It’s a Faith Thing! - Bishop T.D. Jakes

[Applause] [Laughter] Hebrews 11:1-6. [Applause] My God! [Applause] I'm getting ready to see [Applause] something I have never seen. Hebrews 11. We begin reading in verse one. It's a very familiar passage of scripture. That does not reduce the redundancy of the text. Does not reduce the relevance of the text. The fact that you have heard it before does not make it less true. If I say two plus two is four, that doesn't make it less true because you know it or you've heard it before. But because the word of God is living, every time we read it, we see something we never saw before. It is the living word of God. It is alive to us like cells and molecules. It is alive. It is alive. It is like tissue. It is like spiritual tissue. It is alive. Glory to God. You are not a body. You are a combination of cells. Glory to God. If something breaks out in your cells, it will affect your body because your body is made of cells. Your skins, your organs, your tissues, your bone, your marrow, your blood is all really broken down to cells. If you cannot digest this entire word, if one cell of this word gets into your system, it is potent enough. That's why the woman said, "Even a crumb that falls from the Master's table is enough to change my entire life." That's how powerful the word of God is.

Now, faith is [Applause] not was, not will be, not shall be, not can be. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence admissible in court of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Wait, hold it right there. Things that are seen are not made of things which do appear. Everything that's tangible, touchable, physical, relatable, that you can pick up, move, hold, handle, feel, touch, or evaluate, did not start from the physical realm. Everything starts in the spirit. Everything starts in the spirit. That's why the enemy wants to attack your spirit and your mind because that is the birthing room of everything that will materialize in your life. It is made of the cells of your belief. "As a man thinketh in his heart." Oh, talk to me, church! [Applause] They were not made of things that do appear.

Let's go on. Verse 4. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found. Couldn't find him with a flashlight because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony [Applause] that he pleased God. Not that he pleased the crowd, not that he pleased his neighbors, not that he pleased his friends, not that he pleased his husband, wife, kids, none of that. That he pleased God. Are you spending too much time trying to please people that have no consequence and have no reward? But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. See, this comes right off the heels of Enoch pleasing God. And you must understand that the context of "But without faith, it is impossible to please Him" is explaining that Enoch pleased God by faith. We should live a pure life, but it wasn't his purity that did it. We should praise God, but it wasn't his praise life that did it. We should clap our hands, but it wasn't clapping his hands that did it. The only way we can please God is by... for He that cometh to God must believe that He is. If you don't believe that He is, you can't come. It's not that you don't come, it's not that you won't come, you can't come. The only way you can come is that He reveals to you that He is. That's a revelation. Whenever He reveals Himself to you, that is not because you can see so well. It is that He made Himself seeable. "He that cometh to God must first believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Can the church say amen? Look at your neighbor and say, "It's a faith thing." Look at the other neighbor and tell them, "It's a faith thing." It's not a church thing. It's not a money thing. It's not a game thing. It's a faith thing. It's a faith thing. Until you understand that it's a faith thing, you don't understand anything at all. Can you say amen?

Spirit of the living God, we evoke Your presence in this place. Come close. Hover over us. Flap Your wings over this building. Transform these lips of clay that they may become the very oracle of God. Establish Your doing in the midst of Your people. Let faith arise in us afresh, renewing us, preparing us, fortifying us, strengthening us. I thank You in advance for what You're about to do. Oh God, have Your way. Move in the midst of Your people. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen and amen. You may be seated. [Music] Yeah, I'm back, baby! [Applause]

It would be erroneous to believe that in the days of Christ and the days of the early church, that there were just one or two religions. Jerusalem was flanked with religions of all types and descriptions. What made the early church have such a difficult time is that they were in an ideological war. What is an ideological war? An ideological war is a war of ideas. Right now, without a bomb going off, or lightning flashing, or thunder rolling, or even an AK-47 going off, we are at war. We are at war in this country right now. [Applause] It is an ideological war. It is a war of ideas. It used to be that you, you had a right to have your own opinion. [Music] Today, people think it is their job to impose their opinion upon you. And if you disagree, they attack you for having a different point of view. You have to be strong to stick to your convictions. [Applause] Because the tidal wave, the tsunami wave of public opinion and what they call culture has bombarded theology to the point that theology has laryngitis and lost its voice in this present age. And we are in trouble. And as it is now, so was it then. There was the Pharisees who didn't really like the Sadducees, but they got together to fight Jesus. Each one of them having their own versions and ideas and philosophies that were pervasive in the day. And Jesus stood, devoured, firm in His conviction, willing to debate them. Their doctrines and their philosophies did not intimidate Jesus because He understood that it was an ideological war. An ideological war has no bullets, has no guns, no grenades. It is a war of opinions and ideas.

There was a group there that existed in the early church called Gnostics, or Gnosticism. Not with a K, but with a G. But it means the same as if we were to put a K. K-N-O. This was G-N-O. Gnosticism. It is where we get the word agnostic. Agnostic is to not know. So if somebody says to you, "I'm agnostic," they're not saying that they don't believe in God. They just say, "I'm not sure. I don't know." Gnostic is to know. So Gnosticism in the early church was the prevailing ideology that suggested that they knew God and that they intellectually ascended up the ladder to God. In fact, they thought that Jesus was just a step up the ladder to God. Gnosticism, to know. They thought that the more you know, the more you transformed into a type of God. The more you know. Now, the problem with that idea is this: God cannot be just and be narcissistic. Because in order to be just, we would all have to have the same IQ. To the person who is dull of wit, or slow to learn, or unable to grasp certain ideas, God would be beyond their reach. If Gnosticism was true, because if Gnosticism was true, the smarter you were, the more like God you were. Then God could only be embraced through knowledge. The Pharisees thought that the way to approach God was through acts of holiness, self-righteousness. They thought that the more righteous and the more pious they were, the closer they were to God. So they were known for their long praying, and their long garments, and their beads, and their prayers, and their rituals, and their routines because they thought through ritualism and routine was the way to get to God. You hear what I'm saying to you?

In the midst of all of these varying ideas, the Sadducees, for example, thought that the spirit of the body didn't leave a man for three days. That's why Jesus waited till Lazarus had been dead four days, so that the Sadducees couldn't say he didn't really raise him from the dead because he wasn't within the parameters of our theology. Jesus waited till there was no doubt amongst the skeptics that Lazarus was dead. So Mary says to Him, "Don't go to the grave now, because by now he stinketh." God has a way of not showing up [Applause] until it's stinky. [Applause] God has a way of not giving an old man a baby until he's impotent, his wife is past childbearing age, and even if she weren't past childbearing age, she was barren. And when it was totally impossible with man, God stepped in and said, "Now I'm ready to do something." Have you ever had... have you ever watched God let you wear yourself out trying to do stuff by yourself, and finally, when you finally give up and say, "Okay, God, I can't do it," that's when He steps in and shows Himself strong?

Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith is not a New Testament idea. That it is not a result of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. That from the creation of man forward, people have been moved by faith. [Applause] The book of Hebrews 11 reminds us that faith cannot be confined by dispensations, structures, or order. Or to break it out simply, it reminds us that faith never goes out of style. [Laughter] A lot of other things would go out of style. By the time I found a pair of skinny jeans that could fit me [Applause] and decided that it might be okay to wear them, now they didn't go wildly. People change their mind from week to week to get a little bit more of your money. By the time you got an Apple 7, they got an Apple 8. By the time you got an iPad, they got an Apple 10. By the time you got an Apple 10, they got an Apple 12. I stopped counting. I said, "This ain't... it's working for me." Faith never goes out of style. It doesn't wait for the transition of time or the coming of Moses. It exists before Moses. It exists before the Pentateuch. It exists before the Law. Faith just is. But the reason why faith is... faith is a common denominator. That regardless of how intellectual you are or not, you have equal access to it. Because faith is the gateway to everything promised to you. Now, this is deep, but you need to understand this. You need to understand this because some people who are exceptionally smart are also exceptionally frustrated because they think that they should be compensated on the level of their intellect. And here you come in with less degrees and got paid more money, and they can't understand how you got what you got. Somebody holler, "It's a faith thing!" There's a fine woman looking at a woman that's just ordinary, saying, "How did you get a man like that?" [Applause] "It is not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." It is [Music] [Applause] a faith thing.

Now, in order to have faith, how do I get faith? How do I get faith? Because today we think faith is willpower. So we get sick, say, "I just believe it. I believe it. I believe it. I confess it. I believe it. I believe it. I believe I'm healed. I believe I'm healed. I just believe it. I just believe it. I believe... I believe I'm gonna hit the lottery. I believe, I believe, I believe." They're all in Vegas pulling the lottery down. I believe, I believe, I believe. But it doesn't say, "Have faith in faith." It says, "Have faith in God." [Applause] Now, faith has nothing to do without hope. [Applause] You can have faith all you want, but if you don't have hope, you can't do anything. The reason that faith is a common denominator... let me finish that up. The reason that faith is a common denominator. Jesus says, "Except you become as a little child, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God." That means that He has reduced it down. I use this phrase all the time. It's out of style. They don't teach it in school like that anymore. But we used to reduce fractions down to its lowest common denominator and then multiply. That's how I was taught in school. They don't teach it that way anymore. They got a whole different method. So you had to find the lowest common denominator in order to do it. Faith is God's lowest common denominator. He's brought it down so low that you can be illiterate and still believe. If... if an illiterate man gets sick beside an intellectual man that gets sick, the intellectual man has no more advantage over the illiterate man when it comes to miracles because it is by... by faith. The Gentile has no more power than the Jew because it's by faith. If you walk slowly through the book of Romans, Paul will prove to you. He teaches you what the Jews were and how their history were, and he goes all back to the antiquities and their ancestry, and he validates who they were. And then he counsels, "All is done said, don't mean nothing." Then he talks about the Gentiles and how wild they were, and how perverted they were, and... and how promiscuous they were, and he said, "It doesn't mean nothing because God has equalized the playing field. He's brought it down to just by faith."

There are some righteous women in here. You grew up righteous. You've always been pure. You've always been virtuous. You've always been honorable. When you got married, you were a virgin. And you're sitting right behind a woman who was a... [Applause] You don't get no more glory when the glory falls than the woman who was a... because it's not by works, lest any man should boast. It is by faith. This is why you have haters. Because haters don't think that you deserve to have whatever you have because they think that they are better, or pure, or smarter, or better looking, or brighter. But look at somebody and say, "No, no, no, no, no. [Applause] It's a faith thing." I know it doesn't make sense to you that I got a promotion. I know it doesn't make sense to you that I pastor a church like this. I know it doesn't make sense that I'm directing the choir. I know it doesn't make sense that God has raised me up. I know it doesn't make sense that God put me on the cover of Time magazine. I don't have no business on the cover of Time magazine. I... I didn't make any great discovery. I didn't do anything. It's not gonna make sense to you because it's... uh... [Applause] What God is getting ready to do in your life is totally illogical. It makes no sense. It has no rationale. You have no background. It's... uh... [Applause] I don't know who I'm talking to, but I'm getting somebody ready to receive it. [Applause] The problem with you receiving the promises of God... I'm just talking, I ain't got started yet. The... the problem with you receiving the promises of God is that sometimes God promises you the most illogical stuff. [Applause] As long as I've been walking with God, God said something to me a few years ago. I wrestled with Him about three years, telling Him, "I don't even know nothing about that. How could You give that to me? I don't have no background in that. I wasn't qualified for that." And God was busy building it up. It didn't make no sense. It scared me when it didn't make sense. Can I be honest with you? The person who's teaching you faith got scared because sometimes God has something for you that is so mind-boggling. Can I just be honest with you? I've wrestled with Him like Jacob. It was a good thing. It was a great blessing. It had great purpose. But I didn't want to touch it because it didn't make sense. And then I thought, "It didn't make sense for David to be king." [Applause] How do you make a shepherd boy king? He has no background. He has no protocol. His father was a peasant. He grew up taking care of sheep. He had not been trained. He didn't go to school for it. He wasn't prepared for it. But God said, "I found Me a man who's after My heart, and he's going to be the next king of Israel." For "it is not by might, it is not by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." And I say this because there are some things that God said to you that are frightening. It doesn't make sense. You're scary. You're reluctant to receive it. You don't feel qualified. You don't feel ready. And yet, God's going to do it. And He told me to tell you, "It is a faith thing." Whoever I'm talking to, give Him a praise! [Applause]

Now, I got to pick up this point where there is no hope. Faith has nothing to do... hope esteem. Esteem. Where there is no hope, faith has nothing to do. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." When you have low self-esteem, a low esteem for your life, faith's hands are tied. So if I were the enemy and I couldn't stop faith from being true, [Music] I would kill your hope. [Applause] By showing you what you are not, what you don't have, and what you don't... and you're too old, and you're too young, and you're too dark, and you're too white, and you're too brown, and you do this, and you do that, and you do the other. Because if I kill your hope, faith has nothing to work with. Now, "faith is the substance of the thing you hope for." The worst people in the world to preach to are people who have no hope. [Applause] Who have decided, "Well, I guess this is as far as I'm going to go." [Applause] And they make themselves happy with mediocrity. It's not that they're happy with it, they make themselves happy with it because it is all they can grasp. The people I like to preach to are the people who have the audacity of hope. The audacity to believe. The audacity to believe it's possible. The audacity to think, "I could go to school." The audacity to think, "I could own my own house." The audacity to think, "I could preach the gospel." The audacity to think, "I could build the church." The audacity to think, "I could get up from here." The audacity to think, "I could make it without you." The audacity... See, in order to leave a woman in an abusive relationship, the first thing an abusive man does is take away her hope. He comes up for a conversation. He doesn't want her to talk to her relatives. And then he tells her, "You're dumb, and you're ugly, and you're stupid, and don't nobody want me but you, and you better put up with me. I slap you across this kitchen, you ain't got nowhere to go. You're stupid." You know what he's doing? He's killing her hope. Verbal abuse kills hope. [Applause] What that man is doing to that woman, and nowadays, what that woman is doing to that man. [Applause] Because I have found since I've been in Texas that some of these women are just as abusive as men are. The way you talk to your husband, he'll never get up because you are just as abusive as an abusive man. You're just shorter. [Applause] Mean as a starving rattlesnake. Say anything to him about him, about his family, about his mama, about his kin, because you are cutting off all access to anything for faith to work with. Oh, but I don't care what you say. I withstand your ideas. I fight your ideas. I am somebody. I am worth something. I can build. I can evolve. You think whatever you want to think, but you can't change the way I think about myself. "As a man thinketh in himself." [Applause] Slap somebody and say, "I think so." "I think so." "I don't care what you tweet. I don't care what you text. I don't care what your blog. I think so." And as long as I think so, what you think don't have nothing to do with what I think. "I think so." [Applause] Oh, it's gonna get tough in here in a minute. "I think so." "Hi, little Tommy Jake's gonna be a preacher." "How is he gonna be a preacher? He got a lisp." "You can't do it." I don't care what you think. "I think so." [Applause] And look at me now. Look at somebody and say, "How you like me now?"

"Now faith is the substance [Applause] of the thing I hope for." If I don't... the day you lose your hope, you lost your life. So the devil isn't so much after your faith, he's after your hope. That you could be better. That you could rebuild your life. That the second half could be the best half. That the best is yet to come. That God has more for you. That you're important to God. That God has a plan for your life. Then all things are possible to him that believe. The enemy is doing everything he can to destroy your hope. He always will. Let somebody bring you some bad news. Oh, but I'm like the wicked witch. "Don't nobody bring me no bad news." I'll hang up on you. I can't let it in. I'll cut it off the TV set. I'll stop watching it because I know you're trying to infect my faith. The devil is alive. My faith is the substance of the thing I hope for. [Applause] It is the evidence of the thing not yet seen. Evidence is admitted into court. It is proof. It is receipts. It validates. It is the evidence of... "Eyes had not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared." The things that God has prepared for them that love Him. This is the evidence of things unseen. Remember when you were a child? How you had imagination? You had great imagination. You believed. You had imagination. Somebody told me the other day, they jumped out of the window because they thought they could fly. When you stop dreaming, you stop flying. I have a question: What took away your hope? When did you stop dreaming? Did the voice do that to you? Did you let the rapist take away your hope? Did your mama prefer your sister kill your hope? Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good report. They weren't good. They weren't good, but they were able to get a good report. [Music] By faith, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. He wasn't righteous. [Applause] Abraham wasn't righteous. Don't make me take you back to Bible play. Abraham was not righteous. I'm not saying he wasn't a good man, but he was not righteous. But he believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. I have... I... I go crazy talking to accountants. No disrespect to none of you, but you drive me crazy because to me, I bring the money in. I bring it in. Here it is. This is what we got. No, we... we can't account for it like that. We have to put it in this column. I said, "Just put it in the bank." I don't care what column you put it in. Just put it in the bank. Well, if you borrow it from this column and put it over here, it's all the same money. But it's how you account for it that passes the audit. [Applause] Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness. He wasn't righteous, but that God marked it up on the ledger as righteous because he had faith. Faith is like food stamps. You ain't got no money, but we'll take it like money. [Applause] Come on, come on. I'm gonna teach it till you get it. Everybody else walked in the store with money and American Express and Mastercard and Visa. And here come Miami Wilson with a bag full of food stamps. But she got just as much food as everybody else because the food stamp was accounted. [Applause] This is why... this... I want you to understand why people hate you. Because people hate you because they know something about you, and they know you ain't that righteous, and they know you ain't that holy, and they know you ain't that good. And they saw you do something stupid, and they heard you did something stupid, and they fussing at you right now, saying, "I ain't gonna listen to her. I'm not gonna listen to him." Because... But what they don't know is God is a bookkeeper, and He accounted it as righteousness. And what you need to know is, once the books say you're righteous, stop acting like you ain't. [Applause] Walk in what God said. Talk in what God said. Move in what God said. Preach in what God said. Because according to the books... [Applause] You think you're waiting on God. God is waiting on you. God is waiting on you to believe what He said about you, not what you remember about you. [Applause]

"For by the illness of pain, a good report." Watch this. Kind of go a little deeper. "Through faith we understand." Faith is the truth we stand under. Through faith, we stand under. [Applause] It is my covering. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed." Now, when you read that in the King James Bible, it sounds like he's talking about the creation. He really isn't. Because when he says, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God," that is true of the creation. But in this particular text, he is not using the Greek word *cosmos*. He's using the Greek word *eons*, which is *aion*. [Applause] "Through faith we understand that the ages were hemmed in [Applause] by the word of God." That my future is locked. That He's got a hedge around tomorrow. I'll prove it to you by the Bible. Satan, Lucifer, go curse Job. You know I can't curse Job. You got a hedge around him. I can't never... "Curse" speaks to how you're going to end up. How can I mess with his future when you got a hedge around his future? Through faith, we understand that the ages were framed by the word. Your tomorrow is already fixed. Your tomorrow is already fixed. You down on your knees crying about, "How I'm gonna make it? What I'm gonna do? How can I get there? I don't see no way. I don't have enough." God said, "Shut up. I got it already framed in." [Applause] That's enough for somebody to start running right there. Your future is fixed. The witch can't curse you. The warlock can't curse you. Your enemies can't curse you because God's got you hedged in. Your tomorrow is in His hands. Your next week is in His hands. Your next year is in His hands. He's got the whole world. It is His whole wide world. It is... He's got the whole world. It is [Applause] is [Applause] "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." Now we're going to the creation. "So that things that do appear were not made of things that do appear." Honey, would you come here for a minute? [Applause] Nothing you got on, not your earrings, not your dress, not your shoes, not your ring, nothing you got on started out as a material. It started out as an idea. [Applause] Then they picked the material according to the idea. [Applause] It didn't start out as material. It started out as an idea. The material didn't pick the idea. [Applause] The idea picked the material. It passed over wool and passed over cotton. It passed over linen because the idea had a specific idea in mind and said, "Once I find what matches what I'm thinking in here, I'm gonna do out there what I'm thinking in here." So what would you rather have? The dress or the idea? That's why I say money is the cheapest part of me because the money don't make me. [Applause] If all you took was my money, you didn't get much. Now, if you took my mind, I'd be in trouble. But as long as I got my right mind, I could get me some more money. I could make another dress. I could create more earrings. I'd get more shoes. As long as I got the idea. So that things that do appear, yes sir, were not made of things that do appear. Yes sir. Did you know God has designed the future for you? [Applause] And He's already got the right material in mind. The right weight, the right time, the right place, the right moment, the right way. And if you would get out of God's way and stop trying to design your own life and plan your own future and manage your own stuff and fix yourself up and just give it all over to God and say, "Whatever You want me to have, I'll take it. Whenever You think I'm ready for it, I'll move to it. Whatever You design for me, I'll go for it." If you would step back, that would be faith. But because you got your mouth in God's design, that's not faith. And without faith, it is impossible. Sing all you want to, preach all you will, dance all you want to, you cannot dance your way into favor. Can I go a little bit further? Thank you, honey.

So, if faith is so important, but so, how do I get it? "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Wait a minute. So if I'm gonna have faith, I gotta protect what I hear. Okay? So I got to shut down all these voices, external and internal. [Applause] Because it creates a belief system that either cancels out my blessing or grows my blessing. If I'm sick in my system, I'm gonna be sick in my substance. [Applause] That's why when I talk to you like this, I'm talking about how you think. Because if I'm sick in my thinking, I'm going to be sick in my results. I'm going to self-sabotage everything God has for me because I'm not clear right here. Are you hearing what I'm saying? "By faith Abel offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." Yeah. And through it, his blood yet speaketh. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not yet seen, building an ark to the saving of his house." So, so Noah built a boat with no water in his backyard, willing to look like a fool and wait on the rain to catch up with what he built. [Applause] Some of you gonna have to build something that looks like a fool and wait on the rain to catch up with you. Where are my innovators at? [Applause] See, most people are building their future around the past and how it used to be. But people who are innovative build around how... around the future and how it's gonna be. Noah built an ark to the saving of his house. His whole house got saved because he was willing to look like a fool for a little while and let the rain catch up with it. Somebody online, the rain is gonna catch up with you. Stay right where you are. Let them laugh at you. Let them look at you funny. Let them talk like you're a fool. Let them say, "It doesn't make any sense. You bought that property. It doesn't make any sense. There's nothing around it. There's nothing there right now." But don't worry, the rain's gonna catch up with you. The rain's gonna... Am I talking to anybody in here? Am I talking to anybody in here? A woman said to my wife the other day, said, "Who would ever thought that you would end up being where you are?" [Applause] She did. [Applause] They didn't think I'd end up where I was. But God caught up with me. Young people, let the rain catch up with you. Let the rain catch up with you. While other people are adding the food, build something that don't make no sense and let the rain catch up with you. Let the rain catch up with you. Who am I talking to? If I'm talking to you, make some noise in here! [Applause] I'm gonna stop in a minute. I'm gonna hurry this along.

You remember when the woman came down to the well and she says to Jesus? Jesus sitting at the well. You know, He's just chilling. He's... He's chilling out, hanging out at the well, being cool, looking fly. And He says, "Woman, give Me the drink." She said, "You player." [Applause] "If you really wanted water, who comes to a well with nothing to draw with?" All I want is nothing to draw with. If you have faith, if you do not have faith, you have nothing to draw. See, the woman was right. Who sits by a well [Music] with nothing to draw with? So you come to church [Applause] but if you don't have faith, Santa, you don't have nothing to draw with. So you... you scrolling around on your Instagram right now and you think about what you're gonna cook for dinner. Did you cut the stove off? And where are we gonna go eat when this is over? All of that says you have nothing to draw with. You're sitting by a well. You're sitting in the presence of a miracle. You're sitting in your destiny. You're sitting in your future. You're sitting in the thirst-quenching power of God. But if your mind is somewhere else, you won't get it. Not because the water is not in the well, you don't have nothing to draw with. [Applause] How many people in here got something to draw with? Have you ever gone to church, that really, really a service that really, really blessed you, and you rode with somebody that that didn't pay no attention to it? That means that we can be at the same place at the same time, but if you don't have faith, you don't have nothing to draw with. So you went home dry. I went home wet. Not because we didn't go to the same church, but I had something to draw with. You didn't have nothing to draw with. Do you not know that your faith controls my message? Do you... do you not know that you can draw the preacher out of me? You can draw the teacher out of me. That certain crowds draw things out of you that other people don't draw out of you. Because when they make a demand on the anointing, the anointing shows up in a greater way. I wish I had a thousand people that would provoke me right now. When you come to church, you ought to say, "I'm gonna draw it out of my man of God. I don't care what he feels like. I don't care what it looks like. I don't care what kind of week he had. I came here with something to draw with, and I'm not gonna leave this well until I get this water." That I flush no more. Somebody say, "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." Come on, come on. "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it." "Yeah, I want to give it to me." "Throw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Throw it out." "Draw it out." [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Watch this. Y'all ain't gonna like me for this. You're gonna sit down. So you might just sit down now. Because there's another woman in your woman. And if you had something to draw with, you could draw it out. If you don't believe it, wait to the next guy. There's another man. And the man you got. And the only reason his ex didn't get it is that she didn't have that to draw with. And if you come in and you know how to draw it out of him, she won't even recognize him when she sees him again. I wish I had some drawers in here. "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." "Draw it out." [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Touch three people and say, "It's a faith thing." [Applause] I'm gonna prove it. I'm gonna prove it. I'm gonna prove it. I'm gonna prove it. I'm gonna prove it. I'm gonna prove it. I'm gonna prove it. Somebody's getting healed right now. Somebody's getting healed while somebody's sitting around looking. Somebody's being healed. Somebody's getting a breakthrough while somebody's sitting around playing with the phone. Somebody's getting a breakthrough while somebody's sitting around looking out the window. Somebody's being delivered. Don't let that somebody be you. I want the person that's getting something from God to leap up on your feet and praise God like you ever will. [Applause] Praise God like you just got wet. Praise God like you just dropped your bucket down into His promises and pulled up your healing and pulled up your deliverance and pulled up your breakthrough. Somebody start pulling it up. I'm gonna pull it out of this well. I'm gonna pull it out of this moment. I'm gonna pull it out. I don't care if I look funny. I'm gonna pull it out right now. God's got something for me, and I'm not gonna leave this well till I pull it out. I got something to draw with. Do you understand the words I'm saying? I said, "Do you understand the words that I'm saying?" Do you understand the words that I'm saying? Do you understand the words that I'm saying? Do you understand it? Do you receive it? Draw it out. Make the devil mad and draw it out. Make hell nervous and draw it out. Break every yoke and draw it out. Break generational curses and draw it out. [Applause]

I'm gonna quote this scripture and I'm gonna close right here. That's why I had to stand up. The word, the Bible says in Hebrews 4:1, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." Let's... let's be scared. Let us... let us have fear. Go back to verse 1. "Let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into His rest, any should seem to come short of it." Come on. Verse 2. "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with [Applause] Your profit is tied to your faith. No faith, no profit. No faith, no profit. The word did not profit, as strong as God's word is, it did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." There were certain cities that Jews, Jesus could not do miracles in because they had nothing to draw with. This morning, as I close, I'm gonna stop there. I feel like going into an outright crazy, spanked uranium preaching fit. Wow. [Applause] There is something that God has for you. [Applause] And you're gonna need faith to draw it out. It's not a dancing thing. It's not a shouting thing. It's not a scripture quoting thing. This has come down to a faith fight. [Applause] And you got to stand still and steady yourself and strengthen your backbone and stand up against the enemy. And this way, you gotta talk to him like this. You gotta walk right up to him, say, "Though He slay me, yet shall I trust You." [Applause] And you gotta walk up to Mr. Devil and introduce yourself to Mr. Devil and say, "Mr. Devil, I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above and not beneath. I'm more than a conqueror. I'm blessed in the city. I'm blessed in the field. I'm blessed in my uprising. I'm blessed in my down city. If I'm blessed in Charleston, I'll be blessed in Dallas. If I go to Chicago, I'll be blessed in Chicago because the blessing is not on the city, the blessing is on me. And everywhere my feet trod, God's gonna give it to me." You know why, devil? You know why, devil? Let me tell you why you can't stop me. It's a faith thing. It's a faith thing. You're gonna have my coat, but you can't have my faith. You're gonna have my shoes, but you can't have my faith. You can take my car, but you can't take my faith. Make some noise in this place! [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Me and my wife got married. We moved to Elvira Road in Dunbar, a little tiny wood frame, simple two-bedroom house. She said it was nice. That's love. The kitchen was so small that if you make something, you didn't have nothing nowhere to cut up nothing. It was... it was just like a... a little cubicle. And... and I can't remember how I got, but I got a little bit of money. Wasn't a whole lot, but a little bit. Instead of buying a bigger place or doing something smart with it, I bought a satellite dish. You remember that? I said, "Like this, man." You remember how big it was? It was one of the back of the old-timey sat... like this. It's about 12 feet. It was bigger than the house. It looked absolutely ridiculous. When it moved, you couldn't even sit out there. But I could get all kind of stations. We didn't have central air, but we had a dish. [Applause] We didn't have a dishwasher, but we had a dish. Here's what's funny to me. Every station that I picked up was already in the air. All the dish did was make it possible for me to receive [Applause] what was already there. I didn't need the stations to be created. I needed the dish so I could draw down what was already there. Whatsoever you're praying about right now, you already got it. It's already done. It's already there. It's already available. Healing is the children's bread. Whatever you need is already there. If I can get you to have faith, you'll receive. "You shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you." But you got to have something to receive it with. [Applause] Your faith don't create the power, it just makes it possible for you to receive the power. Throw your hands up. I want you to have a receiving week this week. I want you to receive on a level that will blow your mind. I want you to start walking in faith and not in fear, not in doubt, and not in worry, and not in frustration. I want you to receive right now in your spirit, in your spirit, in your heart, right now. You're watching online. The anointing is in this place. I want you to receive it right now in the name of Jesus. It's a faith thing. It's a faith thing. It's a faith thing. It's the faith that somebody... the Holy Ghost got you. Sewn online right now 'cause you want to get the faith thing. It's a faith thing. It's happening right now. It's a faith thing. It's moving right now. It's faith. It's not gonna be my works. It's not gonna be an ingenuity. It's not gonna be about trickery and scam. And you think you're so slick and you're so smart, but that's why you lose all the time because you don't understand it's by faith. This is a faith thing. Everybody in here that got faith, make some noise! [Applause] This is so cool. [Applause] This is so cool that if you believe God right now, you could be a drug dealer, a gang banger, be strung out on cocaine, crack, I don't care what it is. You've had HIV positive, breast cancer. Look at me. I don't care what it is. You could be a cross-dresser, cross-liver, whatever you want to call yourself. If you believe God, He will set you free. [Applause] Now, wait a minute. People still don't talk about you. They still don't say whatever they want to say. But God will set you free right now. It's about eyes closed. If you're in this place and you don't know Jesus. If you're in Him and you know church, but you don't know Jesus. If you're in here and you drifted away, and now you see something you never saw before. God is making known unto you the mysteries that were hidden from the foundations of the world. He's showing them to you right now. Now, you don't come down to this well, and you just sat through this service, and it boils down to one thing: Do you have something to draw with? There's no question that there's water in the well. But have you got a bucket? Now is the time for you to get something to draw with. Now, either close your hands about... and nobody's looking at you but God. Ain't you thirsty? Aren't you hungry for more? Don't you wonder what you could pull down in your own backyard if you had a satellite? It ain't nothing wrong with the yard. You don't have nothing to draw it down with. You don't come to the altar because you're so much worse than anybody else. All of us got some mess. You come down to the altar so that you can have faith in God, and it can be counted unto you as righteousness. And I'm gonna dismiss you in a minute, and I'm scared that you're gonna sit by the well and die of thirst because you didn't get the faith you need to draw down into your life what you need to find out who you are. And I'm gonna give you a chance now. You can play me. You can play me. And I'ma let you play me because a few minutes, I'm gonna walk off the stage whether you're coming up. And so if you play in this game of being hard to get, you're gonna win the prize. The prize is hell. Hell after earth and hell on earth. You