“When you share your dreams with people who cannot envision more, their fearful comments can be discouraging. When people encourage you to live a life that yields less than what you’re capable of accomplishing, there’s usually a selfish motive. When the people closest to you try to confine your life to a small space, it’s typically not because they’re bad people or because they want you to feel like a failure. Most often they fear you will outgrow them and have no room for them in your life.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Most people are manipulated by the approval of others, the paycheck that supports them, and the lifestyle that has handcuffed them to the brass ring of perceived success. On this path we eventually live like slaves to a man-made system. We chase the goals of others instead of pursuing our own dreams. We anesthetize our despair with the next purchase, pill, or plunder.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Be strong enough to stand up again, even after haters make you drop to your knees.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Never make a permanent decision about a temporary situation.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“The Scriptures plainly show that this infirmed woman had tried to lift herself. People who stand on the outside can easily criticize and assume that the infirmed woman lacked effort and fortitude. That is not always the case. Some situations in which we can find ourselves defy willpower. We feel unable to change. The Scriptures say that she “could in no way raise herself up.” That implies that she had employed various means of self-help. Isn’t it amazing how the same people who lift up countless others often cannot lift themselves? This type of person may be a tower of faith and prayer for others, but impotent when it comes to his or her own limitations. That person may be the one whom others rely upon.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Destiny is the push of our instincts to the pull of our purpose. That push-pull is what keeps the sun, moon, and stars from crashing. It causes the seasons to change from planting to growing to harvest to dormancy. If that divine push-pull, known as gravity, accurately sets the galaxies and the seasons in motion, will the same principle—the push of instinct and the pull of purpose—not set your life in the right motion?”
―
T.D. Jakes
“You cannot partake of the power of Christ’s resurrection unless you are first willing to lay down your own will and desires, and die to all your pride and independence.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Do you have any idea who you have the capacity to become? If you were not bound by the confines of your mind, who might you become?”
―
T.D. Jakes
“both success and struggle are different kinds of trauma.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“to weakness if you’re fighting the wrong issue or the wrong person, or for the wrong reason.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Faith is the substance of whatever it is that we hope for. The important thing is that we teach that faith is connected to good works and responsibility.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Soon I was to find that people who had been creative at one stage of growth now seemed empty of ideas—and worse, they seemed not to notice that the ground had moved up under their feet! As I grew and encountered higher ideals and new goals, what had once been acceptable now seemed lethargic at best and lethal if ignored. You can’t take everyone with you just because they were with you where you were before.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“When you live your own dream, you don’t have time to be a hater.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Blame unto others only as you would first blame yourself.”
―
T.D. Jakes
“Unforgiveness denies the victim the possibility of parole and leaves them stuck in the prison of what was, incarcerating them in their trauma and relinquishing the chance to escape beyond the pain.”
―
T.D. Jakes