T.D. Jakes, Bishop of The Potter’s House – USA believes that it is high time Christians identified the thing they were created to do, the people they are meant to affect, and the power that comes from alignment with purpose.
He says that having had unique opportunities to sit at the table with champions, he learnt that every believer needs to acknowledge that they have been divinely equipped with a fundamental drive to realize their life’s potential.
In his published book, Instinct, Jakes, talks about how his leadership style as a preacher didn’t work as effectively in projects outside the church, and how he adjusted his approach. For that matter, he says, Christians ought to step out of their comfortable zone, and overcome fears and thoughts that invoke a limit on their ability to be all that God is calling them to be.
Many people seem to have trouble identifying their highest passion and gifting, according to Jakes, your purpose is in your passions—not just what you love but what you passionately hate.
“If you can’t stand to see bad hairdos, maybe you should consider becoming a stylist.”
“Others can inspire you, but ultimately the only thing that empowers you is what lies within you and learning how to better utilize what you’ve been given,” Jakes says. “If ever you are going to win, you must forsake the social construct of the cage and all the cage dwellers,”
He notably encourages team work, noting that when you operate independently in the midst of your team, it stunts their growth as well as your own.
“You don’t want to lead a task, run a business, direct a philanthropy, or guide a church if your stakeholders assume you don’t need their help. If you want to lead by your instincts, then you must create a vision large enough that you cannot achieve it alone. …Start pushing something that you can’t carry and watch how people will come to your aid. But pick up a box you can manage, and people will simply watch you carry the load,” he stresses.
Bishop TD Jakes says leadership emerges not only when an individual can capably do what needs doing; “the real test is passed when a person can implement what needs to be done through others.”
“I tend to prefer people who know what it means to rise through the ranks and see the organization from a variety of angles and positions. Because I am admittedly a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps person who worked his way up, always crawling before walking, I value people who have enjoyed wide and diverse experiences, people who have failed and learned something from what went wrong, people who shrugged it off and kept going,” Bishop TD Jakes notes.
By Staff Writer.
