Hinderances To Open Heaven

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Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59, 0703 76811 98. Email address lsmedia at livingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org. Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. Our Father and our God, we thank you for how you have started to come to us again this morning.

We thank you for your faithfulness. We ask that even now, as you have started to move us into the place of prayer, you are teaching us how to dig ditches to contain what is coming. We ask, Father, that we will be diligent about that.

We pray to God that we will not be careless. We will not allow the outpouring only to create erosions and gullies because we are not prepared. Lord, we pray that the heavens are to be opened.

It is not just for decoration. It is because there is a need on the face of the earth that has to be addressed. Holy Spirit, please guide us even as we go on our thoughts this morning.

And as we begin to look at the instructions that is needed for us to be able to operate and receive these open heavens and walk in it, we ask that your anointing will come upon us afresh. Open our ears, Lord, that we may hear you. In Jesus Christ's name we have prayed.

Amen. Praise the Lord. I'd like to thank God for how the Lord has brought us this morning.

And I was so excited that God has started to get on the issues that we need to pray about. This morning, we are going to begin to look at our theme text very deliberately because of some few issues that we need to pick even as we are preparing for the open heavens that God says hereafter we will see. There are a few instructions that is emanating from that scripture.

And I want us to take a bit of time this morning to begin to deal with it. And we hope again in the night we'll be able to press furthermore into that. But let me ask you to now take your Bibles to John chapter 1. In John chapter 1, verse 45 is where we could have started to read.

I think we should start from verse 45. Our brother led us yesterday with the prayer opera drawing issues from that passage. And it was necessary to pray with that passage as the Lord was leading.

Today again, I see the Lord already talking to us about prayer. The need to pray. The need to pray to receive the open heavens.

The need to cry that we don't miss our time of visitation. That we don't miss what God is planning for us. But now this morning, let us quickly look at preparations that God wants us to make here.

In verse 45, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him.

And he said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nebuchadnezzar said, In whom is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than this.

And he said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts even as we study together particularly this morning in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, two things that I first wanted to begin to look at in this passage is that first, when Philip found Nathanael, when Philip found Nathanael, that came as if there is a group of people who have been seeking a divine visitation.

It looks clear that there is a people in the community whose preoccupation, whose cry is for the coming of the Messiah. And that's very, very important as we lay the foundation for open heavens today. I want to note to you that the promise of open heaven is only to those that are looking for Him.

It's only to those that are seeking something beyond that God will open His heavens. So when we began to emphasize the need to pray, when we began to talk about digging ditches of our prayer life, when Stachadi began to remind us the fact that if we don't pray to bring it down, the heavens, even though God has made a great promise, it will not come. It comes only to those that are crying for it.

Every time heavens open is because some people are desperately looking for it. Now, if you look at that chapter very quickly, just a very quick issue, you will see that when the two disciples that followed Jesus, after John the Baptist had introduced him and said, behold the Lamb of God, in verse 35, the two disciples that followed and Jesus turned and asked, what do you seek? And they said, Rabbi, that is to say, when translated teacher, where are you staying? And the master said, come and see. They came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day.

Now it was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And look at what he did.

He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah. You see, when they use the word we are found, you see, you don't use the word we are found if it is not that you are seeking. It is what you are looking for that you find.

And Jesus said, those who seek, they will find. Those who knock, the door will be open to them. Those who ask will receive.

So when they say we have found, the first thing that struck me is that they were seeking. They were seeking a divine visitation. They were seeking a reviver.

If any of you have been sitting in this meeting or you have followed us over the years, you will know that one thing that is paramount, that has been the overriding burning of our heart, that we have been seeking God's visitation. We have been seeking a reviver. So I want to announce to you, for God to come and begin to say, year after you will see heaven open, I don't think it's arbitrary.

I think God himself, who is not unfaithful, who does not ask any man to seek him in vain, is only responding unto the cry of our heart to seek for him. So the first thing I saw is that he appears to those who are seeking him. He opens his heaven to those who are crying for it.

He opens the door to those who are knocking. He allows himself to be found by those who are seeking him. He says, seek ye the Lord while ye may be found.

Call upon him while he is near. So the very precondition for reviver, for divine visitation, for open heaven, is a passionate, unquenchable hunger, a search for God. And if you are sitting in this meeting and your heart is hungry, and your heart is desperate, and you are seeking to see the glory of God in the land of the living, then you are in the right place.

Then you are in the kind of people that God has been waiting to raise over the years. So that's the first point that I saw there. That heavens will open to those who are looking for him.

Heavens will open to those who are yearning. And the more your hunger, the measure of your hunger, is the wideness of the heavens that will be opened to your life particularly. So I saw that.

So these two brothers, he quickly went and met Simon. We have found the Messiah. We have found the Christ.

And out of that excitement, he brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, the son of Jonah, and you shall be called Cephas. Now, I went a bit back like that because I wanted to know that all the ones that Jesus actually decided to show his glory to, they were hungry for him.

They were crying for him. They can no longer do with ordinary religion that is everywhere around them. They are crying.

Now, when Philip, when Jesus said to Philip, Follow me. Now, Philip was from that Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip found Nathanael.

And he said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We have found him. Now, I'm not going to talk about Philip.

It's not the question for me now. But again, I saw that Philip himself is also one of those who are looking for the Messiah. He said, We have found him.

We have found him. You will notice that something is very clear. They have been reading their Bible.

All of them have been reading their Bible. Because he said, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Which means, you know, they have been diligently studying the word of God.

They have been diligently looking into the word of God in preparation. They are looking for this promise that God had made. So, they have read in the law.

He said, of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Even though a brother Philip was not accurate when he said, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Those are the common knowledge that anybody could have.

He didn't have a revelation of the Messiah that has come. But one thing is very good. They have been studying their Bible.

You know, many years ago, when we were crying for revival. And the law said, before you will send another outpouring, we must prepare vessels for it. So, the entire work that we have been doing in this work for all these years.

It has always been a preparing. Preparing vessels for revival. Preparing vessels for revival.

Preparing vessels, digging ditches. And preparing men that can carry the anointing. I remember several years ago, we were speaking to some group of students.

And I was talking about preparing heads for the heavens to open. That when heavens will open and God will release his reign. And the spirit of God will come down.

He will not go to the market. He will not be looking here and there for who to look for. He is going for people who are preparing.

Who are waiting. Heads that are waiting. So, on the day of Pentecost, when the heavens opened.

And there was a mighty rushing wind. He didn't rush to the market. He went to that upper room where the 120 of them who have been waiting.

Who have been praying. Who have been seeking God. Who have come into discipleship.

Under the Lord were gathered and seated and waiting. That's where it goes. So, again, let me quickly note with you.

That as we've been talking about the Lord saying you will see heaven open. It was particular. He was speaking to people that had been looking for him.

Now, if you are here today. And the Holy Spirit has drawn your heart. The reason why we have been doing Bible studies.

The reason why we have been looking into the issue of discipleship. To become like Jesus. To become conformed to his image.

It's not because we just want to be doing things. It's because heaven is about to open. And if heaven is going to open, it must open to someone.

And we have been saying that since morning. The heaven has to open to someone. Even if God is going to visit the whole of your community.

God's visiting to your community is first of all God's visiting to someone. That's how it happens. So, let me quickly go through this.

Because it's very critical in preparing for the open heavens today. Now, let's quickly look at it. So, Nathaniel said to Philip.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? The first thing I want to note here is that that is a cry of desperation. That is a cry of someone who cannot take a fake for an answer. That's a desire that someone that is looking for reality.

Not just another facade. That is the cry of someone who is saying, Lord, I cannot take an empty confession, an empty noise for an answer. I'm not interested in that.

And some of us, as you see us standing here. We are not interested in empty noise. We are not interested in what we will do after two days.

We are not interested in creating a cajole. We are not interested in emotionalism. We are interested, we are looking on to God for reality.

We are looking on to God for something that will change our generation. We are looking on to God for something that will change the narratives. We are looking on to God for what will bring, you know, a measurable and indelible transformation to the land, to our nation, to our young people, to our women folk, to government, to things in the countries.

That's what we are looking for. And I want you to know that it is not incredible for us to believe God for that because God has done it before. And he's willing to do it again.

So, brothers and sisters, wherever you are. And I'm so passionate about checking how we are seated in our different nations. In some nations, there are 20.

Some nations, there are just few people saying, yes, we are holding God's hand. And that's not a problem. Your number is not the first problem.

It's for God to find people there that he can open the heavens to. It's for God to find a man, a woman that heaven can come and open to and then to become that God has opened heaven to that community or to that nation. God is about to open the heavens to the Gentiles.

And it was not the Gentiles he was looking for. He was just looking for a Peter that he was going to open that to so that through him, crumbs will reach all the thousands. Now, I just want to beg God this morning because once I will be finishing, I'm trusting that you will get into praying that Lord, Lord, for the sake of all that needs the crumbs that will fall from this table, for the sake of the thousands, for the sake of students, for the sake of the teachers, for the sake of all that needed to be affected in this move of God, do not pass me by.

Do not pass me by. Do not pass me by. While you are helping someone else, help my life as well.

Don't let it be that it is because of me that this land will be unfortunate. You see, when the Lord Jesus Christ was lamenting in Luke 19, do you know that Jesus was saying, Oh, how I wish in this day of your visitation, your eyes were open. He wasn't talking to trees.

He wasn't talking to the general populace. He was talking to men and women who are supposed to be the custodians of the move of God in their own time. May the Lord open your understanding to what I need to say this morning.

That there are people that God has looked upon, God has set apart, who will become the custodians, who will be like, how do I put it, they will be like the hosts. They will be like the host for the move. They will be like the host, they will be the one to say, Lord, let it come.

Let it come. Let it come. But when it comes to them, it doesn't come just for them.

It comes for the people they represent. It comes for the land they stand in. They are the sons that must eat the bread, so that crumbs will be available for everyone else.

And I'm praying that this morning, all of you that are in this meeting, and all those that will hear after, coming to this experience, God will find you men and women to whom he can open his heaven in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, when the man says, I'm not looking for another facade, can anything good come out of Nazareth? We are talking of Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. That's not what the prophecy was talking to us about.

He may live in Nazareth, he may be born through somebody called Joseph, but we are looking for the Messiah. So when this discussion, Philip could not satisfy the cry of Nathanael, and I'm praying that you will not be settled with human explanation. You will not be settled because somebody is saying, there is no God beyond them.

Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip knew now that the way this man is very, very desperate, I have nothing to tell him, except to say, come and see. And so Philip said to him, come and see. Thank God for Philip that he didn't try to argue with him.

You don't argue with a man who is hungry. When a man is hungry, the only thing that satisfies him is food. When a man is thirsty, the only thing that satisfies him is water.

And if you don't have it, take him to where he can get it. If you don't know what to do, take him to where he can get it. Philip said, come and see.

And to that, I credit brother Philip. I thank God for him. And there will be some of you sitting here that, the greatest thing you can do, is that you have brought someone to come to where God can touch him.

You have brought someone to where God can encounter him or her, and that will be to your credit. And don't try to do what you don't know how to do. Give God space to walk, so that we can see what God is about to do in our day.

Now, but the beginning of my discussion at this point, is what Jesus began to say. Jesus said, as he saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. Let's spend a little time on that before we go ahead.

Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. Now, I'm not yet coming to Nathanael, but I just want you to look at that scripture. Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.

Even though, if you listen to what Nathanael had said in 46, it will appear as if this man does not have respect. It will appear as if this man does not even regard Jesus. How can he say, can anything good come out of Nazareth? But that's not how Jesus heard him.

Jesus heard a cry in his heart. A cry for reality. Jesus saw a sincere man.

Jesus saw someone whose hunger is so critical, and there is no guile about it. There is no hypocrisy about it. There is no deceit about him.

He said, Behold, an Israelite indeed. So let me first ask a question. Can Jesus, as we are all gathering here, can Jesus look at him and say, Behold, a Christian indeed, in whom there is no hypocrisy.

Behold, a child of God, who is sincerely looking for reality. Or are you sitting here in this meeting, and the Lord looked at you with his piercing eyes, penetrating eyes, and said, Behold, an hypocrite indeed, in whom there is no truth. Behold, a pretender.

Are you still coming here to pretend? Behold, a humanizer, but he's wearing a white garment. Behold, behold him, behold him, a liar, a liar. He has deceived everybody.

Are you still coming here to deceive me? Behold, behold a liar, behold a gambler. You gamble here, you gamble here, you gamble with different girls, you gamble with different people, and you are still gambling with the work of God, you are still gambling with the church. You claim to be serious, but the only reason why you are here is because you are looking for money.

Behold, behold an hypocrite, in whom there is no truth. Is that what Jesus, whose eyes can see, is that what he sees about you? Is that what he will say about you? Are you sitting here, you have deceived everybody else? But you can't deceive him. When we were growing up in those days, the song we used to sing, You cannot hide it from God.

You cannot hide it from God. You may cover your sin that no one else may know. But you cannot hide it from God.

We sang that song all the time. But now we have seen people that are singing in the choir, but they are womanizers. We see pastors who are preaching hot on the pulpit, and yet they have defiled so many girls, right even inside their church office.

And God said, Behold an hypocrite. Behold a liar. Behold a sinner, in whom there is no truth.

Why is he coming here now, and doing as if he loves me? He said, Surely these people, they draw near me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. Now, before we talk of open heavens, can I check what is the testimony of Jesus about you? What is the testimony of Jesus about you? And will you be willing for God to undress you so that he can dress you? Will you be willing for God to open up your life, to be naked before him, so that he can clothe you with his own righteousness? This morning, as we are beginning to pray seriously about the open heavens that God has promised, and that is about to come, can I check what is God's testimony about you? Are you even a disciple so called, but you are there only to exploit disciples? Are you a disciple so called, but you have been collecting things from disciples and threatening them, and making them to feel as if without you they can go nowhere? And Jesus said, Behold a cheat, a cheat in whom there is no reality. What does God say about you? What does God say about you? You know, this is very important for me because how could we gather all over the nations of the earth upon the promise that God said, year after you shall see heaven open and you will be here, an hypocrite, hiding, and heaven will say, no, no, no, not this one.

I remember when God wanted to release the anointing in the house of Jesse. Remember all the Psalms of Jesse, remember Eliab, remember Shammah, remember this one that came, and even the man of God, as wonderful as Samuel used to be, he couldn't see well. And there was so much highly dressed that even the man of God was confused.

And he was going to say, Behold, behold, the anointing of God is standing before him. And he was about to put the anointing. God said, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't look at the height of the statue. Don't look at its countenance. Don't look at its appearance.

For I, the Lord, look not on the outward appearance. I look at the heart. I have rejected it.

What does God say about you? What is the heaven's testimony about you? I'm not first talking about the testimony of brethren around you. Brethren who don't know more than Sarah is a serious brother, is a good sister. She's one of the disciples in the land.

But I'm asking, what is Jesus' testimony about you? Have you just been coming just to look for how to climb, how to use the opportunities, the platform, to make a name for yourself? When we are praying, I see you crying. And heaven is saying, look at an hypocrite shedding crocodile tears. His heart is far from me.

Is that what God is saying about you? Is that the testimony of Jesus about your life? Are you shaking your head like a lizard and yet your heart has moved, has traveled somewhere? Are you standing here and doing as if you belong to us, you belong to the people of God, but you're only doing that so as to make a name? You remember that in Samaria, there was this man that was moving up and down with Philip. You remember Simon the Sorcerer? He was also doing as if he's converted. And he had intimidated everybody that he was a man that has power.

So when Philip came in and saw the way Philip was ministering and miracles was happening and people were really coming, he said, this is the thing to join. This is the thing to join so that I don't miss my business. So he quickly joined.

He even humbled himself to a level pretending until he was baptized. Some of you could have been baptized even under the hand of people that we thought are great men of God, but they did not know who they baptized. They did not know whom they had put inside that water.

You are clever. He said, let them judge you all of that so that I can gain access. And so on that day when Peter arrived and John, and they began to speak about the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God was coming and people were being filled with the Spirit.

Oh, Simon quickly went and got some money and brought it to the men of God. Then you will call it prophet's offering. Some of you call that kind of thing a revelation offering.

Some of you, you call that kind of thing seed offering, whatever you call it. There is something in your heart. Let me ask you to read how brother Peter addressed that situation in chapter 8 of Acts.

Because the question I'm raising now is that what does God say about you before you can make a definite commitment of open heavens to your own life as well. In Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8, in verse 9, where there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria giving out that himself was some great one to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest saying, this man is the great power of God. Can you imagine how he had made himself to appear as if himself is the great power of God.

Verse 11, and to him they had regard because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. For a long time, you know, what I'm talking about now, this is spiritualism. He had bewitched them with sorcery.

Everybody thought he's a power of God. They thought he's using the Holy Ghost. They thought he was coming mightily.

How some of our present-day anointing men they go and collect power somewhere else. Is there any way of speaking? Let them just fall. People are falling under a so-called anointing.

Sometimes you rub something on your face like a severe rub, a pomade, so that when you come in, they odor. Angels dismantle people and they become, you know, confused and they fall off. And that's an anointing.

And you're proving that you're a mighty man. You're proving that you're a great power of God. Now, when God is promising open heaven, let me check, the master must have a testimony of who you are.

The Bible said, But, when they believed Philip, in verse 12, preaching, when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. You can see now, the new reviver has come. The power of God is now come.

The original has arrived. Now, let's look at what Mr. Simon do. Then Simon himself believed also.

And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. He was wondering, he said, Ah! This one is genuine more than what we used to do. The way Philip is operating here, Ah! There's no magu magu as I used to do.

Maybe, let me just stay close, if I will get something. And whatever I need to pay to get it, let me just get it, because I need to invest in this so I can get more business. Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were calmed down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.

Now, look at verse 16. For as yet it was falling upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

And when Simon saw that, through laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money. Look at what he said, saying, Give me also this power, that on whosoever, did you see him, on whosoever I lay hands, he might receive the Holy Ghost. Give me this power also.

Let me also have this power, so that whenever I just slam my hand, just the Holy Ghost, anyone at all, whosoever, and I know, if you pay money to collect something, will you not receive money to give it? Eh? This man, he was doing business. And I hear some of you say, Well, anointing was costly. I know how much I paid to my own, the apostle, for the anointing to fall on my head.

If you want this kind of anointing, sow a seed, bring something. I paid something before it came. Don't think you can come here and get it free here.

Sow this money. The Lord, who knows every man from inside, look at the Bible, the Bible said, But Peter said unto him, verse 20, Your money perish with you, because you have thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Now, if that was the only thing they said about him, I would say, Well, he's a young convert, and there is ignorance.

That's why God had to correct him that way. But look, they say more than that. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter.

Why? For your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this, your wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thoughts of your heart may be forgiven you. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

That is the testimony of God. God who sees beyond the surface. So let me ask you before I go away, Jesus looked at Nathanael and said, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no God.

Is there a guile in your life? Are you here? You want the open heavens, but you are tripling with another sister who is not your wife. Are you involved in secret immorality that nobody can talk about? Have you swindled money from church? Have you swindled? You are the one who is in charge of church treasury and some normally disappear into your own private business. What is the testimony of God about you? Is there an hypocrisy that will not allow God to visit you? Now the Bible said, they told him, Repent, therefore, of this, your wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiving you.

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. But thank God for Simon. Then answered Simon and said, Pray ye the Lord for me, that none of these things which you have spoken come upon me.

And when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. Praise the Lord. Now, so the question is this.

Have you even been baptized in water? Or even so-called you have received the kind of the spirits and you have bewitched men everywhere and you have terrified people and you have intimidated them and you have subdued them into your own wickedness. This morning, as we are talking about open heavens, what is God's testimony about you? That's the first thing I wanted to deal with. And sister, brother, we have come to a point where we cannot hide.

We have come to a point where God is checking the thoughts of the heart. We have come to a point where every hypocrisy are to be exposed. Because upon the level of hypocrisy, anointing must not be poured.

Upon the flesh, the spilling will not come. Thousands will be lifting up their hands but heaven is checking. Are they the kind to whom I can open my heaven? So as we will be praying, whether you are two, whether you are three, whether you are twenty, whether you are two thousand in your center, whatever you are, God is looking at individuals now and is asking, what is God's testimony about you? Before Philip called you, you know, the man said, Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Again, that made me to really appreciate a man like Nathanael.

Even though Jesus, the Lord of all, the one that sees us from the very cradle of our lives, gave a testimony, said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile, no deceit. Philip, I mean Nathanael, he said, sir, where do you know me? Why are you speaking like that about me? Have you met me before? You know, if Jesus were just cajoling him so that he can follow, he said, no, no, no, I don't want cajole, I need reality. I don't want sugar coated prophets who just tell people that you are fine when you are not fine.

Where do you know me? I'm looking at people who are looking for a genuine experience of God. A genuine encounter of the Holy Ghost. No deceit, no hypocrisy.

And I remember Jesus particularly spoke to his disciples, I think in Luke chapter 12. He said, as people were gathering to such a point that they were almost trampling upon each other. He said, his concern first is his disciples.

He said, beware. Of what? Hypocrisy. It looks to me as if hypocrisy is something that would hinder God from coming.

That a sinner is not the problem with God. God is willing to forgive sinners who are willing to confess. So if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But whosoever covereth his sins shall not prosper. Even if you are in this meeting, you are being a sinner, that's not the problem. God is willing to forgive sinners.

There's a fountain that is opened already in this meeting to cleanse any sinner that is coming and say, Lord, I need you to help me. I need you to change my life. God is willing to do that.

But for anybody to put his hand in his pocket, covering sin. For anybody to come around here, you see, you know, spirituality, spiritualization, to cover rottiness of the heart. That would be an offense to God.

For you to be saying, oh, let heaven open on me, let heaven open on me, and there are issues that you have not dealt with. And for you to say, let me identify even with this work, and this brethren, because people respect them. But you are not a man of personal respect.

Some people will carry our books. It will look as if they are interested in selling our books. But he carry our books in order to sell his own ideas.

An hypocrite, a man with hypocrisy. God will not open the heavens to such a man. The testimony of God stands as sure.

It has a seed. God knows those that are his. Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from what? From iniquity.

Now, Jesus answered him. Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. While you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Even ever before Philip ever called you, I saw you. I know you. You are dealing with Jesus who knows us from our very beginning.

Who knows our rising and our sitting. Who knows our lying down, our rising up. We are dealing with Jesus who understands where you are coming from.

With whom you can hide nothing. So he told Nathaniel, Nathaniel, even before Philip called you, I had known you. Even when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

I saw you when you were alone. I saw you in the secret place. I saw you when you were when you were refusing to compromise.

I saw you. I saw your heart. I saw the kind of person you are.

I saw that in you there is no hypocrisy. And all of you will wonder why did God so promote Joseph? It's because Joseph was a man that God could testify of. That whatever was put in his hand, the law was with him.

So when Potiphar's wife was making face to him and this boy said, no, no, no, no. How can I do this wickedness against God? Remember that that was in a secret place. If he had agreed to sleep with Potiphar's wife, nobody would hear it.

The woman would have made him his household permanent pet. And would have been giving him all kind of food and this brother would have been growing very rosy cheeks. And heaven would have closed upon his life.

What happened in your secret places matters most to God. And so he said, even before Philip called you, when you were under defeat, I saw you. God saw Joseph, while Potiphar's wife was hugging and struggling with him and was saying, you must sleep with me.

And that boy said, no, how can I do this? God was seeing all of that. Even though God did not speak at the moment, because the time for God to speak for Joseph had not yet come. The Bible said, they even sent him to prison.

They laid his feet in the fetters of iron until the word of the Lord tried him. It was God watching. Some of us, we have been waiting on God for these open heavens.

And heaven has been checking all the various things. And just some of you here now, you are looking for open heavens. But the ministry over which you are sitting is not your ministry.

You swindled it from the hand of the leader that sent you there. Imagine you were posted to a place under a leadership. And when the world began to break up because you used their name, and people started gathering, you suddenly decided that you want to start your own.

And you are not starting your own in the bush. You are starting your own upon the work that God allowed you to be involved in. And you are not saying, let heavens open over this work.

I tell you the truth, heaven will not open over such. Heaven will not open over hypocrisy. Heaven will not open over cheats.

Heaven will not open over those. God does not send rain to perpetuate wickedness. God does not send rain to perpetuate evil.

God will not send rain to perpetuate hypocrisy. Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. So Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the son of God, and you are the king of Israel.

You can see the difference between his revelation of Jesus and what Joseph, I mean, what Philip was saying. Philip was talking about what everybody is saying around in the community, that Jesus is the son of Joseph, the carpenter, and we know his mother Mary, and all of that. They live in Nazareth.

That's all Philip was talking about. But this man said, no, I'm looking for something more. And at that point, the promise came.

Now, because we don't have time, I will not go beyond here this morning. I'll be coming back later, by the grace of God, to look at what is the essence of the open heavens. But that, by the grace of God, we'll deal with in the night, by the grace of God.

But let's look at where this matter can stop now. He said, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than this. There's something greater that God wants to do in your life if your heart will be right with God.

My dear brother and my sister, I want to tell you, there's no need for you to be stagnant. There's something beyond where we are. And if we prepare our hearts, if we meet his condition, if we meet his condition, nothing can stop us from getting to the greater things that God is talking about.

Are there people sitting here today, you have shot yourself in the leg, you have punctured your wheel of progress, because you began to trifle with sin. You began to play with the things that God hated. You began to engage the glory of God to decorate yourself.

You began to do things that did not accrue to the honor of God. Did you bring yourself to a point of stagnation? Are you making God to peg your progress? He said you will see greater things. There are greater things to see, greater than all you have seen before.

Brother, sister, I want to tell you we are not yet at the climax of where God is taking us. There are greater things. Some of you told, this world has grown, praise the Lord, we are everywhere.

But I tell you, there are greater things that God is planning to bring us into. And these greater things that God is planning to bring us into, He is saying, you will see from here now, you will see something bigger than what you are. And if your heart is yearning for that, my first cry this morning is, can you make yourself a man, a woman that God can work with? I will end by pointing to another case and then I will be stopping.

It's when we come in the night we will see the essence of what God wants to do. When He said, most assuredly I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. You will see that.

You will see that but we must meet this condition. God must have a testimony of who you are. God must have a testimony that yes, once upon a time you were in darkness but now, look at a Christian indeed, in whom there is no God.

Look at a Christian indeed, in whom there is no hypocrisy. Look at a child of God indeed. Look at one whose heart has opened to me.

Look at one that has turned away from seeing and is no longer playing around seeing. Look at this one that he has made a covenant to follow me and is no longer looking back. What is God's testimony about you? Now, in the book of 1 Samuel, and I want all of you to come with me to 1 Samuel.

I'm not talking about the sons of Jesse now. I just want to talk about Samuel and Eli. 1 Samuel, all of you please come and go to chapter 2. In 1 Samuel chapter 2, God who had established the house of Eli to be the priest and if you remember how that promise that Eli came in to walk into, if you remember it, you know that it is because Phinehas, one of the sons of Aaron, stood up, I mean one of the sons of Levi, stood up to fight against wickedness, brought a javelin against a man and a woman that were misbehaving in the day when God was annoyed with the children of Israel when they were playing at lottery with the Moabites.

It was then that God gave this priesthood and said as long as Phinehas is alive and all his descendants, there will be not a time that there will be nobody from his lineage that will be in the office of the priest. So Eli was in that. But look at the testimony of God about his children.

Now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. The priest's custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged flesh hook in his hand while the meat was boiling.

Then he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot and the priest would take for himself all that the flesh hook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Also before they burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed give meat for roasting for the priest.

For he will not take boiled meat from you but raw. You know when I read this before I thought it was just something that I would never meet again in life. Until I began to go about.

I have found that I have come to where ministers they will not agree to do officiating either for wedding or something until you bring not just the envelope that is their own. They will say look bring meat, raw meat. Say no, we will cook food.

Say no, no, no. Cook food is not what we are talking about. You must bring raw meat.

We need, we need the unch, the unch, the unch of a cow. He say what? He say that's for the man of God and he will take it raw. And then you bring all the raw ingredients.

Bring it to the mission house so that the man of God can have. After that, we will then come and officiate for you. I say hey, so this is still happening nowadays? It's happening.

It's happening. There are some of you men of God, your mouth will not open unless they put money there. You will not have unless something is in your pocket.

All of this has bastardized the ministry. Has closed the heavens. So the Bible said and if the man said to him, they should really burn the fat first, then you may take as much as your heart desires.

Kai, look at that. He would then answer him, no! But you must give it now and if not I will take it by force. Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.

You can imagine that many, many people, several people, they don't respect the church anymore. They don't respect the man of God. The word of God no longer carries weight in their hearts.

They think any man that is going up and saying he's a preacher is only looking for money. They think that all we are doing is to make a good living out of the ministry and of course that's not what some of our friends and colleagues are doing. Heaven is about to open again but cannot open to men of greed.

Do not open to those who are bastardizing the offering of the Lord. But we now saw a small young boy called Samuel minister before the Lord even as a child wearing a linen effort. And in verse 20 Eli will bless Erkina and his wife, say the Lord give you descendants from this woman for the loan that was given to the Lord.

Then they will go to their home and God bless them, God bless them, God bless them. Now Eli had grown old and he hated everything that his son did to all his tribe. How they lay with the women who were assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

You know it was so painful that women that came to worship these priests will be calling them aside and be sleeping with them. Now if those things are not happening presently I will not talk about it. But these things are still happening.

Several women became pregnant for the man of God so called and it is only a night vigil. It is only when they were looking to wait on God. Some were seeking the fruit of the womb and the man of God said I am the one to open the door for you.

And that's how all of this had happened. And you wonder why the church came into this level of disrepute. You wonder why heaven seemed closed.

You wonder why politicians don't respect us again. You wonder why things have gone wrong in the land. And you wonder why the church is treated with disrespect.

I say don't bring that here. You wonder why the word of God has been thrown out of our schools. You wonder why why ordinary men on the street they take the word of God for granted and you wonder why they are legislating.

They are now checking whether we are doing well with our offering or not. They are now bringing us under their own regulation. How can the world system be judging the church simply because we lost it.

Heavens are closed because of the kind of men that are on the ends of our fear. God is about to open the heavens again. God is about to come to us again.

And the question I am raising is that will you be that man? And this is what I wanted to note with you. Now go with me to 1 Samuel 1 Samuel chapter 3. Now the end of chapter 2 you will see how God came, how he spoke and how he said days are coming I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house so that there will be not an old man in your house and all of this. But now in chapter 3 because by chapter 2 God was saying I am going to raise a faithful priest to myself.

So in chapter 3 now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days. The word of the Lord became scarce.

The word of the Lord became you know very very very scarce. You go to church you just hear everybody saying the same thing. Go to church people are just using psychology with motivational speaking and they are all saying only one thing.

And you go and say is God speaking here? When brother Dennis was leading us to read 2 Kings you remember how Elisha said I will not have even spoken to you people. If it's not because of Joshua the man who is seeking the true word of God I will not have spoken to you people. There is no need to be talking to people like this that are not interested in hearing the truth.

Now we have come to that position but God is looking for someone to whom heaven will open. This is why I am taking you through this so that we can pray together. And it came to pass in those days the word of the Lord was rare.

There was no widespread revelation. No vision again. No vision again.

It was human wisdom human things that was taking place. And it came to pass at that time while Eli was lying down in his place. And when his eyes had begun to grow dim so dim that he could not see.

And before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord. You see I want you to see several things that God was talking about there. While Eli was lying down in his own place.

A man was supposed to stand before the Lord. He has become a man lying down in his own place. When his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see.

He can't see again. And some of you are thinking that I'm just talking of physical eye. No.

There are people that are older than him that his eyes are still seeing. Even there are people where they said their eyes are so you know you couldn't see. But yet when Joseph brought the children.

Brother Jacob having been there with my God. He can see. He said no, no, no, no.

Put my hand here. Put my hand here. He said no.

That's how it should be. I know that this what you put on my right is not the right person. It's not the right person.

Manasseh is not the right person. So let me cross my hand. I'll put my left hand on this your Manasseh.

But Ephraim is the one that God has called. How did he see? Which means dimness of eyes I'm talking about here is not physical eye. It's your inner eye that has been dim.

And I don't know what is closing your eyes that God needs to deal with today. So when his eyes had begun so as grown so dim that he could not see. And before the lamp of God went out, things that ought not to happen.

The lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord. And the house is going to become dark. Where the ark of God was.

And Samuel was tamed by that ark. As if to say even just before the line will go, let me just stay there. Go find a man I can walk with.

It was at that point that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, Here am I. So he ran to Eli and you know the story. But that's not what I want to talk about.

I want to say something before I ask you to rise and pray with me over this matter. So, in verse 10 Now the Lord came and stood and called us at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak for your servant hears.

Then the Lord said to Samuel, I was very touched. What did God say to Samuel? Behold, I will do something in Israel that with both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end.

For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows. Because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.

What will you do that there be no atonement? How far will you go? How far will you be taking God's word for granted that atonement will not be sufficient to deal with your own life? And I said, Lord, but you didn't say anything else to Samuel. So Samuel lay down on Timonia and opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision.

Then Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, he said, what is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please don't hide it from me. If God do so to you, and more also if you hide anything from me of all the things that he said to you. Then Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.

And I thought this man of God will fall down and cry. You know what he said? He said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.

When you see men that have decided to perish, when you see men that are decidedly going down, it's not that they don't know their mistake. It's not that they don't know that they are not doing well. It's not that God have not spoken to them, but they are bent on misbehavior.

Now, I end by noting what the Bible says. So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel knew from Dan to Beersheba, they knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord.

Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. Now that's where we're ending. The Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

When they said the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, you would think that God just came and appeared. No. The Bible said, because the Lord revealed himself in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

So, it's because Samuel was in Shiloh, and God needed to visit Samuel in Shiloh. That's why God appeared in Shiloh. If the Lord had found you as a man that he can open his heaven to, and you are in Job, it would be reported that God appeared again in Job.

If you are a man that is living in Maradi in Niger Republic, and you are a light that God can open his heaven to, God will appear in Maradi and they say the Lord had appeared again in Maradi because he had revealed himself to this brother who lives in Maradi. If the Lord will appear in the United Kingdom, it will be because he has found someone to whom he can appear. If the Lord is going to appear in your village, it will be because God has found someone to whom he can appear and reveal himself.

Will you be such a man? Will you be such a sister? When God said to Nathaniel, you will see the heaven open, I was saying, Lord, and you are speaking directly to him. Can God speak to you personally today? Can God reveal himself to you today? Don't let me hear you say the United Kingdom is difficult. No! Can you be a man to whom God will wish to appear? Then they will say the Lord has appeared again in that land or the Lord has appeared again in that place because God has found a man to whom he can reveal himself.

And they will say God has come to Liberia, God has come to Banga, God has come to this place, God is now in Liverpool. Why? Because God has found a man to whom he can reveal himself. Let's go to God.

Will you be such a man? Will you be a Nathaniel of our time? Are you hungry for God? Are you the one that says I don't want any empty talk again? I don't want any deceit again. I want reality. And I want God to deal with me.

Whatever it is that will not make me see his face, let him take it away from me. Will you rise on your feet as we go to God in prayer right away? Will you rise? Will you pray? Will you talk to God? The first thing I'm dealing with is the testimony of the man to whom heaven can open. The testimony of a brother, a sister to whom heaven can open.

Will you pray personally? And we are talking about God looking for individuals not men that are hypocrites. Samuel was a small boy but God could reveal himself to him. God could come and tell him look Samuel, this is my cry, this is my cry, this is my cry, look at what Eli has done, look at what Eli has done.

And because God found a man in Samuel, God could appear again. God can appear in your country. God can appear in your city.

God can appear in your school. God can appear in your community. God can appear again in your local church.

God can appear again in that denomination if he found you a man to whom he can open his heaven. Will you like to pray and say Lord, consider me for what you want to do. Do something with my life particularly.

Don't let me be here and heaven is still closed. Don't let me be around and there's nothing that men can see of the Lord because there's nothing with me. Pray, call on God.

Call on God. Our nation can be so diverse and yet if God finds man to whom he can open his heaven, it will be an open heaven over the land, it will be an open heaven over the community. Call on God, call on God.

Lord, here am I. I stand before you this morning. Consider my case. Consider my life.

Is there anything that is making heaven to still be closed? And to you as an individual, when you are there, we are still looking for someone. I'm still looking for someone to stand in the gap. I'm still looking for someone that I will use.

Can you call on God particularly now? Can you pray before we break and we'll be going to Bible studies? Can you say, Lord, while you are touching others, while you are helping others, while you are changing others, while you are visiting others, do not pass me by. You say, while you honor the victory I saw you. So whatever it is that I ever need to correct in this meeting, please come before God and say, Lord, here am I. Help my life.

Help my life particularly. Do something with me deliberately from now. Holy Spirit, I ask since you know all of us and you see us while we are still under our victories, you know where we are going.

You know what we want to do with our lives. This afternoon, Lord, we ask that you will rise for us. We ask that you will do something.

Whatever could hinder your move in this meeting, we are trusting you, God, that you will deal with it. You will remove it from here and your eternal purpose will not be jeopardized again in the name of Jesus. So, we are going to pray.

Are you there? You have heard the word of God and Holy Spirit speaking to you. Heaven is about to open as God has promised. But something has to be dealt with within you as an individual.

Secret issues that God has seen and his testimony. Look at Simon. Simon was moving up and down with Philip.

Philip didn't know. Philip even baptized him in water. Only for a man of God that could see well.

You are involved in the goal of bitterness. Your heart is not right. You have no part in this matter at all.

You have no part here. No, no, no, no. You have no part.

If you don't repent, something terrible will happen to you. This morning, even though our time is gone, well, it's time to respond to God. If the Holy Spirit is drawing your heart and say, this morning, just go and fall at the feet of the Lord and say, God, help me.

Cleanse my life. The secret thing that will not let you open your heavens to me, take it away. Every form of hypocrisy, anything that I have tried to cover, and yet heaven is saying, but I saw you while you were under the filtry.

Can you come out? So I want to wait here before God and wherever you are, take a step before God and say, Lord, it's me standing in the need of prayer. It's me that need a touch. It's me that need you to do a new thing in my life.

Wherever you are, can you lift up that right hand and say, Lord, it's me. I need you to touch me. I need you to change this story.

That testimony must not follow me home. I need a help. Where are you? With your hand lifted up, can you please come towards the altar? My dear sister, can you just walk out? That brother, can you just walk out? And say, Lord, now you have caught me.

I'm singing in the choir, but I'm not right. Though I'm preaching, but I've not escaped from immorality. Even though people think I'm serious, but money has not I've not got victory over money.

I'm still cheating. Step out as I pray with you. God bless you.

God bless you, my friends. As you lie before God, God knows how to help. Simon did not end like that.

He cried. God helped him. Thank you.

If you are coming, please step out. And I want you to just be on your knees. Just be on your knees and say, Lord, just as I am without one plea.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless you.

We have only three minutes to do this because we must be going to our Bible study now. Can you walk out quickly? Can you walk out wherever you are in all the centers? Everywhere in all the centers, I want to see you stepping out before God. Please allow all the brethren to step out.

All those that have raised their hands to heaven, raise it above your head and come and say, Lord, while you are helping others, while you are touching others, while you saw a Natanya and say, ah, an Israelite indeed, can go say a Christian indeed, a child of God indeed, in whom there is no hypocrisy, nothing to hide. He's teaching in secondary school, primary school, but he's a child of God indeed. Even guests came around him, around him, he would never touch them.

He's a child of God indeed. Money has been put in her hands. She will never touch money.

She will never misbehave. Thank you, my dear sister. Thank you, brother.

Just come out. Just come out before the Lord. Just come out wherever you are.

Please come. Come, let's pray together with you. Come anywhere you are standing, anywhere you are, any place.

Even if you are alone in your house, stand where you are and just kneel and say, Lord, this message has come to me. My life cannot remain the same. And perhaps, perhaps there are only ten in that congregation and they will be singing you out and say, I came for you.

I came to visit you. But this thing will not let me help your life. Step out and let God handle it.

And you may even be the leader. You may appear to be the disciple of everybody. But heaven is saying, yes, but you are not right yet.

Step out. Have you started a ministry and there's a question mark about it? Step out and say, Lord, today, sort me out. Sort me out.

Don't let heaven be closed because I am pretending. Thank you. God bless you.

God bless you. God bless you. Thank you.

Wherever you are taking a step before God, permit me now to pray for you. I would like to pray for all those who have stepped out. Those that are kneeling down.

Those that are standing up. Some are lying down flat and say, Lord, I just want you to have mercy on me. It's not about age.

It's about your heart. It's about your heart. This may not be the first time you are hearing God's word.

Eli heard the word of God. He said, well, that's the truth. That's the truth, but he did nothing about it.

Acknowledging the truth without obeying the truth is not good enough. Thank you. God bless you.

I see so many more wanting to step out. Do that quickly as I pray now. Please lift up your hand to heaven as I pray.

Father, this afternoon or this morning, as your children are responding, Lord, I ask, let the heavens first come for cleansing. Lord, I ask that that root, that God of bitterness, let it be uprooted. That secret thing the devil has done to make sure they will never be qualified for an open heavens.

Lord, this day, this morning, please uproot it for us in the name of Jesus. Holy Spirit, we are asking from one state to another, from one center to another, from one country to another, please, Lord, come to us. Samuel was one for whom you came back to Shiloh.

Lord, I'm pleading with you. Many of us are standing together and sitting in a Eswatini land and you are saying, if I can open my heavens, I will visit that land again. Lord, I ask that you will please walk in this meeting this morning.

Cleanse our hearts. Let the blood of Jesus speak for us and show us your mercy particularly. And as many as have responded to you now, Lord, come to them.

Cleanse them by the blood of the Lamb. Take away that thing that has been a hindrance between them and yourself. Lord, I ask, some have just walked into this meeting and they have not even been hearing this kind of message before, but you have arrested their heart as they are stepping out.

Lord, please step forth your hand to them. And meet them at their point of need now. Forgive them and cleanse them from all sins.

And give them a new beginning. Create a new ground for their lives. A new heart will I give you.

I will take away from you the heart of stone. Lord Jesus, please give us that. And from nation to nation, Lord, that you will have men unto whom heaven can open.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for hearing this prayer.

In Jesus Christ's name, we have prayed. Amen.