T.D. Jakes: Understanding the Power of Your Voice | Praise on TBN

T.D. Jakes: Understanding the Power of Your Voice | Praise on TBN

T.D. Jakes sits down with Matt & Laurie Crouch on TBN’s Praise to talk about his book, Don’t Drop the Mic, and discuss the power of your voice and the impact you can have on the world around you to share God’s love.

On the air since 1973, TBN’s flagship ministry and talk show Praise is one of the most recognizable — and most watched — Christian programs in the world. Taped before a live audience and hosted by TBN’s own Matt and Laurie Crouch along with other popular personalities, Praise features the best in contemporary Christian music and worship, fresh and impacting ministry voices, engaging interviews from a wide variety of guests, and a fast-moving hour of relevant talk you won’t want to miss!

I was halfway through my life before I knew who I really was.
Had I known that was me early in my life as a child, I would have grown up differently, made different choices, made different decisions.
But like Gideon, who was down in the wine press, uh, and the angel came to him and said, you are a mighty man of valid.
And he thought he was a winemaker. He didn’t know who he was.
I’m challenging you right now to discover yourself by discovering your god.
The plan he has for your life will blow your mind.
Bishop, you know what? You know what’s fun to sit here and just kinda reminisce about?
We’ve been doing this
a while, haven’t we? A long time.
You know? Uh, you know, that moment when my dad invited you out to, uh, Southern California that time, I remember you saying something about your knees knocking together.
Right. Oh my.
Uh, when the gates opened up and then, you know, how you used to sit on big limousines?
And they sit in the limousine, and they’ll make gates open up. I thought, oh my god.
I think I’m gonna pass out. You know, I I was just I A
long time ago.
I had no clue. I had absolutely no clue. And and and and and it is amazing.
That most of the major changes that we have seen in the world have not come from guns.
They’ve come from mics. Oh, hey.
And so when I say don’t drop the mic, uh, that is in lieu of picking up the gun. Yeah.
If you wanna bring about chains, a power of life and death within the tongue. Yeah. Wow.
It’s not in the hand. It’s in the tongue. Uh-uh. Doctor King changed the world. With the microphone.
And I started out talking in the book about the huge impact that a Mike Nelson Mandela, what he said changed the world uh, Mahatma Gandhi, what he said, changed the world.
When when you when you look at people who really have influence, it’s not It’s not power like a gun.
It’s influence like a mic. And whoever has the mic has great great responsibility, great pressure, uh, great influence, and we have to understand that, and we have to weld it not like it’s a gig, not like it’s a job, and not merely as if it were a calling.
It’s beyond it’s it’s beyond even a calling when god gives you influence inside and out.
It’s an opportunity
Wow.
To speak peace to situations, to bring reconciliation to the situation, to explain things to people, in a language that they can understand.
I have been really effective, I think, at explaining things to people who have not had shared experiences so that they could have a little deeper insight into where this emotion is coming from.
Yeah.
K. A sense of profound importance landed on this set a few minutes ago that I feel like I’m doing a a a legacy piece with you that is going to reverberate for many years.
And I I wanna say this, I wanna be a better communicator, and I I want our audience just, you know, there’s a little new startup company called Amazon.
You might have heard of it.
And and they have, um, this book, it’s available wherever you buy books normally.
Uh, you could probably go to Bishop’s website, but you could go, but Amazon probably get it to you quick.
And let me just tell you something. You need to get this book.
I’m asking all of our TBN, uh, audience to go, just grab your computer, slide it over, on your lap, go to Amazon and get this book.
Um, there is a lot in here.
I have a whole bunch of stuff highlighted and realize we’ve talked more than half the show, and we haven’t even done the real intro yet.
And But I I wanted to point out that and I did, Bishop, the the one thing I said to you before we started is I love the the format of this book.
And what you’ve done is you’ve done all your teaching, uh, about what you’re talking about and and, you know, how to be you know, um, you know, influenced by the Holy Spirit, but be prepared at the same time.
But I love what you did.
You got, Doctor Frank Thomas, and he is the director in the of the doctorate program in African American, uh, preaching in sacred rec rhetoric Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.
And what he did is kind of a little bit of an interview kind of post analysis uh, of what you’ve what what you’ve said and hear a little bit of an interview.
And so this is a really interesting way to not only get bishops teaching but then get kind of the interview or kind of the behind the scenes, uh, of what I and I love the format of that.
Thank you.
And whoever thought that up is, um, rather smart. But you then did a sermon.
Just say thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Yeah. I didn’t know I was me. Yes. Okay.
And I’m gonna get there. Before we end. I promise you.
I want you to just make let let’s let’s do the lightning round.
Just a quick comment on challenging cultural conventions.
I love this section, but just a little sound bite on it, and then I’ll ask you another quick one.
Well, I just think that it’s important that we shape the culture rather than respond to it.
And I’m not sure that we have led the way in shaping culture. I think we’ve responded to culture.
We’re somewhere behind.
Okay. The process of preaching is one of the actual uh, full sections, but I underlined miracle in your message.
You’re talking about, uh, blind bartimas
Yeah.
Uh, and then I wrote in the margin here, uh, process versus calling. Mhmm. K?
So what are you talking about inside of that section? Miracle in your message?
I think sometimes we have a cookie cutter way of looking at things.
At text, at life, at situation, but when you flip it and get different perspectives, you become a better preacher, you become a better or a raider, And and and that’s beyond just being called to it.
That’s that’s beyond just the calling itself, but understanding the rhetorical experience that we have more than one character here.
Let’s look at it through different people’s eyes and their POV, their point of view, will direct you to different truths that cost you to appreciate the overall story.
The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said Yeah.
Inside of the chapter, the pregnant pause. What do you mean by that?
Uh, you know, a lot of what a lot of what communication is, is it just words?
It’s body language. It’s it’s the pa the pausing between phrases for for impact. You know?
All of it has there’s a there’s an art to it. It’s not just a science. It’s an art.
And so I think it’s important when we start talking about speaking that that we understand that silence can be as powerful and convey as much information as speaking does.
My my wife is very very powerful, even without saying a word, you know, she can she can she can let you know what you need to know uh, in in that in that silence, baby.
She can’t really speak to your heart, lord Jesus. And So You touched the
nerve of your own there.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-uh. I love you. Yes. You triggered yourself. Absolutely.
Okay. In plan for spontaneity, and we started there a while back, but I wanna read something out of the book, uh, that you say about spontaneity.
Some speech experts and communication coaches discourage spontaneity because of the risks involved in loosening your control.
And
there are definite risks worth considering before you decide to call an audible and play an audible play and wing it.
Okay. We we searched on that.
As you become more experienced as a communicator, you may also grow more comfortable with spontaneity.
Comment on that?
Well, first of all, I think it’s important to realize a lot of people become imprisoned by the manuscript or by their notes But I have always felt like I made the notes.
The notes didn’t make me. And if I was bright enough to to write it down, I ought to be bright enough on the spot to be the master of the notes rather than to become enslaved to what you wrote down.
I mean, it came out of your research, your study, your preparation, and your ability to be spontaneous is the same way in which you wrote the notes in the first place.
You can rewrite them. You can reorganize them. You can rewrite them while you’re speaking.
As long as you do not when it comes to preaching, as long as you don’t do damage to the text, you have freedom.
But bear in mind, this book is written not only the preachers, but litigators to sales people, to couples, to families talking intergenerationally, uh, and sometimes we have a prepared speech like the prodigal son who practices all the way home.
I will say to my father, I’m no more worthy to be called us He’s practicing all of this stuff.
And then when he gets right in front of his father, the whole moment changes with a ring and a robe and the killing of a calf all of a sudden, he has access to an unexpected grace.
You’re you’re pretty good at this, by the way. Here’s a good quote.
Ingredients for a good sermon come from what the recipe requires as well as what you decide to add or subtract.
That quote is brother TD Jakes. Um, you’re talking about the ingredients
Yeah.
What what do you mean by that?
Well, the big metaphor I use in the book is is is between speaking and cooking.
And, uh, when when you cook, you you pull out everything that you you’re going to need, you won’t use everything that you pulled out.
There’ll be flour that gets put to put back on the shelf.
You won’t use a whole five pound bag of of sugar, but you brought it out.
Uh, you may decide to add lemon extract because you don’t like Almond, uh, and the ability to be creative in the moment is what makes us unique And when it comes to Bible, we have all of the writers listening at the same god, but their flavor of right, there’s so much difference between the writing of the book of Hebrews and the writing of the book of of Romans.
Huge difference in the style Stylistically.
Now, god is the author, but the style of the writer flows through quite vividly and quite profoundly.
There’s a huge difference in the writings of Nehemiah and and the writings of the book of Ruth and understanding that you have a style and what is that style and enhancing that style and enhancing your experiences creates opportunities for you.
I’m gonna read now. This is out of the section of the book near the end.
There’s 3 chapters at the end.
That are written by Doctor Frank, uh, Thomas, and and then it’s kind of it’s kinda like his analysis and and an interview.
Okay? So I’m in that section. And I’m gonna read this.
Discovery of Bishop Jake’s rhetorical choices helps us to ascertain help helps us to ascertain what makes him such a persuasive preacher.
We must understand the 7 concepts critical to his persuasive strategy.
Number 1, I want your comment on all 7 of them.
So don’t take, like, 45 minutes for each one. Okay? Gate. Lightning round. Call and authority.
Uh, confidence. The the confidence in your calling that you can do this to believe in oneself and the authority that’s been given you.
Balance of intellectualism and spiritual demonstration.
I think that’s critical. Uh, all intellectualism without spirituality is all truth without grace. Yeah.
All spirituality without intellectualism is all grace without truth.
Uh, we behold the wonder of his glory where we see both grace and truth. Yeah.
Bonal structure of the sermon.
The bonus structure of the sermon is the skeleton. It’s the outline. Uh, I don’t preach with manuscripts.
I generally have outlines. And altering that skeletal framework, uh, is the strategy through which you determine what am I trying to accomplish And how do I inform them?
And when do I introduce this information?
That framework is the most important thing, even in writing a book, is writing the the the chapters become an outline.
The structure of this book is amazing. I love the I love this piece at the end.
Can I say something real quick? I have heard so many times all over the world.
And he will attest
A 100%.
About you in particular, teaching ministers how to minister It’s because of I I’ve heard it over and over and over all over island nations and people sent I learned to preach because I could watch TV.
I watched T. D. Jakes. Yeah. He taught me how to preach. I’ve heard that.
That’s amazing.
So many times around the world.
And let me add to what she’s saying because what what we’re talking about is balance.
You realize in Africa, you might wanna have some African preachers on TV and in Africa.
Right. Alright.
But then they say, well, well, well, hang on.
Don’t take away the American preacher, TD Jakes, because we learned how to preach because we were watching him on TVN.
See, So the the idea that the what we hear about is the balance between x hoarding American version of Christianity and the localized version of of what Christianity is in a particular part of the world.
And they say, wait a second. You know you know what I heard?
I’ve heard that the the American church have taught us how to minister.
We’ve heard that over and over and over. K? All over.
One of the things I think that most of, uh, the people that I’ve encountered throughout the continent of Africa is they know, 1st of all, that I love them.
And when people know that you love them, they listen to you.
Uh, when I go to Hillsong in Australia, they know that I love them.
If you actually love people, not just love preaching. You have to love people.
Love comes through through your preaching like it does in your cooking. There’s a difference.
I don’t care what anybody says.
There’s a difference between a home cooked meal and the and the ones you get at the restaurant when when love is in it, Yeah.
The food tastes different. And that’s also true about speaking.
Yeah. K. I just had to say that.
I’m on I’m on number 4. Uh, flesh on the bones defining the formula for balance. Mhmm.
When the where you started from skeletal aspect of it.
And then the flesh on the bones as it is in the context from which that was extrapolated really refers to How do you fill in in between that framework?
Uh, what flavorful ways do you flesh out the text what what is what is not there that the writer had that the orator has to put their demand on the Jericho road uh, it was dark and he fell amongst thieves and they stripped him and wounded him and left him half dead.
What what is he feeling laying there?
Uh, with the sand, uh, up against his back and the blood oozing out of his body and him almost delirious and his eyesight becoming blurred.
And suddenly, he hears the thud of a footstep and his heart begins to race in his chest that perhaps this might be the moment that I have saved from the calamity around me.
You know, those sorts of things that’s not there, but it’s there.
And so that’s him putting meat on the bone.
You know, we all want you to read to us and to you want want you to read us to sleep every night when we get in bed.
We I want you to tuck us in at night.
I would love to. Awesome. It’s a
good story.
Um, embodiment of the message. Number 5.
The the the the where are we going with this?
I I I came back uh, from from my last trip in Africa.
I was ready to preach this message about that there are over 2000 different languages on the continent well over in Africa.
And I was gonna tie it with Nimrod, and I was gonna do all of this stuff.
And then I got down to my litmus test as to whether it’s something makes it off the cutting room floor to actually be on the stage is what is the point?
And if you can’t come up
so much better
to take care. The point rather than just enjoying the information, then I don’t preach it. You know?
You what what is Apex? What is the pinnacle? What are we trying to get across to this audience?
Because words are the vehicles of ideas.
And if we’re going to ride them, we have to have a sense of where we’re going.
The daddy persona
I think particularly in our society today with so many children born without fathers, I bring who I am to the text and and so it is the voice of a father because I am a father.
Even if all god forbid all my children passed away, that would not take away from the fact that I am a father.
A father is something that you are not something that you do.
And so that void said fatherly voice coming across informs my preaching, uh, in the same way that if I were a woman maybe being a mother would affect the way in which I approach the text.
Uh, if I was raised and only child, maybe Jacob being left alone wrestling with an angel does not seem, uh, tumultuous to me because I’ve been alone all my life.
And yet for me being raised around siblings and family being left alone.
The all that all by itself says to me that he is trump traumatized because he’s in isolation.
So how we interpret the texts has something to do with our experiences and how we how we handle aloneness.
Wow.
I feel like I could start church right now because I’ve I’ve learned quite a bit. So maybe I will.
No. I will not. The empowerment, homiletic.
The empowerment of the homiletic is to understand, uh, the text in context. Okay.
I think sometimes we’re so harmonious that we we get away from the homologics. We extrapolate from the tapes.
We play with the tech so much that we get it out of its original intent before you start, elaborating on the possibilities of how it can be used in a contemporary sense setting.
Let us leave it in its original environment and understand that Paul is talking to Corinth, and he is speaking to the people in Corinth, and a problem that is existing in their church He is not necessarily speaking the 1st Baptist when he says to them, uh, does not make your teach itself that it’s seemly for a man to have long hair.
It’s the it’s the times he’s in. It’s the people he’s writing to in the bible.
We get to read other people’s mail. Wow. Isn’t that amazing? Yeah. Yeah.
So, We’re gonna unloose you and hand you the mic, preferably speaking, uh, in a moment.
But when, uh, Doctor Frank, Thomas asked you something, uh, you you reverted to the most important message that you have, which is I’ve always known god was for me.
Yeah. Why don’t you jump off that, uh, and kinda give us a final thought and a final prayer in regard to not dropping the mic in our own lives?
I was born, uh, on the side of a hill in the hills of what Virginia with a bail over my face.
And, uh, a young, a woman came down and told my mother that she had birthed a profit.
And, uh, from my earliest existence until now, even when I was unsaved, even when I was depressed, even when I was weak or wrong, or out of God’s will, he might not have been for what I did, but I always knew he was for me.
Wow. I’ve always known he was on my side.
I’ve always known that I was never alone and that, I am here alive and breathing by the grace of god.
And if if you can embrace what Paul says is, is unknowable.
The unknowable riches of the love of god.
He’s asking us to know the unknowable, but if you can attempt to embrace the idea that god is for me, even when the world is against me in times or against me, and things are not going my way, You can approach life with a greater degree of confidence and assurance knowing that the favor of god rests on you even when the word of god is convicting you, it’s still a favor that he’s even speaking to you.
Wow. For god so loved the world, He’s a lover. Jesus is the lover of our souls.
And once we allow that love, uh, to fill us and to inform and to embrace us, then then it oozes out of how we approach other people.
The problem with most people, they can’t give love because they have never really received it.
And god wants to feel that chasm that exists in your soul, uh, of loveless and bitterness and anger and frustration with the assurance that that I am for you.
I’m not always agreed with you. I’m not always agreeing with what you did, but I am for you.
I am not just your god.
Jesus taught us to say when you pray, Don’t say our god, our father.
And knowing that you have a loving father that is for you has comforted my soul and carried me through many, many tough times.
So many years ago, uh, when you were in the back of a limazine and going through some white gates, and you were coming to be on television I think your your very first appearance on television anywhere, um, my dad undoubtedly would have looked to you those many, many decades ago and said, Bishop, look into the camera and invite people to know Jesus.
We’re doing the same thing over all these decades. You realize we’re doing the same thing.
I can see his boots. His cowboy boots in that belt with the buckle on it.
I’ll do just that.
Love it.
If you’re sitting here right now watching this broadcast, and perhaps there is a scar in your soul or leak in your heart.
Perhaps like the woman with issue of blood, you’re bleeding profusely in places that no one can even see.
Jesus is passing by, right by you, within arms reach.
And if you will allow yourself to get beyond your own personal pain and bitterness, and the nuances of the atrocities of your story and reach out and touch him.
He has the grace to heal you. He has the grace and the blood to save you.
He has some mercy to forgive you.
And he has the power to make the second half of your life in so much better than the first half has been.
I invite you I implore you. I beseech you. Come now to Jesus.
He’s waiting on you. His arms outstretched to you. He’s available to you.
All you have to do is just ask him just simple Jesus come into my heart Mhmm.
Come into my life, fill my life with your glory.
I believe that you died for my sins, And so I give them over to you, and I accept your righteousness as being enough to prepare me for having.
Thank you for taking all the work out of it and dying in my place.
You died in my place so that I could live in yours in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Beautiful. Man. My dad told an old story about one of his relatives getting saved.
While he was running across a plowed field being chased by a bull and just cried out and Jesus helped me.
He got out of that situation, gave his life to the lord. That’s a
good place to get saved.
You know, what what I just I I wanna just say again, You know, when Bishop TD Jakes is going to live the life he did, through the experience that he did and then sit down and write you a letter.
And and and the way that he did on on this, uh, on this so this important subject of communication.
We all wanna communicate better. We all wanna communicate more efficiently. I just wanna say thank you.
Um, this is a serious thing. Seriously.
I I I really feel the the important of this and your heart in it.
And, um, I just can encourage everybody to get it wherever books are sold or that little company called Amazon.
Bishop, um, I’ll give you the last thought, final thought on this subject, and then we’ll say goodbye.
You alluded to something in the book that I would like to just take a moment and add on the message I didn’t know I was me.
Uh, I was halfway through my life before I knew who I really was.
Had I known that was me early in my life as a child, I would have grown up differently, made different choices, made different decisions, but like Gideon who was down in the wine press, uh, and the angel came to him and said, you are a mighty man of valor.
And he thought he was a wide maker. He didn’t know who he was.
I’m challenging you right now to discover yourself by discovering your god.
The plan he has for your life will blow your mind and definitely change your decisions.
I didn’t know it was me, Maybe you don’t know who you’re going to be in the next 20 years or 10 or 5.
Or even in the next second, one second can change everything.