Family Talk

Dr. James Dobson: You're listening to Family Talk, the radio broadcasting division of the James Dobson Family Institute. I am that James Dobson, and I'm so pleased that you've joined us today.

Roger Marsh: Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast division of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Roger Marsh. Prayer is at the very heart of our relationship with God. When I think about prayer, I'm reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, when he writes, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Now, you may have heard those words before, but they're worth returning to again and again, a simple reminder to keep prayer at the center of your daily life. Well, on today's edition of Family Talk, we're bringing you part two of a classic conversation featuring Dr. James Dobson and his good friend Dr. Dick Eastman.

For many years, Dr. Eastman served as a true prayer warrior and a chief prayer officer at Every Home for Christ, a global ministry that takes the Gospel door-to-door all around the world. Now, Dr. Eastman passed away this past April at the age of 82, ironically on what would have been Dr. Dobson's 90th birthday.

After a lifetime devoted to prayer and to introducing millions of people around the world to Jesus Christ, Dr. Dick Eastman heard those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And now he and Dr. Dobson are rejoicing together in heaven and looking down on the work that both of them were privileged to participate in here on earth.

The legacy lives on, and we are grateful to share this timeless discussion with you again today. Now, in the conversation you're about to hear, Dr. Dick Eastman and Dr. James Dobson share remarkable stories of answered prayer, along with practical wisdom to help enrich your own personal prayer life. So, let's join them now for part two of this classic conversation on today's edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.

Dr. Dick Eastman: It tells us in Romans that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word. I honestly think that the more you're in the word and you turn that into your prayers, it comes to a point where there is a trust that you know God so well in your heart that you know He knows what's best.

And so you don't really doubt. I don't even think of that. Something else that is related to this is people will sometimes say to you, "Do you ever lose your joy?" because the joy of the Lord is your strength. In some of the most trying of the things we've faced in family and circumstances, I can't remember ever losing my joy.

And that doesn't mean you're not—you can get discouraged and really discouraged, and then really disappointed in people, but even more so in yourself sometimes. But I do think that the more one, in just a plain discipline, meets with the Lord day by day at a set time, I mean, that's one of the greatest doubt killers that I can think of. Somehow it just strengthens your faith, and then, of course, you see answers to prayer.

And I don't have these kind of spectacular answers every three days. I told someone recently when I was doing some mentoring that when you've been in the battle for 50 years, all you need is a couple of good things happen a year and then you have 100 stories.

Dr. James Dobson: My favorite story about my parents and my father is that, and I've shared it before but some will not have heard it, my father was a soft touch. If you had a need, he would give you what he had. And as a result, he never had a whole lot, but he was so generous.

And he was an evangelist. Evangelists don't really have a lot of money because they have to drive, in those days, ride the train to some small church usually and then preach for ten days. And then on the last night, my dad would have noticed that the pastor and his family didn't have anything.

And so he would, the last night, give whatever money they had given him to a request for funds to buy clothes for the children of the pastor or something like that. And then he would come home. My dad would have been gone for two weeks. And I remember him coming in and my mother greeting him warmly and her arms were around him.

And it wasn't very long before she got around to asking, "How much did they pay you?" because women think about those things. And he smiled. He always smiled. And she said, "I know, you gave it all away, didn't you?" And he said, "Well, this pastor, winter's coming, they have four kids, they didn't have coats, and so I took up an offering for the pastor and I gave back what they'd given me."

And my mother would always say, I've heard her say it, "If that's what God told you to do, He'll take care of us." And very shortly after, we would run out of money. It always happened. And then we would go into my bedroom. I don't know why my bedroom, and I don't know why they closed the door, but they did.

And my dad would pray and he'd say, "Lord, You told us if we would be faithful with You in our good times, You'd take care of us. And we're out of money now. Would You take care of us?" I'm telling you, that was on a Thursday or Friday. I was just a little kid. And the next Monday, the mail came and there was $1,200 in there, which was half a year's salary.

I saw the Lord being faithful in that way throughout those childhood years. My faith was growing by leaps and bounds, and I saw that generosity pleases the Lord and it touches the lives of other people. And then He comes back. And He's done that throughout your whole life, hasn't He?

Dr. Dick Eastman: Oh, He has. I remember one time we had a need in the prayer corps for $500. Really urgent. And someone answered the front door, and I didn't know this was happening, and came in to me and said, "Dick, there was a man dressed all in white and he handed me this." And it was five $100 bills. And we rushed back to the front and looked up and down the street to thank him, and I couldn't see him. I can't say that that was an angel carrying U.S. dollars or not, but there are those memories you have that carry you through those occasions when it's like an exact amount. It's just amazing.

Dr. James Dobson: You see, we're talking to people who don't believe this, that they don't believe God answers prayer in that way. I'm telling you, He does. And I believe it. And you obviously do.

Dr. Dick Eastman: Yes. And one thing I'd say too about these amazing answers to prayer: over the years, I've learned if you keep on praying, you will have more amazing answers to prayer. I tell people that nine out of ten of my prayer times are the dullest prayer times anyone has on the face of the earth, and I always say to people, "Except for you, because I know you're going to tell me no, I hold the record."

But I don't go into prayer because I'm going to feel the brush of angels' wings or anything, but because I know the Lord is there. And I'm just going to do that every day. I'm going to take my Bible, I'm going to listen to what He says through His word, and then bring before Him the people I pray for, the needs. And that's the lesson I learned, is that you're just there. You're just there.

Dr. James Dobson: Well, the story you told has now reminded me of one that's precious to me. And I promise you this is exactly what happened. When we built the campus, we had not enough money really to do the whole job. And yet we made it. And we finished that first phase of the campus debt-free. We hadn't borrowed a cent.

But we had nothing left. Nothing left. And then when you know, we had a financial shortfall. People are generous at certain times of the year. It was October and we were really in need because I had nearly 1,000 employees at that time. And so Shirley and I came home kind of discouraged one day and we went to bed and we were both real tired.

But before we got in bed, we got down on our knees. We prayed an uninspired prayer. Have you ever done that? A prayer that was born of discouragement and you didn't really believe it yourself. And yet you said, "Lord, we have a need here."

And Dick, so help me, I named a person that I knew had money. And I'd never asked him for anything and I didn't then. I don't ask people for money. But I called his name to the Lord. I said, "Lord, he could help us. And I'm not going to talk to him. You talk to him."

And it was a short prayer like that. That was it. One week later, that man sent us $1,000,000 through the mail. And I don't think he's done it since. But tell me the Lord wasn't listening. When you get down to pray and you feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling, He hears you. He's there. He's in that room with you in that prayer closet.

See, that was my dad's life. He was a prayer warrior too. And he prayed sometimes three or four hours in a day. I don't even know what I would say to the Lord in four hours. I mean, maybe you do that, Dick. I have not had that kind of discipline. I have enjoyed a wonderful prayer life with the Lord, but this deep, concerted prayer, and the Lord talked to my dad during those times.

Dr. Dick Eastman: Sometimes I am asked the question because I've written on prayer and it's been so much a part of my life, of what's the most significant thing the Lord's ever really spoken to you. Instantly, I'll say it's Jeremiah 29 in verses 13 and 14.

Dr. James Dobson: "I know the plans I have for you."

Dr. Dick Eastman: That's the verses just before that. "I know the plans I have for you that are good and not for evil." But then He says, "And you will seek Me." And here's what happened. I was in prayer one day and I had my Bible open, was reading my Bible, and I came to that verse. And I read, "And you shall seek Me."

And I felt the Lord say, "Circle Me." So I circled Me. "And find Me." Circled Me again. "When you search for Me," circled it again, "with all your heart." And the Lord then spoke to me and said, "You've just circled the three most important words on the subject of prayer in the entire Bible. The essence of prayer is not how many answers you get, but how much of Me you seek, because I am your answer."

Now, that doesn't mean I don't pray for things very specifically. But when I go into prayer, it's to be with the Lord.

Dr. James Dobson: He did say, Paul said to "pray without ceasing," didn't he? What's he mean by that? You can't pray all the time.

Dr. Dick Eastman: Well, I'm glad you asked that because that was something I really probed early on when I found out in the original Greek, you don't find it anywhere else in the Bible, that particular phrase. But in the common Greek at that time, it was a word like having a hacking cough.

And when you get up in the morning, if you have a cough, you don't say, "Oh, I'm going to schedule my coughs, maybe on my break at work, and at lunch hour I'll cough some more, and then I'll wait and not cough until the evening." No, you cough when you have to.

And so that phrase I really believe is that you're in a constant atmosphere. It's like Brother Lawrence, the 16th-century monk in that great little book, *The Practice of the Presence of God*. What happens in my life, I'll be driving down the road, I mean I've done it today, coming here, there was a man walking along the freeway and I just said, "Lord, I don't know what he's going through, but bless him."

So I was coughing. It was a prayer cough. In other words, the prayers just come. You're talking to someone and they share something with you and all of a sudden in your heart you're praying and maybe even offer to pray out loud with them. So praying without ceasing, I believe, is being in that state of attitude.

Dr. James Dobson: Attitude of prayer. Yes. You were telling me in my office before you came in about three homes that Every Home for Christ has purchased. Tell us about those homes and what for.

Dr. Dick Eastman: We have historically done campaigns all over the world saying we're not going to do one in the United States because there's too many churches. They should be doing it. And then the Lord spoke to us a couple of years ago that it was time to begin a campaign to reach every home in America.

And through a very interesting set of circumstances, the Lord led us to Washington D.C. In fact, I can tell you when it was. I felt we should go back and get a team to pray circles around the Supreme Court during the Hobby Lobby case. And so we did that.

And I was looking for a place to pray to meet near the Supreme Court, and someone said to me, "Well, you need to go to this place where there's a man named Dick Simmons who's had a condo there for a number of years and they pray." And so I called him and said, "Can we meet there?" He said, "Sure."

Well, then I found out that this building had five condos in it. And when I came home, I shared it with our leadership, I shared it with our board, and I said, "I believe God wants us to buy one of those condos and to have a beachhead of prayer in our nation's capital."

Here's an interesting thing. The condos are right across the street from the Supreme Court and physically attached to the ACLJ, you know, the American Center for Law and Justice with Jay Sekulow. He's our neighbor. And when I saw the ACLJ, instantly, I mean it was instant, the Lord dropped the acronym into my mind: ACPR.

CPR is when you bring something back to life. And the words came, "American Center for Prayer and Revival." And so we've already started now day and night prayer. One of these condos, by the way, we're getting ready to furnish it for senators and congressmen to come and pray together because we're literally like two minutes from the Hart Building and then right beyond that's the Rayburn Building.

Dr. James Dobson: You're right at the center of government.

Dr. Dick Eastman: And one of the things that's developed is we've printed a map for Washington D.C. of all the landmarks for people to do prayer circles around all these landmarks. And we've printed a guide and making an app now with passages of scripture for every landmark. And so we're going to be inviting youth groups to come, and you know they come to do tours and see all the sights, but why not do a prayer tour?

Dr. James Dobson: I know that you're concerned about this nation. Dick, how do you see where we are and what's happening in America?

Dr. Dick Eastman: It's a very, very troubling time. Very definitely because it doesn't—we use the expression "a no-brainer." For a believer that has any sensitivity, they can see things happening in our culture. At the same time, just in my Bible reading, I try to pray through the Bible, a few chapters each day to get from Genesis to Revelation in the year.

And I was just passing through Abraham and the issue of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Well, Lord, if You could just find ten. If You could just or 20." At first, He starts at 50 then it keeps going down. And I thank God first of all for things like the National Day of Prayer. I thank God for the people who are praying.

And I can tell you that right now I have hope. I have hope. You know, I have my Bible open, and I'm a Bible marker and I shade places.

Dr. James Dobson: I wish everybody could see that Bible. That's been around the block a couple of times.

Dr. Dick Eastman: It has. And the truth is that I pray for you and Shirley on a regular basis, actually every day. And I could show you this a little closer later, but this was a word the Lord gave to me for you so I could pray it.

Dr. James Dobson: For Shirley and me?

Dr. Dick Eastman: Yeah, it was actually August 9th, 2005, because it's written right there. And it's from the Message Bible. And the Lord said, "This is for Jim Dobson." And I began to read its verse 18 of Jeremiah chapter one in the Message, and it says, "Stand at attention while I prepare you for your work. I'm making you an impregnable as a castle, immovable as a steel pole, solid as a concrete block wall. You're a one-man defense system against this culture. Against Judah's kings and princes, against the priests and local leaders. They'll fight you, but they won't even scratch you. I'll back you up every inch of the way. God's decree."

And it's got our name in it. Oh my goodness. I've just handed him the Bible to show him. You know, Family Talk and the battle that we're all in, that came back to me and I'm glad I had my Bible with me here.

Dr. James Dobson: Dick, I know that you said you pray for us every day. It is an incredible gift for you to be praying for us. And you pray for so many others. You said earlier today that your list of people to pray for just keeps getting longer and longer and you haven't edited it, so.

Dr. Dick Eastman: Yeah, I've jokingly said you have to die to get off my prayer list. But it does mean your times of prayer extend. And I obviously can't pray for every key leader that ever, you know, I would think about. But when you mentioned earlier we were in that small group, there about five of us that just met from month to month, it was that occasion where you get to know someone and then you feel they're in a battle and I'm going to be a part of those who pray.

Dr. James Dobson: Those were very meaningful times for me. And those who are listening to us and maybe your faith is a little bit weak and you need a little help in fulfilling the kind of prayer life we've been talking about here today, getting together with other people who are also reaching out to the Lord, that's a wonderful thing to do, isn't it?

Dr. Dick Eastman: Oh, absolutely. That's why we have our staff come together every morning to pray because we know even as a ministry, we can talk about and encourage others, but we need to do it ourselves and it's always such an encouragement. I don't think there's a single time where you wouldn't feel lifted up and that you're carrying each other's burden.

Dr. James Dobson: You know, Shirley and we were having our morning prayer like that and we were sitting at the dinette table and we were reading the scripture. It just occurred to me that Christ is here in this room. And I welcomed Him. And I began praying to Him as though He were sitting in the chair next to me.

And I just said, "Lord, thank You for taking the time to hear us and to be here today. And You show us, You tell us what You want of us, and we will do our best to fulfill it." That's a great prayer to pray, isn't it?

Dr. Dick Eastman: I just remember you remind me of the lady who was describing her prayer life. Her friend asked her, "How do you do this every day?" And she said, "Oh, I just get up in the morning," and she was a widow. She said, "I put out two cups, pour a cup of coffee for Jesus, and then I pour a cup of coffee for me and then I just talk to Him." And then she said, "And you know, He always shares so much, He never has any time for His coffee."

Dr. James Dobson: That's funny. Well, He's here in the studio today, and He has been. Dr. Dick Eastman, my great friend and brother, the Lord is pleased with you. I can feel His power in your life and you're not done yet, are you?

Dr. Dick Eastman: Well, no. Thankfully, our bylaws don't say that they need to replace the leader when you turn 65, you know. And then the huge project for us is we're starting an every home campaign in America with the goal of mobilizing 60,000 churches to be involved because putting the country into zones, mapping out, we're working now on mapping out every of course every zip code, some 43,000 of those, and then every neighborhood to be prayed over.

Dr. James Dobson: Dick, it's been so good having you here. I just feel refreshed talking to you. You're a godly man and the Lord has used you dramatically in millions and millions of hearts and lives and in mine. Thank you. Thanks for being here.

Dr. Dick Eastman: Thank you.

Roger Marsh: Dr. Dick Eastman said it best when he reminded us that the essence of prayer isn't about how many answers we get, it's about how much of God we seek. What a fitting footnote to end today's broadcast on. You've been listening to a classic conversation here on Family Talk featuring Dr. James Dobson and his dear friend Dr. Dick Eastman.

If you missed any part of this two-day program, remember you can hear it again in its entirety when you visit us online at drjamesdobson.org. And by the way, if it's easier, you can also just type in jdfi.org. While you're there, you can easily share this broadcast with a friend or a loved one. You can get part one as well, and also learn more about Dr. Dick Eastman and the ministry of Every Home for Christ.

Now, if this conversation has stirred a desire to grow in your own personal prayer life, we would love to help you take that next step. And one place where prayer really does change things is in the area of marriage. The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute offers a 10-day marriage series designed for couples who want to draw closer to God and to each other.

Each day's entry brings a brief encouraging message that you can read together in just a few minutes. It's a simple way to invest in your marriage day by day. You know, as the old saying goes, the husband and wife who pray together, stay together.

To sign up for this free resource, all you have to do is go to drjamesdobson.org and search for the 10-Day Marriage Series. Again, you can find that information at drjamesdobson.org or if it's easier, just remember jdfi.org. They are one and the same.

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Well, I'm Roger Marsh, and on behalf of all of us here at Family Talk and the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, thanks so much for joining us today. Be sure to tune in again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love.

This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.