Wake Up Your Faith: Bishop Daniel, President of GFA World: Discusses His Childhood, Christian Global Missions, Purpose & Hearing God In A Noisy World (Inspirational)

In this powerful inspirational and motivational episode, Reginald D sits down with Bishop Daniel Timotheos Yohannan, President of GFA World and one of today’s most impactful global Christian leaders. Together they explore what God is doing across Africa, Asia, and the 10/40 window, how miracles still happen, and why millions are searching for hope in a world full of noise, overwhelm, and distraction.

From water buffalo miracles, to prison conversions, to genocide-surviving nations rebuilding through faith, to young adults craving silence in a digital age, this episode delivers a deeply motivational speech-style conversation designed to ignite your purpose, strengthen your faith, and open your eyes to a world desperately needing the love of Christ.

If you’ve been feeling spiritually dry, overwhelmed, unmotivated, or unsure of your purpose—this inspirational episode will remind you that God still speaks, still moves, and still leads one step at a time.

This episode also speaks to people overwhelmed, overstimulated, and stretched thin by constant notifications, news cycles, and social pressure. In a world full of emotional exhaustion, loneliness, and distraction, many people—especially Gen Z—are searching for meaning, clarity, peace, purpose, and direction.

Bishop Daniel reveals:

• Why quieting the noise is essential for spiritual strength
• How everyday believers can live with purpose and mission
• Why God still performs miracles, even in the most difficult places
• How to overcome discouragement, burnout, and spiritual numbness
• Why your obedience—just one step at a time—still changes lives

Press play now to experience one of the most inspirational and motivational conversations of the year—and ignite a renewed fire for your purpose, your faith, and your impact.

GFA World Website: https://www.gfa.org

Motivational, motivational and inspirational, inspirational, motivational speech, GFA World, Christian, Asia, Africa, Global missions, missions. self improvement, God, faith, purpose, Gen Z, Christian leaders

Transcript

Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk With Reginald. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Bishop Daniel.

He is a global Christian leader who serves as president of GFA World, one of the most effective large scale Christian missions organizations operated today, and is Bishop of Believers Eastern Church.

In his role as president of GFA Rural usa,

Bishop Daniels serves as the primary link between thousands of Christian workers and missionaries serving throughout Africa and Asia.

Welcome to the show, Bishop.

Bishop Daniel: Thank you so much. It's good to be here.

Reginald D: So, Bishop Daniels, I'd like to start out asking my guests this one simple question.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what your childhood was like?

Bishop Daniel: Well, my childhood was very, very different than what most people's childhoods are.

So my mom is German, my dad is Indian. Both were involved in missions from a very young age and they came to the States and started the ministry of GFA World.

My mom was doing nursing, my dad was going to seminary in Dallas. And so I was born into a missionary family, a pastor family. So I'm like an MK pk, you know, all that.

But my childhood was kind of growing up in the east and West. And so while I grew up here in the US Every year we would go over to, to the mission field.

And so I got to grow up on the mission field and kind of see the practical realities of, you know, what the slums are and what the cities are and what, you know, people that never heard about Christ.

I mean, in reality is you go to a village in some of these places and you ask someone, do you know Jesus?

And they'll tell you, look, my friends are here, my family's here. Your friend Jesus is not here. Check the next village down this road. You might find your friend Jesus.

Those are the places that we serve in. And, and so that's kind of the environment that I grew up in.

You know, both my parents just completely sold out for Christ and sold out to bring the gospel to the world, especially in places that have never heard about Christ.

You know, the world is divided up into like three different categories.

Category one is places like America and Europe where the gospel has kind of been saturated. And, you know, you walk down the street and you can find a Christian bookstore, turn on the radio and yeah, Christian radio, the Christian podcast, I mean, all kinds of things.

The second category is places that maybe the gospel has already gone to,

but not saturated in a significant way. You know, got parts of South America, parts of Africa, lots of parts of Asia. And then you have the third category,

which is Places that are really unreached. Yes, there may be a few Christians,

but, you know, there isn't enough being done in the least amount of resources that are going there.

So GFA World really focuses on those areas. When you look at the map,

there's lines that go across, you know, the latitude 10 and 40. It's called the 1040 window. It goes from, like, North Africa to Japan up into Russia and down past, you know, India into Sri Lanka.

It kind of shows where the least amount of missions is being done. The most people that have not heard the gospel live there,

and the least amount of missions resources go there. You know, not to knock pets and cats and doggies, but more money goes for dog food than for missions.

And so it's, you know, it's one of those things. I think people are just very unaware. And so one of the primary things that GFA World does is bring an awareness for all Christians that they need to be concerned about what was concerning to Christ's heart.

When he saw the crowds, he was moved with compassion.

You know, John 3:16. For God so loved the world,

and so God's heart breaks for those who still wait. So GFA's world's primary focus is those areas in Africa and Asia that really need the most attention.

Most of those nations in the 1040 window, about 80% of them, are closed for outsiders to come in as missionaries. Now, you can go as a doctor, an engineer, or a teacher, and you can do that, but you can't really go in there as a missionary,

you know, publicly.

And so national missions, those from their own country who know the language, live at the level of the people who already know the culture, know the mannerisms, can easily connect with people,

is one of the most effective ways. And this is kind of what my father, he wrote the book called Revolution World Missions. And we send this out free to anyone that wants it.

If people go to BishopDaniel.org, you can get a free book,

over 4 million print. If anyone reads this, it'll ruin your life, wreck your life.

Because if we claim to follow Christ, if we claim to love God,

then we also have to care about what God cares about, which is people who need to hear about Christ. And so what is the most effective way is national missionaries in places that are very difficult for other people to go.

And of course, you know, if God calls someone, they should go, be obedient to what God's telling you.

But that's the environment that I grew up in. Is my father very, very much focused on Living a life completely sold out for Christ so that others will hear about Christ who otherwise would never have a chance.

And I'm very, very grateful to have, you know, an experience in the west, also an experience in the east, because now in my leadership as president,

I'm able to navigate both of those things pretty seamlessly.

Reginald D: Yeah. Bishop Daniels, that's very awesome.

So let me ask you this. As a kid growing up in this,

was there times that did you feel like you were obligated to do it and wanted to do maybe other things? I know growing up, you know, under the leadership of my grandfather and all the pastors in my family and church and all of that, I felt like it came a time where I was like,

hey, man, I want to do something else. I want to do something different. I mean, I feel like I'm obligated because I think God has the call on our life.

But as a kid growing up, he's like, hey, man, I really want to do something else. But, you know, I got my mind right after a while. But did you ever feel that way?

Bishop Daniel: I. I think I was interested in a lot of different things,

but from a young age, I knew that God was leading my life into missions and serving with gfa. I knew that pretty early on what that meant specifically, had no idea.

You know,

people kind of assume. I mean, my father, if you read his books and you actually do a little bit of research,

you would probably consider him almost like the Billy Graham of Asia. I mean, he's very, very well known.

You know, he passed away just about a year and a half ago at his viewing in India. About 85,000 people came to the viewing.

Presidents and prime ministers sent their condolences and emissaries. I mean, so he was very, very influential, very significant.

And at the same time, my parents prayed for me and my sister every day that God would call us to do his will. If that would be missions, you know, that would.

You know, of course that would be their desire. And that's a significant challenge for parents and grandparents is,

you know, we should be praying for our children every single day. One, that they would walk with God, second, that they would follow God in his leading. You know, I don't necessarily like the word calling because it's something that pastors and youth pastors use, and they can't even describe it.

And they scare so many young people to death about, you know, don't do anything unless you know your calling. And it's just like. It's like trying to figure out the lottery.

You can't, you know, it's God's leading. I think it's more of God's leading step by step. You know, Psalms tells us, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light in my path.

A lamp doesn't show you very far. It's not a flashlight.

But if you take one step of obedience, God will show you the next step. Why is God going to show you the next step if you're not taking the first step?

And so I feel like my life was more of a slow leading into what God has me doing now, and so I can look back on my life. And I think if that's an encouragement for parents, pray faithfully for our kids and our grandkids.

And then, you know, for young people especially, don't be afraid to do something for God. Go work at the soup kitchen. If you have to, do something good, don't just sit on your butt and do nothing, waiting for heaven to open up and tell you what to do.

Do something. Serve God, Bless others.

Do something. But,

you know, growing up in a family like I did,

I don't think I ever felt, like, pressure to follow in my father's footsteps or my mother's footsteps.

I knew God was calling me and leading me to serve in missions with GFA World. But my dad, at one point, I was talking to him about, you know, what do you think I should do?

Because I prayed and I fasted, I looked for Bible verses. Nothing was working.

So finally I said, what's the best thing I can do, you know, to help you in the ministry? I mean, just ask.

And I had already made up in my mind that I'm not going to go to our seminary,

because why would I go to our seminary that we started?

And so he said, you could do anything that you want to.

The only thing is you have to do the best you can and serve the Lord in that. I said, you can even be a trash man if you want to be the best one.

You can serve the Lord in that. But he said, have you ever thought about going to seminary? I'm like, oh, you know,

so in my head, I'm thinking about every reason why not. In my heart, I knew it was the right thing.

But, you know,

many, many times I would kind of come to the end of not knowing of what I need to do next. And so I would just go to my dad and just say, what do you think I should do?

I believe God allowed me to go through that process of leading me in that way, because most people are like, Me, I had no visions. I didn't get any special revelations.

I didn't get any of that special stuff.

It's just a very simple, slow leading of God.

But it was a great lesson for me because if I'm going to ask, I better consider it and seriously take it, you know, in prayer.

And how many times have I prayed and come to God,

asking him for direction for my life or an answer to prayer? And I don't like his answer.

And so it's like, well, then don't pray. Then, you know, don't ask God.

You don't like. If you don't like his answers, then don't pray.

So it was a good lesson for me to kind of learn,

you know, if I'm going to ask advice, I better seriously consider it, not just take it at, you know, thanks for your opinion and I'm going to do what I want anyway.

But, you know, I did end up going to seminary, and then, you know, I didn't know what to do after that. And then I ended up teaching at some of our other Bible colleges, which I didn't want to do,

and then ended up teaching at the seminary, pastoring the church on the seminary, each one of those points along the way. I did go back to my dad and say, what am I supposed to do?

I'm not sure. And the two things I didn't want to be, I thought it's the most ridiculous thing is one, to be a teacher or a pastor.

I'm like,

why? Who wants to stand up in front of people and talk about things? Just like, give me a lawnmower, I'll go mow the grass. That's my, you know, I love to do that.

And I believe that God never told me what I would end up doing, because if he told me earlier on in my life,

I would have just stopped.

I probably would have been too scared. I probably would have just given up like God, find someone else. And so I think God is very, very faithful,

knowing our hearts, knowing our fears, knowing what we feel we can't do. And all he does is just show us one step at a time. And he kind of builds us up for what he has for us.

You know, kind of like David. David ended up killing giants. First he watching sheep, you know, and being faithful to that. And then later a lion and then a bear, and then, you know,

Saul and Absalom. You know, God was very faithful, kind of lead him along the way.

And so where I am today is not because of some great skill that I have. I Think it was probably just God tricked me into it and, you know,

let me enjoy. But I look back at my life, I'm like, I'm so grateful.

I'm so grateful that I got to have all those experiences. I got to be where God wants me to be and that I can serve in this way. I mean, what a privilege I get to live my life to so that others can come to know Christ.

I mean, that's greatest privilege that we have.

Reginald D: Yeah, that's huge, man. That is definitely awesome.

So, Bishop,

as president of GFA World, you oversee global efforts, including,

you know, in Africa and Asia.

What are some of the biggest challenges you've seen on the mission field, and how are you navigating them?

Bishop Daniel: You know,

the four things that GFA World has always done for about 45 years, we do a lot of things.

But the primary four things are raising up, equipping national missionaries to go to their own country or to be raised up in their own country.

Second is to assist children with education and to have a future. If you want to break the cycle of poverty, if you want to change entire communities,

equipping children, especially with education, is key and primary.

Third,

we do community transformation through different projects. And so the goal is to see a whole community transform through Christ's love. And that's usually through. Through literacy or water projects or other things.

And then fourth is disaster relief, you know, like tsunamis, earthquakes.

That does happen in many parts of Asia and Africa.

And so these are kind of the four primary pillars that we kind of have been doing for about 45 years. And in that, you know, of course, community transformation, seeing churches planted does not come cheap.

And what I mean by that, there's always persecution in some parts of the mission field. Some of our brothers have been killed on mission fields. Some of our people have been beaten.

Many have been put in prison.

One of my friends who I went to seminary with,

when he committed his life to God, his parents told him he came from a non Christian family,

a very religious, non Christian family. And his parents told him, you're not welcome back here. You can never come back home.

And it was many, many years before he got to see his parents again.

Because him becoming a Christian for them, it brought shame on the entire family that now he has left the faith of his ancestors and has fallen Christ.

And so it was a very heavy price for him to follow Christ. And so the challenges on the mission field are many, from persecution to some of our missionaries who will walk, you know, 20 miles a day just to get to the villages.

And so, you know, we equip them with bicycles so they can travel much faster from challenges of our missionaries in Nepal who have to trek up the mountains of the Himalayas.

So I got to go with some of them to visit one of our churches and it was a seven hour walk just to get to one of our churches.

Found out most of the believers are walking three to five hours every week to get to church.

And I complain driving 20 minutes. You know,

first world problems we got here. But I mean, the believers all over the mountains are trekking to, you know, a central location because, you know, the village might be 10 houses over here, another village might be, you know, three hour walk over here, it's got 10 houses over there.

And so they all meet together.

And so when they gather together, it's not a,

the whole day. You know, they fellowship and eat and, you know, spend the whole day together.

And so, you know, the challenges are met by absolute commitment, hard work and passion and a love for God that is incomparable.

And you know, the, the missionaries that we sent out and equipped are just amazing. They love their people, they love God, and they just desperately want people to know Christ.

George Verber, who was one of my father's like, closest friends,

he was a missionary statesman. He's very, very well known. He's with the Lord now. But he would publicly say very often that the greatest hindrance to world missions is finances.

I mean, it's not that the opportunity is not there,

it's just the finances to accomplish those things. At one point we had like 111 languages on the radio for these nations sharing the love of Christ. We could have done 300 languages.

You know, we produce about 50 to 60 million pieces of gospel literature a year. Gospel tracts, books, New testaments, gospel portions. I mean, we could do a hundred million. I would love to see a hundred million Bibles printed.

A billion gospel tracts printed. I mean, why not? I mean, Africa itself has 1.3 billion people.

You got, you know, India and China with, you know, billions more. You got other places in Asia. I mean, a billion gospel tracts is nothing. That's like a drop in the bucket.

You know, I would love to see on the mission field that we could build, you know, a thousand more church buildings for places for people to gather together and worship rather than meeting under trees or in the forest or in homes.

And so finances is one of the keys to actually assisting, you know,

world missions. And, you know, it's to support a national missionary is like $40 a month. That's like half a cup of coffee and a half a donut a day that we can link our life with a national missionary.

And so the challenges are a lot when it comes to persecution in many of these nations we're working in,

they're passing more and more rules about people changing their faith from 14 to 20 years imprisonment if you change your faith,

20 years imprisonment if you baptize someone.

I remember many years ago, as a kid, we were in Nepal, and this is before Nepal had freedom. This is where the churches are still underground. And, you know, when I was a little kid, I thought underground churches meant it was actually literally under the ground.

I didn't realize it just means kind of like quiet and secret.

And so I remember going to Nepal with my family and saw this brother.

His name was Brother Tako. And he was just very, very quiet. He was kind of in the corner. And I asked, like, what happened to him? He said he just got out of prison.

And he was in prison for six years for sharing Christ.

And of course, you know, later,

Nepal had a lot more freedom. But one of our missionaries, Brother Manja, was in prison for 12 years on false charges.

Someone didn't like that he was preaching the gospel and trumped up some false charges against him. He was thrown in prison for 12 years. His wife,

outside of prison, raising their kids,

you know, to follow the Lord. And now his son,

now he's been out of prison for many years.

His son now is one of our missionaries. He wanted to follow his father's example and go into ministry.

While our brother Manja was in prison, he led about 75 people to Christ in the prison. He had his own prison ministry,

kind of like Joseph in the Bible. Good favor with everyone.

After he was released, some of those other guys came to our seminary to get training so they could be missionaries. I mean, it's just. It's just incredible.

But really being sold out completely and hard work. Two of our lady missionaries went to this very remote village way up in the mountains, and every house they knocked on, they get rejected from every house.

No one wanted to listen to them.

Very discouraging. I mean, you know, sometimes God answers their prayers, and then sometimes God answers their prayers in a different way, you know,

but very discouraging. And so they went back and they prayed, God, would you please just show us how we're supposed to reach these people with Christ's love. We just. Nothing's working.

You know, they don't want the gospel tracts. They don't want to hear.

It's just not Working.

And so they had an idea. So they went back to the chief of the village and they said, hey, we notice everyone's fingernails and toenails are really dirty and long, and it's not really good hygiene.

Would you allow us to use our nail clippers and just, like, cut everyone's fingernails and toenails? Just. We want to be a blessing. He said, yeah, go ahead. So they cut everyone's fingernails and toenails in the entire village.

And this is way, way out. I mean, this was kind of like tribal way out, you know,

out in the boonies. And after they finished, the people wanted to know, like, why did you do that? Like, you're cutting everyone's fingernails and toenails.

Because we love Jesus and Jesus loves you and we love you.

And so many people wanted to know why they were so loving that they were able to share about Christ with so many people. And.

And so many people gave their lives to Christ because of nail clippers. And so, you know, it's. Sometimes our missionaries go door to door, knocking on doors. Is there anything we can pray for you?

One of our missionaries went to this house and said, you know,

shared about Christ and said, you know, is there anyone I can pray for? You have any needs,

anything I can help you with? They said, can you please pray for someone who's sick in our family? He said, sure, be happy to pray.

And so they led him through the house. On the backside of the house, there's a sick water buffalo. And. And they said,

can you please pray for our sick water buffalo? And the reason is, it's a very poor family. They milk the buffalo, sell the milk. That's their money for food.

So sick water buffalo means no food.

And so they said, please pray for our water buffalo.

So our missionary laid his hands on the stinky water buffalo and said, God, if there's ever a time to do something,

this is the time to do something.

And God healed that water buffalo,

and the whole family gave their lives to Christ. The neighbors heard about it, said, we want to hear more about this Christ that healed the water buffalo.

So many people in that village gave their lives to Christ that a church was established in that village because of a water buffalo. I mean, this is happening all over the mission field.

This is not an isolated incident. I mean, this is everywhere. God is doing incredible, incredible things.

There was a missionary in a village who was sharing about Christ and sharing God's love with people. And this little boy hung around afterwards and said, could you pray for my dad?

He's not well said, sure I'd be, you know, happy to pray.

And so little boy led our missionary outside the village. And there his father was tied to a tree. He was demon possessed and just so wild.

And so for years he was kept outside the village. He said, can you please pray for my dad? My dad's not well. The little boy obviously didn't know exactly what was going on, but just his father was.

Something's wrong with him. Our missionary brain shared the love of Christ with him. God set him free, healed him completely.

And now this missionary and the boy and his father in his right mind are coming back into the village. I mean, what do you think everyone wants to know? That's the crazy guy outside the village.

The whole village wanted to know what happened. Who is this Jesus that can set this man free? I mean, this is like Book of Acts stuff that's still happening. And that's what my father would say.

He's like, the Book of Acts is so alive today. It's not something in the past.

It is today.

And so many people in that village gave their lives to Christ because of that one little miracle of that boy taking the missionary to his father. I mean, this is happening all over the mission field that God is doing incredible, incredible work.

And so while there's challenges,

while there's persecution, while there's imprisonment, while there's beating, sometimes even death and martyrdom, God on the other side is doing great and marvelous things and is happening day to day in JFA world.

The challenge is every Christian can do something.

I mean, Romans 10 says, how can they hear unless someone goes and preaches? And how can they preach unless someone sends? And so, you know, while many of these places in the 1040 window is restricted or difficult,

all of us have the opportunity to part in the Great Commission. Either we can pray, we can send, we can give, we can do something.

It is not just for missionaries and weird pastors.

It's for all of us that we can become world Christians. We can pray, we can send, we can do something.

And that's, you know what my dad's book is? Revolution World Missions. It's the challenge that people should do something, they can do something.

And we can live our life fully for God right now,

not just living our life as a Christian, that hopefully one day we'll escape hell and go to heaven, but we can live our life experiencing God's power in our life.

And the purpose for our life is to bring as many people into the kingdom as possible. I mean,

that is just one of the Most exciting ways to live life with a purpose. Not just surviving through life, but thriving in life with a focus on God's kingdom.

Reginald D: Bishop, I love the story, man. I love the stories. Wow. I didn't think all of that went on in the mission. I know I heard about some things, but I didn't know all of that went on.

That's so awesome.

So in one of your recent articles, you talk about Gen Z craving encounter with God amidst digital overload. How do you think the church can respond to that, especially today?

Bishop Daniel: Well, I think fundamentally we have shifted away.

From what worship has always been about, coming before a holy God and setting ourselves before him in quietness and obedience.

To now having to have everything grabbing for our attention and noise.

And I feel like,

especially for young people,

the church is trying to compete with the noise of the world.

When you look through scripture, I mean, the people of God always came before a holy God in fear and reverence and a godly fear,

and oftentimes just in quietness.

Unless churches can example what it means to follow God in reverence and not just in noise, I think young people are going to continue to walk away from church.

And what's happening is if we think that church is somehow a competitive sport,

that we can have better entertainment than what the world can give us.

I mean, young people are not stupid. Like, if I want to be entertained, I'll go to the movie theater. If I want to be entertained, I'll go watch a football game.

If going to church is all about singing,

I mean, I can find the best music on my phone. Now, if it's a sermon I want, I don't need to go to church. I got my phone. I can listen to 10,000 sermons if I want.

So technology has given us the ability,

especially for young people, like, what's the point of even going to church? And if church is only about good messages and good music and making me feel better for the moment to get through the week,

we're going to continue to see young people just drift away from the faith because there's no point. It's a very bleak thing. But if we go back and we see when God told the people of Israel, you know, of course, with the example that we have is, you know,

the tabernacle and all this stuff. And when God met with Moses,

you know, summarizing, basically he's saying the people are to worship me, but to worship me on my terms, not on the way that you want.

And all the other surrounding nations,

the nations would invoke God to Meet them on their terms. And. And Moses was basically told by God, you guys meet me on my terms.

And somewhere along the way I think it was Descartes who said, I think therefore I am.

The entire world shifted to being man centered rather than God centered. And people can go back in history and see from that point on things just went downhill.

And so what we have today is we are overstimulated. We have texts, we have emails, we have social media, we have doom scrolling, we have movies, we have Netflix, we binge watch everything.

There is no space of quietness in our life anymore. I mean a very simple thing that people can do. And this is not really,

you know, in terms of the holistic understanding of worship, but take 10 minutes out of the week and just be quiet.

I mean, turn off our phone, turn off our tv, turn off everything else and just sit quiet before God.

Maybe reflect on a Bible verse or the character of God or the goodness of God. A little book that's really, really significant.

It's called the Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.

It's a little booklet.

It's just a collection of letters that Brother Lawrence was writing to his friends about.

He was a monk and this is like hundreds of years ago and he was the cook and he was the one that went to go get the groceries and wash the clothes.

I mean just, just normal life things.

And he would talk about how his devotion and his worship in the morning continued through the entire day by simply remembering Christ at all times and not forgetting.

So while he's cutting vegetables, he's remembering Christ. While he's shopping, he's remembering Christ. For us, it would be like when we're driving, we remember Christ at all times.

And that significant awareness of Christ's presence changed his whole life. Now those letters ended up getting collected and put in a book. It's really funny because he actually told his friend no one should publish these letters and they put it together and published it anyway.

But that little booklet, the Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence has impacted millions of people on what does it mean to follow Christ? And it really is unless there's quietness in your life,

unless there's some sort of silence in your life. You know, Elijah is a great man of God. Had this great showdown on Mount Carmel with the fire that came down from heaven, killed all the prophets of baal and then Jezebel says, and take your head and he gets discouraged.

I mean the guy just like prayed and fire fell down, burned the stones, burned the sacrifice,

burned the ground licked up the water. I mean, just like crazy.

And Jezebel says, I'm going to kill you. His heart sings and he just runs. He just, just runs.

He ends up in a cave,

so discouraged.

And, you know, he goes to sleep. Of course, God sends an angel and gives him some food and breakfast. Sometimes when you're discouraged, the best thing you can do is take a good nap, eat some good food.

It's a good thing you can do.

But then God meets him and it says that there was a fire. God was not in the fire. There was a wind that tore the mountain part. It was in the wind.

And then there was a still,

small voice,

a still, small voice. And Elijah covered his face because he knew God was there.

Most of us are so busy and so distracted with many, many good things. It's not bad things.

We're so distracted and so busy with so many good things. There is no space in our life for God because he is always speaking. There's never a time that God's not speaking.

God doesn't speak just on Sunday or during our morning devotion or evening prayer. God is speaking all day long. I mean, even David said, when I look in the heavens, I see the handiwork of God.

God speaks all the time. God is at work all the time.

But we're too busy to pay attention to it. And this is where Brother Lawrence was like.

Remembering Christ at all times makes my heart sensitive that I can see the goodness of God at all times.

I would say thankfulness is another thing. If people practice thankfulness, this is not just some mental strengthening exercise, but genuine thankfulness.

Paul said, give thanks in all things and for all things.

You condition your heart to purposely see God's goodness. Even in bad things,

even in the difficult things, you can see God's goodness. You can be assured of God's sovereignty in those things,

you know? Next June 2026, we have a retreat called Set Apart.

If people go to our website, I think it's gfa.org set apart. You can do a search there. It's a retreat for young people 18 to 30. It's very, very specific to what you're talking about.

We're challenging young people.

Come down here to Texas, be here for a week. Turn off your phones. We're not going to take your phones away. But the challenge is turn off your phones for the week and just be with the Lord.

Be quiet.

Remember the Lord.

Reflect on his goodness. Of course there's friends, there's fellowship and food and everything else, but it's A purposeful time. Now we have these, what's called Care Liaison Services. Care Liaison simply means Lord, have mercy.

It's Greek for Lord, have mercy.

We have these, Carolyn, services, which is in the church.

And it's just scripture and songs that are kind of very quiet.

It's a quiet setting, but in the middle of it, there's eight minutes of silence. I mean, this is crazy.

Eight minutes of silence. And I tell people, like, look, this will probably be like the most difficult thing of your life. Just to sit quiet for eight minutes,

quiet and reflect on the Lord or, you know, pray the Jesus prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Or the short version,

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Just pray quietly or reflect quietly. And you know what?

There are so many people at the end of the week, we have a little survey. Hey, what was the most impactful? What about that, you know, that message or that fellowship or that discussion group?

And so many people say the most impactful thing of the entire week is that eight minutes of silence.

You know, we do that twice a day. So it's like you're getting this chunk of time just to be quiet. And then, like,

I needed that. I've never had the practice of just being quiet before the Lord. I read my Bible and my business. I pray and tell God my shopping list. I get on with life.

I do good things. I never have a quiet space just to listen.

And the more we practice listening and obeying, the more sensitive our heart becomes.

I remember Francis Chan, who, you know, one of my friends, he was on our board for many years.

He said, if we practice reading the scripture without obedience, we're training our heart to be only readers and never doers.

I mean, this is what, you know, James tells us the same thing. Don't be just, you know, hearers of the Word, but doers. And the same thing is if we never practice giving God space in our life purposefully,

our heart will never be sensitive or growing in that sensitivity.

And so Brother Lawrence's book, the Practice, the Presence of God, is an incredible little booklet on how to have a sensitive heart.

Very, very simple. But I think that's the greatest challenge for the church today in the west,

that we are entertainment driven. We are trying to compete with the world.

We have substituted the worship of a holy God with just music and preaching, and that's not a substitute.

But in all that, those are good things.

Where's the space for our hearts to be sensitive and quiet before God like Elijah,

that we would have to cover our face in the presence of a holy God. Because I hear the still, small voice,

and I think,

you know, one of the church fathers of antiquity said, you know, a theologian is one who prays, and one who prays is a theologian, not the person who knows all the doctrines.

The person who knows God intimately through prayer is one who actually knows God deeply.

The average pastor in America prays only about three minutes a day.

Average doesn't mean that there are those who really set apart that time.

And the average believer, I mean, probably less than a minute or two a day, probably just praying for their food. And so we step back and say, why is our Christianity so weak?

Well, one is we don't pray. And when we do pray, it's a quick shopping list to God. Here's all my problems. Fix my problems.

God is not our genie that we rub the lamp and get our wishes done, you know,

and so creating that space in our life, I mean, our missionaries have to do the same thing on the mission field.

Sometimes their prayers are answered, sometimes their prayers are not answered. I remember one of our missionaries up in the mountains in Nepal,

A bunch of people in the congregation got sick, and he prayed for them,

prayed for them, fasted for them. Nothing works.

I mean, he's prayed for other people, and they got healed. And praying for his own people, they don't get healed.

So he did what they normally do in the mountains of Nepal. It's called a Nepali ambulance. A big old basket. You stick the person in there, and there's a giant strap, and you basically carry this person in a basket on your back down the mountain.

And he trekked up and down the mountain, bringing his people to the nearest little clinic, which was hours away.

And this went on for a long time. And after about a week or two,

these Buddhist monks showed up and said, we watched you trek up and down the mountain with your people in the basket.

Why did you do that? He said, well, they were sick. I needed to take them to the clinic. He said, yeah, but why did you do that? Like, you took your own effort, your own time, your own money to trick them up and down the mountain.

He said, oh, it's because I love them, because Christ loves them.

And they said, can you tell us more about this Christ? The pastor knew God didn't answer his prayers so that he would have the chance to witness to those Buddhist monks and share Christ's love with them, because they were watching the entire time.

Like, who does that? You know?

And so, you know, seeing the goodness of God, creating Space in our life,

remembering that we live in the presence of a holy God, remembering him at all times, like Brother Lawrence.

These are some of the keys. And having young people to have an example.

You know, it's hard to point to a young person, say, hey, follow that person as they follow Christ.

There's not a lot of examples anymore.

And so we almost have to just point people back to scripture and say, follow Christ what you see in the Gospels.

And I remember telling people that, like, if you can't find an example in your family or among your friends,

then look in the Scripture and follow Christ's example. How he met the needs of the poor, how he prayed late into the night, how he cared for people,

how he served. Follow those examples. And so I think that's one of the greatest, greatest challenges. If we want to stop losing young people from our churches,

we must get back to what actually makes sense in terms of worship and prayer.

If there's one thing that people can pray,

especially a young person, that will radically, radically change your life, pray the Jesus prayer, and pray it often.

Lord Jesus Christ,

son of God,

have mercy on us,

a sinner.

It puts us in the place of remembering a holy God,

who we are, and that we are in need of God's mercy. It's something that the church has always prayed for almost 2,000 years.

We see it right from scripture where people would come to Christ and say, have mercy on us, son of David,

and God would always meet their needs.

So I think it's a very simple, practical thing that we can be doing daily.

Reginald D: Okay, Bishop Daniel, let me ask you this.

What spiritual habit or practice do you go to when you need renewal, authority, especially when the weight of global ministry is so heavy?

Bishop Daniel: Well, I can tell you that I imperfectly do a lot of things.

Reginald D: I think.

Bishop Daniel: I think it's important to remember what my father mentioned. He said, the journey is sacred.

I hope people remember that the journey of walking with Christ is also sacred.

The struggle is sacred.

You know, the narrow road is the narrow road. And so it's supposed to be bumpy. You're supposed to fall down, you're supposed to get up,

you're supposed to mess up and keep going.

That's what the narrow road is. The wide road is pretty easy.

But what I seek in my life is to continue to grow in a life of prayer,

to stand before my prayer altar in the morning,

to light my lamp, remembering that Christ is light of the world,

to go through my prayers,

intercede for my friends and those who are in need,

and Then throughout the day,

stop at different points of the day,

pray the Jesus prayer,

remembering that I, in need of God's mercy,

to reflect on the scripture and to hide it in my heart,

knowing that God will bring it back with time, that I need it the most when I sin,

not to sulk, but to get up, ask God to forgive me,

keep going in boldness and to love others and serve others.

All those things are sacramental life things that kind of propel us going forward.

But I think,

you know what I desire to grow more in is desire to grow more in prayer.

I desire to love people more. I don't think I do it very well sometimes.

I desire that I would not forget the Lord in the busyness of being the president of GFB World,

that I would not substitute my service for God as if it's my walk with God. I remember hearing that one time that many of us who serve in the ministry,

in any kind of ministry, there's a real danger that we take our service for God as if it's the same thing as our walk with God in our repentance. And it's two different things.

And to be very, very careful to repent often.

I know that's not a very nice thing,

but to repent often and,

you know, to maintain a humble heart.

The higher the position we have, the more mundane things we need to do. We need to clean toilets, we need to mow the grass,

we need to wash dishes.

Never get to the place where we think it's below us.

If Christ can wash the feet of the disciples and touch the leper and go out of his way to talk to the Samaritan woman,

that's our example of what greatness is. And I don't think any of us, including myself, are anywhere close to that.

But you know what my father challenged us before? He's. One of his last messages that he shared was the journey is sacred. We're all on a journey.

We all need to remember that every step of that journey is a sacred opportunity. Every day it's a chance to know God more and more.

The interesting thing that was so fascinating is, you know, my father was like a missionary statesman. I mean,

his book that I mentioned, revolution, world missions, 4 million in prints. You know, he didn't invent national missions, but he brought it to the forefront.

I mean, he challenged how missions was done altogether and said there is a way that's more effective.

It's a. Both. And. And yet at the end of his life, he was more concerned about knowing God than All the things that he had accomplished during his life. Now, I mean, he was on the radio for almost 40 years.

He would get between 400 and 1,000 responses a day. Letters.

At that time,

we have over 12,000 parishes,

millions of members in our church,

millions of Bibles being given out in his local language. He has over 300 books.

I mean, just incredible. I mean, people have written books about my father's books and his style. And yet at the end of his life,

he said, none of those things really matter. What matters is, do you actually know God? And are you more concerned about knowing God? Because he said,

one day we will stand before God, and God is not going to ask, what did you all accomplish?

He's simply going to ask, did you know me?

That's it. Did you know me?

And so the danger for me and anyone else who's in ministry, especially those of us who are in leadership, is we get so busy with good things, not bad things.

We get so busy with serving God that we forget God himself.

And so I share all that. To say, yes, I do have my prayer rule. I have my prayer altar. I have my prayer rope. I pray the Jesus prayer. I do all these things.

But I have a long way to go.

A long, long way to go. And so what I should be more concerned about is not how well you're doing. I should be concerned about, you know, do I know God?

I'll let the Lord work on your life and, you know, I'll worry about my own sins and my own failures. I'll trust God to help me with that.

But that's the desire of my heart. That's the challenge of my own life, is while I lead, not to substitute that leading as if it's the same as the worst thing God.

And if I'm not carving out that time during the day, like in the ministry here, the bells go off at 8:45 in the morning. And then at 11:45 and 3:45, we actually stop our work.

And the whole staff gets together in the lobby for prayer,

and we read the Psalms. We have our prayers.

It's really disturbing because you're in the middle of something and then you have to stop and go for prayer. I mean, but that's what it's supposed to be, right? God's supposed to interrupt our day,

you know, and that's something everyone can do, you know, set your own little alarm on your clock, on your phone, you know, 8:45, 3:45, and 11:45, or just morning, noon and midday sometime.

So why we have that. That's what the church has always practiced. Morning is when Christ was arrested.

You know, noon was sometime when he was crucified around there. And then late afternoon is when he died on the cross, of course connected with the resurrection. So we stopped during that day to remember Christ,

to refocus our attention,

to have our day disrupted by God, and to have our minds filled with the grace of God, so that we can now continue working with God in our mind, in our hearts,

knowing that it's not just in our own strength. And so we purposely disrupt our day. And so these are things I'm still learning. Have a long way to go.

Don't claim to know anything.

Reginald D: Well, it was well put, trust me.

So Bishop, looking ahead, what's the next frontier or vision for you and JFA world in the next three to five years?

What legacy do you hope to leave?

Bishop Daniel: Yeah, you know what I'm very, very excited about is God has opened the door for us to go to Africa,

starting with Rwanda,

and now in Liberia, which is on the west north coast.

Up there, if you look at the map, Rwanda, many people remember that's where the genocide took place.

People remember the movie Hotel Rwanda, some other movies. And yet the Lord has turned the entire nation around. Really, it was the Christians and the Church that turned the whole nation around.

And it's an amazing, amazing nation. But through an incredible series of events, God has opened the door for us to build a hospital in Rwanda. It's going to be when it's done, you know, finally It'll be about 300 bed hospital,

one of the most significant hospitals in all of East Africa.

And this is going to be a bridge and a launching pad for reaching all of Africa.

And so really what it is is a vision for missions and medical for East Africa and then all of Africa.

And with that 45 years of experience of doing national missions all over Asia in different parts, we bring that experience to Africa.

And it's incredible. So 2026, sometime spring or summer, the hospital will actually be finished and we'll actually be full fledged working there. And doctors and nurses from other countries can actually volunteer their time to go serve there.

It's pretty, pretty incredible. But we already have 11 other countries that we're going into, Burundi, Uganda,

Tanzania, some other places. And by God's grace, we'll be able to reach every country in Africa in the years to come. But the goal is to see 10,000 children held in Liberia,

to see 500 churches in Liberia established,

to see 5,000 Sisters of the Cross. These Are our sisters missionaries to be able to be raised up in Africa and also Asia to go out to see thousands of Jesus wells water projects put into these different nations.

I mean, we have over 40,000 water projects that we put in in different parts of the world.

And so, you know, these are small goals. We want to see thousands of churches. I'd love to see all over Africa, half a million children helped with education. I mean, that would be, that would be amazing to see that.

So these are just a few things in the next couple of years.

And I'm praying that God will surprise us and do even more than we are praying for.

Reginald D: Wow, that's huge, man. That's remarkable. Very remarkable. So, Bishop Daniel, I got what I.

Bishop Daniel: Call quick fire questions.

Reginald D: Outside of the Bible, what is your favorite book?

Bishop Daniel: Several. The Practice, the Presence of God is one. Of course, Revolution World Missions is my favorite. But I think two books I really like to go back to.

One is the Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards.

It's a very simple read. I encourage everyone to get it. Tale of Three Kings is the story of David, King Saul and Absalom. How David as a young man under King Saul and then David dealing with Absalom who tried to take over the kingdom.

And it is,

it's a fascinating read. It gives a lot of clarity on when people go through very difficult times,

that God is using all these things in our life. And I think it's a very,

very significant book, especially when we want to understand God's sovereignty in the middle of suffering.

Really, really important.

The other one, which is from C.S. lewis, the Screwtape Letters.

That's a great little book. I know some people don't like it, some people do like it,

But I think C.S. lewis was at a church and the pastor was really boring and so his imagination went wild and he kind of came up with the whole idea during a very boring sermon.

So he says, you know, even God can use boring preachers to do great things. And so it's a back and forth letter,

letters going back and forth between Uncle Screwtape, who is a senior demon,

talking to his nephew, a junior demon in training on how to tempt people and how to disrupt people's prayers. I'll give you one little snapshot. I mean, it was kind of funny in one letter.

I think it's letter six or seven.

Screwtape is telling wormwood how to disrupt people's prayers, how to mess with Christians when they pray. He said, when they pray,

remind them of all the annoying things about the person they're praying for so that their prayers become really selfish. God, please change this person. Change this.

Basically, they're praying and asking God to change the person for a selfish reason. And now you've turned their prayers into these very selfish prayers.

Just really insightful.

What happens in the spiritual realm, what happens behind the scenes. Of course, it's imagination, but there's so much truth in that. So it's a wonderful book to go back to.

The screw tape letters, the Practices, Presence of God,

and then, you know, the Tale of Three Kings. Those are three very, very significant books.

Reginald D: Got it. So what's one thing you wish you knew when you started ministry?

Bishop Daniel: The problem with that question is if you knew it, you probably would avoid it and then you would probably run from it. At least I would.

Life is very unfair.

It's very hard,

and you're not going to get a lot of appreciation from anyone.

But if you seek God's honor only,

or if you seek to only honor God and God's approval, I guess is the right word. If you only seek God's approval, those other things don't matter.

And I think, you know, I have learned that over the years. I'm still learning that.

But if we seek man's approval,

it doesn't work. You can't serve God if you seek only God's approval.

And you know that you're honoring him.

Nothing else matters. And I think this is where my father, like, you know, no, God is the most important thing.

I think also a very harsh lesson is that the greatest criticism that you will receive is from other Christians.

Somehow the devil has got us criticizing each other, dividing the body of Christ, hurting each other, slandering gossip,

and he just sits back and watches the damage that's being done to ourselves.

We think the devil shows up in a pitchfork and a forktail and, you know, horns and shows up. No, he comes as an angel of light and he just sows seeds of division and just watches what we do to ourselves.

And, I mean,

I think that is one of the very, very difficult things is to realize how much hurt and hate and division is caused by other Christians. And so if you want to serve God in any way, you better have tough skin and you better be ready for some criticism.

And yeah, it's fine to cry and be heartbroken, get up and keep going.

One thing I like to do is watch sports movies and military movies.

Gives you some encouragement that if that's what these men and women do for the honor of the nation or the honor of their sports team, and then what am I complaining about?

I need to have a little bit of courage and keep going.

Reginald D: Yeah, exactly. So what's one piece of advice would you pass along to your 18 year old self?

Bishop Daniel: One piece of advice to pass on to my 18 year old self.

Take one day at a time.

Don't worry so much. Don't try to figure everything out in the future.

Be fully present.

And I think especially now with this, I mean, this keeps us from being present with our family.

It keeps us being present with God. It keeps us being present with what's happening around us. I mean,

both of us are old enough to remember playing outside.

It's hard to get my kids to go outside to do anything. You know,

they don't know what the water out of a water hose tastes like. I'm not sure. They didn't even know, you know,

what dirt feels like. But it's important. I mean, like,

I mean David in scripture says, when I look up into the sky, I see God's handiwork.

I think people are missing a lot of God's presence because we're so looking down all the time on our phone with good information,

I mean it may not be bad things.

I think I would encourage my 18 year old self is just be,

be purposefully present as you get older.

And I think that's,

you know,

now with AI, now with new technology,

I mean, just think about what's going to be ten years from now. If we think we're busy now,

good luck. Ten years from now.

Our kids, our grandkids, our great grandkids.

You know,

it's going to be like the movie Wall E. We're all in chairs and you know, it's just feeding us through tubes and stuff. But I think it's to be purposeful.

I mean to be present,

to pay attention to creation, to pay attention to others,

to get to know people who are older than us.

You know, gain wisdom from those who've walked ahead of us, not just our own peers.

You know, those are significant things that we tend to forget till it's too late.

Reginald D: That's so true. I mean like you say 10 years from now, man, I don't know what it's going to look like.

Telling you,

telling you.

So lastly, Bishop Daniel, how can my listeners get involved with commissions and connect with you and gfa?

Bishop Daniel: I think there's three,

three specific things that people can do.

This is the same challenge. Whether I'm speaking at a church or at a conference. The three challenges is one, I would encourage everyone to take Time and pray for missions.

Get a world map. Stick it somewhere in your house.

If you don't have a world map, you can write to us, we'll send you one. But get a world map, stick it somewhere in your house.

And then as we read about things that are happening in different countries, or we hear the news, or there's a war or famine, you know, this kind of crisis, an earthquake, then find that country on the map and get the family together and pray.

Take time and pray. Become aware of what's happening around the world. Engage in prayer.

Pray at least 10 minutes a week for mission. That's like three songs,

you know, that we listen to. We can do that. Pray for missions about three times a week, you know, pray for missions about 15 minutes a week.

Get the family together. Second is simplify our life.

Pray and ask God to go with us through our life, our lifestyle, what we spend our money on, what we invest our time in. Is there anything I can do differently so that I can focus my life on investing in mission?

So, for example,

it might mean rather than buying the 15 gallon cup of coffee every day, maybe I buy the five gallon cup of coffee.

You know, 10 cents means 100 gospel tracts. Just making that one little change can mean, you know, 100 gospel tracts. And each gospel tract is read by an average of 10 people.

So it might mean I wait till the movie comes out in the dollar theater rather than going the first week it comes out, you know, or maybe I wait till it ends up in the Walmart bin after a month or so,

whatever. There's no 10 commandments of simplifying life. But it might mean simply pray and ask God, God, would you go with me through my life? What I spend my time on, my resources, on anything I can do differently, and then use those resources, use that time to invest in eternal things.

And then third is if people can check out GFAWorld.org and look about sponsoring a national missionary, it's like 40 bucks a month. It's like a cup of coffee and a donut a day that you can literally link your life with someone who's on the other side of the world.

And so, you know, maybe I have a job at McDonald's, I'm making minimum wage. Maybe I'm a college kid and I, you know, just try and get some extra pocket money.

Do you realize that pocket money now can be an eternal significance?

Like that job at McDonald's can be one of the most important things because you're planting churches, you're impacting children, you're cleaning lepers, you're doing all of these things through linking your life with a national missionary.

I mean,

it gives us a focus and purpose in life. And so people can learn more about this if they go to gfa.org you can also get a free book at the same place or you can go to bishopdaniel.org it goes to the same place.

If they want to learn about the set apart retreat, you can go to gfa.org and learn about that one week conference that we have in the month of June,

first week of 2026.

And so learn about missionaries, learn about prayer requests, learn more about how people can get involved.

Go to gfa.org and I promise you, your life will never be the same because you are putting eternal things in front of your face in front of your life. But I would also say this.

It's the way to pass the faith down to our children and our grandchildren.

It's one of the greatest legacies that we could pass down is getting them to pray with us around the world map, getting them to help give towards missionaries, getting them to pay attention to what actually matters to the very heart of God.

And that is what I believe is one of the most significant things. And people can learn more and get involved in that way.

Reginald D: All right, there you have it, man. Bishop Danny, I'll tell you, your mission and what you're doing is so awesome. And the world needs it, really needs it.

Bishop Daniel: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Reginald D: All right, thank you.

Thank you for listening to Real Talk With Reginald D, if you enjoy listening to Real Talk With Reginald D, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. See you next time.