TD Jakes - I Did Not Say It Would Be Easy
Drawing from Joshua succeeding Moses to possess the promised land, this message emphasizes that true inheritance is limited and valuable like land—requiring inner strength, courage, and pushing through pain without relief, trusting God's presence even when it's not easy.
The Value of Owning Land
Owning land is a very important thing to do. I like to own stuff, I do. I got control issues. See, if I own it, you can't evict me—it's mine. Somebody holler, "It's mine." When you know it's yours, you're not uncomfortable. There's a certain settling that comes into your spirit because it's yours.
It's my land. And I grew up understanding that, and I believe that, and I appreciate it. I'm going to tell you why. They're making money every day, running it off the press every day. We might not have it, but it's out there. The value of the dollar fluctuates up and down, comes and goes, be there, not be there.
Money's coming off the press all the time. Depending on the state of the country, the world, and nation—international economic issues—what is in your wallet will fluctuate all the time. They are not making any land. There will be no more land.
So, when you have land, you have something that will not fluctuate as it relates to being saturated in the marketplace. Land is important. So, God says to the children of Israel, "I have given you the land to possess, something that is a limited resource."
I'm not giving you something that's unlimited, that somebody can produce so much of that the value decreases—I have given you the land to possess it. In a society that the children of Israel were living in, the land was very important. They didn't have paper money like we have today.
Land as Wealth and Security
Largely, they bartered, either through the things that grew on the land or that grazed on the land. They either grew it, or it grazed. They either grew it, or it grazed. If it didn't come out of the land, and it didn't graze on the land, you had nothing to barter with.
So, no matter how many seeds you had, if you had no soil, the seeds meant nothing at all. What good is seed without soil? Seed will never reach its potential without soil. What good is it to have sheep if you have no place to graze?
Come on, talk to me, somebody. See, some of us have seed but no soil. Some of us are sheep but we have no place to graze. And eventually, I don't care how strong the sheep is, if there's not a grazing place, it will become a dying place.
I do not want to be homeless, destitute. Even when I travel internationally, have a good time, stay in a hotel, eat food, do whatever I went to the country to do, there is a certain angst I have in another country. The moment the plane lands back in America, there's a certain feeling of relief 'cause I'm back on my turf.
It is stressful, emotionally and mentally, to be away from home. Some people are not homeless physically—they are homeless spiritually. Some people are homeless emotionally. Spiritually homeless: you don't know who you are, you don't know what you believe, you don't know where you stand.
Anything anybody says, it sounds good—you gravitate to it. Emotionally homeless is when you have all kinds of love to give and nowhere to give it.
The Homelessness of Israel
These people were homeless. They had spent 430 years in Egypt, and they had spent the last 40 years in the wilderness. Four-hundred-and-thirty years, four-hundred of which they were in bondage. The first 30 years they were not in bondage—they were welcome, until a Pharaoh rose up who knew not Joseph, and then enslaved them.
You started out a guest, and ended up a slave. Could you imagine? And a slavery that lasted for ten generations. The only taste of freedom they had was sitting around campfires at night trying to remember what it was like to be free, trying to remember what it was like to be home, trying to hold on to whatever customs they had of home.
And then, God sends Moses down to Egypt and commands Moses to tell Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Last week, I told you freedom costs something. Didn't I tell you? It's not going to be easy to be free and then be free indeed.
Oh, you remembered—glory to God. Oh, glory to God, I love that, I love that. It's one thing to be free, and it's another thing to be free indeed. Now, they are in the pursuit of that freedom. Pharaoh is gone, okay. They are free, but they have spent 40 years trying to be free indeed.
The one who brought them out, who performed miracles, who healed them, who fed them, who nurtured them, who guided them, who delivered them out of the hands of Pharaoh—died. What do you do when the person you was depending on dies on you, and dies short of finishing the mission?
Moses' Death and Anxiety
I want you to feel the anxiety that comes in the midst of uncertainty. Moses is dead. Moses is dead. This is a game-changer. The lamentations became so strong that they wept for over a month. The whole nation sobbing and crying, "Our pastor is dead. And he died, and we're not quite there."
We're close, but we're not there. Who in the world will take us the rest of the way? Who can do miracles like Moses? Well, I'd like to nominate Brother Joshua. Joshua? Who was Joshua? Joshua is only good under Moses. He was alright as an assistant—we accepted him as an associate.
Joshua? Joshua, you don't do no magic. Throw your rod down and do something like Moses did. Joshua, you can't even do it. Threw his stick down and had to pick it back up—it didn't turn into nothing. "Well, can you bring water out of the rock?"
"No, you're gonna have to go down to the river and get something to drink." Moses is a tough act to follow. Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness and everybody sick that looked at it got healed. "Can you heal us?" "Well, no, CVS is down around the corner."
What do you do when you don't measure up to who you're being compared to? It's hard to measure up to another man's miracles.
God With Joshua
God says to Joshua, "Joshua, as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you." "But God, my stick don't work, and God, this water thing is not working for me." "I didn't say I was gonna do through you what I did with Moses—I said I would be with you."
"I said I would be with you as I was with Moses. I did not call you to be a cheap copy of a great original. You can't imitate Moses—there will never be another Moses. Other prophets have I spoken to through dreams and visions, but Moses I talked to face to face."
"I will not be meeting you on the mountain, I will not set any mountains on fire, I will not give you Ten Commandments, but I will be with you as I was with Moses. The only thing I promise you is that I will be with you—you, your gifts, your talents, your resources—as I was with Moses. I will not make you Moses junior."
Until you develop an appreciation for being you, you will never discover what God can do in you trying to be me. Good God, have mercy. That make me wanna run myself.
Be Strong and Courageous
Over and over again, God says to Joshua... Now, I assume you understand that Joshua is a fighter. He fought all through the wilderness. He was Moses's right-hand man. He has now become the leader. He can't do Moses's tricks, but God is using what is innate to Joshua to continue the leadership.
Joshua was known for fighting. He was a fighter. He almost fought God. He ran up on an angel, said, "Whose side are you on? I'll cut you, too." Oh, oh, good God, I love it. I love it. I love it.
So, he was a fighter, yet when God commissions him, over and over in the text you will hear God say, over and over again, "Be strong and very courageous." "Be strong and very courageous." "Be strong, and be of good courage." "Be strong, and possess the land."
Because God knows that for what you're going to do, it is not by outer strength. You understand, you understand. See, help me preach this thing this morning, girl. It's inner strength. You've got to have inner strength for this fight. It's not your outer strength.
"It's not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord," so you gotta have that inner, that inner, that inner, that gut strength, that belly strength, that devil-defying, come hell or high water strength, that roll me out in front of him and I'll preach from a chair strength,
that tenacity to take a licking and keep on ticking. That inner strength that when I can't do as I would, I'm gonna do as I can, but I'm not gon' stop doing. To the best of my ability, I'm gon' stretch... Hallelujah!
Inner Strength Required
Be strong, strong, strong, strong, strong. See Joshua, as the second man, you were just used for physical strength, but as a leader, you gotta have inner strength. You gotta defy the Amorites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Girgashites—you gotta defy all of them.
And, watch this, you gotta defy your inner insecurity that you're not as good as Moses. You gotta defy the fact that the people you're leading don't react to you like they did to Moses. So, you got disagreement with the people you're leading, disagreement with the people you're fighting,
disagreement with the person inside of you—so you gon' have to be strong. You gon' have to be strong. You gon' have to resist your own fear, and resist their doubt, and resist their murmuring. Be strong!
Be strong when the voices rise up in you and say you're not good enough. Be strong when the people murmur against you and say, "He can't do what Moses did." Be strong when the Amorites say, "I'm not gonna let you have the land." Be strong!
Holler at somebody, "Be strong!" This ain't no time to buckle. This ain't no time to collapse. This ain't no time to give up.
The Point of No Return
Why? Because the children have come to birth. Women, you know that point in delivery where there is no turning back? Watch this. I've been talking to the men—I'm gon' talk to my daughters. Where my daughters at?
Some of you all came in this church in the last 10 years—you didn't hear this prophecy. There was a prophecy that came through when my wife birthed Dexter that says, "As it was with the birth of your son... So shall it be with your ministry."
When Serita got pregnant with Dexter, she was so big. She was huge. We thought... no, no, no, no, no, I mean this is serious. This is no-seatbelt huge, okay. We kept checking for twins. Even the doctor kept checking for twins because of how big she got.
When she birthed the baby, he was almost 22 inches long and 11 pounds? How much? Eleven pounds and two ounces. Watch this. Come on, sisters, 'cause the brothers don't understand. The brothers don't get this.
The brothers don't... I'm gonna talk to the ladies. Where are my sisters? She should have had... watch this, 'cause this is prophetic. This is something God did in our ministry. She should have had a C-section. It would have been better to have had a C-section.
She had him natural childbirth. Wait, watch this. I'm talking to the sisters. She wanted an epidural, but she asked for it too late, and they said, "No, Mrs. Jakes, it's too late now. For the child has come to birth and we can't give you an epidural."
Push Through the Pain
So, all they could do was holler, "Push!" Touch somebody and say, "Push!" I want you to understand that this is a big one, and in order to deliver this one... Touch your neighbor and say, "Push!"
You don't get no epidural, you don't get no pain relief—it is what it is. You gon' have to endure the pain and push over top of it. Somebody holler, "Push!" I watched her, I watched her sit up in the stirrups, her jaws got so big, the blood vessels in her jaws start bursting,
but there was no backing out then. She had to push. She had dilated the full centimeters, but the baby was so big, it knocked her pelvis bones out of joint, but she had to push. Somebody holler, "Push!"
In order to do what God put in you, all your structures gonna move, all your structures gotta shift. Everything's gon' come out of joint, but you gotta push. The Lord told me to tell you, "I didn't tell you it would be easy."
I didn't tell you it would be easy, but I did tell you that I would be with you. Slap your neighbor, and holler, "Push!" Push! Push! Good God Almighty.
Watch this. Her mother's on one side, and I'm on the other. And all we can do is try to comfort her, and holler, "Push." If you can endure the pain of this moment, if you can stand up in the stirrups, and say, "I've come too far to turn around,"
it hurts like nothing I ever felt before, but I gotta endure this pain to get this promise. Grab somebody, shake 'em, and say, "Push!" The promise is in your pain. The promise is in your pain. The promise is in your discomfort.
The promise is in your ability to strengthen yourself and push. Tell 'em, "You're almost there." Tell your neighbor, "You're almost there." You're almost there.
The Lord gave me this Word to give to you. He told me to tell you, "I did not say it would be easy. I told you I would be with you. I told you that no man would be able to withstand you all the days of your life."
I told you that everywhere your feet trod, I'd give you the land. I told you that nobody'd be able to withstand you. I told you that I would bless you. I told you that as I was with Moses, so shall I be with you—but I did not tell you it would be easy.
If you got any fight at all, you need to release it in this hour, and make up in your mind you're gonna stop feeling sorry for yourself, you're gon' stop crying, you're gon' stop being depressed, you're gon' stop being discouraged,
that whatever it takes to do what you gotta do, to do what God called you to do, you're gon' push. You can't get no more epidurals—it's too late for an epidural. The baby is about to break. This ain't no time to faint in the day of your adversity—this thing is about to happen.
God didn't tell you it would be easy, but he said he would be with you.