Dear Friends and Prayer Partners
Thank you all for praying for me. As I write this I have recently returned from my week of prayer on the mountains in Switzerland. I felt a burden as I left and asked some of you to pray especially for our staff, not just in Dewsbury, but in all the countries where we are working.
Our staff who live in Kyiv are under constant air-raid sirens, yet continue to produce all our TV programmes from our office. Vadim, as many will know, is a chaplain in the military and regularly travels to the front line with Bibles, general aid, life-saving equipment and generators. Some of our other staff are also in difficulty. Misha and his whole family are refugees from their home in Moscow and now live in Central Asia where they are on hand to organise and translate for me. But it is hard for them. There are hundreds of thousands of Russians who have fled from Russia as they cannot live under Putin!
It is always a time of spiritual refreshing and renewal on the mountains; and importantly, as the years have progressed, a time of communication. Jesus Himself used to go to the mountains to talk with His Father. Moses, Elijah and so many others found God on the mountains. There I have fought many spiritual battles, including my miraculous healing from lung cancer in 2003. Also, it was on a mountain in Austria that the Lord told me to go to Kyiv in 1992, which sparked off the massive revival that has swept Ukraine!
During this time on the mountain, I was praying over the war in Ukraine. Four days before Putin launched his war to destroy Ukraine in 2022, we held a United Day of Prayer for the nation in Kyiv. I prayed that no soldier would enter Kyiv, that God would destroy the Russian army and that God would judge Putin. But it was this last issue that I now prayed over concerning Putin: I recognised that the problem is not Russia, nor Russian people in themselves, but the war is a personal issue for Putin. Over the centuries Russia has been enlarged by conquest, especially in the 1800s. Putin cannot accept the massive loss of territory following the collapse of communism in 1989-1991 when East European countries, subjugated to Russian control by a disastrous decision in the 1945 ‘Yalta Peace Conference’, achieved their freedom, the legal restoration of their independence. And this included Ukraine, granted independence in 1991.
Much deeper than the collapse of the Russian/Communist empire lies a spiritual issue. It was my Russian interpreter in Belarussia, when I held massive evangelism in the stadium in Brest in 1994, who told me that in the West we do not understand Russia. He said, “You think Russians are like you because they look like you – but they have an Asian mind!” Historically, Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes seized the territory of Muscovy (Moscow) in the 13th century, and from there invaded and raided much of Europe, even to the doors of Vienna. The Mongol system of despotic rule by terror became the foundation of Ivan the Terrible’s dream of a Russian Empire…
I understood what my interpreter was saying, because one year before that, in 1993, I had an encounter with this Mongol spirit. I was on my first trip to Siberia, in Duldurga on the border with Mongolia, making the plans for the powerful evangelism which was to sweep Russia, beginning in the next year. I took a group of Russian pastors out for a day of ministry in the forest. After talking, prayer and the usual barbeque, we split up for individual prayer. The Russians went one way, and I, with my two English friends, went to a steep hill to climb up in prayer. The two men with me went up, but I found myself against a ‘spiritual barrier’ and could not follow the others, however hard I tried. Two things happened: the two men with me suffered severe tick-bites and changed spiritually so that I could no longer use them; and I found that the place where they had climbed was the very place where Genghis Khan had entered into modern-day Russian territory. Clearly God had protected me.
From there I evangelised in the nearby city of Chita, using a communist-style theatre. Praying on the stage before the service, the pastor told me that since they had moved into this larger hall, they felt an evil spirit and no freedom for worship. The meeting started, but I stayed behind the stage curtains praying. As I did so, I saw in the corner a bust of Lenin on a pedestal. Suddenly its eyes lit up with a green light and it began to speak to me. It said, “I am the spirit who was in Lenin, people think that I am dead, but I am alive, and I control Russia.” I immediately rebuked him, “You will not control Russia, I claim Russia in the Name of Jesus and break your power.” No one else heard the voice but several saw the light in his eyes. We could not destroy the bust of Lenin as this hall was rented, but we turned him to face the corner. Immediately the demonic curse left the building, and we had spiritual freedom.
Following this, the Holy Spirit came down and revival swept across Russia as my ministry expanded miraculously throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s.
30 years later and Putin is controlled by that same demonic spirit that was in Genghis Khan and that I encountered in Siberia in 1993. I recognise the spirit, that is why I prayed as I did in Kyiv in 2022, that God would judge Putin. Now, on the mountain, as I prayed over the situation in Ukraine, I believed that the Lord was telling me that as I knew this spirit and had defeated him once, I must personally defeat him again. In 2022 in Kiev, I gave Putin into God’s Hand for judgement. Now is the time to call on God to act, quickly. By the Power of God through the Holy Spirit, I know what the problem is, it is personal to me. I know Russia, I love Russian people. But I also recognise the demonic spirit controlling Russia through Putin. I am now calling on God to stop the war by removing Putin! I want to see Russia as it could be, a nation controlled by God’s Holy Spirit. Vladimir Putin, be warned – God will deal with you more powerfully than any military power. For me this has become very much a ‘David and Goliath’ situation.
The situation in the Central Asia/Caucasus region is similar to that in Siberia in 1993/4. A door is partly open, we must move swiftly using every opportunity, now. God is with us, and so are the pastors who are hungry for the Holy Spirit to move again! Nothing can stop this God-given vision. 27th March I will be on my way to Kazakhstan for two major evangelistic missions in Astana the capital and in Almaty, returning home on the 9thApril. Then May is very busy, Saturday 4th in Trafalgar Square with Daniel Chand, May 7th fly to Georgia for a National Day of Prayer in Tbilisi followed by evangelism in Batumi – then 16-20th in Armenia for a powerful conference covering evangelism in the whole region of Central Asia, including Moslem countries. A hectic schedule for me and staff. The main organiser is our full-time staff member, Misha!
David
Thank you for supporting the ministry through prayer and finance. We appreciate every person and pray God’s blessing upon you.
'When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.' (Psalm 56.3, NLT.) In moments of fear, I turn to You, for in Your presence, my trust is renewed. You are my refuge, my strength, and my guide, in You, O Lord, I confidently abide. Grant me courage to face each day, and let Your light illuminate my way. In Your embrace, my fears dissolve, for in Your love, my fears resolve. Amen.