 Okay, good morning, everyone. Welcome to BC 214, our course on developing the human spirit. Thank you for connecting and joining the class this morning. I would request somebody to lead us all in prayer and then we'll get started. If somebody could please unmute your mic and to spray with the class, we will get started. I would like to pray. Okay, I will pray. Go ahead, Maggie. Okay, let's pray. Holy Father, we thank you, Father. Thank you this morning for giving us another opportunity, Lord, to come and learn about how to develop our spirit, Lord. We pray, Father, as our pastor teaches us, empower you, Lord, and also open our heart, open our mind, and open our spirit, Lord, so that we may receive the prayer of this Father in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, thank you, Maggie, and good morning, everybody. Once again, thanks for connecting to this class. We are going to continue talking about the human spirit. I will quickly review what we did last week and get into the next chapter, which is chapter three, and then maybe we'll have some time also to start talking a little bit about what we're going to do in the following chapter, or maybe even chapters. So let me just go ahead and quickly share PDF. All right, so we looked at this. We finished, actually, we finished chapter two and this quickly reviewing. We said the human spirit is a real person with personality, faculties and functions. We also said that this hidden person has character traits, as we saw, gentle, being quiet, and that is enduring beauty, and that's very precious. That's what God looks at. We also looked at an example where Jesus is talking about what kind of people you are, what manner of spirit you are, and that's expressed then through the actions and reactions that people have. Matthew 15 brings it out in Matthew 1519. Jesus said, out of the heart proceed these thoughts, these actions, these behavior. So what's in the heart, the inner person, is expressed then through the thoughts and the behavior and the actions that we express. We just outlined very quickly the faculties of the human spirit. What we are saying is there's like a parallel set of faculties in the human spirit, which we can see very clearly in scripture. The human spirit has the ability to see, hear, feel, smell, and taste, and of course, all of these are in the spiritual sense. We will go into the details in a subsequent chapter, not the immediate next, but in a subsequent chapter. Then we also outlined the seven functions of the born again human spirit. That means what does the human spirit primarily do or functions that it serves. So we listed out the seven, we'll look into each of these in detail, talk about the conscience, knowledge, knowing, communion, or fellowship. It's also a container or repository, or it has the already, if you want to use the word DNA, it's the expression of the life nature of God. It also has identity. This is who we are. It also can do things, take action, and it also can keep growing, increasing in strength and maturity. So these are the seven functions of the human spirit, which we want to develop. So what we are really talking about as we progress is that our goal is if we can develop our faculties and the functions of the human spirit, we will be in a good shape, not to serve God, to walk with God, to serve God, and to do the things he wants us to do. And so we're going to learn how to develop the faculties and the functions of the human spirit. And we also, in closing, we said the born-again spirit needs to be nurtured. We need to be strengthened. So we covered till here. I just want to mention this. What we will see in chapter three, we're going to outline seven practices to develop the human spirit. These are things you have already been learning in the Bible College. We did, even in the last semester, when we talked about keys to supernatural ministry, we touched upon these seven practices. And so I'm going to bring them to us again as a way of reminding that this is how you develop your born-again human spirit and just to follow these practices. But here's what I want to say. And we will prove this. We will show this in scripture in the subsequent class that the human spirit has a range or can experience a range of things. I'm using the word things, but it can go through a range of experiences. For example, we will see all of this in scripture. The human spirit can go through pain. It can be broken. It can be contrite. It can go through anguish. It can go through even anger and resentment towards God. Or it can go through some very positive things. We see in the Bible that the human spirit can receive inspiration from God. It can search out things about God, about ourselves. And it can be strengthened in God. It can be filled with the very grace and the character of God. So the human spirit can go through a range of experiences. And what we will see also in scripture is that what the human spirit experiences is then released or portrayed through the soul and the body. So if, for example, if the human spirit is in anguish, it's broken, it's crushed, it's fainting, it's failing, then you know the soul of the person is also pulled down and tends to give up, tends to quit. I can't handle this anymore. And then bodily, physically the person begins to, what we would say, be in a depressive state, meaning they lose all the zest for life, they don't work, they don't do things. But where is it coming from? You see, we will see in scripture that when the spirit is crushed or it's failing or it's overwhelmed, it's in anguish, then the soul gets affected and then thereafter the behavior gets affected. So the premise or the principle we're going to put forward as we develop this is if we can keep the human spirit strong and healthy, then you're going to have a healthy person. No matter what the situations and circumstances bring, because of course in this world we are going to go through, you know, all kinds of things, they're going to be challenges, they're going to be difficulties, they're going to be obstacles, they're going to be hurdles, all kinds of things, right? If we can't prevent in the sense, you know, those things are what happen in the world. But if the human spirit, if we keep our spirits strong, healthy, then what's going to happen? The soul and the body are going to be also strengthened and we are in a very strong position to live it toruously in the middle of all the conflict that we face. So these seven practices that we are going to outline here in chapter three, which all of us are aware of, you know, it's not new, we've talked about it before and we are all aware of these, but if we consistently keep in these seven practices, we will develop our human spirit, we'll strengthen our human spirit, keep it in good shape, you know, if you want to just put it in simple terms, keep the human spirit in good shape, so that when there are things from outside trying to crush, you know, trying to break our spirit, trying to hurt our spirit, trying to hurt the very person, then because we are strong in the spirit, we can be strong in our mindful and emotions that is emotionally be strong and also physically our body is also energized. So we develop the human spirit and we also guard, protect the human spirit, you know, throughout 422 says, guard your heart with all diligence because out of it come the forces that shape your life, out of it come the forces that shape your life, so guard your spirit, develop your spirit, product your spirit and if that spirit person within you is strong and is in good shape, most of life or the way you are, you and I are able to go through life will be in good shape. So these seven practices, I know, we'll just talk about it, the scriptures are there, I've mentioned them, these are things that are familiar with all of us but the key is to consistently practice these things. So how do we develop our born against spirit? That means how do we strengthen the inner man? Through what God has made available to us, we're not talking about other extraneous methods and means, we're saying, okay, this is for the believer, right, for the believer. How does the believer train his spirit so that the spirit faculties are strengthened, sensitized to God and to his work and the spirit functions are strengthened in the believer. How do we do it? First, it comes through fellowship with God and at the very beginning of this course we mentioned here, right, God is spirit and he's made us spirit beings and that's why we are in that position even though we are living in a natural world because we are spirit beings, we are positioned to commune with God, the fellowship with God, spirit to spirit. So that fellowship, that word fellowship simply means to share everything, in one sense, it means to partner, to share everything, to have everything in common, that means we share our heart with God and he shares his heart with us. So this fellowship with God, and you find here in these scriptures, in 1 John 1, John the below what he says, in our fellowship is with the Father and with his son. 1 Corinthians 1-9, it says, we're being called into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 13-14, he talks about the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the communion of the Holy Spirit. So really, the believer, if you look at these three references, the believer is fellowshiping with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There is, we are fellowshiping with God, the Godhead, we are in communion, we talk, we worship, we pray, we listen, so we share in our heart, he shares our heart. So it's a place of friendship and that friendship can become stronger and stronger through worship, prayer, and the word of God and obedience to God. So the first key or the first practice for all of us to make sure that our human spirit, the spirit of within us is in good shape or keeps itself in good shape and keeps growing, keeps developing. The faculties are being strengthened, becoming sharper, the functions are becoming stronger within us. It comes through communion, fellowship with God, friendship with God. Now, we understand that in order to fellowship with God, we have to walk in the light as he is in the light. You know, therefore, we keep sin away, we keep wrong things away, we guard the other place of friendship with God. We guard our place of fellowship with God because it's important to us. We have to walk in the light as he is in the light, then we are fellowship one with another. So fellowship with God is important. Secondly, learning the importance of quietness and communion. Now, Isaiah 30 and verse 15, could somebody read that for us? I mean, I know some of us can quote all of these verses but it will be good to turn and read it. Somebody could read that for us. Isaiah 30 and verse 15, please. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 15, this is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says, in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. So I'm just looking at the second part of that verse, second half of that verse. He's saying, of course, he's calling his people back to himself, right? He's saying repentance and rest that just you, basically, if you, one of paraphrases was God is telling his people, look, I'm telling you, come back to me, return, repent, come back to me and rest. And then he continues, in quietness and confidence will be your strength. But you didn't want to have that. You didn't want to listen to me. But God, so God is telling his people, you know, you get back to me and just get into a place of rest, quietness and confidence. And then you will be strengthened. You will have strength. God is actually telling us, you know, is giving us the secret of being strengthened. You come to this place of rest and quietness and confidence in God and you will be strengthened. So we must learn to do that. That means that's why we have this phrase quiet time and we, you know, we didn't say have your quiet time every day, things like that, which, you know, it may sound very, you know, something that's very trite or cliche type of things, but it was actually very true. It was actually very true that on a daily basis or at least let's say regularly, frequently, we need to come return to the Lord, meaning just turn our attention completely on him, come into this place of rest and quietness and confidence before him. And that's where we will find our strength. The strength, of course, is not talking about physical muscular strength. He's talking about that inner strength of the inner person. And you know, in times past and maybe to some extent even today, there are people who, you know, give themselves to a complete life like this, you know, to get into a monastery or some sort of secluded life in order to just live like this. I mean, okay, that's a choice they make, but I'm not saying we have to go to that, but what I'm saying is on a daily basis, we recognize that in quietness and communion, this place of quietness and rest, we are going to be spiritually strengthened, strengthened in our inner person. So you make time for yourself to be in quietness. Just, you know, leave a bit, just pause everything else for some time, half an hour, one hour, two hours, whatever time you can make and be in quietness before God. And it is in those quiet moments that God can give us revelation. It is in those quiet moments, a lot of things happen and we will see. Now basically, these five faculties of your spirit are touched by the very presence of God by God himself. So your faculties are given, I'm talking about your spirit faculties, your spirit faculties are given an opportunity to encounter God in these moments of quietness. Otherwise, you know, as we go over our daily life, you know, our natural faculties are bombarded, you know, we're always engaging with the natural world, you know, we're seeing this, we're hearing that, we're talking here, so our natural faculties are given all the stimuli, so to speak. But in these times of quietness, the spirit faculties are given stimuli. Your spirit faculties are sensitized to God. So the more we spend time in quietness before God, the more sensitive we can become to God, spiritually, spiritually, I'm speaking, right? Spiritually, become more sensitive to God. Your spirit faculties are able to recognize His presence. You can recognize His presence anywhere. Now, generally, you know, when we have great times of worship, we are able to recognize His presence. You know, for instance, yesterday, in our East Church, that's our eight o'clock service, the eight o'clock service, you know, Pastor Roshan was leading worship. It was just him alone on the guitar. It was such a wonderful time. And by the time that we finished, you know, that, I don't know, maybe 30, 40 minutes of worship, the hall, the auditorium, and we didn't have many people, we just had 50 or, sorry, almost 60 people in person, present. But we could feel the presence of God. It was just wonderful. Now, of course, we went through a time of worship. So there's that time of just fellowship with God. Your spirit senses, your spirit faculties are sensitized and you recognize His presence. Wonderful. Well, if our spirit faculties are sensitized to His presence, you could be walking down the road somewhere. You could be in a shopping, you know, mall. You could be in a very crowded place. But because your spirit has been sensitized through times of quietness to the presence of God, to God Himself, you could encounter the presence of God anywhere, even when there's, you know, disturbance physically outside of God. I know you're present here. So that's the importance of quietness. It's a place of strength, strengthening. As we've seen, Isaiah 30, 15, it's also a place of sensitizing or becoming more sensitive to God Himself because in that place of quietness, your spirit faculties are receiving stimuli or being stimulated by God's presence Himself. Right. And we know the scriptures. Isaiah chapter 40, where God says, you know, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. It kind of goes with what He said here in Isaiah 30 and verse 15. So let me just try to go fast. I won't finish this today. It's number point number three about strengthening or developing our human spirit is, of course, to feed on the Word of God through meditation. Matthew and we know again these scriptures. Matthew 4, 4, man will not live by bread alone. That is the natural food. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So Jesus is drawing, of course, this is from the Old Testament, you turn me. God is telling us, look, just as natural food provides sustenance in life to the physical, His Word is that to our inner person. So the Word of God is food to our inner person. It's food. So you obviously, if you want to strengthen the inner spirit man, the spirit man needs food, needs to be nourished. And the Word of God, God is saying, my word is that nourishment. So if you want to strengthen our inner man, feed it with the Word of God, feed it with the Word of God. Now, of course, when we talk about feeding the Word of God, we have to understand. We are talking about a mental assimilation of information concerning the scriptures. So we're not talking about, you know, just mentally, okay, I, you know, I study the Hebrew, the Greek, or I study the, I do the survey of the book, I understand the background and culture and the literary context and meaning and all of that. You know, that's a lot of intellectual assimilation of information, which doesn't necessarily nurture the spirit. So what are we talking about? We're talking about discovering truth. It's the truth that we discover through the written text that nurtures our spirit. So, you know, to them, to the Pharisees, Jesus said, you know, search the scriptures, scriptures, because in them you will find life and they are they which testify of me. So he's telling them, look, you search the scriptures, but those scriptures are, they contain revelation, they contain hidden truth and they're pointing to Jesus Christ. So it's not about just looking at the text, but looking at the revelation, the text is bringing to us. And that's where even these Pharisees who studied the scriptures, you know, they, they missed it because they were just looking at the text. They couldn't see that the text was pointing to Jesus, right. So as we feed on the word, our desires, God, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things in your word. And as we train ourselves in the word, the, the word of God, maybe I made a mistake, I think it's Hebrews 5, not Hebrews 4, must be a typo here. Yeah, amen. Let me just look at this, Hebrews 412, but also, yeah. Okay, so here I just meant, you know, both Hebrews 412 to 14 is good, but what I actually meant was Hebrews 5, okay. Hebrews 5, it's talking about how, through the word, as we feed ourselves with solid food, and we saw this last week, the spirit man is nurtured and we become mature into being babies as we feed ourselves with solid food. So there's this development of the inner person. So I want to encourage us, you know, when we read the word, it's like God opened my eyes. I want to know the truth that's in the word. I want the truth in the word to build up my spirit, not just an intellectual assimilation of information in my mind about the Bible, but I want the truth that's in the Bible. All right, so that's feeding on the word of God, and it comes through meditation, and it's tied into this quietness and, you know, as you're quietly in the presence of God, and you're meditating on his word, you begin to see truth, you begin to receive revelation, and that develops the spirit man. And before the way we develop our spirit man is by confession of the word, that means we need to speak the word with our mouth. And, you know, we can see this throughout the scriptures, the old and the new. God taught us people, I want you to keep my word in your mouth. I want you to say my word. And the confession of the word of God is going to build faith because faith comes by hearing the word of God, and you be your own faith builder in the sense that you speak the word of God to yourself. You declare the word of God to yourself. The promises of God, whatever God has said about you, as you speak the word, you're going to hear the word, and the word is going to develop faith in you. It's going to strengthen your inner man. So this practice of confession of the word again is a very important practice for us to keep speaking the word, say what the word says, let your spirit man hear the word of God. Number five is praying in tongues. This is again something God has given to us to edify ourselves. You know, if God felt that something was important and that he should give it to us, then we should just accept that well, God knows best. You know, that if God said, you know, you, if you pray in an unknown tongue, you're edifying yourself, that's 1 Corinthians 14, 4, then, you know, we just go with that. Okay, so God knows best. Or, you know, in Jude 1, verse 20 and 21, he says, you build yourselves up and build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. And in verse 21, he says, keep yourselves in the love of God. And it's very interesting, both in verse 20 and 21, it's like do it yourself kind of instruction. You know, do it yourself. God can't do this for you and God won't do this for you. You do it for yourself. What? You build yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. That's verse 20. You do it yourself. You build yourself up. So it's entirely up to you and me. We can build ourselves up, how praying in the Holy Spirit. And then verse 21, keep yourself in the love of God. Again, so this is a do it yourself thing, right? There may be many reasons why you and I would feel tempted not to walk in the love of God. You know, people may do all kinds of things to us, but we make a choice. I'm going to keep myself in the love of God. And how do I do it? By praying in the Holy Ghost. So God has given this to us and he has explicitly stated that praying in tongues is a way for us to edify ourselves, which is build ourselves up or strengthen ourselves. It's a way for us to build ourselves on our faith and to keep ourselves in the love of God. So this is so important, praying in tongues. So you spend time praying in tongues. You're just using something God has given to every believer, right? And again, you know, God is not partial. He wouldn't give a few believers the means to build themselves up. And the others, you say, sorry, this is not for you. No. If this is a mechanism or this is a means to build ourselves up spiritually, then God is a fair God, a just God. He's going to make it available for every believer. You know, that's why we say every believer can pray in tongues. It's up to you. Of course, God is not going to force you, but that's available to all of us and we encourage everybody to spend time praying in tongues. And in practice, I would encourage you, you know, maybe, you know, you keep some time aside, whether it's 15 minutes, half an hour, one hour, whatever, praying tongues and just make it a normal practice that whenever you have an opportunity to pray in tongues. Example, suppose, you know, you're going out, you have to walk somewhere praying tongues and walk. Suppose you're to drive somewhere, you know, praying tongues and drive, if you're by yourself, of course. So at every opportunity where you're by yourself and, you know, you are not doing something that's, that's, you know, requires your full attention, then just pray in tongues and do that. You know, you can pray in tongues and drive, you can pray in tongues and walk. So make use of every opportunity to pray in tongues. And it's just a wonderful way to strengthen your inner pursuit. You know, man. And very often when I'm praying in tongues, I'm also listening to the word of God. So, you know, thank God we have these audio, audio things on the phone and we can put headphones and you can pray in tongues, you can be listening to the word, you can be doing, you know, you achieve both around the same time as last two things and I just started to finish this. So number six is we need to exercise our spiritual faculties and functions of which walking in love is the highest. So a very important part of developing our spirit man here is to exercise our faculties and functions, what we have listed before. So the five faculties, what you see, what you hear, what you feel, what you can sense, what you can taste and don't worry too much about taste, but if that is stimulated, that's fine. But at least what you see here and feel in your spirit, you exercise those, keep using them on a daily basis and functions, the seven functions of the human spirit, keep exercising them. Right? So in your day-to-day, as you go about your day-to-day work, you know, you may be, whatever the different things you and I have to do, sorry, in your spirit you're saying, God, I want, you know, you're keeping your faculties open so that you can, if God is showing you something, you're hearing something, you know, when you're about to make a decision, you tune in to your spirit, to see if God is showing you something. If you have to, you know, work on a proposal or work on a sermon or if you have to provide counsel to somebody, you know, all of these things, the day-to-day things we're doing, you tune into your spirit faculties to see if God is saying something there and try to draw out of that. We will see in our next class, you know, as we come up, how God inspires, you know, through our spirit faculties. Right? Just as a, you know, way of introduction, let's go to Job 32 verse 8. Now, we will get into this a little in-depth in the coming weeks, but just to show you what I'm saying, Job 32 verse 8, somebody could read it, please. Job 32 verse 8. Job 32 verse 8, shall I read first? Go ahead, please. But there is a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. So, there is a spirit in man, so it's a human spirit. The breath of the Almighty, the inspiration of the Almighty. Where is it coming? It's coming in your spirit. And that gives you understanding or that gives you wisdom, that gives you knowledge, that gives you revelation inside. So, we have to exercise this. Right? So, when you need whatever, you may have to make so many decisions, what do you do? You look for the breath of the Almighty, you look for that inspiration of the Almighty, there in your spirit, so that you can get the understanding to make your decision. It could be a business decision, it could be a family decision, it could be, you know, whatever, you know, it could be a ministry related decision, whatever, there's so many things we all have to do. But what I'm saying is we have to exercise our spirit faculties and functions. And in that place, in that place, in your spirit, God is giving you inspiration when you need understanding. The breath of the Almighty, the inspiration of the Almighty gives you understanding. But where does it come from in your spirit? How will you pick it up with your spirit faculties? Sometimes God shows you, you see, sometimes the words and information coming show you here and now. Sometimes it comes as impressions, as feelings, and so you feel, right? And so you're picking up the understanding God wants you to have. But this is something we have to exercise. If we don't exercise, we won't develop those faculties and functions. And as what's going on in this 13 tells us, the highest is love, that means everything has to be kept under that motivation, right? So the expressions of the things that God inspires us to do, just guard it and keep it in love, right? So don't be motivated by other things with jealousy or pride or competition with people. No, no, no. Keep all those things out. Be motivated by love. So example, suppose you're praying and saying, God, what do I need? I'm just saying, you know, practically, you say, God, what do I need to grow something? Maybe you're a minister, how do I need to grow my church to grow the ministry? If you're in business to grow the business to, you know, so you're praying about increase, you're praying about growth. Wonderful. And you're possessing yourself to hear from God. Wonderful. You're looking for the inspiration almighty to give you understanding. Wonderful. But make sure you're motivated by love. Don't desire growth to compete with somebody else or outperform somebody else or out of jealousy towards somebody else. No, no, no. You're exercising your finest faculties and functions to do the things God has called you to but always keep everything motivated by love. And that's the highest because if we step out of love, then those things don't matter. 1 Corinthians 13 says, if I have faith to move mountains, but I don't have love, that doesn't matter anymore. If I give my body to be burned, I mean, if I make a tremendous sacrifice, if I give my, you know, food to the, I mean, I give all my belonging to the poor. But if I'm not motivated by love, it doesn't matter. So the emphasis here is exercise of faculties. And we're going to learn more and more how to do it, growing the functions of your human spirit, but keep everything motivated by love. And the last way we develop spiritually, develop in a person is this, by receiving spiritually through other people. And God has put us in a body and his place, you know, people around us so that we can receive spiritually through one another, that we can refresh each other, we can encourage each other, we can learn from each other. There are people who are more experienced than us. There are people who have, you know, who have gone before us, who have, you know, God has taught them, God has worked through them. And so what must we do? We must learn to receive spiritually through other people. Okay. So as you let, of course, be careful, don't take anything and everything, but, you know, the right things, as you receive the right things through people, it will nurture us spiritually. We will be strengthened spiritually. Okay. So let me pause, quickly review these seven, then just take questions. So how to develop one against spirit, fellowship with God, keep that fellowship with God, take time to be quiet, to rest, to be in that place of rest, quietness and confidence, because that strengthens and also sensitizes you to God. Number three, the word of God, that's spiritual nourishment. Number four, speak the word because as you hear the word, you're being strengthened, praying in tongues. God gave us this method or mechanism to develop us. Number six, exercise your faculties and functions. Develop that. We will get into the details of the faculties and functions, but stay in love. Right. Don't do it out of any other motivation. Lastly, keep learning through other people because God has given them to strengthen us. So let me repeat one point that I said in the beginning and then we'll take questions. If we do a good job in developing our human spirit, a born-again human spirit, keep it in good shape, then our soul and our body will also be blessed. So develop and guard your human spirit so that you can, you know, your soul, your emotions, your mind, your will and health also is affected. It's blessed, but if you allow our spirit, human spirit, we will see this next week. If you allow our human spirit to be wrongly affected, you know, then it's going to pull down our spirit and can also impair or affect our body. I'm going to stop here, just pick up some questions and then let's, let's see what we have. I'm just looking into the chat. Okay, Prabhakar, is it we go before God and wait to hear from him? Prabhakar, I didn't quite understand the question. So this is regarding our quietness and communion. So when I want to ask this, like I heard from Pastor Benny, like he said, he goes to a closet and waits without speaking anything, being just quiet to hear the word of God. So I wanted to ask, is it that you meant to say fast or like, I'll read the word and wait for God. Alright, so okay, I understand the question. Now, so how do we practice quietness? So it's not that we don't engage with God, right? So in quietness, you may, you are first of all, your mind is focused on God, right? You're, you're in communion with God. You are, maybe you could be praying quietly, you could be praying in tongues, or you could be worshiping, or you could also be meditating, reading the word of God, or meditating the word of God. So that is your quietness before God. A quietness does not mean that we should sit or we should be in a place where we blank out our mind, right? And then we try to be here and then I just keep my mind blank. No. Actually, that's a very dangerous thing to do. Don't be in a place of trying to give, you know, just keep your mind blank and do nothing. Because then that's where, you know, the wrong kind of spirits begin to affect us. So don't do that. Your mind is to be focused on God. You engage with God, either through worship, prayer, or through the word of God. Okay. So in that place, you're also in stillness, meaning you're listening to God, your senses, like we're saying, your faculties are alert to God, right? And, and then we are able to receive from God. Is that okay? Yes, Mr. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's take up the other questions. I think they're maybe they're all related. What is the main effect of not developing the born-again spirit? Is it depression? Moving away from God, I just not functioning to a full spiritual potential. Can you speak a bit about depression, the spirit? How much is it to do with physical elements and spiritual elements? Okay, so we will, you know, we will get into this in-depth in the next class. And I've actually listed out the scriptures that that show us the different experiences of the spirit, right? So what is spirit experience? And I'll just quickly give a gist of that. So for instance, the spirit of a human spirit feels anguished, feels broken, feels hurt, feels overwhelmed or fainting, giving up, quitting, you know, those, I'm talking about the negative expressions. There are the positive expressions also in the spirit. But when we feel these things, what happens? It affects the soul. And you will see it's stated in scripture, I'm feeling in my heart my soul is sort of full, my soul is overwhelmed, but it's starting in the spirit. So there's a close connect, right? We said earlier, between the spirit and soul. Now, in the case, so to very quickly answer, if we don't develop the human spirit, the born again, the spirit of a believer doesn't strengthen himself, there are a lot of repercussions. You know, spiritually, they are weak, they're not able to, the functions of the human spirit will not be there. That means, you know, like, out of the seven functions, seven functions will be weak. The seven, the five spirit faculties will also be weak. They won't be able to hear from God very clearly. Or even if God is speaking, they're not able to pick it up. Why? Because we're not developing the human spirit. So the faculties and the functions are at a weaker level. And therefore, how much they can do spiritually is also therefore at a weaker level. So, you know, these, these basically, the, the spirit man is weak. And so what they will be able to do is not very much. But if the spirit is developed, of course, the spirit faculties and functions are stronger, stronger, they can, spiritually, they can express themselves. So God can work through them well to do what God has called them to do. Now, in terms, when you talk about depression, it's a combination of things. So for example, you know, most often, it starts off with an external factor, right? This, there's a calamity, there's a hardship, you know, a loss of a loud one of, you know, something happens externally. I'm not saying always, but most often happens like this. But the spirit is not strong enough to sustain a man, you know, so Proverbs tells us about this, we will see it next class. If the spirit of man, a spirit of man is able to sustain him through his infirmity. But if it is weak and has broken, then how will sustain him? Meaning, the very thing that gets sustained him is now falling apart. So that's why the strength of the human spirit is important. So there's an external thing happening. But the spirit has has not been strengthened to sustain him through that challenge. Then what happens? He falls. When he comes down, the soul also is drawn down. You know, and that's what, you know, from a external perspective, it's okay, the person is depressed. So most often, that's how it works, right? There's an external situation. The spirit is not strong enough to carry this person through. And then the soul also is pulled down. Now, sometimes the external can impact the spirit hard, like causing hurt, causing, you know, being just pulling, draining every strength in the spirit, whatever that is there. So that adds to the whole cause of or depression. Okay. So it's kind of in a nutshell, we try to look at it. We will go through the scriptures next Monday. And then we can maybe talk about it a little bit more. Okay. Right. So let's pause. So the main thing I want you to take away today's classes, look, these seven practices that we know, let's do them consistently to keep strengthening in a man because that affects a lot of things. And we will look at it in the next class. Okay. Could somebody please close in prayer so that we can then get ready for our, go for a break and then the next class. Anyone, please? Well, Father, we thank you a lot for teaching us on developing our spirits. Lord, through the learning of this Father, Lord, we may fellowship with you and we will come in with you. We may remain close in the presence at all times, Father. Lord, in the presence, there's fullness of joy. At the right time, there are pledges forevermore. So remaining in the presence, Lord, we may receive revelations. We may receive direction towards life, Father. Lord, we may talk by, by, by you and guided by you. Lord, as we journey through this course, teach us more on this, so that we may truly learn to remain in the presence at all times. Father, let this class be a great blessing to each and every one of us. What you have heard this day, Lord, let it remain in us, Lord, throughout our whole life. Bless, possible, Lord, for teaching this course. In Jesus' name you pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay. Thank you, everyone. We'll take our break and I'll see you in the next class. Thank you.