Book Summary: Crushing, by T.D. Jakes
“I assure you that He is not out to destroy you. On the contrary, He’s out to remake you, remodel you, and renew you. And He has given His word that your momentary discomfort will bring about the most profitable end.”
The author: T.D. Jakes
T.D. Jakes is the senior pastor of The Potter's House Church, a large non-denominational church in Dallas. He’s written over 30 books, including his latest, “The Crushing.”
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Book overview
Trials and suffering.
None of us get through life avoiding them, though not for lack of trying.
In this book, Jakes takes us through the reasons behind our trials—which he calls the crushing—and the good that God brings out of our challenges.
Jakes compares our trials to the wine-making process, which includes these phases:
Planting in dark places
Pruning
Bearing fruit
Crushing the fruit
Fermentation
Reaping the spoils / the eternal pairing
Pastor Steven Furtick shared a nearly two-hour interview with Jakes, discussing the book’s ideas in depth:
Or, grab the Apple Podcast version here.
Summary of key ideas
God uses everything for his good—and ours.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Notice that he says all things—not some things, a few things, or the good things. All includes the hard, the painful, the unexpected, and the seemingly unbearable, unimaginable, and intolerable. All includes the losses that you’re grieving right now, the ones you carry around inside you every day. All includes the disasters, divisions, and distractions intruding on your peace of mind. All includes circumstances that leave you feeling powerless, vulnerable, and unsteady on your feet.
The trials of our lives are used as a catalyst for growth, for the betterment of the gifts we have been given.
Now more than ever it’s crucial that we begin seeing that the plans we have imagined for our lives cannot compare to God’s strategy for fulfilling our divine purpose.
Jakes challenges us to reframe our trials, to take a wider view of our lives and to believe that God has a larger plan than we can see in our suffering:
Could it be possible that your current predicament is the winepress God uses to transform your grapes into His wine? Could being crushed be a necessary part of the process to fulfill God’s plan for your life? Could you be on the verge of victory despite walking through the valley of broken vines?
The same God who placed those seeds and gifts within us seeks to cultivate and harvest His initial investment in order to multiply it even more. Our Maker wishes to see these internal seeds and latent talents grow, mature, and bring forth abundant fruit used for something more. Jakes, T. D.. Crushing (pp. 20-21). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
On the vine
I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. (John 15:1–4)
Since Jesus is the very fruition of God’s Word, He must be the beginning, or seed, of our lives as well. The seed, then, was already present because Jesus is simultaneously the vine and seed. Therefore, the seed and vine are one.
[…]
Since Jesus is both seed and vine, we are the promised fruit-bearing branches that spring forth from Him.
Though He was an adult producing a wonderful harvest during His three years of ministry, Jesus was not meant to simply work miracle after miracle. His life on earth was intended to move from something temporary to something eternal. Though Christ became a physical adult, His spirit carried the even greater promise of an eternal harvest—and not just one made up of miracles that would be temporarily praised. In order for that spiritual promise to be birthed, the supernatural seed had to enter into its own version of development. Like any seed that would sprout, it had to be planted. In essence, everything the seed knows about itself has to end. The seed, then, must die just as Christ died so that He could give birth to us as God’s spiritual children, His divine offspring.
Seed / cultivation
God isloates us in quiet and dark processes to begin new growth, just like a seed sits in the dark earth and begins to sprout.
the sprouted seedling could never understand the process of cultivation from its own limited point of view. Similarly, it is a striking blow to our limited comprehension of God to accept that he would use the most unorthodox procedures and inhospitable environments to develop us into something more, Jakes, T. D.. Crushing (p. 37). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
To put it simply, the seed doesn’t understand the vine that it’s becoming. Everything that occurs in its life appears to be happenstance because all it can see is the muck and mire that it’s trying to escape. It’s when we are vines that we can look back at what we used to be and notice that what appeared to be accidents, incidents, and coincidence converged to produce what we are and the fruit that hangs from our branches.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24).
I encourage you to allow God’s prison of purpose in your life to do what it was intended to do: develop you into a strong vine. It’s your location of cultivation.
Pruning
Pruning always happens after the harvest. Jakes, T. D.. Crushing (p. 68). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
God’s pruning of the branches of blessings in my life on the heels of a massive harvest were in direct keeping with the very words of the Master Himself: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2 NKJV). Jakes, T. D.. Crushing (p. 68). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
On one hand, we are experiencing the inescapable trauma of the Lord trimming from us what we thought makes us valuable. On the other, we have the desire for our comfort that the enemy uses to entice us away from the glorious future.
Pruning is not punishment—it’s the pathway to God’s power in your life.For where God is taking you, you don’t need the weight and refuse of yesterday’s bread. The Master has an expected end for your life, and the trip For where God is taking you, you don’t need the weight and refuse of yesterday’s bread. The Master has an expected end for your life, and the trip
Though it appears that everything you built has been taken from you, the Lord has strategically left a remnant that will give rise to more fruit next season.
He loves you and will never abandon you or harm your ultimate well-being—even when the slice of devastating circumstances cuts you deeply. Have confidence in God’s ability to do the impossible and to surprise you with His joy, comfort you with His peace, and fulfill you with His purpose. Pruning is not punishment—it’s the beginning of your greatest season yet!
[…]
If you choose to dwell on the fruit that has already fallen and spoiled, then you miss out on letting God redeem that fruit by making you into His wine. Jakes, T. D.. Crushing (pp. 90-92). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
Crushing
The crushing of the grape not only expresses the juice from the flesh, but it also separates the unusable parts of the grape from the juice.
God’s plan often thrives in the lives of those who don’t seem fit for the calling.
We question, and even resist, the calling God places on our lives.
But how can a grape say to the Husbandman, “I don’t want to be used to make wine!” How could the clay ever protest to the Potter about what it was made for?
the first thing God did with the children of Israel after they left Egypt was rid them of what had enslaved them by drowning the Egyptians in the Red Sea. In effect, God was cleansing Israel of all that had stained them for so long. He had already saved Israel from death by allowing an innocent animal to take the place of every person who decided to come up under His protection and enter into covenant with him. The marking set them apart from the Egyptians, who suffered death without the sacrificial blood to cover them, and protected each Hebrew household.
So what we have is a crushing that came first through the lamb, then a self-examination via the mirror of the Red Sea that showed Israel it cannot do without God, coupled with a washing that prepared Israel to meet God in the wilderness. In this progression of three events, we have the first three steps that take place at the tabernacle and the first three steps in the winemaking process.
Right on the heels of crushing the grapes, there is a self-examination via the filter that leaves the Husbandman with a washed product He will use to make wine. This crushing coincides with the initial sacrifice that takes place right when the Israelites would enter the tent of meeting.
Notice the pattern repeating itself? In each case, crushing came first. Although we might not like it, the Husbandman is telling us that the same thing will happen to each individual that would approach Him through the door that is Christ our King. Right when we pass through the outer court gate, the first thing that all of us should expect is the sacrifice of pain that comes from the casting of our flesh onto the brazen altar that is the winepress of our Husbandman. You cannot get around this crushing. You cannot ignore it. You must accept it.
Jakes challenges us to embrace the crushing:
Do you wish a connection and audience with God or not? Do you want more from life than you can ever experience on your own? If you do, you must embrace this aspect of the process, because the crushing is meant to do two things: get out of you what’s in you, and get the true you out of the thin skin that encases you.
your crushing is the first of three stages. Just like your acceptance of Jesus’ death comes first, so does your crushing.
In this crushing process, the enemy of your soul will send obstacles your way in order to convince you to abandon what God is doing in your life.
In this process of crushing, God is switching you from the food of failure to the breakfast of champions. He’s shifting the paradigm of your seed-like mentality of simply producing fruit into the glorious crushing of making wine. The problem with which we all must grapple is whether or not we are willing to pay the price for such a radical shift. And this shift takes time.
Keep in mind that being great is not classified only by financial gain or notoriety. Greatness is the level to which God takes you where you are finally operating with confidence and fullness in the environment he has placed you in. It’s where you are being all you can be for His glory. But no one suddenly matriculates to greatness. It is developed in you over a period of time in which God transforms you level by level into who He has designed you to be. Like a seed, greatness lives inside you, but it must be cultivated as He guides you through the various seasons of change. And it’s in the changes of life that the costliest transactions take place.
For everything you’ve lost, for all that’s been trampled, let’s make wine. For every scar on your body and every fracture in your heart, let’s make wine. For every lost relationship and broken promise, let’s make wine. For every stolen dollar and wasted opportunity, let’s make wine. For every tear shed and every pain suffered, God is at work in your life. Let’s make wine!
Fermenting
When it comes to winemaking, the fermentation stage is nothing more than a waiting area for the grapes.
It’s a holding pattern, just like when you see a plane waiting for the weather to clear so it can take off or for the runway to be made ready for the plane to land.
Some years after I finally accepted my calling, I remember pleading with God to allow me to preach. It was one thing to not even want the calling in the first place. But to be called and then be forced to sit in the background and listen to people speak from books of the Bible they couldn’t even properly pronounce was the most aggravating experience of my life. It was during my inner court period that the Lord was developing my gift. I would be in the shower, preaching to bars of soap and washrags. I would be walking through the woods of West Virginia, laying hands on trees. All of this might sound comical to you, but I now see these moments as part of a season of fermentation.
There was no way God was going to present to the world an unrefined, unfermented, underdeveloped product.
Similarly, the transformation process from death back to life occurred in the darkness of the tomb.
our survival relies on our willingness to surrender. We begin to recognize this in-between moment of time is transitory and transitional. We’re experiencing spiritual growing pains.
During times of change, upheaval, and transition, you become moody, unstable, emotionally irregular, and sometimes even contemptible. I know I can become all of those and more. This is why you have to be careful with people while they’re changing.
The Master Vintner knows when your wine is ready. He knows when your fermentation is done.
Recovery can be painful. Fermentation takes time. And then moving new wine from the vat into the bottle also requires time. So does moving from the cross to the empty tomb.
certain blessings and assets are found only in rest. Better still, some advantages emerge exclusively in and while being alone. I think my best thoughts when I’m alone, and I move faster without weight of other responsibilities and distractions. Plus, the Father loves to speak, especially when there are no distractions between the two of us.
We have to relinquish control
Abram was to follow the path laid out for him by God, and that is precisely where many of us falter. We seek our own way, not understanding that our pride and arrogance lead us into destruction. We hate having to receive instructions from anyone because we think we have a handle on everything in our lives. As a result, we don’t like relinquishing control and walking with God by faith.
The Master always calls us by what he has placed in us and what we will do for him. I submit to you that God calls us what we will be while we’re wrestling with what we were and what we did. When God changed Abram’s name, He increased the distance between who the man once was and who God told him he would be in the future.
God does not only seek your mind, or your heart, or your body. The Master wants the totality of who and what you are because you will receive nothing less from him.
Wine
God’s blessings become reality in our lives when we rejoin the Master’s plan by lining up with it in faith, like Abraham. In essence, when we reconnect with God, we step into what He has for us.
He is a Master totally consumed with reconnecting his children back to Him. For, in that connection, there are promises and blessings the Lord wants us to enjoy because of us simply being in his family. The only thing we must do is be just as desperate for reconnection back to him as he is.
Winemaking basically comes down to three steps: crushing the grapes, allowing the juice to ferment, and collecting the wine. In other words, you mash the fruit, allow the juice to sit, and enjoy the results.
When we face the darkest moments of our lives, there is something on the other side of it.The cross became an emblem of Christ’s crushing and the new wine produced when He emerged from the tomb.
Even after your pain has fermented and you find yourself in a new location, a new job, a new relationship, or a new lifestyle, you will still struggle. Like wine being poured from the vat into the bottles in order to be shipped and purchased and consumed, we must learn to be contained by new shapes. Jesus said, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, wineskins, and both are preserved.” (Matt. 9:16–17).
It is rare that you see God calling someone to a unique destiny and Him allowing them to remain where they’ve always been. I’m hard-pressed to think of a single instance.
God never intended for your temporary to be your eternity.
the first thing a person does when they are brought into a new space is to begin seeking out a way to stabilize themselves in the unfamiliar. Seeing that they can find no recognizable handle to hold onto in a new season, they look backward to something commonplace in order to receive comfort.
God now indwells the hearts of the hundreds of millions of people all across this planet who have placed their hopes and faith solely in Him. Instead of there being one temple, every believer is a temple in which He meets with them and to which every person seeking a relationship with God can visit and become one whom He indwells.
If there’s anything that God has always requested His people to do, it is believe Him. For how can you seek or worship a God you do not trust?
Where we are accustomed to God directing us in manners we’re comfortable with, He steps outside the box and employs something altogether different, yet effective.
The eternal pairing
We know God’s going to do something, but we don’t know when. We know God is going to bless us, but we don’t know how. We know God is going to connect us, but we don’t know through whom. God told you He was going to deliver you, but He didn’t tell you what He was going to deliver you from. God said you’d be together with Him again, but He didn’t tell you everything you’d endure along the way. All of this is preparation for your final pairing with the Master. You’re doing everything to avoid the hidden crushings in the valleys, but those are what’s needed to bring you to the point of being reunited and paired with God. Don’t get lost by the distractions.
As we embrace being God’s new creation in Christ, as we grow accustomed to living as His holy wine, then we begin experiencing new levels of joy, peace, contentment, purpose, and satisfaction. No longer do we wonder why we are here on this earth. We know that everything we have been through is more than worth it because God has used it all, wasting nothing, to bring us to the point in our lives where we are now.
You may struggle to see yourself as God’s holy wine now, and that’s understandable. But the truth of the matter is that you are not what and who you used to be. You are not what you did. You are not your lack. You are not what people have labeled you to be, and God will continue confronting you to make you understand who you are.
Over and over again, I have to thank God for sticking with his timetable for my life and not bending to my will. I can look back over my life and see where God could have answered me right then with what I thought I wanted and allow it to destroy me. With the utmost gratitude, I salute Him for keeping from me what I considered the best thing for me at the time.
God always saves the best for last!