TD Jakes - The Crises of Next
In the cave of Adullam, a place of refuge after fleeing danger, David discovers his true identity as a leader apart from any kingdom or followers; God uses this painful apprenticeship to build experience, draw family and distressed people to him, and prepare him for the throne—showing that what’s next comes to you when you stand still in the cave.
How do we end up in Adullam? Adullam, by the way, means refuge, and you find yourself in a place living like a refugee, running from a kingdom that does not want you and an enemy that is trying to kill you. He is in a cave, alone, a ruler without a domain.
It may not look like it, but I am; you may not follow me, but I am a leader; you may not acknowledge me, but I am a leader. You can call me by my name, Jakes. Hey Jakes, what is going on? Say whatever you want to say, but I am a leader. If it is in you, it is in you.
I am not talking to what is around you, I am talking to what is in you. I do not care what you hide in—if you are, you are what you are in the middle of it all.
Anointing Is Not Enough
David is anointed, but the question comes—can I go deeper?—is anointing enough? He is anointed but he has no experience. All education does not come in institutions; some education comes through experience, and you can be anointed to be something but have not earned the experience to be established on the level that you are in.
And the distance between his anointing and him actually acquiring that which he is anointed to run requires that he has a body of experiences that temper him in such a way that he learns, like Paul, how to abase and abound, how to have lack and how to have plenty.
He has learned that the state he is in does not define who he is. So we meet him in the cave, his head freshly doused with oil but his mind is void of experience. Experience is no small thing.
Painful Apprenticeship for Power
When your anointing is powerful, your apprenticeship will be painful. Y'all did not hear what I am saying. When your anointing is powerful, your apprenticeship will be painful, because God will not give that kind of power and not balance it with that kind of pain.
The greater the pain, the greater the power. If you are going to have the power, you have to be prepared to deal with the pain—the pain is a part of the power. And in fact, you will understand who you are by who hates you.
David is hated by a king because he is a king. You are going to have pain that is commensurate, not to your situation, but to your identity; when you are a king, your name will be brought up amongst kings.
And do not be surprised if your enemies do not graduate with your anointing to another level, and your frustration is commensurate to your anointing.
New Levels, New Devils
Let me break it down plain—new levels bring new devils; when you get to another level, you have got another level of devil to fight. But you would not run for refuge if you did not have fear, so there has to be some element of truth to the fact that the presence of fear or doubt does not mean that you do not have faith.
Let me prove it by the Bible: "Lord, I believe," but, "Help my unbelief"! I am in Adullam because I believe but I have elements of unbelief.
I stretched out on your word and I walked on water, but when I saw the winds and waves, I said, "Oh my God, I am walking on water," and I began to sink. So I have both things living in me at the same time.
And I do not know whether to fight the Philistines or fight the other voices that are coming up in my head because I have a fight on the inside and a fight on the outside at the same time.
The Need for a Break
And every now and then, I need a break. Let me get away, let me regroup, let me run into a cave, let me get my head together, because I do not know what to do next. I do not know what to do, I do not know what to do, I do not know what to do.
The crisis is not the current, because I have survived this present danger. I am not so worried about this present danger—I got out of it, it was close, Jackie, but I made it.
They tried to kill me, but I made it; it broke my heart, but I made it; I hid amongst my enemies, but I made it; I had to go crazy, but I made it; I have been through hell, but I made it.
But now that I have survived, my problem is not what I survived because I made it to safe—Adullam is safe.
You Are Safe in Adullam
You cannot have refuge in a place that is not safe. How many folks know you are safe? You may not be satisfied, but you are safe; you may not have attained what you hope to attain, but you are safe; you count not yourself to have apprehended, but you are safe.
I want you to rub that in the devil's face because he did not want you to be safe. If you made it to safe, I want you to take the roof off of this building right now.
It is not this present danger that has me on my knees—it is not my now, it is my next. It is the uncertainty, the instability, the fragility, the vulnerability of not knowing what is next.
Is there anybody in here that ever wonders, "What is next"? The kingdom that God promised me is trying to kill me, the men that I trained under Saul have attacked me and I am running from a king to a cave.
Adullam: A Place of Self-Discovery
And I am here and I am safe, but what keeps me up at night is what is next. But see, I can pay my bills, I am okay, I am safe, I got some food in the icebox, I am safe. When the weather changes, I can turn the heat on, I am safe.
But what worries me is the crisis of next. Adullam is a good place for a hangover, a layover, but I cannot live in a layover.
And the Lord told me to tell you why he put you in Adullam—I only read two verses because that is all I need. Adullam is when you find out who you are without them.
Oh, y'all do not hear how good I am preaching this morning. Adullam is a place that God puts you in of self-discovery, where you learn to appreciate who you are apart from all the people you thought were going to go with you.
Adullam is a place that God puts you in that makes you know, "I am a king if I do not have a kingdom, I am a grown woman, I am a grown man, I bring something to the table, I am the CEO of me, I am the Chief Executive Officer of myself."
Getting Your Courage Back
Adullam is where you learn to have confidence and boldness and self-esteem. Adullam is where you get your courage back. Adullam is where you come out of your coma and you come to yourself.
And God has proven to you that, "If nobody is for you, I am still for you, I am on your side, I got your back, I will fight." So Adullam is where you get three things: first, you get you back.
Adullam is where you find out you are enough. Adullam is where God puts you in a place that you never thought you could get to in all the world, and a new normal emerges in your life.
And God did not let you get the kingdom the way you thought you were going to get the kingdom because you were not ready yet.
Praise God, Not the Kingdom
If God would have given you the kingdom the way you thought you were going to get the kingdom, you would have praised the kingdom. But God put you in Adullam so that when you do get the kingdom you will praise the God of the kingdom.
Because you will understand that if it had not been for the Lord who was on your side, oh God, I feel like preaching, "I would have been swallowed up." But thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory. Somebody shout, "God gave me the victory."
So the Scripture only says three important things: One, David fled and escaped to Adullam; two, his brothers and sisters and family came to where he was.
Do not read over that, because they were the folks who never let him into their circle but God has so turned it around that, while David could not get in, they had to turn around and come to where he was.
God Turns It Around
And I do not know who I am talking to, but whatever you are worried about, God said, "In your family, I am going to turn it around, I am going to turn it around. You just stay right where I put you, I am going to bring them to you."
"I am going to legitimize you, I am going to validate you, I am going to restore unto you the years that the cankerworm and the palmerworm and the locusts ate up." And if you just be still—they are going to come to you when you have grown enough that he can trust you to bring them, when you are not so bitter that he cannot bring better.
So he put you in the cave so that when they come you would not act out on them over what they took you through. Oh my God, who am I preaching to?
He said, "I have to give you a layover because you are not ready to land yet, I have to give you a layover so you can get your head together, so that when I start pulling your life together you will be healed enough to receive the people who rejected you."
Open Up Your Cave
Right now, you are in a state of rejection, and you have anger and hostility about how they treated you, but I had to take you through a worse enemy to bring you to a place that you could deal with a lesser enemy.
So I let the other folks try to kill you so that you could measure what they did against what your family did, and you open up your cave. Slap somebody and say, "Open up your cave, they are coming back."
Open up your cave, open up your safe place, open it up, they are coming back. Open it up, they are coming back, open it up, they are coming back.
So number one, you found you; number two, you found your family; number three is the one I love the best.
Distressed, In Debt, Discontented
There were men in Saul's army that were not really with Saul. Sometimes the host that encamps around you is not really in agreement with the attack against you, and God has to let you survive long enough for them to recognize that, "I have been on the wrong side of this story."
And the Bible said that David gathered—no, no, no—he did not gather them, they came to him, that is what the text says. Four hundred men came to him.
And the Bible says they were in three categories—they were distressed, they were in debt, and they were discontented, and they came to him.
What comes to you will always be a reflection of where you are—you will always attract what you are. Because David was in distress, and David was in debt, and David was discontented, he drew what he was.
Oh y'all do not get that—four hundred times what David was. Distress, debt, and discontentment all recognized him because they could relate to him, and they came.
What's Next Comes to You
You do not have to go after what is next—the Lord said, "What is next is coming to you." You just stand right there in Adullam, and I will let you come to yourself.
Stop trying to figure it out, stop trying to work it out, stop trying to make it happen—just stand right there in the cave.
God said, "Whatever is yours, I am going to send it to you; whatever I have for you is going to come right to you." You are not going to have to fight for it, you are not going to have to prove nothing for it—all you have to do is stand there, they are going to find you in your cave.
So his self found him, his family found him, his people found him—four hundred times where you are, four hundred times more of where you are. And the Bible said, when they found him, they made him their leader.
Leadership Earned Through Suffering
Watch this—here is the majesty of the moment. David was alone, and now, in a cave which really was not a cave, but that is another lesson—in a cave, he now has his whole family come back together through the worst circumstances.
God uses the worst stuff to bring about the best results. They have come into realignment in a way they have never been in alignment before.
And 400 times where he was—these men left Saul, heard where David was, and came to him. Wait a minute—at this point, Saul is the greater and David is lesser.
God says, I am going to draw people whose decisions do not make sense—they are going to leave greater opportunities for connectivity. It is not going to be about cash, it is going to be about connectivity.
Because of all the things you have been through they know you can relate to them. They are going to come to you and make you their leader, not because of the oil on your head, but because of the experiences you endured—you have earned the right to lead by the things you suffered.
They Are Coming
Who am I talking to? See, I have an anointing on me for leaders, I have an anointing on me for people who do not even recognize that you are a leader because all you can see is your cave and your situation and your circumstance, but that is where you are getting your credentials.
God said, before I show you this he said, "I want you to emphasize this point because they do not get it yet—make sure they get that I am drawing them now." They are coming up the path, they are coming over the rocks, they are coming over the hills.
They are coming, they are coming, they are coming. Some people are following you who never followed you before, some people are listening to you who never listened to you before, some people are hooking up with you who were on the other side attacking you—they are switching sides right now.
God said he is going to be your vindicator, he is going to be your defense attorney, he is going to stand up for you. You do not have to fight the battle—the battle is not yours, the battle belongs to God.
Distressed—I said, "Lord, that is everything I built my ministry on." That is why I almost called it Adullam, because I am anointed to minister to people in distress, I am anointed to minister to people whose hearts are overwhelmed, I am anointed to minister to people not only that are in distress but are in debt.
I will turn somebody in debt into a business owner, into an entrepreneur, into a leader in their community.