 Alright, recording has started. Welcome to the class, everyone. I'm sure the others will join us. Let's just pray together and then we get started in our class today on faith. Alright, who would like to pray? Could somebody just lead us in prayer as we get started? Okay, go ahead. Father, we come to the throne of grace, Lord. Thank you for this day you have given us. Thank you for this hour. Thank you for the supernatural hour, Lord, whatever we have learned, Lord, whatever we are going to learn about faith, Lord. That it should be used for the kingdom expansion and in our daily lives also, Lord. Whatever we will be learning, Lord, let it be visible in our daily lives so that we can set an example for all of the fellow believers on the world. Name us as well, Lord, whatever we are going to learn. Thank you for this hour. Thank you for what we will be learning, Lord. That it should be used for the kingdom expansion and in our daily lives also. The time you have given us, Lord, thank you. The day you have given us all the privileges you have given, Lord. Thank you for all the blessings, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. Good morning. Once again, welcome to this class. We are continuing with our study on faith and two weeks back. So last week we did not have class, but the week before we started talking about different ways by which we can release our faith. That means you've got faith in your heart, faith in God, based on His word, based on His promise, and how do we release that? How do we bring faith out of our hearts so that it can work in life situations? I can begin to do what God said it can do in our life situations, in our circumstances. And so we started talking about the fact that confession releases faith. So that means we speak our faith, we confess our faith, and that's one way by which we release our faith. So we covered a few things on that. So the plan for today is we will finish talking about confession, and then we'll talk about a few more ways by which we release faith, by which we exercise faith. And then if time permits today or definitely next week, we will get into how to exercise faith. That means everything we've learned so far, we'll just put it down in simple steps and say, when you want to exercise faith in God, here's how you do it. So we're going to learn about how to release faith in different ways, and then we're going to talk about how to exercise faith in God. So just put it all together in a simple, you can use the steps or in a little framework so that we could use that in our day-to-day lives as we seek to exercise our faith in God for different things. So let's just go back to the notes that we were using two weeks back. I'm going to share that with us and let's see here. So we were talking about confession, how it simply means, the word confession simply means to say what God wants us to say. So we saw from the scriptures, both in the Old Testament and then in the New Testament, the word confession is used not just in the context of sin, but also to use in the context of speaking what God has spoken. And speaking the word, speaking your faith. And we started the Deuteronomy chapter 30, where in the Old Testament God told his people, you know, you keep my word in your mouth. And so Paul uses the same thing in Romans 10, 6 to 10. And instead of in Deuteronomy 30, where it referred to the law or the command in Romans 10, 6 to 10, Paul replaces that with the message of Christ, the word of faith. And what we're preaching and teaching about Jesus and what he's done for us and who he is. So he speak that. So the New Testament says, you speak, you confess Christ, who he is, what he's done, the message of Christ, you speak that. But the principle is the same, that you believe in your heart, you confess with your mouth. And then we looked at, you know, other scriptures that tell us that Jesus is the high priest of our confession. And we hold fast to our confession because he who promised is faithful. And then we looked at Mark 11, 22 to 24, where Jesus is teaching us the importance of speaking into life situations. He demonstrated that by just speaking to a victory and commanding the victory to dry up, be withered from the roots. And the next day it was withered up from the roots. And then he gave the message to his disciples, see, this is how faith works. If you have faith in your heart, you speak it. And you don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass. You will have what you say. So Jesus taught us that, that we can speak to life situations, speak to things in this realm and things will change. So we've covered all that. Let's just go ahead and look at a few more scriptures and on confession or declaration or speaking of our faith. And then we will get into a couple of other ways by which we release faith. Let's go to Hebrews 13, 5 and 6, please. Somebody could read that for us. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 5 and 6. Hebrews 13, 5 and 6, please. Let me make sure nobody's held outside class. So, okay, everyone's in. Okay, go ahead. 13, 5 and 6. Let your conduct be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Amen. Now, I just want to highlight something. I know Paul, not Paul, but the title of Hebrews here is addressing several different things in this chapter. But I just want to point out what is being stated here in Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. Notice he says, in the middle of verse 5, he says, For he himself has said, and he gives a quote. This is what God said. Then he says, So we may boldly say. And then again, he gives us, it's another quote. So what is the logic or the reasoning here? God has said something. So we boldly say something. God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Notice that what we boldly say is in agreement with what God has already said. That's the point I want to bring our attention to. He has said, God spoke first, we boldly say, we affirm our agreement or we declare our agreement with what God has said. That's confession. God has said, by his stripes, you were healed. So we boldly say, by his stripes, I have been healed. God has said, the Lord, I am the Lord your shepherd. You will not be in want. So we boldly say, the Lord is my shepherd. I will not be in want. So that's declaration. We are speaking in agreement with what God has already spoken concerning us. So that is how faith is expressed. It is us coming into agreement with what God has said. God has said something and then you can read the Bible. There's so many wonderful promises that cover every area of life and you take those promises that God has spoken, what God has already said about you and then you come into agreement with that. God has said, so I boldly say. So somebody asks, you know, why are you so confident? Why are you speaking like this? Well, because God has said, God has said, so I boldly say, because God will not lie. God will not speak on truth. God will not speak something that he will not back up. So God has said, so I boldly say. And that's confession. That's what faith is. So really, faith is not some kind of a trick that we are trying to talk ourselves into. Right? It's not like, you know, just keep saying something, muttering something. It'll happen. That's not, that's not what faith is. It's really coming into agreement with God has already said. God has already said something about you, about your life, about different areas of your life. He's already spoken, said you'll be blessed. So you and I come into agreement with that. So what do we confess? What do we say? We say things, you know, we say what God has done for us in the plan of redemption. Means he's already done it. My sins are forgiven. I've been made the righteousness of God. I've been washed by the blood of Jesus. These are things God has already done for us. And so we are just coming into agreement with it. We confess what God has done in us. You know, God has made me a new creation. He has made me an overcomer. He gives me the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. We confess who we are in Christ. You know, this is who we are to the Father in Jesus Christ. We are righteous. We are accepted. We are highly favored. We have been justified. We confess what Jesus is doing at the right hand of the Father. He's always interceding for us. He is causing us to triumph and so on. We confess what God can do through us. So we say, you know, through my God, we do valiantly. Or I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God makes all grace abound toward me. That I always having all sufficiency in all things. I abound to every good work. In other words, we're essentially saying what God has already spoken. Or we are saying what God has already done for us. And we are coming into agreement with God. So that's our confession. Now notice, in contrast to that kind of speaking, which is speaking in agreement with God, there is what we will call as wrong confession. Romans 10-6. Let's go to Romans 10-6. We saw this last week. No, not last week, but two weeks back. Let's pick it up again. Romans 10-6. Somebody could read that for us, please. Romans 10-6. But the righteousness that is by faith says, Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into deep? What is to bring Christ up from the dead? Thank you. So Romans 10-6 and 7. So it says, you know, faith, it says, do not speak like this. Do not say this. What do you not say? Don't say who's going to go to heaven and bring Jesus from there. In other words, you know, hey, Jesus is so far away from me. He is in heaven. How is he going to come and help me? Or verse 7, do not say who was going to go down into the deep to bring him up as Jesus is dead. Oh my God, he's not doing anything. God is, you know, I don't think even God can help me. You know, we don't speak like that. So do not say. Do not say. My God is so far away. God is not hearing my prayer. God doesn't care for me. God doesn't love me. Don't speak like that. Do not say who's going to go to heaven and bring Christ down. Or who's going to go down to the deep to raise Christ up as though he's dead. No. So we say always, we speak always in agreement with who God is, what he has spoken, what he has done. That's the way faith speaks. If we are not doing that, then we are speaking wrong. We just call it wrong confession. We're talking about defeat and failure. Talking about how big or how bad the devil is and how much he's doing. And if you keep talking about how the devil is holding us back and holding in bondage, keeping us in sickness and glorifying the devil or speaking about our own failures or this kind of speaking actually defeats us. And God has said, don't speak like that. Instead, I want to encourage all of us. We always say what God has said about us in His Word. And sometimes, even when we feel afraid, we have doubts in our hearts. Don't speak those things. Don't speak negative. You talk to God and say, God, right now, I'm feeling, this is what I'm feeling. I'm feeling discouraged, but I thank you, that you are my God. So I'm not saying deny your feelings. Sometimes you feel discouraged. You feel whatever. You feel the pain. You feel anxious. You feel worried or fearful. Those things are there. It's okay to talk to God. Release the path that this is how I feel. But your Word says. And so you're saying, God, this is how I feel. But I'm choosing to come into alignment or into agreement with your Word. So I'm not saying deny your feelings, but you're just moving in to come into agreement with God in His Word, right? So there's practical instructions here, right? So we are not doing this as a mere technique. We know that this is what God's Word teaches us. And we are not being vain in our imaginations. We are keeping our speaking aligned to the Word of God. This is because it's a promise. Because God has said, I'm saying this. So we are staying in alignment with the Word of God. We are not just randomly saying things, wishful thinking. We are speaking according to God's Word. And there are times when the Holy Spirit will inspire a word in our hearts and then we speak as the Holy Spirit leads us. And we speak that inspired Word He may give concerning the situation. And we are depending on God. While we are exercising our faith, we are depending on God. And also then we have contrary feelings, our senses. We recognize it, but we always choose to take sides with God's Word, right? There are times when our senses will be opposite to what God has promised. We recognize how we feel. We recognize what our senses are telling us. But we say, God, I choose to come and stand on your Word and to hold on to your Word. So that's the first way to release our faith, which is by confession, by speaking aligned to the Word. Let the Word get into your heart, put that Word into your heart, and then speak aligned to the Word. Now we're going to move forward and talk about a few other ways in which we release faith. We're going to talk about actions that means we act aligned to our faith. We do whatever we can practically in line with what we believe. So actions demonstrate faith. We're also going to talk about praise. Praise also expresses faith. So that means in a situation where things may be difficult, when we praise God, that is also a way to express faith. And we're also going to talk about patience. That is, you are enduring, you're holding on patiently. That also is an expression of your faith and it actually helps to mature faith. So we want to talk about that. And then one more part is being determined. So we want to talk about determination. That means you don't let go, you're patient, but you're also determined to possess what God said you can have. So all of these, confession, our praise, our action, our praise, our patience, and our determination, these five things are involved in us releasing faith in God. And we're going to look at them, just giving us an overview. So confession, what we say, action, what we do. Praise, how we worship, patience, how we endure, stand through time and determination, our tenacity, our unwillingness to give up. These five things are really expressions of our faith in God. And God looks at these things in our lives. He looks at, okay, what are you speaking? Are you speaking a line to His Word? What are you doing? That's your action. Are you taking some steps in line with your faith? Are you doing whatever you can in line with your faith? Third, are you worshiping? Are you praising God? Are you thanking Him? Are you expressing your praise to God in line with what He has promised? Fourth, are you patient? That means are you doing this through time? You know, it's easy to do it for five minutes some day, but what about the next day? What about the day after? What about the week later? Are you patient? And number five, are you determined? You have committed yourself to seeing the end result of what God has promised in your life. Okay. So we've gone through confession now. I'm just going to go through the other four. So actions demonstrate our faith. That means we start doing things aligned to the promise of God or aligned to what God has said. Okay. So we look at some scriptures and some of these we have seen earlier, but let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 11. I'll cover a little bit of ground and then I'll pause to take any questions that you may have. Okay. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and somebody could read verse 11, please. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 11. With this in mind, we constantly pray for you that our God may count toward the office calling and that by His power, He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. Notice every, in the version that Sid can have read, every act prompted by faith. Or the New King Jim says, the work of faith. The work of faith. So faith is not, it's faith is of the heart. It's what you have inside you. You're believing God. But then faith works. Faith begins to do something, right? It begins to act out what it believes. And this verse is telling us in Paul's praying that God would fulfill or complete your work of faith with power. So that means we step out and we do our work of faith. Then God comes along and completes that with His power. So God's power goes into operation when you and I begin to act out of faith and you and I begin to do something in faith. God's power goes into operation. Right? So that's, that's important. So what can you do? So example, if you're believing God for healing. All right. So you, you put the word of God concerning healing into your heart. Then you begin to start speaking, aligned to that thing, declaring God is my healer. And then now you begin to act your faith. You, you know, take steps towards that. You know, whether maybe trying to do something that you could not do, maybe get up to walk a little bit or, you know, if somebody is sick and on the bed, and whenever they're able to, they can step out, they can start acting their faith. Say, God, I believe I'm going to be able to walk. I'm going to be able to do this. So whatever is possible, right? Whatever you start acting your faith, start putting your faith to work. Say, God, this is what I'm expecting to be like. I'm expecting to move into. So you start taking steps aligned to that. You know, if you are believing God for a increase, say in your work, in your professional life. So what do you do? You prepare yourself that way. Then you begin to put God's word into your heart concerning promotion, concerning increase, concerning favor. Put in your heart that you're going to declare that. God gives me favor in my workplace. God gives me, and brings promotion and increase in my life. Then you also going to start acting aligned with that. Maybe whatever it needs, you know, for you to move up, maybe you take some courses, extra courses, or maybe just be diligent in your work. And, you know, that's demonstrating, say, God, I'm positioning myself. I'm putting myself ready to see this increase that I believe based on your word, you will bring to me. So whatever you can do to express that, God, I'm ready. I'm waiting for this thing to happen in my life. You take those steps. And when we work our faith, like the scripture says, the power of God. God fulfills our work of faith with power. Let's also go to James chapter 2. And we will read the passage that James 2. I wanted to bring our attention to some of these scriptures. So James chapter 2. We can read verses 14 through, I guess we can read the whole passage. James chapter 2 was 14 to 26. Let's read the whole passage. James 2, 14 to 26, please. Somebody can read it. James chapter 2 was 14 to 26. What is a prophet, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and no one of you says to them, sorry, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does it profit? Thus also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham a father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called a friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them another way for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also. Thank you. It's a lengthy passage James to 1426 but let's just highlight some of the things that are in line with what we are saying here. James is teaching us here that if you have faith in your heart it's not enough to say, oh I have faith in my heart. That faith has to be demonstrated by what you do. And so he gives us different examples so he says, look if somebody is hungry you don't just say, you need to speak nice words to him or God keep you warm and God bless you and that's good to speak comforting words but you've got to do something. You help that person. Then he talks about Abraham. He says, look at Abraham. He believed God. Yeah, but he also did something. Even to the point where he took his own son Isaac to the altar and was ready to offer him up because he believed that God would bring him back and he went through saying, I'm ready to offer because I believe. And Abraham acted his way. He talks about another person called Reha. Now she was a woman who was on the walls of the city of Jericho and as people were coming, as Israel was preparing to attack Jericho she believed that God was with these people, the Israelites, she believed that but she also did something. First of all, she protected the spies who came to spy out the place and then she also hung the scarlet thread out her window just like she was instructed to do. That means she did something. She believed and then she did something. So James repeats the point that he wants us to get. He repeats it several times. In verse 17, verse 20 and again verse 26. Three times he says, faith without works is dead. Three times in this passage. The point he wants to get across to us. Faith without works is dead. That means if he does not have cooperating actions, faith was cooperating with his actions. I mean that's very much translation. Or if he doesn't have actions that express his faith, then faith is dead. That means it can't produce. Faith is lifeless. So it is very important for us to have actions doing something aligned to what we believe. And that's what causes faith to quote unquote give life, I mean do something or express life. Because faith without actions is lifeless. It can't produce. That's what James is getting to us. So it's important for us to express our faith by what we do. And not only that, we see here in verse 22. In talking about Abraham, he says the latter part of verse 22. By works, faith was made perfect. That means by what he did, his faith was brought to a place of perfection or maturity. That means it came to that place where it could produce. So understand that we must have faith. That we must have works that express our faith. So doing something aligned to what you believe. And we see so many, many examples in the Bible. And I just highlighted a few here in Mark two. You know, we read about these four friends who brought one of the friends who was paralyzed. They brought him on a mat to Jesus to the house where Jesus was. The house was full. They went up to the roof and they let him down. And the Bible says Jesus saw their faith. How did he see their faith? Because of what they did. They brought the man and they didn't just, you know, get discouraged because there was no space to get into the house. They took an extra step. They made extra effort to go to the roof and let him in. So Jesus saw their faith. In Acts three, we find that when Peter and John were passing by this man who was lame, it's very interesting. When Peter tells this man, you know, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. It's very interesting. He took him by the right hand and lifted him up. See, that's an act of faith. He took him by the right hand and lifted him up. His faith was doing something because he believed God will heal this man and he's going to walk. And so he says, so he said in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And then he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. So that's, again, an example of how he's administering healing. He exercised faith. So like these, there are so many examples in the Bible. In 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 5, you know, we have, and this is an Old Testament example where the name and who's the captain or the commander of the army for the king of Syria. He comes and meets the prophet, prophet Elisha, to be healed of a leprosy. And the prophet tells him, you know, go dip yourself in the river seven times, river Jordan, seven times. Now, this man was actually pretty upset. He said, you know, why didn't the prophet come and lay hands on me or do something? Why is he telling me to go and dip in the river seven times? I could go back home and I could, you know, dip in that river. But then, you know, one of his soldiers advised him, I just do what the prophet said, you know, so he gets to the river and he dips in seven times and he's healed. So he learned there that simple obedience to God's word, you know, you act in line with what God said, do what God said, and simple obedience to God's word is going to give us the results, right? And Jesus, you know, he taught us the importance of hearing and doing the same. That means you start doing it. And as you do the word, you're actually building yourself up on, let's say, the house being built on the rock. You've got a solid foundation. The storms of life will come, but as a doer of the word, somebody's acting on the word, you're secure. You will be standing and, you know, even if storms come, storms come, you will stand through the storm, right? So here's the second thing that I want to emphasize in that the Bible teaches, and I've just, you know, highlighted a few scriptures that we need to have actions aligned to our faith, right? So you act in line with your faith. A few other things here. Third way to express faith is through praise. So when we have faith in God, what do we do? We praise God in faith even before we see the answer, right? And we saw this example in the case of Abraham in Romans 4, where the Bible says he was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. So even before he saw the outcome, even before he saw the result, he just said, Father, I don't know exactly what words he may have used, but I'm imagining it, right? Father, I praise you that you are faithful to your word, that you have blessed me with Isaac. Father, I thank you, or that you've blessed me with a son and that you have made me a father of a great nation. So he is giving glory to God even before the things that happened and that strengthened his faith, right? So that's the third way we express faith. We praise God. And sometimes we praise God even when things are not easy. And I think a great example would be Paul and Silas who are in prison and acts the 16th chapter. They found themselves in prison and at midnight, it says they began to sing and praise God. So that's just a great and encouraging example for us. You know, when I'm looking at Acts 16, 25 and 26, you know, Acts 16, 25 and 26, it tells us Paul and Silas were put in prison, the inner prison. They were in chains. The feet were in stocks. So there was really no chance for them to get out. And yet in a situation like that, the Bible says that they were singing hymns and praising God. You know, that's something. So they were not out of their situations. They were not out of their difficulty. But in the difficulty, they were praising God. In the middle of their problem, they were praising God. And then what happened? God moved in such a powerful way. The chains came off. The prison doors were open and, you know, God just intervened powerfully in their lives. Now, we may have always seen every prison door and opened in every chain, but we may have chosen, you know, the same night that we start praising God. Sometimes we may have to praise him many nights, but you just continue doing that, because you know that praise expresses your faith in God. And simple words like, Father, I thank you for your word. Your word is truth. Thank you that your word will never fail. Thank you for who you are. Now, that is you expressing faith in God. And it is very important. It's a very important way to express faith in God. So we've seen three so far. Confession, action, praise. The fourth one is to be patient, right? And you find this in several places. Can somebody read Hebrews 612 and also Hebrews 10, 35, 36 for us, please? Hebrews 612. That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 10, 35 and 36 also, please? Hebrews 10, 35. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. So notice the words patience or endurance, right? So what the scripture is telling us? He says, imitate those who through faith and patience inherit or receive the promises. Then Hebrews 10, he says, don't let go of your confidence. The faith you have. There is a great reward. The outcome is there. But what do we need? We need endurance after we've done the will of God, which is to believe God and act in line with His word and praise. And we've done the will of God. What do you need? We need endurance so that we may receive the promise. So the scriptures are telling, teaching us here. In addition to faith, I need patience. I need endurance, right? So being patient. Now it's not easy. You know, we like everything to happen very fast. Sometimes, you know, things happen really quickly. There are times when, you know, you believe in God for something. It happens right away. But then there are times when you and I just have to be patient. We have to endure until we receive the promise. And from the time you start exercising your faith until you receive the promise, what do you do? Just keep doing these same things. Keep confessing the word. Keep acting your faith. Keep praising God and stay patient. Stay in endurance. Don't quit. Think about Abraham. You know, he waited actually, you know, it's more than 10 years. From the time God called him to the time he actually saw the promise was 25 years. So 15 years in between, God reassured him. And so even after God reassured him, he abated another 10 years before the promise actually happened. But he did not become weak in faith. He was firm in faith. And that's why he tells us, you know, it's actually referring to Abraham. Follow his faith. He waited. And so we know we have to hold fast to the confession of our faith without wavering because God who promised is faithful. Why can we endure? Why can we stay the course? He who promised is faithful. God is faithful. Now I know many times we say, God, why is it taking so much time? I mean, I know you can snap your finger and things can happen, but why is it taking time? And we'll address that a little bit. But how do we endure through time knowing that he who promised is faithful? We are relying on his faithfulness. God will not fail. God will not, you know, fall back or go back on his promise. So we know he's faithful. And while we are waiting, what is happening to us, our perseverance or our endurance is developing character in us. It's strengthening who we are. We are becoming better people. We are becoming stronger characters being formed in us. We also people are learning to have hope. That means we are learning to stay positive even in the middle of our waiting. And we can do it because of the love of God. We are assured of the love of God. So this waiting period is actually doing good for us. Our character is being developed. Our hope is being strengthened. And our experience of God's love is becoming richer as we endure. So this journey through time, this enduring is not a wasted thing. Things are happening to us while we endure through time. Okay? One of the things that we need to keep in mind is that certain things, God has a perfect timing. He has a timing. The Bible says, you know, he makes all things. We know the scripture. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 11, right? He makes all things beautiful in his time. Right? So God has that established time. And he will bring it in its perfect time. So even if it means us waiting, you know, it's not... We may think, God, I really need it right now or it has to happen now. It's okay. Just wait and trust in the fact that he will make it beautiful in the perfect time. God, I know you'll do it perfect in perfect time. My faith is that it will be done. It will happen. And so you wait, you and I wait for perfect time. So we have to endure by faith. We endure through time. That is, even if it's, you know, doesn't happen as quickly as possible. We endure through time. We endure through testing. So that means our faith will be tested and we endure through it. Now testing is not an inducement to sin, but it is a demonstration of our commitment to God. So sometimes our faith will be tested. So how can it be tested? For example, you may want to give up or sometimes there could be some other option which may not be the right thing to do. So you say no to the other option and you choose to wait for God's Word to take place in your life. So faith could be tested that way. So we endure through time. We endure through tests. In Abraham's case, we know God told him to offer his son Isaac and now Abraham was more than willing to do that. And we also endure through trials. That means adversities, hardships. You're having faith, but it's getting harder. You're having faith, but it's becoming more difficult. You're having faith, but situations are not changing right away. Hold on, hold on. You endure through trials. I will pause right after this here. It says James 1-2-4. He says, brethren, come to joy when you fall into it. It's trials. That means hardships. Because these are just testing your faith and it's developing patience in you. When patience has its perfect work, that means it runs its full course. You'll come out perfect and complete, lacking nothing. So our faith will be tested through the trials that we have to face, the hardships. So you're believing God, sometimes it gets hard, but you just hold on. Your faith is being tested through that hardship, through the difficulty. But then you endure and what will happen? You will come out complete, perfect, not lacking anything. Okay. So I'm going to pause here. I know we've reached the end of this hour. And everyone is following with me. Any questions before we go for a break? Yes, I have a question. Go ahead. I put it in the chat and it's regarding, you might have addressed it already, but yeah. Is that a denial of the reality of the natural? How can we press on when circumstances are the same in spite of the waiting? How can we encourage someone who's going through difficult circumstances? Right. So, you know, when we are having faith in God, it doesn't mean we are denying the situation, right? Okay. You realize, God, I know right now this is what is happening. This is what I'm facing. This is the way things are. This is the reality of the natural situation. I recognize it. I'm not in denial of it, but I am believing your word. Right. So why do we have, why do we praise God in the middle of the situation? Because we believe his promise. Why do we, you know, stay positive in the middle of the situation? Because we believe his promise. We are not denying his promise. We are not denying, we are not denying the situation or we are not denying what we are facing. This is what we are facing. It's sometimes hard. It's sometimes difficult. It's always painful, but we are believing his promise. That's why we praise. That's why we patiently endure. Okay. And how can we encourage someone going through difficult circumstances? Yeah. So the encouragement we can give is two things. To point to the faithfulness of God. God is faithful. He's faithful to you. And secondly, as long as you're believing the Bible, you're believing the word of God, you're believing the right thing. Right. So we encourage them that way. And we may not have answers as to why the situation is so difficult. But we can encourage them that way. And we may not have answers as to why situation doesn't change right away. We may not have an answer as to why the answer doesn't come immediately. But we can succeed. We don't have to try to answer that because we don't know. But what we can say is, we know God is faithful. We know the Bible is true. His promise is true. And that's the way we connect. And that's basically what we all need to be reminded of. Hey, God is faithful. He's not a liar. Second, His word is truth. Just hold on to His word. And we need to be reminded and that will encourage us during those testing times, times of trial, times of difficulty. Okay. Thank you, Pastor. I had a follow up. Can I ask now or? Let's do it right after when we come from the break. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We will pause here. I will just go for a break and right after the break, we'll come back and we will take up the viewers question. Thank you everyone to have a quick break. 10 minutes and we'll be back, please. Thank you.