 it's a new season and it is a fresh start and we are excited to have that fresh start with you on Hope Today. I'm Amy Schaefer. I'm here with Tom Hollis, the one and only who can hardly turn his neck right now. I know I can hardly look over there because it's the first of the new year and guess what I did? Gina and I went down on January 1st the holiday. We went down and joined the fitness club, right? Joined the gym. It worked out yesterday and I'm all sore. If I like, raise my, I can't raise my arm or something, you know, it's, but you know, that's what everybody does. It was pretty crowded. You bought in and sold out to the gym membership. So let's like, let's like make a bet here. Just me and you is Tom going to go once a week, twice a week, five times a week. What does that look like? Gene, just ask me that. Yeah. And what would Gene do? I said like four or five times a week. I mean, you know, in the summer we're biking all the time, you know, but you don't do that in the winter. So I'm not in the north here. But you know, with it being a new year, we all make different kinds of resolutions or at least promises to our self of what we would want to do. Well, for Christian people, prayer is always one of those things. We all say, don't you say that Amy? I want to pray more. I'm going to read my Bible more. I'm going to pray more. I'm going to hear from God more. I'm going to play worship music more. Well, coming up, Pastor Frankie Mazapika is going to be with us and he's talking about igniting your life, 14 powerful things that happen when you pray. So we're going to be talking about what are those 14 things that happen? It's going to be an incredible encouragement for you and for me to pray. I don't know if it's going to be incredible for encouragement for me to exercise more, but it's going to be encouragement to exercise my spirit more in praying and believing God and seeing God move in these 14 powerful ways. People are frustrated, burned out, weary, exhausted, confused. And the key is the answer is prayer, walking, talking with God. And it's not a boring thing. It's not a drudgery thing. That's why I like this title. It's something that will ignite you. So it is going to be a great conversation today. But first, before we get into all of the great talks, we have to do stump the host. All right. Our theme is prayer. You're going to make me think. No, like the first live show of the year and you're going to make me think. And Tom, the pressure is on because this is just you and I. How were the Thessalonians told to pray? They were told to pray without ceasing. Yes. Yeah. That's always, isn't it? Talk about a challenge though. Yes, because there's a lot of scriptures on prayer. And the prayer without ceasing, I like to not stop praying. Yeah. That's a great one. So here we go with the second one. So play along with us. I know you can answer them out there. Who prayed? Lord, I pray the open His eyes that He may see. Jesus, Lord, I pray the open His eyes that He may see. The chariots, was it Elisha or life? Oh, just see that they weren't. Yeah, that they weren't. Okay. Yeah. So Elisha, I'm going to say, I think it's Elisha. Oh, good. All right. Okay. We're two for two so far. I thought it could be when Jesus was praying. So thank God you were here for Elisha. Okay, here's our last question. At which battle were the Israelites defeated because Joshua didn't pray first? Okay, wait, I need to read that again. Which battle were the Israelites defeated because Joshua didn't pray first? This would be AI, right? Oh. Or I always say AI. I guess it's not the right way to pronounce it, but I always say AI. Well, you know, they had just defeated Jericho and then they went to this little town AI and they're like, we're going to knock them over like nothing. I do not know this one. I think that we'll go with AI. All right. All right. Way to start the new year. You knocked it out of the park of this one. Oh my gosh. That's fun. That is fun. I mean, it could be a little embarrassing. I know. If we sat here and just stared at each other, you know, well, you know, again, a great way to start the new year. And, you know, we all want to start the new year well. And one of the many ways that we can strengthen our relationship with God, that's something we all want in the new year, right, is through the power of prayer. And when we pray, we draw on a personal intimacy with God that he so desires for us. He wants that so much with you. Well, and Pastor Frankie Mazopika's new book, Ignite Your Life, 14 Powerful Things That Happen When You Pray, he shares how your prayer life can be transformed like never before. Pastor Frankie, it's great to have you back on Hope Today with us. Happy new year. Happy new year to you too. And let me just say, I'm cheering for you. I mean, that getting a gym membership. Oh my goodness. The first step, right? The first step. So I'm cheering for you. Yeah, well, you know, again, if I lock up here or something, you'll understand what's going on. But after all that laying around during the holidays, you know, it's a new start. But again, so good to be with you and to have you with us and so good to talk about this power of prayer. Why do you, I mean, why do you write this now? Why is this an important subject right now? Well, I tell you, you know, you guys kind of hit the nail on the head just a few moments ago is we all know we need to pray. But oftentimes there's like this knowing, doing gap, right? We know we need to do it. And but we're not doing it. And so it's like this knowing, doing gap. And so the whole purpose of the book, you know, the subtitle is 14 things that happen when you pray. The whole purpose of the book is to say, Hey, when you pray, this is what's happening. And the thread throughout the book is that it short prayers are powerful prayers. Now, naturally, an appointment with God is of paramount importance. Like we need to have that time when we shut the door behind us and we pray. And the secret for my prayer life when I do that is I set my phone alarm, right? And I say, Okay, I'm not going to come out of this prayer time until my alarm goes off. And so many of the listeners right now, if you don't do that, and your appointment with God is not a regular thing, set it for 10 minutes, set it for 15 minutes and put it on airplane mode, right? And I always have like a sticky where I write down anything that comes to my mind just so I can get it out of my mind. And what you find over time is that you can pray longer, you'll set that alarm longer, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and much more than that. But the whole book is to say, Okay, this is a massive priority. This is what's happening while you're praying. And not only is that anchor appointment with God of paramount importance. And a lot of times we say, Okay, I don't have time for that. But at the same time, we can always get up a little bit earlier, right? We can always go to sleep a little bit earlier and then wake up a little bit earlier. But then to just thread our day with short prayers. I mean, that is a powerful thing. So Smith Wigglesworth said it like this, I don't always pray a half an hour, but a half an hour doesn't go by without praying. And so that was the entire purpose of the book. Well, I love that you keep a little pad to write down when you're reminded, because every time I do that too, because when we started praying, I had a friend in ministry who he would say that all the time. If he was forgetting something, he knew he had to remember he'd go to prayer and always remember it. So you just need to set those things aside. But let me ask you about something else. I'm fascinated by this subject about hearing the voice of God, because it's such an important aspect of intimacy to actually have a conversation with God. Can you just open that up for us a little bit? Absolutely. You know, the three most common ways that people hear from God is, is first of all, when they're reading the scriptures, and all of a sudden a scripture pops out and they go, oh my goodness, like that's for me. And in full transparency, when I read the scriptures, by the time I get to the bottom of the page, I'm asking myself, okay, what did I just read? Okay. And so what I continue to do that, right? I'm just like, okay, this can't be an excuse. So I'll just kind of pound through it. But my secret is, is that when I come across a verse that I just go, okay, that just came alive to me, I'll write it down. And whenever I'm praying, I'll go over this list of scriptures that came alive to me. And my goal is to memorize those scriptures. And so, you know, over the years, I've been able to memorize quite a few scriptures, quite a few pages. But when the Word of God just all of a sudden you just go, wow, like that was for me. That's the first way. The second way is when someone else is speaking, when we're having a conversation like this, for example, where you're talking, I'm talking, we're just having a conversation. And then you say something and I'm just like, okay, the light just came on. I needed to hear that. I mean, it just made my spirit excited and encouraged. And that's always the voice of God. Anytime you feel discouraged from a thought, that's never from God. Anything that pulls you down is a voice from the enemy pulling you down. But anything that makes you feel encouraged, that's a voice from above pulling you up. And so the first way is from the scripture. Second way is when someone else is talking to you. And then the third way, and this develops as you spend time with the Lord, I like to call it a flash of a thought where you're trying to thought wasn't even going in that direction. And then all of a sudden there's just this thought. For example, this morning, when I was getting ready to come to the office, but someone that's special in my life, just all of a sudden they just crossed my mind. And so I made a no. I was like, I wasn't even thinking about them just a moment ago. But at some point today, I'm going to call them and just say, hey, and talk with them and just see how they're doing. So these are flash thoughts where and sometimes it's just you become aware of the presence of God around you. I don't know where you just become aware. And that's the Lord saying, hey, I'm right next to you and I love you. And then in that moment, he just spoke to you and you just say, you know, I love you too. So once again, just in quick summary, and when the word of God speaks to you, when someone else is talking to you, and then when you have this flash of a thought, you know, those are the three primary ways where we hear from God. Oh, I love this conversation so much. And Frankie, in your new book, you give us 14 powerful things that happen when we actually pray because I think some people think, well, I prayed, but I don't know. It didn't feel powerful. So I want to start off by that very first truth, prayer turns the tide of your battle. And I love the scripture that you quoted Psalm 56, nine, the very day I call for help, the tide of the battle turns. I love that verse. That's why I had to just put it in the first chapter straight away, because to your point, when we're praying, it's very rare where we are having a conversation with God and we're like, okay, this is a powerful moment. Right? So I mean, that's incredibly rare. But as we begin to talk with him, your faith begins to rise and you say, okay, this doesn't feel like a powerful moment. But I know that I'm being heard. And I know the presence of God is with me. And when you quote that scripture over and over again, Psalms 56, nine Psalms 56, nine, the very day you call for help, the tide of the battle begins to turn. And if you just kind of think that you're in this protected ship, if you will, and the Lord is protecting you, but you're in this big battle. Well, every single time you pray, every day, the very day, the ship that the Lord is guiding with his finger just begins to turn against the tide. And pretty soon, and if you've seen these big cruise ships, it just begins to push right through, cut through the tide. And that's exactly what happens the moment we start praying. And what we find is sometimes we see the tide change that very day or the next day or that week, or sometimes it takes a little while to see that tide turn. But the very day that we call, that begins to happen. And if we don't call on him, it's such a scary moment because what we're opting to do is just to kind of grit and grit our teeth and wait for it to pass. And sometimes it takes so long for the battle to pass, whereas it could have passed so much quicker if we would have called on the Lord. And so I thank you for bringing up that first chapter, because that one resonates with all of us. We know one of our favorite stories as we were growing up through Sunday school was Daniel and the Lions, Dan. And you have a chapter that prayer shuts the mouth of lions. So I want to ask you, what are the lions? I mean, I know what Daniel's lions were. They were lions. What are the lions in our lives? So I love talking with you guys because this conversation just, you know, it lifts me up. And I hope it's doing the same for the viewers. But when Daniel was in the Lions, then those were physical. Those were animals. Okay. And when Daniel got thrown into the Lions, then and if you read, you know, the commentaries and the theologians, it was like a cistern. There was like a hole in the ground like like a sewer, if you will, that like that circle on the ground. And they would lift up or push away this massive boulder. And they would throw them into this hole that landed into like a below the ground cave. So when they threw them in there, naturally the Lions just started screaming. And when we're at the zoo and we hear it and we're, you know, 75 yards away, it's it's it's frightening. But imagine being in that cistern in the sound just bouncing off. It was so frightening. But then the mouths of the Lions were closed and we're not fighting animals anymore. What we're fighting the types of lions that we're fighting come from two primary sources. Number one, it comes from the beast himself that prowls around like a lion, seeking who he may devour. And it's his voice talking to us, discouraging us, condemning us. And when we pray, the Lord begins to close the mouth of that lion. You know, it's so hard to block out these thoughts. It's so hard. In fact, it is impossible to close the mouth of that evil lion without praying. It's impossible. But when we pray, it closes and then the second lion would be people, people that speak to us that just tear us down, that discourage us. And I'll tell you that there's there's no lion more fierce than the lion you see on a regular basis at work or someone you see outside of work, but they're just a part of your life and there's nothing you can do about it. And so what the Lord says, Hey, call on me, I will close their mouth. And sometimes he'll move us from people who tolerate us to people who celebrate us. But if we get into an argument with a person who's tearing us down, those type of lions, we may argue with them for the rest of our life. But the Lord says, I will close their mouth. And you know, it's it's such a comforting thought. Frankie, how has prayer changed your personal life? And how will it change and transform our lives? So what I love about the Lord is that it's have you ever seen those those presents where you open up a present and then there's a smaller box inside the present and then you open up another one and then so on so forth. It just gets it is. But with the Lord there there's no stopping of the discovery of gifts. And and I would say of the top of the list, which should be our driving force for and there's a list that I'll mention. I'll mention, excuse me, I'll mention them in just a moment. But at the top of the list is to experience the presence of God. And so often we talk about that. But we will only talk about it and hear about it. If we don't pray, we never experience it. And once you experience it, you're ruined for life. And that that moment of experiencing it, most often it's this moment that is so full of peace that now time just you look at the clock and you go, Oh my goodness, I can't believe I just prayed that long. Time is it's off the table. And you just want to stay in his presence and you experience a comfort and a peace that you've never experienced before. And so that's why we pray is to be close to him. And once you feel you're ruined, you're ruined for life and you live the rest of your life being a God chaser. But secondly, is he begins to equip you for the battle. We are in a battle every day we wake up in Genesis four seven. It says that there's a beast sitting outside of our door waiting to devour us in these enemies, these spiritual enemies, they don't take a day off. Right. And so what the Lord says is look Psalms 347, there's an angel above your head that will deliver you. And so this is why we pray first of all to be close to the Lord. But secondly, to let him fight our battles for us. And those are only two and I could share many more. But this is this is the refuge that we find in him. Pastor Frankie, it is a new year. It is a new season. It is a new time. And I highly recommend it for all of you out there to read Ignite Your Life, 14 powerful things that happen when you pray. Pastor Frankie Mazepika, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Absolutely. And let me just say this, if they if they order it today, the 14 things represent if you read a chapter a day in the first two weeks of this year, you'll be strengthened. And that's why we picked 14 things. That is a great, great plan, great way to start the new year. Again, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. Oh, fantastic, fantastic discussion and fantastic plan for the new year, right? Well, we want to go now to the glory hour with Sidney. Watch this. Hey, family, it is a new year, new you. Happy 2024. Hope you rang in the new year right with Jesus, with your family, with some snacks, some treats, however, God had led you to celebrate bringing in 2024. And just want to ask you this, are you one of the many hoping to turn your resolutions into reality? Well, you don't want to miss my upcoming conversation with Pittsburgh based purpose coach, Joanie Bakum Robinson. She's all about helping people like you and me manifest our goals so we can be all God has called us to be and laying it down at the altar and surrendering. You don't want to miss it. It gets deep, but it's good for our spirit. So we can be the best versions of ourselves. And I don't know if y'all heard about this, there's a controversy over the way a church in Atlanta decided to turn up in the sanctuary by swag surfing. Y'all know about swag surfing? Maybe not. Well, we're going to get into it. I'm going to share my thoughts because it has gone viral. There's a lot of talk about it. Is it right? Is it wrong? But we're going to get into it. Plus the top New Year's resolutions for 2024. I want to see where you fit into the category. Did you make one or not? What's your New Year's resolution? Is it eating right, dieting, exercise? I want to hear all about that. Well, all that and so much more is coming up on the glory hour. So we don't want you to miss it. Be sure to tune in on YouTube on Cornerstone Intelligent Network's YouTube channel at three PM and it's still streaming all day. So if you can't catch it at three, make sure you catch it later. Be sure to follow, subscribe and like it so you can stay in the loop with the glory hour. I love you, my glory brothers, my glory sisters, and I'll see you on the glory hour. And I hope you do see Sydney on the glory hour. She is she is in her element doing this new endeavor from the Lord. So be sure to see that on our YouTube channel. And in order to have the glory in your life, we have to go to the scripture to the word of God. So let's look at Philippians four, six through seven talking about prayer. This is a favorite. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. And then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. I mean, this is what we need right now. We need to not worry about a thing. We need to take it to the Lord. Tom, I just underlight, I feel like the scripture has like a system in it. Like this is what you do to win. This is what you do to have peace. So starting off the new year, don't worry. Number one, pray about number two, tell God number three, and thank him for all four things that I believe you can walk into that peace of God. So many times, I think, Tom, we try to take matters into our own hands. We try to solve big problems ourselves in our own little finite mind. But God who is infinite in wisdom and grace and mercy will give us divine revelation, thoughts, breakthroughs. So this is a great time to take this spiritual literally. Well, I think that that word says here in my Bible says the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension in the King James. It says peace that passes understanding, that peace that passes that alliteration there is always stuck with me because it does. We, as Amy just said, we have these small finite minds and we try to figure everything out. You know, I've kind of done giving God advice. You know, God really does know what's best for us. And, you know, obviously we're going to make our request known to God, but we are going to trust him because our finite minds can't see all the angles and the things that he can do on things, all the pathways that he can bring across our path. But that gives us when we trust him with it, that's the peace that passes understanding. That's a piece that goes beyond the finite mind into the thing that God really wants to do in our lives. I love an illustration that Frankie has in his book about the Greek Titan in New York City, a statue that's standing there with the world on his shoulders. And then you go into a church and there's a statue of Jesus with the little baby Jesus with the world in his hands. And I think we need that picture today that he is the one, he is the creator of the universe. He created you. He formed you. He created your family, your job, the earth, the people, the government. And you know what? He is bigger than anything and everything and we can trust him. That's why we can take this scripture and not worry and pray about everything and thank him. Absolutely. And so here's 2024. It's come upon us, right? It's a new year. It's a great time to start thinking about God. What do you want to do? You know, we all do this, I think, is what do we want to do in this new year? What does God want to do? Well, he wants to do something that is going to take us to new places in him most of all. So set your heart to seek God. Set your heart to pray. And when you seek him, you're going to find him and you're going to find his hope today as well.