David Willows

David Willows has been preaching for many years.
His messages have brought many to know Jesus as Saviour.
He has majored on the Joy of the Lord and the Reality of Heaven. He has preached a
soon returning Jesus that has left congregations praying "Maranatha".
His worship cassettes and CDs have been circulated in several different countries and have been
played and replayed in small rooms, cars, churches and auditoriums in many places.
David is now in his 80's and has created this website with you in mind. His prayer is that these preaching messages and worship albums will bless you like they blessed many in the past, that you will be encouraged and that you also will know the Saviour and receive the Joy of the Lord, falling in love with Jesus all over again.
God bless you as you explore.
Remember - The Joy of The Lord is your Strength (Nehemiah 8:10)

www.DavidWillows.org where you can find sermons and worship music from David Willows. 

Transcript

Nicola: Welcome to Coldwater Podcast. I’m Nicola Halton. We all know the importance of getting out there and doing a great work for Jesus. In this podcast we will learn more about the people who are involved in changing lives for good for God. I would like to welcome David Willows to the coldwater podcast. David was part of many tent crusades and has seen many miracles. Can you tell me about, can you share your testimony, and you mentioned before about your uncle Henry, David so could you have a chat about that please if that’s ok? 

David: Yeh well I’ll just go back to when I first came to know the Lord. I was brought up amongst Brethren folk, exclusive Brethren and it was just a very small assembly that I went to and I didn’t know that I, I heard the gospel many times but I didn’t think it really think it referred to me because I was going with my dasd and mum to the meetings. We had a preacher come from Leicester and that was when I was 13 years old and he told me afterwards many years later how it all occurred. My dad had booked him, it’s the first time that he had preached and he had been getting this message ready for 6 months and he was in the NCC core of the army and he was booked to speak at this meeting at Newark at Nottinghamshire and he said he came out of the entry in Leicester pushing his bike, cos he was going to ride his bike to Newark, it was 36 miles and it began to rain. He says he pushed my bike out, the heavens opened, and it poured with rain and all the way to Newark it rained and rained, and he got to the meeting and he was soaking wet through and he stood in the pulpit and there was very few folk there. There was my dad and my mum and myself and my two younger brothers and probably 3 or 4 or 5 other people and that night he was determined that he was going to get a convert. And so I think he looked at me all the meeting and the text that he used was from Amos 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, ... and me as a and I thought whats that got to do with me and I imagine that’s what I thought. Anyway its so long ago. But then he brought it down to personalities and me as a person and he said, “if you think you are going to go to heaven because your mum and dad are Christians. You’re not. You have to become a christian yourself.”

Nicola: Yes

David: ”If you think you are going to to go to heaven because you are brought up in the brethren then brethren can’t save you,” and thirdly he said, “if you think you are going to go to heaven because you are brought up in a Christian country it is not a Christian country or a Christian country doesn’t bring you to Christ. You need to make your own personal decision.”

Nicola: Yes

David: and so I left that meeting on that Sunday night and went home. The Brethren didn’t have appeals or altar calls and I went home from that meeting and my dad must have realised something was going on and he left a book out on a chair beside my bed called “the travellers guide from death to life”, it an old, old books of stories of men and women who accepted Christ as their saviour over the years and I began to read that book, I think it was on a Wednesday. I hadn’t gone to school because I was feeling quite ill actually I realised later it was conviction. So I sat in my bed reading this book and the more I read it the worse I felt because I couldn’t find anything that would help me because I wanted to feel saved and I prayed a prayer. I would imagine I prayed a prayer and about half way through the book it said its not by feeling its by faith, its by believing you are saved and suddenly the light dawned and I knew that Christ had come into my life. I just knew it. I am explaining it far better now than I was then. So the next day I went to school feeling fine and I thought has it made any difference? And we passed the infant school playground before we got to the senior school playground and in the infant school playground was a great big heap of gravel. It had been there for several weeks and I’d been … everyday that I had gone passed it I had gone and got my pockets full of stones cos I loved throwing stones about and that particular morning after giving my life to the Lord I did the same thing and I put my hand into the gravel and picked up two handfuls of gravel to put them  my pocket and a voice inside of me said, “David, they are not your stones to throw about,” and that had never happened to me before. 

Nicola: Yes

David: And so I dropped those stones as though they were red hot and I realised that something had happened inside. Mostly I found out that my lying had stopped. I was always telling lies and now to tell a lie was really bad and really wrong and also I was getting into stealing. I’d been stealing stamps from Woolworths and I’d actually stolen some stamps out of my grandfathers stamp collection which back in the 50’s was worth £10,000. 

Nicola: Wow 

David: and one day when he was out, and this was in Birmingham, where we were visiting him and when he was out, I went into his stamps albums and took a stamp from here and a stamp from there and I knew what I was looking for, the Penny Blacks and different stamps like that. And I took a whole lot of stamps and thought he’ll never notice, he’ll never notice that. He’s got so many stamps and it was probably two or 3 weeks later that my mother came up to my bedroom and she said, “David, I’ve got a letter from your grandfather, before he goes to the police, have you taken any stamps out of his stamp collection.” Usually I told that many lies, but this time and this was before I was saved remember and that morning I wasn’t going to tell any lies, I said, “Yes I did.” And mother said, “Where are they, now you need to send them back.” I said, “I’ve swapped them at school. To Laurence Rushby.”

Nicola: OH No!!

David: “Well you better get to Laurence Rushby and get those stamps back.” So I went to my friend Laurence Rushby and said, “I’ve got to have those stamps back Laurence, I’ve got to get them back.” And he said, “Well its going to cost you.” And so I had to swap so many more stamps to get the stamps back than when I’d swapped him to him in the first place. 

Nicola: Yeah

David: They were sent back to and I my grandfather and I wish I had the letter. He sent me a letter to say, “David, I totally forgive you.” I don’t remember much more about the letter except that was in it and it was just a few weeks later that the Lord Jesus Christ totally forgave me and I became a Christian and got wonderfully saved And that was how I came to know Jesus as my personal saviour. 

Nicola: Ok thank you. You mentioned your uncle henry would you like to talk about him. 

David: Well my uncle Henry was also a Christian. He was a big businessman and he had shopped in Newark and he had markets all over the East Midland area and he was doing very well businesswise but in 1948 God really moved on Henry in a tremendous way. He was a nominal Christian before, now he was a born-again Christians but he was just living for business. But God moved upon him. What he didn’t know was his wife Connie and another pastor, Pastor Leonard was praying for him and they had been fasting and praying for him for a long time, they had been fasting, probably a 40 day fast. It was a long long fast, they were fasting for my uncle, and one night, a midnight meeting he went to or midevening meeting he went to, a local assemblies of God and they asked him to play the piano. So he was on the piano, playing the piano, but suddenly the Holy Ghost hit him and knocked him of the piano stool and he landed on the floor and couldn’t stop speaking in tongues and he just could not do any business. When he went back o do his business for two weeks he could not do any business in his shops, so he went upstairs in a three story house into what he called a little glory cupboard and cried out to God and got tremendously blessed. A life changing experience for my uncle and he was filled with what he called the Glory and he really was filled with the glory of the Lord. And my auntie Connie heard him praying. “Please Lord don’t take this away, please Lord don’t take this away.”  And Connie said, “Now me Duck.” That’s how they would talk in Newark. “What he has given you, he will never take away”.

Nicola: Yes

David: And that was a life changing experience for my uncle Henry. It revolutionised his life and from that became quite a revival that spread all over the UK. 

Nicola: Yes 

David: How it affected me was I began to go along to some of those meetings when I was 16 and I realised they had something that I didn’t have. They were full of joy and they sang choruses over and over and over again and a tremendous anointing and touch of God was on them and a tremendous love, wonderful, wonderful presence and the meetings would start what ever time they started but they would go on for three hours or more and nobody wanted to stop them and they were just marvellous and so one week night I went to see my uncle and I said to him, “What is it Henry that you have that I don’t have?” He said, “Well we are baptised with the Holy Spirit and we speak in tongues and we are full of the glory of the Lord.” I said, “Well I want that experience.” So we said well alright, we’ll kneel down by this chair and it was in a room called the Glory Room which was just above the shops and so I knelt down there and Henry said to me, “Now then, what you need to do is just look to Jesus and keep saying Hallelujah, praise the Lord and thank you Jesus. Aren’t you wonderful Lord.” And I began to do that and suddenly there was a tremendous clatter on the stairs outside. The door burst open and in came my father and he said, “Now David, you get off home and you don’t need this. You got the Holy Spirit when you got saved, You don’t need all what Henry’s telling you.” And he had a good todo with my uncle and I went home crying and when I got home my dad said to me, “ The apostle Paul said he would rather speak 5 words in a known tongue that 10,000 words in an unknown but it would be cheeky and wrong for me to say, anyway the apostle Paul also said, “I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all. “ Anyway it was a little while after that I was wonderfully baptised in the Holy Spriit. I began to speak in that heavenly language. In Isiah 28 it calls a refreshing. 

Nicola: Yes 

David: A tremendous refreshing and I am so thankful that over all the years of my life since 16 years old and I’m now 81 that I’ve been able to speak in that heavenly language and when I don’t know what to pray for the Holy Spirit enables me to pray. I don’t even know what I’m praying but he prays through me and its true what it says in Corinthians that you edify yourself. You build up yourself when you speak in that heavenly language and so it was a marvellous experience and of course from them on I began to travel. Well. From then on it’s a long, long story from 16 years old to 81. But. Anyway, I’ll go back to you.

Nicola: One of the questions I’ve got here is and you sort of touched on it is, how can a Christian stay in the will of God? 

David: How can a Christian stay in the will of God. Well, there’s, when you play cricket, when you are playing cricket if the umpire says you are out cos he’s either caught the ball or the bowler has bowled you out and there’s a verse in the scriptures that tells you about your peace. If you have got peace with God then you can follow your peace. Sometime the umpire,  the Holy Spirit, says your out and you have that inside. You don’t feel right about it. You try and justify yourself but when you know its right there is a peace inside, there is an excitement inside that you are in the will of God. That’s a very short answer and far from all the answers to that question but that is how I know you are far from the will of God. 

Nicola: That’s wonderful than you. We will go to talking about the crusades and the miracles. Did you ever get to see Billy Graham?

Dasvid: Yes I saw Billy Graham in 1965 down in, I’m just trying to think of the… it wasn’t Harringay that was the one before. Anyway it was down in Lorndon in 1965. I went to the 1965 one and the 1966 one. And in the 1965 crusade I was in the auditorium and when they play just as I am, they sang just as I am thousands of people came forward. But the papers got a hold of that and said it’s the emotional singing that is doing that.

Nicola: Right ok.

Dsavid: So the next year when Billy Graham came in 1966 he said there would be no singing of Just as I am. It would be complete silence when people came out. So he made the appeal and there was no sound accept the tread of feet. Hundreds of people going forward in Earl’s court. That’s were it was. In Earl’s Court, as they went forward,. It was amazing but the papers got hold of that one and they said it wasn’t the emotional singing. It was the emotional silence! That brought them forward so whatever way you looked at it but a great thing was thousands and thousands of folk got saved when Billy Graham came to this country and we were involved with it. We used to have a sticker in the back of the cars working as an electrician at the time and we had a sticker in the back of  our car, “Billy’s Back!”  

Nicola: Yes

David: And that was in 1966.

Nicola: Wonderful 

David: And John Fear, going back to this dear brother who I came to know the Lord thourgh his preaching and John Fear became involved with the Billy Graham organisation, and he put on these radio outreaches around the country They were in village halls, church halls and they used the landlines in those days. And thousands and thousands of folk came to Christ through those Billy Graham outreaches right across this nation.

Nicola: That’s wonderful 

David: and so I have been in some ways been involved with the Billy Graham outreaches and of course as an evangelist, took as a role model, Billy Graham. 

Nicola: Yes so would you like to talk about what you have done as an evangelist? Just as much as you can share really because I know there is going to be a lot there.

David: Well how did I get called to be an evangelist? I suppose it was after being baptised in the Holy Spirit and I remember one day, this was before, going back to my uncle again. One day I went into his living room, he had got a big suitcase and this suitcase was open and there was hundreds and hundreds of gospel tracks., all sorts of gospel tracts in it. And there was a desire in me to have some of those, I wanted some to be able to give out. So I said to my uncle, “Uncle can I have a few of those?” and he said, “Yes you can, me lad.” So he gave me a few of these different tracts and he had a little card and he had a little card and it was a little card about three inches long and an inch wide, probably an inch wide and on one side it said, “You had better get right with God.” And on the other side it said,  its later than you think.” And it was done in blue print. And he used to throw thousands of these, if there was a crowd he would throw hundreds of these into the crowd. You wouldn’t be allowed to that now because of the litter law. In those days he used to do that and he would give them out everywhere and he would give out gospel tracts everywhere and I suppose it was from that reason, from seeing that and also one thing in the Brethren as well that I just feel to share. I was walking home from a Brethren meeting with a dear brother. As we walked along the road we came to a seat where there was an old man sitting on it and this dear brother, Mr Streed his name was, and I saw him take a gospel tract out of his pocket and walk up to this man and talk to him a little bit and give him this gospel tract. That left a lasting impression on my life. 

Nicola: Yes

David: And. And also my uncle was going to Mansfield market at that time doing open airs and he had a caravan that was specially built so the side let down and they would put speakers on the top of it and amplification and also microphones and played the piano, accordion, tambourines and so on at Mansfield market on a Saturday night was packed with people and the police said, “We don’t need to do anything now!” It was a rough mining area and they said they turned out the pubs and they listened to you preaching the gospel and many many folk got saved on Mansfield market square. That left an imp… I never went to one. I’ve got some of the CD’s as they are now. They have been put on CD but it left a lasting impression in my life so that began to cause me to desire to evangelise.

Nicola: Yes

David: I also saw others begin to evangelise. Billy Graham of course. That was later on but I began to get a desire and began to travel. I began to travel from Wimbledon to Newark which was a hundred and thirty, forty miles and had meetings there and different places and that was in halls. But then the tent crusades were with Peter Whiteside and Hetsgarth Bank, over in Lancashire and Peter Whiteside, he had, he called them “Miracle Crusades” and he said, “We are not going to even call them healing crusades, these are miracle crusades, we are going for miracles and for many times, I would minister for Peter Whiteside. One of those times we were at Preston and there was different places we went and saw God do miracles and of course the greatest miracle is seeing folks saved. We saw quite a few children come to the Lord, older people come to the Lord and there was tremendous outreach meeting we had and I would travel with other evangelists as well. They were tents and one of them particular ones was at Macclesfield and this was later on and I can’t think of the date exactly of hand but I think it was in the 80’s and it was in Macclesfield and we saw, it was called Macclesfield Miracle Meetings or Macclesfield Miracle Crusade I think it was called and the amazing thing was over sixty folk got saved and there was a whole youth group that came along that didn’t know the Lord and that youth group wonderfully, every one of them accept one got saved, that night after they had made a decision.

Nicola: Yes

David: But one of them said can I talk to you Mr Willows tomorrow and I said, “You can come and see me tomorrow afternoon in the tent.” And so she came along and she said, “David, I don’t think Jesus is God.” So I realised she had a background from probably the Jehovah Witnesses. But I pointed her to John 5. It says, “We honour the Son as we honour the father.” I just read the chapter, it was amazing, I just read part of that chapter and she said, “Enough said.” And she gave her heart to the Lord. Everyone of that youth group, even the youth leaders, yes. And there I saw her straight afterwards on the mission field and that was one of the crusades.

Nicola: Yes I was just noticed you have got a fantastic web site and I was looking for Macclesfield just then because it mentions about when it was and you have got lots of .. so if anyone wanted to listen. You have got lots of… more sermons and teaching and worship music on there so people can get access to that from this podcast so I will put the link on there for that.

David: That’s wonderful.

Nicola: That’s really good. You preach on joy and you know, you’re an amazing preacher. Ive heard you many times and you just light up the room when you speak but things have not always been easy for you have they, David? So would you like to share a little bit about that, you don’t have to if you don’t want to its entirely up to you.

David Not that’s absolutely fine. I was known, I had been known and am known as the joy preacher. So I peached on the joy of the Lord over many years probably coming back from when I got baptised in the Holy Spirit. In those days in the Glory Meetings we used to sing in his presence there is joy and lots of other choruses that had joy in them. Joy, joy, joy in my heart, is full of joy and so many other choruses about the joy of the Lord and our experience was joy because the baptism of the Holy Spirit brings love and joy and peace and so I was filled with the joy. And one chorus I remember getting on the way down to Wimbledon one day, this wa about Grantham which was 14 miles outside of Newark heading for London and all the way we sang, it was the only chorus that I ever got that was own. “This joy, his joy overflows. This joy, his joy grows and grows. This joy his joy, sets my Spirit free. Thank you Lord for giving it to me.” And we sang it and sang it and sang it but that was my experience about the joy of the Lord and I preached it many, many times. And the things was because I was also a preacher, I also led praise and worship which I also led for about 40 years where I played the piano accordion and so on. And also I would be praying for folk afterwards that I just completely overdid it and in 1984 my balance began to go and it’s a horrible feeling and I had a lot of bookings, places to go and I realised I couldn’t go. I had to cancel which is not an easy thing to do when you are an evangelist and you have got crusades and other meetings booked. And out of that I entered into a time of depression. No my idea of depression before was it was just people feeling down and that they could get themselves out of it and pull yourself together and so on. But I couldn’t do that and the more I tried or anybody tried to say that to me. I used to joke I had gone bald on top by the number of people who had prayed for me. But at the time it wasn’t a funny business at all. Depression is a horrible thing and it lasted… you see when I was travelling the supply financially would come as we travelled and folk would give to us and help us and send us through the post. But when you are not travelling the supply is not the same and the Lord did not let us down but I began to think, “I’ve got to get going again.” So for 6 weeks I couldn’t travel at all. I could hardly go upstairs. One time I could hardly eat anything and I was just in a terrible state. But a dear brother from Paisley, Robert Short bless him came and said, “David you want to start travelling again. Now you can’t drive. I am going to come and drive you.” And he came down and for several weeks he drove me around doing meetings and the worst time for me was as I started again was at nights. I couldn’t sleep. One of the things with depression is you can’t sleep. You sleep for about 5 minutes and think you have had a night of sleep. 

Nicola: Yes

David: And you can’t go back to sleep again, and so I was trying to stand on platforms and minister with no sleep. And of course the balance was really playing up but gradually I got over that in a few months. Lets put it down to a few months and after that for 9 years I never had it at all. And then 9 years I overdid it again and in 1993 I was in a lot of meetings down South and a crusade that was going on and I was nearly feeling like I was falling of the platform and in the middle of a crusade that’s a dreadful difficult thing for an evangelist to do, especially the pastors who organised the meeting and so on and suddenly the evangelist especially when it is miracles meetings and the evangelist is ill and I had to go to stay where I was staying and some of us had to take the meetings on and somebody else had to drive me right back home. Right into Yorkshire and so it was a very very difficult time and I went to see the doctor and the doctor said to me, he said, “If you can keep going, keep going, if you can.” After a while, this was a while, probably another 6 weeks job but I tried and I would go away for a weekend and I would manage probably one or 2 weekends but it would be back again and the doctor said to me, “If you don’t keep travelling you won’t do it.” Finally I could not keep travelling and so my travelling ministry was really over as regards to doing that all of the time. I have travelled a bit since mainly lots of the meetings being at Hollybush and around the area and so forth. 

Nicola: Self care is so important isn’t it.

David: That’s right, which I hadn’t done you see I had completely overdone it.

Nicola: Yeh

David: Thinking that you are immortal I think when you are going as an evangelist and you can do it but you are still in your natural frame. You can’t do it. 

Nicola: Yes and as Christians we are vulnerable and you mentioned that you were praying for people and they were getting healed and you were unwell yourself and I just think that is amazing how God uses our prayers even when we are unwell we can manage to minister to other people even in that brokenness and with mental health you have gained a qualification that you wouldn’t have dreamt of going for. You have a compassion and an empathy for people with similar situations and like you say, people don’t just snap out of it or they can’t sort of bring themselves out of it. So I think it is an amazing testimony of how you have managed to do so brilliantly for God and you are just an absolute jewel. Yes sorry…

David: I was going to say what it leaves is it leaves a mark on you. 

Nicola Yes

David: Its very, very easy, probably the wrong word to say, to get back into it if you are not careful and its left me with an anxiety that comes back from time to time and the only way I can get the victory over the anxiety stage is to praise the Lord and I thankfully have a lovely wife, Dorcas who had looked after me for all that time since 1993 and the 84 episode as well. 

Nicola: Yes

David: From 84 onto 93 she travelled with me most of the time so its not an easy path is that. But when people come to you and say I am going through depression you understand them in a way you never understand them before and you can pray for them as you rightly say with a compassion and a caring and a love, you would never be able to do before, you would never really understand it. 

Nicola: Yes

David: and when I think back all the years its absolutely amazing that I’m still alive. 81 years old and still just know that the Lord is with us and helping us and strengthening us and when we go through tough times we come through and say strengthen me Lord and he does. 

Nicola: Yes

David: And that’s why I go back to that speaking in tongues because when I can’t get the victoy the Holy Ghost can get the victory through me if that makes sense. 

Nicola: Amen Yes and I think you have just poured out a load of wisdom as well because sometimes mental health can feel like a peace of elastic that has just gone that bit too far and its not going to come back again. 

David: That’s right 

Nicola: and you’ve got to sort of really, you know we are not as Christians and lots of people feel invincible and life is very fragile and our minds are very fragile and we really need to look after them and so I think you are just absolutely amazing David. One of the questions I have got is sort of, I just sort of say that you bring joy to a room by saying that isn’t Jesus wonderful. 

David: Well isn’t Jesus wonderful!

Nicola: You just do.

David: He’s absolutely wonderful.

Nicola; Amazing, you just do

David: Jesus .. Sorry love.

Nicola: Its fine and I just hope that families who listen or people out their or particularly whole families, that we realise how wonderful Jesus is and that we don’t miss out on that wonderful anointing and privilege he has for us but this is not my preach I am going to leave the rest to you to talk about how wonderful Jesus is.  

David: I am going way way back. You know. Its amazing some of the old hymns that we learned in the Brethren as a little lad, how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believers ear. You know. Things like that left a lasting impression on my life.

Nicola: Yes 

David: and then of course when I got filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus became wonderful and we used to sing wonderful, wonderful Jesus in my heart has rendered a song and so many choruses and songs are about Jesus. I just love Jesus.

Nicola: Yes

David: and if I can leave anything on this podcast it is just to encourage other people to fall in love with Jesus. It’s not what you know its who you know. 

Nicola: Yes

David: You may know a lot and when I started out I thought I was Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and TL Osborne and a few more wrapped into one, but the longer I served him the less I realised what I really did know but another chorus says the longer I serve Him the sweeter he grows and that is so true in my life that as you get older and probably into your 80’s that in a sense you are not as fluid and as fast and as quick as doing things as you were but you can still rest in that wonderful blessed assurance that Jesus is yours and mine. 

Nicola: Amen 

David: and that’s the great thing about it and he is just wonderful. And the other thing that I have preached on over the years and that you possibly remember is that heaven is real not just.

Nicola: Yes

David: Heaven is real! And we need to have that not just a glimpsed of that but we need to have that reality of knowing that one day we will be with the saviour forever and not just floating about but we should be in a land of glory and blessing and the blessing of the Lord will so marvellous that you know .. all I can think of is chorus after chorus about it so you better listen to the cd.

David: (laughs) 

Nicola: (laughs) We’ll put the cd’s on and ill let you go because I have had a lovely long chat with you there David and I’ll let you go and enjoy the afternoon but thank you so much. 

David: Alright very kind of you and thank you and I just pray that it will bless the folk and God bless you and thank you a lot. 

Nicola: Aww thank you Amen 

Outro: Thank you for listening to the coldwater podcast. Please remember to subscribe and join next week..