TD Jakes - The Great Download (06/13/2021)
Pentecost is the divine "Great Download" of the Holy Spirit—the ultimate harvest from the seed of Christ's death and resurrection—empowering believers as true witnesses to Jesus' eternal nature, ushering in the reign of the Spirit for the end times, where only those who receive this power can stand against chaos, plagues, and the spirit of Antichrist.
The Great Download
The Great Download—"He shall take of Mine and show it unto you." The greatest download that has ever been done came before Apple, came before Microsoft, came before technology, came before electricity, came before lights. The greatest download came down from above—is a glorious download where heaven downloads to earth, where the celestial downloads to the terrestrial.
You cannot assume that everybody understands what Pentecost Sunday is. Pentecost is not something that God did off the spur of the moment. Pentecost is a divine strategy that goes from one end of the book to the other. Get ready for the Great Download.
Something you must realize—you must realize—then, that when we are talking about Pentecost, we are also understanding that Pentecost is about harvest. Yes, it is about seed time and harvest. It is considered the feast of harvest. It is the residual on a seed planted. Yes, the harvest comes from the sacrifice of a seed.
The Seed and the Harvest
Now I see why Jesus kept referring to Himself as a seed. He said, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." No wonder He asked the Passover Lamb when they hung Him high and stretched Him wide.
The Bible said He rose from the dead for 30 days, showed Himself alive for 40 days, and then told them to wait for Pentecost, which came on the 50th day because that is the seventh week and that is the time of the harvest. And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, the first harvest was 3,000 souls got the download. It was Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is a download.
Oh my God—that is what I am trying to do right now, and I am trying to download into you what was downloaded into me so it will pass. The vessels may change, but the oil still flows. The vessels might change, but the oil still flows. The vessels might change, but the oil still flows.
The Oil Still Flows
The vessel may change, but the oil still flows. The vessels may change, but the oil still flows. The vessel might change, but the oil still flows. The vessels may change, but the oil still flows. The vessels may change, but the oil still flows.
Christ said, "I am here, but the vessels may change, but the oil is still going to flow." Oh, you all do not hear what I am saying. "My Spirit is going to flow into you. I have been with you. The vessels may change. You will see Me no more, but the oil will still flow."
And so they had to wait, because it was illegal for God to fill them on the 40th day. So they went to Jerusalem to wait for it to be legal for the download. Sometimes when my phone tells me I have got a download, it will let me know that the download is going to take a certain amount of time, and I know that in order to make the download, I have to leave the phone hooked up to Wi-Fi and leave it plugged in overnight because this is a big download. I cannot download a big download in a short time.
Waiting for the Download
For what God was about to download to the church, they had to wait. Though it tarries, wait for it. My God, I feel the power of the Holy Ghost. God is about to give you a major download. That is why the devil is fighting you. That is why sickness is fighting you. That is why fear is fighting you. That is why depression is fighting you. The bigger the fight, the bigger the download. The bigger the fight, the bigger the download.
I do not know who I am talking to, but the bigger the fight, the bigger the download. If you have been in a big fight, you ought to praise Him like you lost your mind because you are getting ready for a big download.
So the Bible says that they were in one place with one accord. Seventy souls sitting around waiting. What are they waiting on? They are waiting on the download—the download. The little line is going. Yes, yes, it is going, it is going, it is going, it is going, it is going, it is going, and Jesus ascends while it is downloading.
Do Not Interrupt the Download
He ascends and He ascends on a cloud, and it is still downloading, and He says, "Do not try to preach because the download is still going on. Do not try to teach because the download is still going on. Do not lay hands on nobody because the download is still going on."
You know you cannot get on your phone while you are downloading. You cannot call nobody while you are downloading. You cannot take pictures while you are downloading. You have got to wait for the download to finish and the phone to let you know when the download is over because it will go off and it will come on again, and when you see the sign coming, you know the download is over. Oh, you all do not hear what I am saying.
So when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, here comes God's logo—like an apple on a phone. When the Day of Pentecost was fully come and they were in one place with one accord, suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues appeared like as of fire and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. That is the download.
Harvest in the Natural and Spiritual
Now, I want you to see how real this is. God wanted it to be on the Feast of Pentecost because devout men from every nation were coming to Jerusalem with their harvests to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. They did not just happen to be in town. They were in town, bringing their wagons full of their harvests.
So, it is harvest time. It is the early harvest. It is the beginning of the harvest coming in, and so when Pentecost happened and the Holy Ghost fell, there were devout men from Samaria and Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth were all gathered in Jerusalem because it was the Feast of Pentecost—but what they were doing was celebrating in the natural what God was doing in the spiritual.
They came with one kind of harvest, but they left with another one because God was downloading on the Day of... And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, and all of a sudden they are operating on one level. They are down in Jerusalem operating in the earth realm, and God is up in the upper room operating on another level. He is operating on a higher dimension.
Signs of the End Times
What you are doing down here does not even compare with what God is doing up there, and they heard those men in the upper room, and they thought they were drunk, and Peter said, "These men are not drunken as you suppose, seeing as it is the third hour of the day, but this is that which the prophet Joel spoke of"—that in the last days, I will do a download.
I will do a download on My sons and My daughters, on My handmaidens and My servants. I am going to do a download, and that is how you are going to know you are in the last days because you are going to get a download. Do not be shocked by COVID-19 and all of this stuff. If you read your Bible—if you read your Bible—everything happening is in your Bible.
Everything in your newspaper is in your Bible. All of the plagues and all of the wars and all of the chaos and all of the racial malice and hatred is in your Bible. One of the signs of the last days—the Bible says generation shall be against generation. In the original language, it is ethnos against ethnos—or ethnicity against ethnicity. It is a sign of the end time.
The killings in the street are a sign of the end time. Calling right wrong is a sign of the end time. The return of injustice is a sign of the end time. Plagues that nobody can cure is a sign of the end time. Body bags stacked up in the street is a sign of the end time.
Prophetic Signs All Around
Inflation with food is a sign of the end time. The Bible said it would take a bag of gold to buy a loaf of bread—that is inflation. It is a sign of the end time. The shortage of food is a sign of the end time. Do not be shocked. All these years we have been preaching it—then when it happens, you are walking around with your mouth hanging open.
The Bible says in the last days there will be a great falling away. So you are talking about the nones generation, and there is a falling away, and many people are not believing, and they do not believe in church. That is not shocking. The Bible said in the last days there would be a great falling away. It is a sign of the end time.
It is a sign of the end time. It is a sign of the end time. Every time you see somebody with a knee on somebody's neck, it is a sign of the end time—and you see a justice system that goes blind and looks the other way. It is a sign of the end time.
Every time you see a killing like that, it is a sign of the end time. Every time you see a mother shoot her baby, it is a sign of the end time. Every time you see a child turn against a parent and a parent turn against a child—it says mothers will be against daughters and fathers will be against sons. It is all prophetic. It is a sign.
Can you handle this kind of preaching? It is a sign of the end time. God is making a download. The download is so profound. The download is so powerful. God is downloading information.
Becoming True Witnesses
Now, I have got to go deeper. I want to go deeper. Put my Scripture back up on the screen again—particularly those last four verses or so of that Scripture—and put it up on the screen so I can see, because I am getting ready to go deeper, and I am going to go deeper into something I want you to understand what to expect.
I want you to understand what is going to happen. I want you to understand what God is doing. I want you to understand what it means to be filled with the Spirit. I want you to understand you have been walking in your flesh so long that your senses are weak. Your senses are weak because you do not use them much, but now you are going to have to use your senses because you are locked up in your house.
You have got to use your senses. You cannot lean on somebody else's anointing. You have got to activate your prayer life. You have got to clap your hands. You have got to get down by your bed and plead the blood for yourself. Oh my God—you cannot just walk up and have somebody lay their hands on you. You have got to get God to lay His hands on you.
We are coming into the end time. By the way, the laying on of hands is a sign of a download. So in Acts chapter 1, I believe it is verse 8, He says, "You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you." You shall—whoosh—download—receive power.
You do not have to be powerful. All you have got to do is accept the download. If you accept the download, you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
You Shall Be Witnesses
Jesus is talking to His disciples. Now, this is good. Let me come down here. This is good. This is good. Can I come down here? I am going to come down here. Yes, I want to come down here. I want you to see that this is real good.
Jesus is talking to His disciples, and He is saying to His disciples—He says, "You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you." And this is what blew my mind. He says, "And you shall be witnesses unto Me."
And I thought, "Wait a minute. What do You mean they shall be witnesses? Are they not already witnesses? Are they not witnesses to You already? Wait a minute, Jesus. They were there when You called them. They were there when You healed the woman with the issue of blood. They were there when You healed blind Bartimaeus. They were there when You called Lazarus out of the grave. Are they not already witnesses?"
They were there when Judas betrayed You. They were there when they took You from judgment hall to judgment hall. They were there when they nailed You to the cross. They were there when they hung You high and stretched You wide. Are they not already witnesses?
They were there when the tomb was empty. They saw You come out of the grave. They know that the tomb is empty. If anybody ought to be witnesses, these boys ought to be witnesses. And yet He said, "You shall be witnesses unto Me." Are you hearing what I am saying to you? "You shall be witnesses unto Me."
Now, all of a sudden He said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no—they are not witnesses because of the things they saw Me do. Because the things they saw Me do do not define who I am. In order to be a witness unto Me, you have to receive the witness on the inside."
The Witness Is Coming
The Holy Ghost is the only one who can be a witness unto Me because the Bible says that the Lamb was slain from the foundations of the world, and you were not there from the foundations of the world—but the Holy Ghost was there from the foundations of the world.
And the reason you are not witnesses is because the witness is coming. The witness is coming—you see that? The witness, the witness, witness, witness—the witness, witness, witness—the witness, witness, witness—the witness that was there when I said, "Let there be"—the witness that was there when I was sitting up in the council of God and said, "Let us make man in our own likeness and in our image"—the witness that was there before there was a whirlwind or this or that—the witness is coming. The witness is coming.
Look at your neighbor and say, "The witness is coming." "Now, you shall be witnesses unto Me after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. When the Holy Ghost comes upon you, He shall testify of Me because you only see through a glass darkly. You only got partial information. You do not even know the facts—but when He who is the Prophet has come, you shall be witnesses on a level you were never a witness before."
So He says, "Do not preach nothing yet because you are not ready until the Holy Ghost has come upon you—because the Holy Ghost knows My roots. The Holy Ghost goes into My Ancient of Days. The Holy Ghost goes back into the corridors of heaven. The Holy Ghost was there when Lucifer fell from heaven. The Holy Ghost was there before I cast the first star out into the sky. He can be a witness of Me—and the only way you can be a witness is to receive the witness—witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness, witness."
A Holy Ghost Witness
You all do not know nothing about that witness, witness. My soul is a witness for my Lord. My soul is a witness for my Lord. He made me a witness for my Lord. I am a sanctified witness of the Lord. I am a witness, a witness for my Lord. I am a sanctified witness for my Lord. I am a born-again witness for my Lord. My soul is a witness. He made me a witness.
He made me a witness, a witness, a witness. He made me a witness. I am a lifetime witness. I am a sanctified witness. I am a Holy Ghost witness. He made me a witness. Send me to court. Send me to court. I am a baptized witness. I am a witness, witness. I am a witness, witness. I am a witness, witness. He made me a witness.
Give Him a praise, somebody. Gloria, hallelujah. "For my Lord, for my Lord, for my Lord. Oh yes, I am a witness. For my Lord. Oh yes, I am a witness. For my Lord. Watch me witness. For my Lord—He pulling it on the inside, He gave me a download, He pulling it on the inside, I am a sanctified witness. Wow! For my Lord."
From Passover to Pentecost
What I am trying to tell you is that you have got a whole lot of Passover but not enough Pentecost. You have got a whole lot of Passover but not enough Pentecost. Oh, excuse me—you have got a whole lot of Passover. You have got that part down right: death, burial, resurrection. You have got all of that down pat—but you missed the download.
And the reason you have not heard much about the Feast of Pentecost is that you are still stuck at the Passover. You are stuck back there at the Passover, and all of your songs and all of your celebrations and all your festivities and all of your faith is back there where God was and not where God is.
This is the reign of the Holy Spirit. For the end times, you are going to have to have the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that withstands the spirit of the Antichrist. Thessalonians: he that letteth shall continue to let until he be taken out of the way. The Antichrist can never take over as long as the Holy Spirit is reigning.
The Reign of the Holy Spirit
This is the reign. Oh, I am about to mess up a good Sunday morning sermon. This is the reign. This is the reign and the rulership of the Holy Spirit. I am going to prove it to you in Acts chapter 2: "There was a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind. Cloven tongues appeared like as of fire sat upon each of them." They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
Now, they were filled again in Acts chapter 10, verses 44 through 48—but no wind, no fire, no sound—just filled. They were filled again in Acts chapter 19:1 through 5—no wind, no fire, no procession of any kind.
Why did the procession happen in 2 but it did not happen in 10 and it did not happen in 19? Because in Acts chapter 2 it was more than filling with the Holy Ghost. It was the beginning of the reign of the Holy Spirit over this era—and you still back at the cross talking about the Passover, and we have come into Pentecost, and you are missing this.
And this is not a denomination. This is not a denomination. This is no more a denomination than the Passover was. This is not a doctrine. It is no more a doctrine than the Passover was. It is for every believer—every believer.
God has got a download for every believer. It is just like your phone. They will notify everybody who has got an Apple phone—get a download at the same time. It is not my fault if you do not download it. You get the notification that it is there—but you have got to do the download.
And I came to notify you: Hey! It is here! And for these devils we are fighting right now—these COVID devils, these suicide devils, these depression devils, this spouse-abusing devil that is loose in this earth right now, this crazy devil that is loose in this earth right now—when in all of your life have you seen the whole world shut down at the same time and you could not go nowhere or fly nowhere or drive anywhere to escape it?
Do not you know this is not ordinary? You run around talking about "This is the flu." I have never seen the flu shut down the planet. You need the download.