Danny Gokey is like an espresso shot of encouragement! He’s with us discussing his life, his new song, and a moment recently when he took a “leap of faith.”
Catch hope & encouragement with Erica on weekday mornings from 5:00 AM – 10:00 AM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Erica:
SPIRIT 105.3. Is this Danny Gokey, one of my favorite people?
Danny Gokey:
This is Erica. How you doing?
Erica:
Oh, I’m so excited. I love when I get to talk with you. How’s it going?
Danny Gokey:
Oh, it’s going so well. It’s good to talk to you too as well. I enjoy it. Life is good. Dog ran away today, so that threw a wrench in, but we got him back. Praise the Lord.
Erica:
Wait, are we talking about Fifi, the new Gokey baby?
Danny Gokey:
Nope, she’s too little to run away. We keep her real close to us. I have bigger outdoor dogs that… I live on, 24 acres, so they love being outside and we put ’em in. We have a room in the house that we put ’em in the basement area, a walkup basement. But in the day my dogs are antonian shepherds and if you know anything about ’em, they love to roam. And so anyways, he ran away this morning, but gracefully, a neighbor brought him back. Praise the Lord.
Erica:
Thank God. Well, I know, I mean I cannot wait to dive into your new song here, but I have to first ask you about Fifi because how adorable was your daughter’s reaction? Can we talk about how Fifi came into the family?
Danny Gokey:
Yes. So, we were talking about getting a small dog. I’m not into really big small dogs. I typically like bigger dogs, which is why I have my big anatonins. But my wife and I talked about, I think my wife wanted another baby, so we settled for a dog because anyways, long story short, I can’t have babies anymore…
Erica:
I got you. Yeah.
Danny Gokey:
So now she’s talking about four years later I want another baby. I’m like, well honey, that’s have to be a miracle of God. So we got a dog and I think it’s satisfying the kids and my wife in a way where it feels like we have another baby in the house.
Erica:
Yeah, you want somebody to snuggle because when they start getting older and their feet get bigger, it’s like they don’t want that. They want to sit on the couch by themselves.
Danny Gokey:
Yes, they do. That’s absolutely right.
Erica:
Aw. Well, congratulations to you guys on Fifi, but also this song. Danny, I had a chance to listen to it this morning. I got you. And I got to tell you, I think it’s beautiful. My favorite line is, if I am your temple, God is already with us. He is already in us.
Danny Gokey:
Yeah, he’s already here.
Erica:
How can that change things for us, Danny, as we go about our daily lives, knowing God is in us,
Danny Gokey:
It gives us a confidence to… that statement, gives us confidence to be able to recognize that, hey, I’m not looking up in the sky trying to pray a prayer, hoping that somehow God hears. When we bow our heads, maybe we bow our heads because we’re praying to the God that’s already in us. The Bible says that Christ in us, the hope of glory. He lives in us. I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live not I, but Christ, what does he say? Lives in me. So no longer we deliver of disguise. We just bow our head and we pray to the Jesus living on the inside of us and saying, Lord, have your way. God, I know you’re the God of miracles. I have faith. There’s a confidence there because many times when we feel unsure that God hears our prayers, it puts us in a place of doubt, and where the enemy can steal our confidence and keep us from having faith. And faith is the one thing that opens doors, that moves mountains, that heals the sick. Faith is very important.
Erica:
And you talk about how God is present with us through every season in our lives, and one of the things that the Bible says over and over in different ways is there is joy and strength in God’s presence. So, how would you describe what that feels like to somebody who maybe has never experienced that before? Just sitting with the Lord.
Danny Gokey:
I mean it’s an incredible, a lot of times it can be a feeling, but a lot of times feelings come and go. The assurance comes from resting in the word of God. People don’t understand. There is such a power in resting in God’s Word because what’s more powerful than what we would say as a feeling of peace or a feeling of joy. It’s the assurance that joy is there and we receive it. I had a friend, my chiropractor, he was saying one time he was asking the Lord for joy because he just didn’t feel joyful. And he said, the Lord spoke to someone so unexpected. He said, joy is already in you. And when he had that perspective change, just like that, when we said, if I’m your temple, then you’re already here. When you have a perspective change, you receive it, as opposed to waiting for a feeling and a feeling comes and goes.
And so, there’s two ways to really process that. As first you have the feeling of God’s presence, but then you have the word which is the assurance of God’s presence, which is stronger because that’s how Jesus slept in the boat. When the disciples were freaking out, His presence was already there, but they didn’t receive the Word like Jesus did that his presence there where he could sleep in that boat. It’s a different level when you mix the word and the word begins to create your reality, which is the feeling of his presence and the feeling of joy and the feeling of peace in the midst of trial.
Erica:
Oh, I love that so much. He is with us Emmanuel. We sing about that at Christmas, but then sometimes the rest of the year, we have to remember, we have to force ourselves to remember. I read recently, there’s a new study that says that if you feel lonely, that’s not uncommon. Half of us in the country are reporting that we feel lonely. But if you read your Bible, that feeling drops by 30%. And it’s because, Danny, am I right? When you open God’s word, we’re reminded. That’s right. He’s right there. He’s not far away.
Danny Gokey:
And I think what don’t, that’s such a beautiful statement, and I didn’t know that. But opening the Bible, that’s an incredible statistic. But it goes back to the power of the Word of God and how much we don’t realize that words do create our, how should I say this? What we believe creates our realities. So, the word of God is the truth. And when you embrace the truth, it sets you free. So, being set free is not waiting for some kind of mysterious feeling. Being set free comes by believing his Word, and your body response to that word and peace comes in. I dunno if this makes sense. Yes. There’s such a power. What is a word? A word is a capsule with an image in it. And if you’re, when you think of taco, what do you think? You see a taco right there. But when David said, I’m strong in the Lord and the power of his might or Paul said that, and we receive that, it creates that image on the inside of us, which dispels anxiety, dispels worry, dispels fear, and stabilizes us.
Erica:
Boy, do we need that right now in this crazy world. Danny, we are planning a very special leap day show. And so, I wanted to ask you, before I let you go here, would you share a story about a time in your life when you took a leap of faith?
Danny Gokey:
Man, when I got to go back, there’s been many leaps of faith. There’s been times… So there’s been times. Even this last week I was at this conference, and I believed I was supposed to give this certain amount of money to this ministry. And at this time, the Lord’s having me build this ministry here. And I’m like, Lord, right now what we’re doing to my staff, I have to really trust you to give this money somewhere else besides what you’re having me build right now. I think a long story short, a man came up to me after the service. It was just at the providence of God and he said, the Lord spoke to me to give you this amount of money. And then he said, he spoke to me again. He said, I want you to double that. And it was double what we gave. It was double what we gave that night, and I was blown away because I just like, man, God, you’re faithful to your earth. That was a leap of faith to say, you know what, God, I got to trust you. And one of the best ways to trust you is build someone else’s ministry because that’s how I know that you’re building my ministry. If I don’t do it in my effort, in my own strength.
Erica:
Danny Gokey, thank you for building us up every day, for encouraging us and giving us hope. You are amazing, and God bless you and your whole family, including Fifi.
Danny Gokey:
I love it. Erica, it’s such a joy to talk to you. Thank you for always having me on once in a while. I love getting to talk to you, and so …
Erica:
It is something I look forward to every time you’re like an espresso shot of encouragement. So God bless you, my friend.
Danny Gokey:
Amen. Thank you, Erica.
Erica:
Take care.
Comments