TD Jakes - What is Impossible With Man is Possible With God
You have to be strong to adhere to your convictions because the tidal wave, the tsunami wave of public opinion and what they call culture, has bombarded theology to the point that theology has laryngitis and lost its voice in this present age. We are in trouble, and as it is now, so it was then. There were the Pharisees, who didn’t really like the Sadducees, but they got together to fight Jesus, each one having their own versions, ideas, and philosophies that were pervasive in the day. Jesus stood firm in His convictions, willing to debate them. Their doctrines and philosophies did not intimidate Jesus because He understood that it was an ideological war. An ideological war has no bullets, no guns, no grenades. It is a war of opinions and ideas.
There was a group that existed in the early church called Gnostics or Gnosticism—not with a «k,» but with a «g,» although it means the same, as if we were to put a «k-n-o.» There’s «g-n-o,» Gnosticism. It is where we get the word agnostic. To be agnostic is to not know. So if somebody says to you, «I’m agnostic,» they’re not claiming that they don’t believe in God; they’re just saying, «I don’t know.» Gnostic means to know. Gnosticism in the early church was the prevailing ideology that suggested that they knew God and that they intellectually ascended up the ladder to God. In fact, they thought that Jesus was just a step up the ladder to God.
They believed that the more you know, the more you transformed into a type of god. The problem with that idea is this: God cannot be just and be Gnostic because, in order to be just, we would all have to have the same IQ. To the person who is dull of wit, slow to learn, or unable to grasp certain ideas, God would be beyond their reach if Gnosticism were true. If Gnosticism were true, the smarter you were, the more like God you were, which would mean that God could only be embraced through knowledge.
The Pharisees thought that the way to approach God was through acts of holiness and self-righteousness. They believed that the more righteous and pious they were, the closer they were to God. Thus, they were known for their long prayers, their long garments, their deeds, their prayers, and their rituals. They believed that through ritualism and routine, they could get to God.
In the midst of all these varying ideas, the Sadducees, for example, believed that the spirit of the body didn’t leave a person for three days. That is why Jesus waited until Lazarus had been dead for four days, so that the Sadducees couldn’t say He didn’t really raise him from the dead because he wasn’t within the parameters of their theology. Jesus waited until there was no doubt among the skeptics that Lazarus was dead.
So Mary says to Him, «Don’t go to the grave now because by now he stinketh.» God has a way of not showing up until it’s stinky. God has a way of not giving an old man a baby until he’s impotent, and his wife is past childbearing age. Even if she weren’t past childbearing age, she was barren. When it was totally impossible for man, God stepped in and said, «Now I’m ready to do something.»
Have you ever watched God let you wear yourself out trying to do things by yourself? Finally, when you give up and say, «Okay, God, I can’t do it,» that’s when He steps in and shows Himself strong. Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith is not a New Testament idea and is not a result of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. From the creation of man onward, people have been moved by faith. The book of Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith cannot be confined by dispensations, structures, or order.
To break it down simply, it reminds us that faith never goes out of style. A lot of other things will go out of style, but by the time I found a pair of skinny jeans that could fit me and decided that it might be okay to wear them, they weren’t in style anymore. People changed their minds week to week to get a little bit more of your money. By the time you got an Apple 7, they came out with an Apple 8. By the time you got an Apple 10, they released the Apple 12. I stopped counting. I said, «This isn’t working for me.»
Faith never goes out of style. It doesn’t wait for the transition of time or the coming of Moses. It exists before Moses, it exists before the Pentateuch, it exists before the law. Faith just is. But the reason faith «is» is that it’s a common denominator that, regardless of how intellectual you are or not, you have equal access to it. Because faith is the gateway to everything promised to you.
Now, this is deep, but you need to understand this. Some people who are exceptionally smart are also exceptionally frustrated because they think that they should be compensated based on their intellect. Here you come in with fewer degrees and get paid more, and they can’t understand how you got what you got. Somebody holler, «It’s a faith thing.»
There’s a fine woman looking at an ordinary woman saying, «How did you get a man like that?» It is not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. It is a faith thing.
Now, in order to have faith, how do I get faith? Today, we think faith is willpower. So when we get sick, we say, «I just believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I confess it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe I’m healed.» It’s like saying, «I believe I’m going to hit the lottery.» They’re all in Vegas pulling the lottery down, «I believe. I believe. I believe.»
But it doesn’t say «have faith in faith.» It says «have faith in God.» Now, faith has nothing to do without hope. You can have faith all you want, but if you don’t have hope, you can’t do anything. Let me finish that thought: The reason faith is a common denominator is that Jesus said, «Except you become like a little child, you shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.» That means He has reduced it down.
I use this phrase all the time; it’s out of style. They don’t teach it in schools like that anymore, but we used to reduce fractions down to their lowest common denominator and then multiply. That’s how I was taught in school. They don’t teach it that way anymore; they’ve got a whole different method. You had to find the lowest common denominator in order to do it.
Faith is God’s lowest common denominator. He’s brought it down so low that you can be illiterate and still believe. If an illiterate man gets sick beside an intellectual man, the intellectual man has no more advantage over the illiterate man when it comes to miracles because it’s by faith. The Gentile has no more power than the Jew because it’s by faith.
If you walk slowly through the book of Romans, Paul will prove to you he teaches you who the Jews were, how their history was, and he goes all the way back to the antiquities and their ancestry. He validates who they were, and then he counts and says it doesn’t mean anything. Then he talks about the Gentiles, how wild they were, how perverted they were, and how promiscuous they were, and he says it doesn’t mean anything because God has equalized the playing field. He’s brought it down to just by faith.
There are some righteous women here who grew up righteous. You’ve always been pure, always been virtuous, always been honorable. When you got married, you were a virgin, and you’re sitting right beside a woman who wasn’t. You don’t get any more glory when the glory falls than the woman who was not pure because it’s not by works, lest any man should boast. It’s by faith.
This is why you have haters. Haters don’t think you deserve to have what you have because they think they are better, purer, smarter, better looking, or brighter. But look at somebody and say, «No, no, no, no, no, it’s a faith thing.» I know it doesn’t make sense to you that I got a promotion. I know it doesn’t make sense to you that I pastor a church like this. I know it doesn’t make sense that I’m directing the choir. I know it doesn’t make sense that God has raised me up.
I know it doesn’t make sense that God put me on the cover of Time magazine; I didn’t have any business being on the cover of Time. I didn’t make any great discovery; I didn’t do anything. It’s not going to make sense to you because what God is getting ready to do in your life is totally illogical. It makes no sense; it has no rationale, and you have no background.
I don’t know who I’m talking to, but I’m getting somebody ready to receive it. The problem with you receiving the promises of God, I’m just talking; I haven’t even started yet. The problem with receiving the promises of God is that sometimes God promises you the most illogical things. As long as I’ve been walking with God, He said something to me a few years ago. I wrestled with Him for about three years, telling Him, «I don’t even know anything about that. How could you give that to me? I don’t have any background in that; I wasn’t qualified for that.» God was busily building it up.
It didn’t make any sense, and it scared me. Can I be honest with you? The person teaching you faith got scared because sometimes God has something for you that is so mind-boggling. Can I just be honest? I wrestled with Him like Jacob. It was a good thing; it was a great blessing; it had great purpose, but I didn’t want to touch it because it didn’t make sense.
Then I thought it didn’t make sense for David to be king. How do you make a shepherd boy a king? He had no background, no protocol. His father was a peasant; he grew up taking care of sheep. He hadn’t been trained; he didn’t go to school for it; he wasn’t prepared for it. But God said, «I found me a man who’s after my heart, and he’s going to be the next king of Israel.» For it is not by might, it is not by power, it is by My Spirit, saith the Lord.
I say this because there are some things that God said to you that are frightening. It doesn’t make sense; you’re scared; you’re reluctant to receive it. You don’t feel qualified, you don’t feel ready, and yet God’s going to do it. He told me to tell you, «It is a faith thing.» Whoever I’m talking to, give Him a praise.