 okay good morning and welcome everyone so all the on-campus students have you settled fine we'll get started okay and welcome to the online students as well okay so we have some comments here where you're saying the audio is not very clear is it better now okay it's fine now sure then let's proceed we will pray and then move ahead would one of the students like to lead them prayer please anyone any volunteers okay there's a volunteer behind you hello yeah have any father thank you very much for gathering us all here today any father we bless this any father guide us in the thank you thank you so in the last class if you would recall we talked about traveling okay and we said before that we talked about persistence so while there are answers to prayer which may be immediate in many situations sometimes there is a need for us to labour and the results don't come unless we spend that kind of time and that kind of intimate intense time with the Lord so there is a place for both some answers some outcomes are quite quick whereas for some others we have to be persistent we've seen how Elijah though there was a promise of God's word over his life he's still prayed and without that kind of prayer I don't think the answer would have come to him so both are applicable in our lives and we need the prompting of the Holy Spirit to guide us sometimes what we tend to do is we give up because we think God is not answering my prayer or I'm not in the will of God or you know we come up with some conclusion for why we don't have the answer but it might simply mean that the prayer request falls in the category of persistence okay and not just persistence we saw the value of um traveling or laboring in birth so when we look at the example of apostle Paul you know he says that I laboured more abundantly than any of the apostles so not just in hard work but even in prayer so there were things which were a part of his ministry that came to fruition or that that happened only after engaging intensely in prayer with God so we saw how he said in Galatians 419 that you know I laboured to you know birth see Christ birthed in you so there is a hard work so to speak that we have to do in prayer and it's only when we put in that kind of a time and effort and energy into it's called laboring or working in prayer that we can see the results now we might have many questions why do we have to pray why can't the word God said it it's powerful why can't it just happen now we don't know all the reasons why one of course is timing because we said that there are certain requests that will come through only in God's appointed time okay we talked about the kairos and there are many other reasons you know there can be demonic hindrances maybe when we are praying the the hindrances are overcome or it could be that you know the the growth of character which we are expecting can happen only through this kind of sowing in prayer so there are many reasons why it might take longer than what we have you know thought it would but we choose to work or the word labour is used or we also talked about how a mother who's giving birth she labors and she travails and we saw the example of Israel that you know she gave birth immediately even before the midwives could come she gave birth immediately so what God is saying is he's saying that when we travel we do our part there will be a time in a season where the answers will come quickly at that time you would look at it and say oh it happened suddenly or quickly or immediately but the point is labour has gone in and we must be willing to labour and we said especially when it comes to salvation you know some of our family members loved ones or salvation of you know our state our city we might look at people who've been praying for so many years and wonder what is this so many people are praying but we haven't seen you know whatever revival or people turning in large numbers to the Lord but we join the labour okay now we don't know how and when God is going to release the answers but we join the labour without the labour going in we cannot expect to see the results so you know just begin to work with the Lord and you know we saw how there were some people their life examples like father mash you know we saw how they they cried out to God they spent you know many days of their life just in the presence of God crying out and we could see the results that through the crusades many people were actually saved so there is a value in labouring and travelling and it must be a part of our lives it must be a part of our lives now certain aspects yes you know all these spiritual things salvation healing for all that we travel maybe in our own personal lives there could be certain matters that you know we have come before the we've brought it to the Lord but it's taking so much time we know that it's in the will of God but you know it's a struggle sometimes you're wondering why is this not happening I'm praying for people but you know they are getting the answers they are getting healed but in my own personal life I'm not getting a breakthrough in you know whatever certain situations but the right thing to do is just labour just labour you never know you know what's the right time that God would release the breakthrough okay so now that is the value of labouring and travelling now today we will talk a little bit more about intercession but intercession as a ministry so we talked about you know what intercession is we said that Jesus when he hung on the cross that was an act of intercession we no longer need to do that act of intercession because as the book of Hebrews says there was only one sacrifice complete perfect sacrifice which was made for our salvation and that is the Lord Jesus Christ so that is done that's a done deal on the this side of the cross our responsibility is to pray and Jesus also said right he also said and you will pray and you know you you will receive when you ask in my name so he indicated that believers will pray so we can pray for us that's which we simply term as prayer but we can also pray for others which is what we term as intercession so when one goes before the Lord for somebody else that is intercession okay so today we are looking at intercession as a ministry what is ministry you think what do you think ministry is what is ministry it's a question even for our online students so you can type it in the chat what is ministry okay how God uses us to minister to others what is minister serving okay very good so ministry is service okay even if you look up the Greek words where you have this ministry term it simply means service okay so we are here to serve others that is the meaning of ministry if somebody says I am in ministry basically what you're doing is you're you're in the service of God you are in the service of his people that is what ministry means so today we are looking at yeah so one comment here also says serving okay just in thanks just in for that today we're looking at how we can serve others through prayer now serving people let's say through you know preaching or you know take anything else through maybe music some of us we may not have that aptitude we may not be built for you know preaching or all of you are so musical I always appreciate whenever I come to bible college I'm like wow every one of you is so talented whenever we hear you know you guys are singing and playing on your instruments but you know I don't know if I can serve like that because I don't have the aptitude for it but here is something that everyone can do and we all have the aptitude for this kind of ministry and that is prayer everyone can do it no matter which age you know what our age is we could be much very old in our age we could be a little child okay we could be anywhere in between but here is a ministry or service that everyone can be involved in and this ministry is the ministry of prayer now we might ask the question yeah we pray for others but how is it ministry okay how is it how can you classify it with all all the other things that people do you know being an apostle being a prophet being this and that and serving in their ways that is ministry how can prayer be ministry but you know you see in scripture that prayer is very much something that we can do in service for others now others may know that we are praying for them or others may never know that we are praying for them so in that sense it's a ministry you know in which we have to be very secure in ourselves you know sometimes when we come up to the pulpit and we preach there are many people they will come and say oh pastor you spoke so well when you said that it touched my heart and you know you get appreciation sometimes when you're in front of people or you're leading in worship people will come and applaud they'll say oh how beautifully you sang it was so anointed this and that but when we pray nobody may even know that we have prayed right but it's a very selfless service okay are we willing to do that service where we may never get applause from people so you have to be very secure in your identity in Christ yes sometimes people may recognize sometimes you get to meet the people that you're praying for and you might say I was praying for you or something then you get an appreciation or a thank you oh thank you so much God has worked in my life but what if you never let people know right that you have prayed for them and what if they never say thank you never appreciate are you okay would you still pray but that is the question so the ministry of prayer is a ministry thank you Kiran ministry of prayer is a ministry in which we have to determine before God that Lord I'm serving in this way it's for your glory it's not so that people would recognize me in fact I think for every ministry we should have that heart isn't it it's not about pleasing people but it is more about pleasing the heart of God so this is a very special ministry which is to pray for people now in the New Testament there is a particular person by the name of Epiphras who had a ministry of an intercessor or his ministry itself was prayer so now we have to understand you know there are levels of ministry for example when we prophesy okay all believers can prophesy to you know some extent but we talk about the grace gift of prophecy where there are some people who are in the ministry prophetic ministry okay so they have God's grace on their lives to have that prophetic ministry so that's another level all believers can prophesy but there are some people who have a prophetic ministry and there are some people who are in the office of the prophet so we we term them as prophets okay we don't term others as prophets but we term the people who are in the office of a prophet as prophets so you see there are levels so in the same way everyone can pray but there are some people who have the ministry of prayer okay are you understanding what I'm saying yeah so some people have the ministry of prayer so in the Bible this person known as Epiphras you know he had the ministry of prayer where did you know this this person come to know the Lord and you know start to serve God so we see in Paul's missionary journeys we noticed that he went around strengthening churches and during his third missionary journey he spent a lot of time in a city called as Ephesus and over there he spent about three years and we read that he was given a space you know like a Bible college like this so Paul was given a space where he could run a school and he could train up people just like you any people were coming to Ephesus from the surrounding regions and Paul was teaching the word of God he was teaching the word of God and equipping you know people who came there so Epiphras was one of those men who had attended Paul's school and he was from a place called as Colosse so that is who Epiphras is and you know there's a little bit which is mentioned about Epiphras we will okay we will read the scriptures in a moment and we also see that Paul writes a letter to the Colossians okay he writes a letter to the Colossians there are different churches Chorontians you know church in Thessalonica, Thessalonians, Philippians there are many different churches so Paul writes a letter to the Colossians they are the Colossian church and the person who most likely who started this church is Epiphras he's the one okay so you see that he's a wonderful minister of God and he came from the church of Colosse and also we see that when Paul was imprisoned Epiphras came and you know he spent time with Paul so this is this is who Epiphras is and there are a few things that Paul writes about Epiphras in the book of Colossians so could somebody read Colossians 4 versus 12 and 13 and then one more person can read Colossians 1 and verse 7 so we look at these scriptures and then discuss a little bit more okay Vimal Mike please okay you're going to read it okay fine go ahead Epiphras who is one of you a born servant of Christ greets you always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God for I bear with him witness that he has a great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis okay Colossians 1 7 anyone you learned of God's grace from Epiphras our dear fellow servant who is Christ faithful worker on our behalf okay great so thank you for reading these verses Colossians 4 verses 12 and 13 there's a mention of Epiphras because Epiphras is with Paul and Paul is imprisoned that's the time when Paul is writing to the Colossian church and he makes a mention of his coworker Epiphras so he says Epiphras who is one of you who is a Colossian a born servant of Christ greets you always laboring fervently for you in prayers so you notice what is he saying about Epiphras he's not saying he's praying for you but he's using the terms he is always laboring fervently so through prayer there is some hard work that somebody needed to do and Epiphras is the one who is doing it he is laboring fervently for you meaning he's interceding for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God verse 13 for I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you and those who are in Laudicia and those in Herapolis okay so many nice things we can learn from this I will share with you you know what term we understand from this so you notice the term a born servant of Christ Epiphras a born servant of Christ is used now if you read many of Paul's letters he calls himself also you know I'm a born servant of Christ but who was Paul like his you know his his ministry gift like what offices do you think he stood in preaching yeah so can we say apostle yes isn't it so that was a prophecy over his life and all that so Paul an apostle and a born servant of Christ usually the term born servant was used for somebody who's in you know that kind of a position but see what Paul is saying about Epiphras he's saying Epiphras a born servant of Christ so basically what it tells us is that there is an honor which Paul placed on an individual who was an intercessor okay so should intercessors be valued should they be honored yes look at Paul he is using a term comparative to what was used for like you know apostles born servant of Christ and that's what he uses to describe Epiphras so there's great value you know for an intercessor what else laboring fervently okay laboring for fervently laboring fervently tells me that he was not casually praying there's a difference see when you are intentional for example if you take an Olympic race and somebody stores in for that Olympic race they are preparing for it they labor fervently because they have a goal in mind you know I have to I have to wake up whatever 5 a.m I have to do my exercises I have to eat right I have to I cannot waste time I am preparing for the Olympics laboring fervently but what is casual somebody who just likes to run today morning I woke up I ran tomorrow I didn't make up it's okay casual so Epiphras labored fervently simply tells us he intentionally worked hard in prayer something like travail travail and you know laboring you know in in birth for Christ to be formed in people so he had an intention and you can also look at it like you know laboring fervently is not just hard work but it's a struggle you know and it's not easy isn't it when you are not seeing the answer like Elijah okay go see has it come or not second time he's praying go see and come do you think it's it's like a fight and you are fighting you're contending you're struggling to see something fulfilled isn't it that's how it looks to me so laboring fervently is not just hard work but someone who's willing to struggle in prayer unless you see the results so he Paul is giving honor to Epiphras and saying it's a bond servant of Christ he labored you know he's laboring fervently in prayers for you okay and what is the intention why is he laboring fervently so that he sees you perfect and complete isn't it that's what Paul is saying what is perfect and complete what is perfect perfect and complete yeah just give it a shot it's okay yeah without any defects okay that's the simple meaning perfect and complete so what is a perfect and complete for a believer okay when would we say a believer is perfect and complete okay when they are growing in prayer yes when you're walking the bible through the bible okay through the bible okay good so praying walking through the bible anything else okay no worries you tell me and then I'll take her answer okay so when others begin to notice that God is working through your life okay okay so you you fulfill the will of God okay through your life when you believe that okay we believe that Jesus is our Savior and we walk in His will okay so good good answers but most of you shared the process someone's praying walking with the Lord all that process okay but perfect and complete means end point to know Him okay to know Him and okay taking responsibility that's also process shall we say see because here we usually say okay believer disciple uh minister leader so that journey you have to make that journey all right so becoming a believer is only starting point so much more is there in the journey before God so what is that end result that every believer yes when your faith is completely completely refined okay good finally reach heaven okay no I am talking more this side of heaven so I'm talking more earth huh when you become a leader okay what is it I'm asking what is that final point exactly to be like Jesus isn't it okay so Prince is getting a hand clap so this was labor what we did just now is labor okay trying to fight and struggle and come up with the answer so at least we got the answer so this is how uh you know prayer is so that laboring fervently perfect and complete is each of you and me all of us we become like Jesus okay by that we simply mean like Jesus in character like Jesus in power isn't it so become like Jesus in character and like Jesus in power that is perfect and complete so Paul is saying epiphrasis laboring and working hard in prayer is going to lead two believers becoming perfect and complete in Christ now can you think of any other ministry through which people can be made perfect and you know complete in like become more like Jesus any other service that is offered to people through which they can become more like Jesus yeah serving how what kind of serving okay helping each other okay so take for example all of you are sitting in front of me I want you to become more like Jesus which ministry can I use to make you more like Jesus love yes which service I'm doing it right now teaching teaching preaching why because we are bringing the word you know which is able to do its work in our lives and when the word works in my life I will become more and more like Jesus so for somebody to become more perfect and complete you know we generally think of ministries like preaching teaching right and then you have other aspects like mentoring discipling all that we think but we don't think prayer prayer how can prayer help believers become complete and perfect but what is Paul saying he's saying through the ministry of prayer or epiphrasis the collisions they are moving to becoming complete and perfect in Christ so it just tells me that prayer is also you know somewhere in in in that category of ministries which is serving believers so powerfully we should not underestimate the ministry of prayer if somebody is praying interceding laboring fervently we can see the results of that upon the lives of believers are you all with me am I confusing you or is it clear you are understanding okay great yeah yes Anand the the person who's doing the ministry what about them can they change lives so that's what we are seeing okay the other things like preaching teaching all that yeah maybe not maybe they are only praying but even if they're only praying it can result in Christ being formed in people okay is that any other follow-up question to that okay good question so uh what Anand and Prince are saying is if we pray okay we are doing our part what about the people who have to make the right decisions but don't you think it's applicable even for preaching like like if I am laboring in the word of God and I'm teaching the word of God even then believers have to make the right decision for the word to work in their life isn't it so I think personal responsibility is always there no matter which ministry you know we are engaging in and though it's not mentioned in the bible we know that personal responsibility is very very important see because I'll tell you one example yeah Paul um okay okay so uh there's there's a scripture in which you know we see that the word that we hear okay it must be mixed with faith if it is not mixed with faith then it will not yield anything so when we are preaching the word it's possible that people come Sunday after Sunday Sunday after Sunday listen listen listen to the messages now five years down the line you might find that if there are 10 people five people have grown spiritually and they've gone to another place in their walk with the Lord but maybe five people are just an example five people they are still where they started so same person is preaching same sermon same way to 10 people but the result is completely different so what does it tell me there's always personal responsibility though it's not mentioned sometimes it's not mentioned in between the lines personal responsibility a prophet can pray but if people are still unwilling obviously you know the uh you won't see the results yes yes yes so you mean the other people meaning the preacher or other prayer warriors with him okay prayer warriors and the preacher yes yeah so okay so the question is in this um you know great awakening with Charles Finney uh you know he was one of the the preachers and father Nash would support him through prayer uh the question is was there no effort by the preacher was all the result because of the prayer ministry of father Nash what I would say Anand is in this particular example it's not that there was no effort by the preacher but we would look at it in terms of you know we generally use the word like anointing and things like that okay we won't get too technical but when father Nash was engaging in prayer we can say that there was that power which was created so though the preacher is preaching there was this additional power which was released for souls to be saved okay the preacher did make an effort but the power which was generated by the intercessory ministry was huge that's how you look at it so when Nash was not there Finney himself he shares that you know he continued to make the effort that he made but this was missing the power which was generated through prayer so results were not good enough okay did it make sense to you yes yes definitely see so the way we look at this is um when we pray okay based on scripture so there are there are many promises we can claim we are going to look at it also we how to pray for the family how to pray for people who have gone away from God how to pray for the lost how to pray for the city we will look at all that so you know we do our part and if I may just for our understanding you know put a just simply I'm putting a number it's not there in the Bible but you see 90% of the work like you're doing in prayer now the 10% will depend on the individuals and their decisions also we are not saying that but it is understood now after doing all the praying if an individual still says no I don't want I will live however however I like through prayer we cannot control we will study that also you can't control people because free will is free will but here is the the the good part you can do 90% of the work through prayer so why not do it you know and what 10% people choose to do that person chooses to do that is not in my hand I can't be worried about that so all we are saying is God has provided for us to get that you know 90% advantage through prayer to do it okay so that's the point any I saw some hand going up okay fine so I think we've understood you know quite a bit yes and then some comments here on the chat but we've gone you know way beyond that part of at the question I was asking these are all answers for that so thank you okay so we noticed that you know prayer ministry is very important and people who are engaged in prayer ministry also have the same goal as somebody who may be preaching and teaching you know who may be an apostle or any any other category so it helps believers it helps believers and in that passage of Colossians 4 we also notice that there is a zeal okay what is zeal passion okay very good so there is a zeal which a preference has for the people so look at this all this is giving us better understanding about prayer ministry you know prayer ministry sometimes it's understood as it is a burden like you know people are I'm stuck I'm only in prayer ministry I have to pray for the people you know the attitude is such that there is no passion in it but passion is a part of the prayer ministry now if you take for example you know preaching we hear of all these preachers they're going to go to mountainous regions and you know difficult places they don't mind they take one Bible they go they preach and you know they come back passionately share all these stories I met so and so they didn't know about Jesus and they gave their life to Christ so you see the passion in their ministry even when it comes to prayer okay based on what Paul is saying about epiphyrus there is a passion some you can imagine with me somebody who is praying for the believers to be perfect and complete and every day you know he wakes up with that same thing in his heart okay I'm going to pray those believers are going to become stronger in God and the church will be strong they will make an impact so somebody who's passionate okay through the prayer ministry so we have to you know have this kind of a thinking that when there is a ministry in prayer it does not have to be boring you know it does not have to be burdensome sometimes we think oh I couldn't do any other ministry so I'm doing prayer ministry you know it's it's too heavy when you look at it like that but prayer ministry is not like that it's a special ministry where Paul is honoring an intercessor Paul is saying that the labor is equal to the kind of labor that you know a preacher would do and the fact that the intercessor is passionate okay and that prayer is not you know difficult unpleasant work for the person so this is the beauty of prayer ministry so let me quickly touch on one more point here and then we can take a break and come back so the other point here is notice there are two places which are mentioned okay those two places are Laudacia and Herapolis so these places Paul is saying that Epiphras he prays for the Colossians and he also prays for people in Laudacia and Herapolis so here is another beautiful thing about prayer ministry there is no distance okay there is no distance in the ministry of prayer so if you look up these places you know one of those places was 12 miles away from Colosse another place was 14 yeah 14 miles away from Colosse so 12 miles away and 14 miles away so Epiphras being in Colosse could pray for people in two different cities so today you and I we are sitting in Bangalore but we can successfully have a prayer ministry for the state of I mean name any state you know you could be praying for Nagaland you could be praying for Odisha you could be praying for Uttar Pradesh you could be praying you could be praying for the nations of the world will will it be effective what do you see here yes so this is the beauty of the ministry in prayer there is no distance okay so distance is not a limitation as far as intercession is concerned okay so let's do one thing we will take a break right now we will come back you know have some question answers and then continue with the next chapter here so let's go for a break