TD Jakes - Thinking Outside the Box
It is with the mind that we serve the Lord. The mind is the battleground. It is the place where the greatest conflict is. There are more people in this room having trouble in their mind than there are people having trouble in their finances. The struggle is in your mind. This is why we have people who go to bed tired and wake up tired. Slept eight hours and you wake up still tired. The reason you wake up tired is that you got sleep but you didn't get rest. Your mind has been in turmoil all night long. You've been wrestling in your sleep. Have you ever woke up and your bed was wet. The bed is all torn just like you been in a fight because your mind has not rested. Your body went to sleep but your mind is still tied up in a warfare. Your mind is your battleground.
Touch somebody and tell 'em, "the enemy is after your mind". Out to worry you to death, out to stress you to death, out to break you down, out to make you quit, out to make you think that you can't get up, out to make you give up on your dream. The warfare is in your mind. It's not in your checkbook. It's not in your savings account. It's not on your job. The fight that you've got to fight is in your mind. And if you whip it in your head, you can whip it in your checkbook. You can whip it on your job. You can whip it out of your children, but you gotta drive it out of you ahead. Touch somebody and say, "I've been thinking". Suddenly, I began to realize that the enemy cannot use my car. He doesn't need my car. But if he's fooling with my car, wait a minute, he don't drive. Fooling with my house, he don't need a house. Fooling with my job, he doesn't need a job. But life is after your mind and what you've got to understand is that any way, any entrance way, that he can get to upset your mind he will begin to wear you out.
That's why I would rather have peace than have joy. I would rather have peace. I said I would rather have peace than have joy. I'd rather be able to look at the man in the mirror and like what I see. I'd rather be able to curl up into bed and hug myself and fall asleep loving me. I'd rather wake up in the morning and kiss myself. The Bible said in the Word of God: "God has promised I will keep him at perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me". It is not God's will or purpose for you to be troubled in your mind, frustrated in your mind, uncomfortable in your mind. In fact, the Bible says: "Be anxious for nothing". To be anxious is to have anxiety about something that hasn't even happened yet. Some of you are so worried about the threat of trouble. You're not in trouble, it's just that trouble has threatened you and the threat of what might happen, what could happen is wearing you down. Half of the things that you thought were going to happen never did happen but if you'll allow those thoughts to dwell in your mind, it will succeed at robbing you of your peace, robbing you of your joy, robbing you of your life just because you thought yourself into a nervous breakdown. You thought yourself into depression. Your thought yourself into defeat.
The Scripture say: "It is with the mind that we serve the Lord". The mind is the battleground. The fight is in your mind. Touch somebody and say, "The fight is in your mind". So I wanna challenge you to waste no more effort wrestling with other people. Oh, I lost you. I lost you. You were going real good. I lost you. Your destiny, your future, is not predicated on the decision of someone else. You've wasted too much of your life trying to change other people's mind about you. It doesn't matter what they think about you. God is not gonna bless you by their opinion. God is gonna bless you for how you see yourself. Touch somebody and say, "I believe I'm coming out". I don't know how long it's gonna take. I don't know what I'm going to have to go through. I don't know what I'm going to lose along the way, but I still believe that I'm coming out. I've been broke, I've been busted and disgusted, but I still believe that I'm coming out. I'm locked up in prison. They say I'll never get out but I still believe that I'm coming out, I'm coming out. If I don't have nowhere to stay, I'm coming out. If my husband met somebody else, I'm coming out. If I don't have no job, I'm coming out.
See, when a God who thinks out of the box finds a woman who's thinking out of the box, some powerful things begin to happen. See, this woman, I don't know what her name is. I don't know who her father was. I don't know anything about her bank account. I don't know anything about her background. I don't know anything about her education, but this triple-afflicted, sick, wounded, hurting woman had been thinking. I know she'd been thinking 'cause she has to be thinking to be this sick and still come to church for 18 years. See, you came to church because you felt like coming to church. But this woman didn't even feel like coming to church. But she kept coming because she kept thinking. What you think does make a difference. Touch your neighbor and say, "What you think does make a difference". Suppose this woman had thought not to come to church that day. Suppose she thought, "I'm too tired to come tonight". Suppose she thought, "I don't feel good and there's too many steps to get up". Suppose she would have thought that, she would have missed her miracle.
Let me pause and tell somebody right now, "You're in the right place at the right time. You're watching the right station. Something is about to happen. Don't touch the dial. Don't move the, baby, a breakthrough is coming to your house right now. Oh, yes it is. Yes, it is. Yes, it is, baby girl. Yes, it is, sister. And so let me hurry on. Jesus says, he's standing up to preach and he saw a woman. Oh, thank you for being able to see. Do you know God can see things that nobody else can see? Everybody else thinks you're okay but God can see what's really going on in your life. Not only could he see her, but he called her. Now, this is getting ready to rock your world. Because God is getting ready to call some of you from the background to the forefront. He called and said, "Come up here". She said, "But I'm crippled". "Come out anyway". Sometime, you gotta come out any way you can. You gotta come out.
Now, no doubt she had been thinking, "Someday I'm gonna get out of this. One day I'm gonna get out of this. I'm gonna keep on coming to church but one of these days I'm gonna get out of there. Everybody else gets a blessing but you but one of these days I'm gonna get out of this. Everybody else gets married but you but one of these days I'm gonna get out of this. Everybody else coming out of debt but you but one of these days I'm gonna get out of this. Everybody else getting out of the prison but you but one of these days I'm gonna get out of this". Look at somebody and say, "I've been thinking. Someday I'm gonna get out of this". Here lies the problem. As long as you say "someday" you postpone your deliverance. The transformation that has to happen in your thinking is that you go from someday to today. Look at somebody and say, "Today".
Now, can I show you how radical Jesus was? The woman hops up there to him. She couldn't lift herself up. She couldn't hardly move 'cause sometimes you can go through so much that it paralyzes your resources. And when she got to Jesus, he didn't say, "Woman, you can be loose," "Woman, you ought to be loose," "Woman, when you get to heaven, you're gonna be loose". He said to a woman who was grossly crippled and deformed, he said, "Women thou art loosed". Now, wait a minute. Nothing in her situation confirmed his word. She didn't look loose, she didn't feel loose. But he still said, "Woman, thou art loosed," right now. He laid hands on her and immediately she straightened up herself. I know this is kind of wild and maybe the person beside you can't handle it but would you just slap 'em and say, "Straighten up". Straighten up, straighten up. You've been depressed too long. You've been feeling sorry for yourself too long. You've been letting people run over you too long. Straighten up. Straighten up, girl. Straighten up. It's time for a revolution. Straighten up yourself.
See, when I first started teaching this, I thought she was praising God because of what she was loose from. Because there's some folk in this room that can look back over your life and see what God loosed you from. And it's enough to make you shake your weave out of your head right now. But wait a minute, while she was praising God, her enemies were criticizing her. Look at somebody and say, "I know they're talking about me right now". But it doesn't make any difference 'cause I'm so glad to get out of that, that I don't even care what anybody say. I don't even care if they're looking at me funny. I don't even care what I have on. I don't even care what people tell you. I don't even care how you feel. I don't. But let's just listen to what Jesus said. When they criticized Jesus for healing the woman on the Sabbath day, he said, "If this were an ox or an ass, an animal in a stall, you would loose the animal from the stall and lead him a way to the water".
See, some of you all are behind 'cause you're still praising God for what he delivered you from but it's time to praise God for what he delivered you to. Touch somebody and say, "I'm glad to get out of that stall". I'm glad to get out of that box. I'm glad to get out of that manmade box. It feels good to get out of the box. But what I'm shouting about is that I'm finally about to run to the water. Now, what I want you to understand is that God wouldn't have brought you through everything he brought you through and delivered you from everything he delivered you from if he wasn't getting ready to take you to. And so what I'm trying to say is that there's something is about to happen. How many women in here have been feeling like something was about to happen? How many people are feeling like God has something better for you? You felt like you were about to step into a brand new dimension. You felt like God was about to finally give you the thing you've been waiting on for years. The reason we chose the theme, "Run to the water," is because Jesus said, "This woman's deliverance is like an animal getting out of a box".
Touch somebody and say, "I just get out of a box". But what I'm shouting about is that I'm about to run to the water. Now, I know you're not ready for this 'cause some of you all still want to get to your blessing like this. See, one man sat by the pool for 38 years 'cause it took him too long to make a decision to get to this water so tonight I didn't say, "Crawl to the water". I didn't say, "Prance to the water". I didn't say, "Strut to the water". I didn't say, "Walk to the water". When God gives you the grace to get a breakthrough, you don't have time to wait on anybody. You don't have time to ask anybody. Look at somebody and say, "You better run"! You better run! Would you touch somebody and say, "On your mark". You're finally on your mark. You finally got things straightened out. You finally know who you are. You finally came into your own, didn't you? You kind of figured out your own strength. Look at him and say, "On your mark". Look at him and say, "Get set".
A breakthrough is coming. A breakthrough is coming. A breakthrough in that prison. A breakthrough right now. By the power of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God is coming in there to pull you out, to deliver you. Get your mind set. Get your books out. Start studying, start reading, start getting ready. Start making plans. God is about to give you a breakthrough. You're watching me in your living room, you're watching me in your house. You've been at your wit's end. You thought you were going to die. This is no time to die. God has a miracle. God has a breakthrough. Tomorrow night we're gonna take you deeper. Tonight is your night for breakthrough.