Living Boldly for Christ: Daily Reflections on Faith, Prayer & Spiritual Life by David Hathaway
“Have faith in God.” Jesus said, “You say this and shall not doubt in your heart, but shall believe that those things which you have said shall happen, shall have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them.”
While imprisoned for smuggling Bibles, David received a divine promise of miraculous release – a word confirmed through Psalm 35. Yet, seeing that promise fulfilled required persistent faith and prayer.
In Psalm 35:18, King David writes: “I will give You thanks in the great congregation.”
That was where faith truly came alive for me. Standing in that prison cell, I leapt to my feet and declared, “Lord, that’s the answer!” David spoke of giving thanks in a great congregation, and while it demanded immense faith to believe that for my own life, I embraced it wholeheartedly.
The miraculous healing I experienced from throat cancer built a foundation of faith for an even greater trial years later. When I was sentenced to ten years in a foreign prison—five for smuggling Bibles and five for preaching the Gospel with the underground church – I turned to God, praying for deliverance.
During the greatest crises of my life, prayer was essential. In 1964, when I was diagnosed with throat cancer, I made the decision to refuse medical treatment and trust God for healing. After three months, the doctors examined me and insisted prayer had failed. The tumour had grown so large that without an immediate operation, I would soon choke to death.
Acts 19:11 gives us something we haven't seen recorded in quite this way before: “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul.” Even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and people were healed and evil spirits left them.
Here we see another dimension of the healing ministry. God was working so powerfully through Paul that even cloths that had touched him were being used as a point of contact, and the sick were healed.
In Acts 9, Peter encountered a man named Aeneas who had been paralysed for eight years. Recognising his need, Peter did not anoint him with oil or lay hands on him. Instead, he simply declared, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Immediately, Aeneas got up. There was no gradual recovery, no delay; the healing was instantaneous. The miracle demonstrated the power and authority of Jesus Christ working through His servant.
Looking back over my life, I can see how the Lord has ordered my steps. He has given me specific instructions and sent me to particular places. The evidence lies in what followed. My first overland journey to Jerusalem opened my eyes to the suffering of the underground Church behind the Iron Curtain. From that point onwards, at every stage of my life, I was acting under the Lord's direction. Time and again, God did exactly what He had promised.
One truth I can never escape is this: the miracles recorded in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles were the evidence that confirmed the truth of the message.
Acts 8:6 tells us what happened: "The people with one accord gave heed to those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." They didn't just hear Philip's words – they saw the power of God at work. The message and the miracles went together.
Formal Christianity has totally moved away from the miraculous, and the moment that you do, you’ve lost the purpose of our Christian faith and its power. If there were no miracles in the life of Jesus – the virgin birth, the resurrection and the miracles of His ministry – then He is no different from any other so-called god or prophet.
Matthew 8:23 says, ‘Jesus entered into a ship... and behold there arose a great storm in the sea, so much that the ship was covered with the waves, but Jesus was asleep. His disciples woke Him, saying, ‘Lord, save us, we’re going to die!’ And He said, ‘Why are you so afraid, O you of little faith!’ Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. The men marvelled, and said, ‘What kind of Man is this?’’
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
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. 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.
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