TD Jakes — Ambidextrous God
Most of us are right handed. The vast majority of people are right handed. And that doesn't mean we don't have a left hand, it just means that whenever we get ready to do anything, we have a tendency to do it from the right hand because that's where we're stronger. That's where we have more fluidity of movement, more flexibility. That's where we galvanize more strength, and the right bicep gets stronger. The whole right side gets stronger because we use it the most. We're right handed.
Some of us are left handed. We have the same experience that the right-handed people do, but we have it on the left hand. Our left hand is where it's our gripping hand. It's our fighting hand. It's our pushing, our pulling, our connecting hand. When we get ready to snatch something, we do it with our left hand because we're left handed. And when we get ready to push something away, we push it with our left hand because we are left handed. The right-handed person pushes away with their right hand and pulls to them with their right hand because they are stronger than the right hand. The right hand is strong. The left hand is weak. With the left-handed person, the left hand is strong. The right hand is weak.
Now, science teaches us that the left-handed person is left handed because they are fueled by right brain. And because the right brain has the strongest influence, it acts out in the left hand. So, the signal is coming from over here, and it's hitting over here. The right-handed person is getting the signal from the left side of the brain. The left side of the brain is igniting in such a way that it causes him to instinctively move with the right hand. There are some people who have dualities of hand.
And what "duality" means, that they do some things with their left hand and other things with their right hand. Anybody like that in here? Maybe you write with your left hand, but you're stronger in your right hand. Or you cook with your right hand and you punch with your left hand, or whatever it is. Depends on what the job is, they have a duality of hand. That's not quite ambidextrous. Because even then you prefer one hand over another, depending on the task.
But the person who is truly ambidextrous can use the right hand as well as they can use their left hand regardless of the task, which means that the right brain is just as strong as the left brain, and they have an option of doing either because there is no weakness on either side. They can write with their right hand. They can write with their left hand. It doesn't make any difference. Just whichever way you throw 'em they pen, they'll snatch it and go to writing because they are ambidextrous, strong and strong, push and push, pull and pull. No difference, no breaking, no variableness, no changes, strong.
God is not left handed 'cause it would mean his right hand was weak. And he is not right handed because it would mean that his left hand was weak. And there is no weakness in him at all. Your God is ambidextrous. He can work as well with his right hand as he can with his left. So, Job said, "I looked for God and I could not find him. I went forward and I could not find him. I went backwards and I could not find him. I looked for him on the right side and I could perceive him. I looked for him on the left side and I knew he was doin' something over there, but I didn't know what it was".
And I thought of this text. Because up until now, we have seen God move by his right hand. His right hand has been on Joseph all of his life. His right hand put the coat of many colors on him, called him out and set aside, the right hand, "Son of my right hand". Strength, the strength of God was on him. They threw him in the pit. The fall should have killed him, but the hand caught him, raised him out of the pit using the Midianites. Brought him to the house of Potiphar. Raised him up in the house of Potiphar from being a slave to running the master's house. His right hand, his holy arm has gotten him the victory. Joseph has the victory till Potiphar's wife lied on him. And then he goes into prison and goes from runnin' the house to bein' an inmate. But even there we've seen the right hand of God because locked up in the prison, he accelerates and advances to the point that he is over all the inmates.
One thing about favor, if favor is on your life, I don't care what people throw you in, you will always rise to the top. There are some people in this room that have been to hell and back. But whatever they threw you in, you always rose to the top because the favor of God was on your life. They put their foot on ya, and God stretched out his hand and snatched you out. People don't understand why you praise God like you do. You praise God like you do 'cause you been in the pit. You been lied on at Potiphar's house. You've had your back up against the wall and couldn't see your way clear.
But every time they were ready to throw dirt on ya, God, with his right hand, snatched you. Every time you get a chance, you give him the praise. You don't praise dancers or praise leaders. You praise him in your house. You praise him in your kitchen. You praise him in your living room. For when you think of the goodness of Jesus and all that he's done for you. God's hand is on my life. I got favor. That's how the Bible expresses favor: "And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah". "And the hand of the Lord was on Moses". "And the hand of the Lord was on Ezekiel". Simply means, "I got favor".
When you got favor, favor shows up in the strangest ways. You wouldn't know that you had favor if you didn't have famine. It is the famine that convinces me I got favor. Joseph went from a prisoner to a prince only because of the famine. The famine made him important. The famine gave him a job. Thank you, Jesus. The famine gave him a job. Isn't that an interesting way of looking at your life? "The famine gave me a job". "Oh, this man I married gets on my nerves. He couldn't do nothing without me". Yeah, I know, the famine gave you the job.
I once complained 'cause the Lord sent me to a revival to a little church. On their big night, they had ten people. I was preaching every night to two or three people, and they wouldn't even sit together. You couldn't even get 'em to touch and say, "Your neighbor," 'cause the neighbor was over there. And I was mad. I was in this little town in Ohio and I went back to my little Best Days, Western Days, something Days, and I was mad. I told God, "I don't wanna be here, this dead church, they're dead. They're dead, Lord, they're dead. I don't wanna preach to them dead people. They dead, Lord. I ain't no mortician. They dead people, Jesus".
And you know what he told me? "They're job security, Jakes. They're job security, Jakes. If they wasn't dead, I wouldn't need you". The famine is your favor. Y'all don't hear what I'm sayin' to you. You might be fighting the very thing that ever made you important. If the problem wasn't there, they wouldn't need you. "I can't stand this job, they crazy". That's why they hired you. "I don't wanna go to that church, they hateful". That's why God sent you. The famine is your favor.
It made him important. They snatched him out of his inmate clothes. He shaved his face. And one moment, he's with inmates, and the next moment, he's before Pharaoh, only because of the famine. The famine was his favor. And now, he has a job, and an important job, and he is controlling the gross national product for an entire country. It's bein' run by a inmate. Ain't that funny? Isn't that funny? Have you ever had God do something that made you laugh?
Come on, I wanna talk to some real people. And there he is, runnin' Egypt, runnin' the country's finances that enslaved him, wow. God turned it around with his right hand and his holy arm. He hath gotten him to victory. Well, I'm not here to preach about what he did with his right hand. I really came to tell you about what he did with his left hand. Joseph couldn't see it, but God was working with his left hand.
And the Lord wants you to hear this message because he's doin' some things in your life that you can't see. He's doin' some things that you cannot perceive. He worketh with his left hand, and you perceived it not. He's working on them kids through the things you're goin' through. You think it's about you. It ain't about you. It's about them. He's using you to get to them. He's working on his left hand. What you're going through may not even have anything to do with you. It's about them. He's using you to pull them in. He's working on the left hand. You think you're shouting over what he did with his right hand? Wait till you see what he does with his left. He's just as strong with his left hand as he is with his right hand.
Joseph was walking in favor, but his daddy, Jacob, is in famine. He's in a dry place. The crops didn't come in this year, and the wheat didn't grow, and they can't make no bread, and they're starving to death. And Jacob says to his boys, "Why are you standing there looking at each other? Why are you looking to people who are just as hungry as you are? Why are you expecting to find bread amongst somebody who's about to pass out just like you"? "Why seek you the living amongst the dead"? Why are you bitter against somebody not helping you who was worse off than you in the first place? "Why are y'all looking at one another like you are? I heard that there's bread in Egypt. Take these coins and go down there and buy some bread".
So, the famine, God is blessing Joseph with his right hand, and he's pulling Jacob with his left. I don't know who this is for, but the Lord sent me here to tell ya he's pulling something, something you can't even see. You over here praising him about what he's doing with his right hand, but you wait till you see what he's doing with his left hand. Just when you decided that you just have to live without your dream, just when you decided that you would serve other people, and what God promised you would never happen, just when you decided to make do with your situation, God said, "While you were taking care of his business, he's gonna take care of yours".
I'm talkin' about the ambidextrous God. If I'm talking to you, shout me down in this place. We get so caught up with the right hand. The right hand is the thing that God does in silos. It's the things he does that we can see. It's the things that he does in the community of our reality. It's the things that he does that directly affects us, the right hand. But then he's also ambidextrous on the other hand, you see?
See, had Lazarus known that, he would not have died grievously. Because Lazarus got sick and it wasn't even about him. That's why Jesus didn't come heal him. He was using his death. He used Lazarus' death to make Mary and Martha stop arguing about who had the best job. He used Lazarus' death so that the priests could see that Jesus was the resurrection and the life. He used Lazarus' death to set his destiny on course for him to go through the Crucifixion. It had nothing to do with his sickness, but they was looking at his right hand. They never saw what he was doing with his left hand.
I don't know who this is for, but you've been so worried about what's going on with the right hand that God wanted you to hear that he's working on something you don't even see in his left hand. And when he gets through working it, you shall come forth as pure gold. You don't see it. You don't understand it. You can't explain it. "But all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord". On his right hand, he brought Abraham and Isaac to Mount Moriah. And Isaac is walking up on the hill with his daddy, and he says, "Daddy, I see the knife, and I see the wood, but I don't see the sacrifice".
Isaac didn't know that the sacrifice was coming through the left hand. Because while Abraham and Isaac was coming up the hill with what they did see and what they didn't see, God was on the other side, bringing a ram up on the other side of the hill. They were both coming up at the same time. And sometimes you don't understand what God's plan is until you get him to the place that God wants you to be. And then you look over your shoulder and God had the answer coming at ya all the while. I don't know who that's for, but I feel a 30-minute praise about to hit this place.
Joseph is in this situation where he has completely given up on seeing his father again, and drawn his whole self into Pharaoh's vision. He's all in. He has set up the budget for the next 14 years, and he's done it so well that other nations have heard of it, and they're coming to eat off of Joseph's favor. And when you throw yourself into something unselfishly and you decide that "even if I don't see my father, if I don't get what I want, if it never happens for me, I just wanna see you get where you're tryin' to go," it is precisely that attitude that shows why God chose Joseph in the first place.
Abraham offers up his son Isaac on the mountaintop. And God says, "I don't even need your son. I don't need you to do it. I need to know that you would do it". "In the process of being unselfish, I got a plan where you can bless Pharaoh and still get back what you lost". "In the process of being unselfish, I got a plan where you can offer up your son and he can still go home with ya". "In the process of helping somebody else, you didn't know that while you was helping them, I was helping you. And while you was working on their situation, I was working on your situation. And what I'm trying to tell you is that if you do it for him, I'll do it for you".
See, now if you get an attitude and say, "I ain't helping him. He the very one that started the problem," shutting down Pharaoh will stop your daddy from coming I feel it. I feel like God is talkin' to somebody. This doesn't even feel like a sermon. It feels like a prophecy. It feels like a prophecy for somebody who has given to the point that you felt like a fool, that you put yourself on the sidelines so long that you feel embarrassed about the things you gave up to help other people. And sometimes you were helping people who wasn't even helping you. Sometimes you were serving people who never even served you back. And you've been feeling like life made a fool out of you. It might have made a fool out of you, but it's not gonna make a fool out of God. Because whatever you lost, whatever you lost, God is gonna make it up to you. Look at God.
As Joseph says, "Yes," to his right hand, God is pulling his family with his left hand. And everything that Joseph thought he lost has got on a camel and saddled up and started heading his way. I want you to touch ten people and tell 'em, "The camels are coming. The reason you had to be here this morning is so you could know the camels are coming... That's your blessing coming at you right now. Pressed down, shaken together, runnin' over.