The first time I began major evangelism in Siberia in 1994, I took four hundred co-evangelists and spent three months there, 16,000 km away from home. We didn’t have enough money when we went, I had just enough for one-way tickets. Some asked me where were the return tickets, and I told them, in the Gospels Jesus said ‘Go’ many times – He never once said, ‘Come back!’ But God did provide – we came back – by faith!

But in the Gospels, how many men followed Jesus? He fed 5000 men plus women and children – I’m sure that sometimes He preached to more than 20,000. How many did He heal? Take one example – ten lepers, only one returned. Maybe in Jerusalem when the crowds were crying out, ‘Crucify Him!’ there were some among them who had been healed. And if there were some that hadn’t been healed, they would have been shouting louder still. Only a few of those thousands who had followed Jesus and been healed remained loyal to Him at the end. We face the same situation today. But I want to make it absolutely clear, I cannot find anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus differentiated and said, ‘You’re a believer, so you’ll get healed,’ and ‘You’re not a believer, I’m sorry, I won’t heal you.’ Matthew 8:16 says, ‘He healed all.’

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