TD Jakes - The Conception of Faith - Part 3
"Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed". You gotta be strong to receive seed. Especially if the seed is strong, the ground has got to be strong enough to receive the seed. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? In the Bible, the term "seed" comes from the Hebrew word zera. It's important that you understand that, because from the very beginning in the book of Genesis, the Hebrew word for "seed" is zera. When you begin to understand that, like in Genesis 3:15, when it talks about that the seed of the woman shall rise up and bruise the head of the seed of the serpent, God is talking seed stuff. While they are worried about circumstances, God is talking about seed. Their circumstances were not good. They had tasted of the forbidden fruit. They had lost the privilege of staying in the Garden of Eden, but they were concerned about circumstances.
God is talking about seed. He said, remember, "In spite of your circumstances, you gonna have seed". This is a seed fight. The seed of the woman will rise up and bruise the head of the seed of the serpent, and the serpent will bruise its heel. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? So, when you begin to talk about it, this is the first Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament talking about Jesus, that Jesus ultimately becomes the seed of the woman. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? So, you begin to understand that God deals with seed. Now, you need to understand that, because if you're gonna conceive faith, you are praying about objects and God is answering in seed. You're saying, "God, give me a tree," and then an acorn falls, and you say, "Lord, I'm waiting on you to give me that tree," and God says, "I'm through with it. When I gave you the seed, I had answered your prayer".
Your problem is you don't recognize God's answers, because God's answers don't look like your prayers. Come on, talk to me, somebody. In Christianity this scripture is called protoevangelism. It's very important that you understand that, because it is interpreted as a prophecy of a coming Jesus, not here yet, but a coming Jesus. Not chicken yet, but an egg. Not real, not a tree yet, but an acorn. God is talking all the way back in the book of Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, about a coming Jesus. God is talking about seed. God is talking about seed. Right now, the fight is over seed. The enemy is using circumstances to fight seed. He always has and he always will. Often, the person who is carrying the seed doesn't feel valuable, because the seed has not germinated. It has not developed. It doesn't look valuable.
But God is concerned about seed, and the enemy is fighting you not over what you got materially but what you have potentially, what you have prophetically, what is in your life in seed form. If you don't get this groundwork, you're not gonna get the message today. Look at your neighbor and say, "I got seed. I may not have a company yet, but I got seed. I may not be a wife yet, but I got seed". In fact, a woman is a wife before she gets married. If she wasn't a wife before she got married, putting a ring on her finger won't make her a wife. Neither will it make her a woman. It's just decoration. You might as well put anything on her. The Bible said, "Whosoever findeth a wife findeth a good thing". So, she was a wife when I found her. So, all I did was acknowledge what she already was. Before we ever got married, she was in seed form. I wonder what else you are in seed form. The enemy is after the seed, but God will always honor his seed.
Run over to Genesis 8:22 for a minute. I'm gonna show you this principle is consistent, and it stays in the Word of God and perpetuates itself in every area of your life. It is backed up in how the body is made physiologically, that if I cut my skin right here, immediately, my skin cells begin to reproduce after its kind and stitch itself back together and mend itself and make skin cells and replenish itself because God doesn't have to come down and do a creative act, because the body was designed to produce after its kind. Stem cell research declares that if I get a cell, I can potentially make a kidney from a cell because if I have a kidney cell, it will produce after its kind. Follow me now. That which is spiritual, is spiritual. That which is natural, is natural. You are a seed. You are the result of a seed. You wouldn't be here if you didn't have seed, and if you're receiving this Word, you are receiving seed.
Genesis 8:22 says it this way, "While the earth remaineth, while the earth", is the earth still here? It's kind of hot, but it's here. I don't know how long it's gonna be here, but it's here right now. "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease". It's never gonna stop. It's never gonna end. It will always exist. It is about the seed. Look at somebody and say, "It's about the seed". Psalms said, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him". All of you people that wrestle with low self-esteem, the enemy is trying to talk you out of your seed. He doesn't want you to believe in your seed, because if you know that you're bearing precious seed, if you know that you're bearing precious seed, you handle yourself differently because you got too much to lose.
I can't act like somebody who doesn't have anything to lose, because I am bearing precious seed. "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him," all right? I may not have a harvest right now, but if I got seed, harvest is on the way. Walk past me right now while I'm in seed form, but be careful who you step over because there's a harvest coming after my seed. Glory to God. Those of you that have been through abuse, been through trauma, been through ostracization and criticism, the enemy started early 'cause he knew you were burying precious seed. He tried to dilute you, he tried to pollute you, he tried to annihilate you, he tried to destroy you, but you never stopped to think if you weren't valuable, why would he be fighting? Keep me hot.
If you weren't carrying something, why would you be up under the attack that you're up under? The enemy knows that you are bearing precious seed. Something is about to happen in your life. Something is about to happen in your life. Everything you see God saying throughout the Old Testament and all over into the New Testament centers around seed, not just "he that goeth forth, and bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his seeds with him". But it also says they so sow in tears. They shall reap in joy. Anybody been doing some crying? Have you been doing some crying? Your tears aren't doing nothing but watering your seed. Your tears aren't doing anything but watering seed.
The Bible said when you're in the sowing stage, you're in the crying stage. Some of you don't know what I'm talking about, because you never gave anybody anything at any time, any way, including God, but those of you that are sowers, "He that going forth, weeping, weeping, weeping, bearing precious seed", see the weeping and the seed, the water and the seed? "They shall sow in tears. They shall reap in joy". Look at somebody and say, "It won't always be like this". You might be crying in March, and you might be dancing in December. You might be crying in August. You might be dancing in February. It's not going to end like you met me. You might have met me in my crying stage, but I'm coming into harvest. In fact, I'm watering my seed while I'm weeping. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy".
The reason Pharaoh was killing all of the first born is that he knew that a leader was coming, and he was trying to kill the seed. The reason the enemy is after your children is because he's trying to kill the seed. The reason you're having so much trouble in your house is that he's trying to kill the seed. I wanna talk to some folks in here that are battling for the seed. You're not even fighting for yourself. You're fighting for the seed. There's a war out for the seed. The seed of the woman shall rise up and bruise the head of the seed of the serpent.
Somebody, say, "Give me my seed back". It's a seed fight. You heard of a food fight. You've heard of a pillow fight. This is a seed fight. When the enemy saw that Moses was coming, he started killing the seed and telling the midwives to abort all of the babies under the age of two. When the Hebrew women got ready to deliver and they got on the birthing stool, because, back then, they birthed on a stool, not in stirrups, they tried to abort the seed, because if the enemy knows that he can cut you off in your early stages, he can stop you from becoming what is about to happen in your life. Look at somebody and say, "This seed is a serious thing".
I'm stronger than what I look like. I'm stronger than what I've been through. If I wasn't stronger than what I've been through, I wouldn't have come through it. Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. If you fool with me, I'm gonna mess up and preach this morning. Something is about to happen in this place. "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord". News flash. I'm coming out of this. Somebody in the choir help me praise him. News flash. I'm coming up out of this. News flash. I will not die in this situation. News flash. I got more in me than what you see. Y'all sit down, 'cause y'all ain't gonna do me like you did last week. You got to carry it on. I got to carry it on. I didn't get out of my introduction. My God. The sower and the seed. The sower and the seed. The sower and the seed.
I realized that there are some people who pride themselves on the fact that they don't sow. They don't give. They watch and they don't give. They come and they don't give. They get married and they don't give. They have children and they don't give. I realized that they celebrate that, but God has a relationship with the sower, not the hoarder, not the keeper, not the spender. The sower and the seed. Come on, I'm gonna go deeper. He said, "I give seed to the sower". Where my sowers at? Makes a noise. You ain't never got to worry about having some seed, 'cause as long as you a sower, you're gonna always have some seed because God said, "I give seed to the sower. I don't give it to the hoarder. I don't give it to the selfish. I don't give it to the narcissistic. I give seed to the sower". Throw your hands up and say, "Lord, make me a sower".
If you become a sower, you don't have to pray for seed, because God will always give seed to the sower. I lived in a little raggedy house down in Dunbar, West Virginia. Two-bedroom house. Little raggedy house. Success for me was having all my utilities on at the same time. Used to go to Miss Anna Rory's house to use the phone 'cause our phone was off. When it was on, the bill collectors was calling on it. Still, I entertained. I invited people over for dinner, didn't I? I go down there and get that bag of chicken legs. You could get some brown beans and some rice and fed everybody on a church table that I had borrowed from the church that you covered with a white tablecloth that was made out of paper, and even then with wick, I was still giving.
The reason I'm here right now is because I'm a sower, and if you are a sower, God said, "I'll pass over all of those stingy people and find somebody that I give seed to the", somebody, holler, "Make me a sower". I'll never have to pray for seed if I become a sower. I'll never have to beg for bread if I become a sower. God said, "I'm not giving anything to anybody that won't do anything with what I gave them. I give seed to the sower. I give bread to the eater". We used to go over to people's houses. They have plastic over their living room furniture. They tell you, "Don't sit in there". Anybody know what I'm talking about? It was a cold, hard plastic too. Looked like a museum. Nobody sat at it. You walk passed and looked at it 'cause it was too good to use. They ended up with nothing because God gives bread to the eater.
If you use it, he'll give you some more to use. If you teach it, he'll give you more to teach. If you develop it, he'll give you more to develop. The more you give out in ministry, the more that comes back to you. If you got revelation and you won't sow it, he won't give it to you. Anything you won't use, you will... So, all I have to do is talk you into not sowing and not eating, and you won't get bread and you won't get seed, because everything throughout the scripture is about the sower and the seed. The sower and the seed. The sower and the seed are the stable realities of the parable. The only thing that changes is the ground.
I'm having such a good time this morning. I feel like somebody just put red hot on my chitlins. Yeah. You know why? I'm sowing seed, I'm sowing seed, I'm sowing seed. It's gonna hit all kind of ground: stony ground, stubborn ground, indifferent ground, selfish ground, carnal ground, hungry ground. That ain't none of my business. I'm just gonna keep on... I'm gonna keep on sowing the seed because as long as I keep sowing, I don't care what kind of ground it hits, I'm still gonna get more seed to sow. I got news flash for somebody. You're about to get a download of some more seed to sow. If you got a song, you better sing it. If you got a story, you better write it. If you got a gift, you better give. If you got a talent, you better use it, because when you start using it, God will develop it.
That's why the two fish and five loaves of bread could only be counted as long as it was in the bag. The moment you got it out of the bag and Jesus started using it, it started multiplying because God gives seed... Little boy walks up and gives his lunch. "What you got"? "I got two fish and five loaves of bread". Inventory, counting has been done. Audit has been done. He knows exactly what he's got. Do you know what you got? Jesus said, "You're about to eat your harvest. If you go over in the corner and eat those two fish and five loaves of bread, that's it. If you give it away, I'll show you what you really got. Not only will I feed the 5,000 men, not to mention the women and children, I will bless it so that you have 12 baskets full left if you sow it. Give it to me and I'm gonna give it to them, and every time we give it, it increases".
And you sitting on your talent, asking God to bless a hoarder. "I don't have time to sing. I don't have time to serve. I don't have time to teach. I don't have time to do...church. I don't have time to do the work. I don't have time to draw. I don't have time to write. I don't have", the more you say, "I don't have time," you're saying, "I don't have seed". Why would God give seed to somebody who's just gonna brag about having it and not gonna use it? Okay, let me get to this text. I'm talking to somebody. I don't know who it is. The seed is good. It's the ground we gotta check out. What kind of ground are you?
Ask three people around you, "What kind of ground are you"? Sleepy ground, distracted ground, fearful ground, depressed ground, frightened ground, angry ground, jealous ground, all of that stuff will stop you from harvesting in your life. That's why I forgive everybody. I had somebody come and see me about something that happened four years ago, I said, "Lord know I don't have time to be mad over something happened four years ago. I had to get that out of my spirit. I can't let you mess up my blessing. I'm on the verge of a blessing". Be at peace. You might have meant it for evil, but God, talk to me, somebody.
I feel a praise about to hit this house. I feel a breakthrough about to hit this house. I feel a spirit of increase about to hit this house right now. Glory to God. Somebody that's got some faith say, "I'm walking in abundance. I'm gonna have 12 baskets full left. I'm gonna have so much left I'm gonna have to figure out where to put it". When God gets to blessing and breaking what I got, I'm going into overload, I'm going into overdrive, I'm going into increase. "Your eyes have not seen, your ears have not heard, neither have it entered into your heart, the things that God has in store for them to love him," 'cause you looking at the seed. God's looking at the harvest. Touch ten people, say, "It's coming, it's coming, it's coming". Yeah, it's coming, it's coming.