TD Jakes - The Power To Stop
And when Joshua crosses the Jordan, it is at the peak of a season where the banks are overflowing. But don't let it be lost on you that the Jordan is coming down. In fact, some scholars teach us that the Jordan's literal translation for the word Jordan means to come down, to come down. The text doesn't give us the topography. You have to do your own research to get the topography. But the text is coming down. So if the text is coming down, The water is coming down and the water is coming down. I was having a conversation with a girl who's a scientist and I asked her what she thought about the rainforest in Brazil. And she said before we talk about the rainforest in Brazil, she said, we have to deal with the sub-Saharan desert in Africa because it is the dust storm in the sub-Saharan areas of Africa that creates the clouds that blow over to Brazil that causes the rain. Cause and effect.
If there were no Mount Hebron, there wouldn't be a Jordan. If there wasn't a Sea of Galilee, there wouldn't be a Jordan. It starts up here, if it wasn't fresh water, there wouldn't be salt water. But as it goes down, that's when it starts to get salty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It gets salty when it goes down. It gets salty because it goes below sea level and when fresh water gets contaminated below sea level it becomes a dumping place for salt. You remember that Lot's wife would have escaped Sodom and Gomorrah, but she had to look back one more time, and her judgment was to become a pillar of salt. And they went forward, but she went down. Yes, Jordan to go down.
I want to spend some time on the Jordan River because the Jordan River is very important. It's very important for a whole lot of reasons. It is the Jordan River that is the deciding, the fault line between Jerusalem and what is now called Jordan. It is the Jordan River that Jesus is to be baptized in. He is to be baptized in and when he comes up out of the water, a voice speaks from heaven and says this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Why is it important that Jesus is baptized in the Jordan? Yeshua, Yeshua has to be baptized in the Jordan because he brings us into the promise just like Joshua had to go through the Jordan to bring us into a land that flows with milk and honey.
The Jordan is the fault line. And when I saw it, I was amazed because everything on this side of the Jordan is dry and parched and lifeless and sandy and desert. And everything on that side of the Jordan is plush and green and alive and vibrant and flamboyant with all types of life. A land that flows with milk and honey and a wilderness that's dry and parched is only separated by the Jordan. I'm still in the first verse. It's only separated by the Jordan. And what was water you could fish in, like the Sea of Galilee, has now ended up so salty because it kept going down. The reason that you're dealing with people that are salty is because they keep going down. Oh, God. Oh. Throw your hands up and say, stop me from going down.
Now you've asked God to break the gravitational pull that is a part of the centrifugal force of a revolving earth because it is the movement of the earth that creates gravity, that creates a downward motion. And you're asking God to break a law, but to stop me from going down. Say it again, stop me from going down. Yeah, I didn't come this far to go down. I didn't go through all the tests I've gone through to go down. I didn't survive all of these years to go down. I didn't endure all the pain I've been through to go down. I didn't go through this circumcision to go down. I didn't bleed like this to go down. I didn't swell like this to go down. I didn't scab up like this to go down. Whatever you've got to do, stop me Lord from going down. Hallelujah to God.
I feel something in this place because you wouldn't be on a Wednesday night at Bible class if you weren't serious about this thing and you want the power to stop. Somebody say, give me the power to stop. The gradation of the mountain is against me. The centrifugal force of the earth is against me. The gravitational pull of the planet is against me. But you have the power to stop. Oh, y'all don't hear me yet. Y'all don't hear me. That which pulls me cannot have me because if God gets ready to stop it, he can stop it even though nature is pulling it, even though gravity is pulling it, even though circumstance is pulling it. If God stops it, he will break a law to create a dry place for me to cross over, for me to cross, for me to cross over.
Let me show you, let me show you, let me show you, let me prove it. Let me prove it since some of you haven't been there, let me prove it by the scripture. The Bible says that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist and straightway the Spirit sent him into the wilderness. It's because the wilderness is on this side of the Jordan and Jerusalem is on that side. So it wasn't hard for him to go into the wilderness because the fault line between the two places is the Jordan itself. Are you with me? This is Bible class. Come on, come on, let me know it's Bible class. So what does it mean to be on a gradation where the current is pulled by gravity to a place so low. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, let me finish that. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan to typify my sins being washed into the sea of forgetfulness, not to be remembered in this world or the world to come.
Jesus is baptized in the Jordan to typify to me through shadows and types that my old man is as dead as the Dead Sea. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River to let me know that everything every curse every reproach of... everything that was on me, every hex, every spell, every wicked device. Every enemy thing has been flown into the Dead Sea and that's why he doesn't want me talking about my past because he can't see it anymore. It's gone into the Dead Sea where nothing can grow. Nothing can grow. He's turned to... Yeah and nothing can grow. Are you with me? The thing that caused the Canaanites to become terrified is that God was so with the Hebrews, the Israelites, that he broke the flow. He broke the flow. Somebody say break the flow. I'm on a trajectory that doesn't look good. I'm on a path that doesn't feel good. I'm in a situation that doesn't feel good. But you have the power tonight to break the flow.
I'm in the third stage of cancer, but you have the power to break the flow. I'm a diabetic and I'm taking medication twice a day, but you have the power to break the flow. There's some things that the enemy has set in place before you ever even got here. And the odds are against you and the environment is against you and the terrain is against you. And it looks like you're headed for a dead place, but God is getting ready to break the flow. Somebody holler, stop it! That's how they knew that God was with the Israelites because God stopped it. That's how they knew that God had anointed them, because God stopped it. That's how I know I'm saved, because I was headed for hell and God stopped it. That's how I know that the Lord is with me because my enemies have not prospered over me because God stopped it. Somebody out there, stop it! Stop it!
There are some things that should have killed you. There's some times you should have lost your mind. There's some times you should have thrown in the towel. And just when the enemy was coming in for the kill, God stopped. I don't know who I'm talking to today, but God said he's getting ready to stop some things. I don't know who I'm ministering to today, but God is getting ready to stop some things. Some things that the devil meant for evil, but God's gonna stop it. Type it on the line, God's gonna stop it. Somebody praise him just 30 seconds because God's gonna break the flow. He's gonna break the current. He's gonna break the curse. He's gonna break the generational curse. He's gonna stop it. He's pulling, but he's gonna stop it. He's drinking but he's gonna stop it. Come on, you've got ten seconds: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. Somebody shout stop it!
So there are three quick points. I'm almost up to time. There are three quick points. I want to talk about the moat, the manna, and the method. The moat, the manna, and the method. I bring the moat to light because you must understand for Jericho, for the city of Jericho, the Jordan River is a bit of a moat. You know what a moat is. A moat is when men would dig out a waterway as an extra layer of defense, less enemies would be able to cross over easily. They had to get through the moat. In the biblical days, cities were built around geographical terrain so that they would have strategic advantage in the times of war. That's where the high places comes from. That's where the concepts come from about David climbing up the waterways. The idea is to position the city so that you can be protected as much as possible. To put your city on this side of the Jordan was a layer of defense. Because if they were going to get through the Jordan, especially at the swelling of the Jordan, they had to come through the waters, which was difficult.
And what caused them to be terrified is that God stopped it. It's one thing to stop a level flow of water, but when the water is coming galing down off the mountain sides, is coming with an intense amount of pressure, and still God stopped. Y'all can't hear what I'm talking about. Y'all can't hear that. You too busy worrying about how much is coming down off the mountain that you can't understand that I don't care how much force has got behind it. If God gets ready to stop it, he can still stop it. Glory to God, that's somebody's word from the Lord. I don't care how much the impending danger is threatening to you. God still has the power. He stopped it. This is different from the Red Sea, but it's not the same as the Red Sea because the Red Sea was a level sea bed.
And I'm not saying it's any less miracle, but it is more amazing because the terrain did not lend itself to stopping what was pouring down off of the mountains, but God stopped it. And on both sides of the Jordan, the kings were afraid because they knew their hands were not big enough to break the flow. When God gets ready to break the flow, no man's hands are big enough to stop the flow of what God is going to break in your life. I can't hardly get away from that. Hallelujah to God. By the same token, when God's got something for you, I don't care how much water they got around it. I don't care how thick the moat is. I don't care how strong the obstacle is. I don't care what age you are. I don't care what you feel like in your body.
When God says, I have given you the land, I have given you the land. And the Bible said. No, somebody said God stopped it. Not only did he stop it, but he dried it up. He dried it up so that they could go across on dry land. Notice the specificity of the text. Says not only does God stop the water, but he dries up the mud. He stops the water, he dries up the mud. He stops the water. He dries up the mud. God said, when you walk through this, you're not going to have no sign. You're not going to look like you've been through what you've been through. You're not going to have no residue on your life. I didn't clean you up of reproach for you to have a residue on your life. People not gonna believe your testimony, so you might as well shut up about it. Cuz they're not gonna believe it because I don't intend for no mud to be left on your sandals when you come across. You're gonna walk across on dry ground and nobody will ever know!
So the Jordan, the Jordan has sectioned off the wilderness from the Promised Land, but God said, I'm going to give you access. Write that down. God said, I'm going to give you divine access. I'm going to give you access to something that you didn't have access to before. I'm going to give you such access that not only am I going to stop the flow, I'm going to dry the ground. I'm gonna stop the flow, I'm gonna dry the ground. And all of this is done so that you can have unbridled access to what other people have enjoyed for years and you've never been able to get. And you always thought your destiny was to live in where you were born in, because you were born in the desert. You thought you'd die in the desert, but the devil is alive. God said it is possible to be born in a desert and die in the Promised Land. God said, I'm getting ready to give you access.
Who am I talking to? I don't know who I'm talking to. I'm talking to somebody. Who am I talking to? I'm talking to somebody. Is it somebody online? Is it somebody in central time zone? Is it somebody in eastern time? Is it somebody in Pacific? Whatever time you're in, if I'm talking to you, holla at your boy, make some noise, blow a whistle, make a sound, put up an emoji, let me know. God! Let me go deeper. Now they have been eating, they have passed the moat, they have terrified the enemy, and God has changed their diet. What you ate in the wilderness, you will not need in the Promised Land. I fed you for where you were. There is an association between the manner you ate and your clothes not wearing out and your shoes not wearing out. I sustained you in the wilderness, but now I'm getting ready to deliver you out of the wilderness so you won't have to eat what you used to have to eat because now I'm gonna give you such an abundance that you're not gonna have to look up, you're gonna have to look out to receive what I'm about to give next in your life.
You've been looking up everything you got. If God didn't send it, you didn't get it. But God said, I'm gonna bring you into a place of abundance, Which was where I created you in the first place in the Garden of Eden where everything you needed was growing all around you. And God said I'm gonna stop you from looking up. You're not gonna have to pray for your car payment You're not gonna have to pray for your house payment. You're not gonna have to pray for you can pay your babysitter. God said I'm gonna put you in a place where everything you need is within arms, reaches all around you, it's everywhere. Who am I talking to? I'm talking to somebody. I feel like I'm prophesying to somebody. And God said once you taste of the food of what's yours, the manna will cease. The manna will cease.
The ceasing of the manna says there's no going back to who you were. Let me tell y'all because they didn't hear it. The ceasing of the manna is God's way of letting you know that the enemies you see today, you will see them no more. There is no going back to who you used to be. Let me try y'all. God says, I'm gonna give you such a stopping place in your life that all the things that sustain you while you were waiting on a stop, you're not gonna need them anymore because I'm gonna completely mesmerize you and turn everything completely around in your life. Your diet, Your appetite, your disposition, your personality, the way you walk, the way you dress, the way you think, what you eat, what time you get up, what time you go to bed. Everything is getting ready to shift. Everything is about to change in your life. God said, I'm bringing you to a stopping place. I'm bringing you into a shift I don't know who I'm talking to but whoever I'm talking to you better get this word.
This word tonight is not for your entertainment, it is for your deliverance. It is for your breakthrough. God said I am going to give you the power to stop... Slap somebody and say I got the power to stop. You can't threaten me anymore, I got the power to stop. You can't abuse me anymore, I got the power to stop. You can't control me anymore, I got the power to stop. Sin, you can't have power over me, I got the power to stop. Profanity, you can't control me, I got the power to stop. Needing you to come back in my life, I got the power to stop. So you got no more negotiating power in my life because I have the power to stop. Somebody, holler, "I got the power to stop".
Watch this. Are y'all getting anything out of this Bible class tonight? What drove me to the text is the continuity between the moat and the manna. The moat and the manna both stopped. The moat and the manna stop. Final verse, Joshua runs up on a man and he says, are you on my side or the enemy's side? Now this is the profundity of this moment because what is on trial is Joshua's method. All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight all my life. His old job was built around warfare. So he runs up on the guy wanting to know, you want to fight, whose side are you on? Because he's still thinking like who he was.
And God said, if you keep thinking like who you were, you're not gonna be prepared for who you are. This battle is not gonna require your talent. Your method has got to change. I don't need your swords. I don't need your shield. In fact, I'm gonna send the captain of the host of the angels to come down to work this out in your life. And all you got to do is walk around the wall and the wall is gonna come tumbling down. And God said, He's gonna give you a victory that does not require your own methods. So if you were conniving, you don't have to be conniving. If you were nervous, you don't have to be nervous. If you had to fight, you don't have to fight. God's about to change your method. He's gonna give you the victory without sweat.