TD Jakes - A Gift To The Giver (01/03/2022)
God is eternally a generous giver—from creation, redemption, and regeneration to wrapping Himself as Jesus the ultimate gift—calling us to be Christlike givers who recognize we are gifted prophetically for our destiny, hold onto God's ahead-of-time gifts, and return another way after true worship to avoid the traps of normal set by jealous Herods.
God the Giver: Creation as the First Gift
We do not serve a God who is demanding us to give Him things without Him having first given us. I want you to get that in your spirit: “My God is a giver,” “My God is a giver.” If I am going to be like God, I have got to be a giver. When I first met Him, He was a giver.
The first thing I learned about Him is that He created the seasons, the oceans and the winds and the waves and the satellites and the sun and the heat and the morning and the wind, and He did it all for me to climatize the atmosphere just to the degree that it never got so cold it killed me or so hot that it scorched me—when it was climate controlled. And He put me into an environment from which He created me because you exist best in environments from which you were created.
It is hard to exist in an environment you were not created for. If you were not created in the upper echelon, you would feel funny in the upper echelon. If you were not created and raised in the ghetto, you feel funny in the ghetto. If you were not created in the ocean, you could swim a while, but after a while you are going to have to get up out of there because you are an impostor.
The fish can swim for years and years and years because he was created in the water, he was conceived in the water, he was hatched in the water, he was born in the water. You can only thrive in what you are created in. And to make sure that we thrived in the environment that He created for us, He then scooped up the earth and made us out of it so that we would be kin to it, so that it is not just that God gave me the universe—God created me out of the universe.
And out of the dust God created man and He became a living soul, and He breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living soul. And Adam woke up and said, “All of this, for me? All these waterfalls and mountaintops and streams and rivers for me? All these trees and mountains and sunsets for me? All this crashing of water against the rocks dashing for me? You mean, the dew that falls like mist in the morning was all done for me? You created every flower, every blossom, every tree for me?” And God said, “I love you like that,” because God is a giver, He is a giver.
Dominion and the Gifts of Redemption and Regeneration
Understanding that He is a giver and that He gave it to us and said, “I want you to be fruitful, I want you to multiply, I want you to replenish, subdue, and have dominion.” He said, “I am going to make you the boss of it, I am going to put you in charge of it.” God said, “I created a kingdom, a king’s domain, and then gave you dominion, and you are large and in charge.”
So the first gift that He gives us is that He gives us the creation. The second gift He gives us, in Genesis, is He gives us redemption. For when Adam messed up the first gift, God said, “That is all right, I have got another one.” He walked through the cool of the garden and found Adam in his sin and his nakedness, and said, “Adam, you cannot gift your way out of this; I have got to give you a gift that will get you out of this because if you can gift your way out of this, that will be works. I have got to teach you grace, so I am going to give you something you do not even deserve.”
And the voice of the Lord walked through the cool of the garden and He found redemption and He came and dressed man in custom clothed fur, and we call it redemption and it was the second gift. And then there was the third gift—the third gift was the gift given to the deceived Eve to regenerate the species: from creation to redemption to regeneration. He says, “I invite you as a woman to partner with Me in a limited liability partnership where we are going to partner to create life. We are going to re-gene-erate.”
Jesus: God’s Ultimate Wrapped Gift
Are you with me this morning? I did not bring you a Happy Meal, I did not bring you a bologna sandwich this morning, I did not bring anything like that, I did not pack a hotdog this morning. All you peanut butter and jelly people, you might as well click off—I came to bring a seven-course meal to you to make you understand that God so loved you that He kept giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving and giving.
And that is what this season is all about, because Jesus is a gift from God; He is still God giving. From Genesis to Revelation, God never diminishes in His generosity; He never depletes His resources nor runs out of compassion—His mercies are new every morning. Even as we celebrate this season in our lives, you must understand that Christ Himself is God making Himself a gift to us.
That God steps down into a virgin and says, “I need some wrapping paper,” and flips around inside of her womb and wraps Himself up in humanity. And all of a sudden God comes stepping from eternity into time, all wrapped up in human form. Emmanuel was a gift to us. And heaven started singing and angels started rejoicing because God had given Him the ultimate gift. Now God has made Himself a gift.
Who are you a gift to? If you are a Christian, which means you are Christlike, you ought to be a gift to somebody. How have you given yourself lately to someone? Because Jesus—if God made Himself a gift, then surely the people who worship God must make themselves a gift, not a liability. Not a liability—you need to be an asset every day, you need to be a gift to somebody every day, you need to wrap yourself up in forms beyond your normal purview and give yourself to somebody.
That is why Jesus later girds Himself with a towel and gets down on His knees and starts washing feet, because it is always about wrapping yourself in whatever you need to be wrapped in in order to present yourself a sacrifice, because God never gives us unwrapped gifts. And that is what Jesus is—Jesus is God-wrapped gift, and that is what the creation was—God wrapping a world to give to His Son.
Prophetic Gifts Ahead of Time
God is always giving; He is always giving gifts; He is always giving things like in shadows and types God is giving things. That is why He had Jacob to give Joseph the coat of many colors. Yeah-yeah, because He is a giver and He is always giving to His people, and He gifts it to the boy while he is yet a child. Great God of Mercy.
I wonder, did Jacob know that he was acting like God when he made a coat of many colors for a kid? A kid that would become the Prince of Egypt is crowned ahead of time with a gift beyond his years. Great God Almighty. When God gets a gift for you it does not just have the present in mind; it has the future in mind. When God gives a gift for you it embraces everything that you shall be; when God gives a gift for you it embraces your destiny and not your history.
In fact, God will give you something on time that is for another time. Oh, y'all did not hear that—that was so good I got happy myself. Do not throw away nothing God gave you, even if it does not fit your situation, even if it does not make any sense right now, even if you do not understand why God gave you what He gave you like He gave you—do not throw away anything.
Even if they laugh at it, even if they mock it, even if they make fun of it, even if they say you do not need it—hold on to everything God gave you. Joseph, the coat might look silly around your brethren, but when you are walking around Egypt in a chariot behind Pharaoh they are going to understand that the gift was a prophetic gift.
You Are Gifted: A Prophetic Declaration
I do not know who I am talking to today: you have got a gift that does not even fit your situation but the gift is prophetic; it is a prophetic gift from God. I want you to declare right now, “I am gifted.” All you said that like ABC’s—say it like you believe it, “I am gifted.” Say it until the devil hears you, “I am gifted.”
If nobody gets me anything for Christmas, I am gifted. If UPS does not deliver anything, I am gifted. If FedEx does not drop off a package, I am gifted. If nothing is under my tree, I am gifted—I was born a gift. I am a walking gift, I am a talking gift, I am a thinking gift, I am a moving gift, I am a functioning gift, I am an anointed gift.
Whenever I walk in the room you have been gifted because I am gifted; I am a gift. And He gave apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers and evangelists—He said, “I made people a gift.” Shout it, “I am a gift.”
God will give you a gift that is revelatory, that shows your shall-be while you are still in a toddler state of being; God will give you a gift ahead of time. Let me break that down. God will anoint you to be king while you are still a shepherd boy. God will put a robe on you to leave Egypt while you are still carrying lunches.
God will give you a gift that does not even fit where you are. I want to talk to somebody who is confused because you know you have got something but you do not know what you have got and you do not know how to use it and you do not understand why you got what you got, but God has already given you something for where He is about to take you into. Somebody shout, “I am gifted.”
These men brought a king’s gift to a kid, they brought a king’s gift to a kid. And God is famous for bringing gifts ahead of time, for anointing kids to be kings years before they become kings, for making coats of many colors for princes before they ever become or even enter into Egypt.
God has given you something that does not fit where you are, and do not let anybody make you forfeit what He gave you because it does not fit where you are. Hold on to what He gave you—the gift is for an appointed time. In the end, it will speak and not lie. “Though the vision tarry, wait for it.” Wait for it—it is going to make sense in a minute.
It does not have to make sense in the moment; it is going to make sense in a minute. You do not understand why you are where you are, what is going on in your life right now. It does not have to make sense right now; it does not have to fit into the decor of the house. It does not make sense for the situation but soon God is going to show you why you had to go through everything you had to go through.
Praise to the Giver and Beware of Herod
If you think I might be talking to you, give God a praise right now if you think I am speaking to you. Come on, come on—if you think I am, if you think I am speaking to you, if you think God is talking to you, if you think God is saying something to you—open your mouth and give Him a praise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah—yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes Lord.
Look at somebody and holler, “I got something”—type it out on your computer, “I got something”—text it on your phone, “I got something. I know I got something. I do not understand it but I got it; it does not make sense but I got it; it does not fit into my atmosphere but I got it. I have been gifted.”
Let all the gifted people give a sign, all the gifted people give a shout, all the gifted people give a text, all the gifted people give a tweet, all the gifted people make a noise. If you know you are gifted, make some noise. I may be broken but I am gifted, I may be bruised but I am gifted, I may be hewn out the rock but I am gifted, I might be worried but I am gifted, I might be in turmoil but I am gifted, I might be confused but I am gifted.
Let every devil know I am gifted, let every witch know I am gifted, let every demon know I am gifted. He that hath begun a good work shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Now, Lord have mercy—I wish I had an old-timey church so I could get an old Holy Ghost praise. I wish I had a praise in this place that could step into your destiny, that could step into your future—somebody that believed God for prophetic worship go into a prophetic praise right in front of your laptop, right in front of your iPad, right in front of your computer. Open your mouth and give God—give God, oh-oh-ooh, give God—give-give-give-give-give to the Giver, give God.
You ought to give Him a praise, you ought to give Him a praise, you ought to give Him a praise. You ought to stop being stingy and give God a praise—you ought to give to the Giver. He gave you your shoes, He gave you your feet, He gave you your pants, He gave you your legs, He gave you your hat, He gave you your head—open your mouth and give God a praise.
Praise Him until hell gets nervous, praise Him until demons tremble, praise Him until yokes are broken. I need 30 seconds of crazy. You see, that is why some of us cannot get our breakthrough because we cannot get our praise right. What the magi did—before they gave Him their gifts, they gave Him their praise.
You are so busy being gifted you have not learned how to praise Him, but when you forget about yourself and open your mouth and praise Him, God will open up a door and give you revelation. I am going to give you another chance to open up your mouth and give God a praise—I am going to give you one. Yeah, cute you, conservative you, quiet you—give your gift to the Giver, give Jesus a Christmas gift. Open your mouth.
Beware of Herod and Go Another Way
I want to warn—I want to warn all you magi, I want to warn all you wise men—when they talk to Herod, Herod said, “Go find Jesus so that I can come and worship Him too.” I want to warn you about fake worshippers, I want to warn you about opportunists, I want to warn you about people who see you headed in the right direction and try to go your way, I want to warn you about people who try to pie in your favor.
What God has for you is for you—do not bring nobody, do not drag nobody, do not take nobody and do not tell nobody. God is about to set you into the fullness of your purpose but you have got people hanging on; they act like they want to worship like you but they really want to kill your dream. The devil is a lie. I rebuke the spirit of Herod, I rebuke the spirit of Herod—Herod has got to die. I bind your power in the name of Jesus. If you have got the Holy Ghost, bind Herod now.
Josephus teaches us—Josephus teaches us—that the reason Herod had an attitude about the wise men coming is that, in 6 B.C., they had come to Herod and brought him gold, frankincense and myrrh, so that they could continue to do business in the region. So when Herod saw them coming he thought they were coming to honor him and he found out that they were coming to honor another King, and he got jealous.
The spirit of jealousy is alive and well in the world right now. You have been trying to figure out why they are trying to kill you—they are jealous of you, they are jealous of what you have got, they are jealous of what God is about to do in your life. Who am I talking to? They are acting like they are worshippers but they are jealous.
And so the wise men came, and when they saw the star they came to the house. I knew it was not the manger because the Bible said it was a house; I know it was not the manger because Joseph was not there; I know some time had passed because later Herod would say, in order to figure out how old Jesus is, “I will kill everything two years old or younger.” Because the reason Herod was not sure is because they never came back to tell him that they had found Jesus, because while they were worshiping—while they were worshiping—God told them to go back another way.
And when I read, “Go back another way,” God told me to tell you: You are expecting to go back to normal but you are not to cry out for normal—that God is going to take us back another way because if we go back to normal there is a trap in normal that the enemy has set for our demise. We have to be prepared to go back another way. Another way, another way, another way, another way, another way, another way.
Now, this is against the currency of Orthodoxy; it is against the grain of normal because people who are normal and traditional are stuck in one way. You can only do things one way, you can only have church one way, you can only do business one way, you can only interact with people one way—but God said you have got to learn how to get back another way.