TD Jakes - The Point of a Pivot
He had to fight lions and bears to protect sheep, altercations that could have killed him, to get to this moment. But all of that was preparation for this moment, because it was with dealing with the bear and the lion that gave him the skillset to kill the giant. So, a lot of times you ask God to save you from something that he's training you with. I'm talking about preparation. Do not think that because you come to a pivot point that you are through with tests, the tests that push you to the pivot point only bring you to the pivot point that you graduate to another level of tests. The reward for overcoming this test is the right to fight on the next level.
Look at the preparation that has gone into making David who he was. Had his brothers embraced him he would have stayed, had his father accepted him he wouldn't have moved into Saul's house. Perhaps Saul's invitation to invite him into the house was alluring to David because David longed for a father's voice. Perhaps David would not have been willing to move into the palace for the sake of the drapes and the pillars, but at the voice of a senior statesman he moved into the house. And from that day forward, he went no longer back home. This is a pivoting moment. Any time, what is that movie, baby? That, any time you have a moment where you call everybody and say, "I won't come back home no more". Yeah, you got me, that's enough, the rest of y'all don't need it. Anyway, that's a pivoting moment.
Della Reese was in the movie, I know that. Yeah, David called home and said I won't be back. You can't believe I said that, I know, pray for me, you're not praying hard enough. I won't be back no more. Can you imagine David calling home, telling Jesse I'm out of here, I'm gone, I won't be back? Look at it, it's funny, but look at it, look at how open David's heart is to the love of the father. And God knows exactly what to do to get you to pivot. And so David pivots and moves into the house, and Saul was the bait, Saul was bait, but Jonathan was the hook. Because, in the moment that he reached after Saul, he met Jonathan. And when he met Jonathan, it was...
Sometimes you do a thing and the thing is not the thing that you thought it was going to be, but it's the thing that leads to the thing. So don't be so busy being depressed about the thing that didn't work, because the thing that didn't work led you to the thing that did work so that you can have an encounter with God. Are y'all with me? Everything that he has gone through has prepared him for this moment, that's why you don't despise anything that happened to you, anything that you went through, no matter how tough, no matter how difficult, it's taking you somewhere. If you got that, I could sit down, if you got that the very thing that you grieved about, worried about, feel sorry for yourself about, say, "Why me, Lord"?
If you understood that that is the conveyor belt that is ushering you into your destiny, that these, "Light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us a far more exceeding weight of glory". "We look not at the things that are seen for the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal". I can remember what I can remember, but I can't see what I can't see, because it's gonna be, but everything that I went through ushered me into everything that I'm about to do right now. And it gave me the grace to pivot, because I am loyal to a fault, I would have stayed in that house, I would have stayed trying to convince them that I was a good person, I would have stayed running up and down the hills, bringing them lunch, I would have stayed in the desert, writing poetry, singing songs, taking care of sheep and shoveling sheep dung because I'm loyal.
So God had to send something strong to make me shift. I wanna talk to my loyal people in the house. Loyal people get hurt because loyal people expect loyalty. And when you sow loyalty and you don't reap loyalty, it will shatter you emotionally, April. Because you say, "I don't deserve this," and you're right, but God is using something you don't deserve to bring you into something that you do deserve. Oh, come on, somebody. Everybody who's ever had their heart broke, been disappointed, cried themselves to sleep, sat up all night worrying about yourself, woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning, walking around in the house by yourself looking dumb, holler, "I'm in preparation".
Everybody who had to fight stuff that was bigger than you, things that scared you to death, and you didn't have the kinds of weapons to be in the fight you were in, shout, I'm in preparation. Everybody who's ever been hated on, people been jealous of you, while you were just struggling to make it through the best way you could, shout, I'm in preparation. You might not even know what you're in preparation for, but you know God, and you ought to get happy because God is preparing you, he's taking you somewhere, he's got something greater for you, and the greater the preparation, the greater the promise, the greater the preparation, the greater the prophecy, the greater the preparation, the more God is going to use you.
I'm so glad I was afflicted, if I had not been afflicted, I couldn't stand what I go through now, but God was preparing me, turning up the heat, so what you call, "Putting the heat on me," is my normal, I eat that stuff for breakfast because of what I've been through. Who am I talking to in this house? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, touch three people and say, "Preparation, preparation, it's preparation, it's preparation". The trial is preparation, the test is preparation, the adversity is preparation, the crying is preparation, the divorce is preparation, the loneliness is preparation. It's preparation, it's preparation. You wouldn't have discovered that you were that tough if you hadn't gone through preparation. You didn't even know you had that talent, you didn't even know how to handle things by yourself, you learned because God put you in a state of preparation. I need 30 seconds of praise for people who are praising God for preparation.
Now, let's go on. Number two is perspective. He has come into this new environment, he has come into a new environment. Now this is gonna hit some other group of people. You come into this new environment where your gift has brought you into a room that you do not have what you need to be where you are. So picture with me, he's sweaty, he smells, he's got sheep hair on him and dung on his shoes, he's been fighting a giant, and he hasn't been home for bath, and now they've brought him into a palace. He's walking around on granite floors and marble columns, and cascading drapes that puddle in the floor. He's sitting in a situation where women are carrying water on their shoulders to pour bath water for the king. He's sitting in an environment, a palatial environment, where culinary skill artists are preparing exquisite cuisine for the royal family.
And yesterday, he was out there with nobody around him but sheep. I'm telling you, God can put you in a room so fast that you don't have time to get your hair done, you don't have time to get your nails done, you don't have time to read a book on protocol, you just standing up in the palace bowing at the servants, you don't know who to bow at, you don't know what name to call them. God's getting ready to shift somebody so quickly. And if anybody walked into the palace and David was there, he appeared out of place. Watch this. You gotta be willing to appear.
See, a lot of y'all can't do that because if you don't get accepted, "They was acting funny when I came there, and they was looking at me like they were so much, and I left, I quit, I resigned, I was", stupid, you resigning from your own destiny, you resigning from your own purpose, you're resigning from what God called you to do, and you're gonna be out of place for a while, it's okay. I know you smell right now, I know you don't have the right clothes right now, I know you don't have the degrees they have, but if God invited you into the room, walk up, walk up in that room, walk right up in that room. Say, "Good morning". Somebody say, "Good morning". Now, the king has invited him into the room, and the king's son has loved him as himself. One person out of the whole palace loves him, all you need is one, the love of one will open up the whole system to you. He loved him as himself.
What kind of love is this? Oh God, I can't preach this fast. What kind of love is this? This is an inordinate affection, people have struggled to understand it. What kind of love is this? The reason they struggle to understand it is because it's a shadow of the love of Christ, it's the unsearchable riches of Christ's love, it's the undeserving love of Jesus Christ, that, David didn't do anything to earn it, he didn't do anything to justify it, he just walked into it.
That's how I got saved, I just walked into it, I just walked into an everlasting love, I just walked into an environment with my stinky self, and I came in and he loved me with an everlasting love. Now I find myself in a situation, I find myself in a situation. Come here, no, no, not you, Baby. Come on, yeah, come here for a minute, come here for a minute, we're gonna do something for a minute. Take your jacket off. Yeah, now, take it off. That's alright, give us a minute, it's gonna be worth it, it's gonna be worth it. I want you to put my jacket on. Now, that's a nice jacket you got on, that's a custom jacket you got on. No disrespect, but this is a store-bought jacket you got on. That's as far as they gonna go.
Watch this, watch this, watch this, watch this. I love Joseph, I know he loves me, we got the love thing going, but we don't have the fit. How many times do we love people that we don't fit with? The unseen miracle in this text is not just that they loved each other, but God has so predestined this connection that without any tailoring, adjustments, sewing machines, or corrections, everything that was on Jonathan fit on David. Give me my coat. Touch three people, say, "It fits, it fits, it fits, it fits, it fits, it fits". It fits my background, it fits where I came from, it fits my contours, it fits my uniqueness, it fits who I am, it fits where I came from. God will put you in a situation where it fits, it fits, it fits.
That's the miracle that people miss, the likelihood of two strangers meeting and fitting perfectly is very unlikely. One of them would be tall, one of them would be short, one of them would have a gut like me, one of them would not have a gut and they'd be built like him. But the fact that these two people met, loved each other, and their clothes fit means that God is up to something. Any time you walk into something and it just fits, God is up to something. Who am I preaching to? I'm talking to somebody, I don't even know who it is. Come back, Joseph, for just a moment, we gonna act like it fit, and it don't, but we gonna like it fit. I chose you because it wouldn't fit, because I wanna show people how many times we get yoked up with people that don't fit us and there we are trying to force.
If I would have kept trying to put your jacket on, I would have ripped it. I had to have the sense enough to discern that what looks good on you does not work on me, and I have to know that it doesn't fit so I won't be foolish enough to be spending the rest of my message walking around in a jacket that I don't fit. But let's make believe that it fits and that I'm wearing your jacket and you're wearing mine, let's just pretend that it fits. In the exchange, he gives him his tunic, he gives him his robe, he gives him his sword, oh my God, and it all fit.
And all of a sudden, it means a whole lot of things, I won't exhaust all of them, but it means this, if I give you my sword, it means I'm defenseless against you, if I give you the sword, it means I give you the power to hurt me. If I give you my shield, that means whatever you send out against me, I'm gonna bleed over it. If I give you my tunic, I have made myself naked before you, I have exposed myself to, it means I trust you. If I give you my robe, you didn't have to hem it, you didn't have to tailor the sleeves, it all fit you, it means you are walking around, just walk around like you Bishop Jakes, just imitate me like you do at home, just walk around, yeah, yeah. And all of a sudden, he is walking in my clothes, which changed the perspective of how people see him.
You see, this is not just about protection, this is not just about armor, this is about perspective, because they took a misfit and redressed him, and made him to fit in an environment he didn't fit. I don't know who I'm talking to, thank you, I don't know who I'm talking to, but God said he's already he got your tunic ready, he's already got your robe ready, he's already got your sword ready, he's already got your shield ready. And even though they're looking at you kind of funny right now, after a while, God's gonna dress you for what's next for you, God's gonna dress you for what's next for you, God's gonna dress you for what's next for you, and it's gonna change their perspective.
This is bigger than any satirical style, this is not about fashion and coordination, this is about identity, this is about transformation, this is about metamorphosis, this is about turning a shepherd boy into a prince. There he was, one moment he's dressed like a shepherd boy, and the next moment he's dressed like a prince, and he didn't pay for any of it. God's gonna give you stuff that you didn't pay for, houses that you didn't build, vineyards that you didn't grow. He's gonna change your perspective until you look like you got more than you got. And that's why you got haters, because the haters can't understand how a girl like you could be in a position that you're in, but God has reserved some stuff that's just for you. And what God has for you God has for you, no devil in the hell can take what God has for you. He's been waiting on you to get to such a time like this.
Slap somebody, slap somebody and say, "I'm getting ready to change the perspective, get ready for a transformation". My old friends may not like it, but get ready for a transformation. God is opening up a new door and a new perspective, and he's getting me ready, and I'm not gonna be walking around looking like Bobo the Fool. In a minute, I'm gonna have everything I need to fit where I am. Whoever I'm preaching to, if this feels like a word from God for you, holler at your boy, holler, holler. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So stop praying about what you don't have, stop worrying about what you don't have, God's already taken it into consideration, and when you get to the right place, the provision is gonna be there, when you get to the right place, everything you need is gonna be there, when you get to the right place, God's already got somebody who's gonna like you well enough that you don't even have to pay for it, they're just gonna lay it at your feet. And when you put it on, it's gonna look like yours, and you're gonna be walking in a palace that you didn't own, that you didn't build, that wasn't in your lineage, that wasn't even from your family. But what God has for you, he's gonna have for you.
Whoever built your house didn't know they was building it for you, whoever built our house didn't know they were building it for us, they thought they were building it for somebody else. But when God's got something for you, he'll let somebody else do the hard stuff and all you gotta do is put it on. And the Holy Ghost told me to tell you, don't be afraid to put it on. I don't know who I'm talking to, but you're coming to a season where you gotta put it on, you gotta put it on and wear it like it's yours. And the pauper is wearing the prince's clothes. You don't look like what you've been through, you can't even tell people your real testimony, if they knew the neighborhood you came out of and what you was raised up in and what happened to you, they would never understand you standing up in "The Potter's House" singing in the choir. But what God... Let me go further, I gotta hurry.
Number three... What God... Somebody that's walking around in prince clothes, just take a quick strut, just a strut, just strut, just strut. This is mine, this is me now, this is me now, this is me now, this is me. Now, this is where I'm at now, this is what he's doing right now, forget what he was doing back then. I might have been funky yesterday, but this is what I got on now. Look at how he covered me, look at how he dressed me, look at how he blessed me, look at how he prepared me, look at what he did in my life. You wouldn't believe where the Lord, look where he brought me from, look where he brought me from, brought me out of darkness into the marvelous light.