David Hathaway

The whole armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-17, Pt 18)

We are in constant spiritual warfare – and God is calling us to fight! I want you to be strong, I want you to put on the full armour of God, so that together we can stand and defeat the enemy – and see the Glory of God, the Glory of Christ here on earth! 
 

The Body of Christ on earth (Ephesians 4:30-32/5:1-30, Pt 17)

The fruit of the Spirit in you is the evidence of the new life you have: The Spirit of Christ in you, being revealed through your mortal body! Our human bodies HAVE to be made subject to the Spirit, so that we don’t ‘grieve the Spirit’. We’ve got to put off the flesh and put on the Spirit of Christ, in order that we can truly represent who Christ is! And so that we can share in the Kingdom which is to come.

Be imitators of Christ: How to be successful in ministry (Ephesians 4:15-16, Pt 16)

It’s essential that we grow into the likeness of Christ, that we share His desire, His passion... It was only a few years ago, going on one of my prayer walks, I was saying, "Holy Spirit, You know more about Jesus than anyone, I want You to share with me the secret of how Jesus ministered, how He was successful in evangelism, how He was successful in the ministry of healing. Holy Spirit, I want to learn more about Jesus, I want to be more like Him." 
I had one young man work with me many years ago, but unfortunately he wanted to copy ‘other people’. Yes, we can learn from other people, but I don’t want to ‘copy’ somebody else! I want to be myself, because God who made us, made us unique! We are not to be ‘imitators of other people’, of another evangelist, of another pastor. We are to be imitators of Christ! After all, He is the Head, from whom the whole Body is fitly joined together.

The purpose of the fivefold ministry (Ephesians 4:11-15, Pt 15)

I am moved by the very great depths of this letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians, and I want to speak about Ephesians 4:11-13 where he is talking about the fivefold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. The purpose of this ministry is to bring the Church, the members of the Body of Christ, the ‘saints’ into the place where they can contribute in some way into the ministry, to ‘edify the Body of Christ’ – until we all come to a sense of unity in the faith, unity in the knowledge of the Son of God – into maturity!

God has a purpose in your adversity (Isaiah 30:20-21)

We were created by God to fulfil a Purpose! In your life, God sees and God knows the future. I want to encourage you to seek the Lord. Recognise from Isaiah 30, that although the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction in your life, your ‘teachers’ will not be removed from you, but you will continue to see the way through – and your ears will hear a Voice behind you saying, “This is the way, walk in it!” All my life I’ve heard that Voice. And today I’m hearing that Voice again, knowing that it gives me the confidence to live through the adversity and the affliction, because I have heard! Even in this God is saying, “This is the way, walk in it!” I pray God will give you the courage!

Fed by the bread of affliction (Isaiah 30:18-20)

When you are a child of God, when you are walking in the Will and knowledge of God, many things which happen in your life – some of which may be painful now – are like an instruction, a teaching, to prepare you for the future! In Isaiah 30v20, ‘Although the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction…’ I’m sensing, that although your life’s experience will be of adversity and affliction, yet they will become the very thing which God will use for His glory. When I look back on my life and my 70 years of ministry, it is very clear to me that in order to come to where I am today, the Lord had to take me through adversity. I would not be where I am, seeing the power of the evangelism and the phenomenal miracles unless I had had cancer twice and been in prison.

Unity through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3, Pt14)

There is One Body, One Spirit, One Hope, One Faith… We know this from Ephesians 4… One Lord, One Baptism, One God and Father of all… There is such a sense of Oneness in Christ! The Church is not just a place where Christians gather together, the Church is fellowship, it’s unity, the place where we get our strength, our power, it’s like a school, it’s where we get our education… The purpose of the Church is to strengthen the work of the ministry.

The fullness of the love of God (Ephesians 3:17-21, Pt13)

It’s a very beautiful thing the Apostle Paul is saying in Ephesians 3:17-19, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length and depth and height of the love of God.” 
This is really beautiful, it’s Paul being very expressive and very explicit. We’re so familiar with two dimensions, flat, and with three dimensions where there is some depth and perspective. But Paul’s description of the love of God is higher and greater, more enlightening, it’s wide, it’s long, it’s deep, and it’s high – four dimensions – the height AND the depth! I’m intrigued! God’s love is not just the length which encompasses the world, it’s not just the width, but it has a height – and it has a depth – it’s an almost unfathomable mystery of God. And yet Paul wants us to understand it.

Held by the love of God (Ephesians 4:1-6, Pt 12)

We are held by love, an invisible power that doesn’t let us escape out of the Grace of God! Oh, what a wonderful description of being a ‘prisoner of God’. We are held ‘captive’ to His Love… It so binds us, so holds us… But it’s not only God’s Love for us, but our love for Him! Our love for Him acts as a lock, a guard, to prevent us from getting away! So, you and I, we’re a ‘prisoner’ of the Lord! Not in the sense of pain and suffering, but something full of Glory, full of joy! I follow the Lord because I love Him! I preach the Gospel – because I love Him! I see the miracles – because I love Him! My whole life is governed by love. Love is surely one of the most powerful forces!

Expect God's exceedingly abundantly (Ephesians 3:17-21, Pt11)

Let the faith of God come into YOU in such a way that YOU can expect MORE! Not less. With God, it’s not a partial fulfilment, it’s ABOVE what we can think! God is not only able to answer your prayers, whatever they are, but whatever you ask for, He is willing to give you MORE! And it is for His GLORY!

Principalities and Powers in heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10-11, Pt10)

What is your ministry? The purpose of the Church is that the manifold wisdom of God be made known to the ‘principalities and powers in the heavenly places’! In other words, that the great wisdom of God might not just be revealed to the unbeliever, but to the rulers and authorities in ‘heavenly places’. Paul is revealing in the book of Ephesians that we have to demonstrate the Wisdom, Power and Glory of God, not only on the earth, but to those ‘other powers’, those ‘heavenly powers’, those other spiritual powers. By ‘heavenly’, Paul is not meaning ‘Heaven’, but unearthly, ungodly. Paul writes later in this letter, ‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.’ These are the powers that you and I must not only to wrestle with, but be witnesses to! We have to witness, through our faith in Christ, through our lives, through the way we live, the Power of God to the devil!
 

Fellow heirs and partakers of the promise (Ephesians 3:1-11, Pt 9)

You are an heir and partaker of all the promises of Christ! We are familiar with this revelation of the mystery of Christ, but it was not so in Paul’s day – the revelation that Gentiles are fellow-heirs with Jews, part of the same Body, and partakers of the same Promises in Christ through the Gospel, was absolutely new, vv5-6. Gentiles – fellow-heirs with the Jews! The same Body as the Jews! Partakers with the Jews of the Promises in Christ which are revealed through the Gospel! Of which Paul was made a minister, by a gift of Grace, given him by the effectual working of God’s Power, v7! The gift that made Paul a minister of the Gospel to the Gentiles was a gift given from God through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9, Pt 8)

For by Grace we are saved through faith and not of ourselves, a Gift of God, not of works, so that we cannot boast. Our salvation is by faith alone, nothing else. SAVED by FAITH. Not by religious observance, tradition or any ordinances of the Church, or by what we have done. We are SAVED by FAITH IN CHRIST! We receive salvation as a free gift! A GIFT! And like every gift, you can accept or refuse. It’s SO SIMPLE. Salvation is GIVEN to us! A GIFT from GOD OUR FATHER, and we receive it THROUGH CHRIST!

Resurrected to new life in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-2, Pt 7)

By faith, God has resurrected us by grace, TOGETHER WITH CHRIST! The Apostle Paul is quite clear that we are new creations in Christ. Water baptism by full immersions is symbolic of this. Paul says, we are buried with Christ in the water of baptism, and we come up out of the water as a symbol of recreation, resurrection, and new birth.

The Power and Glory of your inheritance (Ephesians 1:21-23, Pt6)

Enter into the Power and the Glory of God! Because we are in Christ, seated in the Heavenly Places in Christ, ALL THAT POWER AND GLORY – that Paul describes to us here in Ephesians Chapter 1 – is ours! It’s in the Church! You are His Hands, His Feet, His Eyes, His Mouth – YOU are the only manifestation of Jesus that the people on earth can ever see! And they HAVE to see that Glory in YOU! The Inheritance, the Glory – is in Christ, in Heaven. 

Jesus is our intercessor in heavenly places (Ephesians 1.19-21, Pt5)

Jesus is interceding for us. NOW! God the Father has EXALTED Christ above everything – given Him the Highest Name, the Highest Place, the Greatest Power – ALL this God has put in Christ when He exalted Him – AND THAT IS OUR INHERITANCE! People ask me to pray for them, and of course I do, if you are sick, if you have a need, I pray for you, as Paul also did. But the GREATEST Intercessor is Jesus Himself. He’s in the Presence of the Father, at the Right Hand of the Father – praying for YOU!