Do what is in your heart.” This is the challenge I want to give to those who are seeking the power of God and feel called to become evangelists, or to fulfil any other calling: do what is in your heart. It is not what is merely in your head that matters; it is what is in your heart. That is why Nathan told David to act on what was within him.

As we know, God later said no, because David was a man of war, and Solomon eventually built the Temple. Yet David supplied Solomon with the people, money and materials needed for the work. When Solomon dedicated the Temple, he led a vast and powerful prayer, calling upon God to hear from heaven. You can read Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles chapters 6 and 7; it extends across both chapters.

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For more information on the Ministry of David Hathaway https://www.eurovision.org.uk 

In the book of James, chapter 5, we are exhorted to look at farmers who wait patiently for their precious harvest to ripen.

When Scripture speaks of the early and the latter rains (as in Joel 2, where God promises the outpouring of the Holy Spirit), we are reminded that the latter rain will be greater than the former. Just as in the natural world where a farmer must wait for a crop to grow, the same is true spiritually. When we labor for the Lord, we rarely see all the fruit of our work here on Earth.

Only God truly knows what will become of the lives we touch. When you point a young person to Christ, you cannot foresee whether they might grow up to become an evangelist. I reflect on my own father, who taught me so much and prayed over me faithfully. He did not live to witness how abundantly God would bless my ministry. Yet, what a glorious moment it will be when the Lord returns and my father can see the eternal fruit of the seeds he sowed.

James 5:8 urges us: "Be patient... establish your hearts." Why? Because even two millennia ago, James declared that the coming of the Lord draws near. Expectation was so high that when Jesus spoke about the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the disciples immediately asked: "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" In other words, "Will You establish Your earthly kingdom right now?"

Take heart, remain steadfast, and wait patiently on the Lord – no seed planted in faith is ever wasted.

If we are truly seeking God and His power, it is vital to examine what Scripture reveals about His fire. Fire is referenced over 500 times in the Bible. Ninety of those passages directly associate fire with God, and on 11 distinct occasions, God answers specifically by fire.

Even at 94 years of age, my desire as an evangelist has not waned; I am still pursuing more of God's power and fire. Scripture makes clear that the promise of the Holy Spirit is inseparably tied to fire. In the Book of Acts, when the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, visible tongues of fire rested upon them. Yet across much of today’s Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, this hunger for divine fire is largely missing.

When I was seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a young man, it took me an entire year. Many people prayed for me, but I realised they did not possess what I was searching for. Though they claimed to have received the Holy Spirit, their lives lacked the confirming evidence. I wanted what the disciples received on the Day of Pentecost: not just the rushing wind of His presence, but the evident fire resting upon them.  

Watch the YouTube version https://youtu.be/fwCAu7vkhSM 

For more information on the Ministry of David Hathaway https://www.eurovision.org.uk 

In this episode, based on the book of James chapter 5, we are exhorted to be patient for the Lord's return, knowing that He is the righteous judge who will avenge the evil done here.

And in verse 5: "You've lived in pleasure on the earth, you've nourished your hearts," and there's a day when you think that there is nothing more, there's only just the days down here. But he goes on in verse 6: "You condemned and killed the just, and God doesn't actually stop you. No, God doesn't stop you."

But then in verse 7 he comes onto the spiritual side; he says, "Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." There's a great exhortation in the Scripture to the waiting and the patience, because as he says here, the farmer waits for the seed, the crops, to mature, and he has to be patient; he cannot speed up the process.

Now, that's what he's meaning to say: look, you put the seed in the ground, you plant an apple tree or a fig tree or whatever, there's nothing that you can do that will really speed that process. You have to wait patiently for the harvest. And he says you've got to have long patience until you receive the early and the latter rain.

And let me say that there is a spiritual lesson here: spiritually, we're sowing seed – when we preach the Gospel, when we witness, we're sowing the seed of the Word – and that seed needs the rain, which is the Holy Spirit.