Your Past Does Not Define You!

Sarah Jakes Roberts brings a powerful message on seeing God’s promises in the midst of our struggles!

Heavenly Father I come before you in name of your son Jesus christ. Thank you for your waking me up this morning. I can see, talk and hear. Thank you for making a way, when it seem like their is no way. Have mercy upon me Lord, in Jesus name Amen. I believe and received!
———-

I feel like it’s about time for the enemy to start understanding that that enmity is a two way street that you’re not just gonna keep attacking me and you’re not just gonna keep depressing me and you’re not just gonna keep oppressing me that I don’t care how I have to do it or who I must become or what I have to go through to make it to the other side.
There’s gonna come a point in time where you are opposing me, not because of what I went through, but because of what is still yet to come out of me.
So my text begins, it says so he, he this, he is Jesus and Simeon.
So Jesus is just born to the virgin Mary and she is following the customs and rituals of that time.
And she is presenting him in Jerusalem, they make it to Jerusalem and they are presenting him to Simeon.
And so he that he is Simian came by the spirit into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him, according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.
For my eyes, have seen your salvation which you have prepared before me, for which you have prepared before the face of all people.
A light to bring revelation to the gentiles and the glory of your people.
Israel and Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
Then Simeon blessed them and said to marry his mother. Behold.
This child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against.
Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul. Also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
God, I wanna thank you for opportunities like this opportunities to be in your presence and amongst your people.
And so father, you and I have spent time communicating and me receiving your perspective on the women in this room.
My prayer God is that you would flow through me that there would be nothing that stands in your way, no nerves, no fear, no anxiety, just your strength, your power, your rich revelation about women in this season and generation that it would flow and that it would break chains in this room that it would give new identity in this room, that it would give us power.
Like never before Lord let your glory fall. Us only it can do that.
Our lives may be radically changed in Jesus name. Amen had to pray to get the jitters off.
So I am part of the reason why this is gonna be a little awkward is because of all of my father’s Children.
I was the least likely to be in ministry.
And um because I thought the Bible was boring, which told me I was boring.
It wasn’t the Bible, it’s me, it’s fine.
Um But part of my mission in life is to make it less boring for people.
And so I like to share ministry in a way that is relatable.
Part of what I think God wants me to do.
I’m just waiting for confirmation is to create an Ebonics version of the Bible.
I don’t have a release yet, but I feel like it’s gonna happen before it’s all said and done in this Ebonics version of the Bible.
I would just like jump right into the story, you know, so like Genesis would just begin with Eve just going and telling us how she messed it all up for everybody, but it’s Ebonics.
So she’s got to say it in a way that we can understand.
She would be like in the West Garden of Eden.
I was born, it put out and raised by the euphrates is where I spent most of my days chilling out.
Maxing and relaxing. All cool tail, creeping little serpent came up and messed up.
My groove is gonna be amazing.
It’s gonna take off, you guys should preorder it on Amazon right now. Sell like hot cakes.
Um The only thing that I haven’t quite figured out for my Ebonics version of Eve’s story in the Bible is how I’m going to explain the beef that took place between her and the serpent.
Because in the Ebonics version, I wanna say that her and the serpent had beef, you know, um for those of you unfamiliar with beef, actually not talking about filet.
I am talking about a word that we use in some circles and culture that explains when you have a disagreement of sorts with someone.
Yeah, I would say that they had beef but I love the way the King James version puts it.
It says that they have enmity. Enmity is such incredible word.
I looked up the definition because I wanted to share it with you.
Enmity means the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something in Genesis three and 15.
God says to the serpent, I’m gonna put enmity between you and the woman and that her seed will bruise your head but your seed will bruise her.
Heal that word. Enmity. I love that word. Enmity. I’m gonna read it one more time.
It says the state or feeling of being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.
And I don’t know about you.
But there are moments for me when I feel that enmity, I feel that opposition from the enemy.
I feel that hostility from the enemy.
It’s like I take two steps forward and sometimes he takes me 10 steps backwards.
It feels like every time I start pursuing that vision and that identity that God has for me, that he in someone who reminds me of who I used to be or the shame from who I was creeps up behind me.
I feel that hostility every time I start pressing towards the mark.
And so that enmity is such a powerful word that I don’t think that I could replace it with anything else.
But what I love is that God didn’t just say that I’m going to put the enmity against the woman from the serpent.
He says that this enmity is gonna be a two way street that the woman is not just going to feel opposed by the serpent, but that the woman is going to represent opposition for the serpent as well.
Somebody understands that what I’m saying is that when a woman steps into her purpose and when a woman steps into who she is in God, that the enemy may have some opposition, but she is opposition for the enemy too.
That means that when you register for propel and you made arrangements for the kids and you decided that you were gonna be in here by any means necessary.
I’m gonna stand in line at seven AM not because I don’t have anything else to do, but because I am opposition for the enemy and there’s a word waiting somewhere with my name on it.
I am the enemy’s opposition. I know it doesn’t look like it because of all I went through but I’m just dusting off the what the dirt from what I went through so that I can become the enemy’s opposition.
I’m not in here to be cute. I’m not in here to play games.
I’m in here because I’m opposition against the enemy. He’s claimed too many of my women. He’s claimed my mother.
He claimed my sister, but he can’t have me. I’m opposition. I’m your worst nightmare.
I’m gonna need a little more heat in the microphone because I need somebody to know that they are the enemy’s worst nightmare when you woke up this morning and you dressed yourself to come into this room.
That demon started trembling because I didn’t want you to get a revelation about who you are.
But I came to set somebody free in this place.
You are his greatest threat.
A woman who knows who she is and God is the enemy’s greatest threat.
I know that I went through some things that may have bruised my heel, but you still better be afraid of me.
It wouldn’t have looked like it when I was 13 years old and pregnant, but I was the enemy’s greatest threat.
It wouldn’t have looked like it when you were going through divorce, but you were the enemy’s greatest threat.
It wouldn’t have looked like it when you were struggling with that addiction, but you were the enemy’s greatest threat.
You are his opposition.
And that is why there will always be war over what a woman can put in the earth because a woman knows how to take a seed and turn it into a person.
She knows how to take a seed and turn it into a nonprofit.
She knows how to take a seed and turn it into a business.
It wouldn’t even make sense if you saw the seed.
If you saw what some of these women had gone through, if you would have seen the seed that started Christine Cain, you would have never believed that it would turn into propel.
But she’s a woman who recognize that I am the enemy’s greatest threat and I don’t know about you, but I feel like it’s about time for the enemy to start understanding that that enmity is a two way street that you’re not just gonna keep attacking me and you’re not just gonna keep depressing me and you’re not just gonna keep oppressing me that I don’t care how I have to do it or who I must become or what I have to go through to make it to the other side.
There’s gonna come a point in time where you are opposing me, not because of what I went through, but because of what is still yet to come out of me still something that must come out of here.
And I asked myself, I said, God, why is it that the enmity couldn’t be between the serpent and the man?
Why did it have to be the woman?
This notion that we are the weaker vessels, then why not put the stronger vessel up for the fight?
But when I study my word and I look at the character of God and I believe wholeheartedly that he makes no mistakes.
It means that when he put enmity between the woman and the serpent, the woman and the enemy, that it wasn’t just a fair fight, that it was a fixed fight that he didn’t put us into this position because he thought that a loss was even possible that he put us in the position because he knew the win would be guaranteed.
That means that not only is it fair, which means that if you roll up your sleeves and you be who God has called you to be and you start trusting what he says about who you are and what you can do in the earth that the fight is gonna turn in your favor.
I hear God telling somebody you’re the woman for the job. I know what the doctor said about the cancer.
But I hear God saying you’re the woman for the job that I put you in a fight that was already fixed, that I put you in a fight that you were bound to win.
I know the child is acting crazy. I know they’re cutting up on the job.
But you want a woman for the job.
If you don’t hear anything else, I say in this place, I want you to know that there is nothing that is happening in your life that is designed to take you out.
That thing is designed to be the best version of you.
My girl, my sister, you are the woman for the job.
When the enemy tried to make me feel nervous, I told the enemy you can’t have my mind today because I’m the woman for the job.
I’m gonna do flat footed what God has called me to do because I’m the woman.
I’m the woman for the job. I’m the woman for the job.
Somebody’s gotta start prophesying over that situation that’s trying to tell you you’re not gonna make it, honey.
I’m the woman for the job. I’m gonna raise that child anyway. I’m gonna start that business anyway.
I don’t care what the bank said. I don’t need a bank. My God shall provide all of my needs.
I’m the woman for the job, baby.
I’m the only one who can do what I do the way that I do it.
And you, you’re the woman for the job.
You’re the woman for the job.
I wanna rebuke depression trying to make you believe that you’re not the woman for the job.
I wanna rebuke suicide trying to make you believe that we would be better without you. I bind you, Satan.
You have no power here. And when you attack my sister, you attack me. I’m the woman for the job.
I know how to warfare for the woman who can’t war for herself.
I’m the woman for the job.
So when we talk about positioning and the way that life has the tendency of putting us in positions that we don’t always feel qualified for.
I can’t help but think about Mary and how God saw that she was the woman for the job.
Even though Mary initially didn’t believe that she was the woman for the job, man, I can relate to that.
Someone says pastor, I wanna believe that I’m the woman for the job.
But if I’m honest, I don’t feel qualified, I’m in position, but I don’t feel qualified for the position I’m in and the position is trying to make me believe that I don’t have what it takes to make it to the other side.
And for a moment, I want to glean some wisdom from Mary that I hope can help you in the position that God has placed you in.
Because if we remember, God doesn’t make mistakes and if He called you into that position, no matter how overwhelming the position is, it’s because He believes that you are the woman for the job.
And so our task then becomes to ask God what is it that you know about me that would have you place me in this position.
Because if you place me in this position, then you know something about me that I don’t know yet.
And sometimes our greatest prayer should be God.
Would you open up my eyes so that I can see who I am supposed to be in your kingdom, that I would not compare myself to everything that came before me or the things coming up behind me.
But that I would trust that you placed me in this position because no one else could do it like me.
But me, Mary teaches us that the most powerful thing that any of us can do when we have this feeling is to go anyway.
Yeah. So Mary doesn’t feel qualified but she goes anyway.
She goes not knowing how she’s supposed to take this baby and turn it into a king.
When the angel of the Lord appears to marry, he tells Mary everything that that child is going to be, but she doesn’t receive the promise in the form that God said that it was gonna end up in God.
Help me to say it. There are moments when we receive something from God that doesn’t look like where it’s gonna end.
Oh, I feel like that’s a word for somebody that you’re looking at the baby wondering how the baby is gonna become king.
You’re looking at the small thing trying to figure out How is that ever gonna become the big thing?
God? You told me that I would be the one that would break the generational curse.
But right now I look like every other generation that came before me.
How am I gonna take this small thing and turn it into a big thing?
God, you told me that you would bless my business, but I can’t even get the financing I need.
God says I didn’t give it to you in the form that it is gonna end up and I gave it to you in the form that would grow you up and to the person who could raise it into everything that it could be.
I feel like somebody’s gotta get that down in your spirit.
Do not despise the days of small beginnings that it started off small so that you could grow with it because when you grow with it, it grows you up.
When you grow with it, it grows you up.
And so Mary teaches us the power of, of going anyway.
She questions her ability initially, but ultimately, she chooses to trust God’s plan for her life.
Mary chose to just go anywhere. Sometimes you have to just go anywhere.
God gives you what you need as you go.
And sometimes we want all of the answers and God, I wanna know how you’re gonna do it.
I’m not saying I won’t go. I’m just saying, can you tell me exactly how it’s gonna happen.
And God says, I’ll tell you how it’s gonna happen when you start moving.
You see, because God is looking for someone who he can order steps along the way.
I feel like there’s someone in this room that if God gave you all of the steps right now that you would feel more in control than you actually are when you go anyway, it is assigned to God that I don’t have to have all of the answers.
I just wanna be where you tell me. I am supposed to be God.
I don’t know how you’re gonna do it in my marriage.
I don’t know how you’re gonna do it in my family. But I am gonna go anyway.
And when I go, you meet me where you told me you were going to meet me.
When you go, God meets you. He’s calling you to where he is.
That’s why we have to go because God calls you to where he is.
And when we move in that direction, it is assigned to him that we can be trusted because there are moments when God orders our steps, but we gotta take them first.
I gotta forgive. I gotta go anyway, I wanna stay stuck in this bitterness.
I wanna stay stuck in this pain, but I can’t stay here.
So I gotta go anyway and Mary starts going anyway.
And so some of you are wondering, ok, I’ll go anyway.
I’ll do what God told me to do, I don’t know how he’s gonna do it.
I don’t have all of the resources that I need in order to do it. But I wanna go anyway.
And so Mary teaches us a valuable lesson and if you’re taking notes, I want you to write this down because what Mary teaches us in those moments where we have to go anyway is that the power in going starts with you using what you know, Mary begins to just follow the customs of the Jewish people.
At that time, God gave her something that is going to ultimately deliver Israel.
But right now she doesn’t know how it’s going to become a deliverer.
And so because she doesn’t know how she’s gonna get from A to Z, she just starts working what she knows.
She knows that when I have a baby that I need to wait until my time of purification is over.
And after that, I need to go into Jerusalem and I need to present the baby.
She works what she knows while she goes.
The most powerful thing that any of us can do is activate what we know because when we activate what we know, it gives God permission to show us more and to teach us more.
Imagine had even been in the garden and she simply activated what she knew.
There are things that we know about our lives that we haven’t activated yet because we don’t know what’s waiting on the other side.
But when you use what you know, it starts to lead you into the direction that God says He’s calling you towards.
That means the relationship has to end.
That means that we have to have the forgiveness down in our heart.
Even though we don’t believe that the person is truly sorry.
Our forgiveness is not predicated on whether or not that person is actually sorry.
My forgiveness is predicated on the fact that I’m going anyway, that I’m not gonna stay stuck where that pain met me.
I’m not gonna stay stuck where that disappointment met me. I’m going anyway.
So Mary begins to go anyway and she’s using what she knows because learning how to go anyway and using what you know, I think is one of the most powerful things that any of us can do.
So after she’s come out of the presence, Mary begins the task of living out what God said to God said to do.
And so in the process of doing this, she is presenting this child Jesus into, to Simeon.
And I have to be honest, when I read this text, I felt like I felt like it was out of order because Simian says in verse 29 he identifies with Mary and confirms with Mary what God already said about what she was carrying.
She says, he says, Lord, now you are letting your servant apart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples a light to bring revelation to the gentiles.
Mary already knew all of those things that that is what she was carrying and that’s who the child would become.
So in many ways, this is confirmation for her.
But then Simeon says something that seems like it is contradicting what he just said because he says, behold, this child is destined for the fallen rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against.
Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul.
When the angel of the Lord came, he didn’t say nothing about no swords.
Let’s see version slipping out again.
God, when you gave me the promise, when you told me what I was carrying, when you told me who I would become, when you told me I was fearfully and wonderfully made.
When you told me that all things were gonna work together for my good.
You, you didn’t tell me about the swords that were gonna be a part of the journey.
This feels like a contradiction from from what you said.
But I don’t know if anyone else in this room has ever been in a position where God made you a promise.
But then a sword came in, the sword didn’t look like the promise and the trauma didn’t look like the promise and the bankruptcy didn’t look like the promise.
God. How am I supposed to lay hold of the promise with a sword piercing through my soul?
I felt like Simian should have given the bad news first and then the good news.
I felt like he should have said all of these things are gonna happen, but he’s gonna be resurrected and everything’s gonna be ok in the end.
But for some reason, it doesn’t work like that.
He gives the revelation and the promise first and then he gives the process afterwards because it is not on Simian to remind you what the promise is.
It is on us to remember what the promise is in the middle of the process.
When I was studying, all I could hear was God said I put the butt first.
I put that thing that you thought should be the.
But at the end of the bad news, I said it first and then I started looking back over my own life and all of the moments where I felt like a sword was piercing through my own soul where I was waiting for God to say, but this is gonna work out in the end and, but you’re gonna be healed and, and but all things are gonna work together for your good.
But God says, I’m not gonna repeat what I already told you.
I put the butt first and I just came to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to let somebody know that I know it took a lot for you.
To get into this room. And I know you’re wondering how God is gonna work it out.
But I hear God saying, I put the butt first that when I wrote in the scriptures that all things were gonna work together for your good.
I wasn’t just talking about the people in the text.
I was talking about the people who would hear my voice and follow what I said to do.
That means that at the end of the day, the bed is still on.
At the end of the day, the promise is still yes and amen.
That means that no weapon formed against you will prosper. I’ll put that in there first.
I know you’re looking at the weapon, but I’m telling you it won’t prosper.
I know you’re looking at the depression. But I’m telling you the joy of the Lord is your strength.
I know you’re looking at the struggle.
But I’m telling you that when it’s all said and done though, he slaves you, you can trust in Him.
I put the butt first. That means that you got to start telling your situation.
I know what it looks like, but I know what God said first and I’m hanging on to what God said first in the middle of what’s taking place.
I don’t let the middle shake me. I remember what God said first.
God said, I was fearfully and wonderfully made.
God said that I was gonna make it to the other side, God said that His spirit would overtake me and it would show up right on time.
I put the butt, I put it first. I put it first.
So don’t let this idea of the promise going through a hostile environment convince you that the promise doesn’t exist anymore because that hostility remember is a two way street and when we go silent, when we feel that hostility, it is one of the most dangerous things that we can do because then that hostility becomes a one way street and we start feeding off of the images of our past and the statistics about women like us and girls like us because that hostility is a one way street.
But all I wanted to do when I came here was to open up that other side of the street again and to give you permission to really be propelled for sure, to give you permission to really be activated again, to give you permission to get back in position and recognize that God is still working in the midst of everything that is happening, that our God is still in control and that he is looking for a few good women.
I know they did a movie about a few good men.
But I’m telling you according to Genesis three and 15 that he is just looking for a few good women who wouldn’t mind letting hell know you picked the wrong woman, you picked the wrong family.
You picked the wrong marriage. You picked the wrong child. This hostility is a one way street.
I’m so sick and tired of the devil telling me who I can be and what I can do.
You don’t have no power here. When my savior got on the cross, this hostility became a one way street.
It’s a two way street baby.
It’s a two way street and I wanna prophesy that when you leave this place, that eyes haven’t seen and ears haven’t heard what God is gonna do down on the inside of you.
Not so that you can look good, but so that he can look good.
I’m looking for women who don’t mind making their life.
My stage, I’m looking for some women who don’t mind making their marriage.
My stage, I wanna be your stage.
I want to be a stage for the glory to fall.
I want to be a stage for the spirit to fall.
Everyone else can be scared when they read the news that just makes me go harder because I recognize that everything the enemy is trying to use for evil, that my God is going to turn it around for good.
How do I know it? For sure?
Because he picked a few good women from Fort Lauderdale Florida to go to war with him as only they can do.
And that’s why it had to be you because he needed a woman who would get so angry and get so tired of having their back up against the wall that when everyone else would lay down and laugh, she would wake up one morning and say, you know what devil?
I’ve had enough of you playing with my mind. I’ve had enough of you playing with my finances.
I had enough of you playing with my marriage.
I wish I had some women in this room who didn’t mind saying I don’t mind going to war with the devil.
I’m not afraid of darkness because I carry the light.
I’m not afraid of dying of flavor because I am the salt of the earth. I need some women.
Just one or two of you really?
Because one of us could chase 1000, 2 of us could chase 10,000.
I wonder if 100 of us got together in this room and decided that the days of women being oppressed and silent are over that I’ve got something to prophesy over these dry bones and I won’t close my mouth until everything that God has put in me comes out of me like fire, shut up in my bones.
They gonna make me preach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I promise I wasn’t gonna preach.
But now I’m starting to feel like it’s some devils in this room and I came to run some devils out of Florida.
I came to run depression out of Florida.
I came to make a woman get back in position and they take her rightful place as a woman who has victory over the enemy.
I got victory over that. I’ve got victory over addiction. I’ve got victory over cancer.
I’ve got victory over everything that’s been happening in my family. I’ve got victory over suicidal thoughts.
I got victory over that. I know it doesn’t look like victory. I’m telling you where it’s gonna end.
You’re looking at the middle. But I’m listening to what God said first.
God said, I was gonna come out of this. God said that this thing wasn’t gonna take me out.
I’m prophesying because I don’t care what the middle says, I care what God said first and the most powerful thing that ever happened to me, it’s when I was six or seven years ago, I decided that even though I got pregnant at 13, had my son at 14, even though I dropped out of college, even though I was waitressing at a strip club.
Even though I did all of these things that were supposed to disqualify me.
The most powerful thing that ever happened to me is I went back to what God said first, I stopped looking at where I was in the middle and I zoomed out of the picture.
And when I zoomed out of the picture, all I could see was when I was formed in my mother’s womb to where he promised me that I was gonna make it to the other side.
What is the other side, the other side is when his glory can be manifested through my life.
And I realized that I could not say zoomed into where I was and let glory be manifested through my life at the same time.
So I had to make a decision to clear the way for glory, to clear the way for his anointing to clear the way for him to show up.
That’s why Eve is really one of my favorite women in the Bible because he found a way to clear the path for the seed that was meant to bruise the head of the serpent to be birthed.
I love that Eve wasn’t concerned with whether or not she would see the seed.
All she was concerned with was setting the promise in motion.
So Eve has Kane and Abel and they had beef but she did not allow the fact that Kane and Abel did not look like the seed that would bruise the head of the serpent to keep her from still producing.
She chose to keep on producing.
Even when the thing that was supposed to be the seed or could have been the seed died.
She said, if that seed didn’t work, then there must be another seed.
If I had time, I would preach a message called throw another seat at it because there are moments in life when the first seed doesn’t look like the seed that is supposed to be the seed.
And we shut down all together when God really just wanted you to throw another seed at it.
Eve throws another seat at it through Seth and Seth becomes ultimately the first line of redemption that would lead us to Jesus.
So all Eves decided to do really was not focused on whether or not she would see it, but whether or not she could do something that would just set it in motion.
That’s my prayer for you activate is that you would not be so consumed with whether or not you are the one who actually pulls everyone over to the other side that you would not be so concerned with whether or not your business that is just starting off becomes a Forbes company right now.
You’re, you’re thinking too big that you have to work.
What you know, until you get to where God said you would go.
So the only thing that I want you to focus on is setting something in motion.
If you set it in motion, God will do the rest.