(uplifting music)

- Jody Erickson Todd has said

it's arguably the most significant book

on prayer in modern times.

She says it changed herlife, and she's not alone.

Millions of people havetransformed their spiritual lives

because of Dick Eastman's prayer circle,

and now, he wants to make it available

to the next generation of believers.

Take a look.

(gentle music)

- [Announcer] DickEastman is the president

of Every Home For Christ,

as well as America'sNational Prayer Committee.

In his decades of ministry,

Dick's focus has always been prayer.

In fact, his Change The World seminar

has trained more than twomillion Christians worldwide

on the power and intimacy of prayer.

In his new book, "Talking with God,"

Dick explains his famous prayer circle,

which he calls the hourthat changes the world.

- And Dick Eastman joins us now via Skype.

Dick, welcome to "The 700 Club."

- It's great to be with you, what a joy.

- So tell us more aboutthis prayer circle.

Where did you get theidea for a prayer circle?

- Well, it came at a season in my life

when God just really called me to prayer.

And actually, I have to justsay, it was interesting,

someone gave me a cassette tape,

a Roman-Catholic arch bishop,

very well known years ago,Arch Bishop Fulton J. Sheen,

and he was talking aboutthe happiest hour of my day,

and I started to listen to it,

and he testified that for55 years, 365 days a year,

he had never missed having an hour

in the presence of God,and I started to cry,

'cause I knew I couldn'tsay that for a week.

And so something powerfulhappened in my life.

I was looking at readingMatthew chapter 26,

verses 40 and 41, where Jesus, of course,

had been in the garden with his disciples,

and He said when they were asleep,

"Could you not watchwith me for one hour?"

And I just said, "Lord,if you'll just help me,

"I'll not let a day go byfor the rest of my life

"without having an hour in your presence."

Well then I started to pray, and you know,

I prayed for about 10minutes, and I thought,

"Well this must be an hour gone by."

And I looked at my watch, andit was like 10 crummy minutes,

and I thought, "I need some help."

And the Lord lead me to Matthew 16.

And I mean, not Matthew16, Ephesians chapter six,

where it's a great chapter onputting on the armor of God,

but after you put on the armor, Paul said,

you take up the Sword ofthe Spirit, that's the Word,

which is the greatestweapon for us in prayer,

and then it says, praying always,

and with the translationI was reading said,

with all manner of prayer and in treaty.

And that's when I realized,

prayer isn't just asking forstuff, prayer is so much more,

and the Lord gave me 12 steps,

and we put them in to a circle

that's been copied probablybillions of times now

all over the world,

because if you just spend five minutes

in each of the 12 steps, you have an hour.

- Well let's talk about those 12 steps.

The first one is praise.

You begin and end with praise.

Why is praise so importantin our prayer life?

- Well praise, I say, visualizegoing in to a prayer room,

and the door you go in to is praise,

because really what you'rethere for is to talk with God,

you're there to meet with God,

and so you enter byacknowledging verbally who God is

through your praise, and then at the end,

when you come out of your prayer time,

just rejoice in him somemore with some more praise.

And so I really encouragepeople to consider that,

because you're really justenthroning God in your praises.

You know, Psalm 22:3 says,

God inhabits the praise of His people,

and the word inhabits meansHe's enthroned upon them,

and so I just encourageto start with praise

and end with praise.

- And Dick, you always haveyour Bible out during this hour,

because the Word of Godis one of the steps,

where we either read orlisten to the Word of God.

- Well yes, and I callthat five minute segment,

I refer to as Word-enriched prayer.

And you know, faith cometh by hearing

and hearing by the Word,

and so when we bring the Wordactually in to our prayers,

we're actually appropriatingfaith, that's what we're doing.

If you wanna say we're generating faith,

and so I can't ever imaginenot having an open Bible

during prayer, andturning to the scriptures.

I have one of thoseplans where you can read

through the whole Bible in a year

in just about 10 or 15minutes, as a part of,

so and that stretches theprayer time a little bit,

but you're bringing thegreat weapon in to prayer

when you bring the Word in to prayer.

- Well, when I was reading your book,

this line really hit me hard

about basically a prayerlesslife is a powerless life,

and I was like, "Whoa, I don't want that."

And I just absolutely lovethis book, it's called

"Talking With God, A PracticalPlan for Personal Prayer."

It's available wherever books are sold.

Dick Eastman, God blessyou, and thank you so much.

Wish we had more time.

But you gotta get this book.

Take care, God bless you.