TD Jakes - Trust Your Wings
In the crisis at Ziklag where David finds his city burned and families captured, leading to deep grief and even his men threatening to stone him, David encourages himself in the Lord, seeks God’s direction, and receives the promise to pursue and recover everything—reminding us that when life’s branches break, we must learn to trust the wings God has given us to soar and reclaim all.
The Crisis at Ziklag
When you have it, say Amen. If you cannot find it, we are going to put it on the screen, so you will see it anyway. I can tell you this: If you are lost and going in the wrong direction, you need to go back to the other end of the book. 1 Samuel 30:3 brings us to a perplexing moment in David’s life; it is a challenging time for him.
It says, «So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.» Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. That grief is a kind of pain where they run out of tears, and David’s two wives were taken captive: Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
David was greatly distressed. Just because you are a leader does not mean you do not feel. Just because you have a degree does not mean you do not feel. Just because you have things going on does not mean you do not feel deeply. David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him; the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved—every man for his sons and for his daughters.
So, grief turned to anger. Emotions can switch on you. That is why people change on you; in one season of their lives, they are one way, but in another, they will switch. They were crying together, but now they are ready to kill him because when things go wrong, you always need someone to blame.
David Encourages Himself
When David saw the men he had come back with turn on him, he decided to encourage himself. Tell someone, «Say, I will do it myself.» David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, «I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod.» Abiathar brought the ephod to David, and David inquired of the Lord, saying, «Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?»
And He answered him, «Pursue! For thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all.» Will somebody shout «surely, surely overtake them!» So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. Can you say Amen? Amen.
Now let us go to Psalms 91, just for a moment. «He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.» Can you say Amen? Amen. This morning, for the next few moments, if you will allow me, the Lord has instructed me to give you these instructions as you go back home, as you go back to your cities, your countries, and as you go back to work tomorrow on Monday.
The Lord told me to tell you to trust your wings. I want you to touch your neighbor and just say, «Trust your wings.»
Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on us as we go into the word of God. I thank you for your presence, your healing, your power, and Your Glory. Release it in this place. In Jesus' name we pray. Somebody shout Amen!
You may be seated in the presence of God.
The Hawk Illustration
When my wife and I moved to Fort Worth, we moved to a place where I have access to a really nice back porch where I go to chill out and get my head together. There was a family of hawks when we came there, and now it is a multitude of hawks; they have been fruitful over the years. They have not moved; they are everywhere. I was talking to my sister on the phone last night, and I said, «Do you hear that noise?» She said, «What is that?» I said, «Those are the hawks flying through the trees, launching in the branches.»
It occurs to me there are a couple of things I want you to understand about the way hawks operate. Very much like eagles, they can fly very high—up to 15,000 feet in the air. They can soar and look down with keen eyes—so keen that they can see a rodent in the field at 15,000 feet and then dive down to attack that rodent.
They also rest on branches, but the only thing about resting on branches is that occasionally, branches break. When you watch a branch break that any bird is sitting on, the bird never screams, never shouts, and never seems frustrated, despite the fact that what it was standing on broke.
Occasionally in your life, things will break. The reason the hawk does not get upset when it finds itself in a critical situation is because it knows it can trust its wings. Father, right now in the name of Jesus, I know you are able to do anything but fail. You are the God of all flesh. There is nothing too hard for you. You are the master physician, the healer of all diseases.
I pray in the name of Jesus that whatever is attacking this brother, the healing power of the Holy Spirit would step in and intervene. Thank you for our medical professionals that are handling this, and anoint them with insight and give victory. In Jesus' name, we pray. Somebody shout Amen! Amen.
Branches Will Break
What I am saying is that branches break, and you need to understand that before you get back home and you are all lit up with the glory of God, and you have surrendered everything over to God, that does not mean your family has surrendered, that your environment has surrendered, that your husband has surrendered, nor that your co-workers have surrendered.
That does not mean you do not have to pay taxes or that your bills are not due. I do not want you to have the expectation just because God has revitalized you and set you on a new trajectory that life will not keep on lifing because branches break. That is why we have to begin to understand this from the perspective that things will change in your life at such a rapid pace that you cannot keep up with them.
You cannot always tell your friends from your enemies; just because someone says something you do not like, it does not necessarily make them an enemy. In a moment of pain and grief, people need to attack you or blame somebody. We cannot be so sensitive that we are not successful because if you are not careful, you become so sensitive that you will not be successful at what God called you to do.
You will stop to argue with someone, straighten someone out, or fix someone, thinking that is the victory, when the enemy is just distracting you from your assignment. The enemy would not be distracting you if you did not have an assignment. One of the great things I have learned about life is to learn to distinguish distraction from assignment because many are the times you will land on a branch, and when the branch breaks, if you do not remember your wings, you will fall.
The gravitational pull is never up; it is always downward. So, we are always fighting against a gravitational pull that wants you to fall, and you have to remember your wings—that God covers you with wings and that the angels of the Lord encamp around those that fear Him.
Remember You Have Wings
In the presence of God, there is fullness of joy, and in His presence, you have power. Sometimes when the branch breaks, you forget your wings; you are so busy looking at the breaking of the branch and the pain it caused, and the fear that it brought that you do not recognize that you have wings. Look at your neighbor and say, «I got wings!»
Yes, I want you to love me; I want you to support me; I want you to be with me. But if you do not, I want you to be my prayer partner; I want you to be my secret keeper; I want you to be my sister and my brother’s soldier. But if you do not, I want to keep my job; I want to keep my house; I want to keep moving forward. I have plans, ideas, and things I hope to accomplish in my life. But if everything does not come together exactly the way I want it to, I must always remember I got wings.
Look at somebody and say, «I got wings!» There is a moment in David’s life where he has seen a series of breaking branches. In fact, David’s whole life is full of branches that break. He is born into a family that really was not a good fit; it was not a good match. They were not exactly excited about him.
Some theologians and scholars think that his father did not really pick him out or point him out or appreciate him because he suspected that David was not his. I believe he was, but he suspected David was not his. That is why David said, «I was born in sin and in iniquity.» He was a reject; whether that is right or wrong, he was a reject in the family. He was ostracized in the family; he felt more comfortable with sheep than with family.
Sometimes what you do is pushed on you because of what you are trying to avoid. Does anybody understand what I just said? So he goes through that, and he goes through this, and he goes through the other, and yet God has a plan for his life that is far beyond what it looks like right now. Because in this season, he is taking care of sheep, but in the next season, he is going to be a great leader.
But this does not happen as quickly as it does on television; life is not a television show. Life is not TikTok; life is not Instagram; it does not happen that fast. It takes time, it takes life; it takes suffering, it takes enduring hardness, and it takes branches breaking for you to really understand not only that you have wings but to trust your wings.
Trusting Your Wings
It is one thing to have them; it is another to trust your wings. This is not just a sermon; it is a prophetic word to somebody, so I want you to be listening not just to the continuity of the address but to the specificity of the rhema that God is saying to you. You are getting ready to face some things, and when you do, you have to be able to trust your wings.
David has been sent on a menial task to bring lunch to his brothers, who are more mature and who are in the army. David is just an errand boy until he sees Goliath. Goliath introduces David to the world. Goliath is a great thing; he is not a bad thing. I know he is ominous; I know he is foreboding; I know he is intimidating.
The massiveness of the challenge before him is how David got discovered. When God gets ready to really introduce you to the world, he will often use a giant problem in your life to bring you to the stage you need to be on. Amen! Come on, talk to me, somebody. God uses Goliath to create a platform for David to stand on, and David is discovered in a fight.
So if you run from every battle, if you hide from every breaking branch, if you are scared to land on something because you are so intimidated, you may miss the very usher that is going to bring you into the next stage of your life.
God Uses Conflict for Growth
Avoiding broken branches, Goliath was used, and now he is fighting Goliath, who is a Philistine for the king of Israel. All of a sudden, the king discovers him in the fight. Hear me right now: there is a fight that you have been in that God ordered, and even though you prayed, He did not move it. Even though you spoke in tongues, He did not move it. Even though you anointed yourself with oil, He did not move it.
There is a fight going on in your life; if God does not move the fight, then that means God is going to use the fight to become a platform for you to discover what you can do, what you can endure, what you can stand, and what is next in your life. I do not know who I am talking to, but I am going to unravel some things this morning; I am going to share some things this morning that are going to revolutionize your life.
And suddenly King Saul likes him and invites him into the palace, and David must make the transition from being a shepherd boy, where what you smelled like did not matter, and what you wore did not matter, and what you looked like did not matter. Suddenly he is catapulted into the palace, where there is protocol, where there is order, where there is structure, where there is ambiance, where there are rules, and David has nothing in his background that has prepared him for the platform he is about to stand on.
But David is fluid enough that he is able to adapt to different situations rapidly, and God uses Jonathan. God will send someone who loves you enough to school you to get you ready for what He is about to do in your life. After you have discovered your goal, you have to find your Jonathan. When you find your Jonathan, they will dress you; they will change places with you.
I wish I had time to really delve into David and Jonathan because in David and Jonathan, I see substitution; I see Jesus trading places with us. I see him giving us his righteousness and us giving him our sins. The prince in the house dressed David as a prince and gave him something he did not work for, something he did not earn, and something he had no background for.
But through relationship, there was a conveyance—a conductor—that brought him into a power he never would have had if he had not been in that relationship. So protect your relationships because God often will bless you through the relationships that you have if you protect them.
Jealousy and Broken Branches
And it happened—boom! David is there; David is in the palace; David is in the palace, and he kills a thousand, or maybe three thousand, Philistines and brings their foreskins and throws them down at the king’s feet. But then David was so good at what he did that it created jealousy.
Saul was good with David as long as they sang about Saul, but when they changed their song to «Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his tens of thousands,» all of a sudden, the branch broke. Some people only like you in one dimension of your life, but when God finally brings you into the next dimension of your life, do not be surprised; everybody cannot handle role reversal. I said everybody cannot handle role reversal.
The first shall be last, the last shall be first; we shout about it, but when it happens, everybody cannot handle that. David ends up having to leave the palace and runs from the very person he was fighting for. The reason David is running from Saul, who is now trying to kill him and throwing javelins at him, is that you are under attack because the enemy only tries to take you out because of your destiny, and he is trying to stop you before you get there.
You do not understand why it is happening, because sometimes he sees things that you do not see, and you do not understand why he is throwing javelins at you. Why would the king throw a javelin at a boy? But God knew what David was going to be, and Saul knew what David was going to be, and it got on his nerves. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all.
All of a sudden, David finds himself in a situation of transition. When we settle on the text, David has gone through a period of hiding among the people he was fighting. Look at how fluid he is—he is now hiding among the Philistines from the people he was fighting for. Sometimes when you shut doors, you shut them prematurely because you do not understand how the branch will break and the situation will change, and you will find yourself on the opposite side.
Creating Your Own Camp
David has had to hide among the Philistines, thinking himself mad, finally ending up with 600 men and their families in Ziklag. He is in Ziklag because he is too much an Israelite to fit in with the Philistines, but he has been with the Philistines so long that he cannot go back to the Israelites. Sometimes you have to create your own camp, come on somebody, because I am talking to the misfit people.
All you fit people do not get it, but to the misfit people, I want to talk to those of you who are not quite this, not quite that, not quite here, and not quite there. You cannot really explain where you are at. Sometimes you got to create your own camp. David is in Ziklag with 600 men fighting for them, their families, their children, their goats, their cattle, and their oxen.
They have just come back from a mission, and sometimes when you come back from a mission, you come back weary and tired. Have you noticed that we have been in a series of battles? Maybe it is just me, not you. How many people, as soon as you get out of one thing, here comes something else? As soon as you survive this, now you got that.
You finally got the house paid off, and now your body is acting crazy. You finally got your head on straight and got your therapy together, but your credit is jacked up. How many people have gone from battle to battle to battle to battle? I do not care how strong you are, I do not care how anointed you are, and I do not care how gifted you are; when you come back from a battle, you are tired, and it is called battle fatigue.
Some of you have not been diagnosed yet; you are numb because you have been in so many battles that you have battle fatigue, and you are trying to find a place to just perch on. «Can you watch with me for a few hours? Will you stay and stand with me? Will you be there with me?» And there he is, coming home from battle with 600 men, and he is coming to a place where there should be dancing, there should be singing, there should be rejoicing.
There should be someone—the women normally would run out to meet you, and they did not. There is no sound of the laughter of the children, and there is no smell of the breaking of bread. He comes home, and instead of smelling bread, he smells smoke. He smells smoke. Somebody in here smells smoke, and the smoke is the first indication that something is wrong.
When he gets back to the camp, having survived being in Israel and with the Philistines, he runs into the fact that while they were gone, the Amalekites have come in, abducted all the women and children, and burned the camp. They are devastated, and sometimes you just got to admit, «I am devastated.»
Releasing the Pain
I know you have been taught positive confession, that you can just name it and claim it and quote the word, but sometimes you got to open your mouth and say, «I am sick of this! I am sick of this! I am sick of this!» Because until you get that pain out, you cannot get that direction in; you got to open your mouth and holler.
That is why I hope you all do not get rid of all the old school stuff, because there was something the old church mothers knew. They did not speak Greek, they did not speak Hebrew, they did not understand Swahili, but old church—oh, there was something that they released that broke out of their spirit, opening them up to what God was about to do next in their lives.
If you understand what I am talking about, let me hear you shout unto God! You cannot deny this hurt—this hurt, this hurt; this is painful! The branch broke! The branch broke, and I do not know what to do. Then he finds himself in an even more perplexing situation. I need to teach this for a minute. He finds himself in the perplexing situation that the people he could count on have stopped weeping with him and decided to blame him.
They turn on him. Ahithophel is gone; Abigail is gone; and now his own soldiers have turned on him. The Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. We often preach this kind of stuff, but we do not tell people how to encourage themselves in the Lord because we are so used to needing the whole 600 behind us in order to get encouragement.
When that branch breaks or that relationship changes or that voice ceases to be in your ear, you do not know that you have got the power inside of yourself to encourage yourself.
How to Encourage Yourself
I know it looks silly, but sometimes you got to lay hands on your own head. You got to speak to yourself. You got to encourage yourself; you got to ignore all the ugly stuff and look for something that is lovely, look for something that is true, look for something that is real, and decide what you are going to worry about and what you are not going to worry about.
Make it up in your mind: I am going to trust my wings even if the branch breaks. Now, somebody say, «Trust your wings, baby! Trust your wings! Trust your wings!» You are in a season where you got to trust your wings; you got to trust your wings. You got to trust that what God gave you is enough to handle whatever life throws at you.
You got to trust that he who began a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You got to trust that God is not just Alpha, but Omega—the beginning and the end, the first and the last. You got to trust that God is with you always: if the branch breaks, he is with you; if the credit breaks, he is with you; if the marriage fails, he is with you; if your body gets sick, he is with you; if you are backed in a corner, he is with you; if the storm is raging, he is with you; if life is going crazy, he is with you; if your body is wracked with pain, he is still with you; if you are backed up and had to start over, he is with you; if you make your bed in hell, he is with you; if you take the wings of the morning and ascend to the uttermost parts of the earth, he is still with you.
The reason you have got the kind of power you have is not just because you read your Bible, but because your Bible read you. What you read in the Bible is going to be walked out in your life, and you do not get to choose how it is walked out in your life; it just happens the way it happens, and branches break. David was left to encourage himself.
This fascinates me because sometimes I overlook what fascinates other people. Other people are fascinated by the fact that David encouraged himself, but I am fascinated with how David handles conflict. See, all conflict is not bad. It seems like we are extremists; either we are extremely full of conflict to the degree that we avoid constructive conflict, or we have people who just say yes to everything and we are not growing because we have not created an atmosphere that enables our ideas to be challenged.
We are only comfortable when we are in control.
Healthy Conflict in Leadership
As long as you are in total control, you are completely comfortable. But when you find yourself in a situation where you have to be inclusive of people who think differently than you and your ideas are challenged, you must be comfortable with that. Here lies the challenge of great leadership: to become comfortable with other smart people in the room.
You see, when you build your own camp, you are often the only smart person in the room. But when you get ready to take dominion over what God has for you, you have to be able to deal with being in the room with other smart people. Tell somebody, «Now you got to get out of the camp! You got to get out of your camp to get the victory! You cannot stay in your circle, you cannot stay in your clique, you cannot stay around people who always salute you and celebrate you. Now you got to deal with other people, and how you handle conflict determines whether you will become king or not.»
This was a tremendous moment in David’s life, solely because of how he dealt with conflict. All conflict is not bad. I want to address the fact that we are in a drought of conflict. The reason I say we are in a drought of conflict, despite all the chaos you see going on in the world and on social media, is that you can choose the news you want, giving you a false sense of what is happening in the world.
You always stay in your own camp and are unwilling to have your ideas challenged because when someone challenges your ideas, you feel like they are challenging you. You have not separated yourself from your ideas, and that is why your ideas do not grow; because ideas grow in conflict. That is why you have been in the same place for ten years—you have a conflict avoidance that was likely prewired in you, either by your history or your DNA, thinking your job is just to keep the peace.
We like to talk about Jesus being the Prince of Peace, but when Jesus discusses it, he says, «I came not to bring peace but a sword. I came to stir things up. I do not mind a little conflict!»
Seeking God’s Direction
To set it off in here, I am going to do some radical stuff. I am going to get on everybody’s nerves. My church is not going to like it; my synagogue is not going to like it; the priests are not going to like it. Everybody is going to be upset, but I am willing to set it off to reach my destiny. I have got to be willing to disrupt some things, but we have a conflict avoidance culture, so we go along.
Yeah, you were the kid in the family that brought everybody together. You spent your whole life explaining your mother to your father and your father to your mother. You spent all your life explaining your big brother to your little brother, just running from fire to fire trying to put everything out. And now, your idea of heaven is quiet, and anything that draws attention to you and puts you at risk of conflict, you dodge. But David deals with conflict head-on.
He confronts it, and in the process, he creates an environment where people feel safe enough to challenge his ideas without losing their relationships. That is how relationships last for years. Relationships do not last because you are always right; they last because you know how to accommodate somebody else’s ideas.
Once he encourages himself, he goes to Abiathar to ask him for the ephod so that he can find out if God is for him, if God is with him. Because I do not mind the branch breaking as long as I still have my wings. But if I lose my wings, I lose my mind. If I lose my wings, I lose my peace. If I lose my wings, I cannot make a great decision.
Oh God, that is why David said, «Take whatever you want from me, but whatever you do, do not take your spirit away from me, because I need your spirit. Without your spirit, I am a fool. Without your spirit, I am a hothead. Without your spirit, I will be antagonistic. Without your spirit, I will fail you in an instant.»
I need your spirit! I am chasing the Holy Ghost. I need a fresh touch of God’s spirit in my life. Somebody take about 15 seconds and give God crazy praise! I need your spirit because I do not want to be in a battle that I brought on myself. I do not want to be in a battle that you do not intend for me to be in.
I do not want to waste time arguing with Sanballat and Tobiah while the walls of Jerusalem lay in ruins. I do not want to mistake what victory looks like in my life. Victory does not look like imitating people. I am done pretending to be somebody else. I need to find out what victory looks like on me. It has got to be tailored to fit me; it has got to be tailored to fit my gifts; it has got to be tailored to fit my anointing.
Flap Your Wings
That is why I came to church this Sunday. I still needed some more because I have got to make sure that if the branch breaks, I can trust my wings. I can trust my wings. See, God is getting ready to do something so mighty in your life that you need this word! Touch six people and say, «Trust your wings, trust your wings!»
When branches break, trust your wings! When trials come, trust your wings! When you are in a storm, trust your wings! Trust your wings! Though a whole camp stands against you, your heart cannot fear if you just trust your wings! And if you cannot trust your friends, trust your wings! If you cannot trust your family, trust your wings! If you cannot trust your faculty, trust your wings! If you cannot trust your board, trust your wings!
I need 30 seconds of crazy Holy Ghost praise in this place! That is a child of destiny! There is a breakthrough that is about to come in your life. Slap three people and tell them, «Something is about to happen in my life!»
I have got to get this word in my spirit! I cannot be distracted! Paul says it this way: «I have learned how to abase and to abound. I know how to experience abundance, and I know how to survive lack. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry. I am instructed both to abound and to suffer need.» Because God does not want me to think that the branch is my sustenance.
My power is not in my branch; it is in my wings. The only thing that remains stable is God! «I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.» Trust your wings! I am instructed to abase and abound. I am instructed to be full and to be hungry. I am instructed to fight the Philistines or hide among the Philistines.
I have learned, whatever state I am in, therewith to be content. Do not count me out! You have got wings! You are enough!
Recovering All
Once he found out that God said, «If you pursue the Amalekites, you will not only overtake them; you will recover all.» NOT most of it, NOT half of it, but ALL of it! God said if you listen to what I am saying, you are going to get it all back! You are going to get it all back! For every night you cried, for every night you suffered, for every moment you did without, you are going to get it all back!
When he gets instructions from the Lord, he then takes his 600 men to pursue the Amalekites. God said he hated Amalek because the Amalekites preyed on the weak. They waited until all the men were gone and abducted all the women and children—that was their style. What got me is he took the 600 men with him who were about to stone him.
In other words, he did not let his feelings impact the word God gave him. You may have to release somebody that hurt you in one chapter; God may turn around and use them again in another. The Bible says that God will make your enemies your footstools. Sometimes, you get rid of people prematurely because God wants to use them to take you to the next level. But you have got to get over your grief, your anger, and your hostility because just because you are done with them does not mean God is through with them!
He had trained them; he had prepared them; he had influenced them! And when push comes to shove, David always uses proven weapons. You remember when he was about to fight Goliath, and Saul offered him his armor? Saul’s armor was bright; it was shining, and it was strong; it looked good. But when he got ready to fight, he said, «I know my slingshot is raggedy; I know it does not look like much, but I have proven it! I used it against the lion; I used it against a bear!»
Do not go to battle with stuff that is not proven! When you get a word from God, the word becomes more important than your feelings! You are about to pursue everything you have lost. You are going to reclaim everything the enemy tried to take away from you! Everything you lost is coming back! Everything that the enemy stole is coming back. Everything they meant for evil, God is going to make it good.
Lift your hands, open your mouth, and let the sound of joy break out! I am going to trust my wings when I cannot trust my feelings. I am going to trust my wings when I cannot trust my friends. I am going to trust my wings; I am getting ready to fly into another dimension. Tell your neighbor, «Give me some room because I am getting ready to flap my wings!»
I am going to flap my wings when all hell is breaking loose. I am going to flap my wings though a host has encamped against me. I am going to flap my wings in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the trial. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost getting you ready to take flight! You are getting ready to fly into another dimension! Somebody try your wings! You still got it! The devil is getting nervous!
God has you covered! Everything God said, you are going to recover it all! I need a recovery praise! Some trust in horses; some trust in chariots. But I will remember the name of the Lord! I still got wings! Flap your wings in the devil’s face! A thousand may fall at your right side; ten thousand may fall at your left side, but keep on flapping!
God said trust your wings for where you are getting ready to go and for what God is getting ready to do. David was not yet king, but he was practicing, evolving, and getting ready. He had to be able to lead in conflict, or you cannot be king. You cannot be king in a quiet room. You cannot be king and stay disconnected. You have to surround yourself with great people and be comfortable with conflict.
By creating an environment of trust that says we may disagree, but our relationship is stronger than our disagreement. There can be no innovation without disruption, and your hiding from the conflict is stopping the innovation. David’s values were based on what had been proven to be true in his life. He always turned down what looked like the obvious answer to use something that appeared substandard, because he valued longevity and history over glitz, glitter, and glam.
Have you been proven? If you have been proven, if I am going into this battle, I am not going without you. If I am going into this next dimension, I am not going without you because you are a piece of my destiny. And so he took 600 men to battle who were angry with him at first, because he was big enough to choose the better choice of going with that which had been proven.