TD Jakes - Anointed For The Altercation (09/09/2021)
Jesus maintained His identity as God's Son through isolation, consecration at baptism, and altercation in temptation—teaching us to know who we are in God regardless of situation, support, or Satan's three tricks: lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life.
Identity Independent of Situation
What I love about Jesus is that he was just as much God's Son in isolation as he was in consecration, as he will be in altercation. He was still the same. Whether men clapped or did not clap, whether they were there or were not there, whether they supported him or did not support him. Do not allow your situation to define your identity. I am who God says I am. I can do what God says I can do, glory to God.
I was telling some pastors, I said, "I would be a pastor if I did not have a church. I would be a pastor if I did not have a building, because none of those things define me. Pastoring is an anointing." It is an anointing. It is a flow of the spirit. It will happen around the kitchen table. It will happen in a restaurant. When God makes you something you are that, whether you have got anybody to bear witness to that or not.
Oh, do not fool with me. Do not fool with me. You are going to fool with me. You are going to fool with me. If you fool with me, you are going to make me preach. If you fool with me, you are going to start something. Hallelujah, glory to God.
And all of the Godhead set it off. They had to all set it off to correspond with Genesis when they said, "Let us make the first man, Adam." "Let us make the first man, Adam." And now in the Jordan, the us is at it again. I said the us is at it again. The us is at it again. The us is at it again. The us is at it again. The us, and let us make man. Let us make Adam. Let us be at it again.
You ought to tell the devil you are fooling with us now. You are not just jumping on me, you are fooling with us. I have got a us behind me. I have got an army behind me. I have got a brigade behind me. I have got support behind me. I have got secret forces behind me.
From Consecration to Altercation
It is amazing to me to recognize how the Holy Spirit at one moment can descend like a dove, the Father can speak from heaven, and the Son can be immersed in the water. And then the next moment, from this pinnacle of spiritual supremacy, from this apex, a spiritual awareness and identity. From this apex of an understanding of the Messiah coming from which they had waited thousands of years, in the very next verse, it plummets from the pinnacle of this height of spiritual supremacy and authority down into the abyss of an altercation.
And it was not like he just wandered into the altercation, he was led of the Spirit into the altercation. See, we do not have that kind of spirit anymore. The only kind of spirit we have got today is the kind that leads us into a Cadillac or a Rolls Royce, or a Mercedes.
So, for 40 days he went without food. Forty days without food will make you weak in the body. But there is a difference between being weak in the body and weak in the spirit. Forty days without food will make you weak in the body, but he was not weak in the spirit.
And the enemy tempted him for 40 days, and after the 40 days was over, he comes along, and the Bible says he saw Jesus was hungry. So he said, "If thou be the Son of God, turn this stone into bread." And then he said Satan took him up on a pinnacle and showed him all the kingdoms of this world, and he said, "All of this will I give you if you bow down and worship me." Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, if you just bow down and worship me, I will turn it over to you.
And then he took him up to the top of the temple and said, "Thrust yourself off this temple, for it is written the angels will give charge over thee."
The Three Temptations
Now, everything, the bread to be hungry is not a sin, so how could you tempt me with something that is not a sin? The temptation was not the need, the temptation was how you go about satisfying the need. You are not wrong to be hungry, but you have got to be careful how you fix it. Oh, you all do not hear what I am saying. You all do not hear what I am saying to you.
You were built to be hungry. There is no sin in being hungry, but Satan will try to get you to take a shortcut to satisfy a legitimate need. It is, in essence, a legitimate need satisfied in an illegitimate way.
Satan showed him all the kingdoms of the world, showed him. The word emphasis should not be on the kingdoms of this world, it should be showed him, because it is the lust of the eye. And he showed him all the kingdoms of this world in the flesh.
Have you thought about what that would look like? To show him Asia, and Japan, and Russia, and Germany, and all of the different countries in Africa, and all the different languages, and he did it all in a flash, all over Europe, and Norway, and Belgium, Antarctica, and Australia. All the kingdoms, kingdoms of the world. He showed it to him in a flash and said I will give it to you, all you have got to do is worship me.
Legitimate that it belongs to me, because the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. But for me to have to worship you to get it, that is the temptation. And by the way, why would you tempt me to turn the stone to bread when I am the bread of life?
"Cast yourself down off of this pinnacle, for it is written the angels will bear you up." In other words, show how tough you are. And it was written that the angels would bear him up, but it was not written for him to do things to tempt God.
That is why this is just my conviction. You can have whatever conviction you want. Feel free to do whatever you want to do. You can take peroxide, you can eat the container that the toothpaste comes in if that is what you want to do. You do whatever you feel led to do, but it is my conviction that if I can do something that will protect me from the virus, yes, God can heal me, but just because God is a healer does not mean that I should tempt him.
It does not mean that I should have to tempt him in order to do what he does. But this was the pride of life. You are too important to get sick. You are too important. The angels will come down and get you.
Jesus did not need Satan to loose the angels to bear him up. Seeing as Jesus was a captain of the hosts, and he could have called 10,000 angels on the cross, he did not need Satan to lift him up. But here is the mystery. We have learned a trick. Satan only has got three tricks.
Satan's Only Three Tricks
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, that is all he has got. If you pass those three things, you have got an A. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. If you can bypass what your flesh is craving for, the lust of the flesh, and how you go about satisfying it, that is the temptation. The lust of the flesh.
The lust of what you see. Have you ever had God bless you and you were afraid to show people? Have you ever had a dress and you were scared to wear it because you wonder could they handle it? Have you ever had a house and you did not want to invite people over because you were not sure how they were going to feel about it?
For some people, exposure makes them better, for other people, exposure makes them bitter. When Satan has got a stronghold on you, the lust of the eye stops you from rejoicing with those that do rejoice. It is what haters have made out of. They cannot rejoice with you because when they look at that, they have got a hatred about it. The lust of the eye, the lust of the eye.
That is why God cannot show you anything, because instead of learning from it, you lust after it. It is easier for you to lust after taking it than it is to learn how to acquire it. All Satan has in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life.
I am going to show it to you real quick, and then I am going to close. Genesis 3 verse 6, and do not even turn to it, I am going to read to you. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food," oh that it was good for food, that is the lust of the flesh, "And that it was pleasant to the eyes," that is the lust of the eye, "and that it is desirable to make one wise," that is the pride of life.
The same tricks he used on Eve, he is using on Jesus, he is using on you. All you have got to do is whip those three and you have got it beat. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
Am I important? Am I important? You know you like to be important. Am I important? The pride of life. God hates pride above all of them, because the pride of life will bring you down. Sometimes you need to be overlooked. Sometimes you need to be ignored.
Some of you have a syndrome where you need to be seen all the time. Sometimes you need to be ignored, because God is killing out that pride of life. See me, see me, look at me, come get me, salvage me. The angels will come get me. The family will forgive me. I am too important. I can do something stupid, and the angels will catch me.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. That the Bible says that is all that is in the world.
John 2:15-17 says that is all that is in the world. You know how the old folk used to tell us do not be like the world, come out from the world and be ye separate? That is worldliness, earrings was worldliness, wearing pants was worldliness, wearing makeup was worldliness. Men having long hair was worldliness.
All of that was worldliness, and it was worldliness because they could not read good. Let me tell you what is worldliness. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And you can have them with earrings, and with makeup, and with pants on, and wear shorts, and you can go swimming together, and you can still be full of lust.
It a long dress down to your ankles and be lustful. Dress on fire, dress on fire, all the way down to your ankles, dress smells like smoke, lust of the flesh, lust of the eye. Yeah, I said it. I meant it. I am here to represent it. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, glory to God, thank you, Jesus, and the pride of life.
Ain't nothing more prideful than the old church world with their big hats, and their high seats, and everybody had to look up, and everybody had to acknowledge you every time they got up. They are giving honor to the bishop and... we said it 20 times, and we still have got to say it again. What is more prideful than church folk?
That devil is wreaking havoc in the house of God, but I bind that spirit in the name of Jesus. I bind that spirit in the name of Jesus. I bind that spirit in the name of Jesus. I bind that spirit in the name of Jesus.
Nudge three people and tell them, "I have got a devil to fight. I have got a devil to fight. I have got a devil to fight. I have got a devil to fight." He has been studying me, and I have been studying him, and I am anointed for the altercation. I am anointed to fight the good fight of faith. I am anointed to get the breakthrough.
You might have defeated a lot of people, but you are not going to defeat me. "A thousand shall fall at my right side, 10,000 shall fall at my left side, it shall not come nigh me." It shall not come nigh me.
You all scared to say it. It shall not come. Say it like you mean it. Shake your fist at the devil and say it. I am anointed to fight off everything you tried to send to kill me.
Look at me, I am 64 years old, I started preaching when I was 19. They said I would not last but two weeks, and I was scared they might be right, but I kept on fighting. Nineteen turned to 20, 20 turned to 22, 22 turned to 24, 24 turned to 28, 28 turned to 32, 32 turned to 38, 38 turned to fighting.
Touch somebody and say, "I am still in the fight." Forty-two turned to 46, 46 turned to 50, 50 turned to 52, 52 turned to 54. Tell your neighbor, "I am still fighting." Fifty-four turned to 58, 58 turned to 60, 60 turned to 61, 61 turned to 62, 63 turned to 64.
Slap your neighbor and say, "I am still in the fight." I am anointed for this fight. I am anointed for this altercation. I am anointed for this battle. God would not send Jesus in the wilderness until he anointed him in the Jordan, and God will not send you into the battle until he anoints you.
That is why you cannot sit up in church with your lips glued together, looking all cute, but you have got to open your mouth and receive the anointing, the anointing, the anointing, the anointing. The anointing you get on Sunday is preparing you for Monday. The anointing you are getting right now is preparing you for what you have got to deal with.
When you are really anointed, it will fall off you like water off a duck's back. When you are really anointed, the witch cannot hex you. When you are really anointed, the wicked cannot do you in. I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
Somebody in this room, folk have been trying to do everything they could to curse everything you did, but the reason you are still here is that you were anointed for the altercation. And all God wants you to do is learn how to give him the praise.
You did not get here by yourself. You did not stay here by yourself. You did not do this by yourself. You did not survive by yourself. If it were not for the anointing, you would have lost your mind. If it were not for the anointing, you would have thrown in the towel. If it were not for the anointing, you would have been in jail. If it were not for the anointing, you would have had a needle in your arm.
I want some anointed folk to start praising God for the power. For the power. You shall have power. After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall have power. I decree and declare power over your life. I decree and declare power over your finances. I decree and declare power over your emotions. I decree and declare power in your family, power over your business, power over...
I decree and declare no weapon formed against you shall be able to prosper. I decree and declare your joy will be full. I decree and declare you shall be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. I decree and declare every tactic that hell sent against you, I send it back. I send it back. I send it back in the name of Jesus.
I decree and declare your latter day shall be greater than your former day. I decree and declare you go in better than you started. I decree and declare a breakthrough is coming your way. I decree and declare you are coming out with power, you are coming out with victory, you are coming out with anointing, you are coming out with power.
I decree and declare you shall win. You shall win. You shall not be defeated. You shall not give up. You shall not give out. You shall not faint. I dare you to open your mouth and praise your God like you lost your mind.
I just need a hundred people that will jump out in the aisle up under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and fight that devil out of your life, fight it out of your body, fight it out of your spirit. Give me some shouting music. I feel the victory.