TD Jakes — Dry Places
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, our king. I am excited. Let me tell you something, I've got a Word from the Lord that is a devil chasing message today. If you've been plagued, if you've been overwhelmed, if you've been fighting battles on the inside, if you've been going through spiritual warfare, oh my God, this is really going to destroy, not just break it, it's going to destroy, pulverize the yoke of the enemy in your life. The message is called "Dry Places". Could it be that the enemy is walking through your life because you are in a dry place? Maybe we can close the door and stop his access to you right now. I believe we can. The Word says we can if you come into agreement and listen to what I'm about to teach to you. Satan's power will be broken by the power of his Word. Take a look at this and get ready to be blessed.
A personality is a gift. I didn't always know that. I thought everybody had one. I thought everybody knew how to be nice and how to be pleasant and how to be courteous. I just took it for granted. I took it for granted. I grew up in a public service environment where I've always worked with people, whether it was sales. My father was in sales. He was in sales before he opened up his own business and we've always had to interact with people. When he opened up his own business, we had to work with staff, we had to work with customers, we had to work with all types of people. And you had to have personality or you were broke.
And you'd be surprised how anointed to be nice you are when you don't get paid for not being nice. It will make you smile. "Good morning, welcome to JC Penneys". And the reason you have to say, "Good morning, welcome to JC Penneys," whether you feel like it or not is that dry places turn people off. You don't have to be mean to be dry. Some people can't distinguish mean from dry. It wasn't that you were rude. You're just dry. "So what do you want to order? I'll be back when you make up your mind". If you would just say that with a smile and some common courtesy, it would make both of our experiences better and guess what?
Your tip would be triple just because you learned how to be nice because nobody wants to work with somebody, no matter how gifted they are, if they're a dry place. There are people who are gifted enough to have the job, but you you can't hire the person not because they don't know enough, but because they are a dry place. And generally, dry places are a learned behavior. If you're raised by somebody who acted out their moods in front of you, it teaches you to act how you feel. And you call it keeping it real. I call it keeping it broke. I call it keeping it broke and keeping it lonely and keeping it frustrated because nobody is attracted to dryness except maybe the devil. Because I think that it is an issue that the Scripture says that the enemy walketh through dry places.
So if I were evil and I wanted to make sure I had access to you, I would do things to you to keep you dry. To keep you dry, to keep you dry, to keep you. Think, what would you do to keep people dry? One thing, I'd make you tired. Because one of the definitions of tired or weary, check this out, is to have your sense of pleasure exhausted, your sense of pleasure exhausted. Maybe I would keep you so busy that you would lose your smile and lose your joy and lose your thankfulness and become a dry place. Because if I was the enemy, I would know that nobody wants to walk through dry places but devils.
You just told me you don't want a dry waiter. You don't want a dry sales clerk. You don't want a dry beautician. "Bring your head back. Oh, your head down. Be still". Isn't it funny how attitude changes the whole experience? If I walk out the door right now, I've already preached something that people need to know because I see a lot of people blaming all kinds of other people for things you bring on yourself. You brought it on yourself. They left you 'cause of you.
Now, one of them leave you, it might be them. But if five of them leave you, you got to do some real... come on now, come on, come on, come on. We got some work to do. You got to do your work. I did my work and you've got to do your work. You're dry. And nobody likes to walk through dry places but devils, to have your sense of pleasure exhausted, to lose your ability to be happy, to have joy, to be thankful, to be grateful, to develop a negative pathology creates a dry place.
And I'm just wondering if the enemy might not be walking through you because you are a dry place. There ain't nothing that's painful as old dry socket. Any dry place aches. Could you be in pain because you've gotten weary, you've lost... your sense of pleasure has been exhausted? You've put pleasure on the back burner. You've put joy on the back burner. You've put everything that would make life have spice on the back burner. And then all of these catastrophes, one right after another after another after another starts hitting you. And maybe the Lord meant for you to be here just to know that devils walk through dry places.
If you're watching over the Internet, if you don't get anything else I said today, if you get that and take that with you, it would change your life. Devils walk through dry places. You want the devil to walk through your house? Let it be dry. You want the devil to walk through your marriage? Just get dry. Get dry and all hell will break loose because, just like you don't want a dry waiter, nobody wants a dry husband. "What's on your mind"? "Nothing". "What you thinking about"? "Nothing". And here's the terrible part. You weren't dry when she married you. You have become dry over the years.
Now the enemy is walking through your dry places. And I want to close the door on him this morning so that he can't get through your dry places. Because I figure if dry places affect you, spiritually devils walk through it, economically you lose pay, emotionally you lose relationships, then I think this is important enough for us to talk about it rather than, "He's going to give you double for your trouble. He's going to give you seven times back. Spin around, jump on one foot". All that's good, but when you get through dancing, you go back to the dry place because it doesn't explain what's going on. It doesn't explain what's going on.
We have simplified things down to just simple stuff. "Oh, I tried to praise away. I'll just go back". But sometimes you need to break it down to people specifically what you need to do so that the joy lasts past the parking lot. I don't need a joy that only happens when the preacher's preaching. I don't need a joy that only comes from the choir. I want a joy that comes from my soul, from my spirit, from the depths of my being, that I can do by myself. I don't need all y'all to give me joy. I need joy in my living room, on my couch, driving to work, doing my dishes with joy.
Whoo, I feel glory in the room right now. I feel deliverance in the room right now. I feel the stirring of the Holy Spirit in this place right now. I don't want the enemy to steal your life away from you. Your life is supposed to be getting brighter. It's supposed to be getting stronger. It's supposed to be better with age.
John 7:37, I want you to get this. This is going to be so good. You're going to be so glad you got this because this is going to change your week, your month, and your year. I'm not saying that the devil's not going to try to do something. But when he gets ready to walk your property, you're going to pull your water hose. And when you pull your water hose, everything is going to change. Watch this, watch this. John 7:37, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.'"
Hold it right there. It's the last day of the feast. Everybody's packing up to go home. They've had their religious ceremony. It's all over and they're getting ready to go. And Jesus understands that religion has not delivered on its promise. And before they go back home totally frustrated, another Sunday morning of not getting what they need, Jesus cries out. There are only two times in the New Testament that this Greek word is used for cry. It's krazo. It means to scream, "If any man thirst". What is he doing? We packing, man. What is that boy doing over there, hollering? Jesus standing over in the corner, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto me".
If Jesus appeared in this church this morning and said, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto me," how many people would come? How many people would come? I'd drop this iPad so fast, you'd hear glass shatter on the floor. I want this water. I can't live without this water.
Jesus answered, saying unto her, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst. Whosoever drinketh of this water, this". Oh, there must be two waters or he wouldn't say this water. He would have just said water, whosoever drinketh of water, whosoever drinketh of this water, this water. He says this water. Shall thirst again. Keep going, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, a well". Oh, if any man thirst, let him come. Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water, shall be in him.
Underline "in him". A well of water springing up into everlasting life. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, the water's in me. Oh my God, oh my God, the water's in me. Oh my God, I wish I'd have known that the water was in me. I ran with people, I slept with people, I laid with people trying to get some of my thirst quenched. I ran around town, I went to clubs in other cities, I packed up and traveled and spent the weekend in Vegas trying to get me a drink of water. I never had a clue that what I was thirsting for was already down inside of me. You mean I was asking you for something I had? Oh my God, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Keep going, man, keep going.
"The woman saith unto him, 'Sir, give me this water". Give it to me. Somebody say, "Give it to me". Give it to me, Lord, give it to me, "That I thirst not". That I thirst not. I've been coming here all these years. I come down to the well every day, going through the same thing over and over again, trying to quench a thirst. Give it to me so I can break this cycle. I'm tired of coming down to this well. I'm tired of going through these same things. I'm tired of getting high like this. I'm tired of begging people to love me. I'm tired of begging people to sleep with me. I'm tired of begging people to hold me. I'm tired of going through this over and over again. Give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Jesus saith unto her, "Go, call thy husband". Now he's cleaning out the pipes. He goes through her husband, he goes through her religion, he goes, "My people worship in the mountain they know not of". But go all the way down to God is a Spirit. Go down to that. Yeah, verse 24, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth".
Find my notes, I'm confused. I thought we were talking about worship, water, but now we're talking about worship. Is it the water, or is it the worship? Is it the worship, or is it the water? Is the water, is it the worship? Is it water, or is it worship? I thought we were talking about water. We've been talking about water, and all of a sudden why is he talking about worship when he was talking about water? We've been talking about water the whole chapter and now he's talking about worship. Worship, water. Nine times he uses the word "water". Eight times he uses the word "worship". Back and forth, worship, water, water, worship, worship, water, water, worship, worship.
Is he talking about worship? Is he talking about water? Worship, worship, how did we get on worship when all day long we've been talking about water? Or were we talking about water? Maybe we weren't ever talking about water. Maybe I've been teaching for 40 minutes now about worship and you've been thinking I've been talking about water. Maybe I was never talking about water at all. maybe I was talking about worship. Maybe worship is what the Holy Spirit sits on. Maybe when I open my mouth and begin to praise God out of my belly that the Holy Spirit will come and ride in on the wave of my worship. Ride on, King Jesus. No, man cannot hinder me.
Maybe Jesus isn't sitting with me because I have no worship. I go to worship services, I have worship expressions, but am I really worshiping? You know what? My worship is what gives him a seat. And suddenly, I realize that if I have no worship, he has no place to sit. I have been trying my best to get God to sit in my complaints and my frustrations and my attitude. And the only person who's attracted to dryness is devils. The Holy Spirit is attracted to water. And the water is worship. And when I worship, it starts to rain. It starts to drip. It starts to flow. When I worship, I hear the sound of an abundance of rain.
This is what a worship service sounds like to God. No wonder he told the woman, "Give me to drink". They were both thirsty. He is thirsty for you. No wonder when he was on the cross, he said, "I thirst"! While you sit there with your lips glued together and your arms folded and your legs crossed, he's saying, "Give me to drink. And if you give me to drink, I'll give you to drink. And the more you give me to drink, the more I'll give you to drink. And the more you worship me, the more I'll quench your thirst. And the more I quench your thirst, the more you'll quench mine".
God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So the Father seeketh, He's seeking, he's looking. He's looking on your row right now. He's looking on your pew. He's going through the balcony right now, looking, are there any worshipers? In the balcony there, is there any worship? In that section over there, is there anybody?
I know you can sing, but can you worship? I know you can play an instrument, but can you worship? I know you can dance, but can you worship? Father is looking for a worshiper. He seeketh such. Here comes the sound. Out of your belly, out of your spirit, not your stomach, out of your spirit, out of your spirit is your belly shall flow rivers of living water. It's coming out of your belly. See, you came to take in, but you can't take in if you don't give out. You came to receive something, but you can't receive till you give. If you give, it shall be given unto you again good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
I'm almost finished. But I wish I had the whole room, but I'd settle for 1,000 people that knew how to tap into their spirits to lift your hands up and turn on the spigot and let worship just come bursting out of your mouth, till God hears the sound of an abundance of living water. I'll take 1,000 people who don't care what they've got on and don't care what they look like and don't care what's going on in your life and don't care what grandma said, don't care what the doctor said or what the bill collector said. I'll take you on the Internet. I'll take you on your job. I'll take you in front of your computer. If you would open up your mouth and give God what he wants, God would give you.
I'm coming out of a dry place. I'm going to turn on this spigot. I'm going to open up my mouth. I'm going to be thankful. I'm going to be praiseful. Then I'm going to worship him in spirit and in truth, for the Father is looking for a worshiper. You're seeking the Father and the Father is seeking a worshiper. Can he find it in you?
I'm out of time. I've got to stop right there, but it's been a real joy to share the Word of the Lord with you. This message should make you thirsty for God, for relationship, for joy, for the water of praise to gush up out of your spirit, to lift your hands and glorify him. You don't have to be in church and have a choir and a drum set to praise God. You can do it on the couch, on the chair, in the living room, in the car, anywhere. He is available to you right now. Cleanse your spirit with the fortifying reality that Christ is there right now. Worship him, try it. He'll strengthen you. God bless you. Let me hear from you. Let me know that the Word that we are speaking to you, our spirit and life to you right now, that encourages me as well. God bless you now. Have a great day.