This has been a really challenging time for all of us because of this virus pandemic. And we are staying at homes during these lockdowns. I don’t know how long this is going to be, but I believe it’s going to be this way for some time to come.
Today we turn to a powerful inspirational speaker that will help rekindle the fire within you, that will help you inspire and motivate you to live life to your fullest potential and to live the purpose of your life.
The speaker is none other than T.D. Jakes. Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr., is a bishop, author and filmmaker. He is the bishop of The Potter’s House, a non-denominational American megachurch.
Below is the collection of his best quotes from his famous speeches and sermons to date.
Some people quit because things are out of control. Nobody quits what you can control. But the moment you get in something where you don’t get your way, or you get reprimanded, or you get corrected or you go through this or you go through that, or you go through the other, or it’s bad conditions or bad circumstances. Then the first thing the immature mind says is “This is ridiculous. I quit.”
– TD Jakes
My mother used to say, ‘You never know who’s going to have to pass you, you’re the last glass of water’.
– TD Jakes
I lost a lot of stuff, I lost a lot of friends, I lost a lot of strength, I lost a lot of courage, I lost a lot of time, I lost a lot of money. But I kept down on my knees. I was still believing. Broke, I was believing, lonely I was believing. Betrayed I was believing.
– TD Jakes
It’s not what they say about you that matters. It is what you say about you that threatens your destiny. You will never be defeated by what they say about you. You will be defeated by what you say about you.
– TD Jakes
The contradictions of being powerful outwardly and conflicted inwardly is enough to make you quit.
– TD Jakes
You gotta speak to yourself, you gotta tell yourself, you gotta stand up or life will tear you down. You gotta make up your mind. It’s tougher than I thought it was gonna be. And it hurts more than I expected and I may not be the first one across alive. I may not be the best wife, I may not be the best husband, I may not be the best anything. But I’m gonna keep on hoping till I cross.
– TD Jakes
It may take you twice as long, you may have to take courses and classes. You may not read as fast, you might not move as quick, you might not have this much but don’t you quit.
– TD Jakes
Don’t you give up on your dream. I don’t care if you don’t have the money. You don’t have the help and you don’t have the family for it. And you don’t have the background for it and you don’t have friends for it. Don’t give up on your dream, don’t you do it, don’t you do it, don’t you do it.
– TD Jakes
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The most powerful tool that you have right now in your life, in your body is your mind. That’s why the enemy fights you in your mind.
– TD Jakes
Lay your hands on your head and say give me a new mind. Give me a new mind means give me a new perspective. Give me a new perspective, give me a new way of looking at my situation. Give me a new way of looking at my circumstances. Get my mind ready for this year, because when I get this year there’s going to be blessings, there’s going to be miracles, there’s going to be opportunities.
– TD Jakes
Don’t shape yourself around the comings and goings of this world. Don’t shape your opinions and your attitudes around circumstances that you cannot change. If you go into another year and waste another year with the old mentality while somebody’s in the hospital begging God for the opportunity that you have right now, you better step into this moment.
– TD Jakes
As soon as you decide to stop looking for answers in other people and miracles somewhere down the yellow brick road and click the heels of your mind you could have been free years ago.
– TD Jakes
Through the storm and the rain and the heartache and the pain and the disappointment, you have to believe in the we and the us and not the me and the you or you’re not going to make it.
– TD Jakes
Until you have had the taste of finishing you will not respect yourself. Until you follow through, until something is done, come hell or high water, tears and struggles and pain and you go through it anyway and you show up and you continue to fight on no matter the circumstances, after a while something begins to wither inside of you.
– TD Jakes
Truth be told every champion has felt it, every president has felt it, every King has felt it, every lion has felt it, every winner has felt it, every soldier has felt it, every victorious person has felt it. The urge to quit. Don’t you give up on your dream.
– TD Jakes
Don’t you quit. You do make a difference. You do make a difference. You do make a difference. As weak as you are, as tired as you are, as many mistakes as you’ve made, you do make a difference. There is something they would lose if you were not there. There were something that they would miss if you were not there. You do make a difference.
– TD Jakes
Do you believe anything bad enough to fight for it, and sweat for it, and work for it?
– TD Jakes
God doesn’t give you finished product because you need something to create. So God did not create the telephone. God did not create the computer. God did not create the automobile. God did not create a chair. He never made not one chair, he made a tree, he made steel, he made gold, he made air. God is going to give you the raw stuff to give you something to think about so you look at it and say what can I do with the stuff you gave me.
– TD Jakes
You are one idea away from what you saw in your dreams, in your prophecies that God spoke over your life. You are one idea away. You are not waiting on God. God is waiting on you.
– TD Jakes
One thought delivers you from hopping around in the failures of your past, just standing up like a man and say I’m going to be defined by what’s in front of me and not what’s behind me. What is behind me will not control me. I will break the chain on my yesterday so that I can fly into my tomorrow.
– TD Jakes
When somebody messes with your mind, they have messed with your most precious resource. When they mess up your head, they have messed up something serious because out of your head comes your thoughts and out of your thoughts comes your family, your companies, your self-perception, your creativity.
– TD Jakes
Do you have the courage? God says to Abraham, “Look out from where you are.” He says, “Old man, do you have the courage to think beyond the parameters of your present location?” He said, “Look out, what do you see?”
“I see the stars of heaven.”
“Look out, what do you see?”
“The sands of the earth.”
He said, “What you see is what you’ll be. So shall thy seed be, your children will be what you see.” If you see nothing they will be nothing. If you see something they will —
– TD Jakes
Even evil words are powerful. If somebody stands over you and say you’re a fool and you’re a failure and you’re going to be a trap just like your Manny, whatever they say to you those words have life. If negative words have life to bring you down, positive words have life to pull you up.
– TD Jakes
Resources for Further Reading:
TD Jakes on 3 Types of Friends (Transcript)
TD Jakes: The Power of A Thought (Full Transcript)
Defying The Urge To Quit: T.D. Jakes (Transcript)
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