TD Jakes - Exceptionalism (09/12/2018)
Challenging religious complacency in Nazareth, Jesus declares the Scripture fulfilled "today," provoking rejection as "Joseph's son"; exceptionalism demands breaking ordinary molds—honor relationship over tradition, embrace God's contemporary voice, and step into favor that offends the status quo for breakthrough beyond past limitations.
Jesus Challenges Religious Routine[/h3>
Greetings in the invincible name of Jesus Christ our King. I am so excited to have this opportunity to share the Word of the Lord with you. To be blessed of God and chosen of the Lord to present His Word to you is my highest honor.
We have been teaching and explaining and helping you to explore how to build your vision, how to really build it from the ground up. This deposit into the series is so revolutionary. It is revelational. It really coordinates with my new book, "Soar"! The message is entitled "Find Your Wings." It is in Exodus 19:1-6. I am going to help you find them, and I am going to show you how to keep them.
So what the eaglet does, it stirs the nest until the eaglets cannot rest, and some types of eagles push the eaglet out of the nest, push you out of the nest. I went to Union Carbide where I had worked for 5 years. They laid me off, and the day I got laid off, I could still see myself walking through the parking lot, and Senator West, I was crying. I was crying. I said, "Oh, my God, what am I going to do? I got a wife and two kids, and no job," and I was pushed. I was pushed. God will push you. He will push you. It looks cruel, but He will push you. It is disturbing, but He will push you. I got pushed out of the nest.
Like an eaglet when you get pushed out of the nest, you are now in an environment of discomfort, of uncertainty. God will always push you to your scary place. You will never know how great He is until you have been pushed into your scary place. I do not mean your nervous place. I mean your scary place. I mean eyes bugged, hands shaking, scary place.
The mother who has carried these eggs and sat on them and nurtured them and loved them now looks cruel because she now pushes them out of the nest. If she cannot push them out of the nest, that is to say, the nest is on a cliff which causes them to fall over the edge. If it is too far back, she will lower down her wings and allow the eaglets to climb up on her wings, and soar into the air with them and drop them.
This is what the text means, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall... on wings like eagles." These are not your wings. These are the wings that somebody lowers so that you can get to a level that you could never get to by yourself.
If you think about it, most of us are here today because something bigger than us lowered its wings so that we could mount up on wings and go in the places that we would have never gotten to had they not lowered their wings. So if you are waiting on the Lord, one of the signs of waiting is that you shall mount up on the wings like eagles.
These are the eagles that carry you into your destiny. Think about the people that God used to carry you into your destiny. Think about the people that came into your life to carry you into your destiny, that you would never would have got the job, you never would have got the opportunity, you never would have found yourself, you never would have found your strength. You would have died in that same little nest that you came from, but somebody came along and lowered their wings so that you could mount up on wings like eagles.
God said, "It was Me that did it. It was Me that stirred your nest. It was Me that got you out of your comfort zone. It was Me that exposed you to what you used to be afraid of. It was Me that brought you into the next dimension. It was not them. It was Me doing the work all the while."
[h3]Stirring the Nest for Growth
God said, "I used Joseph to build the nest." Had Joseph not gone before Israel, they would have had no way to get into Egypt. God used Joseph to build the nest. He used Pharaoh to feed the nest. God will use people that do not even like you, to feed your... I wish I had a witness. I wish I had a witness somewhere in this church where God will use people who hate you to feed you in your time of need.
He used Joseph to build the nest. He used Pharaoh to feed the nest. He used Moses to break the nest. God said, "I used Moses to break that nest. I told Moses, 'Go down there and tell Pharaoh to let My people go. I have heard your egg tooth scraping. I have heard the cry of My people. Go down there and disrupt the situation because I am going to bring you out'."
Whenever God is getting ready to do something major in your life, there will always be disruption. Disruption is always a sign that God is setting you up for progression. You cannot have progression without disruption. As long as you are comfortable in the nest, you will never find your wings.
You do not belong in this nest. You belong in the air. The problem is these little wings have never been used, and I do not even know what they are. The muscles have never been developed because you cannot develop wing muscles in a nest.
So the mother, after she has taken them up in the air, drops them. They do not fly. They freak. They freak out. They get spastic. They have a fit, and if they do not get it together, she will swoop down and get them up again and catch them, let them catch their breath, take them back up again and drop them.
Everything that God is going to do in your life will happen in this place right here. Your destiny is in this place right here. Your anointing is in this place right here. Your power is in this place. In the process of flapping and falling, the eaglet starts to build up enough strength.
If the eaglet could talk, it would say, "It was good for me that I was afflicted. It was good for me that you let me down. I am so glad you dropped me. I am so glad you forsook me. I would have never known. I did not know what I had. I did not know that I could stand this. I did not know I could survive this. I did not know I could make it through this. I did not know I was this strong, this smart, this powerful, this... thank you for dropping me over into my..." Everybody who has ever been in the scary place, give God a praise right now. I said, everybody who has ever been in a scary place, give God a praise right now. Praise Him for your scary place.
You could not be senator if you had not been in a scary place. I would not be pastoring this church if I had not been thrown into a... I did not know I could do this. I had seven members in Smithers. I did not know I could do this. When I called you and said, "I am going to Texas," and my mama left her house and our staff left our city to come to a place we had never lived before. Everything worth talking about in your life will always occur in a place of spastic fear, spastic, nervous, "I do not want to do it, I do not want to."
I do not know if I can take it to God, I do not know. I do not understand why You are doing like it. What did I do to land in it? It ain't fair, Jesus. I paid my tithes and everything, and why did it have to go through all this? You will not find your wings until you go to your scary place. That is where you begin to get the strength and the rhythm to say, "I do not have to go down in this. I can use the thing that was taking me down."
They did not hear me. I said, "I can use the very thing that, if I put myself in the right position, what was working against me could work for me if..."
See, this dimension that occurs in the scary place comes when you dare to break a law. You have to be willing to break a law. Whatever law holds you down must be broken, or you cannot escape. See, the law that holds us down is the law of gravity. That is what is bringing you down. Gravity is that pull to stay where you started. Do not you try to get away. You belong right here. Gravity always pulls you back.
There is a gravitational pull in the lives of every person in this room, and every person watching on your screen, there is a gravitational pull that, whenever you try to get up, it will always pull you back down again. Have you ever heard people say, "Look like every time I try to do something positive, all hell breaks loose, and it is just not right because I meant good, and it looks like it keeps pulling me back?" You are right. There is a pull pulling you back, and it is a law that holds you back, subject to where you started: "Stay in your place. You do not need an education. Stay in your place." "What you doing, trying to start a business? Stay in your place." "You are too old. Stay in your place." "You are too fat. Stay in your place." "You are too black. Stay in your place." "You are too white."
So there is always a law that you have to break. It is the same law that the Wright Brothers broke. It is the law of gravity. They said, "This law works to a certain level, but there is a higher law, the law of aerodynamics, that if I get enough thrust behind me, I could break through into something that Mama did not break through, that Daddy did not break through, that my friends did not break through."
I do not know why I am going down this road today, but I want to talk to some lawbreakers that are ready to break out from everything that ever held you back. Slap your neighbor and say, "I am going to break this law. This law got my mama. This law got my uncle. This law got my grandmama. This law got my great-uncle, but I am going to be the generation that breaks this law." Oh, my God, I feel the power of the Holy Ghost about to explode in this place.
For 400 years, Israel had been bound by a law. Four hundred years is ten generations. Ten generations woke up in the morning, every morning, a slave. Ten generations, every time they saw the sun go up, the sun was shining on slaves. One night, they went to bed. They call it the Passover night. It was a night that the blood was applied to the doorposts of the believer, and the Bible said that the death angel passed by, and he said, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you."
That morning when they got up, they did not get up to make bricks. They did not get up to make Pharaoh's bed. They did not get up to make coffee for Miss Pharaoh. That morning when they got up, they grabbed their stuff and said, "This is my last night. God said, 'I am going to bring you out on eagle's wings.'" I do not know who I am preaching to this morning, but God said, "I am going to bring you out." If I am preaching to you, praise it like you are in the air.
I will tell you this, and I will close. You are never more alive than you are when you are in your scary place. Your head is never as clear as it is when you are in your scary place. Your strength is never as strong as it is when you are in your scary place.
If I wanted to dress it up, I would say "a place that is challenging for you," but I am going to break it down and say "your scary place," the place that makes you want to wet your pants, the place that will not let you sleep good at night, the place of uncertainty and insecurity. That is a place where you will find your wings... not hers, yours; not theirs, yours; not his, yours.
Whenever I was writing a book, I wanted the kids to be quiet, "Just sit down, shut up." They would do it for a while, but after a while, they would come down the steps making noise on purpose, trying to get your attention, distract you from what you are writing. I wanted them to go away, so I would type, try to act like I did not see them. After a while, I go, "Boo." And I would have a few more minutes of peace.
Then after a while, I hear them come down the steps again. I act like I did not see them, try to keep typing. After a while, they said, "Daddy, scare me again." Daddy... Scare me again. Challenge me again. Scare me again, because when you put me in my wind, I find my wings. My wings only work in my wind. My wings do not work in my nest.
No matter how comfortable it may appear to my flesh, I will never find out why I have this, why these things are hanging on me. I will never know what they are for until you scare me again. Even if I did not get it right the first time and you had to swoop down and catch me, do not put me back in that nest. Scare me again.
Do not give up on me. I feel like I am preaching to somebody. There is always something just beyond your scary place that will make you realize that, had you not confronted the thing that scares you, you would have never found your wings. I do not care whatever else you find in life, I do not care whoever else you admire or how you see them fly, you will never have fulfilled your purpose by finding my wings. You will only fulfill your purpose when you find yours.
The Eagle Cannot Help—You Must Pip Yourself
One of the interesting points I learned is that the eagle can do nothing to help the eaglet. All she can do is sit on it. The eaglet has to crack through for itself. You cannot assume the responsibility of the mentee. The fact that they are not breaking through does not mean you are not a good mentor.
Mentoring people is not fighting their battles. It is not solving their problems. It is not fixing their issues. It is just putting them in an environment where they can grow and get their egg tooth so that they can make their own dent. Are you hearing what I am saying to you?
Life's Series of Birthings
Can I go on a little deeper? Because this baby did not have what other babies had, it looks like where it came from. It is in this realm, looking like that realm. It is in a new position but it still has an old mentality. It does not understand the protocol. It does not know who to call. It does not have the rules. It does not have the background. It does not have the pedigree. It just stepped into something.
Do not even know how to dress for it. Do not know how to walk for it. Do not know who to call for it. Do not have relationships for it. But God just let something break open and the baby has come into the next realm with afterbirth still on it. Afterbirth still on it. I am here but I look like where I came from. I am here but I am carrying some residue of my history over into my destiny.
I made it over but I am still bruised by what I went through in the process to get to the next level. Do not judge me by how I look. Do not judge me by what I got on. Do not judge me by how I stand. I did not have the help that you had to get where I am trying to get. I had to come any old way I can.
Life is a series of birthings. It is a series of birthings. The egg started out in the mama. It got birthed out into the nest. Then, once the eaglet fights his way out, he goes from being in the egg to being in the nest. None of it comes to stay. All of it comes to pass.
Everything in your life is going through a process of birthing. In fact, you are in an egg right now. You are in a matrix right now. You are in the world right now. This present world is not our home. I know you are fighting to stay here. I see you jogging and exercising. You got tummy tucks and face lifts and everything else, trying to act like you are not changing, but you are going through changes because this is not your final dimension.
This is just a place you are passing through, on your way to where God is trying to take you. I know it is not popular. People do not teach on it anymore, but go ahead, drive your little car. Get your little house. You are going to leave all of it behind because God is getting you ready for something that is so much better than anything you ever had before. Keep pipping.
If the eaglet cannot say, "Goodbye," to the shell, it will never discover the nest. If you cannot say, "Goodbye," to how you used to think, if you cannot go through the change and develop a new culture, a new thinking, a new attitude, you are going to be stuck on the same level.
I have got to stop there. It has been a real joy to share this Word with you. I had a strong conviction about it because I really do believe that there is greatness in every human being. You need to find the right people and the right atmosphere to hatch that thing, but my God, I believe it is down in there for you, and you could have it. Your children, give this in their heart and in their spirit.