Your God Sister Podcast

God Has A Plan For Your Life: Let Him Lead You Into It | EP19

Joii Cooper Season 1 Episode 19

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0:00 | 33:55

Hello!

Have you ever stopped to consider how God may have been shaping your purpose long before you recognized it yourself?

In this special birthday episode—and the season one finale—I’m joined by a very special guest: my husband, Dr. Tyron Cooper. He serves God and people as an Associate Pastor and Youth Minister. Together, we reflect on his journey of faith, music, purpose, and the undeniable hand of God throughout his life.

From childhood memories of conducting an imaginary orchestra beside his family home to becoming a six-time Emmy Award-winning musician, composer, educator, and producer, my husband shares how God cultivated the gifts inside of him through the leading of the Holy Spirit.

We also talk about the importance of training children in the things of God, learning to think beyond limitations, and allowing the Lord to shape the way we love and serve people. Throughout these reflections, one truth remains clear: God’s hand is on our lives long before we fully understand His plan. It's our job to yield to the plan.

If you’ve ever questioned whether God has a purpose for your life, or wondered how He develops the gifts He places inside of us, this episode will encourage you to trust His leading and remain faithful to God in the process.

Scripture references from this episode:
Proverbs 22:6 NKJV
Genesis 1:1 NKJV
Ephesians 3:20 NKJV
Romans 5:5 NKJV
1 John 4:8 NKJV
Matthew 28:19 NKJV

GET ACCESS TO PART 2 OF THIS CONVERSATION. 

💌 Join the Your God Sister podcast email list Season 1 is wrapping up on May 26, but through emails, I’ll continue sharing what God is placing on my heart with you until we return for season two in January 2027. 

📖 Mr. Right, Is That You? (Ebook) Learn from Ruth and Boaz as you faithfully navigate you season of singleness.

If the Your God Sister podcast has been a blessing to you, please consider supporting the show. Thank you!

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SPEAKER_01

Is May 26th a special day? Is there a special guest on today's episode? Do you have any idea who it might be? Let's talk about it. Today is my birthday, and I am filled with gratitude, excitement, and joy. To celebrate the final episode of season one, I wanted to invite a very special guest to join me. It is my honor to introduce him to you. He is a six-time Emmy Award winner who holds a bachelor's degree in music education, a master's degree in jazz studies, and a PhD in ethnomusicology. He is a beloved university professor and has composed music for PBS documentaries. He is widely recognized for his extensive studio recording and live performance work as a music director, guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and arranger for nationally known artists across diverse genres. I share all these accomplishments to acknowledge the goodness of God in his life. I have had a front row seat to witness these incredible achievements, but what moves me most is this man's heart for Jesus and for people. He is a man of faith, wisdom, and vision. Allow me to introduce you to Dr. Tyron Cooper, but I am honored to call him my husband. Welcome to the Your God Sister Podcast, where we address life's challenges with biblical answers while enjoying our time together. A couple of constants here are what the Bible says and what the Lord speaks to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. My name is Joy Cooper. I'm an associate pastor. I am a youth minister, and through the years I've had the opportunity to mentor young ladies. But on this podcast, I'm here with you. Sweetie, take us back to Lake Worth, Florida in the yard of your childhood home. What did you imagine? What sounds did you hear in your head? And how did church shape you?

SPEAKER_03

Well, first of all, um I want to say that I'm grateful uh to be on your podcast. Uh it's really been uh uh a great joy, uh no pun intended, um to watch you build this platform. I think it's a necessary platform.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03

Uh and so I'm just you know just just grateful, feeling really honored to be here and to celebrate your birthday. Uh it's it's it's it's a great honor to watch you do what you do. And so so to answer your question, if we can get right into it, uh on the side of my house in Lake Worth, Florida, uh, I was born in Florence, South Carolina, but I was raised in Lake Worth, Florida, which is South, South Florida on the east coast of uh the state. On the side of my house was an orchestra. Now, I'm not saying uh a real orchestra, but it was an orchestra in my head. The orchestra was um uh this was my kind of play time. And I I would play on the side of my house alone with this imaginary orchestra. Now, I should I should say I had never really seen any of the instruments in the orchestra or heard any of the instruments in the orchestra in in in person. I didn't grow up with an orchestra. I didn't grow up like with an oboe. I didn't grow up with the with the violin, I didn't grow up with those kinds of instruments uh that are associated uh historically with an orchestra. Um but I had these sounds in my head. I had I I for some reason I could imagine an orchestra. And I was probably around somewhere between, I would say, maybe six to eight uh years old, I would say. Um I was playing with this orchestra and I could I was conducting the orchestra. I was conducting them, I was telling them, you know, to be louder, to be softer, to be quiet, to shut up, to all of these different things that conductors do, that I did not even know what a conductor was. I just knew I was taking charge of this orchestra. Now, somebody would have thought, well, this this little boy, he got a problem, crazy. But thank God that my mom, who tells a story about watching me outside as she peeked through the window, watching me and during my playtime, playing with this imaginary orchestra, jumping around and you know, just conducting and and and singing and all by myself, but I was in my own world. She didn't call me crazy. At that time, she had to have known that God had put something in me. She knew that there was a gift inside of me, and I was literally not necessarily acting it out, but I was being it. I was becoming it. So by the time I get to where I am today, it makes sense because that that that that kernel was really engrafted in me. The Lord put that that that thing of artistry expression in me, right? And so on the side of that house, I would say, is where it really all began. And I would say this, you know, if I could just start with this premise, God has had his hand on my life, all of my life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right? And so, from the side of that house to, let's say, my church growing up, which was called Little Zion Church of God in Christ. Now, the Church of God in Christ, uh Pentecostal denomination, uh, is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States. It's predominantly African American. Uh, people like Andre Crouch, uh, the gospel artists, uh uh the Clark Sisters, uh, the Hawkins singers, and even Slash Stone, the famous uh soul music singer, they all came out of that denomination. So it's a highly artistic denomination. So I grew up with great preaching, you know, this demonstrative preaching, exuberant praise, great music in our church. It was a wonderful musical environment. So again, it's cultivating this kind of orchestra flavor or palette inside of me. It's it call it's cult it's cultivating this musical uh uh tradition, if you would, that I would later just begin to act out in various ways, or live out, if you would. And so the Church of God in Christ, the side of the house, and then another thing that came up was the Cooper Singers, my family's gospel group. I think I was around maybe uh somewhere between uh could have been around five or six when I started playing instruments. Maybe my first instrument started, but my first instrument was the drum set uh by way of buckets on the side of the house or wherever I could find to beat on. My mom tells that story, like yeah, I would just beat on anything. Um but but but a started out you know as a drummer and then uh evolved to a guitar and bass guitar and so forth. And so my family had this gospel group that we would tour basically the southeast coast of the United States, so Florida, South Carolina, Georgia. We would tour, and we would literally travel, you know, almost every weekend singing God's praises. So my parents, my my father was a guitarist, my mom was the primary lead singer, and then my siblings and I, which was it was five boys and one girl, I'm the fourth of six children that they had. And we would travel around and we would sing God's praises, again, cultivating that gift that God has put inside of me. From the side of the house to the Church of God in Christ, to the Cooper singers, and then I evolved. Of course, I you know sang in choir and marching, played in the marching band, I played trombone in the marching band in high school. Um, and then I went to college Bethun Cookman University at 17 years of age. Now, mind you, when it you know, with God's hand being on my life all of my life, my parents really actually uh put that in us. Uh the the the scripture uh uh Proverbs 22 and 6 says, train up a child in the way that they should go, and when he gets old, he won't depart from it. So all of my life, from growing up in church till the time I went to college, my parents had a hand on us going to church every weekend. I look at people now and I'm like, I'm I'm I'm I'm just baffled. Baffled that kids get a choice of whether or not they want to go to church. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I'm baffled because we didn't have a choice, and that's I think what the word, when you look at that verse, train, there's an active responsibility of training the child. It doesn't say ask the child. When you're in training, the training is predetermined. Yeah, you know, if you're trained for a trade, if you're trained for um some type of job, it's predetermined. You come into it, this is what you're gonna do. Yeah, and I think the same thing should be true of training up a child in the way he should go. Um, and obviously the Lord knew that and knows that. So, anyways, I just no, I I think that's I think that's very important.

SPEAKER_03

That's why, you know, so about the before I even get to Bethum Cookman University, the church, God was already instilled in my life, which kept me when I got older. Yeah, my parents trained me, basically, they they they dictated that I was going to go to church. My siblings and and I, we could not live in our parents' home and not go to church.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Period.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, church was a thing like if you got a job as a teenager, your job knew that young person can't work on Sunday.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It was just a no-brainer. Now I see, you know, we get, you know, young people will get a job and they'll, oh well, you know, I couldn't go to church because I, you know, I got a job. My parents wasn't even, wasn't having that. Yeah. We played sports. The coaches knew um ain't gonna be no practice, ain't gonna be no games on Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, because you know, the the majority of the team were church kids.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

We could play, but that wasn't priority on Sunday morning. Right? Anytime the church was open, um, church was first. And so so that was that was ingrained in us. That and it was like again, it was it was I I I use the word tradition, but I it was deeper than that. It is a lifestyle that is uh based on your divine purpose. And your parents, you know, parents have to have sense enough to identify that divine purpose. You can only get to that divine purpose by going to church, learning about God, fellowshipping with God and with the other folk in the church and learning from them and sharpening each other and and growing in the faith. So our parents knew that.

SPEAKER_01

And I think it it goes to the point if God has a important role in our lives, we have to have the opportunities to encounter him regularly. Yeah, and I think that is part of what, you know, because it's not just church attendance, obviously for church attendance's sake, but that's where you met the Lord, you know, like that's where these opportunities to to hear about the Lord, to um develop an appetite for him, to develop interest in fellowshipping with him, that's where this happens. That doesn't happen on the on the football court or field, you know, that doesn't happen, you know, um in any number of these other places and spaces.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, I recall when I had um I broke my arm uh on uh on the monkey bars when I was in elementary school. I was I was actually playing sports uh when I was in L you know from elementary school. Uh you know, I that's was that's this is when I started. Uh did nobody call the coach?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

The coach, the coach couldn't do nothing uh when I got sick.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's so true.

SPEAKER_03

You know, whether it was a broken arm or whether it was it was a fever or whatever the case was. No, who calls the coach when you need a healing?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So we were trained early on. You got a problem, you take your problem to Jesus.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right? That's so good. But you have to instill that in a child. Yeah. So you're not just you're right, you're not going to church for you know just church sake, you know, or we attend church as some kind of a weekly ritual. Right. But this is instilling the knowledge and the power of the Lord in your kids because they're going to need this knowledge and power.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03

Right? So we knew um, no, the culture is not more important than God. We knew that there's nothing more important. The chorus, the margin band, none of that was more important than God. So, and I also learned to use my musical gifts for the Lord.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I knew where the musical gifts came from. So whether I was in church playing on Sunday mornings or traveling with my family, the music was always towards praise. So I learned this as a child. It's just, it was a conditioning for a lifetime. Yeah. So by the time I, you know, back to Bethum Cookman University, I I go there. I now while I traveled a lot with my family, this was the first time in my life at age 17 that I had been away from home by myself. Well, thank God that the church, that the Lord God was implanted in me. It was taught basically. So I was taught be in place, be at somebody's church on Sunday. So just because I'm when I'm in college, that doesn't mean that you know I just get to, you know, let it all slip away. Yeah. Now, what was beautiful about this, and again, the Lord had his hand on my life all of my life. At Bethune Cookman University, I had gotten a uh a full scholarship for music to go there. And I was singing uh and and and and playing my instrument, like the guitar, in the choir. It was called the Bethune Cookman Concert Chorale under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Walker Steele, who was one of my uh, she's now deceased, but one of my closest mentors. And we were on full scholarship or a full choir, and we were touring virtually every weekend. Well, guess where we were going? We were going to church. We were touring churches, we were singing at churches virtually every Sunday. So we would hear the pastors every Sunday, they were preaching, and these were you predominantly United Methodist churches, because Bill Cookman was in the United Methodist Methodist affiliated institution. But we were listening to the pastors preaching, and then we would sing for that, we would be the the guests that would sing for those uh uh services every Sunday. Now we were doing this, you know, we were raising money for for ourselves and our scholarships in our institution, but we were in church. Yeah. So here's the here's the Lord's hand on us.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03

Right?

SPEAKER_01

So his role in your life, like he's the main character.

SPEAKER_03

He is the main character. God has been the main character, whether I knew it or not. Exactly. From the side of the house.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

He's instilling this gift in me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

To the church, he's telling me the meaning of the gift, the functionality of the gift, to my family, he's allowing me to utilize the gift.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's so good.

SPEAKER_03

There's so much going on. So even in high school, when I was in marching band and the choir, he was allowing me to even further sharpen the gift by learning other musical styles and you know and genres and so forth. So by the time I get to Bathilbon Cookman, and I'm sitting. Where he supplied for the gift. He supplied.

SPEAKER_01

A full scholarship?

SPEAKER_03

Yes. I would venture to say had I not grown up as a church musician, because I should say, at Lil Zion Church of God in Christ, I actually played in church. So when my family and I weren't traveling on Sundays, I was the one of the church musicians. So had we not done that, I believe the Lord rewarded, rewarded us, my siblings and I, in throughout our life, in our workplace, in our different professions, yeah, uh uh for the things that we had done early on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. God is a rewarder. For sure.

SPEAKER_03

For sure. Of folk who work for him, of those who seek him, of those who obey him. He rewards you. Yeah. And so I got this full scholarship, and I'm at this school, and we're touring these churches, and when we weren't touring the churches, because I was trained upright, when we weren't on the road on Sundays, I was playing at the local churches as a musician.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so I so I was playing at the at the Baptist church, I was playing at the church of God. I mean, we were just all, we just had to be in church on Sunday. And the choir was full of just like church kids. So we all knew, oh, well, you know, we ain't, you know, we ain't touring this Sunday, so I'm gonna get up and go to church. I'm gonna get up and go and play at church. I'm gonna get up and go and even if you're not playing the instruments at church, you're going to church. That's what we did. And and there were times when I was uh at Bethlehem Cookman. I remember one time vividly that uh uh I was at a service, I think I was playing uh one of the as one of the instrumentals in the service, and we weren't this was just us going to a service. I think it was a it was a uh uh if I recall, it was a revival. But one of my friends was speaking and prophesying over me. Now this was nothing new to be prophesied over because all of my life people had been prophesying over me. There was a there was an elderly lady at the time, her name was uh Mrs. Verderme Watford, and I used to go and help her out. My parents would allow me to go and help her out. She was also she also attended our church, and I would go over her house. I was probably maybe 12, 13 and help her out with different chores around her house. But she would always say, You're gonna be a preacher. And I just took that in. People would call me, and you know, like, oh a young preacher, my pastor, at that time, when I actually got older, and when I was in college, in my freshman year of college, he he began to share it with me and how he saw me as a pastor. And I'd never forget that. Like, people would prophesy over me. God's hand has been on my life all of my life. I keep wanting to bring that home because I'm not the only one like that.

SPEAKER_01

That would be everybody because he gives everybody um purpose, they are differing, obviously. We all have something different to do for him, but he has a plan for every per every single person. There's a plan for. Um, and then I I want to, because a couple of the things that um, you know, I was saying, as far as all that God has allowed you to do, all that he has um called you to do, there were these two things that I think I see that um are a thread with everything that you do. And it's two things thinking big and loving people. I think those two things are kind of um, if you want to say, driving forces behind the things that you do. And I know those two things because they are um they are God's character. And so just can you speak to those two things a bit?

SPEAKER_03

Well, thinking big, um, you think about Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. I mean, how you you get no no no bigger than it. It's no greater. There's nothing, there's no one, no entity greater than the one who created it all.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right? Yeah. So God is big. Think about it. The galaxies, the stars, the moons, the the sun, the the birds, the trees, the the oceans, I mean, the I mean, P us, right? All of that, he he created. His mind, his mind is huge. Yeah, yeah. I don't understand how I can serve the big God, the the the one true and living God, the the huge God, and think small.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03

It doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It ain't even logical. You know, I mean it and so my idea of thinking and visualizing or envisioning a future, I'm constantly thinking larger than myself. You know, it I'm I'm I'm I'm constantly thinking about okay what I look like in the mirror doesn't necessarily convey everything that God has put in, the greatness that God put in me. Right? I don't I don't go by what I what I see, I go by, you know, one what I as large as I can think, and then exceedingly abundantly above all that I can ask or what imagine or think. I go like, so I'm not thinking about what I see, I'm thinking about who God is and how great He is. And like, so I I train my mind to think as big as I can, and then I know that's greater. Jesus thought big. Yeah, go into all of the world. You know, making disciples, preaching this gospel, all of the world, and then people will like be really okay with just telling the telling three or four people about Jesus. When we're supposed to be thinking about the world. So thinking big is really is really huge for me. Um I wasn't I wasn't trained to write film scores.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03

The things that the the thing that I got six Emmy Awards for, I didn't go to school for. This was, you know, someone literally asked me, can I write music for film? Mm-hmm. And you said yes. I said yeah. It's that simple. Yeah. I knew that, well, God had been training me all my life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I knew I've been, I knew I'd been, I've had music in my in my head since I've been playing on the side of the house. And so by the time I'm a grown man and somebody asked me, I think in 2008, can you write music for a film?

SPEAKER_01

Naturally the response is yes. Yeah. And I think the response is yes, because you know who lives inside of you. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And and I have seen you pull from his knowledge, pull from his creativity, pull from, you know, so I think, you know, I was just thinking, if there are people listening and they feel like, well, I don't think big, I'm not very creative. I would say to read the word and look at God through that lens.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, the word will enlarge your faith and your vision. And so, you know, going back to the film score, when they asked me, could I write music for film? I said yes because I knew who was gonna teach me how to write music for film.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So when I said yes, I I I literally like turned to God and said, Okay, God, I I need to know how to write this music for film. And he walked me through that process. I want to link all of this to the training, the training me up in the way that I should go. The way that I knew that I should go when they asked me, could I do this job? Was to turn to the Lord and say, Lord, teach me. Holy Spirit, teach me what I should do for this music that I've never written for film. But I know you've put it in me. I've been dealing with music all my life. I've been dealing with all kinds of music all my life. You put it in me, and so teach me. This is a result of that. This is a result of training up your child in a way that you they they should go, and when they get older, they will not depart, meaning that they will inquire of the Lord when they get older for what to do. So I'm I'm I'm thinking about all of all of that, and uh, and then on the love piece, loving people, God is love. 1 John 4.8 tells us God is love. What's that? Romans 5.5. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So basically, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. If you got the love of God in your heart and you operate in that love, people become much easier to love.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03

And so when he puts that love in you, it you you develop a compassion for people. Uh a strong compassion, particularly for people who don't love Jesus. You know, I think the idea of love has to uh love, true love, God, he is love. He crosses barriers. Yes. Whether he he crosses racial barriers, he crosses political barriers, social barriers, cultural barriers, all kinds of barriers he crosses. The Bible says Jesus is our peace. Well, if Jesus, if you got Jesus in your heart, you have love in your heart. And you and so there's that that peace. If two people can come together on the peace of God, love is gonna be in the mid in the place.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right? And so I as I've grown uh older and more, I guess more sure in in the Lord, love has grown inside of me. Um and it and the love just looks like compassion. Almost you get to the point where you can actually feel people, their, their, their, their hopes, their joy, and you can even feel their hurt. That conjures up a certain compassion.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I want to see people do well, I want to see people experience the same things that I'm experiencing in the Lord. Yeah, the goodness of the Lord, basically.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think that love is to draw them, like you said, to our Savior. You know, it's like if you don't love someone, how can you show them Christ? Why why would you want to? You know, like in order to, I think, do what Jesus said to do, go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples of every creature. You gotta love people for that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. And people know whether or not you love them.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

You can come with the biggest smile on your face, but people know what that smile really means. Like they know is you know, the world calls it aura, but really what it is, it's a spirit.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And people can feel your spirit, they know whether or not you're really interested in them or not. They know, they know what it they might not know what your intentions are, but they can just feel it's a your your your heart will tell on you. What are we presenting to the world that tells them one that we love them and that shows them in tangible form that God loves them? Yeah, that God is good, he's not bad, yeah, he's not bringing bad things. That's not him, that's not his character. Are we exemplifying God's character, which is love? Can we sit by somebody that don't believe like us? Can we talk to people that don't believe like us and show them the love of God? Yeah, that will compel them to want God, yeah. That's the whole point. The call that we have to witness oftentimes does not look like us in terms of who we might even be witnessing to. But that requires us to get over ourselves.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Love requires us to get over ourselves. Yeah. And so I for me, I'm I'm it's a constant and it's a daily thing. To get over yourself and to do the will of God to accomplish the great charge that Jesus gave to us. Love is love is key.

SPEAKER_01

So good. That is so good. I um I want to make another shift for another topic as well. These are all so good, and I think you know, there's a thread throughout all of it, and obviously it's the Lord, it's his leading, it's his guidance, it's his plan. Um, and so here's another aspect of his plan that he had for your life. So I'll ask these questions, and this will lead us into the next topic. As a young man, did you want to get married? And what are some of the most loved lessons God has taught you about marriage?

SPEAKER_02

Now you're getting into the nitty-gritty. That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01

As you just heard, we couldn't fit our entire conversation into one final episode. So there is a part two for you to enjoy. Just consider it exclusive bonus content. If you'd like to hear the rest of the conversation, just click the link and I'll share it with you. I am overjoyed to have had my husband on this episode. I know what he has shared has been such a blessing. The official start of season two will be January 2027. Although I may pop in a few times before then, I'm sure I won't be able to help myself. But in the meantime, we can stay connected if you sign up for the Your God Sister Podcast email list. I need y'all to sign up because I want to stay in touch. I don't want it to be that you don't hear from me until January. I'll continue sharing what God is placing on my heart. I'll leave the link to sign up in the description or the pinned comment. But until next time, know what the Bible says and treasure what the Lord speaks to your heart.

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