TD Jakes - Breaking Free from Limiting Beliefs
Sometimes, God will give you revelations into things that do not align with your experience. You know it; you just know it. You don’t know how you know it, but you just know it. You can do it; you don’t know how you can do it, but you can just do it. You weren’t trained to do it; you didn’t go to school to do it. Yet, certain things are wired into your DNA that God has gifted you to do, and you know you can do them. It doesn’t make any sense that you can do it, and many people don’t like that you can do it.
They resent you for it, but you can still do it because the Lord has revealed it unto you. The Lord has shown it unto you. The Lord has expressed it unto you. The Lord has given it unto you. You are gifted. How many people are honest enough to admit that some of the things you’re able to do, you can’t explain? You’re just gifted. Touch your neighbor and say, «I’ve been gifted.» With that gift comes a responsibility. If God thought enough of you to give you a gift, there must be a certain level of responsibility that comes with that gift — that you be a good steward of it.
What the enemy tries to do to the gifted is distract them with trials and temptations so they don’t walk into their legacy or understand who they are because they’re gifted. What the enemy tries to do with the gifted is raise up and anoint people to hate you because they don’t understand why they worked so hard and got so much less, while you did so little and God used you in such a mighty way. It’s just said that God gave it to you. The gift is the grace of God, the gift is the grace of God. I’m going to say it again for the people over here: the gift is — let me say it for the people in the balcony — the gift is the grace of God. The gift is the grace of God, and the enemy is trying to tell you that you don’t have anything to offer, but the devil is a liar. Everything you have is a gift from God. Somebody shout me down right here!
In our text, Paul seems to have the greatest depth of insight and revelation about the Lord’s table and the Lord’s supper, and he didn’t even have a seat at the table. Who can do that but God? Who can get you up to speed? You’re three years behind, yet God, all by Himself… y’all didn’t get that. Let me try it again: you’re three years behind, and God just goes and brings you knowledge. Knowledge from God doesn’t come through letters or words; it’s just something you know. You don’t know how you know it. You can’t prove it or explain it to people, but you know that you know that you know. If you’re gifted, sometimes you don’t even recognize that you’re gifted because gifted feels normal to you. That’s why you need certain kinds of people around you who are not intimidated, so they can reflect the glory of God. Sometimes you don’t even notice how effective you are.
So, you can be gifted and insecure, especially if you don’t have people who are secure enough to reflect your glory. That’s why God created man in the first place: to reflect His glory. God said, «I want to see what I look like,» and He made man out of the dust of the earth so He could see Himself in Adam. But when Adam sinned, God couldn’t see Himself and said, «Adam, where art thou? I can’t see Myself.» Something has darkened the glory. You should be illuminating the Garden of Eden; if you have glory, you have light. When you walk into a room, you bring light into it. Glory to God! When you have glory on your life, you have enlightenment. Enlightenment is separate from education.
I’m a great proponent of education; that’s why we have a divinity school. But education will never replace enlightenment. Paul is enlightened in a way that causes other disciples to be a little off-putting toward him. When you are truly blessed, people will get an attitude and resist you simply because you are blessed, leaving you wondering, «What did I do to them? Why don’t they like me? Why are they talking about me?» They don’t understand that light is coming off you in a way that makes men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, and some folks are just evil. Stop trying to psychoanalyze it; you can’t counsel it. They are just evil. Judas was just evil; he was the son of perdition, and evil people will always act according to their nature.
Once you teach me you are evil, I don’t expect anything good to come from you. You should know the tree by the fruit it bears, so I can’t expect you to produce good things when your roots are nasty. I just helped somebody right there; I just helped someone. If you are feeling disappointed with their behavior, how could they act any other way? They are acting that way because that is who they are. I’ve got something; you’ve got something; we’ve got something. We didn’t earn it; we didn’t work for it; we didn’t labor for it — we just stepped into it!
Tell your neighbor, «I just stepped into it.» I didn’t earn it; I just stepped into it. I just stepped into it! I haven’t been trained; I didn’t go to school for it. Does anybody know what I’m talking about? I just stepped into it! Sometimes I was in it, and I didn’t even know I was in it until someone told me the effect it had on them. I didn’t even know it was valuable; I just stepped into it. I can just fix cars; I can just build houses; I can just fix things; I can just do things; I can just bake things. I just… somebody’s getting ready to… in fact, let’s decree and declare: shake hands with somebody and say, «In 2024, I’m just going to step into it!»