“When we are placed in a set of circumstances where we have to take initiative and be creative, some of us find it hard to transition. Those people have been trained not to think but to obey orders. They are slaves to the training, unconsciously pledging allegiance to the average. Mentally they recite from the manual of mediocrity.”
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T.D. Jakes
“If God has given you a mission, you must be tough enough to handle what people say and still not be distracted while doing what you were created to do. Are you tough enough? God and the enemy know the truth about you, and remember even great people doing great things for great causes meet negative criticisms. All criticism is not bad, just like all flattery is not good. Many times people don’t criticize you because they are evil; they do it because they have been trained to think anyone who doesn't perceive and see things in the same manner is an enemy. The critic is a prisoner to his own experiences and perspectives, erroneously believing his limited experiences are the sum of all truth. When you acknowledge your critics, you give them your power and validate their words. They are not important until you respond.”
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T.D. Jakes
“God will not let your needs and wants go unattended, especially when you desire to be more like Him.”
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T.D. Jakes
“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.”
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T.D. Jakes
“When you begin to realize that your past does not necessarily dictate the outcome of your future, then you can release the hurt.”
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T.D. Jakes
“Success is not success without a successor.”
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T.D. Jakes
“Have you ever been guilty of having a condescending attitude about another person’s weakness? How can we dare to think we can access the soul-cleansing blood that delivers us from the cesspool of our secret sins, and then look down on another member of Christ’s Body in disdain?”
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T.D. Jakes
“Our instincts may have even guided us to hide parts of ourselves in order to keep them alive when we were younger.”
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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.”
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T.D. Jakes
“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.”
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T.D. Jakes
“Instincts under pressure crush the carbon of conformity and create diamonds.”
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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.”
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T.D. Jakes
“Some think that emulating those we admire makes us more effective and guarantees the result they exhibit. The goal is not to duplicate someone else’s greatness or purpose, destiny or creativity.”
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T.D. Jakes
“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.”
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T.D. Jakes
