My Life Story

By Derek Prince

Introduction

Derek Prince was born in India of British parents. He was educated as a scholar of Greek and Latin at Eton College and Cambridge University, England, where he held a Fellowship in Ancient and Modern Philosophy at King’s College. He also studied Hebrew and Aramaic, both at Cambridge University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In addition, he speaks a number of other modern languages.

While serving with the British army in World War II, he began to study the Bible and experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ. Out of this encounter he formed two conclusions: first, that Jesus Christ is alive; second, that the Bible is a true, relevant, up-to-date book. These conclusions altered the whole course of his life. Since then, he has devoted his life to studying and teaching the Bible.

His daily radio broadcast Keys to Successful Living (formerly Today With Derek Prince), reaches more than half the world and includes translations into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Malagasy, Mongolian, Russian, Samoan, Spanish and Tongan. He is the author of over 50 books, over 450 audio and 150 video teaching cassettes, many of which have been translated and published in more than 80 languages.

Derek’s main gift is explaining the Bible and its teaching, in a clear and simple way. His non-denominational, non-sectarian approach has made his teaching equally relevant and helpful to people from all racial and religious backgrounds.

The Early Years

Derek Prince was born in Bangalore, India, in 1915, into a world and a way of life which no longer exists. Kings, queens and emperors ruled over vast domains, and the British Empire exceeded them all. The British army and civil service governed the colonies, and India was the brightest jewel in the imperial crown. Derek says, 'I was born into a family of 'empire builders. 'My father, Paul Ernest Prince, was an officer in the Queen's own Madras Sappers and Miners, his commission signed by Victoria's own hand. My mother, Gwendolen, also born in India, was the daughter of Major General Robert Edward Vaughan. Her brother, a Punjab Lancer, later became a brigadier.'

As was customary in that society, Derek was promptly handed over to the care of an Indian ayah or nanny. Derek and his ayah accompanied his parents on journeys around India while he was still small enough to be carried in a tiffin or picnic basket. They travelled by railway, by horse and carriage, and sometimes in rickshaws. Even though motor cars and aeroplanes were becoming more common in the West, this was the normal traffic in India. Soldiers rode horses, and most people walked.

The pace of life was slow. People wrote letters and sent them off to England, sometimes waiting weeks for a reply. In a real emergency, the telegraph could be used, but to Derek 'home' in England seemed a very remote place.

Yet, when Derek was five, he said goodbye to his father, his ayah, and his Indian playmates and boarded the ship for 'home'. Along with the other passengers, he dangled his topee (sun helmet) overboard until it sank, as a symbol of his farewell to India. His mother took him to her parents' home in Sussex, and then she also departed, leaving him until their next furlough.

Those early years shaped Derek's character and the course of his life. Even though he was the only son and the only grandson, he was expected to behave like a good soldier. His grandparents were kind to him, at the same time training him to excel in whatever he did and to be prepared to carry on the family military tradition.

As a young child he learned to entertain himself. He says, 'I always had friends, but I enjoyed my own company most.' When he discovered the world of books, he began his search to find out what life was about.

At the age of nine Derek was sent off to boarding school, leaving his grandparents whom he loved dearly. From that time on all his teachers and associates were masculine. In the school system of that time both class work and sports were highly competitive. He participated enthusiastically and successfully in sports, and academically, he was usually at the top of his class. His early training in diligence and thoroughness enabled him to maintain that position.

When he was thirteen, his headmaster entered his name in the competitive exam for a place at Eton College, and he was one of the fourteen boys of his age to be enrolled as king's scholars in the election of 1929. Like other boys his age, he had begun to study Latin at the age of nine and Greek at ten and was writing and translating verse in both languages by the time he was twelve. As he studied the classics, he became more enthralled with the realm of ideas and was drawn toward philosophy. At the back of his mind was always the tantalizing question: What is the real meaning and purpose of life?

His father, who retired as a colonel and settled in a country home in Somerset, encouraged him in his quest. In 1934, his father gave him an allowance of twenty pounds per month, and Derek set off with a friend to 'see the Continent. 'Derek's aptitude for languages enabled him to find the cheapest rooms and food in a time when few people his age were traveling. He often found the local people and customs more interesting than museums and ruins, even in Rome and Athens where the classics had been written.

Upon his return to England, Derek entered King's College, Cambridge, as the senior scholar of his year. (King's is a sister college of Eton.) There also he distinguished himself academically, and from 1938 to 1940 he was the senior research student of Cambridge University. He specialised in the philosophy of Plato and entitled his dissertation 'The Evolution of Plato's Method of Definition.' In 1940, at the age of twenty-four, he was elected a fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

Derek's academic career, however, was interrupted abruptly by World War II. On the basis of his philosophical convictions, he chose to enter the forces as a non-combatant and began as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

At this point he decided to look into another kind of philosophy about which he knew very little. He bought a new black leather-bound Bible for his reading material in the army. He had been christened and confirmed as an Anglican and had attended required chapel services during his five years at Eton. At age eighteen, however, he had concluded that 'religion does not do much for me' and only attended chapel at King's College when it was his turn to read the lesson. For the first nine months in the army he ploughed his way through the Bible, finding it baffling and bewildering, unlike any other book he had ever read. He said, 'I couldn't categorise it. Was it history, philosophy, literature, theology, poetry - or even divinely inspired?'

Then in a billet in Yorkshire in July 1941, he met the Author. Recalling that supernatural experience, he says:

Out of that encounter, I formed two conclusions which I have never had reason to change: first, that Jesus Christ is alive; second, that the Bible is a true, relevant, up-to-date book.

These two conclusions radically and permanently altered the whole course of my life. Immediately the Bible became clear and intelligible to me; prayer and communion with God became as natural as breathing; my main desires, motives and purposes in life were transformed overnight.

I had found what I was searching for! The meaning and purpose of life is a Person!

Marriage and Ministry

Almost immediately after his powerful experience of conversion, Derek Prince was shipped off to North Africa aboard a troop ship. Speaking of his three years in the deserts of Egypt, Libya and the Sudan, he says he was "discipled in the desert." He studied his Bible with the same diligence and thoroughness he had applied in his academic career. He also discovered the effectiveness of fasting along with prayer.

When he developed a skin condition which was incurable in that climate, he lay for one year in hospital in Egypt. He searched his Bible and prayed for God's help. It was Proverbs 4:20-22 which brought his release:

My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

The Hebrew word for health is marpe, meaning medicine. He accepted God's promise of health to all his flesh and decided to take the Bible as people take their medicine: three times daily after meals. Released from the hospital on his own recognisance, he was totally and permanently healed by this medicine in the deserts of the Sudan.

Also in the Sudan he led his Muslim assistant to the Lord. Ali's changed life caused such a stir in the camp that other soldiers came to Derek, seeking to know more about Jesus.

After three years in the desert, Derek was posted to Jerusalem. There he met a Danish lady, Lydia Christensen, the mother of a small children's home. The family spoke Arabic, and Derek practiced his Arabic with them. At the same time he began teaching himself Hebrew.

As World War II ended, Derek faced a difficult decision. He had not seen his family for more than five years, and his beloved grandfather was dying of cancer. Also, he had a secure, permanent position at Cambridge. The army owed him transportation home to England.

But God had called him to Israel (then called Palestine). If he left, would he ever be able to return? In the end, he took his discharge in Jerusalem and stepped out of the army into full-time Christian ministry in Jerusalem. He married Lydia and became father to the eight girls in the home: six Jewish, one Palestinian Arab, one English.

Together the family saw the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948 and lived through the War of Independence. Twice they had to flee their home in the middle of the night and walk out into the dark street, to an uncertain future, because of imminent danger to their lives.

In late 1948, as the newborn state struggled for survival, Derek and Lydia reluctantly left Jerusalem. He took the family to England where his parents lovingly welcomed them.

He resigned his fellowship at King's College, Cambridge, in 1949, and for the next eight years he pastored a small Pentecostal church in central London. Most of his members were converts brought in from his thrice-weekly meetings at Speaker's Corner, Marble Arch. Speaking of those days, he says:

We saw many lives changed but only up to a certain point. There were so many people we could not really help. Pentecostals in those days believed that if you were baptised in water, baptised in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues, your problems were over. But, alas, it wasn't true! It was not until years later, when I came into the ministry of deliverance, that I was able to help Christians to live fully victorious lives.

Derek and Lydia Prince went out to East Africa in 1957 to head a teacher training college in Kenya. Derek also founded a secondary school on the college campus from which thousands of young Kenyans have graduated in the past thirty-five years.

1963 Derek and Lydia immigrated to the United States with their African daughter Jesika, whom they adopted in Kenya. While pastoring a small church in Seattle, Washington, he was confronted by a demonic manifestation just in front of his pulpit. This direct confrontation with the forces of darkness launched his ministry of deliverance. Through his personal ministry, and his audio and video cassettes, he has helped countless thousands to find release and freedom from demonic bondage. His book, They Shall Expel Demons, published in 1998. (Another book, written in the 1980s, Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose!, now translated into many languages, is used by Christian ministers across the world to help to set God's people free from generational curses and bring them into real liberty in the Holy Spirit.)

Stirred by the tragedy of John Kennedy's assassination, Derek Prince began to teach Americans how to intercede for their nation. In 1973 he became one of the founders of Intercessors for America, which has carried this message and ministry to the entire nation. His book, Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, which was published the same year, has awakened serious Christians everywhere to their responsibility to pray for their government. Two decades later he would learn that underground translations of this book had been instrumental in overthrowing communist regimes in the USSR, East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

As Derek's teaching tapes circulated, doors opened in many parts of the United States. After pastoring for a time in Chicago, Derek and Lydia stepped out in faith in 1967 into a traveling ministry.

That same year, in New Zealand, Derek saw for the first time that his teaching could impact an entire nation. Those meetings launched an international ministry which has touched almost every part of the globe.

Teaching the Untaught

In the late sixties and early seventies the Holy Spirit moved throughout the world in what became known as the charismatic renewal. This brought Americans, including large numbers of young people, to the Lord in tens of thousands. At the same time multitudes of Christians in old-line denominations were renewed through the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Because of their hunger for foundational teaching material to help them understand the Bible, Derek Prince published his first books, the Foundation Series.

This series, originally in seven books, unfolds in logical order the great basic doctrines of the Christian faith with special emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. Derek updated this series in 1987, and topical indices were added in 1993 before its publication under the title The Spirit-filled Believer's Handbook. He says, 'If I had only one thing to leave to the body of Christ, it would be The Spirit-filled Believer's Handbook.'

This book has become the foundational teaching material for the church in many nations and especially those which came out from under communism at the end of the 1980s. It has been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Mongolian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish. Portions are also translated in Danish, Dutch, Hebrew, Korean, Portuguese, Swedish, Telugu and Vietnamese. Many churches use it as a textbook in classes for new Christians.

The Christian Foundations correspondence course, which supplements this book, has enriched the lives and strengthened the faith of thousands of Christians.

His Self Study Bible Course, published about 1965, is used throughout the world to ground and strengthen Christians in their faith. It has been translated into at least twenty-six languages and is probably used more widely than any other of his books - being easily understood in cultures as diverse as those in China, Africa, Mongolia, Latin America, Indonesia and Russia.

As Derek and Lydia traveled in ministry in the United States, they became acquainted with many of the other traveling teachers who were responding to the new hunger for understanding of the Bible. In Florida in 1969, Derek Prince, Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson and Don Basham met together to pray about a serious situation in the leadership of a conference where they were speakers. Derek says,

When we stood up from prayer we all realised that God had joined us together in a special way for a special purpose. Subsequently, we made a commitment to cover one another with prayer, to submit our personal lives to one another's scrutiny and to confer together before making any major personal decisions.

The four teachers, later joined by Ern Baxter, became the leaders of the discipleship movement, centred primarily in the United States. The teaching magazine New Wine published their articles and reached many Christians throughout the world.

As the relationship between the five teachers strengthened, younger men came to the teachers and asked for oversight in committed relationships. The younger men, in turn, would disciple others, forming a type of discipleship pyramid.

By the mid-seventies reports were beginning to circulate that people were being manipulated and brought into bondage to other men. The movement became extremely controversial.

By 1983 it had become clear to Derek that he could not continue to support the movement, and he withdrew. Subsequently, the other men disbanded and the pyramid disintegrated. Derek says,

I believe we were guilty of the Galatian error: having begun in the Spirit, we quickly degenerated into the flesh. In the light of this, I repented of my involvement and renounced the error. I deeply regret the damage that was done to the body of Christ and in the lives of many promising young men and women.

At the same time, the mass production of the cassette tape recorder opened a new dimension in Bible teaching. Unlike Bible teachers of an earlier age who spoke one time to a limited audience, Derek learned that his messages were being reproduced by the thousands and were touching a wide audience in various parts of the world. In 1971 Derek Prince Publications opened its offices in Fort Lauderdale, where he and Lydia were then living, and he began to distribute his own books and cassettes.

Although he was at times quite controversial because of his ministry of deliverance and also his involvement in the discipleship movement, his teaching has always been broad-based, covering many areas of biblical truth. In the seventies, Derek Prince Publications produced the books Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting, Faith to Live By, The Grace of Yielding and The Marriage Covenant.

Appointment in Jerusalem, the story of his first wife Lydia, is a departure from his usual teaching style. Dramatic and fast-moving, reading like a novel, it has drawn many into deeper faith and commitment to the Lord Jesus. The book was published just days before Lydia's sudden death from heart failure in 1975.

Lydia's influence on Derek's life is impossible to calculate. Older and more experienced than Derek, she willingly stepped back and undergirded Derek as his ministry developed. She was always seated on the front row, praying for Derek as he preached, and participated in the ministry of deliverance and healing.

Lydia and Ruth

Derek is firmly convinced that ‘God is a matchmaker,’ as he teaches in his book of the same name. He says, ‘God never trusted me to choose my own wife.’

In 1945, when Derek was on patrol at his army post, he began to pray for Lydia and the children in her home. He says,

‘The Holy Spirit gave me a clear, forceful utterance in an unknown tongue. After a brief pause, an interpretation followed in English. It was God speaking to me through my own lips, saying, ‘I have joined you together under the same yoke, and in the same harness.’

He understood this to mean that he was to work together in some way with Lydia. Only months later, as their relationship deepened, did he realise that the ‘yoke’ was marriage, and the ‘harness’ their service together for God.

Considering the disparity in their ages, their differing cultural and experiential backgrounds, he wondered how such a marriage could succeed. Derek was an only child - and here was a home full of girls ranging from two to eighteen years of age! He says,

I was torn between excitement and fear, but I knew God had spoken. His word to me was confirmed by another Christian who knew nothing about my inner turmoil.

Derek and Lydia were married early in 1946, about a month before he received his discharge from the army in Jerusalem.

Their strength and unity lay in their shared prayer life and endured for thirty years through life on three continents under many different pressures, and in many different situations. Derek remembers:

Toward the end of her life, Lydia suffered from a weak heart, yet she was an amazingly strong and active woman and continued so almost to her last week on earth. At times she would feel her physical heart failing, but she would always say: ‘My flesh and my heart may fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’ (see Ps. 73:26)

From her I learned the lesson that we must not let the external dictate to the internal. Within the life committed to God, there is an inner source of strength not subject to the weaknesses and fluctuations of our physical body. Upon her death, I felt as though part of my insides had been wrenched from me, leaving a naked wound. Mercifully, God gave me grace to release her to Him, and He was able to begin the healing process.

Single again, Derek rededicated his life to the Lord and told Him that he was willing to be celibate for the rest of his life, if that was God’s will. But God had other plans. In 1977 He moved in again as a matchmaker. On a visit to Jerusalem, Derek heard about an American lady who had injured her back and was unable to work. Derek has a special gift of faith for the healing of back problems. He went to her home and prayed for her as an act of mercy, but there was no immediate evidence that any miracle had taken place.

A few nights later as he sought the Lord concerning his possible move back to Jerusalem, he had a vision of the way back: steep, uphill and zigzag, not a straight path.

He understood this represented the path back to Jerusalem Ð but he noted with astonishment that there was a woman seated on the ground just where the path started up the hill. He recognised her as the woman he had prayed for a few days before. He understood God was saying that the way of access to that path was through marriage to the woman. Again he was torn between fear and excitement. He says, 'I was even tempted to be angry with God. Was He really asking me to marry a woman I had met only once, knew nothing about and did not love?’

A little over a year later, in October 1978, Ruth Baker and Derek Prince were married. Ruth’s story, including the account of her miraculous healing, is contained in their book, God Is a Matchmaker. Born and reared in America’s Midwest, Ruth’s cultural and experiential background were also very different from Derek’s. When she married her first husband in 1952, Ruth converted to Judaism. In 1970, after a supernatural encounter with Jesus, she had committed her life to Him. Like Lydia, she was committed to a life of faith and, together with her youngest daughter, had immigrated to Israel in 1975.

When they married, Derek was sixty-three years old, and they anticipated settling in Jerusalem and making themselves available to God for intercession, for writing and for occasional ministry. Although they have lived in Jerusalem since 1981, developments in their ministry have taken a very different course.

Reaching the Unreached

In 1958 Derek Prince had been sitting beside Lake Victoria in western Kenya. He says,

I opened my New Testament at random to Matthew 24:14:

This gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.' It seemed the words were written across the sky. Then God spoke to me,' This is priority number one for My people at this time.

I responded, 'I am committed to the educational work I am now doing, but when I have finished 'ploughing this furrow,' will You please bring my life in line with Your priorities?'

Twenty years later, I saw how God had been moving to answer this prayer. In 1978, when I married Ruth, my ministry began to line up more fully with God's priorities. In February 1979, just four months after we were married, my daily radio broadcast 'Today With Derek Prince' went on the air on eight stations in the United States. The word God gave me was:

'Proclaim! Short, simple messages, easily understood, declaring basic scriptural truths.'

The radio broadcast expanded to reach most of the major metropolitan areas in the United States, as well as many smaller cities. However, the most dramatic growth occurred outside the United States. In 1982, as God provided financial support for the program through listeners and friends of the ministry, Derek and Ruth responded to the next challenge: to reach those who have no other way to hear God's Word. They began broadcasting in English to the islands of the Caribbean, India, Central and South America.

Later in 1982 another Englishman had a word from the Lord. Ross Paterson, also a Cambridge graduate, and former missionary in Taiwan, heard God say, 'Take Derek Prince to China.' Although Ross had never met him, he contacted Derek and Ruth and told them of his vision to approach Far Eastern Broadcasting Company about translating and broadcasting the program in Mandarin.

In April 1984 this broadcast, entitled 'Living Sacrifice,' began beaming right across communist China. Derek Prince had been given a Chinese name: Ye Guang-Ming, which means 'clear light.'

Later the program was translated into Cantonese, Amoy, Shanghaiese and Swatow. Meanwhile, a second program, 'The Workman God Approves,' containing the material from all of Derek's books and cassettes, and designed especially to train leaders in China, went on the air in December 1986. These messages now reach all of China, plus Hong Kong and most of Southeast Asia.

In 1983 the ministry was in financial difficulty. Sales of books and tapes in the U.S.A. had decreased, and there was a shortfall of about twenty thousand dollars per month for the radio broadcast. As they waited on the Lord, Derek says,

God spoke clearly to Ruth and me to stop worrying about selling my materials and to give them away freely to nationals and missionaries in the Third World and behind the Iron Curtain, who had no means of paying for them. We began in 1984 by contacting twenty-three leaders in eight nations who were known to me, and offering my books and cassettes to them free of charge. We also asked them to submit names of other leaders who could benefit from such material.

Since that small beginning, hundreds of thousands of books and audio and video cassettes have been given freely to thousands of leaders in 120 nations.

The Global Outreach (GO) program opened doors of every kind. As national leaders read the books and taught their contents, they asked to have them translated into their own languages for their own people. This was the beginning of the translation facet of the ministry, which now makes these books available in almost fifty languages.

As Derek Prince Ministries (DPM) began to expand through radio, books and cassettes, Derek and Ruth were traveling extensively in the United States, Europe and southern Africa in personal ministry. Then doors began to open in less privileged nations. In April 1984 they flew in a small plane from Lusaka, Zambia, across hundreds of miles of bush to the Northwest Province. Nearly seven thousand people had gathered in that remote area (close to the borders of Angola and Zaire), to hear God's Word.

There, under the tall trees, in the hillside amphitheatre prepared just for this occasion, Derek was able to take time for thorough teaching of the basics. He says, 'I started with the cross: Jesus took all the bad that was due to us that we might receive all the good that was due to Him as the sinless Son of God.' On the following days he dealt with release from curses, deliverance from demons, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Derek says, 'Africans are so hungry for teaching. They will sit and take notes as long as you will preach. If you finish in two hours, they say, 'Why are you stopping so soon?'

Africans live with the satanic supernatural, and they were excited and delighted to know the reality of God's supernatural power. Thousands were saved, healed, delivered, baptised in water and in the Holy Spirit and moved on into spiritual gifts.

A year later, Derek brought the same type of messages, mainly to Muslims, in a city in northern Pakistan, where many people had never before seen a Westerner. There also, familiarity with the satanic supernatural prepared the local people for salvation, healing and deliverance.

Since Derek and Ruth lived in Jerusalem, and their international office remained in the United States, it was natural and economical for them to travel around the world in ministry from one base to another. The first such trip, begun at the end of 1984, took three months. During the second trip, in 1987, they took five months, ministering for the first time in Indonesia and Malaysia.

One highlight of that journey was Papua New Guinea. Derek discovered that Wycliffe translators and Youth With A Mission leaders had used his Foundation Series to teach the thousands of nationals who had responded to the gospel the first time they heard it.The local people looked upon Derek as a 'father,' and the visit was sponsored jointly by the Ministers' Fraternal Organisation, the city of Port Moresby and Papua New Guinea Airlines. The national radio station made its equipment available for outdoor meetings, simultaneously broadcasting live. Derek said, 'I saw fruit from my ministry in a country I had never dreamed I would visit. The young local leaders were a credit to the missionaries and to the Lord Jesus.'

To honour him on his seventieth birthday, friends from five continents sent contributions to fulfil Derek's expressed desire: to translate and broadcast the radio program in Spanish and Russian. The Spanish program now reaches into part of South America and also Spain. The Russian version began to penetrate the Iron Curtain five days each week in 1986.

God moved in another dramatic way in 1987. A German missionary who was teaching English at a university in Inner Mongolia heard 'Today With Derek Prince,' in English, broadcast from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, six thousand miles away. He approached Derek Prince Ministries to ask if he could get the program translated into Mongolian. This required another leap of faith, but the program went on the air at almost exactly the same time as the first Mongolian New Testament in modern script was published.

The radio ministry continues to grow, and current projects include Indonesian and the languages of the South Pacific islands and Eastern Europe. Cassettes of the English, Chinese, Russian and Spanish broadcasts are also distributed worldwide through the Global Outreach Leaders Program. Today well over half of the world's population has access to Derek's Bible teaching in a language they understand.

Testimonies from many nations attest that this teaching equips leaders and laymen alike to fulfill their destinies in the kingdom of God. For example:

A logical and philosophically trained mind given over to God's service is one of the most convincing and profound tools there is for His Word. - J.E.C.

I credit much of my progress in the Christian walk to the anointed, uncompromising teaching I have received through your ministry. There are many, many Christians seeking the blunt reality of discipline, honesty, commitment and dying daily, and your messages have aided in not only challenging us, but also pointing out a very clear path to follow. - S.C.S.

He has made you a man of plain speech. We are really putting forth an effort to refrain from saying, 'Derek Prince says . . .' We know it was God who said it, but you have made us understand a lot we didn't know God had said before. - P.A.

During the eighties the Princes moved into a new dimension in their healing ministry. About 1970 Derek had received a somewhat unusual spiritual gift, which is especially effective for people with back problems. He would kneel before the seated person and hold their feet in his hands. Usually one leg would be longer than the other, and the short leg would grow out as he held them. At that point God's healing power would touch the person. Thousands have testified to receiving miraculous healings of almost every major disease and infirmity. Derek has imparted this gift to many young men who have been associated with him through the years.

Now, as Ruth joined Derek in the healing ministry, the anointing increased and they were able to pray for many more people by the laying on of hands. It was not unusual for them to pray for people until after midnight (after Derek had preached for an hour or more). Their record was in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1984. Their deliverance service in the morning lasted five hours, and the healing service in the evening six hours, for a total of eleven hours of intense ministry.

In a meeting in Pretoria, South Africa, a theology professor interviewed people as they came down from the platform, taking names, addresses and details. In following them up for six months, he found that about twenty-five percent retained their healing. Almost everyone had a test of faith after about six weeks, and it was at that point that some lost their healing. Subsequently he presented his report as a theological paper at the university.

In the late eighties Derek and Ruth began to pray for other couples in ministry, teaching them to agree together in prayer according to Matthew 18:19 and imparting their gifts to them. This multiplied their effectiveness, making it possible for many more people to receive God's healing touch.

In the 1990s Derek has adjusted his emphasis. He says,

I thank God for every miracle of healing and deliverance I have witnessed, but I feel the most urgent need of the church today is holiness. Nothing is more precious to me than to see the Holy Spirit convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

New Open Doors

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, DPM already had access to millions of previously unreached people. They had been broadcasting into Russia in faith, even though there was no feedback. Suddenly with the fall of the curtain a flood of letters came in.

At this time, a young Dutchman who was already working in Eastern Europe, opened DPM's outreach office for Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet Union). He and his coworkers met hundreds of pastors and young Christians who had heard the radio broadcast and were hungry for more of Derek's teaching. Book translations were immediately begun and, since then, one and a half million books have been printed in Russian and the other languages of Eastern Europe.

At the same time the Video Bible School was developed using Derek's 'Laying the Foundation' (a ten-video series containing a condensed version of The Spirit-filled Believer's Handbook), and more than twenty hours of his other foundational teaching.

In May 1993 DPM held a conference in Moscow for a thousand leaders from as far away as Magadan, which is north of Japan. Derek brought his basic teaching: the cross, release from the curse, deliverance from demons, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. In addition, much reconciliation took place between representatives of different people groups as well as healing of deep wounds caused by life under a repressive regime.

Derek said,

The worship was in a totally different class from anything I have ever experienced. The people were so enthusiastic! They would sing 'Jesus Christ is Lord' twenty times. They were so hungry for the Word of God. What a privilege to teach people like that!

In the year following, thirty-four Bible schools were started in the CIS. One year later, Derek and Ruth were in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in Central Asia for a similar conference for people from the southern republics of the CIS.

Derek traces all this back to a sabbatical in 1990, when he said to God:

I give it all over to You, Lord, every book, every audio cassette, every video, every radio broadcast, everything I have produced or will produce. It is no longer mine. I leave it in Your hands to do whatever You want to do with it.

Since that time, the outreach of the ministry has increased in an unparalleled way.

Another example is Indonesia. Since 1990 DPM has published more than three hundred thousand copies of Derek's books in more than thirty titles. His teaching cassettes are being duplicated and distributed in Indonesia, and a translation of the radio broadcast is being planned.

Another rapidly growing work is in India, where twelve books have been translated into Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and some minority languages. The current project is for hundreds of thousands of books to be produced and distributed by Indian coworkers in major cities and surrounding nations.

Doors have opened in dramatic ways to distribute Derek's material in Spanish throughout Latin America. In 1995, DPM began printing, legally, in Cuba, on government printing presses! Derek and Ruth ministered there for the first time at the end of 1996. They also participated in a large conference in Bogota, Colombia, in 1997 where hundreds came to the Lord. Sixteen of Derek's books have been produced in Spanish, as well as thousands of cassettes. DPM has distributors in Costa Rica, Cuba, Venezuela and other Latin American nations. Books are also being produced in Brazilian Portuguese.

The door to the Middle East is opening wider. Conferences were held in Turkey in 1995 and Bahrain in 1996. Derek's Arabic radio program reaches the whole Middle East from both the Seychelles and Lebanon. Six new books in Arabic are being widely circulated.

DPM began a new venture in June 1997 with a Video Conference in Belarus, a republic of the former Soviet Union. The teams that provided intercession, live worship and ministry reported that the impact of Derek's teaching was just as powerful in that format as when he teaches personally.

It is impossible to calculate the impact of the ministry in mainland China where an estimated twenty-five thousand people come to the Lord every day. In addition to radio broadcasts, many of Derek's books have been translated. To date over 6 million books have been printed inside China, but the demand outweighs the supply which is hindered only by a lack of funds.

Much increase in the ministry is due to the men who work for Derek Prince Ministries. The International Director of Derek Prince Ministries, David Selby (husband of Derek's daughter Anna), has been with Derek since 1971. In addition to the U.S. office, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, there are national offices in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Each office was founded by a man who heard God's call to extend this ministry in his own nation and the harvest fields of the world. They are each governed by a board of trustees or directors, but the International Council, of which was originally established by Derek, bears responsibility for worldwide coordination and planning.

The vision of DPM is summed up in its motto: Reaching the Unreached - Teaching the Untaught!

Israel and the Jewish People

Derek says, 'Growing up in England, I would never have been anti-semitic, but I didn't know or care much about the Jewish people. I had two Jewish friends at Cambridge, but they were totally assimilated.'

When the British army posted him to Jerusalem just at the end of World War II, Derek watched in awe and amazement as the Jewish people returned from many different countries after nearly two thousand years of exile. As he read Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, he realised he was seeing biblical prophecy fulfilled before his eyes.

As a guest student at Hebrew University (the only Gentile at that time), and in daily life with Lydia's six Jewish daughters, he came to see the patience and faithfulness of God ? and the tenacity of the Jewish people in enduring every kind of pressure and indignity. He says,

We owe the Jewish people an enormous debt. Without them, the church would have no patriarchs, no prophets, no apostles, no Bible and no Saviour. My most precious possession in life is my Bible, and I owe it to the Jewish people.

Through his booklet, Our Debt to Israel, and his spoken messages, Derek Prince has awakened Christians throughout the world to their responsibility to Israel and the Jewish people. His book, The Last Word on the Middle East, examines in detail prophecies currently being fulfilled and expounds God’s plan for the Middle East as the age draws to its close.

In another book, The Destiny of Israel and the Church, he lists seventy-nine occurrences of the word Israel or Israelite in the New Testament, concluding that Israel is never used as a synonym for the church. He explains how the church needs to recognize the special destiny of Israel, and to align itself with God's purposes.

In nation after nation, Derek has unfolded the current worldwide fulfilment of Jeremiah 31:10:

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.'

Then in Jesus' words he has concluded: Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing? (Luke 4:21).

Challenging his listeners to a positive response, he cites the three parables in Matthew 25 and says:

In each parable there were those whom God judged and rejected. Why? All had this in common: apathy and passivity. It was not what they did, but what they did not do. We are either with or against, either gathering or scattering, either building up or tearing down. There is no middle ground. God requires us as Christians to comfort and pray for Israel.

Derek demonstrates his own confidence in the prophetic Scriptures by living in Israel and standing with the Jewish people through the pressures and trials of daily life. He views intercession as his primary assignment, praying for God to fulfill His Word and to bring salvation to the Middle East, to Jews, Muslims, and nominal Christians.

Derek Prince at Eighty

A fellow minister said, “Derek talks about the nations of the world the way I talk about my neighbourhood.” Derek’s flexibility and adaptability is unusual for a man of his age. He is always ready to make a change in his lifestyle – or his exercise routine – if he believes it will please God. The combination of adaptability and absolute trust in God’s sovereignty enable the Princes to undertake trips which would challenge younger people. Late in 1994 they set off on their fourth round-the-world ministry journey via South Africa, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and the United States. Five months later they returned to Jerusalem excited and refreshed by all they had experienced. Derek says, “It is the harvest hour! Even in Muslim nations, God is gathering in those He has chosen for Himself.” The discipline, dedication, single-mindedness and thoroughness which characterised Derek’s early life have come to maturity. He seeks to do the very best he can in whatever he undertakes, at the same time acknowledging his total dependence upon God. The Princes have enlisted an “army” of intercessors around the world who undergird them and the work of DPM with prayer. Derek freely acknowledges his reliance upon the prayers of others and is quick to give the glory to the Lord for answered prayer.

Derek Prince has devoted every gift God has given him to the clear, practical exposition of the Bible. These are some of the biblical truths he has recovered for this generation:

• The discipline of fasting

• Release from curses

• Praying for the government

• The place of Israel in God’s plan

• Deliverance from demons

• The power of proclamation

In the past decade he has also spoken extensively on the events leading up to the close of the age, interpreting them in the light of the prophetic Scriptures. At the age of eighty, Derek Prince looked back on nearly fifty years of Christian service and said,

God is faithful! I could never have planned all this. I am always astonished when I hear that people know my teaching in some of the smallest villages of India or are watching my videos in Siberia – God is orchestrating it all!

More than fifty years ago, in what is today Israel,

He spoke to me and said, "I have called thee to be a teacher of the Scriptures in truth and faith and love which are in Christ Jesus – for many." I could never have imagined how many that would be! But there has been a progression: first, I sought to give out the clear truth, then God emphasised the need for faith, and today my supreme aim is to produce love in those who hear my messages and read my books.

I believe there still are many more for me to reach. I have no plans to retire. I look forward to fulfilling all that God still has in His plan for my life. He has proved Himself faithful to me for more than fifty years, and I trust Him to continue faithful to the end.

Many of Derek's family gathered for his 80th birthday celebration in 1995. Derek has thirty-five grandchildren, fifty-eight great-grandchildren and seven great-great-grand children. Eight grandsons are full-time Christian ministry, as are two great-grandsons.

In Memory of Ruth Prince

After many weeks battling infection in her body, Ruth Prince slipped into the presence of Jesus amid the soft singing of Hebrew choruses around 8pm Jerusalem time on Tuesday, 29 December 1998.

Family and friends met Thursday morning, 31 December, at Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem to say their last farewells to Ruth and to comfort Derek. Reflecting on the impact of Ruth's life, Derek gave a touching eulogy. He was at peace with the Lord's timing of her home going and gave thanks to the Lord for His faithfulness and for the love that had been poured out through all the saints.

While those who gathered came to lift up and support Derek, it was he who supported all those present through his strong and mature faith. After the service, Ruth was buried in Jerusalem.

Memorial services were held in London, England, on 6 February and in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, on 13 February 1999.

During their 20 years of marriage, Ruth faithfully served Derek in every way she could. She once said, "I'm doing what I was created to do. God made woman to be man's helper. I count it a tremendous privilege to be able to help my husband to fulfil his calling in God." Ruth's prayers and input into the ministry will be missed.

Table of Contents

My Life Story

Introduction

The Early Years

Marriage and Ministry

Teaching the Untaught

Lydia and Ruth

Reaching the Unreached

New Open Doors

Israel and the Jewish People

Derek Prince at Eighty

In Memory of Ruth Prince

Table of Contents

My Life Story

Introduction

The Early Years

Marriage and Ministry

Teaching the Untaught

Lydia and Ruth

Reaching the Unreached

New Open Doors

Israel and the Jewish People

Derek Prince at Eighty

In Memory of Ruth Prince