Is this teaching biblical?
The idea that a human can place the Creator of the universe in debt is breathtaking arrogance. God owns everything (Psalm 50:12). No one can give Him anything He doesn't already possess. This teaching reduces God to a cosmic vending machine and turns worship into a financial transaction.
What did TD Jakes say?
"I started to give on that level so that God would owe me. I put God in debt."
Speaker: TD Jakes
Source: Preaching conference
What does Scripture actually teach?
Romans 11:35
"Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?"
— NKJV
Paul asks a rhetorical question with an obvious answer: no one can give God something first and then demand repayment. God is indebted to no one. Jakes' claim is the exact scenario Paul declares impossible.
Job 41:11
"Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine."
— NKJV
God Himself declares that everything belongs to Him. You cannot put the Owner of all things in debt by giving Him what was already His.
Ephesians 2:8-9
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."
— NKJV
Salvation and blessing are gifts of grace — not wages earned by giving. The entire framework of 'I gave, so God owes me' is a works-based system that contradicts the gospel of grace.