 Welcome back, let's continue where we had stopped earlier. We talked about open doors and now we will talk about wrong words. We know that words carry authority, life and death is in the power of the tongue and so when we speak life, that's what we experience because we are going to eat the fruit of the words that are spoken. If we speak untruth or words that are not aligned to what God is saying in the Bible then what happens is, it becomes an open door. The wrong words. Just like if we take a simple example, who we are in Christ? I am a child of God, I am greatly loved by God. This is the reality, spiritual reality. But if I speak opposite to that and if I say things like, there is nobody for me, nobody cares, I am not loved I am speaking against the truth or the reality, the spiritual reality that becomes an open door for the enemy and he is always waiting when he can catch us whenever there is a conflict in either our thoughts or in our words. And so speaking the truth is inviting God to work in our lives and we declare the word, we know that it's an open door for God to work in our lives but when we agree with the enemy and we speak things without any faith or words of unbelief that becomes an open door for the enemy. Some examples like when we say, I am a very sick person I am always sick and sickness comes to me or if we have this thought that sickness is from God and he will send sickness every now and then to build me up in my character and we say that God will do this for me, God will always allow sickness it always happens, I have noticed, so what are we doing? We are agreeing with our words, we are agreeing and any agreement it's like you're making an agreement with that untruth and then Satan can work. So we have to be so careful with the words that we speak I know we have discussed so much about words in all in the course outside of the course but it is that important so never speak unbelief, defeat, failure, hopelessness over our own lives never do that and never do that even over the people whom God has given us authority over so let's say in a family setting you have the husband who's the head of the home or the father who's the head of the father and mother who are head over the children they are the authority over the children so hopefully in this course later we will see there are authority structures and the words that are spoken especially by the authority in that person's life is very valuable so when parents speak over their children and they say oh our children they don't study well they won't get jobs, they will struggle in their life so those things will happen actually because the authority figure is declaring it over those people who have been given by God to submit to them so these are very key things that we must remember even as a pastor when we speak over the people we got to speak blessings yes my people are blessed, their families are blessed they are whole emotionally financially physically they are strong they do great exploits for the Lord each one is a witness so when I speak like that as a pastor in prayer I make declarations I speak it over the people you know you arise shine for your light has come there is authority and power released from my words and that affects people's lives you got it so understand the power of words, power of words that we speak over ourselves okay now I don't know if we have discussed this example in your batch but imagine there are two people with the same degree at the same experience and they both are applying for the same job one person is confident enough that he will get the job but then there is the other person who is constantly saying oh so many people have applied how will I get the job everyone else is much more skilled than me how will I get the job he is constantly doing this in his thoughts in his words both have the same everything is same number of years of experience graduating college degree certificate everything is same but you see the way they both are expressing their faith or their unbelief it matters it matters what could happen the person who is confident who has faith is more likely to get the job even in the interview they are more likely to be more confident answer the questions correctly but the one who is going on saying I know I won't get it they will not select me I know they won't select me even in the interview it pulls down your confidence you are not able to answer so I am just giving simple examples for us to understand all these things matter how we speak how we speak over ourselves how we speak over the people whom God has given us let's quickly see if there is a question sister Gertrud please go ahead yes sister I want to testify regarding my daughter you know I learnt in this class only about the strongholds but I used to think strongholds are of the physical situation and you know like circumstances in our life but I didn't know the strongholds of the mind now my daughter younger daughter she had in USA she had gone through this hypnosis hypnosis thing you know and then she is always mentally weak she is always anxious she gets anxiety and mental attack and all that and then she went to the psychic and she consultation and whenever I used to tell her about Lord and you know to follow Jesus and you know like that we have that is the truth she would always go and find out something on the web and she started connecting to the new age movement you know new age and this lady she prayed over her she paid 100 dollars online and she said I was so much blessed and I got so much of love and you know she made me feel so much so I thought maybe this is some lady healing so I said okay I'll also pray I also want and then she told me that she called the dead people to pray that put me off and I went and googled and I saw also who are these dead people they are actually demons then I told her no I don't want to be prayed and she had already paid 100 dollars for me to be prayed so when she told that lady you know that she was very upset and all but that night you know there's somebody fighting with me like basically a demonic spirit which I don't know that she said I will take all your spiritual blessings from you I will take everything that this doesn't belong to you it belong and she was so for such a long time I had that tug of war and finally I pushed her and so much strength that she left me so this is you know the powers of darkness we invite in our life and still my daughter I started praying for her to break this pull down the stronghold now she's getting delivered one by one from this you know so I want to give this testimony to know that how we open doors for the demonic spirits to enter her life yeah yeah thank you sister thank you so much for sharing and from what you stated it is quite clear you know whatever was going on with the psychic it's demonic it is and it becomes an open door even when we indulge in things like this remember earlier we said some practices some spiritual practices rituals we end up connecting with you know the wrong kingdom so we have to be so very careful and in the comments here I think sister Gertrude was asking the question hypnosis you know how about hypnosis so you see just think how God works with us does God ever say okay come come to me but keep your mind aside and come just come don't use your mind I don't need your mind he never does that there's always our will involved he wants us to want to come to him he wants us to use our mind right so if there is a situation where you're being asked not to use your mind that is very dangerous because that's what satan wants the moment our mind is not active the moment our will is weak what is the advantage he can take over so any kind of practice where they say okay don't think or just let calm don't be active in your mind it's very dangerous because that's like a clear cut way for demons to come and take charge so even hypnosis that's what it does hypnosis what is it basically they will power their capacity their mental capacity for a small duration of time they kind of numb them using their techniques when they speak they suggest over the person all that is not biblical at least like from what we know because you're letting go of that capacity of making decisions right and so yeah it's not biblical it has no impact when you're at a distance so if you're not going and sit there if you're not going being seated there in a converse or you know the thing you're not exposed to it itself what I mean to say is it has no impact on people at a distance so if I'm not going and yielding and sitting in front of the person and looking at that thing or engaging in conversation I'm not exposed to it but why a distance like what if you it's like I go sit there and I say that no I can control myself I'm not able to yield to this hypnosis thing it's like my foolishness rather than I know you just don't go there is what you're saying so then it has no impact on you yeah okay but I'm just thinking what if you have stuff that is available like online or you know in videos see everything has an effect whether we like to admit it or not it's just that we should not expose whether we are going physically or through media we are consuming it through media so whenever anything is questionable just stay away from it right that's the best thing to do we don't want to expose ourselves to anything that will be more like a mind control as Christians these are things that we have to be careful about yes Shani please go ahead yeah I guess I know you said in terms of understanding that life and death is the power of a tongue I know we talked about the mind but I thought that you had said earlier some weeks back you said that it's either through a speaking or through our mind I thought you said earlier that not this session but a couple weeks back that the devil can't he can't know our thoughts so that's why I was really confused on that can you explain that when you said that yeah so I said that the devil cannot know our thoughts okay it's true because we only attribute excuse me characteristics like omniscience omnipresence and omnipotence only to God so we've been saying this repeatedly Shani that Satan is a limited being he does not have understanding of all things now if he had that then he can know what you and I are thinking but he cannot he's not omniscient so then what does he do we've been saying it again and again he's very smart like he can guess right with our behaviors with our words with our actions he can gauge what is it that we are going to do so I mean that's how it works that's how it works you asked me to explain so I'm explaining but is there like a question attached to it are you trying to no that explains it just because you said at the beginning that he can get in terms of our if we say something like that's the power of time but you say he can get to our thoughts then I was thinking like how can he but you just said that he can just kind of even though he doesn't know our thoughts he can kind of guess I guess what we're going to do even though he doesn't even though he doesn't know what we're thinking he can kind of guess and try to I guess he kind of knows I guess he studies people and they kind of maybe guess they're going to do this and that and that's how he can get to people am I correct you're right that's what he does he will gauge and then conclude so in a way actually our declarations will help because maybe I'm fearful but I'm saying hey the righteous are bold as a lion and Satan is looking at me and he's going oh she's already bold like let me not even try let me go so he can just understand by our actions our behavior and the way we you know appear right so that's how it is Shani okay yeah thank you understand but of course he can also have past information see past information that anybody can have so you know sometimes we say that people are able to tell oh you took a train from this station and you did this and that so in the past if you've done things and someone's coming to us like a prophetic word and you know I'm not talking about a believer like unbelievers when they do these things like you made this decision you went to this school can the kingdom of darkness have that information they can that's not surprising you know it'll be like okay tell me something new because that information anybody can have and the demonic world can have it but you see sometimes the enemy uses that and they you know like there are people who tell this happened in your life that happened and those who have no clue about the spiritual realm they get fascinated they're like how did they know then there must be you know God and this connection and all but not really the demons can know what we have done and what has happened in the past that's nothing special actually right but future they can't tell because they're not God only God knows the God knows the future things that are going to happen alright yes Shani so I guess that's how like mediums I guess they call them mediums and sages can tell people's past and like they're getting it but because the demons and devils tell them and stuff is that correct okay yeah so I mean there are I don't know too much about you know these these practices but I have heard that you know they hear voices they hear they get impressions where are they getting all this from the demons the demons are telling them they are empowering them giving them suggestions because they've opened themselves up to the demons so that's how it works okay so yeah sorry so are our prayers also over heard oh yeah that's a good question so yes see he can hear us when we speak something he can't hear us okay but I don't think we should be so worried about it like you never say anything you never write anything it's fine like we can put down our some of our thoughts and all that but tongues he can't you break tongues he can't understand okay yes more questions please go ahead oh no that was my question about to ask Kenny understand tongues but you just said it oh okay yeah yeah tongues he cannot understand obviously so we can speak away that's not a problem so yeah our words can give an open door to the demons and never speak unbelief never speak fear and doubt instead declare the word over our lives okay and that will keep us protected our situations life situations we we've been saying that Satan is very strategic right so he also sees the circumstances that we are in and when he wants to get us usually the best time for him would be when either we are very sad because something has happened in our lives or let's say we have done some amazing work we've accomplished something usually what happens when we accomplish something big right you feel like okay now I can take a rest so we let down our guard we feel like okay now I need to relax for some time it's okay you know I just entertain myself I need to sort of you know give myself that space both are dangerous and you this is what Satan is looking for he's either looking for us when we are down and out because he knows we are so vulnerable any suggestion he puts in our minds we will be more what can you say accepting of the suggestions when we are going through pain or grief similarly when we are resting after an accomplishment there also we are vulnerable because anything the enemy brings in at that time we are like sponge we may absorb it so on both these occasions it's best to be on your guard and if you know yourself really well you know what you should be doing what you should not be doing and you're feeling very low if you're feeling tempted that yeah I might end up doing that just don't go there if you speak to someone and you know that you'll go down the wrong road just don't speak to that person so that's why I was saying we have to evaluate ourselves we know ourselves better if there is a chance that I might fall in my moment of weakness or let's say I've done so well then also I'm very vulnerable I've got to be careful because the guard is usually low so situations so Satan looks for these moments the moments of great tragedy moments of great victory and then he makes the move on our lives and so we have to be very very alert let's keep moving on violations and intrusions so we've seen mind games we've seen open doors and open doors because of sin because of words that are spoken and because of situations and now we will look at violations and intrusions so you know what this is this is like we've been saying the thief enters from the back door so quietly entering when you're not supposed to enter that is what we call as trespassing or violation or intrusion and Satan loves to do that now he already knows certain areas or you know in our life he cannot intrude he already knows that but he will still try he will still try to get it so imagine imagine I'm just giving us a particular situation in general you know your relationship with your family members is good let's imagine and you're prayerful people you're covering yourselves you know out of Jesus and all and you're moving on and no major issues but suddenly you notice that there is this disunity some issue has happened and you're wondering how come we are praying and we are walking by the word why is this happening in my home so it's we may be fully covered but Satan will try to enter and then he will try to cause something where if you accept it if you say okay you know we are not we've not fully protected ourselves so Satan has entered and then you give him access right because of your agreement that okay there is an open door he has come in and this is actually happening and this is terrible like you go on with it he'll just stay he has intruded now he'll stay and then he'll carry on with his business so the point is there are times when he's not supposed to enter but when you notice him entering the right thing to do is to get him out we've got to evict him even when it comes to let's say sickness okay one particular situation and we are completely healed of it but you're suddenly seeing some symptoms of the same old situation and you're wondering but I was already healed and I'm doing everything spiritually physically to stay out of it why is this happening again sometimes we call it false symptoms Satan is just trying to test like okay will you will you start believing that you're not healed the stronghold is still there so the moment I say yeah maybe you know Satan has access then he starts working more alright so whenever we see him trespassing or intruding the right thing to do is to just get him out take authority in the name of Jesus and say Satan you leave in Jesus mighty name this symptom I'm already healed in the name of Jesus I will not accept this symptom you know symptom you leave in Jesus name so this is how we battle okay now I'm not preaching against medical care and all that we said it many times that it's all good if you feel like you need to treat yourself take care of yourself that's fine but when you know that you already come through something and you know Satan tries to trespass again and you identify that just take authority and get him out okay so violations and intrusions are a way in which he works there's this scripture from John 1010 which we know so well which says the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly so we've got to recognize those moments when he's trying to intrude or violate and always enforce victory over Satan always remember that Satan is defeated so if we see him in any situation or circumstance declare victory over that situation and when it comes to our personal lives I stated earlier it's good to be on guard and to evaluate ourselves and know our areas of weakness so that we are prepared before the enemy attacks we are already prepared with the strategy and James 4 7 okay beautiful scripture it says therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you so notice resist the devil how do we resist that word resist if you look up the meaning of that word it simply means stand against or oppose stand up against or oppose have you ever seen some of these protests people put up protests on the streets and then the police is coming the police wants to enter a certain village or a community and all the people are just standing like a chain and they're not letting the police enter or some other group enter what are they doing that's called resistance to stand your ground and say no way you can't enter I will not let you do this so that is resistance and in this scripture we are told resist the devil he'll try he'll try to intrude he'll try to do the mind games he'll try to enter through the open door he'll try everything but what did I do as a believer you just keep standing no way devil I'm not gonna let you enter my home enter my family whatever is part of your life enter my ministry enter my marriage enter my church you can pray for everything enter my finance is nothing you have no access to any area of my life you just stand there right you just stand there and enforce your victory which has been given through Jesus Christ so the scripture says resist the devil when we keep resisting him what happens at some point he'll be like okay I give up bye okay see you later I'll come back in some other situation where maybe I have a better chance but when you keep resisting him he will flee from you that's what the bible says but now notice there is another part to that was first part first part says submit to God submit to God and then it says resist the devil and he will flee from you so as believers sometimes we become so good at resisting the devil like I bind you I cast you out and you use all the believers authority textbook language against satan and his demons get them out okay excellent that's a good thing to do but first thing is submission to God now if my life is not submitted to God okay if I'm not walking in the ways of the Lord then what happens there are many open doors and if I keep trying to resist the devil it may not be of much use because first of all not submitted to God how much will I resist the devil it won't it won't work it's not effective so for our resistance to be effective it first has to begin with submission okay submitting or handing over or giving yourself to the Lord and saying okay God you know I give myself to you I will walk in your ways I will be obedient to you so when I'm living like that there'll be fewer opportunities to resist because satan can't do anything you're already submitted now from where where can he enter not many opportunities isn't it so submit to God then resist the devil he will flee from you and always enforce enforce means to release the victory which we have we already have the victory but we've got to declare it we've got to when we put it out to work then we see it doing whatever it's supposed to do so release that victory we already have it enforce the victory in every area of our lives right every day every day morning we wake up and then we have so many things that we pray for enforce the victory maybe we are struggling in the area of finances you say no devil you cannot touch my finances there will be no lack declare the scriptures on it and take authority every spirit of lack I bind you in the name of Jesus I speak the abundance of God over my life so just begin to battle what are we doing we are enforcing the victory of God in that area or maybe the lives of the children right your children you want to pray for different such things that are a concern every single day enforce victory so this is the way we ought to live our lives and always you know take authority and command satan and his works to be destroyed in our lives and speak of the victory of the cross so this is the manner in which we overcome okay so what I'm going to do is I will just open up for a few more questions some discussion and we will wrap up for today we will pick up with the next chapter here in the next class so any questions thought so far Shani I can see your hand is that a new question yes a new question so it is to the first one you were saying in terms of when you have a great accomplishment yes yeah that I understand how the devil come and then there is another question too that I have say everybody goes to like a restaurant and they come out and their car is broken into and they said that's nothing but the devil so is that when you say stuff like that when things happen you don't expect is that is that opening the door more for the devil do more stuff because that's the situation where you say it's nothing but the devil see if we discern and then we make a statement like that like for example this person does not use it doesn't say it's the devil it's the devil all the time at that one point they perceive that it was demonic and then they just call it out they say it's the devil I think that should be fine if it's a one-off thing but repeatedly if a person is going on and on and saying this is the devil that is the devil then that's an open door okay thank you and then the first question too about like if you have a high accomplishment to be careful that's the devil can can you explain that I didn't quite understand that yes yes yes so see when we have a great accomplishment we usually let our guards down and it happens so I mean I've heard some pastors also share this what they say like let's imagine there's like this amazing convention that's taking place and they go they preach there are thousands of people many miracles happen they're filled with the spirit so the high of what they have experienced just now right and they work very hard let's imagine they work for months together they fasted they prayed and everything went so well right so when this thing is closed off what is the tendency for most of us we're like okay now I can just take a rest okay I can just calm down I'm just gonna be at home and there's the temptation like when you're actually not on guard there are all kinds of things that you could end up doing you know you could end up watching something that's not godly you could end up you know something could happen and knowing satan how he's so strategic and he knows our weaknesses so he may actually try to hit at that weak spot because now you're not even thinking all you're thinking is wow I finished the work okay so I don't care about anything now I'm just gonna take a great rest and then we'll see what next but that state is very that state is when we are vulnerable to an attack so we have I mean we need to guard ourselves and I think it's a very personal thing for each one of us the specific areas would be very personal Shani and we've got to identify it and just be careful of those areas okay thank you I understand see a simple example maybe finance right like if I have a weakness with managing money and I just spend I just plunge now if I if I've done well what is the tendency I'll be like okay I'll go shopping I'll just go spend all my money and then I'm thinking how did how do all the money go the devil did it the devil didn't do it I was in that moment of weakness I just indulged so it's a model like that okay thank you yes thank you yeah question just in line with what we're discussing you know it's like to be careful and peak of success at the bottom of failure yeah but I had also had a question like seeking in the past like astrology and fortune telling is also opening a door yeah it's not the origin we must always consider the origin where does it come from and you can trace it back to certain practices that are nowhere connected to scripture yeah so then how do you conclude right better to just stay away from all these things okay so I think we have an idea about you know what the tactics of satan are and how to really enforce our victory and if there are no more questions we can just wrap up today's class is that fine sister yes yes this is Lucy in case of our children seeking God's protection in all the areas of their lives be away from the weapons of the enemy though the children may stumble or go astray be declaring the God's word it'll it'll work out right sister yes yes sister of course that is what will work we have to do that yeah that means their personal strongholds and all to bring down yeah so sister see wherever possible the best thing to do is to teach them the word so if they are coming to church with you if you are you know their age is such that you can encourage them to get plugged into church a good life group so if you can do that that would be best because they will learn for themselves how they can make good decisions but that is not possible then of course the next best thing that you can keep doing is to pray for them declare over their lives but ideal is if they themselves can learn from God's word nothing like it that's best sister thank you yeah sure yes yes please go ahead oh this is kind of off topic but I just want to find out when is our quiz yeah so you can expect it this week this week so we'll have a week to complete I'll I mean I'll see because this this time around I haven't posted any assignment yet so it also depends on the length of the assignment and the difficulty level so based on that I will set the timing okay but just be a look at this give more than a week I'm sorry I said what did you say I generally give more than a week I said okay but be on a look out this week for it okay sure you can just one last question just wanted your thoughts on this like in don't you think like as believers at times we are undermining all these strategies now it's like eyes are open with so many things that we are discussing but just your thoughts that you know we we don't focus but it's not like focus or emphasis but somewhere we are like neglecting or you know as believers we kind of take it for granted that these so many things are just happening back in the spiritual realm so are you saying taking for granted all the things that we learned just now learning when we are discussing is different as believers don't you think we all kind of ignore all these mind games and tactics and think that's just happening and we are ourselves exposed to so much of it yes so we can pray okay like we can ask God to help us to be more serious about these matters and another thing that really helps to be serious or to be focused is to understand the purpose that God has for us okay so when we understand the purpose of God right then we don't want to mess up in any way you know what I mean like I mean I'm just saying okay for our understanding like as a minister of God right serving the Lord preaching thing like I have to be so careful like all these years of investing in the ministry if I end up doing something silly right something that will hurt the body of Christ something that will hurt the people I'll be derailed from serving God or you know moving forward with God and so because there's a sense of purpose God has called me to this and therefore you know sacrifices will be there hard work will be there all that is there but there is a purpose like I'm heading towards this and I cannot afford I just cannot afford to yeah get distracted because I mean you get what I'm saying right like you're so so committed to that purpose whatever it is that God wants for me I think that really helps like if we have that like this is my vision this is my calling this is where I'm headed then it's so much easier for you to just say I'm not going to waste my time with this I'm not going to waste my time with that and you're passionately yeah that oneness of heart you're moving towards that and then whatever we are learning we have to apply it if we are going to keep walking if I don't apply it or if we don't apply it then Satan will get you each time and we can't afford it so I think a sense of purpose is very very key then you will use all the weapons that we are discussing here because you want to keep on track you don't want to get off track so I suppose the next 7 minutes are for your reflection you can just reflect and see how to apply the different things that we have discussed so let's just close off with the word of prayer and maybe someone from the online batch can pray today please unmute and pray let's pray Heavenly Father we just thank you for this hour of study and for all the insights that you have taught us Father Lord we know that in our own strength we cannot fulfill all the things that we ought to but with your strength Father with Thy grace and Thy love and Thy guidance of the Holy Spirit Lord we can live up to the standard that you called us to live up to Father Paul says in Second Timothy 4.7 I have fought the good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith I pray a lot for all my brothers and sisters of the Bible college that we will fight the good fight we will finish our race and we will keep the faith Father we pray a lot for a blessing upon our entire faculty and upon all the students and their families Father in Jesus' precious name we pray Amen Brother Sanjay thank you everyone God bless you and we shall meet again next Tuesday for our next session bye for now