TD Jakes - Occupied Territory
Let’s go get it! Let’s do it! Are you ready? Let’s get down and get into the Word. We’re going to talk from Colossians chapter 1, verses 25 through 27, so grab your Bibles quickly. You might want a notepad because some things I’m going to share tonight may really speak to your life in a special way. Again, that’s Colossians chapter 1, verses 25 through 27. Get it quickly; we have a lot of scriptures to go over tonight. I believe you’re going to gain a great understanding, and I can’t wait to teach it to you. We’re going to have a good time diving into the Word of God!
Are you ready? Colossians 1:25: «Wherefore, I am made a minister according to the dispensation of the promise of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations.» We’re about to uncover a mystery tonight, but it is now made manifest to His saints. To whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
«Christ in you, the hope of glory,» is where I hope to land today. But before I do, I want to remind you that most of the Pauline epistles grapple with the fact that the door is opening to the Gentiles, that God is practicing inclusion. God has a plan that has been hidden and kept as a mystery: He has not forgotten the Gentiles. It is not just about the Jew, but it is also about the Gentiles. Paul now unfolds this mystery of God’s inclusion—a new plan that is so important it is called a mystery.
When God unveils something, it is not created at that moment; it is revealed. It is like a painting that is draped, and at a party, I decide to unveil it. I didn’t paint it at that moment; it could have been done 10, 50, or even 100 years ago, but it is unveiled at that time. The unveiling of the mystery of the Gentiles is something God always had in mind but reserved for such a time as this, to show that He is inclusive enough not to only have the elect group known as the house of Israel but to include others. Jesus said, «Other sheep have I, which are not of this fold; them also must I bring.»
I referenced this last Wednesday night to help you understand that when you read the epistles, you should approach them from a hermeneutical perspective, grasping their original intent before we apply them homiletically to contemporary ideas and concepts. We must first understand what was going on with them. I spent a lot of time on that, but today I’m focusing on the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ wants to reside in you—Christ in you, not around you, beside you, with you, in front of you, or behind you. Christ in you is the hope of glory. If glory had a hope, it would be to move into your house.
Tonight’s message is titled «Occupied Territory,» so write that down: «Occupied Territory.» It’s important because we want the devil to know that we are occupied territory—not empty houses. Martha Stewart once said, «The homes I like best are totally occupied, busy, and useful. Whether it is a tiny little house or a great big one, rarely do you find a great big house that is used well. So I prefer smaller spaces that are full of books and filled with activities.»
Martha is right—houses are almost like living things; they were made to be occupied. When they are not occupied, they begin to decay without any effort to demolish or destroy them. Just leaving them empty leads to a certain level of decay. I believe we are a lot like houses; we were made to be occupied. But when we’re left empty, we begin to decay. Some of you have seen decay in your own life. Perhaps rust in your pipes means your doors don’t open well, your windows are swelling because they’re not being used. When left unoccupied, that emptiness can manifest as frustrations, dysfunctions, and disorders. You may try to fill it with various things, but what you truly need is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is what will fill that emptiness in your life that cannot be quenched by drinking, smoking, or other means.
I received a call the other day from some of my leadership at the church. They mentioned how they go through the church periodically, especially now while it is closed. It was used to being filled with thousands of people—the toilets were used, the lights were turned on, and activities were supposed to happen in the house. They go through and turn things on, flush the toilets, and activate the air conditioning just to give the house a feeling of occupancy. This is enough to keep it up and maintained; you cannot maintain an empty house.
The thesis of our discussion today is that if you leave a place empty and unguarded, vagrants come in, homeless people might enter, and illicit activities might occur—not simply because the house is empty. If that’s true of a house, it may also be true of you; that emptiness—not weakness—might be at the core of your life’s problems. It may not be that you are simply weak; it may be that you are empty, that strange behavior is taking residence in a place that God created for Himself.
As we delve into this Bible class, remember that God wants to do something amazing in your life, and the hope of glory is that Christ might abide within you—not just as a buddy, friend, or partner, but as a God who desires to live in your house. Think about this: I want to live in your house. I want to go with you, move with you, and be in you, just as I was with Peter in the boat during the storm. I want to be present so that when you encounter trouble, I can speak, «Peace, be still,» to your circumstances. I want to provide wisdom in times of crisis, comfort during grief, and miracles amid your struggles. I want to reside in your house—not as an occasional God you call in emergencies but as a constant presence in your life.
Have you opened yourselves up? That’s why we have you raise your hands—it’s a sign of openness to the Spirit, symbolizing that you’re ready to receive all that God has for you. Why don’t you lift your hands for a minute? Just lift your hands in the presence of God and take a moment to worship Him. Because when you do that, it’s a sign of surrender, a sign of openness, a sign of availability. It’s an invitation for Christ to come and abide in your house and live in your life. We have great things in store for you tonight. The first time we meet God in the book of Genesis, He is hovering over a lump of clay. There He is, a bent-over God. A God who is so high has come so low, bending over clay, shaping it with His own hands and making a vessel into which He then blew the breath of life. A man became a living soul, a living being. He became aware of himself because he was filled.
Until he was filled, he was just a decanter, but once he was filled and there was occupancy in the house, God began to occupy the territory by blowing the breath of life into him. Man stood up and started walking around because he was now occupied territory, the breath of the Almighty. The Bible says the breath of the Almighty has given me life. What a mighty God! The breath of the Almighty has given me life—not money, not careers, not prestige, not recognition, not appointments. The breath of the Almighty has given me life. If you are looking for life right now, the breath of the Almighty is what gives you life. The breath of the Almighty! Breathe in me, O God. Come into my spirit, come into my situation, and make Your abode with me.
This is the substratum of what we’re talking about tonight, and it’s what Paul is addressing in Colossians. Specifically, he’s talking about God coming to dwell in the Gentiles. That a holy God would come into a hedonistic group of people was a mystery. The Gentiles were hedonistic in their behavior, idolatrous in their background, and had no thought of God. They were without hope in this world, and God comes and knocks on the door of the house of the most wretched among the wretched, saying, «Hey, I want to hang out with you.» It’s kind of like when He said to Zacchaeus, «Come down out of the tree; I’m coming to your house.»
That has always been God’s desire—to have occupied territory with you, to give your space over to Him rather than endure the ache of the soul. The ache of the soul is the emptiness within. Anytime you’re empty, you’re going to ache. But when you are filled, and the water is running, and the lights are on, and the people are moving, and the books are read, the house does better when it is occupied territory. Tonight, we’re talking about occupying territory, and I trust that your territory is occupied by the Holy Spirit. It is possible for Him to occupy one room and not others, so open up all the rooms and allow God to have full access to all your territory.
We meet God, the holy God, standing tall, now bent low. The righteous God has humbled Himself over a lump of clay, and we meet Him almost as if He were a paramedic doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He kisses Adam and breathes into him the breath of life, and Adam becomes aware of himself because God has come to dwell inside of him. Again, the breath of the Almighty has given me life. Say that with me: the breath of the Almighty has given me life. Say that again: the breath of the Almighty has given me life. Otherwise, I’m an empty house that everybody drives past. Tall buildings stand around, and everyone looks at them, but nobody notices that I am collapsing from emptiness. I am deteriorating, I’m collecting rust from emptiness; I am shorting out circuits and breakers from being empty. A friend of mine told me that as you get older, to avoid becoming arthritic, «motion is lotion.»
If you don’t keep moving, even your body begins to break down. There has to be functionality in you. You want to be occupied territory—not just physically, not just with calisthenics, but occupied by God. That God might come to dwell in you is so important. The whole desire of building the Garden of Eden was for man to have a spot to hang out with God. Not only does God want to indwell us, but He also desires to have fellowship with us—a meeting place. The Bible says that when man fell into sin, the voice of the Lord walked through the cool of the garden, saying, «Adam, where are you?» I built this place for you to meet Me, and now I cannot find you. Where are you? Adam was hiding because he had committed a sin, and sin had separated him from that which gave life to him. God warned Him, «The day you eat of the tree, you shall surely die.»
This does not mean you will stop moving, that you will stop existing, but to be separated from what I poured inside of you is, in fact, spiritual death. Spiritual death is not the cessation of life; it is the separation from the One who gives life. Death, in all forms, is purely separation. People never cease to be; even science teaches that all matter continues to exist in one form or another. But existing and living are two different things. My watch exists, but it is not alive. You understand what I’m talking about. I’ve got all kinds of things around me that exist but are not alive. I’ve got a wallet over here; it exists, but it is not alive. Just like my wallet, so many of us are existing but are not alive.
What must we do to have life? Can we buy it? Can we sell it? Can we drink it? Can we smoke it? Can we intellectualize it? No, we must fill it—occupied territory. That’s what we’re talking about tonight. God created the garden so that He could live with man, abide with man, and fellowship with man. However, man has fallen into sin while God has gone into the Sabbath day rest. That sin broke God’s heart. The voice of the Lord walked through the cool of the garden, calling, «Adam,» which speaks to how precious man is to God that God would search for him. What a compliment that God would search for him! Sometimes, we misplace things that we don’t look for because they really don’t matter that much; they’re not important.
Have you ever dropped something and when someone tried to pick it up and give it to you, you said, «I’ll throw it away; it’s not important»? But man is so important to God that God searches for him. God searches for you because you are His house; you are His habitation, and He cares about you. As out of kilter as you might be, as poorly constructed as you might be, God thinks you’re valuable enough to come looking for you. «Adam, where are you?» The voice of the Lord rushed through the cool of the garden. From the book of Genesis all the way over to the book of Exodus, we begin to see some theologians say there were 2,500 years of silence before we see God meeting with the children of Israel in the wilderness to re-establish a meeting place. Since the Garden of Eden, man has not had a particular meeting place. Yes, there have been sacrifices offered up to God on various mountains, but not a consistent meeting place with them.
So God gives Moses the plan to build the tabernacle. Tabernacle in Hebrew is «ohel moed"—a tent of meeting. A tent of meeting! What kind of meeting is it? It is a rendezvous place for God and man to reconcile, like two lovers meeting in a dark alley. God said, «I want you to build a tabernacle, so we’ll have a place to meet.» God designed a meeting place for God and man to meet for the purpose of reconciliation, with the blood of bullocks and goats and sacrifices. God designs a place for man to meet. Is there a meeting place for you and God? Moses' tabernacles became symbolic of that meeting place, and later, once they arrived at the promised land, the tabernacle became the temple when David’s son built the temple.
The temple became a place for God to dwell, and the Bible says in II Chronicles that when the temple was finished, the Shekinah glory came down and filled the temple. The priests lay prostrate on the floor; nobody could function or do service because the Spirit of God filled the temple. When God fills the temple, all flesh must be silent. I remember growing up in the Baptist church, and when we sang, «The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence,» that simple song, that simple doxology, was the way we acknowledged that the Lord is in His holy temple.
When Solomon built the temple from the cedars of Lebanon that his father David had collected, the Spirit of God came down and sat on the temple. The overwhelming presence of God filling the temple caused the priests to lay prostrate on the floor; they couldn’t function. They couldn’t bring work from the table of showbread; the altar of incense was no longer lit; there were no ceremonial offerings for a moment because the glory was so strong. When God filled the temple, all the earth had to keep silence before Him.
Mighty God, I wonder what God would silence in your life if He came to dwell inside of you, if you were occupied territory. I’m coming for somebody who’s empty tonight. I’m coming for somebody who’s frustrated tonight. I’m reaching out to someone who has the nagging awareness that there is a void and a vacancy in their life, and they’ve tried to fill it with people, with friends, with money, with work, and with all kinds of things, and still, there is this aching, barren womb, this thirsty place, this hunger—this awareness that I am empty. Emptiness is a painful thing; that’s why we experience hunger pains. It’s painful to be empty; it’s painful to recognize that there is nothing where something ought to be. So when the Spirit of the Lord came in and filled the temple, it did some powerful and profound things that truly changed the whole atmosphere, altered it by the presence of God.
God cannot come and live in you without altering anything. Today, we think we’re Christians because we go to church or we watch a spiritual broadcast and we say, «I’m a believer.» But if nothing is altered in your life, does God really dwell in you? If you are basically who you were before, are you saved? If so, saved from what? If you’re going to live the way you lived before and be exactly who you were before, are you really occupied territory, or are you still just trying to fill empty places with things that do not satisfy? Jesus told the woman at the well, «If you drink of the water that I have, you will never thirst again. You will never have to come here and try to quench your thirst with something temporal that doesn’t satisfy. If you drink of the water that I have, I will fill the empty places in your life.»
It was so overwhelming that she dropped her water pots to the ground, ran on her mission, and left her mess behind, saying, «Come see a man who told me everything I’d ever done.» She got a taste of that living water and became occupied territory. From the Garden of Eden to Moses' tabernacle to Solomon’s temple, and later, when the children of Israel went into Babylonian captivity, they came out to find Solomon’s temple in ruins. They built what was called Zerubbabel’s temple, which was much more humble—less opulent, no pillars, no brazen laver, no fancy beautiful gates—all of that had been displaced.
The Bible says, I believe in Haggai, that the old men wept when they remembered the former glory of the other temple. The young men danced because they had nothing to compare it to. Often, young men dance because they have no comparison. Often, young men dance while old men weep, because old men remember what was, and young men dance because they’re just glad to be free, not recognizing that Zerubbabel’s temple is just a shadow of Solomon’s temple. The glory was not as strong; the walls were not as high; the pillars were not mighty. It was little to nothing—it was Zerubbabel’s temple. Zerubbabel’s temple continues until after 400 years of silence. With the rise of Alexander the Great and family, the unrest and the bursting of the Roman Empire, there comes a temple that Jesus comes to know as Herod’s temple.
Now, Herod’s temple was built by Herod to appease the Jews and give them back a place to worship and try to restore some order, but it was really Herod’s temple; he controlled and owned it, and the Jews worshipped there. It was to this temple that Jesus came; it was to this temple where He was circumcised; it was to this temple where He beat away the money changers because that was Herod’s temple. The money changers were there exchanging the coins and making a profit selling turtle doves—understand, the selling of turtle doves is a hint that they were taking advantage of the poorest of the poor, because turtle doves were the kinds of offerings that peasants gave, people of means offered up lambs, but poor people offered turtle doves.
To buy the turtle doves, there was some taxation on the gift, and they were making money and taking advantage of the Jews' religion because the Jews were now occupied by the Roman Empire, and Herod had been assigned to this lowly Jewish dispatch, no doubt longing to have a job in Rome. He appeased himself to being strong among the weak. Often, when we don’t get what we want out of life, we try to be big men in little places and intimidate those who are vulnerable to make us feel like we have arrived. But all of this is done so that God might, through the Old Testament, teach us the master plan that He has to dwell among us and, later still, to dwell in us.
When the Virgin Mary was found, the Angel Gabriel came to Mary and said, «Hail Mary, you have been highly favored among women. You shall bring forth a Son, and His name shall be called Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sins.» Later, the Bible says His name shall be called Emmanuel, meaning «God with us.» Can’t you see God trying to take us back to what He had in mind in the first place? «I want to hang out with you, Adam. Where are you?» Emmanuel was God hanging out with us. Emmanuel was saying, «Adam, if you cannot come to Me, I will come to you, and I will sup with you, and I will sit with you. I will sit on your Mount of Olives; I will sleep with you; and I will travel with you.» Because God wants an intimate relationship with you.
Go quickly now to the Gospel of Saint John, chapter 14, verses 16 through 17, and let’s go deeper into the Word of God. My purpose, my goal, is not to titillate your senses, not to make you shout and dance. My purpose, my goal, is to make you more biblically literate — to wolf-proof you. Because if I teach you the Word of God, and if you really take me seriously, you will not be as vulnerable to the wolves that exist out here theologically, teaching anything. We’re living in an age now that the church says amen to anything and anybody, anything that sounds good. Most of the false prophets use some Scriptures to entice spiritual people into anarchy against the faith because they are not well-trained. They are emotional but not intellectual; they don’t have a clear understanding of who they are and what they believe. So weak sheep get divided first by the wolf, and I’m trying to teach you so you won’t be a weak sheep, so you’ll understand what you believe and why you believe it and what the Bible says about it. So that you will understand the unveiling of the mystery of God for us.
Yeah, you won’t be in skirmishes over whether we are Hebrews or Gentiles because you will understand that God has thrown wide open the door and welcomed into His fellowship both Gentiles and Jews. For the Bible said there is neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, we become one. A lot of the arguments we have today are moot points if you understand your Bible.
Let’s go to the Gospel of Saint John, chapter 14, verses 16-17. Here, Jesus is getting ready to leave, and He is comforting the disciples because they had been with Him for three years. Now, He is starting to tell them that He is leaving — that is not what they expected from Him. They wanted Jesus to help them overthrow the Roman Empire and to reclaim Israel as a nation and for Him to be the King of Israel. They saw Him as a King, not a cross. All of a sudden, Jesus becomes preoccupied with taking His body to the cross, and they had followed Him for three years because they thought He’d take His body to the throne and be a king. But Jesus understood something that I want you to understand today: there are no kings without crosses.
I know you have a vision to be a king in some aspect of your life or your career or your family, but I promise you, don’t be so bedazzled by the kingship that you don’t notice in your peripheral vision the cross. Because the only way you can be a king is to go to the cross. Now, Jesus speaks to them about going to the cross, and they are distraught because they have not followed Him for three years for Him to be arrested, beaten with a cat of nine tails, and brought before the Sanhedrin court, stripped of His clothing, and beaten like a common man, tied to a whipping post until His entrails were hanging out, and then hung high and stretched wide on a cross — a place of humiliation.
The cross was not a place of adoration; it was not a place of worship; it was a place of execution. Before it was anything else, crucifixion was execution; it was a lethal injection, a gas chamber, and an electric chair — a place for criminals. And there the One whom they worshiped and adored, the One who walked on water, healed the sick, raised the dead, and turned water into wine is now stretched out and on death row, and then penalized and executed, nailed to a cross. Before He goes to the cross, He says, «And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you.»
He dwelleth with you. How does the Holy Spirit dwell with Him in the person of Jesus Christ? He dwelleth with you, watches, and shall be in you. He’s going to occupy your territory. He’s not just going to be a companion; He’s going to be an inhabitant. He’s not going to just be a companion; He’s going to be an inhabitant. And He walks with me and talks with me. All of that is good, but He’s going to come and live inside of you, and you will become occupied territory.
Can I go deeper into this? Because I believe there are some things in here that are very important for us to understand if we’re really going to walk with Him. Christ wants to dwell inside, and He breathed into Adam the breath of lives, and Adam became a living soul. There we met God trying to get into man, and now we see Jesus trying to get into man — the God who was high bent low that He might blow into Adam the breath of life. God who dwelt among the celestials in heaven has now been low and become a human man that He might blow the Holy Spirit down into us. God has not deviated in His strategy or His plan. He says, «From everlasting to everlasting, I am God; I am the Lord thy God; I change not.» What you saw Me doing in Genesis is what you see Me doing in John: I’m still trying to get the breath, the Spirit of God, to indwell man.
«I will not leave you comfortless. I will not form you with My hand and leave you empty on the ground. I will blow into you the breath of lives, and you will become a living soul.» The Holy Spirit will come inside of you and make His abode in your house, and you will become occupied territory. He will come to live in you in such a way that when you pray, don’t go to the Father in your own name, but whatsoever you ask the Father in My name, that will I do, because I live in your house. I’m in the house with you. If you’re quarantined, I’m quarantined with you. If you’re sheltering in place, I’m sheltering in place with you. If you’re driving down 95, I’m driving down 95 with you. If you make your bed in hell, I’m there. If you take your wings and ascend to the most parts of the earth, I’m there. I am ride or die; I am the original ride or die. I am with you; I am in you — the mystery, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
I hope you sense right now, right where you are, as we study this Bible class, that this is not a strange relationship — that this is not a companion walking down a lonely road with you, but this is the indwelling glory of God coming to live inside your house, to invade your space, to get into your mind, to get into your memories, to get into your finances, to get into your affairs — that He actually lives in your house to work out your budget, to temper your behavior, to strengthen your weaknesses. To stand up in you, Christ in you is the hope of glory.
Let’s go deeper in this Word. I hope you’re getting something out of this. Not only are we individually a habitation for the Lord, but we are also collectively a habitation for the Lord. Collectively! What do you mean? We went from understanding the shadows and types of all the tabernacles and temples of the Old Testament to understanding the individual dwelling place that we are — the dwelling place of the Lord and that God is in us. He is in us, He is in us, He is in us. That He lives in us. He and He alone seeks to be the one who occupies our territory. There might be some place in your life that the enemy has set up a room, and he’s renting out a room or staying in a garage in your life. But the Bible says neither give place to the devil. The word «places» means neither give territory to the devil. Don’t let him be an overnight guest. Don’t let him be somebody who’s taken a room in your house. Take back the territory because God wants to occupy all of you — all of you. He wants to be in you; He wants to speak out of you. He wants to speak to your storms. He wants to deal with your issues.
Jesus couldn’t speak to the winds and waves if He wasn’t on the boat. But because He was asleep on the boat when the storm rose, there was a greater One who stood up and spoke to the winds and waves and said, «Peace be still! Peace be still! Peace be still! Peace be still!» To your affliction; to your disease; to your disorder; to your frustration; to your depression, «Peace be still!» To your anger, «Peace be still!» To your jealousy, «Peace be still!» To your pride, «Peace be still!» To your worry, «Peace be still!» God wants to speak peace from inside of the house, not from the outside, not from the portals of glory, not from the balconies of heaven, not from the throne, not from the twenty-four elders, not from the ages and eons to come. No, God wants to speak peace from inside of your house. He wants to dwell inside of you in a much more intimate and personal way.
Now, we’re about to consider the fact that not only does He dwell in me as an individual, He also dwells in us collectively. And the reason that He doesn’t just dwell in me individually and also dwells in me collectively is so that I don’t think that I own Him, so that I don’t look down my nose at other people, so that I don’t think that I alone am a son of God. Beloved, now are ye the sons (s-o-n-s) of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But when we see Him, we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him. We are collectively the sons of God, the sons of God. Let me prove it to you. If any two or three of you are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of you. He said, «I dwell in your fellowship!»
Now let’s go into this because we have to understand if God also dwells in our fellowship and not just in our person. If the enemy couldn’t stop Him from dwelling in our person, he wants to stop Him from dwelling in our fellowship. He can’t tell God He can’t come, but he can break up our fellowship so that we don’t have two or three gathered in His name. We can be two or three in the same building, but if we’re not gathered in His name, He didn’t promise to dwell in the midst of us. Because He dwells in our collective ability to coalesce and be in one place with one accord. And suddenly, there’s a sound from heaven that God dwells in the midst of us. The hardest thing in all the world is to get on one accord with people.
I have no problem with my vertical ability to get in touch with God. My problem is in my horizontal relationships. Vertical, horizontal — my crucified life. There I hang, stretched between God and man, and the painful part of it is I am nailed in the stretch. I’m not nailed in the vertical; I’m nailed in the stretch of my ability to connect with you because that often hurts. Because in order to dwell with you, and to follow peace with all men, and holiness — without which no man shall see the Lord — means I have to shut up sometimes. It means I have to hold my peace sometimes. It means I have to listen and learn. Sometimes it means I have to be still. It means I don’t get to control everything because we, jointly together, form a habitation for the Lord through the Spirit.
Let’s go into this; this is going to be good. When we go into collective habitation, I chose Ephesians 2:19–22. There are a whole lot more Scriptures than what I’ve given you, but… I’m just giving you a few examples now; therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
Look at how large this house is, with all the apostles and all the prophets merely stones in this house, jointly fit together, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. God inhabits or resides in our unity; God lives in our unity. So if I were Satan and I wanted to do something really bad to break your ability to have God express Himself through your collective unity, I would have you fussing, fighting, bickering, arguing, and tearing one another down because God would not dwell in a place where there is no unity. There’s power in unity; there’s power in agreement; there’s power in connecting.
Oh, you can’t accomplish anything if we are jointly fitted together as a habitation for the Spirit, but it’s hard to get there. It’s hard to achieve that in a marriage; it’s hard to achieve that in the family; it’s hard to achieve that in the church; it’s hard to achieve that between churches and other churches because one church is always trying to outdo the other churches. The same reason it’s hurting marriages: people are lusting for power rather than unity. But God said that if we would seek unity rather than dominance, then He would be a habitation for God through the Spirit. When we are jointly fitted together, locked in together, in sync with each other, united together, that’s where the enemy fights us—with our ability to be unified, to agree on something. In order to be unified, there must be… here comes an ugly word: submission.
«I’m not submitting to anybody but God.» Listen, listen, listen: you’re not going to form a habitation for God if you don’t learn how to submit. Submitting doesn’t mean you’re a slave; it doesn’t mean you’re spineless; it doesn’t mean you’re mindless; it doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion. It just means that some of your unique nuances have to submit for the benefit of what God is trying to accomplish in your life. «Submit» comes from two words: sub mission. To submit to the mission is submission. To submit to the mission is to say there’s something more important than me about this—about how I feel, my story, my narrative, and what I have going on. It doesn’t matter if I’m singing or whether I get to lead the praise team or not or whether they printed my name on the program or not. It’s not about me; it is about submitting to the mission. Whether I’m working in the background or the forefront, I am submitting to the mission. Couples that submit to the mission outlast couples who don’t. When you submit to the mission, and the mission becomes more important than the messenger, that’s where God dwells; that’s where God moves; that’s where God lives; that’s where God makes His abode.
I’m reminded of scripture: that’s where God makes His abode—that’s where God comes to reside inside of you when there’s something you believe in that’s bigger than yourself. Selfishness gets out of the way, and selfishness is the antithesis of submission. This narcissistic age that we live in today—where it’s all about you, all about your way, all about what you have in mind and what you want to do—is what’s killing us. It’s what’s stopping us from seeing the lame walk, the deaf hear, and the dumb speak. That’s what’s preventing us from accomplishing what we’re trying to do on earth because everybody wants to be a chief, and nobody wants to be an Indian. Everybody wants to feel empowered; everybody wants control. That’s the problem. That’s what’s stopping us from having the submission we need to get done what we’re trying to accomplish. That’s what’s destroying us. We don’t know how to submit. We don’t know how to submit.
Do you know how to submit? I want you to jot down three areas in your life where you need to be more submissive right now. Right now, I want you to write down three areas where you want to be more submissive. I want you to write them now as a goal to esteem the mission above yourself, and you are going to submit to that mission. Do you have a goal or dream that you believe is so important that you’re willing to submit to get the job done? Not because you’re not smart or not great, not because you’re not strong, but because you believe in something bigger than yourself. I want you to write down three things—just three things—that are more important to you than your flesh; three things that would escalate what God is doing in your life and that you’re willing to sacrifice to get done.
Psalms 133 says, «Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.» Oh, how good and pleasant it is to behold! Unveil how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garment. It overflowed from his hair to his beard to his skirts without dilution and without pollution. The vision didn’t get from his head to his beard and then turn into some hidden agenda. The person representing the beard didn’t contaminate or dilute it; it went all the way down to his chest, to his breastplates, and down to his skirts. When you sampled the bottom, it had the same DNA as at the head. That’s what we desire. We want visionaries and leaders in the process of trying to enact what we’re trying to do so our vision doesn’t get diluted or polluted.
Let me talk to pastors for a moment. One reason you’re stuck where you are is that somewhere between what you said God gave you and when they acted on it, somebody diluted it or polluted it; they only gave half of the information or held back the information or only shared it with their friends. You’re stuck and never seeing the glory of God because you don’t have unity on the team. It is like the precious ointment upon the head—that’s leadership—that ran down onto the beard—that’s the second tier of leadership—that went down to the garments—those are the people who carry it out. Aaron’s garments, incidentally, were made out of linen. If you remember, our old grandmothers' tablecloths were often made out of linen. You know why? Because linen does not absorb, and so if something spills on linen, it is easy to clean. The reason Aaron’s garments were of linen, so when they are all handed it, it would slide. You want your vision to pass without anyone soaking it up. You want it to continue, and you want them to have unity.
«Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.» This is good. Are you getting anything out of this? And then it says, «As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descendeth upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.» As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing where there is unity—at the place of us being jointly fit together—wherever we are fit together, there God commands a blessing. You don’t believe it?
Let me give you another scripture: «If any two or three of you agree as touching anything, it shall be done unto you.» Psalms 133:3, «And there God commands the blessing.» There, God dwells among us, and we are jointly fit together to form a habitation for the Lord through the Spirit. In whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. God put you together to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. God brings people together to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. If Paul had been in jail without Silas, or Silas had been in jail without Paul, there wouldn’t have been anybody to jointly fit together.
But because the enemy made his mistake when he put the two men in the same prison, they jointly fit together, and there God commanded the blessing. There the angels sat on top of the Philippian jailhouse, the earthquake came, the doors opened, salvation broke out, and they started a church. What their submission! But in order to get to the mission, there had to be submission. Timothy and Silas couldn’t be saying, «No, I’m not praying; you pray. I’m going to sing; I don’t want to sing; I’m in a bad mood; I’m hoarse; I’m tired.» No, no, no, no. «Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.» It works in a prison; it works in a problem; it works in a desert; it works in a crisis. And there, God commanded a blessing. And there, the earthquake came; the doors were opened; the bands were loosed; the Philippian church was started in a prison because a prison cannot stop the power of our cohesiveness.
Can I go deeper into the Word with you? I’m almost finished, but there are some things I want you to see that I think are important. Go to 1 Corinthians 6:17–20: «But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.» He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Now, this is good—and this is kind of on the individual end of it. «He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication; every sin that a man doeth is without the body. But he that committed fornication sinneth against his own body.»
Your body—God is living in you while you’re living like that. I don’t want to talk about it, but God is living in you while you’re living like that. So you took His temple and joined His temple with the harlot! «What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God? And you are not your own.» I know it’s not popular to talk about sin; it’s out of style. Nobody wants to say anything about it, but I’m going to address it tonight because God wants to live in you, which means there are certain things you can’t do in your house and with your body. «For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.» Your body and your spirit belong to God—not to her, not to him, but to God. So God says, «I want you to live as though you are aware that I’m living inside of you.» He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
How much our lives would change, our conduct would change, our behavior would change; everything would change if we recognized God was living in our house. Come on, can we go deeper? Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me! You may need to repent, but don’t leave me. You may need to pray, but don’t leave me. You may need to apologize, but don’t leave me. Because we’re going deeper, this is still the Word of God. 1 Corinthians 12:13–18: «For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, 'Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, ' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, 'Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, ' is it therefore not of the body?» You can’t start throwing people away because they function differently. Their role is different; their calling is different.
I get people who contact me on Instagram and in different places, and they say, «How come you’re not marching over here?» or «How come you’re not doing something with the AIDS foundation?» What they really mean is, «How come you’re not doing what I’m doing?» Because what I’m doing is all there ought to be done. It sounds crazy, but it’s like the hand saying to the foot, «How come you’re not walking?» or the mouth saying to the knee, «How come you’re not talking?» We can be one body and have different functions. We can have one vision and have differing functions. We need all of us pursuing the same mission but not necessarily in the same way. To think that the only thing that’s important is what you’re doing is arrogance. How come you’re not doing what I’m doing? So then the hand and the foot are in an argument, and the hand is saying, «You don’t ever write a letter,» and the foot is saying, «I don’t care!»
Nothing is right no matter if you don’t walk. That’s what’s happening in the church; that’s what’s happening in our community. Everybody thinks what they’re doing is the only thing that needs to be done, and if you’re not doing what I’m doing the way I’m doing it, you’re not doing anything. We’re not getting anywhere because we are jointly fit together to form a habitation through the Spirit. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? But now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it pleases Him. He has given us all something to do, but none of us has it all to do.
Don’t forsake your assignment to be somebody else. Don’t let someone advertise how great it is to be a hand, prompting you to stop being a foot. If you stop being a foot, the hand can’t get to where it’s trying to go. Coveting someone else’s gift is one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make. Don’t stop being a mouth so you can be an ear; then you’re hearing everything, but nobody can say anything. Don’t give up being an eye because you want to be a knee. Sure, I need my knees, but I can’t see through them. Understanding your uniqueness helps you to fit in the body.
I want to talk to those of you who have not accepted your own uniqueness, who look at everyone else’s gift and think it’s greater than yours, who look at everyone else’s talent and believe it’s greater than yours. Has not God made your mouth? Did not God form you the way He formed you and place you in the body as pleases Him? That’s what God did. God placed you in the body. Let me get it just right: But now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased Him, not as it has pleased you, not as it has pleased the church, not as it has pleased the crowd, but as it has pleased Him. If it pleases God to make me an ear, why would I pray to be a nose? When will you be thankful for how God made you with your introverted self? When will you be thankful for how God made you with your extroverted self? When will you be satisfied with being who you are and let God place you where He wants to place you as it pleases Him?
We’re talking tonight, and I think we’re getting some things done in the Word of God as we begin to teach it. We’re starting to understand that God wants to occupy our lives in a special way. Go to Genesis chapter 2; I’m almost done. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. That’s so funny because look at God sustaining the earth without man.
One of the things that this COVID-19 has taught me is that God can run His church without all the stuff I was doing. God created the earth, established a system, watered the ground, and caused the vegetation to grow and the crops to increase before He ever even made man. God can exist without me; He can do it without my talent. He just chooses to use me, but He doesn’t have to have me. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed as it had pleased Him. God places you where He wants to place you, shapes you the way He wants to shape you, and then dwells in our collective ability to unite together, and we become occupied territory.
I want to spend the last few minutes talking to those of you who are frustrated with where He placed you, how He made you, how He shaped you, or what gifts He did or did not give you. Your whole complaint, desire, and focus on success are to be like something God gave to somebody else at the expense of not being who God made you to be. That’s way too costly a price to pay. If you’re going to be a habitation for God, you have to become comfortable being who He made you and jointly fitting with people who are different from you. God wants to occupy your territory, but He can’t occupy your territory if you’re busy running from the territory that He made you. He wants to breathe into you the breath of life, but He can’t breathe that breath into you if you’re trying to be somebody else.
God is trying to get into your head that He wants a more intimate relationship with you than just a Sunday morning experience. He wants to live in you; He wants to love through you; He wants to give through you the gifts, talents, wisdom, revelation, and even the finances that God has given to you. We’re only meant to get them through you, and there’s somebody who’s holding on to your stuff because you think it’s yours, not understanding that when God gets in your house, He will dispense your gifts through you to them.
You know the scripture they quote all the time when they talk about giving: give, and it shall be given unto you again. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men give unto your bosom. Do you want to be on the giving end where it shall be given unto you, good measures, shaken down, pressed together, running over? Or do you want to be the man that God uses to give unto them? Give, and it shall be given unto you again. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give unto your bosom. The wisdom God gave you—be the person that gives to the bosom of others. The knowledge God gave you—be the person that shares it with others.
The finances that God gave you—be the person that gives to others. Because if God can get it through you, God will give it to you, and He will use you, and He will bless you, and He will strengthen you if you pass this test of being a conduit, the plumbing in the house that God flows through. So, turn on the faucets, flush the toilets, and open up the pipes, letting the house know it’s alive. Because if currency doesn’t flow, it becomes stagnant, stinky, rusty pipes create corrosion. I’m praying for you to come into a flow. I’m praying for you to find peace with your uniqueness, and I pray that God can flow through you so your house can come to life. Because right now, you’re like this empty church, the voices echoing in you, and there’s no activity.
God says you have all that space that I want to fill, all those pipes, all those talents, and all those gifts that I want to flow through. Zacchaeus, come down out of your tree; today I will stay at your house! That’s the invitation: behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him, and I shall be his God, and he shall be my people. That’s the invitation. God wants to change the world through you. For the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain until now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, for the adoption to wit, whereby we cry, «Abba, Father!» They’re waiting for you, and they’re waiting for me to change the world. Let’s start changing it little by little, right now. Are you with me?
Father, as I pray today, I pray for every soul under the sound of my voice who’s ever been distracted, gotten off course, sat down, or stopped doing. I pray for every empty house whose soul is aching from emptiness, whose pipes are rusting, whose lights are blinking because they are empty. I pray for empty people right now who’ve become cynical, aggravated, doubters, and skeptics only because they’re really empty. I pray, God, that through Your Spirit, You would occupy new territory. Because I taught this class under Your direction tonight, go into every room, air out every room, throw open the windows, let the drapes billow in the breeze. Come into our hearts, Lord Jesus, and abide with us. Use us, and I pray that a supernatural flow would enter the life of every believer as they stop grasping and holding onto everything. I speak a spirit of release, hallelujah! As they begin to release what You have given them, they will come into a flow, whether the release is of things, talents, time, gifts, wisdom, knowledge, revelation, or simply sowing a seed. Whatever it is, they would come into a flow and would flow without discrimination.
I don’t like the hand, I don’t like to touch my feet, I don’t like fooling with knees. No, we would not prefer one member of the body above another; we will jointly fit together to form a habitation of God through the Spirit and thereby be fulfilled, full-field in my house—fulfilled, occupied territory. So the next time the devil comes knocking at your door and tries to get in and take over your house, your health, your children, your home, your marriage, or your life, put a sign on the door that says, «Occupied Territory.» Because he cannot inhabit where God dwells, and God dwells in you! That is tonight’s battle class. Do with it what you will. For God’s sake, don’t just hear it; do something! Right now, if it’s a small something, do something! Right now, if it’s picking up the phone and praying for somebody who’s shut in, do something! Right now, if it’s supporting ministry, do something! Right now, if it’s singing a song, do something! Put it on Instagram right now! Do something to let the world know that your house, your talents, your gifts, and your resources are occupied territory.