TD Jakes - The Promise Is Not Proportional
And Jesus said, "You failed at getting the victory because you lack the faith". You failed in the physical because of something you lacked in the spiritual. You didn't fail 'cause you didn't have passion. You didn't fail 'cause it wasn't the right thing. You didn't fail because you didn't have the energy. You failed because you didn't have the right perspective, the right faith, looking at it the right way. I failed in an area I could see because I didn't have something that I can't see.
Attitude, faith, perspective, posturing. "Oh, I believe God, child. Don't worry about that. I believe God. I believe God, yeah, absolutely". But if you hang around 'em long enough and listen at 'em talk long enough, you'll find that it's possible for your mouth to say something that your heart does not possess. I was going through something recently and it was really, really deep and really, really heavy and I expected to be really, really upset and really, really in a fog about it and then I won't say that I wasn't troubled at all but I was shocked at how little I was troubled.
I said, "That's not normal for you. This is the kind of thing that would trip you out and you would not sleep for days," and I'm in the bed asleep, waking up surprised. And it occurred to me that over the course of my life I have had so many experiences, I have been through so many things that what used to get me, what used to send me into a frenzy, what used to almost make me collapse and burst into tears, what used to make me doubt and fret, and fall out on the floor, what used to send me into a panic, I'm not saying I can't be sent there but, devil, it ain't as easy as it used to be.
Oh, bless his high name. Oh, it ain't as easy as it used to be. I've been through too much right now. I'm a little tougher than I used to be. I don't even know when I got it, I don't know where I got it, I don't know whether it was downloaded but something inside of me. Touch somebody and say, "I got a little bit of that". You don't run me home as quick as you used to. You don't make me doubt as quick as you used to. I don't burst into tears as easily as I used to. Touch somebody and say, "I got a little bit of that". I can take a licking and keep on ticking. I got a little bit of that. I'm not saying I don't have a breaking point, I'm not saying that don't nothing trouble me. But the things that got me five years ago don't get me like... whoo!
Oh, I need a 30-second praise brake from somebody in this room. Used to be, used to be if I loved you, used to be if you walked out on me, used to be if you divorced me, used to be if you fired me, used to be if I lost my house, used to be if I was backed up on my car, used to be I would have collapsed and died and fainted and wanted to slit my wrist but I got a little bit, just a little bit of something. So Jesus begins to teach a class and to teach the class he uses an illustration. He says, "If you had the faith as of a grain of mustard seed".
Listen, this is how potent faith is. Don't use a whole lot. You'll blow up the planet. It's concentrated. You gotta be careful how much you put on it because faith is so impactful that if you use too much you're gonna leave a crater in the earth but if it ain't nothing but a mountain you wanna move. Don't use a whole cup of faith, you'll tear up something. But if you have the faith as of a grain of a mustard seed, you can speak to this mountain.
Jesus has just come down off the mountain so the mountain is right in front of him. You can speak to the mountain that's right in front of you and say, "Be thou removed into the sea and do not doubt in your heart and it will get up and get". I wanna talk to you about the mountain that's right in front of you right now, that's standing right up in your face. And so what struck me was the contrast between the simplicity and the frailty and the smallness and the minuteness of the mustard seed which is one of the smallest seeds possible. A mustard seed is too small to grip in your hand. It can slip through the cracks of your fingers. It's so small that it's hard to hold it without it getting out from in between your fingers.
A mustard seed. There it is. Just that. Look at that and say, "I got a little bit". If you have the faith — That's all you need. Let me talk to the folks in the balcony. Where are my balcony believers? For the mountain that you're facing right now, that's all the faith you need. And I was struck with this potency of faith and the contrast between the size of the seed and the size of the mountain. How big and foreboding the mountain is, how long it took them to climb up the mountain, how the mountain blocks your view and stops your vision. 'Cause when you got a mountain in front of you, you can't see your future.
Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm saying. When you got a mountain in front of you, you can't see tomorrow. When you got a mountain in front of you, you think your life is not worth living. When you got a mountain in front of you, you can't see yourself beyond the mountain because the mountain blocks your view. But if you got a little bit, Jesus is saying, "The promise is not proportional". You don't have to have equivalency, as much faith as you have mountain. It doesn't have to be an equal fight.
You don't have to have a mountain of faith for a mountain of problems. The promise is not proportional. God doesn't weigh it the way you weigh it. He doesn't see it the way you see it. He doesn't do it the way you do it. He's not going by what you see. The mountain is what you see. And Jesus says, "If you have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, you can speak to mountains". Good God of mercy.
I feel that God wanted me to preach this because of the mountain that's in front of you right now. Now, I don't know what that mountain is. He didn't show me what that mountain is. I know that when Jesus is talking about mountains, he is not just talking about literal mountains. But whatever is standing up in your life, blocking your view, that you can't see around... oh, you all don't hear what I'm saying. That is your mountain. Somebody shout "Move".
See, 'cause if you're not careful, the mountain will take your voice. You'll just stand there and look at it. You'll just get depressed about it. You'll be suicidal about it. You'll be ready to blow your brains out about it but this morning we're gonna open our mouth and speak to stuff. Somebody shout at the top of your loud "Move"! Take me slow. Take me slow. The seed, the mustard seed, is not easily devalued. Not easily underestimated, that's what I wanna say. It shouldn't be underestimated. The mountain is what it is. Let me explain. The mountain has no growth potential, but the potential of the mustard seed is limitless. The mustard seed will produce a mustard plant that will produce more mustard seeds that will fill up an entire field that will fill up another field. It is absolutely limitless and, though it looks smaller than the mountain... somebody shout "Move"!
He's trying to explain to them why they fail. Maybe the demon showed off so bad that it intimidated you 'cause demons do show off. They make a lot of noise and carry on and foam and fall. "And often he falls in the water and often he falls in the fire". Repetition of the same thing. Whatever you're going through now you have gone through before. Satan can't create, he can only duplicate. So what you're facing right now reminds you of something you faced before. And Jesus says, "It is not who made the most noise, it's not who showed off the most, that won". He said, "You didn't win because of your faith".
I'm going deeper into this. You didn't win because of your faith. Sometimes our perception of being small comes from how we see ourselves. See, I've taught you this before but I'm gonna go through it again 'cause maybe somebody wasn't here when I taught it. I can see everything in the room. I can see the people in the balcony, I can see somebody walking in the back. I can see everybody moving. I can see the cameramen, I can see the cameras, I can see everything going on around me. I see my wife over there. I see everything in the room. I can see the carpet, I can see the steps, I can see the lights, I can see the doors. I can see everything in the room. But I can't see me. If I wanna see me, I gotta get a mirror or something to see me because my eyes are not designed so that they are positioned to see me. So, I can only imagine me. I can only image me. My imagination of me is based on the image in my head of me.
How do you see you? You see the mountain clearly. You see the mountain clearly. The mountain makes sure you see it. It has blocked your view of anything beyond it. Jesus is trying to teach us a lesson on small things, and sometimes our perception of being small comes from how we see ourselves.
Put Numbers 13:32-33 up for me and take a look at it. I think this will make it clear. "And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature". They big, y'all. They big. "And there we saw giants," there's big, y'all. "They're the sons of Anak," they're big, "which come out of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers".
And because of how we saw ourselves, because we saw ourselves as little insects and we saw them as giants, that's how they saw us. That's how they treated us. So sometimes, our smallness is imagined. Sometimes, our smallness is imaged, imaged on us. From where did we get those images from? Who told you, you were naked? Who told you, you were stupid? Who told you, you couldn't learn? Who told you, you couldn't do it? Who told you, you weren't attractive? Who told you nobody would want you? Who told you that you would never be loved? Who told you that you'd never make it? Who told you? Because whoever told you, that's who sketched you. Cause you can't see you.
So since I can't see me, all I can do is imagine me and if the wrong person through the image... Who sketched you? Other times we are, in fact, truly outnumbered. Sometimes I will admit you really are outnumbered. You're outnumbered. David said, "Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident". Sometimes, God will send you in to do something or to get something or to be something where he knows you are outnumbered because the promise is not proportional so he doesn't need you to have equivalency in order to be able to win. Are you all getting this?
See, what I'm really preaching about is a stupid blessing, a blessing that don't add up, that don't make sense. It's out of order, that has no equivalency. I need five people that got faith to find five people that got faith and say, "It's gonna be a stupid blessing". I mean, this is gonna be crazy. This is gonna be ridiculous. This is not gonna add up. It's not gonna make sense. It's gonna be out of time. It's gonna be off-schedule, at the wrong age, at the wrong stage, at the wrong place. Slap somebody and say, "I mean stupid".
Is there anybody in here that God's been talking to about a stupid blessing? C'mon, here, Preacher. Has God been telling you that he don't do something that... You looking at your wallet and you're looking at what God said and you say, "Lord, ain't no way you're gonna take this little bit". You're looking at yourself and you're saying, "Lord, ain't no way you gon'... tell your neighbor, "Don't worry about it. It's gonna be stupid. It's gonna be stupid". It's not gonna make sense. It's not gonna make sense. No need in testifying about it 'cause ain't nobody gonna believe it. It's gonna sound crazy. It's not gonna add up. It's not gonna be an equivalent that at this stage in your life that you would come into the best years of your life.