TD Jakes - Look For It
Stress is a silent killer. Stress affects your mind and your emotions. Stress affects your body and your organs. Stress affects your blood pressure and your blood sugar. Stress affects everything about you. Stress is a silent killer. It creates things like anxiety. It creates all kinds of anxiety. Anxiety is to be anxious about something that hasn't even happened, to worry about the possibility, to have faith in negativity. To believe, to rehearse in your mind, what if this happens? And what if that happens? And it's coming from the noise. It's coming from the noise. It's coming from the noise. Because the enemy knows that if you ever focus, you're going to be unstoppable. So he sends all these distractions in your life and the greater the mission in your life, the greater the destruction comes in your life.
Now, Elijah has already called fire down from heaven. He has taken the prophets of Baal down to the sea and drowned them and buried them in the sea. It was bloody, it was noisy, it was loud, it was messy. And now we're finding him not on the first trip, which is often preached about, but now he's on his second trip. He goes back to the place where he last experienced God. Whenever you're under attack, go back to the place where you last experienced God. We see Elijah going back on the mountain, bloody and messy, tired from fighting. In conflict, in anxiety and stress and pressure. And he goes to the top of the mountain with nothing but his servant. And this time time he goes to stop the noise.
See, there is noise that is in your life and in my life and in our lives and in your life that are watching right now. There are certain noises that have been sent just to distract you from the commandment that God gave you. Because when there is noise in your life, when there is noise in your life, it becomes more and more difficult to discern exactly what God is saying because you got so much noise going around you that you can't tell what is God and what is not God. You can't tell whether you should go right or whether you should go left. You can't tell whether this is a friend or foe. You can't tell whether this is an enemy or a friend. You can't tell whether you should fight or be still. You cannot tell whether to be quiet and then all of a sudden you gotta stop.
Shake your neighbor and say, "Take control of the noise". Stop it, shut it down, bring it to an end. Bring it to an end. You have the power within yourself to stop the noise. You have the power within yourself by God's grace to stop the noise. God didn't stop the noise. Elijah stopped the noise. Elijah stopped the noise by putting his head in between his knees. He must realize that in order to perform this next miracle, he must be able to focus. Steve Jobs said you have to work to get your thinking clear. Most people will not put in the work to get their thinking clear.
Now, when I heard that Elijah put his head between his knees, I did a little exercise and I found out that it is quite difficult. Maybe not for you, but it's quite difficult to get your head in between your knees. It might be a little easier to bring your knees up to your head. But that was kind of tough too. What is the Bible saying to us? To get to a place of peace and tranquility, you have to work at it. It won't just happen because you need it. You have to work at getting your thinking clear. Otherwise, you make decision in noise that is not discernible.
If you noticed while I was talking, it became increasingly difficult to hear what I was saying. Though I was speaking, you couldn't hear it because of the noise. You think God is not talking. God is talking, but the noise is a distraction for you to hear. That the Bible said, "Let him that have an ear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the church". But that will not happen if you do not stop the noise. Elijah goes up on the mountain and he has to do this. His servant cannot do it. His entourage cannot do it. His retinue cannot do it. His associates cannot do it. His church cannot do it. You have to make a decision who you let invade your space, get in your head, cloud your judgment, and influence your thinking.
Somebody say, "Stop it". Stop praying that the noise will stop. But you've got to take authority and kill it. Cut it off, shut it down, don't answer it, cut the TV off, get some peace, stop inviting people around who are cluttering your head with all of their problems. Who think you are an answering machine and all they do is call you up for the answer all the time. Let me put it in biblical language. "Be still and know that I am God". But you're a prophet, be still and know.... you're a musician, be still and know that I... you're a realtor, be still and know that... you're an accountant, be still and know that... you're a businessman, be still and know... you're a janitor, be still and know... you can't know if you won't be. Be still.
Now, he called fire down from heaven but he did it with his voice. What brings fire won't bring water. The real problem is not just the prophets of Baal, they had to be stopped. But the real problem that is causing the suffering is the drought that's in the land. He cannot fight and break the drought the same way he called down the fire. Tradition is a wonderful thing until it stops progress. The tool that you use to bring you here will not be the tool that you use to take you there. That's why you gotta have the flexibility to change, understanding that this is a different kind of fight.
Type that on the line. This is a different kind of fight. This is a different kind of fight. You're not going to be able to casually do this. This is a different kind of fight. You're going to have to focus to win this fight. You can't expend energy trying to drag people who don't wanna go, trying to convince people who refuse to be convinced, trying to heal people who are hypochondriacs and they enjoy being sick and they call you up and dump their sickness all over you. Because they have an attention deficit, they want your attention which breaks your focus, and because you are an empath, you are always taking care of them and not taking care of you.
But I want you to make a commitment with me this morning. I'm going to stop it. I'm going to stop it. I'm going to stop it because I am in a season in my life that requires that I focus. That means I have to stop. I have to listen and I have to look, I have to stop. I have to listen. Now when I say listen, he is not listening for what is going on around him. He is listening for what is going on inside of him. Because if there are not olives inside of him, there will not be olives around him. If there is not peace on the inside, there won't be peace on the outside. It is no mistake that Jesus will sleep in the boat in the storm and said, "Peace. Be still".
The reason Jesus could speak peace is because he... You can't speak peace from a place of noise. Jesus was the only one who will sleep enough to wake up and speak peace in the middle of the storm. Yet everybody around you is trying to drag you into their noise. Not just your noise, they're trying to drag you into their noise. And if you're not careful, you will give up, and in the name of ministry, find yourself drug into a noise that is actually a distraction that doesn't have anything to do with you.
I want the people to holler at me who have people in your life that keep trying to drag you into their noise. Holler, "Stop". I'm going to stop allowing you to drag me into your noise, into your miserableness, into your hostility, into your anger. I'm gonna stop allowing you to drag me into your foolishness. I'm going to stop allowing you to drag me. I will give you some advice. I will speak to it. I will tell you how to handle it. But as far as getting me over into the middle of it, I refuse to forfeit my peace so that you can have companionship in your pain. Stop dragging me. I'm not coming. Somebody holler, "Stop".
We often talk about the notion of five senses. Can I take my time? And when we talk about five senses, it's really our sensory perception that is coming through the various organs and attributes of which God has allowed us to have. The accoutrements that accessorize our human experience, like ears and mouth and nose and eyes, are gates through which our senses are able to make contact with the world. You walk in a room, you can smell something. You're sitting at a table, you can hear something. And you nudge your husband in the middle of the night and say, "Honey, I heard something". It is through your ear-gate that you are able to contact the world. It is through the, "I smell gas. Did you cut off the stove"?
It keeps you in contact with the world. It comes through your senses. "I saw something. What's that in the shadows? I saw something move". So, your eyes, your ears, your nose, your taste, all of the five senses. The notion of five senses is a medieval term that has been passed on to us down through the years, through Aristotle actually, who devised that the only way to get information to the brain was through the five senses. Aristotle's ideology about the five senses continued to live till about the 20th century when scientists begin to challenge that there are actually more than five senses.
There's more than what I see. There's more than what I hear. There's more than what I taste, smell. There's more than that to the five senses: things like pain. So you go to the doctor's office and they say, "From 1 to 10, what is the level of your pain"? The reason they have to ask you is because they can't see it, they can't smell it, they can't touch it, they can't taste it. They have to ask you. And even though your brain is getting the senses, it's going to your brain, it's not coming through your five senses, and yet pain is real. How many people know pain is real? You can be in pain sitting right beside me and me not know it because I can't see it. I can't smell it. I can't taste it. I can't touch it. But your brain records it because pain is real.
There are some things that bypass the five senses in order to inform the intellect that evade the five senses. Incidentally, can I go further? The word "sensual" is not necessarily sexual. To be sensual is to be conscious of your senses, to make decisions through your senses, to make decisions through your senses, to move through your senses. And God has designed that you have another set of senses that are probably weak because they're seldom used. They are weak because they're seldom used because you're so busy responding to what you hear around you that you don't get to hear what you hear within you. For where you are right now, you must hear within you.
David, before he went to battle, would always ask God, "Shall I go up? Is this my fight? Should I use my weapons on this fight"? He is trying to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying. The high priest carried, I listened to Pastor Tubman was talking in the pre-show about the breastplate, Judah. Your Judah interview, was talking about the breastplate on the high priest's chest where he had all the jewels for the 12 tribes of Israel. Inside the breastplate were Thummim and Urim. Thummim and Urim were two stones that the priests used to hear what the will of God was.
So every priest had to be prophetic. You have to have a prophetic utterance to know not just how to worship and how to praise God, but how to hear and discern what is God saying in my life? Not what has God said; what is God saying in my life? If Abraham had done what God had said, he would have killed Isaac. Because God said, "Take now thy son, thine only son, and offer him up for a burnt offering". That's what God had said. But when Abraham got him up on the altar and tied him down and raised his hand, Abraham went from what God had said to what God is saying.
Some of us are walking in an old word. We're not getting a right now word for the situation that we're in. And if you don't get a right now word, you'll kill what you ought to keep and keep what you are to kill. Abraham raised his hand to slay his son because God had said it. But the same God who had said, had a proceeding word. "Man should not live by bread alone. But every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". And the proceeding Word of God was, "Abraham, Abraham. Stay your hand".
So he had to stop and get a rhema word from God. For where you are right now, it's going to take a rhema word from God. I need a right now word. I need a word for where I'm at right now. If you need a right now word from God, take 30 seconds and give him a praise, right now. I need a right now, I need a right now, I need a right now word from God. I can't work off an old word. I need a right now word from God. I can't work off of your word. I can't ask you what you think about it. I need a right now word from God. I need a right now word from God because I'm in another season, because I'm in another zone, because I'm in another time. What worked yesterday will not work today.
So I got to get my thinking clear so I can hear. Stop calling me, stop fussing at me, stop yelling me. Sometimes, stop seeing about me. I'm trying to focus because I need to hear what God is saying right now. I don't have time to hear foolishness. I don't have time to hear gossip. I don't have time to hear, "He say, she say". I must hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church because I can't move off a lie. I can't move off a rumor. I can't move off of doubt. I can't move off of anxiety. I can't move off of fear and I can't even move off of feelings. I must hear what God is saying right now.
I wanna talk to some people who are at a crucial point in your life and you're not here just because you wanna be at church. You're here because it's a crucial time in your life. And you respect the Word of God and you need the Word of God and you long for the Word of God and you want the Word of God to come into your life. If you're in the place, make some noise. I didn't come to show off my hat. I didn't come to show off my shoes. I didn't come because I had a new dress. I came because I need to hear. What are you saying for me at this time in this life? How do I handle this situation?
Nudge me when I need to be still. Push me when I need to go forward. Pull me when I'm going too far. I need to hear you right now in this moment, at this time. I need a word from God. I don't need a cute sermon. I don't need a fine resume. I need a word from God. I don't need fancy robes. I need a word from God. I don't need people to tickle my ears. I need a word from God. If I don't hear from you, I won't know what to do. I wanna talk to somebody that's been in a drought for a long time. You function in a drought. You call fire down in a drought. You preach in a drought. You taught in a drought.
But the devil is a liar. God is about to break this drought in your life. I serve notice on you that if you can get your head on straight, the enemies that you see today, you shall see them no more. Excuse me, but I feel like preaching a little bit. Excuse me, but I feel my preacher this morning. Excuse me, but I got a world to change. Excuse me because I've got a work to do. Excuse me because I got a call to fulfill. Excuse me because I'm on a mission. You don't have to like me. I want you to like me. But if you don't like me, I still got something to do. Is there anybody in the house that is determined to hear from the Lord? We don't teach enough about hearing from God. It's always God hearing from us. But in the old church, every now and then you would get still at the altar. To tarry means to wait at the altar. You would lay down on the altar and wait to hear from God. God is tired of hearing from us.
Now, we need to hear from God. What did you say, Isaiah? "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not get weary. They shall walk and not faint". I'm waiting on the Lord. Kelly, I'm not gonna move. I'm gonna wait on the Lord, hallelujah. I'm gonna wait till his word is clear. I'm gonna wait till his direction is clear. I'm gonna wait till a yoke breaks. I'm gonna wait till I see a change. And the Bible said that while Elijah was waiting on the Lord, all of a sudden he could hear God and it wasn't happening in his life. It wasn't happening in his neighborhood. It wasn't happening in his country. But he said, "In my spirit, I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. I don't see it in my life, but I hear it in my spirit. I don't see it in my circumstance, but I hear it in my spirit".
What do you do when you hear something on the inside that you don't see on the outside? That's why I'm preaching this morning. The Bible said that he spoke to his servant and he told his servant, "Go look for it". Touch seven people and tell them, "Go look for it". Look for it, look for it, look for it, look for it, look for it, look for it. Seven people, look for it. Look for it, look for it. I hear it in my spirit. Look for it. Look for it. Look for it. I hear it in my belly. Look for it. Look for it. Look for it. I wanna tell somebody you've been hearing something in your spirit and God's about to make it manifest in your life and whoever you are, you had to be here this morning. The rain couldn't stop you. The game couldn't stop you. Your friends couldn't stop you because you got something to look for, hallelujah. Can I get 30 seconds of expectation? Thirty seconds of expectant praise.