TD Jakes - Make Room
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me," provoke me, put me to the test, and see, "saith the Lord of hosts". And here's the five things that he says I will do. Number one, he says, "I'll give you the gift that keeps on giving". I will give you the gift that keeps on giving. Or he calls it, "I will pour you out a blessing". Now, he says, "I will pour you out a blessing that you will not have room enough to receive".
A blessing. He didn't say, "I will pour you out a bunch of blessings you won't have room enough to receive". He said, "I'ma pour you out a blessing that you won't have room enough to receive. I'm gonna pour you out one thing and the thing is gonna have things in it". In my own life God poured me out a blessing, just a blessing, and through that blessing all kinds of doors started opening and ways start being made and when God shows you what your blessing is, you need to wear that thing out. Whatever he gave you that's working for you, you need to work that thing God gave you, glory to God.
Don't let nobody distract you and adorn something that God didn't give you. Whatever the thing is that God gave you, work that thing because that thing has got things in it. Oh, they didn't hear what I was saying. That thing is gonna bud and blossom and bring forth fruit in your life. You gotta identify it and then multiply it, glory to God. Be fruitful and multiply. God said, "I'm gonna give you a blessing but your blessing is gonna have so many blessings in it that if you nurture what I gave you, when it comes to harvest, you won't have room enough to receive. It's gonna look like one kernel of corn but if you nurture it you're gonna get all kind of ears that have all kind of kernels on it.
Oh my God, I don't know. Ooh, I feel like I'm prophesying to somebody. Your blessing is pregnant with all kind of little blessings and if you take care of your blessing, your blessing is gonna have all kinds of blessings up under it. Who am I talking to this morning? God says, "If you bring the tithe and offering into the storehouse, I will pour out the thing that has so many things in it you won't have room enough to receive it". Your blessing is pregnant. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? Your blessing is pregnant. Your blessing is the Octomom.
Do you understand what I'm saying? Your blessing is the Octomom and everything that's gonna come to you is gonna come through that blessing. Oh, glory to God. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? You look at all the doors and stuff God opens to people from one thing. You turn on the sports station and you see Deion and them up a-commentating on sports, with no journalistic degree, no journalistic background, or nothing. A boy who started out running because he was scared of a graveyard. Through that one running gift, brought him to football in high school, brought him to the NFL for a prestigious career, and now all of that's over and still that running by the graveyard is still holding up all kinds of other... y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. Touch three people and say, "Find your blessing".
This is the second promise God gives to the tither. He says, "I will protect your harvest". I will protect your harvest. Literally, the Scripture says: "I will rebuke the devourer". In other words, I will stop the thing that's after your harvest. When you come into your season, I will not allow the circumstances to devour your season. Oh my God. I told you, they lived up under a bartering season so they could have harvests but if a flood came it would devour the harvests. God said, "I will protect the devourer of your harvest. I will stop the circumstances from stealing your season. Oh my God, this is good. He says, "I will rebuke the devourer for your sake". He said, "I will fight back the circumstances that are after your season and I'll do it for you so you don't have to stop harvesting and start fighting. You keep on gathering in the harvest, I will do the fighting for you and rebuke the devourer". My God, I'm talking to somebody.
One of the greatest temptations in success is to come down from the pinnacles of success to fight with people at the bottom of the ladder. Never come down and respond to them people. Let 'em say whatever they wanna say. Let 'em say whatever they wanna say. They're distractions. Oh, what I told you is priceless. They're distractions from the greater good. Any time you're doing the greater good and there's somebody down there who ain't doing nothing, trying to tell you how you ought to be doing something, if they really knew how to do something, they'd be doing it themselves. Leave them people alone and keep on doing what you're doing. If you start fooling with them people, they will devour your harvest.
Number three, I got to go. Y'all making me wanna preach or something. Is this all right? Number three, I will bring your dreams to fruition. I will bring your dreams to fruition. Or the Bible says: "Your vine will not cast its fruit before its time". Casting your fruit before its time is losing your vision before it comes to harvest. "I will bring your dreams to fruition". Now, let me show you. The danger when you're living in a barter system and you're depending on the harvest, isn't just that you be fruitful but that when you start bearing fruit, when the apples start coming in and the oranges start coming in and they're too young to be picked, you don't want a freeze to come before you can pick it. And because you almost got blessed but the freeze came and took the harvest. You'd be surprised how many people for the last ten years were almost free, almost got up, almost got themselves together. But every time something start growing, some takes it away.
God said, "If you're a tither, I will control the atmosphere so that your vine does not cast its figs before its time". You'll stop aborting your dreams, you'll carry it full term. You won't have a miscarriage. You're gonna carry it all the way to fruition and you'll stop being yanked back and forth emotionally. "Oh, this is about to work out. Oh, something happened to it. This is about to work out. Oh, something happened to that again. This is about to work out. Something happened to that". If you see a pattern to that operating of almost, just about, and nearly, and you can see it but before it got ready to harvest, it got stolen again, God said, "I've got a promise for you".
"Well, Bishop, I'm a tither and that's been happening to me". You're a tither but you're a uninformed tither. And what you don't know can hurt you. And when you begin to know this, you say, "Wait a minute, devil. No, no, I'm gonna finish what I started. I'm going all the way to the end. This is coming to fruition. I'm not just gonna start it and not be able to finish it. The devil is a liar". If God is God enough to bring the lemons out, he's God enough to send the sun to ripen the lemon he brought and I command you to hold that lemon until it's gone full term. I command you not to have a miscarriage. In fact, this morning, you people who are pregnant with destiny, I command you to carry that dream full term. You will not lose this baby, in Jesus's name. He will protect it.
God said, "I'll stop you from losing it before its time. I'll wait 'til it's ripe. I'll hold on 'til the timing is right 'cause they're either... I don't have time to get into this but there is a relationship between timing and blessings. Don't be frustrated. Don't be frustrated when it's not the right season. Being held back is a blessing. You don't wanna bear fruit all the time. It'd kill a tree to bear fruit 24 hours a day, 12 months out of the year. Winter is a blessing. "It's cold, I don't have no fruit. My leaves fell off. All my leaves has gone, my sap has run down out of my branches, ohh, Brother Jakes, you don't know how bad it is". That sap ain't gone. It went down. It's having dinner. It's being fed. It's doing preparation. It's getting ready to come back again. You understand what I'm saying?
God will give you rest because rest equates to readiness. Rest equates to readiness. God will give you rest in this season. I couldn't understand, Pastor Robinson, I could not understand how I could sit in a church for seven years and never be asked to speak but once or twice. Teach maybe two Bible classes in seven years. I couldn't understand how I could be studying around the clock and they'd ask me to clean the baptism pool. I couldn't understand it. And it made no sense. Shampooing the rugs on Saturday morning with Tim and them and Norman and all of them. Nobody asked me to preach. They asked me to vacuum. I did not realize that down time is prep time. I didn't understand that God had me in training, getting me ready for you. And when I had enough stuff and enough message and enough anointing and enough revelation, then he said, "Now I'ma bring you out". Some people are trying to do the right thing at the wrong time.
Number four, "I will restore your reputation," hallelujah. He says it this way: "All nations shall call you blessed. I will restore your reputation. Tither, I'm gonna give you your name back. Tither, I'm gonna give you your reputation back. I'm gonna fix your credit back. I will restore your reputation. I will bless you until it becomes so obvious that external people will begin to call you blessed. I will change the way people see you. I will repair your image because of your tithes". All of this for 10%.
"I will restore your reputation" is a very important part of being blessed because your reputation is everything. It is absolutely everything. God said, "I will change how outside people perceive you because you and I are in business together". Ain't this good? Next time you give your tithes, you're gonna give it with a deeper understanding and a deeper enlightenment. You're gonna have these promises. You might ought to post these promises somewhere or put 'em on your computer or put 'em on your wall or put 'em on your Facebook someplace, where you can remind yourself of what God has promised if you just believe. One more. Can I give you one more? I'ma give you one more. I'ma give you one more. I'm gonna give you one more.
Number five, he said, "Not only will I restore your reputation and all nations shall call you blessed," he said, "I will bless your realities. It won't just be a rumor that you're blessed. You shall be a delightsome land. I'm gonna bring your realities up to your reputation. First, I'm gonna fix your reputation". And this is the point. Let me show you this. This is the point. There is a point where your reputation is bigger than you. There is a point where people think you're doing better than you are.
There is a point where you look like you're more stable than you are. And that's 'cause God fixed it that way. He made it look that way. He made it look like you were stronger than you really are. That's 'cause he restored your reputation. That comes before your realities. And you're sitting there thinking, "Why are they jealous of me? I'm barely holding on to this stuff. I've barely got it together". God has restored your reputation. "If they knew how I was struggling, they wouldn't be talking about me. I'm struggling worse than they are. Here they are, jealous of me, they don't have a clue what I'm going through".
God said, "I will restore your reputation". And then number five, he said, "Then I'm gonna bring your realities up. You shall be a delightsome land. You're gonna become what they said. You're gonna come to the level that I restored your reputation. I'm gonna bring your realities back up to the place that it needs to be. I'm gonna fix all of that. I'm gonna fix all of that. I'm gonna fix all of that. I'm gonna fix it. I'm gonna fix it 'cause we're in business together. We're in covenant together".
Now I'm gonna give you one more Scripture. You got the five things? You got the five thing? You got 'em. You got 'em. And when you give your tithes, you're gonna believe God for these things. You're gonna stand on his fivefold blessing for the tithing. You're gonna do that? If you're gonna do that, say something to me. If you're gonna do that, you better make room. You better make room. Find a way to train them knuckleheads how to get ready. If you can't train 'em overtly, do it covertly. Sneak it up on 'em. Let 'em be in the room, let 'em hear you talking. Put 'em in a position to get ready to be blessed.
If you don't have children, get you some good covenant friends and put them around you. That's your volunteer staff. And put them all around you and start getting them ready to be blessed. Oh, 'cause you're gonna be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. Your uprising and downsitting. And you don't want anybody with you who doesn't have the mentality of a champion. So if you're gonna be my friend you've gotta grow with me or you gotta leave me alone. Hebrews 7:1 through 4. Go to Hebrews 7:1 through 4. Glory to God. I feel like I'm feeding something, glory to God. I feel like I'm feeding some dreams and stuff, feeding some gifts and talents and stuff. Something's about to happen in your life, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus.
Hebrews 7:1 through 4. This is what the writer of Hebrews says about what we just read in Genesis 14. He says: "For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all". Why do we keep seeing that "of all," and you keep tithing on the net? Hm, "To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all". Bring you all the tithes and offerings, and he paid tithes of all, "First being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; without father," talking about Melchisedec, "without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God". The writer seems to be implying that Melchisedec in the Old Testament is the theophonic representation of Jesus Christ. "Abideth a priest continually.
Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils". He goes on to say that Levi paid tithes to Melchisedec while when he was still in Abraham's loins. Now, let me break this down. Abraham had this dude named Isaac. And Isaac had this guy named Jacob. And Jacob had this boy named Levi. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, one, two, three, four. Four generations. Levi is still in the loins of Abraham. Wait a minute, let me break this down. Isaac is in the loins of Abraham, and Jacob is in the unborn loins of Isaac, and Levi is in the unborn loins of Jacob.
So Abraham has Isaac, his son, in his loins. And his son that hasn't been born yet has his son, Jacob, in his loins. And Jacob who is the grandson of Abraham has Levi who is the great-great-grandson of Abraham, while he's still in his loins. So this is Abraham's great-great-grandson, okay, in his loins. When Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedec, the writer of Hebrews says, Levi paid 'em too. Levi paid 'em too. That means Levi came out the womb, walking in the blessings of Abraham. "Say, Levi, how you gonna be blessed like this? Man, how can you be blessed like this"? He said, "Because my great-great-great-grandfather paid tithes to Melchisedec and I was in his loins. I hadn't even come out yet and because the blessing is for four generations and I'm the fourth generation I came out blessed through something that my great-great-grandfather did".
Now, this is a prayer I pray. I don't know whether you wanna pray it or not but I ask the Lord, "Bless me so good that after I'm dead my great-great-great-grandchildren will put my picture upon the mantel and say, 'Thank God for Paw-paw-po.'" See, I pray those advance prayers. I pray the kind of prayers that when I'm dead God will remember the covenant that we had between us even in my grave and that the fruit of my body would be blessed. You understand what I'm saying? That means I'm praying for kids, for grandkids, and great-great-grandkids that I haven't even met yet. Because I don't have room enough to receive what he said he was gonna do in my life. I'm praying for them. "Lord, get them ready so that they can step into the blessing".
Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying to you. If God gave Levi credit for paying tithes to Melchisedec while he was still in the loins of his father's father's father father, then God takes tithes seriously. And God says to Levi, when they're inheriting the Promised Land, he says to Levi, he says... well, first of all, let me go back a minute. Levi went through a time where Jacob tried to curse him 'cause he said, "Levi and Simeon were wild, cruel, instruments of cruelty because of what they did to the men of Shechem, when Dinah got pregnant, and he said, 'Because you were so cruel,'" he tried to curse him but the curse didn't work. The curse didn't work because Abraham had already paid tithes to Melchisedec so the curse didn't work.
And Levi got into trouble but the trouble didn't matter because when Moses come down off the mountaintop and said, "Who is on the Lord's side?" it was Levi that stood up and said, "We are on the Lord's side". And all of a sudden, the blessing that was in them from Abraham's loins began to manifest in their life. And then, just because somebody does something cruel or mean or bad, doesn't mean that ultimately they won't rise up and become who God called them to be and just in the nick of time, they rose up and said, "We are on the Lord's side". And God blessed them and God told all the rest of 'em, "You're gonna inherit different parts of the Promised Land but, Levi, you will not inherit with the rest of them parts of the Promised Land". He says, "Instead, you will inherit my house".
So the Levitical priesthood is born out of this premise. And he said, "Instead of having to go out and work the fields," he said, "because you have inherited my house, you will live off the tithes of them all". Am I in the Bible? And all of a sudden, Levi comes into supernatural blessings that bless the rest of his life without sweat, without tractors, without bulldozers. The harvest from all the tribes started coming toward Levi. How come Levi got that blessing? Isn't Levi the same guy that circumcised the men of Shechem and then killed 'em while they was trying to heal? Yeah, he did some stuff and when you get blessed, people will always bring up your past. And you gotta be tough enough to be controversial. They gon' always bring up. "I knew that he ain't so much. You know such and such". They are always gonna know something about you but if God has blessed you, don't let nothing that they bring up distract you from where God is getting ready to take you.