Don’t Settle for Safe – Rise Up in 2023

Sarah Jakes Roberts speaks at She Rises 2017 on TBN’s Praise. Listen as Sarah Jakes Roberts empowers you to overcome your insecurities by stepping out in faith and into who God has called you to be. Use your sword of faith to claim your identity in Christ!

Some of you are going to have to go back to your homes and reintroduce yourself.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Leah going to an appointed vessel of God.
Allow me to reintroduce myself. I’ve been changed and transformed and set free. Allow me to reintroduce myself.
I’m not the woman.
You used to know I’m a woman who knows how to rise and I’ve been denying it for long enough.
Luke eight and 43 is my text. I wanna talk about the woman with the issue of blood.
It’s not an unfamiliar story for those of us who have been in church.
But I think that I gleaned something from this text that is gonna bless you.
And the text begins, it says now a woman having a flow of blood for 12 years who had spent all of her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any came from behind and touched the border of his garment and immediately her flow of blood stopped.
And Jesus said, who touched me when all denied it?
Peter and those with him said, master, the multitudes throng and press you when you say who touched me.
But Jesus said, somebody touched me for I perceived power going out from me.
Now, when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, she declared to him in the presence of all the people, the reason she had touched him and how she was healed immediately.
And he said to her daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well, go in peace.
If I may take a topic for today, it would be superpower, spirit of the living God.
We welcome your presence into this room.
We offer our hearts, our minds, everything that is in us up for consideration to your anointing because we, we know that it is under your anointing that yokes are broken.
That generational curses must flee, that we step into who you’ve called us to be.
The reality is that you’ve already predestined this moment in heaven.
So we ask that you would bring us on earth into reality of what already exists in heaven, that you would do that thing that you do when you breathe into a room and lives are changed and transformed and the broken hearted are healed and, and you proclaim liberty to the captives God.
We’re just asking that you would show us who you are in our lives and who we need to be to access your glory in Jesus name.
Amen. So when I was growing up, we used to play this game I’m sure you guys are familiar with it where we’d ask like our friends or our cousins on sleepovers, like if you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be?
And like if you live in L A, it would probably be to fly, right?
Cause you cause traffic is just listen, I’m, I’m L A flare but I’ve got like Texas roots and come on somebody.
It’s just a Texas thing. The great state of Texas.
I see you over there no shade to your states or city.
We respect them and love them in the name of Jesus Christ, something about Texas.
And then OK, so we would ask these questions and, and I didn’t realize until I moved to L A just how challenging traffic is like seriously if we could fly from one place to the other, it would be awesome because Los Angeles traffic is just so unpredictable and I have such a, a love, a love hate relationship with it.
So I think that if I were asked that question now that I would wanna be able to fly, but then I had to really assess because, you know, when you were younger, you had to really determine why you wanted that certain superpower.
And so I, I was thinking that maybe as a mother and a wife that I would change the superpower from flying to like the ability to put everyone to sleep, like just at home, you know, like mom.
What’s for dinner? Good night. Yes. Wouldn’t that be awesome?
Just if I could freeze everyone for just a minute while I, like, took a bath and watch scandal.
I mean, not watch scandal. I mean, pray over scandal because I know everyone is, everyone’s so saved in this room that they don’t watch scandal.
We just pray over scandal. God bless flit fits and Olivia and may they just know your glory.
Yes. I’m gonna keep watching to see if your glory is manifest in the last season because you’re a season seven kind of God.
And I just believe, you know, ok, wait, I have it.
Ok, wait, wait, a different superpower. This one is for real.
I wanna be able to eat whatever I want, whatever, I mean, whatever.
Pastor Holly, whatever I want and, and just have lean muscle instead of like, whatever this, it’s not muscle.
And so like, would I want everyone to go to sleep or would I want lean muscle?
My husband and I were on a fast. Right.
Well, he said that he was gonna start it fast and I was like, oh, and he goes, you know, what should I give up?
I wanna give up sweets. And I was like, that’s a good idea. Yes.
Give up sweets because, you know, I’m supporting him in the fast and, and then he, and then I was like, oh, you should give up carbs too.
And he was like, Yes. Yes. And then he asked me that question.
Are you gonna do it with me?
And, and I couldn’t find a scripture that didn’t support me, not doing it with him.
So I’m about eight days off of carbs and sugar.
And let me tell you there’s nothing but the glory standing here because my attitude, carbs make me happy.
They’re carbs are anointed. What God has sent them to proclaim liberty to the captives. Yes.
Carbs will heal the broken hearted. Have you ever had a cookie after a heartbreak? What?
I’m not even sad no more.
Yes, there’s something about carbs and, and sugar just not splendor.
I mean like real, the refined the one with all the articles about it.
You know what I read articles about carbs and I say I bind that spirit.
No, you have no space here. I love it. Ok?
So actually think I got a superpower when I was younger.
I was probably 14 years old when I tapped into this superpower and it was being invisible.
There was this way that I would carry myself when I would walk into rooms where I could just fade into the background and no one had to know I was there.
I learned to be invisible and there was some comfort in being invisible because when you have shame down on the inside of you, when anyone looks at you, it’s like they can see all of your secrets like they can see all of your fears and, and I just wanted to be invisible.
I got pregnant at 13 years old T D.
Jake’s daughter pregnant at 13, had my baby at 14 years old and all I wanted to do was be invisible.
I didn’t want anyone to see how badly I was hurting and breaking on the inside.
I didn’t want anyone to know that I was so unsure of myself and unsure of being a parent at such a young, young age.
I just wanted to be invisible.
And then as I grew older and met with other people all around the world, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who had learned to be invisible.
Sometimes being a woman is like living in an aquarium.
It’s like you can be seen but not touched. Things just magically happen in our world.
The laundry is magically done. The project is magically completed. Everyone sees us working.
But how often are we actually touched down on the inside and the core of our pain and our heartbreak because the reality is that when we have these traumatic traumatic experiences that often we get so caught up surviving and just trying to pretend like we’re OK that we never actually recover in my book.
Don’t settle for safe. I, I compare it to breaking a leg and instead of learning how to have a cast on it and walk again, we learn how to walk with a limp that’s what happened to me when I became invisible.
At 14, I learned how to walk with a lip. I learned to not talk about it.
I learned to pretend like it never happened. I learned to survive, but I never ever learned to recover.
You know, what’s worse than being invisible in your world is when you are invisible to yourself, when you no longer tap into that pain and that disappointment and that heartbreak because it just hurts too bad to face the rejection of our past.
It hurts too bad to, to think about how our fathers weren’t there or our parents didn’t have the perfect marriage or I got pregnant at 14 or somebody touched me.
Somebody broke me. I can’t bear to look at that person anymore.
So I’ve learned to be invisible even to myself.
There is a, a superhero by Marvel comics and she is the invisible woman and she got how her powers after she was exposed to a cosmic storm.
Sometimes the storms in our life produce this invisibility, these walls that exist around our hearts and exist in, around our marriages and exist in the workplace and exist within our family.
All of these invisible, invisible secrets, pregnant at 14 and all I wanted to do was disappear.
What I love so much about this text in Luke 8 43 is that we have a woman who has learned to be invisible.
She’s had a flow of blood for 12 years and that time when a woman was having her, her menstrual cycle, she was untouchable.
But this cycle it lasted much longer than it was supposed to. Have.
You ever had something hurt much longer than it was supposed to.
And it seems like everyone else got over it and everyone else moved on and everyone else is ok.
But down on the inside of me, I’ve got these issues.
I got pregnant at 14 and, and I should have been ok, maybe a few months after, maybe a year after.
But for some reason I had these issues down on the inside of me that no one could see and no one could touch.
I had these issues, these, these issues and I would come into rooms like this and I would smile and I would lift my hands.
But I had learned to ignore the issues when we find this woman in the text, Luke eight and 43.
It tells us that the woman had this flow of blood for 12 years and she had spent all of her livelihood on physicians.
And I know all about those physicians.
Have you ever invested your livelihood into someone who was supposed to fix you?
But for some reason they left you more empty than you were before.
You even met them friendships and relationships that you pour all of your hopes and all of your dreams and all of your faith into.
Because you think that once you receive the validation of their attention or the validation of their love that you’re gonna be much better afterwards.
But she spent all of her livelihood on the physicians, but she couldn’t get any better looking for love in all of the wrong places, looking for healing and all of the wrong places.
She just wanted to be made.
Well, the worst thing about being hurt is when you have good intentions going into it, you think that if I pour enough of myself into this situation, then maybe I will receive the desired outcome.
This woman, she was searching for a physician, but she could not be healed by any.
What I love about this woman was her commitment to coming out on the other side of her issues though.
She didn’t realize that she would have to go through a few physicians.
She’d have to go through a few disappointments. She’d have to go through a few heartbreaks.
Maybe that’s like someone in this room who’s been wondering why is it that the more I try, the more hurt I become maybe just maybe you’re on your route, the ultimate physician that maybe you had to get so desperate and so broken that you started searching for Jesus, that it wasn’t about boyfriends and friendships and degrees and bank accounts that all of a sudden you realize I’ve been searching for the wrong physician.
I thought I would find myself when I got my degree.
I thought I would be better once I got in a relationship, I thought I would be ok.
But I’ve been searching for all of the wrong physicians and this woman whom I just love so much she didn’t mind coming from behind.
The text literally tells us in verse 44 that the woman came from behind.
I don’t know your story and I don’t know what’s represented in this room.
But I know if you’re anything like me, maybe your issue was different, but some of us had had to come from behind.
We didn’t have the perfect life.
We didn’t have the perfect stories, but we had a determination where we didn’t mind coming from behind.
I just wanna thank God for a moment for the women who didn’t mind coming from behind.
I didn’t mind that I didn’t have all of the right friends that I didn’t have all of the right access.
I didn’t mind coming from behind because I believe that what God had for me was greater than any obstacle that was ahead of me.
So I didn’t mind coming from behind my life may not be picture perfect, but I don’t mind coming from behind, coming from behind.
That’s how I felt like I was coming from behind as a teenage mother.
Like I was coming from behind when I dropped out of college.
Like I was coming from behind like I was constantly coming from behind.
I take one step forward and two steps backwards. I keep coming from behind, coming from behind.
And there were moments where I even wanted to count myself out.
But for some reason I was able to pick up the pieces and try again and maybe I didn’t try in the right atmosphere, but I was willing to pick up the pieces from that broken heart and try again.
I just happen to believe that there are some women in this theater who did not mind picking up the pieces and registering for a conference and coming all the way to Hollywood California because I don’t mind coming from behind because I know what God has for me is for me.
And I don’t care how long this issue has had me.
I believe that in the name of Jesus, that chains can be broken off of my life and I’ve seen them do it and the lives of my friends and I’ve seen them do it for my mother and I’ve seen them do it for Pastor Holly.
I don’t mind coming from behind to get my blessing.
Sometimes the thing that keeps us from getting our blessing is that we’ve got too much pride to come from behind.
We learned to acquiesce in our lives and to say things like we don’t want it anymore because we’re too afraid to come from behind.
I’m too old to go back to school. I’ll never be able to write that book.
I think my time is over I think my opportunity for love has faded away.
I don’t wanna come from behind because I allowed all of the disappointments from the previous physicians to make me believe that I could be restored again.
But God told me to tell you that if you would get down in your spirit, that he came for the underdogs that he came for the people who didn’t mind coming from behind that he’s not looking for the person who came in first place that he’s the last place kind of God and that he came for those of us who felt like we’ve been invisible to the world.
How can he do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you think may ask or think if you’re thinking too low, you think that your healing will come with one degree or one relationship.
One thing that’ll be exceedingly and abundantly enough for me.
And God says what I have for you is so much greater than fixing that one little thing in your past that when I get finished with the women who registered for this conference that I’m gonna show them that they always had wings.
They just didn’t know how to spread them.
I’m gonna show them that they always had enough wind to carry them over obstacles.
They just didn’t believe that they could keep up.
I’m gonna show them who I’ve always called them to be this woman, this woman in the text.
She’s about to discover that she has wings, wings that no one else could see.
She was separated and isolated from the rest of the community that she was in.
But for some reason, she was still determined.
So this woman, she comes from behind and she touches the border of his garment and immediately she was healed.
I love that we serve an immediately kind of God that you can ask and receive immediately.
But this is where things got a little interesting for me because Jesus said, who touched me and everyone denied it, the woman who was in the crowd who touched him, denied touching him.
Have you ever had to deny being touched by Jesus?
You see the woman, she was ready to receive her touch and go back to being invisible.
Sometimes God speaks a word in our life.
But because we’re too afraid to actually live in that word, we go back to being who we used to be.
Not recognizing that the moment we receive that word, we became too big for where we used to be that the moment God placed the word down in our spirit, that our territory at large, that means everyone around us had to grow up or get out because what God was doing in our lives required a little bit more space.
And if you couldn’t grow with me, then you can’t go with me because I’m not gonna deny that I just touched the hymn of his garments.
I’m not gonna deny that. I think I deserve better than this.
I’m not gonna deny that I wanna go after it. I’m not gonna deny that I have wings any longer.
I’m not gonna deny it for you to be comfortable with your own mediocrity.
I have to step into who God has called me to be.
And I know maybe you known me as a teen mom, but God just called me in the ministry.
And so you’re gonna have to expand your definition of me to fit with who God has called me to be.
Some of you are gonna have to go back to your homes and reintroduce yourself. Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is the anointed and appointed vessel of God. Allow me to reintroduce myself.
I’ve been changed and transformed and set free. Allow me to reintroduce myself.
I’m not the woman.
You used to know I’m a woman who knows how to rise and I’ve been denying it for long enough, but it’s time for me to start walking in the fullness of who God has called me to be.
It’s time for me to start walking in the fullness of my calling and my destiny and to stop apologizing for wanting more than anyone else wanted.
For some reason, this woman, she stood out to Jesus, she was, he was in the crowd and there were so many people touching him.
But for some reason, the way she touched him like she needed something from him.
I think our worship is most beautiful when we’re broken because we need, we need something from them.
Don’t ever become so successful that you stop needing something from Jesus.
Don’t ever become so comfortable in your life that you stop needing something from him that I can’t do this thing without you.
That I’ve lost friendships and I’ve lost relationships and it’s just me and you and this thing I need you, I need you.
Somebody needs to reach up and start touching Jesus like they need him again.
That it’s not just this robotic function that we get into worship and start lifting our hands, but we need something from him.
And the woman and Jesus said, who touched me?
And everyone denied it because the woman was ready to be healed, but she wasn’t ready to walk just yet.
And Peter and those with him are like master the multitude.
There’s everyone around you when you ask who touched me?
And this is what I love and this is what I want you to get down in your spirit.
Because Jesus said, somebody touched me for our perceived power going out of me.
Power came out of me when someone touched me.
For some reason, a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years, she touches Jesus and power goes out of him.
I wonder how many people in this room have been exposed to a superpower but they haven’t quite realized yet that they’ve got access to strength that is beyond them.
So you’re worried and you’re stressed and you’re wondering how am I going to do this thing on my own?
And Jesus just wants to know who touched me because there’s something about identifying with the fact that you have called on a name that is greater than yours that should give you the kind of power that should make demons tremble.
When you walk into a room, that darkness should start backing up. When you walk into a room.
He wanted to know who touched me, who touched me because I perceived power and the woman, she recognized something in verse 47 it says the woman recognized that she was not hidden any longer.
This woman who had learned to be invisible for so long.
All of a sudden she was no longer hidden.
I think the the crux of this message for anyone who is like me and has been wondering how they are gonna go back into their homes with this new knowledge.
And this new revelation of not only who God is, but who they have the potential to become is to recognize that they are no longer invisible.
What I love about this text is though the woman was invisible to everyone else by all accounts because she was untouchable because she could not be hailed and touched and no one could sit after her.
She was untouchable in her community.
But you know what I love about her, that she was not invisible to herself.
She was aware enough to recognize that she had an issue that was too great for her and that she needed to call upon a name that could heal her immediately.
And I don’t know how many of you have been going throughout your world and going throughout your marriages and your workplaces and maybe you feel invisible to everyone else.
But I wanna challenge you before we leave this theater to start being visible to yourself again, to start being present in your life again, to start being so in touch with yourself that when your husband or your friends ask you how you’re doing, you say I’m not doing OK, but I’m gonna get there that you would start to stand in the truth of where you are and who you are and not pretend to be what everyone else needs, but instead be who you are so that the real transformation of God can begin to take place in your life because he cannot bless who we pretend to be his grace and anointing only meets us, right where we are.
And there was something about this woman where she did not mind recognizing that she had issues, not for the sake of just saying this is how I am and this is how I’m gonna be.
But she recognized that there was something working down on the inside of her that was also working against her 14 years old.
I got pregnant. I went through a series of what could only be called ratchet.
Just google. It. It’s a thing not excellent but God’s grace.
Amen. Toxic relationship after relationship, broken abuse physicians after physicians trying to become better.
But it wasn’t until I identified that there was something functioning down on the inside of me that was birthed in Brokenness and, and birthed in low self esteem and insecurities that I was able to really access who God has called me to be.
There are people in this room just a few 1000 maybe.
But I actually think that there are millions of people represented in this room because there is a destiny assigned to your life and that destiny may begin in your home.
It may be on platforms like this.
But what is most paramount for you to remember is that we cannot realize that destiny until we recognize that we must be visible to ourselves.
She rises not by her own strength, not because she did everything the right way now because she has this white picket fence and everything worked out the way that it was supposed to.
She rises because she didn’t mind coming from behind and touching the hymn of the master’s garment because she didn’t mind pulling power from the name of Jesus.
So before I get ready to close, allow me to speak power into your situation, allow me to speak Jesus down to your insecurities, allow me to speak Jesus down to those generational curses.
Allow me to speak Jesus down to the mom Jesus. Jesus.
I don’t know about you, but I come from the old school church where we start calling on the name of Jesus and things start to tremble and, and things start to shift and transform in our lives.
I speak Jesus into that marriage. I speak Jesus into your finances.
I speak Jesus over the lives of your Children. I speak Jesus. I speak Jesus. I speak supernatural power.
I speak overcoming power. I speak chains, breaking in the name of Jesus Jesus because I know this is a theater.
But if for a moment, we could turn it into a altar and we could start to recognize what happens when women come together and touch the hymn of his garment.
I know this is a theater and you didn’t come to have church.
I know we got all dressed up because we wanted to be friends.
But I dare you to start calling upon the name of Jesus. I dare you to start coming from behind.
I dare you to speak Jesus into that relationship.
Jesus Jesus Jesus, I can’t have these issues anymore.
Jesus Jesus Jesus, heal my marriage, Jesus Jesus Jesus, save my Children, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, heal my broken heart.
Jesus Jesus, save my country, Jesus Jesus, save my community, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Jesus Jesus.
I need you. Jesus. I can’t, I can’t do this thing without you.
Jesus Jesus, I need your anointing every day, Jesus.
I need your spirit to be on me. Jesus Jesus Jesus, teach me how to talk.
Teach me how to walk. Teach me how to be that woman. I never saw Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
Show me how to finish strong, show me how to finish strong. Jesus Jesus.
Jesus Jesus help me to forgive myself. Jesus helped me to forgive others. Jesus Jesus Jesus on my own.
I can’t do it. I tried, I went from physician to physician but Jesus Jesus, if you would join me, I need to pull power out of Jesus.
I need to pull power out of Jesus. My strength isn’t enough. Jesus Jesus, Jesus Jesus. I need you.
I need your arms around me. Transform my mind, make me different.
Break this thing off of me, pull this thing off of me.
Jesus Jesus Jesus give me strength, give me wisdom, Jesus, heal me, cure me.
Jesus, touch my family, Jesus, touch my Children. Jesus Jesus Jesus.
I wanna be a part of your kingdom, Jesus Jesus. I wanna feel like a princess Jesus Jesus.
Restore my innocence. Jesus Jesus give it back to me, Jesus. I haven’t been perfect.
I haven’t done everything the right way but Jesus Jesus, they tell me you make up the difference.
They tell me that your strength is made perfect in my weakness. Jesus here is my weakness.
I’m broken. I’m not perfect but you are.
And if I could partner with you, if I could just touch the hymn of your garment, if I could just come from behind Jesus, I just happen to believe that I could be made healed and not only would I be made whole, but Jesus, you would do it in such a way that everyone saw that I was healed.
It wouldn’t just be my secret anymore.
But you would say to the world who touched me and all of a sudden there would be a light on me and my family and you would be lifted up in such a way that people wanted to know how I got saved and how I did it.
And I would tell them it was Jesus, it was Jesus, it was Jesus.
It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me. I just got desperate enough that I couldn’t do it.
I meet you. I want every person standing up.
We’re gonna lift our issues to Jesus. We’re gonna lift our burdens to him.
We’re gonna cast our yokes on to Jesus.
We’re gonna live in the fullness of who he’s called us to be. We’re gonna be healed.
We’re gonna be hold, something’s gonna happen in this room that generations after generations after generations are gonna benefit from.
Something’s gonna happen in this room that changes the definition of womanhood in our society.
Something’s gonna happen in this room, but it can only happen for those who are desperate enough to say I can’t stay this way any longer.
I can’t stay this way any longer. Everyone else was crowding Jesus, but only one person pulled from him.
You can be in a room where Jesus is and never access the power that is available to you.
That won’t happen in this room because we came into this room hungry and desperate to touch the hem of his garment, Jesus Jesus, on behalf of every woman and every issue and every destiny and every calling represented in this room.
We invite you not into our highlight reel, not into the things that are going well, but we invite you into that issue that’s been flowing down on the inside of us.
That issue that has flowed into our marriages and, and maybe even flowed from our mother or flowed from our communities or flowed from, from church or whatever that issue is, God, we offer you that issue.