TD Jakes - The Prophetic Prayer (10/11/2024)
In the story of Elisha surrounded by the Syrian army, God reveals to His prophet the unseen heavenly forces protecting him, teaching us that true vision sees beyond present dangers to God's greater provision and power. The preacher urges believers to pray for opened eyes, embrace spiritual foresight, and recognize that attacks are a compliment to our anointing as God uses one faithful person to shift nations.
God Deals with Kingly Matters
In our text today, the king of Syria and his army are at war with the king of Israel. They are at war. This is kingly stuff. God is dealing with kingly stuff, not common stuff. Stop bringing God down into common stuff when God wants to deal with kingly stuff. He is not dealing with what they are going to eat for dinner. He is not dealing with whether they made up their bed. He is not dealing with whether the wife snapped at him in an argument. He is not dealing with all of that kind of stuff that you are spending hours praying about. God is dealing with stuff that shifts, that changes, that fortifies.
The problem was, every time the king of Syria had set a trap for the king of Israel, somehow the plot was foiled and it was so bad that the king of Syria started questioning, we have a leak. One of you, like Jesus sitting around the table, one of you is the devil and he is trying to figure out, "How does the king of Israel know what is going on, that by the time I get there, he has either escaped or he is prepared for me? There is a leak somewhere. I should not be losing." Are you hearing what I am saying to you?
The Power of the Anointed
So, the king of Syria became suspicious that some in the camp were a spy; however, his men were not disloyal, but the prophet Elisha's gift was so strong that it was said that he could hear whatever the king of Syria was whispering in his bedchamber. Be careful about fooling with anointed people. God talks to them. I have to show you something. I was not even going to raise the offering this morning. But right before they asked me which one of us should raise the offering, God had spoken to me about covenants. And when God spoke to me about covenants, I said, "Let Sarah do it," and then I stopped and said, "Wait a minute," because God had given me a word and see, that is how you have to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that you cannot let your program and what you have planned dictate your life.
You have to be able to shift. You have to be flexible and you cannot work with people that are territorial because she could be the kind of person that "I thought I was supposed to do the offering." So you cannot work with those kind of people. You have to work with people that can switch on a dime and not be intimidated because the Holy Ghost is going in another direction. And if He is going in another direction, I have to have the freedom to flow with Him. I have to rock with Him. I have to roll with Him. I have to move with Him. I have to stand with Him. I have to anchor with Him.
Finding the Rhythm of the Spirit
Do you hear what I am saying? Rock with it, roll with it, sway with it. Rock with it, roll with it, sway with it. You are on the ocean of life, you have to have a rhythm. There is a rhythm to this thing. There is a flow to this thing. I do not know who I am talking to but I am talking to somebody that you have to stop being syncopated and get on beat with the rhythm of what God is doing in your life. What was true at 30 is not true at 60. You need a new plan for your life, a new vision for your life, a new structure for your life.
What was true when your kids are little is not true when your kids are gone and you have to know when your assignment is finished. Get out of their business, get out of their stuff, you have to leave them alone. You have to know when you are over-mothering, when you are over-fathering. You are in a new season, even if they are trying to pull you back to an old season. You have to know when your job is done. That was worth getting up to come out here for this morning.
The Odds Are Supposed to Be Against You
Do not worry because the odds are against you, they are supposed to be against you. It amazed me how much firepower he is shooting at this one guy. You send an army after a nation, you send an army after an army. You do not send chariots and horses and armies after one dude, unless you know that that dude is so powerful. You know who you are by the level of attack that comes up against you. And because the devil is afraid of you, all hell breaks loose. You do not need a boxer to fight a baby. He sent the army because Elisha was bad.
The odds are against you. The whole city is surrounded. He did not come after the city. He came after Elisha. The king of Syria aborted his mission to go after one man. Somebody say, "I am the one." It is always about one man. It affects the whole city, but it is about one man. All eight of Noah's family were saved, but it was about one man. Are you hearing what I am saying? God started the nation of Israel, but it started with one man. God started humanity, but it started with one man. God redeemed the world from the curse of the law and from sin and death, but it started with one man. All God needs is one. Somebody say, "I am the one."
You Have Been Awarded with an Attack
Hope. All hell got nervous. Demons started trembling. Satan got upset because the moment you recognize that you are the one, you recognize the reason I am on the hit list is because I have got the power, and greater is He that is in me. I am about to make a power move up in here. The power. You got the power, you got the power. You are the one holding the whole family together, you are the one and that is why all kind of hell is coming at you. Satan has released armies. One man said, "We are legions, for we are many." Legions of demons. All hell is coming after me.
Why would Satan send legions out to one man, if the one man was not awesome? You have been awarded with an attack. You have been awarded with an attack. If you were not bad, you would not be attacked like that. I feel a praise about to break loose in this place. Can I go deeper? So there are benefits and backlash. I have to speed up because I have more material. There are benefits and backlash to being a servant. The servant inherits the benefits, but he also inherits the backlash of being connected. Are you hearing what I am saying?
Sight Versus Vision
The entire city surrounded, there are horses everywhere, there are chariots everywhere. This is a mess. Elisha is in the bed. The servant woke up with his eyesight, but he had no vision. And I am working it, I am breaking it down into dimensions. Sight is for the natural, vision is for the supernatural. Sight versus vision. The servant is tormented by his inability to see beyond this present danger. And this, when I was preparing this, the Lord said, "I want you to dwell on this." He said, "I am going to bring some people in there who are preoccupied by this present danger."
And I do not know who you are, but I know you are in here because the Holy Ghost said you are going to be in here. And God said this present danger is a distraction. The servant is preoccupied by this present danger as if it were important because he had sight but no vision. He is not a bad servant. It was not a bad day. Neither the servant nor Elisha had a bad relationship with God. Stop blaming yourself for the attack. None of that was bad. You have been awarded with an attack. The attack is a compliment.
The Cost of the Crown
When I train pastors, I tell them you will know you are there when they start talking about you, writing about you, and saying all manner of evil against you. That is a sign they notice you. All while you are inconsequential, nobody is saying anything about you. But the moment you stick your head up too high, you inherit a certain amount of trouble. When I handed you the torch from "Woman Thou Art Loosed" to "Woman Evolve," I was happy and sad. I was glad and worried because I was proud that you were doing it, but I was worried because I know what all comes with it.
See, what all comes with it, you are skipping around in it now and it is moving now. But the moment they notice that there is a glory on you that changes the atmosphere and switches situations, then the haters who are already infected in the background start coming up to the surface and you have to be strong enough not to command the crowd, but not to be distracted by the army hell is going to send against you. And I walked out there and I was a little bit sad because you are my child. And I knew what you would have to go through and I knew the cross that comes with the crown.
The Connection Between Sight and Emotions
It is just that God was working in one dimension and the servant was looking in a lower dimension. There is a correlation between his emotions, do not fear, and his sight. Our emotions respond to our sight. Oh, I am getting heavy now. Can I go deeper? Without vision, the people perish. There is a correlation between emotions and vision. God said you are not seeing it right, whoever I am preaching to. Let me show you this. I have some illustrations, but let me show you what science says about the correlation between sight and cognition.
Eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, or age-related changes in the retina or the macula in the back of the eyes, affect the visual information that can reach the brain. Not getting sufficient or correct visual information can contribute to developing cognitive dysfunctions and disorders. Medical practice tends to divide its clients, you and me, into specialties defined by body parts, ophthalmologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, the psychiatrist, like they are all different pieces, but in fact, the human body does not function in silos.
Everything Is Connected
So what goes on over here affects what happens back here. It is all connected. So if you have spinal surgery, it is going to affect your knees, it is going to affect your ankles because everything is connected. Somebody say, "Everything is connected." So you have to understand it works in an integrated holistic fashion that what goes awry in one part of the body can affect several other parts of the body, all right?
So, what happens here is the man who is holding the chart on the ladder is seen by the eye and the eye is interpreting what it sees that becomes memories and the memories send signals to the brain that are recorded after the event was over. Are you following me? Now let us do an exercise for a minute. Everybody close your eyes. For a minute, just close your eyes for a minute. Even if you are online, close your eyes for a minute.
Imagine the sound of seagulls in the air. Smell the saltwater. Hear the waves crashing on the beach. Feel the sand on your back. Feel the sunrays falling on your skin, warm enough to make you feel alive and vibrant and refreshed and yet peaceful enough that a calmness is coming upon you. And that long-needed vacation has finally come. Phew. Feel the tension leaving your body and somehow the rhythm of the waves affects the motion of the heart. And you have peace. You cannot pay for it, you cannot buy it. You are there.
The Power of Envision
How many people could see it? Hold your hand up if you can see it, okay? If you could see it, you have seen it. You might not have ever been on a vacation, but you saw it in a movie, you saw it on TV. If you had never seen it, you would not know what sand was, you would not know what wind was, you would not know what waves were. You would not know what a seagull sounded like. You would not know what the sea crashing against the beach sounds like. All of that brings back cognitive memories affected by sight.
So people who lose sight or hearing are more apt to develop dementia because what helps us to retain memory is senses. So if something happens in the sight realm, it affects us. This is envision. I have four points and I am done. This is envision. Your envision is where you have to make sure that you have a correct synopsis of what is going on in your vision because if your envision is not correct, your outer response is going to be infected.
How many of you have ever got mad at somebody and found out you were wrong? All because your envision had created a scenario: "He is not home yet, he is not home. You mean you are not home by now? You think I am stupid? You think I am out of my mind? You just wait till he comes walking up in this house because I already know," and you find out he was over at your mama's house, fixing the steps. But you did not envision that.
Healing Your Envision
You did not envision that and if you do not envision that, you do not respond correctly because you do not have envision. So when we say, "Lord, open my eyes," sometimes it is, "Open my envision so that I can envision correctly." Because I will admit it, I have gotten mad, fallen out, decided I am through, I am not going to fool with you anymore, I am not going to be on this roller coaster ride with you. You really do not want this. You really do not want that. You really do not want the other, and then talk to the person, find out I was completely wrong because I had the wrong envision.
You have to make sure that God heals your envision for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So if you are not getting the right pictures in your head, you are not getting the right response in your mind, and it affects that you create a whole scenario and a response and will retaliate over something that nobody has done anything to you. This is all going on in your head. Some of the demons you think you are fighting are not coming from hell, they are coming from your head.
Provision Through Foresight
Paul said, "The eyes of your understanding must be enlightened." I did not know understanding had eyes. Understanding, it is the truth I stand under. He said, "I pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened." And then when I read that, I thought, "I did not know understanding has eyes." Of course, understanding has eyes because we have envision. What you have envisioned is affecting you right now. If you envision yourself as sick, you will always be sick. If you envision yourself as being alone, you will always be alone. If you envision yourself as never being loved, you will never be loved. Are you hearing what I am saying?
This is a strange prayer. I am going to go a little bit deeper. Give me point two, I am going to go a little bit deeper with this. See, the Lord seeks to heal you by raising your consciousness to the point that you begin to understand provision. Now, I thought I knew what provision meant, but I did an etymological research on the word "provision" and was shocked to find out that from Middle English "provision," from Old French "provision," from Latin "provisio," it actually means preparation or foresight.
Provision is connected to sight because if you do not have the foresight to see what is coming, you cannot provide for it. Genesis 22, the Bible said: "I will call this place Jehovah Jireh for God will provide." Abraham had the foresight to understand that God will provide, not just the ram but the Lamb of God. He is standing on the mountain where Calvary is going to be. He has foresight. He has foresight into the future.
Choosing with Foresight
When I got married, my wife had foresight. When I married her, I had foresight. I often ask myself, "How did I, at 24, pick out somebody that would work for me at 66?" It is foresight. That is provision, not just groceries, not just car payment, not just capital. It is having the foresight to know what to ask for. Somebody say, "Open my eyes." I am tired of seeking temporary stuff that does not last the journey. I want to seek some things that not only fit this present danger but fit where I am getting ready to go next. Are you hearing what I am saying to you?
I am not picking my friends for a mood for the moment. I am picking my friends who can handle all the different moods I am going to have, the changes in my life: when I get midlife crisis, when I get menopause, when I go through changes, when I am in a bad mood, who can handle me being silent and handle me being sad and handle me being glad and handle me being silly.
Division and Agreement
Number three, we have to go even further still and understand that there will be division. "Di" means two. That means you have two visions. How can two walk together except they agree? The friendship did not work out because you were not nice or I was not nice; the friendship did not work out because we were going to two different places. Now, we can go two different ways, but we cannot have two different destinations.
We have to have an agreement that when it is all over we are going to get to Chicago. You may take the bus, you may take the plane, you may take the car. But as long as we have agreement as to the destination, I have to free you to have your method of getting there. I might not preach like you preach. I might not do it like you do it, but I could get it done, if you let me do it my way.
An Awakening Is Coming
If you let me do it my way. If you let me flow in my vein. I might not do it like you get it done, but I declare to you before I finish in here tonight, somebody is going to get a breakthrough. Somebody is going to get a touch from God. Somebody is going to get a move of the Spirit. Somebody is going to get a change from God. Somebody give Him 30 seconds of crazy praise.
Open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open, open. God is about to give you an awakening. You do not see what is on your side. You do not see what God has got in store for you. You do not see what God has planned for you. Father, open our eyes. Everybody who is ready to have an awakening, give Him a crazy praise right now.