As Far As Your Eyes Can See

Praise God. Are you with me this morning? Amen. I'm wondering how or where to start from. There's a lot going on around us and every time you look at everything going around, there is always something signaling negativity in the midst of positivity. There's always something that is telling you that you are limited even in the midst of your strong strengths.

Right? And so there is always these two voices that is overlapping. There is always that voice that says that keep going on, you will do it, you can't do it. And there's that voice that keeps saying to you, you are limited, you can't do it. You are going to exhaust your strength, you will wear out.

And so these two voices are always at play every time in everything. It will never stop. It was at play in the life of Jesus because even the devil was telling him is limited. And so it depends on which voice that we give attention to. I don't even know why I'm starting from there because that's not even my message.

I don't know. But this is just something that is coming to me now. And it's a clash that happened within us. And this really is a conflict that if you do not win it from within, it limits your productivity and your ability to step out daily in order to achieve your goal. And particularly the goal that the Lord has set for you, the purpose.

How many of us know that when God created man, he gave man a purpose? We were deliberately intentionally created for a purpose. So we're not an accident. We're not a mistake. But you see these voices that clashes around you? The intention is to drag you away from that purpose and when you miss the mark, you miss the goal, you miss the price.

God help me to get back to this message today. But maybe we should just let that sink in. In the next few minutes, we will just be going through God's Word and we're going to be looking at the word "father" because the Lord wants to take us "father" and "father". Right, and there's something about when God plans to do something, there is nothing that can stop it. Nothing at all.

Absolutely nothing. I'm just quickly going to share two stories with us before I go into quick words. First, King 1831 to 46, I read quickly and I'm reading from King James Version. "And Elijah said unto Haib, Get thee up, eat and drink, and there is a sound for there is a sound of abundance of rain." "So Haib went up and eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Camel, and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees."

"And he said to his servant, Go up now, look towards the sea, and he went up and looked, and there there is nothing." "And he said, Go again." Seven times the servant went, came back, and he came to pass at the seventh time that he said, "Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the sea, like the man's hand." And he said, "Go up, say unto here, prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not." And he came to pass that, "Meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds, and there was a great rain, and here brood and went to Jezreel."

And that's just one premise to lay there. And the next one I would quickly go to before we go into the word is the book of Genesis. And I will read also from chapter 13 and verse 14 to 15. And it says, "And the Lord said to Abraham, after that lot was separated from him, lift up now that eyes and look from the place where thou art. Northward, southward, eastward and westward.

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it to thee and I seed forever." And I quickly go to 15 verse 1 to 6 and I said, "After these things in 15, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, 'Fair not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding grade reward.' And Abraham said, 'Lord, what would thou give me? Seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this, Elisa of Damascus.' And Abraham said, 'Behold to me, thou has given me no seed and no one born in my house is mine here.' And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, 'This shall not to thine heir, but he shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine ear.' And he brought him forth abroad and said, 'Look now towards heaven and tell the stars if thou be able to number them.' And he said unto him, 'So shall thy seed be.' And he believed in the Lord and he was counted unto him for righteousness.

I don't know how many of us can look into these dots in here. And then if you look into all the lights here, and if you look up as well here, and you see the strings of lights, somewhat they are separated individually. How many of us found it convenient to count these lights? It's a real eye test, isn't it? How do you find it convenient to say, 'I can count all of these, I think the single sports will be about a thousand.' And this was a test that Brown was subjected to.

And don't forget, it does not even have one, just one of these dots. But it was said to him, 'Come forward, look upward, look forward, look to the side, look to the west, look to the east, look to the north, look behind you, look at the stars.' If you can count it, it says, 'So will thine ears be.' And at that point in time, Abraham does not have one. And that's what I'm saying to us this morning. We're going to be going further because we have to look as well. The first story.

On the hilltop, you see, fire had fallen from heaven, 450 prophets of barlard and silence before the story. Right? The people were on their faces, crying, "Is God the greatest miracle I've been done already?" But Elijah is not celebrating at that point in time. He's not resting on what had just happened.

He turned to Kigheab and said to him, "Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain." Understand that at this point in time rain had not fallen. For three years plus, there had not been rain. And Abraham said, "Get thee up, for there is a sound of abundance of rain." The sky was bright, the ground was cracked.

Elijah said, "I hear rain." In the midst of nothingness, somebody hears something. In the midst of an empty sky that naturally Abraham comes to, every morning when he looks up, he was brought out and he was told to look again. And he said, "I hear there's a sound of abundance of rain." He goes to the top of Camel, casts himself down and put his face behind his knee.

The posture of a man that is like giving birth, traveling in the spirit. And that is where Elijah was. How many of us will call forth rain today? And this rain is not typically the real or literally the rain that we're talking about. I don't know what rain you need to call forth.

I don't know what rain. I don't know what has been a drought for, it can be months, it can be years, but I don't know. But I've got news for you. There's a sound of abundance of rain. There's a sound of abundance of rain. And you see, this was something not born in the in the natural, but in the supernatural, the rain was born.

In the heart of Elijah, the rain was born. It's only about time it will show forth. It's a go up now, look to the sea. I want you to be an extension of my voice. Say to somebody beside you, go up and look. Oh, it's not convincing enough. Tell the person, go up and look.

They may have told you that this is the end of it, okay? That it's not going to turn to anything. You may have had too many, unfortunately, as emails, go up again and look. Check again. That's not the end of the story. The doctor may have given one diagnosis and they said that's exactly what it is.

And faith says go in the corner, put your face behind your knee, make some power available, go up again and look. Check it. That's not the end of the story. It does not end there. I don't know how many testimonies or how many wrong negative words and maybe that's why that foundation was laid.

I wasn't even connecting it until now. Maybe that voice was conflicting in you and it's telling you don't do it. You can't make it. You won't go through. But go up and look. And the sermon goes up. Look and don't forget. Faith at this particular point is not because it's been spoken to you and we said you are healed in Jesus name.

The fact that it's not done now is not going to reduce the power of God to do it when he would do it. Faith says keep believing. It is not the person who has laid hand that is the healer. It is the God who they have prayed to. So if we have prayed healing and you haven't seen it now, keep praying.

Don't stop. Keep believing. Don't stop. We are not one of the... So the believer's word is not because we have believed today and we say that God is not a magician. He builds your spirit. He builds your capacity so that when the healing comes, your heart can carry it.

It is not just for you, it's for us because someone will hear your story and they will be energized and they would believe because the healing is not for the person who has laid down to be glorified, it's for God. Oh God, I don't know what impossibility someone came here with today. I don't know what has been said or that makes it look like the first word that has been said by the name of Jesus as I lay my hands on this altar, I decree it is cancelled. I don't know. You may have been struggling with certain words, certain declarations, certain seeds sewn into your heart, but today we pray corporate anointing and we decree that that cloud is over in Jesus' name.

There's a lot words can do. The servant goes up and look and reports and he comes back and he said go up and he goes and say master there is nothing and Elijah was still there and he was still there. He didn't stop. Elijah didn't tell the servant you are faithless because I said go and he has come back to say no. Elijah knew that even the servant would be a beneficiary of the faith so the miracle is going to connect everyone when it's about to happen and Elijah said to him go again and he went.

Don't forget the servant was told to look at some point when you go the first time you look, you notice nothing. At the second time you start getting to look a bit deeper and Elijah said again go again the third time and he went and he said nothing. The faith in the servant as well was getting awakened not only to Hayab, to everyone around and for the sixth time he said go again and he went and he looked and said this servant there must be something maybe he's growing old, maybe something is wrong with Elijah and he said master this is the sixth time there is nothing and Elijah said for the second time for the seventh time go again and he went and behold he looked kindly and it looked like a hand in the cloud oh come on you may not see the sign now but go up again you it may look like there is no rain but go up again after a while a dew will drop it's the beginning of the miracle it says go again and by the time he came back he came back with a news that Elijah was waiting for a sign from God he said what did you see he said I saw it looked like the hand of a man in the cloud and then in Elijah knew that it's about to happen it's about to happen oh I don't know somebody may be at the seven time already that is about to happen you have sent multiple emails they have told you that no no application can go through it is not possible go up again and look somebody may have told you that contract will not fall through go again they may say the scholarship does not belong to you apply again don't stop don't forget stay like Elijah stay on the mountain keep praying but go and look again it's about to change the signs the clouds will change and you will start gathering in the cloud and it will become dark and the rays will fall the impossibility that you've been limited to constrained to is going to shifts it takes daring faith by human mind you get discouraged with little words of rejection by natural human mind you would say no more you say no they told me I'm not good enough and then you let it go but by faith no you stay in there quicken your faith build your muscle in the spirit and go again the sixth time report is the one word that wants to short-dive reprimands on the seventh trip it came down different reports and the Bible says the heaven was black with clouds and wind and there was great rain from the hand sized of a cloud to a heaven covering downpour and then it fused the whole sky.

The second story introduced Abraham to us. Abrams had nothing to show for the promise. Don't forget before this chapter God had given Abraham the promise. He was a friend of God. He relates with God one on one but no inheritance paper. And at this point in time Abraham was even dwelling in a foreign land not his home.

So there is no inheritance paper. Abraham hasn't gotten anything permanent to say this is yours. And God says something remarkable. God didn't come and say, "Abraham come out. Here are your documents. This land now belongs to you." He didn't give him inheritance paper.

So God didn't come out to say, "Abraham, this is a billion pounds. Now you can live all your life in fun." No, he didn't. I mean, I hope that I've loved that. Such a miracle. And God knocks the door and says, "Hello, my son. Here's a million pounds. Go ahead and enjoy life."

And I will say, "Oh, thank you, God. Let's go have a cup of tea together." But God told Abraham something remarkable. He said, "Come." And he brought Abraham out. He said, "Leave top down eyes and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, eastward and westward, for all the land which thou see."

Don't forget, this is a foreign land. And God was saying, "The land which you see, okay, to thee I will give you and to your seed forever." When God gives a promise, it is always beyond you. It's heavy. And that's why you need faith to be ate and bring it to life.

Don't forget, faith is a substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. Abraham had not seen the promise. Abraham had heard it. It's been given to him, but he said, "Come, look forward, look backward, look sideways, look." So typically, God was stressing Abraham to look all around, but he's saying, "Look all through the earth because it covers every."

He said, "Everywhere you see, I will give to you and to your seeds forever." What a huge promise. And this is where faith, Abraham did endowed God and God, and the Bible says it was counted unto him for righteousness, even when he had not seen. Because by rational mindset, you want to ask God, how would you give me? How?

Am I going to take someone else's land in a foreign land? I said, "Get out of your land." God has said his mind. But that's not typically what God was saying. He said, "Look, as far as your eyes can see, that's the point to pick here, that's yours." And later God took him to another place in the other story we read and he brings him outside the tent at night.

He said, "Look now to heaven and tell the stars if they'll be able to number them." And that's the exercise we tried, that if you can number all of this, all right, he said, "And add, so shall thy seeds be." So think about this with me. Abraham was told to count something that he cannot count. He was told to release something he does not yet have, not one child.

But God was pointing at him saying that that's how many descendants you will have. So what did Abraham do? He doesn't say he drew up a plan or waited for proof. He says he believed in God. How many of us would believe God today? The beginning of birthing the promise is by believing.

A lot of promises may have been said to you that even in the word of God you would have seen, the beginning of it is believing. Now neither the servant nor Abraham received manifestation on the first look, remember? The servant in the Elijah story didn't see the hand. Abraham in the first story did not also see the seeds. He was to imagine it.

He said, "Look, he was to believe in it for it to be birthed in his mind." As far as your eyes can see, by the way, that's the title of the message. I didn't establish that. Apologies for that. And Jesus used also this illustration about the monster's seed faith.

And he said, "The smallest picture," which is, of course, you know what the smallest, the monster's seed is. And he said, "If you have faith as a grain of a monster's seed, you shall say unto this mountain, 'Remove ends to yonder place and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you.'" The first point is that faith is not measured by its size, but by the size of what is aimed at. Faith is not measured by its size. The size of what is made is, the monster's seed is one of the stories, the smallest there is. And Jesus said so himself, "It does not have the monster seed in itself does not have power to move the mountain, because it's impossible for a tiny seed and a mountain by human mind for that to move it, but that is not to say that it is the monster seed that would move the mountain."

So what he's saying, it does not move a mountain because of its seed, it moves the mountain because it's planted towards a big goat who can move it. Oh, you don't get it. I may be a small boy, but I've got a big goat. So there's a little thing that my strength can do, but there's a lot that my God can do. And so that's why I do not go in my small boy nature, because I've got backing.

The confidence we have as a believer to step out daily is because we've got a strength of God in us. And so we can say this mountain, "Be thou removed," and it will be removed. And that is the seed that Jesus was talking about. Say to somebody, "You may be small, but you've got a big good." Oh, my brother, you may be small, but you've got a big good.

And that's why when the Bible says, "When the enemy comes like a flood," and it says, "The Lord will raise a standard." It is not you, you cannot raise that standard, because the flood can overtake a Lord, but God would raise a standard, and then it comes again that way. God raises a standard, and you are above. So stop trying to figure it all out, stay in faith, because when you try so much, you will be worried out, you will get tired. There's a loss that faith can do.

Your power will fail in it if you try. The second point today, just for us to note, is that faith walks underground before it walks above ground. You see the seed that is also an example is that it doesn't germinate in the daylight for many of us who plant right. You know that once you put that seed in, it is covered, it is shielded, it is watered and gradually it starts growing from within. It establishes a roots, it gets it nutrient from the soil that you have manured and that you have watered and before you know it, while the ice is not seen, when you least expect, it starts sprouting.

And this is what faith does. And so that's why I said when the water has been given to you, do not forget, do not get discouraged because it may not show now, but it's about time at some point in time, the seventh report will come and you will see that cloud and it would come out. Don't give up. It's like a seed. They may have spoken healing.

Prayers of healing may have gone out to you and you're wondering when will this healing come? Don't give up. Keep the faith alive. Keep believing in it. It's like a seed. Keep watering it. And how do you water it? Wake up every morning and declare the word of God.

I am healed by the strength of God. I am healed. I am healed in Jesus' name. By his stripes I am healed and I'm made whole. You may have been praying it for one year, but don't forget it's a seed. It is growing inside. It's going to come out. Don't give up.

And when that healing comes, it becomes beneficial not only to you but to all because at the point when the plants come in, you start seeing people appreciating it. Oh my God, your plant is lovely, but you do not know when you were watering it. They were not there when it was growing from within, but everyone can now see the miracle. And so Abraham's seed took decades. The southern slough took seven trips to the mountain.

So don't panic because your miracle is still underground. Don't despise your miracle, it's going to happen. Point three, speak. Faith speaks before it has full evidence. And a Paul said to Abraham, God, that God called those things that be not as though they were.

Elijah also said, I hear the abundance of rain. Faith will first and foremost speak before the evidence. It says, I hear the abundance of rain. By logical mindset, everyone around looking at a drought, imagine the heat wave that we had. A few days ago, imagine a country going through that for three and a half years.

Water dried up. The ground already cracked. And you find one man coming to say, "I hear rain coming." Everyone would turn to him and like, "Are you... is everything well?" But faith speaks before evidence and faith takes boldness. And so that's why we should not get to the Gen Z, Christian world, where you are afraid to speak faith because you're wondering, you think the responsibility of the reality of that faith is on you.

It's not on you. We've limited the principles of belief to the level where I do not want to hurt his feelings or his feelings. God has said, "Pray for the healing." And you have said, "No, I don't. What if that healing doesn't happen?" It's not your business.

He has given you a responsibility. Pray, pray and believe. You are not the healer. God is. Don't feel bad and you say, "I prayed, but I didn't see it. It's not you that bring results." You will not become deputy God. So why do you then fear? And I've seen that happens across cultures and we are now afraid as believers and God has said, "Release a particular word of faith and you are scared.

What if they say I'm a liar? God cannot lie, but man can. But when God has said, "See it, see it." One thing he expects from you when you say believe it. Don't leave the mountain like Elijah. Stay there. Say it, believe it, it will happen. Faith takes boldness.

The very last point, faith keeps looking after the first nothing. After the first nothing, faith will not stop. Faith is still working. Don't forget for the servants, if Abraham was faith and if Elijah rather, if Elijah was being human and not in faith, after the first nothing, Elijah would start second guessing himself and like, I think it was my word, not God's word. Because the servant went the first time and he said, what did you say?

And he said, master, I saw nothing, but faith was still working. And Elijah knew that faith was working, that if God has said it, he will do it. So if God has said you will get the scholarship, he will do it. If he has said you will cross that path and get the job, he will do it. If he has said that you will break that barrier in your family, he will do it.

If that family pattern will stop with you, he will do it. If God has said you will raise godly children, he will do it. Step believing. And the servant went six times, the nothings didn't stop Elijah. In fact, if he had stopped Elijah, the nothing didn't stop God because it was God that said to him, "I see, I hear an abundance of rain."

And Elijah first believed, stayed on it and by the seventh report, something else changed. I don't know who is expecting something to change. Oh my God, something is about to change. You will hear the abundance of rain that will be cracking the sound, there will be a shaking and your miracles will come. Don't stop believing.

I'm speaking to myself as well this morning. We need to energize our faith. We need to get to that level as believers where there are things that we can pray and stay on the mountain with God and do not flicker. Understand that God is either you do it or you do it. There is no option.

I know somewhere in your life God has already said, "Look, maybe over your family, your health, finances, ministry, it may even be your marriage or future." And so, we're along the line, you've gotten so many nothing reports that at that point in time, you've put a stop to believing. Don't file in that report as your final report. No, don't. Maybe today all you've got is a hand-sized cloud, just like that servant.

That energizes the servant and afterwards the cloud change fully. One testimony from someone else, similar breakthrough, a small opening at work, small softening in relationship. Don't call it nothing. Don't call it nothing. There are signs in there.

Just because it isn't yet a downpour does not mean that hand-sized cloud would not bring a torrential rain. I'd like you to ask yourself within your hearts, what have I stopped watching out for? What promise of God have I stopped believing in? I'd like the band to come up please. After the third and the fourth Luke,