TD Jakes - Looking Beyond the Headlines and Seeing Opportunity
I want to tell you something today: your life is not impossible. The promises of God are not impossible. What God has spoken in your life can still come to pass. In spite of the fact that you have to reconstruct some things, tear down some things, rearrange some things, and may have to do some demolition in order to rebuild, God can redesign your life in spite of your past. Ninety-nine years old is not a good time to have a child. Even if you’re able to have a child, who wants to be running after a two-year-old at 101?
This is not an ideal time in the eyes of men to have a child, but it was just right for God. I’m trying to tell you that God is going to give you the right thing at a time that seems like the wrong time in your life. What you started out snickering at didn’t mean that you didn’t want it; it didn’t mean that Sarah didn’t want a child. It was just that at this particular time, it was harder than ever to believe God in the middle of COVID-19, an economic breakdown, a world in chaos, and a country divided by politics. This is the worst time to do anything, yet God has a way of choosing the worst time to do the best things. Oh God, I hope you hear me right now.
I hope you understand that in the middle of all this chaos and all this bad news, it’s the enemy trying to distract you so that you will focus on the bad news and miss the good news. Do you not know that more people became millionaires during the Great Depression than at any other time in the history of this country? While others were talking about bread lines and how things were going down and how things were impossible, some people were buying up property, purchasing businesses, and acquiring companies because they were on sale for little or nothing. They recognized that the time didn’t have anything to do with the promise. Every now and then, there are a few people who look beyond the headlines and see the opportunities.
I want to talk to you today because the enemy is trying to distract you with bad news to the point that you don’t see the good news. Let me tell you something: everyone is not worried about the bad news. Not everyone is concerned about the headlines. Other people are searching for opportunities. In spite of the circumstances, I am 99, but God said it’s going to happen. COVID is everywhere; we’re spiking in the city, but God said He’s going to bless me. Things are getting worse than ever, but I believe God is going to bless me. The country looks like it’s falling apart, but God said I’m not looking at any of that. I swear I’m going to bless you.
The headlines have nothing to do with it, and the report has nothing to do with it, and the news has nothing to do with it, and the politics have nothing to do with it, and the disease has nothing to do with it. Is anything too hard for God? Not for America, not for your state, not for your neighborhood, not for your mayor. Is anything too hard for God? I want to preach to you about this because I know that the conditions stand in contradiction to the promises of God. I know that the adversity is great. I know that there are a thousand legitimate reasons for you to sit back and feel uncomfortable, nervous, afraid, isolated, depressed, discouraged, and fearful.
You might sit in the back of your mind and say, «Oh God, I believe You could have done it in 2018. I believe You could have done it in 2015, and maybe You could even have done it in 2019, but Lord, in 2020, there’s no way in the world that You could…» Come from behind the door of unbelief and believe that even now God can do something in your life. Until you get the kind of faith that defies the evidence, you will never get a breakthrough from God. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was dead, He came down to where Lazarus was and went to see Mary and Martha. Martha said, «If You had been here, my brother would not have died.» Mary said, «But even now…» I want somebody with that «even now» faith—the kind of faith that says, «I know he’s dead. I know he stinks. I know we buried him. I know we rolled the stone in front of it, but because You are here, even now. Now You have the power to raise him back up again.»
There are at least a hundred folks listening to me right now; God has an «even now» miracle for you. An «even now» miracle, a miracle that breaks forth in your life, is going to be the best miracle at the worst time. It’s going to be something new coming out of something old. I prophesy and declare unto you today; I’m talking to somebody right now. In the middle of the worst time, you’re going to be telling your grandchildren, «All hell was breaking loose; the country was in chaos; they were burning up neighborhoods; the military was on alert; we didn’t know if the country would stand. But God told me to buy it now, and because I did so, we are where we are right now.»
God is getting ready, God is getting ready to do something in your life. He sent this word to you today because He is tired of you standing behind the door of doubt, fear, and carnality, laughing at His word. You are believing the word of the world and laughing at the promise of God. God said, «I heard you laughing inside of yourself. I heard you saying it was too late. I heard you saying it’s a bad time. I heard you saying it was impossible. But is anything, anything—if it’s a thing, God can do it. God can do anything. Name a thing! Name a thing! Anything you name, God can do it. Is anything too hard for God?» So here she is, the same woman who started out behind the door laughing at God, becomes the first lady of faith mentioned in the hallmark of the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews: «Through faith also…»
It’s almost like the Holy Spirit is bragging on how far He brought her in her thinking. He took her from laughing and lying to believing. «Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.» The one who was laughing and lying grew up; the one who was doubting and worrying grew up. «Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.» This is a Sunday morning for you to receive strength. You’ve been tired; you’ve been depleted; you’ve been weak; you’ve been frustrated; you’ve been out of energy; you’ve been out of gas. Let me tell you why you feel so bad. It’s what you’ve been eating. You’ve been eating carnal food. You’ve been eating worldly thoughts. You’ve been consuming the words of the flesh.
As long as you live off that Egyptian diet, you’re going to die in the wilderness. In order for you to make it to the promised land, you have to eat manna. You have to consume the food that God is sending; you have to eat the word that God is sending. You have to believe the word that God is sending. You have to settle in your spirit: God has spoken, and He is not a man that He should lie, or the son of man that He should repent. I don’t care what time it is; God knows my birthday. God knows how old I am. God knows I haven’t had a cycle. God knows what’s up with Abraham. God knows what’s going on in my life. God knows what’s happening in my situation. But I declare if God says I’m going to have a baby, somebody get me a birthing stool.
I’m going to need a birthing stool because I’m going to go into labor at a strange time and bring forth the promise of God in my life. Who would have thought that Harlan Sanders, on social security, would open up a business that’s a household name all over the world? That somebody drawing a pension or social security of a few hundred dollars a month would open a chicken company and end up starting a business at 65? Who would have thought that someone that old would just be getting started? That God would do a new thing out of an old thing? Who would have thought that could happen to you after all you’ve been through? That God could bring you out of prison and make you the head and not the tail?
That God could do you like Joseph, bringing you out of cell block B and making you the prince of Egypt? Who would have thought that God could take someone with a broken past and a damaged reputation, raise you up, and make you respected in your community? I’m talking about you coming into agreement with what God has spoken over your life. You don’t agree with it; I’m preaching it. You don’t agree with it until you agree with it and stop snickering and saying, «That’s for them but not for me; it might be for her but not for me; it might be for him but not for me.»
Until you stop telling yourself, «I’m stuck in the hood and I can’t get out,» until you stop saying, «There’s no way out, there’s no way up. I can’t do anything. I tried this; I tried that. It failed. I have to stay here. I’m stuck here. I might as well give up and live like I am,» rather than being who I really want to be. Until you stop saying that stuff to yourself, you are still stuck behind the door of unbelief. Why has Sarah laughed behind the door? «I laughed not, Lord.» She lied! I don’t care how long you hear great preaching; I don’t care if you listen to everything I teach on YouTube over and over again, and you can quote it better than me. You can preach it better than me, but until you believe it, it will not work in your life. I’m talking about coming into agreement.
Abraham and Sarah, according to the scriptures I just read with you, were in agreement on how ridiculous God’s word was for them. But as they kept on walking with God, see, most people don’t stay together long enough to walk into a mature place. It takes years to walk into a place of full maturity. She’s 99 years old and they’re still spiritually immature. It takes years to come to a point where you can look the evidence in the face and ask, «Is anything too hard for God?» So when you hear the writer of Hebrews in the 11th chapter talking about the power couple, you’ve got to understand they didn’t start out as a power couple.
They started out as the lying couple, the laughing couple, the doubting couple—the couple of fear and unbelief. But as they kept on walking with God, you’ve got to walk with God through the laughing stage. You’ve got to walk with God through the lying stage. You’ve got to walk with God through the fearing stage. You’ve got to walk with God through the worrying stage. As you continue to walk with God, like scales falling off, little by little, God begins to mature Himself in you to bring you into the power of agreement. «Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.»
You’re going to need strength for what God is getting ready to give you. You’re going to need strength for what God is getting ready to do. That’s why the enemy doesn’t want you to have any strength! That’s why he’s feeding you all that stuff you shouldn’t be consuming—in your mind, in your spirit, in your soul, even in your body—because he doesn’t want you to have the energy to birth. Birthing is hard work—having a baby is labor! I see why they call it labor: you sweat, you grunt, you groan, you break blood vessels.
Birthing a baby is work! You can’t do it tired; you can’t do it depressed; you can’t do it feeling sorry for yourself; you can’t do it doubting yourself; you can’t do it walking in unbelief; you cannot do it walking in fear. «Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.» Strength! She needed strength! Lord, I thought she needed a cycle. I thought she needed a proper husband. I thought she needed to reverse the clock. God said the first thing Sarah needed was strength because Sarah was tired. «Through faith also Sarah herself received strength.»
Strength to conceive! We know she believed because it says, «Through faith she believed.» She didn’t start believing; at some point, she had to come to the place of believing. You come to the place of believing; you don’t just automatically believe. You grow to the place of believing. At first, you’re just making noise; you’re just coming to church; you’re just shouting; you’re just clapping, but you’re not really there yet. You come to the place of believing God. I know she finally got from behind the door and quit lying and laughing. Look at her; she’s a woman of faith! She was lying; she was laughing. Look at all the areas she had to grow in—from laughing to lying to believing! Just because she was lying doesn’t mean she wasn’t.
A woman of God, just because she was laughing, doesn’t mean she wasn’t a woman of God. She had to keep walking, and as she kept walking, she stopped lying, she stopped laughing, and she started believing. I know she was believing because it said, «Through faith, also Sarah herself.» She had the faith; she was believing, but she needed strength to conceive. I want to talk to people who are in between believing and conceiving. You believe it, but you haven’t conceived it yet. The Bible says you have enough faith that you’re through laughing and through lying, and you are believing, but you need strength to conceive.
You need to lift your hands right where you are and ask God to strengthen you, build you up, get you ready, and restore your energy. Stop allowing the enemy to talk you into not being able to do what God has called you to do. I’m talking right to you. I’m addressing your situation, your circumstances, how you feel in your body, how you feel in your head, how you feel in your moods, and how you feel in your situation. You need to receive strength. Right now, strength from the Lord is coming to you; strength from God is coming to you. In order to get from believing to conceiving, you need to receive the strength to conceive the seed.