T.D. Jakes - So You Call Yourself a Man?: A Devotional for Ordinary Men with Extraordinary Potential

So You Call Yourself a Man?
Copyright 1997
T.D. Jakes

Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Ebook edition created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1341-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Cover design by Josh Madison

TO

my sons who are in the process of becoming men of integrity.

I, like most parents, am full of hopes and dreams loaded with rather lofty expectations of grandeur. Nevertheless, should my sons fall short of my hopes, I will remain faithful to my callthe call to be their father. It is not a position to be resigned but a relationship to be relied upon. It is a call I am glad to fulfill as with all men who have someone who believes in them.

The world awaits you!

Contents

Introduction

Time for a New Level of Reconciliation and Healing!

And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Revelation 5:9

The church that I pastor is multiracial and multicultural. I believe that is part of Gods plan for reconciliation in these last days. I dont believe you can have multiplication if you only have duplication of like elements. Multiplication is born of reconciliation among those with differences.

God loves a multiplicity of people and He blesses people in a multiplicity of ways. We must be willing to accept the different ways in which people receive blessings and then thank God for them. We must be willing to accept different ways of worshiping the Lord Jesus Christone may dance, another may bow, yet another may stand and shout. He is One Lord, but He has created many people.

We must never bring people to Christ and then insist to them, Now, be just like me. We need massive diversity in programming, in our praise, in the expression of our spiritual gifts. In the church, we have divided ourselves in just about as many ways we can be divided. We have divided ourselves by denomination...

means of baptism...

timetables related to the tribulation...

types of services...

and meanings for communion. Its time we recognize that the Lord meant what He said when He inspired Paul to write:

• For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread (1 Corinthians 10:17).
• There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).
• There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:46).

Fads come and go in the church, just as they come and go in society. Prophecy is big right nowpeople are all looking for the prophetic word. Some only want to go to services that are labeled healing services. This one will lay hands on the sick, that one will call out diseases, another one might throw holy water on those with sickness.

The methods and fads dont matter. We serve One Lord. He is faithful to remain the same yesterday, today, and forever. He works through a multiplicity of ways and through all manner of gifts.

It is only when we feel truly free to be ourselves, however, that we allow other people to be truly free to be themselves. The person who enjoys the unique ways in which God has created him, is a person who is likely to appreciate and enjoy the unique way in which God has created others.

Our goal is to preach, teach, and experience truthnot culture.

Theres more than one way to skin a cat .

Theres more than one way to bake a cake .

Theres more than one way to praise the Lord!

Its not just Satan who has bound Gods people in their praise. We have bound each other in order to promote our own causes, agendas, and preferred styles.

You may not like the way another person expresses his faith in Christ. You may not agree with it fully or choose to adopt it as your means of expression. But you must value his right to express his faith in Christ the way he believes the Lord is leading him to express it. And dont waste your time criticizing him and become a prisoner in your own mind... heart... emotions!

There are many ways to praise the Lord. A person might dance, walk, stand with his arms raised, fall on his knees, lie flat on his face before God. He might sing, shout, talk, cry, laugh. Whats important is that a man find a way to open up and express himself to the Lord. Theres no right position or right form of expression for praisethe only thing that must be right before God is a mans heart, humbled to praise Him from the depths of his emotions.

When the world sees Christian men dropping their differences and coming together, the world is going to want what Christians have.

Politicians, educators, economists, scientists, and corporationsthey have all tried unsuccessfully to bring the world together and to bridge the gaps that divide nation from nation, tribe from tribe, people from people.

But only God can build that bridge.

And the good news is that God does build that bridge by His outpoured Holy Spirit.

True Pentecost comes when devout men come together from every nation under the one anointing of the Holy Spirit. Regardless of their backgrounds...

races...

cultures...

and denominations. You cannot have a genuine Pentecost outpouring of Gods power in the presence of segregation, alienation, or separation among Gods people.

When the world sees Christian men coming together under one anointing, it is going to run to our upper room to hear the Gospel.

Yes, indeed. When we are loosed in our hearts of all prejudice...

loosed from our emotional bondage...

loosed in our praise and worship...

and loosed in our ability to love others as God loves them...

the world will begin to turn to Christ for forgiveness, deliverance, and healing. It will run to the cross.

Loose that man inside youand let him be free in Christ Jesus!

Getting Up From Your Lame Position

Waiting on Man to Get Into Position

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

Genesis 2:45

Things must be in place before God will act. The Bible tells us that at the beginning of creation, God had not caused it to rain upon the earth. This does not mean that the earth was without water. Up to this time, God had caused a mist to come up from the earth to give moisture to the earth. There had been no downpour, however, from the heavenlies.

Why? Because there was not a man to till the ground.

There are some things that God has planned to do, has made provision for doing, and desires to do that He will not do until man is in place to receive what God intends to give.