Quotes from T.D. Jakes

Why am I here?" You may have asked the question as you found yourself in the midst of an amazing, divinely orchestrated opportunity, or you may have asked it in reaction to having made the worst mistake of your life.

Because we have offered no provision for sons and daughters who fall, many of our Adams and our Eves are hiding in the bushes.

Many people live in the waiting room, not because of God's unwillingness to promote, but because of their unwillingness to be faithful in their current life situation.

In a 2006 speech then-senator Barack Obama gave to a group of college students, he offered these sage words about success: "Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

What are you going to do with what you have been given?

Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.

Before you get to the place that is calling you, recognize whom you can talk to about your destiny and whom you can't. Dream killers will

preparation, and even your worthiness to live your dream. Their negative voices are always more than eager to offer an opinion. Often such disparaging commentary comes from those who have accomplished very little. They

Increase your capacity to receive what is destined to happen if you believe! If you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible. You may have to stretch yourself or enlarge your circle of associates. You may have to expose yourself beyond your comfort zone or speak when you are naturally introverted. Stretch yourself; it's worth it!

Instinct and purpose often operate like a marriage.

We are a microwave generation serving a Crock-Pot God.

we cannot allow past circumstances to abort future opportunity. If you have experienced loss in your life, God has a way of restoring things you thought you would never see again.

The slower journey allows time for maturity and experience to shape you into the person who comfortably fits into your destiny.

He wants you to offer hope to those being crushed and struggling to understand.

Never settle for less than God's best for your life.

Routines without ongoing assessment lead to stagnation and mediocrity.

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.

First, don't feed on drama. Stay calm. Horror movies are intended to be overly dramatic to entice your emotions. Notice, those who die in a horror flick are the ones who scream and freak out. They feed into the drama. When you are attacked on your Destiny journey, don't give in to that drama in your

When you leave the familiar and enter the unknown, your fear becomes refined by experience and hammered into tools of survival on the anvil of anxiety.

told them that you have to earn the right to be heard. People won't just follow you because you say so. They will only follow you when you have endured, developed, grown, and sometimes suffered.

The fact that God has exposed you to something is always a sign that it can be yours. God is exposing you so you can absorb Destiny in the deepest part of your soul. Breathe in, breathe in and believe and let God open the doors to Destiny through exposure.

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.

We may not like to admit it, but what if our crushing is necessary in order for our potential to be fulfilled?

Street cred is hard won and Destiny requires you to pay it forward. God helps you through hard times so you can help someone else.