TD Jakes - The Collective Expression of His Essence
I’m going to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 13-22, and I’m likely going to take you somewhere different than you’re used to going on a Sunday morning. I’m probably going to swim upstream against the current of the culture because the culture, as a whole, is very narcissistic. I hate to use that word because it’s probably overused in our society today, but it’s all about what’s in it for me. However, if you will indulge me, I think you’re going to understand what’s in it for you. Ephesians 2:13–22—when you have it, say amen. Amen.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ—oh gosh, made nigh by the blood of Christ! For He is our peace, who has made both one—talking about Jews and Gentiles. If you read the whole chapter, He’s made both one; He’s blended them together in a unique fashion and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Gosh! Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, He took the thing that separated us and abolished it in His flesh. He fulfilled the law contained in ordinances to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
He vanquished what we were fighting about; He ended what was contrary to our unity. He moved the obstacle of our religiosity out of the way. That is not to say that the law was wrong because the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, but it put a wall between Jew and Gentile, and Jesus brought it down. Having abolished it in His flesh, He completed it; He fulfilled it so that the Gentile, who was lawless, has just as many rights to come before God as the Jew because He took all of that out of the way and came and preached peace to you who were afar off.
And you don’t have to be living 2,000 years ago to have been afar off. He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to them that were nigh; for through Him we both have access—oh, isn’t that beautiful? See, there are some people in this church who have been raised in church all their lives. They don’t know what cigarette smoke smells like, they’ve never smoked a joint in their lives, they’ve never tasted alcohol. Their mama was in holiness; they are in holiness; they are pure. They’ve never done anything, never been on a dance floor. They don’t know how to do anything. They don’t know how to shuffle, don’t know how to slide, don’t gamble, don’t cheat, don’t know how to do anything. There really are some people in the church who have been in the church all their lives, I mean really in the church, and then there’s the rest of us. We kind of, you know, took the long way in; we did some window shopping, stopped by the club and peaked in, dropped it like it was hot and picked it up like it was cold.
And imagine, now we’re all in here together. For through Him, we both—there’s no need for you to look down your nose at me. Through Him, we both have access by one Spirit. See, by one Spirit—that’s what did it—one Spirit unto the Father. I can come in there just like you can, with your holy self, with your righteous self, with your «never told a lie, stole a cookie» self. I can come in there with crumbs on my mouth and come boldly to the throne of grace through Him.
Now therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and of the household of God. I want you to pay attention to that—go back to that verse again because I want them to see: now therefore you are no more strangers, you’re not standing outside knocking at the door, nor foreigners. You don’t have to wonder if you belong. Let me tell you something; you have just as much right to be in this church. You might have been a drug dealer or drug user. You might have been all kinds of things, and y’all would be talking about «Whoa!» like you weren’t it, but everything is in here.
Now therefore, here’s the good news: you’re no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints, fellow citizens with equal rights and of the household. I want you to pay close attention to that. We collectively make up the household of God. Come on! And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. The apostles laid the foundation; Christ is the cornerstone. God is building a house out of people in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord. Notice it didn’t say tabernacle, but we grow into a temple of the Lord.
I’m going to get into why it didn’t say tabernacle. In whom you also are built together—together, together, together—say that: together, together, together! In whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God! The reason God brought you together is that you’re going to be a habitation; you’re going to be God’s address—a habitation of God through the Spirit. Can you say amen? Amen!
Now, this is not a jazzy title. It’s not a fancy title. I’ve got some, and I could use some, but this is kind of a little bit more of a collegiate title, a theological title, a title that I want you to let sit in you: the collective expression of His Essence. The collective! That takes me away from the individual—the collective expression of not my essence, my opinion, my attitude, or my story, what happened to me when I was five, or what my last husband said to me that left me wanting. No, no, no, no, no! I’m not to express that; I’m to express His Essence in the earth. If the world is to see Him, they’re going to see Him through me. No, let me fix it: they’re going to see Him through us.
We are living at a time when we are losing our sense of «us.» We have given up «us» for «me.» We have given up unity for identity: «I identify! I identify! I don’t care whether you like it!» Everything is about «I.» But in the Bible, you can do whatever you want to do—the emphasis is on our collective expression of His Essence, which makes me dependent upon you because I cannot be a full expression of His Essence by myself. It is something that happens when we get together, and so the reason the enemy is determined for us not to get together is that there is something that amplifies about God in our connectivity that we don’t have in our individuality. Are you hearing what I’m saying? I’m just setting the stage for it. I want you to get this—let’s pray.
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on us as we delve into the Word. Help me to get through this, Lord; help me to get through it in a way that’s clear and succinct. Help me to get through it in a way that has synchronization and revelation. Help me to get through it in a way that reflects how You gave it to me. In the name of Jesus, we pray—somebody shout amen!
You may be seated. Now, I need the women right at the top of the message to help me out a little bit. How many women in here are wearing makeup? Okay! In my church, we would have put you out for that. But back in the old days, you—you would have—you would have wooed. But how many women in here who are wearing makeup put it on in a mirror? How many people know that when you left the mirror, there was no makeup on it? So you didn’t put lipstick on the mirror because the mirror is just a reflection that helps you have accuracy as you get what y’all call «beat down,» which is a terrible name, by the way. Y’all can come up with a better term! Her face is «beat»? Like somebody punched her in the mouth?
When the Bible says that we were created in His image and in His likeness, it does not make us the person, but the mirror. We reflect the glory of God. Let me use another example: the moon has no light, and yet it lights up the night. It only lights up the night because of its proximity to the sun, and the light that is radiating from the moon is really a mirror of its ability to be in proximity. The reason it’s half moon, quarter moon, full moon is as the world turns; it is able to get less and less reflection. At full moon, it is able to totally reflect a light that is not its own. This light that you have is not your light; it is the collective light of God.
So if you want to spend all your time studying yourself, you are studying a dark moon. If you want to better understand yourself, you have to study the Sun, not the moon. If you want to see yourself, there’s no need to take pictures in the mirror. You must begin to understand that understanding God is important. We are living in an age where—yes, I flip through Instagram sometimes, listening to the preacher, and 10 out of 12 messages are about us: how to pick a good husband, how to get married, how to recover from divorce, and all that kind of stuff.
There’s a time and a place for all of that, but I can hardly find anybody left in the church today that’s teaching about God. It would be like going into the liquor store and finding nothing but ice. The church is supposed to bring you to God. We are the last institution that should be talking about God! That is what we do; that is who we are! And yet we have trained our people to come to church for encouragement aside from God, as if God were totally independent from your peace.
If you could generate your own peace through knowledge, that’s called humanism! Come on! In order to really get your peace, power, and understanding, you’re only getting it by the level of closeness you have to the light that causes you to shine. That means if you see anything good in me, if you see anything righteous in me, if you see anything forgiving in me, if you see anything that’s holy in me—I can’t take credit for it! It’s only me reflecting Him in my life, and without Him, I don’t have life!
Are you following what I’m saying? There are many things you must understand. His name Yahweh—properly pronounced—is the same sound as breathing. Yahweh means you have to inhale, «Yah,» and exhale, «Way.» You cannot say it without inhaling and exhaling. So the first human sound you made, whether you knew it or not, believed it or not, or liked it or not, the first thing you said when you got here was «Yahweh.»
The last thing you say when you leave? «Yah.» He said, «I am Alpha and Omega; I started it; I’ll finish it. I am God, and besides me, there is no other!» Do you hear what I’m saying?
Let’s go a little deeper. There are a lot of metaphors, terms, and anthropomorphic expressions that depict God because God really isn’t like anything on Earth, so we have to use symbols to express God. See, your phone—when you touch the icon that says NIV Bible, you’re not touching the information; you’re touching the icon that opens up the information. Are you following what I’m saying? Okay?
So you must begin to realize that the best we can do is say, «The Spirit of the Lord is like unto…» because we cannot compare it to anything—there is nothing like God. Even God couldn’t find anything to compare Himself to; He said, «I looked for someone to swear by, finding none greater than myself, I swore by myself, 'Surely, blessings I will bless thee; multiplying I will multiply.'»
So we are left with metaphors like consuming fire, metaphors like He is the light of the world, metaphors like He produces glory—Shekinah glory, rivers of living water. «Woman, if you believe on me, as the Scriptures have said, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.» But God—you can find sisters, but don’t worship it because the sister is not God; it’s just a way of expressing the unexpressable.
Let’s go deeper with this. He is the breath. Breath and wind are expressions of God. The Spirit, Jesus said, is like the wind; it blows where it lists, and no man knows from whence it came or where it goes. God likes to compare Himself to the wind, like breath—"From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.» If you go back as far as you can go back in time, to the very beginning—before there was a where or when, before this or that or a star or a planet, sun or sea, before there was an earth, before there was dirt, before there was clay—there was Ruach.
And Ruach sounds like this: just «wind.» «The breath of the Almighty has given me life.» That’s what gave me life—mouth-to-mouth resuscitation came! From right there, your God is wind; your God is air. Are you hearing what I’m saying? In the Old Testament, it is «ruach»; in the New Testament, it is «pneuma.» Are you hearing what I’m saying? In the New Testament, it is «pneuma,» for God is wind. Are you hearing what I’m saying? «Pneumatology» is what it’s called in the New Testament, from which we get the word «pneumonia,» which deals with your breathing—pneuma, air. I can’t get air. Oh, I’m getting air!
Pneumonia means I’ve got a bronchial problem. God is air; He is breath; He is wind. He is wind down inside of you. That’s why, on the day of Pentecost, the Bible said He came like a mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues appeared like as of fire and set upon each of them. They didn’t say it was wind; they said it was like. It doesn’t mean their clothes were blowing, but it was like wind. Your God is like wind; your God is like breath; your God is like air. Your God has the ability to be able—when Ezekiel came to the dry bones in the valley, the Bible said he came down there to the dry bones in the valley, and the bones were dry and very dry. I picture—in my sanctified mind—there being skeletons with swords, and the swords are rusty.
There are skeletons with shields, and the shields are bent in and corroded, and the only thing left is the sad memories of what used to be humanistically powerful. There’s nothing there. «Can these bones live again? Lord, Thou knowest.» So Ezekiel doesn’t get a letter for faith. There are some things that God’s going to do in your life that your faith will not take credit for. Y’all don’t hear what I’m saying. It’s not going to be because you walked down into the dry bones of the valley and said, «Oh, this ain’t nothing for God. God can do anything; God can make anything.» No, you go and say, «I don’t know. I don’t know how this is going to go.» He said, «So when faith fell, obedience won. Come on, come on with me.» He said, «I don’t know whether this is going to live or not, but God said, 'Speak to the bones that they might live.'» Ezekiel said, «With no faith, I prophesied as I was commanded.»
So, it was not faith that brought the bones together; it was obedience that brought the bones together. I told the Lord, «The Lord told me to call the men together.» I said, «I don’t want to call the men together. We don’t have enough time to advertise for it. I’m doing a thousand other things, and there’s not going to be that many men to come in.» He said, «It’s not your job to count them; it’s your job to call them. I didn’t ask you to count them; I asked you to call them. And if it’s just two of them, as long as you obey me, you have done what I told you to do.»
See, sometimes we’re worried about effect while God is grading you on obedience. Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying, and you’re all stressed out about something the test ain’t even about. I’m going to get to something in a minute; I’ve got something for you; I’ve got something for you. Something’s going to happen in here today. The indwelling of His person, coming to live inside an individual, is an intimate experience. It is the visitation of His Essence. In times past, in the Old Testament, He visited men, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Moses; the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson; the Spirit of the Lord came upon Elijah. Those were visitations of His Essence to perform a particular work. It was not Incarnation; it was visitation.
In the Old Testament, He visited us when Jacob wrestled with the man, and he wrestled with him to the breaking of day. He asked him what his name was. He couldn’t give Jacob His name because it wasn’t time to reveal it yet, because it was Jesus, which was a theophonic manifestation of Jesus Christ, and the name was hidden; it had not been revealed yet. And so, He said, «I can give you your name. Your name is not Jacob but Israel. You’re not a con man; you’re a prince, but you don’t know it.» There are some people in this room that are living under a false name.
People have called you something for so long that you think you really are it, but you’re a prince, and you don’t even know it. You have no idea who you are. He said, «I can’t tell you my name; my name is hidden until I find the virgin. My name is hidden, but I’m going to tell you who you are. It’s going to cost you something to know who you are. You’re going to limp away from the revelation. You don’t get to know who you are without a limp. But when the fight is over, and the limp is on you, you’re going to be a grown woman.» I said, «When the fight is over, and you’ve got a limp in your life, you’re a grown woman not because you had 21 birthdays, but because you had 21 shades of hell and survived all of them, and you’ve got a limp to prove it. Now, you’re a grown woman.»
Some people don’t grow up until they’re 40, some people don’t grow up until they’re 50, but after you suffered a while, the Bible said, «Tell somebody and tell them the wind is going to blow in here today!» So, in the Old Testament, He came and He visited us. He theophanically appeared before us. Christ could not come in His fullness. The Bible said the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, so don’t think that Jesus’s birthday was really His birthday; it really was His Earth Day because He was here before there was a where or when or this or that. He just had not manifested Himself; He would slip in, but He couldn’t stay because He didn’t want to break the law that man is born of a woman. He had to be born of a woman, and so He could only visit us; He couldn’t abide with us until He found the woman. Do you hear what I’m saying? Are you hearing what I’m after?
I’m getting ready to take you somewhere, and I want you to understand, but in order for you to accomplish lifting this gate and destroying these Philistines, I’ll let my spirit visit you. So the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson; it came upon Ezekiel; it came upon Jeremiah. There are some of you; it wasn’t that you were living right or close to right or serving God or holy, but have you ever seen God anoint you at the craziest time in your life, and you didn’t understand why He did it? Every now and then, the Spirit of the Lord will just visit you. I wish I had somebody in the room that has ever had God just walk in the hospital room. When He gets ready to indwell, we see it with Mary when Gabriel said to Mary, «Hail, Mary! You have been highly favored among women. You shall bring forth a son.»
And here comes the name. What Jacob couldn’t find out, now that we found a woman for Him to be born of, it’s okay to give the name: «And His name shall be called Jesus, and He shall save His people from their sin.» Wait a minute! The Spirit of the Lord came upon her. Glory to God! Glory to God! The Spirit of God came upon her, which is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Can I go deeper? Because if you don’t understand this, you’re just a churchgoer. This is what converts you to discipleship as you begin to understand your relationship with God has everything to do with everything. This will kill church hurt because if you have a relationship with God, it will kill church hurt. But because you have a people relationship, when you fall out with people, you leave the church. But if you ever have an encounter, there isn’t a person in here who can run me out of God’s house. I’m a child of a king! I’m a child!
Slap three people and say, «I ain’t going nowhere!» Roll your eyes, send your notes, send your texts, say what you want to say. Having done all to stand, I’m going to stand there anyway because I didn’t come to have a relationship with you; I came to have a relationship with God. The Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known. Can’t nobody else give you that? I can’t give you the Holy, I’d rather be alone with my lights off. I want to be alone, even if the kids don’t get to eat. I want to be alone, even if I break the heart of the one I love. I want to be alone. Why? Because my trauma only makes me feel safe in isolation. When I’m alone, I had a daughter, but I’m not going to be a real mother. Wow! Because even with my own baby, my God, I don’t feel safe.
Jesus, I want to be alone. So, we are good with being filled with the Holy Ghost as long as we get to be alone. At 10 times the number I got in this building right now online, some of it is because people live too far away; some of it is because people go to work; some of it is because people are close enough to drive, but they are not healed enough. Don’t worry, I’m going to mess it up. Y’all can clean it up after I’m gone. Don’t worry about it; it’s going to be all right. The problem is when Christ stepped into the world and became incarnate, they called Him Jesus, and they also called Him Emmanuel. Watching God tabernacled with us. I’m going somewhere; bear with me. God tabernacled with us to dwell among us. God—the God that hung out with us—because you cannot lead people you don’t touch. You can’t stay safe and stay away from the patient and impact the condition.
I love being a doctor, but I hate patience. Come on! I love being a mechanic, but I don’t want to be around cars. You need to check your dream against your trauma and decide if you want your trauma or if you want your dream. Because your dream necessitates that you confront your own trauma, or you won’t be effective at a distance. Even God could not redeem us while staying away from us, so He came—He came where we were. He gave up His pre-existent glory, His omnipotence, His omnipresence, and His omniscience. He gave up the 24 elders and the sea of glass. He poured out His pre-existent divinity and came, wrapped Himself up in flesh, got sleepy for the first time, got tired for the first time, got weary for the first time, and dealt with unbelief for the first time just to be around us because He had to be a Kinsman Redeemer. If He wasn’t kin to me, He couldn’t redeem me.
So, He had to go through what I went through so that when I pray, He can be touched by the feeling of my infirmity. Because as God, He couldn’t relate to temptation, He had to go through lust and agony and pain so that whatever you’re crying out about, He can say, «Yeah, I know how you feel.» Good God, I feel the Holy Ghost about to sweep up in this place! Touch three people and say He already knows what you’re trying to say. He already knows what you’re trying to say. He already knows what you’re trying to pray about. He already knows. He came so He would know what it was like to be in your situation. Can I go a little bit deeper? Y’all ain’t tired? All right, so Christ is in the flesh what the Tabernacle was in the wilderness. He is God on the move; He is the nomadic God; He is the God who dwells among us. He is the Word of God walking through the cool of the garden. He is the Word made flesh. He describes Himself not as a temple, but as a tabernacle because He moved from city to city. He was transportable.
That is not what Paul is talking about in this text because he does not use the word tabernacle; he uses the word temple. Temple is stabilized; temple is solid; temple is absolute. A temple is one place. You, by yourself, are a tabernacle. You brought yourself in here; you’ll take yourself out, you’ll take yourself to dinner. You move with God in you individually. Your tabernacle— but that is not what this text is about. This text is talking about moving progressively from being a tabernacle to a temple of which Christ is the Chief Cornerstone. Oh, I know the book, baby! Don’t mess with me! The apostles have laid the foundation. God, I feel like preaching! Lord, have mercy!
Can I preach in this place? Hallelujah! The stone that the builders rejected has been made the Chief Cornerstone. The more people reject you, the more God selects you. Have you ever noticed the more they hate you, the more God empowers you? He’ll make you the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. I wish I had 50 witnesses that would break out in a praise! They tried to kick you out of school, and you made it anyway. They said, «What’s a girl doing with a guy like him?» and you got him anyway. «What’s a guy doing with a girl like her?» and y’all have been married 12 years. You better stand up and say something with your cute self; let me hear it!
So, the stone the builders rejected became the Chief Cornerstone. The apostles laid the foundation, saying no greater foundation has any man laid than that which was laid by Christ Jesus. And upon this rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. This is not a tent because you can knock a tent over. He said, «But the temple I’m getting ready to build, the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.» And then, in another text, He says you are lively stones in the building. In other words, I fill you with the Holy Ghost not so you could run wild, but so that I could set you in place and stabilize you, and make you solid and not have you jumping from church to church to church to church to church.
Some of you have had 12 spiritual fathers, and the one you have now ain’t yours because you refuse to be stable. But the Bible said that if your feet are planted in the house of the Lord, you will flourish in the courts of our God. And you’re praying for God to flourish what you won’t let God plant. You’ve got to get in one place and stay there through the good and the bad, the bitter and the better, the sweet and the worst. Having done all to stand, you’ve got to stand right there, as lively as you are, as anointed as you are, as gifted as you are. God wants to set you in a place of stability. Why? Because your life has never been stable. You don’t know how to be stable; you had to go for yourself all of your life.
You were the first one in your family to break through the wall. You were the first one in your community to achieve certain accomplishments, and because you have developed a «I’ve got to go for myself» mentality, now you can’t be set. And anything that requires you to be set, you’re not good at it. Can I go deeper? I’m almost done. I’m sure I’m finished now. Yeah, I’m down to the last two verses; I’m going to make it on in now. So, what Paul is building in Ephesus is a temple where we are jointly fit together. If you’ve ever seen a stone, it’s not a bricklayer, not a blocklayer, but a stonelayer. Stones don’t naturally fit together; that’s right! You’ve got to take an anvil and chip off some edges in order to make a fit.
And see, that’s what some of y’all don’t want—to be chipped. Come on! You’ve got to cut off the points and the twists and the turns and get it level enough so that when you put the mortar in between, you create the stone wall based on the stones' ability to be cut. «Cut me so I can fit.» Yeah, I’m too old to die an outlaw; I’m too old to be on the run the rest of my life! There you are, 50 years still running, running because you’re hurt, running because you’re traumatized, running because the memory lives on. The pain is gone, but the memory lives on.
Quick story—quick, quick, quick, quick, quick! I was working at the John Amos fire plant, and I was going through the back of the plant, and they were fouling some metal, and they were working with metal. They had it on something that spins, and sparks fly, and a spark got in my eye. I should have had on safety goggles, but a spark got into my eye; it burned into my cornea. I went in, and they flushed it out with water, and they looked at it and they researched it, and it was so painful, I couldn’t see.
After a few hours, she said the object is gone, but the memory continues. Wow, yeah, wow! So, your brain is still getting a signal even though the heat is gone and the object is removed. Your brain is still getting a signal so bad that I’m covering up my eye and I’m trembling. Jesus, I’m trembling to the point of wanting an ambulance, and it’s over—wow—for everybody but me. Wow, Jesus! Now, God says in order for you to be a temple, a stabilized believer, I’ve got to cut you so you can fit with people. Sometimes you’ve got too much mouth. Sometimes you’ve got too much ego. Sometimes you are too stubborn, and I’m going to have to cut that off—either by, watch this, watch this—either by word or experiences. If you won’t hear My word, I’ll take you through experiences.