TD Jakes - Hatching Greatness
Using the eagle's hatching process as metaphor in Deuteronomy 32:11-13, the preacher teaches that greatness is latent in everyone but must be hatched through discomfort, process, and change; outgrow past "eggs" (limitations, comfort zones), endure frustration to develop an "egg tooth" for breakthrough, and trust God's stirring for new dimensions—mentoring, persistence, and faith birth destiny.
Small Beginnings Hold Great Potential
Greetings, brothers and sisters, in the 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.
I started studying about eagles because I have never seen the inside of the egg. The egg is only about 2 inches around. It is very small for what the eagle is going to be. When the eagle gets through growing, one wing is 9 feet long. But when it comes here, the whole egg is 2 inches in circumference. "Despise not the day of small beginnings." What you start out as has nothing to do with what you are going to turn out to be.
Do not allow people to measure you at your point of entry because out of a small thing, a great thing is going to come. But you got to hatch it. Somebody say, "I am going to hatch it."
So, God says, "That is exactly what it is going to be like." He says, "You are going to start out in the small things, and it is amazing to me because in order for the eagle to grow to the point that it can break out of its outer encasement, there is a process involved. Touch your neighbor and say, "I am going through the process."
The Egg Tooth: Hardened for Breakthrough
In the process of going through it, there is an ultrasound of greatness that comes along that if you could see inside the egg, not only is the eagle, the little baby eaglet developing muscles and tissues and bones, there is something else that is being developed in the little eaglet called an egg tooth.
An egg tooth is what is developed in the eaglet while it is still in the bird. It is developed in the eaglet so that the egg tooth can develop a hardness that is harder than the shell that encloses it. Until the thing on the inside gets harder than the thing on the outside, there will be no breakthrough.
So this one tooth has to be developed. About 4 days before the eaglet breaks through the egg, it develops what is called an egg tooth. This tooth's primary purpose is to cause the eaglet to break through the shell. Before it breaks through the shell, there is a sack of air inside the egg so that when the tooth is developed fully, there is a process called pipping.
And when the eaglet begins to pip, it breaks through the membrane and it gets its first breath of air while it is still in the egg. Are y'all hearing what I am saying? That means that the eaglet is still in there, but it is breathing. Anything that you are going to develop has to develop in a way behind a wall, behind a barrier, behind an obstacle. Gestation comes through frustration.
When the thing on the inside gets bigger than the thing on the outside, that is a frustrating experience, "I cannot move. I cannot turn. I cannot get out of here." And yet, there is no sign on the outside that nothing that the eagle bird is doing, the mother is working.
That mother eagle has to sit on an egg that is not moving, no way to test to see if my sitting is working. "Is my loving working?" "Is my giving working?" "Is my teaching working?" But the mother eagle has to sit on something that is not working and trust the process.
Mentoring: Sitting Until It Hatches
See, what we are talking about here is mentoring. And when you start mentoring someone, and you start developing them, and you start giving to them, you are putting them in a warm environment that is similar to where they came from so that they can grow. But you will not see the progress initially. You cannot be weary in well-doing. If you are weary in well-doing, you will miss your blessing.
If you give up because you do not see movement, you will miss your blessing. If you close down the business because you are not making profit, you will miss your blessing. Sometimes you got to sit on something. I do not know if this is blessing you, but it is blessing me. Look at somebody and say, "Sit on it." Glory to God, glory to God, glory to God.
In fact, do not go after something that you are not willing to sit on. No need in getting married if you do not want to be a wife. No need in getting married if you do not want to be a husband. No need in having a baby if you are not going to raise the child. No need in starting a business that you are not willing to hatch. No need in going to college if you are not willing to study. No need in starting the ministry if you do not like people.
If you are not willing to sit on it before you go down that road, investigate how much sitting it takes. Because mentoring is sitting on something until it hatches. Greatness has to be hatched. I have got people in this room right now who have been with me since I was in high school, known me since I was in high school. I have got people who were with me at my first church.
Why would people who were in my first church, when I was 22, be with me when I am 60? Because I sat on them. Sitting on somebody produces a loyalty where you invest it and you cannot get a return where you do not make an investment. Some of you are trying to get a return when you have not made ample investment.
I am not saying you have not done anything, but you have not made ample investment. As a young pastor, I used to envy Pastor Mabel Paige, and some of the other people in the area I came from because they had all these loyal sons and daughters who were with them on the road. And I remember crying out to God, "When I go somewhere, it is just me and a couple of people, and she got 5 or 6 cars going. When am I going to have somebody that is loyal to my vision, going to support me, going to...? When am I going to get to teach Bible class and be more than five people there?"
I did not understand, greatness has to be hatched. After you suffer a while, you earn the right to be respected. You do not get respected just because you want it. You have to lay there and sit on it a while.
Pipping: Making Dents for Breakthrough
The eaglet develops an egg tooth, and when the egg tooth gets hard, it starts to break through an inner sac so it can breathe. It is still trapped. But I can get air. And that egg tooth gets harder. Let me thank every door that closed. Let me thank every person who rejected me. Let me thank everybody who said I would never be nothing. Let me thank everybody who made fun of me and laughed at me and told jokes, because you helped me have an egg tooth.
You gave me an egg tooth. You made me hard where I was soft. You made me tough where I was weak. You made me progressive where I was fearful. I got my egg tooth. Anybody got an egg tooth? You got an egg tooth through the things you suffered. You do not get an egg tooth through what went right. You get an egg tooth through what went wrong.
Until after a while, you get tough enough. "I am getting my egg tooth." Still do not have nothing to show for it, still do not have anything to show for it, but I am learning how to survive in this encasement. This encasement was for my protection, but my protection has become my problem.
What God sends at one stage as a protection will become a problem at another stage. God sent Jacob and his sons to Egypt to eat. It was a blessing at first. But several generations later, they were enslaved in what was a blessing. Anytime you stay at one stage too long, it creates a problem. Life is a series of breaking through what was a blessing, has become a burden, and now you have to have the courage to see what is in the next dimension.
Now, watch this, watch this, we are doing an ultrasound so we are on the inside. The eaglet is pecking its way out of what has become a problem. But what has become a problem used to be a place of feeding. So that means the person who is going from a job to entrepreneurship, to break away from the job to entrepreneurship is kind of scary because though you are frustrated by the job, you are pecking your way into the unknown.
For the single person who is about to get married, you are pecking your way into the unknown. For the person who has been renting all their life getting ready to buy a house, you are pecking your way into the unknown, but you are going to do it, and you can only do it if you have an egg tooth.
So, the egg tooth breaks, begins to scratch the inside of the egg. Does not peck through it at first. It just makes a dent in it. When I was studying, God said, "I want you to be sure to tell My people," because some of them are discouraged. You wanted a breakthrough, but you are making a dent in it.
It has not cracked yet, it has not cracked yet, but you are making a dent in it. That problem you are having with your child, it has not cracked yet, I know, but keep on pipping, because you are making a dent in it. You do not see it yet. It has not broke through yet. But just keep sitting on it because you are making a dent in it.
I am talking about process. I am talking about mentoring. I am talking about development. I am talking about growth. I am talking about becoming. I am talking about making a dent in a marriage. I am talking about making a dent in a business. I am talking about making a dent in your ministry. I am talking about making a dent in your life.
And if you get frustrated in the process, you will never get to the promise. After you have suffered a while, God will bless you. I do not know what this is for in your life, but the Lord told me to teach it. You have to apply it where it is needed, and He told me to tell you, even though you have not gotten the breakthrough, keep pipping, keep pipping because every time the eaglet runs the egg tooth against the inner wall of the egg, it makes a little dent in it, weakening the thing that is stopping you from the next dimension.
Good God of mercy, I am getting happy all by myself. I am weakening the thing that is stopping me from getting to the next dimension. I know you have been praising God for a while, and you do not see a breakthrough coming yet, but keep on praising Him because every time you praise Him, you are making a dent into the next dimension, glory to God. Let us make a dent in it.
This pipping process begins to weaken the eggshell. It begins to weaken it. Anybody who has been married longer than 10 minutes, you ought to be shouting me down. Uh-huh, because whatever you are trying to accomplish as a couple, it is a process. You make a dent in it. A person does not change overnight. You make a dent in it. A child does not change overnight. You make a dent in it. A business does not explode overnight. You make a dent in it. You do not build a church overnight. You make a dent in it.
Every Bible class, every Sunday school, every Vacation Bible School, you got to just keep on making a dent in it. I do not know who this is for, but I sense a spirit of frustration and discouragement has been trying to talk you out of the process. And the reason you had to be here this Sunday morning is that the Holy Ghost has sent me to tell you, you are making a dent in it.
Keep on scratching it, rubbing it, pulling on it, yanking on it, tugging it. You are making a dent in it. I want to absolve all of you mentors of the guilt and the shame and the discouragement and the doubt that you have had and the confidence that you have lost in yourself because you were trying to hatch something that does not seem to be growing.
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?
I want to go to my next point. Are you ready for this? I want you to get this down because this is important to you. The second point I want you to get, take your notes out or whatever you are writing on, write this down. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to change. You will change while you are still confined. The eaglet changes while it is still confined. The embryo grows while it is still confined. The tissues grow while it is still confined.
Do not be afraid to change. It is not just that you are growing the business, the business is growing you. It is not just that you are growing the marriage, the marriage is growing you. It is not just that you are raising the children, the children are also raising you.
You become a good mother. You are not born a good mother. You become a good mother. You become a good wife. You do not start out a good wife because you read a couple of books. You become a good husband. You do not start out a good husband. The gestation period has to happen in your life and you have to be willing to change.
You got to be willing to change. Because if God is sitting on you, you are going to go through changes. You are going to go through development because greatness has to be hatched. You cannot come here flying like your mama. You cannot come here flying like your bishop. You cannot come here. You got to go through changes, and metamorphoses, and changes, and rearrangement, and be reorganized, and go struggles and embarrassment.
You got to cry sometimes. You got to hurt sometimes. You got to go to bed wanting to quit sometimes. You got to feel like dying sometimes. You got to be depressed sometimes. You got to be scared sometimes. You got to be worried sometimes. Oh, my God, I feel like I am talking to somebody! Touch your neighbor and say, "Breakthrough." Touch another neighbor and say, "Breakthrough." This is a breakthrough message for somebody.
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.
I want to talk to women in this room who are called to go into the next dimension and you do not have the help that your sister had and you do not have the support that your sister has but God is going to let your water break and you are coming into the next dimension any old way you can! Make some noise if you are here!
Touch your sister and say, "It is not ideal but I am coming." It is not perfect but I am coming. It is not comfortable but I am coming. I may be bruised but I am coming. I may have to cry but I am coming. I may have to sacrifice but I am coming. I may have to crawl out on my hands and knees but look out, devil, here I come.
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.