Peter J Daniels speaking at Oral Roberts University

Let me tell you the real reason that I have come. And before you have finished in this university, maybe it'll be the reason that you have come. I just simply want to change the world. And you may say that's a crazy comment to make. How can one person change the world in their lifetime? Well, let me hasten to remind you, in biblical times, Abraham changed the world in his lifetime. Moses changed the world in his lifetime. David changed the world in his lifetime. Lifetime. Nehemiah changed the world in his lifetime. In more modern times, there's a man called Mahatma Gandhi with what he called Satyagraha, which was soul force. He broke the chains of colonial power. He changed the world in his lifetime. Henry Ford changed the world in his lifetime when he set the world moving via the automobile. And Roger Banner to change the world in his lifetime when he ran the first four minute mile and he proved that the efforts of human endeavor are yet to come. Sir Winston Churchill changed the world in his lifetime when he uttered that speech. He said, we will fight on the beaches, we will never surrender, Embark on Beethoven, change the world in their lifetime. As they expanded our consciousness in the area of symphony and song. And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He changed the world when there on Capitol Hill, he gave that famous speech that said, I have a dream. He said, I have a dream that my four little children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of the character. I have a dream today and my friends, each one of you have a dream. And it can be ratified by faith, it can be energized by commitment, and it can be realized by a lifelong lifestyle, goal setting program. Many of you have allowed your dream to die. In years gone by. You may have gone to the beach, lay on the sand, or under the stars of a hot summer night, or next to a wood fire on a cold winter's night. And contrasted that picture of what you are and what you would like to become. Young people, don't turn off your dream machine. What is this dream that you have? It was alive and well a little earlier for you and some of you have turned it off. Don't let anyone steal your dream. I want to share one or two concepts with you this morning that I hope will give you direction and energize you into the next century. The 21st century is less than a decade away and we're not only moving into a new century, we're moving into a new millennium. And very few people in the history of the world have had that opportunity. Winston Churchill said many years ago, he said, the empires of the future are the empires of the mind. And we live in a dynamic, changing world where in many cases the United States of America, this great nation may call the meetings. But we find now that Germany and Japan set the agenda. The Asia region where I come from, there'll be 15 mega cities of 8 million people within the next 10 years. Hong Kong is reaching out to China. Indonesia has 25 million middle class at the moment. And the emergence of the European Common Market in January last year will explode a new market into the world. We have great challenges in Africa and India and a world of 5.4 billion people. We're still spending 1 trillion a year on military hardware. And there are 42 wars going on in the world at the moment. We have one and a half billion young people in the world that are teenagers, that have never heard the claims of Christ. It'll be they that will have their finger on the nuclear button in the future. It'll be they that will be our leaders, our teachers, our military personnel, and those who commit crime. And we need to touch them. They have never had any moral training. And you may be the person that needs to touch them. I believe the need and the desperate need of this crucial hour in history is vision and leadership. My Bible says without vision, the people perish. But many of us, we have a little mini goal of one year or five year. And I want to suggest to you and with the students later today to set lifetime goals. It's interesting to me, when God gave goals to his chosen servants, he always endowed those goals with the sovereignty of permanence. Moses was given a life goal to deliver the children of Israel to the promised land. At the point of delivery, his goal and his life was finished. Samson has a life goal, was a conqueror, protector and deliverer for his people. And although he departed from it many times when he played the fool with Delilah, in the end, when he pushed those pillars out, he reached his life goal. We think too of John the Baptist, who had a life goal to proclaim the coming of the long awaited Messiah. He was faithful to that charge even into the king's palace, which ended in his own decapitation. And he reached his life goal. Our Savior had a life goal. The finality was the cross to relieve all mankind of the bondage of sin. Young people set long term goals. But before many of us can lead and before many of us can set goals, we must do what we all avoid. And that is to change. But before changing our beliefs, most human beings will spend long periods of time pretending that the facts that conflict with our long held theories do not exist and in doing so, hoping that such facts will somehow magically go away. I believe as we move into the 21st century, it will be the era of the entrepreneur. And I think it's time for the good guys to win. I think it's time for Christians to stand up and take hold of what needs to be taken hold of in this world of business and go out and show how it should be done, the right way, ethically, honestly, a fair deal for all, and capitalism with a kinder face. What are entrepreneurs? They're different. They have drive. They will keep on going when everyone else has given up and gone home. Secondly, they are persuasive in their quest to get others to see and follow through with their point of view. Thirdly, they have perception to create and believe what others find improbable and invisible. And fourthly, they have powerful dreams that compel them to win. Yes, I believe in this crucial hour in history that the missing link is leadership, not brinkmanship. And I suppose I would like to try and answer three very simple questions here this morning. And I want to leave some of the things with you that I've learned over the last 35 years. And the first question that I would like to ask on your behalf and then try and answer is how do you know that you have leadership qualities? Have you ever lain in bed at night and tossed and turned and asked yourself the question, have I got what it takes? Because after all said and done, there's a great deal more said than done. We often say I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me, then we give light of that assertion. We think like failures, plan like failures, talk like failures, give like failures. And then if by some surprise we wonder why we're failures, you can only be a failure by your own consent. God has never robotized the mind of man after the fall. He did not come down and renegotiate with Adam and Eve. So the question is, how do you know that you have leadership qualities? Let me try and answer it for you. If you really believe it, do you dream about it? Why don't you pick 12 people that you would like to meet that could encourage you and expand your vision and put empires in your brains? How do you know if you have leadership qualities? If you are really possessed by it? How do you know that you have leadership qualities if you are repulsed by frivolous rewards and empty praise? Now put a lid on that second question. Is how can you maintain its momentum? This quality called leadership. How can you maintain its momentum? Remember, there's a difference between a leader and a mere power holder. All leaders are actual or potential power holders. But not all power holders are leaders. How can you maintain its momentum? Well, first of all, destroy the camouflage and the comfort of mediocrity. Always think, plan and work for the large impact on long term results. You don't have to be a prophet to predict the future. The insurance companies predict the future and are accurate all the time. And build the biggest buildings in the world on the basis of their predicting the future of your longevity. How can you maintain its momentum? My friends courageously oppose wrong. We must never stoop to conquer. Only despots justify questionable means to reach their ends. You see, for a Christian in business, it's quite, quite different. Normally in business, if one does everything right and the other one does something wrong, the one that does the right things wins, the other loses. But we're Bible believing Christians. What about the mercy factor? What about the other person's family? What about their children? What about their position in society? Why not occasionally just cut it in halves and give them half? Anyhow, it'll do more than all the Bible teaching you will ever do. Because it will affect them so deeply. Because whoever gives money away, almost no one. Some years ago I wrote a book called how to Be Happy Though Rich showed me sitting on my gold Rolls Royce. Our country in Australia did a primetime television program on it. The government actually did. But it wasn't about getting, it was about giving. And we ought to see how much we can give in our lifetime. How can you maintain its momentum? Resist the comments and direction of the crowd. Remember that ruthless logic is a sign of a limited mind. And the third question. Firstly, how do you know that you have leadership qualities? Secondly, how can you maintain its momentum? And thirdly, how can you guarantee it's coming? How can you guarantee that everything that you've poured in, everything that you've hoped for, everything that you've dreamed for, everything that you've seen written in scriptures, will come together? Always be alert to the gap in history. The world is very different now. And if you're away from the action for two or three years, you might just as well be away from the action for 20 years. We are generally agree that within the next five years we'll have the beginnings of the biggest trade war in history. It could last 20 years. There'll be very few winners and many losers. But the Chinese have a double meaning word for Crisis. It's danger and opportunity. And it might be that this hour, this crucial time in history is why God allowed you to be born. It might be that this time in history, so many Christians that are in this giant auditorium have been gathered together to fill the gap. Because my Bible says I looked for a man to stand in the gap and I found none. How can you guarantee it's coming? Let me give you a backdrop on what's happening around the world. I mentioned 25 million middle class in Indonesia. We look at South Korea, the greatest economic miracle this century. In 1956, they were the poorest nation on earth, poorer even than India in real terms because they needed fuel to keep warm. We have a look at what happened in Taiwan when Chiang Kai Shek left mainland China and has now become one of the great tigers of Asia. We're seeing what has happened in Japan and they have all kinds of problems now. But what would happen if Japan joined up with China? China hasn't spoken to Japan very much since 1932 when Japan marched on Manchuria. But what would happen if these two great nations came together? Japan has its roots in China, its architecture is in China, its music is in China. And suddenly, if they took in 3 million Mitsubishi tractors into China, it would be the breadbasket of the world. How would you ever compete? What if they took their technology in there? And what if they drill for bauxite and oil and gas? What if they took their computerization in there and used 1.2 billion people to manufacture textile for the rest of the world? It'll be the biggest superpower the world has ever known. But you are leaders. My Bible calls you salt and light. Salt because you need to penetrate everything. Light because you need to lead the way. Leadership for a Christian is not optional, it's mandatory. You are either a leader in effect, or you are a leader in self imposed exile. But you are a leader, so how can you guarantee it's coming? Always be alert to the gap in history. Move deliberately towards a pivotal point. Keep your eyes and ears open. Remember the newspapers and the media never allow the truth to stand in the way of a good story. Look behind the scenes and remember, whatever God has given you to do, be grand in its implementation. I have a little card I carry with me and I've carried it for all these years. It tells me everything I have to have done by my 85th birthday. And my life goal is to create something that will not be able to be changed for 1000 years. So crazy. Well, Archimedes, the great Greek Mathematician, several hundred years before the birth of Christ, created a law that stood to this day. He said, give me a place to stand, give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum strong enough, and single handedly I can move the earth. The law of leverage. We reached something of Voltaire, Galileo, Madame Curie. We have a look at Adolf Hitler. He wanted to create a thousand year riot. Be grand in its implementation. Because finally, finally, finally when you do expire, physically taking out the supernatural, that's what you've traded your life for. The cost of a big dream. And a small dream is exactly the same it is your entire life. And when we do get buried in that earth, taking out the supernatural, we only fertilize it about as much as a big dog. And what are you going to say when you get to heaven and Jesus says to you, what did you do down there? And you say, well, I used to get this little ball and put it on a tee and try and get it in a hole. I'm not against that. I ride horses and I have fun. I suffer at a very high level. But let me tell you, there are 12 year old girls selling their bodies in Smoky Mountain in the Philippines for a slice of bread. There are people dying in Ethiopia. How do we know there's not one person in this room that create a food program to feed the whole earth. Be grand in its implementation and finally look for signals and ignore the cost. Look for signals in your life that God has preserved you. Sir Winston Churchill, when he was in his early 20s, went over to fight in a war in Africa. He wrote a letter back to his mother. I've seen the letter. He said, dear mother, we were caught in an ambush today. But I turned my pony around rather than fleeing, and I rode it straight into the ambush. I withdrew my revolver and I dispatched three immediately. Then I turned my pony around again and went straight into the ambush again and dispatched another two. There was nary a bullet that touched my tunic. My pony or myself. I believe I was preserved for higher things. Seven years of age, I was to die through diphtheria, but I was preserved. The Billy Graham Crusade on May 25, 1959, as an illiterate bricklayer, when the people of America prayed for this young preacher and he came across our nation and we accepted Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, which transformed our family and the generations that have thus far come and touched the lives of millions around the world. At one time I was fighting pornography and they brought it into our city. And I read in the newspaper. I said, someone ought to do something about this. And my wife said, well, what are you going to do? So to cut a long story short, with some other people, we took it to court to stop them from using women for pornographic purposes. The first time for 600 years in the British Empire. And I had to have police protection. My life was threatened. I was a butt of every comic in the country. But I was preserved. I was preserved for higher things. Robina and I were in the revolution during the change of the government in the Philippines with Marcos, a million people in the streets that were surrounding our hotel with gunships, that we were preserved for higher things. One time, the engine on an airplane was on fire, landed safely. I was preserved for higher things? Yes. How do you know you have leadership qualities? How can you maintain its momentum? How can you guarantee its coming? Let me wind up with this. I said, in the beginning I wanted to find out what made the great great. I ran into Robina one day. I said, eureka. I found it. I found it, I found it. She said, what have you found? I said, I found out what made the great great. She said, well, what is it? I said, I looked at perception, being at the right place at the right time. I looked at enthusiasm comes from two Greek words in Theo, the God within. And so I went on. She said, well, what is it? I said, well, I'll give you a mini biographical tour. And I told her about the life of Sir Winston Churchill as a young boy sitting on a log with another boy. They started scratching the damp earth, and a couple of worms came up. And the young boy said to Winston, he said, I believe in the sight of God. We are all worms. Winston said, well, that might be right, but I happen to be a glow worm. Have you found out what makes the great great? I think of Billy Graham, probably the greatest evangelist since Paul the Apostle. But he was a skinny kid. He went along to a church camp and it had been raining during the day, but at night the skies cleared and the stars twinkled in the moonlight. And being idealistic, they hadn't turned off their dream machine. They decided to go out and pray under the stars. Some put their hand to heaven, some bowed down. Some even dared to kneel in the damp soil. But they heard a muffled sound behind them, and it was Billy, flat out on his face, weeping and saying, oh, God, let me do something. But anything. Have you found out what makes the great great? I'm sure there's Italian people here. Giuseppe Girobaldi, the great Italian nationalist, was on a Marcel waterfront Cafe that he heard of the ideal that was to shape for him. A glorious future and the ideal of a united Italy. And he became great. Henry Royce was unwilling to accept anything but perfection, and he created the Rolls Royce. Wilbur and Orville Wright were excited about the possibility of manned flight. At a child's birthday party, when a toy with a rubber band took to the sky, or their father was a clergyman, he used to stand in the pulpit and say, man will never, ever fly in the air. That is the realm of angels. And the two boys were in the barn building an aeroplane. Have you found out what makes the great, great? Thomas Edward Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia, was studying the map. One day he saw the city of Damascus. He gravitated towards it. He had a dream of putting an Arab king on his rightful Arab throne. What makes the great, great Albert Schweitzer? As a young boy, he was wrestling with another boy at school. And he got the boy down and the other one looked up at him and said, albert, I could have beaten you. My family could afford to feed me properly. And it broke up with Schweitzer's heart and sent him to Africa. Then, of course, I came back to where I started from, to the Scriptures. And I read again where it says, I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. What makes the great, great, my friends, is a sense of destiny. A sense of destiny. And you can have it by doing three things. First of all, a lifetime lifestyle goal setting program. Secondly, by using your imagination, cut the fetters from your mind and allow it to glide as it was divinely designed to do so. And the more I study thought technology, the more I'm convinced that the imagination is far more powerful than the will. Let me illustrate. If I had a 4x4 here, 12ft long, put a brick each end, got you all to walk up and down on it. You'd know you could do it, you'd prove you could do it. But now, after you've done it, let us put it 1500ft in the air and ask you to do it then. But your imagination takes over from your will and says, what if my foot slips? What if the wind blows? What if the wood breaks and you can't do it? And finally, building a support base, knowing who you are. When I was to appear on one of the television programs with Dr. Robert Schiller, he asked me to give my testimony and say something about America. I write poetry in about 90 seconds and I write on back of airline tickets and so on. So in those few seconds while he was introducing me, I wrote this little poem. And I want to wind up with it because you are the people that saved our nation during the 40s. Japan had already had over 100 air raids on Australia. They had printed the currency to take over our country. Our soldiers were so few. I'd sit on a curb and two minutes I'd pass by and they'd have bicycles and broomsticks. But then the Americans came and I sat on the curbside and these GIs went past. It'd take two hours to go past and I'd all call out and asked if I had a sister. But you saved our nation during the 40s. You need to thank your parents and your grandparents for that. We love you for that. You shed your blood for our country and then you sent Dr. Billy Graham. That touched our country as nobody else has before or since, where people experience the saving grace of Jesus Christ and have turned them around. And in particular our own home and our own family. And thirdly, when I was trying to get myself together, I wanted to get some sort of assistance because as I said, I didn't know anyone in business. But I got hold of some American self help books and back in the 60s, that was the only country in the world that produced self help material like Frank How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success, Success, Attitudes by W. Clement Stone and so on. Yes, I wish you could know how much we love you. And winding up, just let me say this, America, we love you as we see your flag unfurled for your promises of justice to a cruel and hostile world. You arrive at every conflict with a strong but gentle heart, Always ready to help others ever first to make a start. Your blessings to the world of enterprise and gifts produce a comradeship that's rare, that encourages and lifts. Or there are a few who want you down and nevermore to rise. But let them know in definite terms be ready for surprise. You are the greatest nation on the earth. A heritage of faith, A land of free and homes of brave who will never quake so take on notice all the earth in God we trust for sure. Never take our gifts for granted or venture hostile to this shore. United in diversity with cultures and with skin. Your enterprise is always strong with a firm will to win. In God you trust to guide you as you continue on your way. America, we love you. What else is there to say? God bless you. It's Sam.