TD Jakes — Puppet Master
Greetings brothers and sisters in the name of our God, our king , Christ Jesus the risen Lord. I'm bishop T.D. Jakes and it's a great honor to share the word of the Lord with you. We're sharing some classics this week I believe will bless your life in a supernatural way. This one particularly is called The Puppet Master. It speaks to the fact that God is sovereign and that he orchestrates our affairs. I call him the puppet master because he is so in control of everything. Take a look at this. You're going to be blessed.
Ephesians 1:3. And we're going to read verse three through 12. When you have it, say amen. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According to as he has chosen us in him before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ through himself according to the good pleasure of his will. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Wherein he has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he has purposed in himself.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which is in heaven and on earth even in him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Back up to verse 11. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him, look at this closely, who works all things after the counsel of his own will. Who works all things after the counsel of his own will. Say that with me. Who works all things after the counsel of his own will.
I want to talk to you tonight from the subject The Puppet Master. Let's pray. Lord, we need you. I've never been able to preach without you. I don't know what to say without you. I don't know what to do without you. Come in here and preach tonight. Speak to needs. Answer questions. Supply, Lord, where there is demand tonight. We put a demand on the Holy Ghost. We drain the milk of the word from the breast of your grace. Extend yourself towards us. We are a needy people. Feed us until we want no more. In the name of the Lord Jesus we pray. Amen.
The puppet master. I think everybody has or should have certain text that just bless them. That inspire them and motivate them. That they use during their consecration and their devotion. Just to strengthen them.
And a few years ago I learned to not just to pray but to spend time in a devotion with the Lord, going through the whole devotional, singing a song because you don't have to have the whole choir to sing a song. You can sing to yourself in hymns and songs and making melody to yourself unto the Lord. Whether you can sing or not is important if you have your own song so your spirit can hear you singing. It's heard you murmur and heard you cry. It needs to hear the song of the Lord in your mouth. That's important. Then I pray and I layout my Bible and read just a little bit that motivates me and consecrates me and prepares me. And I call it my spiritual breakfast. It's the most important meal of the day. How you start out is very important to how you end up. If you don't start out right you can't end up right, amen.
Ephesians is one of my favorite books Ephesians is if book ya'll. It is awesome. Life-changing book. It's not for everybody. It's not for wimps. It's not for babies. It's for people who are ready to chew on the meat of the word of God. It has a shadow in the Old Testament book Joshua which is a shadow of what Ephesians is in reality. It's a book that deals with possessing the things of God. It deals with a Joshua generation of people who have made the commitment we refuse to wander in the wilderness of our father's failures. And we have purpose. And we're willing to cross over the Jordan and stick our staff into new land and say, I claim it for mine in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Joshua which is a shadow of the New Testament book Ephesians speaks to us powerfully out of the word of God. Challenging our thinking with statements like, I have given you the land to possess it. And when you read the first phrase because I always break truth into phrases. I have given you the land. I've given you a gift. Thank you. But then he says, to possess it. He says, don't think you're just going to stick your hand out and get it. I have given it to you. But you've got to take it. It's a gift. But you've got to take it. If you don't receive both parts of that truth you're going to miss it.
God said it's by my grace I've given it to you. You're going to have to work to possess it and bring into reality what is yours in the spirit. I've given it to you but you've got to take it. God said I want you to know I've given it to you even though you've got to go take it so when you go out there you won't think you got it because you're tough. When you finally possess whatever you had to fight the devil to get, the only reason you were able to overwhelm your enemy is because I've given you the land. He wants you to know it's yours in the spirit before it's yours in the flesh. He's read the deeds and said your name is on the deed and it belongs to you.
Even though somebody may be living in it, driving in it or sitting behind the desk of it. He said I want you to know I read the blueprints. It's yours in the portals of glory. Your name is on it. She may be living in the house but your name is on it. Don't negotiate. I want you to possess it. When you finally get into your kingdom don't get uppity and cute. Remember I gave you. It's for radical people now. If you don't want to be radical you ought to tip out tonight. This might not be your night. This is for people who are just going through a form and a fashion and a ritual. This is for people that made up their mind I'm not going to keep shouting about thing I'm not possessing. I'm going to possess it and make it mine.
When Joshua says I've given you the land to possess it. I've given you all spiritual things that pertain to godliness and life in Christ Jesus. God said, it's already yourself. I'm going to blow your mind tonight. Because whatever you've been praying about and torn about and crying about and moaning and groaning and trying to get God to move on and to get him to give it to you, God says, it's already yours. I've already answered. Don't you understand every time somebody prays God doesn't get off the throne and go to work trying to answer it. Whatever God has given to you just works out through you. And you can only manifest outwardly what you have received inwardly.
Can you receive the fact that you're healed in your spirit before you're ever healed in your belly, in your body? Can you imagine it's out of your own belly that shall flow rivers of living water that water has to be in you before it can come out? Do you not know you have peace on the inside before you have peace on the outside. That's the only reason Jesus was able to stand up in the middle of the storm when everybody else was going crazy and speaking storm to the storm. Jesus was asleep in the bottom of the boat because he had peace in the storm. Out of the peace he had on the inside he spoke peace on the outside. You can't speak out anything that you don't have in you. And God says, it's in you.
Look at somebody and tell them, it's in you. It may not be manifesting right now. It might not be visible. It might not be tangible. It might not be touchable but somewhere it's already there. Like it's in there. When we ask God for trees, he gives us acorns. And you have to be careful because if you're not careful you'll think he didn't answer you. Because you're praying for a tree and when the answer drops out, it's in the little acorn. You say God are you trying to be funny? I need a tree. You said an acorn. Don't you realize the tree is in the acorn? And it's only a matter of time until the tree that's locked up on the inside of the acorn is going to burst out. Out of small things, God is going to birth greatness.
The tree is in there. The healing is in there. The peace. The power. The unction of the Holy Ghost is in there. The preacher is in there. It's in there. It might not be manifesting yet but it's in there. As you open up and begin to understand that what you're wrestling at the horns of the altar about God's already given it to you. If you start thanking him for it and praising him for it. Woman, if you believe me as scripture has said out of your belly has flow. He said I'll show you how to get it out. You have to believe it's in before I can show you how to get it out. Powerful text. He says some things to us that challenges us. He says that he has predestined us. That he has predetermined the end from the beginning. That God set some things in motion. And doesn't have to worry about whether they're going to come to pass because he's already worked it out.
I talked to somebody who shoots movies and they told me the way we see the movie is not how it's shot. They shoot the last scene first and work the first scenes and work the first scenes into the last scenes. That's what God did. He determined the end from the beginning. And then caused all things to work together 54 the good of them that love the Lord. God already told you you're an overcomer. He fixed that from the beginning and backed up and make everything that works against you work for you so it causes you to come out a winner in the end. Having predestinated us according to the pleasure of his good will. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. It challenges us to understand that we are accepted in the beloved.
Whenever we read that I get excited. It's so hard to be accepted by people. People are so fragmented in their ideologies an one moment it's hot and next minute it's cold and you're changing all kinds of things trying to get in with them. You don't have to worry about that with God. Do you know you are accepted in the beloved? You don't have to fix up and dress up and do up that you can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need? That God's door is never closed to you. You have access to him at will. You can go in or out and find either way you go, you can find green pastures. You don't have to struggle.
You don't have to wrestle your way in. Jesus, Jesus, o Lord Jesus, please God, o Jesus. Jesus. O God in spite of everything. Jesus, Jesus. I need you. I'm working. All you got to do is know you have access to him at will. You can come into his presence any time. If you decide to get anointed you can be anointed right now. The anointing is hovering waiting on you when your mind needs to be reigned in God will cause it to rain right on your head. It's powerful stuff.
He told Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, before your fingers moved from being webs into hands, before your lungs began to be formed in your chest and before your heart went thump, thump, thump on the monitor, before they could tell you were a little boy or little girl. Before I formed you in the belly, I knew thee. The Hebrew word for intimacy like Adam knew Eve, I had searched you and had intimate detail of who you really were. Don't try to be slick. I knew thee. Before I formed you in the belly, I knew thee.
Let me tell you something. I ordained you. So even if you lose your papers, don't worry, I ordained you. Men can only ordain what God has foreordained. If God doesn't fore ordain than we can never ordain anything that's not been ordained before. Before I formed you in the belly, I ordained thee and I sanctified you. Which means set you apart. That means before you ever even got here, you were already set apart. That's why many of you didn't even fit in in your own family. In your own cliques and groups and you changed your hair and you changed your dress and you changed your socks and you changed your shoes and you keep changing yourself trying to fit in. God already set you apart. He didn't mean for them to like you. He didn't mean for them to hold you.
When my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will... He said I fixed you so you wouldn't fit before you got here so you wouldn't rest any place I had not ordained you to be. I meant for you to wander and feel lost until you found me. I made you to try to fit into places and finally be frustrated and say this isn't working. Finally I'm leaving. Get your clothes on and leave the hotel. I can't stay here anymore. Turn around on the bar stool. I'm not happy. I'm getting out of here. You don't have to act like you know what I'm talking about but it's true anyhow. I meant for you to be restless. I sanctified you. I didn't make you to want me. I fixed you so you wouldn't fit. I have found him who my soul loves. I formed thee, I sanctified thee to be a prophet unto the nations. I fixed you before you ever got here.
When I think about that, I think about my wife and I. We watch these movies whenever I'm not preaching and studying. I like to watch the movies where somebody is fighting and shooting and jumping off a cliff. I like to watch them because I have to help them fight. I watch the movie and my wife watches me. Sometimes I have to get completely out of the bed and help him with this thief. I do. I have to help him. And I'm watching and screaming. She's looking at me. Sometimes by the end of the movie I'm tired. I've leaped from one building over to another. I climbed down a rope, kicked in the window. Snatched out. She can always tell when I've seen the movie because when I've seen the movie I can sit back and be calm. And she's freaking out. Get him, get him. Get him. And I'm real calm because I know that it's a close call but he's going to get away.
That's what God knows. When you're losing your head about the circumstances and he's not freaking out because you're freaking out. He's already seen the movie and he knows it's a close call but you'll get away. You don't hear what I'm saying. It's a close call but you're going to get away. Touch somebody, tell them, chill out. It's a close call. But you're going to get away. Hallelujah. Somebody help me praise him.
The fight is fixed. Did you ever notice a fixed fight the manager is not jumping up and down because the fight is fixed. Don't knock him out until the seventh round. Get him, get him. Get him. While you're freaking out, God is going... Because the fight is fixed. Because he fixed it in eternity. And then sent you into time and let you work out in time what he had settled in eternity. Finally when you get to wandering from place to place and thing to thing and into this and into that and into the other, deliverance comes when he having made, verse nine, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. That's the cataclysmic moment, eternity touches time. When God makes me know the mystery of his will.