March 23, 2024 • 41 mins
Veronda Bellamy positions herself as a thought leader with interactive mental health and spiritual insight to propel you into a healed mind. This is accomplished through our inspiring messaging post, reels, video, and offered support through our cost conscience Happyology portal and her podcast, Veronda Bellamy Inspired. Veronda Bellamy Inspired interviews of thought leaders to help propel you into happiness beyond trauma. Come join us and take notes while listening. The show boast of mindset and purpose driven insights. Whether it is a guest appearance or your are listening to our Creative Director, Veronda Bellamy, sit back and enjoy. If you ever have a prayer request, coaching request, business request, email us over at hello@verondabellamy.com. Visit us online at verondabellamy.com to obtain a free copy Veronda's first book, "The Pain Stops Today: 10 Steps to. Discovering Your Purpose". Smile At Someone | Hug Someone | Show Someone the Love of God Today Join our online community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheRelevancyFactor/
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Episode Transcript
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(00:08):
Hello, Hello, Hello, thankyou for joining Ronda Vellamy Inspired. So
I want to thank you, canI say, Prophet Courra, that's fine.
I want to thank you for youryes for today and you know,
coming on and talking about something that'sso important mindset, mental health specifically within
(00:34):
Christianity, right within our faith andhow that kind of shows up or doesn't
or you know, things like that. So I thank you for your yes.
As you know, I love mentalhealth. I love mindset. That's
kind of my my jam and it'salways such a treat when I get to
merge you know, spirituality, Christianityand with mindset and mental health because it
(00:59):
kind of go hand in hand,right, So I want to thank you
for your yes. I do wantto go ahead if you if you're okay
with it, and read your biofor everyone so they kind of, you
know, officially, you know,know who I'm talking to, because you
know, we haven't really made thatannouncement yet. So we have doctor Corey
Jakes with us today. She's apowerhouse. She's a powerhouse preacher, associate
(01:26):
pastor and overseer of many ministries atthe Powder's House Church of Dallas. Of
her many accomplishments Her most recent isreceiving a doctorate congratulations thank You in Christian
Counseling from the One Flesh Ministries BibleInstitute. Doctor Cora is probably following in
(01:49):
the footsteps of her well known andinfluential parents New York Times bestselling authors,
movie producers and megachurch pastors, PassipT. D. Jakes, Bishop TD
Jakes, and First laid Us SeritaJakes. Known around the world as a
powerful prayer warrior, Doctor Kor Jakesis an accomplished speaker and best selling author
(02:10):
of Faith in It quote unquote endquote Ferocious Warrior, Dismantle Your Enemy and
Rise, and Ferocious Warrior. DoctorCora shares her powerful testimony of how she
battled difficult obstacles including infertility, loss, depression, and insecurity and one and
(02:30):
she won. Can we add that? And she won? Dubbed the Ferocious
Warrior by many who follow her teachings, one of the key principles that doctor
Kora Jakes adheres to is praying byfaith and if you've not heard her pray,
she will pray you out of anythingthat you're going through. Doctor Cora
(02:51):
has made it her mission to teachpeople how to fight for the life they
deserve. Armed with the weapons offaith, hope, and prayer. She
also uses her platform to teach peoplehow to pray and ask God for exactly
what they want through what she callsher principles of Prayer. In the words
of her father, Cora has redefinedwhat it means to fight like a girl
(03:13):
she shows up. Doctor Cora ispassionate about teaching people how to live a
life of purpose and power. Sheproudly walks in all that God has given
her, and Doctor Cora is theproudest of her role as mother to Amari
and Jason. You can visit herat call me Korra dot com and follow
her on alsocial at official call meCora. Thank you for joining, Thank
(03:38):
you for joining. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Thank you for having me.
I'm honored to be here. Sothis is amazing, you know,
I really kind of just want togo ahead and kind of jump into this.
For those of you that's not listenbefore seen me before I hurt my
name before I'm bron development, letme just say that. And a therapist.
(04:00):
I'm licensed in North Carolina, acoach to people all over the globe,
and I'm all about mindset mental healthas well, and also talking about
Christianity and kind of merging things together. The creator of Happyology, which is
my newest program, and it's allthings happiness and mindset. So I say
it's the portal to happiness. Soprofit doctor, doctor prophet corgiates. I
(04:30):
feel like this is why, thisis why my whole brand just call me
Cora. There's so many I haveso many hats. It's just it's just
easier. When the Lord called me, he called me, he called you,
Cora. I love it. Ilove it, you know. And
jumping into this whole you know,mindset thing, I guess I'll start with
(04:51):
the first question of you know,what are some of those things that you've
seen, you know in as Coraand everything that you do, and how
you know Christianity kind of I'm gonnasay it rejects mindset and mental health.
(05:13):
M Well, I think for me, my perspective of faith and mental health
and Christianity and mental health is verydifferent because I was introduced to God differently,
and so the very first book ofthe Bible that I ever read was
(05:36):
Joe and for me, Job readsvery therapeutically in nature as his friends and
the counsel around him is giving himadvice and encouragement. And he is suffering,
(05:58):
and he's going through depression and he'sgoing through suicide, but he is
not isolating himself so much so thathe's unable to hear the people that are
around him and gain understanding from them. And so I always saw God as
(06:20):
a tester of our ability to trusthim in the different seasons and natures of
life that are presented to us,and those come in many different ways,
in many different directions, and Ithink that it just would be hoove us
(06:43):
to lean on the counsel that isaround us because it keeps us safe.
There is safety in a multitude ofcounsel. We know this that Jesus is
our counselor yes, but I alsobelieve that he places his spirit of counseling
in those people around us that arewilling to really pour into themselves in that
(07:09):
way. So I think that myunderstanding and bridge for mental health is it
is very different as Qora, andI handle the rejection differently for sure as
Kora, because I believe that therehas to be a fight for for something,
(07:33):
and I don't mind fighting for thecouncil, uh and and I believe
that that's probably why God even honoredme with being a doctor of Christian counseling,
because in its truest form, itis about being able to bridge this
(07:54):
relationship of leaning on people who havethe wisdom and tools and resources to help
you, versus isolating yourself in aposition that leads you stagnant and discourage.
(08:15):
That's so good, so deep,Yeah you said so much. Just then,
So, as a as a counselorwalking as a Christian, what does
(08:35):
Christianity mean to you? Christianity forme is about my relationship with Christ from
an emotional level. What I meanby this is I don't read the Word
(08:58):
of God as a story. Iread it as a strategy by which God
left to teach us the attributes ofwho he is. And so, as
a Christian, I buy in tothe belief that there is a God that
has so many different attributes in naturethat everything that means me evil turns out
(09:30):
for the good. Just because Ibuy in to the belief of God's ability
as a Christian, I am notexempt from suffering. I'm not exempt from
pain. As a Christian, Ihave the ability to overpower the pain that
(09:52):
tries to overpower me. And soI believe that as a Christian, we
become warriors, we become powerful,we become strategic in nature, and our
relationship with how we view wife andhis walk becomes very emotional and charged from
(10:20):
a relationship standpoint that I believe reallytaps us into like a David nature if
you will. It's like I canthink of it like when David saw Goliath
and he was like, who areyou Like? That was relationship that he
(10:41):
had with God. That relationship.As a Christian, to believe God's ability
will outweigh anything that you've faced isabsolutely the power of the Christian. I
(11:03):
believe that it's it's attractive being awarrior for Christ. Anybody can fight for
anything and for anyone, but tobe able to say that I know I
will survive, not because I amskilled, but because it is in my
(11:26):
inherited will as a believer in Christto overcome anything that the enemy throws in
me. That's what it means forme. But again, I'm elective.
No, I love it because whatyou're saying is like it's it's absolute,
(11:50):
Like yeah, you know, likethis is it. I don't. I
just don't subscribe to the idea thatthe Bible is not enough for us to
survive. I agree, and asa Christian, I cannot walk in a
(12:16):
space of weakness knowing what I know, and it would be different walking the
confidence that I carry, the confidencethat I believe in the faith that I
have is different without the Word ofGod. Yes, But because I believe
(12:37):
the Word, like I challenge theWord, I have seen the Word show
up for me like I just Icannot subscribe to anything other than this is
the strategy out of this world thatGod has left us to survive suffering time.
(13:01):
Yeah. Yeah, So with thatbeing said, you know, whenever
you're dealing with challenges, how doyou address them? My my first yeah,
my again, my first responder isalways gonna be faith after the acknowledgement
(13:28):
of whatever I'm feeling. Okay,Because it's like I tell people, like,
when you get hit by a bus, your first thing is not likely
Jesus. When you wake up afterhaving been hit by the bus, then
you probably calling on Jesus. Butas upon getting hit by a bus,
(13:52):
your first response is a feeling,So address whatever that feeling is. So,
am I angry about this? AmI hurt? About this. Am
I feeling insecure about this? Whatare the feelings that I have about this?
And the Once I can identify thefeeling, then my response to that
(14:18):
feeling is faith. How does theWord of God apply to what I'm going
through and feeling right now? SoI feel angry. I need to believe
in trust that the Word of Godhas something that's going to combat this anger.
(14:46):
And it does and it does.And so once I get to the
Word and I realize the scriptures thatcombat this anger, I settle my spirit
down because I'm not worried about myflesh. That's just like, that's a
distraction. My flesh is a distractionand then and it will never not be
(15:11):
a distraction. Mm hm. Ilove that. So I have to always
consider, Okay, how is myspirit gonna take this on? How does
my spirit feel? My spirit feelsangry. The Word of God has something
that's gonna feed that anger that's inmy spirit. Once I settle my spirit
down, then I can call doctort Yes, because I need to not
(15:37):
be acting a fool in my fleshbecause I don't know and understand what's going
on. So let me identify andsettle my spirit down. So that when
I do walk into doctor T mytherapist's office, I have something of substance
(15:58):
to give her instead of I don'tknow, I don't know, I don't
know, I don't know, Idon't know how I feel, I don't
know what's going on. I don'tknow. I don't know, I don't
know. That's kind of productive,but she I'm sure if you did,
she would be able to guide youthrough like absolute, let's process this.
(16:18):
I don't know, like what's reallyon the back side of that. That
is the challenge of life be forme. I feel like, if I
go into the therapist's office, Iwant to go in. Could you get
forty five minutes to an hour copsright, and you could spend that with
the I don't know, or youcould really figure that portion, that small
(16:45):
piece out, whatever that is,feelings, will that thing, and then
go into the doctor's office so thatyou can spend that hour working on what
you feel versus trying to figure itout. That's how that's how I use
my therapy out. I know somepeople go into their therapy hour with the
(17:10):
I don't know, but I belike really trying hard not to do that.
Like there are times where I goin and just be like doctor T
like I have no idea, likeyou gonna you're gonna have to help me
with this one. But most timesI can kind of let you know,
like, Okay, this is howI'm feeling, this is what's going on,
(17:34):
and I need a strategy to helpnavigate how I present myself in the
world flesh m hm while I'm goingthrough this. Yeah, I love it.
So if that being said, whatdoes mental health really mean to you?
(17:56):
Mental health for me is about gettingthe map that you need from the
person that God has sent in yourlife to help you navigate emotionally everything that
you go through. I tell mytherapist like, you're not getting rid of
me, like she says, youknow, you reach a point and you
(18:19):
know you're gonna grow, You're todevelop, and I'm like, nah,
homie, I'm gonna be here,like like I'm gonna be here forever because
I feel like, just like youhave to see your doctor like every year
for a physical and you have tocheck in and make sure that your organs
and your liver and your blood typeand your blood cells and everything are good.
(18:44):
Like there is so much trauma inour DNA like I'm just learning this
stuff. Like in our DNA,there is so much trauma that it is
really ridiculous about as a people.Forget color, forget race. It is
ridiculous of us as a people tothink that we could carry this much trauma
(19:11):
in our DNA and not talk toanybody who is skilled and helping us how
to teaching us how to navigate throughthat trauma. M It's like, no,
you're not crazy. Well no,no, you're not crazy, but
you are traumatized and if you don'tget any help, it's gonna look a
(19:34):
little crazy. This is why Ilove you. You correct me up,
like you know, like I hatethat, but that's what's like, it's
crazy. This hard life. It'stough, and I didn't even realize,
like you could be holding your greatgreat granny's pain of being whipped from a
(20:00):
tree. Great granny is gone,great great great great great great granny is
gone, but her trauma lives inyour blood line. Mm hmmmm. As
you're saying that, I'm thinking aboutso this is this is where we get
to kind of dance with things.I'm thinking about generational curses and like things
(20:25):
that repeat themselves. And you're likeI'm in like this is the same story
for twenty years. Why am Iin the same story for twenty years?
Why it's the trauma in the bloodline. My mama was beat, My
mama's mama was beat. My mama'smama, mama was beat. My daddy
(20:45):
was abusive, My daddy was abusive, My daddy daddy, daddy was abusive.
My dad was an alcoholic. Myother daddy wasn't alcoholic. It's it's
in the bloodline. It follows downand until we say help is okay,
it's gonna continue to hurt our bloodlineand we're gonna see it continue in our
(21:07):
children because it's not it doesn't haveanything to do with individual issue. It's
a DNA bloodline issue that we're goingthrough, and mental health is the answer
to these issues. But we asa community are so oppressed that we do
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not open up the our hearts andour minds to the idea that we are
worthy and valuable enough to not beoppressed m hm. And so we continue
with the cultural DNA. It's crazy. If you go to a therapist,
ain't nothing wrong with you that's inour DNA. You ain't never talk to
(21:52):
a therapist a therapists ain't never hurtyou. A therapist ain't never lied on
you. A therapist ay never cursedyou. But every time somebody brings up,
hey, maybe it'd be okay foryou to trumpt somebody you know this
got a PhD. If you letus behind their name, they can help
you. It's I know I'm notcrazy, but that response, it is
(22:15):
not you. That response is great, great, great, great, granny.
I love that. That's a beautifulanalogy. Yes, so mental health
gives us that, It gives usthat answer, but we're so afraid because
it's in our DNA to not trust. Someone is not out to get you
(22:42):
to not trust that there's an ulteriormotive, like what are you doing this
for? Well, just because Ilike to see people, heald, I
like to see people happy. Ithink I think that that's cool that God
has given me the ability to helppeople not hurt anymore. Like that's I
(23:04):
like to do that? No way, absolutely, yeah, yeah way.
Who doesn't want to sit with that, you know, like sit down talk
with someone. Mental health is theanswer to our trauma m h M.
And prayer has helped us to survive, but mental health will help us to
(23:33):
succeed and sustain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's I mean, it's
it's easy to stay locked in survivalmode. Like we can all stay there.
We can stay in survival mode andjust live in survival mode, keeping
our head on a swivel. Butif you sit down and talk to someone,
(23:55):
they teach you how to take deepbreaths and go to sleep. I've
never heard that. What do youmean, wow, to sleep? Why
would I want to? Why wouldI want to go to sleep? Like?
Why deep breath and re take anap, drink some water. It's
(24:21):
it's simple, but it's so simplethat we take advantage of the accent that
we have to. Yeah, andinstead of reaching, we make excuses that
keep us from being able to reallydevelop to a better self. Yeah,
(24:44):
it's too expensive, so I'm myinsurance. I can't find one. Oh
it didn't work. I tried fora couple of weeks and then I stopped.
Yeah, all the things, allthe thing, and then five years
from now it's the same cycle.All right. Yeah, I'm curious to
know from your point of view,having a having a therapist, you doing
(25:12):
counseling, you being a prophet,how often do you see the two merge
like the counselor and the prophetic allthe time, all the time. And
I have to have that freedom becauseI feel like the accountability that I have
(25:37):
as a counselor comes from Christ.So like I'm not on like a board,
I don't. I don't have likea board. I have to report
to I report to Christ. Andso if I'm going to report to him,
why not bring him into my sessions. If I have a prophetic gift
(26:02):
that can help someone navigate through theirhurt and their pain, or rather narrate
their hurt and pain to better her, why not do them? And so
I merge and merge and merge again, because it is it's all, it's
(26:25):
all all works together. I can'tbring Kora without My middle name is Brion.
So all of them have different differentThere are a whole bunch of different
characters in me. I'm not schizophrenic, but there are a whole bunch of
different characters in me. But Icannot bring Kora without Brion. I cannot
(26:48):
bring the pastor without the prophet.I cannot bring the counselor without the doctor.
I can't bring them that I bringall my whole self, especially when
I'm gonna help someone. I bringmy whole son, And sometimes my best
friend has to be like I don'twant to be mentored today. I don't.
I don't want to be rapized today, Like just just chill and watch
(27:12):
the show, like what stop?But it does if you asked me for
help, or you bring up atopic as the lawyer, like all of
it comes up. I love itcomes up. I love it. But
it makes you who you are,just ca. Yeah, exactly right.
(27:33):
There's a lie. There's a linethat comes with Cora, and I'm not
I'm not oblivious to that. Mymy father was very very nervous, uh
when I when he actually first putme out there, because for a long
while, everybody just thought he hadone daughter, like, oh, it's
(27:55):
just Sarah. They were seeing Sarahall the time. And then he had
me to pray at the woman thatour loose conference at. He introduced me
and he was like, this ismy secret weapon, and so I prayed,
and then everybody was like, whatwho is this guy rider? Oh
my gosh, we didn't know there'stwo of them, Oh my gosh.
(28:18):
And so I put myself in ain a position to always feel like a
secret weapon uh for people that Ilove the most. And so if you
asked me to show up, Ishow up as my full self, with
all of myself, and I canbe a sharpshooter. And so I have
(28:44):
to do that because if I don'tshow you all of me, then you'll
take too long to decide whether youlike me or not. And side rather
you just decide that right off,and juice either follow me or unfollow me.
And so I came out and that'show it was, just like,
Okay, you could like me,you may not like me, like either
(29:07):
way I find out quick honey,leave quickly or stay either way. And
everybody loved me. They're like,oh, she should have been a comedian.
Oh my gosh, she makes soslap, she's so happy, Oh
my gosh, she's so funny.And people love my personality. And my
dad cauk like a huge sigh ofrelief because he was like, I was
(29:29):
so nervous because you are so animatedand you're such a big personality that sometimes
people will be turned off by it. And I didn't know how you were
going to handle people being turned offby your bigness. Because I show up
big, I don't I don't knowhow to show up small in the room.
(29:55):
I just I show up big.I love it, I love it,
I just love another. You mentionedhappiness. What does happiness mean to
you? It's a slippery thing.I think happiness is something that we are
(30:23):
always able to see, but notalways able to catch. And when we
do catch it, because we donot get to keep it for long,
we take advantage of happiness. Insteadof taking it in, we prepare to
(30:52):
push it away. I believe thathappiness is seasonal and that peace is seasonal
and war is seasonal. When happinesscomes around, instead of pushing it away
because you know it won't stay long, embrace it in that moment and hold
(31:18):
it for as long as you haveit. Sometimes you just have to hold
something while you have it. Happinessis for me, it's something that it's
slippery. When you have it,you hold on to it for as long
as you have I was gonna askyou thank you for saying that, yes,
(31:41):
yes, and yes, let mesay this. I'm being flooded right
now. So I was, youknow, I have happyology, and I
felt like people were like thinking,happiness is like this little trivial little thing.
It's nothing you know whatever. Happinessis so overrated, you know whatever,
(32:02):
And like you said, it's takenfor granted. And God spoke one
Dan said, look up the definitionthe Hebrew meaning of happiness sols like oh,
okay, where here we go?And what I found was that it
was in Hebrew it means joy.Wow. Yeah, that settled me.
(32:27):
I was so happy with that.I was like, yes, because God,
you said in your word that joyis always available. Yeah, it's
always. You can see it always. It's like my old spiritual father needs
to say that wherever two or threeare gathered, God is there in the
(32:51):
midst, but it doesn't mean he'smoved. Yeah, and so you have
to ask God to move. Andthough he's in the midst of you,
you have to ask him to move. And so that's how I feel about
I feel about joy. I feelabout happiness that it's seeable, it's tangible,
it's there, but you have toreach for it and you have to
(33:15):
hold on to it, and youhave to figure out what it is that
brought it to your hands, sothat whenever you are sad, whenever you
are hurting, whenever you are nowyou know how to grab a hold to
joy. Whatever it is. Itmay be a playlist. It may be
(33:37):
getting on a swing. It maybe taking a walk. It may be
coloring, it may be painting,it may be throwing water balloons at your
fence. Whatever it is, joycan be found. It just has to
be found. Yeah. I lovethat. Yeah, because even no matter
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what the trauma is, we canstill choose that, we could still go
and like I just feel like grabbingit, Like we could still go grab
it. We can, you knowwhat I mean, no matter what's going
on around us, So we canbe going through hell right now. My
goddaughter is three, she'll be fourin a couple of weeks. Oh my
(34:20):
gosh, that hurts. Oh.But sometimes when she doesn't get her way,
she will pout and she cries andlike it's a whole thing, like
she will put on a show fora long while. And I am of
the you don't gotta cry about it, my homiet, Like it's cool,
(34:43):
it's over, Like just move on, right. And so I was telling
I was telling my best friend hermom. I was like, she was
like, she's three, she cancry about it. She can be sad.
You don't tell her how to feel. And I was like absolutely,
She can choose to be sad andcry for the next five minutes and be
(35:07):
upset about it. Or she couldchoose to take a deep breath, receive
it, move on and keep onpushing. There are two options here.
I just want her to know shehas two options. I'm not telling her
how to feel or what option tochoose, but you got to it.
(35:31):
You can choose joy, or youcan choose depression and anger. You can
choose sadness and suicide. Or youcould choose to think something different. Challenge
yourself to make the choice that producesthe best fruit for where you want to
(35:53):
go out where you are, notwhere you are, Yes, that's the
key. And where you want togo? Where? Where do you want
to go with your emotions? Right? Because they emotions change all the time,
right, all the time. Wehave experiences all the time. It's
(36:15):
a moving will, it's a feelingswill. It's always moving. It's always
moving, and we control that.You can control the wheels. Stop it,
stop it at content and say,oh, what's happening here? When
I feel content? Is it?Is it the warmth of the tea?
Is it? The blanket? Isit? The stops? Is it what
(36:37):
I'm watching what's here in content landthat I mightna hold on to. We
make those choices, and I amlearning more through therapy that it is my
choice, so simple but so powerful, right, you hate it to be
(37:02):
that simple, but it's so powerfuland it's that simple. But when you
think of like, let's think injections, they're small, there's simple. It's
simple injections, but powerful enough tocure cancer, powerful enough to cure a
virus. Powerful and small little pill, but knock the whole thing out,
(37:28):
the whole thing, the whole thing. And so you just consider, like
how life is the smallest things tobe the biggest answer. M mm hmmm.
I love it. I feel likeI want to ground us out with
(37:49):
one question, and I feel likeyou've already kind of answered this though about
the about Christians and the Christian communityabout mindset, mental health. If you
could say anything to them that youhave not said already for every Christian,
even non believers, what would yousay? For Christians? I would say
(38:19):
that God was Jesus hystericist. Fornon believers, I would say, sorry,
we're not making the church for therapist. Wow. I want to thank
(38:47):
you for your time, your wisdom, the Holy Spirit using you right now
today your comedy. Yes, andyou know, this is such a real
topic. I'm gonna keep interviewing people. You're one of the first people I'm
(39:08):
interviewing for this segment. I thinkI'm gonna start traveling and interviewing people because
it's real. It's real, andI see it like I do some work
in a hospital setting as well.I see it in the hospital. And
it's always such a treat when I'mable to be Veronda in all my essence,
(39:36):
and Veronda is called by God,so being able to let the spirit
speak through me and see people's healing. But it took them saying yes,
I need help. Yeah, ittook them saying yes. And so having
this conversation and being all that youare, all that you are and candid
(39:58):
and honest and funny, I thinkthis is gonna shed more light on it
and free people and give them permissionto say, yes, let me go
find my therapist, because the therapistis there. There's there's they hold.
(40:20):
We hold a key to your healing, not because of who we are,
but because of who we serve back. We're just a vessel. Yeah,
all right, and so thank youfor your yes. Absolutely my pleasure.
Thank you for having me. Ifanyone wants to reach you, if you
(40:42):
want to just give your sites.I already shared it. You can do
that right now. And the officialComedy Cord Everywhere Comedy Cord Everywhere so you
can you can catch me there.I Am going to revamp my website and
everything at the start of the newVie yourselves Hello, Hello, Hello,
(41:02):
thank you for joining for Ronda Bellamyinspired
Hello, Hello, Hello, thankyou for joining Ronda Vellamy Inspired. So
I want to thank you, canI say, Prophet Courra, that's fine.
I want to thank you for youryes for today and you know,
coming on and talking about something that'sso important mindset, mental health specifically within
(00:34):
Christianity, right within our faith andhow that kind of shows up or doesn't
or you know, things like that. So I thank you for your yes.
As you know, I love mentalhealth. I love mindset. That's
kind of my my jam and it'salways such a treat when I get to
merge you know, spirituality, Christianityand with mindset and mental health because it
(00:59):
kind of go hand in hand,right, So I want to thank you
for your yes. I do wantto go ahead if you if you're okay
with it, and read your biofor everyone so they kind of, you
know, officially, you know,know who I'm talking to, because you
know, we haven't really made thatannouncement yet. So we have doctor Corey
Jakes with us today. She's apowerhouse. She's a powerhouse preacher, associate
(01:26):
pastor and overseer of many ministries atthe Powder's House Church of Dallas. Of
her many accomplishments Her most recent isreceiving a doctorate congratulations thank You in Christian
Counseling from the One Flesh Ministries BibleInstitute. Doctor Cora is probably following in
(01:49):
the footsteps of her well known andinfluential parents New York Times bestselling authors,
movie producers and megachurch pastors, PassipT. D. Jakes, Bishop TD
Jakes, and First laid Us SeritaJakes. Known around the world as a
powerful prayer warrior, Doctor Kor Jakesis an accomplished speaker and best selling author
(02:10):
of Faith in It quote unquote endquote Ferocious Warrior, Dismantle Your Enemy and
Rise, and Ferocious Warrior. DoctorCora shares her powerful testimony of how she
battled difficult obstacles including infertility, loss, depression, and insecurity and one and
(02:30):
she won. Can we add that? And she won? Dubbed the Ferocious
Warrior by many who follow her teachings, one of the key principles that doctor
Kora Jakes adheres to is praying byfaith and if you've not heard her pray,
she will pray you out of anythingthat you're going through. Doctor Cora
(02:51):
has made it her mission to teachpeople how to fight for the life they
deserve. Armed with the weapons offaith, hope, and prayer. She
also uses her platform to teach peoplehow to pray and ask God for exactly
what they want through what she callsher principles of Prayer. In the words
of her father, Cora has redefinedwhat it means to fight like a girl
(03:13):
she shows up. Doctor Cora ispassionate about teaching people how to live a
life of purpose and power. Sheproudly walks in all that God has given
her, and Doctor Cora is theproudest of her role as mother to Amari
and Jason. You can visit herat call me Korra dot com and follow
her on alsocial at official call meCora. Thank you for joining, Thank
(03:38):
you for joining. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Thank you for having me.
I'm honored to be here. Sothis is amazing, you know,
I really kind of just want togo ahead and kind of jump into this.
For those of you that's not listenbefore seen me before I hurt my
name before I'm bron development, letme just say that. And a therapist.
(04:00):
I'm licensed in North Carolina, acoach to people all over the globe,
and I'm all about mindset mental healthas well, and also talking about
Christianity and kind of merging things together. The creator of Happyology, which is
my newest program, and it's allthings happiness and mindset. So I say
it's the portal to happiness. Soprofit doctor, doctor prophet corgiates. I
(04:30):
feel like this is why, thisis why my whole brand just call me
Cora. There's so many I haveso many hats. It's just it's just
easier. When the Lord called me, he called me, he called you,
Cora. I love it. Ilove it, you know. And
jumping into this whole you know,mindset thing, I guess I'll start with
(04:51):
the first question of you know,what are some of those things that you've
seen, you know in as Coraand everything that you do, and how
you know Christianity kind of I'm gonnasay it rejects mindset and mental health.
(05:13):
M Well, I think for me, my perspective of faith and mental health
and Christianity and mental health is verydifferent because I was introduced to God differently,
and so the very first book ofthe Bible that I ever read was
(05:36):
Joe and for me, Job readsvery therapeutically in nature as his friends and
the counsel around him is giving himadvice and encouragement. And he is suffering,
(05:58):
and he's going through depression and he'sgoing through suicide, but he is
not isolating himself so much so thathe's unable to hear the people that are
around him and gain understanding from them. And so I always saw God as
(06:20):
a tester of our ability to trusthim in the different seasons and natures of
life that are presented to us,and those come in many different ways,
in many different directions, and Ithink that it just would be hoove us
(06:43):
to lean on the counsel that isaround us because it keeps us safe.
There is safety in a multitude ofcounsel. We know this that Jesus is
our counselor yes, but I alsobelieve that he places his spirit of counseling
in those people around us that arewilling to really pour into themselves in that
(07:09):
way. So I think that myunderstanding and bridge for mental health is it
is very different as Qora, andI handle the rejection differently for sure as
Kora, because I believe that therehas to be a fight for for something,
(07:33):
and I don't mind fighting for thecouncil, uh and and I believe
that that's probably why God even honoredme with being a doctor of Christian counseling,
because in its truest form, itis about being able to bridge this
(07:54):
relationship of leaning on people who havethe wisdom and tools and resources to help
you, versus isolating yourself in aposition that leads you stagnant and discourage.
(08:15):
That's so good, so deep,Yeah you said so much. Just then,
So, as a as a counselorwalking as a Christian, what does
(08:35):
Christianity mean to you? Christianity forme is about my relationship with Christ from
an emotional level. What I meanby this is I don't read the Word
(08:58):
of God as a story. Iread it as a strategy by which God
left to teach us the attributes ofwho he is. And so, as
a Christian, I buy in tothe belief that there is a God that
has so many different attributes in naturethat everything that means me evil turns out
(09:30):
for the good. Just because Ibuy in to the belief of God's ability
as a Christian, I am notexempt from suffering. I'm not exempt from
pain. As a Christian, Ihave the ability to overpower the pain that
(09:52):
tries to overpower me. And soI believe that as a Christian, we
become warriors, we become powerful,we become strategic in nature, and our
relationship with how we view wife andhis walk becomes very emotional and charged from
(10:20):
a relationship standpoint that I believe reallytaps us into like a David nature if
you will. It's like I canthink of it like when David saw Goliath
and he was like, who areyou Like? That was relationship that he
(10:41):
had with God. That relationship.As a Christian, to believe God's ability
will outweigh anything that you've faced isabsolutely the power of the Christian. I
(11:03):
believe that it's it's attractive being awarrior for Christ. Anybody can fight for
anything and for anyone, but tobe able to say that I know I
will survive, not because I amskilled, but because it is in my
(11:26):
inherited will as a believer in Christto overcome anything that the enemy throws in
me. That's what it means forme. But again, I'm elective.
No, I love it because whatyou're saying is like it's it's absolute,
(11:50):
Like yeah, you know, likethis is it. I don't. I
just don't subscribe to the idea thatthe Bible is not enough for us to
survive. I agree, and asa Christian, I cannot walk in a
(12:16):
space of weakness knowing what I know, and it would be different walking the
confidence that I carry, the confidencethat I believe in the faith that I
have is different without the Word ofGod. Yes, But because I believe
(12:37):
the Word, like I challenge theWord, I have seen the Word show
up for me like I just Icannot subscribe to anything other than this is
the strategy out of this world thatGod has left us to survive suffering time.
(13:01):
Yeah. Yeah, So with thatbeing said, you know, whenever
you're dealing with challenges, how doyou address them? My my first yeah,
my again, my first responder isalways gonna be faith after the acknowledgement
(13:28):
of whatever I'm feeling. Okay,Because it's like I tell people, like,
when you get hit by a bus, your first thing is not likely
Jesus. When you wake up afterhaving been hit by the bus, then
you probably calling on Jesus. Butas upon getting hit by a bus,
(13:52):
your first response is a feeling,So address whatever that feeling is. So,
am I angry about this? AmI hurt? About this. Am
I feeling insecure about this? Whatare the feelings that I have about this?
And the Once I can identify thefeeling, then my response to that
(14:18):
feeling is faith. How does theWord of God apply to what I'm going
through and feeling right now? SoI feel angry. I need to believe
in trust that the Word of Godhas something that's going to combat this anger.
(14:46):
And it does and it does.And so once I get to the
Word and I realize the scriptures thatcombat this anger, I settle my spirit
down because I'm not worried about myflesh. That's just like, that's a
distraction. My flesh is a distractionand then and it will never not be
(15:11):
a distraction. Mm hm. Ilove that. So I have to always
consider, Okay, how is myspirit gonna take this on? How does
my spirit feel? My spirit feelsangry. The Word of God has something
that's gonna feed that anger that's inmy spirit. Once I settle my spirit
down, then I can call doctort Yes, because I need to not
(15:37):
be acting a fool in my fleshbecause I don't know and understand what's going
on. So let me identify andsettle my spirit down. So that when
I do walk into doctor T mytherapist's office, I have something of substance
(15:58):
to give her instead of I don'tknow, I don't know, I don't
know, I don't know, Idon't know how I feel, I don't
know what's going on. I don'tknow. I don't know, I don't
know. That's kind of productive,but she I'm sure if you did,
she would be able to guide youthrough like absolute, let's process this.
(16:18):
I don't know, like what's reallyon the back side of that. That
is the challenge of life be forme. I feel like, if I
go into the therapist's office, Iwant to go in. Could you get
forty five minutes to an hour copsright, and you could spend that with
the I don't know, or youcould really figure that portion, that small
(16:45):
piece out, whatever that is,feelings, will that thing, and then
go into the doctor's office so thatyou can spend that hour working on what
you feel versus trying to figure itout. That's how that's how I use
my therapy out. I know somepeople go into their therapy hour with the
(17:10):
I don't know, but I belike really trying hard not to do that.
Like there are times where I goin and just be like doctor T
like I have no idea, likeyou gonna you're gonna have to help me
with this one. But most timesI can kind of let you know,
like, Okay, this is howI'm feeling, this is what's going on,
(17:34):
and I need a strategy to helpnavigate how I present myself in the
world flesh m hm while I'm goingthrough this. Yeah, I love it.
So if that being said, whatdoes mental health really mean to you?
(17:56):
Mental health for me is about gettingthe map that you need from the
person that God has sent in yourlife to help you navigate emotionally everything that
you go through. I tell mytherapist like, you're not getting rid of
me, like she says, youknow, you reach a point and you
(18:19):
know you're gonna grow, You're todevelop, and I'm like, nah,
homie, I'm gonna be here,like like I'm gonna be here forever because
I feel like, just like youhave to see your doctor like every year
for a physical and you have tocheck in and make sure that your organs
and your liver and your blood typeand your blood cells and everything are good.
(18:44):
Like there is so much trauma inour DNA like I'm just learning this
stuff. Like in our DNA,there is so much trauma that it is
really ridiculous about as a people.Forget color, forget race. It is
ridiculous of us as a people tothink that we could carry this much trauma
(19:11):
in our DNA and not talk toanybody who is skilled and helping us how
to teaching us how to navigate throughthat trauma. M It's like, no,
you're not crazy. Well no,no, you're not crazy, but
you are traumatized and if you don'tget any help, it's gonna look a
(19:34):
little crazy. This is why Ilove you. You correct me up,
like you know, like I hatethat, but that's what's like, it's
crazy. This hard life. It'stough, and I didn't even realize,
like you could be holding your greatgreat granny's pain of being whipped from a
(20:00):
tree. Great granny is gone,great great great great great great granny is
gone, but her trauma lives inyour blood line. Mm hmmmm. As
you're saying that, I'm thinking aboutso this is this is where we get
to kind of dance with things.I'm thinking about generational curses and like things
(20:25):
that repeat themselves. And you're likeI'm in like this is the same story
for twenty years. Why am Iin the same story for twenty years?
Why it's the trauma in the bloodline. My mama was beat, My
mama's mama was beat. My mama'smama, mama was beat. My daddy
(20:45):
was abusive, My daddy was abusive, My daddy daddy, daddy was abusive.
My dad was an alcoholic. Myother daddy wasn't alcoholic. It's it's
in the bloodline. It follows downand until we say help is okay,
it's gonna continue to hurt our bloodlineand we're gonna see it continue in our
(21:07):
children because it's not it doesn't haveanything to do with individual issue. It's
a DNA bloodline issue that we're goingthrough, and mental health is the answer
to these issues. But we asa community are so oppressed that we do
(21:32):
not open up the our hearts andour minds to the idea that we are
worthy and valuable enough to not beoppressed m hm. And so we continue
with the cultural DNA. It's crazy. If you go to a therapist,
ain't nothing wrong with you that's inour DNA. You ain't never talk to
(21:52):
a therapist a therapists ain't never hurtyou. A therapist ain't never lied on
you. A therapist ay never cursedyou. But every time somebody brings up,
hey, maybe it'd be okay foryou to trumpt somebody you know this
got a PhD. If you letus behind their name, they can help
you. It's I know I'm notcrazy, but that response, it is
(22:15):
not you. That response is great, great, great, great, granny.
I love that. That's a beautifulanalogy. Yes, so mental health
gives us that, It gives usthat answer, but we're so afraid because
it's in our DNA to not trust. Someone is not out to get you
(22:42):
to not trust that there's an ulteriormotive, like what are you doing this
for? Well, just because Ilike to see people, heald, I
like to see people happy. Ithink I think that that's cool that God
has given me the ability to helppeople not hurt anymore. Like that's I
(23:04):
like to do that? No way, absolutely, yeah, yeah way.
Who doesn't want to sit with that, you know, like sit down talk
with someone. Mental health is theanswer to our trauma m h M.
And prayer has helped us to survive, but mental health will help us to
(23:33):
succeed and sustain. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's I mean, it's
it's easy to stay locked in survivalmode. Like we can all stay there.
We can stay in survival mode andjust live in survival mode, keeping
our head on a swivel. Butif you sit down and talk to someone,
(23:55):
they teach you how to take deepbreaths and go to sleep. I've
never heard that. What do youmean, wow, to sleep? Why
would I want to? Why wouldI want to go to sleep? Like?
Why deep breath and re take anap, drink some water. It's
(24:21):
it's simple, but it's so simplethat we take advantage of the accent that
we have to. Yeah, andinstead of reaching, we make excuses that
keep us from being able to reallydevelop to a better self. Yeah,
(24:44):
it's too expensive, so I'm myinsurance. I can't find one. Oh
it didn't work. I tried fora couple of weeks and then I stopped.
Yeah, all the things, allthe thing, and then five years
from now it's the same cycle.All right. Yeah, I'm curious to
know from your point of view,having a having a therapist, you doing
(25:12):
counseling, you being a prophet,how often do you see the two merge
like the counselor and the prophetic allthe time, all the time. And
I have to have that freedom becauseI feel like the accountability that I have
(25:37):
as a counselor comes from Christ.So like I'm not on like a board,
I don't. I don't have likea board. I have to report
to I report to Christ. Andso if I'm going to report to him,
why not bring him into my sessions. If I have a prophetic gift
(26:02):
that can help someone navigate through theirhurt and their pain, or rather narrate
their hurt and pain to better her, why not do them? And so
I merge and merge and merge again, because it is it's all, it's
(26:25):
all all works together. I can'tbring Kora without My middle name is Brion.
So all of them have different differentThere are a whole bunch of different
characters in me. I'm not schizophrenic, but there are a whole bunch of
different characters in me. But Icannot bring Kora without Brion. I cannot
(26:48):
bring the pastor without the prophet.I cannot bring the counselor without the doctor.
I can't bring them that I bringall my whole self, especially when
I'm gonna help someone. I bringmy whole son, And sometimes my best
friend has to be like I don'twant to be mentored today. I don't.
I don't want to be rapized today, Like just just chill and watch
(27:12):
the show, like what stop?But it does if you asked me for
help, or you bring up atopic as the lawyer, like all of
it comes up. I love itcomes up. I love it. But
it makes you who you are,just ca. Yeah, exactly right.
(27:33):
There's a lie. There's a linethat comes with Cora, and I'm not
I'm not oblivious to that. Mymy father was very very nervous, uh
when I when he actually first putme out there, because for a long
while, everybody just thought he hadone daughter, like, oh, it's
(27:55):
just Sarah. They were seeing Sarahall the time. And then he had
me to pray at the woman thatour loose conference at. He introduced me
and he was like, this ismy secret weapon, and so I prayed,
and then everybody was like, whatwho is this guy rider? Oh
my gosh, we didn't know there'stwo of them, Oh my gosh.
(28:18):
And so I put myself in ain a position to always feel like a
secret weapon uh for people that Ilove the most. And so if you
asked me to show up, Ishow up as my full self, with
all of myself, and I canbe a sharpshooter. And so I have
(28:44):
to do that because if I don'tshow you all of me, then you'll
take too long to decide whether youlike me or not. And side rather
you just decide that right off,and juice either follow me or unfollow me.
And so I came out and that'show it was, just like,
Okay, you could like me,you may not like me, like either
(29:07):
way I find out quick honey,leave quickly or stay either way. And
everybody loved me. They're like,oh, she should have been a comedian.
Oh my gosh, she makes soslap, she's so happy, Oh
my gosh, she's so funny.And people love my personality. And my
dad cauk like a huge sigh ofrelief because he was like, I was
(29:29):
so nervous because you are so animatedand you're such a big personality that sometimes
people will be turned off by it. And I didn't know how you were
going to handle people being turned offby your bigness. Because I show up
big, I don't I don't knowhow to show up small in the room.
(29:55):
I just I show up big.I love it, I love it,
I just love another. You mentionedhappiness. What does happiness mean to
you? It's a slippery thing.I think happiness is something that we are
(30:23):
always able to see, but notalways able to catch. And when we
do catch it, because we donot get to keep it for long,
we take advantage of happiness. Insteadof taking it in, we prepare to
(30:52):
push it away. I believe thathappiness is seasonal and that peace is seasonal
and war is seasonal. When happinesscomes around, instead of pushing it away
because you know it won't stay long, embrace it in that moment and hold
(31:18):
it for as long as you haveit. Sometimes you just have to hold
something while you have it. Happinessis for me, it's something that it's
slippery. When you have it,you hold on to it for as long
as you have I was gonna askyou thank you for saying that, yes,
(31:41):
yes, and yes, let mesay this. I'm being flooded right
now. So I was, youknow, I have happyology, and I
felt like people were like thinking,happiness is like this little trivial little thing.
It's nothing you know whatever. Happinessis so overrated, you know whatever,
(32:02):
And like you said, it's takenfor granted. And God spoke one
Dan said, look up the definitionthe Hebrew meaning of happiness sols like oh,
okay, where here we go?And what I found was that it
was in Hebrew it means joy.Wow. Yeah, that settled me.
(32:27):
I was so happy with that.I was like, yes, because God,
you said in your word that joyis always available. Yeah, it's
always. You can see it always. It's like my old spiritual father needs
to say that wherever two or threeare gathered, God is there in the
(32:51):
midst, but it doesn't mean he'smoved. Yeah, and so you have
to ask God to move. Andthough he's in the midst of you,
you have to ask him to move. And so that's how I feel about
I feel about joy. I feelabout happiness that it's seeable, it's tangible,
it's there, but you have toreach for it and you have to
(33:15):
hold on to it, and youhave to figure out what it is that
brought it to your hands, sothat whenever you are sad, whenever you
are hurting, whenever you are nowyou know how to grab a hold to
joy. Whatever it is. Itmay be a playlist. It may be
(33:37):
getting on a swing. It maybe taking a walk. It may be
coloring, it may be painting,it may be throwing water balloons at your
fence. Whatever it is, joycan be found. It just has to
be found. Yeah. I lovethat. Yeah, because even no matter
(33:59):
what the trauma is, we canstill choose that, we could still go
and like I just feel like grabbingit, Like we could still go grab
it. We can, you knowwhat I mean, no matter what's going
on around us, So we canbe going through hell right now. My
goddaughter is three, she'll be fourin a couple of weeks. Oh my
(34:20):
gosh, that hurts. Oh.But sometimes when she doesn't get her way,
she will pout and she cries andlike it's a whole thing, like
she will put on a show fora long while. And I am of
the you don't gotta cry about it, my homiet, Like it's cool,
(34:43):
it's over, Like just move on, right. And so I was telling
I was telling my best friend hermom. I was like, she was
like, she's three, she cancry about it. She can be sad.
You don't tell her how to feel. And I was like absolutely,
She can choose to be sad andcry for the next five minutes and be
(35:07):
upset about it. Or she couldchoose to take a deep breath, receive
it, move on and keep onpushing. There are two options here.
I just want her to know shehas two options. I'm not telling her
how to feel or what option tochoose, but you got to it.
(35:31):
You can choose joy, or youcan choose depression and anger. You can
choose sadness and suicide. Or youcould choose to think something different. Challenge
yourself to make the choice that producesthe best fruit for where you want to
(35:53):
go out where you are, notwhere you are, Yes, that's the
key. And where you want togo? Where? Where do you want
to go with your emotions? Right? Because they emotions change all the time,
right, all the time. Wehave experiences all the time. It's
(36:15):
a moving will, it's a feelingswill. It's always moving. It's always
moving, and we control that.You can control the wheels. Stop it,
stop it at content and say,oh, what's happening here? When
I feel content? Is it?Is it the warmth of the tea?
Is it? The blanket? Isit? The stops? Is it what
(36:37):
I'm watching what's here in content landthat I mightna hold on to. We
make those choices, and I amlearning more through therapy that it is my
choice, so simple but so powerful, right, you hate it to be
(37:02):
that simple, but it's so powerfuland it's that simple. But when you
think of like, let's think injections, they're small, there's simple. It's
simple injections, but powerful enough tocure cancer, powerful enough to cure a
virus. Powerful and small little pill, but knock the whole thing out,
(37:28):
the whole thing, the whole thing. And so you just consider, like
how life is the smallest things tobe the biggest answer. M mm hmmm.
I love it. I feel likeI want to ground us out with
(37:49):
one question, and I feel likeyou've already kind of answered this though about
the about Christians and the Christian communityabout mindset, mental health. If you
could say anything to them that youhave not said already for every Christian,
even non believers, what would yousay? For Christians? I would say
(38:19):
that God was Jesus hystericist. Fornon believers, I would say, sorry,
we're not making the church for therapist. Wow. I want to thank
(38:47):
you for your time, your wisdom, the Holy Spirit using you right now
today your comedy. Yes, andyou know, this is such a real
topic. I'm gonna keep interviewing people. You're one of the first people I'm
(39:08):
interviewing for this segment. I thinkI'm gonna start traveling and interviewing people because
it's real. It's real, andI see it like I do some work
in a hospital setting as well.I see it in the hospital. And
it's always such a treat when I'mable to be Veronda in all my essence,
(39:36):
and Veronda is called by God,so being able to let the spirit
speak through me and see people's healing. But it took them saying yes,
I need help. Yeah, ittook them saying yes. And so having
this conversation and being all that youare, all that you are and candid
(39:58):
and honest and funny, I thinkthis is gonna shed more light on it
and free people and give them permissionto say, yes, let me go
find my therapist, because the therapistis there. There's there's they hold.
(40:20):
We hold a key to your healing, not because of who we are,
but because of who we serve back. We're just a vessel. Yeah,
all right, and so thank youfor your yes. Absolutely my pleasure.
Thank you for having me. Ifanyone wants to reach you, if you
(40:42):
want to just give your sites.I already shared it. You can do
that right now. And the officialComedy Cord Everywhere Comedy Cord Everywhere so you
can you can catch me there.I Am going to revamp my website and
everything at the start of the newVie yourselves Hello, Hello, Hello,
(41:02):
thank you for joining for Ronda Bellamyinspired
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