TD Jakes - Tell the Devil I Changed My Mind (09/21/2018)
In this timeless message from the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Bishop T.D. Jakes reveals that the enemy's strategy—echoing the doctrine of Balaam—is to lure blessed believers out of God's protected places through restlessness, because no curse can touch what God has blessed. The key to victory is to change your mind, resist the urge to leave, and stay in the house of God's covenant where His favor keeps you secure.
The Joy of Sharing Timeless Truth
My brothers and sisters, what a joy, what a blessing it is to share the Word of the Lord with you today. I’m so honored to be in your home and part of your life, and God has allowed me to share His word with you. We’re showing some T.D. Jakes classics, messages that are timeless. I believe they have revelation in them that you can still benefit from. This one I’m excited аbout: Tell the devil I changed my mind. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. If you change your mind, you can change your outcome.
Characters in the Parable
We have a father in the text who has two sons. The only other character mentioned is a nameless citizen of a far country that the younger son attaches himself to in the time of adversity. So we have four expressed characters and one implied character. His name is never mentioned, and there’s no particular reference made to him, but there is a character implied in the passage that we must talk about. And that is Satan.
He always drapes himself and hides himself and generally doesn’t come to the forefront because his strength is in anonymity. As long as he can be invisible, he does his best work in the shadows. And though he’s not expressed, he is implied in the text before us.
The Younger Son's Request
We have here a certain man who has two sons, and the younger of the two sons said to his father, “Give unto me the portion of goods that falls to me.” Because he asked his father for substance or wealth or inheritance, we have presumptuously assumed that he asked because he was greedy. I want to deal with that erroneous concept. This young man was not greedy.
It is not a rags-to-riches story. He is not somebody who came from the wrong side of the tracks and was looking for an easy break. No, no, no. He was a young man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He didn’t come to his father and ask for money so he could change his standard of living. He was born into money.
Asking his father for the money would never have made him any richer than he already was. He already had servants. He already lived in a palace. He already had people waiting on him, taking care of him, running bath water, wiping his mouth, hanging his clothes. He had it going on.
A Lust for Control, Not Money
The problem was, he wasn’t satisfied to have the benefits of the house. He wanted control of the house. We’re not looking at greed or a lust for money. We are looking at a lust for power. He wants to be in control of his future. He says, “Father, it’s not enough that I’m living the blessing. I want you to give it to me so I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it.”
Now notice a detail or two. It was the younger son that came to the father and said, “Give me the portion of goods that falls unto me.” The Bible says he divided unto him his living. So even though the younger son made the request, because of his request, the father divided unto them—meaning both sons—his living.
But incidentally, it will help you to understand that the younger son got a blessing and the elder son got a blessing. But isn’t it funny how some folks, when they get blessed, will change?
How Blessings Can Change People
Some people can receive a blessing from the Lord and come up in their standards and be able to get authority and power and still maintain their focus. Other people, the moment they get two nickels and a dime, they start acting like strangers you never knew before. They just cannot handle the blessing of the Lord.
One good blessing and they can’t speak to anybody. One good blessing and they’re shaking their hand with three fingers out. You know what I’m talking about—one good blessing. Finally get a dress that wasn’t $69.99, and now you can’t speak to anybody when you come in the house of the Lord.
But this younger brother exemplifies this situation because he got the blessing and he stayed in the house for a while. But it wasn’t too long before he became restless in the house.
The Doctrine of Balaam
Now, there is a doctrine that I want to touch on before I really jump down into this text. It is implied—it is the doctrine of Balaam that is mentioned in the book of Revelation. The Bible calls the doctrine of Balaam a doctrine God hates. I want to introduce it because it’s subtle in my text. If you follow me, I’m going somewhere.
The doctrine of Balaam is premised on the fact that Satan doesn’t have a witch or a warlock or a root worker or a dust thrower that can curse what God has blessed. Balaam was employed by Balak to curse Israel, and this experienced sorcerer could not find in his book of recipes a spell or a hex, a root or some dust he could throw—an incantation or a maneuver that could curse what God had blessed.
Hear me today. If you are blessed, you don’t have to live in fear of being cursed. Because hell cannot curse what God has blessed. Look at somebody right in the eye and tell them, “I’m blessed.”
The True Meaning of Being Blessed
See, sometimes we’re too timid about letting people know we’re blessed. We act pitiful so we can get along with people. From time to time you need to let them know, “I’m blessed.” There’s power in being blessed. Say amen, somebody.
When you understand what blessed is, you’re not blessed because of what you wore to church or because of the house you live in or because of the kind of shoes or how much money you have in CDs or annuities or anything like that. You’re not blessed because of the house or the car or the shoes or husband or children or wife or anything like that. That’s not really what I’m talking about.
Those are the symptoms of being blessed. But that’s not the root of being blessed. Because the real truth of the matter is, you can be broke, busted, and disgusted and still be blessed. You can have to catch the bus and wear your sister’s shoes and your mama’s hat and your aunt Lucy’s pocketbook and come in with an empty pocketbook with newspaper down in it—and still be blessed.
A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he has. Blessed goes far deeper than anything that a CPA could account for or that you could get interest on in a bank account or you can hang in a closet or send to a cleaners. Blessed goes deeper than that.
It’s a state of being where the favor of God is upon your life. Hell has a tough time trying to do something with you when you’re blessed.
Blessed Even in Adversity
Now there are many definitions for blessed. One of the many definitions given for blessed is happy. And happy is okay, but it is a little weak of a definition for being blessed. Because happy comes from the Latin word where we say “happen” means something has to happen in order for you to be happy.
But you can be blessed when nothing is happening. You can be blessed in a cold, dark, dormant moment of your life and know, sitting like the lady at the bus stop waiting for the bus to come, that if you wait a little while longer the blessing of the Lord will run out and overtake you. And you don’t have to do nothing but sit there and tap your foot and know that the blessing is on its way.
See, I’m blessed. It doesn’t matter whether it’s winter, spring, summer, or fall. I may have to weep all night—let me cry. Joy is coming in the morning. Simply because I am blessed.
And the devil is limited in being able to do anything to somebody who is blessed. Because he can’t stir up or mix or conjure anything that can curse you when you’re blessed.
I asked the Lord—I’m tired of asking Webster and everybody what blessed is. I said, if anybody knows what blessed is, let me ask You. This is what He told me: To be blessed is the uncanny, innate ability to succeed over adversity.
I said, well, it’s the uncanny, innate ability to succeed over adversity. That means I can be blessed and still have adversity. It’s adversity that lets you know that you’re blessed. Yeah, because see, if you weren’t going anywhere, the devil wouldn’t be trying to fight you.
You can tell when a person is blessed not because they don’t go through anything, but when you’re blessed, when it’s all over, some kind of way you always come out of it. You might have dirt up under your fingernails. You might have stubbed your knees or skinned your legs, but when it’s all over, you always come out because you’re blessed.
Touch somebody and tell them, “I am blessed.” Yeah, I’ve been through hell and high water, but I’m blessed.
No Weapon Formed Against You
If you are blessed, the Lord says, no weapon formed or mixed or conjured or stirred or baked—no weapon formed. That means you can get a piece, but it ain’t going to work. You can get a piece of my clothes, but it ain’t going to work. You can get a picture and burn wax on it, but it ain’t going to work. I’m blessed!
Somebody is going through a bit of trouble right now. But I came to tell you, it ain’t going to work. The enemy is trying to shut you up, but it ain’t going to work.
High five somebody, say this ain’t going to work either. The last one didn’t work. And the one before that didn’t work. And the test last year didn’t work. And the test last month didn’t work. I feel the anointing in here.
This is what you got to understand. The devil knows you’re blessed. And he’s worried about it. He really wants to mess you up. In order to really do what he wants to do, he’s got to get you out of the blessed place.
Stay in the Blessed Place
He’s got to do something to get you out of the house. When you talk about staying in the blessed place, you’re staying in the place of covenant. You’re staying in the place where the riches and promises of God are coming to pass in your life.
There are three blessed places that I want you to hold on to and don’t let nobody move you out of them.
- I want you to stay in the blessed place of the sanctity of marriage. If you are married, stay, invest your anointing into the covenant of marriage. Your marriage does matter. It is a covenant, it is a contract, and it’s a shelter for your passions, needs, and personalities. It’s a shelter for your dysfunctions. It’s what God has given to you when He saw that it was not good for you to be alone. Don’t disagree with His gift. If it’s not operating correctly, read the manual.
- The next blessed place I want you to hold on to is the blessed place of ministry. Don’t give up the ministry God puts you in. Come hell or high water, stay in the house. People that stay in the house do well. When God is ready to speak a word of deliverance, if you’re not in the house you can’t hear it. You have to be there to get the full effect.
- Then you’ve got to stay in a blessed state of having a mission. That’s your purpose. That’s your goal. You have to have something you’re focused on that you don’t move away from.
Because the enemy will try to move you. He’ll try to move you away from your marriage. He’ll try to move you away from your ministry. And he’ll try to move you away from your mission.
Don't Curse Yourself
And so we’ve got to get into the B-class of the doctrine of Balaam because the doctrine of Balaam simply says this: When the old hex couldn’t curse Israel, he said, “I can’t curse them because they’re too blessed. But if I can get them to come out of the blessed place, I can perhaps get them to curse themselves.” Look at somebody and say, “Don’t curse yourself.”
The only thing you have to worry about is cursing yourself. You don’t have to waste time going on a witch hunt, chasing down demons, rumors, or gossip. You don’t have to change anybody’s mind about you. Your blessing is not predicated on anybody else’s opinion.
When you’re blessed, God will make people bless you who hate you. He’ll make a table right in the presence of your enemies. The only thing you have to worry about is not cursing yourself.
The enemy knew that the only way he could get his hands on the prodigal son was to get him out of the house. So he sent a restless spirit.
The Danger of a Restless Spirit
Somebody say a restless spirit. You’ve never seen so many restless spirits as we’re seeing in the church today. Folks don’t know what to do. They’re not happy at home. They want to hurry up and get dressed so they can go to church. As soon as they get to church and sit down, they get restless in church so they can get up and go back home.
A restless spirit. Folks who are thin are restless, trying to be thin. Folks who are overweight trying to be thin. The fat folks want to be thin and thin folks want to be fat. The old are trying to act young. Folks with long hair are cutting it off. Folks that don’t have hair are gluing it on.
Folks who have a job giving up a job. Folks who don’t have a job trying to get a job. It’s a restless spirit. Folks who are married trying to get rid of their husband—they’re sick of him, want to be single. Single folks are over there saying come here, baby.
When a runaway spirit gets down in you, you aren’t happy anywhere. You move on this side and you want to be over there. You move over there and you want to be over here.
Satan will send a runaway spirit into your life. He’ll try to make you run away from your ministry, your marriage, your mission. Because he knows if you stay in the house he can’t stir up anything to kill you. He’s after you. He wants you. He’s been looking at you and longing for you, but he can’t reach you because you’re too blessed.
Stay in the House!
The Lord sent me all the way from the gray hills of West Virginia to get an urgent message to someone. The Lord told me to tell you: Stay in the house. I don’t care what comes or goes, stay in the house. Even if you got tears in your eyes, stay in the house. If you feel like nobody appreciates you, stay in the house. If you are wounded and discouraged, stay in the house. Broke, busted, and disgusted—but I’ll stay in the house.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles and run and not be weary and walk and not faint. Touch somebody and say, “Stay in the house.”
The only thing with the prodigal son is he left the house. The enemy says come on. I can’t get you in the house. Come on out of the blessed place. Come out and play.
Once you’ve been blessed, you can be blessed a while and be wrong. Out of the will and out of the way and still blessed. He had his stuff with him. He is still living, saying I got the best of both worlds.
The Bible says if you stay out there long enough you’ll start spending your substance in riotous living. I’m glad it says substance and not money. Or you would think the only thing you lose when you play with the enemy is money.
The real deal is when you play with the enemy you lose more than finances. You lose your integrity. You lose your self-esteem. You lose your dignity. You lose your self-respect. You lose your stuff.
Tell somebody, hold on to your stuff. Your determination. What the Jews call chutzpah—your staying power, your guts, your tenacity. Your ability to take a licking and keep on ticking. Your survival instincts. Your overcoming instincts.
Tell somebody don’t lose your stuff. Somebody going through a struggle right now. The enemy is after your stuff. He wants you to drop your head and make you say uncle. But the devil is a liar. Never let him see you sweat. Hold on to your stuff.
You might be on welfare but hold your head up. Buy your food with food stamps but hold your head up. He may not come when you want Him, but the Lord!