Dear Partners in the Gospel
Praise the Lord! We are gradually coming out of lockdown. As a Mission, we are ready with a clear vision for the future. Although, unfortunately, as a nation there is still confusion and fear.
I am not afraid of the Covid-19 virus, nor am I afraid of death. I have put my life in God’s Hands knowing that I am safe and, as the Bible says, ‘a thousand shall fall at thy side and 10 thousand at thy right hand but it will not come nigh thee’. I claimed the ‘Blood on my doorpost’, for myself, my family and my staff! This means that together with all our Eurovision staff here and overseas we are carrying on working as much as possible. In fact, we are taking advantage of every new opportunity. I preach regularly worldwide on the internet, produce regular ‘podcasts’ and, what we would have done live, we now do online and reach ten times more people as a result! But we still cannot ignore the personal touch and are going to resume ‘normal’ services very soon!
At the beginning of this month, under the auspices of Christian Concern, I was a signatory to the letter to the Government about re-opening the Churches. This was extensively and favourably covered by the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail. We objected to the Government’s attitude in this crisis in treating us, the ‘Church’, as unimportant, unnecessary, so that pubs, Ikea, Garden Centres and even sports like golf, fishing, were given priority over the national need for prayer and worship! I argued that during the last war both churches which I attended were destroyed by bombs, but that did not stop us, every church remained open during the bombing. I was even baptized, in the rubble of a bomb-damaged building!
God has answered our prayers, the number of deaths has fallen and, following our petition to the Government, churches are allowed to re-open for prayer. I never supported the closure which was the first time in over a thousand years that churches were closed to prayer, and this, not just by the Government but supported by some Bishops. My personal belief, based on my 30 years of working under communism, is that we must not allow either demonic power, or ungodly Government to control, hinder, stop or even frustrate our work, our calling, as servants of Almighty God!
Despite lockdown we are now reaching more people than before. Our UK Day of Prayer on 2nd May reached ten times more people than the 1,000 who would have been able to attend in the Emmanuel Centre as planned. And on 6th June, the Day of Prayer for Ukraine, (where we would have had only 10,000 in the Sport Palace), was viewed by 70,000 on the internet, and broadcast on four major TV channels in a nation of 60 million! It is available in English on the internet for you to see. God worked so miraculously, that the Heads of the Orthodox confessions joined the Evangelical confessions: Archbishops and Metropolitans of Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Ukraine Orthodox and even Russian Orthodox (Moscow Patriarchate) personally joined the prayer, not just their ‘representatives’, which has never happened before in history! My staff say this is an incredible miracle, bigger than any of us can understand – that, under my spiritual authority, all Heads of all Confessions are now praying together as one for their nation, demonstrating to the nation their unity in Christ, even between Russian and Ukrainian! This is probably one of the greatest testimonies of my 70th anniversary!!!
Our strategy for this year is clear. Although we held the Kiev Day of Prayer online on the original date 6th June, that is not enough, the Bishops agreed that we will still be in the Sport Palace for a full Day of Prayer, but on October 3rd. Online was necessary because of the crisis, but only when all denominations are seen together in unity in the centre of Kiev will it show the Power and Glory of God. Also, 2-3 August I will be evangelising and encouraging the Vietnamese in person, from their big marquee in Halle, and also live-streaming for the first time both all over Europe, and also into Vietnam. Then the delayed meetings in Slovakia are now re-scheduled for September 4-5-6.
We need much prayer for Poland as we still expect the incredible evangelism to reach literally hundreds of thousands, this Autumn. Last time in 2015 we had almost 100,000, now it will be much larger. Central Asia will still go ahead, dates yet to be finalised. In Georgia, Asia, there will be a massive 3-day stadium event supported by their Government and international Basketball Team, an incredible miracle!
We have not had to cancel any of our Evangelism, merely to re-schedule for later this year! Despite some suggestions we have received, we cannot evangelise on the scale God has given us by live streaming or Zoom! The people whom we must reach are those who would never watch anything ‘religious’. I will be evangelising not only tens but hundreds of thousands in one place and this must be personal and followed up, time is short, Jesus is coming and before His return there will be great distress and darkness amongst the nations, ‘the end of the times of the Gentiles’ will come, and then Israel shall be saved! So, we are now actively working to put as many Missions into as short a time as possible. All this work will increase our costs, as delaying and re-scheduling means spend longer in preparation. But when in the past we had to delay events such as Poland (2014) and Caesarea (2016) the attendance and miraculous power was greatly increased! Yes, I may have to work harder and travel more, but what is wrong with that, my Bible says that ‘my youth will be renewed like the eagle’!
I like to live close enough to the Lord to know from His Word what He wants me to do. I often say that if a married couple are close enough in their relationship, they don’t have to ask each other what they want, they know! One reason that I have been so successful in my ministry over 70 years is that my desire is to fulfil God’s Word, to please Him. I have a clear mandate, God puts it in my spirit, all I need is His Power to support me and back me up, my job is to get on with it. This is why I often liken my spiritual life and our Christian experience to a military operation. God is Commander-in-Chief, we are the generals and officers who must operate under the overall plan which He has prepared. That’s how I run my life, and my ministry.
Well, just as we prayed on 2nd May for the death rate to fall, God answered prayer. Now we need to pray that we can come free from the ‘lockdown’ as soon as possible. This is very urgent; any more delay and it will take 10 or 20 years to recover! Pray, because that is the only answer, for too long we, as Christians, have looked to Government to solve our problems. Stop! You and I, not Government, have total responsibility for spiritual issues. And don’t sit back and say that’s God’s job, He has commissioned us and given us both the authority and the power to do the job!!
Never in the last 1000 years has war, plague or peril closed the churches. I evangelised in the former Soviet Union under severe persecution in the ‘underground’ churches! If caught, believers were not just sent to prison like me, but exiled in the Soviet Gulags and many killed brutally! We neither stopped nor closed the meetings. After my release from prison in 1973, I went straight back to minister to my ‘congregation’ behind the Iron Curtain, despite the risks! So, what is wrong now? Is the priority of the ‘Church’ to simply ‘stay safe’ or to become the ‘Body of Christ’ on earth, a powerhouse of prayer and worship?! We are called to ‘take up the cross’.
My 70th anniversary will be a two-hour programme live streamed on June 27th and will set you on fire! God willing the actual event must take place later this year, it is quite a unique event in Christian history! Pray with me in Power and Authority – God’s servant and yours.
David