THE MYSTERY OF THE RED HEIFER PART 2 - BISHOP TD JAKES

Following are my notes from the message

"THE MYSTERY OF THE RED HEIFER Part 2" by Bishop TD JAKES, delivered at The Potter's House. This message is about faith, and how the difficulties prepare us for blessings. Learn how to go through the fire and turn ashes into beauty. I am not affiliated with Bishop TD Jakes. These are my personal notes, rather than an exact transcript.

Watch The Mystery of the Red Heifer Part 1

Watch The Mystery of the Red Heifer Part 2

· You really can’t know the Lord until you’ve been thru the fire.


· You tried to know Him in the power of His resurrection but you can’t know Him in the power of his resurrection until you fellowship with Him in His suffering.


· Because there’s something about going thru the suffering that will teach you something about God that you never knew before.


· Oh I could give you so much in a book, and I could put a little bit on a tape.


· But when you go thru the fire you have a personal experience that nobody can take from you.


· Jakes used to think fiery folk were the ones who hollered the most, but some are shouting just because others are shouting.


· You Fiery folk have been thru something and understand something and know something about God that you couldn’t learn any other way.


· Had your family/friends/job stayed with you, you wouldn’t know God like you know Him now.


· When they pulled out God pulled in.


· Everybody who met Him in the fire praise Him now.


· We are like the Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace.


· We may be in the fire but there’s a 4th one in there with us.


· For years I have been preaching against what the faith boys were teaching:


· That if you were really a Christian you won’t go thru any trouble.


· Just stand on the word and you won’t go thru anything.


· Just stand on the word and you won’t get sick, you’ll have total peace total joy happiness.


· They were preaching it and they were selling more books than me.


· But I was preaching suffering and sacrifice and struggle because there are some things that you can only learn about God after you have suffered for a while.


· The problem with this generation is they want crowns without crosses.


· Beauty without ashes...


· Garment of praise without the spirit of heaviness


· But God said if you suffer with me you will reign with me


· If something ever happened to Jakes wife he doubts he’d remarry

· He doesn’t have to wonder why Serita is married to him


· In 30 years he’s never thought she married me for my money/status/preaching


· When she married him he didn’t have anything


· When she married him he didn’t look like a good deal


· When she married him it looked like he wasn’t going anywhere


· When she married him they didn’t have water or power or rent money


· That’s why he doesn’t mind her having whatever she wants now


· He’s never told her you can’t have that dress, it’s too expensive


· If he can afford it he lets her have it


· Because if you walk with me thru my suffering, then when we get to the good part I don’t have to question your motives


· I’m trying to tell you something about you and your Husband.


· He said if you go thru the tough times and you’ll praise me thru the tough times then when we get to the good part you can have whatever you ask for.


· The reason some of you are about to be blessed is you praised Him thru the tough times and agony, and struggle


· And now God says ANYTHING that you want is available to you.


· I just gave somebody an answer.


· You’ve been asking God "Is it alright?"


· The Lord said "It’s alright."


· God says "Your miracle is not in the heifer, it’s in the ashes."


· Your miracle is in what you have left when the fire stops burning.


· Whatever the fire took from you, you didn’t need it.


· Your strength, your tenacity, your fight, your vigor is in what you have left.


· God never performs miracles thru what you lose.


· Woman you can stop the famine with the handful of meal you have left.


· 5000 people can eat from the sandwich the little boy has left.


· 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread and Jesus feeds 5000 with it and they still have some left over.


· Now the disciples finally get the revelation


· The disciples took the basketfuls left because they knew the miracle is never in what you lost but always in what you have left


· So we thank God for the fire


· So we thank God for the flames


· So we thank God for the cedar wood


· So we thank God for the hyssop


· So we thank God for the battle


· So we thank God for the burdens


· Because your miracle is not in what you lost but in what you have left


· Here’s the problem


· People who value what they have left look forward


· People who value what they lost look backwards


· Which kind of person are you?


· Do you look back at what you lost or forward at what you have left?


· If you are look back at what you lost you are a priest touching a corpse


· A corpse is what you lost


· Dead things


· You are forbidden to touch dead things


· The reason your prayers aren’t being answered – though the bible says you’re priests unto God – is because you have defiled yourself by the corpses you touched


· The dead things in your life are killing you


· The dead things you touch, think about


· The things that are over, that are in your past


· The things you weep about, that you keep going back and visiting are cancelling out your future


· Your history is killing your destiny


· God said Every time you touch it you lose your power


· Every time you touch it you cancel your authority


· The bible said forget those things that are behind you for a reason


· As a priest unto God you are forbidden to handle that that is over


· If it is over –


· It may sound cold, it may look tough, it may make people misunderstand you


· Because people love to leave you messed up


· But if it’s dead let the dead bury the dead


· If you handle dead things you are saying you are dead too


· For how can two walk together unless they agree


· The handling of dead things has taken your joy, peace, power


· It’s stopping your effectiveness


· That unforgiveness is killing you and holding you down


· The envy and the strife over yesterday is taking your peace, rest, health, and disturbing your mind


· You’re a priest, you’re supposed to live above dead things


· Every time you touch them you are defiled


· Every time you touch people who touch them you are defiled


· You are not to run with people who are talking about I knew you when


· You are not to hang with people who hold you back to where you are trying to get away from


· You are not to stand in the funeral home nor live in the cemetery nor lay with corpses


· You are a living thing


· You are a moving thing


· You are a glorious thing and the hand of the Lord is on you


· I want to talk to you about the dead things you’re touching


· It is a curse to handle dead things


· Remember how David prayed for his baby to live born by Bathsheba?


· As long as the baby was alive he prayed, but when he heard the baby was dead he made a sudden change


· Any time you hear the thing is dead make a sudden change


· He got up, he washed his face, he changed his clothes and he went to the house of God and started dancing


· Because when it’s dead it’s dead and you will cancel your future if you touch it


· God is calling His people away from the dead things


· The rudiments of this world so you can have a fresh experience with Him


· Some of you have lost 10 years of your life fooling with dead things


· And before you lose another 10 years God will show you how to sanctify yourself


· If you’ll touch those ashes you’ll purify yourself from the dead things


· So they carry the ashes from the red heifer because God knew no matter how sincere you are you will every now and then touch something dead


· Dead relationship, friendship, job


· You’re human


· You’ll grieve for the dead


· In your grief and desperation you’ll cleave to something God told you to be separated from


· You’ve never had all God has for you, never been all He wants you to be because of your habit of cleaving to dead things


· It’s holding you back and it’s stopping you from getting where you are trying to go


· Today is the day for breakthrough


· Come out of every place of agony and suffering


· Some have been stuck for years


· Not another day in the tombs


· Not another day with the dead


· Not another day with the corpses


· Today is the day


· Right now praise Him


· It’s not behind you it’s in front of you


· God’s going to use what you have left


· Your best days are in front of you not behind you


· The victory and the power of God is not in the tombs, it’s ahead of you

Here you can watch the entire message on video:
http://www.lightsource.com/ministry/the-potters-house/20110410/

Lord I thank You that You never leave me nor forsake me. I am grateful for the ashes because they allow me to enjoy the beauty. I thank you for the cross that allows me to wear a crown. I thank You for the trials and the fiery furnaces that develop the character that allows me to handle and appreciate my many blessings. Help me submit to testing, which proves what I can be trusted with. I will let go of anything that I lose because my miracle is in what I have left.