AS FAR AS YOUR EYES CAN SEE || FESTIVAL OF LIFE 2024 || PASTOR MIRACLE FEMI LAZARUS

Hallelujah! And I want to celebrate Apostle Femi Lazarus, my own dear husband and my coach. You know, when you have— it's one thing to have a husband, it's another thing to have a husband that can teach you the word, you know. He fine-tunes my doctrine. You know when you're just doing something and he comes to you and asks you a question based on biblical principles. So something happened two days ago, it was yesterday. So we're just talking and he asked me a question. He asked me a question about a song and then I know I tried to answer and he said, I'm excusing you, the way you have said, you are trying to answer this question, I'm excusing because you are not the writer of that song. And in my mind I was like, excuse me, you know, dabbe is good enough. Hallelujah! Thank you so much, Apostle. Can you please celebrate Apostle for me? Glory to God! Please have your seats as kings and priests that you are. Hallelujah! All right, please, I would like us to echo the theme of this conference. Come on, do that again! All right, so you're going to— please permit me a little because I'm going to be taking you a little bit into biology. Sorry, I studied microbiology, so please permit me. All right, okay, so let me start from Matthew 6:22. Matthew 6:22 says, the light of the body is the eyes. If then your eyes is true, all your body will be full of light. Now my question is, what is the eyes? What is the eyes? Your eyes is a key sensory organ feeding information to your brain about the outside world. So when you see something A lot of process is going on for you to get the correct interpretation of what you're seeing. Do we get that? So when you look at something, there's an information that will be sent to your brain, and then your brain interprets that information to give you the accurate meaning of what you're seeing. Please follow me closely. So what is the use of the eyes? Now our eyes works with our brain to tell us, you know, the shape, the size, the color, the texture of whatever it is that we're seeing of the objects. The structure, the function of the eyes. Now your both eyes collect information from two different angles. They send it to the brain. The brain receives the information and creates a picture. With whatever the brain— okay, it's with, with what you've seen right now. The, the thing here is that however, the brain does not know the difference between an actual event and an imagined experience. Are you with me? Your brain does not know the difference between an actual event and an imagined experience. So you can be seated in this auditorium and then what everybody is seeing is, "Oh, Pastor Mimi," right? And then in your mind, the Lord opened your mind to seeing something different. And then we call it, you know, imagination. Why? Because at that point, what are you trying to do? You're creating pictures in your head that is not exactly the physical picture in front of you, but you're creating it. Is somebody with me? So your brain does not know the difference between what you're actually seeing physically and the imaginations that you have in your head. Please, I need you to follow me closely. So it matters what you are seeing. Now, somebody can— oh, you can be afraid of something that does not exist. You're so afraid, and then you can see— we can see it in your physical, you know, reaction. Maybe you're shivering or you're shaking. You're like, what is going on? I'm afraid. And what are you afraid of? I'm afraid of this. And maybe that thing does not even exist. It tells you that it matters what you are seeing both on the physical and your imaginative realm. Hello? Hello? It matters what you're seeing. Number 2, it is not just about the information your eyes carries. It matters the interpretation your brain gives. Hello? It matters what? The interpretation your brain gives, right? All right, so I had an arrangement with the media, I hope. All right, okay, so I would like us to see something. No, please give me color blue, just color blue. Give me color blue. Color blue first. Okay, yes. So what color is this? Hello? Hello? Okay, it's like some people are— eh? Some people are saying sky blue. I actually told media to give me color blue. So whatever it is that you're seeing, I don't get, all right? So let's just say, please, let's just— this color. All right, we all agree that this is color blue. All right, so give me the second slide or the second picture. Now if I ask you to name all these colors, Will you do that successfully? Now, which of these colors can you tell me what it is exactly? Now, people are coming with different names. Oh, navy blue, sky blue, some say baby blue, some say husband blue, different kind of blue. Now the interpretation of what you're seeing on the screen will determine the information that you have. Now you looked at the first picture, it is color blue. Everybody knows that, oh, this is color blue. But when we begin to, you know, give you different shades of color blue, you, even if you're very good with color, the time will come that, you know, I know that you don't know this one. Now, how can you accurately interpret what your eyes have seen to give the correct meaning or the correct name to what you're seeing? It is according to the information or the residual knowledge that you have. Am I correct? So somebody can say, okay, this— okay, I'm looking at— what am I wearing? Is a combination of— is this multiple colors, right? Blue. Uh-huh. Somebody can look at this blue and say, okay, it is sky blue. One other person will say, no, it's not sky blue, it is navy. No, whatever interpretation you have, whatever it is that you define it to be, is according to the knowledge that you have. So you see, your eyes carries the information. I don't want to go into all these so that I won't err. Sent it to the brain, your brain interprets it. According to what you know. So it matters what you are seeing, it matters what you— what you know. Because if you don't have the right information, you will interpret it according to the information that you have. Somebody with me? You will do what? You interpret it according to the information that you have. Have. So it's not only about what you see, your interpretation matters, and that's your perception. Number 3: until you see by correct interpretation, you're not truly seeing well. You're not seeing well. Until you see by correct interpretation, you're not seeing. Jeremiah 1:11. Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 11. This was speaking to Jeremiah, and then the Lord asks him, what can you see? It says, moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. He could have said, I see a rod of a fig tree. He could have said, I see a rod of wood or whatever, but he said, how much ye. And I can also say to this that God gives information with, you know, according to what you can relate with. So it matters what you can relate with. Hello. So your rest— it is your responsibility to expand your mind. It is your responsibility to expose yourself into the Word of God. It is your responsibility and nobody else can do that for you. So he said, you know, I see a rod of an almond tree. The next verse, verse 12. Then said the Lord unto him, Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. Thou art well seen, meaning that you are right. Your eyes is correct. You've seen well. This is what I've showed you and this is what you're seeing. Now if God was showing him an almond tree and then he saw, he said, oh, I can see a fig, you know, a branch of a fig tree. Is it correct? Of course not. He was familiar with the almond tree. He saw it and he could what? He could could recognize it. So the work of recognition is yours to do. Nobody can do it for you. So you can look into the word of God and then interpret it in a way— wrongly interpreting the scriptures— if your mind is not exposed to the in-depth of God's word. He will misinterpret some things. I think last week, um, you know, I just said to the people in the house that, all right, you know, I, I hardly stay in the sitting room, so let's just sit down and watch a movie. All right, so, you know, they played the movie on YouTube, and then this lady, a dream kept coming. Every time in that dream, you know, God would tell her, cover your head, cover your head, cover your head, and If you watch that movie, you know what I'm saying. Cover your head. So she will, you know, tie scarf. She will dream again, cover your head. She will carry, what's it called, that thing that Apostle does not like. She will tie it again. Then one day she called her friend, she said, I'm tired, this dream keeps coming. How come? What is going on? I'm covering my— in fact, at one point she said, even my hair is smelling now. I don't know what else to do. She dreamt again. She went for shopping, bought new, you know, head covers, fine, fine ones. Head covers. Until she got the interpretation through the word of God. Now, we're seeing, when I'm saying cover, I'm not talking about your physical head. Now, she's familiar. Now, please follow me closely. She's familiar with her physical head. But what she didn't know, that the meaning of that word to where I was talking about her husband. So the person I was with in this room that I knew was Pastor Dammy. I was telling her that, see, it matters what you're— now it shows that this woman does not recognize her husband in that place of headship over her. So it was difficult for her to interpret it according to that. So she kept covering her physical head. She was going, even my hair is smelling now, I can't even open my hair anywhere, until she got to know that see the Adam asking you to cover is your husband, which came out of, you know, the light of God's word. So it matters what you know, it matters what your spirit is exposed to, it matters what your physical eyes know, it matters what your spiritual eyes can see, your recognition, identification. Matters. Number 4: What you see is what you get. Not what you want, not what you desire. What you see is what you get. Genesis 13:14-17. Now God was, you know, talking to Abraham, he said, for all the land which thou seest. He didn't say all the land that you want. No, he said all the land that you— what you see, I will give unto you. So your sight has a lot to do with what you get, has a lot to do with the, you know, manifestation of your destiny. It has a lot to do with the fulfillment of your calling, your ministry, and purpose. Number 5, you see wrongly when you see with the lenses of your past, when you see with the lenses of the things people are saying, when you see it with the lenses of wrong interpretation of scriptures, when you see the way with the lenses of culture, when you see with the lenses of wrong self-impression, low self-esteem. You're applying for a job, Or maybe somebody is encouraging you to apply for a job and you looked at everything, you're like, ah, this kind of job is not for somebody like me. Oh, wrong self-impression. You are a joint heir with Christ. As He is, so you are. You are one with Christ. When you give your life to Christ, you come into the royal family. And when Jesus comes into your life, He comes with everything that He has. His blessings, benefits, grace, glory, everything belongs to you. So this is a wake-up call to somebody under the sound of my voice. Wake up! Tap your neighbor and say, wake up! No, you have to wake up. You, you know, you are not saying it like— wake up! Okay, say soji. Okay, I think that gives a better energy. You have to wake up, have the right impression about yourself through the lens of the word of God. They've said different things to you in the past while growing up, and then every time you're trying to do something, you're trying to apply for a job, you are trying to, you know, take responsibility or apply for something big, the memories of the past keep coming into your head. The things they've said to you keep coming into your head, and you feel like, oh, I can't handle this, I'm not sure I can. No, you can. You have everything it takes. Or maybe for you it's about your past, and then you're saying something like, ah, Femi Lazarus, can God use somebody like us like this? Eh, God needs your story. If God has turned your mess into a message, then use that message. You have to use it to bring other people out. You have to use it to be a vessel unto honor in God's hands. See yourself correctly. And how do you do that? Through the lens of God's word. Enough of the distraction, enough of the noise. Withdraw. Now, Apostle was telling us yesterday how that, you know, if you're going to step into— I'm paraphrasing now— into the next phase of your life, there is— you have to, you know, come to that point where you become— you withdraw from every other thing. There are some separations that need to happen the same way it happened with Abraham and Lot. For you, it might be social media. For you, it might be that friend. You know, Apostle used to tell us that if he wants to do something and he, you know, he spoke to somebody and then he gets— what he gets is, you know, subtle discouragement, that will be the last time he will speak with that person. That's how deliberate you need to be. You have to be deliberate. It takes intentionality. So see yourself through the lens of God's word. Numbers 13, verse 1 to 3, then 33. All right, okay, let's just read 33. I think we should be familiar, you know, with this part of the scripture when Moses sent spies, right, you know, to go and check the land. And then some of them came and said, oh, Aha, we don't have what it takes to take that land. As some of you will say, I don't have what it takes. We don't have the capacity, or those guys are, ah, oh, if you see them. We don't have this, we don't have, I don't think, you know, it's one that we can go for. And in verse 33, he said, and there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Now they were the ones giving interpretation to what they don't know, and this is what happens when you are afraid of those that are afraid of you. You are afraid of the mountain that is afraid of you. You are afraid of that demon that is afraid of you. They are pressing your neck in the night because the devil will ride on your ignorance. The devil, see, he has no power over you. He knows. But if you're ignorant of the word of God, of what the word says about you, you will ride on it. And that's why Christians experience what they experience. I tell people, hey, something happened, you called your pastor. This one happened, you called your pastor. That one happened, you called him. What about the day that your pastor's line will not go through? Apostle will say we don't fight, we don't prepare, you know, in the battlefield. We prepare before the battle. Pay attention to the word of God. The enemy is messing up with your head, messing up with your mind, telling you different things. You receive the vision an idea, a correct idea from the Lord. And then it's time for you to begin, you know, to step up, to step into action. And discouragement came. The spirit of discouragement sat right beside you and started telling you things. You remember when you were 3 years old, your dad said, sit down, you bigot. With nothing inside. And then you remember, ah, okay, like there's nothing in this head, o. Oh, remember when you were in JSS 2? You remember that teacher that used to abuse you? So do you think you have the capacity to do this? No, that is who you are. No, that's not who you are. You are who God says that you are. You have everything it takes to fulfill your calling, your assignment on earth. I was telling them in Abuja church on Sunday that you are not semi-Jesus, you are not minor— no. If you are joint heirs with Christ, it means that everything that Christ have, you have. So what does that make you? Hello? What does that make you? Never allow the enemy steal from you. By telling you what he thinks you can collect. Because once you collect it, you can't have so much in your hand. What you call— what you collect is what you have, right? So if you're collecting the lies of the enemy, that's what you have. Stop, stop, stop. There is much more that God wants to give into your hands. So it matters what you see, it matters your interpretation, it matters how you see yourself, it matters the lens with which you are seeing. When we were going to move to Abuja, you know, people were saying different things. Ah, Abuja is a difficult place. Oh, you people 'You know, your church is going in Ibadan, now you want to move to Abuja?' We both say there's no sense in that. But when God speaks, when it is God speaking, it makes all the sense. Glory to God! You're meant to see through the lens of God's Word. You're meant to see through the lens of God's Word. You are who God says you are. You have overcome. You are one with Christ. You're seated with Christ in heavenly places. Arukobasha. Can you just stand up with me? Come on, stand up with me and declare God's Word. Of God. You tread upon serpents and scorpions of the earth, and nothing shall by any means do you harm. When men say there is a casting down, you will always say there is a lifting up. Oh, Randa Kabado Shagadabada, you are joint heirs with Christ. Holy Kabado Shagadabada. O shagada. Rado shaki bronde bande freke do shagada. I have everything it takes, everything it takes. I'm not looking anywhere for what it takes. No, I have it. Surely goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life. I have it, I have it, I have it, I have it. I have all the authority Power, grace, glory in Christ Jesus. I see correctly, I interpret accurately, my mind is stretched, my mind is stretched. I receive the correct exposure that I need. In the name of Jesus, come and declare the word of God.