TD Jakes - Inflection Point (07/28/2022)
God grants hidden strength through His anointing, enabling believers to achieve extraordinary success despite apparent weaknesses or unfavorable odds, as illustrated in Samson's life. Through recognizing life's ups and downs as patterns, we can reach a divine inflection point—a permanent turning point of breakthrough and stability, never returning to former struggles.
The Hidden Strength of God's Anointing
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 surpass 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 kind of 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 do not have credentials. You got doors opened for you that you cannot even explain. You can do stuff and you do not even know how you can do it. You were not trained for it; you are just gifted in it. You can go beyond the books, because there is 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 is 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.
Samson's Complex Life: Strength and Weakness
But on closer observation I began to understand that Samson was quite dichotomous. He 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 going to 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 would 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 about 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 ground 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 where everything turns completely around, never to go back to where it was before.
Understanding Inflection Points
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 stair. There have been hills 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 to reason: it is important for me to track Samson's ups and downs and ridges and twists and turns, because trends are important. And that is important, and understanding how things work is important, whether it is in business or just in home budgeting. It does not matter what it is; trends help you to determine a pattern.
The Power of Recognizing Patterns
If you watch people long enough, they will 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 is strong in war, but he is weak in relationships, so we do not need to hire chariots; we need to hire 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 cannot use anything new on you, because he is not a creator. So he is just coming; the names have been changed, but the weapons are still the same.
Oh, you all do not hear what I am saying. And if you trend anything and track anything, you can overcome anything by watching your trends. That is 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 is 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 the climatologists confirm 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 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.
Breaking Free from Destructive Patterns
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 they 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 do not own a garage, there is something wrong with your thinking. The first thing a doctor does is check your vitals to determine changes that might be headed to an inflection point. They want to 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 am 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 yourself.
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 do not need to come to church to get high. I do not need a motivational speech, I do not need somebody who is going to titillate my emotions.
I do not need somebody who is going to 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.
Joseph's Journey to Stability
If you look at Joseph's whole life—oh, you all do not hear what I am 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 more fruit, to much fruit. I want to get in my zone. You all do not hear what I am saying.
If I get in my zone, I am unstoppable. If I get in my zone, you can hate me, but you cannot stop me. If I get in my zone, demons have to back out of my way. If I get in my zone, witches cannot curse me. If I get in my zone, I am destined to win.
I have got to get into my zone; I have got to 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 is down in the pit.
He is 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 about 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 is 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. You all do not hear what I am 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 do not 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.
Jesus and the Raising of Lazarus
Samson said, I want to lean on a pillar. 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 and up and down. And all the drama that comes along with loving you.
Some of you are hard to love, because we do not know which one of you we are going to meet from day to day. You are one way on Monday, you are another way on Tuesday, you are another way next Friday, next day on Saturday; we do not even know which one to love.
We have to take your temperature before we come into the room, because you are not stable, you are not consistent, you are not steadfast, and you cannot 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 am shaking myself loose from my pattern. I am shaking myself loose from my normal. I am 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 kind of cool until he raised Lazarus from the dead.
Caiaphas got so upset when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that he knew there 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 did not show up until after the funeral. He waited four days until Lazarus stank. 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." 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 does not 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 will 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 are broke, you are broke. If you are depressed, you are depressed. If you are crying, you are crying.
God is the only one who can 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.
The Permanent Shift Through Resurrection Power
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 am going to use his death as an inflection point to tip Caiaphas's hand, to expose Caiaphas's hatred, because Caiaphas is trying to act like he is really behind me, but I am going to have an inflection point.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, all hell broke loose. Caiaphas said, "We have got to do something. We have got to shut him down." Watch out for success. As long as you are failing, you have a lot of friends, but when you start to succeed, all hell will break loose.
I do not know who I am talking to, but I have got to warn you, because God is getting ready to take you to a place that hell is upset about. And all kinds of plots are going to come against you, but greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
As long as you are failing, you got a lot of friends, but when you start to succeed, all hell will break loose. Something is 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 is about to happen in my life, something is about to happen in my spirit. I feel the power of resurrection. I have been in a dark place a long time. I have 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 am getting ready to get out of here. Tell all my dead friends, I have got to go. See you, would not want to be you. The moment I get a chance to escape, I am not going to let your friendship keep me in my grave.
The devil is a liar. I am going to get out if I have got to hop out. If I have got to come out bound, I am coming, and my hands are tied. I am coming, and my feet are tied. I am coming if I have got to hop out little by little.
The moment I get a breakthrough, I am coming out. Let me tell you something: the moment the anointing hits you, do not worry about what nobody else is doing; you need to come out if it is right now.
If God touched you right now, if you have got to leap, leap. If you have got to run, run. If you have got to holler, holler. Because this is your inflection point.
Purpose in the Pain
The Holy Ghost told me if I preach this, while I was preaching it, people were going to leap out of the prison, they were going to leap out of the trouble, they were going to leap out of their storms, they were going to leap out of the chaos.
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 lying in the dark. And you wondered where was God?
I want you to know that if you got in trouble, you are not in trouble by yourself, because the Bible says that God is a present help in the time of trouble. If you are in trouble, you have a praise that other people do not have.
I want everybody that has been in trouble to give him the kind of praise that only people who have been in trouble know how to give God.