TD Jakes - Prayer Partners - Part 4
You remember the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus, and had no right to be delivered, and her daughter was grievously vexed with the devil? And Jesus answered her not a word, and then said, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel". And then she simply hollered, "Help"! The Spirit helpeth our infirmities. Stop bossing God around. You don't know what God needs to do. You don't know how God needs to raise your child. You don't know what it's gonna take to fix the problem. You don't know what it's gonna take to fix the marriage. Stop trying to be so smart and just holler, "Help"! Just, "Help"!
See, help isn't smart, help isn't educated, help isn't opinionated, help isn't darkened by my experience. Help is vulnerably admitting that I cannot do this by myself. That I recognize that I have been broken, and I have been damaged, and I have been wounded, and in order to get through this travail to birth the better part of me that is hidden behind the broken part of me, I'm gonna need some help for the best in me to outshine the worst in me. And I can't do that by willpower, and I can't do that by self-control, because I tried that, and every time I tried that, I digressed and went back to how I was. And I'm tired of going backwards and forwards, and backwards and forwards, and backwards and forwards, and everybody's waiting on me to get better. My kids are waiting on me to get better. My wife is waiting on me to get better. My husband is waiting on me to get on, so, "Help"!
Yes, yes, yes, every time you scream it, you're gonna get a breakthrough. Every time you holler, a yoke is gonna break. Every time you holler help, a chain is gonna come off. Every time you holler help, a door is gonna open. Every time you holler help, you're gonna feel strength coming that never came before. Every time you holler help, you submit yourself up under the banner of the Holy Ghost. Every time you holler help, a chain falls off, a way is made, a door is open, a lump is shrinking, a crisis is shattered. Somebody with a big mouth holler, "Help"! I know some of you can't holler because your pride has got you, your pride and your dignity has got you, and maybe it's your first time at the church, and maybe you don't want nobody to see you acting uncool, but that's because your feelings are controlling your prayer life. But if you get over yourself and say I know not what to pray for as we ought, and you open your mouth and just stop bossing God, and just holler, "Help"!
So, I'm gonna give you a Bible, one more verse and I'm gonna close. 1 Corinthians 14 through 15. "For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? Will I choose one and not the other? No, I will pray with my spirit and I will pray with an understanding". Wait a minute, that ain't all I'm gonna do. "I will sing with an understanding. And I will sing with the Spirit also". I'm not talking about composing a piece, I'm talking about God composing a piece. I'm talking about something that happens spontaneously and it comes out in another language. And the only thing that's stopping it from coming in another language is because your in intelligence is controlling the narrative. But God who spoke frog, and God who spoke lice, and God who spoke to the winds and waves, and God who spoke in languages that you can't even write, the Bible said when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and they were in one place with one accord...
I'll tell you what. A sound, not a word, a sound from heaven, like a mighty rushing wind, cloven tongues appeared like as a fire, and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And because God made a noise, they made a noise. And because God made a noise, they made a noise. And because God made a noise, they made a noise. God said I wanna hear something that don't come out of your head, I wanna hear something that comes out of your belly. Woman, if you believe on me as the Scriptures have said, out of your belly, "Ahhh, Oh, yes, God, Oh, yes, Lord, Oh yeah, Oh, Oh, Yes, Lord, Oh".
So I asked God if I pray with an understanding, that's an intelligent prayer, so is praying in the Spirit unintelligent? Because for years, people who prayed in the Spirit, they said they were unintelligent, and God said there's a difference between being unintelligent and unintelligible. Put my definition on the screen. There is a difference between intelligence and unintelligible. The definition of unintelligible is impossible to understand, like dolphin sounds are unintelligible to humans. But just because it is unintelligible, put it on their screen, just because it is unintelligible does not mean it is unintelligent. Just because you can't hear a dog whistle doesn't mean a dog can't hear it. Just because you don't understand what you're saying doesn't mean that God doesn't understand what you are saying.
So, instead of getting all these nosy people to be your prayer partner, who just wanna get in your business, and call each other up and say, "You know she needs prayer," but it's just a camouflage for gossip, you need a prayer partner that you can trust. And God gave you one which is the Holy Spirit. "For we know not what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be languaged". It is not unintelligent just because it is unintelligible. When God spoke to the frogs, Pharaoh didn't understand it, Moses didn't understand it. When God spoke to the rivers and the waters turned to blood, even Moses didn't understand what God said, but the water did. What manner of a man is this. You better come get me. The wind and the waves.
There are some things going on in your life now that only God can speak to. You keep speaking the stuff and you don't know what you're doing, but if you will shut your mouth and let the Holy Spirit, who knows what is the will of God, speak to you and stop allowing your moods to control your moment, the devil is trying to steal your moment with your mood. But the devil is a lie, because God gave me this word to be a curse breaker, and today before you walk out of this building, I'm gonna break the curse that came from your grandmother, down to your mother, onto you. And by the way, your daughter is looking at you, but if you holler, "Help"! I'm hollering help. I'm hollering for my son. I'm hollering for my daughter. I'm hollering for my grandchildren. I'm hollering for my marriage. I'm hollering for my prosperity. I'm hollering for my peace.
My spirit prays. My spirit prays. I'm gonna lay in my bed tonight and let the spirit pray. I'm gonna drive home and let the spirit pray. My mind has been doing too much talking out of how I feel. I got that out, I gotta let the Holy Ghost take over to fix this. He is my prayer partner, the Spirit himself. Jesus said I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. In the Greek it's "parakletos," another of the same kind will come to you. I'm gonna comfort you. I'm gonna comfort you. I'm gonna comfort you. In this moment of uncertainty... I'm going to comfort you. You can't just worship me when people are looking, you can't just worship because you're a worship leader, you gotta do this in your bed, in your house, in your living room, in your car. You may be watching online and you think you live alone, but you don't.
If you're a child of the King and filled with his Spirit, you got somebody living in the house with you. You're not in this by yourself. You're not in this by yourself. I know you feel lonely, but you are not in this by yourself. You have a prayer partner. Let us make man. I formed the body, I blew in the spirit, and he became a living soul. In my spirit I have God consciousness. In my soul I have self-consciousness. In my body I have world consciousness. My soul don't get cold, my soul don't get hot, because it has no world consciousness. My spirit doesn't react to the weather because it has no world consciousness.
The only thing that attaches these two to the world is this body. When this body goes, you've never seen a corpse swat at a fly, because it is the body that gives you world consciousness. It is in your soul that you possess self-consciousness. It is in your spirit that you have God consciousness. And with all three conscious, I want you better. Just want you better. I'm not trying to get you perfect, because if a man seeth that which he hoped for, why does he yet hope for it? It ain't gonna be perfect until immortality covers up mortality. Life is still gonna be life. Days are still gonna be days. Seasons are still gonna be seasons until death is swallowed up in life, but it'll be better if you have a prayer partner. This has not been redeemed yet, that's why you gotta crucify it. You gotta watch it. You gotta wrestle with it. Because your body ain't saved yet, or you wouldn't have a cavity, or cancer, or diabetes, or hair wouldn't fall out of your head.
Do you not know that God loves you so much that the hairs on your head are numbered? Numbered, not counted. It's not just that he knows how many they are, he knows which one got caught in the comb. He love you like that. He loves you like that. He loves you like that. The redemption of your body is your blessed hope. If a man seeth that which he hopes for, why does he yet hope for it? It's not changed yet, but it is paid for, and he's coming to pick it up. So, until then we do with patience wait for it. When I bought that item on my phone, they put my name on it, and they set it to the side, and I was coming to get it, and all I had to do was wait for it. When I got there, I didn't have to pay nothing because I paid at one place and I picked up at another. When he comes back, he picks up what he already paid for. That is the Word of God.
Somebody say, "Body, soul, spirit". Somebody say, "Body, soul, spirit". Somebody say, "Body, soul, spirit". That means I want Christ to be Lord in all three areas of my life. I wanna be better in all three areas of my life. I don't wanna just be saved in my spirit, and troubled in my mind, and sick in my body, I wanna be whole. "Brethren, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in good health as your soul does prosper". I wanna be completely better. In a moment I'm gonna dismiss the service, because I shared with you what God said. You're welcome, you're welcome. I need to give it as much as you need to receive it. That's the truth. I need your hunger for my milk to flow. If you give me a hungry crowd, my gift flows. God bless you, sir. God bless you, yeah, thank you. The anointing of God is in this place.
How many are glad you heard this word today? I want you to connect with wholeness in every area of your life, and I want you to make a commitment that I'm going to start praying in the Spirit. And if you don't fully understand what I mean by praying in the Spirit, praying in the language of the Spirit, cutting my intelligence off and letting my prayer language take over. And I'm gonna take you deeper until you get it, because God knows we need it. God knows the times we're living in right now, we need it. And some of us have it, but we forget to use it. We have it, but we forget to use it. It's not that we don't have it, we just forget to use it, and we start making decisions out of our head, and out of our feelings, and out of our moods, and that's where we mess up, and that's why we do crazy stuff. We divorce people and then two years later remarry them.
Come on, you know I'm telling the truth. You divorce somebody and then they become your best friend. It's because you're reacting out of a temporary, you're making a permanent decision out of a temporary feeling. You walk off a job, ain't got no job, now you're in the bread line. You're making decisions out of your feelings. You can't make decisions out your feeling because you can't trust them. Can't trust how I feel, I'm crazy and I know it. Depending on what time you call me, how I feel. You call me at five o'clock I feel one way, you call me at ten I feel another kind of way. Can I be honest? I need stability, and I need it in every area of my life, body, soul, and spirit. And if you need it, there's two things I want you to sow into it, but I also want you to act into it. I want you to start praying in the Spirit until the Spirit takes the wheel. You know that saying they got, "Jesus take the wheel"?
Before I wreck this thing, Jesus take the wheel. Before I commit suicide and leave some preacher trying to explain to my family why I'm gone, Jesus, take the wheel. I'm tired of having to figure out sermons. Let me see what I can say. Let me see how I can fix this up and make it. I want you whole, not perfect, because it ain't gonna be perfect until that last guy get changed, but I don't want the part of you in therapy driving your decisions. Your prayer partner is there to give you stability, because he knows you, he has searched the heart, and he knows what is the will of God concerning you. Now, these Scriptures I taught you today, hold on to them, read them all week, make them yours. Put my text back on the screen again. I want you to make this your memory verse for this week, and I want you to read it again. Some of you say, "I have a hard time understanding the Bible".
I just gave you a complete commentary over this text, so if you don't learn nothing else in the whole Bible, let's take these few verses and learn them. If you need to write them down, write them down. I don't care, write them down. I want you to read them every night or every morning before you take a shower. I don't care how you do it. On your morning break, I want you to go on YouTube and watch this again, and watch it again, and eat it again, and eat it again. And this is my challenge to you. I want you to eat it till you can teach it. I want you to eat it until you can teach it. I give you permission to take all of my stuff and teach it. Practice on your kids. Anybody who will listen at you, the dog, the cat, the goldfish, anybody. I want you to teach it, because you haven't learned it until you can teach it, hallelujah. Stop scrolling Instagram, you can't put this kind of teaching in stories. So, you get a fragment of truth, just enough to be dangerous. I want this truth anchored in you.