TD Jakes - Leaning into Uncertainty
Wow, are you ready? I’m ready, I’m ready, I’m ready! So, I want you to get your Bibles and go to the book of Romans; that’s where I will be working tonight, in the 8th chapter of the book of Romans. Open up your heart for the word of God. To those of you who just logged in, if you did not get an opportunity to give to help the class, the prompts are going to come up, giving you a chance to sow into the rich soil of the word that I will be sharing tonight. I believe it’s going to bless you. I’m excited about sharing it! Don’t miss the opportunity to become one with the text by allowing the word to not only attach to your spirit and heart but to affect the way you give and the way you live.
Okay, we’re going to be in Romans chapter 8, verses 18 through 30. If you’re ready, we’re going to work through this, and it’s going to be good! I have my Bibles out, my pads out, and I’m ready to dive into the word of God. Tonight, I will be talking about leaning into uncertainty, and that’s not something we normally want to lean into; it’s something we typically back away from. But I want to discuss with you tonight leaning into uncertainty and what happens in the life of a believer when we do so. We have a lot of ground to cover tonight, so let’s start! I’ll be reading out of the NIV, and I think you’ll be blessed.
Romans 8:18–30: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know, we know, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption to sonship—the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
Now tonight, brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, Christian friends, and those who are just observing out of curiosity, we’re going to be talking about leaning into uncertainty. As a preamble to it, I want to point out that we are dealing with the book of Romans, and that alone. Paul is writing to a church, a group of believers in Rome that he looks forward to seeing. Most people think that he wrote this while he was in Corinth, in anticipation of his journey to the Roman church. He writes to them, and it is originally called the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, later abbreviated to the book of Romans.
We understand when we look at this text that this is more than just a letter; it is much more than a letter. It’s almost a dissertation, as it were, to the Roman church. What I want you to notice is the term «Romans» itself flies in the face of how we think about faith today. To think that faith ignores culture—that it transcends culture—it does not ignore culture, or we wouldn’t have books like the book of Hebrews and the book of Romans that are tied to the continuity of nationalities. Yet, we as Christians and believers often become offended, or we raise our eyebrows at the African Methodist Episcopal Church or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. We raise issues with anything that is specific to a nationality, ethnicity, or culture.
But our Bible is specific to cultures being able to speak the same truth in a language accessible to different types of people. That’s something to think about. When we have contemporary debates around Black Christians, White Christians, and so forth, we often hold onto this notion of God’s colorblindness. We ignore the Greek Orthodox Church; we overlook the fact that God doesn’t have to go blind to what he created. He can speak to the continuity of each of us and love all of us equally, without having to overlook anyone’s uniqueness to reach them. Therefore, we have the book of Romans because there are specific examples given to the Roman church that would not be necessary to present when writing the book of Hebrews or some other epistle.
Paul has the ambidextrous ability to become all things to all people so that some might be saved. Some people can’t do that; some aren’t multifaceted enough to speak to different types of people and still remain true to the core mission of the church and the soundness of the gospel. But Paul exemplifies this in his writing to the Romans. He bypasses all the other cultures and goes right into the substratum of the unique nuances surrounding the Romans because Paul is graced in that way. He says, «I became all things to all people that some might be saved,» because he has the ability to be translucent in his thinking and theology, enabling him to blend into various settings.
It’s important to think about. Let me stop playing around and get down to business. Before we delve deeper, I often wrestle with the effects of how we as Christians affect culture without being affected by it. Or are we, in fact, affected by the culture? Why am I discussing this? He says, «I consider that our present sufferings…» Let me put it in the language he uses: «I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.» I wanted to talk about our present sufferings and how we experience God. He is one God—there’s no question about that: «Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and besides Him, there is no other.»
But how we experience Him has a lot to do with where we are seated. Let me delve into this a little. When I was a little boy, I used to sing songs like «I’m Going Through» and «With the Lord’s Despised Few.» It’s a hymn you might not know, but it was one we sang. «You can have this whole wide world, but give me Jesus; I’ll take Jesus for mine.» As long as I’ve got King Jesus, I don’t need nobody else. All these songs were born out of the midst of depression, and we almost demonized success as if it were success or Christ—one or the other. «Give up the world and come on.» Giving up the world meant giving up stuff, and the church sung a lot about that when they were broke.
But when times got better, people stopped singing those kinds of songs, and they started singing songs like «I am the seed of Abraham, that I’m blessed in the city, I’m blessed in the field.» We started singing about blessings, and I wondered, as we took that turn, if nobody’s singing «I’m Going Through,» and no one’s talking about «Silver and Gold Have I None,» or discussing suffering—if the culture affects how we experience God.
Let’s go deeper. Can you think with me tonight? I know several CEOs of Fortune 100 companies who are Christians and genuinely love the Lord. But how they experience God is different from another group I know, for example, who are incarcerated and locked up in prison. They’re only let out at certain times to worship the Lord from a cell block. It contrasts with someone in a third-world country who may be on the lower end of the economic spectrum. They’re all praying to the same God, but how they experience that God has a lot to do with where they are seated.
I suggest to you, my brothers and sisters, that the sufferings of this present time not being worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us is a declaration of where we are seated. Because this suffering of this present time—and this whole notion of God being the God of the oppressed—I embrace that fully. He cares about the oppression; he cares about the downtrodden. Please don’t misunderstand me; I absolutely get that! I am a proponent of it; I believe it.
My only question about it is: When the oppressed cease to be oppressed, does God cease to be their God? If He is the God of the oppressed, when the oppression is over, are they then forsaken? The reality is, while we have one God, we sit in different perspectives. The bank president experiences God differently from the job applicant who is believing God for a job. The president is believing the same God—not for a job—and their faith is pointed in different directions. What they are happy about and excited for, and what they claim to be a great message has a lot to do with where they were when they heard it.
The greatest sermon you ever heard came not so much from the lips of the preacher but because it was ministering to where you were seated at that time. Paul writes about the sufferings of this present time, and I thought it was interesting to talk about tonight because those sufferings depend on where you are seated. Whether the sufferings of this present time are severe—such that your retirement savings are being eaten through—or whether the sufferings of this present time are that you lost a job and your children haven’t eaten in two days.
We don’t even suffer a lot, but we all suffer. Yes, the successful suffer, and so do the unsuccessful. No one escapes suffering when it’s suffering time. I want to suggest to you that suffering is more paramount in this Western culture we live in because we have taught and expressed a concept of God that almost starts to sound like Santa Claus: «It’s yours; it’s mine.» «What God has for you is for you.» I’m not against any of that. But I’m talking about how we experience God and how we express that experience has a lot to do with where we are seated.
When God says to Moses, «I am that I am,» it certainly embraces the fact that God can be and do whatever He wants—that He’s sovereign, that He’s absolute. But it also expresses the fact that He is not definable because our experience of God is as diverse as the eyes that behold Him. Paul writes in this text about the suffering of this present time. He rips the Western world’s scab away from our thinking, that experiencing God is all about material things. Though God does bless His people, it’s not a transactional relationship. It’s not a transactional relationship—it’s not the kind of relationship where I give you my life, you give me a car; I give you my life, you give me a house; I give you my life, you give me a degree; I give you my life, you give me a wife. No! This is not transactional.
I’ve spoken about this previously—whether you have really learned how to abase and abound. This relationship cannot be based on circumstances that might be occurring at this moment in your life. Paul now centers into, and obviously, I consider— but I like the King James language here—he says, «I reckon that the sufferings of this present world…» and listen, he’s showing you how he thinks about suffering. So when he’s showing us how he thinks about it, he says, «I couldn’t stop the suffering, but I changed the way I thought about it.»
I reckon, I reason, I rationalize that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared on a scale—to the glory that shall be revealed in us. I want to get deeper into this because I think it’s important that you understand this because we are all experiencing some degree of suffering, whether it’s anxiety, reality, impending danger, past trauma, or the loss of loved ones. There’s uncertainty and ambiguity about what will happen next. We are not sure if we have a vaccine coming or how it will work for different age groups and body conditions. We don’t know if there will be any side effects, or how long it will take to distribute it. We believe it will help bring the economy back, but we are uncertain. The ambiguity and uncertainty itself torture a soul that prefers to settle into absolutes. But what do we do when we are going through a time when there are few absolutes, and we are uncertain? We don’t know what will be on the other end of the phone when it rings, or what an email will say when we open it. When people text us, we feel anxiety because we are living with uncertainty.
However, Paul says if you can’t change anything else, change how you think about it. He says, «I reckon,» meaning he decided to think about it this way: that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. He changed the way he thought about his suffering. Are you getting anything tonight? I couldn’t change the fact that my husband left me, but I changed how I thought about being left. I couldn’t change that I lost my business, but I changed how I thought about it. I couldn’t change that I had to downsize from my dream home and now live in an apartment, yet I changed how I thought about it. I reckon the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed.
I couldn’t change that I was infected by the virus, but I changed how I thought about it. I couldn’t change the fact that I had a miscarriage, but I changed the way I thought about it. He said he weighed everything and concluded that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to be revealed. In other words, I don’t know how he was suffering; I am not aware of what was happening in the country at the time, or in Corinth, that prompted the writing of this letter. I definitely don’t know what was going through his mind as he picked up his pen to discuss the suffering he was experiencing because he was suffering in a way he didn’t reveal. Some of us in the Bible class right now are suffering silently. The sufferings of this present time become a catch-all category for things that are too painful to mention. He doesn’t provide specifics about the sufferings, but he does clearly express how he thinks about them.
So the text begins by stating that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. He casts his anchor forward, proclaiming that better days are coming—so much better that they aren’t even worthy to be compared to the sufferings that he is enduring right now. The sufferings are minuscule in comparison to the magnitude of the glory that shall be revealed. It’s God giving us double for our trouble; it’s increase, abundance, and the harvest being greater than the seed. Whatever I’m going through right now doesn’t even compare to the glory that shall be revealed.
While I may have lost some things—an opportunity, friends, even a limb—I refuse to give up my hope. True hope centers around the glory that shall be revealed in us. What kind of glory that is, I cannot specifically describe. I do not know whether that glory is tangible or spiritual. I do not know if that glory encapsulates the way I suffer; I don’t know if God will return it to me in the currency of my suffering or if my suffering is merely a down payment for a glory much bigger and more significant than my current hardships. I know my suffering is not in vain; it is not abuse. My suffering is not God turning me over to the enemy to have his way with me. My suffering will have a resolution.
I like to think of it this way: the pain before surgery is very real. Generally, I won’t undergo surgery unless the pain drives me to the hospital. When I am ready for surgery, I know that a painful experience awaits. I realize that if the surgery is successful, I will still have pain afterward, but it will not be the same pain. The pain before surgery is endless and pointless, while the pain after surgery is part of recovery, a little different in how I process it because I know that pain will lead to healing and not just aggravation.
Does that make sense to you? Are you following me tonight? He then speaks about creation eagerly waiting for the children of God to be revealed and delves into the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain. Imagine a woman on a birthing table, legs up, her knees pointed toward heaven, feet planted on the floor, writhing in pain. He describes the whole earth in a similar state of pain. The earth is lurching, groaning, and experiencing earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires. Ethnicities clash against one another; the Bible says that in the last days, «generation shall be against generation.» The Greek term used there refers to ethnos against ethnos; ethnic groups fighting against one another. The whole earth is in travail. The economy is in travail, the stock market is in turmoil, and the interaction among nations is fraught. The entire earth is groaning in pain.
Not only is the earth travailing, but we, too, groan inwardly as we await our adoption as sons, which he defines as the redemption of our bodies. Even the church does not escape this struggle. We see the outer travail of the world, but we ourselves groan inwardly. I want to address anyone tonight who has been groaning inwardly. We have the first fruits of the Spirit, but that does not mean we do not groan; it does not signify that we aren’t in the midst of transition or facing uncertainty.
The entire earth is travailing, yes it is, with uncertainty and destabilization. Those things that used to be established are shaking, and what was once absolute is now abstract. We might feel that everything is debatable. You cannot express any opinion without provoking a debate; if you say it’s a beautiful day, someone will contradict you. Everything is subject to debate, given the current state of the world. People are not polite when they are in pain.
Even those of us who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan—not so much outwardly, but inwardly. We groan due to the uncertainty and as we are in a holding pattern, waiting for the glory that has not yet been revealed. We find ourselves crouched down in our faith because that is all we have, hoping that this will make sense: the sufferings of this present time will not compare to the glory that shall be revealed in us.
So, we who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, which is the redemption of our bodies. I won’t delve too deeply into eschatology, but ultimately, what I am groaning for is to be liberated from this shell I inhabit—this decaying shell, which is decaying physically, emotionally, and financially. There is always some reminder that this world is not my final destination.
Shh, don’t tell anyone, but acquiring this whole wide world is not it. Thus, we groan within ourselves, longing to be clothed with something not in conflict. I am now covered by a container that conflicts with its content. The content is a treasure I possess in earthen vessels. There’s a constant struggle between my holy content and my human container, between the divine and the fleshly, between what loves God and what loves the world. This conflict creates discomfort and uncertainty because sometimes I yield to the content, and at other times, I yield to the container.
Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this conflict between the content and the container? It feels like a wrestling match. I feel exhausted when I lay down, and I feel worn out when I get up. I long to be clothed with something from above to eliminate the discord between the container and the content, which leads me into conflict.
What do you do when you need certainty but don’t have it? What do you do when stability is needed, but everything is shaking? The entire earth is in travail. What do you do when you need to anchor yourself in something absolute while everything around you trembles? That’s why tonight, I’m discussing leaning into uncertainty. The only means to lean into uncertainty is to place your hope in God. The Bible states that everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that the things that cannot be shaken will remain. All around you, everything is shaking, and you need something solid.
I have read the statistics about people moving away from their faith. Many are distancing themselves from God, claiming that Judeo-Christian principles are becoming antiquated, and that may be true. However, it’s not my experience; I see people running to church and online. I witness escalating numbers daily as people seek something solid to hold onto amid the shaking of the world. I appreciate the reports and stats, but my experience suggests that, regardless of the labels we apply to these individuals, the significance of having a solid faith while everything shakes is essential to dealing with the uncertainty of the times.
Hebrews 11:1 tells us about these moments, stating that «faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.» My faith is the only proof I have that my current situation will not last, that the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed, and I embrace this by faith. So, when I lean into uncertainty, I do not do so because of a lack of assurance, but because my faith acts as an anchor, gripping onto what I hope for—not on what is shaking and falling apart. My faith is the substance, the substratum, and the essential ingredients for the things I hope for. My faith is the eggs, the butter, the flour, milk and the sugar of the cake that I hope for; if I’ve got the raw ingredients of faith, I’ve got the ability to deliver the thing that I hope for. It is the evidence admissible in court of the things not seen.
I submit my faith... so Paul says this is how you think in times of uncertainty. He says you’ve got to reckon that the sufferings of this present time don’t even compare to the glory that shall come out of it. I like what they say in Exodus: the Bible says that when Pharaoh got ready to persecute the children of Israel, he learned something—that the more he afflicted them, the more they grew. In other words, the greater the suffering, the greater the growth; the more he tried to make it hard on them, the more they exploded and multiplied. If the enemy, the prince of this world, had been wise, he would have never crucified the Lord. The Bible says that had he been smart, he wouldn’t have crucified the Lord because suffering brings increase. For I reckon this is how I think about it: the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Are you getting something out of this tonight?
So we started out talking about what Paul thinks; he reckons this is how he thinks about it. The reason how you think about it is important is because how you think deals with where you groan inwardly. This can be best combated not by what you say outwardly but by how you think about it because you’re not groaning on the outside; you’ve grown inwardly. Visit that again—it’s important that we understand that the whole creation has been groaning as in childbirth in this present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Here, the Spirit shows us the advantage that we who have the first fruits of the Spirit possess. It is not that we don’t groan; it’s that we’ve grown inwardly while they’ve grown outwardly. We’ve grown inwardly, but he goes on to tell us: in the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. The Spirit helps us in our uncertainty; the Spirit helps us in our ambiguity; the Spirit helps us in our crisis; the Spirit helps us in our pain; the Spirit helps us in our trauma; the Spirit helps us in our depression; the Spirit helps us in our fear; the Spirit helps us in our anxiety; the Spirit helps us in our frustration; the Spirit helps us in our worry. It’s not that we don’t have it, but the Spirit helps us.
Is there anybody out there that the Spirit has helped? If you’re out there and you’re listening to me and the Spirit helped you, I want you to type right now, «The Spirit helped me! The Spirit helped me!» I would have lost my mind, but the Spirit helped me. I would have thrown in the towel, but the Spirit helped me. I would have committed suicide, but the Spirit helped me. It helped me in my weakness. Oh, bless Your name! I’m about to get happy now! In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for. We do not know. Say that—we do not know. We do not know what we ought to pray for. Everything is so uncertain that we don’t even know what to pray for. We don’t know whether to pray to keep the house or if it would be better to let the house go. We don’t know whether to pray to keep the marriage or if it would be better to let the marriage go. We do not know.
I can’t tell you how many times I’m talking to people right now who don’t even know what to pray for. I don’t know whether to pray for my daughter to come back home or to pray for her not to come back home. I don’t know whether to pray for my son to come out or if he might come out here and get killed. I don’t know what to pray for. We do not know. We do not know. We do not know. All of this is about information; we do not know. It’s funny because in verse 22, the Bible says clearly, «We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of travail.»
So in verse 22, we’re talking about what we know, but now in verse 26, we’re talking about what we do not know. How do you balance what you know with what you do not know? Every last one of us has things that we know simultaneously with things that we do not know. We know that the whole creation is groaning; we do not know what we are to pray for. But the Spirit itself intercedes for us through wordless groans. The Spirit intercedes for us! It’s not just your prayer partner; it’s not just your pastor; it’s not just a church mother. The Spirit of God itself intercedes for us in our weakness. As we deal with what we do not know, as we deal with leaning into uncertainty, we can lean into uncertainty because we have higher intelligence. The Spirit itself intercedes for us.
Why does it intercede for us? Because we do not know; we do not know; we do not know. But He knows. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. So the perfect prayer comes from within my soul, not out of my head. When the Spirit takes over—when the language of the Spirit takes over, when the intelligence of the Holy Spirit takes over—the perfect prayer comes from the Spirit because He knows what is the will of God for me. Whether this is to be endured or rebuked; whether this is to be suffered, or whether it’s to be stomped on—the Spirit itself knows and it makes intercession for us with groans that cannot be uttered. Are you with me?
In verse 28, we know… Wait a minute—we know in verse 22. In verse 26 we do not know. In verse 28, we know. We know. We do not know. We know. We know that the whole creation groans. We do not know what to pray for as we ought; and in verse 28, we know that all things God works for the good of those who love Him. So here we have—we know that the world is travailing, okay? We do not know what to pray for as we are because we’re in our weakness. But we do know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord. That when the shaking is over, there’s something coming out of this.
There is a reason that Paul says that the whole creation groans as a woman in travail—that’s pain with purpose. Travail is a woman’s pain with purpose. That’s not just pain because of brokenness; that’s pain with purpose. We know that the whole creation groans in pain, and we ourselves also, within ourselves, groan, waiting for the adoption of our sonship. We know—we know that they’ve grown outwardly; we’ve grown inwardly. But everybody’s groaning! We do not know what to pray for. We cannot use our prayer life as manipulation; we cannot use it like witchcraft; we cannot use it like «name it and claim it» and «blab it and grab it,» because we don’t know now what to ask God to do. We do not know.
So the Spirit itself, praying in the Spirit—lift your hands. You should do it right now—lift your hands and start just praying in the Spirit. Because when we start praying in the Spirit, we bypass our intelligence, our opinion, our uncertainty, and our ambiguity, and the Spirit, who knows what is the will of God, prays for us. If the devil thought you were in this by yourself, he’s crazy because you have inside intelligence. You have classified information available to you through the Spirit! And the Spirit is praying for the will of God in your life. The Spirit is not praying for you to get a car like your sister; the Spirit is not praying for you to show all of your haters how good you are and how God has blessed you—no! The Spirit is not praying from your perspective and from where you are seated, nor as a result of your culture, or your background, or even as a result of how you experience God based on your condition.
Whether you’re the janitor or the president, no—the Spirit doesn’t have to deal with your circumstances! It prays according to your destiny and purpose because He knows what is the will of God. We know; we do not know, but we know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord—who are called according to His purpose. One more knowing, and I’m done: for those God foreknew, He also predestined. We know that all things work together because God foreknew us. What does foreknow mean? He knew me before the sufferings of this present time. He knew me before I made the mistake I made; He knew me before I got in trouble; He knew me before I got here. He told Jeremiah, «Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. I ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nations.»
I did not ordain you to sit in a state of depression and give up and die; I foreknew you. And here the Bible says, «For those God foreknew, He also predestined.» Predestined—pre means before. The prefix «pre» means before destiny; before the end—God predestined. He fixed the end before because He foreknew you. For we know—for we know, Romans 8:28: «For we know that all things work together.» Why do we know it? Because verse 29 says, «Because He foreknew us.» And so we can deal with the uncertainty of the process because we know that He predestined the end from the beginning. And those that He predestined, He did it without them even knowing it! He did it before they ever even got here. Eventually, then He called them, made them aware. And those He called, He also justified—made them clean.
See, this is Romans 8, where Paul is teaching: «There is therefore now, Romans 8:1, no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus.» He had to justify me because I wasn’t even good enough for what He called me to. So those He called, He then turned around and justified, and those He justified, He also glorified. For I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We started with the hope of glory, and we ended with those He justified; He also glorified.
If you don’t see glory yet, it ain’t over! If you haven’t gotten to the glory, it’s not over! If you haven’t seen the glory from the suffering, it’s not over! So lean into the uncertainty because you don’t have to make this happen. It’s okay not to be okay; it’s okay not to be sure; it’s okay in your weakness because the Spirit itself makes intercession for us. When we’re worried, when we’re tired, when we’re stressed, when we’re fatigued, when we’re uncertain, He that is certain is praying for me right now! Did you know that? He that is certain—the Holy Spirit—is praying for you right now! And you don’t have to know about tomorrow; He already knows about tomorrow. And you don’t have to know about the next child; He already knows about the next child. And you don’t have to know about this and that.
I know you want to know; I want to know too. I want to know everything He knows, but nothing before it’s time. He knows how to get me through this uncertainty, so I won’t back up from it. I’m going to lean into it because He knows. Somebody, I’m talking to right now, you’ve got some decisions to make, and you can’t seem to make them to save your life. And you’re going back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth—get out of God’s way and let the Holy Spirit make the decision because He knows what you have been predestined to do! And stop making decisions out of discomfort. I’m just uncomfortable! I can’t put up with this! The sufferings of this present time—you better believe they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
If I had given up on my life in times of great suffering, I would have never made it to any level of glory that I have gotten to see up till this point. If I would have believed in the sufferings of my present moment at different stages in my life, I never would have made it to the next glory. Who knows how close you are to the next glory! If you faint right now, you’re going to miss it.
So tonight, I talk to you about leaning into uncertainty. And I know it goes against everything that you are to lean into not being in control and lean into not having a definite plan and lean into having to depend on the invisible power of God. But isn’t that what being a believer, a Christian, is all about? To lean into the cross and believe for the resurrection. Lean in! Lean into it! Get comfortable with it! Know that God knows. And that’s enough. Those of us who have the spirit of Christ will guide us into all truth. God… close your eyes right now.
Close your eyes right now; close them, and just reach out your fingers and say, «Lord, guide me. I can’t see; I’m blind. I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring.» But you start reaching out with your fingers and say:
Guide me. Guide my finances; guide my business; guide my marriage; guide my life. I don’t know. I’m through talking like I know; I’m through pretending like I know; I’m through trying to manipulate other people’s lives like I know. I’m an imposter; I’m a phony; I’m a fake. I admit it: I’m blind. I can’t see; I don’t know. But I do know that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord, and I do know that He who prays within me knows what I have been predestined to do. I do know that I don’t want to live my life doing what I want to do or what others have assigned me to do. I want to live and then finally die knowing that I have finished my course, that I have kept the faith, and that I have done what You created me to do.
Can I pray for you tonight? I know you feel like you’re groping in the dark; I know you don’t like the lights off. I know you have tantrums and fits because you can’t see, but I want you to lean into this uncertainty and trust God as the Holy Spirit guides you through.
Thank You, Lord. Many of us are facing times of uncertainty. How we see God is a direct reflection of where we are seated in the stadium of life right now. Sometimes we don’t even know what You’re doing; we don’t even know what to ask You to do. We just know to ask You to do it. We can’t give You direction, but we’re ready to take orders. Order our steps in Your Word, in Your will, and in Your way. The power is the kingdom, and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Amen. What I was saying is forever and ever and ever. I was seeing things falling off; you fall and fall and fall and fall and fall and fall. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Spirits falling off for you like rain. Amen.