TD Jakes - Master of My Need
Much of our New Testament theology is a result of the apostle Paul. There would be no understanding, yes, Jesus died and shed his blood, rose from the dead, and birthed the church. But the church that Jesus birthed was an organism with no organization. There was no structure, there was no order, there were no apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists. Paul gives us all of that. Paul begins to teach us and makes us understand "there's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk no longer after the flesh, but after the Spirit".
Paul begins to tell us that if this earthly house or tabernacle should be dissolved we have another building, eternal in the heavens, which is made of God. Paul teaches us it is as him that we live, in him that we move, in him that we have our being. It is the apostle Paul that makes us understand "therefore having peace with God that we are reconciled with him".
We understand peace of God, peace with God, peace in God, all because of Apostle Paul. Without the apostle Paul, we would not have a clear understanding that the door to the Gentiles had been opened, that they might be saved and set free. Paul preached with so much power that a man died while he was preaching. Paul ran down the steps, raised him from the dead, and kept right on preaching. Paul was so awesome that they tried to kill him. They couldn't kill him. They tried to beat him to death. They left him for dead. He got up and shook himself and walked away. He was in shipwrecks but he survived. He was snake bit but he shook it off. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. That Paul that raised people from the dead withstood shipwrecks and shook off snakes. Why are you needing anything? If you can raise people from the dead, you can pay your water bill.
Paul says, "The truth of the matter is I am full lacking nothing. But so that you might have credit to your account, God created a need to test you, to minister to that need". This is weird. In other words, Paul's saying, "I needed something but I didn't. I was in trouble but I wasn't". It's kind of strange. This is the same guy that said, "I have learned how to abase and abound, both to be full and to be in want". He says, "Even when you're in trouble, you're not in trouble".
Now, I need to preach this to somebody who's got some faith in 'em. Even when you're in trouble, you are not in trouble. That God allows certain necessities to come, either to create a backdrop for you to experience another dimension of his glory or for the people around you to have an opportunity to flow into another dimension of his grace.
Now, back in the early days, Dr. Janice, when I was preaching, I would say something real hot and jazzy as a subject. I would do something like tell you to touch your neighbor and say, "It's a set-up". So, touch your neighbor and tell 'em, "It's a set-up". They don't understand exactly what I'm saying yet 'cause I'm not totally through unloading it yet and when I unload it, everybody's not even gonna get it because some people are so shocked by the situation and they've been praying so hard about the situation, they've been so focused on the circumstance, they've been so distracted by what they're going through, that they don't understand that everything you have been going through and every area you've been up under attack, and every area that you have a necessity, your necessity is not a necessity, it is in fact a opportunity for you to experience another dimension of God's glory.
To the ten people who understand it, touch ten people and say, "It's a set-up". It's training wheels for your faith. It's training wheels for your faith. It is a passage of entry into the next dimension. It is the bar mitzvah for the sons of God to have matured enough to carry the weight. Why didn't you give me this back then? I couldn't handle it back then. And why would he give me all of these thousands of seats when I didn't need them? If God says, "The trigger point of my supply is your need," no wonder he hates a proud look because a proud look will never admit need.
I know I knocked out about ten rows with that. I killed about ten people with that. Why does God hate a proud look above everything else? Above, I mean, murders and lying and backbiting, everything. God said not only does he hate pride, he hates a proud look. You don't even have to be proud. He says, "If you sit there and act like you're important, I hate the fact that you have got your legs crossed, acting like you're important". Because proud people will never admit need. Why would you have a Savior if you won't admit that you're drowning? Why would you have a miracle-worker if you won't admit that you have a need?
No wonder some people get anointed while some people are just tired. If God responds to need, if you don't need anything, you won't... all the needy people clap your hands. God says, "Let me see. I got fish, I got stars, I got water, I got sunshine, I got oak trees, I got pineapple trees. I got all of this stuff that I wanna give but I cannot give it until there's a need". So he forms the earth. When he forms it, it creates a void. Void is capacity. And he responds to the capacity of what is formed. He said, "I create capacity in the ocean so I can put fish in it. I created capacity in the earth so I could sow seed into it. I created capacity in the heavens so I could throw stars at it and birds at it, and now you've got something to fly in. I couldn't release the answer until I formed"...
He formed the earth and fills it. He forms the ocean and fills it with fish. He forms the air and fills it with birds. Everything God forms, he fills. He formed the tabernacle and filled it with furniture. He formed the Holies of Holies and then filled it with glory. In fact, he formed man and filled him with air. Which came first, the man or the breath? God had the breath, but until there was capacity, he couldn't fill anything until you admit... oh, y'all don't hear it. He responds to capacity. "Ezekiel, go down and show me what you see in the valley. I see dry bones in the valley". He said, "Can these bones live again, Lord? Thou knowest. Speak to the bones that they might live. So I prophesied as I was commanded and suddenly there was noise and there was a shaking. The bone came together, bone to his bone. And they came together, bone to his bone, and sinews came upon them and then he said, Prophesy to the wind," because now I can feel what I formed because God responds to capacity.
If you don't want anything, you won't get anything. If you don't need anything, you won't receive anything. Do you not know that the real star of the story with the two fish and the five loaves of bread is not the little boy and it's not the lunch? It was the hunger that moved the Lord. When they came to Jesus and they said, "The people that are with you are hungry," he said, "Oh, good, that's capacity. Wherever I see capacity, I will release supply". Oh, I want all the people that's got capacity to holler right now.
They said, "Lord, you got 5000 hungry people. What do you have"? He said, "We don't have nothing but the little boy's lunch". He said, "I can work with anything if they're hungry. I can work with anything if there's a need. I can work with anything if they're thirsty. I can work with anything, just give me the little bit you got. I know it's not much because the star is not what's in the bag. The star is the aching in the belly of the people". God responds to hunger. The Bible said that when Jesus, after John the Baptist was beheaded, it said when Jesus saw the people and how they were hurt, he was moved with compassion and healed them. What I'm trying to tell you, your need to act like you don't need anything is stopping the flow of the miracle-working power of God in your life.
The very thing that's gonna make you grow is the very thing you're trying to get out of. You need to be still. "Oh, what we gonna do? What we gonna do? What we... oh, God, what we gonna do? Oh, God, the Egyptians are coming. Oh, God, don't you see the mountain or the sea? Oh, God". Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I created your need. I made Pharaoh chase you. I knew there'd be mountains on both side. I put the Red Sea in front of you. This is the introduction to how strong your God is. Let me show you how I can bring you out of something that you cannot get yourself out of. Just stand right in front of it and raise your staff and watch me make a way".
Okay, I wanna talk a little bit about this woman. This unique woman who has maxed out on the level that she's on. She has maxed out on the level that she's on. The prophet has experienced a brook that has dried up and God says, "I want you to go to the widow's house. There I will sustain you. I will minister unto your necessity through a widow who is broke". What God's getting ready to do is so crazy. How can I be thirsty and hungry and you send me to somebody broke? God said, "I am going to minister unto your need and I am gonna use people to bless you but it's not gonna make any sense who I use because when I bless you, I don't want you to praise who I use. I want you to praise me. So I'm gonna send you down there and I'm gonna show you how to see glory where she sees agony".
God's gonna let you see how to take something that looks like nothing and turn it completely around. Lord, I don't know who I'm preaching to. Elijah, you don't have food and you don't have water, but you got creative concepts and ideas and I'm gonna put you in a position for your gifting to shine. You can do no more in the brook. The water is not the problem. The famine is not the problem. I need to put your gifts on display and I can only display your gifts in a place of need. So I'm gonna bring you to somebody who needs you. See, you've been trying to feed folk who don't need you. And you can never reach your potential any time you have to force people to feed. You've been trying to force 'em to love you, you've been trying to force 'em to hear you, but God said, "I'm gonna send your gift where it can shine. Go to the widow's house".
Slap somebody and say, "Go". Watch this. I'm the master of your need. I'm gonna deliver you from feeding people who don't need you, from forcing yourself on people who don't want you. I did not create you for you to beg people to receive what I gave you. I'm gonna put you in a place where people can appreciate what I gave you. You have been in a stage of dealing with people who have no appreciation for what you have but tonight God said, "It is finished".
Now, watch this, watch this. I want you to get this. He takes the need of Elijah and matches it with the need of the widow. He takes the need and brings it to a need. I told you, he's the master of my need. See, the only reason your ministry hadn't gone further is the folk that you're trying to feed don't perceive that they need you. If you find somebody who's willing to admit how hungry they are, you won't have to beg 'em to feed 'em. "He that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled". Shout, "Yeah".
Okay, there's a couple of things I wanna point out. This woman had a need. She had a lack in her resources because she did not perceive what she had correctly. And until you perceive what you have correctly, you will eat it and die. When you don't think that what you have is enough to help anybody else, you will eat it and die not because it's not enough but you will eat it and die because of how you perceive it. So God brings a prophet to see what she has in another perspective.
He says, "There's nothing wrong with the little bit of oil you have in the cruse. There's nothing wrong with the barrel or the handful of meal. It is that because you perceive it as an impossibility your perception is killing you". He says, "I want you to act like it's more than enough. And the more you act like it's more than enough, the more I will make it more than enough. If you walk in the room like you're not enough, you're gonna be received like you're not enough. But I want you to set the table like you got everything you need and serve it like it's more than enough. And if you'll serve it like it's more than enough, I will release you into a flow". But that's not the thing that got me.
Let me show you what got me. What got me was most of the time you pray and you ask God to do something, you wanna see the increase. You wanna see. How many people wanna see the increase? You wanna see the increase. But if you see the increase, is it really a miracle? C'mon, if you see the increase, is it really a miracle? If you can see your way clear, is it really a miracle? If you can see how you're gonna do what's next, is it really a miracle? The real power of the miracle is not just that God sustained her and Elijah as long as there was a drought. Watch that. The Bible said: "I will sustain you until it rains". Bet you all missed that. They didn't get that. I can tell you got that.
God said, "I will sustain you until it rains". He said, "Until the outside blessing comes, I'm gonna do something underground, in the spirit, to make sure you live as if it's raining, though it's dry". Oh, I wish I had a church that was ready for this. So watch this. The prophet comes in the house, says, "Reach your hand in the barrel and bake a cake for me first". And he says, "Your meal barrel will not run out. Nor will the cruse of oil fail you until it rains".
But wait a minute, it wasn't that he said, "If you bake a cake for the man of God first, I'm gonna send you 50 barrels". He said, "You're gonna have the one barrel, the same barrel that you always had. You will have the same handful of meal that you always had. It's just that every time you reach for it, I'm gonna give a release in your life. Let", he say, "in other words, I'm gonna show you what's in your barrel. You don't know what you got. Put your hand on your stomach. You don't know what you got. Every time you need it, I'm gonna send it. Every time you cry for it, I'm gonna release it. Every time you open your mouth, I'm gonna release it. You are never gonna see any more than what you see right now. I'm not gonna give you 50 barrels so, since I won't give you 50 barrels, I got to change your perception of what you got. You don't know what you've got. That's why I sent the prophet".
Reach for it, it happens. Reach for it, it happens. Reach for it, it happens. Reach for it, it happens. Now, sister, let me show you how to do this. I want you to act this out. I want you to reach for it right now, just reach for it. It happens. Do it again. Reach for it, it happens. Do it again. Reach for it, it happens. Do it again. That's how you gonna come out of this season. Every time you reach for it, God's gonna give you a handful. Every time you use it, God's gonna release it. Slap somebody and say, "Use it, girl". Every time you use it, every time you reach, every time you...