 Okay. Welcome back to the second lecture on BC 111, our course on faith. I apologize for the poor audio in the earlier class. I hope everything is fine right now and you can hear me clearly. So towards the end of the previous class, when we were talking about using our shield of faith against the fiery dust that we get, I just shared a little incident about a pastor's conference and how one of the pastors manifested and so on. Prince asked the question, how could a pastor manifest? So here's the thing, and so I'll just take a few minutes to answer that question and then we will continue with our course. So a believer cannot be possessed by evil spirits, a believer. But a believer can be troubled, disturbed, or we would use the word oppressed by evil spirits. So if we don't keep up our shield of faith, then it's possible that the enemy has some entry point, because the shield of faith is not there, they're not standing in faith. The enemy has an entry point and then they can trouble the believer. So the believer could be troubled in their body or in the mind. And when we are ministering deliverance, and you will learn this in the course on ministering healing and deliverance, I think, or also on the course on believers authority, you will learn this about ministering deliverance. Now, when you are ministering deliverance, the manifestations that happen when somebody is possessed or when somebody is oppressed, the manifestations look the same. They look like the same because they are troubled. In one case, they are troubled by evil spirits. In another case, they are possessed by evil spirits. But when you're ministering deliverance, it looks the same. But the condition is actually different because a believer cannot be possessed. A believer can be troubled. So that's what must have happened in the case of this pastor. I don't know him. He must have been troubled for whatever reason in his life. I don't know. In that same meeting, in the youth's meeting, like our youth were ministering, and then we had a prayer time and some of the youth came for prayer. And one of the youth came and this man, or this boy, I shouldn't say man, but this young boy, young man, he was actually a believer for 10 years. He's actually serving in his church. He was standing in line and they brought him. They said he's feeling suicidal. I said, okay, I'll pray. The moment I laid hands on him, he's had a manifesto. So he's been serving in his church for 10 years, right? But he was having suicidal tendencies, suicidal tendencies. So the moment I lay hands, that sort of thing. So then again, you rebuke people. So this is another example where he's a believer, but he's troubled. He's not possessed. He's troubled. And in this case, he was suicidal, disturbed in his mind, you know, feeling suicidal. But the manifestation was just like as though he was possessed. But it's not. It's just trouble. Okay. So we shouldn't confuse it too, but that's how it is in the ministry. You will learn about it in, there are two courses. One is the course on healing and deliverance and other courses on believers authority. So in these things, we should cover that. All right. Let's get back to our lesson so far on faith. Let's go forward. Online students, I will pause. I'll come back and I'll look at your questions. So feel free to ask questions. All right. Number seven. So we're talking about the believer's walk of faith. That means what is the role faith has in the daily life of the believer? Right. We have mentioned different things. So number seven, it says we learned this. We exercise spiritual gifts. We minister God's power and we see miracles by faith. So if we want to exercise spiritual gifts, so we will, you know, we will learn about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. All the gifts of the spirit are available for every believer. So all of us can flow in the gifts of the spirit. The gifts of the spirit are like our toolbox. You know, God has given it to us like our toolbox. We use that to serve people. But how do we serve people with those spiritual gifts? We have to do it by faith. Romans chapter 12 verse six. All right. He says having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. So he says when you want, when you prophesy, that means you're speaking by inspiration. God is inspiring. You're speaking. So when you prophesy, he says, how should we do it? Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. So it takes faith to prophesy. And the more faith we can have in God, the more we can prophesy, the more release of the prophetic we can experience. So there is faith involved by faith. We prophesy in proportion to or we prophesy by or through faith in God. All right. We can look at another passage in Galatians 3. Paul is writing to the believers in Galatia. And he tells them this. He says, I want to learn from you. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? The answer is implicit. He's asking a question. The answer is implicit. He says, did you receive the Holy Spirit by the law or by faith? The answer is obvious. We receive or they receive and we also receive by faith, not by the law, by faith. So we don't keep the law to receive the Holy Spirit. No, we receive by faith. And he continues. Verse 3. Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Then we skip to verse 5. He says, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? That means when you supply or you can look at this, when you minister the spirit and when you minister miracles, healings, miracles, whatever, supernatural, how do you do it? Do you do it by the law or by the hearing of faith? Answer is by faith. Okay. So the essence of what Paul is saying here is when we want to minister the spirit, when we want to minister healing, miracles, faith is involved. Faith is involved. So for example, you know, when you have to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for other people, okay? So all of you, you know, you're going to do it someday when, you know, when you are maybe a pastor and whatever you're doing, you will have to do this. You have to pray for other people to receive the Holy Spirit. How will you do it? It's not any technique. It's not some method you follow. No, it is simply by faith. So what you will do, you have to explain from the Bible. You have to share the word of God saying, see, as a believer, God will pour out his Holy Spirit on you. You take them through the scriptures and then what you do, you have to pray, pray for them. Lord Jesus baptized them with the Holy Spirit. This is not a technique. This is not a method. It is simply by faith. And then you expect them to start praying in tongues. How does it happen? I don't know. How will, what word language they will speak? I don't know. What words will they speak? I don't know. But I just know that God pours his spirit out. And when we pray simple prayer and faith, God will make it happen. It's not any technique. It's not any method. It is simply by faith. So when you minister the Holy Spirit, how do you do it? By faith. When you pray for the sick, how do you do it? By faith. Not some technique or some... No, just have faith in God and pray. When you prophesy, when you call out words of knowledge, whatever the gifts, how do you do it? By faith. It's not some technique. You learn how to listen to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is speaking, so I will speak. But it is not something from our own. It's just by faith. So to minister in the supernatural, to minister in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to minister the Spirit to other people, we do it by faith. By faith. So that's again another reason why we need faith. You can look at Acts 3.16, in Acts 3, Peter and John, they were walking into the temple and here was a man who was lame. He'd been lame for 40 years. And that particular day, as this man was begging, Peter and John, they say, look upon us. And then Peter says, silver and gold, I do not have, but what I have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And the man began to walk and leap and run. And Peter explains in Acts chapter 3 and verse 16, how it happened. Notice what he says in Acts 3.16. It says, his name through faith in his name has made this man strong. Whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you. Faith in his name, the faith which comes through him. So how did you minister? So people are wondering, Peter, what did you do? How did this man become well? What was it? Some formula, some, what did you do? Peter says, his name and faith in his name. That's it. It's the name of Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus. And that too, this faith is what God gave us. Faith given to us from God has made this man perfectly whole. Okay. So once again, how did healing take place? How did miracles take place through faith? So, you know, that's another reason why we minister in faith. Finally, number eight, last point in this lesson. Number eight, what is the role of faith in the life of the believer, the believer's walk of faith? We must fight the good fight of faith. First Timothy chapter six in verse 12, Paul writes, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called. And I've confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Fight the good fights of faith. So why does he say good fights? See, there are some bad fights. You should not even be fighting those fights, not worth fighting. But fight the good fight. That means this is a fight that is worth fighting. It's a good fight. Some other fights don't even get involved. Not worth your time, not worth your energy. Just leave it. Stay out of the fight. But this fight is good to get in. Fight the good fights. It's the fight of faith. It's a fight where faith is involved. This is a good fight. Fight the good fight of faith. A good fight is a fight that you always win. Right? That's why it's called a good fight. You're going to win here. This is a fight worth fighting. You're going to win. Fight the good fight. But also means that there are enemies. That's why it's a fight. There are enemies. And of course we know the enemy is the devil. He tries to disturb our faith, weaken our faith, distract our faith. But you fight the good fight of faith. So I'm not going to give up. I'm going to fight this good fight of faith. So what do we do in this chapter? We just looked at our small list, eight points, of the place that faith has in the life of the believer. It's very important for the believer to learn to walk by faith. Because only when you're saved by faith, you receive from God through faith. You overcome by faith. You have victory of the enemy by faith. You resist the devil by faith. You receive the Holy Spirit by faith. You minister signs and wonders and miracles through faith. And also you fight the good fight of faith. Any questions before we get into the next chapter? Let me just pause here and check the online chat. Any questions? Everybody okay online? Everyone's with me? Okay. Let's go to the next lesson. Okay. Thank you. I see your response on the chat. Thank you everyone. Let's go to lesson number eight. Sorry. Lesson nine. Lesson nine. Okay. So now we want to talk about how to nurture faith. How can we nurture our faith? So let's look at two passages. First Thessalonians chapter one verses two to four and also verse eight. Paul writes, We give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayer. So Paul is saying, you know, we're praying for you Thessalonians. Remember remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father, knowing beloved brethren your election by God. Well, from you the word of God has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia, but in every place your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. So what is Paul saying? He's saying, you know, he's commending these believers. He says, Hey, I'm remembering your work of faith. So these believers are working their faith. That means in faith they're doing many things. And he says your faith toward God has gone out. That means many people are hearing about your faith in God. Oh, these believers in Thessalonica, they are wonderful people. They have great faith in God. They are doing many things by faith in God. Okay, so he's commending them as he's writing his letter. He says, you know, we are so happy to learn about your work of faith. We are so happy and everywhere, everywhere people are talking about your faith toward God. But then look what he continues in chapter three. This is what I want you to pay attention to. In 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 9 and 10, he says, For what thanks can we render to God for you? But all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day, praying exceedingly, that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. So notice what he's saying here. We want to perfect what is lacking in your faith. So he has commended them about their work of faith. He says, hey, you believers, you've got wonder, you know, you're doing a wonderful work of faith. It must say, he's saying, you know, your faith toward God has gone out. Everybody is hearing about your faith in God. But then in chapter three, he says, we are praying because we want to come to you. And we want to perfect what is lacking in your faith. That means we can still nurture our faith, even though we are serving God already. We are working our faith. We may be doing a wonderful work of faith. We're doing wonderful things, but we can still continue to perfect our faith. There could be some areas in our faith where we are lacking and we can perfect. You see, I started learning about faith in God when I was 14 years old. Long time ago. But even today, I'm still learning, still learning. And so, oh God, I need to perfect what is lacking in my... I am not perfect in my faith. So even today, I keep listening, I keep studying, I keep meditating, going to the Bible. I still have to perfect. Still need to keep nurturing, keep growing in my faith. Our whole life. Our whole life. We have to live by faith. We can never say, oh, I am perfect in my faith. We can never say that. Now, till our last day, we have to keep learning, keep nurturing, keep perfecting our faith in God. So we never stop learning. We never stop perfecting what is lacking in our faith. So we can become stronger, we can increase, we can nurture our faith. And I also want to point to one more thing. To the same believers, to the same people. In the next episode in 2 Thessalonians 1 verses 3 and 4, notice what Paul says. We are bound to thank God always for your brethren as it is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly. And the love of every one of you all abounds towards each other. And we ourselves, most of you among the churches, for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. What's he saying? He's saying your faith grows exceedingly. They are still continuing to grow in their faith. In the first letter, he's praising them. Oh, you're doing wonderful work of faith. Oh, everybody's talking about your faith. Wonderful. But he says, there are some things lacking in your faith. We want to come and we want to perfect that. We want to build you up in those things. And then in 2 Thessalonians 1, he says, your faith is growing. So it's not like these people arrived at some place and said, oh, we are wonderful people of faith. We don't need to nurture our faith. We don't need to grow our faith. No, they were still growing. And especially, they were facing a lot of hardship. They were facing persecutions and tribulations. And so he was commending them for their endurance and faith. So what we want to learn is how to nurture our faith. And then we will have another chapter, another lesson where we'll talk about how to develop strong faith. How to nurture our faith and how to make our faith strong. We will learn these things. So I'm going to just share some simple things, simple things on how to nurture our faith. Some of these things we are already familiar with, but we need to keep reminding ourselves. Number one, nurture your faith with the word of God. Nurture your faith with the word of God. In another lesson, we'll talk about how to develop our faith, how to make it strong. Here we are just saying, how do you nurture? What can you do to nurture your faith, to feed your faith, to make your faith stronger? So first, nurture your faith with the word of God. Why? Because Romans 10, 17, we know it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of. So every time you and I think about, okay, I need to feed my faith. See in the physical, if you feel tired or you feel weak or it's okay, I need to eat something, right? Or I need to drink something. So you're feeding your physical body to nurture it, keep it strong, keep it healthy. Similarly, for your faith, you need to feed your faith with the word of God. So the Bible, the word of God, because faith comes by hearing, right? So the word there, Romans 10, 17, the word is Rama. Faith comes by hearing and hearing that Rama. Rama is utterance. It's a present tense. It's a word that is spoken, it's a word that is uttered. God is speaking. So God is quickening on his word. Maybe it's from as you read the Bible or as you listen to somebody, or you can even hear the word from your own mouth. So one of the ways by which you can nurture your faith and hear the word of God is through meditating in God's words. Meditate in the word of God, right? So there are three things in the process of meditation. So when we say meditate in the word of God, doesn't mean you go to the Himalayas, sit there. That is not what we say. Biblical meditation, you will learn about it in this course. We talk about the word of God. I think it's in another course anyway. You learn about meditation in the word of God, meditation in the word. It involves three things, right? It involves contemplation, visualization and confession. So biblical meditation, it involves contemplation. Contemplation means you think deeply, think about the word. What are you reading? You ponder, you think deeply on the words. Then visualize means you let it become part of your imagination, because a big part of our mind is our imagination. So you let the word of God become part of your imagination. And then confession or that means your declaration, what you are saying, right? So the way they used to practice, I'm talking about the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, when they practice meditation, they would actually bear a shawl over their head to cut off all destruction. Cover your head. There'd been a rocking position, close eyes, rock back and forth and recite the scripture. So what's happening? Their mind, their imagination, their hearing, everything is focused on the word of God. So example, if I said, close my eyes, just cut off all the destruction, I say. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He will bring forth his fruit in its season, his leaf will not wither and whatever he does will prosper. Okay, so like that, if I keep repeating these three verses, example, I just said it one time, but if I am focused on that word and I keep repeating those verses or I can repeat even one verse. Example, I could repeat Psalm 1 verse 3, just one verse. He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. I close my eyes, I'm meditating. I am meditating on that verse. My contemplation, that means my thinking, my visualization in my mind. I'm seeing a tree planted by the rivers of water. My imagination is focused on that. What does that verse say? And my confession, what I'm saying, I'm saying that verse. So if I just focus on what I'm meditating. That is biblical meditation. Are you understand? Because your thinking, imagining and saying is focused on the scripture. The verse, the Word of God. I mean, you do that. And usually I do it in my Bible open. So I may turn to a scripture. I see that. And then I say, God, I thank you that you said this. And I'm reading that verse. My eyes, I'm focused on that verse and I'm just saying it. Am I reading it two, three times? Just pray over that. Or sometimes I can do it without opening the Bible. I can just say the scriptures however you want. But meditation in the scriptures, what does it do? It's nurturing your faith. It's nurturing your, because faith is built on the... Sean, you have a question? Go ahead. Sean, I can't hear you. I think this fan is too loud. Okay, just say it a little louder. Sean, please. Okay. Hmm. Okay. So Sean's question is, when we are meditating in the word, are we, sometimes the doubt is, am I using my own understanding? Or am I looking at it with the wisdom of God, with the elimination of God? So here's a simple thing, right? Which I would encourage all of us to do, is when we read the Bible, when you go to read the Bible, just pray a simple prayer. Holy Spirit, help me to understand the words. Holy Spirit, give me revelation of the words. Simple prayer. That means it's like what the psalm has spread. Psalm has spread in Psalm 119. I think it's verse 11. He said, Oh Lord, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things from your words. That means, you know, we are saying, God, I need you to help me understand your words. So we pray that prayer. Usually when I pray the prayer, or when I'm going to read the Bible, or when I'm going to even prepare my sermon, that's what my prayer would be. Say, Lord, you guide me. You inspire me. I don't want to do this. Psalm 119, verse 18. Yes, verse 18. Thank you. I don't want to do it with my own understanding. So we pray like that because when we do that, we are inviting the Holy Spirit. We're inviting the Lord to be our teacher. Then you start reading the scripture. You start studying the scripture. Now, of course, we use our minds. You know, God has given us our minds to use it. And we have to follow the basic rules in reading and interpreting scripture. So we learn about that in our next semester class about how many it takes, how to interpret scripture. We will learn about that. So we have to follow those rules in our mind. But at the same time, we are depending on the Holy Spirit. It will give us. He will inspire us. So my answer would be, it's a combination of both. We have to use our minds, but we also depend on the inspiration or illumination of the Holy Spirit. And then you meditate on it. God will take you. Okay. I hope I answered your question somewhat. Okay. Thank you. All right. So meditate. How do we nurture our faith? You meditate in the Bible. You take scriptures. You meditate. Another important part is to sow the miracle seed. Okay. To sow the miracle seed, what does that mean? You see, God's word is like seed. How do we know that parable of the sower? And remember Jesus gave us that beautiful parable. He said a sower went to sow the seed and some seed fell on the wayside and among stones and among thorns and then on good grounds. And then Jesus explains the parable. He says the seed is the word of God. The seed is the word of God. Or the word of God is like seed. So if you want to imagine this Bible is a bag full of seeds because the word of God is like seed. So you carry your Bible. Hey, you got a bag full of seeds because the word of God is like seed. But if I have the seed inside the bag, it's no use, no use. What I have to do, I have to take the seed out of the bag. I have to put it on the soil. But this seed has to be put on the soil of our hearts. Right. So I have to open the word of God. I have to read. I have to put that seed in my heart. And one of the things the seed does is it nurtures my faith. It produces faith. You know, faith comes by hearing the word. So this seed of the word will strengthen our faith. It will produce faith in our hearts. So think about it like that. If you want, example, you want tomato. What seed you'll sow? Tomato seed. You won't go so green chilies and say expect tomato to come. It won't happen. You want chilies with green chili seed. Tomato, tomato seed. What else? Mango? Mango seed. Whatever. So if you want faith for healing, you read the scriptures on healing because that seed will produce that faith. If you want faith for provision in your life, God to supply your need. What do you do? You read those scriptures. My God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory. Second Corinthians 9-8, God will make all grace abound toward you. That you're always having all sufficiency and all things will abound to every good work. So you begin to read those kind of scripture. What are you doing? You're sowing seed according to the kind of harvest you want. If you want to build up faith for healing, sow those seeds. If you want to build up faith to receive a provision for your life, sow those kinds of seeds. You want faith to overcome, to have victory in your life, sow those kinds of seeds. You want faith to overcome fear, sow those kinds of seeds. Because the seed will produce after its kind. Are you with me? So two things we said. How do you nurture your faith with the word of God? I'm meditating in the word, you just read it, meditate in it. And second, you sow the seed. What kind of faith do you want? You sow the seed in accordance to that. So you nurture your faith accordingly. Let's just look at two more points here. Secondly, how do you nurture your faith? We nurture our faith by being part of a community of faith. So be a part of a good community of people of faith. Like your local church or your life group or your small group, whatever. Be a part of that community. It could be just three or four people or it could be many more people. That's fine. Doesn't matter. But when you have people around you who affirm what God has done for us, it strengthens our faith. And Philip Philemon, there's only one chapter, Philemon 1 verse 6. He says that the sharing of your faith or the fellowship of your faith, it may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing, which is in you, in Christ Jesus. So you acknowledge the good things. When people acknowledge the good things that are in you, in Christ, then the sharing of our faith becomes very effective. So when you look at, when you're part of this kind of a community, where people will affirm the good things that are in you because you are in Christ, Jesus, what happens? The fellowship of our faith becomes effective. That's meaningful fellowship. When we affirm the good things that are in you because you are in Christ. So you acknowledge those good things. So be part of that kind of a community. And lastly, you nurture your faith with testimonies of faith. So as you hear testimonies about what God is doing in people's lives, you hear testimonies of healing, of provision, of people who step out in faith and they are able to do great things. Those testimonies encourage your faith. So the Bible tells us to talk of all His wondrous works. So we talk about what God has done, what God is doing. So we talk of all His wondrous works and we declare His mighty acts. We say, now, this is what God has done. We praise His works. And then as we talk about it, as we share testimonies of it, it nurtures our faith. Three ways to nurture our faith, nurture your faith in the Word of God, nurture your faith by being part of a community of faith where people will acknowledge the good things that are in you. And third, share testimonies. Listen to testimonies, share testimonies. What God has done, it will encourage our faith. Let me pause here. Any questions? Let me look at the online. Any questions? So far, anything of what we've done today? Everyone is okay? All good? Okay. Thank you. I see your comments on the chat. Any questions? Those of you in class? All good? Okay. So we're going to stop here for today. We'll pick up with lesson number 10. Next week, move forward. And at some point, I'll give you a little exam to cover for you to study. So review all whatever we've studied. The first nine lessons, just review it. I'll let you know. I'll give a small exam just to... All my exams are open book, open Bible. So you can fully look at your notes and write the exam. I just want to make sure you have learned to understand. So it's not about you memorizing things. It's just about you understanding truths. So I'll let you know. As soon as I put it out there, you can just do that. Okay. Okay. Come on, Rimal. Come. Let's pray. Okay. Rimal is going to be or be? Rimal is going to lead us in prayer and then we will close. Please come. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for this wonderful day. Thank you for this wonderful teaching, Lord Jesus. Lord, today we learn about how to build our faith. Today we learn how to... Faith is like seed and we have to sow the seed in our heart soil, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, we pray, Lord, build our faith in your word. Build our faith whenever we fall, whenever we go through the situations, dark situations, through the fire, through the rivers. Lord Jesus, we have faith. Then we can walk and we can do all you want to do with us, Lord Jesus. Thank you so much for this day. And thank you so much for teaching, Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for Pastor Ashish. And thank you so much for all the students we are learning. Lord Jesus, thank you, Lord. Thank you so much. You heard my prayer. All glory belongs to the name of Jesus. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you. Thank you everybody. We'll see you again next week. God bless. Amen. Bless you. See you again. So, thank you.