Bishop T.D.

Jakes shares four

steps for effective preaching

Bishop T.D. Jakes has earned a reputation for being one of the most
prolific, dynamic and gifted
preachers of our day. So how does he do it?

The Potter’s House of Dallas leader is giving away some of his tried and
true tips to help ministers
of the gospel be more effective in relaying the important truths of the
Bible to an audience.

“A message on Sunday morning doesn’t start in the pews and it doesn’t

start on Saturday night,”
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 explains Jakes in a video recently posted on his Bishop’s Village
website. “It starts with respecting
God’s word and loving God’s word, and doing your best with the gifts
you’ve been given to be
excellent at what He called you to do. It’s how I give service to Him.”

For those seeking a simple breakdown of steps, the best-selling author

of Destiny: Step Into Your
Purpose gives away a recipe which he shares with new ministers to
help them.

Here are the four pointers:

1. Study yourself full: Jakes believes that you must feast on the
word of God first and
receive enough from its pages personally before you can feed a
congregation. “If you don’t
study yourself full, you’re not good. You’re not ready to deliver,” he
says.

2. Think yourself clear: Asking and answering your own

questions about the text, and
ensuring you first have clarity of thought is critical, notes the head
of the 30,000-member
congregation. “If you don’t think yourself clear, you’ve got a lot of
facts, but they’re
discombobulated, so thinking yourself clear is very, very
important,” he says.
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 3. Pray yourself hot: This has everything to do with seeking God
to give you a burning on
the inside—a passion—for His word, so you can see its relevancy
to your life and connect
with your audience. “If you’re not passionate about it, it’s
irrelevant,” Bishop states.

4. Let yourself go: When time comes to minister, the charismatic

preacher advises
preachers and Bible teachers to shake off nerves, loosen up, and
give over to the moment.
Otherwise, you won’t be able to effectively teach the word of God.
“If you’re going to get up
and be inhibited, you can’t deliver,” Jakes says.

If a person is serious about releasing soul-stirring teachings to bless an

audience, according to
Jakes, each one of those steps must be adhered to. “If you miss any
one of those four you’re going
to be in trouble,” warns the faith-friendly MegaFest Founder.

As for the 59-year-old’s personal style, he says he does a lot of

exegetical preaching.

“Exegetical preaching is to read the text and understand the pivotal

points in the text. [I ask] when
does the subject turn or add new information? If the text were to be put
on a GPS system, when
would the voice speak to change direction? To develop an effective
:
 outline out of the text is very
important,” he says.

Most importantly, a speaker need not focus only on extracting biblical

truth from the text for the
benefit of those in attendance at a service, but Bible study time,
initially, should be a way of fueling
one's spirit personally.

“I don’t always approach the word of God for a sermon,” Jakes says. “I
go there to feed myself and
out of the gross wealth of what I am fed, I feed you.”
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