TD Jakes - Open the Eyes of Your Understanding
So believing is light; believing is light, and it is in the atmosphere of light that God creates. Isn’t it funny to think about? In the New Testament, the healing that perpetuates itself over and over again is not just the man with palsy, nor just the ten lepers, but the one that repeats itself time and time again: it’s the healing of blindness. Every time God heals a man of blindness, is He not saying, «Let there be light»? Over and over again, just as the Father did in creation, the Son does in redemption; He says, «Let there be light.»
That light first illuminated physical eyes, but could it be possible that the healing of physical eyes is just a simulation of the healing of spiritual eyes? Let’s go deeper. We have two sets of senses; all believers do. We have our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our smell, and our touch—all of those natural senses that work in us as human beings. But we also have a second set of senses that are not physically induced; they are our spiritual senses, and our spiritual senses are very important. Paul says, «I pray that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened.»
The most graphic display I see of the eyes of your understanding being enlightened happened to the writer himself when he was on the road to Damascus. He lost his physical eyesight, but he gained his insight. There are plenty of people in the room who have great eyesight, but there is a difference between having great eyesight and having great insight. My eyes are growing dim; that’s why I have these large apparatuses on my eyes.
I turned 40, and my Bible started shrinking—that’s what I thought happened at first. Then I broke down and accepted the fact that no, my eyes are getting dim. But though my outer eyes are getting dim, oh baby, my inner eyes are keener than they have ever been in all of my life! For the entrance of my word, the Bible says, giveth light. The entrance of Thy word giveth light is not talking about sunshine; it means the more word I take in, the more enlightened I become. Are you hearing what I’m saying? The entrance of Thy word giveth light. So if the enemy could do anything to stop you from hearing, he would do it, because if you get it in your ear, it resonates through your inner ear. Are you hearing what I’m saying?
When we look at Jesus, He has come to bring light, because in Him was light, and there is no darkness at all—there is no darkness at all in Jesus. Jesus has so much light that the sun will lose its job in heaven. The Bible says in the book of Revelation that the face of Jesus will light up the world. Can you imagine a face that would outshine the sun?
That’s what glory looks like. That’s why glory beams were shooting out of the face of Moses, and they had to veil his face, because carnal people can’t stand great lights. Some of you are hated because you are great, yeah, yeah, yeah. I told you, evil men love darkness because their deeds are evil, and every time you walk into the office, you come in there with your bright lights, and that’s why you get on their nerves—because they don’t like to see that kind of light; they love darkness.
I thought the light people would shout me down right now. You’ve changed your hair, you’ve changed your clothes, you’ve changed your makeup, you’ve changed your dress, and they still don’t like it. You don’t understand; it’s not what you have on, it’s what you have in you that gets on their nerves. Jesus came to bring light into the world, just like the Father said, «Let there be light.» Let me prove it to you. The Apostle Paul says that the light of the glory of God would shine in our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ, and he parallels the creation in his declaration that the same thing that the Father did in creation, the Son does in redemption; He brings light, and everything grows in light.
I’m just teasing you; I haven’t gotten to the point yet, but I’m coming. Everything grows in light. I don’t care how healthy the plant is; if you put it in a closet, it’s going to wither, because everything grows in light. Say that with me: everything grows in light. So if I were the enemy, I would bring dark people into your life to try to neutralize the brilliance of your light to stop you from growing to your fullest potential. There are some things that can get a little bit of light and still grow, but for full capacity, you need bright lights.
«Let there be light.» I’ll deal with the mud after I create the light. I’ll deal with the air once I create the light. I’ll deal with the seas once I create the light. But the first thing I need to straighten out this chaos is light. Help me to see, not just with these eyes but with these inner eyes. They led Paul away from Damascus, blind but enlightened. So he prays in Ephesians that the eyes of your understanding might be enlightened, that you might know what is the hope of His calling and what is His inheritance in the saints and what is His exceeding richness toward us who believe in Christ. He said, «I want you to know it! I don’t want you to be around something and not see it.»
How many times in your life have you said, «How could I not see that? Betrayed or denied or belittled by somebody you trusted, and you wonder, 'How could I not see that? It’s right in front of my face, and I missed it.'» How can I not see that? Jesus came to display the glory of God, and we beheld the wonder of His glory, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus came to reveal what was concealed in the Old Testament. Jesus came to be the light of the world. «I am the light of the world, a city set upon a hill that cannot be hid.» Somebody holler, «Light!» You don’t know; when you said «light,» you just called Jesus. If your kidneys are failing, touch them and say «light.»
If your lungs have failed, touch them and say «light.» The entrance of Thy word giveth light. When the word comes in, the light comes in, and the darkness has got to run for its life. If you’ve been dealing with depression, lay hands on your head and say «light.» Some people can’t see what’s right in front of them. There have been moments when I haven’t seen what was right in front of me, and then I got frustrated because I couldn’t believe I missed it. Some people can’t see what’s right in front of their own house. They can’t see their own kids, can’t see their own spouse.
I listen to my mother tell people things we would never do, when I had already done them. Can we be real this morning? «My children would never say something like that.» And I had cursed Miss Paige completely out. And I looked at her like, «Yeah, Mommy.» So this light has to be developed in us. The presentation of Jesus does not fulfill the mission of creating light. So Jesus sets about doing miracles, and the miracles are done to enlighten us, or they make no sense. Why waste time healing people who are going to die anyway?
If you’re an eternal God and believe in eternal life, then you don’t cling to physical life with the same fierceness that we do because we haven’t seen anything else. But if you know that time is just a sliver in the power of eternity, why would I struggle to heal you so you can die again? Think about it; I’m just asking a question. Why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead when he died again? Is He not just displaying power? Power so that unbelievers can believe. «This sickness,» let me quote Him, «is not unto death, but for the glory of God.» And that’s why I didn’t heal him, because I needed him to die, so I could show off how powerful I am. And if I tell you what, Lazarus died to create a platform of impossibility so that when Jesus got there, He could say, «Roll the stone away, Lazarus, come forth!»
And suddenly, they believed in Jesus because He brought light into a dark place. Most of the miracles Jesus did were absolutely amazing, though, for temporal people who needed healing—the woman with the issue of blood, untouched for 12 long years, unloved and unable to be held by her husband, friends, or companions. No touch, no welcoming; she was unclean according to the Levitical laws and, therefore, untouchable. She wore the scarlet letter on her head like the scarlet letter in the story, but her scarlet letter wasn’t a letter on her head, but the bleeding from her womb.
The loneliness must have been just as traumatic as the physical condition itself. There was no comfort, no healing, and every doctor who tried to heal her had failed, and she had also become depleted financially. She was hemorrhaging blood, she was hemorrhaging relationships, and she was hemorrhaging finances. And then, with one touch—no, no, it wasn’t that Jesus touched her; it was that she touched Him. You’ve got to stop sitting in church with your legs crossed, waiting on Jesus to touch you, and get radical enough to go for it and touch Him, because one touch can stop everything that’s leaking out of your life—your business, your health, your relationships.
One touch from Jesus can break generational curses and turn your life around. One touch from Jesus, and you’re still going to keep your legs crossed and sit back, being wonderful when I’m teaching you that one touch from Jesus could change your life! If you touch Him, somebody touched me! Somebody touched me! A lot of people brushed up against me, but somebody touched me. Jesus is walking up and down the aisles of this church, waiting on somebody to touch Him. Can I hear some glory in this place?