Evernote:Bishop Jakes - These Are They

From Evernote:

Bishop Jakes - These Are They

Mat 13:3-23


1. The first group everything you give them is stolen. Don't marry one of them. No matter how much you pour, it is stolen.

2. The second group were receptive, but they were rocky. They received it on an emotional level. Sown into rocky places, they grow for awhile, but have no root. no permanent change. You have no depth. Rocky place people are shallow. Enotions are no sign of real commitment. They wont stay anywhere long. You gotta have people around you who are rooted so that when the storm comes, they remain steadfast. When the sun came out, they dried up. Here for the pleasure, not for the pain. With you when things are good. Stand anyway. The moment the struggle comes, they leave.

This is a revelation of the kingdom. Not Without a Struggle. The struggle is how your roots are tested.

Having done all to stand, stand therefore.

"I admire you for your roots." Roots arent pretty, but without roots there would be no flower, no fruit.

You cannot make a rocky person be rooted.

3. The third group were sown amongst thorns and thistles. The plant began to grow, but the thorns and thistles (deceitfulness of riches and lust for other things) choked them out. Lust and deceit are the wonder twins of destruction. Riches lead you to making the mistake of worshipping stuff. The thing and not the creator.

The deceitfulness of stuff flourishes in the waters of lust. Be careful what you wish for- you may get it and find out it doesnt fufill. You cant seduce me in an area where I have no attraction.

You dont have the space that God requires because you have too much stuff. God blessed you with a car, now you have to stay home and wax it. The thorn and the thistles choked out the seed that was planted in your life. A seed is a tree is disguise. An orchard in disguise. The seed unveils the mystery of the fruit. You need patience. And a hoe and a rake to pull away anything that threatens the welfare of the seed. The seed gets choked because there is not room for the seed. God will do everything great in your life through seeds. He'll hide it in a seed to make sure your motives are right.

If you can get excited about a thing in its seed form, i will gradually reveal the promise. "I've never seen a person who is greatly successful who could not withstand delayed gratification."

It's in the seed.

But also, good ground. It's only a matter of time before a harvest breaks out.

The kingdom is coming. The harvest is coming.

4. Footnotes for the fourth group. You will bring forth fruit, but it will not be proportionate. You will produce on your level. Don't be jealous. The seed will produce on the capacity of the bearer to harvest the seed.

No environment could change the integrity of the seed. It attacks the productivity. No weapon will prosper. Doesn't mean it will not hurt you. Just that it will not change the promise.

God is not fair- he is just.

To him that have not, I will take away that that he seemeth to have. To he that hath, I will add. God invests in profitable people.

If you can prosper in a prison, you can prosper in a palace. People jump all over their seed trying to be seen and discovered. Do not forfeit the seed.

Spawning: The seed of the word will go across the egg of your faith- conception begins. Word and faith. If there is no faith, the seed will not take.

Some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred-fold.

Evernote:Bishop Jakes - A Pressing Place

From Evernote:

Bishop Jakes - A Pressing Place

Matt 26:36-41

36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. 37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy . 38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39 And he went a little further , and fell on his face, and prayed , saying , O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will , but as thou wilt. 40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep , and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray , that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Gethsemane is the place of pressing.

Jesus had to be a powerful preacher. There were no flyers, no technology – just word of mouth. To be his disciple and have the opportunity to travel with him (the best part of a man of god is not on stage- it's in the crumbs of wisdom that fall). To be in his inner circle, to hear him think, talk, and philosophy…

This was not Jesus' first Passover- in this Passover, Jesus made a shift in their perspective. The meaning had changed. The cup, the bread… no longer about the lamb, but the man- the son. He shocked their religious minds- the hardest mind to change.

The church always runs on a slower clock than the rest of the world.

He really shocked them when he said one of them was a devil. One of them would betray them. "Is it I?" The one who dips with me. You can't be betrayed by someone who doesn't know you. Judas jumps up and runs from the table.

It is with a degree of trepidation that Jesus gets up from the table and takes his boys for a walk. They are going to the place of pressing.

A pressing place is a place where the pressure bears down on you like the presser did on the olives. A weight you cannot see. Bent over in your soul. A burden you cannot articulate. Troubled in your soul.

The numbers go way down when you are at a pressing place. Anyone will be with you when you are going up, but when you are at a low place, it is amazing how many people find other things to do.

A pressing place, a tough place, will try everything in you. If Jesus had his pressing places, who are you to think that you will not have a pressing place. Follow him not just for the fish and the wine; follow him to the pressing place. You really don't have a praise or a testimony until you have been through a pressing place. After you have been to a pressing place, you can tell how strong you are.

Jesus knew they couldn't handle it, so he just told them to sit in close proximity. 9 of you just chill out- don't even come. 3 he separated from the rest. Even amongst believers, sometimes you have to step aside.

Great anointing is great crushing. The oil comes out of the crushing. The anointing is expensive. Most people will not pay the price. They want to be anointed on credit. They think it is contagious and can be gained by proximity.

You can't dance your way into a place that you have to crawl into on their knees. They talk about the praise by not about the prayer. You can't dance your way through a pressing place, you have to pray your way through.

You can't get the modern church to pray for one hour.

Out of 24 hours, Jesus asked them for one hour.

Maybe the reason you go stuck on the cross or stuck in the grave is because you didn't pray before you went in. Selah.

We do real good on God's responsibility toward us, but anytime we get on our responsibility to God, it gets as quiet as a catholic cathedral. The dancing stops when it gets on our responsibility to God.

We always want something back without putting anything in.

Could it be that our priorities are in the wrong place that we spend more on entertainment than on edification? Could it be possible that we have the wrong heroes?

Jesus confides unto the three – "I'm exceedingly doubtful unto death"; and the three responded with sleeping. That's what makes us lonely. It is not the number of people around us, it is the quality.

Have you ever wished you had somebody that would pray for you. Who would share the weight of the worry and the anxiety.

You don't feel me until you cry when I cry, til you crawl when I crawl.

You better be ready to go to the garden alone because your friends will fall asleep on the way.

Their behavior has not changed with a sermon from Jesus. They heard the message and went to sleep anyway.

But Jesus went on a little further. There is a deeper place of prayer. Where demons, and sickness, and depression cannot go. Where the wicked cease from troubling.

Go a little deeper. God's going to break some yokes that you cannot break on your own.

If Jesus had to keep going back to get on his knees, what could it hurt to go back? You have to have a garden somewhere in your life where you can shake it off. Until you get the anointing back.

The activity of prayer is not to change God, but to change me. Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me… but not my will, but thy will be done.

Prayer will change you. You can't talk to God and it not change you. Prayer will make you apologize even when you thought you were right.

Get in the press! Until he changes you. Until you get a brand new attitude.

"He that hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled." - he that wants to be… not he that is righteous.