TD Jakes - Hearing While You're Hurting
What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Let me see, let me see. Let me see what I'm gonna do. What am I gonna do? I guess I have to, let me see. What am I gonna do? I gotta go, and kids still gotta go to school. This still gotta... what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And you're really buffering. And while you're buffering, the enemy is laughing because he's stealing. He comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He's stealing days out of your life.
What attracted me to the text... put my text back up on the screen for a minute. My special text that I underlined. What attracted me, the Bible says, "While Joseph was buffering", yeah, yeah, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him". And when I first read it, I thought the angel appeared to him while he was buffering and awake, but when I went back and looked at it, Senator, I realized that the angel couldn't talk to him while he was awake because he was in so much pain.
There is a level of pain where you can't reason with people and they can't hear you because all their brain is saying, "What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do"? So, so God didn't wait. God didn't try to talk to him til he could bypass his understanding. He waited til he was asleep and he appeared unto him in a dream. I call it pillow talk. It's really, see, Joseph had gone through a period of what we could categorize as sensual thinking. Sensual thinking is when you're thinking out of your senses, thinking out of what's happening around you, responding in your thinking to your circumstances.
Sensual thinking. Sounds good doesn't it? Sounds sexy. Sensual thinking. Oh yeah, but sensual thinking isn't necessarily sexy thinking. Sensual thinking is when you're thinking the same thing over, and over, and over again, and you're worried. When you're worried, when you're worried, you're thinking the same thing over and over again without conclusion. Sensual thinking. Joseph was engaged in sensual thinking, and God was engaged in pillow talk. Pillow talk is when God speaks through a dream, because you can't hear when you're awake. You can't hear.
And the fact that the angel appeared unto Joseph in a dream really got to me. It got to me because the angel gives him the most important word by bypassing his understanding. Because you could understand wrong. It's a terrible thing to be misunderstood. That's a pain all by itself to have to live with what somebody thinks about you and they don't get you. Yeah, you right about what I did, but you're wrong about why. Yeah, I'm pregnant, but you misunderstand why. Yeah, I'm leaving, but you misunderstand why. Yeah, I hurt you, but you misunderstand. You don't know what it's like to be me.
That makes you lonely in a crowd. You have a lot of people around you, but if they don't understand what it's like to be you, you still by yourself. It don't matter whether they come over or don't come over. It really are make any difference 'cause I'm still alone anyway, because you don't get it. I get so much out of just being understood. Sometimes you don't even have to fix it, just understand it. Joseph's understanding was off. And you must realize that the truth that you stand under — understanding, stand under — affects how you stand. And the Bible teaches us really, really clearly, "Lean not unto thine own understanding".
And Joseph was leaning to his own understanding, and when he leaned to his own understanding, his whole plan was built around his understanding. And you can't plan around your understanding, because you know what happened but you don't know why. And why affects your decision. "Lean not unto thine own understanding". So when God gets ready to get to him, he has to challenge Joseph's understanding. You know the Scripture says, "There is a peace", Philippians 4:5-7, yeah, yeah, yeah. First of all, it says, "Let your moderation be made known unto all men. The Lord is at hand".
I love that Scripture. I won't get into it much now, but it tells you moderation. Yeah, being mature is being moderate, not going to either extremes. You'd be surprised what you could do in Moderation. Some things God doesn't let you do because you don't know how to moderate it. You're gonna go to extremes. "Let your moderation be made known unto all men. The Lord is at hand". Come on. "Be careful for nothing". Don't be upset. Don't buffer for nothing. Don't buffer for no thing. "Be careful for no thing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving".
Now, and I know I got a problem 'cause you told me be careful for nothing, and you wouldn't have told me that if something wasn't wrong. So, you told me not to worry about what's wrong, but in everything by prayer and supplication. You want me to be thankful while something's wrong? Yeah. "Let your requests be made known unto God". "Cast your cares on me. This is too much for you. Turn it over to me. You can't handle this. Turn it over to me".
Let your requests be made known unto God. You go to church, but you don't pray. You go to church, but you don't pray. You're trying to be a mother without prayer? You trying to fix your wife without praying? You're trying to be a wife without prayer? Let your requests be made known unto God. You wonder why you don't have no peace? Peace don't come from dancing. Peace comes from prayer. See, we can't do like we used to do because we don't have the kind of church we used to have. We have a church now that only comes to church based on who's speaking.
I'll be honest, I confess I was afraid to have revival that we just had to November because I was afraid you wouldn't come because I know that I live in an age that's different from the age I started from. Whether people come or not depends on who's speaking. We used to come to church and nobody was speaking. We used to have this old thing we don't have now called prayer meeting, and nobody was speaking at all, and the church would be packed, and everybody'd be on their knees praying. "Let your requests be made known unto all men, for the Lord is at hand". And give them a verse, "And the peace of God". And the peace. And the peace, "Joy to the world". And the peace of God. And the peace of God. And the peace of God. And the peace of God.
I don't think you hear me. Not your peace, not your mama's peace, not your peace 'cause you got all your Christmas toys, not your peace 'cause you're out of debt and out of credit, not your peace 'cause you're dressed up and you look nice. The peace of... I was grieving, and I was grieving, and I was preaching, and I was grieving. And I was on stage and I was preaching. And I was doing crusades and I was preaching. And I was traveling and I was preaching. And I was grieving and things still had to be done. You gotta do what you gotta do. That's it, if my mother did teach me nothing else, it was discipline. You gotta do what ya gotta do.
So I did like she taught me. I stood up to it. I stood up to her being sick. I stood up to it. I stood up to her losing her voice and not being able to talk. I stood up to it. I stood up to it when she couldn't tell me from my brother. I stood up to it. I stood up to her losing weight, and I stood up to her holding her food in her mouth for hours, and I stood up to it. And I stood up to it. And I stood up to it. All the doctors in, and I stood up to it. I stood up to the hospital and the nurses. I stood up to sitting her on the toilet. I stood up to it. I stood up.
You raised me to stand up to it. I stood up to it. Like a grown man should, I stood up to it. When she patted me on my head, it felt like this... 'cause she was weak. She patted me on my head. She said, "Every story don't have no happy ending". I stood up to it. I knew what she meant. I stood up to it. I stood up to it. I stood up to it. I came home and ran upstairs after preaching and tried to get her to swallow applesauce, and I stood up to it. And when she wouldn't swallow, I stuck my finger in her mouth and I cleaned it out, and I stood up to it.
And we went back and forth to the hospital. I never will forget driving home one day, I told myself, "If you drive in the lake you won't know what happened". Just, it ain't going right. It ain't going right. You don't want to see it. Just drive into the lake and you won't know what happened. Just chicken out. But I didn't do it. I stood up to it. Every picture I have in my house, I'm holding her. Every picture from a little boy, I'm holding her. And I held her while she was dying. I stood up to it. I held her. She took her last breath, I held her. You too. You too. Held onto her while the body was cooling off. I stood up to it.
And after it was over, I couldn't breathe. In fact, I preached her funeral. I got up and I preached her funeral 'cause she would want me to. I stood up to it. And I counseled other people, because people didn't even think you a person. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, they came to me for counseling, "You the pastor". I never will forget what they told you when your mama died. "Now, you just got to do like you teach us". People can say the dumbest things. I stood up to it. And I couldn't get it out. I couldn't get it out.
That's why I never tell people not to cry. I never tell people not to cry. I couldn't get it out. I went to Jamaica for two weeks. I couldn't get it out. I couldn't get it out. I couldn't get it out. And Bishop Joseph Garlington came to the church, and he was teaching on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and praying in your prayer language, and I remember getting down on my knees on the stage and I started praying in tongues. In tongues. In tongues in the Spirit. I started praying in the Holy Ghost. I started praying in the Holy Ghost. I started praying in the Holy Ghost. I started praying in the Holy Ghost. I started praying in the Holy Ghost. I started praying in the Spirit. I started praying in tongues. I started praying in tongues. In tongues, in tongues, in tongues, in tongues, and the Spirit of the Living God. I started praying in the Spirit.
I started praying in the Spirit. And while I was praying, I noticed that when I started praying in the Spirit, it started lifting up off of me. It started lifting up off of me. Something that I couldn't do in my understanding, that when I got in the Spirit, I could do things in the Spirit that I couldn't do in the flesh. In my flesh, I was going crazy, but in my spirit, I could get in a place in the Spirit that I couldn't get in the flesh. Oh, y'all don't hear what I'm talking about. His message addressed my misery. Nobody knew I was miserable because I was smiling, and I was dressed up, and I was preaching my head off, but that don't have nothing to do...
What you do has nothing to do with where you are. You can do this over here and still be over there. I'm talking to somebody. You got 'em all fooled 'cause you could still do it, but just because you can do it doesn't mean that you're okay. If you can sing, you can sing. Your heart can be in the floor, but it doesn't mean you can't sing. Don't confuse your gift for where you are. And I started praying in tongues and I was amazed. For the first time, I felt it lift, just lift a little bit, just lift up out of my spirit just a little bit.
Look at this Scripture, 1 Corinthians 14:13-15. I want you to see this, 'cause we're gonna bypass your understanding. Okay, "Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue". See, a lot of you come from other churches, they didn't believe in speaking in tongues. And you're over here, and you shout over here, and you dance over here, but you haven't ever really been taught because they avoided this Scripture. And they avoided this Scripture because they couldn't explain this Scripture, so they avoided this Scripture, this New Testament Scripture. They walked past.
This is not an Old Testament. This is New Testament. They didn't talk to you about the Holy Ghost. They didn't talk to you about praying in tongues because it was against the doctrine of the church. It was in the Bible, but it was against the doctrine. It's kinda like in the country being loyal to your party over your country. Some people are more loyal to what is in the doctrine than they are to what is in the Bible. But the Bible says... It's not just noise. It's not just gibberish. It's not just weird. It's not just strange. It's not just crazy. It's not just unorthodox. It's not just for people in a storefront church.
The Bible said. Touch somebody and say, "The Bible said". "Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret". Come on, watch this. "For if I pray in an unknown tongue". If I pray. If I bypass everything I think. If I bypass everything, I'm going to put her away. I'm going to put her away. I'm going to get out of this. I'm going to get out of this. I'm going to tie this up in a minute, just wait. What am I going to do about this mess? And I know you can't pray in your understanding 'cause your understanding is up under attack. "He that prayeth in an unknown tongue".
My spirit prays. My spirit prays. My spirit prays. My spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. Oh God, my spirit prays. The peace that passes all understanding. My spirit prays. And when Joseph was asleep... See, you gotta understand that sometimes you gotta bypass. I know you worship your opinion. I know you went to Harvard. I know you're smart. I know you worship your education. But there are some things that are not broken by intellect. There are some things that you can only break in the spirit. Oh, bless his high name. There are some devils that you cannot intellectualize. There are some devils you got to fight a spirit with the Spirit. You are in a fight with a spirit.
Whoo! Whoo! I feel glory. Something's about to happen in here. You're in a fight with a spirit. You can't write a check and fix this. You can't pay a bill and fix this. You can't fix this 'cause you cute. But if you pray in the Spirit. Glory to God. Touch your neighbor and say, "It's gonna get off of you today". Everything that's been on you, everything that's been holding you back, everything that's been shutting you down, everything that's been weighting down your heart, everything that's been coming against your spirit, everything that had you up under attack, lift your hands and open your mouth.