TD Jakes - Your Obedience Will Unlock Abundance
God is waiting on obedience. As soon as you stop playing pity-pat with God and break down to obedience by doing what He said, God’s got the fish on reserve, waiting on you. The money is not going to be a problem, the buildings are not going to be a problem, and the employees are not going to be a problem. God has everything you need waiting on you. However, because you keep throwing a little bitty net at it, you are only talking about enough. You are with El Shaddai, who is more than enough.
So, here’s Peter, out there, Simon, throwing out his net, and there are so many fish in the net that the net he was washing is now breaking. He calls for help; they went back to the shoreline. Help is on the way as others get in their boats and come out to pull it in. In order for you to get what God is about to give you, you will need partnerships. Whoever is taking this message seriously, let me drop this on you: you will need strategic alignments. You have to have backup in place to receive at the level you are moving toward right now. You cannot do this like you normally do; you have got to have a network.
You are coming against a system, and anytime you come against a system, it takes a system to overcome a system. So when he hollers for help, he gets backup coming from every direction. And even when his friends come in and start dropping in their nets, they are still about to break. How many fish had Peter missed? All of these fish were in the Gennesaret Lake; they were there. Look at how much he missed. My father ran a janitorial service, and it used to make me mad. We would be cleaning up offices, sweeping the floors, and he would come in behind me and sweep the floor I just swept, saying, «Boy, look at what you missed.»
As I was sweeping, I would think, «What in the world is going on here? Look at what you missed!» I couldn’t say anything because I knew he didn’t throw the dirt down. Do you have any idea what you have missed while you are washing your nets? There are so many fish waiting on you to obey God that when you do obey God, your net and neither the net of your partners will be enough, but together they pulled it in.
It’s going to stretch you; it’s going to stretch you. It’s going to take you out of your comfort zone; it’s going to challenge your belief systems. It will come against all the things that have been ingrained in your mind that define you, but it is yours. You have permission; you have permission; you have permission; you have permission. And listen, it isn’t even supposed to be happening during the day, but God is going to give it to you out of season, out of sequence, out of order, out of the natural line—it doesn’t make sense.
There is no natural order or sequence to it. It’s not supposed to happen during the day. I’ve been out in the ocean in the heat of the day, and when it gets really hot, the fish go deep; they get away from the heat and go down deep where it’s cold. This is not supposed to be happening. God is going to give you something that’s not even supposed to be happening, not at this time in your life, not at this stage in your life, not at this point in your career, not at this point in your ministry, and not at this point in your business.
If you would tweak your traditions and move away from your limited belief system, this message is a warning that your limited belief system will cause you to miss the drought of fish that God has for you. You are called to the deep, not the shallow. You cannot do deep business in shallow water. You have got to have a system to fight a system. You have been conditioned to have low expectations. Now He is going to do something abundant in your life.
Wait, don’t clap yet because your nets are going to strain to the breaking point to bring this in. It’s going to take everything you’ve got. You cannot be how you are. You can’t say, «That’s just how I am.» No, all of that has got to break. In order to bring this in, you must break your limited belief systems and what you’ve said to yourself: «I’m almost where I want to be.» Are you with me? Are you with me? I said, are you with me?
This is more than just about the fish. Yes, they brought in multitudes of fish; it was amazing. In the King James version, it says they brought in multitudes of fish. That is great, that is wonderful; that is commerce, that is economy, that is prosperity, that is equity, that is resources, and that is Peter’s business exploding beyond human comprehension, filling his boat and filling his partners' boats until everything associated with Peter got blessed because Peter had an encounter with Jesus.
It is not a result of Peter’s righteousness because Simon Peter said to Jesus, «I am a sinful man.» Therefore, the fish are not a reward for his righteousness; the fish are a reward for his obedience. Do you hear what I am saying? The fish are a reward for his obedience. And let me tell you what Jesus says to him: «I am going to bless you and your business and give you more fish than you could ever imagine. I am going to unlock your limitations and give you an exceedingly, abundantly beyond blessing that’s going to strain all your systems to bring it in.»