"The Prison and the Palace" - Sarah Jakes Roberts

[Music] when you have a worship experience that rich I I'm not even sure that the word is necessary but I've studied and you're here and The Gatekeepers are locking the doors so you're stuck we're going to go to Genesis 40 starting in verse two my topic for today is from the prison to the palace and I'm so excited about this word because I believe that some of us have found ourselves in the balance and when you find yourself in the balance what should be a blessing starts to look like a prison and there's a season taking place there's a shift happening not just because we're moving into 2017 but because you are moving and a new version of yourself God's about to introduce you to who you've always been he's going to introduce you to why you had to go through the prisons that you went through why you had to go through the breakdowns that you went through he's about to make it all make sense in 2017 and so he wanted me to start preparing you in 2016 so that you recognize that you went to sleep in the prison but you're going to wake up in the palace that you you went to sleep thinking one way and then you woke up and doors started flying open and opportunities started being available to you and and I heard God saying as you were worshiping that your praise just paved away that your praise just broke through the atmosphere that you were breaking weapons off as you were worshiping and so I have just a few things to share with you in this time and we're going to start with Genesis 40 to set it up we're going to meet Joseph in this scripture we're going to meet Joseph after he's had a dream that everyone was going to bow down to him yet incidentally he had this dream at 17 years old and then a decade or so down the road he's in a prison have you ever had god promise you something and then the path your life started to take didn't necessarily line up with what he said so we find Joseph in a prison and he has an encounter with two people and Pharaoh was angry with these two people these two officers the chief Butler and the chief Baker and as I was studying I wondered why of all of the people the chief Butler and the chief Baker were in trouble and verse three continues it tells us so he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison the place where Joseph was confined so we have Joseph A Butler and a baker in prison when I was doing some research about the text I recognized that a butler that Hebrew word that they translated to Butler actually means cut Bearer I don't know how many of you watch Game of Thrones after the one Church live stream but a cut Bearer has questionably one of the most important jobs in the Kingdom because he holds the king's cup and because he holds the king's cup he ensures that it doesn't get poisoned he holds down something that someone else has given him there are different types of people and destinies in our life there are some people who are like the baker who make something out of nothing who take all of the ingredients that life has thrown at them and then they form something that could have never been there otherwise and then they're are people like the butler who hold on to what's been given to them but something shaky happened between the Butler and the baker because they had found themselves in prison which was a message for you and me in my opinion to be careful who we allowed to hold things and who we allow to make things in our life you see because if you get the positions mixed up then you'll have someone holding going to parts of you that they should have never had in the first place and if you give the wrong ingredients to the wrong person then they'll start making up ideas in your head or making up rumors or making you start believing things that you should have never believed in the first place I want you to take inventory of who's in your kingdom who's holding you down and who's who's putting things together and can you trust them and so we find that they do what we all do when we have someone who we think is a little sketchy we put them in a prison a prison that keeps them close enough for us to touch them but as far enough away to observe them you see if you don't start putting people in proper positions in your life then you'll be letting people run around free when God is trying to create a path in your destiny sometimes we can be so consumed with trying to all just get along that we make friends with our enemies because we don't want to shake things up and because we don't want to shake things up we end up having Destinies that are stagnated because we didn't have the strength required to put people in prisons to say that I'm not going to allow your opinions or your ideas or your actions to affect my destiny any longer are there people in your life who you should have placed in a prison but are running around so free that you can't be free anymore you see if you don't put people in their proper position then they organically put you in a prison now all of a sudden you can't be who God has called you to be because it makes them uncomfortable now all of a sudden you've lost your voice because they were talking so much over you that you don't even know who you are anymore I'm wondering have you found yourself confined in a season when God wants you to be free and the captain of the Guard charged Joseph with them and he served them so they were were in custody for a while I couldn't get over Joseph who had a dream that he would be King serving the chief Butler and the chief Baker of the kingdom and I recognize that the irony of God is that sometimes he calls us to places where we have to Humble ourselves in such a way that we're serving the people who serve us or should be serving us he puts us in positions where we may be smarter than the boss or we may have better ideas than certain people were're in circles with but because of this season in our life he's caused us to submit so though Joseph was certainly in a prison physically I also wondered was he in a prison because of who he had to become in order for God to use him in that moment you see everybody wants the destiny that leads to the Palace but so few of us have the humility to be in a prison to know that there is a call for our lives but so many of us don't recognize the process that is a part of the call that the process takes us through the prison and so we find ourselves Behind Bars and angry with God because we thought we would be at the palace by now Jose Joseph was in the balance he was balancing the call of royalty with the reality of prison the call that you're supposed to be here you're supposed to be excelling you're supposed to be doing well but right now you can't even make ends meet that you have the idea you have the creativity but you have no connections and no way to make anything happen that you finally got the man but you've got all of these daddy issues that you haven't faced yet the fact that you are in the balance you're almost where you should be but you're not quite there yet and the captain of the Guard charged Joseph with them and he served them so they were in custody for a while and verse 5 continues then the Butler and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined in the prison had a dream both of them now their dream dreaming in prison dreaming in prison it doesn't look like I should have any dreams because right now I should just be relegated to the fact that I'm in prison but I still have a dream I want to know if you can hang on to your dream in prison both of them each man's dream in one night and each man's dream with its own interpretation and verse 6 continues and Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them and saw that they were sad Joseph was sensitive enough even though he was in prison to recognize that the atmosphere had shifted around him that means he didn't allow allow the bitterness that overcomes some people to overtake him in such a way that he lost his Sensitivity I I believe that God wants to make sure that he can still touch you even when you're in prison that he can still touch you even when things aren't going your way that he can still get a hold of you even when it looks like all the odds are against you Joseph was sensitive so much so that in verse 7 it says that he asked them Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of his Lord's House he said why do you look so sad today and they said to him we each have had a dream and there is no interpreter of it so Joseph said to them do not interpretations belong to God tell them to me please this was so important because at this very moment though Joseph doesn't know it when he's having this dialogue his situation just shifted from being in the balance to Freedom though he was still in the prison he was in the prison there was no Warden who comes in after this moment and frees him but something happened in this conversation and you have to read your Bible to to really get what what do you say baby read the whole Bible you'll find the whole thing the whole Bible we'll tell you more about this pivotal moment but I'm telling you there was something about him tapping into his purpose in the prison that freed him to walk into the palace and I wanted to tell you tonight very briefly very quickly because we've already worshiped that God is waiting to see if you can tap into your purpose in the prison that if you won't let the bars confine you if you won't let the bars restrict you that he's got something for you but he wants to know if the prison is killing your purpose have you given up on that dream have you given up on what God has told you he wants to know can you praise him anyway can you make the best out of a bad situation can you look at the statistics and look at the odd and say I'm going to worship you anyway he wants to know if you can make the prison a palace can you look at what everyone else says is a prison and say but because my God is here with me and because there's a word down on the inside of me then I don't care what it looks like to anybody else that this is a palace because I'm in it and I am the righteousness of God and you may not see the crown yet but is shining on my head and this place that he's called me just became a palace because I just stepped into it and anytime I step into the room you should hear royalty coming he wants to know if you can turn your prison into a palace if you can praise him with an eviction notice if you can praise him when you're about to lose that child if you can praise him when it looks like the walls are closing inting on you he wants to know can you take this prison and turn it into a p pal because the only way he can trust you with the palace is if he knows that you are really the palace that it has nothing to do with what's going on on the outside or what's in your bank account or what people are saying about you that ultimately you are the palace you are the righteousness of God you are set aside you are anointed and appointed and there is no devil in hell that can stand up against you he wants to know if you know who you are that even in a prison even in your dark days that he is God and because he is God you are inside of him and he is inside of you so it doesn't matter what's going on around you because when he calls you to come forth everything he's placed inside of you will come out you can put me in a prison or you can put me in a palace it doesn't matter where you place me because I know what God put in me that means I'm Not Afraid when I walk into meetings I'm Not Afraid when I have these ideas because I know that this idea is a crown this idea is a reminder that I'm royalty that there's not a mind on the planet like mine that there's not a gift on the planet like mine you may do what you do but you don't do it like me baby because when I walk in the room I'm bringing something different this is a different flavor you've never seen it like this before there's an authenticity that God wants you to walk into and he doesn't want to have to give you a palace for it to manifest he wants it to manifest right now in a prison where it doesn't make any sense where it'll look foolish where to make you look crazy he wants it to manifest right here because he needs you to recognize the royalty has no limitations and as I was studying I realized that actually the prison and the palace have a lot in common there's a wall that protects the palace and there's one that protects the prison there are guards in the prison and there are guards s in the palace so maybe if you learn to operate in a prison It prepares you for the palace because what they don't tell you about the other side of success is that the palace is a prison too it's just a different kind of prison with different types of limitations and different kinds of restrictions and so God had to put you in the prison first so you wouldn't be surprised when you got to the palace and recognize that this ain't Freedom up here either that's why the word says to be in the world but not of the world because if you're in the world you'll be living for a palace but in reality you need to be living for the moment where God manifests what he placed inside of you where you have a moment with a butler in a baker and you begin to interpret dreams Joseph was serving serving the Butler and the baker but what tipped things in his favor was when they gave him the opportunity to interpret their dreams because that was Joseph's gift was that he could interpret dreams and I hear God saying that he's going to give you opportunities to tap into your gift and you shouldn't care whether or not there's an audience of 10,000 or an audience of one all that matters is that the gift is manifest because he'll bring the people and he'll bring the finances and he'll bring the opportunities to you but he wants to know can you manifest it when no one is looking can you manifest it when you don't get any Glory can you manifest what I've placed inside of you and Joseph eagerly tells them could you please put verse eight back on the screen he eagerly tells them tell me please please please tell me what you dream please give me one shot to tap into my gift give me one audition give me one opportunity give me one chance to write this book give me one chance to to get this job give me one chance to serve you because I'm betting on me I know that God has placed something down on the inside of me that if you just give me one shot if you just give me one opportunity I don't care if anybody hears about it all that matters is I got an opportunity to do what God has called me to do and I hear God saying that too many of you have adapted to the mindset of prisoners yes that you've stopped dreaming the way you should dream that you've stopped creating the way that you should create that you have forgotten that there is a palace outside of this prison and you've allowed your disappointments and your discouragements to Jade you to change you to make you believe that you can't do it anymore that you made the wrong decisions that you made the wrong mistakes that God isn't really with you after all and I hear God saying that he just wanted to see if you would manifest it in a prison he just wanted to know if he could take you down low enough if you would give up but when you begin to make the best out of this season when you begin to manifest on the level that you will when you get to the Palace God says don't wait until you get to the Palace do it like you're in the palace now do it like the king is watching now do it like they're going to be talking about what happened in the prison that it reaches the palace because that's exactly what happened in this text he interprets the dreams and if you continue reading on your own spare time you'll see that when the butler makes his way back to the palace and Pharaoh starts having dreams that no one can interpret them but but the butler remembers that there was someone in a prison who could interpret dreams so accurately that means that Joseph didn't even have to work his way up from the prison to the Palace that God accelerated him in such a way that he even when he was in the prison when God calls you forth you don't have to worry about what you're going to have to do to make it to the next level that you're going to bypass the very people who were laughing at you that you were going to bypass the very people who counted you out that you were going to bypass the very people who said he's not good enough he's not going to make it that you are going to bypass them in such a way that you're going to look up and you're going to be back in the palace Hallelujah the very place that God told you he was going to put you and when you were worshiping earlier it was a moment like when Joseph had an encounter with the Butler and the baker you have alerted Heaven that you are ready to move to the next level you have alerted Heaven that you're ready to stretch to the next level you have alerted Heaven that you have graduate at this level and that he can trust you with more you have alerted Heaven that you're ready that you can handle it that this year tried to shake you and change you and it made you question yourself but when the moment came and you were down in the prison that you stretched out to The One and Only God who can pull you from the prison to the [Applause] Palace some of you are about to break through into something that eyes haven't seen that ears haven't heard neither has it entered into the hearts of men what God has in store for you you about to surprise yourself when God gets finished with you you're going to say you thought all of this of [Applause] Me no longer do I see you in the balance I see you thriving I see you influencing I see you gravitating towards people who understand your value who understand your gift who understand that sometimes you have to go to the prison to make a path to the Palace that's all I've got to [Applause] say and if you don't have to leave please don't leave because I want to have an alter call with people who've been struggling with being being in the prison who've been struggling to hang on to hope and hang on to faith and hang on to the fact that God has a promise for their lives that you're ready to change your mindset about where you are right now that you no longer want to see it as punishment you want God to open your eyes to the blessing of being in prison Hallelujah that you want God to open your eyes so that a path is clear you know what I recognize is that if you begin to only see yourself in a prison then you'll never be able to see your way to the Palace because the prison makes you believe that there's nothing else out there that this is all that's to life that there's nothing more so you can't dream of anymore you can't think of anymore that all you'll ever have is what you've got right now the only person you'll ever attract to someone who hurts you the only opportunities you'll ever get are ones that don't even make you feel like you have enough stability the only jobs that are available to you are ones that you are far more experienced to be in the only thing that is available to you is a prison and if you're honest you've been beginning to question yourself more and more you've been beginning to listen to that voice of negativity and doubt on the inside of you so much so that you feel yourself giving up on yourself you recognize that you're not as excited as you used to be you're not as sensitive as you used to be you're not as sure you're not as certain that the palace is even for you the palace is for those other people the ones who did everything the right way the ones who don't have to struggle the ones who know people who know people people the palace isn't for me but God wants you to know on this Wednesday night that not only is the palace for you the palace is yours not only is this opportunity for you this opportunity is going to catapult you into Heights you can't even imagine and sometimes God takes us lower than we ever thought possible so that that when we get to the highest point that he has for us we recognize we didn't get there on our own that it was because we kept him with us even in our darkest days that he could trust us to go even further this message is for those who are wondering whether or not there's a path out for them and I have to ask as we do if there's is anyone else who is sitting out there who feels a tugging of the Holy Spirit telling them you know you've got to go don't let your pride stand in the way of your breakthrough don't let the idea of other people are going to recognize that I've been struggling standing in the way of you getting the help that you actually need because as we were worshiping earlier I saw blessings being unlocked but you have to be willing to humble yourself like Joseph to admit that I I found myself locked up I don't even know how it happened but here I am and I'm crazy enough to believe that I'm still supposed to inherit things that God still has things stored up and locked up for me even though I'm locked up right now so don't let this jail cell fool you don't let these chains fool you because when God gets finished with me all you're going to see are chains breaking off of me you're going to see strongholds coming down I'm not even going to look the same when God gets finished with me because what God has for you is for you and there's nothing you have done that has disqualified you from what God has for you even that that one thing that came to your mind that says well she doesn't know about this even that has not disqualified you he he knows the essence of who you are he knows every secret every struggle and he still loves you and he still has a purpose for you crazy weird freaky crazy again two times still his child broken confused lost abused still his child and he has a place for you he's reserved it just for you and he's waiting for you to recognize that you're still worthy of the treasures that he has stored up in this world in this earth there are Treasures stored up in this earth that if you would just tap into him if you would just tap to his voice you would begin to unleash things that God has for you I'm going to ask my husband to pray an impartation of what God has placed inside of him inside of us because from the prison to the Palace he's been able to manifest something that has set him apart for decades set him apart in such a way that there is no other Church like one LA on the [Applause] planet and he was willing to manifest that and he didn't even know if you were coming he was going to manifest it if it was nothing but the butler in the baker but God said no there is a royal priesthood that needs your voice there are my sons and daughters who no one can reach but you Hall and because he tapped into that you can tap into yours and the lives connected to your purpose are going to tap into theirs and that's what we call Kingdom that's what we call light chasing Darkness because we tap into the rhythm of this Earth that says I've got a Divine Purpose that's bigger than my issues and bigger than your opinions and bigger than your rumors that God gave me something that I have to bring forth no matter what and because he gave it to me I'm going to protect it and hold on to it husband would you pray I just think we need to praise God for this word I think we need to praise God for this truly life changing word you're not the same I see it in your eyes you're not going back to the way things used to be I see it in your eyes that fight has been stirred that truth has been stirred right on time getting ready for the new year I love it I love it fierceness and so what we're going to do is we're just going to seal it we're going to seal it it's happened in your heart it's happened in your mind God took us on a journey and this is the culmination of it the culmination of it is you being elevated you've been edified and elevated amen and you're ready it's already done I want everyone to stand if we could if you're s just stand we're going to just all come into agreement with what God has done in this house my God my God my God my God if you're watching via live stream come get some of this Lord we we are in awe we are in utter awe at your love at your power at your wisdom at your truth you knew exactly where each of us were and what we needed and you have spoken to us and therefore we will not be the same your word says that we are transformed by the renovation the renewing the renovation of our mind in a renovation process there is demolition you have torn down strongholds barriers obstacles and lies and you've torn those things down and you have planted truth wow truth that predates us truth that is connected to what you knew before you put us in our mother's womb we have found Divine truth that manifest our divine identity in you and so God I thank you for every person here and I thank you and I decree that each one is pregnant and the birth has drawn near and I thank you that you've given strength to bring forth shall you bring to the time of birth God and not cause delivery so we thank you God for the birthing yes seal it in hearts and Minds all over this room and I just want you to repeat after me heavenly father heav father I heard you call my name I heard you call my name you spoke to me you spoke to me specifically specifically I heard you I heard you and I receive your word I receive your word let it take root let take rot and never be uprooted and never be uprooted but rather let fruit come forth but rather let fruit come forth that will remain that will remain from generation to generation I receive it I receive it I thank you for Jesus I thank you for Jesus thank you for making him thank you for making him who knew no sin who knew no sin to become all of mine all all of my weakness all of my weakness all of my mistakes all of my mistakes all all of my limitations all of my limitations everything in my past everything in my past you put in his body you put in his body nailed it to the cross it to the cross and once and for all and once and for all put it to death put it to death and just like you raised him up just like you raised him up powerful and Victorious powerful and Victorious I'm raised up too I'm raised up to and from this day forward from this day forward I'm going from glory to glory I'm going from glory to glory I'll praise you in the prison I'll praise you in the and I'll Praise You In The Palace I'll Praise You In The Palace because I found out tonight because I found out tonight I am the palace in Jesus name amen amen God bless you love you so [Music] [Applause] much

Channel: ONE | A Potter's House Church

Views: 223,497

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Id: 4RrJJ9240bY

Length: 34min 49sec (2089 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 08 2016