Fasting Is Seeding The Clouds For Future Generations | Fast 2026 | Jentezen Franklin

0:00 Hello, this is Jensen Franklin, and thank you so much for joining us for this week's podcast. Our goal is to provide you with biblically-based teachings that will challenge, inspire, and equip you to live for Jesus. If you haven't already, I'd love for you to go ahead and subscribe today to this podcast so you can get the latest updates from us and you don't ever have to miss a new message. Let's go right into the service. Record it at Free Chapel. I believe it's going to bless you today.

0:33 I want you to go to 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18. I'll begin reading with verse 41. Then Elijah said to Ahab, go up and eat and drink. For there is the sound of an abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and drink. and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. Then he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees, and he said to his servant, Go up now. Look toward the sea. So he went and looked, and he said, There is nothing. And seven times he said, Go again. Go again. Go again. Go again. Go again. Go again. It's kind of like a 21-day fast. Again. Go again. Go again. Another day. Another day.

1:25 I'm glad he didn't give up. I'm glad he didn't stop on six. I'm glad he didn't stop on three. Then he came to pass the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea. So he said, go up and say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. All he had was a cloud the size of a man's hand. And now he's making a prophetic declaration. you better move and get off this mountain while you're still alive. There is coming a gully washer like you wouldn't believe. And if you don't go now, you may not get off this mountain. now it happened in the meantime that the sky became something's happening in the meantime when you're going after God for 21 days you don't see it it may be very small seemingly now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with the clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain after three and a half years of no rain, no moisture, even in the mornings, no dew.

2:45 a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. One of the footnote, great, wonderful things about that verse is Jezreel is 30 miles from that valley. and he outran the horses. Can you hear the music of chariots of fire right there and see him running past Ahab's Arabian stallions? So I'm talking today and I'm preaching today something that I want to share with you. It's inspired by a book I've been reading in the seventh chapter of this book tells this story and it really is really going to, I hope, register with you.

3:46 It sure has with me. I'm preaching today on seeding the clouds for future generations. Fasting, specifically what I'm preaching on, is fasting is seeding the clouds for future generations. you sow today what you want to see tomorrow and that's what we're doing on a fast is you're sowing today not one day today and the next day and the next day for what you want to see god do that is in his word to do and tomorrow so today reap tomorrow on november the 13th 1946 a plane took off from New York. It had six pounds of dry ice.

4:42 Its mission to seed the clouds with solidified carbon dioxide in hopes of creating enough condensation to cause precipitation. For many months prior to the flight, a chemist named Vincent Schaefer conducted a clandestine experiment for General Electric in their laboratory. In GE freezers chilled to subzero temperatures, Schaefer created clouds using his breath and seeded them with different chemical substances. After many failed attempts on a hot July day, Schaefer added some dry ice to his crystals, to his freezer, I should say. The dry ice caused a chemical reaction.

5:41 Catalyzed snow crystals appeared. A few months later, he takes off in a single propeller plane into a cloud in the middle of the summer. Dump the dry ice and eyewitnesses on the ground said that they that it seemed the cloud seemed to explode. The subsequent snowfall was visible for 40 miles. the headlines of the newspaper in New York the next day said Schaeffer's breakthrough quote, Schaeffer made it snow this afternoon over Pitts field. Now, next week, he will walk on water.

6:34 The science of seeding clouds is a modern day marvel that has happened just in our lifetime But it is an incredible thing and it is a powerful first in the natural, then in the spiritual that they literally have discovered how to see the clouds and make them rain or make them snow. That actually is real and it's not even disputable. This was the man who discovered that. But it didn't start with him spiritually. It started with the text that I read this morning in 1 Kings chapter 18. It's the story of Israel being in a famine for three and a half years. And the prophet Elijah sensed that this was the time for God to break that famine. He climbed up the mountain like the man went up in an airplane.

7:30 He climbed up Mount Carmel. I've been on top of that mountain many, many times in my life. And I've stood on top where he had to have stood. It's a very real place. And when he got on top of that mountain, he said, I'm going to seed. The only problem was there was no cloud to seed. There was nothing to see. It started spiritually with a man praying a bold prayer. God, it's time for the famine to end. The children are dying. The people are hungry. The crops have failed. The animals are dying. God, let it rain. Let it rain. The Bible said he put his his body posture changed. He put his head between his knees. He got down on all fours and put his head between his knees. And he began to pray for rain, praying fervently for rain.

8:26 And then he said to the man that was standing there, his servant, go to the cliff and look out and see if you see a cloud coming from the coast. And seven times the Bible said he would go one time, two times, three times, four times, just like fasting. We're doing it day after day. And each time he would go, nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. Oh, but something was changing. And just because you can't see it, faith sees the unseen and hears the unheard and believes what God says above what their natural senses tell them. And so the scripture said, he says to him on the sixth time after saying, I see nothing. Go again.

9:19 And this time after Elijah has seeded spiritually the clouds over his nation and over his family and over the kingdom of God. After he seeded it and filled it up with prayers that are the seedbed of spiritual clouds that pour down the rain of blessing. The seventh time he comes back and he says, I see a cloud. after three and a half years all we've got over our whole nation is a cloud the size of a man's hand and that's when I love this part of the story he did not wait until the next verse where it says the sky grew dark and the clouds and thunder and all of a sudden it rained very hard the text said You read it yourself in this in this message.

10:14 But before that happened, when it was just a hand, I mean, come on that size of a cloud. And he goes with a prophetic declaration. This is how you see the clouds for future generations over your family is prophetic declarations. He says, I hear the sound of an abundance of rain and it's about to hit every family and every home and every dry company and business that's going on. I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. How do you hear it? There's just a cloud the size of a man's hand. It is a prophetic declaration. That's what you're supposed to do when you're fasting and praying. You're seeding the clouds.

11:07 You don't have to see it right now. Speak it. Declare it. Oh, devil, you won't have my children. You won't have my family. Every day that you fast, every day that you pray, you're seeding the clouds for future generations. that prophetic declaration. And then there's that patient, that patient persistence. Go again, go again. And every voice this week in the world and inside your head and outside of your head has said, quit, just stop. It's not working. Don't fast. Don't do it. Break it. Quit, quit, quick. But there it is. It's a prophetic declaration. And then he adds to that, this powerful patient persistence that says, try it again. Look again, look again. It's coming.

12:09 Look again. Do you see that? It's powerful. And then I love the fact that what he is doing with that patience and that persistence and, and with that prophetic declaration, he is seeding the cloud. It is so small, despise not the day of small beginnings. He's seeding the cloud. You say, I just don't see any change. See the cloud of prophetic declaration and persistence while you're fasting. I'm telling you today that he said, I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. You see, the word of knowledge on the fast will come to you of what to pray for people. The word of wisdom will come to you.

13:07 What to pray. you'll be reading the Bible and you can read this Bible and see the clouds for future generation. If you would just read three chapters a day, you'll read 92% of this book and you just throw in a few chapters here and there and you'll have the whole Bible read in one year, three chapters a day. That's all it takes. You can read the Bible through this year. Every one of you, I charge you. I'm going to, I'm going to do it because you'll thank me for it. When you stand before the throne of God because he sends you letters every day and you don't read them. And he says, get in a habit now. This is a daily thing that I need from you. Give me this day, my daily bread, give me three chapters. I'm going to read three chapters. It'll take me 10 minutes, but I'm going to give, and I'm not going to do it in a, I'm going to get alone and I'm going to open the book and I'm just going to read three chapters. Can you do that? You'll see the clouds for future. Can you do that for your babies? Can you do that for your grandchildren? Anytime God blesses you, it's not just about you.

14:12 It's about future generations. Everything he's doing for you is to seed the clouds for future generations. That's why we praise and worship. We're filling up the clouds, seeding the clouds, but it will bless you. But we get all about here and now he's thinking generations and nations while we're thinking here and now. Hallelujah. I'm so glad that my bold praise and my bold fasting right now is proclaiming breakthrough to my children and children's children then. I'm so thankful that my testimony is a prophecy to somebody else. Your testimony is somebody else's prophecy. because they're in what you were in. And when you see the cloud with the word of God and you see the cloud with prophetic declarations and stop talking the negative stuff and stop saying the bad stuff and declare the prophetic declaration of the Lord over that situation.

15:19 Come on, this is what Christians do. We talk to mountains. We command mountains to get out of the way. And I'm looking at miracles all over this room that the enemy said, I will have them and I will destroy them. But somebody got down on their knees and started seeding the clouds. And somehow that cloud got so full that it began to rain down freedom and deliverance and purpose and destiny and calling. Oh, somebody give him a mighty shout of praise. We can change things if we'll read this word, pray fast, and declare that word is seeding the clouds. There ought to be some moments in our life where people think we're crazy.

16:10 My daughter Caroline's sitting down here on the front row, and she came to me last year, and she said, Dad, God told me this. I just feel it. She didn't say it quite that strong, but I tried to talk her out of it. I told her, probably not. Very small percentage, almost certain. Probably not. Don't think so. Don't think so. something got a hold of her and said, this is my will. Believe for it. And she said, I'm going for it, whether you help me or not. And you know what? She got that thing.

16:54 And she's working in the White House. And I didn't have much to do with it. God did it. And it's amazing the people she's bumping into every day. Oh, come on here. I'm talking about a prophetic declaration. I didn't clear that with you, but I'm so proud of it. Hallelujah. And I know what the devil told me about her when the enemy thought that he would win. But I just want to proclaim over all of our young people, we're seeding the clouds at Free Chapel. You don't have a chance to stray from God. You don't have a chance to stay out there in the polluted streams of this world. God has a purpose for your life, and you will walk in it. Give him a shout if you're a mama or a daddy. Oh, you better praise him. If you've already seen prodigals changed, give him a shout.

17:49 Woo. Seed the clouds. And every once in a while, there ought to be a moment in your life, if you read this book on a consistent daily basis, and you pray and you fast like this for 21 days, there will be moments in your life when people will think you're cray-cray. You're crazy. Good. you're getting in God's territory. He's tired of little puny prayers. He wants somebody with some courage and some vision and to say, my God can do anything exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask or even think. And it doesn't matter how complicated it is to get you there. Hallelujah.

18:43 Without a vision, people perish. And the opposite is true. With a vision, people don't perish. You never age out as long as you got a vision. That's what's wrong with some of you old people. You've lost your vision. You're sitting in a rocker all day. Get a vision and you'll stay alive. Caleb was 85. because he had a vision, he was still taking mountains for his family. He was seeding the clouds for his five daughters. Seed the clouds, listen, for the fourth and fifth generation. The Bible said, seed, said we are to touch the blessing of the Lord blesses unto the third and fourth generation. We should believe that what we're doing right here on this fast is going to go to the third and fourth generation of every one of our families. We're stacking the deck.

19:44 Bring Antichrist spirit on. Greater is he that is in us. We're fasting and praying. I know there's troubled times. There's no telling what's coming. I know the Lord is coming back, but should he tarry? If we fast and we pray, we are the triumphant church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us. You see, we sow today what we want to see tomorrow. We seed the clouds in many ways through prayer and through fasting. When Elijah said, get off this mountain or else, it was a prophetic declaration. His physical posture and his profound humility and his extreme intensity. That's what fasting is, isn't it?

20:39 It's great humility. It's expressing it even in our posture. It is something about it that is incredibly, extremely intense. Prayer and fasting and the clouds are getting loaded. Hallelujah. And the miracles are going to rain and the blessings are going to rain and freedom and grace and mercy is going to rain instead of judgment and destruction.

21:10 God's story. This book is here to produce God's family. It started with Abraham and it goes all the way up through the Bible. and it goes from God's story to God's family and you are the rest of the story. You are now Revelation chapter 23. There is no Revelation 23 in here. It stops at 22, but you're Revelation 23. You are Acts chapter 29. It stops in 28, but you're 29. You're living epistles and he's still writing your story And he's writing the story. Every one of us, every one of us are here because somebody seeded our cloud. And there were people who went before you who seeded the cloud.

22:07 You ought to choose a verse for this year and write it down and believe God for that verse and seed that cloud for future generations. Pray that they will grow in grace. Pray that God will bless you as you seek him on this fast. Seed the clouds with worship. I preached a sermon many years ago, No Worship, No Rain. It's from Zechariah, the 14th chapter. And it says this. It says, And it shall be in those days, those who will not come up of the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the Lord of hosts, even they will have no rain. He's saying, no worship. I preached it 20 years ago. No worship, no rain. The more worship goes up on a family, especially in seasons like this, worship God, sit down and worship God or worship him in your car, but worship and see the clouds for future generations. See moves of God and fresh touches of God. See the clouds for this church all year long over in, in March and over in September and And over, we're seeding the clouds.

23:19 And he said, the families that don't send up worship, they'll have no rain. The families that send up worship, they've seeded the clouds and the rain will fall on them. The more you send up, the more falls down. And if nothing goes up, nothing comes down. So sit there like a frog on a log all through service if you want to. or you can send up those spiritual vapors that form the clouds, that seed the clouds, that sends the rain, not just for you, but for your children and your children's children. Everybody give a shout that'll go four generations. Jesus!

24:02 I'm not crazy and I don't care what you think. I'm telling you, we seeded the clouds over on Browns Bridge and look at what the Lord has done. We seeded it when we didn't have nothing and look what the Lord has done and we're seeding for generations to come. Turn to somebody and say, if you'll praise him, I'll join you because it's unbiblical if the person beside you praises and you don't. He said, rejoice with them that rejoice.

24:35 Anybody praising on your row, you are being unbiblical, not shouting and praising God. Rejoice with them that rejoice. No, we're going to take a praise break right here. We're going to seed the clouds even for this service. I hear the sound. I've given a prophetic declaration. Rain is coming to your house. Rain is coming to your family. Life-giving rain is coming to your marriage. It's coming to your children. It's coming to your business, your purpose, your calling. Send it up. Send it up.

25:23 Partly cloudy. Send it up. Now, see, and that's the atmosphere that we ought to be preaching in right there. See, someone else seeded the cloud for you. Somebody else seeded the cloud for you. my father died at 56 but he seeded clouds that he would never see the fulfillment of but I'm seeing them and my children are seeing them and my children's children are seeing them. Don't underestimate the power of a single seed, a single prayer, a single praise, a single 10 minutes spent in this word prioritized.

26:32 Now, I want to give you this incredible story. Listen to this. Joshua Haldeman grew up in the prairies of Canada. in the forest of Canada. And he was a successful man that had a great farm up there and it was a 5,000 acre farm in Canada. But when the Great Depression hit in America, it had a ripple effect in Canada and he lost everything, including the 5,000 acre ranch. He had to start from scratch, but out of that came a magnificent blessing. It was Charles Spurgeon who said, and I'm going to tell this story another time, but listen to this line. Somebody needs to hear it even as I'm speaking now. Kiss the wave that throws you against the rock of ages. even if a bad storm comes and a wave of adversity overwhelms you and throws you, cuts you, the coal green tears you to pieces, kiss the wave, Spurgeon said, and you won't believe the story behind that verse.

27:45 I'm going to tell it to you soon. But kiss the wave that throws you against the rock of ages. whoo felt something go through me right there the very things that I I don't understand when you learn to kiss them and understand I'm not in control now I would never choose to be here but if it's coming is to push me against the rock of ages closer than I've ever been now listen to this story this man starts from scratch in Canada after losing his farm But he discovered his passion. The thing he really wanted to do was not be a farmer. He wanted to fly. His passion was flying an airplane, a single engine airplane. You see, in 1950, he uprooted his family, moved halfway around the world to South Africa.

28:49 He and his family, with the help of his wife and his family, he had his airplane, it was the only thing he retained, and that's the thing he loved the most. And he had it sent in compartments and crates to South Africa. and he taught his family. They all did it as a family project how to put the plane back together. And all of his kids learned how to put with their hands a plane together, a single engine prop plane. A few years later, that man and his wife, whose name was Winfred, embarked on a 30,000 mile trip in that same plane from Africa to Australia and back to South Africa. 30,000 miles. Y'all don't understand. I've flown over to Australia.

29:49 That's a what? 18 hour, 18 hour flight on a single engine plane. Just, oh, this, this man and his wife. They got little glasses on. Hey, this is fun. You think Junior put the right thing on the propeller? You think everything's good, honey? I think everything's good. Let's go 30,000 miles across the ocean. I mean, on big old 747 jets, it's scary sometimes. You're doing like, it doesn't matter how nice to see where you are. It's a little, Can you imagine this really happened? To put it in perspective, Charles Lindbergh, who did the transatlantic flight, flew 3,600 miles and everybody went crazy. But 27 years later, Joshua and Winford Haldeman flew eight times as far in a single engine plane. you never heard of them and you don't care I can see by the look of your face but you have heard of their grandson named Elon Musk and Elon Musk in the biographers who wrote about his story said that, listen to this, that he was inspired because he would sit and watch the, um, they had these little machines that they used to do and they take a picture and you could put a screen up on the wall and it would click. And you, that's pretty cool. Cut all the lights off and you go click. And all the young people are like, but we didn't have computers and all that. And you go click. We used to use them in church. It was really cool. Click, click. We thought we were really bad. Click and a new picture would come up automatically. Isn't that amazing? Click. It was on a little circle. Why y'all make me work so hard? You know what, what's it called? Has it got a name? Projection. Thank you. Projection screen.

31:45 That's on you. That's five minutes of your time. You should have... So get this now. Elon Musk has turned aerospace industry upside down with his SpaceX headquarters. He has a picture of Mars barren just like it is. And on the other side of the headquarters room, he has a picture of it colonized and humans living there. And a guy, you talk about shooting for the moon. That wasn't enough. If your grandparents are crazy enough to get on a transatlantic or world trip, then they were seeding the clouds for the grandson to one day come on the scene. and the stories that he heard about his grandparents and the pictures that he looked at, the slideshows, the exploits of his grandparents became the seedbed in Musk imagination, and the knowledge that was transferred became the seedbed about aviation that would cause him to send a rocket up and have the technology to help bring it back down and use it all over again.

33:17 You know why I learned this? Because one day I'm going to get to preach to him. One day I'm going to tell him about one Savior and one Lord and one name that is above every name. And I'm believing for that. The family story should keep going on in your family and you should seed the cloud spiritually so that down the road you don't even know what God is doing in that family. All of us are born into somebody else's story. For good or for bad, you're born into that story. and every move you make and every risk you take. Sounds like a steam song. Come on. It's not I'll be watching you, but every move you take and every risk you take is setting the stage for somebody else in your family to take the same steps of faith that you're taking.

34:26 So seed the clouds and God will find your children. Hallelujah. Seed the clouds and the rain cannot be held back. Seed the cloud no matter how small it is. Little is much when God is in it. Hallelujah. Your brave is somebody else's breakthrough. Your testimony is somebody else's prophecy. And whatever God does for you is never just for you. It's always the third and fourth generation.

35:08 And I'm done. but I'm simply telling you this morning, that means I'm done. And I'm simply telling you this morning. I don't understand because y'all were in the first service. You know I'm done.

35:30 What doth hinder? That's a Bible verse. Hallelujah. Does this sermon make sense? If you get this, then he said, make sure that you faint not, lest your labor be in vain. But just keep fasting. Just keep praying. Just keep seeding the clouds. Even the again saying no to this and no to that. It's a seed.

36:21 And you don't know what God is doing even in the next generation and the next generation and the next generation. there's going to be spiritual Elon Musk. That what he has, he's the richest man in the world. But what if the greatest anointing on the planet has never been seen yet in someone's life that totally is pure and clean and gives all glory to Jesus? No telling what those little prayer meetings when you're cleaning the house.

36:59 They're seeds. For future generations. See those clouds. This is what I felt led to tell you. I hear the sound. I'm making a prophetic declaration. Over your home and over your family. And over your life. In this new year. I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. And if you don't move now. You might miss it. He said Ahab. If you don't move now. This is going to be a blessing. But if you get left behind this, this thing, you could, it could, you could sink in this. I feel that for somebody in this service at every campus, all over, whoever you're watching me, this is a divine appointment. And somebody has seeded your cloud and you can't go into another year like you've been going.

37:52 And this is your moment and this is your hour and this is your day. I really want to say thank you for joining us this week. If you haven't already, make sure you click on the subscription button and leave us a review. It helps this podcast reach even more people when you comment, when you give.