TD Jakes - In Flickering Light
I was reading an article, and obviously, the offering at the end of services… Oh, I was reading an article that really enhanced my message. The article didn’t produce my message; it actually complemented it, and I want to read an excerpt from it. I think it’s going to be quite helpful. Let me see; I’m going to read it from my pad. It’s just a text—let me put it in context so it makes sense. The article discusses the exit of the Millennial generation from religious institutions, noting that an increasing number of Millennials, according to the article, declare themselves as «nuns.»
While I have many thoughts about the accuracy of that, I’m not sure they are so much exiting faith in Christ as much as they are developing an aversion to organized religion. But for the purposes of the article, they could not differentiate between the shifts we see in church attendance and how that has a bearing on one’s relationship with God. They associate Christianity with buildings. I do not, because Christ never saw a church like this, and the early church didn’t either; they met outside and in homes. Our faith cannot be locked up behind walls. Nevertheless, the statement is nonetheless true that there has been a decline among most groups—not all, particularly not ours—but there has been a decline in church attendance based on this growing group of people who call themselves «nuns.»
They don’t want to be labeled; they don’t want to be classified. And that’s not just true about religion; that’s true about politics, education, and every institution that is having to shift in how we feed the flock of God, because all of them are not gathered within contemporary walls—some are gathered online. You see, they have new ways of ingesting information. Restaurants are having to adjust; Target is having to adjust. Those that do not have adjusted simply collapse. JC Penney is going down; Sears is going down. We are seeing a worldwide shift in all institutions. This does not negate the efficacious power of the blood of the Lamb; it’s just a season we are going through.
So anyway, let me go back to what they said—leave what I said alone. They said the flip side of this is that religious and married parents nurture substantially more children than do unmarried and unreligious parents. Of the children of parents who show a very high commitment to religious practices, such as religious education, reading scripture at home, and church attendance, 93% remained in the faith as adults. In other words, the entire premise of the article is built around the fact that if Millennials are declining in attendance, it’s because the Boomers didn’t carry their kids to church. They’re saying that if you change what your children see, you can change what your children will become. It goes on to say this means that the «nuns» phenomenon will soon peak and begin to die out. In 2017, the Pew Research Center forecasted that by 2060, «nuns» will be a shrinking share of the world population, and the world’s future will be more inclined to attend local church services.
I couldn’t help but think about this in my own life. I asked some young people coming up in the elevator, «Tell me about your parents.» They said, «My parents go to this church; my parents raised me in church. I’ve been in church all my life.» That’s also my experience as well. Watching the way we raised our children, it was not uncommon to see us pray over food. It was not uncommon to see their mother, in particular, praying for them in the morning before sending them off to school. Let us not place the entire responsibility for Christian development on the church. The real impact of faith happens in what you do in your house. When children see you honor God in the home—blessing the food, praying when you’re going through trouble, grabbing their hands in the morning and sending them off with a brief word of prayer—little things like that instill values in children.
What it really boils down to is that while you may be mentored at church, what you are modeled at home will override what you are mentoring. Do you hear what I’m saying to you? So I want you to think about that. I want you to hold that. Everything I’ve been saying of late is centered around bringing Christ out of the church, into your house, into your car, into your life, into your iPad. I want to be able to look down your Twitter feed and see some Jesus. I want to be able to go on your Instagram and see the pictures line up with what you showed me on Sunday morning. I don’t want to see…well, they told me not to say that, so I won’t. Some of your handles conflict with how I love you, and I’m shocked when I see some handles, because they don’t match up with the sister I just saw running all over the church.
It got quiet for a minute; some of you are changing your handles right now because you didn’t know I was looking. But I’ve been peeking, checking you out. We want to address the inconsistencies between Sunday and Monday, where you are not just someone who goes to church on Sunday, but you have had an encounter—a real, meaningful experience—with God. It begins when you see God differently, not just as a police officer over your behavior, but as a family member. That’s why Jesus said when you pray, start out by saying, «Our Father.» He didn’t say, «Our God, O ruler, our master.» He is all of that, but He wanted you to feel the intimacy of a relationship with God rather than the religious responsibility of a relationship. It’s not at all about religion. It’s all about relationship. Oh, you ought to be shutting me down!
Anyway, I’m going to go to the Word of God. I’ll be in 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verses 1 through 4. I’m just going to read a few passages. I’m not even going to exegete the entirety of the story; there’s just something that caught my eye in this very familiar text. I love this text. I’m scared to get too deep into it, because I could stay too long. I could spend the night in this text. Both of my personal and spiritual life, this text has fed me in ways I can’t even begin to explain. Sometime, at your leisure, read through the whole chapter. We are looking at…well, let me go into it and I’ll show you what we’re looking at. The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.
In those days, the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the Ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel, and Samuel answered, «Here I am.» Can you say amen? I want to talk about the flickering lights. What stands out to me in the King James Version is the translation that says, «And ere the lamp of God went out.» God called Samuel in flickering light. You know how it is when the candle is about to go out, or an oil lamp is about to go out, and you’ve run out of oil, and it’s down to the last little bit. The light begins to flicker. It’s the flicker I’m after; it’s not really Samuel, it’s not really Eli; it’s the flickering that drew my fascination.
Father God, in the name of Jesus, I stand before you today because there is no other God. I can stand before you; alone are You God, and besides You, there is no other. It is with great humility that I stand in Your presence today, for no other reason but to honor You, appreciate You, thank You, and acknowledge that I’m literally standing in Your grace. I have both feet in Your mercy, and it is by that mercy that we are not consumed. As we share the bread of life today, may it be so powerful, profound, and prolific, not that I am recognized, but that You are recognized; that hell is horrified, that demons tremble, and that sickness flees the room. I thank You, Lord, for weariness and tiredness leaving our bodies. I thank You for nervousness and stress taking wings and flying out of this place. I trust You over the next few moments to give bread to the eater. You don’t have to feed someone who refuses to be fed, but, Father, give bread to the eater wherever they are, whether they’re in the church or sitting on the couch. Give bread to the eater. I thank You in advance for what You’re going to do. Have Your way in this place. In Jesus' name, somebody shout, «Amen.»
You may be seated. Yeah, let’s go to work. The Bible teaches us clearly about the purpose of God; it has a lot to say about it. Much has been written, sung, and said about the purpose of God. I myself have shared and taught series on the purpose of God, included it in my books, and shared it through the resources available to you, letting you know that you are not an incident, accident, or mistake—that you are intentional, that God thought you here. Yeah, that’s a good one right there: God thought you here. That’s why that particular sperm cell outswam all the rest, because you were chosen before you were born. So why would you now think that the choice is based on you, since you were selected from the very beginning?
God says it this way: «Before I formed you in the womb, I knew thee and ordained you to be a prophet unto the nations.» Before you had Bible study, before you had your class, before you cleaned up your life, before you got baptized, and before you even knew who God was, God selected you. Now, the circumstances surrounding your birth may not have been ideal, but environments are irrelevant to choice. In fact, God has a way of picking the most unlikely people to do the most amazing things. Whenever such discussions emerge and we begin to talk about these things, a lot of times on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, I start getting questions back from the little clips they share, stating that «Bishop, dishonor hurts my uncertainty.» It exists in many of us, because we have great musings and confusions about what God’s purpose is for our lives.
Am I on the right track or not? Am I doing what God called me to do? Am I serving the way He wants me to serve? Am I in the right city? Did I move to the right house? Did I get the right companion? Did I get this or that? We carry purpose into minutiae. You know, should I be a cashier or a manager? If it has nothing to do with outcomes, it is all left up to you. That is to say, God doesn’t care whether you bought the blue house or the white one, as long as it doesn’t affect your purpose or your destiny. God doesn’t care. It’s like me on my GPS system when I’m driving in a strange place.
Okay, I admit it; I use it—even in Dallas. But what gets on my nerves about the GPS system is that sometimes she talks too much! Okay? I think, «Shut up, I know this part.» Then other times, she talks too little, because I’m driving through a place of uncertainty. Uncertainty scares me, and I need her to reaffirm me by saying, «You’re on the right track. Don’t worry, you’re five miles away. Just keep going.» But the propensity of the GPS system is not to talk unless it affects the destination. Are you hearing what I’m saying to you?
What I want you to think about from a godly perspective is that purpose for your life didn’t begin with you. And this is what I love about God; He is a strategist. Purpose didn’t begin when you got converted. Purpose didn’t begin when you were born. Purpose has been set in place from generation to generation. The stage is set before the call begins. If you will remember, Samuel’s mother, Hannah, had a barren womb. Now understand that when we start talking about barren wombs, barren wombs speak to the same thing that hunger does. The Bible says, «He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled.» So attitude has something to do with altitude.
God says, «I’m not going to force-feed you. You have to want this.» The barrenness of his mother created an urgency and appreciation for a child, and if it had not been enough alone, he said, «Penina,» who constantly provoked her, modeled what success looks like. Because a lot of times, if you don’t know what success looks like, you will settle for okay. If you’re waiting for me to preach, I already started. He created the environment of discomfort that would ultimately drive Samuel’s mother, Hannah, into the presence of God. Now I want you to hear that, because I want you to understand that God is not a flight attendant; He is not there for your comfort. The God who creates comfort—whose Holy Spirit is the Comforter—is also the God of discomfort. He chooses which tool He needs to use to shift you into purpose and place of destiny, if comfort does it, do it.
God will make you uncomfortable where you are, however you define discomfort, to create an environment that shifts you. My GPS tells me to make the turn, get in the middle lane, get in the right lane, and I’m in the right lane. This kills me—what exit to get off? And then, when I get up to it, it feels like these things are blind; some make the heart race. Make the turn! Like she’s going to jump out of the car and beat me up. God says, «I will make you uncomfortable before I let you miss a turn.»
So let’s look at it this way for a minute. I’m going to give you another scripture: Romans 8:28–30. Some of you could probably quote it, but it’s important to the setup for what I’m about to say. For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Who have been what? Called according to His purpose. So there’s a land of connectivity between calling and purpose. I was upstairs, telling them Brenda Ellis was singing that first song with the choir. I said, «How do these singers remember all these words to all these songs? I can’t think of a song to save my life. I could sing about two lines and then forget the rest.»
But I can quote scriptures in my sleep; I can remember messages I preached when I was 25 years old, the whole sermon laid out, and everything is still in my head now. The reason I can’t do what they do is because God has said, «Make the turn, make the turn.» You see, I thought I was called to gospel music; I grew up playing the piano and directing the choir. If God had forced me to make the turn, I would have been somewhere in the choir. I can’t play well enough to be in the band, but I would have been somewhere in the choir singing songs. But the Holy Ghost said, «Make the turn, make the turn.» Because you are called according to His purpose, He said, «I’ll send you somebody to play for you; I’ll send you somebody to sing for you. I know you like music, but that’s not what I want you to do.
I predestined you to do something else.» Some of the things that you think are the devil are really God saying, «Make the turn, make the turn.» I know you don’t want to do it, but make the turn. He will whip you to solace; He will whip you into submission; He will drive you away from your insecurities. Make the turn, make the turn. He’ll give courage to the discouraged; He’ll give strength to the afraid in order to make you make the turn in time. Many times, verse 29, for those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed. But those who—wait. We wait for those God foreknew. I’m not going to get into it. If those God foreknew, He knew me for little. He knew me before He knew me, before He met amazing people.
So how could I surprise Him? You might surprise you; you might surprise your mama; you might surprise your church; you might surprise your friend. But how could you surprise a God who foreknew you? God says, «I know your thoughts are far off before they even get to your head. I see them coming.» Those He did foreknow, He also predestined. Those that He foreknew, He predestined; He already set up the stage. Now watch this: I want you to give this. He foreknew me and He predestined me without me. So I don’t remember His foreknowledge because I don’t have foreknowledge. So I can’t bear witness to His foreknowledge other than through the Word of God because I was not cognizant of the fact that while I was filling my daddy’s shoes, God foreknew me.
But the Bible says that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek while he was still in the loins of Abraham. That means when I pay tithes, I bless my sperm cells, my seeds, my children—not even born yet. God said I already blessed them in their father. He foreknew you; He foreknew you. I didn’t like my father, even if it accomplishes the purpose of God. God will use a sewer rat; God will use a harlot; God will use an ass and give it the ability to speak in order to accomplish His purpose. His purpose trumps every problem in your life. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. To be conformed is uncomfortable. You can’t form a clay vase without pushing on it, without pulling on it, without applying pressure. I would suggest to you that most of what you call demonic attack and spiritual warfare is just the Potter pushing on the clay to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. For those He predestined, He also called.
Now this is when it gets good. Though all the foreknowledge and all the predestination, He did without my knowledge, and then when He calls me, He brings me into a setup that was already in place. «You don’t know,» I said. They say, «I wasn’t good.» You’re not listening to what I’m saying. It doesn’t have to feel good to be God. For those He predestined, He also called. And because I knew you would mess things up, those He called, He also justified. Those He justified, He also glorified. So, I predetermined the end from the beginning because I knew you, and I know exactly where to push you to make you move cities. I know exactly where to push you to make you join churches.
I know exactly where to push you to shift you into a destiny move. I know exactly where to push you to force you to have a hunger to take the right courses in the right schools to prepare your mind for what I’m going to do in your life. Hear this: Nothing that you have gone through shall be wasted. I’m gonna tell you all over here, because y’all look more spiritual tonight, nothing that you have been through shall be wasted—not one tear, not one soul, not one agony, not one mistake, not one misfortune, not one accident. Nothing that you have been through shall be wasted. Jonah, you’re a real good prophet. I’m going to send you to Nineveh. I’m not going to dinner, but I’m going to touch it. Go ahead and go to Tarshish; I’m going to use that. Go ahead and run. I’m going to use your running away from me for my glory.
I’m gonna let the fish swallow you up and leave you at the bottom of the mountains for three days and bring you out just so Christ can come along and say, «Even as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth.» Your pain in the shadow of my power! Oh my God! But in a narcissistic society where you think everything is about you, you fail to understand that God has been setting you up before you even existed. You don’t bring the actor on and then set the stage; you set the stage before the scene is executed. You know, in the film business, you don’t even shoot the movie in sequence. If it’s convenient and budgetarily efficient, you may shoot the last scene before you shoot the first scene, and then in the editing suite, you cut it until it all fits together to come in to the ending that has been predestined from the beginning. Oh, are you with me?
So we enter into the text at the point of the unveiling of the purpose of God for Samuel’s life. It’s not the beginning of the story; this is when he comes into the awareness of what God has predestined and foreknown in his life, making decisions about me without me. The call is when I become aware of who I am in Him. Are you following me? Good. Up until this moment, all Samuel knows is religion. If you read down in the text, you will find that Samuel knew religion before he knew relationship. Be careful that you don’t feed people religion to hide the fact that you don’t have a relationship. A lot of the cute preachers that you see today use a lot of metaphors and a lot of social colloquialisms to hide the fact that they don’t study. People have a way of covering for their inadequacies; if they razzle-dazzle you with this, you won’t notice that I really didn’t develop that.
We have this young man working in the temple, and the Bible clearly says that he does not know the Lord. That means evangelism doesn’t start out there; sometimes, you have to convert the converted because we’re all in here, but some of us have taken placebos. Now, the doctors know exactly what I’m talking about when I say placebo. Everybody gets a pill, but you can’t tell which pill they got, but some of them have a placebo. So you can get an honest assessment of the effectiveness of the medication. Everybody’s sitting here, but everybody’s not getting the Word. Some are getting a placebo because they’re not really focused on the Word of God; they just want to say they went to church.
I’m just warming up; I haven’t even gotten to the point yet. But a fiery test will tell whether you took the medication or whether you have a placebo. People will let you know whether you got the real deal or if you got a placebo. If your feelings can get hurt and you quit, you didn’t really have an encounter with God; you had an encounter with me. But if you had an encounter with God, yes, you got an encounter with God; you’ll stay with Him when He’s pushing on the clay. You’ll stay with Him when He’s pulling you into places that you don’t feel comfortable in. You’ll stay with Him when friends surround you; you’ll stay with Him when friends leave you. You’ll stay with Him when everybody loves you; you’ll stay with Him when everybody hates you because my soul has been anchored!
My soul is not hinged on our friendship; my soul is not anchored in a paycheck; my soul is not anchored in my car; my soul is not anchored in my house. My soul—no, no, hear what I’m saying—my soul has been bought! Keep on praising! All right, look at your neighbor and say, «Something’s about to happen! I feel it in the room, I feel it in the atmosphere, I feel it in the environment! I feel that something is about to happen!» This is a tipping point in our church where the Holy Ghost kicks in and begins to do amazing stuff. And if you’ve been asleep through the rest, don’t miss this because something is about to happen! I want to invite you to shout with us till you can be like us. Somewhere along the way, God will find you; somewhere along the way, God will touch you; somewhere along the way, God will heal you!
I just got to my first point. All that other stuff was just a frame; now I’m going to set the picture. The young boy named Samuel has come up in the church, knowing the rituals, knowing the ceremonies, knowing the routines, knowing his responsibilities in the church, but he has not really had an encounter with God. His mother took him at an early age when he was just weaned and brought him up in a religious environment, and he knows how to be religious. He knows how to raise his hands; he knows how to clap on and off beat. He knows the words to the songs; he doesn’t even have to look at the screen. God has put him in an environment that suggests an encounter with God that actually is flickering. He has been born into what I call a flickering era of enlightenment. The Bible says it this way: The word of the Lord was scarce in those days, and there was no open vision.
Now this first sentence, and I’m quoting, I read it in the NIV, but I’m pulling out of the KJV because I’m old. When I started preaching, we didn’t have the NIV, so I learned it in KJV. The Bible says, «The word of the Lord was scarce in those days, and there was no open vision.» This first verse does not deal with Eli in the temple, but the sociological environment that surrounds the community that he lives in—his worldview of God. For years I’ve pondered in my mind: Does the church affect culture, or does culture affect the church? I know we are the salt of the earth and we’re supposed to affect the culture, but we cannot live autonomously and isolate ourselves and not confess that the culture also affects the church. Because we are limited to simple things like language in the conveyance of language—language creates words, but it doesn’t control pictures.
So when I say «Our Father» to someone who had a good one, I’m going to help you see it. They get a warm feeling, but when I say «Our Father» to somebody who was beaten every day, they say, «So…» Even though we convey the same words, we don’t give the same pictures, and it is actually the pictures that teach us. So that’s why all of us can hear the same message and everyone walks out with something different. It’s because my words form different pictures based on your worldview. I’m amazed! I went through a time, Pastor—I was trying to be like my friend Archie. Dennis is deceased now. I went to Archie’s church, and after church he would ask his members what they got out of the message, and his chairman would stand and tell what they got out of the message. So I went back to my church in West Virginia…
Now, I said, «So, what did you get out of the message?» It depressed me so badly that I said, «Either I have to stop this, or I must stop preaching.» I was about 28 years old, and I couldn’t understand at all that I had studied, prepared, and meant to convey something that they walked away with. You know, it was a witness to leave my husband. «No, baby, you heard what you wanted to hear because you came in here with your mind made up about leaving him, and now you’re using my message to justify your behavior.» I did not say that; you heard that. So, this is a flickering era of enlightenment, and I want to talk about that a little bit—the environment surrounding it. The Bible said the word of the Lord was scarce; the word of the Lord was scarce. So, it wasn’t that there wasn’t any light; it was flickering, and there was no open vision. In other words, NRB says not many visions. It wasn’t that there weren’t any, but they were scarce and flickering.
The problem with being born in a flickering environment is not just that the light is flickering but also that a flickering light becomes normal. So now, I’m going to bring up this point: I grew up poor. I realized, in retrospect, that we were poor. My sister can witness it. We were told we couldn’t afford the latest—oh, however you pronounce it—we were poor. The reason I know I was poor is that when I went to school and they had spaghetti sauce, I didn’t know what it was because my mama put hot ketchup on it. It ain’t that bad if that’s all you know; you don’t hear me. It’s not that bad if that’s all you know. And TV wasn’t like it is today; there was no social media. We didn’t get to compare ourselves with everybody else. It was only as I got out of my environment that I began to understand that what I thought was true wasn’t as true as I thought because isolation always affects education.
You see, as long as women couldn’t drive, all they could see was the kitchen, so they stayed in the kitchen. But when Mrs. Riley got her driver’s license, she said, «Wait a minute, I want to be able to go. I want to be able to work. No, I said, I want to be President of the United States.» Because isolation affects education, the more you’re exposed, the more you want to change. Whatever God wants to change, He will start a change way back here to affect something that’s going to happen up here. Some of the breakthroughs that God will give you in your life are not for you; they’re for your children and for your children’s children. Look at your neighbor and say, «That ship is bigger than me. It’s for my kids, my grandkids, and my great-great-grandkids. I played my part in the ship. I’m going somewhere; you’re going with me.»
Now, we understand that the environment around him does not expect much, and God is getting ready to do much. So, Samuel coming into the temple is not just another prophet coming along to speak in that environment. Though the word of the Lord was scarce in those days, it’s a paradigm shift; it’s bigger than one guy, but it starts with him. What is God trying to start with you? It’ll never happen if your goal is to fit in. God didn’t call you to fit in; He called you to stand out. Stop trying to fit in with people who don’t want you anyway. God wants you to be your own person and stand on your own two feet. It’s final: in spite of your circumstances, in spite of your environment, in spite of your situation, God wants you to stand up and be the man or woman that He called you to be. Away with what people say, away with what they said about you, away with what you heard—stand up.
Who am I talking to? They started singing that song, and it really blessed me because it began talking about a shift. Whenever you hear a shift, you think, «Next week.» But you only said, God had started the shift before the prophet ever opened his eyes. We are comparing Samuel, who is a prophet, to Eli, who is a priest. They are two different jobs in the same place. The prophet is to declare, «Thus saith the Lord,» but he’s been raised up around priests who are there to minister to the people and be the voice of the people to God in repentance and prayer. So, Samuel has the benefit of being softened by being ministered to and trained by the priests. Are you following what I’m saying?
Now, his world is flickering; his mentors are flickering. The verse says Eli’s eyes had grown dim. This flickering priest—he’s not entirely gone, but he’s not all there. He’s not blind, but his eyes are dim. He has not always been dim, or the Bible would have said his eyes grew dim. So, it is possible to start out with 20/20 vision, and over time, his eyes grew dim. Later, we will find out that his hearing is bad; he can hear Samuel better than he can hear God. See, Eli has been serving for a long time, and I’m going to say something. I don’t mean this as a generalization, but this is why not all grandparents should be raising children—because your eyes grow dim.
You say, «You’re not going to bring this filth into my house.» The kid got a cellphone! They’re not bringing in brown paper bags anymore! But she doesn’t know where to fight because, no matter who you are, over time, your eyes grow dim, and you put up with stuff that you wouldn’t have put up with, and you accept stuff that you wouldn’t have accepted. The priesthood, the whole institution, can suffer from men who stay in power too long. Oh, God, make me hear! I’m trying to hear it, but the more I feed, the more he feeds. Why do we stay too long? Why do we hold on? I’ll tell you why we hold on; we think positions define us. We think if they don’t call you a policeman, you’re nobody. If they don’t call you a pastor, you’re nobody. If they don’t call you an executive admin, you’re nobody. You have allowed the title to eat up who you are.
The title doesn’t make the person; the person makes the title. But if you’re not careful, you will cleave to things out of season and kill yourself trying to be what you used to be rather than release yourself and enjoy every season of your life. So, we have a flickering point of connection with God, and the church has suffered from it. Eli’s sons are out of control. It’s hard to control grown children. It ain’t easy controlling the little ones; the older they get, the more opinionated they become. You used to lay out what the baby was going to wear; the baby didn’t say anything. Wait a while; «I’m not wearing that. I don’t like that color. That’s not what they are wearing at my school.» The longer you live, the less you can control. Oh, I’m preaching some stuff. His sight had grown dim; his ears had gotten bad.
And yet, it is in this environment that God does His best work. If I were God, I would stop right here, but if I were God, y’all should really be skating. If I were God, I would bring the perfect man out of the perfect environment. But because God’s strength is made perfect in weakness, God will give you a flickering environment, give you a flickering mentor, and yet bring something out of you that changes the world. You would think that Eli had no value because he could hardly see and was almost deaf, and he had grown dim. How do people want you until you grow dim? That’s why you can’t get addicted to the applause because as you continue on, things change.
The love they say they have for you is not for you; it’s for what you produce. When you get to where you can’t produce what you used to produce, you’d be surprised how fast people will drop you. Hophni and Phinehas were able to escape his judgment; they were doing their own thing, going their own way. You later see that Eli didn’t understand the voice of God. Wait—let me correct that. The oxymoron in the story is that when God called Samuel, Samuel could hear it, but he didn’t understand. This is the problem with the young. They can hear things they don’t understand.
All of a sudden, you see me do something, and you say, «I can do that!» You saw it, but you don’t understand what all is behind this. All you see is what’s happening right now. You don’t see all the things that went on for weeks behind the scenes. You don’t see the staff operating. You don’t see the volunteers operating. You don’t see the lawsuits. You don’t see the crisis management. You don’t see the budget. You don’t see the circumstances. You don’t see the bills. You don’t understand the insurance we have to pay. You don’t understand the rules we have to amend. You don’t understand what all is behind it. But all you see is the suit, and you see the collar, and you walk around. You get yourself some glasses and start walking around, saying, «I can dress like that!» But I can’t run like that; I can’t do what he did.
It’s an insult to the profession to underestimate how much it costs to participate. You don’t come when it rains; you don’t come when the Super Bowl is on; you don’t have the commitment yet. But you have the gift! You have the gift! So don’t get rid of Eli just because his eyes have grown dim. It’s true he’s gotten weak; he lets things go down that he would have stood up against. You get tired; you get tired of fighting people. Finances acting a fool like they lost their minds. Eli’s old now. He’s just trying to make it on in. But don’t devalue him; he doesn’t hear well, but he understands well. Samuel could hear God, but he didn’t know what it meant. Eli knew what it meant, but he could no longer hear.
God brings people into your life because you need them. Don’t be so caught up in what you can do better than them that you don’t understand that you still need them. Because every gift has a blind spot. Every gift has a blind spot. Every gift has a blind spot! I’m here to counsel you and tell you there comes a point of complexity that I will come over and tag you and say, «This one’s for you!» You got to understand your limitations. It doesn’t mean you’re not valuable, but you have to understand where gifts are not enough to take you the last mile of the way.
If you don’t understand when to get out, you will hurt people that you’re trying to help. That’s why I encourage all husbands to stop trying to be your spouse’s pastor. You’re trying to help, but you’re going to kill them. You can’t be their therapist; you can’t be their counselor. Sometimes you can’t even be their mentor, even if it means well. «Pastor, she just won’t hear me!» What are you talking about? You quoted one scripture backward because y’all were in an argument, and you haven’t been doing this long enough to look at the whole picture. You don’t read your Bible; you just write stuff out of my sermon and try to repeat it and take it as an excerpt to manipulate the situation in your house. You haven’t done it from a perspective of not having a personal investment in it, so your wisdom is blurred by what you are trying to make me become.
Eli had grown old. Samuel is about to hear the call that’s going to change his life. It’s going to change the priesthood; it’s going to change the nation of Israel; it’s going to change the world as they know it. It’s going to happen to a young man who didn’t even know God until this moment. He had been predestined; he had been foreknown, but he didn’t know it. I wonder what you don’t know about who you are. I appreciated a message a couple of months ago: «I didn’t know who I was.» If I had known who I was, I would have done things differently. I didn’t know this was going to happen to me; it just happened.
It’s not like God came in and gave me a full-scale report: «This is where your life is going to be.» If so, it would have changed some stuff I did at 19, 20, 30, and a little bit at 40. You understand? I never will forget when Cornel West and I debated each other many years ago at Princeton. I was debating Cornel West, and they were quoting passages that I wrote in my first book, «Woman, Thou Art Loosed!» I told them when I wrote that book, I wasn’t speaking at Princeton; I didn’t write that with you all in mind. I wrote that with my church in mind—that was my worldview. It’s one thing to take truth that is true in this environment and try to put it in that environment. I wonder who you are. I wonder if you could have an encounter in this temple that changed the trajectory of your life. That shifted everything and explained your past and explored your childhood.
Delving deep into the questions in your life, you begin to understand why Romans 8:28 states that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Then you start saying, «Sir, it was good for me that I was afflicted. Had I not been afflicted, I would have never seen that it was good. It was good! It was good!» Look at someone and say, «It was good! It was good! It was good!»
What I called bad was good. We were born poor, and that was good. Daddy taught us to think; it was good that Mama educated us at home. It was good that we didn’t have fancy clothes to wear; it prevented us from being proud and arrogant. It made us able to reach all kinds of people. I’m glad; it made me tough, it made me strong, and it made me independent of what you think. I’m not used to needing your approval—no way! So, I can’t lose what I never had. Somebody talk to me! Yes, it was good that they didn’t like me on the school bus; it was good that they rejected me. God taught me how to be isolated, how to make myself happy. It was good that we couldn’t buy toys; it made me creative.
Anytime you can go out and play in the woods with a stick, a rock, a ball, and a bat, and create things, it made me creative. It made me an inventor. It made me strong; I learned to see things that weren’t there. It was good. It was good. What you have been calling bad, you want to start calling it good. God left Eli in the world just long enough to influence the next generation. Y’all made me sweat. This isn’t corona—this is Christos! Come on, touch it! This is Jesus' revival! I want you to catch this. I’m going to brag on my wife a little bit; there’s a lot I can brag about. My wife is meticulous. Even when she has to be meticulous, as we get older, things get harder. I tell y’all, take away and we flicker; she still won’t bring me a meal without a plate.
If I want seconds, she’ll never bring it on a dirty plate. I think, «Don’t give me another plate; I don’t have time for that!» Just throw some food on top of it; it’s all going to the same place. It’s going to be alright! We’re sitting there; I do little nasty stuff. I heat the food right out of the refrigerator, drag a little saucepan back into the bedroom, and use a spoon in the saucepan. When she comes back home, I gotta clean up so she can’t see what a mess I really am. I’m an animal! I don’t like it—it’s a nasty mess in there. Secrets of everything! It’d be so nice. I always know when she’s home because when I come into the house, I smell the candles. Yeah! And when I know she’s been gone, I try to do like her; I light candles too late, but the room smells like fried fish! I’ve always been the one who could cook; she couldn’t cook when I married her. I was the one who could cook. She always sets the table.
Now, she doesn’t do it all; she made a cobbler the other day that was so good, it made me mad because I always did the desserts. I said, «Wait a minute! You’ve gone too far!» And I thought I had my ego under control. I asked, «What did you put in there?» She thinks the table should be set right. When she sets the table, she puts a candle or something, or flowers on the table to decorate it, especially when we’re doing something worthy of it, and there will be a centerpiece. You have to understand that the centerpiece of this text is not Hophni or Phineas; they might be at the table, but they’re not the text. It’s not Eli, not even Samuel; they’re at the table, but they’re not the text.
The centerpiece—which is never something you eat but rather sets the atmosphere for the evening—is set by a footnote in the author’s writing: «The lamp of God went out.» Just as the light flickered, Samuel heard God calling him. In flickering light, he said, «I’m too young, Lord. I’m not ready, Lord. I can’t do this.» The Lord said, «I’m going to call you in flickering light.» You must understand that it was Samuel’s job to keep the light burning, but at night, there was this period where the light would flicker. Even the priests had to rest, and the writer notes what time it was by telling us where the light was: «The lamp of God went out.» Just before it went out, as it began to flicker, God called Samuel.
The Lord told me to tell you that while the world around you is flickering, there are mighty men and women of valor He has used in significant ways, but alas, they too have begun to flicker. If you don’t go beyond just having church to becoming the man and woman of God you were created to be, the future will seem impossible. In the midst of fluctuation and flickering light, and limited sight in this adverse flickering light, God calls Samuel. Samuel has laid down for the evening; he’s a young man resting in his own comfort. But there’s a disruption of comfort. Samuel hears the call, gets up, and goes to Eli because he thinks it’s about his mentor. Eli didn’t hear anything and says, «I did not call you.»
Samuel can lay down again. All of this is happening in the flicker of life. Samuel tries to get comfortable again, and just as he’s about to go to sleep, God calls him again. Samuel, wanting to be faithful, asks, «Did you call me, sir?» Eli replies, «I did not call you. Go lay down again.» Yes, sir! I’m seeking my own comfort; I do things my own way. I go where I want to go, wear what I want to wear, say what I want to say! I’m comfortable! I’m a new generation; I make my own rules. I’m fixing my life as I want it to be. I live like it’s cold; I do my own thing. I come when I’m ready and leave when I want because keeping it comfortable is killing what’s going to happen next.
So, God says, «Samuel, did you call me?» Eli perceives he can’t hear it anymore but can still sense it. Look at this process of transition! There’s a generational process of transition, a miscommunication between generations. Eli was rejected, and Samuel has to face Eli’s rejection while laying in the comfort of his own rebellion. Yet God keeps calling him. Eli perceives that the Lord has called him and tells him, «Go lay down, but this time when you hear the call, say, 'Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.'»
When Samuel goes back and lays down again, he is now armed with what Eli has given him. We have something to give you; we were left in the earth to pass it on. My spiritual father said something to me that I had to grow in understanding. Someone asked him, «Will you be my spiritual father?» You know how I said it! Here’s the thing: the question isn’t, «Can I be your father?» I’ve already proven I can be a father. The question is, «Can you be my son?» That’s the part that must be proven. If Samuel had not obeyed Eli, the rest of the Bible would never have happened. From Samuel’s direction, wars were fought and kingdoms were conquered; kings were anointed.
Out of Samuel’s call came David’s call to ministry. From David’s call came the lineage of Jesus Christ. Out of Jesus Christ came the New Testament apostles. Out of the apostles came the power of the Holy Ghost reigning over the church. All of the Bible was waiting on Samuel to say the right thing that he could only learn from Eli to break the yoke over his life. And God did it all in flickering light. I’m going to close with this: if the Lord told me to tell you, don’t wait for the light to stop flickering. Don’t wait for the stability you crave; don’t wait to feel ready for what’s next; don’t wait until the conditions are right and the circumstances are all in place because we walk by faith and not by sight. Where God is about to take you next is in flickering light.
I told God, «When I get to the end of this, Lord, I think I will call for the people under 40 because I want to anoint the next generation.» I do, but the Lord said the strangest thing to me. He said, «You cannot determine the next generation by age because I have some late bloomers who are just coming into their season in the second phase of their life. They’re just now about to step into what they should have stepped into twenty years ago, and suddenly, everything’s starting to make sense.» He said, «So don’t call 'next' by age; call 'next' by opportunity.» He said, «I want you to pray for people on the verge of an opportunity that is about to be birthed in flickering light.»
Everything is shaking around you, everything is moving around you, and yet there is a call on your life. I’ve got something to tell you, something to pass over to you, and that something is this: If you are standing on the verge of something, right on the edge of something, and you can’t see the details, and everything is flickering a bit, as you wonder if you have what it takes, you are still wrestling between your comfort and your call. Sometimes you’re in your call, and sometimes you’re in your comfort. I have a warrant for your arrest. The time of flickering back and forth between call and comfort is over. This is the beginning of a new moment of direction, purpose, call, and glory in your life.
I don’t know who you are; you might be 20, you might be 52, you might be 31, you might be 45. But if you feel like you’re about to come into something, you’re a little scared, a little nervous, and a little unstable, this is your message. This is God’s word for this people at this time. You might be watching online, but you can still catch this anointing that I’m going to send you today, right where you are. No cap! I want you to start worshiping God! Somebody start worshiping Him right now! I’m going to put you on the spot, kid! Oscar, let me put you on the spot—only if you’re comfortable! I want to talk about the conversation we had about being a gospel artist versus who you became. Can I do that?
Okay, you can’t say no! I got you out of here. I didn’t know I was going to do this! Let’s go! He said to me, «I love gospel music; I want to be a gospel artist.» And there’s nothing wrong with being a gospel artist—it’s a great thing to be! He was operating in that lane. I said, «That’s fine; you can do that. That’s a great job! We need gospel artists! We need you! We need all of that!» But I said, «Nobody goes to college for eight years to be a gospel artist. No one who can direct symphonies and write for orchestras does that so they can be gospel artists!» I tried to help him see who he is and what he could do. This year he didn’t see who he was, who he could be. He was aiming too low based on what he saw around him.
I said, «Why would you settle for that? You can write four symphonies, you can travel around the world, and you can be an ambassador in ways that being a gospel artist would never allow!» Your mama suffered through being without so you could be more than just someone who can sing and play! You’re bigger than all your doubts; you’re bigger than all your fears! That’s why I had to come and watch you earn your doctorate! You don’t know who you are. You don’t know what you can do! You don’t know what you can be! You don’t know what you can have! You don’t know what you can reap! Don’t settle for what you sow! God will do more with you than He did with the people who inspired you! Lift your hands, open your mouth, and get ready! The anointing of God is in this place! The Spirit of God is in this room! There is an impartation taking place in this room!
I want you to stop your inconsistency, stop your trouble, change your strategy, focus yourself, get your mind ready, get your house ready, get your heart ready. Not many days hence, God is going to release His purpose and His destiny in your life. He has been getting you ready all of your life; it is about to happen. Open your mouth. For I was walking down the hallway one day, I ran into April. We were talking, and she was telling me, «I’ve just loved music. I love to sing.» I replied, «That’s wonderful! You have a beautiful voice—amazing! Keep singing! You’re always saying you’ll sing in your sleep; you have to wake up singing. You’ll sing while you brush your teeth; you have to keep on singing!» But then I asked, «Why did you get a master’s degree in business administration if all you were going to do was sing? You could have gotten a GED and still been able to sing.» I said, «You need to increase your vision of how you see yourself.»
«Can you hear me?» Father, can you hear me? The stage is set, the table is pretty, and God said in the flickering light of your air, the flickering light of your church, and the flickering of your own insecurities, none of it will stop me from calling you. «Samuel, Samuel, Samuel, you haven’t been listening! What are you supposed to say when God says Samuel?»
Speak, Lord, for Thy servant hears. You’ve got your heart open, you’ve got your hands up, you’ve got your heart open, you’ve got your head open. Normally, that’s where we leave you—with your hands up and your heart open. But I’m going to push you: open up your hands, open up your head! The way you see it is not the way it is. What God wants to do with you is bigger than what you’ve been aiming at. I appreciate your gratitude for where you are, but what God wants to do is bigger than what you have in mind. The great question for you is, are you willing to be uncomfortable? Are you willing to go scared and uncertain?
Do you understand that you are on the precipice of the rest of your life? You cannot rewrite your history, but you can affect your destiny. You don’t have another day to waste crying about yesterday, when God gave you today so you could change tomorrow. Karate of sleep! The Lord told me to tell you that if you would wake up, if you would stop playing games and wake up, God would amaze you.
I preached this message to you in flickering light. Many of my dear friends are fading away—Alzheimer’s setting in, physical infirmities slowing them down. God, in His mercy, has kept me strong. I did this when I was you. If I had to do it again, it wouldn’t be too late. Don’t miss this moment; don’t miss this moment because you were scared! I was scared every day. Don’t miss this moment because you’re uncertain! Faith thrives in uncertainty. We will watch you as long as we can. We will guide you as long as we can. But this is your moment, and don’t let any devil in hell stop you! You hear me? Don’t let any devil in hell stop you!
Some will subdue nations, some will rise into positions of power; some will rise into powers of financial giftedness and profitability beyond your imagination. Some of you will do incredible things. But let me tell the rest of you, you don’t have to be big to be great. Some of you will raise world-shaking children; some of you will touch the person who will touch the world. You’ll heal the people that rock the nations; you’ll minister to people that subdue kingdoms. The devil’s job is to try to make you think that whatever you have is insignificant if you don’t read it on the front page of the paper. But the press does not define greatness. Everybody famous is not great, and everybody great is not famous.
So don’t look for the bright lights! I know people in the bright lights. I know people in the bright lights who are committing suicide. I know people in the bright lights who are strung out on drugs. I know people in the bright lights who have lost their minds. I know people in the bright lights that you can’t trust with a nickel, let alone with a child. Don’t look for the bright lights! Your destiny is not in the bright lights. Your destiny is not in the bright lights. Your destiny is not in the bright lights. Stop feeling bad about yourself because people have not discovered you, acknowledged you, accepted you, blessed you, or increased you. Your destiny is not in the bright lights; your destiny is in the flickering lights.