Prayer, I think, is our greatest weapon before we ever open our mouth and begin to put our opinions out there.

Prayer and working with God and being led by the Spirit are going to be intensely needed right now.

Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. When life deals a tough blow, it can be challenging to know where to go next.

Perhaps the plans you've been working toward have been blown out of the water, or maybe you're experiencing loss that has made you wonder how to move forward.

When it feels like nothing makes sense in our lives anymore, all we can do is continue to show up and look for what God has next for us.

Musician Danny Goki was encouraged by his wife to try out for American Idol, and while they worked toward that moment, she unexpectedly passed away.

And Danny wasn't sure how to move forward.

Minister Hosanna Wong lost her father at 18 and longed to follow his legacy and help others learn of God's love.

But realized that it would take being present for others and really showing up in their lives to be able to live out her faith in a way that was authentic and compelling.

Let's start with Danny's story.

Hey, I'm Danny Goki, and I'm an artist, songwriter, and a father, a husband, and a father to four children.

I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Grandpa was a pastor. He passed out of church, so we, at a very young age, were introduced to the gospel, which I actually really appreciate.

I have four sisters and a brother. My dad was a blue collar worker. Mom would babysat kids in the neighborhood, and so we always had a house full of kids.

Most of my childhood and my teenage years, I had to be pushed in a gentle way to sing, because I had no desire to do it.

Parents would make us sing, so I think they weren't forcing on us, but it was just like, hey, we're going to sing. Let's work on harmonies. Let's do this.

So you just do it, and you enjoyed it. I think a little bit.

Then I met a youth pastor at my church who he must have saw the gift in me because he would really try to push me to sing solos in front of the church.

And do duets and trios with him and another guy. We'd sing a lot of Philips Craig and Dean's song because it just fit three male vocalists singing together.

It must have been in my youth group years that I started getting a hold of it, and I think a big part of it was when I was asked to be the worship leader, because the youth pastor that had pushed me to sing, and he ended up leaving to another, taking another ministry job somewhere else.

And we had no one to do it, so I started doing it, and I started actually loving it around then. That must have been around 18, 19 years old.

So that's when I really got started, and then I went to a new church in town after some time. I think I was 20, and I fell in love with their music program.

And once again, the pastor pushed me again, because I just wanted to be a background singer. I loved being a BGV singer.

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