TD Jakes — Eagles Make Love in the Air
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our king. I'm so happy about the new year, excited about God's grace over our lives. I'm ready to take 2018 on, how about you? One of the ways that we can take 2018 on, I've been taking my church and the country, I dare say the world, through a deeper understanding of bringing God into your life and your vision and your business, and allowing him to be a part of your affairs, and allowing him to take you out of that box, into your purpose and destiny.
This series is powerful, it's life-changing. The message is "Eagles Make Love in the Air". It's really going to be a powerful metaphor to help you to understand the level and the height that you need to bring your vision and bring your life this year to experience all that God has for you so that you can soar in every area of your life. Now, let's go to the Word of God, Isaiah 40:28 through 31. And hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church.
Amidst an alabaster sky, with gazing clouds suspended on nothing but air itself, eagles soar in blustering wind to heights beyond human gaze, to explore the intimacy of covenant relationships. And there was bolstering winds all around them. They go into a nosedive soar, talon to talon connected, holding each other in the wind. And as they spiral down through the galing wind, with nothing but the sun piercing peekaboo through their wings, there in the middle of the air, eagles make love.
Cardinals cannot do it. Hawks cannot understand it. Blue jays cannot reach it. For the eagles are on a plane beyond their ability to flap. This is an eagle's area of romance. It is the place of conception. Eagles conceive in the air. Now, I know you've had some romantic nights. I know you prayer warriors and everything, even you church mothers try to look all deep and spiritual. You might not be having them right now, but there was a time, glory to God, that you have some flashbacks every now and then to some special days. But nobody in here can say at 40,000 feet in the air, with the wind blowing through your hair and the sun peeking through your arms, there in an embrace of intimacy, you found connectivity to the point that conception was achieved with nothing but wind and air and light and alabaster to bask in as you experienced the opulence of intimacy.
Talk like a writer, don't I? They shall mount up on wings like eagles. I'm getting ready to do a new thing in you, and I've got to strengthen you to bring you into a place that you and I can conceive. This is not about me coming down to you. I've already done that. I came down so that you could come up to meet me in the air. This rapturous moment of intimacy does not have to be delayed for eschatology. It does not have to wait to the ends of the age. This is the place where the Lord meets his own. It is the place where the bridegroom connects with the bride.
What did I hear her say as she sat in her bedchamber, looking out the window? She said, "Behold, my beloved cometh to me, skipping across the mountains. His banner over me is love. I heard his piercing voice come through the lattice of the window, and he challenged me. He says, 'Rise up, my beloved, and come away.'" Because if you are going to be my lover, eagles make love in the air. What stops us from meeting God on the turf that he's on is that we are always tied up in the systems of this world.
So, the first point I want to give you today is you cannot soar until you clear your head. Clearing your head is the first step of getting on the level that you need to be on to do what God has called you to do. When I say clear your head, I'm talking about all the contaminants that keep you stuck on the ground, things that weigh down the human soul, stop you from being creative, stop you from being... inventing new things and being innovative.
You cannot be innovative and depressed. So, we've got to delete some depression because depression depresses what God is saying, "Rise up". Depression is saying, "Stay down. There's nothing up there for you. You don't belong up there. You don't deserve to be up there. You're too young, you're too old. You're too rich, you're too poor. You're too black, you're too white, you're too brown. Stay down". The devil is a liar. Something has got to get off this morning. I said something has got to get off. Something has got to go and get its bags, and get off this flight because God is getting ready to take you into a dimension that you have never gone before. And you've got to let it go, loose, loose, loose, let it go.
Do you want to go up in the air and meet with the master, or do you want to stay on the ground and play in your baggage? This is not for the chickens. This is not for the ducks, this is not for the geese. This is for eagles. This is for people who are ready to mount up, not down, up not down, up not down, up not down. They shall mount up on wings like eagles. If there are any eagles out there. Are there are any eagles over there? I'm calling for an eagles meeting because we're getting ready to soar.
Touch seven people and tell them, "We're getting ready to soar". My business is getting ready to soar. My finances are getting ready to soar. My ministry is getting ready to soar. My marriage is getting ready to soar. I've changed my mind, I've renewed my strength. I'm getting ready to soar. I have something to look forward to, forgetting that which is behind, and reaching to that which is before. I have made up my mind these latter years will be my soaring years. If you're going to soar, number two, you need mental stimulation. You need to avoid conversations, situations, and circumstances that are a deterrent to your mental stimulation.
They were flying to Tarshish, they were sailing to Tarshish, they had sailed to Tarshish many times before. They knew that the boat was strong enough to take them into Tarshish, it had before. If they were not able to go to Tarshish, it must be that they had something on board that needed to go. They searched and searched and searched till they found Jonah, and said, "You have got to go so that we can continue". Find your Jonah. You'll only search for your Jonah when you believe you are supposed to finish your course. When you find yourself in a storm that doesn't make sense, find your Jonah. If you get rid of your Jonah, you'll get rid of your problem. Mental stimulation means everything that rides with me has to be going in my direction.
Jonah was on the boat that was going in one direction when he was supposed to be going somewhere else. Mental stimulation means I've got to be able to have everything in sync that's going my way. You become what you talk about. If you talk about sadness, you'll end up in tears. You become what you talk about. You need to find people, magazines, books, programs that stimulate conversations that reinforce your interest. The Bible said, "He inhabits". The word "inhabits" in Hebrew means sits down in the praises of Israel.
Have you ever got in a conversation, got to talking about him, and all of a sudden you felt his presence come upon you? If you talk eagle talks, you can fly where eagles fly. You need to change your conversation. You're rehearsing the same problem over and over and over again. And why did they do it? And it's not right, and it's not fair. And the more you talk about that, the more the eagles back away. But if you start talking in heavenly language, then heaven will come down in your apartment, in your living room, in your house, on your job because eagles make love in the air.
Point three is, "Help, I'm married to a dreamer". I was excited when he or she first started talking about their dreams, but they've been talking about it a long time. And while they talk about their dreams, I'm struggling to pay these bills. Help, I'm married to a dreamer. I'm wondering how come these dreams are not coming together. And I want to tell you what stops dreams from coming together. In order for a dream to happen, there has to be agreement.
So, if you're going to be married to a dreamer, you got to learn how to dream. If you don't learn how to dream, you will either cut their wings and leave them bitter because they never got your support, or you will escalate to the level of the dream and help meet the gap between the dream and the fulfillment. Are there any dreamers in the house? See, what I want to do is get you to the point that you begin to understand that a dream has to engulf you. It has to engulf you, it has to get in the kids, it's got to get in the kids, it's got to get in your spouse till everybody is saying the same thing.
You know what makes a football game a great football game? It's not a great quarterback. It's not a great lineman, it's not a great cheerleader, it's not a great crowd. A football game would become boring and endless and monotonous, not because of the team, or the cheerleader, or the crowd. What makes the game important is the clock. Who wants to watch a game that has no clock? The reason some people are tired of riding with you is that you keep talking about something that has no clock. You need to put a clock on you. Oh, y'all don't hear who I'm talking to today. You got to have a clock.
Don't nobody want to be pregnant forever. Pregnant women are looking at the clock, watching every day, say, "I'm due in 2 weeks". Any pregnant woman worth her salt will tell you when the baby is coming. It's not enough to know that the baby is coming. The woman wants to know when the baby is coming. That's why I can endure the suffering of this present moment, because the clock reminds me that trouble don't last always. The clock reminds me that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. The clock reminds me that after I get through this runway, I'm gon' spread my wings and... Touch five people and say, "Put a clock on it". I hear God saying, "Put a clock on it". In the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son. Put a clock on it. Nobody wants to keep believing in something that you don't have a clock on. We're tired of hearing about your dreams that will never become goals. Put a clock on it.
This is my fourth point, it's the danger of ambiguity. The danger of ambiguity. The danger of not being specific. The danger of setting goals that have no data. Things that you set for yourself that are ambiguous lead to frustration. You running a restaurant and you say, "We want to give better customer service this year". What does that mean? How do we know when we got there? Anytime you have a goal that is ambiguous, you will never feel successful. Instead, it would be better, "Our goal is to make sure that 25% of our customer satisfaction cards come back positive". Now, I can quantify it. Now, I can point to it. Now, I have measurable results. Some of you will set goals for yourself that were so ambiguous, you have never succeeded, not because you can't succeed, but you've always walked in ambiguity. "I want to be a better person". What does that mean? Better at what? The danger of ambiguity.
Can I go a little bit further? I'll go to my fifth point. You got to have a vested interest. You can't have an interest that's not vested. If you don't put anything into your dream, your dream won't put anything into you. "I'm going to do it as soon as I get an investor". You mean you want me to invest where you have not? Wouldn't I be stupid to risk my money while you don't risk yours? If you believe in it, you got to go first. If you invest, you got to have a vested interest. You got to have something in you that you put it on the line.
When God got ready to redeem us, he didn't just give us lip service, "I wish somebody would die for them. They sure do need a Savior. Lord have mercy, they in a mess. Oh God, somebody need to do something about this mess these people have got here. I would to God, is there anybody up here in heaven that just wants to do me a favor and die on a cross for them? Any of you angels want to just go fix it? 'Cause they in a mess, in a real... I'm worried about them. And I need some investors". No, he stripped himself of his royal deity, wrapped himself up in human flesh, came walking down through 42 generations, said, "Lo, I come in the volume of the book to do thy will, O God". "I'm not asking anybody to invest in my dream. I'll do it myself".
And the Bible said that when Jesus got before the cross, that despising the shame of the cross, he looked before it for the joy that was set before him, and said, "It's worth it. Whatever I sacrifice is going to be worth it". He looked at you and said you are worth it. He looked at you and said you were worth it. He looked at you and said you were worth it, so why are you sitting there saying you're not worth it when God said you are worth it? You are worth every blessing God gave you. You are worth every door God opens. Somebody shout in this house.
Touch three people and say, "You're worth it". Take that position. Preach that message. Drive that car. Build that house. Open up that business. Go ahead and get married. Have them children. Live your life. Explore your future. Go after your dreams, you're worth it. "How do you know I'm worth it"? I know you're worth it because of what was paid for you. Look at how much he paid for you. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Why are you refunding your blessing? Why are you taking back what he bought for you? Why are you living beneath your privilege? Why are you laying on the ground when he's calling you in the air? He's calling you in the air. That's why the cancer didn't kill you. That's why the car wreck didn't destroy you. That's why the enemy couldn't kill you, the witch couldn't hex you. You got a date with God in the air.