TD Jakes - Bigger Than You Think
Excellence doesn't start when the crowd gathers, excellence doesn't come when everybody's watching, excellence is nurtured in mediocrity, in ordinary days when you begin to appreciate the power of the Words before it. Nothing about this story forewarns us of the significance of this day, there is no warning, there's no warning label, God puts no warning label on greatness. He does not tell you that when you meet this person it is going to change your life, he does not tell you that when you walk through this door you'll never be the same again, he does not tell you that this little job, this little assignment that you're going on is going to be the catalyst through which your destiny is released; he doesn't tell you anything like that.
David is the baby of his family, he has a little chore to do, it's just an ordinary chore, he has a little assignment to take care of. He has to manage his normal and yet perform a little assignment, God has given him practice with managing responsibility because he is grooming him for greatness. I don't know who I'm talking to out there but God is grooming you for greatness. I know it doesn't look great right now, your wallet doesn't look great right now, your house doesn't look great right now, your car doesn't look great right now, your situation doesn't look great right now. People push past you, you're trying to get to great people but God is grooming you for greatness.
If you cannot manage the little things you'll never be able to manage the big things. If the little things overwhelm you, if you complain and collapse about little things you'll never be ready for the greater things that God is about to do in your life. But the Lord told me to get somebody ready, I don't know who it is but God told me to get you ready. If it's you, you oughtta give him a praise, God told me to get you ready. In spite of how small it looks right now, it's bigger than you think. In spite of how small you look right now, it's bigger than you think.
David does not know who he is yet, he's yet to realize the full strength and power of what he is about to be. David has not been recognized as being a king, he doesn't really understand the magnitude of his position. He thinks he's just an errand boy, he thinks he's just going down there to carry lunch. He has no idea he is going to be in the fight of his life; he would have prepared differently if he would've known he was going into battle, but he came down there to do a little thing but it was bigger than you think. David didn't know that he was walking into a battle and David didn't even know who Goliath was.
Many of you have not yet met your Goliath but your Goliath is coming, your Goliath is coming and that's why I got to get you ready for it. You don't even know that your Goliath is coming and he's coming without warning, and he's coming without an invitation and he's coming without you having preparation. It is just that everything that you have been through in your past has been getting you ready, the little things have been getting you ready, the small task has been getting you ready.
The lion that attacked the cub is getting you ready, the bear that came down after your sheep is getting you ready. They don't come with a sign on their neck that says, "I'm getting you ready for Goliath," but these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are getting you ready for the fight of your life so that when you get in the fight of your life it will not feel like the fight of your life because all of the fights that preceded it will cause you to deal with this fight with another level of confidence and strength. That's why you gotta rejoice when you've been afflicted, rejoice when you've been up under attack, rejoice when all hell has broken loose in your life, because God's got you in training camp.
I wanna talk to somebody today that's in the boot camp of greatness. Oh, you're in the boot camp of greatness, because you're bigger than you think and you don't even know it, and God is about to blow your mind. Somebody logged on this broadcast today because God is telling you, I'm getting ready to blow your mind, shatter the way you think; shatter your perspectives and your attitude, shatter how you define greatness, shatter how you define responsibility, shatter what you call pressure. I'm exposing you to pressure because I'm building up your tolerance, because where I'm getting ready to take you what was pressuresome is gonna become your normal and I got to recalibrate you and train the way you think.
In the book of Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20, it reads, "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding and abundantly above all that we may ask or think," that God is able to do more than all that we may ask or think, "According to the power that worketh in us". In other words, God will not live in the jail cell of your mentality, he will not limit himself to be incarcerated by your ideas. In other words, God is about to blow your mind. He said I'm bigger than what you think, this day is bigger than what you think it is, this moment is bigger than what you think it is. Go ahead and get your little 10 loaves and get on your little camel and saddle up. And go ahead and put your little quilt of the back of the camel and ride on down to the camp, because you think this is ordinary but it's bigger than you think, because I'm able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that ye may ask or think.
"My thoughts are above your thoughts, my ways are above your ways. As high as heaven is above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways". And just because it starts out small does not mean that it ends up small. That's why the Bible said, "Despise not the day of small beginnings," because whenever God's getting ready to do great things in your life, he tests you on small things. I said he tests you on small things. Until you are faithful over a few, you can't be faithful over many. Until you can be trusted with lunch, you cannot be trusted with giants.
Oh, I want to talk to somebody that can't be trusted with lunch, because you're holding out for the big thing, and when the big thing comes you're going to be amazing. Until then, you're just lazy and slothful and laid back and taking it easy, and you don't understand it is how you handle the little things that determines what's coming next in your life. Get your head right today, today-today-today is an opportunity for you to get your head right.
Today, people ignore the performance of little things, waiting on the next big thing, but the next big thing is a little thing. I'm gonna say that again. The next big thing is a little thing. If David had overslept, he would have got there too late, and if he would have got there too late, he would have missed the greatest moment of his life. Five minutes later and none of it would have happened. 20 minutes later and he would have missed this earth-shattering experience that was to come on his life. Suppose David was late with lunch. That's why you're not ready to be great until you think everything is important, until everything matters to you. If David had gotten there late, he would've missed it. Had David showed up early, he would've been premature. The timing has got to be right, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.
With God, everything is about timing. With God, everything is about timing: there is a time to mourn and there's a time to laugh and there's a time to cry and there's a time to plant and there's a time to harvest and there's a time that God wants you to be there with lunch. And he does not tell you that the lunch is a trip switch that is going to connect you with your destiny, he just tells you that it's lunch, and sees will you be there on time?
Look at your neighbor and say show up on time. Oh, my God. Show up on time. David showed up as the fight was starting, he was exactly where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there. That is absolutely amazing. The cataclysmic explosion of destiny and time collides when David jumps off of his camel and shows up just as the battle has gone into array and the Philistines have began to march out to attack Israel. David shows up at that exact moment because it was predestined, it was predestined, it was predestined. For generation to generation to generation, God has been setting things up. I don't know who I'm talking to but you're about to walk into something that God has been setting up for a long time.
So when David comes walking down to the battlefield carrying lunch, he thinks it's about the lunch. It's not about his lunch, it's about his legacy. It's not about the bread, it's not about the food, it's not about the cheese, that was just what God used to get you in the field of your destiny. Like your great-great grandmother was gleaning in the corners of the field, I orchestrated her to be over in the corner of the field so that Boaz would look out there and see her, and she would catch his eye. Had she been late, she would have never met him. God will put you in the right place and the right time because he's working all things after the counsel of his own will, and he'll cause you to love who you love and like who you like and meet who you meet and be drawn to who you're drawn to, because what God is doing is bigger than you think.
Now David is down here carrying lunch into legacy, and he gets down just in time that he can hear the hoof prints. Can't you hear the hoof prints? The hoof prints of the Philistines coming and they're coming out against the armies of Israel, and David is coming with his lunch. And he hurries up and checks his camel in for somebody to take care of his stuff and runs down to the battlefield, to talk to the men to see how his brothers are, carrying his lunch; but it's bigger than you think. Just when they see the army of the Philistines, out from the behind the ranks of the front lines of the army of the Philistines comes this giant named Goliath, and David happened, he happened, he happened to be there at the moment that Goliath was first presented?
And the Bible says in the 23rd verse, "And he talked with them, and behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the army of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them". When Goliath came out there talking smack, David heard them, and now everybody heard them but the Bible doesn't mention who else heard them because they heard it but it didn't affect them like it affected David. When David heard him say that, David thought... Now, wait a minute now, wait a minute. "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should insult the armies of the living God"? And so David starts asking questions, "What shall be given to the man," to the man, the kid asks the question, "What shall be given to the man that killeth Goliath"?
And it seems so crazy because David was so little and Goliath was so big, and now you have to grapple... When you have a great challenge and a small stature, the dichotomy between the two that have stepped on the stage is so wide that it seems insurmountable. How could something so little go after something so big? Somebody has got a great big vision and a little bit of money, somebody has got a great big calling and a little tiny church, somebody's got a great big dream and a little bit of help. The dichotomy between the smallness of the boy and the height of the giant is an opportunity for God to show himself strong.
There he stood with no training and no background, he wasn't even enlisted in the army, he wasn't even in the service but he made up in his mind, "I will fight you back, I will fight you back". And in spite of his stature, God brought him before the king. Your gift will make room for you and bring you before the king. Whoever heard of such a thing that a boy would be brought to the king as a solution to a national crisis? Over top of the whole army, they brought him this little boy and said this little boy down here is talking smack; while the army is running, he's talking smack.
Now the army looks big but David was big on the inside, he was a little on the outside but he was big on the inside. And if you're big enough on the inside, they'll bring you before kings, they'll set you before princes, they'll move you into positions of power. If you know who you are, if you walk in the room like you're supposed to be there people start paying attention. And all of the soldiers that should've been on the field brought David before the King. And the Lord told me to tell you to get ready for the shift, get ready for the shift, get ready for the shift.
I know you're scared but get ready for the shift, I know you're nervous but get ready for this shift, I know you feel incompetent but get ready for the shift, I know you have insecurities but get ready for the shift, I know you feel insufficient but get ready for the shift. God is gonna bring you before the king, and he sent me here to tell you that it's bigger than you think. And here David is standing before the king, and he brought him before the king, and the king told him what you come to do? He said I came to kill Goliath, mhmm.
Now look at this. Whoever killed Goliath would win Saul's daughter, whoever killed Goliath would be enrich financially, whoever killed Goliath, their family would never have to pay taxes the rest of their life. David is fighting for a family that don't even like him. You haven't fought until you've fought for somebody who don't even appreciate you, you haven't fought till you've fought for somebody who thinks you don't even belong in the place that you're in. But the reason David was on the battlefield was, if he killed Goliath, his daddy, who didn't even like him, would no longer have to pay taxes; sometimes you have to fight even when people don't appreciate you.
And David walks in the room and he says I'll take him on, and he said I will kill Goliath. Killing Goliath changed David's family's life, killing Goliath changed David's life, killing Goliath changed how the army saw him, killing Goliath set David up to be positioned to be king. As I get ready to come to the close of this message, I want to warn you: whenever God is about to elevate you, there's always a Goliath in front of you; Goliath is always the gatekeeper on the next move of God. Who am I talking to? Until you find your Goliath, you won't find your throne.
Whenever you're close to your throne... I'm telling you what I know in my personal experience - whenever you're close to your throne, Goliath will always stick up his ugly head to fight you, he is always an alarm system that you're close to the treasure; Satan always leaves a Goliath to guard your treasure. When you find your Goliath, you have found your treasure. Wherever the giant is, that's where destiny is calling you, and when you see the giant, don't run from the giant, 'cause if you run from the giant you will run from your destiny. While everybody else was running away from it, David was running toward it because he knew that the giant was the key to the next dimension in his life.
Now hear me, I feel a prophetic influence coming over me right now. That Goliath that you see right now is proof positive that he's guarding your treasure. When you take him out, God's is going to open up something amazing for you. Don't run from the giant, run at him, run straight at him. Now you have to understand, they tried to give David Saul's armor, David put it on but it didn't fit. You can't fight your Goliath being somebody else, you have to fight your Goliath as yourself because it was you that God brought to the place; don't show up as a stranger.
Who am I talking to? Don't show up as nobody else, it's you that God blessed, it's you that God called, it's you that God anointed, it's you that God set aside, it's you that God prepared for such a moment as this. Show up as yourself. And he shook off Saul's armor and he said, I can't fight in your armor. And you know what? I always made the mistake: whenever I read this text, I thought that David left home with five smooth stones, but he didn't. He said wait a minute. All he had with him was a bag, a shepherd's bag, and he had to go down to the brook and get him some stones, because you have to realize David didn't even come down there to fight.
So this was an emergency and in an emergency you got to use what's at your disposal, in an emergency you gotta use what's within your reach, in an emergency you gotta go back to the basics, in an emergency you gotta go back to your roots. Somebody said, "How in the world, after 43 years, can you stand to preach in an empty church"? I said, "'Cause I started in an empty church, and in an emergency, I know how to go back". I know how to go back. You messed with the wrong one, 'cause I know how. I came out of a storefront, I know how to stand flat-footed all by myself and preach the unadulterated Word of God.
David knew how to fight with rocks, he didn't know nothing about shields, he didn't know nothing about swords, he didn't know nothing about catapults, he didn't know nothing about horses. All he knew how to fight with was rocks, but whatever you're good at, God will use something you got, God will use something that you're used to, God will use something that you're familiar with. And David, there David was, the would-be king of Israel is down in the river bed, like a child looking amongst the crawdads, picking out rocks. I want that one. No, that one's too rough, I want that one right here, and that one, that one right there.
And he made him a weapon, he made him a weapon. It wasn't even a slingshot, it was a shepherd's bag turned into a slingshot, it was a bag. It was a rag and a rock, and he ran down on that field and said what did you say? He ran down on that field, and the dichotomy was so strong that Goliath snickered, and laughed and said that all you got to send against me today? That little boy with that rag and that rock? That supposed to go kill me? What am I, a dog, that you send this kid down here to kill me?
The enemy was insulted that God would send so little after so much, but what the devil didn't know is that it's bigger than you think. Oh, the devil didn't know it. That's what he don't know about you, he don't know you're bigger than he thinks, he don't know that you're bigger than he thinks. He doesn't know that God's gonna use you in a greater way than he thinks.
In spite of how you grew up, in spite of what happened in your childhood, in spite of your background, in spite of your hardships, in spite of your insecurities, the message that God gave me for you, it's bigger than you think. And I close this message today, I want you to understand this. Whatever you had in your mind that God was gonna do, get it out. Whatever you thought was gonna happen, get rid of it. Whatever you touch God might do in your life is too small. The Holy Ghost said this is bigger than you think.