 Welcome back everyone we will continue with what we were discussing so till now we have seen how satan tries to intrude oppose and you know we just now touched on yeah basically opposition we talked a lot about it now let's move on to the next method and that is oppression sorry deception deception yeah so deception as the term itself shows us is about speaking a lie as if it is the truth and our best example is what satan did with Eve remember he deceived her he said that she and her husband they will be they will become like God but that didn't happen isn't it it was a lie but the way he spoke it he's he deceived right he made it sound like the truth and that is what deception is all about where satan will tell people a lie like a truth and when we agree with him then the problem happens okay yeah so we've understood that and Paul you know he writes to the Corinthians there are scripture passages here second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3 and 4 where he says that I don't I don't want your minds to be corrupted with deception okay where we are carrying false beliefs in our minds it's not the truth but you know we give ourselves to the lies of the devil now that is another tactic of the evil one which we must safeguard ourselves from and there are many other passages given you're saying that you know there will be in the times that we are living in right now there will be a lot of deception it will look like the truth but it won't be the truth there will be like false prophets like first Peter talks about it the book of Jude talks about it that there will be people who will it'll they'll preach like okay this is about God but it won't be so how can a believer discern whether something is true or something is a lie spirit of discerning okay okay see when satan deceives right it'll be very subtle subtle is it won't be obvious like how we say right satan won't come with his with his horns and his tail and you know his spear and say hello my name is Mr satan i've come to deceive you are you ready are you willing it won't be direct when you when you don't figure out that he's there he'll be there so that is what we say subtle like it won't be direct it won't be clear cut like that slowly he'll deceive so that's his method of how he does it so then don't you think believer has to be very sharp isn't it we have to be so sharp quickly we have to get an understanding that hey this is not God's word this is not the spirit of God the bible tells us we have to be careful we have to discern assess every spirit is it from God is it not from God we have to understand that okay so for that the best thing for us to do is to become familiar with the truth now think about this there are 500 rupee notes or do we have 500 rupee now anyway some notes we have okay some rupee notes it's is it valuable yeah it's valuable so let's consider that that is the truth okay so that the original notes currency is valuable what does Satan do deception he'll make a copy of it nobody makes a copy of useless things you know if you find something unnecessary some paper lying around do you think Satan will work hard to make a copy of that no use no point because it's not valuable but when there is something that is valuable that's when people will make imitation so then there's counterfeit currency because real currency is valuable or there's you know you have like real jewelry there'll be imitation jewelry okay so there'll be an imitation of what is real and what is precious that's what Satan does now imagine there's a real currency and then there's all this fake currency how do people how are people trained to identify fake currency any idea people who count and others they're trained yes someone just okay shani yes shani and they study the the real the real money yes you're right you're right thank you so the way to recognize the false is to get very familiar with what is real so the way they are trained is not bring you know a thousand different varieties of false ones and say this is false that is false that you know just because you won't have the energy to look at all the false that exists don't worry about the false get very used to the real so when there are people who work with the real currency the moment they touch fake currency in a way this this is not real throw it so that is the same way that things work for us as believers there might be a lot of deception in the world out there but we carry the spirit of God we carry the word of God right I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you so the word is in our hearts we have a lifestyle of spending time with the Bible then what happens to us we become so used to the truth that any small error here or there somewhere in our hearts we feel something is not right okay I know it sounding so good everything is sounding good but something is off you get that sense it's a spiritual sense we get it but for that we have to train ourselves in the truth a lot did you understand so that is the way that we equip ourselves against deception so when satan comes with a false teaching or a false suggestion false instruction and he says no if you do this you know it'll be so good you can sense it in your spirit it sounds great something is off then you can pick it up okay so that's the way we have to deal with deception just become strong in the truth all right and that will help you overcome any form of deception second Timothy chapter 2 verses 15 to 17 can someone read it be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth but shun profane and idle babblings for they will increase to more ungodliness and their message will spread like cancer I mean yes and BTS are of this sort okay so basically he's just Paul is just telling Timothy that Timothy has to study the word study the word when it comes to the word of God for some of us believers maybe that's how we understand it initially a little bit of the word is enough so we may read one verse every day or every Sunday go to church listen to one sermon and that's it we don't understand the word much because we don't study so studying is something so important for us as believers you know when we study for our exams how does it look we are spending many hours we have a question in our minds we say okay how did you know whatever some question how does the photon work how does the electron work then you study all the textbooks that talk about you know these particles and you study all the formulae associated with that that is studying when we are putting in a lot of hard work because we want to find out we want to understand we want to retain we want to be able to communicate clearly when the questions are asked that is study what is Paul to Timothy study the word don't just like you know observe and then as believers we do that we listen it's there you know in the parable of the sower Jesus said the seed is sown some people receive it with joy but very quickly it's taken away satan comes and steals the word it comes seed comes also seed goes also then we are checking for fruit where is fruit in our life fruit seed only is not there which fruit are we going to get because satan took it not it but when we study the word what happens is the word goes deep inside us it settles and it begins to influence our decisions our choices we can know okay fine I think this is what God's will is for my life because we are studying the word and we are understanding it it's becoming a part of our decision making got it so when we are talking about you know satan and the strategies I don't want to give any credit to satan but he seems quite hard working and quite smart okay he's putting in his best efforts so if he is working so hard as believers we want to be lazy and still we want to say you know I'm victorious in Christ we are victorious positional reality but come on take some steps also do what God is asking us to do right and rise up against the lies of the devil the deception how let the truth be in our hearts study the word spend time spend become a student of the word never stop being a student if one question comes to your mind go search what does it say what does it say in the amplified version what does it say in this version what does it say in the Hebrew what does it say in the Greek why because I want to get the word I want to plant the word let that word get some roots let it start growing then one day there's going to be fruit okay but if seed only is not there then can't expect anything so when we study the word the truth becomes a part of us every deception that satan brings can just chop it off say no that's a lie this is a lie that is a lie we can identify it quickly okay and that is about the word so when we have the word in our hearts I also said that Holy Spirit he dwells in our hearts okay in 1 John chapter 2 26 and 27 it says the anointing in you the anointing in you will teach you all things who is the anointing in us Holy Spirit he is that anointing who lives inside us he will also teach us what is right what is wrong then whenever satan lies to us we can catch it got it so we work by the truth or the word we work by the spirit and we are able to overcome every deception of the devil don't be very simple you know how say Eve was so simple whatever satan said yes yes you know sure we'll oh I'll become like God okay okay so we must not be so simple mind it be alert and evaluate every thought that comes to us yeah yes go ahead Shani you want to say something yeah so is it is it fair to say that the reason why I guess Eve ate the fruit and Adam Eve fails because they didn't have the Bible in the word to kind of delve on to so that he won't be to see from the devil because the serpent came to see third also too they didn't have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them is that part of the can we say that it's fair to say that in terms of why they fail how all humanity failed because of them okay so though they did not have the written word or the logos the Bible that we are referring to right now they were in the very presence of God Shani and they had the the spoken word of God God had already spoken to them so they had the word in that sense which could have guided them but they were plain disobedient so that's what happened it it's not like they were not equipped they were very well equipped okay so great yes thank you sure thank you so that is about deception and you know the scriptures tell us as the days progress there will be a lot of wrong things even in the name of christian it'll be there but we won't be able to discern unless we are rooted in the word so we have to make ourselves strong in the word to overcome every deception okay next would be the next tactic of the devil would be oppression oppression means do you all remember we did one exercise that fist fight some two of you came and then we did one fist fight and the person who wins is the one who brings down the other one isn't it so bringing down is what is called as oppression or subduing is what is called as oppression so when two wrestlers are fighting the one who wins is victorious but the one who loses is the one who's been subdued he's been overpowered so oppression means satan and his demons are overpowering some area some aspect of our lives doesn't mean we are possessed or anything no but there is we we are weak and they've understood that so in those areas they bring us down so that is what oppression is all about okay that is oppression but the great thing is that Jesus came in his ministry we see Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good and you know he went about setting people free from every oppression of the devil so Jesus does not want us to be oppressed in any area of our of our lives he does not want us to be oppressed we should not let the devil oppress us where does the devil oppress us he will oppress us mainly in our mind so again you know same things that we spoke about maybe we are having uncontrolled thoughts with regard to um the fear anxiety confusion failure or maybe even depression right we feel like satan is putting some pressure we're trying to come out of those things but it's still continuing in our minds okay so we understand that he's trying to oppress us but of course we should not let him do that we can go against it we can go against those spirits we can declare the word we can bind you know we can do all other things that we know about and be free of that oppression so he can oppress us in our mind and sometimes we find that oppression can manifest in the body in the form of some sicknesses some diseases okay they are sort of directly the oppression of the devil if you take the lady who was crippled she was bound and she could not stand up straight I think it's in Luke 13 but Jesus he goes he he casts out that spirit and then she's free so there is a sickness that is manifesting because of demonic work so in the same way the oppression of the devil can manifest a sickness in the body also at times not just in the mind but even in the body but when we deal with it then yes that oppression can be broken okay so yeah so that's a little bit about oppression sometimes the manifestation of oppression and possession and possession may look similar okay that also is there somebody may not be possessed but they are manifesting how because they are oppressed in the mind or in the body so that also is a possibility okay so if there's anything about oppression that you want to clarify we can talk about it otherwise I will just jump to the next section which is about possession okay so basically we are seeing a progress from external influences like deception accusation intimidation temptation it's all outside then slowly what's happening if there is possibility for the enemy to attack us even more he's moving to oppression then he's moving to possession right but in the case of a believer can a believer be possessed hey come on you just immediately tell me no so there's if you don't give me a direct no then I'm wondering what's the point of talking for one night it can be demonized not possessed excellent sister Gertrude I want to give you a hundred marks so you take all the hundred marks that's the answer we have to give a believer cannot be possessed a believer is demonized okay so yeah so important to know that in this course so now we're talking about possession demon possession so when one is not a believer then they can be demon possessed so the demon dwells inside them now how does this look what happens is in the case of demon possession the demons will use the faculties of the person to manifest themselves so it is something like they will use the body of the person they will use every ability you know if the person can walk if the person can talk they'll use that body to go where they want to go or they use a voice of the person to talk whatever they want to talk so all the faculties of the person are taken charge by demons even actions and behaviors let's just say okay the person is a I'm just saying okay is a vegetarian okay by birth they are like pure vegetarian they will not go towards a non-vegetarian I mean in the Indian context for those who are not able to understand well yeah we have this thing about you know being a pure vegetarian here in India now if that person has a demon okay that causes them to want meat that will be so weird isn't it so the the demon has taken charge of the person and making them eat meat and you'll wonder like this person is a vegetarian and he's eating meat like what's happening the actions may change the way this person is behaving will change because the individual no longer has control so look at it this way demon possession means control it's gone out of control the person wants to do something else but sorry the demons are ruling they are calling the shots so that is how demon possession manifests then use the word manifest it shows itself like that okay now this manifestation it can be on and off like if you remember there are there are people parents who come to Jesus and they say like you know deliver my child needs deliverance the demon is pushing them into the fire you know my my child is being pushed into this and that so sometimes there is a manifestation in in these cases but then when you talk about somebody like Legion the whole time he's insane he lost his mind and you know he's sitting outside the city so a person can manifest the whole time or they can they may manifest you know on and off so this is how possession looks and in the case of possession we have to take authority and we have to cast out the demons which we will talk about later on that's briefly about possession and what Satan does through possession so any questions about possession can a little child be possessed yes they can be possessed yeah I have actually seen like one meeting that I went to so many little kids were possessed how could that have happened I'm imagining that was not a believing community and you know sometimes what people do they dedicate the babies they dedicate it what is the meaning of dedication remember earlier we said when we dedicate we are saying let this person be an expression of that spirit when we dedicate ourselves we say God may I become an expression of your the Holy Spirit right so when people do that even young children it's surprising they can be demon possessed it can happen okay okay good good question I am looking at the comment here brother Sanjay says recently okay a woman walked into a particular church and opened fire can we say that there was some kind of demon possession involved in this incident see brother Sanjay as I've been saying we have to like assess and then only we can say reference to his question you can't give a clear cut you know conclusion because it could be self-let also for some vengeance or yeah could be no it's not like a clear cut answer that sure sure right so I agree with Akhil it's hard to hard to like just confirm and that to being outside so far away whether that person did it because they were demon possessed there could be other reasons as well either there was a personal grudge or maybe like a like a mental health issue we don't know so yeah I would just limit myself to that sister Gertrude you have something to ask yes sister a person is demon possessed and we want to pray for that person does he with his agreement or without his agreement we can pray how does the person has to agree see most of the time what we say when we do when we minister is from our side we have to be full of faith full of the anointing okay because even if the person sometimes doesn't have faith because of the faith that I carry as a minister of God the healing can take place the miracles can take place so that way I have to take responsibility as a minister but then to put faith in their hearts is also important which is why what we tend to do is we preach the word first we preach the word what happens when people hear the word faith comes by hearing then when they have faith in their hearts we can minister we can pray and miracles happen okay so this is how it goes in the case of someone who's demon possessed again we will study in detail the steps but what I want to say is if you can talk to the person then we have to talk sister you have to talk to them we have to share the word of God with them and allow them to have faith in their heart then minister okay but in some cases what happens the person is so demon possessed that their mind is fully gone like you can't even talk to them in that situation you have to take charge you take charge don't worry about talking to them no point right so you just go ahead and rebuke the demons cast them out okay thank you sister yeah right yes yes Nelson Nelson might please so that they can also hear you okay see people with mental disorders are not demon possessed okay can some demon possessed people present with mental disorders yes got it so we can't look at any anyone and everyone with the with an issue like a mental disorder and say oh this person is demon possessed no we should not do that and that is very very wrong okay is there any chance yes there are chances that like any other human being those who are those who have a mental disorder it's possible that the source of that disorder is a demon it's possible then if that is the particular case then you have to deal with it with spiritual warfare except the person free yeah yeah I know so see some of these questions right honestly I think we can still do our part of praying for them and sharing about Jesus with them I know that they may not have the mind to respond to what we are saying but ultimately you know God is the judge and we have to trust that you know God will do the do justice in this kind of a situation yeah right you know it's a tough question actually I'll come to the online students just a moment we have some questions here in class adding to this only like this material of patients like as you remember the and on a outreach we went to Otto Rajas for them so like most of the people they are maintaining challenged actually some of them they are not able to understand what we are actually doing we are praying for them and not yes but like when we are singing songs and we are praising God that time they are supporting us so it is like those probably they are not able to understand if they are mentally challenged what we are doing but we are praying for them it will show that God will surely do something yeah thank you for sharing Abhishek the presence of God can still work and from what Abhishek is saying he experienced that people were responding to you know the presence of God so that that's a nice thing okay I'll come here to our online batch Shani yeah is it now we say that like when somebody like when there's a mass shooting or somebody the woman opened fire the church can we say that that's the devil getting in somebody's mind because somebody just doesn't go and just shoot people it has a thought and that thought kind of originates from you know that's the devil getting into their head they just don't wake up one day so they want to shoot somebody or just kill people it has to start with a thought and we're just saying if it's not from God it's from the devil and that's even if somebody does have a mental problem the devil can still talk to him and tell him to do these violent things is that correct you say that yes see the evil thought does come from the enemy isn't it even if it's a single thought the point that I was making is can we say that they were demon possessed and they did what they did that I don't I we can't just say it like that but were they influenced by the devil obviously you know such a thought does not come from God it comes from the devil okay thank you yeah thank you so yes that's about demon possession and in the case of demon possession the way we take charges to cast out the demon spirits can there be one would there be one spirit two spirits multiple spirits it depends again on that particular situation and it is possible that multiple spirits can take charge in a body in a human being okay now let's move on the next method here would be domination domination is as the word suggests the ability to dominate over larger regions now it's not just about the demons controlling one person they are controlling maybe a village they are controlling a city they're controlling you know large geographical parts maybe even a nation remember prince of Persia prince of Greece so these demon spirits have a larger influence not just the body of a human being that is known as domination and satan likes to do that you know he likes to weaken the nations we saw that in Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 2 12 and so he's happy to overpower cities and places and in the bible we read about certain cities that became the stronghold for satan you know it's like headquarters from that place he likes to operate and do his tasks so in the book of revelation there is a term name of a place called Pogamos which became the scripture says it became like the seat of satan from there he was able to do a lot of things why did it become a seat of satan why do you think how could satan stay there so strongly anything that may have happened yes yes shani can sin be one way yes yeah yeah so sin can be and apart from that some sort of demonic practices occultic practices disobedience to god all those things kind of build up and the more you know we've been saying don't give the devil a foothold so it not just have a foothold i'll have an open door over there that's why you can easily go and gain a lot of power in certain places and maybe that is why it became a center of demonic power Pogamos the city of Pogamos there's also a reference in the biblical Babylon in revelation 18 to even Babylon it talks about how it becomes a very wicked place from where satan can operate why we see that you know a witchcraft is the primary reason why satan gets so much of power in Babylon so similarly in some of the places that we see we may find that satan is dominating that whole area there is a certain kind of a spirit it might be a spirit of alcoholism spirit of prostitution spirit of some kind of oppression spirit of corruption some evil crime or crime against elderly children so many things happen because those demon spirits are now free they can do whatever they want to do or mental disorders like they'd co-opress people in the mind a cause fear cause insanity so they can do whatever they want they like because that area is now being dominated by the demon spirits and usually how does satan do this he does it through people people now if you go to the book of kings first kings second kings there is a reference to a woman by the name of Jezebel Jezebel why is why are we talking about Jezebel she promoted witchcraft sorcery she had a lot of black magicians under her and when she was promoting those things evil could thrive but how did it happen there was one main person who was giving like you know access or granting permission for these things to take place that was Jezebel similarly you can trace back sometimes to individuals like in the Old Testament there's also another reference to a person called Manasseh the ruler of Jerusalem in 2nd chronicles 33 versus one to six and you find that through that one individual some evil is propagated in the New Testament in the book of acts Samaria there's Simon the sorcerer I've talked about this person okay he was showing a lot of miracles and wonders through the dark powers through demons so sometimes there are individuals who are given that kind of power in that place and they the demons dominate the whole region and they use this person as one of their agents okay or in Philippi you remember there was a girl slave girl with a spirit that Paul cast out the demon from there so individuals can also be become a tool in the hands of Satan to oppress larger areas and finally human empowerment human empowerment as it states is where there are people who gain lot of demonic power okay they do this intentionally through witchcraft through occultism and a lot of evil is manifested through their lives why do they do this you know that's a question people ask I don't know maybe for power maybe for fame and yeah so there can also be human empowerment where people give themselves over to the evil one and demon spirits and propagate their activities so that's human empowerment I think we'll stop here for today but if there are any questions we can take it up yes Shani please go ahead yeah can you just repeat over the last thing that you said because you froze on the screen so I wasn't able to hear the last thing you said okay I'm empowerment through witchcraft after that you froze empowerment and witchcraft I just gave some examples and I stated that Simon the sorcerer and you know the prophets of veil Jezebel these are all examples of people through whom Satan was able to do his activities so they're examples of human empowerment okay thank you yeah sure thank you oh yes brother Sanjay yes pastor just to get some clarity on demon possession so could you give us an example of a good example it could be a person of today or could be someone from scripture a person who's demon possessed an example of that person and a person who is probably driven by a demon or who's controlled by a demon kind of like what I what comes to my mind is probably a demon possessed person is a person who loses their free will they no longer operate under their free will but a person who is controlled or influenced by a demon still has a free will that means their free will is operated so could you throw some light on that probably okay so you're asking me the difference between being possessed and human empowerment okay so I would I would consider that agreement is one of the the key things here because a person who is demon possessed now they may or may not want the demons in them but for whatever reasons the demons have come and they've lost control okay so that is the demon possessed individual but the person whom we are referring to as empowered by demons are those who willingly who in agreement to demon spirits have allowed all all this to happen so does that make sense brother sanjay yes yes it is I mean yeah because they may have an agenda the ones with the human empowerment may have an agenda like if you go to act step to eight simon the sorcerer he was already called as a god in the city because he had so much power right in in among the people he was already doing a lot of miracles then when Peter and John they come and they pray for the believers the baptism in the holy people are baptized in the holy spirit they start speaking in tongues and you know what simon says he says I want the power which you have and like I'll pay for it I'll give you money you give me this power so it shows one attitude wherever he saw power maybe he wanted it and that is why he went to the wrong source in the first place to get the power so people who are in the human empowerment category it's possible that they want power at any cost and they're ready to do anything to get that power whereas demon possession may not be like that you know a person unknowingly he fell into some sin and the demon came and attacked them so that's more like demon possession but human empowerment is about gaining power does that make sense okay great yeah sure thank you any any other questions please sister human empowerment means they'll means they'll be fully possessed with the enemy uh-huh in dealing things and other yeah it's like that is it yes yes but they are in agreement so they are also operating with their own free will uh operating their free will also both the best yes it's a it's a choice that they've made they want to be in that place when they come into this uh human empowerment under this thing they'll be fully possessed by the devil they'll not have a way for their free will to come out of it like see in the case of human empowerment what we are saying is people want to they want demons so that they can get the power okay so they're willingly going after it okay okay sister okay yeah thank you i i just a loosey uh yes yes shani so i just want to make sure i'm clear so with um human empowerment that's a choice um in terms of um they want to be controlled by with the demon spirits with possession that may or may not they may or may not want to be controlled by being is that what is my correct or that you're right you're right yeah you're right okay thank you sure thank you and human empowerment is you know one of the highest levels of um you know having using the power of demons okay so uh those are the differences and hopefully we are clear about those things and if we are i think we can just close with the word of prayer and i leave it open anyone from the on-campus batch online batch please spray and we can wrap up today's class spray precious loving family father we thank you for the exposition of your word and the revelation of your word and that you have overcome everything at the cross we thank you for enabling us to learn many new things which we are knowingly or unknowingly complacent or take it lightly we pray that we will not only be hearers of your word but also doers of your word we thank you for Nancy ma'am and all the teaching that she brings for we thank you for all the students for participating and our recipients of your grace and mercy online and offline in Jesus name we pray amen amen amen thank you thank you okay thank you everyone god bless you have a wonderful day bye for now