- [Narrator] Dr. Robert Jeffressis the pastor of a 13,000

member church in Dallas Texas.

But you might remember him when he prayed

for President Trump in the Oval Office.

Dr. Jeffress says wemiss out when we give up

on our prayer life.

In his book ChoosingThe Extraordinary Life

Dr Jeffress shares secrets onthe power of persistent prayer

and how we can experience dramatic answers

when facing impossible situations.

- Dr Jeffress joins us now.

Welcome it's good to haveyou on the Interactive show.

- Thank you Terry.

- Choosing The Extraordinary Life

and the person that you look at Biblically

as you define the potential for all of us

to have an extraordinary life is Elijah.

Why Elijah?

- Well for two reasons, Terry.

First of all the Bible says Elijah was

no spiritual super person.

He was an ordinary personlike you and like me.

He had doubts, discouragements,times of disobedience,

and yet God used this ordinary person

in an extraordinary way.

And the subtitle of the book

is Seven Secrets ForSuccess And Significance.

And I talk about those secrets

that Elijah's life manifests.

But the second reason I chose him

was because Elijah lived inthe time like we live in.

You know we say sometimesoh things are so evil,

so ungodly, how you can you really have

an extraordinary life?

Well if you think today is ungodly,

just look back at ninth century BC Israel

when idolatry and childsacrifice were prevalent.

So this book is written to say

you don't have to settle for the mundane

you can have a truly extraordinary life.

- There is hope forevery single one of us.

- Yes, that's right.

- You know most of uswhen we think of Elijah

think of the showdown at Mt Carmel.

And what do we learn from that?

Because I mean he really that was where

the rubber met the road.

He really laid it all down there.

- Well one of the secretsfor an extraordinary life

he illustrates is unleashingthe power of prayer.

Remember James said in James Five,

the effective prayer of a righteous person

accomplishes much.

And in the next verse James uses Elijah

as an example of that person.

And you know what is interesting,

when Elijah prayed that 62 word prayer,

the fire of God fell down from Heaven.

And I talk about it in the book.

Three principles we can learn from Elijah

about praying powerfully.

First of all pray honestly.

Don't pray what you thinkshould be in your heart,

pray what's actually in your heart.

- Do most of us do that?

- No we don't.

We think we can keep things from God.

We're fearful of really

- We say what's right.

- So pray honestly.

Secondly pray boldly.

You know so many of ushave a case of blessitis

in our prayer life.

Bless this, bless this,

we don't wanna ask God forreally specific things.

But Elijah teaches tosee God do big things,

pray for God to do big things.

And then finally, pray persistently.

Later on First Kings 18,

Elijah later on prayed for rain.

He had to pray seven timesbefore the rain came.

Now I've often thought Terry,

what if he had given up the third time

or the fourth time.

Don't pray when the answer seems easy.

Pray when it seems impossible.

Don't give up praying.

- [Terry] And keep on.

- Yeah keep on praying

until God answers one way or the other.

- There is power in prayer.

I mean obviously we seethat in Elijah's life.

But I think a lot of usgo through life hoping

instead of praying.

But praying is the key isn'tit to opening the door.

- It is because James said

you have not because you asked not.

And look there is no nameit and claim it promise.

I mean before you claim it,

be sure God has named it.

But there are some things God has named

and we don't appropriate them

because we don't have thefaith to ask for them.

- Talk about prayer inyour own family's life

because you have some examples

that you share in the book that are

- Well that's right.

I mean I think about praying big things.

My daughter Julia and her husband Ryan

they had three miscarriagesover a period of several years

and they started topray for something big.

They prayed that Godwould send them triplets.

One life to replaceevery life that was lost.

And I remember thinkingJulia don't do that.

- [Terry] Let's make it hard for God.

- We don't have triplets in our family

and you're gonna be disappointed in God.

Now that's how much a man of faith I am.

And Julia was the one who said to me,

Dad, if you wanna see God do big things

you have to pray big things.

Last December they gave birth to triplets.

They've been on your show here before.

- [Terry] Unbelievable.

- They're an amazing answerto the power of prayer.

- When we pray specificallylike Julia and it's Ryan, right.

Julia and Ryan did Godseems to honor that.

It's like he enters into the process

because he's put the dream

in our hearts to begin with right.

- That's right and againyou look at Elijah.

He prayed for the fire to come, it did.

He prayed for it to rain, it did.

He prayed for a widow's sonto be raised from the dead,

and that actually happened.

And again First John 5:14

this is the confidence we have in him

that if we ask anythingaccording to his will

he hears us.

All of those requests are withinthe boundary of God's will.

And you know as I look backTerry in my prayer journal,

I'm grateful for powerfullyanswered prayers.

But I can honestly say I amjust as grateful for the things

God said no to.

- Oh how many times have I thanked him.

- Oh I mean I think whatcould have happened.

It would have been a disaster.

- Yes, yes.

- So to me faith andprayer is boldly asking,

but then quietly trusting in God's will.

- Yes, you know notonly was Elijah amazing

in his courage and hisboldness in his prayer.

He was very much like us

that he too got discouraged.

He too came to a place ofjust kind of curling up

in a ball and saying I can'tdo this or be this anymore.

- Right he went from themountain top at Mt. Carmel

to the valley of despair.

He said Lord take my life.

And one of the secrets I talk about

in Choosing The Extraordinary Life

is learning how to handle bad days.

- [Terry] Yes.

- Not how to avoid bad days.

We can't do that.

But by bad days,

I'm not just talkingabout 24 hour periods,

I'm talking about seasons of life

in which discouragementupon discouragement piles up

and Elijah illustrates how to handle that.

We have to take care ofourselves physically,

Elijah did that.

You know sometimes the mostspiritual thing you can do

is take a nap.

And Elijah slept.

Not right now, hopefully buteventually we'll use that.

He took care of himself spiritually,

but he also took careof himself emotionally.

You know Elijah left the cave.

Finally God said leavethat cave and go reconnect.

You know my friend David Jeremiah says

the only person who thinksyou ought to take time

off from church when you'regoing through a bad time

is the Devil.

He wants to isolate youand then destroy you.

- There's so much that's rich in this book

and I just wanna recommend to all of you.

Picking up a copy of ChoosingThe Extraordinary Life,

Gods Seven Secrets ToSuccess And Significance.

It's for all of us

and it's availablewherever books are sold.

Great to have you with us.

Thank you so much.

- [Robert] Thanks Terry.

- [Terry] Profound word.