TD Jakes - Don't Bury Your Dream
Summary
In this fiery message from 2 Kings 4 about the Shunammite woman whose promised son suddenly dies, the preacher urges believers not to bury their God-given dreams even when they seem dead and cold. Despite saying «It is well» outwardly while her soul was vexed, the woman refused to accept defeat—she laid the boy on the prophet’s bed and desperately sought Elisha until life returned. The core takeaway is that no matter how impossible or painful, hold on to what God spoke over your life, because He can resurrect any dead situation.
Don’t Bury Your Dream
Stand to your feet and go to Second Kings, verse 18-27. I want you to read it when you get home. I’m going to do that, baby. Uh, I want you to read it when you get home because there are more texts than I have time to talk about, and this text is just phenomenal. You got close to it this morning. I had to pray you over to the other Elijah and not Elijah. I was worried about it for a minute. I don’t mind you getting happy, but don’t take my sermon up.
Second Kings 4:1-18. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. He said unto his father, «My head, my head!» He said to a lad, «Carry him to his mother.» That’s important. «Carry him to his mother.» And when he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon. Till noon! That’s important. And then he died. And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. That’s important, and shut the door upon him and went out. She called unto her husband and said, «Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men and one of the asses that I may run to the man of God and come again.»
It Shall Be Well
Now, donkeys don’t move fast, so she must have been kicking him. And he said, «Wherefore wilt thou go to him today? It is neither new moon nor Sabbath.» And she said, «It shall be well.» I don’t have to have a special day, a special time, or a special seat. When I have a need, it shall be well. I can come anytime. That’s actually a New Testament concept. You can come boldly to the throne of grace. You don’t have to wait on a particular day or a particular person. You don’t need me to reach God. You have a phone in your bosom; you can call him up and dial him when you want.
So she saddled the ass and said to her servant, «Drive, and go forward! Slack not thy riding for me except I bid thee.» She could roll! It’s a bad woman! Are there any bad women in here? It’s a bad woman! He said, «Take him to her. Take him to his mama!» So she went. So she went, and came unto the man of God to Mount Carmel, the place where the fire had fallen. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi, his servant, «Behold yonder, I see her coming. Is that the Shunammite? Run now, I pray thee! Everybody’s running! Everybody’s running! Run, now, I pray thee, to meet her and say unto her, 'Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child? ' The child? It’s only one! ' And she answered, 'It is well! '»
Now, we took reading comprehension in school. The boy is dead! He’s lying in the bed. He died in her arms, and she answered and said, «Okay.» Now, most of y’all don’t have a dead child. What are you complaining about if she said, «It is well?» And when she came to the man of God on the hill, she caught him by the feet! She grabbed him by the feet! I see why he gave the boy to his mama because we’d have been trying to shake hands. She snatched him by his feet! But Gehazi came near to thrust her away, and the man of God said, «Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within her.» Even though her mouth said, «It is well, ” her soul is vexed within her! Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying! Her soul is vexed within her! You can’t go by what she’s saying on the outside. She’s going to speak positively, but in hell’s kitchen, she’s going to say, „It is well.“ Look at somebody and say, „It is well! It is well!“
Her Soul Is Vexed
But when she got to the man of God, who had caused the child to be born in the first place, she let loose what was on the inside. „Her soul is vexed within her, and the Lord hath hid it from me and hath not told me.“ The prophet didn’t even know that the boy was dead! The same prophet that spoke life to the boy didn’t know he was dead! My thought today extrapolated from this text but applicable to your times: I didn’t come just to preach about an old, ancient text in scripture or to have a theological discussion with you. I didn’t come to expound upon it purely from a biblical perspective. I will do that, but what I want you to do is listen for yourself in the text, your time in the text, your direction in the text, and the title God gave me is „Don’t Bury Your Dream.“
Now, now, I don’t know whether you got that or not, so I’m going to say it one more time: Don’t bury your dream! Shake hands with somebody and tell them, „Don’t bury your dream!“ You may be seated because I got a long way to go in a short time to get there. Let’s go to work. Let’s go to work. Let’s go to work. Let’s go to work!
What I love about this text, what fascinates me about this text is not just the part that I read, because if I read all that fascinated me, you’d still be standing. So I had to put myself on a theological diet and get small portions of the text. But allow me to put in context the surrounding periphery of the text that we’re going to explore today. You must realize that there are two women. There is a woman that preceded this woman that Elijah has come to her house in the midst of a famine and a debt situation. Her debt was so severe that she was down to considering selling her children because the creditors were on her so heavily.
The Widow’s Oil and Capacity
And in the Bible days, it was not unusual for you to become an indentured servant to pay off a debt. Come on! See, you must understand that when you consider Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and you start considering Jacob and how long he worked to have Rachel, and you start thinking about Leah and Rachel and Isaac and Abraham, you will see a period of here and there people who worked off debts, maids, concubines, situations. You cannot read this with Western eyes. But still to give you, „My sons! My two sons! My husband is dead and I live in the house alone because the bills have gotten too much“ is extreme. And Elijah said, „You don’t have to do that! What is in your house?“
You mean I’ve been living around, walking around something that was in my house that could set me free but I didn’t see it? That’s why you have a prophet. Because a prophet illuminates what is already there. He foretells or forth-tells what’s already there. Some of you are praying for something that’s already in your house. You just need to learn how to let it flow. So he told her to pour out the oil and told the woman who was in debt to get in deeper debt by going out to all her neighbors and borrowing a vessel. „Borrow!“ I’m already in debt; that’s the problem! But he said, „Yeah, go deeper!“ He went deeper into that because what God is going to pour into you, you don’t have enough to hold it.
And this is a period where she has to live by faith. Let me get out of that. And as long as there was an empty vessel, there was a flow. God didn’t stop until they ran out of vessels! Look at somebody and say, „Ooh, he’s going to do it! He’s going to do it!“ As long as you have a need, he’s going to have a supply! As long as you open your mouth, he’s going to have bread and fish to feed you! As long as your hands are open and your heart is open, God’s going to keep pouring down into you! He only stops when there’s nothing left to fill.
We’re talking capacity here! According to your capacity, so be it unto you! If I had time, I’d go all through the scriptures and show you God dropped bread according to the capacity of the house. Some got ten loaves; some got five loaves. The manna fell according to the need. How much do you need? Oh, y’all don’t need nothing! Let me ask him, „How much do you need?“ Uh-huh, let me check! It’s got a little bit better! „How much do you need?“ Yeah! Yeah, I’m gonna check the balcony! „How much do you need?“ All those in the top, „How much do you need?“ Make some noise! See, because a lot of times, we come to church with our lips glued together and duct tape over our mouths and want God to fill us when we are not open to receive the capacity on the level that he has to flow.
But the person sitting next to you is open to God, and they go into overflow, and they get on your nerves because you think they should be dignified, but they know how to grab Elijah by the feet. Shake your neighbor and say, „Oh, I’m going to get this! If I got to crawl and get it! If I have to grab the prophet by his feet, if I have to walk for miles, if I have to get on a donkey, if I have to run up a hill, if I have to slide sideways, I am going to get this!“
God Never Runs Out
And the thing that’s interesting about the text is I see clearly why God would send Elijah to her house because she was in trouble. She was in debt! And our Christian theology in this Western world loves to talk about Jesus helping people who had obvious needs. We feel good about feeding starving children with flies all over them. And we like to be philanthropic. We feel good about helping people who have special needs or special problems or are abandoned. We love to see that. But what is an oxymoron in the text is, on one hand, you have this broke woman, and the next verse you have this rich woman, and he walks from one end to the other. This is how wide God is! God is as wide as Jesus stretched his arms!
Paul said, „I pray in Ephesians that you might know what is the exceeding riches of his glory!“ God has enough for everything you need! If God has enough, there’s nothing wrong with the supply; there may be something wrong with the request! Like Chat GPT, if you don’t have the right prompt, you won’t get the right information! If you come to him complaining and fussing and feeling entitled, you won’t get the right information! If you come to him and have already decided you’re through with it, you won’t get the right information! But if you dare to open up before God, God is going to do something amazing for you! Do you hear what I’m saying?
The poor woman obeyed the word of God immediately because she was already in debt! She said, „I might as well go further!“ But she sent her sons out to every neighbor’s house, and they borrowed vessels till there were no more. And God flowed till she ran out! He never ran out! He still had enough oil for the Day of Pentecost! He never ran out! He still had enough oil to show up in the dove that left out the window of the ark! He never ran out! He still had enough oil to dress the lamps in the tabernacle in the temple! He never ran out! He still had enough oil to make Jesus the Christ—the Anointed One, the Messiah! He never ran out! Over in Acts 10, he still had enough oil left to fill the freshly baptized men with the Holy Ghost. Over in Acts 19, he still had enough power that while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word! God is never going to run out! I don’t care if it’s a recession! I don’t care what they say about the times! I don’t care what they say about the country! The country may run out of money! We may run out of food stamps! We may run out of whatever you thought you had to have to get along! But God will never run out! He will never run out! He will never, never, never run out! He will never run out! He will never, ever run out! He’s got jobs at it! He’s got good jobs! He’s got ways! He’s got businesses! He’s got companies! You mentioned book deals! He’s got book deals! You hear her talking about her first book deal? God’s got all kinds of stuff if you got capacity!
The Rich Woman’s Hidden Poverty
But that’s not what I’m preaching about! I’m not supposed to be talking about the broke woman! I’m supposed to be talking about the rich woman! Because the problem with the rich woman is this: the rich woman is broke in a place you can’t see! She has no money problems! She has no marital problems! She’s got money and a man! She’s good! She’s got a mansion! She’s got a house! She’s set! She’s not needing anything at all! She is so set that she had them build a room on the house so that whenever Elijah stopped by—I don’t know how many times he stopped by, but whenever he stopped by, you’re going to have not just a guest room—you’re going to have a new room! And I’m going to dress it out for you! And it’s going to be your room! It’s going to be your dresser! It’s going to be your bed! It’s going to be your chair exclusively! I don’t want nobody to bother this!
But Elijah, she was a giving woman! She was a woman of abundance! She had a giving spirit! There are some folks in here that have a giving spirit! They have a giving spirit! I don’t mean just in church! Anywhere! They have a giving spirit! They will help! They will sow! Sometimes they wish they didn’t have it, but they have a giving spirit! Sometimes people take advantage of them, but they have a giving spirit! When they come in your house, they didn’t come to take; they came to give! They will wash your dishes! They will run the vacuum cleaner! Any way they can help, they are a liberal soul! And the Bible said, „The liberal soul shall be made fat.“ This woman is a liberal soul, and she shall be made fat!
Elijah did not ask her for a room; she just thought of it! She just thought of it! She was just sitting here thinking of ways she can be a blessing instead of thinking evil. I know some folks that sit back here thinking evil, but there are also some folks that sit back thinking good all the time—always thinking about something! You don’t know how it’s going to happen! You may not build it yourself, but you can think of it, and it’s all in your mind! It’s all in your head! In fact, you’ve gotten quiet and stopped talking to people because people think you’re crazy because your thoughts are so high that it doesn’t make sense! It doesn’t make sense!
It has no rhyme or reason to build a permanent room for a temporary guest! It’s crazy! But she thinks like that! If you’re one of those people, say, „I just think like that! That’s why I don’t talk to everybody because they can’t handle me!“ Not the way I think! I just smile at you and nod my head because I’m thinking on another level! I’m thinking beyond my resources! I’m thinking beyond my paycheck! I’m thinking beyond my house! I’m thinking beyond my situation! I just think like that!
This woman has everything except a child, and she is just as poor in her way as the other woman was poor in her finances! The reason poor people don’t like rich people is that when you are broke, you think if you had money, you’d have everything! But poverty doesn’t escape anybody! You can have money and still have misery! You can have money and still be suicidal! You can have fame and go crazy! You can have fame and be strung out on drugs! You can be the CEO and be flipping out and want to drive your car over a hill or drive your plane into a mountainside!
Stop envying what God gave somebody else because you might not be able to handle what God gave somebody else! The truth of the matter is, when I asked about need, everybody in here should have jumped up because everybody in here needs something! It’s just that some people’s poverty is obvious and some people’s poverty is hidden! But you’re still in the same situation: one woman had an empty cupboard, and the other woman had an empty womb, but empty is just empty anyway you cut it!
By This Time Next Year
And Elijah walks from one house over to the other house because he’s God of this situation, and he’s God of this situation over here! He’s God in America, and he’s God in Australia! He’s God in Israel, and he’s God in Japan! He’s God in Russia, and he’s God in Hong Kong! He’s God in Jamaica! He’s God in the Congo! He’s God in Europe! He’s God in France! He’s God in Ukraine, and he’s God in Russia! God will work anywhere at any time! You don’t have to have on a special dress! I don’t need to sell you no handkerchief! You don’t need a rag! You don’t need a handkerchief! You don’t even need a bottle of oil! All you got to do is have a body of oil!
And if you are filled with oil, the bottle may run out, but you will never run out! If you got the Holy Ghost, baby, you got the Holy Ghost! You don’t need no top for the bottle; it’ll never close! It’s everywhere! Shout yes! This woman is so rich broke! She’s so good at giving what she has and maybe a little proud that she doesn’t want to admit what she doesn’t have! So Elijah says, „How can I bless her?“ Because her gift made room for her!
It’s not like she came to him and said, „I want to have a baby! I’m in trouble!“ She’s not like Hannah; she wasn’t even bringing it up! Gehazi says, „She goes without a child.“ Elijah says, „By this time next year…“ Somebody that’s got some faith in here, look at somebody and say, „By this time next year, you won’t even recognize me! You won’t even understand what’s going on! You won’t even realize by this time that the enemies that you see today, you shall see them no more! By this time next year! By this time!“ God is going to turn it around!
Shout yes, somebody! Oh, I feel something! I better hold my mule because I feel a stirring in the Holy Ghost! Something is about to happen in this room! I don’t know some dreamers in this room! Somebody’s got a dream in this room! And say, „By this time next year!“ I know you don’t know how! I know you don’t know who! I know it doesn’t make any sense! I know you tried before and failed! I know you went to the specialist! I know you’ve been examined and it’s impossible! Still, by this time next year!
And you know what she says to him? She’s not open like the poor woman. She’s closed because there’s something about having more that makes it easier to be closed. See, obvious poverty is desperate and obvious; you ain’t got nothing to lose! But when you’re rich and poor, you’ve got a certain image to hold up in order to be accepted in the clique. You can’t walk in like you need nothing, like you want nothing! You can’t even walk in like you’re unhappy! You can’t flip out on people like you would want to! You have to be poor to really flip out on somebody good! I mean that neck-popping, head-turning, „I wish!“ If you come up in here, you got the right one! You’re going to learn today!
See, you don’t hear rich people say, „You’re going to learn today!“ You got to be a little bit broke to say, „You’re going to learn today!“ So the woman has to climb over her status, and because she wants the child so bad, she said, „Don’t play with me! Don’t get me excited about something that God is not going to do!“
She said, „Don’t bring up this thing about this child! I finally put it to bed! I finally learned how to live without it! And don’t get me craving it again because wanting hurts!“ Y’all don’t hear me! Wanting hurts! I’m going to get myself in trouble! There are some women in here that generally just actually don’t want a man! But there are some men, there are some women in here that your circumstances, you had to learn not to want because wanting hurts! And sometimes hurt left you in a state that you don’t even want to try no more!
Hope Deferred Makes the Heart Sick
You’re not sliding left! You’re not swiping to the left! You’re not swiping to the right! You’re sick of all of them! You don’t trust any of them! And you don’t want nobody to stir you up! I don’t care how cute they are; I don’t care what they drive; I don’t care what they look like! You have been hurt! It hurts so bad! It hurt! Is there anybody knows what it is to be brokenhearted and your spirit is broken, and you don’t even want to try no more? There are some married folks in here; you’ve given up! You’ve been through counseling! You’ve been through therapy! You don’t want to go no more 'cause you’re tired of hurting for hoping for something that doesn’t happen!
Hope deferred, the Bible said, makes the heart sick! When you wait long enough and you still don’t get it! When you acquiesce long enough, when you apologize over and over again, and nothing is ever enough, after a while, you shut up! And silence is a dangerous thing! This woman has shut up about having a child. Her silence is indicative not of her contentment, but she has settled! This door is closed! I got news for you! God’s getting ready to open some doors that you’ve closed, that you shut down, that you’re afraid to believe Him for, that you’re afraid to get excited about!
But God is about to do something so strong that it’s going to challenge your emotional flexibility because you don’t even want to think about it no more 'cause it hurts to think about it! But God said, „By this time next year, the thing that you thought could never happen is going to happen in your life!“ Turn around and find somebody and say, „Just wait till next year! I’m going to need a bassinet! I’m going to need a carriage! I’m going to need a baby bottle! I’m going to need some onesies! I’m going to need a blanket! Just wait till next year! I’m going to need a carriage! I’m going to need a car seat! By this time next year, I’m going to be driving that Bentley! By this time next year, I’m going to own my own business! By this time next year, I’m going to be a best-selling author! By this time next year, God is going to open up my TV show! By this time next year, I’m going to have a chain of restaurants! By this time next year, God is going to do something so amazing in my life that I won’t have time to do what I used to do by this time next year!“
And it came to pass! Help me preach! Look at somebody and say, „And it came to pass!“ It wasn’t like it was just prophesied and she shouted, and she didn’t get nothing! It came to pass! It came to pass! It came to pass without them having to do anything that they hadn’t been doing already! And it still came to pass! This time it’s going to work! You did it before! You did it on Monday! You did it on Wednesday night! You know you had your Friday night! You did your Friday night just like you always did, and it didn’t work! But this time it’s going to work for you!
You’re going to do the same thing and get a different result because God is about to blow your mind! Somebody shout Yes! I feel something coming in the room! I feel something about to break loose in this room! Can I preach this thing today? The Bible says that her belly was full of baby; her womb was full of child! And she—the child comes out of her body! And I’m saying this for a reason and it’s detached from the umbilical cord, and he ends up working for his father as an adult. And while he’s working for daddy, it sounds like he has an aneurysm! He says, „My head! My head!“
Back to the One Who Birthed It
And daddy carries him back to the womb! 'Cause it ain’t nothing like carrying something back to the one that birthed it! There’s something about when you birth something! I remember one time your nose was bleeding and I couldn’t stop it from bleeding, and I was doing everything I could think of trying to get it to stop bleeding! But when I called for your mama, your mama turned into Dr. Marcus Welby! She came in that room! She started pulling and tugging and getting her out of there! We didn’t need an ambulance! We didn’t need a doctor!
When you carry it back to the one who pushed it out, when you push, somehow there’s a difference! Touch your neighbor and say, „I had to push this out! I had to push this out! I had to push this out! That’s why I’m not going to let no devil in hell take away what God has for me 'cause I had to push this out! I had to go through labor pain! I had to throw up every morning! I had to go to work sick! I had to push this out!“ That’s why God lets you go through pain, because pain makes you value something!
If you get it too easy, it don’t matter to you! But if you had to sweat, if the blood vessels in your cheeks had to break, you ain’t going to let that die easily! They brought him to his mama, and he died! Now, if he died, the next thing supposed to happen is called the mortuary! But she didn’t call the mortuary! She took him from her womb to the womb of the prophet and laid him on the prophet’s bed because she knew that it didn’t start with her womb! It started with the word of the prophet!
And sometimes you got to go back to the beginning! Sometimes you got to get back on your knees! Sometimes, I know y’all don’t like this, but sometimes we need to tarry around the altar! I mean old-school „tarry!“ I mean „Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!“ till your water breaks and God births something in your spirit!
She laid him on the bed and no doubt said, „I’ll be back, baby!“ He couldn’t hear her; he was dead! She told the servants she had, „Saddle up the ass, and slack not thy riding save I tell you!“ She didn’t have time to explain it! She didn’t make no excuse! You’ve got to have somebody who can follow orders! Counseling is all right; you got to counsel sometimes! But sometimes you just got to do what I said 'cause I don’t have time to explain to you! And I don’t know how it’s going to turn out! But I know that so much is at stake that I can’t afford to lose this battle!
Desperation Makes Donkeys Run
I need you to drive a donkey fast! Try that! Try entering a donkey into a speedway race! How do you get a donkey to move fast? When you get in enough trouble, you’ll make a slow thing move! When you get in enough trouble, you’ll make somebody who’s slow and always late! Come on! The reason you’re always late, you’re not in enough trouble! If something hurts you bad enough, you’ll be here waiting on the church to open up!
When you get in trouble, you won’t have to wake up! You’ve been up all night! You’ve been dressed since 5:00! You’ve been waiting on the time to come! Somebody in this room knows what I’m talking about! Hallelujah! Ain’t no trouble for you to get ready 'cause you got a devil to fight! Slap three people and say, „I got a devil to fight!“ Find three more and say, „I got a devil to fight!“ You can stand there and be cute if you want to, but I got a devil to fight! I’m here for a reason! I got a devil to fight!
That’s why I keep jumping up! That’s why I keep hollering! That’s why I keep making noise! I got a devil to fight! But I declare before this day is over, something is going to change in this place! Something is going to change in this place! I feel it happening already! I feel it in the balcony! I feel it on the stream! You’re streaming online, and the Holy Ghost is doing something in your spirit! I feel a breakthrough breaking out in another country! I feel a breakthrough breaking out in somebody’s kitchen!
I feel a breakthrough breaking through an iPad! How can God get through a TV set? But God is coming in your room 'cause he’s getting ready to change a dead situation! A dead situation! A dead situation! A dead situation! We’re going to break the spirit of death right now! Touch three people and say, „Don’t bury it! Don’t bury it! Don’t bury your dream! Don’t bury what you believe God for! Don’t bury what you expected God to do! Don’t bury it!“
It might be cold, but don’t bury it! It might be stinking, but don’t bury it! It might break your heart, but don’t bury it! You might be crying, but don’t bury it! I feel a change about to break loose! Somebody in here give him 30 seconds of crazy praise! Don’t bury it! Don’t bury it! Don’t bury it! Don’t bury it! If you buried it, go dig it up! If you buried it, roll the stone away! If you buried it, move the flowers back!
The Resurrection Power
'Cause God is about to give you a miracle! Somebody shout yes! No, I said shout yes! I’m talking to you in your living room! Shout on your couch! Shout on your dining room table! Shout on the front porch! Shout in the car! I declare God is going to do something in this place! Uh, I want all my praisers to start praising him like it’s already done! Like it’s already done! Like it’s already done!
I won’t give up! I won’t give out! Praise God till you grab everybody’s feet! Praise God till you snatch him by his ankles! Get down like the woman with the issue of blood and snatch his foot! There’s more power in his foot than there is in all the hospitals in Texas! Uh, there’s more power in the hem of his garment than in all the pharmacies all over the city! My God’s got the power to do anything but fail! I feel a praise! I mean a, oh Holy Ghost praise! I mean a spiritual praise about to break out in this place! He got power! He got power! He got power! It’s all in his feet! It’s all in his hands!
Now the man of God that spoke it said God had hid it from me! He let me speak life to you, but he didn’t tell me that the boy was dead! So the prophet didn’t see that! We see in part! We know in part! We prophesy in part! Stop going crazy over everybody’s prophecy 'cause we don’t know as much as we act like we know! He said, „The Lord has hid it from me!“ So he says, „Watch this! He says, Gehazi, take my staff and go and lay my staff on the dead boy!“
You got to be careful what you do with the staff! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! That’s another message! You got to be careful what you do with the staff 'cause God’s going to do miracles through the staff! He did it all through Moses! He did it at the Red Sea! He did it when they lost their oxen! He did it when he turned the bitter water into sweet! He’s going to use his staff to get it done! But Gehazi—the right staff in the wrong hands! Y’all! Y’all ain’t listening to me! The right staff in the wrong hands will get people killed! The right car with the wrong driver will cause you to end up in a ditch! You got to have the right person who knows how to work it!
Gehazi ends up not being Elijah’s successor because he followed a man, but he really didn’t follow the man! There’s a lot of people following us, but they’re not really following us! And they say God failed! No, God didn’t fail! You didn’t follow! If you follow, God won’t fail! I want all you anointed prophets to touch somebody and say, „Something is going to happen in here today! Something is going to happen in here today! I can feel it already! My toes are tingling! My head is tingling! My head done shook out of place! I’m messing up my makeup 'cause I know something is going to happen in here today!“
Somebody shout yes! Tell that neighbor, „Don’t bury your dream! Don’t bury your dream! Take it out the freezer! Take it off the cooling board! Lay it on the bed and wait on God! Wait on God! He may not come when you want him, but I’m going old-school now!“ The Gehazi comes back to Elijah! They keep coming back to Elijah! You got to have an Elijah ministry in your life that you keep coming back to! That you keep coming back to! You can’t jump from place to place to place just because things aren’t working the way you want them to work!
You got to get your rusty, dusty self someplace and sit down and take the bitter with the sweet! You got to stop changing wives! You’re on your fifth wife! Something’s wrong with all of them! No, something’s wrong with you! You got to stick it out! Stick it out when you’re happy! Stick it out when you’re not happy! Stick it out when you’re frustrated! Stick it out when she gets on your nerves! Stick it out! I felt a divorce just stop! I just arrested the spirit of divorce! I just arrested a giving-up spirit! You got to stick it out!
You got to stick it out with them kids when they cuss you out and say they don’t need you and ride off in your car! You got to stick it out! You can’t say everything you want to say! You can’t fight them like you fight a man because it’s your child! You got to stick it out until they come back to life again! But by this time next year, God is going to do something! By this time next year, oh my God! Touch somebody and say, „You should see what I’m going to look like! You should see what God’s going to do! You should see how God’s going to move! You should see how God’s going to fix it! You should see how God is going to raise up my situation! You should see how God’s going to resurrect me! You should see how God is going to kill my enemies! You should see how God is going to fight for me!
The Battle Belongs to God
You should see how a thousand will fall on my left side! Ten thousand shall fall on my right side! But it shall not come nigh me! 'Cause the one I’m fighting with, he ain’t never lost a battle! He don’t know nothing about losing a battle! The battle is not mine! The battle is not mine! The battle is not mine! It belongs to God! Somebody praise him for taking over your battle! I said praise him for taking over your battle! Somebody that’s been fighting demon spirits, praise God for taking over your battle! The Lord said this is a warfare sermon! This is a warfare sermon! Something that has been chasing you around is getting ready to break off your life!
And I want you to pray as if the devil is defeated, like demons are in a chokehold, like witches are strangling to death! I want you to praise him with a spirit of expectation! Uh! I want you to praise him with a blessed assurance down in your soul! It ain’t over until God says it’s over! I’m going to keep this boy on this bed until God moves! Uh! Somebody give me 30 seconds of crazy praise all over the church, all over the world, all over the nation! Give me a—come on! Give me a global praise! Give me a praise in Portuguese! Give me a praise in French! Uh! Give me a praise in Italian!
I better call for some women! Uh! Let the women go! Grab him by his feet! Pull on his legs! Snatch his pants leg! Let God know you mean business! Let God know you’re coming out of this! Let God know that the enemy is about to be scattered! Let God know that the battle is not mine; it belongs to God! I didn’t start it, and I don’t have to finish it! Elijah started it, and Elijah’s got to finish it! Hold your head back and shout yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Elijah walked in the room and shut the door. And this is what desperation will make you do! Nowhere else in scripture do you see this happen! He climbed on top of the boy and put his mouth on his mouth and his knees on his knees! See, this looks kind of crazy and it looks kind of bad! But the Bible said, while the prophet was laying on top of him, the flesh of the boy waxed warm! You’re trying to look cute and get out of this, but sometimes you got to go crazy! You got to go stop raving mad! You got to go and open up your door and say, „Devil, get out of this house!“
You got to start putting olive oil in collard greens! You got to believe God for a miracle! I feel a miracle, Marcus! I feel a miracle! A miracle in that balcony! A miracle on that back row! I feel a touch of the Holy Ghost coming down in this place! Let me hear it! I need a hundred people! Desperate people don’t care what they look like! Don’t care if it’s unorthodox! Don’t care whether you know how to dance or not! Jump out in the aisle and go to dancing like you lost your mind! Go to dancing 'cause it’s watching war! It’s watching war! The more you praise him, the more you praise him, the more you praise him, the warmer it’s going to get!
The more you praise him, the more it’s going to watch for him! It’s getting hot in here! It’s getting hot in here! His breath is coming back! His heart is starting to beat! His liver is starting to quiver! If you praise him like you don’t care what nobody says about you! If you praise him! If you praise him! I’m almost finished, but grab somebody by the hand and go to something and say, „It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming!“ Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes! Here it comes!
Get for it! Leave for it! Shout for it! God is about to do it in your life! Heat! Heat! Don’t bury your dream! Don’t bury your dream! Don’t you bury your dream! I don’t care how they talk about you! I don’t care what they say! Don’t bury what God gave you! Don’t bury what God gave you! Don’t bury it! Don’t bury it! It’s waxing warm right now! Shake somebody by the hand and tell them, „I heard something sneeze! I heard something sneeze! I heard something sneeze! I heard something sneeze! I heard something sneeze! I heard something sneeze! I’m getting courage! I feel a change! I feel a change!“
Heat! Heat! Heat! Heat! He started sneezing! Seven times the dead boy started sneezing, coughing up everything that was holding him back! Every bacteria, every generational curse, every stigmatizing thought that was holding him down! It’s got to come out! It’s got to come out! Somebody open your mouth and holler, „Heat! Heat!“ If you got encouragement, if you got direction, if you heard from the Lord, uh! Open your mouth and say, „Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yes, Lord! Yeah! Yes, Lord! Have your way! Come on, give it to God! Have your way! Have your way! Have your way! Have your way! Have your way!“
I got to quit! I don’t want to, but I got to quit! I done preached over into my fried chicken time! Sarah, I wondered why they took the trouble to tell us that the boy sneezed seven times! And I kept thinking about it, Dr. James; seven is the number of completion! That means this thing is over! You ain’t never going to have to go through that again! That means God has set divine order back in this place! The flesh of the boy waxed warm! You can feel that, but the sneezing—you can hear that! It’s a noise! It’s a sound of completion! Somebody make a sound of completion!