TD Jakes - Come Back Around Full Circle
I wanna talk to you about going around in circles because God is a God of circles and cycles. He's a God of circles, and he's a God of cycles. That's why Ezekiel called him a wheel in the middle of a wheel. Imagine that, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. He is telling us that God is a God of circles. I gave my wife a wedding ring. It is a circle. A circle represents eternity, having no beginning or end. A line has a beginning, and it has an end. But if you draw it into a circle, it has neither beginning or end. The circle is symbolic of eternity. It is a symbol of God. He is neither the end or the beginning. He is all that he is, continuous. David tried to find his beginning. He looked back, he couldn't find it, he look forward, he couldn't find it. He said, "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God".
It's going around in circles. I can't find the beginning. If you were a line, I could find the beginning, but you're not a line, you're a circle, "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God". I walked myself to death trying to find your beginning, because you are eternal, immutable, everlasting, unchanging. God is a God of circles, and God is a God of cycles. Because God is a God of circles, when he stepped out on nothing, and said let there be something, he spoke out of his own is-ness, and everything he spoke came out in circles. He created the earth, and the earth came out in circles, and it started spinning around and around the sun in circles. And the solar system is just a circle, in a circle, in a circle, in a circle. And Ezekiel said God is a wheel, in the middle of a wheel, in the middle of a wheel, and the circles determine the cycles, and the cycles make up the seasons, and the seasons only change because of the circle. And the only reason it's winter is because the circles create the cycles, and the cycles create the seasons.
And if there were no circles, there would be no cycles. And if there were no cycles, there would be no seasons, and the same Jesus that you see ascend shall come back around in a circle, come back around full circle. The power of understanding God begins with circles, and cycles, and the evening and the morning was the first day. It was only the first day because of circles, circles make days. That's why if you open up a watch, a regular watch, if you open it up and take the face off, it's a bunch of circles, because circles make time. The spinning of the circle creates time. And the evening in the morning were the first day. And whatever, if it's 12 o'clock, if you wait long enough, it's gonna come back around again, full circle. And this same Jesus that you see ascend shall descend in like manner, because God is a God of circles. He is a God of cycles. He is a God of seasons. And they're in this strange, nebulous, indescript place, in between seasons.
You know how it is in between seasons, where it's hot one day and then cold the next? And you don't know what to put on, and you look up and it's raining, and then you come back and you got on a jacket, now you need on shorts, and you don't know what to do because the weather gets strange between seasons. And God is a God of circles, and cycles, and seasons. They have been through the cross, but they have not quite had Pentecost. And they're stuck between where God was and where God is going, and they're standing looking back, at his last sighting. That's the text. That's the text today, it's circles, it cycles, it's season. If you understand that God is a God of circles, and cycles, and seasons, you could overcome your enemies. You remember when the children of Israel came to Jericho, and Joshua had to take a bunch of farmers and fight a bunch of men who had chariots, riding on the rooftop of walls, so high they couldn't climb them?
And God told them how to defeat them. He said just go around in circles. Just take a circle walk, and then go and get some rest, and then on the seventh day, go around seven times, and when you do the seventh time, blow the trumpet, because seven is completion, and you've completed the circle, which is the end of the cycle. And boom, the wall came down. Somebody, boom, your wall is coming down. Boom, your affliction is comin' down. Boom, your poverty is coming down. Boom, your crisis coming down, because you're gonna walk around the circle for the last time. And when you walk around the circle for the last time, everything that's been standing in your face, boom, it's coming down. It's going to break. That financial curse, boom, it's gonna break, it's coming down. That physical disease, boom, it's gonna break, it's going to come down. You have gone around for the last time. I'm talkin' about circles and cycles, and see, the only problem with the woman with issue of blood, it says she got stuck in the cycle.
See, God gave the woman a circle, and then he gave the circle a cycle. And she had the circle, but she broke the cycle, because she was supposed to have a regular menstrual cycle for a certain amount of days, and it was supposed to stop, but she stopped in the middle of the cycle, and she was bleeding to death, because she stopped moving in the cycle, and she was going to die. And she crawled toward Jesus, because there is nothing worse than getting stuck in a cycle. That's where life starts to hemorrhage, when you're stuck. And there's somebody listening at me right now that you've been stuck in a cycle, and that that should have been over is still bleeding. And whenever something that should have been over is still bleeding, you become faint. And she had lost all her money. You become broke. And she lost all of her confidence, and her courage, and her friends, and she was about to lose consciousness, because she was stuck in a cycle that should have been over. Why stand ye here gazing at what should have been over? You're stuck at his last sighting, and you've got to go, 'cause you have an appointment with destiny.
And there's somebody who's still bleeding over something that happened ten years ago. Still bleeding over something that happened three years ago. Still bleeding over something that happened when you were 12, or 15, or eight, or seven, and you are still hemorrhaging like the woman with the issue of blood. It's all right to be hurt, but to be hurt 30 years is to be stuck in a cycle, in a hemorrhage, in a bleeding that makes you untouchable. But I feel God saying you're gonna come around full circle. And that's what I see in the text today. It is not merely the intermediate, nebulous, indescript stage between two designated points, it is that they stopped the cycle, 'cause they were still stuck in the circle at his last sighting, which would have broke the season that would have brought Pentecost. If they would've stayed there gazing at where he was, they would have missed where he was waiting, and the person of the Holy Ghost.
You see, God was about to do something in Jerusalem, and they could not afford to be stuck looking at a cloud when there was going to be a cloud of glory to come down and envelop the room. They were looking at clouds, but God was getting ready to send a sound from heaven, and a mighty rushing wind, and cloven tongues appeared over them, and God was going to set on them and fill them with the Holy Spirit of God itself. And it was, according to Luke the physician, he takes the time to give the detailed narration that it was 120 people, made up of the disciples and the mysterious women amongst them. I call them mysterious women because the women had no name. They didn't even speak to the women. Ye men of Galilee, there were women there. Now, I want to address them. And many, many times in the kingdom, nobody addresses the need of women.
That's why I started Woman Thou Art Loosed because the church thrived off of the existence of women, but did not address the needs of women. They are the mysterious women. They keep the church going, and keep the doors open, and keep the giving, and keep everything, taking care of, they are the people who go out to the polls and vote. They are the people who bring in the bacon and fry it up in a pan, and yet the mysterious women are not even named in the text. They are silent. There were women amongst them, remember that? There were women amongst them. Nobody addressed them, but there were women amongst them. Nobody called their name, but there were women. They listed out the 12 apostles, name, by name, by name, by name, and when it came to women, they put them in a category and said, "And there were women amongst them".
The mysterious women are circles with cycles. They hold the mystery of creation in their body. Their body holds the matrix of life, and their cycle is a projection of the creation. These mysterious women are mingled amongst these men, and they come into the Upper Room to wait on the promise of the Father. They are waiting on what God is going to do next, just like you have been waiting on what God is going to do next. Sometimes without a job I'm waiting on what God is going to do next. Sometimes preaching at home, waiting on what God is going to do next. Sometimes dealing with your children at home, waiting on what God is going to do next. Watching the news, looking at the politics, looking at the craziness, looking at the killings, looking at the shootings, waiting on what God is going to do next.
And the devil is tryin' to make you think that God has forgotten you, has forgotten your prayers, has forgotten your dreams, and forgotten your agony, and forgotten your labor of love. But the devil is a liar. God has not forgotten you. In fact, he told me to tell you that everything is going to come back around full circle. And if there's anything that you lost, or anything that slipped away, or any deterioration, or any rusting, or any mitigation of circumstances and situations, I want you to declare right now it's comin' back around full circle. Say it loud and clear. It's coming back around full circle. It's comin' back around. It's comin' back around. It's comin' back around. It's comin' back around full circle. Devil, you should have killed me when you had the chance. You should have killed me while I was still confused. You should have killed me while I was staring at my past. You should've killed me while I was still lookin' at where things used to be, because it's coming back around full circle.
And for ten days they waited, ten days. He showed himself alive, Luke tells us, for 40 days with many infallible proofs. And ten days they waited in the Upper Room, 40 plus ten it's 50. Pentecost is 50. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and they were in one place, with one accord, something happened that broke the barriers, that opened up the flood gates, that caused heaven and earth to kiss, that caused eternity and time to hug. Something happened where eternity came down to earth. "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done". Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind, and something that we have never seen recorded before, cloven tongues appeared like as of fire.
We don't see this anywhere else in the Bible, where a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues appeared like as of fire, and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Can you imagine what it was like to be the 120 men in that room, and find yourself overcome by the power of the Holy Ghost? Can you imagine what it was like to be in that room, and hear a sound from heaven, and it wasn't quite an earthquake, and it wasn't quite lightning, and it wasn't quite thunder? It was like a mighty rushing wind, but it wasn't a wind. It was wind, but nothing was blowing. It was like as a mighty rushing wind. It was like a mighty burning fire, but it wasn't a fire, it was like. It was like, it was like, because they had never seen anything like it before, and it fell on all of them.
They had been around the Holy Spirit, they'd been around the anointing, they'd been around the power of God, but they had never experienced this in their life, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And the men had nothing to compare it to. It was not like the Mount of Transfiguration. It was not like Jesus walking on water. It was not like him raising Lazarus from the dead. It was not like anything in their repertoire of experiences. There was nothing in their past that they were looking back at that would prepare them for what God was about to do, and God told me to tell you he's gonna do something in your life that's unprecedented, that you don't have a point of reference for, that you cannot even describe it to anybody, because it is not quite going to be like anything that you have ever had him do in your life before.
And if I'm talking to you, give him a praise. And if I'm talking to you, clap your hands. And if I'm talking to you, give God some glory. And if I'm talking to you, this will not be like that. It will not be that. It will not be what was. It will not be what used to be. What God is going to do, you're not even going to have a word for it, you're just going to say it was like. And the Holy Ghost came upon all of them. It came up on all of them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. That's two different things. It came up on them, that's outside. Inside, they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and all 119 of them we're shocked, because they had no point of reference for what was happening in the room.
And did you notice when it mentioned the mysterious women, it says the women came along with them, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Is Mary not a woman? Why is she in a distinct category apart from the other women? I'm glad you asked me that. Can I tell you? One-hundred-and-nineteen people had something happen in that room for the very first time that they had never had happen before. The Holy Ghost came up on them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. But there was only one out of the 120 who had something to compare it to, remember? "Hail, Mary, you've been highly favored amongst women. You shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Jesus. And the Spirit of the Lord came up on her, and she was filled with God himself".
As I prepare to close, Mary was the only woman out of all of them, and the only person in the room, who said, "Hmm, this is familiar. I have had the Holy Ghost come up on me before. That's how he came". And she is the only woman in history who got to carry her baby twice. When the Holy Ghost came upon her, and she was filled with the Holy Ghost. She said, "Look at me. It's all come back around full circle. I got my baby back. That which is within me is conceived by the Holy Ghost". "What are you trying to tell me, Bishop"? Everything you lost, everything you cried about, "Eli, eli, lema sabachthani," My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
Everything you stared at as it hid behind a cloud where you could not go, everything that got stuck in the cycle of life, everything that seems unjust, and unfair, and unfavorable, and unkind, God said if you keep on walking with me, it's all going to come back around full circle. I don't know what that means, I'm just the mailman. I didn't open your mail, I just delivered it. I'm just a FedEx delivery boy bringing you off a package. I didn't open up the box, I just brought it to your house. But whatever it looks like you lost, and whatever that looks like has gone away, and whatever you've been staring at saying I may not ever have that again, God said, "Why stand ye here gazing"?
This same thing you lost, it's coming back around again full circle. Everything that the devil stole from you is coming back around full circle. It was just a season. It was just a cycle. It was just a circle. And while they were all speaking in tongues and praising God, she said, "I've had this feeling before. Out of the 120 people in the room, I'm the only one who has had the Holy Ghost come up on me, and been filled, and walked out of the room caring my Jesus in another form". God says it's comin' back to you in another form on the next level. Don't stare at the form that left, prepare for the form that's coming.