TD Jakes - Inflection Point
God will give you strength that is not visible. He will cause you to be successful when the odds are against you, when there is no outward evidence that you are as strong as you are, and yet you can do feats that succeed people's impression of you because of the anointing that is upon your life. God can do it, and they say, how can a woman like that end up in a position like that? And how can a man like that end up over there? And how can a former inmate end up with a job like that? And how can a girl like her end up married to a guy like him? And how did he get her that kinda crazy, supernatural stuff that has something to do with something beyond yourself? That you begin to realize that wherever you are, whatever station in life you have entered into, that you did not get there by yourself.
You got jobs for which you don't have credentials. You got doors opened for you that you can't even explain. You can do stuff and you don't even know how you can do it. You weren't trained for it, you're just gifted in it. You can go beyond the books, because there's an instinct down in you that enables you to know what to do in a way that passes understanding, and it blows the minds of your peers that you just know what to say and what to do, when to do it, and it's because the anointing of God is on your life. And I look at that, and in the middle of my ministry I was amazed by how God can take somebody who seemingly had no outer strength, and yet they were throwing gates and making weapons out of things that were not weapons and being effective.
But on closer observation I began to understand that Samson was quite dichotomous. He was was strong and weak, he was good and bad, he was powerful and passive, and I began to understand that he was quite complicated, that it was difficult to understand that the trajectory of his life was not one straight line, not one extension between point A and point B, that there were hills and valleys and ups and downs and ridges, and not only him, but all of us. When you tell your story, you might tell it like it was a straight line, but you and I know the real deal. There were moments you thought you were gonna emerge, and then you had a setback, and then you started up again, and then you went down again. And your life began to look a little bit like Samson's life.
Samson's life looked like this, it had moments of power and moments of failure, moments of strength, and then just when you thought he was about to get there, it'd all fall down again. It had moments of deviation and moments of aggravation, and ups and downs, and ridges and valleys, and moments where just when you thought you were getting somewhere, everything went down. They tricked him, they deceived him, they lied on him, they betrayed him, they hurt him, they denied him, he fell backwards, he became prey to his enemy, he was attacked by the Philistines, he was taken down and blinded and grinded, down to nothing and about to die, and then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, all of a sudden he started going up in this final thrust of power.
This thrust of power is an inflection point. It is the point in your life that everything turns completely around, never to go back to where it was before. You see, an inflection point, my friend, is an event that results in a significant change in the progress of anything, a person, a company, an industry, a sector, an economy, a geopolitical situation, and can be considered a turning point after which a dramatic change occurs in our life which could be positive or negative. It results in an expected result that is amazing and contradicts all of the fluctuations of the past. That inflection point is the point that breaks the routine and the pattern of being. The old folks said it like this, sometimes up, and sometimes down, almost level to the ground. But the storm is passing over, hallelujah.
I began to see that in Samson's life in an amazing way. The fluctuations in his life. And I began to understand that in most of our lives, life has not been a crystal stairs. There's been hill and valleys and mountains and ridges and ups and downs, and sometimes we had the privilege of being able to go down privately while we look good publicly, and so your name remains untarnished, but your memories are filled with indiscretions and misdirections and mistakes and happenstance and chaos and confusion, and then you begin, you begin to reason it's important for me to track Samson's ups and downs and ridges and twists and turns, is because trends are important. And that is important, and understanding how things work is important, whether it's in business or just in the home budgeting. It doesn't matter what it is, trends help you to determine a pattern.
If you watch people long enough, they'll never surprise you, because people have patterns, and the best prediction of future behavior is past experiences. The same thing that tripped Samson up the first time tripped him up the next time. He is fighting against the Philistines, and yet in love with their women. The first girl he chooses is a woman who is his enemy. I think it was his first mistake with her that he chose a wife from Gaza that tipped the Philistines off that he's strong in war, but he's weak in relationships, so we don't need to hire chariots, we need to hide Delilah. We talk a lot about Delilah, but Delilah was not Samson's first mistake. She is a repetition of previous indiscretions, because you see the enemy can't use anything new on you, 'cause he's not a creator. So, he's just comin', the names have been changed, but the weapons are still the same.
Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. And if trend anything and track anything, you can overcome anything by watching your trends. That's why when you go on a diet, they want you to write down what you eat, because they want you to see your trends and your patterns and that sort of thing. You go to the doctor, he wants you to take your blood pressure and write it down and send him the blood pressure results after a month because he's watching how it trends up in the morning and in the evening and after you eat, and after you did this, and after you did that. The easiest place that we see trends is in weather. We understand that weather, in part, is a result of seasons, but almost every day, or so the climatologist confirms with the meteorologists in pursuit of a forecast, they can predict the forecast by watching the trends of the past, and every now and then something breaks beyond the past, and they say, "This is the hottest day in the history since we have been trending and recording".
Gathering data is important so you can understand how to protect yourself, or you will be defeated. Imagine how much better your personal finances, for example, would be if you gave them that kind of attention and you really started writing down how you spend money and why you spend money, like some people have what they call shopping therapy. They get depressed and spend their rent money as if they are not going to be more depressed when you get evicted. They go out, and other people want to look prosperous rather than be prosperous. Other people love depreciating assets rather than appreciating assets. So, they drive a Bentley, but they drive it up to a project.
So, as long as I catch you driving, you look good, but if you own a Bentley and don't own a garage, there's something wrong with your thinking, but I'm not gonna bother that. First thing a doctor does is check your vitals to determine changes that might be headed to an inflection point. They wanna catch it before it gets too far. Your numbers are going up, your numbers are going down, your numbers are going this way, that way, and yet we do not pay enough attention to the trends in our lives and the trends in other people's lives to come to an inflection point. An inflection point is where you break out of the prison of patterns.
You must hear what I'm saying to you. There comes a point where enough is enough. You watch this up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and back and forth, and there comes a point where you get sick and tired of not being able to trust up. I was up on Sunday, I got bad news, I was down on Wednesday. I came up a little bit by Friday, I went down Saturday night. I went back to church on Sunday, I was on a mountaintop, somebody got on my nerves Sunday night, I fell down again. There comes a point that you get tired of being on the roller coaster of life, always up and always down, and you don't need to come to church to get high. I don't need a motivational speech, I don't need somebody who's going to titillate my emotions, I don't need somebody who's gonna thrill me for a moment, only for me to be cast back down again. I need you to preach me to an inflection point, to get me to the point that I finally break the pattern and finally come out of it, never to return again.
If you look at Joseph whole life, oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. Am I talking to anybody in the room? Look at somebody, say, I need an inflection point. Yeah, yeah, where I completely go through a metamorphosis, never to be who I was again. I need to reach a point of change where I can be stable and steadfast and unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. I need to go from fruit, to less fruit, to more fruit, to much fruit. I wanna get in my zone. Y'all don't hear what I'm sayin'. If I get in my zone, I am unstoppable. If I get in my zone, you can hate me, but you can't stop me. If I get in my zone, demons have to back out of my way. If I get in my zone, witches can't curse me. If I get in my zone, I am destined to win. I gotta get into my zone, I gotta get in that place where enough is enough.
Look at somebody and say, enough is enough. You take Joseph's life in general, Joseph gets the coat of many colors, and the next thing you know he's down in the pit. He's thrown down in the pit and they told his father he was dead. He ends up in Potiphar's house, he goes up again. He goes all the way up in Potiphar's house, Potiphar's wife lies on him, he goes back down again. He ends up in prison, he starts operating his gift, and he goes up again. And all of a sudden while he's in prison, locked up in a dark place, in a dark place, things began to change in his life until he finally reached an inflection point where he came up, and Brother Keion, once he came up that last time, he never went back down again. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you.
See, the church is always talking about how he went up and down, and up and down, and was in the pit, and then Potiphar's house, and being in the palace, but they don't tell you that there is a place where you can have such an inflection that you never go through what you went through ever again in your life. I want to talk to somebody in this room who is ready for an inflection point. If I'm talking to you, make some noise, holla at your boy, let me hear ya, talk back to me, I want to hear you say something. An inflection point, an inflection point. I'm tired of being up and down, in love and out of love, in one relationship and in another. I want to get to something stable, somethin' I could trust, something I can lean on, something I can put my weight on, something I can relax on, something I could trust on.
Samson said, I want to lean on a pillow. I want to get to a place where I can rest in who I am and whose I am and not let my emotions be up and down and up and down up and down. And all the drama that comes along with loving you. Some of you are hard to love, 'cause we don't know which one of you we going to meet from day to day. You're one way on Monday, you're another way on Tuesday, you're another way next Friday, next day on Saturday, we don't even know which one to love. We have to take your temperature before we come into the room, because you're not stable, you're not consistent, you're not steadfast, and you can't help it, but God is about to lead you to a place where a yoke is broken in your pattern, and you are set free. Somebody, shake yourself. I'm shaking myself loose from my pattern. I'm shaking myself loose from my normal. I'm shaking myself loose from my routine. I have got to break this pattern. There is an inflection point.
You see, my brothers and sisters, inflection points are the moments in which things shift, not just temporarily, but permanently. With the life of Jesus, the inflection point was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Everything was kinda cool until he raised Lazarus from the dead. Caiaphas got so upset when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that he knew it was no stopping him, because Jesus had evidence to point to that nobody could deny. They knew Lazarus was sick, he had been sick a long time. They knew Lazarus had grown worse. They knew Lazarus had died. They had attended the funeral. Jesus didn't show up until after the funeral. He waited four days until Lazarus was taken. There was no doubt that he was dead. There was no doubt that he was decaying. There was no doubt that he was deteriorating. And then Jesus had the audacity to say, "Show me where you laid him down". They took him to where he was stinking.
Have you ever brought God to where it stinks? I know you bring god to the roses, but you need to bring God to the stinky places, to the place where it don't smell good, to the place where there is decay, to the place where there is decadence, to the place where there is trouble, and Jesus had the audacity to not let the stink stop him. He said, "Roll the stone away". You'll never get better until you show God what it is. Stop pretending to be better than you are. Stop pretending to be more than you are. If you're broke, you're broke. If you're depressed, you're depressed. If you're crying, you're crying. God is the only one who could stand the stench of the decay, because when God gets ready to give you an inflection point, no devil in hell can stop him from being able to bring that inflection point in your life. And the Bible says that they rolled the stone away, and when they rolled the stone away, Jesus called him by his name.
And when he called him by his name, he had to be careful, because if he had just said, "Get up," everything that had been dead for thousands of years would have got up out of the grave. But he only needed one witness to be an inflection point, so he said, "Lazarus, come forth to prove my point". Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus's sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. In other words, I'm going to use his death as an inflection point to tip Caiaphas's hands, to expose Caiaphas's hatred, 'cause Caiaphas is tryin' to act like he's really behind me, but I'm going to have an inflection point. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, all hell broke loose. Caiaphas said, "We got to do something. We gotta shut him down". Watch out for success.
As long as you're failing, you got a lot of friends, but when you start to succeed, all hell will break loose. I don't know who I'm talking to, but I got to warn ya, because God is getting ready to take you to a place that hell is upset about. And all kinda plots are gonna come against you, but greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world. Fist bump somebody and tell 'em, something's about to happen in this place. Tell somebody else, something about to happen in this place. I feel it in my hands. I feel it in my feet. I feel it in my soul. Something's about to happen in my life, something's about to happen in my spirit. I feel the power of resurrection. I've been in a dark place a long time. I've been in a down place for a long time. But I see the stone rolling away. I see light in my graveyard. I will not stay like you met me.
A change is on its way. I'm getting ready to get out of here. Tell all my dead friends, I got to go. See ya, wouldn't want to be ya. The moment I get a chance to escape, I'm not gonna let your friendship keep me in my grave. The devil is a liar. I'm gonna get out if I gotta hop out. If I gotta come out bowed. I'm comin' and my hands are tied. I'm coming and my feet are tied. I'm comin' if I got to hop out little by little. The moment I get a breakthrough, I'm comin' out. Let me tell you something, the moment the anointing hits you, don't worry about what nobody else is doing, you need to come out if it's right now. If God touched you right now, if you gotta leap, leap. If you gotta run, run. If you gotta holla, holla. Because this is your inflection point.
The Holy Ghost told me if I preach this, while I was preaching it, people were gonna leap out of the prison, they were gonna leap out of the trouble, they were gonna leap out of their storms, they were gonna leap out of the chaos. Somebody, give him 42 seconds of praise. I was reading over in the Gospel of Saint John, 18:10, verse 10 through 14, check this out. "Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheathe: the cup which my father has given me, shall I not drink it? Then the band and the Captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him, and led him away to Aninas first; and he was father in law to Caiaphas, who was the high priest that same year".
Come on. "Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that," watch this, "that one man should die for the people". In other words, it's better to offer up Jesus than for the Romans to turn and kill us all. And he said, "One man will die for the people," but what Caiaphas didn't know is that he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the world, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. The Lord told me to tell you the trouble you've been in it is for a purpose. The pain you've been in is for a purpose. The nights you've cried is for a purpose. The loneliness you've been doing is for a purpose. God is bringing you to that point of transformation in your life.
I want to talk to the people that have been in a dark place. I want to talk to the people who have been shut up and shut down and laying in the dark. And you wondered where was God? I want you to know that if you got in trouble, you're not in trouble by yourself, 'cause the Bible said that God is a present help in the time of trouble. If you're in trouble, you got a praise that other people don't have. I want everybody that's been in trouble to give him the kind of praise that only people who've been in trouble know how to give God.