TD Jakes - Hidden In Plain Sight
He is serving without senses. He is serving, he's doing the work, but he doesn't have that sensitivity. And I'm going to back this up for a minute, 'cause I gotta do a little bit of teaching for you to get the benefit. When the Bible calls somebody sensual, it doesn't necessarily mean sexual, okay. When the Bible says you're sensual, it starts to talk about walking in your senses. You know, sight, hearing, smell, touch, all of those are your senses. You got five senses that you learned in elementary school, or you learned in preschool. You learned you had five senses, natural senses, through which you have contact with the world. They help you to navigate. They're survival techniques and instincts that are inherent in the human species, so that your senses will tell you.
You can smell certain things. You can see certain things. You can hear certain things. They are your alarm systems to let you know what's going on around your periphery. What you might not know is that you also have spiritual senses as a born-again, blood-washed child of God. You have spiritual senses, and you cannot serve God without developing spiritual senses. I'm going to go into this. I'm gonna show you several people who did it and it gave them trouble. In 1 Samuel it talks about how Samuel, being a boy, served under Eli, but didn't know God. The Bible said he served in the temple every day, having not known the Lord.
You'd be surprised at the people who work in the church and don't know God. You'd be surprised at the people who go to church and don't know God. Who have ichthus's on their car, crosses on their neck, Bibles in their hands. They say godly stuff, they have godly colloquialisms, but they really don't know God. They don't know God, because you don't know him, because you've never been in a test with him, and you just like to be around his people. Being around his people is not like being around him. Samuel knew Eli, but he didn't know God.
Peter knew Jesus, but he really had not learned God. When the storm, see, the storm tells you what you know, how to developed your senses are, where you stand with God. You can't find out 'til you get in a storm. It looked like Peter knew God, but when the storm arose, he ran down there and said the same thing that this other, wake up, Master, what we gonna do? You remember how Jesus woke up out of sleep and went to the bow of the ship and said, "Peace, be still"? But he also rebuked Peter and said, "Oh, ye of little faith". And I wonder what did Peter do wrong, because all he did was ask you to help him. Jesus rebuked him for having little faith, because he woke up God over something he should have been able to handle. You woke me up for this? Father, open his eyes. Jesus, you woke me up for this? Oh, Peter, ye of little faith. Peace, be still. Your trouble is your training, and you're tryin' to get God to get you out of something that God sent to teach you something.
Oh my god, it's gonna get good in a minute. What God is trying to teach you is that you have underdeveloped senses. I want to go into this a little deeper. Now, let me see. How can I illustrate this? I need somebody. Come here, bro; come here, bro. Yeah, c'mon, you, you're perfect, you're perfect, you're perfect, 'cause you small. I need somebody small to stand beside me. See, you see how much smaller that he is, smaller he is than me? He's smaller than me. He's smaller than me, but I have no more muscle than him. Everywhere I got a muscle, he got a muscle. Everywhere I got a bone, he got a bone. Everywhere I gotta tissue, he got a tissue. The only difference is how much one is developed over the other. If he decided, he doesn't want to, because he wants to look good in his skinny jeans, but if he decided to bulk up, he could bulk up and out bulk me if he wanted to, because God has dealt to each of us the same measure of possibility, it's just how we choose to exhibit it.
C'mon, let's flex for a minute. Let's give it to 'em. You see there? You got it, I got it, you got it, I got it, it's right there. All he has to do, if he wants it, is get in the gym and develop it. Watch this, the same way you develop a muscle, you develop your inner senses. And the only way you can develop your inner senses is by reason of use. If you don't use it, you don't develop it. If you always cater to your fleshly senses, you don't develop spiritual sensitivity and you don't grow in that area, so you are reacting to how you feel, what you see, what you heard, what they said, what they did. That's the problem with the servant. He's reacting to what he sees, what he heard, what they said, and whenever you get in a spiritual fight, and all you got is natural senses, you freak out and say, thank you, master, what we gonna do? And the reason you don't know what to do is that you sat around spiritual people, you clapped with spiritual people, you sang with spiritual people, but you never used it as an opportunity to develop spiritual senses. I gotta drive this home, 'cause if you miss this, it wasn't no need of me teaching it.
There are crazy Scriptures that don't make any sense if what I said is not true. Like this one, "He that hath an ear, let him hear". What does that mean? Who don't have an ear? "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church". What does that mean? Who in here don't have an ear? Everybody got an ear. Ebonics, get you a dictionary. Now, but the Bible's not talkin' about an outer ear, it's talking about an inner ear. In the Old Testament, it calls our fleshly ear an uncircumcised ear. You have an outer ear so that you can hear outer noise. You have an inner ear so that you can hear spiritual direction. You have an outer eye so that you can see natural things, and then you have a spiritual eye where you can see vision.
I want to back this up, because if you get this, this is going to change the reason you worship. It's going to change how often you pray in the Spirit. It's gonna affect everything in your life. Because when you don't pray in the Spirit, you're not building up yourself in your most holy faith. So, we're going to Hebrews, take me to Hebrews, yeah, We're going to Hebrews 5:11 through 14. Take a quick look at Hebrews 5:11 through 14. And so, we're gonna jump right in. Well, I'll give you a minute. Hebrews 5, I'll give you 30 seconds. Hebrews 5, I'll give you 15 seconds. Hebrews 5:11, okay, you got it? "Of whom we have many things to say".
The writer says I've got so much to say that's hard to be uttered, because ye are dull of hearing. Now, does he think, does he mean that they need a hearing aid? No, they are dull of hearing, flesh over your ear. "For when for the time, ye ought to be teachers". For as long as you've been around, you should be a teacher. You've been a Christian longer than a doctor studied medicine, and you still don't know the Word. For as long as you have been around, you ought to be teachers. You've been a minister 10, 12, 15 years, you still don't understand the tabernacle. For as long as you've been around, you should have been a teacher. A title don't make you a teacher, baby.
"For when for the time, you ought to be teachers. Ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat". You're still drinking milk. "For everyone," the Bible says, "That uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those," underline this, "Who by reason of use have their senses exercised". God says the only way to build up your spiritual senses is to use them and by exercise. Exercise in the Greek is gymnazo, where we get gymnasium. And so, God puts you in trouble to work you out.
He said, "Father, open his eyes". First of all, that tells me he did have eyes. He just wasn't using them. When the enemy comes against you, you gotta use everything. You've got to use everything. I mean, when you're surrounded and he's coming in for the kill, you gotta use everything. You say, "Well, the army hadn't shot at him or nothing yet, Bishop". Yeah, he has. The moment he takes your peace, he shot at you. The moment he takes your joy, he shot at you. The moment you're laying in your bed terrified, he shot at you. So, the prophet came out there, and he said, "Father, open his eyes that he might see that there are more". I got out my bed this morning to tell you there are more. If I don't say nothing else to you, there are more that are with you than there are that are against you. You are... oh god, I feel, I don't mean to stir it up. I'm tryin' not to stir it up.
Now, watch this. What blew my mind, because people preach that part all the time, but they don't preach anything else out of the text. When I was lookin' at the text, what intrigued me is that after he said, "Father, open his eyes," then Elijah stood out there and said the same God that opened his eyes closed their eyes. I know that the enemy has come down to your life to destroy you, and he's got a plan for your life, but God is gonna shut his eyes. He's not even gonna be able to see. Oh my god, I feel a prophetic anointing on me. I don't even know who this is for, but God is gonna shut his eyes. I've seen him do it.
Touch somebody and tell them, "I've seen him do it". I've seen my enemies coming in for the kill, but they couldn't focus, 'cause the kids got sick, the dog died, the car broke down. When God is fighting for you, he'll fight in ways you don't even know how to fight. He said I'm going to open the eyes of my children, and I'm going to shut the eyes of their enemies. Whoo, isn't that good? That's my favorite part right there. The same God that opened the servants' eyes shut down the eyes of the entire Syrian army. And then, the very one they were coming to kill, because they had never met him. Most people who hate me don't know me.
The people who are all on Twitter, and all on Facebook, writing blogs, I've had people write books about me and never met me. So, they was hating on somebody they didn't even know, so he came out there and told them, "You're not in the place you need to be, and I'm not the one you're looking for, but I'll take you to him," and he led them from Dothan blind, and the one they were looking for was hidden in plain sight. I hear the Lord saying they're never gonna see you coming. Whoever this is for, you're gonna slip into that position without them ever even seeing you coming.
God said he has blinded their eyes to your potential. They're going to give you an opportunity, because they never realized that once you get that opportunity, your career is going to explode into another dimension. God said he has blinded their eyes. And Elijah leads them from Dothan to Samaria. When he gets them in Samaria, watch this, it's important. When he gets them in Samaria, he says, "Now Lord, open their eyes". And when they opened their eyes, they were in Samaria, and they were surrounded by the King of Israel. Well, there's somethin' I didn't notice, and maybe you didn't notice it either. You remember the angels that had them surrounded? I never noticed the angels were never needed. God dispatched legions of angels for your confidence.
You know how in chemistry class, they give you a test, and the test could be dangerous, but it was in a controlled environment? God has put them in a controlled environment, and the angels didn't have to fight. They were there for control. Let me tell you where the angels are right now. The Bible says, "The angels of the Lord encamp about them that fear him". The word "fear" there means to reverence. To reverence is to acknowledge, or be aware of. When you work out in your spiritual senses, you draw heaven to surround your situation. That's why when trouble comes, the first thing the enemy tries to get you to do is to operate in your flesh, because if you operate in your flesh, you lose your defense.
And I admit it, I admit it, it's my temptation, too. It's my temptation, too. When he hits me, the first thing I wanna do is resort back to... I get that look on my face, and these jaws start shaking, and my eyes start bucking, but God says if you're gonna fight it, if you're going to handle it, if you're gonna curse 'em out, if you're gonna get even, if you're gonna get revenge, I don't have to. I told you this is a gymnasium. Not one lick was passed. Not one blow was passed. This is an exercise to teach you to walk in the Spirit and not to walk in the flesh.
Okay, let me show you something. He brings them down to the King of Israel, and the King of Israel is his enemy. He is now surrounded by his enemy, and the King of Israel says to Elijah, "Shall I kill them"? and Elijah says something that's been with me. I've been looking at this text for about three weeks, it's been with me ever since. 'Cause it is so much wisdom in it, it's still marinating in me. It's gonna be in me after I preach this message. Elijah looks at him and says, "No, why should you kill what you've conquered"?
Let me tell you what Elijah told the King of Israel. He said, "Put your sword away and feed them". Watch this, you gotta go and read this text over again, 'cause it's gonna mean more to you now. So, they prepared an elaborate banquet for their enemies, and they fed their enemies, the ones they wanted to kill, they fed them. And the Bible said, "And there was no more war between the King of Syria and the King of Israel". Listen at this. Everybody, stand to your feet. You gotta decide, Do you want to look good, or do you want to win? I have known this for some time. I have known this for some time. The real test in any situation is not on the powerless. It's on the powerful. Your character is proven by what you will do when you have the upper hand.
If you want the nature of Christ to be proven in your life, have the upper hand and not use it. Have the sword and put it away. They opened their eyes and they're surrounded by the enemy. They just know they're gonna die, and here comes mercy, and mercy spreads out a table and feeds them. Yeah, I know it's hard to do, but if you become big enough to do good to them that despitefully use you, when God has shown you that I am with you to the point that you can glory in tribulation, that you can face bad news with courage, that you can say, "Though he slay me, yet shall I trust him". When you are aware of God to the point that what is threatening you right now does not intimidate you, your help could be right in front of you and you'll not see it.