TD Jakes - Incubate Your Dreams
If men do not incubate, if they don't incubate in nature, if they don't incubate in the sea, if you don't see a species on the earth, the Bible says first the natural and then the spiritual, then what is God teaching us about you as a woman? You're an incubator. Touch somebody and say, "I'm an incubator". I'm not just talking about giving birth, because some of y'all don't want no more kids. You done had your kids, you don't wanna see no more kids, you pat your kids on the head and you run for the border. Some of you don't want no children at all. I'm not just trying to teach you how to incubate a baby, but I am trying to teach you how to incubate a business, incubate a ministry, incubate a brand, incubate success in your life, and be fulfilled in your life.
You are by nature an incubator. If God trusted you as an incubator, stop telling yourself that you can't incubate that ministry, that vision, that home for unwed mothers, that dream center, that thing that God has impregnated you with. He put it inside of you for you to incubate it. I don't know who I'm talking to, and you're frustrated because it hasn't happened yet, but after you've suffered a while... Touch somebody and tell 'em, "I'm an incubator". When you say, "I'm an incubator," it means I'm carrying something. There's something inside of me other than me. There's something inside of me more important than me. It means I gotta be careful what I eat. I gotta get a certain amount of rest. I can't play certain games with certain kinds of people, because I am an incubator. All the incubators in the house, make some noise.
Now I'm gonna give you a Scripture. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 14 and 15, take a look at this. We doing alright? "And the Lord God said unto his serpent," this is what God said to the serpent in the garden when all hell broke loose, and Satan had infiltrated the system. Oh, gosh, see, what Satan did when he came into the garden was throw a kink in the system. God is a God of systems. I won't talk about it tonight, because it's in the book, and you can get the book, and it's got more in it about it. God, when he set man in the garden, set him in a system. He didn't create the man until he had the system. He had created the moon to rule by night, the sun to rule by day, separated the firmament above from the firmament that were beneath, told the ocean to go here and no further, created dry land, created vegetation. God did not put man into a place that had no system.
So, the enemy knows in order to really penetrate the plan of God, he has to subvert the system. In the book, I talk about systems and structures. You need structures. I'll just say this out of it, there's more in the book, but I'll say this to you. When you are becoming more successful, you are becoming more stressful. Anybody know what it is to become more stressful? Stress does not mean that you cannot handle it, stress means that you need more structure. As the Lord adds more stress to your life, it is an indication that your success has succeeded your structure. Any time your success succeeds your structure, you have to stop succeeding and realign and add more structure to handle more weight.
Okay, I just throw that in for free, I didn't charge you for that. Anyway, let me read the Scripture. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, 'Because thou has done this, thou art cursed above cattle.'" Because you have messed with my system, I said everything that's... Oh, I wish I had real good time. I set everything in a system so I wouldn't have to do this again, and I sat down and rested. I started the system so complete that I'd never have to say, "Let there be," again. Everything I created, I created with the seed. Everything I created, I created with the seed inside of itself, so I would never have to say, "Let there be," again, because every time there was another generation to come forth, I am a God of system.
Time is a system, day is a system, night is a system, months are a system, weeks are a system. There are rotations and God is a God of rotation. He's a spinning God, he's a moving God, he's a rotating God. Glory to God, and everything that God created is spinning, because God is spinning, and time is spinning, and days are spinning. And that's why, if you open up your watch, your watch is spinning, because your watch is imitating God's solar system. God is a God of systems and structures.
And if you're about to crack and you're overloaded, you're about to pull your hair out, and you can't sleep at night, and things are getting on your nerves that's driving you crazy, it doesn't mean that the promise isn't yours, it means you need more structure. It means you're carrying too much on yourself. It means you're not reserving yourself for your highest and best use. It means you need to undergird yourself with structures and systems to accommodate this level of growth. That means that where you had three people, you need 12. Maybe where you had 12, you need 70.
The greater the challenge, the greater the system. I am not talking about surrounding yourself with groupies. Most people pick people who need you, not people who feed you. Because you tend to be so insecure that you are threatened by talented people, you got a bunch of people, but they're all go-fetch-its, and if everybody in your circle is somewhat less than you, how do they add to you? Now, so, he said to the serpent, "I want you to crawl on your belly all the days of your life, because you have done this. You messed with my system, you messed with my structure, you broke my rest, and I had entered into my rest," and now, the voice of the Lord has to walk through the cool of the garden and start putting things back in place. "Adam, where art thou"?
You moved out the system. Something in my system has moved out of place and it broke the Sabbath-day rest. And we don't hear God talking anymore about Sabbath until the book of Exodus, about 2,500 years later. God stopped talking about rest, because you can't rest in a system that's broken. Are you hearing what I'm saying? But this is what's cool about it. That wasn't what's cool about it. Here's what's cool about it. He says, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman," that's what God said to Satan.
This is the first, and I won't exhaust the messianic value of this text, but this is the first messianic prophecy in the Bible about the coming of Jesus, and it is given in the Book of Genesis chapter 3, verse 14 and 15, and it is given about the woman, but it is given to the serpent. The woman is standing next to him, in a minute, he's gonna talk to her, so he could have talked to her about her, but he told the devil, he said, "What I'm gonna send against you, to tear you up, is gonna come through the woman". And I will put an enmity between the woman and the serpent.
There will be a natural inclination in women to fight devils. I have said this for years, and it's true. I appreciate men, I'm not saying we can't get a prayer through, we absolutely can get a prayer through. The shadows of the apostles were falling on people, and they were getting healed, and there is a place in the kingdom for praying men, and the Bible talks about men lifting up holy hands without wrath or without doubt. "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much," and I appreciate all my praying men. But when I really get ready to get a breakthrough, I don't ask no man to pray for me, because men gonna pray about three minutes, and we gonna sit down.
"Bless him, Lord Jesus. Father, you know what he stands in need of, blessed God, and we want you to work it out today, in Jesus name". When you tell a woman to pray, you got a fight on your hand. Are there any praying sisters in this house? Make some noise. He says I will put enmity between the woman and the serpent. You have instincts. You sense stuff. You walk in the rooms and you feel stuff. You meet people. You don't have no evidence, you don't have no proof, but you know something is wrong with him. God warned the enemy, "Your worst nightmare is going to come from the woman". "And I will put enmity against the serpent and the woman, and against thy seed and her seed. And her seed shall bruise your head, and thou shall bruise his heel".
This is a messianic prophesy about Jesus Christ, but it is also a template for a woman, understanding that God says to the enemy, "Watch out for the incubator". Because an incubator, once they get to incubating, they'll take time, they won't get over it, they won't forget it. That's why you gotta be careful what you let get in your womb, because if you let unforgiveness, or pain, or unbelief get in your womb, whatever gets inside of you, you're gonna incubate it, and the enemy tries to plant all kinds of evil stuff. Because if it gets inside of you, you have a hard time getting it out. But Jesus said, "I come that you might have life".
These are the three stages of development. The first one is germination, the second one is gestation, the third one is manifestation. Germination is when a seed goes from stagnation to stimulation. The reason I wanna talk a minute about germination is, there are certain seeds in you of greatness that have been in a state of stagnation. Potentials that are there, but they're stagnant. It's like a seed on a shelf. It's there, but it's stagnant. But in germination, you have to take it from stagnation to stimulation, which means you have to change the environment. The seed will never become corn on the shelf. You have to put it in an environment of stimulation.
So, in germination, it's finding your stimulation place. I tell people about joining the church, "You should join a church that speaks to you". Not by the choir, not by the pew, not by the parking, you need to join a church that makes your baby leap. Uh-huh. That's your witness right there. That's your witness, somebody help her praise the Lord, just three minutes of crazy praise. Just three minutes of crazy praise. Just a breakthrough. Just a break, break, break. Just a break, break, break, break, breakthrough. Just a break, break, break, break, break. Just a break, break, break, break, break. I gotta stop. If I go too far, I'm gonna go over there and I won't get back. If I go over there, I won't get back.
Somebody shout, "Germination". Stage two is gestation. Gestation means it's alive, but it's under development. Certain things you hold back, not because you don't believe in it. Certain people I held back. Certain gifts I held back. Some of my children I held back, not because I didn't believe you, I believed in you, but I knew you were under development. And until gestation is complete, an early birth is dangerous. So, you're gonna go from germination to gestation. Gestation means it's alive, but it's under development. Number three, you're going into manifestation. I don't even have to explain manifestation. Developed from conceptualization to realization. From concept to realization. From idea to right in front of me. That's your goal, is to see on the outside what you saw on the inside.
Now, I'm gonna show you something. It's a lot more, but I'm gonna show you this in closing. There's a couple of things I want you to see. Put my acorn up. Put the acorn on the screen for me. I'm not gonna do that part, put the acorn up on the screen. I wanna see the acorn. If you got a acorn, if you don't have one, go get one, find one. Yeah, there it is. Don't no birds wanna lodge on it. Don't no foxes wanna hide under it. Don't no rabbits wanna build up under it. Don't no squirrels wanna climb it, because it's an acorn. Put a oak tree up there. Everything that is in the oak tree is in the acorn. The acorn is just gestation, the tree, put it back, is manifestation. The Lord told me that you were gonna come in here with some acorns, but there's some tress inside of you. And they might not wanna lodge up under you right now, but before this thing is over, your branches are gonna come out in every direction.
I wanna show you this. I wanna show you this. See, the acorn is the tree concealed. The acorn is the tree concealed. The oak tree is the tree revealed. Everything I am, I was. Everything I am, I was. It might have been in seed form, but it was there all the time. You can't bring nothing out of somebody that's not in 'em. I can't turn you into nothing that you wasn't already. If you wasn't great in the first place, I cannot make you great. My stage won't make you great, my friendship won't make you great, my favor won't make you great. All I can do is pull out of you...
Put my first church up on the board, I wanna show you something and I'll be done. That's my first church I owned in a place called Smithers, West Virginia. I pastored in Montgomery, but this is the first place we ever bought. This is the Temple of Faith. My sister over there laughing, 'cause she remember it. This is Corelli's Grocery Store over here, got the best bologna in the world. This is the Temple of Faith. This is my church. I put that brick on that wall. I ordered that stained-glass window that's up in those windows right there. I had that cross put on top of there, and the aluminum that's wrapped around it. I remember the stained glass when we put it in the window right here.
This is my church. This is the Temple of Faith. This is The Potter's House. Y'all don't hear me. Is there anybody up in the balcony that hears me? Is there somebody in the overflow, in the pink pavilion, somebody, somewhere? I know you don't recognize it, but this, this is The Potter's House. I taught "The Tabernacle" in here. I wasn't despising it, I wasn't hating it, I wasn't feeling bad about it, I was proud about it. I was honored to be the pastor. I had to drive an hour and 20 just to get to the church after I got off work. Y'all wasn't coming then. No birds in my branches, no fox at my roots, no squirrels climbing up my tree. "Despise not the day of small beginnings," this is... If I didn't survive this...
This is the church I fell through the floor in because the wood was so rotten. This is the church a tree was growing in. This is the church that was condemned by the city. This is the church I bought for $36,000. This is the church where I got my first loan in. This is the church where I built the bathroom stalls in, me and Serita. This is the church that I had pictures of First Lady on a ladder in a pair of coveralls with paint all over her clothes and in her hair, helping me paint.
That's why you get to wear the diamonds now. That's why you get to wear the stilettos, that's why you get to wear the jewelry. If you suffer with me... Last night, she went out, she had on stilettos and a chinchilla. She earned that chinchilla, baby. She earned that chinchilla with paintbrushes, and climbing up on ladders. After you've suffered a while, the Bible said I'll establish you.
Slap somebody and say, "Don't you give up on your dream". Your acorn has got an oak tree in it. Your small beginning has a possibility in it. I couldn't have got 300 people in that church if they were anorexic, but you don't wait 'til you get big to get great. An acorn is an oak tree when it's being stepped on, when people are walking over top of it. It still is what it is. Slap your neighbor and say, "It is what it is".