TD Jakes - Turn it on a Dime!
Greetings, brothers and sisters, in the name of Jesus Christ the King. We're sharing a word from the Lord I believe you really need to hear. It is a very powerful illustration of a very biblical concept. The concept is tithing. The message is turning. You can turn it all on a dime. It's no incident that we're coming into harvest season. We're coming into the time the farmers are bringing in the sheaves and filling up the barns.
You need to be at harvest season. But you can't be in harvest season if you haven't been in seed time. There's a methodology and structure. I say there's a revelation to tithing. Let me share this word with you. Not just bless your church. Not just you preacher. I'm talking about you. God wants to bless you. He wants to open up the windows of heaven. Floodgates are waiting for you to obey God. Take a look at this.
I love this scripture. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he shall direct your paths. When I bring my tithe I acknowledge it is not my boss, it is not my job, it is not my company. It is not my business, it is not my customer that blessed me. It's saying God as a Christian I'm aware they may have been the pipe but you're the source that, you don't understand what I'm saying. And I acknowledge you. And I cleave as a believer to that, acknowledge him in all your ways and he'll direct your ways. Frankly many times it's not an issue of needing more money. I need more direction. You need divine direction. So that you can do the right things, hook up with the right people. Not expend your energies on things that are not profitable. You don't necessarily need more resources. You need better direction.
Number two, through it we bring our finances up under God's protection. If you didn't write that down I want you to bring your finances up under God's protection. I'll wear that out. We throw out the struggle we have to worship the gift over the giver. As I bring my tithe as my income goes up it becomes more important and more difficult to bring the tithe because I'm breaking a stronger spirit over the money. Money is not evil. Let me see. Do I have some money on me? Yes, I do. Thank the Lord. I would hate to teach this and not have any money on me. That would look bad.
This 20 dollar bill is not evil. If it helps somebody, feeds the hungry, clothe the naked, help do a whole lot of things, it can bless a child. It can be support to a widow. This money is not evil. It can also buy me drugs, it can get me high. It can get me a friend at two o'clock in the morning. Money is not evil. It's what you do with it that's evil. In fact, the Bible says money answers all things. Simply put, money gives you options. It just simply gives you options. You can do more. Move more easily. Have more options at your disposal. Money is not evil. The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. It can become an idol in your life.
God bless the children of Israel with the wealth of Egypt. It was them that turned it into an idol. God gave them the gold. They turned the gold into an idol. And you can easily turn your income into an idol. And as you grow up, one of the ways you keep yourself from trusting in your resources is to bring the tithe. When I bring the tithe, I cast down every idol. I'm saying, God, you can trust me to bless me again because no matter how high I get, I will put you first. And it is a personal consecration of mine if particularly as you grow up.
Because I told you the real challenge really wasn't to pay tithe on welfare or unemployment check because I was broke anyway. You making two hundred dollar check a month you broke anyway. You might as well believe God. If he don't bring you out you're dead in the water anyway. But when God starts blessing you, that's when the tempter comes against you. When God puts you in your garden of Eden positions you in the place he created for you, do you know God created a garden for you to live in, utopia of sustained blessing t. Closer you get to the place God designed for you, the more the slithering serpent snake will confront you and try to talk you out of the place? Hallelujah.
New levels bring new devils. Are you following what I'm saying? I'll get to the good stuff. Get your Bibles. Go to Genesis 14:12-24. We're studying this morning. We're not shouting. We're not whooping. We're not screaming. We're studying. He dwelt in Sodom and his goods and de-pardon. And there came one who had escaped and told the Hebrew for he dwelt in the plain the Ammorite. And brother of... And these consider con fete writ with Abram. An when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them. He and his servants by night. And smote them. And pursued them which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods and also blessed again his brother Lot and his goods and the women also. And the people.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him from his return and the kings that were with him at the valley which is the king's... And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the Most High God and he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God which has delivered thine enemies into thy hands and he gave him tithes of all.
Stop right there. Abraham has won this battle with a bunch of servants. He took a bunch of servants and went out and fought a battle and one. You know you're anointed when you can take less and do more with it. He went out and got the victory. On the way back home the Bible says he stopped and encountered Old Testament biblical character Megiddo which is a total picture of Christ himself without mother father you read in Hebrews. Without beginning and end of days. Melchizedek you understand he's both priest and king. As he worships him, he brings a tithe. The Bible says and blessed be the Most High God which has delivered thy enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes on the net.
I'm sorry. He gave him tithes of all. He gave him tithes of everything he had taken in. Keep on. And the king of Sodom said to Abram give me the persons and take your goods to yourself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom I have lift up my hand to the Lord. The Most High God. The possessor of heaven and earth that I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latched and that I'll not take anything that is thine lest thou should say I have made Abram Rich.
This right here is great wisdom for people who are on their way up. Be careful who you let bless you. Because people love to say, if it wasn't for me. He said I don't want anything at your hands. I'll give all of it back to you. Lest you walk away and say it was you that made me rich. There are some blessings you ought to turn down. Faith doesn't just accept. Faith rejects. Faith doesn't just accept. Give me, give me, give me my name is Jimmy. Doesn't mean you have great faith. It takes faith to say NO. Some blessings look like they're easy and quick but they're not divine. To be discriminative who you allow to be your resource. If it's not from God, you don't want it.
Wait a minute. After what things? After he paid tithe to Melchizedek. After he had told the king of Sodom NO, you take your money back lest you say you made me rich. After these thing. After this sacrifice in his life. I don't want you to, you got to know these things. You want this to work for you. It came in a vision saying, fear not. Stop right there. Fear not. Do you have the courage to be blessed? I told you last week, the many people self sabotage their own success. They don't know they're sabotaging their success because you've been surrounded by people who are enabling your poverty by their mentality and their mentality has defined you and contaminated you.
You say you want to be blessed. You keep doing things to stop you from getting blessed, getting in debt, maximizing your credit cards, because that curse mentality has permeated your attitude to the degree you are subconsciously taking your blessing and putting it in things going down rather than investing in things going up. Because you don't have the courage to be controversial. You want everybody to be glad to see you when you come in. You keep falling back down to their level so they like you.
The first thing God told someone he was going to bless is fear not. Why did he say that? It takes courage to be blessed. You don't hear what I'm saying. People living in mink coats living in trailers. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the look of being blessed. I'm talking about the reality of being blessed and have your priorities in the right place and to be a balance and stable minded person. It takes courage to do that. Fear not. Go ahead. I am your shield. I am your protection. Why does he say that? Jewel get darts shot at you. When you start being successful people will hate you because... You got to be tough to be blessed.
Can you stand to be blessed? Can you stand the level of attack you'll come up under? Do you have the faith to trust God to cover your back? God told Abram fear not. I got you covered. Go ahead. And thy exceeding great reward. And I am your exceeding great reward. You've got to underline that. Exceeding is infinite. God says there's no limits to how much I'll reward you. If I shut up right there and you got that right there it would be coming through the traffic, parking on the ramp. Having to take your shoes off and walk whatever you had to do to get in here. God said, there's no limit. Exceeding is an infinite word without ending. God said I'm your infinite great reward. There is no limit to what I'll give you. There's no stopping me from blessing you. You gave up something for me.
Let me tell you, since you gave up what was in your hand let me show you what was in my hand. I'm your exceeding great reward. O God. If you ever believe what I just said, it will forever change your life. If you stop putting limits and boundaries on what God can do, God said I am your exceeding great reward. God blessed Abraham so much Abraham died and couldn't use all of his blessings. His descendants are still spending. Out of that word exceeding. I can take you up to New York. I can take you around Hollywood. I can take you around CEOs in major facilities and show you Jewish descendants that are still spending out of that. I'm telling you, if you get the word I'm teaching down in your spirit, you will live and die and not spend up all the blessing God will release upon you and upon your children and upon your children's children.
Saith the Lord. You shouldn't have come this morning. I'm telling you, I'm ready for you today. Abram said, Lord God. What will thou give me seeing I go childless? First of all, when he's saying this, Abram wasn't broke. Abraham had something to begin with. He said my problem is, it's not with money or resources. He said I'm also childless. And the steward of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. Abram said behold to me thou has given the seed and no one in my house is my heir. The word of the Lord came unto him saying, this shall not be thy heir but he that comes forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir.
I can't talk about it. If I talk about it, I'll be here all day. You can't have true success without a successor. You have to start thinking generationally or you'll miss the point. God talked to Abram about being his exceeding great reward. Abram immediately talks about his son. One thing Abraham had with God is Abraham thought like God. He had a God mentality. He was thinking generationally. If you're going to be my exceeding great reward, let me bring up to you this issue I have with my child. I already lived half my life. I'll never be able to spend to the bottom of the check you just wrote. I need an heir to catch.
Young people sit tight. I think you have no idea who you are. I don't think you have a clue who you are. I don't think you understand that your mama and daddy are the cup but baby you're the saucer and when we overflow, you're supposed to be there at home plate to catch the exceedingly, abundantly, all that you have. The blessing I don't have room to receive is supposed to fall on you. But, but young people, you have to position yourself. Nobody is leaving you nothing if you act a fool. One of the curses that's killing our generation, because most of us start from ground level zero. We start out with nothing. All over again. Your parents started with nothing. They died and left you nothing. You go back to zero and have to start over again. That is a curse. The curse of not having anything left. Consequently because nobody gave to you, you don't think generationally.
So you're talking to a God about blessings that if God ever takes you serious, he knows you're not going to live long enough to hold all the stuff he'll give you. If you don't start thinking generationally, the conversation is over. Until you get a passion for your children and to see the blessing of the Lord fall on your child, you're not ready to talk to God. Because God says, he's got too much for you. You have to live in this moment but think in the next one. Forward thinking people are positioning themselves to be blessed. Because you're thinking in terms of what are the next few moves? Anywhere you use that principle you'll be blessed. I don't care how good you are in the moment, if you fail to have preparation for the next moment you forfeit the blessing. Write the vision, make it plain. Let him who read it run thereby.
What is next? And who is worthy of it? Are you getting this? Glory to God. God says, I will open up the channel between you and I. This is what God does on a dime. On a time. Off of every dollar. I'll open up the channel between you and I. In other words, I will open the windows of heaven. Simply put, obedience opens up the heavens. You can be shouting in front of closed heavens. It's not what you say that opens the windows of heaven. It's what you do opens the windows of heaven. Obedience opens the windows of heaven.
Number one this is what I'll do for a dime. I'll open up a channel between me and you. When I talk about obedience opens the windows of heaven. Jesus was baptized and the Bible says straight way when he came up out of the water, Stephen wouldn't denounce Christ the Bible says as Stephen was being stoned and he kept his word before God that the heavens opened up. Obedience opens up the windows of heaven. That's all you've got to do to open the windows of heaven. Obey him. Obedience opens the windows of heaven. If you ever get tired of shouting in front of closed windows, obedience will open it up.
Number two. God says, I will dispense what I have withheld. I will dispense what I have withheld. In other words, I will pour you out a blessing. It is not where you bring the tithe and I say let me see what I'll do with the blessing. Look at that. Let me see what I can do to bless them. No. I already got it. But when I see you do what I told you to do, I will dispense what I withheld. Are you following what I'm saying? Anybody want what God is withholding? God said, I'll dispense what I withheld. You want to know what he was withholding. Jeremiah 29:11 says God has something in mind for you that you have an expected end. God plans for you to win in the end. God says I can't dispense it until you obey me. 1 Corinthians 2:6-12 says eyes have not seen, ears have not heard the things God has in store for those who love him.
It deals with and references the cross. And the princes of this world knew what they were doing, they would have never crucified the Lord and begins to talk about what God does when you obey his word even when people try to sabotage you God will break the curse and turn it around and release what is withheld many your life. Are you hearing what I'm saying to you? This is good. Yes, sir. See, when it brings the cross into the conversation, it starts talking about the things God has in store for those who love him and revealed by our spirit. The reason it brings the cross into it, do you understand the cross was an offering? They make everything an offering today. Read Hebrews 9:14, read Hebrews 10:12. Again. 14 and 28. Hebrews 11:17 all tell you the cross was an offering. That's why the grave couldn't hold him. I said, the cross was an offering. That's why the grave couldn't hold him.
Now to everybody who ever gave an offering gave a tithe you understand what I'm saying. The grave, it may hold you three days, it can't hold you any longer than that. It has to give it back. There has to be a resurrection breaking forth. Some of you had everything resurrected by your money. You got your peace. You got your joy. You got your salvation. You got your praise. For you the last step is the finances. The same God that resurrected your life and brought you and turned you around and resurrected your mind will resurrect your money.
I believe God for resurrection in your financial life in the name of the Lord. Not so you can ride around in a golden Porsche and drink cool laid out of a goblet. So you can send your kids to college and lend and not borrow and be the head and not the tail and finally get our act together. Until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God and Christ, away with this foolishness, the only people blessed in our community are the pimps and the drug dealers. The devil is a liar. You're not going to tell me Satan is better to his followers than God is to his. God said I swear I bless you. I'll bless you on a dime. Lay your hands on your neighbor and say, God is holding something that he wants to release in your life. This year. Let me go deeper. I could shout. My toes are tingling. My jaw is quivering. Something is about to happen. I feel it in my spirit. I feel it in my soul. Something is about to happen in here. Shout hallelujah.