Thomas, Steven - 206880
EVAN 670-001
Prayer – The Timeless Secret of High Impact Leaders
Summary
Prayer is an aspect of the Christian life that is often overlooked by many
Christians that are often well meaning and desire to follow God. This is not an aspect of
the Christian life that should be neglected or avoided, as it is extremely important in
regards to maintaining a strong relationship with Christ and engaging in spiritual warfare.
It should be a significant aspect of any Christian’s life, especially that of a Christian
leader. Dave Earley addresses this important aspect of prayer in his book entitled Prayer:
The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. In this book, Earley explains the
importance of praying for those you serve as a leader, having them pray for you, and the
tremendous need for the leaders to have a consistent, vibrant prayer life. This paper will
summarize the book, will offer a critique and evaluation of Earley’s work, and will show
how the book can be personally applied to my life.
Earley spent time in researching the lives of spiritual leaders of the past and
present that within their lifetime made an impressive impact on the lives of many other
people. He specifically wanted to see what their respective prayer lives were like and
how they implemented prayer into every part of their ministry in order to have the
greatest spiritual impact possible. Earley found that each and every leader that he did
research on placed a hefty emphasis on not only their personal prayer life, but also their
corporate prayer life as well. Charles Spurgeon is quoted saying, “prayer is the slender
nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence.”1 Hudson Taylor, one of the most well-
known missionaries ever is quoted as saying, “It is possible to move men through God by
1 Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, Tenn: Living Ink Books,
2008, 3.
prayer alone.”2 These are two of the many quotes that Earley references in his book
about the importance of prayer.
Earley makes it quite clear throughout the entirety of the book that the main
example that we as Christians should be following is the example of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. Jesus, who was fully God and fully man made a point to spend plenty of
time in prayer. If Christ as man had a large commitment to prayer, then we as His
followers should also be committed to prayer. Mark 1:35 shows that Christ prayed early
in the morning and Mark 6:46 shows that Christ prayed late at night.3 Earley uses these
examples to exemplify the fact that Christ had an established prayer time and it is a
lifestyle that His follower should model as well. Earley makes sure to show the
importance of an established prayer time.
Earley also goes on to describe the necessity of great spiritual leaders praying for
those that he is serving. He gives the example of Moses passionately intervening to God
on behalf of the Israelites. The Israelites constantly gave Moses opportunities to
intervene on their behalf and Moses followed through. Moses’ prayer life was one of the
most powerful prayer lives ever referenced in Scripture. When Moses met with God, a
cloud would come down on the tent as an image of God meeting with Moses. Exodus
34:35 says that after Moses finished meeting with God, his face was so radiant that he
had to put a veil over his face in order to hide the change. He would keep the veil on his
face until he re-entered the tent to spend time with God again. The depth of Moses’
prayer life is a depth that all Christians should desire to have.
2
Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, Tenn: Living Ink Books,
2008, 4.
3
Ibid, 23.
Earley also illustrates the importance of Christian leaders training the people that
they are leading to pray for them. He gives countless examples of how pastors have
horrible sermons and then they end up having many won to Christ because there were
people praying for them during the sermon. Earley gives an example of John Maxwell’s
first ministry. Maxwell says that his ministry did not begin to explode until he
implemented the idea of having a prayer partner pray for his specific prayer requests of
the time. Maxwell explains that the personal prayer that he knew he received from an
older gentleman at his church helped the ministry to grow beyond his wildest dreams.4
Earley illustrates the serious matter that prayer is and how it is paramount to church
health with this section.
Earley spends a good portion of a chapter of the book explaining the necessity of
fasting and prayer combined. Fasting is a spiritual discipline that is even less practiced
than the discipline of prayer within the spiritual life. The impact of fasting for something
cannot be diminished though. When fasting, followers of Christ are showing the desire to
see big things from God. It is showing that the believer is actually committed to seeing
the Lord’s work done in his life or his ministry. The discipline of fasting coupled with
intense prayer is a vital aspect of seeing God change things in the ministry. Earley gives
plenty of examples of how prayer and fasting has helped many great Christian leaders
break through obstacles and have success in winning others to Christ.
Earley finishes out the book with explaining the importance of going through the
basic steps of Biblical prayer whenever one prays. Earley explains that there are certain
elements of Biblical prayer that are necessary to adhere to. God is by no means a
vending machine that we request something and He automatically gives us whatever we
4 Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, Tenn: Living Ink Books,
2008, 4.
want. He desires to have a relationship with us and as believers we need to have the
correct respect for Him and follow the guides that are set up in Scripture. In this respect,
we must be willing to go based on truth in regards to the way we pray. The book
suggests that the ACTS acronym is one that is useful in one’s personal prayer life. Earley
also suggests praying through the Lord’s Prayer at least once per day in order to
remember the correct perspective to have in regards to one’s prayer life. The Word of
God should always be the backbone of any spiritual disciplines that a believer has.
Critique and Evaluation
This portion of the paper becomes unique, due to the fact that the professor of the
class we are writing the paper for is the one that wrote the book. The book by Dr. Earley
was well-written and is a book that gives excellent examples and Biblical backing for
why prayer should be greatly emphasized in a Christian leader’s life. Earley makes it
clear within the book that it is important that anyone in a leadership position within the
Christian sphere should place a high emphasis on not only their own personal prayer life
but also the prayer life that involves the church or whatever type of ministry they are
leading. Earley gives examples from his own personal life as well as the lives of other
spiritual leaders that are well known and uses them to support the ideas and suggestions
he gives for spiritual leaders.
Within the book, Earley explains the influence that one’s prayer life can have on
his personal walk with Christ and the impact that it can have in the ministry that they are
leading. He gives the example of how Hudson Taylor was won to Christ and how prayer
had a direct relation to his salvation. When Hudson Taylor was seventeen, his mother
was visiting her sister. While she was there, about fifty miles away from where he was
at the time, she felt moved to lock herself in the guest bedroom and pray for her son’s
salvation. She felt led to not only pray for her son, but not to leave the room until she
was sure that he had been saved. Little did she know that her son was going to read a
gospel tract that day and end up giving his life to Christ. She received a phone call from
him that very afternoon telling her that he had surrendered his life to Christ. The prayer
of that one woman ended up being a catalyst to leading millions of people to Christ in
China, the country that Hudson Taylor ultimately ended up becoming a missionary in.5
This is one of many examples that Earley gives in his book about how prayer
ended up changing someone’s life and that individual ended up making a major impact in
the lives of others. This is an avenue that Earley uses in order to make the reader think
about his own personal prayer life and what can change with it, in order to make a greater
difference for the gospel of Christ. It is a good avenue to use in the respect that it can be
used to connect with the reader and for them to realize that anyone can use prayer to the
advantage that these spiritual giants did. In fact, the Bible backs that up as well. Elijah
was a man of great faith and he did many mighty things for God. One thing that he did is
he prayed that there would be no rain, and there was no rain for three and half years.
Then when he prayed for rain, plenty of rain came down. What should Christians do
when seeing this phenomenal work from prayer by this spiritual giant? Should they
shake their head and think to themselves, “Wow, Elijah was amazing, I wish I could be as
good he is and have as much spiritual impact as he did.” The Bible makes it crystal clear
in James 5:16-18 that this is not the case. James says that Elijah was a man with a nature
just like ours. If we have the same nature, we can expect to be able to pray in the same
manner and receive the same results.6 Earley uses plenty of examples of how Christian
5 Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, Tenn: Living
Ink Books, 2008, 47.
6
Dave Earley, Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders. Chattanooga, Tenn: Living
Ink Books, 2008, 124.
leaders have received answers to their prayers and that God has provided for them in
many ways.
Another thing that is mentioned in this book that is also of very high importance
is the fact that the spiritual discipline of fasting is vastly overlooked in the lives of
followers of Christ. The discipline of fasting is one that is necessary in some times of
need within the Christian walk. Earley gives an example of the time that he asked God
for four large prayer requests by the end of the month that he was in. The first thing he
did when he decided for asking for these things, was a three day fast. He then made sure
that he gave all of the requests over to God during that time period. He spent many hours
in intense prayer over those three days. And God delivered all four of his monumental
requests. The chapter on fasting is one that is challenging for any Christian due to the
fact that not many believers actually follow this spiritual discipline anymore. This
chapter was one that was vital to the book and was not by any means a waste of space.
As a whole, Earley wrote a book that is a contribution in an eminent way to the
Christian faith. Christian leaders can all benefit from this book. The one major concern
that I found with the book is that it leans heavily towards the answers to prayer that one
gets in the ministry. It does not mention many instances where prayers were not
answered, or the answer to the prayer was not what the Christian leader would have
wanted to see happen. While I understand the fact that this book is supposed to
encourage believers to increase their prayer life, it is also important to show them that not
everything actually ends up happening the way that one would want it to. There are a
vast sum of Psalms that are written by David that mainly talk about how it seems as if
God is not there and how he wants God to save Israel from the doom that is surrounding
them and the destruction that is imminent. David usually finishes these Psalms with
thanking God for the fact that He will eventually deliver them. In some Psalms, however,
he just expresses his anguish about the situation that he is in. There are also plenty of
instances where someone prays hard and long for someone to come to Christ, but that
individual does not end up coming to Christ. This is something that should also be
addressed in a book about prayer. It is important to make sure that Christians understand
what their response as believers should be in times where it does not look like God is
going to answer the request that one has. The response that Christians should have
should be one of understanding. Even though it is quite understandable to get angry with
God initially and even express that anger as David did it is also important to remember
that ultimately God is in control of the situation and we have to know that we have to
trust Him. This is one aspect of the book that I believe could have been improved on.
Personal Application
This book has many things that can be implemented into a personal application
within my own life. As always, my personal prayer life can improve. I don’t believe that
anyone will ever be as good as they need to be in their personal prayer life until they go
to heaven. I know for a fact that I won’t, because I end up getting myself so busy that I
don’t spend enough personal time in prayer. I also know that I need to be more proactive
in regards to having people that I know pray for me. The personal application that I can
take from this book is a two-pronged application.
The first part of the personal application that I can take from this book is the fact
that I need to spend more personal time in prayer. The plan that I had initially at the
beginning of the semester to spend a specified 15 minutes of prayer before bed in
addition to already spending other time in prayer has been consistent. I think that it is
now time to bring that up to 20 minutes extra. I will start doing that tonight.
The second prong of this personal application from the book will be implemented
in the way of finding two prayer partners outside of my hall to specifically pray for my
hall ministry next year. I have two friends that are graduating and leaving that I plan on
asking to keep praying for me for leading my hall effectively next year. I will touch base
with them on a weekly basis and let them know specifics of what to pray for. They are
both close friends and I know that they can be trusted with this task and will pray for me
consistently.
This two-pronged personal application should help me to be more intentional with
the prayer life not only for myself, but also for the ministry that I currently have as an
RA. The benefits of this should show up throughout next year and will hopefully lead to
new challenges and breakthroughs in my own spiritual walk.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
