Full transcript of Bishop T.D. Jakes’ sermon titled “God Knows When” which was delivered on January 10, 2021.
Scriptures Quoted: Psalm 126:1-6; Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV)
Best quote from this sermon:
“Gold don’t burn, baby, dross burns. Gold don’t burn. It may melt, it may become softened but it will never burn, because it’s gold.”
Listen to the MP3 Audio here:
TRANSCRIPT:
T.D. Jakes – Bishop, Author & Filmmaker
I’m excited. I want to touch and agree before I do anything else for those of you who have invested into the kingdom of God, who have hooked the cables of your faith to the power of his promise, expecting that there will be a transfer in the spirit world.
Wealth starts on the inside before it shows up on the outside. Healing starts on the inside before it shows up on the outside. You start being healed in your spirit before you’re healed in your body, and I’m praying that there’ll be a connection and that this service will jump start your faith.
Let’s pray.
Father in the name of Jesus, we thank you for your many blessings; we thank you for your kindness. We thank you for your goodness and your peace and your power. We thank you for your strength and your tenacity. We thank you because you’re long suffering, because you’ll put up with us. Bless every seed that’s sown and every seed that will be sown. As people continue to log on, let the same anointing fall on their gift as it falls on ours.
We pray proactively, we bless what hadn’t even come yet, we call it done in the name of Jesus, not just historically, not just contemporarily but proactively we pray in advance. Praise God!
Saying it together and running over, in the name of Jesus we pray.
Somebody who loves him and shout Amen.
Ah, say amen again.
I’m anxious on this Sunday morning to share the word of the Lord with you. I have been on a trajectory all through January. We have been following the plight of the Hebrews in a captivity dragged down into Babylon, and I want to pick up where I left off from last Sunday and go deeper into the word of God.
And if you want to join me, go to Psalms 126 verse 1-6.
So you can hear what the spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. Occasionally while I’m ministering, the prompter will come up giving latecomers an opportunity to sow into the kingdom of God so that you can step into this blessing, that God has for his people. When you have it, say amen.
Would you stand for the reading of the Word?
It is in the Book of Psalms 126 division, starting at the first verse concluding on the sixth verse, that we will find the canvas on which I will paint the text and the truths that God has shared with me regarding your life. Let us start at verse one.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.
The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Can you say, amen?I want to go back to that first verse. I want to read that first verse again Psalms 126:1.
“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”
I read the whole thing but I really didn’t need it. I didn’t need the whole verse. I really want to preach on the word When.
“When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Let us pray, as we consider the subject: God knows when. Say that with me: God knows when. Say it again: God knows when. Say it again: God knows when. One more time, God knows when.
Let us pray. Father, thank you for the privilege on this Sunday morning that you have endowed us with the supernatural grace to conversate with divinity, to convocate upon the cloud of your anointing, to have this precious moment to be saturated with truth in such a way that we are effected all week long because of what we heard today.
Now bind every devil and every distraction. When we’re home there can be all kinds of distractions, bind every distraction so that we can focus in and hear what thus saith the Lord for in your hands are the words of eternal life. I believe you for it, in Jesus name.
Some believers say amen.
Have a seat and let’s discuss this word. God knows when.
When I read the text amidst the magnitude of powerful things, prolific things that stood out to me. It was the one word when that captivated me the most.
When the time capsule, when the ambiguity of it, when, the uncertainty of it; when, the promise of it.
[read more]
The Lord knows when is often an expression, like you say the Lord knows when I’ll get back to Alabama. The Lord knows when I’ll get back to the store; it’s more of an expression.
But today I want to use it more as a conviction; I want it to have more meaning than a casual American colloquialism. I want it to point to the fact that the Lord knows when is my conviction. I want to discuss an absolute conviction with you, just something that you can really sink your teeth into.
The Lord knows when, his knowledge and sense of timing has long been a discussion of theological work, that God knows; it’s where we get omniscience. God being all-knowing, knowing everything from the beginning to the end that the Lord knows. It is comforting to say the Lord knows when, especially when I don’t.
It is important for us to understand the Lord knows when to rebuke the tendency to believe that our lives are chaotic. We turn on the television set every day and we don’t know what in the world we’re going to see. We don’t know what’s going to happen; we don’t know what calamity is going to happen.
There’s a feeling of uncertainty, there’s a pensiveness that’s inherent in our spirits right now sitting on the edge not knowing what’s going to happen next, to know and to remind yourself that God is omniscient, and that God has a plan and he has a schedule and he has a sequence and he has a structure gives comfort whether he shares it with me or not.
For God often knows things that he chooses not to share, like parents don’t always share with the children and children don’t always tell their parents, it is possible to have information and not espouse the information to you but the Lord knows when. It’s like children going on a ride and they’re in the back seat of the car and they keep saying to you: are we there yet?
Yet they are comfortable to ride on the car in the uncertainty of not knowing where they are in the journey. They are confident because they know that their father or their mother has the wheel. Are we there yet?
I don’t know whether we’re there yet; I don’t know whether we’re at the end of suffering; I don’t know whether we’re at the end of sacrifice; I don’t know whether we’re coming to harvest or not. Are we there yet? But I do know who holds the wheel.
And as long as I know who holds the wheel, I’m not worried about where I am in the journey, because I know before we got in the car you had a plan, you had a map, you had a strategy, you had a timing, and I’m going to wait on you.
Jesus at one point tells his disciples, he says, “Henceforth I call you no longer servants but friends, for a servant knoweth not what his master doeth.” It is possible to serve God and not know when. It is possible to be your parents’ child and not know are we there yet.
It is possible to be going through a process of healing and know it’s coming but don’t know, when.
But then when is also a promise, because it lets me know that God has a when, that whatever I’m going through I will not always go through it that sooner or later God has set a date and God, oh you didn’t hear, yeah I don’t think you heard the power of what I said God has a when.
He’s not making this up as he goes; he’s not just contemplating; he’s not just figuring out; he’s not just responding to your moves, your attitudes and the attacks of the enemy and the things your friends say about you, God is not making it up as he goes; you are not at the mercy of your detractors, your critics, your haters. You are only at the mercy of the timing of God. And God knows when.
From the Book of Job, the oldest book of the Bible. Job says to us, the Lord knows the way that I take and when he has tried me. Ah I shall come forth as pure gold. I might not come forth today, I might not come forth tomorrow, I may not even come forth next week or next month. But when he has tried me, I shall, not I might not I hope not I wish, I shall come forth as pure gold.
I know how the story ends, I will not burn in the purification of the fires that separate the dross from me forever, I just don’t know how long I have to be in the fire to get all the things out of me for me to be pure gold. But I know when it’s over, I shall come forth as pure gold and every contaminant that would contaminate my worth of value will have burned off in the process. But not me.
Gold don’t burn, baby, dross burns. Gold don’t burn. It may melt, it may become softened but it will never burn, because it’s gold.
So if God allows me, Job says, to put me in the fire for a while, he’s only trying to burn off those things that would weaken my value and I shall come forth as pure gold.
Now I know Job is not the first book in the chronological order of your Bible but it is the oldest book in the Bible and from the book of Job to the last writings in the book of Revelations, there’s the consistency of understanding, take a minute and look at Revelations 2:8 through 11, and the Bible says:
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
God is speaking do not fear, none of those things which thou shall suffer, behold the devil should cast you in the prison, but, you’re going to be all right. You should be tried, but you’re going to survive. You’re going to have tribulation but I put it on a calendar; I got a timer on it be thou faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.
So from the first book of the Bible to the last book of the Bible, we see the same thing being said. The final words in Revelations declare: he that has an ear let him hear, what the spirit saith unto the church, he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
This is important for us to understand that from the very beginning to the last God has a watch. God has a watch and a timer is on it and it’s already set.
Solomon declares in Ecclesiastes: to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. If nothing is running chaotically everything is on schedule, everything is on schedule; I said nothing is chaotic, everything is on the schedule.
You ought to write that down, everything is on schedule; I’m right where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be, going through what I’m supposed to go through at the time I’m supposed to go through it, because God has a time and a season for every purpose under heaven.
I want to know my purpose, Pastor. I don’t know my purpose. Please pray for me that the Lord will show you your purpose. Don’t worry about your purpose; worry about your season.
Because when you get in your season your purpose will be clear, and wherever there is purpose, there’s going to be timing; and wherever there’s a timing there will always be a when.
Somebody just type when when when when when when… God knows when. God knows when… God knows how; God knows what.
When the Lord turned again our captivity, when we left off last week we were weeping. We had hung our harps by the willow trees, and we had wept when we remembered Zion and we learned how to live off of memories. We were sustainable because we could remember days that were not this tough.
I was talking to my wife the other day and I told her I said, uh just late at night I said, I’m a camp running water.
She said, what are you talking about?
I said I’m a camp running water.
She said, what do you mean?
I said, I’m [7] years old, I am a camp running water and you think I’m here in Dallas but I am a camp running water because I was thinking about where I came from, I know how to live off of memories.
And all they had is they were drunk, shackled and chained bleeding and ostracized and carried down, down from sweet Jerusalem. Oh Jeru, Jerusalem… Jeru the city of Salem, peace they had left the city of peace and gone into the plague of adversity.
And not only did they leave. They did not leave up under their own auspices or on their own accord but they were dragged in chains by the Babylonians into captivity. Last glances looking back, they promised Jerusalem, if I forget thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, that’ll be some things that you refuse to forget. And when they came down to the near the river of Euphrates and there they saw the willow trees and they hung their harps on the willow trees and they wept.
Jesus wept. All of us weep. There are times you go through a season of mourning, a season of struggle. To be transparent, I’ve gone through seasons of weeping, not a few minutes or an hour, seasons of weeping… seasons of weeping.
I can remember coming into the hospital room with my wife, going up on the elevator to see her mother who was in the hospital and her mother expired. And with my own two hands I closed mother’s eyes and I watched my wife turn into a ghost and the room was filled with agony, and as our hearts would wreck with pain.
We could not believe that somebody so strong, so vibrant, so tough, so full of life, so powerful… my mother-in-law was kind of woman you either liked her or you didn’t, she didn’t care which one you chose. How could she be gone?
It was the first time that death had circled in, in recent years so close and touched somebody that was a part of our lives, and my wife was devastated. And you know, if you know anything about losing anybody close to you that’s not the kind of thing you shake off in a week or a month; you don’t shake that off in three months.
That devastation continued and continued and continued that I had to preach with it, we had to go to church with it and we had cameras in our face with it and just when it was starting to ease up a little bit, my mother took sick and got worse and worse and worse, and died with us holding on to her. That’s her last breath, she was gone.
And I wondered how in the world could I be anointed and used of you and seeing people healed in my services and you not heal my mother. I remember preaching in this very church going to the hospital wet and laying my body on top of hers and praying for her and she still died.
My best friend in the world, we were closer than two peas in a tiny pod; she died. Before I could get over my mother-in-law, my mother died and then my daughter came in the room and told me she was pregnant.
And it was a season of weeping.
Have you ever gone through a season of weeping that before you could get out of this here comes something else and your heart is overwhelmed and you smile in front of people as best you can but you go home… please please let me go home so I can go back to being real, because I’m tired of faking the smile and I only told you I was doing okay because I knew it wasn’t nothing you could do about it anyway and let me go back to my weeping.
And we wept.
When we left off last week… the children of Israel were in a season of weeping and bleeding and suffering and they had hung their harps by the willow trees and they wept.
They asked them to sing. How can you sing the Lord’s song in a strange land… and people, honestly want you to perform like you haven’t been through what you’ve been through, but there is a degree of pain that comes so strong that you have to shut down everything.
There is some discomfort that you can still function to, but there is a level of sorrow that is so grotesque and so obvious and so profound and so demonstrative that it was such… how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land. They hung their harps by the willow trees and all we could hear was nothing… nothing but weeping.
There is a cry that engulfs the soul, that holds the spirit, that takes you to a place where you wonder will I ever… Y’all don’t know what I’m talking about, I wish I could talk to somebody who was real with me because I get sick of church folks sometimes. Sometimes they’ll catch you in your grief and in your season of pain and they’re in their season of progress and then look at a child if you just believe God everything will be all right, if you just walk in faith and claim, Shut up!
You in spring, I’m in the winter, shut up! You don’t have no coat on because it’s not cold on your side of the world but over here we’re in the season of weeping.
And they wept a long time… and they wept a long time and I had to come back and preach this part of it to let you know that there is a time after you have suffered a while and cried a while and been empty a while and been playing a while and been lonely a while and been frustrated a while and been without a while and to have to be denied a while… there is a place that comes along after you’ve been confused a while, after you’ve been in anguish for a while, after you’ve been tormented a while.
There is a when when when… there is a time my brothers and sisters that God just says enough, I don’t know who I’m preaching to today but the Holy Ghost said enough, I don’t know who this message is for but God said enough, you’ve been in a season of hell and high water but the spirit just said enough is enough. You’re coming into a when and you’re coming into a release and you’re coming into a breakthrough, if you think that I might be preaching to you, give him a crazy praise right now.
Type it, that’s for me, that’s for me, that’s for me, I claim it for mine, I reach up and grab it God just said enough.
When God said enough, I checked it on my watch, and I saw that God had a time to bring me out of my weeping. God has a time already set aside, didn’t you hear the bell ring, did you not hear that alarm go off, did you not hear that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes… bing!… in the morning. Do you not know that God has a when.
God had a point in their suffering, in Babylonian captivity that God said that’s enough. I’ll let you be drugged out of your own land, I’ll let you be drugged down and shackled like animals, I let your men be castrated and your men be red, your women be raped and I’ll let you weep by the willow trees and I did nothing to stop it. But I did keep my eye on the watch.
And when the Lord turned again our captivity…
The writer here, when he writes about the Lord turning our captivity, he does not have access to all the things that God had to do to turn their captivity around. The fall of Babylon denotes the end of the Neo-Babylonian empire, I think it was conquered by Achaemenidian empire empire; it was conquered. Wait, wait I want you to see this: the people who conquered Jerusalem got conquered.
See, the Achaemenidians were Persians; they were nomadic Persians. That after 70 years of Babylonian captivity they came in and conquered the conquerors.
See, sometimes God’s got you on hold because he’s getting another group ready to come in and deal with your enemies. God has a way of getting justice out of the chaos in your life and the Babylonians were sitting around bragging and poking fun and telling them to sing and dance for us and while they were playing with them, God was raising up the Persians to overthrow the empire in 539 BC.
God said enough, and all of a sudden everything began to change, and God used a young man who was the son of a princess to come in. The young man was [Lebasha Marbuk]; and he comes in and God uses him to wreak havoc and the Babylonians who thought they couldn’t be brought down, God brought down.
Listen America, be very careful. The Babylonian empire came down, the Roman empire came down, the Kushite empire came down, don’t you get high-minded and think that we cannot come down. We’ve got to be careful what we let go on and what we let happen in this country because it is possible, history teaches us, that kingdoms fall, nations fall, empires crushed.
The Babylonians thought they couldn’t be taken; they thought they were big, but the Persians came up and they brought the whole empire down.
Babylon, not Babylon… Babylon’s name, goes back to the tower of Babel, but God still brought them down. Not Babylon, Babylon comes out of the Old Testament, Mesopotamia the new word we would have would be all right, not them but God brought them down.
God can bring you down, he can shut it down; that’s why you got to live with a certain amount of humility. I don’t care how many skyscrapers you build, or how many jets you own, how strong your technology, God don’t care nothing about none of that. When God gets ready to shut you down, he shut down the whole world with a virus we can’t even see and not one atomic bomb did anybody any good, not one supersonic jet did anybody any good, not IBM, not Xerox, not Google, not nobody could do anything about it. God used something we never even thought of… a bug from a bird shut down the planet.
You don’t know what God’s going to fight with, but I declare God’s going to get you out of this. Oh you didn’t hear what I said. I feel like dancing right where I stand, you don’t know who God’s going to use but God’s going to get you out of this. He doesn’t have to use the deacons and the church mothers and the intercessors and the bishops and the prayer warrior. When God gets ready to use you he can bring an idolatrous, he can bring a whoremonger; God has a way of using stuff that you never even thought about; he’ll use a jawbone of an ass, he’ll use two fish and five loaves.
When God says enough, he’ll use whatever he wants to use, he’ll use anybody he wants to use, he’ll touch anybody he wants to touch, he’ll use a whore like Rahab. When God says enough, he’ll let a nation that you should be able to beat beat you. He’ll let AI conquer you even after you conquer Canaan, and when God gets ready to bring you out, he’ll use anything.
And all of a sudden he began to turn everything around. Babylon was someplace that they thought would never be destroyed. Babylon was strong and fierce. Babylon was posted by the rivers of the Euphrates. It started out as a small port; it grew into a great empire. They were ruling and conquering and taking over, but they messed around and they took God’s children down into bondage and when God got sick of it he brought it to an end and he stopped it and Babylon is reaping what they sowed.
Fret not thyself over evildoers and how they prosper in their own way, sooner or later God will cause them to reap what they sowed.
You might be outnumbered, they may have more money, they may have more contacts but when God gets ready to bring you out, he will bring you out. I don’t know who I’m preaching to but I feel like I’m talking to somebody. If I’m talking to you just type when, when, when, when when when when when when when.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
In one moment the weeping turned to laughter. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing
The very people who were hanging their harps by the willow trees and weeping when they remembered Zion, are now giggling and laughing because God has a when. I’m telling all of you that are suffering and all of you that are in agony and all of you that are secretly suicidal and all of you that are depressed, don’t get too used to being depressed, don’t get too used to being down, because God owns a when and when God says when, he will bring it to an end.
And the same lips that quivered with tears and the same face that cried itself to sleep and the same person who rolled over and over in agony and couldn’t rest at night, God will make you burst out and start laughing.
When the Lord turned again our captivity… it was like a dream. These people hadn’t been free in so long, that free didn’t seem normal.
Have you ever been denied something so long that you got used to not having it? Have you ever been alone so long that you stopped being lonely? Have you ever been in a crisis so long that it became your norm? When the Lord turned again our captivity, it was like a dream, and the Holy Spirit told me to tell you, you’re going to dream again.
When I get through bringing you out you’re going to be scared to believe it. It’s going to seem like it’s somebody else. When I open up a door for you it’s going to blow your mind. When I set you free you’re going to say is that me, I don’t know what to think about it. Is this my house, could this be my job, could this be my husband, is that my wife, you mean, you would do that for me. God said I’m going to bless you till you have to pinch yourself… oh get ready to pinch yourself. God said I’ll blow your mind; I’ll cause you to prosper, the contracts will close, the property will sell, the door will open, the mountain will move, the yoke will be broken, the enemy defeated.
When the Lord turned again…. when he turned, when he turned, God got to turn it, he did something in heaven and it hit the earth realm, he did something in heaven and God raised up somebody who didn’t even know me to deliver me… When the Lord turned again our captivity, we were like them that dream.
It was hard to believe. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing:
I want somebody to just start laughing right now, I want you to practice your laugh, I want you to practice your laugh, I want you to practice your laugh. It’s not going to seem like a laugh right now, but I want you to start practicing your laugh because God said, I’m going to make you laugh again. You’re going to get right up in the devil’s face and laugh, you’re going to get right up in the face of the Babylonians and go to laughing.
You thought I’d never laugh again; check this out…. [Laughter], check this out [Laughter], check this out. Cancer [Laughter], Leukemia [Laughter], Covid[Laughter], you thought you had me, I like to die [Laughter], but God said, I’m going to fill your mouth with laughter, and your tongue with singing.
And all of a sudden I am going to bless you so good that even the unbelievers are going to say the Lord have done great things for them. I’m going to bless you so good that you’re not going to be able to hide it, I’m going to bless you so good that unbelievers are going to be standing there with their mouth hanging open in shock.
The Bible said, the heathen said the Lord have done great things for them. And they agreed with the heathen and said the Lord have done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
I pray a spirit of gladness… Father right now in the name of Jesus, I pray a spirit of gladness against every spirit of heaviness and every spirit of forlornment and every spirit of frustration and every spirit of defeatism and every spirit of agony and every spirit of witchcraft and every spirit of evil and every spirit of death and every spirit of mourning. I pray a spirit of gladness would break out right now.
Somebody’s going to start laughing in the Holy Ghost. You started out crying but you’re going to end up laughing. God’s going to give you a belly laughter… a laughter down in your spirit and down in his soul… open your mouth and make a joy for God… open your mouth to make a joy for God… open your mouth and make a joy for God… make a joyful Lord… make a joy for no one make a joy for the make a joy for joy for joy for joy for joy….
Do that joy is how we draw waters from the wells of salvation, why did you let the devil have your joy? It’s time to reach in there and get your joy back, reach in there and get your smile back, reach in there and get your peace back, reach in there and get your power back, reach in there and get your happy place back.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: because suddenly I got to see it, the Lord I saw the end of my suffering. I saw the end of it, you’re going to see the end of it, you’re going to see the end of it, it’s a tough period right now but you’re going to see the end of it.
All of those things I listed that I suffered, I lived to see the end of it. I lived to see it turn around. I lived to see it come out. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. You’re going through a season but if you hold on, you’re going to see the end of it.
The Lord hath done great things for us. Have you thought about that lately, have you ever had to remind yourself how blessed you were that the Lord had done great things for us. You know it’s the enemy’s job to always show you the negative but you got to count up the positive and say you know what, it’s not as bad as I think it is the Lord hath done great things for us.
And I’m going to go ahead and be glad. I give you permission to be glad, I give you permission to have joy, I give you permission to get your smile back, I give you permission to get your praise, I give you permission. Some of you have not had permission, you’ve been locked up, you’ve been shackled down; you’ve been bound, you’ve been held captive by a spirit of defeatism.
But I break you lose and I give you permission right now; I break every bond of your spirit.
Whereof we are glad.
We are glad… turned again our captivity as you near the streams in the south; turned it absolutely around until I look schizophrenic, turned it around until they think I’ve lost my mind, turned it around until the last time you saw me, I was laying down crying like that and you thought I would never get by and when you come back in the door I’m laughing and dancing and shouting and praying God will turn it around.
He turned our captivity around… and then the writer says, that you can handle it. The writer reveals that the tears were never tears at all; it was how god irrigated the seeds that sowed. That not one tear was wasted, for every tear I shed, I watered a promise, and they that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Now to all of you that I’m preaching to who have not gone through any dark places, this is not your Sunday, you can go ahead and log off, because this Sunday I’m talking to people who have been to hell and back. I’m talking to people who have dealt with things they could say nothing about. I’m talking to people who have grown within themselves and I’m telling you it was not without cause.
They that sow in tears shall shall shall shall reap in joy.
I tell you it’s going to be schizophrenia, you’re going to be sowing in tears and reaping in joy, you’re going to sow it in suffering, you’re going to reap it in dancing. You’re going to sow it in pain you’re going to reap it in purpose. You’re going to sow it in agony; you’re going to reap it in power.
God is getting ready to bring us into the fruition and you know how I know because all hell is breaking loose; that’s how I know it because things that you’ve never seen before are starting to happen, because we are seeing devils being loosed out of the pits of hell to come against us right now, the devil wouldn’t be fighting us if there weren’t something on the other side of this. And I don’t know what you’re going to do about it, but I’m going to hold on. I’m going to hold on, it’s tough but I’m going to hold on.
I’m tired but I’m going to hold on. I get frustrated but I am going to hold on. I groan but I’m going to hold on. I cry but I’m going to hold on. God wouldn’t let this happen if there was something on the other side of this that was so strong that hell is nervous and demons are trembling and Satan is open up the windows of hell and he sent out all kinds of demons to try to discourage us. But I’m going to stand.
I’m going to stand until I see a return on every teardrop, until I see a return on every night I stayed awake, until I see a return on every night I felt alienated and alone.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
And then he says, He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him…
That’s the word doubtless, he didn’t say you might come forth with rejoicing… he said you will doubtless come again with rejoicing. Look at this; you left bleeding, you left weeping, you left suffering, he said but when you come back, when you come back you will be bringing your sheaves with you, pressed down, shaking together and running over; they came back better than they left.
And I want to share with you when God says when, there is a place that God just speaks a word and he just turns it all around. I don’t know whether it’s going to be Thursday or Wednesday, I don’t know whether it’s going to be Friday or next Monday, I don’t know whether it’s going to be March or July. God knows when.
All I know is I’m waiting on my when, I’m waiting on my when. And when the Lord turns again my captivity, I am not going to sit there like some of you high-minded fanciful, [sediti] self-righteous people and act like I have not been waiting on this.
I am going to praise him like a imbecile, I am going to praise him like an idiot, I am going to dance like I lost my mind, I am going to take my glasses off and shake my head like I’m in a rock band. I’m going to walk the floor and dance and praise the Lord. I am going to be a fool for the Lord, because anybody who’s been through what I’ve been through, I earn the right to make some noise.
I am going to get on your nerves, I am going to shout the shout of victory, I am going to lift my voice like a trumpet, I am going to shout him to God. I earned the right to praise him, I earned the right to laugh all you want to but until you cried like me, you can’t shout like me. Until you suffer like me you can’t rejoice like me.
Until you’ve grown like me you can’t dance a victory like me. Type it right now, I earned this praise, I earned this praise. You can roll your eyes all you want to; you can talk about me if you will; you can send a text out; you can write a blog but I earned this praise, I earned this blessing, I earned this car, I earned this house. I earned this smile, I earned this life, I earned it, I earned it, I earned it.
Because I was faithful when I was hurting and because I held on when I was bleeding, I ain’t going to let nobody talk me out of my praise. No no no no, hell no.
When God says when and now I’m not going to rejoice because I’m afraid of getting on your nerves, I want to get on your nerves. I fully plan to get on your nerves, because God has a when for me. He has a when, he has a when that’s got my name on it. He has a when that’s already established and I want every devil to know you can’t keep me in captivity.
Do whatever you got to do, but you can’t keep me in captivity. Not when God has a when, it might not come when I wanted it, it might not come when I thought it was fair, and when it was right and it might not happen when I thought I deserved it. But God knows when. God knows when, God knows when.
So having done all the stuff I’m going to stand here with my loins girt about with truth, you know why I’m going to stand… because God knows when.
As I come to the close of this message, I want to remind you that God knows when. Though the storms are raging and the wind is blowing, God knows when, and you think you can’t take any more God knows when. So all you got to do in the meantime is stand.
Just, you don’t need the answer. Just stand, like it’s never enough… don’t you give up now; don’t you give up…
[Music – Singing]
Some folk don’t believe it and they’re ready to give up but listen…
You say I don’t know what to do. I’m telling you I’m telling you, you just stand in the middle of the storm. You stand.
I want to pray for somebody, who feels like you can’t make it, I’m not judging you because I felt like that too. I want to pray for somebody who felt like quitting because, I felt that too. I want to pray for somebody who said where is God now, I said that too. I want to pray for somebody whose faith is in a crisis, because you’ve been through so much pain, you said how could he love me and let me suffer like this.
God knows when, God knows how, God knows who, God knows what. I want to pray for you because I know what it’s like to have a pain that they don’t have a pill for, to have an ache that cannot be anesthetized. I understand what it’s like to be in such a complex confusing situation that you think you’re going to die in Babylon but he’s coming to get you.
And you’re going to come back with your sheaves. And you will get through this, I said you will get through this, you will get through this. You will, you will, you will. Come on let’s pray.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for your power, strengthen the feeble, lift up the bowed down head, give courage to the person that’s about to faint, pouring the oil in the wine on the wounds that we have that ache late at night in our souls and we feel like we messed up so bad and we lost so much time, but is there anything salvageable at all. They were in captivity 70 years. That’s a long time.
But when the Lord turned again the captivity, it was like a dream. Your when is coming. I pray for you right now in the name of Jesus, that you won’t bow and you won’t break, that you’ll stand firm on the gospel of God. When everything’s said and everything’s done and all the haters have hated and the spectators have spectated, that you’ll stand up and start laughing and tell hell I’m back, I’m back.
I went away for a while but I’m back, I got my grip back, I got my faith back, I got myself back. Because I discovered that God knows when.
If this is your word if God spoke to you today and you need special prayer there’s information on the screen to continue the ministry that you need. So that you can walk into the abundance that God has for you, our prayer warriors are designated and anointed to help you get the breakthrough over the specificity of the things that you’re agonizing about right now.
If this is your word and he spoke to you and it loose your creativity and your innovation and you’re ready to dream again and build again and birth again and start a business and write a book and open up a company and all of a sudden you feel motivated again, sow into this word. That’s my word: I’m going to sow into it, I’m going to own it, I don’t care what nobody else does that was my word.
And I sowed into it, and you laugh right now but when I come back bringing my sheaves, you’ll see who’s last seen. Yeah you’ve been saying that for years; I don’t care how long I’ve been, God knows when and it will come to pass.
This Sunday morning. I bless you, I bless your feet to stand, I bless your ankles to be firm, I bless your back to be straight and your head to be high.
[Music]
Resources for Further Reading:
Defying The Urge To Quit: T.D. Jakes (Transcript)
Billy Graham: Who is Jesus, Really? (Full Transcript)
What Is Your Life’s Blueprint? by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Full Transcript)
Martin Luther King Jr. on Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool Speech (Transcript)
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