TD Jakes - The Famine is Over
Go up to Sion, to Zarephath, and there you will find a widow, and I will feed you through this woman. Can you imagine being Elijah getting out of the brook? Talking about, "Ha, ha, you thought you had me, didn't you? All you haters talking about me. I'm good, see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya". Goes right hip to Sidon, and God says, "There she is," and here come this woman, and he says, "Her, Lord"?
Sometimes God's answers don't look like what we had in mind. 'Cause I pictured a widow in a mansion, an old widow with lots of money, Bentley in the driveway, you know, stereo system in the house, outdoor pool, I go get in the pool since the river's dried up, I get in the pool, it's gonna be good, it's gonna be fine. Her, in that shack, on them bony legs and them trembling knees? She don't look like she could take care of herself. This is your answer to my drought? He said yeah, and he goes over to the woman, and he says, "I'm thirsty". Miracles are made out of need. Miracles are made out of need. If there is not a need to challenge you, there will not be a word to stir you. So, when you ask God to stir your faith, he'll stir your need. He'll stir you and challenge you in an area of your vulnerability, because you will never find out what you got until you've been challenged beyond what you see.
So, here he comes, down to the house to meet the widow, and he goes to the widow and says, "I'm thirsty," and he challenges her limitations. If it were within her reach, if it were easy for her to do, it wouldn't be a miracle. She said, "Well, you know, it normally wouldn't be no problem, but I had this situation going on, you know. I'm trying to raise these two boys by myself, and we are in a drought, sir. Didn't you watch CNN or Fox? We are in a drought". The thing that I rely on, that I counted on, that I depended on is gone for me, too. She said, "In fact, right before you came over, I was gathered two sticks".
Now, you know you broke when you counting sticks. Two sticks, to differentiate from the woman next door who only had one stick, I got two sticks. I got just enough fire for us to have a final supper with my two boys, and then I will be like the rest of those bodies down at the end of the street that are wrapped in burlap, about to be buried. I watched my neighbors go, I watched the friends around the corner go, I fought it as long as I could, I'm down to my last two sticks, I got a handful of meal, I got a little bit of oil, I'm gonna make a little bit of bread, I'm gonna eat something, and I'm gonna die. And he says, "Okay," and I guess she said, "What kind of prophet are you"? The woman is telling you she is getting ready to die with her kids.
Notice how poverty is generational. It has its own culture. It has its own mentality, and poverty is not as much about not having money, it's about a mindset. It's a mindset, and once you get in that poverty mentality, money won't bring you out, because your mind will always rob you of the opportunity your money gave you. It's a mindset, you have to break the culture of it. It's the way you think. It's the way you handle stuff. It's the way you perceive value. It's a mindset. You gain something just being raised in a house where there's some prosperity. You get to hear conversations you wouldn't hear. You get a mentality that you wouldn't get. You get a way of processing problems that you wouldn't get. When your daddy's solution for not having money is to, "Run that cable cord out the window, Helen, over to the neighbor's house, ain't nobody..." — that's a mindset.
That get-over spirit is a mindset, and so, even when you start doing better, you still acquiesce to the culture of poverty, and there you are making $70,000 a year talking about, "Run that cord out the window," and you stealing something you could have paid for, 'cause it's a mindset culture. It's not just me the starving prophet, my starvation has effected my children, and so, I'm gonna feed them what I eat, which is part of the problem, because when all you feed the kids is what you eat, they will only think like you think or have what you have. So, she says I'm going to feed them what I eat, and I already know while I'm chewing it, we gonna die, 'cause we're in a famine. It's a drought going on, man. All I got left is this, and we're gonna die. I know what I have, I know it's not enough, I know it will not sustain me, I'm going to eat it and die.
Eating is about living, but she says I'm going to eat it and die. And he says okay, go on, fix yourself some lunch, but just make a little cake for me, first. He doesn't tell her, "Yea, I say unto thee this day, the famine is over. You're going to get out of it and you're going to be so blessed. You will not die like your neighbors. You're gonna come through, you will succeed. You're gonna work, glory to God, hallelujah". He doesn't say that, he says go ahead and die. He doesn't give her any hope of life. He puts demand on her demand. He says go ahead and die, but before you die... now, see, I'm not sure that God could have used me in this story, I'll be honest. Because if I went to the man of God and I told him we are gonna eat this cake and we're gonna die, and that's all we can do, and he said go ahead and die, but before you die... what was being tested in this woman was her respect for God's Word.
What is being tested in this woman is do you esteem your need over his? The carnal mind says I'm not thinking about you, I told you I'm already down and out. I'm gonna bake this cake and eat it and die, you better knock on somebody else's door. The spiritual mind says it's not enough anyway. Why would I be stingy when it's not enough anyway? I'm hungry, the kids are hungry, he's hungry, this won't fix it, but it will set a precedence that even as I was going down, I put God first.
Here is the power of the text. It is not just that she gave to the prophet, it is that she gave to him first. That's what unlocked the miracle. That's what unlocked the miracle. It's not just that she gave, if she's of said, "Okay, I tell you what, I'm gonna eat, me and the kids gonna eat, and if you got any crumbs left, you can have some," she of never got her miracle. The miracle is in one thing, and this is what the text is about. It's not about prophecy, it's about priority. It's not about prophecy, had it been about prophecy, he would have prophesied, "Yea, it's over, I've come to your house today. It's gonna be good from here on out. Turn your mourning into dancing, it's over, hallelujah," that's prophecy. He didn't give her no prophecy. He didn't give her no promise. He didn't say if you'll just go on in there, everything's gonna be fine, no, no, he said, "Go on and eat it and die, just bake a little cake for me, first".
And most people would have dived on him, right then, right then. Something in her background taught her, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you". It's not just seeking God, it's seeking God first. Now, be fair, don't you get disgusted at people who seek you last? After they have made the mess, followed everybody else's advice, lost the car, now they're coming back to get the dog, too, and then they call you and say, "What should I do"? You say, "You should have called me three months ago". God says I am not in the business of being sought last, I want you to make me first and come to me first. When do you want me to seek you, Lord, late at night? No, early in the morning. Whenever God asks you for something, he will always ask you for his first, because God wants to be the priority in your life, not the afterthought after you've talked to everybody else. He said as soon as your eyes open up in the morning, seek me early in the morning and I will bless you, because I am first. Somebody say, "He is first".
Do you feed what's feeding you? God said, "If I'm your God, don't let me be your God at midnight, let me be your God early in the morning. Seek me first. Call ye upon me while I'm yet near. Forsake your wicked ways". So, he says one thing to the woman, he says, "Bake a little cake". He didn't ask for much. He didn't ask for all, just a portion. He said just a portion first, and as she was going to obey what he said, he said, "As the Lord liveth, your meal barrel will not run out". Watch this closely. He did not say your meal barrel will run over, he said it won't run out.
I want to talk to some people that you haven't run over, but you haven't run out. Oh, talk to me, somebody, talk to me, somebody. I don't have enough that I can brag, I don't have enough that I can take off work, I don't have enough that I can act crazy, I don't have a running-over blessing, but I got something waiting just every time I reach. Touch your neighbor and tell 'em, "It's time for you to stretch". He said I'm gonna design a miracle for you that's gonna require you to stretch in order to be able to get it. You're gonna have to work to be able to get it. I'm not gonna send you full loaves of bread, I'm gonna send you handfuls of potential, and every time you stretch, I'm gonna give you a handful of potential.
My God, I feel myself about to preach this morning. You see, I know God can make bread if he wants to because he proved it for the children of Israel. When they got hungry, God didn't send them meal, he sent them mana down from heaven. So, I know God can make bread when he wants to, but when God is trying to teach you, he won't give you the bread, he'll give you the meal, and if you'll stretch for it, he'll give you a handful of potential. Who am I preaching to this morning? Tell your neighbor, say, "Neighbor, if you'll stretch, God will fill your hand with potential". Oh, I'm gonna give you a minute to shout if there's a shout in here anywhere.
Touch three people and say, "What is that in your hand"? You must discover the power of what you've got left. Until you understand the power of what you've got left, you can't change your situation. But, as long as you look at your situation... see, some of your are cursing your situation, 'cause you're looking at what you got left as if it is powerless, but the Lord sent me here to tell you that what you got left is powerful. If you stretch, God will open up the windows of heaven, if you'll stretch. Oh, God, I feel the Holy Ghost about to take this place over. If you stretch, slap your neighbor and say, "Stretch".
Whenever God gets ready to work, he will always use a little bit. If it's nothing but a little bit of fish and a little bit of bread, he'll feed 5,000 folk. If you got a little bit, if it's nothing but a jawbone of an ass, he'll destroy the Philistines, if you got a little bit. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. Slap your neighbor and tell 'em, "I got a little bit". I can't see clearly, I can see men walking like trees, I thank you, Lord, for a little bit. Every now and then, you gotta shout over a little bit. Somebody give God praise for a little bit. Lord, I thank you for the little bit I got right now. Lord, I thank you. I can't hear y'all praising God. God does the most when you got a little bit.
Abraham said, "Lord, you should have done this when I was young. My factory's broke down, it's still there, but it's broke. Her factory, it ain't never been there, but she there, and if you was gonna give us a miracle, you should have given us a miracle when we were young. You wait 'til I'm 99 years old? I just got a little bit of life," what? If you got a little bit of life, if you got a little bit of wisdom, if you got a little bit of strength, if you got a little bit of beauty, whatever little bit you got, you need to use it and let God open up the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing.
Now, I'm almost finished, but I want to show you this, because anybody who ever got blessed always got blessed with not enough. Give me some, yeah, with not enough. They never had enough anything to do everything. But, see, when you get rid of that mentality where you're cursing your little bit, and you see your little bit as a nucleus for what God is about to do in your life, your little bit. Touch your neighbor and say, "I got a little bit". I'm old, but I'm not dead. I got a little bit of strength left. I got a little bit of power yet. I don't have the money I want, but I got a little bit.
And God says the principle is in the priorities. If you don't master it on a small scale, you won't master it on a large scale. You understand what I'm saying? God let me be broke with no money, he let me be prosperous with all kind of money, and I ended up at the same place, and I asked him what's wrong? He said it's not the amount, it's your method. It's your method, and whether it's $100 or $1,000, you will always be broke, because you have the methodology of poverty. You don't have your priorities in the right place. When I do give you $1,000, you buy what you want, and beg what you need. He said, "And until you get your priorities straight, I can't afford to bless you, because I can't bless you if I can't trust you". Oh, y'all don't hear me. I said I can't bless you if I can't trust you. But, if you show me that you'll fix your method, then I can make an investment in your life.
In fact, if you'll put first things first, God said I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing you won't have room enough to receive. Slap somebody and say, "First things first". The whole principle of tithing is not gambling at a casino, it is a commitment to priority. It is saying, "God, I put you first". Whenever you put God first, he will arise and let your enemies be scattered. Your figs will not cast their fruit before their time. Your leaf will not wither. Your enemies will be your footstool, because you put God first.
It's crazy, but I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna make a little cake for you first. "Mama, we hungry," she said, "Wait a minute, I'm gonna make a little cake for the prophet first". And she made a little cake and brought it, gave him the cake, and then, the reason I told you that the famine is over and not the drought is because all outside of her house, the drought persisted. It would have gotten her house, but because of the man of God, she said, "I know it's still dry, I know it hasn't been any rain, my cow collapsed, my sheep are dead, my chicken dehydrated," she said, "But all I know is that every time I need a handful"...
See, you were shouting 'cause I said the famine was over, but what you need to understand is that the beauty of the prophecy is that the famine is over though the drought continues. God said if I get ready to bless you, I don't need any outside circumstance to be lining up right for you to be blessed. A thousand can fall at thy right side, ten thousand can fall at your left side, but if I decided to bless your house, no weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper. I wish I had a witness. If I had somebody in this place that God made a way out of no way, jump up on your feet as a witness. Slap somebody and say, "I did it anyway". My husband left me, but I did it anyway. I lost my job, but I did it anyway. None of my siblings went to school, but I did it anyway. Everybody else walked away, but I stood anyway. Are there any anyway people in here? Make some noise. Slap your neighbor and tell 'em, "My famine is over". My famine is over. I can't tell you about your famine, but my famine is over. As for me and my house will serve the Lord.