TD Jakes - Your Life, Your Hands
This woman is surrounded by masses of people. She's surrounded by a crowd of people. We like to be in this atmosphere where we are engulfed with people. This woman is surrounded by masses of people. None healed her. The disciples were present, the foundation of the early church, all of them were around. They would be the ones that became the foundation for New Testament church and theology, but none of them healed her. In fact, they totally disregarded her. She was not even in their purview. They were not even looking in her direction. They did not even notice the plight of this woman. The fact that you are around holy people doesn't guarantee you that you get divine results. The fact that you run with people with big names doesn't make you bigger. Walking with tall men doesn't make you taller. Walking with handsome people doesn't make you better looking.
Come on, talk to me somebody. At the end of the day, it comes down to you. The impetus of her miracle rests squarely on her. Who is this woman? Who is she, anyway? The Bible goes in every gospel, it writes a little something about her, and yet it does not even dare to mention her name. A writer so specific that it tells us about Jairus, we know exactly who he is, but who is this woman? This no name woman, this nameless woman, who is she in the first place? The very fact that we don't even know her name and the only thing we know about her is her problem speaks to the fact that by man's standard, she's a nobody. And perhaps even worse than a nobody, she has been noted by her problem as if her problem defined who she was. And still the impetus rests squarely on her. She was alone in a crowd. There's nothing worse than being alone in a crowd. Aloneness is its own disease.
Can I take my time with this? I'm not talking about being single. You can be single and not be alone. And you can be married and still be alone. You can have masses of people over and still be alone. We were meant to be a social species. We were created like certain schools of fish to run in packs. We were meant to be the kind of species that survives in part by our association with other people. Our inherent need requires socialization to feel and sense a sense of wholeness. We function better when we interact with each other. There's something that we get from other people's energy. But this woman was alone. Aloneness creates emotional homelessness. The fact that you have emotions and you're around people doesn't mean that you're heart isn't homeless if you can't trust them.
I know you want to shout right there, but you can't, because you might be sitting around somebody you can't trust. It creates a sense of homelessness to not be able to anchor my emotions and those that I am around, so having more people does not give me the feeling of satiety that I desire, because I have to be careful. Aloneness is its own disease. Sociology, psychology shares with us that people who live alone and stay off to themselves do not live as long as people who have somebody to live with, even if they don't like them. Somebody to argue with, somebody to bounce ideas out of. It is so powerful that it has been proven that people who simply have nobody but a dog can cause you to live up to two years longer than people who shut the door on the house and there's no noise and there's no sound and there's nobody to laugh with and there's nothing to do.
A cat could extend your life. Aloneness is its own disease. And there's not a person in this room that hasn't gone through an issue alone. Amidst the many sociological constructs, religious, political, and personal, she has been excommunicated from them all, almost as if she had a scarlet letter on her. She is alone, not because people are not there, but even her faith has left her in a state of aloneness. Her faith itself declares that any woman who has an issue of blood that does not stop is declared unclean, and nobody was to touch her. And if they did touch her, they had to declare themselves unclean. She is a woman without a touch. I am not sure which is worse, the issue of her disease, or the issue of her aloneness. Because even a disease is better to deal with if you don't have to deal with it alone.
If there's somebody sitting by the bed, if there's somebody who comes over, if there's somebody who brings you some soup, if there's somebody who interacts with you, it's better than having to go through it alone. Old age is better if you don't have to go through it alone, if somebody calls you every now and then, or comes by and sees you, or brings you some cookies and act like you matter. She could not enjoy that because she was alone. There are all kinds of studies that are out right now about what being quarantined does to the human mind over time. And I, like many people, I'm a novice, not an expert, but I, like many people, have been researching what isolation does to the human brain. Science says that it actually shrinks the human brain to be left alone too long. And there's only so much she can draw from her faith, because her faith, according to the Pentateuch, demanded that she be alone because of her issue.
So, I'm trying to get you to understand that her issue has issues. How many people in this room know what it's like to have issues that have issues? It not simple. It's not just one thing. But because of this thing, it creates that thing, it creates the other thing, it creates the other thing, and you can't fix this over here because this came from that over there, and this is tied to that over there, and your issues have issues. You will find the Word of God validating her aloneness.
And it says, "And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days; and whoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the evening. And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean; and every thing that she sitteth upon shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean the even. And whoever toucheth anything that she sat upon shall be washed, shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And if a woman has an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation," or if it doesn't stop, "or if it run beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation. She shall be unclean". Are you hearing what I'm saying to you?
You see, it's not wrong. It's normal, it's necessary, it's healthy for her to have an issue. It's how the body recycles itself, it's how the woman was designed, it's a part of her ability to be able to be child bearers and to bring birth. There's nothing wrong for her to have an issue. The problem is the issue is not supposed to continue. It's supposed to be a cycle, coming and going, and coming and going, and coming and going, but what do you know when something ought to be gone, and it's still there? It's natural to have grief when you lose somebody, but what do you do when the grief lasts too long? Certain things that can happen in your life at a particular season is supposed to happen in your life, but you don't want a season to last too long, not even a good season.
You don't even want to bear fruit all the time. It's not good to bear fruit all the time. The reason we have seasons in the earth is so that the ground can rest and so that the tree can rest. If you're bearing fruit all the time, you burn out, and you wear out, with no word to the preachers, don't let people preach you to death, because if you're giving out all the time and more is going out than what's coming in, after a while gonna show up in your life. A word to the women in this room. If you're giving out to other people all the time and you don't have any me time, after a while mama gets depleted. A word to the men in the room. If you're protecting everybody and you don't protect yourself, after a while you'll wear out. You're supposed to do it for a season, but what happens, what happens when the season runs off the clock?
I'm wondering if there's anybody here, online, or around the world, or in Nigeria, or in Australia, or in Europe that's watching me right now, and you have been giving and giving and giving, and what was an issue has turned into a hemorrhage, what was a cycle has come to a point where people define you, and they think it's just natural for you. And I've heard people say, oh, that's just how he is. That's just how she is. That's just how they are. And people start taking you for granted. And the more you give, the more they want.
I wish there was somebody in here who understood what I'm talking about. I wish there was somebody in here that got tired of giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving. And you said, Lord, how long? How long? How long before it becomes my turn? How long before somebody gives back to me? How long before somebody ministers to me like I minister to them? How long before I receive all that I've been giving out? I've been sowing and sowing and sowing and sowing and sowing and sowing and sowing, and I'm not reaping anything back. I don't know about you, but I want to confess, I'm tired of sowing and getting nothing back. I don't want to sow into people. I don't want to sow into places. I don't wanna sow anything and never get anything back.
Sooner or later, my day ought to come. And the Lord said today's your day. If you've been needing a little reciprocity, take 30 seconds and praise him for return coming back your way. yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm tired of everything going out and nothing coming in. I'm tired of giving everything and getting nothing back. Don't be ashamed of it. Make some noise if you're in the house. As dangerous as it is to shelter in place as a community, it's quite different to shelter in place as an individual, because when you shelter in place as an individual, you are tormented by the movement of others.
You have to watch everybody else build a house. You have to watch everybody else start a business. You have to watch everybody else get married. You have to watch everybody else go forward. You have to watch everybody else do business, and you're stuck in the same place, and it seems like their progress becomes your torment. It would be better if you didn't have to see them, but there you are stuck in the same place. You're like Blind Bartimaeus sitting on the side of the highway. If I was blind, I wouldn't want to sit on the highway, because I get tired of people passing me by. Is there anybody in here that's tired of people passing you by?
The people you grew up with, the people you went to school with, the people you go to church with, and you tried to be nice, and you tried to celebrate everybody, but when you get off by yourself where nobody can hear you, you say, Lord, when is my day coming? When is my time going to come? When are you gonna bless me? When are you gonna move me? When are you gonna deliver me? She was on a vicious, downward cycle. This woman was on a vicious, downward cycle. I was looking at some property the other day, and it was empty property that had been empty for about 30 years, and without any vandalism at all. It's emptiness that caused it to go down.
I want to arrest some downward cycles tonight. First one thing, another, my mother used to say if it's not one thing, it's another. As soon as you get over this, here comes that, and as soon as you withstand that, you withstand the other, and people talk about how strong you are because they weigh your strength by how much you can lose and still keep going. But I say enough is enough. Enough is enough. If you read the text carefully, you will find that her issue took her relationships. Nobody could sit where she sat, nobody could lay with her, nobody could hold her, no children could run in the room and show her paintings they'd drawn of her. Her issue had stole her relationships. Her issue had exhausted her finances. Her issue had drained her bank account. It had affected her economically. We're talking about a physical infirmity, but it has had economic repercussions.
If you have one issue long enough and you don't fix it, it will roll over into the next issue and start affecting that. And if you don't fix that, it'll roll into the next issue and start taking that. She has suffered at the hands of worthless physicians. Footnote to all my worthless physicians, if you can't fix me, leave me alone. Brother Oscar, I'm tired of folk practicing on me. I'm tired of folk getting up practicing on me. I don't need no preachers practicing on me. I don't need my friends practicing on me. I don't need no folk calling me up saying, "If I was you, I would do", you not me, shut up. I don't need another worthless physician. I'm already suffering with the issue, and now I gotta suffer with all the people that are telling me how to handle an issue that you don't know anything about.
Leave me alone. No, Imma break it out. Leave me alone. Leave me alone, leave me alone. Don't call me, don't text me, don't ring my doorbell, don't come over my house. If you can't make me better, for God's sake, don't make me worse. Leave me alone. I already got an issue, and now my issue has created another issue. I gotta survive the issue, and I got to survive how you treat the issue. It has created the agony of poverty, and poverty is not just economic. Poverty is being robbed of my dignity, robbed of my culture, robbed of my self esteem, robbed of the sense of the power of who I am, robbed of being able to hold my head up high in the marketplace, robbed of being able to tell jokes with friends and laugh with my sisters and brothers, and robbed of a sense of belonging, robbed of a sense of connection, robbed of a sense of knowing. All of this has come from the issue.
The sad reality is this woman was on her own. She was not even on Jesus's purview. Jesus is not walking toward this woman. Jesus is headed to Jairus's house. She is not in Jairus's house. She's just on the peripheral view of a Jesus whose gaze is pointed in another direction, and I know you wouldn't say it, but I am. There have been moments in my life that I struggled to get God's attention. Where are the real people that made some noise? There have been moments in my life that I struggled to get God's attention, and I danced, and I shouted, and I threw $20 on the altar, and I struggled to get God's attention. And suddenly she realized, it's in my hands. It's in my hands. It's not in the hands of the friends, it's not in the hands of the church mothers, it's not in the hands of the elders, it's not in the hands of my husband, it's not in the hands of my wife, it's not in the hands of my children, it's not in the hands of my preacher, it's not in the hands of my boss, it's in my hands.
If I don't do anything, I'm gonna die on the sidelines of opportunity and never receive what God has for me. Type it on the line. It's in my hands. It's in my hands, it's in my hands, it's in my hands, it's in my hands. I want you to just clap your hand for exercise. Clap them till they get a little warm. Clap 'em till you feel some heat in it. That's where your next miracle is going to come from. It's in your hands. And I want you to clap your hands because God's gonna teach your fingers to war. He's gonna teach you how to fight the good fight of faith, because what you've been praying about is in your hands. It's in your hands. Tell everybody you can reach, it's in your hands. Your healing, your miracle, your deliverance, your restoration, your renewal, your breakthrough, your advancement, your courage, your strength is in your hands.
Now open your mouth and praise God like you lost your mind. It's in your hands. It's in your hands. You've been waiting on God, but God is waiting on you. You've been praying for God to move, and God's been waiting on you to move. And if you don't soon move before the year is out, he's gonna pass you by. The Lord is passing you by while you make excuses, while you blame other people, while you fuss about your childhood, while you talk about this, that, or the other, the Lord is passing you by, and not only is the Lord passing you by, time, time is passing you by. But get right in the devil's face and clap your hands. It's in my hands. It's in my hands. God's already given me permission. It's in my hands. And I'm made up in my mind, I'm gonna work with what I got. I'm gonna work with what I got. Somebody, open your mouth and holler like you lost your mind.