TD Jakes - The Conception of Faith - Part 1
The book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, is considered the hallmark of faith, the Hall of Fame, the hall of faith, filled with different men and a few women out of different eras who had notable accomplishments by faith. The phrase "by faith" permeates the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews so that we will have a deep respect for faith. We are living in a day and a time in the church that we do have a deep respect for praise, and because we sing songs about praise being a weapon and sometimes it is. Sometimes we do not emphasize faith because faith is not tangible, touchable, does not appeal to the senses. We can't hear it or see it. We have to believe it.
And yet, the book of Hebrews tells us no matter how talented we may be as orators, as speakers, as singers, as musicians, as technicians, as producers, as whatever we are, no matter how many degrees we have, no matter how many good deeds we do, no matter how ingratiating our personality might be, the Bible is clear about this, that without faith, it is impossible to please God. And that one verse alone should make us really hone in on the significance of faith. Because if we do everything else and we get everything else right and we have wonderful services and we bring cookies over to our neighbors and we say prayers every night and we do good deeds to people and we forgive people and we fail to believe God, it is impossible to please him. Conversely, if we don't do everything right and we still get the faith right, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness.
So God gave him credit for being righteous though he wasn't, because faith is a big deal to God. So, the enemy knows it, whether you know it or not, and he does everything he can to uproot your faith and make you doubt. And he makes you doubt by talking because faith comes by hearing. So, for all of you who are overthinkers, it's not just that you're overthinking. You've got many voices talking to you, competing for your attention. Because the voice you believe determines what you birth. I'm preaching already. The voice you believe determines what you birth, and I would venture to say there's not a person in this room that is not inundated with many voices on a consistent basis. Go. Stay. Join. Quit. You're not good enough. You're too good, and you're not appreciated. The voices don't even agree with each other. They're like rumors.
You get so many rumors on you that the rumors start arguing. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And in the corner of all this internal noise, add to it the external noise that I was just talking about. You have to get somewhere sometimes and be still to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church, and once hearing it, you must be obedient enough to believe it without details. You gotta go where you don't know. You gotta do what you haven't done. And we must understand that if we don't become more adept in the area of faith, though we are talented in the area of giftings, your gift will get you in the room, but your faith will keep you there. So we have a lot of people getting in a lot of rooms that they don't stay in because they don't have the mindset to produce the stability that causes them to be able to stay.
And I'm not just talking about rooms like opportunity. I'm also talking about rooms like peace, rooms like joy, rooms like contentment. And so you have momentary moments of ecstasy and then seasons of elongated agony, and most of our agonies are a result of listening to the wrong voice. If I teach faith apart from God, I'm teaching Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking," which basically boils down to humanism, which is just one step away from witchcraft. Because if you believe in faith for the sake of faith apart from God, then you believe that you can will things into being by thought. That type of manipulation is not what I came to teach about. Jesus didn't just say, "Have faith". He said, "Have faith in, in God".
So the faith has to be grounded. Are you following what I'm saying? In our text series, the first female mentioned, years ago, I used to preach a message called "The First Lady" because she is the first woman mentioned in the hallmark of faith. We hear all types of men mentioned before we get to this one woman. Are you hearing what I'm saying? We hear "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things that do appear were not made from things that do appear". Oh gosh. What I'm dealing with didn't start with what I'm dealing with. Things that do appear were not made from things that do appear. It starts in the Spirit before it manifests in the flesh. By faith, the elders obtained a good report.
Through faith, Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain through faith. Faith means he heard something and obeyed it and walked in what he heard, and if you walk in what you hear and you're hearing what God is saying, you will always be acceptable. But there's so much noise I can't hear. By faith, Enoch walked with God and was not, but he left the testimony that he pleased God. He got so far over in faith, he disappeared. By faith Enoch walked with God and was not, and all he left was a testimony. Where is? I don't know, but his testimony is still in the Earth that he pleased God. That's his legacy. We don't know where he lived. We don't know what he wore. He didn't leave his clothes on the floor. He left a testimony that he pleased God. "By faith Noah being warned of God of things not yet seen, move with fear," look at that.
Now, we see faith and fear in the same text. "By faith Noah being warned of God of things not yet seen, move with fear to the saving of his house". Everybody in the house got saved off of somebody's faith. Good God Almighty. You know you got faith when everybody in the house, the children and the in-laws, are saved by the person, one person's faith. "By faith Noah being warned of God of things not yet seen, move with fear to the saving of a house," and he built an ark on dirt before the first drop of rain ever fell because he heard something.
Tell somebody. Say, "I heard something". That's why I came out to church on Sunday morning. Because I heard something. That's why I'm taking the classes I'm taking. Because I heard something. That's why I'm building the business that I'm building. Because I heard something. That's why I broke up with my old boyfriend. Because I heard something. That's why I married the one that I married. Because I heard something. That's why I'm fighting the good fight of faith. Because I heard something. That's why I got the courage to withstand whatever you think about me. Because I heard something. I heard something. And he saved his house. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've had somebody walk up to me crying, saying, "I want my house to be saved".
I've had a lot of people walk up to me and say, "I want a house". But what good is a house if it's full of hell. I'm a little older, but I remember a time that people would be burdened because people were going to hell. People would be burdened because they were lost. People would be burdened about the souls of men, not just the soles of their feet being red. I remember a time that people would lay on the altar, grieving before God, saying, "Devil, you're gonna turn my daughter loose. You're gonna turn my son loose. I tell you what you're gonna do. You're gonna get out of my house". And the family got saved because one person had incredible faith. Talk to me, somebody. Let your neighbor say, "Are you the one"?
Sarah doesn't make it to the hallmark of faith because she's just "any woman". She doesn't make it to the hallmark of faith because she wants to fit in. She makes it to the hallmark of faith by faith. She doesn't make it because she's married to Abraham. Because Abraham ended up with one more wife and a situation. I'll explain it later. And neither the other wife or the concubine are mentioned, but Sarah is mentioned "because she judged him faithful who had promised". Have you judged him faithful who has promised? Or is he still on trial? Have you rendered a verdict and decided that God is faithful? Not just because you got a car, not just because you got a house, not just because your bill to pay.
Can you say God is faithful at a funeral? Can you say God is faithful in a cemetery? Can you say God is faithful in a waiting room at the hospital? Can you say God is faithful when you got laid off? Can you say God is faithful when you're back in the corner and there's a tumor in your breast? Can you yet say God is faithful? Have you judged him faithful? Or do you have a hung jury? And you got a little bit of faith, and you got a little bit of doubt. And you got a little bit of this. Have you come to a conclusion? She has achieved a level of faith, and there are levels. She has achieved a level of faith that fulfill the purpose of God in her life.
Oh, excuse me. Lord, please let me achieve a level of faith that fulfills the purpose you have for me in my life. I don't need a level of money. I don't need a level of friends. I don't need a level of likes. I don't need a level of followers. I don't need a level of birthday cards. I need a level of faith that fulfills the purpose of God in my life. If nobody follows me on Facebook, if nobody befriends me, if nobody wants me on their page, if nobody invites me to speak, if nobody wants to do business with me, as long as I accomplish the thing that you created me to do, I will be satisfied. That's my prayer. The conception of faith. Conception is a process. No matter whether you take it from a theological perspective or from a natural perspective, conception is a process.
In the natural, you have conception. You have conception in two different dimensions: as it relates to childbirth, as it relates to ideologies. As it relates to childbirth. As it relates to ideologies. There is some similarity, connectivity, a synonymity, between the brain and the womb. They both have to conceive in order to birth. They both have to receive seed in order to be fruitful. If I lose my ability to think, I can't preach. I can't talk. I can't interview. I can't negotiate. I can't serve. I can't work. I gotta be able to think. Even if my mouth goes out, I can still write if I can think. This is the battleground because this is, for me, what the womb is for birth.
The fertilized egg stays in the fallopian tube for about three to four days, three to four days, just hanging out. Within 24 hours of being fertilized, it starts dividing fast into multiple cells, reproducing just levels of faith. The cells start dividing and multiplying and increasing and forming and shaping and developing and coming forward. It keeps dividing as it moves slowly through the fallopian tube to the uterus. Its next job is to attach to the lining of the uterus. Are you following what I'm saying? If I sow seed out here right now and you hear it and it gets in your fallopian tube, faith come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and it floats around in your ear for a minute, but it doesn't attach to the uterus of the way you think and the way you function, and your mindset, it doesn't become one with you.
It doesn't start drawing from you. It doesn't start affecting you. Then it falls to the ground. That's why we use the same word when we say, "I never conceived that I'd be president. I never conceived that I'd be pastor of the church. I never conceived that I'd be married with five children". Conception. Whether you're birthing in your home or not, you're birthing in your mind. Can I go deeper? Faith incubates. It's a process. Hearing is the fallopian tube, but the process doesn't stop there. The word has to stick. The Bible says the engrafted Word of God is able to save your soul. Engrafted. The word that sticks is the word that saves.
That's why you'll see people taking copious notes, and you'll see people really listening. I really don't like to preach to a church that just shouts. I like to shout, but I don't wanna preach to people who just shout. Because if you are so busy shouting, you're not listening. And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach, save they be sent? And so you're excited, but it's just emotionalism, and it has no root. And when you get in trouble, I'm gonna make it plain in a minute. Let's look at Romans 10:14 through 17 for just a minute. And I'm not gonna be long, but just follow me. Are y'all getting anything? "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in"?
Wait a minute. People do that all the time. They call on God because they're in trouble. They call on God because the car is sliding. They call on God because they're in the emergency room. They call, but they have not believed in. And how can they believe in the one to whom they have not heard? Or how can they hear without someone preaching to them? "And how can anyone preach unless they are sent"? Uh-oh. I don't even wanna get on that. Oh God, I just want, in this day, where you can go Google up some license, we have no metrics in the church anymore to control who gets to the if you got charisma and Google. So it's hard to police outlaws. Somebody who will not submit cannot be mentored.
As it is written: how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news or preach the gospel in the King James version. How beauti...you're glad to see them coming. When they walk in the room, they haven't even said anything yet. When they walk in the room, your spirit leaps because you know they're carrying something. They're the walk. There's a walk. Glory to God. There's a walk. It's not just a talk. There's a walk. When you're carrying something from God, you walk in the room like I'm on a mission. I didn't come here to play. I'm on a mission. "But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our message?'"
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? The word that sticks. I'm still, I'm still living off of steady in the storm. Every time a storm comes in with our life, my mind says: Be steady in the storm. Keep your hand on the wheel. Don't let the wind rock you. Don't let your emotions break you. Don't let the situation shake you. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
I preached that like four or five months ago, and I'm still chewing off of that word right there. You know why? Storms are still coming, and as long as storms are still coming, I'm gonna be steady in the storm. You can't be faithful if you're not steady in the storm. If you're tossed to and fro by every wind, you can't be steadfast. You gotta, you gotta prove that I'm gonna stand flat-footed right here come hell or high water. I'm gonna stand right here. This is where I stand. I can't control where you stand. I can't help where you stand. I can't change how you stand. But as for me in my house, this is where I stand. I'm gonna stand flat-footed on the Word of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?