 Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome back to this class and also the online students. We will pray and get started. I think even the online students can pray because your audio is connected here. So who would like to lead us in a word of prayer? Anyone here or online? Okay, maybe we'll have one of the online students pray today. Can one of you lead in prayer, please? Maybe Nina? Nina, are you able to? Yeah, I'm there. Okay. Congratulations, loving father. We thank you for this day and for this time, Lord, that you have given us to come to your feet and to come to your presence. Lord, we thank you for being with us in the days in the beginning of this week. And even as we begin this class, Lord, we commit pustmancy and each one of us, we pray that we will open our hearts to receive from you to hear and to understand, Lord, all that we need to learn from your word for we ask in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Thank you, Nina. We we've been talking about intercession. So in the last class, we just began talking about praying for the family. And I told you that we need more time to focus on the different kinds of prayers and how exactly we must pray those prayers. So today we'll take it up. So in our notes, we can look at chapter, just a moment, chapter 14 page 58 where we saw how the passage in 1 Corinthians 7 talks about an influence that married couples have over each other and their children. So it gives us the understanding that there is a spiritual influence which we have and that influence an authority we can exercise in the family setting. So if let's say husbands and wives pray for each other, it is very powerful as compared to somebody else praying for them. Not that it's not effective but what we are saying is there is a special spiritual influence when you are related, especially through marriage, the covenant between the husband and the wife and we saw in that passage that the children also are the children. It says that the children are sanctified the children are holy. That is to say that there is an authority and an influence which the parents can exercise over the children. Now if a third person prays for the children, will it be effective or not? Yeah, prayers are effective if you have the right foundations. However the point we are making is there is greater influence, so we have to make use of it. So with this understanding, how does it change my pray? It just gives more confidence to know that my prayers will be effective. So when spouses pray for each other, it will be effective. When parents pray for children, it will be very effective. So that's the point we are making. And today I want us to touch upon a couple of ways in which we are going to pray for different people in the family. In our notes here, it primarily talks about husbands praying for the wives and wives praying for the husbands and parents praying for the children. The last portion is about us praying for our home. Our home as in the space and our family. So these are the four main categories in which the prayers are recorded in this chapter. Now the beauty of these prayers is that they are all based on scripture. So when we pray, we pray based on scripture and that gives us the confidence that God obviously he works when his word is the basis of what we are doing. So it's all based on scripture. And another key thing that we want us to recognize is that let's say in some matters, you know when we are praying and we've said this earlier when it comes to somebody who's not born again or somebody who's sick it may take some time, isn't it? So we can think of our prayers as seeds. When you sow the seed, do you get the crop right away? No. So there has to be, you know, that there has to be that period of waiting. When you are waiting, you are trusting God and then you will see the results. So this is how we pray for our family members with much patience. Maybe in a home, let's imagine that a husband or a wife is very close to God but their spouse is far away from God. Now when they are praying both are believers but you know one is very strong, the other is not strong and let's say the person who's very strong is praying for the other person that they also should become strong in the Lord. They should fulfill God's purpose for their lives, things like that. But they might notice that nothing much is happening or it might be the opposite also. They might find that their spouse is going far away from God or think about a situation where let's say children, parents are praying for their children and it happens many times. I have personally seen it also this is one particular friend of mine whose child though they were brought up in godly way, in a godly way, when the children grew up one of their children was very rebellious and the child wanted to do whatever they wanted to do and they went far away from the word of God and it was very difficult for the parents. But one good thing which I observed among the parents of this child is they never stopped praying. They knew many things which are going on. They knew how the child is opposing their faith. They knew everything but they never stopped praying. Now how does God work? Means I have seen that through that difficult phase and sometimes even I would wonder how is this rebellious child ever going to come back to God. But it's amazing that they stuck in that place even for a matter of months and a few years I think so and what happened is miraculously you know God spoke to their child when they just brought for a church service and it was as if God was speaking to that child and saying will you renew your faith in me. You used to trust in me. Will you renew your faith in me and that child renewed their faith and it's amazing how today you know this person is married to a believer they both are serving the Lord. It's amazing. Sometimes you look back and you think how is it possible? They were so far away from God they were saying all kinds of things against the Bible though they were brought up in the ways of the Lord but it took prayer and you know much sowing in prayer like a farmer for the parents to finally see the result. I'm just giving you one example. I'm sure there are many such examples that maybe even you also know of some such testimonies but the most important point that I want to make is no matter what we have to pray regularly continuously for our family members now if they are in the Lord they are strong in the Lord well and good. We are happy about that but if they are not then it's much harder don't give up because these prayers are like a seed if you sow it today you will reap the fruit if there are no seeds will there be a plant no way but we have to be sincere in sowing the seeds. So now let's get some of the prayers which one can pray for their spouse you can also speak it by faith for your future spouse. So it's not that it's not applicable to us. It doesn't matter God's word is true so we can take these words and we can actually declare it over our future spouse as well. So what are the kinds of some of the common prayers which we may pray for a husband wife and you know children. So we look at that all the three cases we first have to pray for their spiritual strength isn't it that they will be rooted and grounded in the things of God and that they will become strong. So most important is pray for their spiritual life their walk with the Lord. So there are some messages of scripture it's given in our notes Ephesians 1 verses 15 through 21 can somebody read it Ephesians 1 verses 15 through 21 okay thank you. So what we'll do is as we read just hold on to your mic because I think the others also will be able to hear but that's fine. So this passage basically is a prayer of Paul for the Ephesians where he asks that the people now they will have wisdom and revelation okay deep understanding of you know who God is and the fact that you know there is hope in God the riches that God has in store for us that we may understand what the power of God is. So you see all this is important for our spiritual growth and development and that's what Paul is praying for the people of Ephesus. Now we can pray the same thing you know that the people we love family members that they will know God in a deep way understanding revelation right enlightenment about the things of God hope that they may have hope in who God is and what he has promised the riches of his glory Paul says okay so how is this going to happen it's only going to happen if God can open their eyes and that was the prayer which Paul had for the Ephesians that your eyes may be opened okay that the eyes of your understanding may be open and that's what we are praying so whoever it is you know you could even pray that for somebody who's outside your family but this is a prayer which is to strengthen one in the Lord. Now let's also look at a couple of other passages Ephesians 3 verses 14 through 21 this is more about you know the love of God that one may know the deep love that God has for them so can somebody read it please please use the mic Ephesians 3 14 through 21 Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 to 21 the love of Christ for this reason I fall on my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives its true name I ask God from the wealth of his glory to give you power through spirit to be strong in your inner selves and I pray that Christ will make his home in his heart in your hearts through faith I pray that you may have your roots and foundation in love so that you together with all God's people may have power to understand how broad and long how high and deep is Christ's love yes may you come to know his love although it can never be fully known and so be completely filled with the very nature of God to him to him who by means of his power working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for or even think of to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time forever and ever amen thank you so you see that it's about the love of God that the people may know how great God's love is and also how great God's power is so that is the prayer which we can pray for our loved ones so first we said that they will have you know knowledge they will have revelation regarding God and we also said that you know regarding God's hope the power of God now we are saying the love of God these are all things which will make them stronger now let's look at the next passage here which is from Colossians chapter 1 verses 9 through 11 so you can use all this even for yourself and pray these prayers so Colossians 1 verses 9 through 11 and 1 for this reason also since the day we hear it do not say to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and his spiritual understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fruitful being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light okay so very similar to whatever we read earlier over here again there is an emphasis on the knowledge of God regarding the power of God but also another important thing that we see here is there's a prayer which says that one may be fruitful in God meaning you know God has given all of us a life we are living it for him so all of us have to be fruitful in what God has called us so that is the way in which we can pray whether it's for a spouse or for a child or anyone else at the Lord may be putting on a heart so these are all actually very what do you say foundational scriptures to pray for the spiritual strength of anyone so you can take it you can write it down and you're praying you can read it out in this manner you can declare over people that God thank you you have called them to know your love you've called them to know you you've called them to know your power you've called them to be fruitful you've called them to be established you know so what are you doing basically you're standing on scripture and you're declaring it over the lives of the people so this is the way in which we can pray so I'm just touching on some common things then I will come to more relevant to a particular category of you know family members so second we can pray that if it is the spouse child anyone we can pray that they will grow in God's purpose for their lives right so when we look at any human being we see that God blesses them with a purpose and according to the purpose and the call of God there are some lives there is some grace isn't it so we might notice that somebody is so compassionate or somebody is such a great giver or you might notice right in your spouse or your child that they have the ability to solve problems something special about them the gifts in their life and as you consider these things you can just begin to pray about it and say lot thank you for the gifts that you put upon them thank you for the grace that is upon their lives I pray that they will grow up you know in you they will fulfill God's purpose for their lives now it is possible that we may have an idea you know what that person is meant to do let's say for example a wife may know that her husband is called to be a pastor or that he is called to be a prophet or he is called to be an apostle or he is called to be something else worship leader so I am just using some examples from the church setting but it could be something else may be business is what the primary call of God marketplace ministry so based on what that call is we begin to say Lord you help them fulfill their purpose for their lives similarly children you begin to pray and say God thank you this is how you have made this child and this is you know the destiny of this child we pray that you know you will enable the child to grow up in the understanding that the child needs and fulfill God's purpose for his or her life so these are common prayers which we can pray for anyone then we become more specific right we become very specific based on who we are praying for so let's say a husband he is praying for his wife there are many scriptures that he could actually take and begin to speak over his wife so I am going to read out a couple of scriptures and that will help us understand you know which the way in which we can pray but please note that these scriptures are not complete you got it we can pray many more things you know based on how God's spirit is leading us based on what the Bible really says okay so what can a husband pray over his wife and all of this is taking from scripture these are declarations so based on Proverbs 14 one you know the husband can declare and pray that God I declare that you know my wife is a wise woman and she builds up our home where do you get this from are you speaking it from your imagination yes or no no where are we speaking these declarations from scripture okay so it becomes very powerful whenever we go from scripture and we begin to declare it right but sometimes though I am basing it on these words maybe the Holy Spirit may move upon you and reveal something to you for example let's say your wife is a very prayerful woman so the Holy Spirit might cause you to pray that you know Lord let her prayers be very effective like Hannah let her receive the answers to her prayer so you're not necessarily declaring a scripture but you're praying as led by the Holy Spirit in a very biblical way you understand but this is how we pray take scripture and begin to speak it so if you're not married as I told you you can pray this into your future God I thank you that the person that you are sending into my life is a wise woman that she builds up our home what are you doing you're still sowing the seeds right and what happens as time goes by you will see that God will cause fruitfulness to come out of your prayers so begin to pray begin to pray there are other scriptures that maybe a you know husband can pray for his wife that my wife is a prudent woman she is my pride and joy based on Proverbs 19 14 Proverbs 12 4 so you see the Bible says so much about you know the roles the qualities of your husband's wives so you pick up those things and you begin to declare now it's possible that you might find completely opposite of that happening at home you know in a given moment but we have to stay with God's word because as we speak God's word you'll see the power of that word to transform you know a particular person so hold on to this hold on to it throughout and you will see the result of it so you know a husband could pray this way that she's very prudent that she's my pride and joy what else can he say you know Psalms 128 and verse 3 it says she is a fruitful wine in the home bringing blessing joy and protection to the family so you could say that you can declare that over the wife there are other you know virtues which you can declare from Proverbs 31 you can say things like God I thank you that she is a virtuous woman that her prize is far more than rubies she's blessed in all that she does my heart trust safely in her and our children arise and call her blessed she opens her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is gentleness her work brings honour and respect for her in the city so you see all this is in the Bible okay so you take that you pick it up when you see it's good in scripture you can take it and you can declare it and speak it over your spouse now just some examples okay these are just some examples now let's say a wife who wants to pray for her husband same thing same exercise you'll get scripture and you begin to declare it now I'm just looking at Psalm 112 okay I'm just telling you what it has to say so Psalm 112 says praise the Lord blessed is the man who fears the Lord who delights greatly in his commandments a wife can pray God I thank you because my husband is a blessed man he fears the Lord he delight greatly in your commandments so you see you pick scripture now as a man you can also pray this for your wife see these are all godly things you can apply it as the Holy Spirit leads you so a wife could also pray something like you know it goes on verse 2 it says his descendants will be mighty on the earth so Lord we thank you that our descendants will be mighty on the earth the generation of the upright blessed so our generation will be blessed wealth and riches will be in his house so a wife could declare that and say Lord you promised in your word that wealth and riches will be in the house of the righteous so my husband is a righteous man wealth and riches will be in our home and his righteousness endures forever unto the upright there arises light in the darkness gracious and full of compassion and righteous so it says that God will be gracious to us now because of the kind of person my husband is God you are gracious to us right so even though there is darkness light will arise upon our family so these are all declarations a wife can pray such things we also see like in Proverbs 31 it talks about the Proverbs 31 woman but it says about her husband that he sits at the city gates that simply means in those times city gates are a place where decision makers used to sit people with authority and influence used to sit so the Proverbs 31 woman when she says her husband sits at the city gates it simply means that he is an honourable man that people are willing to listen to his opinion he has honour in the society and that he continues to command respect from the people so you can make a declaration like that God I thank you that my husband is an honourable man he sits at the city gates his word is respected in the home his word is respected in the community so what am I doing I am beginning to speak and declare the truth of God's word and say that this is how it should be it may not be right now but this is how it should be right so you can take all these passages some 128 is another passage women can take you can declare it over your husband there are many such passages you take you can compile it and in your prayer time just begin to make declarations so this is how you pray you know for husbands and wives now let's move on let's talk a little bit about children so we said that you know firstly spiritual life we pray for family members spiritual life so everyone whether it's spouse or children you first pray for that and we have scriptures from Ephesians 1 Ephesians 3 Colossians 1 which you can declare and pray for your children and then of course you pray for God's purposes to be fulfilled over their lives and there are many more things which have been listed in our notes here specially for children which we can pray we can also declare the prophetic destiny okay what is the meaning of that declare the prophetic destiny you remember Zacharias and Elizabeth in their old age God gave them a son by the name of John and both of them said his name shall be John his name shall be John and Zacharias begins to prophesy over the life of his son and says you child you will be like this like that you will do this you will do this so what is he doing it's just a he's just a baby John is just a baby at that point but we are saying the parents carry that authority over the life of a child and that is why it's important to speak blessing and it's important to speak life what if we speak negativity and say oh this child useless or this child will never fulfill God's purpose for his life or her life there is authority even if parents speak negative there is authority in that and that is quite dangerous actually godly parents declaring negative things over their children we should never do that because our words have authority even if you know our children are frustrating us we must remember the word of God so there is a destiny which God has for every person and definitely for that child there is a godly destiny and as parents many attend the parents know okay my son my daughter this is what God has called them to do you begin to pray begin to pray now I remember we'll again come back and discuss a few stories but one story I remember about this minister of God I think he passed away a few years ago he was part of the Pensacola revival of Steve Hill so his story is something like he was so far away from God into drugs and all and his mother was a very prayerful woman so she used to keep praying for him that no I know God is going to use him mightily and all but the fact was he was into wrong activities apparently it was so bad that when she went to visit him and his friends they were so high on on nurses that they would inject inject some things so they would inject and then chuck the syringe into the into the roof like the wooden roof so it will go stick so when the mother went to visit the son she saw all that in the home you can imagine her heart would have been broken to see oh this is the life that my son is living but she never stopped praying for him she never stopped praying for him and the something like God softened his heart he changed he became an evangelist and when he was part of the Brownsville revival I think some of you would have heard Brownsville revival and he was ministering there it was a very special time for a season many people went to Brownsville and as he would call out and say does anyone want to receive Jesus people will just run to the altar it was a sight to see how people would run but the point I'm making is looking at a sinful young person you would never think that his life can be changed like this but a very important person in his life was his mother and she never stopped believing that my son can change he will be a godly man he will fulfill God's purpose for his life so as parents you know you carry that authority and never to give up on children even if they have gone astray right and speak their destiny yes they're going in some other direction but you call for the destiny God has called my child to be whatever you know going to bring healing in many people's lives going to provide for the needs like a Joseph God is going to raise up my son he's going to be a blessing to the nation these are declarations this is how we pray you call for the destiny even if the child right now is far away from God so that's how we pray we can also dedicate now how many of us know parents even in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant they should take and dedicate right they'll dedicate the child to God so through our prayer we can concentrate or dedicate our children we can say something like God I let's say you know a child has many gifts let's say sinking gift child is able to sing so you can pray as like Lord I dedicate my son I sanctify I set him aside for your work the enemy will not have any hold over his life so for the capabilities for the skills for the talents I sanctify all of them and I declare they are for the glory of your name that they will not be used you know in worldly things so basically what's happening through your words you know something is changing in the spiritual realm for that child okay and even maybe long after you're gone you see the fruit of that because you have spoken it over your children so you sanctify them through your prayer and set them aside and say God nothing of the world is going to touch my child they will walk in the ways of God so as a parent you know one needs to declare that and you know speak it over their children like covering not just a covering but it also will release the power of God upon them so many times what happens parents don't do all these things they just leave it whatever he wants whatever she wants let them do it right that's how it is isn't it but that's quite unfortunate because in the bible we see that parents can use their authority it's like fighting with the devil and saying no this is what the words say my son will be my daughter will be like this so we have to fight in the spiritual realm okay so pray over them sanctify them set them apart dedicate them call them holy for the Lord you know like Hannah she went and she dedicated to the temple now we don't go leave the child anywhere but what we are saying is even through our prayers we can submit them to the Lord so that is something we can do beyond that no we can bless them remember I said as proverb says life and death is in the power of the tongue right so we bless with the tongue we don't curse with the tongue when we pray we can bless bless the present as well as the future of your child and you can just say things like Lord you know I bless their spiritual life I bless them ministry I bless their I bless them with good health I bless them oh God let them have favor from you in every area of their lives Lord I bless their talents the grace over their lives I bless their career I bless their friend circle so you begin to speak blessing upon everything that concerns your child right now and maybe you know your child is still small and I don't know many parents even my parents have told I prayed for you from the time you were not born right so it's like years of prayers I'm sure those of us your parents also would have said something like that or if you're a parent then you know how much you've prayed you know for your child but what's happening it's all these blessings which are spoken over the lives of our children you know that makes a huge difference so bless their present bless their future you might say things like God I bless their future let there be favor let there be open doors let there be opportunities let there be provision Lord make them successful help them make an impact you know through their lives and let them be fruitful okay so you know sometimes we know the value of a word which can encourage see for example I remember this is just when I started preaching so at that time my mother used to come to the location where I preach and I was not at all confident I was like I'm not cut out for this I don't know why I'm getting these opportunities I should not do this I should just focus on my career so I had all these self doubts but once after the sermon I was very disturbed one thing my mother told me till today I remember she said don't let anything stop you and she told me this when you speak I feel God is speaking to me okay so that was too big for me like I don't know like as a young person people looking at you it's a little scary but when there is a blessing right which comes through someone who's an authority over your life you can't forget it right so you can imagine the encouragement which a word like that might give to us but if these words are in prayer and in declaration you imagine the power of that right so you can pray it even let's say the child does not believe that they can make an impact or they will be successful they don't believe it but in your prayer you're saying Lord I thank you that my son my daughter that they will be mighty on the earth you're not saying it on our own some 112 says that our descendants will be blessed my children their children they are blessed I declare it in the name of Jesus then you know you begin to say they will be fruitful and you begin to speak over their future decisions maybe the spouse that they will marry their children that they will be blessed they will make good decisions when it comes to marriage family they will serve the Lord you know how Joshua said right as for me and my house we will serve the Lord so maybe the children are not yet in a place where they can say it for themselves but as a parent we say it on their behalf as for me and my house we are all going to serve the Lord that is the decision that is the declaration so it's very powerful when you do this for years you know even if Satan comes and he tries to disturb nothing can stand against God's word okay so this is how we must pray for our family and of course you know we will talk a little bit about praying for people who have gone away from God okay so there is an aspect or an element of spiritual warfare it's not just declaration and prayer but there is spiritual warfare where we have to take authority if somebody has gone away from God we'll come back and you know we will touch on that and study about it okay so yeah any questions any thoughts so far we have 3 minutes before we close off this session even the online students can ask no questions I have questions I wish you would ask me those questions so I can answer it what if you know we didn't have parents prayerful parents or believing parents sorry no what if one doesn't have believing parents to pray such prayers didn't you think of that I mean I was thinking what if you know one didn't have believing parents to bless like this and pray like this so see as a believer our prayers are strong enough so if you didn't have that maybe they don't know Christ they are from an unbelieving home but that is not a disadvantage okay because the word is in your mouth it is in your heart you declare it over your own self okay that's powerful enough so if at all for whatever reasons we don't have praying parents don't let that make you feel oh you know that's a disadvantage it's not the word is still with you you can declare all this over yourself okay so yeah okay so Sean is saying those who have been away from God it's not a disadvantage for many years they know what being in the wrong lifestyle is like and so they can tell people about but you know what Sean this is my way of thinking but they've lost so many years of knowing God and serving God if they knew God they could have grown in the things of God so all those years are in a sense you know lost so I mean it is a loss but as I've been saying time and again God is a redeemer he works you know all things work together so thank God that he can take that mess and make it a message but it's not God's intention that people should live a life like that and you know no I'm just making I got it but I'm saying because sometimes people think like that so if I just go away from God then I'll have a testimony I can impact more people for Christ that's not the right way any questions here from the online students okay alright so let's take a break then it's 9.50 we'll come back 10 a.m. and then we will resume thank you