Derek Prince - How Derek Discovered His Calling
This is an excerpt from: How I Became Involved in Israel
Well, at the end of three years I was transferred to what was then Palestine. I ended up in a very small medical depot in what was then a little village called Kiriat Motzkin, which is now part of Haifa, north of Haifa. But I'd heard in the Sudan from another Christian if you really want a blessing, there's a little children's home in Ramallah, which was then a small Christian village, Christian nominal, not what we'd call evangelical, run by a Danish lady.
If you really want to be blessed, that's where you need to go. I mean, during that period hundreds of soldiers from the forces: American, British, Australian, New Zealand, went to that little home where the lady whose name was Lydia Christiansen had a little family of eight fatherless girls. When the soldiers came in, Lydia would wave them to a chair and say, "Kneel down," and they'd start to pray. The little girls would start to pray and the Spirit of God almost invariably fell. I thought I need this. After three years in the desert I need some refreshing. I made my way from Kiriat Motzkin to that home in Ramallah and I was so impressed by the peace.
You know, military life is not a peaceful kind of life, even when you're not fighting. But there was such an atmosphere of peace in that home it was like stepping out of one environment into a new environment. And there was very little peace all around it because an Arab village is not a peaceful place. When I got back to Kiriat Motzkin I had plenty of time because I was supervising a team of Basuto soldiers caring for bales of medical supplies. It was not a challenging job. I would walk up and down in the midst of these bales, praying and worshiping. And almost invariably I would speak in tongues.
By this time I learned that I didn't have to take the interpretation. I said to God, "Do I always have to interpret"? He said, "No, you make the decision". Because, believe it or not, I interpreted everything I spoke in tongues for a while. I was walking up and down and then the Spirit of God came on me and I spoke very powerfully in a tongue. I knew I got the interpretation, which wasn't lengthy. But it was God speaking to me personally. And in those days He spoke in King James English, which is, you know, the pinnacle of the English language. It'd declined sadly since those days. There are certain advantages because you distinguish between you, plural, and thou, singular, which you can't do in modern English.
This is what the Lord said to me, and I remember every word. "I have called thee to be a teacher of the Scriptures in truth and faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus for many". I was still a corporal, all the electronic media and all that had not developed. But since that, which is now 49 years, God has fulfilled His Word.
I don't want to be boastful but to give God the glory I regularly teach millions of people every day, because my radio broadcast is in ten languages besides English: five Chinese languages, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Mongolian and Tongan. It has been going for six or eight years into China in Chinese, into Russia in Russian, and literally millions of people listen every day to that teaching. I say that just to demonstrate the faithfulness of God. He said "for many". I wouldn't have had any conception at that time of what many would mean.