If we want revival, we’re going to have to fight for it tooth and nail, we’re going to have to fight for it with spiritual sword, with everything we’ve got. I get nothing for free, I didn’t get entry into the communist countries, into Israel for free – I’ve had to fight, fight, fight. I have to spend so much time in prayer and so much time in the Word of God – because I can only do it if God is with me. But my God has never ever been defeated.
In 2016 I faced a tremendous challenge. I went to bring Jesus as Messiah to 4,000 people – but if you evangelise openly in Israel, you are arrested and they tear up your visa. The challenge was to take the big Roman Amphitheatre in Caesarea on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea and to fill it with 4,000 Jews. It was testing even my faith!
We went one week in advance to pray! The Roman theatre belongs to the government, but we had permission to use it and we had a legal contract. We had paid a lot of money. But an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect opposed me. They took out a legal injunction to stop me and told the director of the stadium, that if he allowed me to take the arena, he would bear legal consequences with the government.
What could I do? We had to pray! I cried out, ‘O God, You have NEVER been defeated in history!’ That’s true! Nowhere in the world has God ever been defeated! So, I said, ‘O God, we must NOT be defeated here in Israel, we MUST hold this Gospel outreach.’ Now this is how God works miracles: one year ago, I became very friendly with a minister in the Knesset in the Foreign Affairs department, though I only met him that once. My legal advisor, who works in the Parliament, spoke to him, and this member of the Knesset spoke to the director of the stadium, saying, ‘I know David personally, he is a friend of Israel, he loves Israel, he does nothing bad – you must not stop him in Caesarea!’ That was the first miracle. We had the stadium!
Then the next miracle. To bring 4,000 Jews from all over Israel we had chartered over 100 buses. This Ultra-Orthodox sect had somehow found out our plans and threatened the bus company, that if they allowed us to use the buses, they would lose all their government contracts – the company would be bankrupted! In fear, they cancelled all our buses, just two days before we were to be in the stadium on the Saturday – and remember Shabbat, (when no work can be done, no contracts can be arranged), begins on the Friday afternoon!!! We had no buses!!! We cannot bring anybody to the stadium!!! But God has NEVER been defeated! I was crying out, ‘O God, You will NOT be defeated now! In Jesus’ Name, we take the victory!’ The leaders of the Holocaust organisations called my organisers, ‘Don’t worry! We will find the buses ourselves!’ And in two days they found more than one hundred replacement buses! And 4,000 people came!
But the Ultra-Orthodox didn’t stop there. They sent some of their ‘bully boys’ to break into the stadium and destroy the meeting. That’s what they do! And because they could not travel to Caesarea on the Sabbath, they travelled on the Friday and camped all night on the beach outside the stadium. They were there before us! What was I going to do? Was I going to roll over and die and be a ‘normal’ Christian? No! I believe in fighting! This is a battle! I prayed, ‘O God, I want You to put a wall of fire around the stadium!’ Why not? ‘O God, I want angels with flaming swords!’ That’s what the Bible talks about! What happened? The Israeli military and police – with guns (not flaming swords) – rounded up all the bully boys, ‘We know you!’ They photographed them and their documents, and said, ‘If there is any trouble, we have your pictures and your documents, we will hold you responsible! Now you are free to go!’ All the troublemakers went home! And when the people arrived, the police used our buses to form a barricade around the premises! – A wall of fire! You see, God does it! God gave us a wall of fire – the buses! And He gave us angels with flaming swords – the Israeli military with guns!
But what did the devil do then? He wasn’t finished! We arrived two hours before the meeting was to begin, to find there was a storm from the Mediterranean stronger than they had ever experienced in Caesarea before. There was a big steel gantry on the stage to hold the loudspeakers and screens and the wind was making the whole thing swing so violently that the police said, ‘Nobody can come in the stadium, it’s too dangerous, the wind will bring it down on the people!’ We had fought all these battles and won – and now, the people can’t come in!!! I’m a Bible-believing Christian! I stood on the platform and prayed, ‘O God, in the Name of Jesus, stop this wind!!! Two thousand years ago, my Jesus stopped the storm on Galilee. O God, stop this storm on the Mediterranean – NOW!’ And the storm stopped. The wind calmed. And all the people came in.