TD Jakes - Faith Is A Perspective (06/03/2017)
Faith is not just hope for unseen things but a perspective that reframes life—coexisting with doubt, fear, and anxiety in our inner "community," yet dominating through God's eternal Word that frames all time and gives grace space before consequences.
Faith as Perspective
Greetings to you in Christ's name. I am delighted and excited to share a series that I believe will impact your life in a very powerful and profound way. We are going to be talking about faith as a perspective. To understand it is very, very important.
Do you only define faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen? And even if you do, what does that mean in your everyday life? We are going to take a look at this word and begin to understand how God can change your perspective. If He can change your perspective, it will change your reality.
Let us take a look at the Word of God and see what God has to say about faith being a perspective. I want to suggest to you this morning that faith is a perspective—that faith is a perspective.
The Community of Faith
And the other thing that I want to share with you—and I am going to make this clear as I go along—I am going to use a term: the community of faith. And when I use the term the community of faith, generally it is used in a global sense when you are dealing with secular people, and they want to pull out a segment of the community that is faith-based.
They call it a community of faith. It is a very ecumenical statement that refers to all the diversity that exists within that community of faith. But I want to use it in a different context.
I want to tell you—in your soul, in your heart, in your life—faith lives in there, but it does not live alone. It does not live alone. There is a whole community around your faith.
So I do not care how faith-filled you are—your faith is not holding down that block by itself. Right across the street is Brother Doubt, and down on the corner is Sister Fear. And then three doors down is Sister Anxiety, and Aunt Depression lives over the garage—she has got a small apartment over there.
All of them live in the community of faith. When you walked in the door, you brought the whole gang with you. When you get in the car, you bring the...
Now, some people will get on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, and they will act like they have no doubt—but there is a... let me tell you something—every person in this room has some level of doubt. Every person in this room has some level of fear.
Every person in this room has some level of anxiety. Every person in this room has to fight some level of depression. All of that stuff lives in the neighborhood—and depending on what happens that day, what you read, what you heard, what you confronted, how you react to that.
Our goal as we preach the Word of God to you is to gradually regentrify the neighborhood until faith begins to dominate and take control over the neighborhood one house at a time.
We are taking over the community till you start walking by faith, talking by faith, living by faith, thinking by faith, raising your family by faith, doing business by faith, facing adversities by faith—trusting in God.
And I do not care what else you do—you can sing and you can cry until your face looks like a rainbow—but if you do not have faith when you get through crying, it does not do anything at all.
You can live clean as a whistle—I mean so... you can live so holy your breath does not stink in the morning—but it still does not mean you got a breakthrough. That is pretty holy, is not it?
But it does not mean—if you do not have faith—righteousness apart from faith will not get the job done in your life.
Have Faith in God
If there is only one thing that you needed to survive—to survive in this world and survive in the kingdom and survive in God—it is just simply... Jesus said it better than I can: Have faith in God.
Have faith. Not just have faith—but have faith in God—having faith in God.
Let me tell you—I have faith in God when I do not have faith in me. Sometimes God pulls me out of self—and it is just like pulling a bag of trash out the garage.
I said, Lord—you sure—you pulling me out. It is not because I am righteous, and it is not because I am holy. It is not because I prayed all day—it is not none of that—just Your goodness, Your mercy, Your kindness, Your love. You brought me out—glory to God.
Can I get a witness? Can I get a witness?
So you have got to understand that this faith thing is real important. I do not care what church you go to. I do not care how nice it is—I do not care how posh it is—if you do not have faith, you are not doing nothing.
You are not doing... you can join all the auxiliaries—you can pay all your tithes and give all your offerings—but your Christian experience is built on faith, and you have to possess faith in your soul.
And if there is one thing that the devil is constantly after—constantly after—he is after your faith. Oh, bless His name—he is after your faith.
I have heard people say, The devil is after my house—mortgage payment. The devil is after my marriage. The devil do not want your... Well, why does he attack all of that stuff? He attacks that stuff to get to your faith.
Everything that the enemy is attacking in your life right now—he is attacking to get your faith. Your faith is the valuable commodity.
Your faith moves God. Your faith shakes heaven. Your faith rebukes the devil. Your faith rebukes diseases. Your faith gives you courage. Your faith gives you confidence.
Your faith reaches in the Spirit. Your faith is not just the promises—your faith embraces the Word of God. It is your faith.
Is there anybody in here that has got faith?
Faith and Medicine
I am not one of these people that tells people not to take medication. I think you ought to take whatever you need if you need it.
I believe that when God heals you, He will heal you to the point that the doctor bears witness to the healing. Jesus healed the lepers—but He still sent them to show yourself to the priests.
He said, Go show yourself to... for them was not intimidated by medicine. He told them, Go show yourself—priests in Jesus' day had to declare you clean.
So Jesus did not just heal the lepers—just tell them, Just go on walking anywhere—He says, you are really healed.
So away with this—I am not walking by faith. Take it till you do not need it. When you do not need it, the doctor will have to admit it.
Maybe God is using the sickness to witness to the doctor. Maybe God is using your sickness to witness to the doctor—and if you do not go back and get the report, then the doctor cannot find out that Jesus is Lord.
You knew Jesus was Lord before you ever got sick.
I am going to talk to you about faith this morning. I am going to talk to you about faith—glory to God.
Shake hands with somebody and tell them faith is a perspective.
Faith Works Externally and Internally
See, when the Bible says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and that it is the evidence of things not seen—it is talking about how faith works on the outside—that it is the substance of the thing that you hope for.
It is the ingredients that makes up the end game of what you are trying to get. It is telling you it is the evidence of things not seen.
When I say faith is a perspective—I am talking about it is a selection that you have to choose on the inside—that you can walk in faith or you can walk in fear. You can walk in faith or you can walk in depression. You can walk in faith or you can walk in confusion.
You have to choose to walk by faith. God is not going to come down here, burglarize your house, and make you walk in faith.
You are going to do it—you have to choose to walk by faith.
I guarantee you right now there is not a person in this room that is not severely under demonic attack. Severely—from the bishop to the back door—there is not a person in this room that is not severely under satanic attack.
And the enemy just did not start the attack when you ran into the problem—he has been plotting on you all your life. He was plotting on you before you even got here. He was plotting on you in the house you were born into.
He has been after you all of your life. And the only way you are going to make it—the only way you are going to survive—the only way you are going to get through life and all the things that life does to you—is walk by faith.
If you do not walk by faith, you are not going to be able to do it. It is a lot easier to sing about it and preach about it and teach about it than it is to walk in it—because I need my faith the strongest when my fear is the loudest.
That is why coming to church is important. It is important—it is very important. And I am going to tell you why it is important. It is your only time to fight the enemy on his turf.
What do you mean by on his turf? Every other way you are fighting him—you are fighting him through tangibles. Here you are being armed with weapons that are not carnal so you can do spiritual warfare.
Faith Pleases God
We are in Hebrews chapter 11. Faith is the substance of things not seen.
One thing is clear—we know who He is writing to: Jews—Hebrew children that are being converted—whose whole religion for the most part was built on sacraments, ordinances, cleansings, and eatings of meats, and holy days, and all of that.
They served God through religiosity. So he is laying the case for faith—because the whole notion that faith is what it takes to please God was a new idea.
You mean I do not have to bring no turtledove, no goats, no peace offering, no wave offering, no drink offering? You mean I do not have to slay the lamb? You mean I do not have to put any blood on the doorpost?
He said faith will bypass all of that. It was shocking stuff to hear after years of being groomed with works. Works had been grooming them for years.
It is a day of atonement. It is a feast of the Pentecost. It is the feast of unleavened bread—it is this day, it is that day—wear white linen, come before Him this way, back up into His presence, light the incense—and faith just blotted all of that out and said you do not have to do any of that if you believe Me.
Whoo—good God of mercy.
So he is laying a case for faith—and I want you to understand that. And then he goes on to lay—He said, For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Now what he is trying to say—coming to fruition now—but it has been being developed all through your Judaistic history. He says your elders obtained a good report by faith.
It was never the works they did that got them favor with God—it was the faith they had to do the work. By it the elders obtained a good report.
Say that with me: By it the... Oh my God—they are shouting stuff right there.
That means—okay—you never came to class, you never turned your homework in—you are down to the end of the nine-weeks course—you are going to flunk the semester—and the professor says, If you smile at me, I will count it as an A.
That is what—to obtain a good... He did not say the elders were good—He said that by faith the elders obtained a good report.
I did everything wrong—and I still got a good report. I messed up on every decision—but I still got a good report.
Lord have mercy—that is some shouting stuff right there. By it the elders obtained a...
You see—God is really into your perspective. You serve God every time you submit to a higher perspective.
Abraham's Faith
Abraham—you know Abraham—lying Abraham—that is the one I am talking about. The one who married his wife and then said she was not his wife—you know—lying Abraham.
God told Abraham, If you... righteousness—I will count it as righteousness.
I need a Bible class to do this—I cannot do this in a Sunday morning.
See—let me tell you something about this whole accounting thing. I saw Susan over there somewhere—I need a good old accountant.
Accountants—you know—they do things differently—because an accountant will tell you how much profit you have made—but the figure they give you is not always what you see left in the bank.
So when they tell me that this is the profit—I say, Where the money? Where you count it—not where it is—it is where you count it.
You might have spent the money—but it still counted as profit. You might have bought more pews—but it still counted as profit.
It is not in the bank account—but it counts as profit. God is saying you did not do right—but I will count it as right.
Come on—come on—talk to me. Come on—talk to me, church.
I know your little dirty secret—the one that do not nobody know with your holy self that you do. And if I would judge iniquity, I would have cut you off—but if you believe Me, it will be counted.
For by it the elders obtained a good report. Abraham believed God—and it is righteousness.
He is not right—but it was counted as right—he got credit for it. It is counted.
Let me show you why faith is important. Works is based on my integrity—faith is based on His integrity.
To not believe God is to suggest that He is a liar—and God said, I am not a man that I should lie, or the Son of Man that I should repent.
He said your salvation cannot be—frankly you do not have no integrity. You do not even keep the promise you made to yourself—so I know you are not going to keep the promise you made to Me.
But faith ties into My integrity. Good God—have mercy—I feel like teaching this thing.
God cannot lie. It is the one thing that it said it was impossible for Him to do. It is impossible for God to lie.
And He says when you believe Me—it means that you have tapped into My character and not My gifts.
You are not serving Me because I took your fever away. You are not serving Me because you got a new car—you are not serving Me because you got a new job—you are not serving Me because everything is going right in your life.
You are serving Me because you know that I am holy—you know I am righteous—you know I am just—you know I am pure—you know My heart.
They know My ways—you know My heart. And Abraham—check this out—became the friend of God.
Now you ain't got no better friend than to be a friend of God. Abraham became the friend of God just because he believed Him.
Framed by the Word
Now then he goes through this thing—watch this, watch this. Through faith we stand under the truth.
Now this is the truth that he says—that the worlds were framed—that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.
Okay—I need 16 men up here—16 men—8 on one side and 8 on the other—and I want you to face each other. Eight on one side and eight on the other till you are facing each other.
Now you got me framed in. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.
Okay—I cannot go but so far because you got me framed in. That that I would do—I cannot do—because you got me framed in.
I cannot get out of control—because you got me framed in—and devil you cannot get to me either—because you got me framed in.
Touch three people and tell them, I have been framed in. I have been framed.
Now watch this. Now I am going to take you deeper. Can I go deeper?
The word worlds there is not for ages. So through faith we understand that the ages—time is framed by the Word of God.
Yesterday, today, forevermore—it is all framed by the Word of God. The Word of God has got control of my now, my then, and my tomorrow.
So... when God speaks a thing—He speaks eternity into it—because He is an eternal God.
The reason all of my children are African-American is because—I love Asian people, the beautiful long hair and everything—but I cannot have an Asian child because it is not authentic to my core.
You can only produce what you are. So watch this—an eternal God cannot speak a temporary thing.
Come on—come on—come on with me. So when God speaks a thing—I do not care what time in your life it is—God said I got you framed in.
I do not care what season it is—I do not care what stage of life you are in—you can be at the beginning of your life—you can be in the winter of your life—He said I took all of that in consideration when I said, Let... It was let there be—be, be, be...
My word is eternal because I am eternal—and I got you framed. Now watch the frame—watch the frame.
The frame is two-dimensional—okay. It lets me know that anything that has got framed has got space.
So this is grace. Grace gives me space. Before I hit the frame—I got grace. I got a certain amount of room. I got a certain amount of grace.
I can kind of hang out—I can kind of chill out. I can do my thing. I can do anything I want to do until I get ready to do something that will mess up the picture—and then the frame—the frame will not let me out.