TD Jakes - One Thing Gets Everything
The Bible says that the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. Now, you will remember Saul was king over Israel, and he got jealous of David because of David's anointing that he tried to kill David over and over again. And even when David had the upper hand, he refused to kill Saul not because he wouldn't kill, ' cause he killed many men, but he wouldn't kill Saul because Saul was anointed. He didn't respect Saul, but he respected the anointing, and people who respect the anointing will back off because if you fool with the anointing, you have fooled with God.
And so the reason the house of Saul is growing weaker is because the Lord has forsaken him. And the Bible said the house of Saul grew weaker. That means it wasn't instantaneously but little by little there was a deterioration of the army and the strength and the power and the finances and the resources of Saul. It happened gradually. Somebody say it happened gradually. The house of Saul grew weaker and weaker, and the house of David grew stronger and stronger. I'm wondering if there's anybody in here that can feel yourself growing.
You know you're not the same woman you used to be. You know you're not the same preacher that you used to be. You know you're not the same person that you used to be because the things that used to drive you crazy don't bother you anymore because you're growing stronger and stronger. Look at somebody and say I'm stronger. Yeah, yeah, if you were gonna get me, you should have got me when I was weaker but I'm stronger now. I'm wiser now. I've got more fortitude. I've got more tenacity now.
And so there is a transfer going on between these two leaders, Saul and David, and Saul is getting weaker because God has rejected him and David is getting stronger because God has chosen him. And if God chooses you, I don't care how many javelins get thrown at you, if God chooses you, you will ultimately prevail. I wish I had 1000 chosen people. Yeah, yeah, stop introducing yourself and saying my name is Clara and my name is Sarah and my name is Mary and, hello, I'm John and I'm Richard and I... just walk up to somebody and say I'm stronger.
Yeah, yeah, when you say stronger, you're talking about me, I'm stronger. I got stronger through resistance training. I got stronger through warfare. I got stronger through conflict. I got stronger through adversity. I didn't get here on a flowery bed of ease. I got stronger in the struggle. While I was crying, I was getting stronger. While I was trembling, I was getting stronger. While I was frustrated, I was getting stronger. While I was full of doubt, I was getting stronger. I know it didn't make any sense how you could have doubt and still get stronger, but see, I had doubt and kept going anyway. And any time you have doubt and keep going anyway, you get stronger. I need 100 strong people that will praise God now.
My brothers and my sisters, ladies and gentlemen, saints and enemies, hear me, hear me clearly when I teach you tonight that bringing in a new season isn't always easy. It gets tough. It gets difficult. And this is a tough moment in the life of David. David has lost Uzzah his friend in the process of getting stronger. His grief does not negate the fact that he is getting stronger. His displeasure with Jehovah does not negate the fact that he is getting stronger. He has parked the ark of the covenant into the house of Obed-Edom. Obed-Edom is a Gittite. He's not even an Israelite, he's a Gittite. But he has converted over to God and God rested in the house of Obed-Edom.
Have you ever had God rest on you? You hit a season where everything you touch, God just blessed it. Everything you went after, God just did in it. Every mountain you had to climb, God just blessed you. For three months the Bible said that the house of Obed-Edom was blessed just because he kept God. If I was old school, I'd start singing. Take the Lord God with you. Everywhere you go. Obed-Edom got blessed. When you read the Midrash, you will later find out that Obed-Edom continued to walk with the ark of the covenant. Even when it left his house, he started following the ark of the covenant and joined in and started serving the Lord all the way up to being a gatekeeper at Solomon's temple. Solomon is David's son.
So for an entire generation, Obed-Edom said, "If you're gonna take the glory, I'm going with the glory. I said I'm going with the glory. If it's not gonna stay in my house, I guess I gotta move 'cause I'm going with the glory". I don't choose my church by stained glass windows. I don't choose my church by how nice the pews are. I choose my church by the glory. As long as I see glory in the house, I will move, I will shout, I will pack up, I will do whatever I gotta do 'cause I'm not into the building and I'm not into the preacher, I'm into the glory. For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Is there anybody liberated in here? Is there anybody emancipated in here? Is there anybody in here that can speak your mind? Is there anybody in here that can praise God without music? Is there anybody in here that can glorify God even if it's getting on other people's nerves? But you're strong enough now that, come hell or high water, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I know you want me to shut up. I know you think I'm too loud. I know you think I'm too rowdy, but I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to God, and when I get ready to talk to God, you can roll your eyes, you can write notes, but I'm gonna give God the praise.
And it occurred to me that this text really is all about power, it's about patience, and it's about praise. It's about what? Say it again. It's about? Uh-huh... Uh-huh... Say it again... Uh-huh... Uh-huh... It's gonna be about power... and praise, and I want you to get this, whether you're online or in the building, the things that God is going to anoint you to break loose aren't going to break loose just because you want them loose. You're going to need this recipe to break it loose. It's about... Uh-huh... Uh-huh... Oh y'all getting it now.
Now, I want you to understand power, first of all. I want you to understand the difference between powers. The word power in the Bible is translated from two different words, exousia in the Greek, and dunamis. They have close to the same meaning, but they are not the same thing. Jesus says, "You shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you". That word is dunamis. Are you hearing what I'm saying? The Bible said that when he said all power in heaven and in earth is given unto me, that word is exousia. The difference between exousia and dunamis, where we get dynamite, is this: exousia is authority, dunamis is power.
Let me break this down. 2 o'clock in the morning, the police come knocking at the door, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, they knock on the door. You look through the peephole and you see the badge. That's exousia. Look a little lower. That thing hanging off his belt is dunamis. You got to have both. You've got to have the authority, the badge, the right; and then if it don't break loose, you gotta have the dunamis, the dynamite to break it loose. God gave you the Holy Ghost so that you would have dynamite for the breaking of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. If you have exousia and dunamis, shout, "I got power".
But do not be deceived, my brothers and sisters. You also gonna need some patience because there are some things that only break loose through much prayer and fasting. You remember the man that brought his son to Jesus and said often he falls into the water and often he falls into the fire, and I wouldn't be in front of you if your disciples had been able to deliver him. They had power but no patience. Jesus told the disciples, "This kind cometh out by much prayer and fasting".
In other words, you can rebuke this devil, but it's gonna take some time. You better get to boiling in some water. It's gonna take some time. These strongholds that are passed down through generations, you don't break them by spinning around three times and throwing $20 on the altar. These bad habits that are built up in your character and your behavior and your discipline don't come out just because somebody put a oily cross on your forehead. It takes some patience and some discipline and telling yourself no when your mind is telling you to cuss them out. Oh, where the real saints? Are there any real saints over in this section over here?
Have you ever had to just tighten your lips and close them together and keep your thoughts in your head 'cause if you let it out like you thought it down on the inside, they wouldn't respect you no more as a deacon ever in life 'cause you could let it rip. That change takes patience. The Bible said after you suffered a while, after you suffered a while, I'm gonna make you perfect. Oh my God, do you hear what I'm saying? God says you're not suffering for no reason. When the suffering is over, I got something on the other side of it.
Now, all you people that's not suffering, don't shout, but all you people who've been going through some hell... That means that the suffering is a sign that you're about to get a breakthrough. You don't need the breakthrough to praise God. I want you to praise him right now like it's already broken. Oh yeah. It's gon' break. If it don't break today, it's gon' break tomorrow. If it don't break tomorrow, it's gon' break Thursday. If it don't break Thursday, it's gonna break Friday. But I come too far not to turn around. That devil is going to break. Give me 30 seconds of crazy praise. No, no, no, no. I said crazy praise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm almost finished, I'm almost finished.
I wanna read one more scripture to you right quick out of Hebrews 10:32-36 and I'm done. Hebrews 10:32-36, Hebrews 10:32-36. "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were enlightened, ye endeared a great conflict of sufferings;" oh, "partly, being made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyful the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one".
In other words, stop fighting over stuff. Whether they got it or you got it, God's got something. They don't believe me. I said God's got something. If you didn't get it, God's got something. If you don't get that house, God's got something. If you didn't marry that man, God's got something. If you didn't get that job, God's got something. So lift up your head, O ye gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors because God is saving you for something. Maybe it's somebody in the balcony. God is saving you for something better. Stop crying about what you lost. God is saving you for something better.
So the Bible said, "Cast not away therefore your boldness," your boldness. You can't be walking around with your hand down like you talking about, "I'm just going through something and I'm feeling kind of depressed and I'm just not up to it right now". God said, "Don't throw away your boldness". Your attitude has something to do with your altitude. Keep your boldness. Lose your car, but keep your boldness. Lose your friends, but keep your boldness. Lose your job, but keep your boldness. Lose your client, but keep your boldness. Don't be walking around like you lost everything. Walk out there, put on your best stuff, hold your head up and your back straight, and keep your boldness.
Somebody scream at me, "I'm bold"! This is not my year to be shy. This is not my year to be intimidated. This is not my year to back up. This is not my year to faint. This is not my year to take down. This is my year to be bold. Somebody holler, "I'm bold". You might not like me because I'm bold. You might call me arrogant because I'm bold. You might get an attitude because I'm bold. But for what I'm trying to get out, I got to get over in this thing and get bold about it. I prophesy to somebody in this room that the thing that you think is stuck is gon' break loose if you get bold about it.
Who am I talking to? The devil is trying to make you give up, but the devil is a liar. "Cast not away therefore your boldness, in which there is great recompense of reward". The recompense means God's gonna pay you just 'cause you bold, just 'cause you walked in the door, just 'cause you said yes when other people said no, just because you went after it, just because you strengthened yourself, just because you made up your mind. Somebody give him a praise for a minute. Give him a praise.
So the end of the text says, "For ye have need of patience," ye have need of patience, "that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise". Shake hands with seven people and say, "Wait for it". Wait for it. It's coming. Wait for it. I'm not gonna stay in this prison. Wait for it. I'm coming through the storm. Wait for it. God's got a future for me. God's got an expected end for me. God's gonna move the mountain out of my way. I got patience. He may not come when I want him to come, but he's right on time.
If I'm talking to you, take the roof off of this place. Open your mouth, open your mouth, open your mouth and give God the praise. Praise him for the power. Praise him for the patience. So the Bible said after David had had patience for three months, power to get it from the Philistines, patience to leave it in the house of Obed-Edom. When he finally got it back, the Bible said that David started praising God. I mean the moment he got the glory back, he started praising God. That's why he wrote the scripture. He inhabits the praises of his people.
If you want God to rest on your back, all you got to do is be a praiser. The reason that Uzzah died is that he touched God without praise. And if you touch God without praise, you'll die. But if you enter into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, God will make a way out of no way. I don't even like to sit beside people that won't praise the Lord 'cause I don't want that dead spirit of Uzzah to follow me. I need to sit beside somebody that knows how to give God the praise, so that when the glory is moving in the church, it will not pass over me.
I wanna sit with somebody that will open their mouth and give God the glory. I'm gon' do a praise check. Hallelujah. Look up and down your row. If they're not praising God, move, 'cause this is your year to open your mouth and give God the glory and give him the praise 'cause it's one thing that's everything. All I want is the glory. If I got the glory, the door's gon' open. If I got the glory, the mountains gon' move. If I got the glory, the yoke will be broken. Oh God, give us your glory. And the only way to get the glory to rest of your shoulders is to give him the praise. Let me hear you praise him one more time.