TD Jakes - Prayer Partners - Part 3
Using three men to illustrate man's triune nature—spirit (saved), soul (being renewed), body (awaiting redemption)—the preacher explains the inner conflict and groaning until full redemption, emphasizing the need to pray both with understanding (venting the soul) and in the Spirit (aligning with God's perfect will) for wholeness.
I want three brothers to come out here right quick and help me make this illustration. Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus. Come on out here, form a straight line like you are soldiers in the military, side by side, straight line, side by side, okay?
Everything that God created, He spoke and it became what He said. "Let there be light," "The firmament," "The greater lights," "And the lesser light." God spoke it and it became what He said.
God Counsels with Himself for Man
But when God got ready to make man, He spoke to Himself. God took counsel in Himself. That means that all God needed was all God had, that God did not need anything out of God to create us. God counseled with Himself the full counsel of God.
And God said, "Let us make man in our own likeness, and in our own image, and after our own kind." And yet He created one man, and He called his name Adam.
The Triune Nature of Man
Because He said, "Let us," Adam has three parts, so the us is hidden in the one. He created the body from pre-existing substance, clay, mud. And breathed into him the breath of zóé, life, and he became a living nephesh, a soul.
So, the life of God, what He breathed into him was what He is, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." When He breathes zóé, man is a spirit, he is not a body, he is not a soul, he is a spirit, he has a soul.
Spirit, Soul, and Body
This is an attribute that he has, a soul, and he lives in a body. So this body is an apartment, a condo, a mansion, depending on how you work out in the gym, it may be an efficiency suite.
But the body is what you live in, this is how you live in it, this is who lives in it. "I AM THAT I AM," I am a spirit, I have a soul. Soul, in the Greek, psuché, mind, emotions, feelings, memories.
The Soul: Mind and Emotions
This is where my emotions flow or break or crush or shatter, and this is what holds my pain or power or determination or fear or thoughts or perspective are housed here in my soul, or mind.
Mind is different from brain, the brain is a part of my body, I need a brain to express my mind, but the brain is a part of my body. My soul, David said, "No man cared for my soul." They did not care how I felt.
Salvation in Three Parts
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." So, when I got saved, if I had a corn on my left toe, I still got it. When I got saved, if I had psychological-emotional issues, I am saved, but I still have it.
So if my body got saved, my hair would not come out, I would not have a cavity. So the salvation of my body is my blessed hope. My spirit is saved, my mind is being saved, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
The Spirit Is Complete
My spirit is able, it is complete, it is finished, it is done. I can be no more saved than I am right now. I am saved because I have believed on the only begotten Son of God.
But when my spirit is saved and it tries to see the future, it has to see through my emotions, my soul, my memories, my perspectives, my fears, my insecurities.
The Inner Conflict
The whole creation groaneth in pain until now, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of my body. My spirit is saved, my soulish mental capacity is being saved, my body shall be saved.
If nothing went wrong in my life, there would still be a war in my members, because this holy thing has to live with this sick thing and has to stay in an apartment with this dirty thing.
War in the Members
I find a war in my members, "That, when I would do good, evil is present with me." "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
My soul is saying, "You two guys are driving me crazy." Oil and vinegar do not mix. How can two walk together except they agree?
The Groaning for Redemption
This controls the atmosphere of the entire apartment. If this is mixed up, everything in the house is going to be crazy. The groaning inside of us is coming from the fact that oil and vinegar do not mix.
Man is complicated. How many of you know you are complicated? You meet my body, but you go home with my soul.
Praying with Understanding and Spirit
I know not what to pray for as we ought. When I pray with an understanding, it helps to heal my mind. I gotta be able to tell God how I feel about it without thinking that how I feel about it is how it is.
Paul says, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with an understanding also." I need both prayers.
The Spirit's Perfect Prayer
When the Holy Spirit prays with my spirit, it has searched my heart, but He also knows what is the will of God, for He intercedes for me. He makes a perfect prayer.
When I pray with an understanding, I can only pray with the truth I am standing under. The Spirit helpeth my infirmities.
Prayer Partners: Spirit and Understanding
This guy and this guy are partners in lifting up this guy until he begins to get better. The problem with us is that we are trying to go through life without our partner.
We are running our mouths, telling everybody what we think, without what we know taking precedence of what we feel.
Alignment for Peace
I know that God is for me, but I do not always feel like He is. While I need to express how I feel, I cannot make decisions by how I feel because I am not always going to feel that way.
This can get better if these two come together.