TD Jakes - The Prophetic Prayer
In our text today, the king of Syria and his army are at war with the king of Israel. They're 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's not dealing with what they gonna eat for dinner. He's not dealing with whether they made up their bed. He's not dealing with whether the wife snapped at him in argument. He's 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 got a leak.
One of you, like Jesus sitting around the table, one of you is the devil and he's trying to figure out, "How does the king of Israel know what's going on, that by the time I get there, he's either escaped or he's prepared for me? There's a leak somewhere. I shouldn't be losing". Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? So, the king of Syria became suspicious that some of the camp was a spy; however, his men weren't disloyal, but the prophet Elijah'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 'em. Gotta show you something. I wasn't even gonna raise the offering this morning. But right before they asked me which one of us should raise the offering, God had spoke to me about covenants. And when God spoke to me about covenants, I said, "Let Sarah do it," and then I stopped him and I said, "Wait a minute," because God had given me a word and see, that's how you gotta be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that you cannot let your program and what you got planned dictate your life. You gotta be able to shift. You gotta be flexible and you can't work with people that are territorial because she could be the kind of person that "I thought I was supposed to do the offer".
So you can't work with them kind of people. You gotta 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's going in another direction, I gotta have the freedom to flow with him. I gotta rock with him. I gotta roll with him. I gotta move with him. I gotta stand with him. I gotta anchor with him. Do you hear what I'm saying? Rock with it, roll with it, sway with it. Rock with it, roll with it, sway with it. You on the ocean of life, you gotta have a rhythm. There's a rhythm to this thing. There's a flow to this thing. I don't know who I'm talking to but I'm talking to somebody that you gotta 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 gotta know when your assignment is finished. Get out of their business, get out of their stuff, you gotta leave them alone. You gotta know when you're over-mothering, when you're over-fathering. You are in a new season, even if they're trying to pull you back to an old season. You gotta know when your job is done. That was worth getting up to come out here for this morning. I don't know why y'all still standing there with your teeth in your mouth, looking at me.
Don't worry because the odds are against you, they supposed to be against you. It amazed me how much firepower he's shooting at this one guy. You send an army after a nation, you send a army after a army. You don't 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 don't need a boxer to fight a baby. He sent the army because Elijah was bad. The odds are against you. The whole city is surrounded. He didn't come after the city. He came out to Elijah. The king of Syria aborted his mission to go after one man.
Somebody say, "I'm the one". It's always about one man. It affect the whole city, but it's about one man. All eight of Noah's kids were saved, but it was about one man. Are you hearing what I'm 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'm the one". 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'm on the hit list is because I've got the power, and greater is he. I'm about to make a power move up in here. The power. You got the power, you got the power. You're the one holding the whole family together, you're the one and that's 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 wasn't awesome? You have been awarded with an attack. You have been awarded with an attack. If you weren't bad, you wouldn't 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 gotta speed up because I got more of my 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'm saying? The entire city surrounded, there's horses everywhere, there's chariots everywhere.
This is a mess. Elijah is in the bed. The servant woke up with his eyesight, but he had no vision. And I'm working it, I'm 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'm gonna bring some people in there who are preoccupied by this present danger".
And I don't know who you are, but I know you are in here because the Holy Ghost said you're gonna 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's not a bad servant. It wasn't a bad day. Neither the servant nor Elijah 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. When I train pastors, I tell them you'll know you're there when they start talking about you, writing about you, and saying all manner of evil against you. That's a sign they notice you. All while you are inconsequential, ain't nobody saying nothing about you. But the moment you stick your head up too high, you inherit a certain amount of trouble.
When I've 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're skipping around in it now and it's moving now. But the moment they notice that there's 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 gotta be strong enough not to command the crowd, but not to be distracted by the army hell is gonna send against you. And I walked out there and I was a little bit sad because you're my child. And I knew what you'd have to go through and I knew the cross that comes with the crown.
It's 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'm getting heavy now. Can I go deeper? Without the vision, the people perish. There is a correlation between emotions and visions. God said you're not seeing it right, whoever I'm preaching it to. Let me show you this. I got 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, gastrologists, the psychiatrist, like they're all different pieces, but in fact, the human body doesn't function in silos. So what goes on over here affects what happens back here. It's all connected. So if you have spinal surgery, it's gonna affect your knees, it's gonna affect your ankles because everything's connected. Somebody say, "Everything's connected". So you gotta 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, I don't know whether you can put my my chart on the screen. 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 recorded after the event was over. Are you following me? Now let's do an exercise for a minute. Everybody close your eyes. For a minute, just close your eyes for a minute. Even if you're online, close your eyes for a minute. Imagine the sound of seagulls in the air. Smell the saltwater. Hear the waves embarking 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. Can't pay for it, can't buy it. You're there. 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 wouldn't know what sand was, you wouldn't know what winds were, you wouldn't know what waves were. You wouldn't know what a seagull sounded like. You wouldn't know what sea crashing against the beach sounds like. All of that brings back, cognitive memories are 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 got four points and I'm done. This is envision. Your envision is where you gotta make sure that you have a correct synopsis of what's going on in your vision because if your envision isn't correct, your outer response is gonna 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 ain't home yet, he ain't home. You mean you're not home by now? You think I'm stupid? You think I'm out of my mind? You just wait till he come 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 didn't envision that. Come on, somebody. You didn't envision that and if you don't envision that, you don't respond correctly because you don't have envision. So when we say, "Lord, open my eyes," sometimes it's, "Open my envision so that I can envision correctly". Because I will admit it, I have gotten mad, fallen out, decided I'm through, I'm not gonna fool with you anymore, I'm not gonna be on this roller coaster ride with you. You really don't want this. You really don't want that. You really don't want the other, and then talk to the person, find out I was completely wrong because I had the wrong envision. You gotta make sure that God heals your envision for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
So if you're not getting the right pictures in your head, you're 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 nothing to you. This is all going on in your head. Some of the demons you think you're fighting are not coming from hell, they're coming from head. Somebody ought to shout because I just helped somebody's marriage. I just helped somebody with your mama. I just help somebody with your daddy. Some of the things you conquer, "Oh, you just don't like me, so I don't need you. I cut you off". We make these silent decisions, because of envision. Envision is important.
Paul said, "The eyes of your understanding must be enlightened". I didn't know understanding had eyes. Understanding, it's 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 didn't 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'm saying?
This is a strange prayer. I'm gonna go a little bit deeper. Give me point two, I'm gonna 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 a 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 don't have the foresight to see what is coming, you can't 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's standing on the mountain where Calvary is going to be. He has foresight. He has foresight into the future. 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's provision, not just groceries, not just car payment, not just capital. It's having the foresight to know what to ask for. Somebody say, "Open my eyes". I am tired of seeking temporary stuff that doesn't last the journey. I wanna seek some things that not only fit this present danger but fit where I'm getting ready to go to next. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you?
I'm not picking my friends for a mood for the moment. I'm picking my friends who can handle all the different moods I'm gonna have, the changes in my life: when I get middle life crisis, when I get menopause, when I go through changes, when I'm 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. Ain't nothing worse than to have a happy giddy moment spoiled by a deep spiritual person who says, "I don't know you".
Y'all know y'all wanna shout. You had these deep friends that you finally got a breakthrough and God gave you 10 minutes of joy and they criticized you for being happy and told you ought to be sad, because misery enjoys company, and people want you to be down because they're down. But there's a getting up coming. It's an arising coming. It's an awakening coming. It's a resurrection coming. Come on, somebody. Something is about to happen in this life.
So we understand we gotta have envision. Number two, we understand we have to have provision. 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 save they agree? The friendship didn't work out because you weren't nice or I wasn't nice; the friendship didn't work out because we were going to two different places.
Now, we can go two different ways, but we can't have two different destinations. We have to have an agreement that when it's all over we're gonna 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 gotta 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. 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 gonna get a breakthrough. Somebody's gonna get a touch from God. Somebody's gonna get a move of the Spirit. Somebody's gonna 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 don't see what's on your side. You don't see what God's got in store for you. You don't see what God has planned for you. Father, open your eyes. Everybody who's ready to have an awakening, give him a crazy praise right now.