TD Jakes - Tomorrow Belongs to God
"Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil". That prayer right there, he gave them that template for prayer, but the real model is how he lived his life, not just what he said. He told them that real prayer has nothing to do with eloquence. He associated that with the Pharisees. They were known for their swelling words and their long prayers. He wants us to know that prayer doesn't inform God, instead it invites him.
God doesn't need you to tell him what's going on, he already knows what's going on. You don't pray to inform him, you pray to invite him. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I'm gonna drop something heavy on you. I'm gonna drop some heavy stuff on you. You pray to invite him into your finances. You invite him. You don't inform the Lord, you know, the rent is due on Thursday. Yeah, I know that. You know, I got laid off. Yeah, I was there. You know, they hurt my feelings. I quit my job. I got mad. Yeah, I know, I know. You don't inform him, you invite him. Come into my good decision. Come into my bad decision. Come into what I regret. Come into the place where I reacted out of my emotions rather than your word. I invite you into this situation. I invite you into this. I invite you into the job I shouldn't have took, the deal I shouldn't have done, the place I need your direction, because my mouth gets me in trouble. I need your word to prevail over my word, so that I can be better heard and be more effective. I invite you.
Let's just take a moment right now and invite him. Let's invite him. Let's invite him. Let's invite him. Let's invite him. See, you got ready to praise, but I want you to pray. Let's invite him. Let's invite him. My house shall be called a house of prayer. You made it a den of thieves, but it should be called a house of prayer. Jesus's conviction about prayer is evident throughout the Scriptures. It is so evident throughout the Scriptures that he tantalized them until they taught us, teach us to pray, because every time they turned around, over and over again, Jesus slips away from the crowd in his responsibility to spend time in prayer. His benefits are demonstrated through his life. His benefits are demonstrated through his life to the point that they finally say you're teaching us about the kingdom.
The kingdom of heaven is like it. The kingdom of heaven is like it. The kingdom of heaven is like it, but what you're not teaching us is every so often you go apart to the mountain by yourself, and hide yourself behind a rock, and do something that makes you able to walk on water when you come out. Teach us how to do that. Teach us how to do that right there. Teach us how to do that right there. Teach us how to do that right there. Teach us how to do that right there. They had seen him do it in so many different ways, and I'm gonna give you a few ways that Jesus models prayer and the benefits of prayer for you to jot down.
Number one, peace in the storm. Peace in the storm is a result of communion with God. They are in a tornado, and Jesus is at rest. This is what prayer does for you. It braces you against external extremities, so that you're not always reacting to what you see going on around you. When you have a lifestyle of prayer, you don't act like the crowd, everybody screaming, and running, and jumping off the boat, but when you've been talking to God before the storm, you have peace in the storm. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I got chill bumps on my arm. You got peace in the middle of the storm. Is there anybody in here that's had unexplainable peace? You don't even know, it's not even your character, it's not even your nature.
That comes from having a consistent prayer life. Not that church prayer life, not a, "Oh, thou God who rules the winds and the waves, and stands on eternity, and overlooks the corridors of time, into that bosom". No, no, no, no, this is the kind of prayer where you driving down the road say, "Jesus, I don't know what we're gonna do about this, but I'm trusting you about that. And if you don't want me to do this, I need you". This is the kind of prayer that is not eloquent, it is just you crying out, "Help"! Somebody holler, "Help"! The woman who said that, who authored that book, her daughter was grievously vexed with the devil. She didn't have time to be eloquent. When you're in a fight with the devil, you don't have time to be eloquent. We don't need an exercise in your vocabulary, we don't need you to tune up, we need you to open your mouth, "Help"! And the benefits of prayer is demonstrated in the storm.
How you react to the storm determines how far you're gonna go. You can't be a leader if you freak out. You gotta keep a calm head in a crisis. Discipline, discipline over your emotions, discipline. We have a generation, and I'm talking about all of us, all ages that are alive in this era, of undisciplined people who say whatever they think, however they think, whenever they want to. You don't have no prayer life. You talk to people when you ought to be talking to God. If you start talking to God, it'll change how you talk to people. Come on, somebody, Jesus demonstrates prayer for them.
Number two, deliverance for others. He comes down off of the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples have been wrestling with this boy, fighting for his life, he's casting himself into the water, he's casting himself into the fire, they cannot control this demon. I want to talk to some people who have a demon that's out of control in your life and you cannot control it. And when Jesus comes down, the boy's father embarrasses the disciples by saying I brought him to your disciples and they couldn't do nothing with him.
There are some things you have to bring directly to Jesus. You don't need an appointment with the bishop, you don't need an appointment with a counselor, you don't need an appointment with a team, some stuff you got and some demons you got to take to Jesus. Never mind the fact that the boy got in the fire but didn't get burned up, and got in the water and he never drowned. Jesus is already present, but you're tired of going through the struggle, and the fight, and the war. Jesus says bring him to me. And afterwards the disciples asked him what went wrong, and I respect them for that because no failure makes you a failure unless you will not examine what did I do wrong? If you learn from it, it can't be a failure. Jesus said you didn't do anything wrong, it's what you didn't do. "This kind cometh out by much prayer and fasting". So, Jesus is gradually teaching them about prayer.
Number three, he teaches them submission to the process. Through prayer he teaches them that when it gets hard to submit to the process, and it often does, and it even did for Jesus, so stop trying to sell me this bill that everything is easy for you. If it got hard for Jesus, I know it got hard for you, so shut up. "If you just want my faith, it ain't nothing". Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! You're a lair and a hypocrite, too. It got hard for Jesus. And Jesus took his inner circle out to the Garden of Gethsemane just so that he would be able to pray his way into submission to the process. "Father, if it be thy will, pass this bitter cup from me". Sometimes God's will will carry you through roads you don't want to ride on.
Oh, y'all don't hear. Talk to me, somebody. Sometimes God's will will carry you through roads you don't want to ride on, roads you didn't pick, roads you didn't foresee, roads you didn't design, and frankly, roads you don't like, but it's still God's will, because God is not in your life for your likes. Oh, y'all didn't hear me. That was so good. God is not in your life for your likes. Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and says this is how you submit to the part you don't like, because God will send what you don't like to kill your flesh. You know, the cross was designed to kill the flesh, and the flesh will always scream out when the nails go in, and Jesus goes to the garden and prays so he has grace for the cross. I've always thought that we paid more attention to the cross than we do the garden, because the cross is only where he demonstrated the power of the garden.
Number four, the pardoning of guilt and sin. He teaches us this through prayer. When the man sick of palsy is carried by four people, and they have to climb up the wall, imagine carrying a man who is sick of palsy, paralyzed, up the wall, across the roof, with four people, and lower him down into the presence Of Jesus, and Jesus says to him, "Son, thy sins are forgiven thee". And then they doubted that he had the right to do that. He said, "What is easier, to say son, thy sins are forgiven thee, or take up your bed and walk"?
Is there a correlation between the palsy and the sin? Because Jesus prioritized the forgiveness of sin over the pain that brought him to Jesus. Could the pain have caused the paralysis? Are you carrying guilt that you can't get rid of to the point that it's showing up in infirmities in your body? Are you carrying too much that you're not even designed for? Do you go to God in prayer? Do you go to God in prayer? I don't mean like you dial 9-1-1, I mean on a daily, continual basis that flushes your soul of the toxicity. You're so careful about what you eat, you a pescatarian, I'm a vegan, I don't eat this, I don't eat that. You're so careful about what you put in your body, but are you careful about what you put in your soul?
Number five, prayer is your secret weapon. Prayer is your secret weapon. Jesus teaches in the text that when you pray, don't be out in the streets praying like the Pharisees, he said but go into your secret closet, and shut the door, and he says that God who hears in secret will reward you in the open. If you want to be a public success, you gotta be a private prayer. Oh, y'all ain't gonna help me. If you're gonna be a public success, you gotta be a private prayer warrior.
Let me give you number six. He gave me six things to give you, I want to make sure you get 'em. Number six, prayer is not about church. The Lord said the most interesting thing to me when I was studying. He said I want you to understand that prayer is a part of self-care. You all talk about you gotta get self-care. You gotta get self-care. You gotta get self-care. Self-care is soul-care. Prayer is a part of self-care. If the psychologists and the psychiatrists were here, they would tell you to journal. The Holy Spirit says prayer is journaling with God. That prayer will tip the scales in your favor. Prayer will tip the scales in your favor. Your daughter needs to see you pray. Your son needs to see you pray. Not just when you're in front of people, it needs to not be strange to come in your house and hear your mama praying. Your house should be called a house of prayer. You gotta bring prayer back in your house.
Cut off "The Housewives of LA," and "The Housewives of Atlanta," and the housewives of actors, and the housewives of movie stars, and get down on your knees, and start calling on Jesus. When I say prayer will tip the scales in your favor, we're not praying about yesterday, because there's nothing that can be done about yesterday. You got to come out of yesterday. There's nothing nobody can do about yesterday. You don't see anywhere in the Bible where anybody is praying about yesterday, and yet every time you get a microphone, you're crying about yesterday. Come out of your history. Come out of your history. It don't matter who was right, it don't matter who was wrong, you got a devil in front of you to fight. You can't fight the devil behind you and have your hands free for the devil in front of you. Who am I talking to?
Sit down, I gotta hurry. I'm running out of time. Yeah, you can't stay if you don't pray. I like that. I'm gonna rush through this, worry nullifies prayer. So, over and over Jesus says do not worry. It's not a request, it's a command. Do not worry. Worry nullifies prayer. You can pray real good, but if you worry better than you pray, you nullified what you prayed for. Worry nullifies prayer. It cancels out prayer. Worry is to have faith in the negative. Worry is faith turned inside out. Worry is responding to the negative voice louder than you do the positive. Your thought life is infected by worry. You can't make sound decisions when you're worrying. Anxiety is literally worrying about tomorrow, worrying about something that hasn't even happened yet.
Where we're gonna stay? What we gonna do? Why did that happen? You want to know everything, you control freak. You profess to walk by faith and not by sight, and yet you want to know everything about something that hasn't even happened yet. You're making yourself anxious. You're making yourself sick. You're making yourself hard to live with because you think everybody has to report to your office. God is not gonna report to your office. He's not gonna give you details, you're just gonna have to walk out there to a place I will show you, and when you get there, I'm gonna show it to you, and you got to walk by faith. And God knows you don't like it, and God knows you ain't good at it, but you gotta get good at it.
Dig down in your pocketbook and get your weapons out, because one of those weapons is resisting the temptation to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow belongs? Say it again. Say it again. The thief is on the cross, and he's dying, and he's nailed to the tree, and he's getting ready to go, and all he asked God to do is remember me when you get to the kingdom. Just remember me. He didn't ask him to save me, he just said just remember me. Just remember me when you get to the kingdom. Tomorrow belongs to God. I'm gonna share one more quick Scripture and then I'm gonna move on. Take me to Jezebel. Take me to Jezebel and I'm out. Take me to, yeah, 1 Kings 19:1-8, and get this, get this and I'm out.
In fact, I don't even have to go to 8, I think I can go to 3 and get it. "Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword". So Jezebel sent a messenger. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah. Jezebel sent a worrying messenger to Elijah. Jezebel sent the spirit of worry to Elijah. It would only work if she threatened him. She didn't kill him, she just threatened him. Isn't it funny how there will always be somebody to bring you back news to worry you? Listen to what I'm saying. Jezebel didn't kill him, she sent a messenger to threaten him. What is threatening you? I'm asking you a question. What is threatening you?
Jezebel sent that message. Idolatrous Jezebel, prophet-killing Jezebel, praise-killing Jezebel, faith-killing Jezebel, comfort-killing Jezebel, confidence-disrupting Jezebel will always send you a message, and this is the message. "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like one of them other prophets I killed". Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. Elijah, who didn't run from nothing, ran from worry. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, because sometimes, like Jesus in Gethsemane, you can't take nobody with you. "While he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, he came to a broom bush," the King James says a juniper tree, "Sat down under it and prayed that he might die".
I want to speak to every person who's trapped and so worried that you want to die. Tomorrow belongs to God. No, no, no, get this, you're worried to death, or in pain about yesterday, yesterday is trying to get you to kill tomorrow, and you don't know what a day will bring. She said if I don't take you out in the next 24 hours, may the gods deal with me. I'm gonna kill you just like I killed the others, and he started running and got up under the tree and said if I'm gonna die, God, I want you to take me. He said I have had enough, Lord. I want an honest answer. How many people have said to God I have had enough? Elijah came to God and said I have had enough.
Now, he is a day's journey in his travels, and doesn't notice that Jezebel is a liar. For him to be alive to complain is a miracle, because she said tomorrow, she said by this time tomorrow, I will take your life, and he ought to be shouting up under the juniper tree, because 24 hours later he's still alive. Let me tell you, some of you are worried about stuff you ought to be shouting about, because if the devil had his way, he would have took you out by now, but because tomorrow belongs to God. I want somebody who's living in a miracle, who's standing in favor, to give God some glory right now. Hallelujah, I know what I'm talking about.
Tomorrow belongs to God, and if God decides to bless you, no devil, no witch, no hex, no spell, no mistake, no failure, no sin, no shortcoming, nothing can stop God if God gets ready to bless you. Tomorrow belongs to God. That Jezebel curse that keeps you up at night is a lying spirit from the pit. I'm not saying you won't go through tests, I'm not saying you won't go through trials, I'm not saying you're gonna get everything you want, but I'm telling you that God has an expected end for your life, and that his thoughts are good towards you and not evil, and whatever comes and whoever goes, God is still going to bless you, and you stop worrying about your future. God has got it. Tomorrow belongs to God. Who am I preaching to?