TD Jakes - Paradigms and Paralysis
Now watch this. The paralysis has been there longer than the presence of God. So paradigm shifts, though desired, become difficult when the paralysis is more normal than the shift. This is one of the hardest miracles in the Bible, you got two disciples, not one, two. Instead of one disciple has raised the dead by himself, you got two ganging this devil walking up into our prayer, saying, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I unto thee". They spoke the right word, they prayed the right prayer, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk".
The name of Jesus is so powerful that the disciples were beaten for preaching in his name, they were forbidden to go into certain cities with his name, 'cause every time they said the name of Jesus a yoke broke, scales fell off eyes, lame men stood up and started walking, blind men started seeing, dead men got up out the grave; and they beat them and said just don't say his name. And they used the name but the man didn't get up, I'd like to say he got up, this is a place where I'm supposed to close the message and say, "Aah, he got up," but he didn't get up. They said the right name, they were in agreement, the Bible said, "If any two of you agree as touching anything on earth it shall be done".
They had the power of agreement, they had the power of his name, they had the right problem, they had the right patient, they were in the right place, and they used all of them together and the man still didn't get up. What do you do when you got all the right things and it looks like it didn't work? What you do when you prayed all the right prayers and it looks like it didn't work? We got two in agreement, they're in one place with one accord, they used the power of Jesus's name, they said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk".
I thought the story was over then, it should've been over but he was still laying there, and then Peter reached down and took him by the hand. When he took him by the hand, I said wait a minute, Peter, you don't understand, ain't nothing wrong with his hand. Why did you grab what was working when you was praying about what wasn't working? Why didn't you lay hands on his ankles? Why didn't you touch this problem? See, the reason you can't get up is that you keep laying hands on your problem and not your power. As long as you lay hands on your problem and not your power you'll never get up.
As long as you keep thinking about what's wrong rather than what's right, you'll never get up. Peter didn't grab him by the ankle, he grabbed him by the hand because the hand was working when the ankle was broke. God said he's gonna use what's working against what's broke. Who am I preaching to today? God said you've been praying about what's broken but God's gonna use what's working. Until you get your mind off of what's broken and start thinking about what's working, you'll never survive the pandemic, you'll never survive the paralysis, you'll never survive the problem because your mind is on your ankles, but your miracle is in your hand.
Yes. Peter reached down, my God, Peter reached down, thank you Lord for reaching down. When I was in a mess you always had to reach down, when I couldn't reach up you reached down. Peter reached down and took him by the hand, and the Bible says the moment he took him by the hand, the moment, the moment, the moment, the moment you stop touching your ankles, the moment he took him by the hand, listen to me, God told me to tell you, stop telling him what's not working, he's not gonna use what's not working, he's gonna use what is working, the miracle is in your hand. Greater is he that is in your hand than that which is in your ankles. And the Bible said immediately he took him by the hand, and immediately his ankles received strength.
This is a prophetic Word, this is a prophetic Word. God is not going to touch what's broken, he's going to touch what's blessed. Good God of mercy. And the reason you've been in the same spot so long is that your mind keeps drifting to your ankles, and your mind is on your ankles when God is trying to get you to stretch forth your hand. The power is in your hand, it's not in your ankles; it's not in rehearsing what's wrong, it's not in reminding yourself of who left you, who hurt you, who deserted you, who fired you, who forsook you. God said it's in your hand. "He took him by the hand... and immediately his ankles received strength".
Look at how much it took for this man to accept a paradigm shift. The paralysis was on more than his ankles, it was on his mind, it was on his expectations, it was on his feet, it was on his life; it was in the sociological cycle that he had created to sustain him. All of that would be compromised by getting better. You didn't hear that. All that he had spent his whole life building would be compromised by getting better. The question becomes, could he afford to get well?
See, some folk have made a living being broke, they've built an ecosystem around dysfunction, they don't know how to exist outside of dysfunction, they don't know how to exist with love or peace or tranquility. They don't know how to exist so they create fights because they're familiar; they won't stop 'til they tear down a relationship because rejection is their familiar. Look at how hard it was to deliver him from the paralysis, not the one on his ankles. No-no, that wasn't no problem, Jesus has already proven that he can handle the ankles.
The paralysis of his mind was the hardest thing to break, the paralysis of breaking him away from the familiar. If you heal me I got to walk, if you heal me I got to walk and I have never walked before. If you heal me I have to socialize and I have never had to socialize before; if you heal me I gotta face crowds that I never had to face before, and I have never had to face crowds. Oh God, can I afford to get better? Do I have the courage to get better? If I get better I gotta pay my own bills, if I get better I gotta make car payments, if I get better I have to make you pay insurance, if I get better I got to go to bed at night, if I get better I got to get up in the morning, if get better people gonna expect something of me. Can I stand to get better?
I'm used to my paralysis, I'm used to my problem, I'm used to my pain, I'm used to it, I'm used to it. I'm used to it and now you come with this paradigm shift that will destroy life as I know it? You think you're gonna preach a message and make me get up? No, he said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk," that man sat right there. I can't, if I get up it's gonna mess up everything. I gotta be responsible for my walk back home, I got to get a job, I gotta get a place to stay, I gotta get up on my feet. Some folk don't want better, some folk don't want better. If you give them better they'll tear better up every time, they'll destroy better every time because they are familiar with paralysis.
Better has responsibility, and responsibility is scary when you have been lame from your mother's womb. All you ever saw was broken, and when all you ever saw was broken, well is scary, well is scary. Are you scared to get up? Are you scared to get better? I understand, I know what it is, I've been frightened too. I know what it is to have better right in front of me and be so scared I couldn't even sleep. I'm not judging you, better is scary. Do I have enough? Can I walk? Shall I walk? Must I walk? How do I walk?
He took him by the hand. God wanted you to know something in your life is working, stop talking to him about what's not working. Something in your life is working, he wants you to focus on what's working and not what's broken. He is going to move in what is working in your life. Your miracle is going to come through what is working, not through what is broken. The enemy is trying to distract you from what works showing you what is broken, because he wants you to stay in the paralysis of your circumstance and your situation. And God is ushering a change in your life and it can't be a play change, it can't be a fake change, it can't be a church change, it got to be a real change that's gonna affect everything; a paradigm affects everything in your life.
That's why I called it "Paralysis and Paradigms" because both of them are in the text, the paralysis and the paradigm. In one moment, his ankles received strength. Do you know how unlikely it is for your ankles to receive strength in a moment? Do you know a surgery couldn't do that? To cause your ankles to... if you had surgery, you would have to go through rehab. This man has never walked, good God. You think the biggest part of the miracle is that his ankles received strength? No, the biggest part is that he stood up and started walking. Even if his ankles got better, they have never made those movements before, those muscles have never worked with those nerve endings and those joints in concert to produce movement; that requires therapy.
The man not only got a miracle, he required no therapy. There is a recovery that is so-so spontaneous and so powerful that it requires no therapy at all. He stood, he leaped, he praised, and he went in to the next dimension. As I close this message today, I want you to know, you've been stuck a long time, you've been paralyzed a long time but God is gonna bring you into the next dimension. God is gonna bring you into the next dimension, you're going into the next dimension. You have stood outside of it, you have looked at it often, you've looked at it like a kid looking through glass in a candy store, you've admired it, you've thought about it, but you were stuck at the gate.
But in spite of the pandemic, in spite of the paralysis, that that you viewed from afar off you're about to walk into, and God said you're gonna leap into it. You're not just going to walk, you're gonna leap into it. And when you get in there you're gonna praise God in there, 'cause you're gonna know that if it had not been for the Lord that was on your side, you never would've got there. Do you hear what I'm saying to you? You've been close to it every day but you'd never went into it, you've been in a cycle that kept brought you near-near-near, you've been at the gate of it a long time, but God is getting ready to move you away from that gate and he's gonna bring you into the temple.
And the Bible said, the doors burst open, and the man came in, "Walking, and leaping, and praising God". "Walking, and leaping, and praising God;" "Walking, and leaping, and praising God;" "Walking, and leaping, and praising God;" "Walking, and leaping, and praising God". "Walking, and leaping, and praising God," and all of them standing around were astonished. Number one, they were astonished because he was praising God for something they take for granted, he was praising God.
See, everybody else in there could already walk and leap, so that was normal to them and they had taken it for granted, but this man had been locked out of it so long that once God opened it up for him, he was praising God for what was ordinary to other people. Let me tell you something. When the shift is over, the have-nots are gonna have. And the difference between the have-nots having and those that have having is that, when you've always had it you don't appreciate it. But when you've always been locked out and God finally opens up the door for you to get in, you don't just walk and leap, you also praise God because you remember how long you were stuck outside the gate.
I declare unto you today, I prophesy to you today, I promise you today, you will not die at this gate. You will not die at this gate. You will not die in this vicious cycle of sustenance that you have built for your survival in the midst of your crippling conditions, you will not die at this gate. I prophesy to you that you need to partner with better people, you need to partner with people who are strong where you're weak. You need to get around a better grade of people, 'cause beggars can't get help beggars, lame people can't help lame people.
You need to make the kind of associations that are not codependent; those people who have been carrying you have been enabling your dysfunction. They look like your friends but they're not, they're helping you to be crippled. Get away from people who are helping you to be crippled and get around somebody who demands something of you. I know you think they're your friends 'cause they carried you every day and laid you at the gate, but they're not your friends, they're your enablers. All the people who are enabling you to stay down, get away from them, get around people who challenge you, who yank on you, who pull on you.
Hear me good, oh God, hear me good, hear me good. God gave me this for somebody, I know he did, I know he did. The Holy Spirit told me to tell you, you've been there so long you wonder if you ever get up, God said wait for the yank. There's gonna come a yank in your spirit, there's gonna come a yank in your belly, and when you feel the tug, don't resist it. When you feel the tug, don't worry about your ankles; when you feel the tug, drop your cup. When you feel the tug, come out of your circumstances, because if you will respond to the tug of the Holy Spirit, God will deal with your ankles while you're standing up.
We don't know what part of the journey healed him, but as he was standing up his ankles received strength. And God said he's getting ready to tug you and you will go from paralysis to a paradigm shift and you'll never be seen at the gate again; and you'll never need your cup again, and you'll never hurt again, and you'll never beg again. And you'll never look to weak people who just give you something 'cause you think so little of yourself, that any cast away from them is better than where you are. God is getting ready to heal you on the inside, in your deep place. Drop them pills, stop getting drunk every night, you're getting ready to leave, everything in your life is getting ready to shift.
I know it's all crazy, I know the virus is crazy, people are crazy, times are crazy, people acting crazy, I get all of that. Don't worry about none of that, a shift is coming. Are you ready for it? I want to pray for people who heard God speak to them in this moment. I want to pray for people who know what it is to be scared to get up and walk. I want to pray for people who have been stuck, and sometimes you stay too long in the same place. I want to pray for people who are scared of what you've never done, intimidated. I wanna pray for people who are at their wit's end. I want to pray for people who've been paralyzed emotionally, emotionally paralyzed, you can't feel nothing; spiritually paralyzed, you can go to church but you're still not in the church.
I got more people tuned in, logging in, watching; you tuned in 'cause you're scared but you have made no real commitment to Christ. You want the pacifier, you don't want no milk. A pacifier's designed to fool a baby, it gives them the feel of sucking in, they ain't getting no milk. You turned me on to be a pacifier, but God wants to give you the sincere milk of the Word. And sitting here watching me right now and something about that message spoke all the way down to your ankles. I'm telling you there's gonna be a paradigm shift but you're gonna have to be responsible enough to throw down your crutches and get rid of your crutch-like friends and stand up on your feet and start walking and leaping and praising the Lord. God is shaking up your life because he wants change, he wants change.