TD Jakes - A Billionaire Anointing
This woman that I'm talking to now who was typing letters as a secretary in the bank, leaped over into fashion and I kind of get that because your mother was in textiles, you grew up around business, you understood that, and the fashion seems like a natural progression of where you already were, but oil? To make the leap from oil and you're trying to get into this business, you pray to God, and you say, "Lord". First of all, most people would have been happy to be successful in fashion, okay? You never stop evolving and recreating yourself.
There are several things that I want you to get out of this. She's putting together a deal that includes a lot of different partnerships that coalesce around an idea and almost like trying to open up a code to a lock, you turn it this way and it didn't open, and you turn it that way and it didn't open, and you have to turn it back that way. Sometimes you have to reconfigure the deal over and over and over and over again before it clicks and the door opens up for you. Just because you're turning it and it doesn't click doesn't mean that you can't do it. You have to reconfigure the deal. You have to change the partners and what she is saying, she had her team around her, she is now going to the government to pitch the deal but the person in control every time she went it was a different person.
So she had to start all the way over and come all the way up through the process again with the new person. And just before the door opens, they get moved out of office or something happens to them and now you got a new person who doesn't know you at all and you got to go all the way back down and start, that's what she's telling you. And through all of that, didn't quit.
When you did get there and, if I read correctly, the company you ended up doing business with was Chevron and you did this deal with Chevron and you bought this particular piece of land which was off the shores of Nigeria, in the middle of water, is that right? Off the shores of Nigeria in the middle of the water. Something that they thought was worthless. To me, this is where divine favor comes in because a piece of land in the middle of the water could be the dumbest move you ever made in all of your life because you can't build apartments on it, you can't put a highway on it, you can't do anything except maybe catch fish in it. If it doesn't have oil, you're lost. What made you take the deal? Folorunso Alakija: I didn't think I would have anything to lose. I mean, I'm a fashion designer, right? And look at the weight of one kind of business against the other. Do you get what I mean?
Bishop Jakes: I get it.
Folorunso: So, it took three years to get that license. I see a lot of threes around me. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three oil ministers, took three years, I had to apply three times, and when it eventually came, and I'd actually listed quite a few oil blocks in my applications but the one that I got ended up being the one nobody wanted.
Bishop Jakes: The one that nobody wanted.
Folorunso: The one nobody wanted. But I felt, "What's there to lose? Let me try. Let me see what I can do with this". And it took three years to get technical partners again because the first technical partner, when they found out that it was deep offshore, they developed cold feet and he said, "No, no, no. You can't do this". Number one, technology had not reached that water depth. It was 5000 feet deep in water. How you gonna explore that? It's bad enough exploring on land. How much more in water? And it was too expensive to explore because as soon as I looked at the layout of all the oil blocks and where we were, I mean, the most sensible thing to do is to go to your next door neighbor and go and ask them first, "Would you like to be our technical partners? I mean, since we're next door neighbors we'll have so much in common and we'll be able to reduce our expenses to explore and exploit". And they go, "Oh, you know what? We were allocated that block some years back. We gave it back. We gave it back for this reason, that reason, that reason". And I said, "Oh, my God. So it's looking as if this license isn't worth more than the paper it's written on". So I said, "Okay, never mind. I've still got it. I'm gonna go round to as many companies as I can," and it took three years before Texaco came knocking, yes.
Bishop Jakes: Wow, it took three years.
Folorunso: They themselves came knocking. They came knocking and it took three months to negotiate. You know, women are great negotiators. We spent three months negotiating the deal before we could sign a contract. But as soon as we signed the contract and, you know...
Bishop Jakes: This is a good part.
Folorunso: The work started. The work started. In no time at all there was an announcement by Texaco that they had struck oil in commercial quantity. It's one thing to strike oil, it's another thing to strike it in commercial quantity. If it's not in commercial quantity, it may not be worth carrying on, because if it's too expensive, you can't make any profit from it, just forget it. Just walk away.
Bishop Jakes: So you hit a gusher.
Folorunso: Pardon?
Bishop Jakes: You hit a gusher.
Folorunso: Yeah.
Bishop Jakes: Yeah, this is just shooting up out of the sea. The worst piece of property that nobody wanted. It kind of sound like the stone that the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone.
Folorunso: That's what I always say, that the stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
Bishop Jakes: My God, my God, this is amazing. When you hit oil and all of this exploded, you still had to fight because then, they didn't wanna give you the proper share and control. Was it government or somebody came in?
Folorunso: Shortly after that, the government came in. They said they were gonna "take" in layman's terms, 50% of our 60% because we had contracted out 40% because we had 100%. We had the license. The license represented 100%, right? But we needed technical partners and we needed technical partners who could provide the money as well. We didn't have the money.
Bishop Jakes: So their part of the deal was 40%?
Folorunso: So their part of the deal was 40%.
Bishop Jakes: So you got 60%. I'm following you. Let's go.
Folorunso: The government came, took 40% from our 60, came back shortly after that, took another 10% which makes 50 out of the 60, leaving us with 10%. And it was, like, "Wait a minute, how's that gonna be? You can't just come and take. You have to pay compensation". Their idea was, "We issued the license. We own all the blocks. We gave you the license". Now, it was a sole risk. Sole risk indigenous oil block, meaning if you find anything, good for you. But we'll come in. If you don't find anything, you lose all your money. You're on your own. So you go home and lick your wounds. And we had put in all our life savings into this because there were sums that we had to pay. The larger amounts that we couldn't afford to pay, when Texaco came in, they paid that and then we could start working on the block. You understand?
Bishop Jakes: I get you.
Folorunso: Right, so...
Bishop Jakes: Wait. Wait one second. This is what I want you to see. There's somebody in this room that's in a battle, a legal battle for some finances and some area in your life that you keep hitting a dead end on and you're in a fight and you're discouraged and you feel outgunned. And there's something that you ought to receive, whether it's inheritance or property or business-related that's tied up and you're in a battle right now. And every time you try to make a step forward, the door keeps closing in your face. Of every seminar, this is your seminar. God sent this woman to say to you, "Don't give up, don't give in. Fight for your stuff. Who is she? Stand up, I wanna see you".
What you need to do with this seminar is when you go back home, call a meeting, reconfigure the deal, fight it another way. If you can't come up the east side, come up the west side. If you can't get up the west side, come up the north side. But God sent this woman all the way from Nigeria to tell you: "You'll win if you don't quit". Yeah, yeah. This is why we're having this session. It's not enough to spin around and holler "Jesus" three times. You can get some information from people like this that renews your fight to go after your stuff or your mother's stuff or your grandfather's stuff or that property that's in rebate, or it's tied up in court or the paperwork's not right or the lawyer ran off with the money or the contractor didn't finish the house. Don't let that devil have your house. Get your... slap your sister and say, "I'm taking it back".
Bishop Jakes: The leaping in your belly is a sign that something just woke up in you. Something that everybody thought was dead has come to life in you. Well, get ready 'cause you're getting ready to scatter. You're getting ready to scatter in the mission field,
Bishop Jakes: One of the things that people don't understand, that they really don't understand, when people see people who are as successful as you, who have your own plane and your own company and your own resources and is a billionaire and a woman and still relatively young to be a billionaire and have accomplished as much as you have, they don't think you had no struggles. They think you had it easy. They think you got it made. They become haters. They think that you got it made and that you didn't go through anything. Is there warfare at the top?
Folorunso: There was warfare right from the beginning. I was doing 40-day fasts even before I got the license, oh yeah. Forty-day fasts, one after the other, oh yes.
Bishop Jakes: There's warfare.
Folorunso: Warfare, warfare. Otherwise you can't move forward. That's why it has to be both. I mean, you can't just sit there, praying and wishing and saying, "Oh, God is there. He'll do it", and sit back. No way.
Bishop Jakes: No way.
Folorunso: No, it's not enough. You have to do something. You have to get going. You have to get up and put everything into it, to make it work.
Bishop Jakes: Yeah, oh God, I'm about to shout myself. Oh God, I wanna shout myself.
Folorunso: Faith without works is dead. Oh, I had to put all the ingredients had to go into it to make it work. And then after you got the license and the government came in and they said, "Right, we're taking". And we say, "Uh-uh, hang on a minute. You can't just take. Do you know what it cost us to get to this stage? You can't just come and take and walk away just because you're government, no". So we were gonna go in for a fight. So we decided to go to court and it took 12 years.
Bishop Jakes: It took 12 years.
Folorunso: Twelve years.
Bishop Jakes: Like the woman with the issue of blood, it took 12 years. It took 12 years. We just heard this morning about the woman with the issue of blood. Touch somebody and say, "It may take 12 years". But how did it end?
Folorunso: We won.
Bishop Jakes: We won.
Folorunso: We won.
Bishop Jakes: There's so much. I mean, I haven't even scraped the surface. There is so much. I got six minutes left. I haven't even scraped the surface. We haven't even begun to talk about the things that we can talk about. There's so much for us to learn, particularly African Americans, that we could learn not only from the business acumen and an awareness of things about our culture, an awareness about Africa in general, awareness about things that you might take for granted, are absolutely amazing to us. We have to get you back to talk about some more, so. How many people have enjoyed her so far? If you enjoyed her, show how you enjoyed her.
Now, Mrs. Alakija, I'm gonna put you on the spot for a minute. This is what I want. Every woman in here who's got guts, who's got big, ridiculous, crazy dreams, who may be in a fight, a legal fight, a battle for what is rightfully yours, every woman in here who's going after a big deal and it looks like the odds are against you, see, there are levels. The Bible says: "God'll take you from faith to faith and from glory to glory". Everybody doesn't need this kind of glory 'cause that's not their story. But there are a few women in this room that are in a big fight that it feels like you're over your head and the odds are all against you and you came to this conference and just expecting some... I want Mrs. Alakija to pray for those women who are gonna have to fight to get what's rightfully yours.
I don't have time for you to go into a trance. I want you to run down here for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for her to just pray. Just stay right there. Just pray over something that you're trying to land, that when you get back home, you expect something to happen in your life and you're willing to fight for it. It's gonna take as long as it takes. You may have to reconfigure the deal. You may have to go back to square what? Zero, to get the breakthrough that you're gonna get, but you mean business. There are certain levels. I want you to get this good now. All of us wanna be blessed, but this is not for everybody. There are certain levels that only certain types of people can pray for you for. If you're fighting devils in a trailer, you can't help me fight devils in a penthouse. You need somebody on the level of the fight you're going through to decree and declare what is rightfully yours. Am I right about it?
Now, I've been talking to the businesswoman. I've been talking to the businesswoman. The businesswoman, Mrs. Alakija. Now I'm gonna talk to the preacher woman, Mrs. Alakija. I want you to stand up and declare a word over these women. It's the difference between somebody praying for you from Starbucks and it's another different from somebody with a billionaire anointing. See, I don't have that. I'm good for a mill or two but this a woman, like you, with a billionaire anointing who fought for a breakthrough. If you're streaming online, you need to line yourself up with this opportunity where whatever God says to you to say or do, just do that.
Folorunso: In Jesus's name, in the mighty name of Jesus, Father, I just thank you for giving your children a name and a place in the land of the living. I thank you for their lives. I thank you for watching over them. I thank you for being with them on a daily basis. I thank you for going in and out with them.
I thank you, Father Lord God, because they look up to you. They don't look unto others, Father Lord God, because you are the Alpha, you are the Omega, and they see you in their lives. Father Lord God, I thank you for that which you have done for me, for my family. I thank you, Father, for how far you have brought me. I thank you, Father Lord God, for all you have done in me, with me, and through me. I thank you for the opportunity to be able to bless your children today. If you're the one who has blessed me, if you're the one who has brought me this far, if you're the one who has gone ahead of me and made every crooked path straight, if you're the one who has helped me, in all the battles that you have helped me to fight and win, Father Lord God, all these ones that have come out now, Father Lord God, they are waiting for you to help them in their battles.
Father, let them win those battles in the name of Jesus. Whatever kind of battle that they're fighting, Father, you know, Lord, as their faces differ, so their needs differ, so their battles are all different. Father Lord God, step into their boat. Father, step into their boat. I said, "Step into their boat". Make a way for them, O Lord God. Let peace be still in their lives, in their situations, in their businesses, in those contracts, whatever it is that they're seeking your face for. Father Lord God, in your might and in your power and in your glory, and do a new thing in their lives. Do that which only you can do. Do that which only you do best. Put a new step in their dance. Put a new dance in their step. Make a way for your children, O Lord God. Let them be winners. Don't let them be losers. Let them be victors. Don't let them be victims, in the name of Jesus.
That which you have started, Father, complete it for them, O Lord God. Father, make them win in every area of their lives, whatever it is that they're battling, that they're struggling with. Father, make a way for them. Put testimonies in their mouth in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, you are the one who has lifted me up. Lift up your children. You are the one who has blessed me. Bless your children. You are the one who has prospered the work of my hands. Prosper the work of their hands. Father Lord God, envelope them in your bosom, O Lord God. Draw them closer to yourself. Make a way for them where there seems to be no way.
Do a new thing in their lives. Father, glorify yourself. Do a new thing, O Lord God. Make a way for them, O Lord God. Put testimonies in their mouths, O Lord God. Glorify yourself. Put the enemy to shame. Edify your children now and forevermore. Father, if you are the one who made me this billionaire, there'll be many more billionaires amongst us in the name of Jesus. Billionaires, trillionaires, you are the one who made a way for me. Make a way for your children in the name of Jesus. Remove the struggles, O Lord God. Remove the chains, O Lord God. Father, do a new thing in their lives. Glorify yourself, Father, now and forevermore, for in Jesus's mighty name we have prayed, amen. And the people said, "Amen". And the people said, "Amen". Thank you, Lord. In Jesus's mighty name we have prayed, amen. Give the Lord a clap offering.
Bishop Jakes: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Folorunso: Thank you, Father Lord God.
Bishop Jakes: Yes, if you receive it, you ought to just stop and praise God right where you are. Right where you are. Glory to God. For what God called you to do, for what God called you to be, for what God called you to build, for what God called you to have. Why can't the children of God be blessed? Why is it right for everybody to be blessed but us? The devil is a liar. The devil is a liar. The devil is a liar. Why can't we be the head and not the tail? Why can't we be more than conquerors? What's wrong with us? If he can bless you, he can bless me, too. Oh, take three minutes and give God praise in this house!