TD Jakes - The Spin Cycle (12/06/2021)
The preacher teaches that God shapes us like a potter shapes clay on a spinning wheel—He often works in chaotic, spinning seasons of crisis and loss to form us into something new, even when we feel angry or question Him. Drawing from Jeremiah 18 (the Potter's perspective) and Isaiah (the clay's perspective), he urges contentment in the spin cycle, trusting that in just a little while God will reverse situations and break us out of our "normal" to bring greater glory.
The Potter Shapes in the Spin
You do not get to celebrate the touch of the Master’s hand because the clay is spinning so fast it does not even get to enjoy the touch. You know, it is the combination of the spinning and the touch that forms the vessel. The touch without the spinning would leave a hole, and the spinning without the touch would just be pandemonium without formation.
When the text talks about us being like the clay and the Potter, Isaiah is saying that we are shaped in the spin; that when God gets ready to make us, He puts us in a spinning environment.
We like to do things when things are calm, you know? I like to fish when the waters are calm, early in the morning. It seems fruitful when things are calm. I like to build and buy property, build when the finances, and the family, and everything is calm. I like to take risks in the calm, but God takes the risk in the crisis, in the spinning.
God Works in the Worst Times
Sometimes it seems like He purposely picks out the worst time in the world to do the most mighty things. He says, “Abraham, I am going to give you a baby, but not when you feel strong, not when you are virile and you feel like, ‘Yeah, I got this.’” He said, “I am going to do it when you feel sheepish and vulnerable, and your body is as good as dead, and your wife is past childbearing age. I am going to do it when your testimony looks stupid. I am going to do it when it is ridiculous for you to tell anybody. I am going to do it in the spin cycle. I am going to do it with all hell breaking loose. I am going to do it while everything is spinning. I am going to do it when your marriage is in the matrix.”
The clay does not get to control the spin. You do not get to choose who you lose. You do not get to choose how you are going to be tested. You do not get to choose who is going to get sick, or who is going to die, or who is going to break your heart, or who is going to leave you. You do not even get to choose who you love.
Have you ever loved somebody that it was stupid to love, and your mind told you you are a fool, and your heart kept saying “Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump,” and your mind kept saying, “Shut up, shut up, shut up”? I do not like that! You cannot control it. It is the spin cycle.
Jeremiah: The Potter’s Perspective
Isaiah speaks about the spin cycle and he speaks about it from a very unique perspective. You see, Jeremiah, when he talks about it, he talks about it from the perspective of the Potter. He tells us what the Potter is thinking. He tells us that God sent Jeremiah down to the Potter’s house and said, “Arise and go down to the Potter’s house, and there I will show you a work wrought in a spin cycle. I will show you how God works in the spin, and I will show you that in the spinning, the clay will be marred.”
And I will let you hear what the Potter thinks about the process. I will let you hear the Potter decide to keep a broken vessel, a vessel that He could have thrown away, that He could have discarded, that He could have said, “This is too messed up to work with,” but I will let you hear the thought process of a Potter who makes a decision over a vessel that could have been discarded and watch Him decide to take that vessel that could have been discarded and make it again another.
That is what I love about the text. He made it again another. It is an oxymoron. It is a ridiculous statement. He made it again another. Is it “it” or “another”? He made it again another. If it is another, it is not “it.” If it is “it,” it is not another. But only the Potter can take it and make it again another.
It is me, but it is not me. I am the same, but I am not the same. It looks like me, but it is not me. He is wearing my clothes, but he does not have my attitude. He lives in my house, but he does not think like me. He parks in my garage, but he has a new attitude. They call me the same name, but I am not the same guy.
The Potter’s Sovereign Control
And I cannot even tell you when it happened because He did it in the spin cycle. And Jeremiah tells me what the Potter thinks about the spin. The Potter has control in the spin. He can decide to keep it or discard it. He can decide to reshape it or remake it. His foot controls how fast the spin is. The Potter has control in the spin.
And I thank You, Lord, that when You could have thrown me off the wheel, when You saw how broken I was, You could have decided that I was not worth the investment. I thank You, Lord, when it looked like I was not a good deal that You kept me when You could have killed me. To God be the glory. I owe You the praise. I must give You the honor. I must give You the glory. I must worship You at all times, in all places, in all ways.
Because sometimes You and I are the only ones who know how marred I am in Your hands. “He made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the Potter to make it.” He did not meet with you about me. He did not ask you about me. He did not need your vote to bless me.
So why am I all up in your face trying to see whether you like me? You do not get to vote on my blessing. The Bible said, “He did it as seemed good.” He brought me here because it seemed good to the Potter to do so. He gave me this position because it seemed good to the Potter to do so. And even when you voted against me, He raised me up anyway because your vote does not count in His counsel.
Isaiah: The Clay’s Perspective
“He made it again another vessel as seemed good to the Potter to make it.” Well, I want to hurry. This is good. Are you getting anything? I want you to see this part right here. Isaiah does not talk about it from the Potter’s perspective; he talks about it from the position of the angry clay. The angry clay, the bitter clay, the clay that says, “It is not fair that my mama did not raise me.” The clay that says, “It is not fair that my father did not love me.” The clay that says, “It is not fair that I gave my love to somebody who left me.”
The clay that questions the decision of the Potter because everything is topsy-turvy. I love Jeremiah talking about how the Potter thought, but I get the most help talking to Isaiah about how the clay felt in the spin cycle. That everything seems upside down and that you wonder—shh. You wonder, “Was God right?” Shh, do not say it. You do not testify about it, but you wonder, “Did He do the right thing?” Why did You take that away from me? You let her die now.
The clay wonders, “Does the Potter know what He is doing?” The clay complains in the spin cycle. And Isaiah says, “Who are you to question the Potter? Did you make yourself?”
You would not even have the opportunity to be on the wheel in the spin cycle if the Potter had not chosen you. He picked you up when you were nothing and gave you a chance when you were nobody. And just because your life is spinning crazy does not mean you get to question the spin. So tell your neighbor, “Do not question the spin.”
Contentment in the Spin Cycle
Because it is Isaiah who tells me the mystery of the spin. Oh, God, I wish I had time to preach this like I want to. See, you must understand what the attitude of the clay must be in order to be successful. The attitude of the clay has to remain contented. Contentment. Contentment is not complacency. I am not telling you to be complacent, to not want anything. Contentment is not complacency.
Now, the Bible says godliness with contentment is great gain, but we are told not to be complacent. We are told to be vigilant and always abounding. So how can I have contentment and be vigilant and always abounding? Paul said, “I have learned.” I have learned. Whatever state I am in, I have learned to be contented on the wheel.
I have learned to be contented when it is up. I have learned to be contented when it is down. I know how to abound. I know how to abase. I know how to be rich. I know how to be poor. I have learned how to be contented without being complacent.
How can you be contented without being complacent? How can you be confident when it looks like you are losing, when it looks like you are going backwards, when it looks like it is the wrong time in your life to be single, when it looks like it is a bad time to be starting all over again? How can you be contented when you are in the spin cycle? How can you have a positive attitude?
In a Little While: Reversal and Glory
Because this is what Isaiah tells us. He tells us about the angry, bitter clay who questions the spin cycle. And then he says something that I really like. He says something. Let me find it here. He says, you might have read over it and missed it. He said, “It is not yet a very little while.”
If you stick with the spin, he says, “In just a little while, Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest.”
Now, I want to break that down. Lebanon was known for trees. Lebanon, the cedars of Lebanon, built the temple of Solomon. The cedars of Lebanon were what was shipped in as a fine cedar forest. He says, “In a little while, that that used to make trees will grow bushes and that that used to grow bushes will make trees.”
In other words, he said, “When I get through spinning, I am going to bring you into a change that the head is going to become the tail and the tail is going to become the head.” Touch somebody and say, “Yet a little while.”
God says, “I am not just spinning you to persecute you; I am spinning you so that I can transition you from faith to faith and from glory to glory.” Glory to God.
Touch somebody and tell them, “I am in the spin cycle.” When you met me, I was the tail, but when you see me again, I will be the head. You all do not hear what I am saying to you. I am in the spin cycle. Glory to God. Glory to God.
God Has a Plan in the Chaos
I feel like preaching this thing, hallelujah. Touch your neighbor and say, “Keep on spinning.” I know you are uncomfortable. I know you are angry. I know you are upset. But you need to learn whatever state you are in to be content because God has a plan.
I need you to help me preach. I do not have time to preach it. Touch ten people and tell them, “God has a plan.” He has a plan. He has a plan. He has a plan. He has a plan. It feels chaotic, but He has a plan. It feels lonely, but He has got a plan. You feel frustrated, but He has got a plan. You do not understand it, but He has got a plan. You do not understand it, but He has got a plan. He has got a plan over your life.
I feel the anointing of the Holy Ghost about to fall in this place right now and I want some frustrated clay, some angry clay, some perturbed clay, in spite of your feelings, to open your mouth and give God 30 seconds of praise.
Breaking Out of the Normal
What God is trying to break is your normal. He is after your normal. He says, the next verse says, “The deaf ears are going to hear.” It is not normal for a deaf man to be able to hear. Oh God, look at your neighbor and say, “It is not going to be normal.”
Your blessing is not going to be your normal. This is important. You have to choose: do you want your blessing, or do you want your normal? You cannot have it both ways.
Some people will walk out on their blessing because they fell in love with their normal. And they will sabotage their blessing so that they can have the normal. But God said, “I am going to spin you around until you lose control of your normal because I am trying to bring you into the next dimension.”
I do not know who I am preaching to, but if I am preaching to you, give God a praise right now. Slap your neighbor and tell them, “He is breaking me out of my normal.” He is breaking me out of my normal.
He is teaching me how to shut my mouth. He is teaching me how to be still. He is teaching me how to hold my peace. The battle is not mine. It belongs to God.
I break every yoke. I break every stronghold. Grab your neighbor and shake them. Tell them He is breaking it down. He is breaking it. He is breaking it. He is breaking it in the spin of your life. In the spin of your life. He is breaking it. He is breaking it in the spin.
Open your mouth and give God a praise.
He says, “The deaf shall hear and the blind shall see.” Now, that sounds good until you are the one in the spin. What do you do when God brings you a blessing that challenges how you define yourself? Will you love yourself and lose your blessing?
Watch this. If you seek to save your life, you will lose it. But if you will lose your life, you will find it. God says, “If you will lose your normal, if you will stop being deaf, if you refuse to be blind.” In other words, blind man, if you break your cane and run away with your dog, I will give you your sight. But if you are going to refuse to be changed, you will lose it.
God, I feel like I am talking to somebody. Somebody spin around right fast and help me preach real fast. This is your season to see God work in the spin cycle. This is your season to redefine yourself. This is your season.
I do not want you to tell another person how you are. I do not want you to make excuses and say, “This is how I am.” Because God said, “I am going to spin you around until you cannot tell up from down because I am getting ready to do a new thing in your life.”
I know I have to quit. I need 100 radical people that will break out and give Him a Holy Ghost praise right now.