 All right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to this session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. And then we get into our study together. Let's pray. Father, we want to thank you so much for this beautiful day, this beautiful time that you have blessed us with. Thank you for your word that is eternal, that is powerful, that is sharper than a double-edged sword, that penetrates each of our hearts and hearts of God. And your word brings life into our spirit. And even as we learn a God about discipleship and small groups of God, this is your design, this is your heart for each of us a God, that we will raise up disciples and build your kingdom born. Holy Spirit, we ask that you minister, give us the grace, give us the wisdom to understand everything that you have to speak for us to be born. Jesus, mainly for you. Amen. All right. So last class, we talked about chapter 25 and chapter 26, and what role, I know that our in-person students were tiered or anglore. But let me just do a quick review, just in case some of us could not watch the video. But I do encourage you to go back and watch the video so that you know you're up to speed. Okay. Last class, we did chapter 25. We looked at four important steps of training set members into leaders. We looked at develop relationships with the members, right? If you want to speak into a person's life, you develop a relationship with them first, and only then you can speak into their lives. And we looked at developing ministers out of members. So you build a relationship, then we don't just leave it there. You take that relationship to the next step. You develop them to become ministers. Now, very important is you don't immediately give them titles, right? Challenge them to take up ministry roles. Challenge them to pull in when it comes to leadership, right? And then, step three, we talked about making the challenge. Even as you are opening up small opportunities for them, give them the opportunity. Meaning, a time will come when you make them, you know, you'll tell them, okay, now is the time you step up. You make the challenge for them. And Jesus did that so beautifully, right? He, I think it was probably about a year after his ministry, he said, okay, now you all go. And when you go out, you will do everything that I did, release them. So you make the challenge. Help them to start their own group or help them to take up that role of leadership. You know, many a times, people are afraid of this term, leadership. Not everyone, but some of them want it. Some of them don't want it, they're fearful. They say, oh, what if I become a leader and I'm not equipped enough? What if I make these mistakes? Or what if I'm not even a leader? I wonder if that's not my calling. But it's very important to understand that, you know, sometimes you, many a times you give a person an opportunity. And then as they fulfill that role, they begin to understand, hey, this is what, it becomes a comfort zone. And they understand that this is a calling that God has for their lives. Right? And sometimes if we don't give that opportunity, they just be in that same place. Right? So one of the aspects in leadership is to get people out of their comfort zone. Right? It's never to leave them in a place of comfort. If you look through the scriptures, all through the old test, even in the new test, the prophets and leaders, everyone got people to come out of their comfort zone. It's a natural, right? That's how God works. Step four, help them to start their group. Now, these will involve practical steps, right? You know, probably connecting with people, helping them, just being there at the background, taking a step back and helping them to start off the group. And remember that at a certain point, you can be there for them, right, just encouraging them. But at a certain point, it's good to just step back and let them take the work forward. And we also looked at chapter 26, which is the leader as a coach. And a very important point that we talked about was coaches don't develop people. They equip people to develop themselves. And so that's, again, a very, very important point. Okay, so let's go into the next aspect, which is in chapter 27, mentoring another Christian. Now, the moment you hear, you and I hear the word mentoring, at least for me, the first thing that comes to my mind is a father and a son. In the national, a father would like to mentor their son, right? A father keeps telling their child, okay, do this, do that, don't do this, because if you do this, you'll be successful. If you don't do this, you know, you'll end up not being fruitful in life. So when you talk about mentoring, it is a wide subject. But there's some very important points that we're going to talk about today, right? And how you and I, as believers, no matter what phase of life we are in, right? We may be working in the marketplace. We may have our own business. We may be students. We may be, you know, just starting off in ministry. Doesn't matter. Wherever we are, we are called to mentor one another. We are all at different levels in our spiritual world, but we're called to mentor each other, right? So what are some of the important points? Mentoring is some of the ways that God deals with us. Second Corinthians 6, 18, I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. And if you look at the Old Testament, we have plenty of verses talking about God being a loving father, God dealing with the people of Israel especially, even in their sin, God dealing with them like a father. He writes in Isaiah, he says, I covered you under my wings, yet you will try to fly away when you are not ready. It's so wonderful to see this father-heart power of God, right? So how do we understand God's dealing with us? Very important is to understand that developing people is spiritual fathering and mentoring. Now, one of the things that we must avoid and something that we try to avoid in ABC is that we avoid using the term, he's my spiritual father or he's my spiritual mother. There is a reason to it. Now, it's not that it's unbiblical. It is biblical, the principle is biblical. But sometimes this whole thing of spiritual father and spiritual mother is taken way out of context and can really cause a lot of problems among the leaders. We do talk about the principles of spiritual fathering and mothering, we do that, right? And to understand that developing people from one level of maturity to another is called spiritual fathering or mothering. Developing people cannot just be a program, although we use a lot of programs. For example, we have something called as life skills that we just launched in the year 2024 as well. We launched this life coaching. So for example, there will be a person who is 20 years as a businessman. And then you've got a young person, maybe a young youth who's just completed his business management degree in business management and he wants to start his own business. So he needs help, what do I do? How do I start off? What should I do? What should I, what I shouldn't do? And so life coaching comes in, right? Where this person who has 20 years of experience has seen the market, has seen, has learned from his mistakes, can speak into the life of this young boy or young girl, right? And what's happening is that there is mentoring that is happening, right? Now, again, this could be spiritual, it could be even just things that are around, right? Maybe business, anything else, any sphere of influence. Yet it is mentoring. So we can develop people, but it's not just a one-days event. We can't say we have a big conference morning 9am to 5pm. Okay, now I have raised up spiritual sons and daughters. It doesn't work that way. We use programs to help them learn, but then they have to go back and, you know, be able to apply what has been taught in their lives. And as a leader, you would have to go back and follow up and minister one on one when if you want to be a mentor, right? Care and love is the key. At the moment, and we've talked a lot about this, right? Paul writes and he says, he talks about the whole aspect of love. And if we do all of these things, which is wonderful prophecy, good of knowledge, working miracles, gifts of healing, we do all of it. And if there's no love, it's of no use. So same thing. When we are maybe mentoring and ministering to people, we may feel good about ourselves, but if it is not done out of love and care for the person, and again, it just becomes, it may help the person, but then there won't be a fruit. The rewards is something that we want to see that is eternal rewards. It's always love is the basis of what you are doing. Remember that each individual is unique. Now, when it comes to mentoring, especially, and I just want to go back to the ministry aspect, right? Many times, a person could be, this has happened, right? Where a person could be 15 years in the Lord, very, very knowledgeable in God's work, done a lot of research, gone back, studied, done history and geography, and gone through these commentaries, and he or she is very, very well versed with the word of God, highly intellectual, right? Then there's this young boy who's just become a believer, who only knows a few things, okay? The prodigal of the lost son, Jesus died on the cross, nothing more. Now, it was very easy for us to come to a place and say, hey, I'm sure we, not many of them do that, but when it comes to mentoring, it's always be, understand that people are at different levels. Each individual is unique, just because he or she does not know the scriptures in and out, doesn't mean that they cannot be mentored. Maybe they have a gift of playing an instrument or singing, which this other person doesn't have. And this person can say, hey, you're a mentor, you don't know how to sing in tune. And just giving an example, right? So you must understand that each person is unique. Also, we must understand that people come from different backgrounds, different cultural settings, different understandings, right? We must understand that, especially in Christianity, there are so many branches, I would say, or denominations of Christianity, people come from different understandings. There are people who don't believe in healings, there are people who believe in healings, people who don't believe in the Father, they believe only in the Son, all kinds of understandings. That's where you come in, right? And as a mentor, it is very important to speak the truth. They always say this, it's very easy to point finger and say, hey, this is wrong, there's time for that. But a better thing to do is to speak the truth and let the truth minister. Because the truth is greater than the false words of the enemy. The truth is greater, right? So always remember, right? You don't attack the person for his or her understanding. For example, you know, you're mentoring somebody and maybe this person has this habit of removing their shoes and pray. It's okay, we don't have to say, hey, why are you removing your shoes? That's Moses did that, we don't have to do that. You don't have to, right? So I believe that Christianity, many of the times we zoom in or we focus on the minors rather than the majors. We focus on all these other practical things rather than what is more important. What is important to minister the world, to see the person grow in the things of God and all of these other rituals or practices, that can be changed, even if they don't change it, it's all right, right? When they know the truth, the truth will set them free, right? So understand that when you're ministering to people, each individual is unique. But when you look at them, look at them with the love of God, that you are sowing seeds into their lives. At Love Lord Apostle Paul says, he says, every day I kneel before the Father, thinking of you, he's thinking of all the churches. He says, I kneel before the Father, praying for you. So we look at that aspect of the Apostle Paul. It was not about, okay, I have to start another five more churches. I have to go for another missionary journey. No, it was all about people. It's all about people in his heart. That's why he was such a great mentor, such a great ministry that even now years, thousands of years later, we're talking about it, right? Last part, we cannot laugh only on the group scale, meaning, only if there are three, four people in my group, I would love all of them. Mentoring is always, it is one on one. It is where you speak into the person's life and they are willing to open up and speak what is going, what they are going through and being willing to receive the counsel, the Godly counsel, the Word of God, until they are finished, right? Whatever you do, you need a blueprint. So you need to see the end picture before you are ready to begin. This is so important, right? You see the end picture. What is the end picture? I see this person standing and ministry to maybe hundreds of people. I see this person right now. There's nothing, I mean, he's just still learning about Matthew Mark, Luke and John. But one day I will see him spraying over the sick and the sick are being healed. One man, oh, you may see a little timid boy who's only 18, 19 years old, but one day I see him driving on demons from people. That's a blueprint you have in your mind. You picture it and you work towards that, right? And no matter what it would have been in our lives, right? You picture what you want to see, right? Remember what Jesus did, love that picture. So, you know, I was reading the book of John and such a powerful book. Sometimes, you know, we read the scriptures and we just read it. We say, hey, I finished reading the book of John. But if you read it, my heart was so moved because after a certain point, the whole, you know, the whole, sorry, I'm digressing a little bit, but the whole, you know, the understanding of Jesus, the whole aspect of taking the sins of the world that he's not going to be there moving, or he's moving out from his place of, you know, he's going to take on sin, he's going to taste death. And he gives this whole long speech. He goes on talking and talking. And he unlike Jesus, because he knew that this is, it's very emotional when you read the book of John towards the end. Very, very emotional. He just knew that he's going. He knew it. He said, listen, don't be afraid. Don't worry when I'm not there. I'm giving you the Holy Spirit. He will come. Now these disciples have no clue what's happening. But he knew everything. He had the blueprint. He had the picture in his mind and it's such a powerful book. And so when you are developing a person, have a blueprint in your mind. Jesus saw Peter, people saw Peter as a fisherman, but Jesus saw him as the leader of a church, not just a small church, thousands of people taking on a ministry from one level to another. Everyone saw Peter, he's a fisherman. That's what happened in Acts. Peter, John, go to pray. Are these unschooled fishermen? How come they're speaking with such knowledge? That's because God already saw it. The Lord Jesus saw this in them. So second point is spiritual fathering. Now, when we say fathering and mothering, it is in a gender-independent way, right? Meaning it is a man ministering and mentoring a man, mother or a woman ministering and ministering and mentoring to a mother. And something that we want to do as a church is we always want that to be. God has a few designs, right? And so we want to do it the right way. The goal in our Christian group is to go from little children to becoming fathers and mothers, right? None of us, none of us, and I'm 100% sure that none of us want to be children of our life, right? And sometimes, I look at my kids and I say, I wish I was this because they are on their supper break and all they're doing is playing. So sometimes I feel, oh, man, I wish I was a kid and they have no worries, they have no problems. All they have to do is find a game and play that game. But that's not how life is. There's been a time they have to grow, they have to make their own decisions and that's what it is. Christian growth is growing from being little children to becoming fathers and mothers. Now, this is God's design, right? Now, it's not gonna, it's not a switch. It's not gonna automatically happen. Oh, I put on the switch, okay. I become from children, I become a father or a mother. It involves spending time in the word of God. You gotta go into the word, you gotta ask God for wisdom, you gotta step out of your comfort zone, you gotta make your mistakes, learn from those mistakes, go through challenges, go through storms in life, see the things that God has for you, and then you see that this person comes from being a child to becoming a father. Once they become a father, meaning once they grown up, and you'll have other people coming up to you and saying, hey, no, I'm going through this challenge, this difficulty. Now, you've gone through the mountain, so you're able to minister through them. If you haven't gone through it, how are we able to minister to them? Now, also, I would say, the word is you just read the word. Maybe sometimes we haven't gone through a situation, but then somebody is sharing their difficulties and tell them, but you have the word. So God can give you the right word and say, hey, this is what the word says. Hold on to the word of God, right? And when the word of God is there, you hold on, you speak the word of God. God will be able to do this. Word is alive, his word is powerful. You just declare the word, his word says, you know, when the word comes out of the mouth, it will not return void, but it will fulfill the purpose for which it has been sent out for. What are you doing? You are speaking into their life, right? So you and I must be prepared for this. There will come a time. There will come a time. I remember, I was, I think, 25, when I started preaching 23, 24, somewhere there, and then when I was about 25, I started traveling to many places across India, just going and preaching, right? I didn't have any big knowledge about God's word and all of that. I just knew, okay. So, but I spent a lot of time in the world, but, you know, it was, most of it I used to preach was from the New Testament and few stories from the Old Testament. I didn't really know everything. But I remember, there was a time when I would preach and people ridicule me. There was this guy coming, you know, this small boy, and I would say, if you want prayer, please come in front. Nobody would come. Nobody would come. I feel so embarrassed and sad and say, God, what is this? Not a one person came for prayer. Sometimes, never times when I used to preach, I'm talking about, sometimes out of, you know, North India, towns and cities outside of, outside of back door. And there were times when I would go out to preach, I would open the Bible, people would get up because who's this guy? He doesn't have any experience. Young guy, many, many times, people have got up and left, right? So all of these things will happen. But over time, you know, people started coming. I saw, okay, and I would say, if you want prayer, please come. Suddenly one person would come for prayer. And then I realized, okay, something, you know, God is, God is working, right? So don't be discouraged, especially when you are going from one level of maturity to another. Remember, it's a season, it takes time to get there. Let God do his work, right? So I'm so grateful now, you know? I don't have to tell people come for prayer. They're only coming and asking for prayer. It takes time, right? More than 15 years, all the years. So it's something that we need to let God work. And I had to go through a lot of ups and downs, right? All of the things that I had to go through, a lot of failures, a lot of, many times, but like giving up, but I thank God that His word just directs our path, right? So don't be in a hurry to be a spiritual father or mother. Just let time, but you've got to do something. You've got to get into the world. You've got to get into God's presence and just learn and read and meditate and pray and be there in His presence, right? That additional effort. Okay, the difference between spiritual teachers and spiritual fathers. Now, a spiritual teacher teaches truths. Where a spiritual father cared for and helped the individual. Now, it doesn't mean that a spiritual father will not teach truths, okay? It's not like this is separate. Spiritual teachers are separate and spiritual fathers are separate. They both, it's just a small difference that we're seeing, but a spiritual father will also teach truths. That's what Paul says, right? Timothy is my son. It is obvious that he taught him from God's word, right? A spiritual teacher normally has a formal interaction, but a spiritual father has an informal interaction. I remember when I was in college, and there was always a formal interaction with the teachers, right? They were my teachers. And over time, you're there, you learn with them, slowly it becomes informal, right? Where you're able to speak out, you're able to share your thoughts, your feelings, the challenges that you're going through. So a spiritual father, it's normally very informal. Now, you can't be, you know, it's like saying, can you be formal with your own father at home? Imagine getting up in the morning, good morning, dad, you know, and you start being very formal. Is it okay if I can sit next to you? I don't say what's wrong with you, right? Because it's not how it goes. You just go and sit next to him, have your tea, you talk to him, you don't ask the father, can I talk to you right now? You say talk, right? So it's very different, right? And that fatherhood, that feeling of fatherhood, just comes in there. Now, a spiritual teacher has a curriculum-specific topics that they talk about, right? But a spiritual father speaks about all aspects of life, right? Spiritual teacher learned from his teaching and a spiritual father learned from his life example. And that's why I think Paul was such a beautiful example. What did he say? Follow me as I follow Christ. And he writes to Timothy, he says, Timothy, you've seen my life, you've seen me. And he tells the church in Ephesus also, in the same letter he says, you know, you follow Timothy because he has followed me. You follow Timothy because he's just like me. He follows my example, right? So life to life, spirit to spirit, right? A spiritual teacher is time for teaching. There's a certain time for teaching, but a spiritual father can teach from anything in our everyday life. Also, for example, you're going into a supermarket, then when you get in, you just buy some things and you come and then you're upset because the light is long. A spiritual father can teach you patience there. Now, a spiritual teacher may say this time in the light, but I'm just giving you an example. There's this difference there, right? But a spiritual teacher can be a spiritual father. A spiritual father can also be a spiritual teacher. Right? So in life, more things are caught than taught. And this is so true. You know, I'll share what happened to me at home. There was this time and every now and then, I would, you know, I would, whenever I was at home, I would open my laptop and I would be reading and all of these things. But one of the things I've noticed was my children kept saying, hey, you are using the laptop. So even I want a phone or I want to watch something. And I remember the Lord just ministering to me and saying, if you want him to do something, you do it. We knew it, right? That's something that we always teach. So over time, what I've been doing is I've been, I've not been using my laptop at home. So I opened my Bible. I have a set of few books. Then I read and I write and I, not just a show, but this is something that I used to do it. But after that, now with all the commentaries that I made about all the lives. So I tried to do all the research and study and learn using the laptop. But then now I use a book and a pen and open my Bibles to the Bibles to three houses. The study. And so now my children said, I want my Bible. And so they sit and they read, right? They don't ask for phone or anything. They read and they make notes. And it's something that it's caught. They've seen it and they follow it. So in life, a lot of things are seen. So as a spiritual father and mother, let your life be an example. What words you and I speak, that's important. But the life example also is very important, right? So let's look at this few points. All fatherhood flows from God. Efficiency, 14 and 15 for this cause, I bow my knee unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. All fatherhood, the nature of God flows in each of us. Right? The heart of a father is something very instinctive, right? You don't, after a father, you know, after you become a father in the natural, you know, it's not necessary. You have to go and open, find two, three books and say how to become a father. You just learn it. I became a father at 26, 26 years old. There was a baby. I had no clue what to do with this baby. What do I do with this baby? I don't know anything about fathering. I have no idea. What do I do? I don't know why he's crying. I don't know. But I didn't read any book. I just knew as a father, these are some things I have to do. And as a mother, these are some things a mother should do. We just knew it. And it's natural. Like it's not only me, everyone, the entire world, most of the world, others, it just inbuilt, it just flows into them, right? And spiritual fathering is an extension of the fatherhood of God. Jesus said that, you know, so wonderful in the New Testament, he says, look at the birds at the end, look at the sparrows. I have many father provides for them. Do you think that I will not provide for you? You being earthly fathers, even though you are so evil, you know how, when your son provides, when your child asks for food, you don't give them a stone or a snake. How much more will your heavenly father provide for you? Remember that fatherhood flows from above into our heart. And then we, in turn, release it to the church in the body of Christ. Secondly, Paul had spiritual sons and daughters, right? Second Timothy one, two, to Timothy, my dearly beloved son. He goes on many places, to Titus, my own son, right? Galatians, my little children whom I travel in birth again until Christ be formed in you. Remember the Galatians, the first missionary journey, first place where he went, he says, my little children, please don't go back to circumcision. Travel in birth until Christ is formed in you, right? Thessalonians, the first secured church. As he know how we exalted and comfort and charged every one of you as a father does to his children, Peter considered John Mark to be his spiritual son. Now, when we look at this, look at these examples, right? Spiritual sons and daughters cannot be forced on people. You cannot force a person and say, hey, you be my spiritual son. There's no point, you know, it should be out of free will that people want to be ministered from you or by you. So let's see, who is a spiritual father and a mother? Sometimes we mistake anything that the one who led us to fate is the one who's a spiritual father and mother. This is not true. This is not true. Look at this in the natural. Anyone can procreate, right? Baby can be born, but the baby can be put up for adoption. And then this couple can adopt this baby and look after the baby from two months old to 30 years old. Now, when he's 30 years old, the real mother can't come and say, oh, you've become such a wonderful man. So now I am your father or I am your mother. This boy will say, you just give birth to me. That's it. They didn't do anything much, right? The one who nurtures brings up the children into maturity. That is the real father and mother. But for example, there's somebody I pray for, you know, evangelizing. Give them a trap. He says, hey, this is what Jesus did. Can I pray for you? He says, okay. And I pray, I say, God, thank you for this person. And thank you for changing his life, making him a man. And he does the salvation prayer. And he says, I feel that I've been born again. And he goes away. I don't see him for the next 20 years. And after 20 years, I see him preaching on TV. Does it mean I'm a spiritual father? Not at all. Right? Because when he went away, I didn't see him for 20 years, but the next 20 years, he had some people who ministered to his life, taught him, trained him, built him up to this level of maturity to make him a leader and become a pastor or a prophet or whatever. Right? So they are the spiritual father. The father figure movement in certain denominations and organizations have caused a lot of problems. Right? And we must understand the whole aspect of fathering and mothering. A person whose teachings you have imbibed through books and tapes may not necessarily be your spiritual father. So for example, if you listen to a person online, now with YouTube, we can connect to any part of the world. Right? We can connect to live services. We have all the material that is available. And so just because I listened to his videos and read his books, doesn't mean that he's your spiritual father. Right? Because he's sitting in another country. He doesn't even know you. He's made those videos available. He's not speaking into your life. His books, his tapes are speaking. But it's only going to help him to a certain limit. A true spiritual father and mother is one who raises up another person from immateriality to maturity. So I'm not saying that watching videos and learning, watching summons online, reading books of wonderful men and women of God is not important. They're all important, but that cannot make them your spiritual father and mother. Right? Spiritual father and mother who is there with you to help you. You know, for example, if there's, if you say that somebody in another country is your spiritual father and mother, and here we may be in another country and we're saying, I'm not able to pray. We can't call him up and ask him how to pray. We say, who are you first? And it just doesn't work that way. But a spiritual father and mother who's there, say, hey, I can't pray. I'm feeling very weak. This person says, hey, don't worry. Just pray in tongues for maybe 10 minutes. Or just read the word for 10 minutes. Take this one verse and pray and help you pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to put a word in your mouth or put a word in your spirit and be able to pray. That is more fruitful than a one-hour sermon on how to pray. Right? So we understand that difference. Characteristics of a spiritual father and mother, judges by seven through nine, the inhabitants of the villages seized, they seized in Israel until I, Deborah, rose. I rose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods. Then it was war in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel? My heart is towards the governance of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the people. Blessed be the Lord. The Book of Judges is, I know that most of us have gone through this book. It's a book where, you know, things just start to crumble for the nation of Israel. And things are just falling apart. They chose, they forgot. The Deuteronomy was a reminder. That reminder is something that they did not apply in their lives. And judges, we see that they wanted a new leader. They wanted a king. The people of Israel were against God. They were living in a life of sin. But let's look at what a true spiritual father and mother is. Let's try and prove this. A true spiritual father mother is one who is involved in the life of his spiritual son and daughter. Keyword involved. One was able to correct, rebuke, discipline and guide. Because there is three keywords. Correct, rebuke, discipline and guide. They are able to pass the surface and instruct the inner man. So they are able to speak into your lives. Say, hey, you've got to wake up. You've got to spend time. Did you read your word? What did you read? What did God minister to you today? While praying, did you sense anything that God is speaking to you about? Oh, you know, I see that this is some area that you're lacking behind. So why don't you spend more time and worship? He's able to correct, rebuke, discipline. And he's also able to guide you. A spiritual leader is one who goes beyond casual relationships to a more meaningful relationship. There's accountability for growth, conduct and ministry. So the casual relationship of a spiritual father is very important. We looked at that practice, very casual. But it doesn't end there. It goes from there to a more meaningful relationship. It is a spiritual father, mother deals with your character, both in your gifting. Very, very important. Gifting will be there. We grow in those gifts. But characters, what is important? Characters, what will keep you strong? Characters, what will keep you strong in the ministry? It has a true sensibility of our building you as a person and not just using your gift. A gift is given from heaven. Also the gifts are irrevocable. It's given to us. But character is something that is built here or not to persevere. It's built on it. One who is, who does not remind that a spiritual son and daughter exceeds and goes beyond them. A true spiritual father or mother will not be like Saul who became jealous of David's accomplishment. Let me just finish these two points. And if there's a question, I'll just answer that. Number six. Okay, so a true spiritual father will not be like Saul. And we've mentioned this before. What if Saul was good then he was able to mentor David and get him onto the throne. Things are a bit different. One who rescues you from a place of abandonment and gives you a spiritual home. One who sees that you understand, sees and understands your future and trains you for it and releases you at the right time. So there are all of these aspects. What we'll do is next class we'll go into lessons from Paul and Timothy's relationship. Is there a question here? Does anybody ask the question? Okay, Rosalind. Just a thought and question. Who is the spiritual father of Apostle Paul? Okay, after the Apostle Paul became a believer, we see that he was there for about 15 days in Jerusalem. And after that he went into Arabia. He was there for about three years in Arabia. But we don't know about who he was with. So if you see the scriptures, he says, what I received from the Lord I give to you. So Peter did not mentor him. John, none of the disciples, he himself says it. Paul says it. I was, none of them were there with me. None of the great apostles were with the Lord Jesus were there with me. So none of them were there. And then those three years, he talks about being caught up in the heavens. Mostly happened in those three years. He talks about what I received from the Lord I give to you. The night the Lord Jesus was betrayed. So those three years in the desert was the years of his learning. And most of his learning happened directly from the Lord. And then he went into Tarsus and he was there for 14 years in Tarsus. These are called the silent years of Apostle Paul. We know that he did a little bit of ministry, but there's no account of what ministry he did. So to answer your question, Rosalind, Apostle Paul most likely didn't have a spiritual father or mother, but what he received was, he received direct revelations from the Lord. And he was able to, through the wisdom of God, he was able to apply it in his life. We see the wisdom of God in all his letters to the churches as well. So that's what I would say. He didn't really have a spiritual father. Again, it's not necessary we must have a spiritual father or a spiritual father. It's not necessary. It's not like if we don't have a spiritual father or mother, we'll not go to heaven. Yes, it is possible to be without a spiritual father. No problem. We have the Word of God. The Word of God will teach you. But in that way, don't be in a place where I don't want a spiritual father or mother. I don't want to be open to how the Lord may bring in people into your life. But again, you see how it is for you. Whether you're able to be ministered to and there's a level of comfort and the relationship is mutual, then you can go on. Otherwise, it's not really necessary. But it's good to have a spiritual father or a spiritual mother. They can speak into your life. So let's stop here. We continue from next class. A few aspects on this mentoring. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'll see you next week. Have a good week ahead.