T.D. Jakes and Tony Evans: Find Strength in God’s Word

T.D. Jakes and Tony Evans share inspiring messages on staying strong in the Spirit, and preparing our hearts to overcome the enemy!

God said in Isaiah, “Before you call, I will answer you.” That’s why we can live in peace. Not worried about our children, stressed over our health, losing sleep over our finances. God is going ahead of you. There are things He’s doing right now that you can’t see. Maybe the waters are not parting. You don’t see any sign of things changing. That’s okay. Have faith. God is working. He’s taking care of what you’re concerned about.

Have you ever been thrown into a strange, foreign, dangerous, vulnerable situation?
It’s one of the reasons we’re in church this morning.
When your friends don’t have answers and show enough when you don’t have answers, you need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ.
You are over dependent on the thing that birthed you.
And I look at the church today that we have to preach you happy every Sunday.
And I wonder when is the court going to be cut where you don’t depend on me to do your Bible study.
Pray for me, pastor.
When are you going to be able to pray for yourself?
When is my message gonna become a confirming word?
and not a revelatory word because you have your own devotion to god.
The problem is you’re no one has cut your Number 2.
The second indictment is no one washed you.
You still look like what you’ve been through Better after birth is something else, Shell.
I’m I’m telling you that after birth is not pretty. It’s necessary.
And in the right place at the right time, it’s wonderful. Yeah.
But if it stays too long, it could be infectious. and disastrous and stink.
When you allow work you came from to still cling to you.
The question arises. No one was You understand that that is part of the symbolism of water baptism?
to wash away where you came from.
We baptize you in water saying that the old man is gone and you rise walking in the newness of life.
So that means that your old temple is gone that your anger management issue is god, that your domestic violence is god, that your abusive nasty mouth is god, we washed off.
If that’s still hanging on to you, you might be a church member, but no one washed you.
The the radical thing about this taxes that on one hand, it is so successful.
This mother has done what other women prayed to do. Yeah.
She has successfully had a baby. that she doesn’t care for.
Anything you have. you have to care for.
Stop praying for stuff. that you’re not gonna care for.
If you get married, you can’t be selfish.
Come on. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.
This is why the mergers are not working in a narcissistic society because everybody’s in says, me, me, me, me, me, me, no.
It’s not about you. It’s about us.
Everybody wants to have a baby do you wanna care for? Right.
Everybody wants to have a business do you wanna care for them? Yes.
Everybody wants to have a church do you wanna care for them?
If you don’t really wanna care for it, why did you have it? Right. Right.
Maybe your request is ego driven and not purpose driven.
Maybe you wanna have the baby to prove to the other women that you’re just as much woman as they are.
Maybe you want to have the job.
So when you go to the family reunion, you can tell them who you are.
Maybe you only got the degree so you could feel important But the problem is now you’re degree, and your skill don’t feel important.
Now you got the job, and you still feel like nothing because no one wants you getting stuff on the outside than compared to getting stuff on the inside.
Has anybody heard the words that are coming out of my mouth?
Jesus says the most radical thing.
He says, you are clean through the word that I’ve spoken unto you.
He says the reason I preach to you is to wash you.
That little by little, every time you hear a sermon It ought to take something off.
It ought to peel something off. It ought to clean something up. It ought to make you see yourself.
It ought to make you govern your tongue. it ought to make you feel convicted in some way.
Jesus said, my way of bathing you is to preach truth to you.
You cannot hide that you didn’t pay. You know how you have a five year old?
And you said, did you brush your teeth? Yes, sir. and the breath is hitting you hole in the head.
It’s hitting you like atomic nutrient bombs blowing up in your nostrils.
And you said, get my in there and run so people can tell People can tell.
when when you’ve not been washed. But what’s weird about this text, this baby is delivered.
but damaged.
I wonder how many people
in this room are watching online, streaming, watching me right now.
I wonder how many of you who are looking at me on your TV wondering how many of
you that are watching on your iPad or on your cell phone.
I’m wondering how many of you have really been washed.
Kendigo deeper.
Number 3 is a big one. Number 3 is a big one.
The 3rd indictment he brings up against the scene before us is no unsalted you.
And and that’s a funny thing because today, you would not salt a baby. Yeah.
But in the Bible days, you would salt a baby to heal the abrasions that were on the baby.
Now the baby has been delivered, but god is saying, I don’t question that you’ve been delivered, but are you healed?
I don’t question that you’ve been born again, but are you healed?
Oh, and the church I grew up in, they were adamant and biblically and rightfully so that you do not marry unbelievers.
They were adamant about it. It was totally taboo.
It was just it was just unthinkable that you would marry an unbeliever.
The whole church would just sit you down. They would sit you down. You couldn’t sing You couldn’t usher.
The deacons couldn’t deak if you married somebody. You know, whatever.
Uh, if you married an unbeliever, but what they didn’t tell us is that some unbelievers are in charge.
They’re just because you go to church and just because you’re speaking tons and just because you can quote, scriptures doesn’t mean that you are healed.
I don’t want to pastor a gang.
I wanna pastor a church.
And in order to pastor a church, you gotta be healed. You gotta be salted.
Now the salt alone doesn’t do the healing. It promotes the healing process. You understand?
So you can consult the baby in all the abrasions immediately disappear, but it sets in motion a healing process.
Be honest with me, how many of you feel like that a healing process has been
set in motion in your life?
That’s salt. That’s salt.
Is it possible that those of us that are in processes of healing do not extend the same grace to other people to be in processes of healing.
I want you to make it your objective this week to be salted somebody’s life.
to to be salt in somebody’s life is to help them to heal.
I want you to be salt in some coworker’s life.
Some relatives like. some students’ life, some neighbor’s life. I want you to be salt.
I want you to be salt in your marriage. You know what she came through.
You know why she flares up like that. It’s gonna flaring up with her.
Be so. They threw the baby.
into an open field.
You left me uncovered and threw me out there to the wolves.
And now you’re talking about me because they bit me.
Bait bit me, but you threw me.
Anytime you leave me uncovered. you threw me
out into the open field.
I wanna talk to some open field people
who got thrown out into stuff.
found yourself with wolves, snakes.
Alliance
and tigers.
When you say you threw me away, though, you didn’t throw me away.
You threw me too. your away sent me to.
an open field.
Could god a man. No wonder we’re stressed out.
No man swaddled you. No man salted you. No man coverage you.
No man cut you. And when they finally did make contact with you, it was to throw you to an open field.
Have you ever been thrown? Have you ever been divorced?
Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever been thrown?
Have you ever been thrown into a strange, foreign, dangerous, vulnerable, situation.
It’s one of
the reasons we’re in church this morning.
One of the reason we’re in churches wanting us to get some cover and get some guidance and get some direction and get some help and get some healing.
because it’s hard on the baby in an open field.
It’s hard.
when you don’t abuse me, but you neglect me.
And that neglect is abuse.
And then the Bible goes real therapeutic and shows you what all of this does.
And I’m gonna show you what it does and I’ll be done.
It says when they got through not salting, not cutting, not washing, not covering, not pitting you.
It led to self loathing.
to the low date of that person.
God, that’s so heavy. To the loving, of that person.
How in the world can I convince you?
to love me when inside, uh, loathe me.
Yes, Lord.
And I wish I would not be.
That’s what that means to the loading of that person. Right.
I wish I wasn’t me.
If I open up this altar right now to people who load themselves and load their mistakes and load their memories and load what happened to them and load their abortions and load what they did and loathe who hurt them and loathe who they hurt.
That’s what this text means.
It’s my job to explain the text.
To the loading of that person is a really big thing when you don’t like you, and you can’t forgive you, and you won’t have mercy on you and you’re angry with yourself.
Yeah. Yeah. And that anger turns inside into depression. Oh, thank you.
And you’re depressed and nothing seems to lift you out of it. You know, why you load yourself?
And you won’t let anybody close because how could you love me?
And you’re only attracted to people who are mean because they are reflection of how you think about yourself.
Cause if anybody comes along and they’re too nice, you run them away.
You run them away because you disagree with them because you don’t think you’re worthy of love, and you won’t receive the best of life because you don’t really think you deserve the best of life so you play the role and get the reward that you have prescripted in your mind that you deserve to the loathing.
Oh, that person how could a relationship work? Ain’t no way for it to work.
How could you have somebody that love you? When you don’t love you?
That’s what the text means.
To the loading you were out in the open field to the loathing of thy person.
Oh, yes, you love Teethaw.
So, you do good at loving Jesus.
That ain’t the problem. not talking about loving Jesus. It’s even a love Jesus.
Yes, you love Jesus, but how about oh, how I love you?
To the Logan.
I’ve I’ve I’ve found my enemy, and it’s me.
I found my enemy. It took me a while.
It took me years to find him. I found him.
I looked in the mirror one day, and I saw him face to face. I looked in
head on. So you’re the one who’ve been making all of dumb decisions and messing up things and going in all and crazy to raise it.
So you’re the one who keep playing the fool and sabotaging yourself.
So you the terrorists who strap bombs around yourself and blew up that opportunity. You blew that up yourself.
because you don’t think you deserve no better. Do you?
So you keep sinking back into what you think you deserve.
to the loading of that person.
But I will not
Uh, will not.
I will not die here.
When you’ve lived long enough, it becomes pretty clear that life is not a playground, but a battleground.
when you’ve lived long enough, you’ve come to realize that life is not always easy.
And while we cherish those times of fun and frivolity and play and excitement, we dread those times of pain and anguish and struggle.
Someone had said that life can be described as being bittersweet.
It has those sweet moments that we cherish and embrace and those bitter moments that bring us to tears hurt and pain.
Paul is writing.
And he concludes his treaties to the church at Ephasis to talk to them about the battleground of life.
We call it spiritual warfare. but he’s not just talking about any kind of battle.
He describes this one specifically by calling it the evil day. the evil day.
The evil day is when all hell breaks loose on you.
the evil days when you are overwhelmed. Yes.
Life has its normal ups and downs, but that’s not what he’s talking about here.
He’s talking about when you are under major attack, when your world is being shattered, your dreams are being destroyed.
Your hopes are being dimmed.
And where you look out and all you see is the light of an oncoming train.
He calls that the evil day, the day when hell is after you.
and your name has come up.
He says, when that day comes, when that period of time, when your under major assault comes, he says, I want you to understand how to how to approach this.
because he says on that day, you’re going to need the strength of the lord, verse 10.
Normal stuff is not gonna work. and play in church show nothing on work.
He says on that day, you’re going to need the supernatural And so he goes into these verses leading up to the subject of prayer to tell us how to approach this time in your life in my life.
Now, I want to make sure that I’m not wasting my time on this sermon.
So as anybody here know what I’m talking about, when I talk about an evil day, Me will day when you’re under massive spiritual assault.
Well, let me remind you that everything visible and physical is preceded by that which is invisible and spiritual Everything visible and physical is preceded by that, which is invisible and spiritual.
So Paul wants you to know if you want to address in the time of your attack, the visible and physical you need to do it from the perspective of the invisible and spiritual.
He gives you the term that he uses throughout the book of Ephesians of heavenly places.
Heavenly places means the spiritual realm.
salt when your life is being shattered.
You’re trying to be in the will of god. You’re trying to walk with god. but you’re being attacked.
Your well-being is being attacked. Your dreams are being attacked. Your health is being attacked. Your stability is being attacked.
your resources are being attacked. Your future is being attacked. You are just under assault.
He says during those times, you have to view things from the location of heavenly places.
Or the spiritual realm, if you’re going to be strong, to walk through, work through the times of those attacks.
And he wants to set the plan in place for how you’re gonna make it through the evil day.
For those who raised your hand, because you’ve been in or are in the evil day, this will matter to you.
For those of you who’ve not yet been to the evil day, Keep living. It’s coming.
When you’re under assault and your stability, your world, is being shaken.
He says, during those times, three times, he says, I want you to stand firm stand firm, stand firm.
Don’t quit. Don’t quit. Don’t quit.
because the temptation is easily to throw in the towel when your world is collapsing right in front of your rise.
He says, the first thing I want you to understand is that you wrestle not against flesh and blood.
In other words, people aren’t the source of your problem.
They need they may be the conduit for your problem.
but they’re not the source of your problem.
For we, Christians wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and world forces that are located in heavenly places or the spiritual realm.
when you are under the fire of a profession, when you’re under the fire of the evil one, when you’re under fire of demonic attack, when you’re under the fire of suffering, he says, you take your stand on the ground where Jesus Christ has already been burnt for you.
where Jesus Christ has already suffered for you. You grab ahold of the strength that the lord has to offer.
You do not run away from god when you are in the evil day.
You have to run to god.
when you’re in the midst of the evil day because you’re now engaged in spiritual warfare.
And your world is being attacked. in whatever way it’s being attacked. That’s not the time to run from him.
It’s the time to run to him. It’s not the time to invade him. It’s the time to embrace him.
He says, stand firm. Hold on to your faith in the strength of our lord Jesus Christ in the midst of the suffering, the pain, and in the midst of the struggle.
He then tells you how to dress for spiritual success He gives you the armor of god.
He tells you I want you to get dressed for the batter.
Now when you’re in a war and when you’re in a parade, a military parade, they show the weapons.
When you’re in a war, you use the weapons.
because in the evil day, this does not show time at the Apollo.
This is time when you gotta get dressed. He says, you gotta put on truth.
put on righteousness, put on peace. He goes on, he says, you gotta put on faith.
He says, you gotta put on the helmet of salvation, Then he said, you gotta use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god.
He gives these 6 pieces of spiritual arsenal or spiritual armor that the believer is to utilize when it comes to taking a stand in the evil day, or when you’re under spiritual attack and spiritual oppression that’s affecting your physical financial, circumstantial, emotional, family well-being.
Take your stand harder than you’ve ever taken it before, but put on this armor.
But now you may not remember all the pieces of the armor. So let’s make it easy.
because Romans chapter 13 verse 14 says, put on Christ.
If you can’t remember all the pieces, Remember this one. Put on Christ. Why?
Because he says, I want you to be put on truth.
Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the light. He says, I want you to put on righteousness.
Scriptor says, Christ is our righteousness. He says, put on peace.
Jesus said, in this world, you will have tribulation, but I give you my peace.
He says, put on the helmet of Salvation. Scripture is clear. Jesus is the author and finisher.
of our salvation. And then he says, put on the word of god. Use the sword of the spirit.
John
11
says in the beginning was the word. The word was with god. The word was god.
Verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus says he is the word.
So if you don’t remember truth, remember Jesus.
If you don’t remember right, does this remember Jesus, If you don’t remember peace, remember Jesus.
If you don’t remember faith, remember Jesus, if you don’t remember the helmet of salvation, remember Jesus, If you don’t remember the Bible, remember Jesus because Jesus is the full armor of god.
You put on Christ. You become centered in him. This is not belief in god.
This is centered in god’s son, who is the revelation of god, the manifestation of god, who is the power of god to manifest himself, particularly in the evil date.
Now you wanna do it all the time, but you better do it in the evil day when the doctors don’t have answers.
when the bankers don’t have answers, when your friends don’t have answers, and show enough when you don’t have answers, you need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ and all the tools that he offers you.
But he says, you gotta put him on. The question is, how do you put him on? Yeah.
That’s where verse 18 comes in. Let me read it again. He says in verse
18,
with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit.
And would this of you be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition for all the saints?
the way you put on Christ that is practically utilize him to equip you to move through the battle you face is with prayer.
Now prayer is relational communication with god.
A lot of people wanna pray when they’re in spiritual warfare, who have not prayed till they got the spiritual warfare.
In other words, they don’t know how to stand strong in the lord because they haven’t been standing with the lord.
But now that they’re in an emergency, they need the lord.
He’s talking about staying in touch with him all day.
That’s why first thessalonians 517 says pray without ceasing. In other words, stay in touch with me.
Now let me explain why this is so important. The evil day is principalities, powers, and world forces.
This means you are under attack.
This means that this attack is coming from the devil and demons.
It is unfortunate that far too many Christians have lost sight of demons.
Demons are angels that went rogue.
demons are the spiritual mafia that attacks us in the spiritual that brings about our pain and the physical.
and the Bible has an answer to demons. The answer to demons are angels.
So here’s how this works.
The Bible declares every Christian has been assigned an angel, and the job of the angel is to look at the well-being of the believer.
So every Christian has an angel that is assigned to you by god.
One of the jobs of your angel is to throw out the demonic attack that is coming against you because angels know how to fight angels.
And so when the demonic angel comes to bring pain and anguish and defeat in your world and in your life, you have an angel.
The Bible says, when we pray, We engage god the Holy Spirit.
Uh, talk about him in a moment who was who activates the angel assigned to you to deal with the demonic oppression that is coming against you.
So he says, with all parents, But he tells you something else, and it’s the key.
He says, pray in the spirit. Verse 18.
don’t just pray, meaning don’t just have conversation, but he says, I want you to pray in the spirit.
Uh, questions. What does that mean?
The Bible talks about the role of the spirit.
is to deliver verse
910.
But just as it is written, things which I have not seen, and ear is not heard, and which has not been entered into the heart of man, all that god has prepared for those who love him.
for to us god revealed them. He’s not in my heaven. He’s on my earth.
To us god revealed them through the spirit.
for the spirit searches all things, even the depths of god.
See, when you in the evil day, that means folk can’t help you.
When you and the evil day, they have limitations that they can do for you.
And you need something that I have not seen. Ear has not heard, and the imagination is not conceived of.
you need the supernatural to enter into the natural.
Now being in the spirit is opposed in scripture to being in the flesh.
To be in the spirit, let me start with, the part is simple in.
He wants you to be in the spirit.
So he does not want you visiting and exiting.
He wants you operating in the realm of the spirit.
What is the realm of the spirit? The realm of the spirit is a spiritual mindset.
In Romans chapter 8 verses 1 to 13, he gives this extended discussion about the spirit and he says, when you have the spirit, you have the mind of the spirit.
So this has to do with how you’re thinking. The mind is your thought.
He wants you to think spiritually, not secularly. He wants you to think biblically, not worldly.
He wants you to think the mind of Christ, not the mind of man.
So I want to show you, again, Galatians
5.
Galatians 5 says this about the spirit.
Verse 16, but I say walk by the spirit.
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh for the flesh sets its desire against the spirit.
and the spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please.
He says there is a battle, and it’s a battle between the spirit and the flesh.
Let me define the flesh. The flesh is the desire to please self independently of god.
the flesh is the desire to please yourself as opposed to pleasing god.
We all battle with the flesh. walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desire.
Please don’t misread that. He didn’t say you won’t have the desire.
because the flesh wants what it wants.
So you won’t have the desire, but the spirit will override it. Don’t read the verse in reverse.
don’t read to get rid of the desire of the flesh, walk in the spirit. That’s backwards.
Walk in the spirit, and it will overrule the desire of the flesh. It will overrule it.
The capacity to do what you need to do or what God wants done will be activated in your experience as you walk in the spirit.
Now many times, people will say, I’m praying, but nothing is happening. Well, let me explain.
But if we as humans went into the water and tried to breathe and started to inhale or inhale and exhale, you’re doing the right thing, but you’re doing it in the wrong environment.
Many Christians pray. They’re doing the right thing, but they’re doing it in the flesh.
that doing it in the wrong environment.
And if you’re doing the right thing in the wrong environment, the right thing won’t work.
So just because you say your prayers in the morning, say grace at dinner and say your bedtime prayer, that’s the right thing.
but the question is, have you been walking in the right environment?
Because if you’re not walking in the right environment, doing the right thing won’t work.
And in fact, it can help kill you quicker. So he says, all, all, all, all.
I want you to be consumed with being in my presence walking in the flesh, he says, we’ll put you in a spiritual graveyard.
But walking by the spirit will put you And here’s how you know, because you’re no longer having to force things.