“Son, you can do a lot of things well, but being a preacher is not one of them.”

It had only been eight days since I had been ambushed by the Holy Spirit and drawn, along with my wife Nan, into a glorious saving encounter with Jesus. This Saturday morning I awakened to an overpowering realization—the knowledge that God was calling me to preach. That driving the Great Commission forward was now my personal calling. Not optional. Not negotiable.

The presence that surrounded me that morning in April of 1966 hung upon me for hours like an invisible cloak, and when it lifted, a permanent imprint remained upon my soul. An unshakable conviction that the world needed a revolution of grace, a quiet explosion that would rock it to its core and bring it to its knees before its Creator.

As an Air Force pilot fresh out of flight training, I immediately shared this new-found mission with my father-in-law, an Air Force Major General. He had always believed in me and had welcomed me warmly into his family when Nan and I married several years before. Without any demeaning intent, his response was heartfelt: “Son, you can do a lot of things well, but being a preacher is not one of them.”

I couldn’t disagree. Public speaking had never been my strong suit. I had a hard time imagining it myself: Jerry Daley, preacher. It was a strange thought! But then, it wasn’t my thought; it was God’s and it had come with unquestionable clarity. Ready or not, my path was set, and over the coming years I discovered how God’s voice would speak through me.