- Well, if you've ever feltoverworked or underappreciated

and you've started to lose hope,

Robert Jeffress has good news,

he says God not only wants usto live an extraordinary life,

He's also provided aroadmap for doing just that.

- [Narrator] Dr. RobertJeffress is the pastor

of a 13,000-memberchurch in Dallas, Texas.

But you might remember him when he prayed

for President Trump in the Oval Office.

Dr. Jeffress says we miss out

when we give up on our prayer life.

In his book, "Choosingthe Extraordinary Life,"

Dr. Jeffress sharessecrets on the power of

persistent prayer, andhow we can experience

dramatic answers when facingimpossible situations.

- Robert Jeffress is here with us now,

and we welcome you back to The 700 Club.

- Thank you, Terry.

- Your book, "Choosingthe Extraordinary Life,"

takes a serious look at the life,

in the Bible, of Elijah the prophet.

And I found it so fascinating, because,

you know, in today's world, we think,

"Oh my goodness,everything's falling apart,

"the shingles are fallingoff the windows," (laughs)

and you say that in Elijah'stime, it was just as bad.

- That's exactly right,a lot of times we think,

"Well we can't live for God,we can't make a difference

"because this culture isso terrible," but listen,

our culture is nothing compared to

ninth century (laughs)

B.C. Israel.- [Terry] Yes.

A child sacrifice, idolworship, but you know,

it doesn't matter whattime you're living in,

any man or woman can livean extraordinary life.

And that's a life that's reallyconnected to God's purpose.

And you know, Terry, most people are

not living that kind of life right now.

Most Christians aren't.

I think about the Chicagosewer worker (laughs)

who was asked to describewhy he did what he did.

He said, "Let me see, I digthe ditch, to earn the money,

"to buy the bread, to get thestrength, to dig the ditch."

(laughs)- [Terry] Yes! Ah.

- And I think God has more for us,

and that's what this book is about.

I talk about the seven secretsfor success and significance.

- Well, I do think thatyou're absolutely right,

that it's so easy in life to get in a rut.

- Yes.- You know, to just keep on

keeping on, but God has anextraordinary plan for all of us.

Not just a plan for the world in general,

but for each of us individually,

and you strongly make that point,

that we can find that purpose.

- That's right, I mean, the foundational,

the first secret for discoveringthat extraordinary life

is discovering your unique

purpose.- [Terry] Yeah.

And I said, you know, Godhas a story he's telling

to the world about his loveand redemption through Christ,

but he also has a unique story he's

writing in your life,

- [Terry] Yes.- to tell his story.

We don't have time to go all through this,

but I use that word,story, as an acrostic for

the five principles for finding your

unique purpose in life.- [Terry] Yeah.

Let me just take two of those.

The O in story standsfor obey your passions.

You know, one of the best ways to discover

what God wants you to do, is ask yourself,

"What do you want to do?"

God has given uniquepassions in our lives.

I think about our friend Pat.

His interest in broadcasting.

His interest in politics, and in business.

That wasn't from Satan, that was from

(laughs) God.- [Terry] Yes.

For him to fulfill hisunique purpose in life.

So, obey your passions.

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delightyourself in the Lord,

"and he'll give you," What?

"the desires of your heart."- [Terry] The desires. Yeah.

- His desires become your desires.

And then the O stands for recognize

your gifts and abilities.

If God has called you to do something,

he'll give you the gifts to do it.

Philippians 2:13, God is working in you,

giving you the power andthe desire to do his will.

What do you do that comes naturally?

- [Terry] Hmm.

What is it that when youdo it, other people say

you were born to do that?

I give this little formula: theintersection of your passion

and your gifts equals God'sunique plan for your life.

- You also say that we have an opportunity

to influence our culture, and I think of

the culture that we're in today, and how,

just the lack of civility, and how do we

influence our culture ina positive way, Robert?

- Well, Elijah shows us how to do that.

I mean, he was in a wicked culture,

but he didn't become a spiritual sell-out,

like so many of the Israelites,who said the best way to

help the culture is to become like them,

- [Terry] Yes.- and they became

Baal-worshipers.

But he also didn't becomeone of these silo saints.

And Terry, I see thatamong Christians today.

They think, well the culture's so evil,

and I don't want to taint myself with it,

and I don't have a right

to speak to government,- [Terry] Right, Sure. Right.

(Terry laughs)- I'll just run to the church

in my holy huddle.(Terry laughs)

No, Elijah said, "I'm not gonnaidentify with the culture,

"I'm not gonna isolatemyself from the culture,

"I'm gonna influence the culture."

And that's what God's called us through.

Elijah went to government.

He went to evil King Ahab,and without stuttering

or stammering, he said,"Thus sayeth the Lord."

God's not just sovereign over the church,

he's sovereign over all creation.

- Once you get that, you'rewilling to take the challenges

and the chances that come (laughs)

with doing what Elijah did.

Talk about burn the ships. (laughs)

- (laughs) That's right.

You know, when I talk about thesecret of burning the ships,

that means being all-in for God.

And that came from, ofcourse, the story of

Hernan Cortes, the Spanish explorer,

he landed on the coast of Veracruz,

and he was going to take thecountry, for God and for Spain.

But he also knew therewere some challenges.

Between him and the capital city,

there were 200 snake-infested,cactus-filled miles,

and he knew at somepoint, his men would be

tempted to turn back in retreat.

And so, he told the men atthe beginning of the journey,

"Burn the ships."- [Terry] Yeah.

That means all possibilityof retreat was over.

You know, Elijah said that on Mount Carmel

to the Israelites.

He said, "It's time to decidewhether you're all-in or not.

"If Baal is Lord, servehim with all of your heart.

"If Jehovah is God, serve him.

"But you've got to make up your mind."

- You know, Elijah also prayed faithfully.

Talk about unleashing the power

of prayer and how we do that.

Is there a right way to pray?

- (laughs) You know, in James 5,

James says, "The effective prayer of a

righteous person- [Terry] Yeah

- accomplishes much,"and in the next verse,

he says, "Look at Elijah."

He's example A

of powerful praying.- [Terry] Powerful prayer.

- And, you know, just three things

I would say about that from Elijah's life.

First of all, Elijah prayed

honestly.- [Terry] Mmhmm

- I tell people, praywhat is in your heart.

Not what you think

should be in your heart.(Terry laughs)

God knows anyway, so be honest.

Secondly, pray boldly.- [Terry] Mmhmm

I mean, Elijah didn't pray,

"Bless this, bless this, bless this"

he prayed specifically and boldly.

He prayed for the fire to come

down from heaven.- [Terry] Big things.

- And consume the sacrifice.

You all were so kind tohave my daughter, Julia,

on with her triplets,- [Terry] Yes.

- You know, they went through

three miscarriages, andthey were heartbroken

over it.- [Terry] In a short period

of times.- [Robert] In a short period

of time, and so they prayed that God would

give them triplets, onelife to replace each

life that was lost, andI have to tell you Terry,

I thought to myself,Julia, don't pray that.

You're going to be(Terry laughs)

so disappointed, we don'thave triplets in our family.

That's what a great man of faith I am.

(Terry laughs)

But you know, my daughter said to me,

"Dad, if you're gonnasee God do big things,

"you need to pray big things."

And last December, Godblessed them with triplets.

- [Terry] Unbelievable

- And then finally, pray persistently.

Pray, don't give uppraying when the answer

doesn't come the first time.

Elijah prayed for rain forseven times before it came.

- And don't give up whenyou get discouraged.

Elijah got discouraged too.

- Sure, and that's why I chose Elijah.

I mean, he wasn't a spiritual

Superman,- [Terry] He was a real guy.

(Terry laughs)- He had doubts,

He had moments of disobedienceand discouragement,

yet, God took this ordinary person

and used him in an extraordinary way.

That's what we all desire, and that's

what this book is about.

- You know, we often say,upstairs in our little

team that we work with,that the power of one person

to make a difference is immeasurable.

Well, if you'd like to makea difference with your life,

you need to get a hold of Robert's book.

It's called, "Choosingthe Extraordinary Life:

"God's Seven Secrets ForSuccess and Significance."

I think you'll love it,it's available nationwide.

So good to have you with us.

- Oh, so good to be with you,- Thank you so much.

Beautiful.- Thank you so much.

- Thank you, great message.