Dear friends and supporters
As usual we are keeping busy. I’ve recently returned from a time of renewing on my prayer mountain in Austria. It is so significant, I’ve been going to this mountain on the border between Austria and Germany for more than 30 years! I’ve stayed in the same private hotel on the slopes at the bottom of the mountain for most of those 30 years and seen 3 generations of the same family who own it, with a 4th generation now growing up!
During my prayer times I have had powerful times of intercession and seen miraculous answers following. I like to go alone! I find it interesting that in the Bible Jesus Himself used to go to the mountain to talk to His Father before major decisions and also before performing many miracles.
We all need a private place where we can meet with God. I started as a boy on my knees beside my bed, but even as a teenager found a developing relationship as I climbed the hills, alone, not even with my twin brother.
As I did with my dad, I talk things back and forth with my Heavenly Father, I ask Him questions, and He answers me from Scripture. Being myself father of 3 daughters, having 5 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren, one of the interesting things is how children, as they grow up, always ask the question, ‘why’. Why must I eat my greens, why must I go to bed, why must I do this and that…
As a teenager I would spend many evenings with my earthly father asking questions about the Bible and my own early experience of Christ. So, it seemed natural to do the same with my Heavenly Father, or with the Holy Spirit or Jesus Himself. But the answer I get always comes from Scripture – ‘as it is written’.
So strengthened and renewed after my time of prayer this summer, by the time you receive this I shall be speaking to more than 1500 young people at their annual All-Central Asia Youth Conference, where I have been the main guest speaker for several years. This move of God in Central Asia is so feared by the authorities that the founder and organiser is not allowed to speak or even show his face at his own event – or he will be arrested! But he is my good friend, and we will spend time together! Supporting and facilitating such a significant event takes money and needs much prayer.
Also attending is Toni, the founder of the Catholic Alpha courses across Europe, and now in Central Asia. They have been forced to move out of Russia and relocate in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, where there is a mighty move of God, because they refused to make the official statements and compromises required by Putin’s regime, and cannot work even with the evangelical churches in Russia, who have made these compromises. I have been working with Toni for at least 15 years in Poland and elsewhere.
My message to the youth in Central Asia will be simple and based on my own experience – that our power comes only from the Holy Spirit – that you are never no.1 only no. 2 – Jesus is first. We must be servants and prepared to suffer – live the New Testament, let the first Apostles be our example, live like them, Jesus commands YOU as He commanded them!
DON’T follow some of these modern preachers who teach things which are not in the Bible. The biggest danger to the Church today is not persecution, it is the pastors who teach a different ‘gospel’ even saying that you don’t get your prayers answered because you don’t give enough money, and teaching that God wants us to live a comfortable ‘good’ life. But I teach that the Bible says ALL have sinned and come short of God’s Glory. Only He is holy. The only way into Heaven is as the Bible says, through ‘repentance and forgiveness’ – ‘you must be born again’! And salvation is only through the Blood of Christ shed on Calvary.
To bring THIS Gospel to the unbeliever – there is a price to pay! When I spent that terrible year of torture in a communist prison, 1972/3 – for bringing Bibles into those godless lands where the people were not allowed access to the Bible – the official file of the discussion of my case in Parliament stated, ‘We will not help him, he knew the price he must pay and Christians must be prepared to suffer’. That is still on record in London and makes my release by Prime Minister Harold Wilson even more of a miracle! Jesus did not say ‘get wealthy’. He said, ‘take up your cross and follow Me’.
I need your help in finance and prayer: we need to take bigger stadiums and do what Jesus commanded: ‘preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead’. To act on this, we are renting a big stadium in Baku in Azerbaijan in October. This country is ready for revival, it is rejecting Russia and looking to the West. We are already working in Azerbaijan although it is mainly Moslem, and in January this year we saw powerful miracles of healing which shook the people and is the reason why we have been allowed to take a stadium! There are many religions in the world but only Jesus can change lives, bring forgiveness of sin and confirm the truth of the Gospel with outstanding miracles and healing!
We desperately need your help in prayer for God to release His Power as He did across the whole of the former Soviet Union when communism first collapsed – and to meet the huge costs. To fill the stadium, we encourage the churches to hire many buses and fill them with unbelievers! That’s how we can make sure the stadium is full. But to do it we need to advertise using every media platform!
David
Thank you for supporting this ministry through prayer and finance. Together we are sharing the Gospel in word and deed. Each week the Gospel is preached online and in-person, and we distribute humanitarian aid to the displaced living in Ukraine. Right now, the need is great – but so is the opportunity to show the love of Christ. Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over…” (Luke 6:38, NIV). Your gift today will help provide food, shelter, and the message of salvation.
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