It's good to see you all tonight.
And I begin with this story.
I was invited to meet with the King
of Norway.
They have the guards out there that you
can put your hand in front and they
won't move.
But if you start to pass them, I
found out they turn around quickly and come
after you.
So they came after me and they said,
sir, what's your program here?
I said, well, I got an invitation to
meet with the King.
And they said, we'll accompany you.
And so they took us to the next
place.
Our YWAM leader was with me as well.
And as we went to the next person,
then they led us to the next and
finally to the Secretary of the King.
And I said, why did the King invite
me?
They said, well, someone gave him your books.
I said, how long will I have with
the King?
They said, he tells you when to leave.
I've always thought it'd be nice to be
a king.
I can't find the application forms, though.
But I knew I had to get his
attention right away.
So when we went in and shook hands
and sat down, I immediately said to him,
your majesty, your nation has been announced as
the richest nation on earth per capita.
They have no homeless, really no poverty.
You also have been aware as educationally so
that your people have become literally without illiteracy.
They're all literate.
Thirdly, your people are a people of freedom,
both in your nation and from your nation
because of the respect for Norway throughout the
world.
Now, how do you explain that in your
grandfather's childhood, you were one of the poor
countries in the world, the poorest at that
time in all of Europe and many other
places?
You also had over 90 percent of your
people couldn't read or write.
Your people didn't have freedom either.
They had to get government permission just to
go to another city or another place.
In their own country.
Now, how do you explain that?
He grabbed my arm.
He's very animated, King Harald.
He grabbed my arm and he said, Lauren,
I don't know.
I'm asked that question by leaders lots of
times, but I just say, I don't know.
I said, would you like my idea?
He said, I sure would.
Now I had his attention.
And when we finally left, there was a
whole lineup of ambassadors and leaders waiting for
him because he kept us on for quite
a while.
But I began to describe for him, well,
first of all, the picture of the world
as Jesus is winning.
But I also described to him how his
nation went from poverty, went from illiteracy and
no freedom to the wonderful nation that they
have now enjoyed.
And as I began to share, I started
with a 25 year old farm boy that
couldn't read or write.
And somebody handed him a Bible and they
said, this is God's book.
And it's for every area of life.
He could have said, this is God's book.
And it will get you to heaven.
And that would be true.
But there's something too narrow about that.
Because this man remembered those words.
And this man met Jesus personally.
And he said, at the time he was
given the Bible, if that's God's book, I
better learn to read.
And he did.
And as a result of that, his life
was transformed.
But people saw the difference between the old
Hans Nielsen Hauga and Carl, how do you
say his last name?
Yeah, I knew that.
But I never can say it like that.
Anyway, Hans, I can say that.
And Hans simply was so changed that everyone
wanted to know that knew him in his
valley, how did that happen?
And of course, we see the beginnings of
what became known as a nationwide revival.
And that man in his lifetime traveled over
10,000 miles by foot or by ski.
And of course, it was against the law
to do what he was doing, he was
preaching everywhere.
So he went to prison 10 times, the
last time for 10 years.
He didn't have freedom.
But as he would be in prison, he
would be writing and studying the word more.
And I think it was over 40 books
that he wrote.
And over 25% of the entire population
read his books.
It was an amazing coverage of that nation.
And everywhere he went, he said, learn to
read, get a Bible, and then begin to
teach your children to read and to read
the Bible.
And then he began to write what the
Bible says about education, what the Bible says
about business, what the Bible says about the
different areas of life.
He also told the people, as they had
met the Lord and were studying the word,
now he said, teach each other in your
home, get people to come.
And so he began Bible studies in the
homes or the people did.
And they began to be the public speakers.
So that when freedom came and parliament was
allowed for all it was the people, they
were the ones that were able to stand
and speak and become elected and become the
ones who would make the laws that would
give the foundations from the word of God
that allowed for not only freedom, but so
much, much more.
And as a result, today, they are the
number one per capita of sending out the
most missionaries in the world.
This is a nation we can all admire.
I use them as one example.
There are many nations that you can point
out.
I have in my book called the book
that transforms nations.
It's the power of the Bible to change
any country in the world.
And I really believe this.
And we'll have some afterwards for you back
there.
Yeah, right back at the back in Korean
or English.
And it's in several languages now, but the
whole concept is what I wanna talk about
tonight.
How the Bible can change nations.
I have chapters on Korea, but also Japan
and chapters on Switzerland and so on.
Covering what God does when the word of
God comes.
Now in the book of 1 Timothy 4,
the Bible says for everything created by God
is good and nothing is to be rejected
if it's received with gratitude.
Now, the context of this was included the
area of food, even that was offered to
idols.
And it was talking about people saying you
couldn't get married and many things like that.
But when Paul says it here, he makes
it universal.
Everything created by God is good when it's
received, nothing is to be rejected if it
is received with gratitude.
Now, this is where Christians all over the
world offer thanks over their food.
It comes out of this very portion.
And Paul goes on to say, for it
is sanctified by means of the word of
God and prayer.
Now, I want to broaden this to Acts
17, verse 26.
Jesus is there seen to be the great
creator of the nations.
Paul says in Acts 17, verse 26, after
talking about how the Lord had created the
heavens and the earth.
He went on to say that he created
from one person, that's Adam, every nation in
all the world.
Now, if God created the nations, and it
goes on to say, he gave them their
times and their seasons.
And I was to learn that in a
very dramatic way.
I was speaking in Germany to about 11
,000 people and the Lord told me, this
was toward the end of the 80s, 1980s.
The Lord said, I want you to declare
to them that the Berlin Wall is coming
down soon and the two nations of East
and West Germany will be reunited and they
are to get ready.
These were 11,000 Christians.
The news media was there that night with
the television cameras and it was later on
the news on TV there.
And people were angry at me because as
a foreigner, I should not have been speaking
about reunification.
And yet the Lord said that.
People literally came up on the platform after
I finished that night and were angry at
me and saying, you shouldn't do that.
And they were really telling me, well, Mr.
Honecker, the head of the communist Germany stood
in January of 89 and said, this Berlin
Wall will stand another 100 years.
That year, the wall was down and he
was arrested.
Why?
Not because Lauren said anything, I just repeated
something, passed it on.
But it was because God had determined the
boundaries of their habitation would change in Germany.
God decided that.
God decides these big issues of life.
I was speaking in Tuscula, Finland in 1985.
And at that time, I just heard the
word of the Lord say, I'm going to
bring openness rather to the Soviet Union.
So I said that.
And the people were shocked because they'd lived
next door to the big bear for a
long time.
And they just, I could just see it
in their eyes.
Oh boy, we've got another American evangelist.
And given to all kinds of statements.
And then the Lord said, say it again.
So I said it three times.
And then a friend of mine was on
the third row.
Jorma Virtanen is his name.
And he was the publisher of 14 different
secular magazines in the nation like Sports Illustrated
and so on.
And Time Magazine, those kinds of things only
for their country.
And he told me later, he said, Lauren,
I thought you'd lost your mind.
Because the next thing I saw was a
picture in my mind of people preaching on
the streets of the Soviet Union.
So I declared what I saw.
The second thing I saw was Bibles coming
in by the millions without any interference with
customs or government.
And the third thing was sending out of
missionaries.
Well, by 1988, three years later, I got
to participate in all three of those categories.
I prayed over the first 42 missionaries to
go out.
And we saw 25 million Bibles go in
to the nation.
And we also, I got to preach on
the streets.
And the only trouble I had with the
police is they all wanted Bibles.
And we didn't, we did give it to
them, but they were always interrupting to get
some Bibles.
And because it was the following year in
86, after I'd gotten the word in 85.
Now all of this is recorded.
All of this was on videotape.
It's all documented.
So you can check it out on both
cases.
But what God was saying, openness is coming,
is what Gorbachev one year later repeated.
He said, Glasnost has come.
That's openness has come to the Soviet Union.
And everything started to change.
So God has the final word.
And we heard last night that government though,
the government of God is released in action
through the prayers of God's people.
And so we have a part in it,
but it is God that is going to
change things.
So I look at a map as you
do, and I see all these nations, but
I add to that.
If God says in his word in Acts
17, 26, that he gives them the times
and seasons, and he can change those times
and seasons.
You can try, you can do all kinds
of things, but not until God said, okay,
it's time.
And then when it's past time, you're not
going to unscramble eggs either, even though you
may try with all your heart.
There are certain things you cannot change.
And as we understand that, it's only as
God decides it.
And then a nation can be changed.
A nation can be united.
A nation can be divided.
And we need to recognize how God works
in nations.
But then it says he gives them the
boundaries of their habitation.
So the borders are finally drawn by God.
Now you'll see that people have revolutions over
boundaries.
They have wars over boundaries.
They have treaties and break them and all
kinds of things, but it is God that
has the final say regarding the boundaries of
the habitation of nations.
So that means if God has decided the
boundaries, then the map is anointed by God.
That's why I can say, I love that
map.
I want to know more about the map
because God himself got involved.
However, we can add the word that we
just read in 1 Timothy 4, verse five,
that all, well, verse four, all the things
that are created by God are good.
God creates nations.
He said so, Acts 17, 26.
And by the way, verse 27 says that,
so the people will seek God.
So if we have a nation that is
transformed by the word of God, it's going
to draw people to seek God.
And when we understand that the nations that
are transformed by the word of God and
through prayer, because they can be, because they
were created by God, if we receive them
with gratitude.
So we say, thank you, Lord, for Saudi
Arabia.
And as then we begin to apply the
word of God and begin to get the
word of God to them and then begin
to pray for them, we're going to see
changes because I see all over the Muslim
world, people who have come to Christ through
visions.
Now, how does that happen?
Well, people prayed, but they have to be
also transformed by the word of God.
It's not enough just to step into the
door, which the door is salvation and say,
I've got it all.
You don't have it all.
You see, it's just the beginning.
The door is the beginning.
If you buy a home and only it
ends up with only a door, you're going
to feel cheated and you should be because
the door is where you walk through into
the kingdom of God.
And as the kingdom of God, as you
grow in it, it always will be leading
you back to the word of God, the
very anchor, the foundation, heaven and earth will
pass away, but not his word.
And when we begin to learn the importance
of the word of God, you will begin
to see that God will give, as we
heard last night, signs and wonders, but signs
and wonders doesn't create character.
I can give you a lifetime of examples
that I have seen where people may have
seen the greatest or had the greatest miracle
in their lives.
And yet they would go astray or their
character was weak and they were always causing
others to stumble.
So we must not seek after the sign,
but seek after the sign giver.
And as we give his word out, the
signs follow to authenticate the word of God
to the non-believer.
And so God wants to use the word
at all times.
And we've got to learn to apply that
word in order to bring the character of
God into our life, in order to understand
the will of God and the values that
God gives us for our lives, the principles
of the word of God.
But the ways of God are so important.
And as we learn the word of God
and hide it in our heart, then we
will not be tempted so much to sin
against God.
We will have the strength to withstand the
enemy.
I heard as a kid that this Bible
will keep you from sin, but sin will
keep you from the Bible.
And we need to recognize there's no room
there for people not to find the Lord
when they really begin to get the word
of God in their hearts.
But there's something more than just the letter
of the law.
The letter of the word of God, this
is ink, this is paper, but there is
a spirit that anointed the word of God
by anointing men and women of old to
write.
There's over 800, there's 886 verses in the
Bible that were brought to the Bible by
women.
And so understand that God used both men
and women bringing forth this.
And we've got plenty of research on that,
but you could even see it and count
it yourself.
These are obvious ones.
There's a lot more than that, I believe.
But these are the obvious ones.
And so as God anointed people and they
began to write the word of God, there
was an anointing upon that word.
But whenever we read the word and with
prayer, read the word, the anointing works in
reverse and begins to enlighten our minds so
that we're not just getting the letter that
kills, but the spirit of the truth that
brings the life.
And that life is the blessings of God
in all the dimensions of life.
And God wants us to get a new
love and appreciation for the word of God.
And I see many of our Korean brothers
and sisters here, and I don't know of
any nation that so quickly came from poverty
to wealth and from a lack of freedom
to total freedom and so on as South
Korea, as well as literacy and all the
rest.
They became, now they're the 10th richest nation
in the world.
And they were just in the grandfathers of
those sitting here.
They were the poor of the world.
And I went there in 71, first time.
And there were no cars outside of a
church where I was preaching for a week
of 6,000 people, not one car outside.
There wasn't even a bike outside.
The people were poor.
At that time, there were only 15,000
people in all of South Korea that even
had a driver's license.
And that was for taxis and buses.
So when you go there today, you can
hardly get to town from the airport because
there's so many cars in front of you.
And the only guys that seem to get
through are those guys that are delivery guys
on these little mopeds.
My goodness, I thought they were all gonna
die before the day was over.
But as I watch what God did in
that nation, it literally is a witness to
the whole world of what a people do
when they get the word of God.
For the word of God was put into
their Korean script that almost no one read
at that time in the nation.
And through the hardship, the word of God
became a part of their bloodstream.
It became a part of their thinking.
It turned their minds into the one, the
very grid that God wants us to have
as we look at God's world.
And so as a result, it released something
of the creativity of a people that had
been under bondage for so long.
And God wants to do this for nations
around the world.
He wants to do it within a nation,
within a city, within even a group in
a city.
And he wants to do this in every
sphere of life.
We've been talking about the spheres as well
as the 4K map.
This is geography.
The other are categories that we move from
place to place, changing our hats.
We are in the home as one of
the spheres, and then we may go to
a school, another sphere, a church, another sphere.
And so we can move from sphere to
sphere, but every sphere should be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
And so completely that it's like the sea
that covers, the water that covers the sea.
And God wants to do that, saturating this
world with his word.
And that's a job that we need to
think about in its importance and then plan
for it, and then do something about getting
the word to every home in the world.
I was speaking in Mexico City, not recently,
before swine flu, but I was there in
Pastor Vega's church.
That morning, I spoke first to his leaders,
850 of those, and they in turn would
come into the next service.
He had 11,000 there in the next
service.
And then these leaders would take over and
then they would apply the word after that.
But as we were between the two services,
the leaders and the general, I just said
to the pastor, I said, pastor, tell me
your story.
And he said, oh, it's an easy, simple
story to tell.
I'm an avid reader.
I just devour books every week.
I'll devour four or five or six books.
And I just love books.
And I was a leader in my church,
but I had never seen or heard of
a Bible.
And somebody handed me a Bible and said,
this is God's holy word.
And so I thought, well, I like books.
And so he started reading it.
You can read the entire Bible in 72
hours.
In fact, in our biblical study courses here,
the first thing that they all do is
to read to one another out loud the
whole Bible the first week.
So that begins for many their first time
that they've really heard the whole Bible.
And then they begin to study it.
And if they're in the nine month course,
they go through every verse five times in
the Bible in nine months or three months.
You still go through all the verses of
the Bible and you're gonna learn the word
of God.
But you must apply that word here that
through prayer, the Holy Spirit will start bringing
forth things that you could never bring forth
yourself just by even learning the inductive way
of studying the word of God.
So we have to do that.
Well, what Pastor Vegas said to me, he
said, you know, I read through the Bible.
I got to the end and I thought,
I didn't understand it, but I know it's
different.
So I started over.
And this time I read it slowly, verse
by verse.
And I started bringing some of my friends
and there were seven others that joined me.
And the eight of us started going through
the word.
And as we did, we found our lives
started to change and we had to change
for things because as the truths of God
just kept pouring into us, we just began
to change and we just kept doing it
and others started doing it with us.
And now we're 11,000.
Well, that was kind of short and sweet,
wasn't it?
It was the word of God that transformed
the people and they were doing many mighty
things and doing exploits of all kinds for
God, 11,000 of them.
Now, if God can do that, can he
do much more?
I was traveling with a group of YWAMers
and that's not new, in a van, that's
not new.
And we were going through, there's about six
or seven vehicles.
And we were going through Mexico on our
way down to Nicaragua.
And we had a blowout on one of
the tires on a trailer that was carrying
a lot of literature that we had and
some food.
It was for four horses originally, that's what
the trailer was supposed to carry.
But we upgraded.
But we didn't have a spare for the
trailer.
So as a result, we had to get
it fixed or our guys had to fix
it.
And while they were fixing it, I said
to all the rest of the young people,
I said, let's go to every home in
this town and leave a Gospel of John
in Spanish and also a little booklet on
how to get to know Jesus personally and
one for the children as well.
And so we did that.
And then we had two groups, one for
children on the plaza and one for adults
on the plaza and open air service at
the same time.
And so we were blanketing this town.
And when we finished and the tire was
fixed, we were all moving back to the
vehicles.
And a lady in a faded red dress
walked up to me.
And she said in Spanish, she said, we
don't have Bibles in our town.
And there's no place to get a Bible
in our town.
And I've checked with towns roundabout and I
can't find a Bible anywhere.
Do you have a Bible that I could
get?
And of course we gave her a Bible,
but we didn't have Bibles.
We had little Gospels of John and so
on.
How many Bibles do you have in your
home?
I got just, I was looking at some
of them today, different languages and different sizes
and different translations and just line upon line
of Bibles.
And she didn't have one.
So as I go, I was going down
the street and I was just praying and
I saw a picture in my mind and
it was a big, big bulbous type truck,
not a semi, but a more like a
huge van for moving things.
And it was just filled with Bibles and
young people were handing them out.
And it said on the side, solo los
dishonestos temen la verdad.
And I don't speak good enough Spanish.
I had to translate it.
I know I didn't think about that because
I had to translate, what does that say?
And the translation was only the dishonest fear
the truth.
And then it said free Bibles.
And I pondered that word.
Now that was the occasion when the communists
were really strong on the university campuses in
Latin America.
And as we got near to Mexico city,
I went to the, finally I felt we
had to do something on the word of
the Lord.
And I went to the Bible society and
I said, I want every Bible you have
and I wanna give them away.
What's your plan?
What do you do?
He looked at me, I was young and
zealous and now I'm old and zealous.
But he said, we can't do that.
We've got customers year round.
And we talked about it and I told
him what I wanted to do.
And I wanted to invade all the university
campuses in the city with the Bible.
And so finally I ended up with 50
,000 New Testaments in Spanish.
And then I had to call all my
friends that I could find and several enemies
to get enough money to pay for it.
And then we distributed them.
And there's something powerful about the word of
God.
Whenever you pray with that distribution and you
need to pray really in advance to prepare
for it.
And we tried to do that, but we
were learning.
We went to every home in San Luis
Potosi State, giving them a Bible.
We did the same in much of Baja
California, not just right on the border.
We didn't do all of Tijuana, but we
did a lot of the, as far as
we know, the rest of the cities all
down throughout, down to La Paz and beyond.
And it was an amazing time watching the
people.
And they would, just some of them weep
when you gave them the Bible.
And it was their first Bible they'd ever
had.
It was 1982, fast forward there up to
that year.
And I was speaking at the headquarters for
Campus Crusade at Arrowhead Springs at the time.
And also speaking there was Jack Hayford, Joy
Dawson, and Rick Howard.
And as one of them was speaking, the
Lord spoke to me so clearly, I don't
want you to leave the Hawaiian Islands next
year, 1983.
Well, I didn't know how I could handle
that.
I've been jet lagging since I was 17.
I have changed time zones regularly.
And I was afraid my, even my cells
would float away.
It's only by momentum they're held together, kinetic
energy or something, I don't know.
But I said, well, yes, Lord, I'll do
that.
But I didn't know why.
And about that time, Joy scooted over and
said, Lauren, God just spoke to me, Joy
Dawson.
You're to stay in the Hawaiian Islands next
year.
You're not to leave.
I said, I know, I just got that
word, but thank you for the confirmation.
And so I knew I had to stay.
Then a little later on, I got a
letter from Billy Graham asking me to speak
at Amsterdam 83.
I had to write and say, I'm sorry,
I can't.
Then I got an invitation from President Reagan.
Could I come and meet with him?
And there were 11 of us that he
wanted to meet with him at the White
House.
And I had to write, dear Ron, no,
I didn't do that.
But I had to send somebody in my
stead.
I could not leave.
Now, people look at me kind of funny
if I say this.
Well, God wasn't that strict, was he?
Yeah, he was.
And I'll tell you, the big things happen
when you really obey God and not just
sort of obey him on the ones that
you want, you know?
And then I got a letter from the
Vatican.
Yes, I did.
And what we had done is one of
our YWAMers was from Malta and he was,
Mario is a wonderful guy and he and
his wife wanted to start a ministry like
YWAM in the Catholic Church.
So he did so.
And with his cardinal's approval and it began
to grow and multiply.
And I went down and trained their first
95 students.
Leaders.
And that may be hard for some of
you to accept, but it wasn't hard for
me at all.
And after a while, the cardinal introduced Mario
Capella and his wife to John Paul II,
III, what was II?
Yeah, II.
And the Pope.
And the Pope immediately took a liking and
invited them to spend some time at his
summer Vatican retreat center and just pray with
him every day for two weeks, which they
did.
And he invited them the next summer and
the next and the next.
And it became something they did every summer.
And I noticed in the nineties then when
the Pope made the statement, mid nineties, I
think it was, he said publicly, I want
every Catholic in the world to be evangelized.
They need to know Jesus personally.
And I said, I know where that came
from.
It came out of prayer.
And I know how, but these are things
that were going on.
But anyway, prior to that, they were just
beginning and having a meeting there in the
Vatican.
And I was asked to come and speak
and meet with the Pope.
And so I had to write, dear JP,
but not really, but I had to say,
I'm sorry, I can't.
I'd like to do that, but I can't.
And I was still wondering, Lord, what is
it?
I know the Lord's testing me, but what
is it you're wanting me to do?
Then I got a call from dear Bill
Bright.
He's with the Lord now.
And he said, Lauren, the president has just
declared the year of 1983.
This is at the beginnings of 83, the
year of the Bible.
And would you head up the year of
the Bible program for Hawaii?
I said, yeah, now I know.
And what do I have to do?
He says, do everything you can.
Just get the Bible known.
So I knew what to do.
And I got this younger guy, he likes
numbers.
So I got him to help figure out
how to map out the whole Hawaiian islands.
So David Hamilton learned how.
And this is just the growing of what
was going on back then.
And we had to find out how many
languages were spoken in the homes.
Well, we found there were 15.
And they spoke Hmong from the Hmong tribe
of Laos.
They spoke Vietnamese.
They spoke Japanese.
They spoke Chinese, Korean, Hawaiian, and so on.
And we got the Bible in all 15
languages.
Not this quick, but we had to raise
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And staying just in one place was quite
a thing.
I'd go out to the airport and sniff
the kerosene of the jets just so I
wouldn't go into withdrawals.
But we were able to mobilize 6,000
Christians and literally covered all the Hawaiian islands,
including Niihau.
And there were only 45 people there.
But they all came over on a boat
to where I spoke at a banquet because
I couldn't go there because I wasn't full
-blooded Hawaiian.
But they came to me and we gave
them all the Bible in Hawaiian.
And it was fabulous to see what God
would do.
At that time, we could not find more
than five churches really preaching the gospel in
Kona.
Within four years after the distribution was finished,
we had 26 churches preaching the gospel in
Kona.
It was an amazing change and multiplication was
happening.
It was happening across the entire state as
well.
There were no large mega churches anywhere.
Today, we have a church of 10,000
in Honolulu.
We have another church of 3,000 over
there in Maui, another one over in Honolulu
on the Windward side.
It's an amazing thing that the multiplication comes,
but the word of God had to come
in there.
And we need to understand the importance of
the word of God.
And the reason I'm so, I guess, energized
and stirred up and concerned because I'm watching
everything grow up very fast.
Look at the prayer movement.
Nothing like this in history.
All over the world, prayer movements are rising
up.
And you look at the worship ministry.
It's just growing by leaps and bounds all
over the world.
You look at evangelism, you look at church
planting, you look at all the categories, but
on distribution of scripture, it is being done.
God bless the Gideons and others, but it
is way behind where it must be.
I was, Darlene and I were in Indonesia
just after the revival that took place in
West Timor.
And I went to Batu, where the Bible
school is, and talked to Octavius, the leader,
and I said, tell me, what did you
do differently?
Your team went out to West Timor, and
he said, we just did what we've always
done.
We pray and we went.
I said, where was the Bible?
He said, well, we didn't distribute Bibles or
scriptures.
We just started seeing God at work and
people getting saved.
And I just, I couldn't quite understand that
because I traveled with Duncan Campbell around the
Hebrides Islands just before he died.
He taught at our school every year from
the very first school for five years.
And then he spoke the word, his last
word was, I've run the race, I've kept
the faith.
I finished my course and went to his
room and had a heart attack.
And within a couple of days, he was
gone to be with the Lord.
And so when I traveled with him just
prior to that, I went throughout the Hebrides
and everywhere where the revival came, they had
saturated themselves by reading the Bible morning, noon,
and night in every home, the word of
God was read.
And so there's something powerful about the word
of God along with prayer.
The nation even can be sanctified by the
word of God and by prayer.
And so if we don't have this part,
it's the walking on two legs that you
have to have prayer and the word, just
like you have to evangelize and disciple, but
you need the word of God or we're
not gonna see anything that lasts.
But I couldn't understand the deal in West
Timor, in Indonesia.
And so I was in Lausanne at the
time and a man visited us.
He'd been a missionary to Indonesia.
His name was Germonidi.
And he was from Switzerland and had a
place there retreat now in Switzerland.
And I said, brother, can you tell me
something?
Where did you work in Indonesia?
He said, I was in West Timor.
He said, you were?
I said, you were?
I said, yeah.
He said, I'm confused with myself here.
Get my tang jungles.
But he said, yeah.
My wife and I were there 12 years.
I said, were you there in the revival?
No, he said, we'd gone two years before
that.
I said, well, help me on this.
How did we see such a wonderful demonstration
of God and many coming to Christ?
And yet I can't find anywhere that those
that were involved in the leading of this
did anything about the word of God.
How did you see something like that?
He says, what do you mean?
My wife and I put a Bible in
every home in West Timor.
It took us 12 years.
And then two years later, the revival came.
I'm saying this not to in any way
put water on the fire of desire that
you have in your heart for revival.
I'm saying, let's have fruit that remain.
Let's get the word of God out.
Now, how can we do that?
Well, you're hearing about the oral Bible or
the story Bible.
And we can get that out.
You're hearing about electronic Bibles.
You can get the whole Bible now on
like a fat, a real fat credit card
in any language in the world that has
been translated.
And so we can do that.
We can get Bibles that they can listen
to, gospel recordings.
And we do that coupled with gospel recordings
down in the Amazon.
And we're doing it in many languages there.
And we can literally get the word of
God in all kinds of ways and in
all kinds of places.
We need to begin to think, what is
it that we can do to get the
word of God out?
And how could we get the Bible to
every home in the world in the next
10 years?
Is that a possibility by 2020?
Well, we've got some work to do, don't
we?
We've got some work to do.
And we're going to hear a little more
in just a moment here from those that
work in the very front end of this
program of Bible distribution.
And that is Bible translation.
I'm gonna ask right now, Gil, if Gil
will come up and Gil Gravel, Gravel?
Bill Gravel, we're just gonna wing it here.
I've got to tell you the rest of
the story.
I'm gonna burst if I don't.
Oh, please.
Timur.
You worked in Indonesia from 1983 till 2001.
Okay, tell me.
What's the rest?
Yeah, the Timur revival, if you read the
book, Like a Roaring Wind by Mel Port.
I read that in the 70s when I
was a college student.
God eventually called me into Bible translation.
I ended up in Indonesia.
My wife and I worked with some people
for several years.
Became experienced, became a consultant, and one day
I was asked to go to Timur.
Thank you.
These two pastors are translating the Bible into
Kupang Mele, which is a dialect of Indonesian,
but it's different than the Indonesian Bibles they
had learned in seminary.
I said, sure, I'll go.
So I went to work with them, and
I started working on their translation with them.
Then I started making repeating trips, and just
after the two places split a few years
ago, I drove from East Timur to West,
which had been a war zone a few
months earlier, a little scary, but nobody was
flying in, and those guys were waiting for
me.
I was going through the area, and somebody
said, this is where the revival started.
And I went, oh, really, I read about
that.
And no kidding, so that's pretty neat.
So I went on and I got to
Kupang, sat down and started working with these
two pastors, and they were in their 60s.
And I said, hey, I just heard that
I drove through the area where the revival
started.
I remember reading in the book about a
baby that had died and had been brought
back to life.
I read in the book about an old
man who was preaching in perfect standard Indonesian,
even though he didn't know the language.
I said, I read all these miracles, and
is that stuff true?
Did that really happen, did you see that?
And they said, yeah, we were there.
I like that.
And I said, well, tell me about it.
And they said, well, the biggest problem is
we were two pastors who had gone through
seminary, but we didn't believe.
We heard about the revival, so we went
to see what was going on.
And we saw these things before our eyes.
And we didn't believe that Jesus was real
or that people really could be raised from
the dead.
And he said, God got ahold of us.
And I said, that's a neat story.
Then he said, at the end, well, there's
something more we have to tell you.
We didn't finish the revival, it's still going
on, because there's 40 languages on Timor Island
that do not have the word of God
in their own language.
And we have been unfaithful all these years
because we brought the gospel, we preached to
them, we taught them in Indonesian, which is
not their mother tongue, but we have failed
to give them the scriptures in their own
language, so they don't even know Jesus personally
yet.
They only know him as this savior from
somebody else's language.
And that's what we're going to do now.
And now, to this day, there's 28 translation
projects going on in Timor by Timorese people.
And Max, who was there, died last year,
before he even finished his own New Testament.
His daughter just finished it this year.
Wow, wow, isn't that neat?
That's the rest of the story.
Yeah, and you and your wife actually finished
two languages out of that.
Melak?
Maya and Moscona.
I knew that.
I just was testing you, but.
Well, that's it.
Mayak.
Mayak, okay.
And so you have been really involved with
Wycliffe now for many years, but what is
this, what's the difference?
First of all, Wycliffe had done a study
that it was going to take 150 years,
not just 125, but 150 years to finish,
or really to start the last language for
translation of the Bible.
So there's 6,000, how many languages?
Well, there's 6,500 to 7,000 languages,
and about 25 to 2,500, 2,700
that have no scripture.
Wow, and so we heard a little bit
about it tonight when they started this seed
company.
Now, the seed company is a part of
the family ministries of Wycliffe.
You didn't split off or anything, you just
expanded.
But what's the difference now?
You already had, how many years, when did
Wycliffe start with Townsend?
Yeah, Wycliffe started with Townsend just, well, 1936
in Asylum Springs, Arkansas, when the first group
went to learn linguistics and do translation for
Mexico.
Yeah, and so in all of those years,
you've had people that have been heroes of
all of ours, going out and slugging it
out and finding it really tough, but sticking
with it.
And I think Wycliffe has more PhDs, including
yourself.
Your wife is just about to finish hers
at the Free University in Holland.
I just spoke there a few months ago.
And by the way, that's the university started
by Abraham Kuyper, yeah.
And this was a Christian.
And he started with seven students and himself
teaching theology and then a lawyer, I think,
teaching law.
That was the beginning of the Free University.
How many students they have now a year?
Thousands, it's a very large.
30,000, am I right on that?
Something like that.
It's a very large, very respected university.
And they're very strong in linguistics, of course,
because the Dutch are pragmatic and learn lots
of languages.
They always embarrass me.
But that means we shouldn't despise the day
of small beginnings anyway, that's for sure.
And as you and other, Wycliffe, I think,
has more PhDs in linguistics than any organization
in the world.
That's what I've, yeah.
And so you've been very diligent, that's the
point.
Now, suddenly you take a paradigm shift with
a culture of many 80-some years.
You're now doing something, a new way to
speed up the process.
And the new process, you now have looked,
as Wycliffe, from 150 years, how many years
before the last language will be starting in
translation?
The goal is by 2025.
2025.
From 2000, what was it, 2150?
2,500 remaining languages?
No, no, when was the last one?
Anyway, 150 years old.
Oh, 150 years on, right.
Okay, now it's down to 15 years.
Yeah, and counting quickly.
Yes, because we're all pressing them.
You gotta do it by 220.
Start praying for them, you know, to fast
forward.
And we wanna see, by 2020, all the
languages of the world having the word of
God in it.
So tell me the difference between the Wycliffe
way that you and your wife, Gloria, did
languages there in Timor, and what you're now
doing in The Seed Company.
Yeah, there's a very large and dramatic shift
taking place right now in who the translators
are.
So for approximately 200 years, and then culminating
in our times with Cameron Townsend's vision, Westerners
were the primary translators of translations, but we're
not the native speakers.
So we brought it, we came in having
to learn a lot about language, a lot
about linguistics, a lot about exegesis, and it
was a lot of work, but that's what
God did through the West in the cross
-cultural work for about 200 years.
I think my wife and I are the
last ones of this generation of 200 years,
started by William Carey, to be carrying that
torch, because number one, very few are actually
joining organizations to do it the way we
did it.
So the recruiters are concerned, forgetting that maybe
God's doing something new.
They're out trying to figure out and hire
people, you know, consultants to get more people
in, and it's not happening.
And at the same time as they're running
around trying to do that, all these native
speakers, the indigenous people who have been there
during the last 200 years of Western mission
are rising up to translate the word in
their own language themselves.
And it's happening so quickly that the demand
is outpacing the ability for even our organization
to keep up with them.
So the Seed Company was launched by Wycliffe
10 years ago to do exactly that.
The Seed Company leadership saw something on the
horizon.
Something's changing, less cross-culture workers are doing
it, the native speakers are doing it, they're
crying for it, they're demanding it, they're doing
it if they have help or not.
It's not a matter of if, I mean,
they're already started.
So they launched the Seed Company and said,
here's your mandate, here's $600,000 from a
major donor, and here's your mandate, go out
and figure out how to engage them in
translation and equip them to do the work.
That was 10 years ago.
Now it's surging everywhere.
And it was one language here, and then
it was a second language here.
And on a weekly basis, in my role,
I review all the projects that come in.
And just this week, a new project came
in from Tanzania.
There's 10 language projects starting, and they want
to work together.
And it's New Tribes, and it's Word for
the World India, which is an Ethiopian Bible
translation organization led by Ethiopians.
And it's Wycliffe, and it's IMB, and it's
the Seed Company.
And they're running around trying to grab anybody
else who'll join the partnership.
And they got 10 languages, and they said,
we're gonna do orality, we're gonna do translation,
we're gonna do recordings, we gotta get this
done, and we want it done in like
six years.
Oh, isn't this great?
Wow, you ought to hear them at a
soccer game or a football game.
This is better than a football game.
Let's give the Lord a hand.
Amen.
You know, we had three from Nagaland here,
and they were a part of one of
the groups that had no Bible in their
particular language.
And so they kept saying, we need to
have a Bible.
Well, Dr. Ron Smith was leading our School
of Biblical Studies at the time up here
in Makapela at the other end of this
island.
We have a place there.
And as we were praying over it, we
contacted Wycliffe and they said, well, we don't
have any more to help there in Nagaland
right now, but they encouraged us to go
ahead.
So we went ahead and kept referring back
to them, and they said, oh, that's fine,
that's fine.
And we got a whole New Testament, and
we printed it, and it was cleared by
some of the Wycliffe people helping us.
So in a sense, that was the seed
of the seed company, because we got it
to every home in Nagaland in the early
80s.
And it was done by three Nagas with
Dr. Smith.
And I just looked at that as something
Lord just told us to do.
And we felt that we were not qualified,
but somehow it got done.
And they say it's a pretty good translation.
So I think that what God is really
doing in the Bible translation, he's doing in
the whole of missions, because everybody's a missionary.
When we started out in 1960, I was
preaching out in Nigeria in 61.
And I was challenging the Nigerian young people,
the Africans, I said, God wants to send
you out as missionaries to other countries even.
And an older American missionary took me aside
afterwards.
And he said, Lauren, you can't do that.
And I said, do what?
He said, these are natives, we're the missionaries.
I said, their Bible says the same as
my Bible.
And that dear brother said, I never thought
about that.
Because the mindset was Westerners are missionaries, others
are receiving nations.
That was the terminology in fact.
And everybody must be the receiving nation, everyone
must be the sending nation, because God wants
it totally mixed.
And what is your encouragement for us tonight
about Bible translation?
I'd like to add something to what you
just said in response to that.
I was in Ethiopia a couple of years
ago and checking out the Word for the
World, complete Ethiopian run and led Bible translation
organization.
So from the C Company perspective, and as
a translation consultant, I was curious, I wanna
know how they're doing.
So I showed up there and I spent
two weeks with these three guys working in
three different languages on the Book of Romans,
not an easy book.
And we went through it gruelingly verse by
verse and they found out what it was
like to have a consultant check.
Verse by verse, asking them lots of questions,
just going up, figuring out what they're doing.
It was a tough session on them for
two weeks.
And I started telling them about the second
week.
I said, you guys are very good translators.
You're the native speakers, you're intuitive.
All you had to have with the tools,
a little training and you're producing a translation
that is better than any cross-cultural worker
could possibly produce for you.
And you're doing it for your own people.
That is the end, the final stage of
Bible translation.
Oh, praise God.
Because it is now a native speaker, indigenizing
it into their hearts, their culture, their language,
their social structures.
I said that all week long, the second
week, I really wanted them to believe me,
but they didn't.
And then when we were finally finished and
I handed my report to them, with all
the, there's always lots of corrections.
We all have those.
I praised them and said, you guys go
do the rest of Ethiopia now.
And then they said, you know, you've been
saying that all week, but we didn't believe
you because we were always told, years ago,
we wanted to translate the Bible into our
language, but we were told that was the
work of foreign missionaries, the foreign experts, that
we couldn't do it because we didn't have
the skills and the training.
He said, but you have been convincing us
all week that we do have the skills
and the training and we are doing good
work.
So it was the first time where they
actually believed that the Western missionary was saying,
you are the translators.
We're here to support you.
Go finish your country.
And they said, it's exactly what we're going
to do now.
Ah, isn't that a good word?
Thank you very much.
And thank you, Gil.
We do honor you.
Gloria, would you mind standing up and just
saying hi to the people there?
Hi.
She is better looking, don't you think?
Yeah.
Sorry about that, Gil.
She's better looking, I said.
Yeah.
Yes, you were smart.
God has given us his word.
There's only one book that is God's book.
All others are spinoffs from it.
We thank God for books.
I engage in them myself.
But there's one book that is God's book.
And we must understand that the word of
God is powerful.
It's quick.
It'll penetrate even to the marrow of the
bone.
And this word needs to get out.
We need to begin to pray and turn
our prayers toward how can we get the
word of God to every person or rather
every home in the world.
If you get them to every home, that
means every person will eventually get to read
the word of God, their own family Bible.
We want to see this accomplished.
Do you think it can be done in
just the next 10 years?
It will be done when people rise up
and say, I will do my part to
get it accomplished.
Because all over the world, they're waiting for
it.
In many parts of the world, they've heard
about it, but they don't have it.
And they're like that little lady in the
red faded dress.
I don't have a Bible.
Do you have a Bible?
No one in our town has a Bible
or any of the towns around us.
And that's stuck in my heart.
And so when we began to start out
on this, getting a Bible to every home,
some of the island breezers are here like
my, they had so many luau's across this
state that even we were tired of luau's
by the time that your years of the
Bible, we called it because it went into
the second year to finish it.
And as we began to see what God
did though, it was just a model in
microcosm of what God wants to do in
a macro way around the world.
Why?
What is it that is so powerful about
the word of God?
Now think about what the word of God
is to you.
Why would it be more powerful than any
other book?
Even good books about Jesus and so on
that people have written.
What's so powerful about it?
Well, I find that in the book of
John chapter one, it says in the beginning
was the word and the word was with
God and the word was God.
Now the word came and put on flesh
and dwelt among us.
Who is that word?
What's his name?
In other words, Jesus is the word within
the word.
Now he's the one that as the Holy
Spirit brings life, it brings forth Jesus in
every book of the Bible.
And when you begin to understand that and
you start with Genesis, you realize as Colossians
says, Jesus is the creator of Genesis.
He's the liberator of Exodus.
He is the high priest of Leviticus.
He's the good spy of numbers.
He's the lawgiver of Deuteronomy.
He's the conqueror of the book of Joshua.
He's the righteous judge of the book of
Judges.
He's the kinsman redeemer of the book of
Ruth and of the Samuels.
He's the second David, the greater David.
And in the book of Kings, both books,
he's the King of Kings.
And in Chronicles, he's the one that keeps
the records, including writing your name in the
Lamb's book of life.
In the book of Ezra, he's the one
that rebuilds our temples.
And he, just as Ezra originally rebuilt the
temple.
Or Nehemiah, he builds our walls of protection
around us.
In the book of Esther, he's the King
that gives the edict that saves his people
from obvious destruction that was coming.
And the book of Job, he's the one
where he says, now my eyes, I'm gonna
see him personally, but now I understand.
I've just been hearing with the ears, but
now I see.
And then God, whenever he gets that revelation
of Jesus, then God gives him double for
his trouble.
And then in the book of Psalms, he's
the object of our praise.
In the book of Proverbs, he's the wisdom
of God.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Jesus is the
great preacher.
In song of Solomon, he's the lover of
our soul.
In the book of Isaiah, Jesus is the
one that is high and lifted up.
And the train fills the temple, the house
is filled with smoke.
The glory of the Lord is seen there
as he is sitting upon the throne, but
he's also the suffering servant where he is
wounded for our transgressions and he dies for
our sins.
In the book of Jeremiah, he's the very
weeping prophet that as he gives the words
and people spurn the word of God, Jesus
himself is weeping there as you see him
in Jeremiah's life.
Lamentation, he's the tears of God.
And in Ezekiel, he's the bronze one that
before him, Ezekiel fell as a dead man.
In the book of Daniel, you see his
hand writing on the wall a message to
Belshazzar.
Many, many tinkle you a farce and you've
been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
He's also the stone not made with hands
crushing the foundations of the kingdoms of this
world.
Their foundations are their worldviews and his kingdom
will rise out of the word of God
that gives us his worldview.
And he's also the fourth man in the
fiery furnace.
That's Jesus there with you in whatever situation.
In the book of Hosea, a man is
weeping over his wife that has turned to
prostitution.
And as he's weeping and asking God, what
is it that I have done wrong?
He hears a voice behind him and saying,
oh Israel, he uses the word Ephraim, but
oh Israel, why have you gone whoring after
other gods?
And he is that spurned husband by many
who have been so, so unfaithful to Jesus.
In the book of Joel, Jesus is the
latter reign revival.
There is no revival without Jesus.
He is revival.
And if you want revival, then you want
Jesus because that's who he is.
In Amos, he's the cascading justice that flows
down because he is a righteous Jesus.
In Obadiah, he is the righteous judge of
the nations.
And in the book of Jonah, he's the
God of the second chance.
Aren't you glad you received a second chance?
In the book of Micah, he's the one
that does justice, loves mercy, and he walks
humbly with his God.
And in the book of Nahum, he's the
wrath of God.
While in the book of Habakkuk, he's the
one that we write about and make the
vision of him plain so that others may
run and that the knowledge of Jesus will
cover the earth, even as the waters cover
the sea.
In the book of Zephaniah, he sings over
us with joy whenever we're pleasing to him.
And in the book of Haggai, you see
he's the one that is shaking the earth.
And he's the one that is the latter
glory that is greater than the former glory
in the church.
In the book of Zephaniah, he cleanses the
robes of the high priest.
And he's the one that says, it's not
by your might, it's not by your power,
but it's by my spirit, saith the Lord.
In Malachi, he brings the generations together, sons
to fathers and fathers to sons.
While in the book of Matthew, he is
the Messiah.
He's the one that they've been waiting for
for so long.
In the book of Mark, he is the
supreme commander.
While in Luke, he's the son of man.
And in John, the son of God.
In the book of Acts, he's the builder
of his church.
In the book of Romans, he's not only
the second Adam, but he's also the one
that brings us to Abba, our father.
And we become joint heirs with Jesus as
a result of that.
In first Corinthians, he is the love that
is greater than faith and hope.
In second Corinthians, he's the true apostle.
While in the book of Galatians, he's all
nine of the fruit of the spirit.
In Ephesians, he's not only the chief cornerstone,
but he's also the full armor of God.
When you put on the armor of God,
you're putting on Jesus.
And that is who the armor of God
is, our protector in every way.
In the book of Philippians, he's the one
that emptied himself of the glories of heaven
and came and took the form of man,
but then went through all that we would
ever go through and finally went beyond, taking
on himself the sins of the world and
dying and going to a borrowed grave.
And then going to the bottom of hell
where he took the keys of death, hell,
and the grave.
And Jesus was highly exalted by the father
above every name and every knee will bow
before him.
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God, the father.
Say his name, Jesus.
This is the one we're talking about.
And in Colossians, Jesus is holding the worlds
together, even the Adams together by his word.
You wonder how it happens.
That's Jesus.
And he also holds your families together and
your ministries together.
That's what Jesus is doing for all of
us when we don't even give him the
glory for it, but we should.
In first Thessalonians, he's like the nursing mother
and the caring father.
In second Thessalonians, he's the coming king.
Are you looking for him?
He's coming again.
And in first Timothy, we find that Jesus
is the one who is the mediator between
God and man.
He is the mediator, but he's also the
model elder.
He is the elder among all elders and
you can always pattern after him.
In second Timothy, he's the multi-generational God,
the God of the grandmother and the mother
and Timothy.
While in Titus, he cleanses the church.
He's the one that can do that.
While in the book of Philemon, he's the
one that sets the slaves free and both
literally in history, but in all of our
lives, he sets us free as slaves of
sin.
While in the book of Hebrews, he's not
only after the order of Melchizedek, but he's
the author and the finisher of our faith.
That's Jesus.
And he's the one that is the rest
of faith.
And if you want rest and need rest
from all the stress, it's Jesus that will
give it to you.
In the book of James, Jesus is our
good works that is greater and without it,
faith is dead.
And so that good works has to be
Jesus himself working through us.
In first Peter, he says to the, at
that time, persecuted church going through martyrdom and
Nero's time, he says, cast all your cares
upon me, I care for you.
And in second Peter, he's precious.
In first John, he says, if you'll confess
your sins to me, I'll be faithful and
just to forgive you of your sins and
cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
He says, if you love me, you'll keep
my commandments.
And if you know me, you'll love me.
Here's the circle that begins in our lives.
Second, John, he's the perfect pastor, the model
pastor.
And in third John, he's the pioneer that
takes care of other pioneers that are strangers
when they're out there doing the work of
God.
And in Jude, I've forgotten which chapter it
was, but it talks about there, the three
prophets, all false prophets, and they're alive and
real today in the world in many forms,
in many ways.
And one is after Abel, Cain rather, who
killed his brother, Abel.
There are those that are trying to kill
their brothers through one way or the other,
destroy ministries or destroy characters and so on.
The second one is the role of Abraham,
I'm trying to, Chorazin.
And he's the one that was the dividing
of the brothers.
You remember this situation?
Well, the world opened up and swallowed him
and all of his followers, but he was
trying to bring division among the people of
God.
And then of course, there was the one
that was trying to curse the people.
And as he would curse the people, then
instead God would turn it to a blessing.
But all of those three are still there
out in the world today.
And then we come to the book, well,
to the end of that chapter and that
book, which is Jude.
And you see that he has dominion, he
has the glory, he has the majesty.
And then we enter into the last book
of the Bible, which is the book of
the revelation of Jesus Christ.
It's not the revelation of the antichrist.
It shows how Jesus overthrows the antichrist, overthrows
the devil, overthrows everyone that is against him.
And we see him in all of his
glory, so much so that the man of
God, John, falls before him as a dead
man.
And oh, I can't say it enough.
Come up here and help me, Paul.
Paul, he can quote the whole book of
Revelation.
Don't do it tonight.
It takes two hours.
But I want you to tell us about
the revelation of Jesus.
From Revelation chapter one.
I, John, your brother and companion in the
suffering and the kingdom and the patient endurance
that arouse in Jesus, was on that island
Patmos for the word of God and the
testimony of Jesus.
On the Lord's day, I was in the
spirit and I heard behind me a loud
voice like a trumpet which said, write on
a scroll what you see and send it
to the seven churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum,
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and even Laodicea.
I turned around to see that voice that
was speaking to me.
And when I turned, I saw someone like
a son of man, was Jesus, dressed in
a robe, reaching down to his feet with
a golden sash around his chest.
His head and hair were white like wool,
as white as snow.
And his eyes were like a blazing fire.
His feet were like bronze glowing in the
furnace.
And the sound of his voice was like
the sound of rushing waters.
In his right hand, he held seven stars.
And out of his mouth came a sharp
double-edged sword.
His face was like the sun shining in
all its brilliance.