Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker begins by praising and worshiping God, acknowledging His greatness and power. They ask God to speak to them and open their hearts to receive His word. They express gratitude for what God has done and what He will continue to do. The speaker then introduces the topic of looking unto Jesus and emphasizes the importance of practical steps in doing so. They explain that looking unto Jesus goes beyond merely setting our eyes on Him, and that our hope and salvation should not be placed in man, but in Jesus alone. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about God using unexpected means to provide for someone in need. They highlight the need to trust in God and not in human beings. The speaker ends by quoting a passage from Psalm 60, emphasizing that the help of man is useless compared to the help of God. They encourage listeners to seek help from God and not rely solely on human assistance. A saint of days, the I am that I am, the one who is, the one who was, the one who is going to be forever, the one who is to come. Father we worship and bless your holy name, Father we exalt you Lord, give you the glory, for you are great and mighty, you are mighty in battle. You are the defender of the defenseless, our defender, our hope, our salvation. You are our rock, Father you are our strength, we give you the glory Father, for there is no one like you. In heaven and on earth there is none compared to you, there is no God beside you. You reign supreme, you reign mighty, you are the everlasting Father. At your word oh Lord the whole heart trembles, we worship you King of Glory. In Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Let us pray and tell the Lord and say Father, speak to me this morning, I want to hear you speak to my heart in the mighty name of Jesus. Tell it to the Lord, that the Lord should speak. Speak your word to us mighty Father, speak your word to our heart this morning. We have opened our heart up unto you, to receive from you mighty God. Speak to us Father, speak to us Lord Jesus, thank you mighty Father. In Jesus mighty name we have prayed, that he will give you the glory, for you alone is God and there is no one like you. You are the everlasting Father, the ever faithful friend, the ever faithful King, the ever faithful Lord. We say thank you Lord in the mighty name of Jesus. That we are here again this Sunday, we thank you for what you have begun to do. In all these ministrations, in all the things we have been doing in this service, that we thank you for what you have done. Thank you for what you are going to do in this one. We give you the glory in the name of Jesus, that our hearts are opened unto you. Speak to us expressly in the mighty name of Jesus and let Christ alone be glorified. Thank you Lord because you have answered. In Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Praise the Lord, praise the living Jesus. Today we will be continuing with what we started three weeks ago, looking up to Jesus. I believe that very soon we will go back to the series we were treating before. But this is still being pressed upon my spirit that we should still look into it. And I remember, I don't know how they used to say it now, but there is something they say, that if something is done repeatedly, that is when it sticks to the mind. So when the Lord is repeating this to us, He wants it to stay with us so that through this period that we are going through in this nation, we will always remember to look unto Jesus and He is the one who is going to deliver us. And I pray that He will send deliverance to us in the mighty name of Jesus. In today's part of this series we will be looking at practical steps to looking unto Jesus. Practical steps. You know we have talked about what looking unto Jesus actually meant, but we have not really talked about the practical steps to look unto Jesus. Today we will be looking at taking the practical steps. Though I pick from all those things we have discussed before because there are some practical steps in them, but I put them together today so that we can know how we can look unto the Lord Jesus. Praise the Lord. So there are some vital ingredients that are necessary if we are to focus our gaze on Jesus. There are some things that must be in place in our hearts. There are some things that must be in place in our life. Because looking unto Jesus Christ goes beyond just setting our eyes on Him. It is more than watching a football match or more than looking at the image of Jesus on the wall. I have heard of testimonies of people who pray, maybe they put their hands also on the image of Jesus or image of our Father in the Lord and they receive healing in their body or they got answers to their prayers. If the Lord performs miracles that way, I don't say we should get a calendar and then we idolize that calendar. It is not the way of the Lord, but the Lord can sometimes in His mercy come to that low level of mankind because He realizes that this person cannot go beyond this. So He will just come to come and help. But with the knowledge that we are getting from the Word of God, we know that looking unto Jesus goes beyond just looking at the picture of Jesus on the wall or any other human being. It goes beyond that. So we are going to look at what it means actually to look at Jesus. How do we look at Jesus? How do we look at Jesus? The practical steps to seeing Jesus in the situations that may be before us. So I said we look unto Jesus when we look away from man. That is the first step we take. We look away from man. Now I explained this, I said this in one of the series maybe two weeks ago. I said when we are looking unto Jesus, we take away our gaze from man. That does not mean that man cannot be of help to us. That does not mean that we despise man. That does not mean that we just ridicule or we disregard them. We don't disregard people. God, we still use man to be a blessing to us. But what looking unto Jesus means is that our hope, our salvation, we don't hang it on a man. Do you get it? We still keep relationship with men around us. We still keep friendship with them. If there is a friend or a colleague that can help us in certain situations, we still go to them and ask for help. Trusting God that He will use them. Praise the Lord. But our hope, our assurance of salvation, of deliverance, of safety does not hang on man. That is the first step. You take your assurance of salvation away from your fellow man and put it on Jesus. Like I used to tell people, Jesus, we still use man. But it is Him who determines who among men that He will use. It might not be the person you are looking unto. It might not be the person you are expecting to be of help to you. God can send somebody from a far journey. I was listening to one of the songs that Bola Red sang during her 50th anniversary on the stage. She said she was...I think she borrowed money to roof her house or something. And then the person is now on her neck to return the money. And she did not have anything. She said she went to the studio to go and record that particular song. And she was weeping as she was singing that song in the studio. And then suddenly she got a knock on the studio door. The studio we have, an inner room, I don't know what they call them, that is sealed from noises. So somebody knocked that door. And she opened and it was one of the crew of the studio. And the man told her that somebody came and gave her a gift. The man mentioned her name and asked that this gift should be handed over to her. So she collected the gift and went out to go and look for the man to appreciate the man. And by the time she stepped out, even the people who collected the gift and everybody could not see the man again. They went out, they searched everywhere. They asked the neighbors, did they see any man that walked in. They said nobody ever parked this place for some minutes now. So it dawned on her that it was an angel that the Lord had sent. And by the time she opened the envelope, it was dollars that was in the envelope. And by the time she converted, it was the exact amount she needed to pay her debts. So God is the one who sent that angel. And He can send man, He can send man, He can choose. When they were asking Peter about the tax of his master and of himself, He told them, He said we don't pay tax. But he later went to Jesus and Jesus Christ said, From who do you expect them to collect tax? Is it from strangers or from their own citizens? Peter said it is from strangers. Since they are strangers, they are not Romans, then we need to pay tax to them. So He told them, go to the sea and the first fish you will catch, the money, coins you find in its mouth, give it to them and pay. God used fish. So God can choose any object as a means of communicating the deliverance to us. He can even use our very parents, our siblings, our uncles, our friends, anyone. But our assurance does not hang on these people. It hangs on God. In Psalm 60, Psalm 60 verse 9, I read from verse 9 to verse 12. Psalm 60 from verse 9, it says, Who will bring me to the strong city? Who will lead me to Adam? This is a prayer. David went to a battle. He went to the battle against the Sidonians. And the battle was now against him. He was losing in this battle and he cried to God. And in this chapter of Psalm 60, it is a prayer or a cry of David to God. And in verse 9, it says, Who will bring me to the strong city? And who will lead me to Adam? Is it not you, O God, who cast us off? And you, O God, who did not go out with Ahamish? If God did not go out with a man, that man will continue to fail. When Moses was leading the children of Israel, the Lord was with him. When the Israelites sinned and God said, I am no more going to go with you. I am going to give you an angel who is going to lead you. Moses said, if your presence will not lead us, that is Exodus chapter 33. If your presence will not lead us, we are not leaving this place. Because Moses knows the power and the efficacy of the presence of God. And David said, we are losing in this battle. Because you did not go with us. That means, if God is by our side, who can be against us? Now let's read in verse 11, it says, Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless. Now the normal way of things in the days of David, and it still happens in our days too, is that when you are going for a battle, and you know that the nation you are going against is mightier than you, you go and hire the army of another mighty nation. And you go with your gold, your jewelry, and anything that that nation may demand. And you give it to them. Then they will send their army to join your own troop to fight that nation. And then you cannot overcome. But David never did that. What did he do? He went back to God. He said, give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless. I know I can go to another nation and ask for help. But I have come to you because the help of man will be useless. If God still did not go with you, if you hire the greatest army, you will still fail. Today, the nations, for example Ukraine, is getting the support of different European nations and even American nations. And yet they are still in battle. They are not having an upper hand against the Russians. Russians who are getting support from China and some other nations. But when they started that battle, I said it is only the person whose God is behind that will win this battle. So as men, if we are looking unto Jesus, it means that we are looking away from man, and we are putting our gaze and our hope on God. Verse 12, the last verse we are going to consider in that chapter of Psalm 60, it says, through God we will do valiantly. For it is He who shall tread down our enemies. The hardship in the nation presently, it is only God that can tread it down for us. The disappointment or failure that we may be expressing in our life, it is only God that can tread it down for us. If God will not do anything, then we cannot achieve anything. But if the Lord is on our side, we will go far. And one way to have God on our side is to put our gaze on Him, to look unto Jesus. And one of the ways, as I have said, is to look away from man. Then the second step, after looking away from man, is to look with the eyes of faith. We look with the eyes of faith. How can we receive anything from Him whom we cannot behold with the eyes of the flesh? God, we have not seen Him. Has anyone seen Jesus here in the Nasherah? No. Some of us may have seen Him in our dreams or in visions or in any other ways. But physically, like you are seeing me now, we have not seen Jesus. Then how can we look upon a man whom we cannot see with our tangible eyes? We look at Him with the eyes of faith. Or who among us, ok, I have said that, who among us has seen Jesus in the Nasherah before? 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7 It says, For we walk by feet and not by sight. You know, if we are to walk, a man that is walking must be a man that is seeing. Because you are taking step based on the sight that you have. The knowledge of your environment. And you only get that knowledge of the environment by the eyes that you are looking, using to see the environment. In the same way, if you are going to walk by feet, there is the eyes of the feet by which you are going to see your environment. And what step and what step not to take. So if we are walking by feet, when we walk by feet, we walk seeing with the eyes of the feet. We are walking seeing with the eyes of the feet. We have an inner eye in us, the eyes of feet. Then how do we see with the eyes of feet? How do we see with the eyes of feet? Just like the natural heights. If you enter into a dark room, do you know that you cannot see anything? For example, I remember one of the stories of our Father and the Lord. He said, during the early days in the redemption camp, he went into the bush to pray as is custom. So as he was going, he just entered, I think it was still a little bit bright then, when he entered into the bush. By the time he was through, it was around 10 or 11 in the night and it was dark. No star, no moon in the sky. So it was all bush. He said he did not know how he got there again. He could not see which path he followed down to that place. So he was lost in the forest and he said he prayed to God that God would close his eyes and say, God, please show me the way home. And he said, by the time he opened the eyes, a bright moon had appeared and he was able to navigate his way back home. God sent a light. If our eyes are not illuminated, we cannot see where we are going in the physical sense. Also in the spiritual, if our eyes of feet are not illuminated, we cannot behold Jesus. We cannot see the glory of Jesus. If our eyes are not illuminated. Now, I put some Bible passages here. 2 Corinthians, let us open. Because we are going to take a little, read some verses there. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, we start reading from verse 13. 2 Corinthians 3, we start reading from verse 13. Because before I read, I want to explain this. This is a simple trick that I just mentioned. It is the same trick that the devil is using to put many people in darkness, in captivity. He will not allow the light of God to shine upon their hearts. Because if any man will see the light of God, they will turn to God. Praise the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 13. Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. The minds of the children of Israel were blinded. For unto this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament. Because the veil is only taking away in Christ. The Hebrews did not accept Jesus as the Messiah. They could not focus on Jesus as their Messiah. Even though the Old Testament has been pointing to Him that this is the Messiah. John the Baptist had pointed to Him that this is the Lamb of God. But because their eyes were blinded, verse 14 says, but their minds were blinded. Because they were blinded, they could not see the light on the face of Jesus. So if an eye is blind, the eye of faith, if it is blind, it cannot look upon Jesus. Let's read on verse 15. It says, but even to this day, when Moses is raped, a veil still lies on their hearts. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. The children of Israel were not able to gaze and see the glory of the Lord. They were not able to look unto Jesus because they were blinded in the Spirit. But Paul says in verse 18, he says, but we that have our sight, he says, but we with unveiled faces, the veil has been removed from our hearts and now we can see. It is when we saw Jesus that our heart was drawn to Him that we began to desire Him, that we began to look unto Him. It is because of the veil of darkness. The devil put a veil on every man, every natural man, every unregenerated man. You see them living the way they are living, it is because there is a veil on their heart. If you speak the word of God to them, it will just enter and go out again. Why? Because they could not see the light that that word is bringing to them. There is a veil upon the heights of their faith. But because we have Jesus, he says, the veil is only taking away in Jesus. So because the veil has been taken away, we can now see the glory of the Lord. And now that we can see the glory of the Lord, we can put our focus on Him. We can look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Let us flip our Bible to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 from verse 3. It says, but even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The gospel of Christ, if it is veiled, it is only veiled to those who are perishing. Those who did not accept Jesus, the gospel is veiled to them. But for us who are in Christ, the gospel is not veiled. It says, whose mind the God of this age hath blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them. The gospel of God brings the light of Christ. But if the veil is not taken from the heights of faith, no man will see that light. No matter how powerful you preach a gospel, if the veil is not lifted from the heart of that man, he will not see the light that is shining upon him. When we are preaching, like I am preaching right now, it is a light that is radiating from me. I remember I read the book of a man that the Lord opened his eyes. And as a preacher was preaching, he said he saw an angel pouring fire upon him. So as he was preaching, the fire was being distributed. Fire and light works together. You cannot separate light from fire, and you cannot separate fire from light. Wherever there is fire, there is light, there is brightness. And now, the word of God comes with fire, and it comes with light. But anyone whose face the devil has viewed, will not see that light. I remember in S.S. 1 or S.S. 2, we are taught about the gamma rays, all this ultraviolet light, what is it, there is a topic for it, we call it then, radiation. They say that alpha ray cannot penetrate through a lead box. So if you put an electroactive element in a lead box, the electroactive element will be preserved within that lead box, because the ray cannot escape. And the danger that ray can pose to a man will be kept within that box. But if that box has a little puncture, then the ray will go out through that little hole, and begin to go out and escape into there. And then that radioactive element will begin to drop half, that's what is called the half-life, it will begin to drop in another half until it vanishes away. Now that lead box is the veil that covers the height. No matter, the electroactive element is a very powerful element, an unstable element, and very active. If the body of a human being is exposed to it, it can cause danger to the health of the person. The first person that discovered the electroactive element, died of the effect of that radiation, because she did not know the danger. She just discovered that this is an unstable element emitting ray, and the emission can be used to do different things. So she was so much exposed, that after a few years, she contracted different diseases and died. Then scientists realized that that emission was dangerous. So if you see any man walking in an electroactive element company, for example a nuclear weapon company, or a nuclear power company, they put on suits. That suit is made of material that will not allow electromagnetic radiation to penetrate through. So their body will be preserved. So there is such a suit that the devil has put on every unregenerated man. And no matter the light of the gospel that eats them, they will not see. And what the spirit of God does in the series that we left, which we are still going to return to, the spirit about man. What the spirit of God does, is to puncture a hole into the heart of man. So that when you are preaching to somebody, that is the reason why before you go out to evangelize, you pray that God should go ahead of you. Because if the Lord does not go ahead of you, whoever you are speaking to, the world will just be flying through. But if the Holy Spirit has gone ahead, and begins to puncture a hole in the heart of that man, the world will begin to arrest him. Because that light will begin to enter into his heart, and he will begin to see the glory of God. In the same way, if we are to put our full focus on Jesus, if we are to look on Jesus, we must have unveiled eyes. That means we must see Jesus for who he is. Verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 4 says, For we do not preach ourselves, but we preach Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your born servant for Jesus. Verse 6 where we are going to stop in that chapter. It is for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. It is God who commanded light to shine. And that light is shining in our hearts. So the light of God that is shining in our hearts is what brought the love of Jesus to us. It drew us to Jesus. He said that light is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. So that light shines upon Jesus. So when the light is shining, it makes us to see Jesus in the picture of who he is. But we are still seen darkly like in a mirror. We have not really known who Jesus is. Even though the image of Jesus that we have painted in our hearts presently is a glorious God. But by the day the Lord will appear in the sky. Or he will give us the privilege to see him in the spirit. We see the ineffable glory that surrounds Jesus. You know the scripture says that God lives in light unapproachable. Do you know what that means? The place where God dwells, the light that emits from that place, no man can approach. No one can still look at the sun for one or two seconds. You cannot gaze into the sun when it is brightest. How much more the God who created the sun. And I wish we have a projector. Very soon by the grace of God we will get one. The universe is so large. And the scientists could not calculate distance between one object to another object in kilometers. They calculated with the light speed. And I don't have time to explain the light speed because of our time. But if a light, a torch that is lit, and the torch that has the power to go around the hearts. It will go around this world eight times in one second. Do you get the, I have the idea of the speed I'm talking about. You know St. Paul, the fastest man on earth, I don't know if anybody has broken his record, run 100 meters in less than 9 seconds or so. Maybe 9 seconds or so. That is the fastest man. So he cannot run from here. Before he takes a step, a second has almost gone. But a light will travel around the heart. The heart is over 64,000 kilometers in circumference. Kilometers. The light will travel around the heart eight times within a second. That is the speed of light. And now the distance between this place and the moon. Light will travel to the moon in under eight minutes. Under eight minutes. Is it eight minutes now? Then the sun, I think the sun is eight minutes. So the sun that is hitting this earth presently, left the sun eight minutes ago. But now if man will build a machine to travel, we cannot get to the sun. Maybe in this year. We sent a probe to Mars in August. I mean in America, the NASA people. They sent a probe to Mars in August 2022. It was February or March 2023 last year when the probe got there. Just Mars. Mars is still very close. Now this is just our own solar system. Not to talk of the other galaxies. The next galaxy next to our own galaxy, they say it is in billions of light years. I don't know if you are getting the picture. I'm trying to explain how far and unapproachable our God is. The next galaxy to us from here, if you are to travel from here to the next galaxy, if Adam, when God created him and put him in a machine that could travel at the speed of light and told him to be going to the next galaxy, by now he has not reached 1%, covered 1% of that journey 6,000 years ago. And our God is farther from that place. He dwells in light unapproachable. He redeemed that light for us to see him. And that is a dimmed light that we are seeing in our hearts when we receive the gospel of Christ. But we are only seeing him darkly in the mirror. But in a few years to come, when the Lord will appear in his glory, we see him for who he is. And then all fear will dissolve. But that same dimmed light is enough for us to put our focus on him and to trust him that he is able to deliver us from every situation that we may be going through. Praise the Lord. Romans chapter 10 verse 17 says, Then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. At your eyes of faith, the light cannot shine upon it until it hears. The way to shine the light of God upon our hearts, upon our eyes of faith, is by hearing. Now we are hearing. And that is the reason I believe the Lord is insisting that we repeat this through King unto Jesus this three times. Because the more you hear, the greater the light that is shining upon you. And when you begin to get more insight, insight is enlightenment. A light is shining upon you. And you are now seeing Jesus clearly in the greater light of who he is. And you are now able to trust him the more that this God is able to deliver. And that is just what God requires from us, our faith. If we have grown so much to be able to believe that Jesus is able to help me, he will send help to you. Praise the Lord. Matthew chapter 13, Jesus in verse 15, Jesus said, For the eyes of these people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes have been closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and tongue, so that I should heal them. Jesus is the one speaking. He said, Their ears are dull, and their eyes are closed. These are the two gates through which the light of Christ can shine into the heart of man. And for that heart to be illuminated and the eyes of faith to see, the ears, our physical ears, and our physical eyes are the gates. And the devil is using the same trick. If you tune to your radio today, you will hear bad news everywhere. They have special programs for bad news. It's been a long time I've listened to them now. They call different names. And what they disseminate is every bad, bad, bad, evil, evil thing that is happening in the world, that is happening in our environment. And some people are so tuned to those programs that their mind, those programs have veiled their mind from seeing Jesus. They are now seeing evil as bigger than God. And that is the trick of the devil. What are you opening your eyes and your ears to? It will either dim the light of Christ that is in you, or enlighten it even more. We need to shut our ears to things that will not glorify Christ. We need to shut our eyes to things that will not see Jesus. Jesus Christ said, He said, For the eyes of these people have grown dull, Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes are closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, lest they should understand. Because when you see and you hear, you will understand. And when you understand, you will turn. When the light of Christ shines upon your heart, definitely you will turn. There is no hardened heart that will receive the light of Christ and not turn. A heart is hard because it is veiled. He said, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them. If our heart is not turning to Jesus, when our eyes of faith is looking on Him, it cannot heal us. We cannot receive from Him. This is the reason He is telling us to keep focusing. Look unto me, look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Because it is as we look that we are transformed. If we are not looking to Jesus, we remain who we are. As a matter of fact, we are getting worse. Because the devil will make sure that we are not moving forward. Therefore, our hearts are to be illuminated. Now, the next step, after looking unto Jesus with the eyes of faith, we have two, three steps to go. Don't worry, we will round up very soon. It is to believe He is able. The other ones are short. It is to believe He is able. You know, you take away your gaze, your faith from man. You take away your trust from man and put it on Jesus. Then you look on Jesus with the eyes of faith. Then having looked on Jesus and seen Jesus, you believe He is able. Jesus asked the man, Am I able to deliver? He said, You are able. He will heal me. You can heal me if you will. Jesus Christ said, I am willing. Be thou healed. If you will see Jesus. That man was seeing Jesus. But seeing Jesus was not enough. The man brought his son to the disciples to cast the demons of epilepsy from him. As they were praying, the disciples could not do so. And Jesus came. And when he saw Jesus, his face turned to Jesus. And he ran to Jesus and said, Jesus, your disciples have not been able to cast these demons out. If you can, please cast it out for me. And Jesus Christ said, If I am able. He said, All things are possible to them that believe. You must believe that He is able. And if you believe that He is able, you will see His action in your life. He will take the necessary step to deliver. The song says, He is able. Abordantly able. To deliver. And to save. He is able. Abordantly able. To deliver those who trust in Him. We must believe that He is able. Let's open to Mark chapter 5. We look at the woman with the issue of blood. Mark chapter 5. From verse 25. Mark 5 from verse 25. It is now a certain woman had the flu of blood for twelve years. And had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better. But rather grew worse. She had been turning to man, to doctors, and it is not bad. But these doctors were not able to help her. Instead, her case was growing worse. Now 27. When she had. You see now what brought the light of Jesus to her. She had. When she had the light shone upon her heart. When she heard about Jesus. She came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. For she said, If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well. Verse 29 where we are going to stop. Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up. And she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. Let us process the steps she took. Number one, she had. She had. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. Somebody told her that there is a man in the street. There is a man in town. His name is Jesus. He has been healing several different kinds of diseases. Without medical equipment. If you will go to Him, He will also heal you. She had. Then she believed. How did I know that she believed? Verse 28 says, She said in her heart. She said, If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well. She had believed that Jesus is able. But if I will touch Him, I will receive that ability from Him. I will receive that power from Him to be made whole. So she had. And then she believed. So when we are looking on Jesus. Then we must believe that He is able to deliver. The next step after looking on Jesus. And believing He is able. Is to pray to Him for help. Pray. Call to Jesus. He said ask and it shall be given. Many times the Lord Jesus is standing beside us. Waiting for us to call to Him for help. If we do not open our mouth and cry to Jesus. And say Lord Jesus help me. He will be there beside us and He will not do anything. Because He has two doors to ask. He says in Luke 11. And He said to them. Which of you have a friend and go to him at midnight. I am reading verse 5. At midnight and say to him. Friend lend me three loose. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey. And I have nothing to say before him. Verse 7. And he will answer from within and say. Do not trouble me. The door is now shut. And my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. Verse 8. I say to you. Though he will not rise and give to him. Because he is his friend. He may not give to him because he is his friend. Yet because of his persistency. Of his prayers. He will rise and give him as many as he needs. This is a parable Jesus used to explain. The importance of we asking from Him. If we know that He is able. Then ask. And don't just ask once. We talked about the repetition of prayers. Repetition of prayers is not. I ask for bread this morning. And in the next two hours. I go back and say Lord Jesus give me bread. In the next one hour I go back to Jesus and say. Father give me bread. That is not repetition of prayer. That is not what Jesus meant by repetition of prayer. That is persistency in prayers. You continue to ask until you receive. You continue to pray until you have received. That same Luke chapter 18. Verse 7. Jesus is given in that parable. And shall God not avenge His own. This is the parable of the widow and the judge. And shall God not avenge His own illet. Who cry out day and night to Him. Though He bears long with them. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of Man comes. We literally find faith on heart. Jesus is likening our faith to our persistency in prayers. And what does this place mean? This place is a topic that we should treat on a Sunday. Someone on its own. But I will just explain in nutshell. Jesus is saying when you pray. And your prayer is not yet answered. Come back to me in prayers. That is what He is saying in a nutshell. If you are asking something from me. And you have not received it. Come back to me again and ask. How do you know that you have received? Number 1. You know that you have received. When you have the peace that comes from God. Into your heart. A peace will come. And a confidence that this thing you are asking for. Is already done. That is one way. Another way is when you have it tangibly. I will just limit it to those 2. So until you have that peace. That assurance that this prayer. Even if you have not received it. But there is a witness within me. That is telling me that it is answered. Don't stop requesting. Continue to pray in prayers. Until that assurance hits your heart. That these prayers stop. I remember when I was in Lagos. I was praying concerning a particular matter. I will pray and pray. And I prayed for almost a month. And it came to a time. And anytime I go down my knees to pray. I will just add within me. It is already done. And prayer points will just cease. Then I knew. When it happened 3 times. I could not pray about that matter again. But what I kept hearing within my spirit was. It is already done. I have done it. Even though I have not seen it. I just stopped praying. And I began to appreciate God for it. You know I don't go to him and say. Father give me again. Then I began to say. Father I thank you because what I have asked. You have given it to me. And I am going to receive the manifestation. I began to appreciate him for it. And in just less than a month. That thing just appeared. So that is what it means to be persistent in prayer. So when you are looking on to Jesus. To help in this situation. That we have found ourselves in Nigeria. We continue to tell God. God help me. To overcome the stress that is in the city. Help me to overcome the situation. Help me to live above the circumstances of this nation. Pray until you have the assurance in your spirit. And once you have that assurance. Or you are now seeing it tangibly. Do not stop praying. Then the last point. The last point. I mean the last step. Is wait for him. When you have prayed. And you have received the assurance. That your prayers have been answered. You may not have received it tangibly. Because many times when we pray to God. And God has done what we are asking for. We don't receive it immediately. Some people you are praying for healing. You have received the healing. But the healing is yet to materialize. It is not that you have not received it. That is not what it means. But you need to wait. That is the last step. In focusing on Jesus. Wait on him. This is the most. This is the part most Christians find most difficult. Waiting on God. Waiting for God to act. Now man. Due to the fall. We have been so fashioned. In a way or in a manner. That we want something. And we want it now. Just try it in the little children. If a child tells you. Mommy I need biscuits. And the place you are is not a place you can get biscuits for him. And you told him okay I am going to buy you a biscuit. In the next 5 seconds. He will come back and say. Mommy I need biscuits. He wants it and he wants it now. That is the nature of man. So there is a lot of impatience in man. A lot of impatience. And when we are focusing on Jesus. And we are looking on to Jesus. We need to look on to him in patience. Because by the time he has assured us. That I am going to step through for you. Then you need to wait patiently for him. Psalm 62 which will be the last Bible passage we are going to read. Psalm 62 verse 5. It says. My soul waits silently for God alone. For my expectation is from him. My soul waits silently for God alone. For my expectation is from him. My expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength. And my refuge is in God. It says God is my defense. I will not be moved. He is my salvation. He is my glory. He is the rock of my strength. He said my soul waits silently for God. When God has given us the assurance of the things we are requesting. We need to learn to wait for him. And many times God will purposely cause us to wait. Because it is part of the judicial discipline that he gives to his children. He disciplines us to have patience. Because he himself is the God of patience. You know if God has not been patient with us. The life we have lived before we gave our life to Jesus. He would have killed us. If he had been an impatient God. When Adam sinned he would have just destroyed the whole mankind. Human race. But because of his patience and his long suffering. He kept to endure and endure. And today you and I are in Christ. And he has prepared a place for us in his kingdom. So he also wants to train us to be a patient side of his. So that is the last step that we need to take in looking on to Jesus. Waiting patiently for him. And as we wait patiently for him. We begin to see him working in our favor. In the mighty name of Jesus. So in conclusion or in summary. Looking on to Jesus. Practical steps to looking on to Jesus. Number 1. We take our eyes away from man. That is we don't ask man for help. But your assurance or your satisfaction does not rest on him. So if he disappoints you are not offended. Because you are not even looking up to him. You are looking up to God. God can use him and he can use somebody else. Number 2. You look to him, to Jesus with the eyes of faith. We don't look at the physical calendar with our carnal eyes. But we look at Jesus in the spirit in our heart with the eyes of our faith. And we cannot see him unless our eyes are illuminated. And what illuminates our eyes is what we hear and the things we see. So we must fashion our life to hear things that edifies the spirit and glorifies Jesus. We must see the things that edifies and glorify Jesus. The things we watch on YouTube. The things we watch on our TV. Because the things that will bring glory and enlighten us. Watch Christian channels. As a matter of fact, I always tell my people as I was sitting here. I don't know how many movies they do in the world. But there are enough Christian movies today for you to watch for your whole year. The Christian movies that they are producing yearly is enough for Christians. You will not even know there is any Hollywood or non-Hollywood. I don't know what they call them anywhere. There are a lot of Christian movies, both American and Nigerian. So whatever you want, you can find them. These movies will focus your attention on Jesus. The music. There are a lot of music. Different types of music that are Christian music. When I gave my life to Jesus, I was these people. Then there were these DMs that ruled. Those are the people that were reigning then in the music industry in America. So I have been accustomed to listening to fast rap songs. Now that I have given my life to Jesus, I cannot continue with this type of song. And all these dumb kind of songs are too slow for me. So I walked throughout that day. Going from one music source to another music source. I would get there and say, do you have a Christian rap song? I began to ask for it. Nobody had. I entered one. The last shop I entered. And he said he had one. I said, what is the name of the artist? He said, Kirk Franklin. I said, give it to me. So when he gave me Kirk Franklin, I played Kirk Franklin. His song was fast. And I said, okay, I can start with this one. And gradually, I began to tune to the song of the worship song. I began to get accustomed to Christian songs. But that was how I started. So there are a lot of resources. Jesus knows the nature of man. He blesses different people. That is the reason, if you come to Jesus today, the way Jesus will use you will be different from the way He has been using people. Because there is a place you must fill. There is a room you must occupy. That will be a blessing to somebody. So God is raising, He has raised generous and He is still raising people. And whatever your need will be, there is somebody that will meet it. That God will use to meet it. Praise the Lord. The next point is, believe He is able. Believe He is able. And once you believe He is able, it is settled. Because He said, all things are possible for all who believe. The number four step is pray. When you believe that you will do it, then take the step of prayers. Call to Him. Cry to Him in prayer. Jesus, help me. Don't stop praying. You may pray 30 minutes. Not everyone of us can pray long hours of prayers. If it is 10 minutes, 20, 30 minutes, 1 hour, you can pray. Pray it. And the next time you want to pray, maybe the next evening or the next day, go back to God again and pray. You can still repeat the same prayer you prayed yesterday. Continue to pray until you receive. He said, ask until your joy is full. That means if your joy is not yet full concerning the request you are presenting, don't stop asking. And if you are praying amiss, He knows how to correct your prayers. He is a spirit that is enough. Praise the Lord. The last point is wait on Him. When you have prayed and you have received assurance that your prayers have been answered, patiently wait. In the place of waiting, you have to endure. You have to endure a lot of things. And He has given you grace to endure. He has given every one of us grace to endure. And I pray that the Lord will help us in the name of Jesus. So this is the assurance and confidence of a man of faith who waits for God, that God is his defense and his expectation is from God. His whole hope is on the Lord Jesus. The Lord helps us in the mighty name of Jesus. I don't know if I should entertain questions before we pray. If you have any questions, this is just a teaching. Okay, let's give our mommy a mic so that we are recording this message. We put it on our platform so that you can listen to it again. Hallelujah. Where is the second mic? Okay. You told us that we should ask until our joy is full. Yes, ma'am. But I learned from my own listening to the scripture that when you ask something, you should appreciate God after asking that you have received it. So if you keep asking again, doesn't it mean that you are not grateful to God at all? It's not that you don't know. It's like, why are you asking for the same thing when you have already thanked God for it? I don't know. Okay, now we use Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane to explain. He brought Peter, John, James, and John to the place and said, Wash with me in prayers. And he went to a stone throw ahead of them and prayed. And what was he praying for? For that lady's cup to be taken away. And after one hour, the Bible says he came back to the disciples and saw them sleeping. He woke them up. Can't you wash for me for just one hour? That means he has prayed for one hour. And then he left them again and went back and continued with the same prayer. And came back to the disciples and found that they are sleeping again. He woke them up. He went back again and prayed. It was the third time he got the response from God. The Bible did not really explain the response from God, but in his own words, recorded in the scripture, he said, Let your will be done. That was the last time he stopped. That was the time he stopped that prayer. Let your will be done. When he received from God that this cup, you must bear it on behalf of all mankind. I'm not changing my mind upon it. But I will give you the grace to carry and bear it. Then he said, Let your will be done. Then we went to the disciples and never returned back to the place of prayer. A repeated prayer is not praying the same prayer every time we are coming back to the place of prayer. It is praying, for example, I don't want to mention the mission now. You see some people that will be praying, maybe, give me bread, father give me bread. They will just be repeating, father give me bread, five minutes, father give me bread, twenty minutes. That is what Jesus referred to as repetition of prayer. Because the Jews, the Pharisees, for the show, they want to show the people that they are men of prayers. They will go to a corner in the market or in the temple and begin to repeat that same word. They can be there for three hours repeating the same words. And also it is a custom in the Eden, in those days, the idol worshippers, when they are crying to, you know, the story of Elijah and the prophet of Baal, they were cursing them, they were chanting the same thing unto them. So that is repetition of prayer. Saying the same thing at that moment over and over, five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes, that is repetition of prayer. You don't have to do that. If your prayers can only go for ten minutes, pray your prayer and leave the place. But we can teach you how you can make your prayers even go beyond ten minutes and you will not even repeat anything. So you can ask God for something now and if you have not received it, go back and ask again. It is when you now have that assurance that this thing I am going to meet God for, He has done it. You will know in you that God has answered. Then begin to give thanks. Ask. He said we should ask. So we should not stop asking. The parable I gave of the man who wants to ask the friend for bread. He did not ask once and say, My friend, thank you for giving me the bread. When the friend has not even opened the door, he kept on knocking, knocking. You are persistent in knocking until he opens. And once he opens and hands it over to you, give him thanks. The widow that was going to the judge to avenge her enemies, she did not stop. She will go and she will not go and say, God, thank you because I know you will avenge. She will go and say, God, you have not done this thing. Do it until the judge was fed up and say, If I did not ask this woman, I would get weary by her. And then the judge acted. Then the woman could not go and give thanks. So that is the same way. These are the parables Jesus used to explain prayers to us. You go back to pray and pray the same thing. Pray until you have received. When you are praying, you can thank God and say, Father, I thank you because this thing I am asking you to do it. But tomorrow, you still go back and ask. You get it. So you keep on asking until you have received or you have that assurance. We will treat this topic in a short time from now. It is an assurance in your spirit that when you want to mention that thing, you will just know within you that this is already done. Even though you have not received it. At that point, stop praying about it. Begin to give thanks to the Lord. Amen. Let us rise up on our feet and begin to appreciate the Lord. Let us appreciate Him because He is a faithful God. He is a God that is worthy to be looked upon. The scripture says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Let us appreciate Him because we have someone to look unto. We have someone to cast our burden upon. We have someone to roll our burden upon. Appreciate Him and say, Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you because you are available to me. Thank you because you are there to lift up my body. Thank you because you are there to break every yoke of darkness from my neck. Thank you because you are there for me to look upon. I give you the glory, Lord Jesus. I appreciate you, mighty Father. I appreciate you, agents of days, because you are there for me. Because you are there for me. Father, I say thank you. Appreciate Him and give Him the glory. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. 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Thank you, mighty Father. Thank you, mighty Father. Amen.
