TD Jakes — The Gap Filler
Hey everybody, I'm excited to share this word with you today. I'm standing in this particular stadium right now with the Wright brothers' early plane right behind me, because they had a dream, and they had a vision, and they didn't know how to fill the gap between what they saw in their head and what they were trying to build in their reality. That's why this message will empower you in a special way. The message is called "The Gap Filler". Do you not know that God will make up the difference between your extremity? That's his opportunity to step in and cause you to realize the thing that keeps moving out of your grasp or grip, God knows exactly what you need to get there. And so, as we go into the word today, I pray that you will receive a special blessing and prepare your heart.
This woman in this text had fallen on that one thing, she was good, her husband was in the company of the prophets of Elijah. She was known in the gates, she was a blessed woman, two children, home, everything taken care of, looking good, and he died, and her world changed. He died and her entire world changed. Bad enough to grieve, bad enough to give up the person you slept with every night, and held every night, and whispered secrets in their ear that are theirs and yours, and you knew each other till you had a rhythm together, that's bad enough, but it is harder to grieve hungry, nowhere to go, no place to move.
Such was the case with this woman, and when she finally sees the prophet, she throws it in his face. "You know who my husband was, and you know, you know, you know how faithful and loyal he was, and he died. And now we are in such debt". Anybody in debt in here? This might be your message this morning. Because this woman is down so low she can't get up, she can't figure out how to get up, and she's in trouble, and she's about to lose everything, and then a prophet stops by to see her and it changes her entire life. And the prophet so revolutionized her life that she was never the same anymore.
And he didn't give her a dollar, he didn't bring anything outside into her house, he didn't bring a herd of cattle home with her, he didn't raise a garden in her house, he didn't come in with bags of gold. All he did was show her what she already had. That ought to provoke somebody to say, "Show me what I already got". The Bible says that this woman has been stepping over her miracle. She knows all about her past but nothing about her present. She knows about her husband, and who he was, and what he did, and she's looking at yesterday so much, sister, that she's missing today. She's telling him about what was, he's talking to her about what is.
She said, "My husband was a prophet, my husband was faithful, my husband was here now he's dead". She knows what was, she knows what will be. They're coming after my kids, they're gonna make them slaves, but you can't get delivered out of "was faith" or "will-be faith", it's gotta be now. So, in the present tense of the text, he asked her, "What is in your house now"? Not who left you, not who didn't raise you, not who didn't love you, what have you got now? Because God will always use what you have left, he will never use what you lost.
So, weep no longer at the grave side of what you lost, nor mourn with salted tears the blessing you didn't get. And the prophet came by not to give her the miracle, but to show her the miracle. Look at how she thinks, first she says I have nothing at all, and then she thinks... so the first place is, she thinks she has nothing. You'd be surprised, pastoring people is more difficult today than it's ever been before, because the have-nots get to watch the haves on TV, and it brings 'em to the point that they think that they have nothing. You can't enjoy the beauty that you are for looking at other beautiful women. They redefine what is beautiful every 20 minutes, so all of a sudden, if you're not a size two.
Now you gotta have short hair, you gotta have long hair, now it's gotta be natural. Everybody keeps telling you what you ought to look like, but you gotta say, "I've got something". I got something, baby, if you don't get it, shame on you, but I got something. You missed it, I got something. I don't have to look like her, I don't have to drive what he drives, I don't have to live where they live, there's gold in them here hills. Whoo, say it again, "I got something".
She first made the mistake of talking about I have nothing. Look at how low she thought, how much more faith she had in negativity than positivity. I'm getting ready to sell my boys, they're gonna be slaves. They weren't, but she was confessing negativity. Her muscles of faith were so weak that when the prophet came to her, she says to him, "I got nothing". And she raised it a little bit, she said a little jar of oil back in the back, that's all I got. And the prophet doesn't even ask her for the oil, he tells the woman, who is in debt, to go get in more debt. I'm not telling you that.
He says you are not taking enough risk for God to help you. Did you hear that? That was good right there, wasn't that good? That was good, because God is with the risk taker, not the wisher, not the dreamer, the risk taker. He said you're broke because you haven't taken enough risk. My daughter wrote the book, "Don't Settle for Safe," you are broke because you played safe. Yeah, now, he said get your sons that you prepared for slavery and put 'em to work. I want your sons to go and borrow from your neighbors, that's more debt, borrow from your neighbors as many vessels as you can, but it's not just more debt he put 'em in, it's debt that has a strategy.
He said, because when you bring more capacity, God's gonna flow. You're not in enough trouble. He says when you really get out there where you can't do it without him, that's when you gonna get some help, okay? She borrowed all those vessels and then the oil responded to capacity. This principle is also seen in the text where he tells the prophet to dig ditches in your valley, because God is attracted to capacity. He will fill whatever you will build.
Now, this other sister over here, I'm comin' over y'alls way, I got you, this sister's rich. She's so rich the Bible says she's rich. When God say you're rich, you're rich. When people say you're rich it just means you got more money than them. By somebody's standard, everybody in the room is rich, 'cause rich is a relative term, but I trust when the owner of heaven and earth says you're rich, you're rich. She's real good, and I know she's rich because she has a husband, she has a house, she takes on a building project to add a room on a roof, a second-story suite for a prophet because she says he's a man of God, and they build a room for him. That other woman couldn't build no room. They got a bed, a chair, and a table, and put it in his room in case he comes by.
Don't get it twisted, he doesn't live there, but per adventure he should decide to grace us with his presence, we want to make sure that the accommodations are sufficient for a person of his caliber. Seeing as he is of the upper echelon of prophets, it would only be appropriate for us to avail him with the type of life that would be reflective of who we are in this society. These are rich folk, they good, don't need nothing. Elijah is laying in the lap of luxury, taking it easy. She has so blessed him and asked for nothing.
God can't stand for you to keep blessing him and ask for nothing. She is so generous that her generosity has put a demand on God. I told you the liberal soul shall be made fat. God said I can't just keep receiving from you, because if I keep receiving from you and don't give back to you, that makes you God. I can't let you be my provider, so whatever you give me, I got to give it back to you, 'cause I can't let you mess up my brand like I needed you. So, the more you give me, the more I have to give back to you, just so that I can show them who is God.
So, the prophet is now uncomfortable in the bed, because he says to his servant, "Don't she need something? Can we do something for her? Maybe we can help her out with something". She good, she doesn't need anything. "Bring her here to me. Woman, can I do anything for you"? "I'm good". "Maybe I can introduce you to the king, okay. Maybe you don't need stuff, maybe you need influence". "I know him". Then the servant says to Elijah, "The only thing that she doesn't have is that she does not have a child". She does not have a child. She does not have a child and her husband is old.
Finally, Elijah says I can do something, because I have found a gap. I can't bless nothing that don't have a gap. I have found a gap. I have found something that she cannot do for herself. I have discovered her poverty. Now I wanna stand in between these two women, because standing in between these two women is interesting.
Here is the dilemma, when I started looking at this first woman, I thought she was poor, but after dealing with the rich woman, I discovered the poor woman was rich. The poor woman is rich because she has what money cannot buy. The rich woman would give everything she had to have the two boys that the poor woman had and was about to sell. The poor woman is a mother, she is a mother. She has brought life into the world. She has collaborated with God. She has seen the fruits of that collaboration. She has affected the next generation. She has children, her seed run up to her and call her blessed. She might not be dressed up, and she might not be fancy, but she is loved, loved in the way that only a child can love you.
You have not been loved till a child loves you. You can spank a child and they'll come back and say, "Oh, Daddy, I love you, I forgive you". She has love, and now I recognize that the poor woman is not as poor as I thought, and this rich woman is not as rich as I thought. We let our little cars, and our little stuff fool us into thinking, that if you got stuff you don't need anything. That if you don't have things, then you need Jesus, but if you got stuff... good morning, how are you? I'm not gonna tell you about Jesus 'cause you look like you're doing fine. And they don't know that late in the midnight hour, this woman is crying just like this woman is crying. This woman needs God just like this woman needs God. This woman has a gap just like this woman has a gap.
They are two different shades of pain, and Elijah represents the God who stands in the gap. The reason I like this text is because these two women's stories are butted up against each other, and the same God that stepped into her house and said, "I'm gonna make something flow that wasn't flowing," is the same God that stepped into her house and said, "I know your husband is old, and I know he's lost his flow, but I'm gonna start a flow in his body just like I started a flow in her jar, and both of you are gonna be blessed, pressed down, shaken together, and runnin' over," because whatever you want, whatever you need, whatever you lack, whatever you're craving for, God's got it, and I came to tell you this morning, whether you are black, or white, or republican, or democrat, or rich, or poor, or high, or low, whatever you need, God is a gap filler. Open your mouth and give him some praise.
I told them to bring me some oil because I wanted to show you... I want 'em to understand. Yeah, bring me not a few, yeah, 'cause it's gonna be a flow, it's gonna be a flow, it's gonna be a flow. Touch your neighbor and say, "It's gonna be a flow". I'm talkin' about in your house, I'm talkin' about in your life, I'm talkin' about in your circumstance, I'm talkin' about in your situation, it's gonna be a flow. That that was stagnant, that that was not moving, that that was not working, that that you've been stepping over and saying it ain't never gonna be nothing, that that the devil told you wasn't enough to get the job done, God said in the time of need, I'm gonna create a flow... And the power is always in the flow.
Now, you gotta get this, 'cause I want you to see the power of the miracle. He didn't change the size of the container, he changed the amount of the flow, because God's glory always increases when you are stretched. It was two fish and five loaves of bread till he broke it, but the more he broke it, the more it multiplied. It was a small pot of oil, but the more she poured it, the more it multiplied. You need to pour yourself into something. You need to pour yourself out. You need to stop measuring yourself while it's not happening, because when you stretch yourself... pull on your neighbor and say, "Stretch yourself".
When you stretch yourself, God will get in the flow, he will get in the flow, and whatever you come up against, God said I can fill this, too. And if they need you over here, he said you can fill this, too. And you know why you can fill it? 'Cause you got something, you got something that all these other vessels need. And that's why the devil's been trying to kill you, because he's afraid you're gonna get into your flow. But I rebuke every devil, and I bind every spirit that has hindered your flow. I prophesy to you, you will flow again. Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.