TD Jakes - Bridges to Destiny
I don't believe that David was out there taking care of sheep, saying, "You know, I don't have no business out here. I should be king. They need to acknowledge who I am. They need to recognize". It was not self-promotion. It was not self-aggrandizement. He had no idea that his destiny was going to be what it ended up being. I can be honest, I would have been shocked to know that I would end up here. I didn't plan to be here. I didn't expect to be here. I didn't feel like I deserved to be here. I would... oh no, but a rock and a rhythm, a rock and a rhythm, a rock and a rhythm. I'm telling you this because some of the things you thought were gonna happen in your life are not gonna happen in your life, because it was witchcraft in your life trying to control the outcome of your life. And some of the things that you never expected to receive in all of your life, God has in store for you.
Let me get down, 'cause I gotta prove it. I feel you kinda listening at me, I'm gonna break it on down. God said your eyes have not seen, your ears have not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God has in store for you. So, it's not what you conjured up, it's not what you tried to make happen, it's not why you tried to manipulate people, and tried to get your daughter to marry my son, and your son to marry my daughter. Stop the witchcraft, get out of the way, your eyes have not seen, your ears have not heard, neither has entered into your heart the things that God has in store for them that love him. It's just gonna happen because you're the son of Jesse.
Number one providence, because you're the son of Jesse. I didn't just start working on this when you got here. I sent your great, great grandmother Naomi to Moab. I designed for Naomi to lose her son. I meant for her to lose her son, both of them, and her husband, so that in bitterness, she would give up on Moab and move back to Bethlehem. And her grieving daughter-in-law would follow her home. Orpha didn't go, because she wasn't in the plan. Oh, I love preaching to you, 'cause you get it. You get it so quick. You understand that all that left you couldn't stay, and all that stayed, couldn't leave. Because God doesn't just start setting it up when you start praying, before you have any idea what is going on, oh God, do you hear...
Naomi had no idea that she was being blessed while she was being broken. That her grieving, broken heart, and the bitterness in her spirit was a part of a greater thing. That God meant for her to be hurt. He meant for her to give up on Moab. He meant for her to move out of her house. He meant for her to feel dejected and rejected and go home. He meant for Orpha to say, "I'm not going with you". He meant for Ruth to fall so in love with her that she couldn't leave her, and Ruth said, "Thy God shall be my God and thy people shall be my people. And where thou dwellest I will dwell, and where thou dieth, I shall die". That kind of love doesn't just happen, it's a setup. And so, God is setting up the stage. He lets us know this is the criteria for the king's selection. You are the son of Jesse. I didn't just start this with you. This did not begin with you, this started before you got here. This started before your grandmother met your grandfather. God was getting you ready for what's about to happen in your life. Do you understand what I'm saying? It didn't just start with you.
Number two, he says I found a man that is after my heart. I found a man that is after my heart. Now, there has been a lot of confusion about this Scripture, because people say, "How could David be after God's heart because David had some issues"? I mean, I'm not trying to castigate him, or run his name down, but David had some issues. And church people don't understand this, but everybody who I've ever met who was greatly gifted or greatly anointed was also greatly conflicted.
People don't tell you stuff like that, 'cause that don't sound good, but that's how it is. They're greatly conflicted. It's never a straight line. In writing novels about character development, they teach you to never write a character that's all good or all bad, because it's not a reflection of reality. Good people have bad issues, bad people have good sides. "I don't understand how she could stay with him". His good side. Stop thinking that there are good people and bad people, they're just people. They're just people. They're just people. They're just people. They're just people. And when God, one day God says, "I found a man after my own heart," people freak out because the man that he found that was after his own heart ended up sleeping with Uriah's wife.
The man who was after God's own heart slept with Uriah's wife. The man who was after God's own heart killed Uriah. Set him up and had him murdered, and it just burns your religious ears to hear that God could love somebody so nasty. But I don't know why it burns your ears, because he loves you. He loved your little filthy self. I don't understand why you need to read it in the Greek and the Hebrew. I don't understand why you got grace for your situation and no grace for mine. I just don't understand it. It just confuses me. And he didn't stumble into God, God searched him out. I have found me a man who is after my heart, and besides, the text doesn't mean that David is a pattern of God's heart.
First of all, it implies to us that David has God's rhythm. He got a beat like mine. He's passionate like me. I have found a man who is after my heart. He's chasing my heart. I found a man who's writing me poetry and singing me songs on the mountaintops. I found a man who's dating me and dancing on the hills. See, David would be up in the hills and in the mountaintop, "Thou art my God I love you, Lord I bless your name". And God said, "I found him, he's after me. He's chasing me. He's wooing me. He's flirting with me. He keeps saying sweet stuff to me. I have found a man who is after my heart. I'm gonna make him king because he praises me. He won't stop blessing my name. He won't stop lifting me up. He won't stop giving me the glory. I have found a man who is after my heart". That's why you don't want to be a stiff-necked brother who won't open his mouth, or clap his hands, or praise the Lord, because if you are after God's heart, he will promote you, not because of your degree, but because you are after his heart. Let me go on.
The third thing God says, he will do whatever I want him to do. I chose him because he won't fight me. I chose him because he won't fight me. I chose him because he'll obey me. I chose him because he'll submit to me. He will do whatever I want him to do. I can send him anywhere. I can do anything in his life. I chose him because he's pliable in my hands. I chose him because he's clay. I'm the potter, he's the clay. I can shape him. I can break him. He will do whatever I want him to do. Somebody throw your hands up and say, "I'll do it". When he called me to preach, I told him, I said, "Lord, you can find people that are more able, but you will find nobody more willing".
I told him that 40 years ago, I said, "I'm willing, I'm just willing. I'm not able, I'm willing. I don't know why you want me, but I'm willing. I'm not qualified, but I'm willing," and I said, "If you'll give me your able, I'll give you my willing". It's bad to be stubborn. You miss opportunities being stubborn. You get passed over being stubborn. Why should God wrestle with you to get you to do something that she will just do? And then, you become a hater of her, because she's doing what you could have done, but you were too stubborn. You was a strong women. No, you was a stupid woman. You missed an opportunity to step into your destiny. Sometimes being tough is not a blessing. Sometimes being tough is not a blessing. He said I made David king because he'll obey me.
Number four, I made him king because he's got Jesus in his legacy. This is what I want you to get. When I move David from the sheepfold to the palace, I move Jesus. See, Jesus is David's great, great, great, great, great, great grandchild, and even though Jesus was born in a barn, his destiny wasn't to be sheep. David moved from the sheep field into the palace, so that when Jesus said, "I am the Son of David," it would have a royal ring to it. He moved the whole family to the throne to start a dynasty for a child David had never met. You with me? You with me?
Now, now, I want you to see this. You cannot bridge where you are into where you're supposed to be without finding your battle. You're battle is your bridge. It wasn't that David attended the right parties, it wasn't that he had the right business cards, it wasn't that he went out and got him a Brioni suit that he couldn't pay for, so he'd look like something that he wasn't, what got him promoted was his battle. Your battle is your bridge. It's not your friends that bless you, it's your haters. It's your haters that bless you. It's Goliath that blessed David. Goliath created a platform for him.
In fact, when God got ready to reveal David, he sent Goliath. Goliath is the enemy that David's destiny had been waiting on. Something big enough to fight. Something bad enough to fight. Something that you had to fight in front of everybody. This isn't a secret battle, this is a public fight. This is a dog fight and everybody's talking about you, and everybody can see you. Oh, Goliath, they would have never been talking about David if it wasn't for Goliath. Before the day was over, everybody was talking about David because of Goliath. God will use your enemies as a footstool.
So, if you push all your enemies away, you're pushing your destiny away, because every David needs a Goliath. The bridge to your destiny is going to come through your enemy. You'll know you're ready for the next stage when Goliath comes. Goliath is the usher to the next dimension. When you find your Goliath, you're gonna step into your kingdom. And here comes David down there to the battlefield with inadequate equipment. He doesn't have everything he needs, because Goliath does. All David had was a rock. Now, he needed a sword, he didn't have a sword. Saul tried to give him a sword, he wouldn't take Saul's sword. He ran down there with nothing but a rock. He threw what he had, even though it wasn't enough. It was enough to get it started.
You might not have enough money to pay it off. See, you gotta be a little bit crazy to catch the rhythm of God, to get in his pace. I threw what I had at this building. Timberland, I threw what I had at this building. It wasn't enough. No banks would give us no money. I threw what I had, a few million dollars. I threw it at the building, we dug out the foundation, got everything ready, and all the banks that were talking to us said no. And I drove past it every week and told God, "I ain't worried about it". I drove right past, I told him, I said, "Listen, I don't need that building, I don't have but five kids. You need that building, so you're gonna have to pay for it. If you don't pay for it, I'm gonna turn it into a swimming pool. I'm not gonna worry about it".
The battle is not mine, it belongs to God. I threw what I had. Y'all don't hear what I'm saying. I threw what I had at it. I got on the phone, and I started calling some friends of mine in high places, and they start calling the presidents of the banks, and the same Goliath that said I couldn't have the money, now they all fighting over who's gonna give me the money. So, I was able to finish building. I can't even remember what this building was, about $83 million building with somebody else's money. You gonna use somebody else's sword.
To those of you who don't realize it, David knocked him down with the rock, but he cut his head off with his own sword. He cut Goliath's head off with Goliath's sword. If you throw your rock, you can finish it up with your enemy's sword. Do y'all hear what I'm saying to you? Touch your neighbor and say, "Goliath is holding your sword". Stop running from him. Stop running from him. You're gonna kill your enemy with his own sword, okay? Can I go a little bit deeper? I'm ready to go deeper.
My next point I wanna show you is, theocracy trumps democracy. Theocracy trumps democracy. Nobody believed in David. Nobody supported David. Nobody voted for David. Nobody suspected that he was the one. You don't need everybody's consensus to underwrite your next move. Stop calling everybody to get them on your side, to do what you're trying to do. Theocracy always trumps democracy. If God says you can do it, you can do it. If God says you can have it, you can have it. If God says you can build it, you can build it. If God says you can make it, you can make it. It doesn't matter what your mama said, what Aunt Chris said, what Uncle Richie said, what Bro said, what Sis said, what your neighbor said. You don't need democracy, you need theocracy. If God be for you, he's more than the world against you. The only person that believed in David was God. Stop running around trying to get people to believe in you. You're fighting the wrong battle. You don't need to convince them that you're able. This is between you and God.
Now, I want you to get this, because this is important. The soldiers didn't believe in him. The king didn't believe in him. His brothers didn't believe in him. His father didn't even like him. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and saying, "If my father liked me, and then my mother would support me, and if my sister didn't do what she did, I'd have been someone". Shut up, that's an excuse. They have nothing to do with it.
I can't tell you how many people got successful with nasty mamas. I can't tell you how many people got successful with drunk daddies. I can't tell you how many people was abused and molested and still became king. Get rid of your excuse, that is not the problem. You don't need democracy. You don't need everything lining up in order for you to win. There are people in this room that succeeded though they were hated. In fact, every person who has succeeded in some area of your life, though you were hated, holler at your boy right now. All of these people are testimonies that the odds can be against you, but if God is for you, you can still succeed.