YouSaid · the spoken record

John W. Gray III

lines on the record: 52
first: 2018-10-31
most recent: 2018-10-31
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And that's where people will get free. That our relationship to God is not performance-based. It's blood-based. My relationship is bloodstrong. God doesn't do tender relationships. They're not easily fractured. He will fight for you. And that's what I've learned. His love for me is everlasting. And when I fall, he loves me the exact same.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was birthed from him. How could he not receive me? And so this is the great challenge. And it took me my entire life to awaken to this, that my wife will tell you after I would preach, I'd say, God, are you proud of me? I just want you to be proud of me. And she said, babe. He was proud of you before you got up. You know what I'm saying? Like, he loves you. Really? So I don't have to do anything.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That my brokenness was not a deterrent to God's purpose. I always thought I had to please God. I was a behavior based I thought I had to behave in a certain way. But behavior is not what he was looking for. My being is what he was looking for. says those that worship must worship in spirited and truth not spirit in perfection not spirit and religion spirit and truth everything that's true about me is not good but he wants me to worship in my true condition and in that place of that moment he receives me as i am yeah I am not willing anymore to live on a behavior based relationship. My father loves me because I came from him. That's it. I am loved because I am.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Com Committed to letting people know that there's a God that absolutely adores them. People don't know that. People don't know that there's someone who is in love with them, who has power, who wants to see them do well. People don't know it. And so my life's calling is to be the guy that unlocks. I'm an unlocker. I'm a discerner. That's my gift, discernment. I'm able to see into people and then pull out of them what was already there so that they can view it in a different way. And then they can look at the bad, take the lesson, but then digest the good, and then go forward. That's my job. Once I unlock, then I'm the bridge. My job is to unlock it and say, look, God had this in there all the time. The entire time.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The reason why it was worth the wait is because I honored my mom because she waited until she was married. And so she asked me to do the same. And so for me, I get to kind of build on that legacy. And I wanted to give that gift to my wife. What is the word?”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I was 13. Like I said, when my mom was like, you're going to be a virgin. And at 16, I made the commitment. And so I was thinking I was going to get married in my 20s. I'm like, by the time I was 30, I was like, all right, Jesus, I'm tired of living holy now. I want to know what all these other folk are doing out here. I've got a phenomenal wife, brilliant, three degrees in the medical field. She laid all that down to help me build my vision. I'm not sitting in this chair because of me. I chose the right one. It was God that spoke to me and said, this is a woman that you should pursue. And I was like, okay. And I pursued her. And April 17th of 2010, I asked her to be my girlfriend in July. I asked her to marry me. And in December, I got me some. So we got married December. Was it worth the...”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I gave her the best two minutes of her life on that honeymoon. You understand me? I said, girl, I'm getting ready to bless you. I said, you better get in this limo. It's time for me to lay hands.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Even now, when I preach, sometimes I'm hoping that he's somewhere out in there. I know he's not, but I wish he was. No matter how many times I see my mom and I love her and I'm grateful for her that she's still alive. But that thing, that lingering thing is I want dad to be proud. And since I don't have him in the natural, my connection to my spiritual father, my heavenly father is what drives me. Times when I sit on the edge of my bed and I cry my eyes out while my wife is asleep. I say, God, I don't know how to be a husband. I don't know how to be a father. But if you help me to stay. I'll embrace the challenge. And I ask my wife, please give me grace. I don't know what I'm doing. I was a 37 year old virgin.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In your life, every other area of your life. Looking up in the stands when I played soccer, I was running around on the field and I'd look up in the stands, and of course he wasn't there. But I was always looking hoping that he would be.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And loving him. What is the purpose of forgiveness? For me, the purpose of forgiveness is to identify myself in my dad. What I mean by that is I came from him. And so what he manifested, if I had made the same choices, I would manifest the same thing. For me to forgive him is to also remember him. Remember that he had dreams, that he had hopes, that maybe decisions he made he wished he could take back. Maybe I'm the thing that he did right and I'm able to now perpetuate a part of his heart. When I forgave my father the pieces of my life that didn't make sense suddenly made sense. December 7th of 2000 was an awakening for me. And I was able to release the pain of being held hostage because I was so hurt that he wasn't there when I was four years old to protect me from the big bad men. That I held him responsible and many others.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Happening for me. And sometimes the pain feels like you're regressing, but it's not. He's actually pulling you back like a bow and arrow. And the greater the pain and what looks like deficit is actually him getting ready to launch you. Because when you have a greater depth of understanding of other”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I think the pain for me, the pain actually, at first I ran from God because I'm like, why would you do this to me? I've heard you say it's not happening to me.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's the nature of the human condition. People say God created evil. No, God didn't create evil. God created free will. And man created evil. We have choice. And that's evil.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is. If you want to ascend to any area of influence or platform, you must learn the currency of honor. You can't be an extension of a heart you don't honor.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Growing up, now I'm at this pinnacle. And God was like, you want this? Are you going to give this to me? And I gave that moment to him. And I said, I trust my future to you over what feels like the perfect present moment. And in that moment, I realized that in honoring him, I was trusting him to get me wherever he wanted me to go. See, honor is the currency of elevation. If you really want to...”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Uh. Just role play. Just nobody there. But I really, that was a moment and it was my Abraham Isaac moment. This is what I always wanted. Growing up in a single parent, feeling like I had never been valued properly, rejected.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Myself with no cameras. I was just out there just rolling. Oh, Jay, you're so funny. Thank you for bringing me. It's awesome.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh my goodness. I used to sing background for Kirk Franklin. I remember we had just, he had just done the tonight show. And I was like, this is awesome. God says, you really like this. I said, yeah. He's like, this is your last show. I was like, what are you talking about? Why would I ever give this up? I don't even have to grow up to do this, he said. And that's my point. Time for you to mature, and I need to stretch you. And I went backstage at the Tonight Show and told Kirk Franklin, this is my last time touring with you.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Yeah. That's the one where I'm crying tears and fighting for my own sanity, trying to figure out who I am at 13, 14, and 15 and believing that there was still purpose.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right That God is a God I encountered away from the hour and a half service on Sunday. That's the guy I talk to at two in the morning That's the God that”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So in the same way he's in charge of the natural storms, he's in charge of my spiritual storms, my emotional storms, the human condition when I'm broken, when I want to give up. I know he's there.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really? Oh, absolutely. I would in our two bedroom apartment in Cincinnati, we had no air conditioners. We had a fence behind my window. At nine and ten years old, I'd look out through our little clearing into the stars, and I would tell God what I wanted to do. I told him I wanted to be a husband. I told him if I ever failing, please don't leave me. I wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted him to use my life to do something great. And then when we'd have those big Midwest thunderstorms in the middle of summer and spring, I'd run to the front porch and I'd sit out there because just feeling the rain on my feet made me feel like God was talking to me when I would hear the thunder and lightning. That's how he speaks to me. Some reason storms give me peace because I know he's in charge of it.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, I'm a nature guy, even though I live in a big city. You put me next to a creek, put me next to a tree, you know, let me watch, you know, the birds kind of fly through the air. I feel God. I used to feel God in thunderstorms.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When you look in there, and you've been there to see over 100 nations gathering. Lifting their hands to God, if that doesn't move you to see God's heart for people. Nothing”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People ask me that, like, are you happy? I'm like, happiness is not, that's not the word that comes to mind. I believe I'm doing what I was created to do.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It took somebody like a pastor Joel Osteen to have enough security in his position to say, here's a young man that has something very different from me. I'm going to release him to be exactly who he is, and I'm going to trust that his heart mirrors mine. And when he allowed that, it literally freed me to become everything I felt God created me to be.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think for as long as I can remember, there were churches that I was a part of, whether a youth pastor or other positions, but I was never around a leader that was secure enough to allow me to be all of who I am.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And her truth may not be something that I understand, but my love will never change for who she is because I'm a pastor. And the fact that she's there with her son means she has every right to lift her hands to God.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Transgender. Transgender does matter. Yeah, we had a transgender woman came up with her son and she said, would you take a picture? I was like, of course. And she's like, you don't know how much you bless me.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know that it did because for as long as I can remember, I've always had an attraction to girls. But I was always, this may sound crazy. I was always empathetic to people who didn't have, you know, a natural affinity or natural attraction to the opposite sex. I can't tell you if that kind of gave me a seed to understand other people's journey. In fact, it probably caused me in the beginning to have less grace because I was very angry that somebody would try to snatch innocence.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I didn't know, I had no clue. And then later to add. That moment, I grew up in a very conservative household, so we didn't talk about sex and sexuality. We didn't talk about, and if it was brought up, it was brought up in a negative connotation that you can't have sex. You got to be a virgin. My mama told me that when I was 13. I'm like, I got buck teeth and bald spots. It is not a problem. And so I think for me, That moment because it was so violent and intrusive, it caused me to question who I was, why I was, what I was.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was four years old. My father had just left. My mother was inside the house. The door was open. And in Cincinnati, Ohio, there were two young men from the neighborhood, teenagers, and one of them came up to me and exposed himself while the other was standing right next to him. And he asked me to perform a particular act. And I didn't know what that meant, but I knew what he was showing. I knew that was what you used to release your urine. And I said, please don't PM in my mouth. And he said, I won't. And then he did. And I remember running and saying, I'm going to go tell my mommy on you. And he says, if you tell, you'll be the one that gets in trouble. And so I didn't tell anybody until I was 19. And so for 15 years, I'm trying to figure out what happened on that lawn.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I believe that is a part of why I fight to do what I do because my grandmother and my great-grandmother who were prayer warriors, who were spiritually connected to God, were praying for someone in our family to do what I'm doing right now. I don't have a legacy of strong men who go after their dreams. I don't have a legacy of strong fathers and husbands. I came up in a single-parent household. You know, my life was interrupted at four years old with people who tried to snatch my innocence away. And in that moment, I could have lost whatever semblance or desire I had to touch the heart of God. But literally, I am reminded of my grandma Anna Berry and my grandmother Maime Davis, who are now a part of the Great Cloud of Witnesses. I carry that with me knowing that I'm a part of something that did not start with me. And if I do it correctly, it will.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But when she says in the beginning was the word, each one of us has been spoken. And once we connect to the other words in our sentence, the thing that we were supposed to complete will be fulfilled.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have to be spoken because even Dr. Angelou said, you know, in the beginning was the word. I heard her say that on your show. I was like much younger and I had hair. I was thin. Anyway.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You are created by a God that is so intently, intimately in love and concerned about you that there is not one detail about your life that has been overlooked. You are not an accident. There are no accidental lives. You can't sneak into the earth. You have to be spoken into the earth.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She can't stay mad because I've just infused joy. And I believe that joy disarms the broken heart and it allows healing to begin. And so every time I share, there's always going to be elements of the comedic. But I don't do it to pander. I'm not trying to be a stand-up comedian. I believe that my gift has an ability to unlock doors. And once that door is unlocked, let me share some truth that you have to now figure out what you want to do with.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm supposed to approach this. For me, just allowing people to laugh and be disarmed. I think that's an aspect of God's character people don't realize. The Bible says the joy of the Lord is your strength. So for me, especially like when my wife gets mad at me, I'll just pull up my briefs up here and I'm like, can you really be mad at this girl? And then she'll just help laughing. Because this physique is hilarious.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, comedy disarms. You know, it's the first thing, you know, everybody wants to laugh. Comedy disarms and it allows people to kind of put their guard down. Because the idea of somebody, you know, screaming truth at you is already kind of inherently offensive. It's kind of like, you wrong, you getting ready to burn in a hot hell. Now give me an offering. That is not the way.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But just, you know, for 9,000 people to come, and I believe it's because they know my heart is pure and I'm authentic in what I share. I believe what I speak.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In Houston with traffic Oprah, you can't even stay saved in the traffic in Houston. You have to come to church after all the cussing you do on the highways.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, the reason why we connected is because we have different expressions, but the same heart. He casts a wide net of hope. Anybody is allowed to walk into that church and find hope in life. Every single person that we will ever encounter was created by the same God. I believe that. And everybody has inherent value. And so we were able to connect, but to be the first African-American to literally be on staff and just to weakly speak into the life of the church is a high honor.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't even know how to describe it. The thing about Pastor Joel, because I'm this fiery, loud, kind of boisterous guy, and then he's the sweetest.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I had grace for him. I was able to not be angry because I understood what it must have been like to live in that atmosphere every single day with a woman who you could never please. And if you failed. Of course, you were shunned. And so to a large extent, I began to have more grace for my dad. Even now my son is John Gray IV, and I plan on continuing that legacy. That boy better name his son, John V or the $300 I got in the savings account is not going to his college fund.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My connection to God helped me to literally deconstruct his life backwards. I had to look at his life through his death. My relationship to his mother, my grandmother, who was a very stern, very closed off, unemotional.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Tenant that kind of drives every other area of my life. Here I am at 42 years old, sitting next to someone that has been used to change the whole world. And once this is over, I would love to have called my dad and say, Dad, you'd be proud of me today. On my dad's deathbed, I told him. Forgive you for not being there, and I'm going to make your name good because I'm John W. Gray III. And I believe that I'm a continuation of his legacy. And I was the last person to see him alive. I sang hymns over his bed, prayed with him, told him I was going to make him proud. And so even now at 42, sometimes I look out the window hoping he's coming down the street and I've only seen him four times.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. I mean, particularly after my mother and father divorced, which was about four and a half years old, this idea of a heavenly father was so essential for my development because my father was not around. I saw my father four times in my life. And I always kind of made this iconic figure of my father, which is not the truth of his reality. He was battling addiction, heroin. He was battling through different issues of crime and all these other things that my mother never told me about. She never demonized him, which I thought was a phenomenal way to carry herself. She always wanted me to pursue a relationship with him to a degree. And it was only after I was grown that she kind of shared some of the things that she had to walk through. But my father not being there is probably the foundational...”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. What was interesting is that I think me being there kind of helped to stretch people because even though my expression was very different from the culture, I was accepted because I grew up there. So as I start continued to sing and I was able to kind of bring people along and they were able to kind of get free. And so, you know, the expression in our worship changed because I just couldn't contain it. You know, this idea of God was becoming very real to me. I knew at seven years old that God was real for myself.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like make a sound? No, absolutely. If you shout it, this is the church that would kindly escort you out. Really? There's one lady, and she was a Swedish lady in the world, had a little bit of facial hair. After a certain age, whatever. You know, she has a little sweet goatee going. And she'd feel the spirit and she, thank you, thank you. And the ushers would kindly come to her role. Miss Hogan, we need you to come on out of here. And they would carry her out. So that, to me, as a young person was like, okay, if I feel something, keep it to yourself. We were a very high-minded church. We had high church. We were very professional. We were upper middle class Negroes. So you need to play that role. And so your Jesus had to be restricted to a”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. I've always had a my heart kind of revolves around music. I understood harmony. I understood parts. And from there, music just became a very big part of my expression.”
2018-10-31 · Oprah's Super Soul · John Gray: The True Purpose of Joy · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source