TD Jakes - It Is Well With Your Soul
What he was tryin' to do, he was tryin' to plant a seed. See watch this. He knows that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by word. So words are seeds. And when you take them in, listen to this, the Bible says engrafted Word of God shall save your soul. That's when the Word of God takes root, engrafted. When it takes root, it will save your emotions, memories, attitudes, disposition. When his Word takes root, engrafted, not just knowing it, but when it takes root, it will save your soul. So the enemies said since that works positively, it works negatively too. So I'm going to make a suggestion. You sick, you broke, you old. You can't do no better. You can't lift yourself up, and the moment he offers you that word, if you take root, you take it and you believe it, it takes root in you.
Watch this. Go to Hebrews for me. Let me show something right quick. Let me show you something. Somebody get some help today. I don't know who it is. Hebrews 12:15. Oh, this is good. He says, "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God". He said, I'm going to show you what will make you fail in spite of the grace you've gotten the grace for it, but you fail anyway. Lest any root of bitterness. A root, see it's gotta take root for it to work. You don't fail because he offered it to you. You failed when you believe it. When you believe it, what he said takes root. Poverty has taken root. Some of you took root in your mama. It took root in your grandmama. It took root. A bitterness took root. A root of bitterness, what does it say, springing up trouble you, trouble you.
See, it's coming from the root of bitterness is troubling you. That's why you can't be creative. You can't be creative in chaos. That's why the enemy always sending something to get on your nerves, 'cause you can't be creative in chaos. That's why when God got ready to create the Earth, the first thing, he did was bring order to it separate the firmaments that are above the waters from the firmaments that are beneath the water. This goes over here. That goes over there. You got so much chaos in your life, no wonder you're sick. Pressure up. It's a medical fact that when you're up under stress. It will drive your pressure up. Affects your diabetes, scientists, doctors were starting to understand that emotional wellbeing has a lot to do with physical wellbeing. In other words, that you prosper and be in good health as your soul does prosper. So if I got bitterness on the inside, it takes root, and the Bible says lest a root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby defile you.
So I tell you what. I'm gonna keep you mad all the time. I'm gonna keep you fussing with people all the time. I'm gonna keep you full of rage and indignation. I'm gonna keep you full of unforgiveness. I'm gonna make you petty where you're not gonna... I'm not gonna change till she change. I'm not gonna forget till she apologize. I'm not going to get over till they give me the money back. I'd never get over. I'll always remember... you're making yourself sick. You're making yourself sick. Whatever they did it's not worth it. I said whatever they did is not worth it. Whatever they said, it's not worth it. Whatever they, oh, yes, not worth it. Whoever cheated on you, it's not worth it. Whoever lied on you it's not worth it. I am not gonna be so mad at you that I'm carrying a colostomy bag. I'm not going to get so mad at you that I end up plugged up to a machine.
Unforgiveness is as stupid as you drinking poison and waiting on him to die. A root of bitterness will defile you. You're angry at work over stuff that happened at home. You run away to this husband, because he said somethin' reminded you of that husband. Don't you see? The root is defiling you. You can't enjoy your good times 'cause you braced for the next bad time. I'm in this bed, but I don't care nothin' about a case they take it. I don't have to have it. No way. I'm gonna marry you, but I don't need you. I ain't gonna open up. I ain't gonna let me in case, you go away. I'm already ready. I'm taking this job, but I'm ready for you. I know you don't like me. You know why they don't like you? 'Cause you think they don't like you, and you got I don't like you on your face.
You know why nobody loves ya? 'Cause you think nobody could love you and anybody that tries to love you, you keep on picking at 'em till you make them not love you. It's coming from you. You talk them out of loving you because you're not comfortable with good times. You know why you keep losing money? You haven't made friends with it, you haven't made friends with it. You haven't made friends, and anybody who got it, you talked about them for having it. You made an enemy out of success. How could you get something to come to you that your mouth is driving away? Oh, it's gonna get good in a minute. I'm going to get good, and give me ten more minutes. I'm gonna get to the good stuff in a minute. They'll give it... uh huh, yeah.
People who are blessed with wealth are comfortable with it, but people who are blessed with love are comfortable with it. They expect it, but you can't think that way when a root of bitterness has defiled your confidence. So you don't walk up to the door assuming that you would be a good experience. You are braced for what you're getting. That's what defiling is. You are braced for what you are receiving. You are getting exactly what you expected. He suggested something. You accepted it. It took root. And now you're eating the fruit of what took root. If your soul is bitter, how can you prosper? How can you be free to think your best thoughts? You don't have energy to fight off a disease. All your energy's being expended in the chaos you live in. In the things you say to yourself, you're preoccupied. You don't have the focus to win, because all your energy is going into fighting something that may not never change.
You're arguing with people that may not ever get better. You're not gonna be happy till they change. You just put your thermostat in their room. That's why I was... I don't know what you gonna do. But listen, I don't have but a few years left. I got to make this do what it do. I don't have time to get tangled up in no kind of crazy. If you insist on being crazy, be crazy. God bless you. Gotta go. See ya, what I want you to do is to stop praying about the leaves and curse it at the root. Jesus cursed things at the root. Curse it at the root. Curse it where it came in. It's not your norm. It's not your God. It's not your God's will. It's not your will. Curse it where it came in. What convinced you that a temporary circumstance would be permanent?
You know one thing that I admired about the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness? The Bible said they pitched tents, but they never built houses. Never build a house in an area that you know you're gonna leave. Have you built a house in your desert? Have you built a house in your pain? Have you developed a pathology, a coping mechanism, a way of looking and thinking about yourself that fits something that you're not even supposed to have? You ought to curse it at the root. If you're broke, dress up. Get sick, put some makeup on, put on Walk out there and smile. Go the upper, you gotta curse it at the root. Curse it at the root.
I don't care, if you can't hardly put but one foot in front of the other, I can only make two steps. Make two steps every day. Two step, I got two steps every day. And then on the third day, try two and a half. On the third day try three-and-a-half steps, and on fourth day, try four steps. I got four step. They funny-looking steps, but they steps. They ain't always be funny. I'm looking bad right now, but I'm not always looked bad. I'm broke right now, but I'm not gonna always be broke. I'm working on something. I got a project going on. I got me a project going on. I got me a project. I'm rehabbing myself. I'm getting ready to step into a brand-new dimension. I'm gettin' ready to walk in a new love and a new truth.
I love you because of the truth you walk in. I love you because of the truth you walk in. What truth are you walking in? I see some people that wasn't attractive, but they didn't know it. They didn't know they wasn't attractive, and do you not know after a while they will convince you that you're seeing it wrong. You say where you... you do have nice ears. Since we're here, we might as well have some fun with it. Do you not know some people some people have got so much confidence that they talk themselves into a job with less qualifications, but they had more confidence they convince the employer to hire them 'cause they said, let me tell you, if you hire me, I'm going to turn this company upside down. I already got strategies and plans. Let me show you my charts and graphs and what I... I understand you're busy. I've been looking up. I understand what you're goin' through right now. I got ten different ideas that you haven't even thought about yet.
After a while the man said, "What"? And you know what? They prosper as their soul. God is talking to us this morning. Touch your neighbor and say God is talking to you this morning. Let me see, I'm gonna show you how to curse it at the root. You remember the prodigal son? You remember the prodigal son? The story starts not with anything the father decided. Not with anything the elder brother decided. It starts with something the prodigal son decided. He said give me the portion of goods... wait, wait, wait, first thing wrong. Give me. That's a root right there. A spirit of entitlement. You mean, you've been waiting for somebody to give you something?
And right there, tell me something messed up with you. Give me. Anything that start with give me is sick. First of all, give me says I don't expect to have my own. Give me is already a declaration of dependence. It's the way you look at the thing that makes you operate from a perspective of give me. Give me. I'm waiting on somebody give me. Somebody gonna die and give me something. Somebody's gonna gimme. Gimme, gimme, gimme. You're going to give me. Who's gonna give me? You just made other people God. So he says watch this. Give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me, and the Bible says that according to what he asked for, the father divided unto them his living, and because he didn't earn it, because he didn't earn it, let me show you this.
Anything you don't earn, you will always lose. I'm gonna tell you why. There is something that you learn while you earn. Am I right about it Emmett? It is something that you learn while you earn it that makes you able to keep it. It's things that you learn that toughen you up, that prepare you that give you the fortitude and the tenacity. See, God doesn't put the full weight of success on you all at once when you earn it. Little by little, he increases your tolerance to pressure, but if I give it to you without you earning it, you didn't take the classes to maintain it. So you lose it.
Watch this. It says and give me the portion you can fall, divided his living and straightway wasn't long before he began to be in want. Went down there, and now all of a sudden it filled his belly with that which the swine did eat. He's attached himself to a citizen of that country. He is now working for a people he used to wouldn't eat with. You wanna know where you are? You wanna know where you are right now? You wanna do an evaluation test? Check out your friends. If you surround yourself with swine, are you really a son? Why is it that you feel comfortable with trifling people? I put you in a room full of successful people, they uppity. They uppity. Well, look at you falling back down to what you've accepted.
Okay, so there he is, and the Lord has allowed him to decline so that he could kill it at the root. See, the money wasn't the issue. The prosperity wasn't the issue. Who held the money wasn't the point. The root of the issue was coming from inside of him. So when he gets down to the hog pen, and there he is with absolutely nothing. He's lost everything, found out his way didn't work. The Bible said he came to himself. Watch this. He came to himself. How many of you know he came to himself? I can tell he came to himself by what he said. The Bible said he came to himself and said the moment you come to yourself, you're gonna change the way you talk. You're gonna change the way you talk because you change the way you think.
You say, wait a minute, how many servants in my father's house have bread enough and to spare, and I perished with hunger? Look at him decide. This is not natural. I'm not supposed to be down here in this hog pen. I'm not supposed to be crying over this man. This is not natural. I'm not supposed to be sleeping up under this bridge. This I'm not supposed to be flunking out of school. This is not natural. I'm not supposed to be cussing out everybody and fighting all the time. This is not natural. I'm not supposed to be unhappy and miserable and suicidal. This is not natural. I'm not supposed to be unhappy. I'm not supposed to be. I came to myself. This is not my unhappiness. I'm not supposed to be like this. How many servants, the servants in my father's house are doing better than me. I'm a son surrounded by swine. I'm in it but I'm not of it.
Did you know you can be in something that you're not of? You can be engaged in it in the same mud with the rest of the pigs, but I'm faking. Coming to yourself means that you no longer define yourself by your circumstance. I'm in the hog pen, but I'm not a hog. I'm in the garage, but I'm not a car. I'm in this club, but I'm not one of you. I'm better than this. I'm better than this. I got an option. I will arise. What'd he say? I will arise. What'd he say? I will arise. What'd he say? I will arise. What'd he say?
The moment you take "I will" from "they" and "them," you are on your way to recovery. The moment you say I will, look at somebody, say I will. The moment, you say I will, you'll take it back authority over your life. I will get up out of this. I will overcome this. I will walk again. I will walk again. I will sing again. I will write again. I will fly the plane again. I will run the relay again. I will go back to school. I will graduate. I will own my own house. I will be a good father. I will be married. I will be a wife. I will. You need to get your I will. I will.
Look at somebody, say I will. He cursed that thing at the root. None of his friends were there. None of the harlots was there. His daddy wasn't there. The money wasn't there. Nothing was there. He cursed it at the root. He cursed it in his soul. His soul prospered. Oh, I'm gonna tie it up for us, now His soul prospered in a hog pen. They didn't hear it. His soul prospered in a hog pen. Everything around him was dirty and stinking, but his soul prospered. I wish above all things that you prosper and be in good health as your soul does prosper. When his soul prospered, his situation prospered, he started coming back home. He started coming to himself. He started getting himself together.
Slap somebody and tell 'em I'm comin' out of this. My soul is healthy. My soul is prospering. My soul is wealthy. My soul is at peace. My soul is confident. My soul is a conqueror. My soul is victorious. My soul is having a revival. I'm not waiting on the Potter's House. I'm not waiting on the Evangelist. My Soul, my soul, my soul, my soul. Kelly, let me tell you what David said. David said my soul has escaped out of the snare of the fowler. I couldn't get nothing out, but my soul, but if you can get your soul out, it won't be long before your family comes out. It won't be long before your money comes out. It won't be long before your health comes out. Touch your neighbor and say my soul escaped.