TD Jakes - Storm Drains
I wanna make you to understand that when you start talking about Gadarene, it's an adjective that means, in the Greek, it means to move rapidly and without control. To move rapidly and without control. That's the name of the area: To move rapidly and without control. And Jesus comes to Gadarene, whose name is to move rapidly without control, and he has come to Gadarene through a storm that moved rapidly and without control. Now, you gotta marry the two texts. You gotta marry what I preached Sunday, okay, "Steady in the Storm". And you gotta remember the fact that when they got on the boat and Jesus said, "Let us cross over to the other side," now, we understand that Jesus is crossing to the other side, not only of the lake but the other side theologically, to reach the Gentiles.
And when they started out, everything was cool. But the closer they get to their destination, suddenly a storm comes out of nowhere and Peter freaks out and questions God's love because of his storm. Have you ever questioned God's love because of your storm? "Carest thou not that we perish? How can you sleep through a moment of my discomfort? You ought to be doing something to make me feel secure and safe". In other words, he has put the burden on Jesus to deal with his complex crisis, while Jesus is asleep. We'll talk about a sleeping Jesus. Sometimes a moving Jesus doesn't build your faith like a sleeping Jesus. This storm is an exercise in faith.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We understand then that the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So all of a sudden, we begin to catch a glimpse of the fact that when Jesus woke up and rebuked the winds and the waves, he says to Peter, "Where is your", come on, "Where is your faith"? Where is your faith? Because this is a spiritual battle, okay? Yeah, this is a spiritual battle. Somebody say, "This is a spiritual battle". We are living in a time that we are fighting spiritual battles and we are fighting them with carnal weapons.
The Bible said, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ". You're in a fight, so, "Master the tempest, he is raging". And we think we're just talking about rain, wind, and water. But if all that Peter was fighting was rain, wind, and water, why did Jesus use the word "rebuke"? You don't rebuke a storm, you rebuke a spirit. Come on, people. You have to understand that these two stories are connected, that the enemy over Gadarenes, moving fast and furious, has to move quickly because Jesus is crossing over to the other side.
So you think the story about the demons begins with Legion? No, it begins with the resistance to you coming over into the enemy's territory. So when Jesus gets up out of the sleep, he rebukes the winds and the waves, and a great calm came upon the face of the waters because this was not a storm in the first place. It was a manifestation of demonic resistance that wanted to stop Jesus from crossing. Y'all not ready for me tonight.
Come on, y'all not ready for me tonight. When God has something for you, the enemy wants to block your pathway into the destiny that God has for you. And the storms that you're fighting are not your fault or your issue. It's Satan's fear that you're coming after him and crossing over into his territory. Type it on the line, I'm crossing over. I'm crossing over. I'm crossing over. I'm crossing over. Peter has given up his peace and lost control of the circumstances. What I want you to see tonight is what started out as an outward storm leads into an inward possession.
So when the storm came the other night, we had to unblock the drain because even when the storm stops, the water has to drain somewhere, and this text is a storm drain. "What manner of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey his will"? Why are you all riding with a Jesus you don't know? You're just, you just on the boat, just going along with the flow, until he starts manifesting in the Spirit. And all of a sudden you understand, this ain't just no regular dude. This dude is operating in another dimension and I have underestimated who I'm following. So the storm comes to put Jesus's power on display, not only for the rebuking of the demons, but for the education of the disciples. See, your real power doesn't show in the quiet. It shows in the storm. Are y'all following what I'm saying?
So in order to see the complexities of the text and to become advised of the wiles, which means techniques, of the enemy. You have to understand that this fight started before this fight started, okay? In other words, the enemy has been setting up this defense for a while, and everything was cool. It was going according to plan. The man was cutting himself, he had stripped himself of clothing, he had no boundaries. Each one of these descriptions are signs of what happens in the life of a man who is under demonic control, okay? He stripped himself. He has wounded himself. You understand what I'm saying? He hates himself and he's only comfortable in the tombs. When the enemy's taken over your life, death is comfortable.
So, in the presence of Jesus, in the presence, just the presence, April, just the presence. He hadn't even done anything yet. The demons come in and start begging him, "Don't torment us before our time". So the demons know that Jesus is Lord, while the disciples are trying to figure out what manner of...come on, with me. The disciples still are trying to figure out what manner of man is this, and the demons already know and they call him "Lord" and fall down at his feet. And the reason they kept falling in the floor is because they knew that the power in him was greater than the power in them. Can I go deeper?
So, what we are looking at, I want you to get this. There are two different kinds of storms. The first story that I taught you on Sunday is a storm in the elements, in the exterior. It is outside attack, environmental attack, attack in your circumstances, attack in your situation, attack in your finances, attack in your family, attack with your stuff. It's the same spirit, but it's a different tactic, because what was an outer storm, now in the second phase becomes an inner storm. Everything this man is doing he's doing to him, yeah, he's doing to himself, because the the storm has moved out of the exterior to the interior and this man has been tormented by the demons who are now asking Jesus, "Please don't torment us". "What? Really, devil, you want me to be cool and casual after you have been tormenting this man for years"?
And the sign that you have set up residence is how he feels about himself. Oh, wait, we're coming for you. We're coming for you. We're coming for you. This man hates himself. This man has no constraints. This man is gnashing on himself because the storm is no longer on the exterior. Listen to me tonight. There is a storm that can go on inside of you, that the person sitting next to you knows nothing about. You can lay beside somebody who is right in the middle of an internal tsunami and not be cognizant of the fact that the person you lay with or work with or are eating with is under attack on the inside.
The pressure that I'm seeing attack people today is not just an external attack is not nothing that you can fix by changing their conditions, because the storm has moved inside and the enemy's tormenting you internally and he don't want you to say nothing and he's got control of the conversation. We don't even get to hear the man talk. All we get to hear is the enemy talk because the enemy has taken over the territory and he has moved the attack on the inside because, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So if the heart is filled with the Holy Ghost... When you've got the Holy Ghost on the inside, he'll speak out of your mouth. Well, when you've got hell on the inside, hell will speak out of your...
Satan is the Prince of the Power of the, what? Of the air. Have you noticed how he's been working in the air? Have you noticed that as he takes over the air, the diseases are being loosed like you've never seen before? And the disagreements are so crazy that you don't even know how to argue back, because people are falling out about stuff. You can't even figure out what they mad about? Storm drains. The enemy has always worked through the elements to shut down the movement because he is the Prince of the Air. Check out the weather. Check out how unpredictable, how crazy. You don't know whether to put on a coat with shorts and flip-flops and a umbrella.
You trying to figure out can I put away my summer clothes and bring out my winter clothes? And your closet looks schizophrenic because the moment you folded up all your sweaters, then it got cold and you almost froze to death. Do you see the Prince of the Air creating turbulence on the outside so that he can access your inside? Because some of you have outer storms and other of you are fighting inner storms and you don't understand it's the same storm. And the storm needs somewhere to drain. I'm almost finished. You all with me? The legion went into the pigs and the Bible is careful to tell you, now, that's a step down from man to pig. That's a step down.
And then the Bible said the pigs went down into the lake and the enemy keeps trying to press you further and further and further down. Nothing in the text is coming up. Everything in the text is going down, lower and lower and lower and lower and lower. And the pigs committed suicide. Animals don't commit suicide. They have a natural instinct to know what element they can operate in. Pigs would not normally go into the lake. That's why the people who were taking care of the pigs were shocked because in all of their years of raising pigs, they had never seen a pig commit suicide. And I know that they still haven't given up the region because when the people came out to see what Jesus had done, they had the strangest reaction to the most positive information.
You would think if the man got delivered, they would want Jesus to stay. You've been thinking that people don't like you. It's not that they don't like you. They don't like the anointing that's on you. Your anointing makes them uncomfortable. And the reason they can't relax when you come into the room because something in you is tormenting something in them. And you say, "I don't understand how come I keep falling out with people that I'm trying to be nice to," and you need to understand it's not your actions that they hate. It's your anointing that they hate. Watch this. So when they saw the man clothed and in his right mind, they asked Jesus to leave.
Some people only like you when you bow. You mean you'd had no problem with this man cutting on himself, living in the tombs, breaking every chain and fetter you tried to put on him? That didn't bother you at all. You had no trouble with him being bound in the presence of pigs, but him being loosed in the presence of the Lamb, you can live with pigs, but you can't live with the Lamb? So, we'll keep our pigs, but the Lamb must go away. Watch this. Storms precede destiny. A storm isn't always what rocks the boat; it can be what torments the mind. Every storm needs somewhere to go. So if the enemy has to let you go, he's looking for some place to drain.
So Mama, cover your children. Daddy, cover your son. Cover all your stuff, your property, your possessions, because the enemy needs somewhere to drain. So the more anointed a man or woman of God is, the more likely their seed is to come up under attack because the enemy don't wanna leave the region. So you gotta cover your children because there's a battle for the seed. Are you hearing what I'm saying? I mean a sown-up battle too. I don't mean a little patty-pat stuff. I mean, a real knuckle-up battle for the seed because storms need to drain somewhere. Next takeaway. There are some doors God didn't open so that you could have direction. If he didn't open it for you, it was not going to be consequential to what he has designed for you.
Ephesus, Athens, Rome. The acts of the apostle is strategic. God will make the right folk like you to maneuver you into a position and a posture. Somebody online, God is positioning you and don't be afraid to cross over to the other side. Your anointing will work in the board room, in the courtroom, in the Oval Office. It doesn't matter. God will position you into an area because the Bible has prophesied that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.
So if the church won't invade the world systems, then how is the wealth of the unjust laid up for the just, if you won't go get it? If I'm speaking to you, say, "Type it on the line," or write a note to yourself, "Go get it". These texts married together is about going to get it. The final takeaway that I want you to be sure that you get is this man who hadn't been to Bible school, hadn't been trained, wasn't raised in the synagogue, wasn't Orthodox, just got delivered. No credentials.
And Jesus leaves him here and said, "Just tell everybody what I did for you". You don't have to explain the Tabernacle in Solomon's Temple and you don't have to speak Hebrew and you don't have to be kosher. Just tell everybody what I did for you. The Lord wants to use your testimony tonight. He delivered your tongue from the enemy. The whole fight was over this man's mouth. Did you get that? The whole fight is over his mouth. The enemy wouldn't even let him speak. Now Jesus tells him, "Go talk to everybody". And I found out the more you give, the more God will give back to you.