The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits' (Daniel 11.32, KJV).
The key is to KNOW God – and He will do great things! The Scripture says, the people of Israel saw the miracles God did, but Moses KNEW God’s ways – God made them known to him. This is so important – to KNOW God.
One time I was evangelising in India and discovered that they worshipped millions of gods. Yet in the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as the creator of heaven and earth. There is only one God, the creator of all that is seen and unseen. Writing to the Romans the Apostle Paul said, 'For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made... For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him... [they] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles' (1.20-23, NIV).
I have always believed that in the life and ministry of Jesus, it was the miracles that confirmed who He was. Acts 2.22. It was and is the same for us – we need the miracles to confirm the Truth and the Power of the Gospel we preach. When I received the Holy Spirit, aged 13, I obeyed the Apostle Paul and ‘coveted the best gifts’, asking specifically for the gift of faith to add to my ‘speaking in tongues’. I do personally believe that this specific ‘asking’ was for my future in evangelism. And God has worked powerful miracles in my life: twice I've been healed of cancer; throat cancer in 1964, and lung cancer in 2003.
Looking at the question of faith, looking at the ministry of the miraculous, I speak from experience. I don’t have to justify my position. I don’t personally know a living man who has seen so many miracles of such a diverse nature, from calming storms, to the raising of those who were dying. Many of the miracles I’ve experienced are very unusual. With my throat cancer, in 1964, the doctors actually said to me, “Someone has cut that cancer out with a knife and left a scar – who did it?” It was the Hand of God! The miracle was unusual in that the cancer did not just disappear, it was literally cut out by the Hand of God, there still is a permanent physical evidence in my body – the scar where it was cut out! When I had lung cancer in 2003, the cancer was confirmed by a series of medical checks, first by X‐ray, then a camera down my lungs under anaesthetic and finally by CT‐ scan. I prayed for three months before the miracle happened – I coughed the whole cancer up from my chest, it physically came out onto the bed I was lying on. I was staying in my office in Germany – they had to burn the bed afterwards – it was soaked through!
Knowing God, and doing the impossible, or as the Scripture we read in Daniel says, ‘exploits’, depends on our relationship with God. My relationship with God is based on my relationship with my father, Rev WG Hathaway. As in all our relationships, the quality of our relationship with God is dependent on the time, effort, trust and love we are prepared to invest in it. I KNOW I can trust God. I KNOW He will answer my prayers. I ask God, "Here's the problem, what is the answer?" And God does answer! Sometimes it is an impression in my Spirit, but always God confirms what He wants me to do through a Scripture in the Bible.