 Anyone, could you please lead us and pray, please? I can pray, Pastor. Yes, yes, Rose, please. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Father in heaven, we thank you for today. We thank you for the many ways you provide, you protect, and you preserve us. Thank you for your unending and unconditional love for us. We thank you that for the next few hours of being in this school, and we devote and we commit them to you. Father, help us focus our hearts and minds now on what we are about to learn. Inspire us more and move us by your Holy Spirit as we listen and understand to what we are about to hear. Inspire our teacher, Pastor Nancy, and speak through her. Speak through her your words of wisdom, Lord. Guide us all by the light that comes from your word. Father, allow us to discover you more and your ways. We ask this in the name of your son Jesus Christ, amen. Amen, amen. Thank you. Thank you, Rose. So we'll continue on the subject that we have at hand. In the last class, we were talking about the house of God being the bride of Christ. And then we also looked at the fact that we have to be a house of prayer and a house of worship. And we mainly studied about the tabernacle of David and how he presented a very different worship as compared to his contemporaries where he engaged in extravagant worship, when he engaged in continuous worship and excellent worship. So we saw how that pleased God because the worship that David offered God was very intentional. The worship that he offered God was, you know, the best that he could offer. And anyone who followed that same pattern of worship later on, we listed out the names of some kings. And we said that all of them saw victory. They saw some form of blessing, prosperity upon the land, because of the same nature of worship which they followed. And he most, the prophet, spoke God's heart and he prophesied that God was getting ready to rebuild the tabernacle of David and reestablish it in the days to come. But we know that whenever God speaks about Zion or Israel, you know, we look forward for the literal manifestation, for the literal fulfillment of what the word has spoken, but usually the way God works is that he brings about spiritual completion first and then the little completion happens. So when the prophet Amos spoke about rebuilding of the tabernacle of David, we know that at some point, literally, you know, we'll have the Lord Jesus established his rule and reign on the earth and we will have that form of continual worship taking place, you know, sometime in the future. But right now what God will make happen is the fulfillment of the tabernacle in the spiritual sense. And we know that the spiritual Zion or the spiritual Israel is the body of believers. So God is going to rebuild or reestablish the tabernacle of David in the church first and then, you know, that will be literally reestablished in the earth. So that is something that we are looking forward to. And, you know, we could also say that, you know, God is doing it right now and we see several movements that are 24 bar seven, worship, intercession that are taking place and we are only going to see an increase of that in the days to come. Now, we've understood that God wants to rebuild that tabernacle and James, the then leader of the first century church, you know, he rose up and he quoted the same text, the prophecy of Amos about rebuilding the tabernacle in the context of bringing the Gentiles into the kingdom of God because what was happening at that point is the apostles and the believers knew that Christ had died for the Jewish people but it was hard for them to accept when God started moving upon the Gentiles. You know, you had Cornelius you had Peter who went and ministered to Cornelius and later on, you know, the apostles brought an issue that was going on in the church of Antioch which had to do with the Gentiles to the apostles. So when the apostles engaged in the matters of Gentiles most of the people did not like it but at that point as a leader, James had to stand up and remind the people that this is not the apostles idea, this is not the leadership of the first century church's idea but this was God's promise back in the times when Amos prophesied. So James quotes Amos and he says that when the tabernacle of David is rebuilt this is what God had promised. He had said that he will bring the Gentiles who are called by his name that God will bring them into the fold. So what can we expect when the tabernacle of David is rebuilt? So one of the things that we can expect is people coming to Christ, people being saved, us having a large harvest. Now the term Gentiles in the prophecy of Amos you can just look at that as unbelievers. So we're not going into technically who's a Gentile. Okay, they will get saved. It's not necessarily that but the term Gentile there is referring to unbelievers. So when we rebuild the tabernacle of David which is 24 bar seven praise, worship, intercession we can expect a harvest. That's the point. So today as we see this movement praise, worship and intercession being re-established here on the earth we can expect God to move upon the regions where we live and what we are really living for is to worship God and the great commission. So we can see God doing that and much more. Now we will not go into all the results of pursuing the presence of God because all those results are applicable when we pursue the presence of God we will have the manifestation of His glory in our midst. Now that is something that we really look forward to. And so many things that come with that manifesting God's glory that has to do with the revelation that comes into the lives of the people that is about the blessings of God that we will experience that is about the supernatural power of God which we'll experience. So pursuing the presence of God brings all of that in addition to that, very specifically through Amos's prophecy we know that God is going to draw people to Himself. So the great commission, the harvest is something that we can look forward to. And we also briefly looked at the worship that is going on in the throne room. So in scripture we generally see this pattern. God, you know what we see God instituting is usually a shadow of what already exists. So 24 by 7 worship. Yes, David was the first person who initiated that and yet when we look at the throne room of God in heaven we see a continuous worship taking place. You know, you have the angels, you have the elders, you, the scriptures talk about the multitudes standing around the throne of God and giving Him the glory and the honor and the praise and everything that is due to Him because He's worthy. So the continuous worship that is already happening in heaven. It's nothing new because that's the God we serve who deserves our worship at all times and He deserves our worship. He deserves our praises continually. So this rebuilding of the tabernacle is like a shadow. It's a shadow or it's in line with what is already happening in heaven. So we are kind of just tuning into the worship of heaven. So that's where we stopped in the last class and we just started looking at some of the movements that have already come about on the earth. One particular person who started this form of prayer without seizing. In fact, based on that scripture, 1st Thessalonians 517 where Paul writes, pray without seizing. So Alexander Achaemat is one of the monks in 480. He wanted to live out that scripture. So he gathered some other followers with him and they started praying continuously. They started engaging in intercession and he established this night and day form of prayer to the extent where these people would not sleep. So they came to be known as they came to be known as Alexander Achaematis and the sleepless ones. So there's an attempt. You see an attempt there of engaging in 24 bar seven intercession. So that's an example from history. Another very well-known example. I know that we have touched on this when we studied prayer and intercession. You probably would have also touched on this when you did other subjects but it's good to always look at good things repetitively. So in history we have the Moravian revival that we talk about. So the Moravian revival, what was the fuel for the Moravian revival? It was a 24 bar seven intercession that the people were engaged in. So the story goes something like there were refugees sent out of a particular place and they found shelter with a man called Count Zinzendorf in Hernhit, Moravia. And in that place, just these people were given shelter but Count Zinzendorf was a godly man and he wanted for these people to also experience God. So he kind of led them into routines of prayer and having gatherings of gatherings where people could worship God, people could break bread, people could listen to God's word. So services began within that community of Hernhit and as time went by, there was one particular service during, it was a communion service and God's presence was very special. Something about the manifest presence of God and picking up from there, what Zinzendorf did is he realized that God wanted something greater to be done from that moment on. So he just asked for people who would commit their time for bread and 24 men, 24 women gave that time and they kind of signed up for this 24 bar seven chain prayer. So men were doing a 24 bar seven chain prayer and women were doing the same thing. And so what started on that day, in fact, the date is August the 13th, August the 13th and Zinzendorf called it a day of the outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation. It was its Pentecost. So the Pentecost of the community. So the prayer which began at that point, we read that it went on for a hundred years. So basically the chain didn't stop. People kept signing up and people kept praying. So this started in 1727, went through the 1800s. So what is so special about engaging in this kind of 24 bar seven prayer, 24 bar seven intercession? A lot of results or the impact of the Moravian revival is what we generally look at. So because people were praying in this manner, we see that a missionary movement was born out of the Moravian revival. In those days, missionaries would go out, but you would have a, like the ratio was really not that impressive. So for a population of about 5,000 people, that would be one missionary would go out. But after the Moravian revival took place and the prayer went on, God had changed something in the hearts, the lives, the spiritual realm, right? And impacting the natural realm. So so many things had changed that people started moving out on their own. They were impressed by God and they started stepping out as missionaries. So quite a number of missionaries went out and it is said that in regions where the ratio was 5,000 to one, it became 60 to one. So you can imagine, so many missionaries stepped out and to have a missionary zeal, that's not something that we can conjure up or we can sort of stir up in people. That's something only God can give that kind of a missionary zeal to step out, to sacrifice, to be out there in the mission field, to share the gospel, to bring people into the kingdom. But it happened as a result of the Moravian revival. So we see, why do we talk about the Moravian revival so much? Because this is one of the main things, the way missionaries were sent out from the, and in fact, from the same community, from the same Moravian community. So that's amazing. This is what engaging in prayer and worship can do. This is what engaging in intercession can do. And it's noted that people like William Carey, people like John Wesley, they were all influenced by the Moravian revival in one way or the other. So that's the impact there for us. So this is to encourage our hearts. When we are engaging in prayer, I'm sure that all our church communities have something like this going on. We might feel at that point that, hey, nothing immediate is happening. We're engaging in worship. Maybe momentarily we take back the peace, the joy of God's presence and all of that. But then we might wonder as to what the outcome of this kind of commitment to worship or commitment to intercession can be. But what we have seen is that whenever people have engaged in this 24 bar seven, the tabernacle of David pattern of going after God, there is a definite and a very powerful impact. And that can happen in different ways. So the Moravian community is a great example. In our notes here, we also have the example of the prayer mountain. This was established by Dr. Cho, Dr. David Yonge Cho in 1973 as a part of their ministry in Seoul, Korea. So basically they established a prayer mountain, a place where people could go, they could see God, they could just go on retreats for days, weeks, months and just be praying, okay. And when this was established, as soon as it was established, we see that a lot of people were attracted to the place and it is recorded that their visitors were up to a million a year. So they started out up to a million people would come in a year to pray on that prayer mountain. So you know, you see how God is rekindling that passion for 24 bar seven prayer and intercession. So this is again a good example and Dr. Cho talks about how because of investing in prayer, his church grew in Korea and not just that but the church had a great impact on the city and the nation. And we know, it's the second largest church right now in the world. So there is a connection between prayer, intercession, worship and the coming in, the in-gathering of souls into the kingdom of God, okay. The next example here in our notes is the International House of Prayer, a Kansas City, many of you probably know and follow Mike Bickel. So there was a prayer session that started out a prayer meeting that started out on the 19th of September in 1999 and the story is similar to the Moravian prayer movement and Zinzendorf. What started on that particular day hasn't stopped yet. So what the team did was they started engaging prayer leaders and worship leaders continuously such that the worship and prayer, they have prayer rooms, they have worship rooms and it still goes on and some of you probably know that it's also a live stream. So if you just wanna join the prayer room, you can join from anywhere in the world. So that's another recognized movement that we have seen but obviously there are many other unrecorded movements many other regional prayer movements that exist. We probably just don't know about it, okay. But we know God's word, God has spoken and said that he's going to re-establish this form of 24 by seven engaging in prayer and worship and God's house is supposed to be a house of prayer and supposed to be a house of worship. So we must engage in it and when we see the Lord working in this way, we can encourage that and see and increase. So we must become a people who cry out to God day and night and crying out to God day and night is not a new concept. We have Old Testament scriptures that talk about how we are watchmen on the walls and we keep calling out to God or we see God day and night, okay. And our cries go out to the Lord day and night in Luke chapter 18 verses one and seven. We see Jesus referring to that persistent prayer, okay. And over there he says if God will he not avenge his own elect to cry out day and night to him. So the day and night concept of engaging in prayer or seeking God, it's always existed and even Jesus advocated for it and we can engage in that form of seeking God. So how do we go about establishing this? The first thing is always to speak the truth of God's word. Even when we talked about the church being the pillar of truth, we said that to get people moving in a certain direction, the truth about that matter needs to be proclaimed, the truth from God's word. So how will people know that God delights in the tabernacle of David, we teach about it. We preach about it, we share, we let people know that this is what God's word says. So the moment we teach people, they receive the understanding that okay, this is God's word, this is what God is going to do in our times, let's engage in it. So the understanding comes and that is how the church or the community of believers begins to engage in this form of worship. So that is something then we can also encourage prophetic worship, we can encourage prophetic worship because we've seen in the tabernacle of David, there was a lot of space for the prophetic, God's spirit would minister through the songs, through the music. So we as churches, as worship teams can make place for that. So the format that we follow, we can, allow God to minister, we can encourage our teams that yeah, we can have a set of songs that are listed out for the worship time, but be open, be sensitive to the moving of the spirit if you sense that God is leading you in a certain way to say something or play a particular tune, just go with it, right? So we encourage prophetic worship and when it comes to intercession, we can engage in a more targeted kind of intercession by that, what we mean is the mapping format. So the mapping format, we will study our environment, we will study our city and whichever place we are praying for and then maybe list out as the Holy Spirit leads us, we can list out, okay, these are the social issues, these are the needs of the people, these are the spiritual strongholds. So we list all those things out and then we start to pray in a targeted fashion. So that is also something that we can do in a practical sense. Then we can have these prolonged periods of worship, prolonged periods of intercession established in our communities, we can incorporate it into our community prayer times. So generally in most of the churches we have our Sunday services that we run and a midweek, maybe a midweek service that takes place. So whatever programs are there, you kind of build it into that if possible because then we are giving an opportunity for everyone to engage. So like here at APC, we have a pre-service prayer time. So about half an hour, we go for people who come in for service, right? We encourage everyone to come in the morning, it's another thing that you don't have a great attendance for the prayer times as you have for the service, but still there is a faithful crowd that does show up. So we engage in prayer. See, it's an opportunity where we can invite everyone, everyone in the church and say, hey, prayer time is open, everybody come. So in that way in the common services or the common programs, if we start introducing prayer intercession, people will take to it. They will also learn, okay, this is how, okay, fine. We engage in prayer, this is the way, we will pray for these points, this is the way we'll be led by the spirit, this is the way we will declare, decree. So they engage in intercession. In addition to this, we can have special times of prayer and intercession, things like, here we have five days of prayer where we set aside twice a year, we just set aside time to come together, extended hours of prayer and intercession that we engage in. So that is, I'm just giving you some examples, I'm sure. You have your own patterns and formats. And then also maybe doing the all night long prayer worship, but one thing of course to keep in mind, it's coming in the next section that challenges is to recognize that people may not be used to extended hours of praise and worship of prayer. So we have to build it gradually and then slowly people are able to stretch themselves and focus in prayer and keep continuing on with extended hours of prayer and worship. So yeah, in this way, depending on our local church, depending on our congregation, we can introduce the people to progressively extending patterns and then they'll be more comfortable to engage in this form of prayer and worship. Then we can encourage people in their smaller groups also to have these forms of prayer and intercession. Now maybe smaller groups, they just get together just for a time of worship, just for a time of prayer and intercession. So that passion kind of is birthed in the hearts of the people. They realize the value of this, they realize the importance of doing this. And so people start engaging in it. Then we could also work towards a 24 bar seven house of prayer, the kind that we have discussed, Dr. Cho established prayer mountain, the house of prayer in Kansas City. These are all dedicated places of prayer where they have designated this only for 24 bar seven prayer. So God might call us our ministries to do something like this. So we might have to choose a place, we might have to choose people, a point people as God leads us to have worship leaders, intercessors, prepare them spiritually and also make provision. Because if we are calling people to engage in something like this, then how about if some will be part-time, so maybe they'll have a job, they'll finish their job, have an income and they'll come. In their free time and engage, they will lead worship or they will lead prayer. But what about those who will commit to just doing this? Maybe the church will have to pay them, right? So maybe they will become full-time intercessors and worship leaders. Because if you are going in this direction, the ministry has to make provision. Because 24 bar seven, how are these people going to live their lives? If they come at all their time to prayer and worship, and David actually did that. He paid people, he just told them to engage in prayer and intercession worship, and he made it possible for people to live comfortably while they were dedicated to a cause of this sort. And I've also heard in the Kansas City House of Prayer, they have different options. Some are full-time, some are part-time, some are only for the night prayer sessions, right? So they conduct the night prayer sessions and to the extent that there are some people who are living their life on a different schedule. So they are awake during the night and they kind of, it's like your night shifts. But there are some people who are accustomed, their lifestyle to that. So they can engage in this form of prayer and worship for months and even years. Yeah, so this is what we have in this chapter here. And one more challenge that we might encounter is the worship leaders and the intercessors. When we are looking at extended times, they might become tired. So we have to be very, very mindful of that. So even David, we saw how he had so many singers, had so many musicians and there were rosters. So he had different teams that would minister at different points. So that is a practical thing that we can use because if we have only one or two worship leaders and we tell them, okay, we're gonna have three days of praise, worship, intercession, your lead. So you imagine two worship leaders, how can they sustain, right? For 24 hours into three, it's very difficult. So if we have teams, then what we can do is we can give them slots and say, okay, we have four teams, so each team can take up two hours. And then the next team comes on to lead in worship, to lead in intercession. So that way, because we are mortal beings, we still live in a physical body. We have to make sure that people are well rested and it doesn't affect their health, right? So these are some of the practical issues that we must be mindful about. So I will pause at this point. We can discuss a couple of things and then move on to the next chapter. Any thoughts, any inputs, any testimonies? Thank you, Pastor. I just want to contribute something based on my church experience. So I remember in my, the former church I was, we used to have long hours of prayers, like 48 hours, 72 hours, like maybe two was the end of the year. And so what the prayer coordinator would do would actually like have coffee, tea, just to keep people warm and then keep people at last. So I just said that just basically you talked about ways of encouraging people. I think that's another way, just to encourage them that oh, there's something you can always have when you're tired. You provide water, they provided water. People would pray, they'd get tired. So all those literally things go a long way in encouraging even the weakest in the church, to be part of something like that. So I just wanted to add that basically. You talked about encouraging your congregation in long hours of prayer. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, say very practical. Yeah, so thank you for sharing how it's done. Yes, Achal, do you have something to add? Yes, thank you so much, Pastor. Even us here, what we do is to prepare some warm water, especially when we are having corporate prayers when we are together, face to face. And before the rock downs and COVID-19 would be having those corporate prayers when we're in face to face gathering. So we'd be praying and when you need something to drink, there is some hot water. Sometimes we would put add sugar so that people would not lose strength for prayer. So we would be there and the church would provide some money, but again, as we would meet, we would do some offering again. And that money from the offering would also be used for such provisions of drinks and some bites. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, thank you, Charles. I'm sure that helps. So some refreshments, something to strengthen. Yeah, Prabhakar, face to face would have 24 bar seven praise and worship for few days in a month. Yeah, there's a ministry called Face to Face. So they have, is it three days Prabhakar? Three days, seven days, would you know? I think a week against, Pastor. A week, yeah. Yeah, so yes, I know, I mean, I've personally attended some of these sessions, not through the night though, but I have friends who have attended and they've all been very, very blessed by these worship sessions. And also they have a hall which is very comfortable. It's kind of nicely carpeted. So people sit on the floor, they kind of lean on the wall. They make themselves very comfortable and the worship goes on, the prayer intercession goes on for hours together. And they also have a lot of worship leaders, no Prabhakar? They keep taking turns to lead. Yes, Pastor, many of my friends would go there and it was an amazing place to be worshiped. Yes, yes, true, true. Yeah, thank you, thank you for sharing that. Yeah, so we have this ministry here in Bangalore. Anyone else, do you have a house of prayer in your city? Any ministry that is running something that's 24 bar seven and it continues? Okay, so I suppose we do have extended periods of prayer and all, but not continuous, isn't it? So we look forward for such ministries to be established and most definitely that strength, that motivation, the planning for something like this, it has to come from God. Otherwise it's very hard to sustain. No wonder it's called a movement, a movement like this, but let's pray, let's trust God for more and more of this to happen in Amnitz because it's an incredible place in Amnitz because it's an incredible blessing. We are hosting God's presence by doing this and we are tapping into all the promises of God that he's already given us. So anything else, if you would like to add, it'll be good to kind of share now else we will move on to the next topic. Okay, doesn't look like we have any additional thoughts so that's all right. We can move to the next topic here. So the next chapter in our notes is the local church as the temple of God. So far we have considered the local church for various functions, responsibilities, the nature that God expects of the local church to sort of be to emerge with various expressions. So we've looked at it and now as we go forward, we will talk about the local church being the temple of God. So this word temple for the Christians, we use the term church. So it may not be that familiar but what is the understanding when we use this word temple? Now we will understand it based on the temple in the Old Testament. Now the temple is a place where God's presence was hosted, okay? So when we look at the church, that is the main, that is the basic point that we will attach upon in this section where we are saying that temple is God's house, temple is a place where God dwells, temple is a place where God's presence manifests itself. So apart from the church being a family, apart from the church being God's body, having to do certain things, engage in the gifts that God has given us and still be united, apart from the church being an army, the church being a bride, the church being all those other things, it has to be the place where God chooses to live. I mean, imagine, we can try to be all those other things but if God is not willing to live in the temple, it's not a temple because a temple is a place where God dwells and the church has to be the place where God dwells or the body of believers and also the gatherings of believers where two or three gathered in my name, I will be there, right? That's what God has promised us. So God's presence is what makes us who we are as the church. If we don't have God's presence and we have all the other activities going on, we are missing out on the core of what makes us the people of God. So let's talk a little more about the temple. So while writing through the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 16 and 17, he says, do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? So the concept of the temple is one where God dwells. In this case, Paul is saying that the spirit of God dwells in you, that's why you're the temple. The spirit of God does not dwell in you, it doesn't make us a temple. And he goes on to talk about keeping ourselves holy because we are the temple. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. And many a time this passage is quoted with an individual in mind. We say, oh, this body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and we must keep it holy, we must not engage in things that defile the body and especially sexual immorality, things like that. So we talk about it at the individual level. But if you look at it, we can also apply this and Paul was talking in terms of the community of believers as well. So don't you know that you are the temple of God or the body of believers, the brethren, the disciples, use whichever term that you would like to. But the people of God are meant to be the temple of God. And he was saying, look in your gathering, in your community, it's the spirit of God who dwells in your midst and don't forget that. So as a community, live such that God delights to come and dwell in your midst and live a holy life. And that was the encouragement that Paul was bringing to the people. Now this concept of God coming and dwelling in a place, we see this from the time God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle, a tabernacle is a tent. So we know that Moses and the people, they were a moving community. So they did not have a temple which was established, but as they moved around, they could set up a place of worship wherever they went. So the tabernacle of Moses and God gave a pattern. We see in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 8 tells us that the heavenly pattern, in heaven, heaven is already the temple because God dwells there, God's presence is there, God is worshiped in heaven. And Hebrews 8 tells us that God gave that heavenly pattern to Moses. And he was given like a blueprint and he was told, okay, have the outer court, have the inner court, have the holy place, the holy of holies. So all this was in the pattern of the worship of heaven and God told him to construct it and build it, wherever the children of Israel were at that point. So Moses did that and in the tabernacle, no one special furniture which was built and was given prominence was the Ark of the Covenant. So the Ark of the Covenant, that's the place that God chose to come down upon, the Ark of the Covenant. So why is the Ark of the Covenant so important for the tabernacle? Because without the Ark of the Covenant, God cannot come down. Okay, and God's presence filled the tabernacle because of the Ark of the Covenant. So that place of meeting, that place of allowing God to come and manifest himself, visit us, that's what makes the tabernacle the tabernacle. So without God's presence, it'll just be some ritualistic worship, traditional worship that goes on in a certain place that God instituted and that's about it. But the holy of holies, the Ark of the Covenant and the presence of God that came upon the Ark of the Covenant made all the difference in the tabernacle. And we know that again, the tabernacle was, it is a shadow of the real worship that goes on heaven and heaven is God's temple because God's presence dwells there. So just along these thoughts, we will continue, we'll study more about the church being the temple of God. Right now, we'll take a break because we have run out of time. So let's take a 10 minute break, we'll come back and discuss more about the church being the temple of God. So see you in 10 minutes class. Thank you.