TD Jakes - The Power Of His Presence (09/18/2020)
The Promised Land seems like the ultimate goal, but it's only camouflage—the real promise is God's unchanging presence with us through every fight and season; prioritize meditating on His Word, and when manna ceases, get your hands in it because a shift into new provision and dimension is coming in three days.
The Camouflage of the Promised Land
You must understand—the camouflage of the text is the Promised Land. It is eye-catching. It is amazing. It is wonderful. It is what they were waiting on. But looking at the Promised Land is only camouflage because the real promise is not the land—it's the presence.
You think this is about property? This is not about property. This is about presence. You're so busy trying to get the property that you don't understand presence. The real gift is, "I will not forsake you. I will not leave you. As I was, so shall I be."
Can I give you the truth? God never grieved over Moses. God never grieved over the death of Moses. The truth of the matter is when Moses died, God turned His head to Joshua and kept right on talking. "As I was with Moses, so shall I be."
The True Promise: God's Presence
See, the promise—my second one—is a promise. The promises of God is that, not that you won't have to fight, not that you won't have to cry, not that you won't have struggles—His promise is that, "I will be with you."
The promise is bigger than the land. The promise is that power is His presence. The promises is His presence. Stop coveting the property. Covet the presence. If you get the presence, you will get the property all by itself.
What good is a property if you don't have His presence? The promise is, "I will be with you. I'm not promising you you won't have to fight. You will have to fight, but the fight will go better if you know I'm with you."
How many people in a fight right now? The Lord sent me to tell you that He's in the fight with you, that the battle is not yours. It belongs to God.
Comforted by Presence, Not Presents
If you're gonna grow comfort, be comforted by His presence, not His presents. See, we have been taught to ask God like Santa Claus for presents—gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme.
But what we ought to do is seek His presence, because His presence is more powerful than His presents. I hope I'm speaking clearly enough for you to understand the distinction between getting God's gifts and getting God's glory.
The promise I want you to see is not the land—it's the presence.
Let me go into this. Can I go deeper? Young person just breaking out, tryin' to figure out, "Who am I? Do I have what it takes? Can I do this? Am I any good at it? Will I succeed? I talk a good fight, but can I really fight? I say I'm a great man, but am I really a great man? I wanna be a good mother. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know."
Got yourself—all God says to all of that is, "I will be with you."
Presence in Every Season of Life
Middle-aged person getting older, don't even know what older is, running into a change in your life, not sure of yourself, out of your element. Soon as you figured out how to be a grown person, now you're trying to learn how to be an old person.
They ought to teach a class on how to get old. It would be worth setting up a curriculum for you for all the things that happened to you that nobody tells you is going to happen to you and you got to act like it don't bother you.
The only promise God gives you, "I will be with you." Older person, getting ready for the grave. What is that going to be like? God doesn't promise you you will not die. The only thing God promises you is, "I will be with you."
Young lovers getting ready to get married—the only thing God promises you is, "I will be with you." Couples breaking up, goin' through a divorce—the only thing God promises you, "I will be with you."
God Never Leaves
He may leave—I'm not leaving. She may forsake you—I will not forsake you. Just 'cause he left doesn't mean I left. Just because she left doesn't mean I left.
I'm still in the house. I'm still opening doors. I'm still making ways. Y'all don't hear me. Y'all don't hear me. I'm gonna teach it 'til you get it.
The presence of God got you your job. The presence of God is with you if you lose your job. The only thing certain in the text is the presence of God.
I got you. I got you in the hospital. I got you in your college. I got you in your classroom. I got you in your marriage. I got you in your divorce. I got you in your strength. I got you in your weakness.
The Unstealable Promise
That is the promise. I won't forsake you when you're falling. I won't run out on you when you're failing. I won't back up when you're up against the wall. I won't run away when you disappoint me. I will be with you.
To me, that's the best part of the text. That is the promise. If you don't take that to be your promise, you will lean on something that can be stolen. You will lean on something that can be taken away.
The one thing the devil can never take away from me—He's with me, and if He's with me, He's more than the world. Y'all can't handle this. Y'all can't handle this.
The Priority: Meditate on His Word
So I talked to you about the people. I talked to you about the promise. Number three, I wanna talk to you about the priority. He says, "I want you to tell the people to meditate in My Word night and day."
God says, "I want your priority to be pleasing Me. Delight yourself in it and seek to obey it. I want that to be your priority."
No, no, no—I tell you, I say this all the time. No rich man is looking for no broke woman with a lot of bills. Let me find somebody who got real bad credit and they owe everybody so I can bail them out.
I mean, you might end up with that, but you are not looking for that. I ain't saying she no gold digger. I'll explain it to the old folks and the White folks later. Meet me in the back—I'll give you the rest of the sentence.
Because nobody wants to be loved for what they got. They want to be loved for who they are.
Love God for Who He Is
In fact, if you love me for who I am, you can get what I got. The way to get what I got is love who I am, 'cause I will trade you what I got if you respect who I am.
That's what God is saying. He said, "I want to make sure that you're in this for the right reason. So in order to purify you, I want you to get in My Word and I want you to seek to obey My Word outside of your Promised Land."
Don't wait 'til you get there to be grateful. I wanna know, can you be grateful broke? I wanna know, can you be grateful sick? I wanna know, can you be grateful lonely?
I wanna know, can you be grateful when I break your heart and I hurt your feelings? Can you wipe your face and say, "You're still God"? I wanna know. I want to check your priority, 'cause I swear I'm gonna bless ya.
If you get your priority right, don't worry 'bout the blessing. I got the property.
The Provision: Prepare Your Victuals
So my fifth point is the provision. The provision. Now, normally when you talk about provision with God, it's normally God provided. Okay, this time it's not.
God has been providing for 40 years all through the wilderness. The manna has fallen every morning with the dew early in the morning. God baked the bread, fell right in front of the tent—they grabbed it, they ate.
That's why I brought it up, so you could remember. Your blessing that God bakes for you is always within arm's reach. They pulled it in according to their households—some more, some less.
So don't compare yourself with each other 'cause God is just, but He's not fair. Fair is everybody in here gets two. Just is you got more kids, you get more. More capacity, more provision.
That wasn't fair, but it was just. They have had 40 years of God handing out the bread.
When Manna Ceases
In our text, for the first time since they got out in the wilderness, God now says, "I'm through handing you bread. Prepare your victuals."
This is the first time that He has made the Promised Land generation have to prepare. He said, "I'm through giving you freebies." He says, "Prepare your victuals," which is food. You gotta go out there and prepare it.
Now, this is a generation who never had to cook. All the bread was prepared. But God now says to them, "The manna has ceased." The manna has ceased.
When the manna ceases, it's a sign we must prepare. It's not a sign you can't eat. When it ceases to be easy, it doesn't mean it ceases to be.
It just means that in the course of providing, God changes methodology. That which comes easy is always temporal.
Get Your Hands in It
That's so good I'm going to get the CD myself. That which comes easy is always temporal. That's like honeymoons. That which comes easy is always temporal.
If marriage was honeymoons... that's right, look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. That which comes easy is always temporal.
Sooner or later, you have to get your hands in it. You have to put some sweat in it. You have to put some effort in it.
He said, "Now, I'm makin' you prepare your victuals because you're closer than you've ever been before." You're closer than you've ever been before. Get your hands in it.
Ooh, I felt unction, like glory comin' out of me, like God is saying specifically to somebody, "Get your hands in it." I've been handing you stuff that you didn't have to put your hands in. Now you gotta get your hands in it.
A Shift Is Coming in Three Days
I'm going to feed you, but you gotta get involved in it. You gotta put your hands in it. Prepare your victuals 'cause I'm getting ready to move you. I'm getting ready to shift you.
Prepare your victuals 'cause you got three days to get ready for that shift. Sunday to Monday, Monday to Tuesday, Tuesday to Wednesday is three days to get ready.
Prepare your victuals. In three days... in three days you're gonna cross into something like you have never crossed into before. In three days.
Somebody say, "Three days." Three days, three days. "Prepare your victuals, for in three days you shall cross the Jordan."
Wait a minute—I heard that three days before. Jesus said, "If you destroy the temple, in three days I'll raise it up." Jesus went in the grave—death, burial, and resurrection—three days.
On the Cusp of Transition
There's somethin' about God in three days. He raised up Jesus on the third day from the dead, and Jesus is the living bread. Get your hands in it.
Thomas comes in and says unless, "I get my hands in it, I won't believe." Get your hands—see, you can go to church all you want to, but until you get your hands into Jesus.
You gotta prepare your victuals, because in three days I'm gonna bring you into it.
Now, watch this. This is the kind of message that is for people who are on the cusp of change. I am staggering while I'm preaching at the power of His presence as I sense more prophetic than preaching that there are people in this room that are on the cusp of transition.
God Puts Provision in Your Hands
And this is more than a cute message. You had to be here because everything in your life is getting ready to shift. And God is getting ready to bring you into a place that you have never been, a state that you have never been.
And it is in part because Moses, my servant, is dead. And you have been destabilized in order to become dependent. So that with which you normally would depend has gone, and now God has got you to Himself.
And He says, "Prepare your victuals." Who am I preaching to?
The provision of God has now been placed in the hands of the believer. That is not to be ignored. God is sayin', "I'm putting it in your hands." I'm putting it in your hands.
Get your hands in it. Get your hands in it. Get your hands in it. Get involved in it.
A New Thing Is Coming
I wanna fill your DNA in it. I want your fingerprints in the bread. Get your hands in it. Feel it, touch it, punch it, pulverize it. Knead it, knead it, knead it, knead it like dough.
Get your hands in everything that you're about to eat because you're getting ready to cross into another dimension—God's dimension.
There’s a shift coming in this room. Little by little, there’s a shift coming in this room.
Somebody’s been in a destabilized situation for a long time, and you’ve been kinda sad, and you’ve been kinda heavy, and your emotion’s been on edge.
And God says, Stop crying 'cause I'm getting ready to shift you. Stop crying 'cause I'm getting ready to shift you into another dimension.
Let Go of Yesterday
Get your hands in your bread. Get your hands in your stuff. Get your hands in your vision. Get your hands on the glory. Get your hands on the power. Get your hands in it.
I'm not gonna do it for you the way I used to do it for you. I'm not gonna do it the way I used to do it. Stop crying for Me to do what I used to do.
You're in love with yesterday. Your yesterday is over. It's over. Let it go. I'm not gonna do what I used to do again. I will do a new thing in you.
The former things are passed away. Stop craving for that which is over. Stop crying after what's over.
This is a season right now that you got to get your hands in it. You gotta have your mouth in it. You got to get involved in it 'cause a shift is coming.
A shift is coming. The shift is coming.