 Okay, good morning everyone. Yeah, good to be here and good to be part of this class. Let's pray and we will begin. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence in our midst. Lord, we thank you for your word. Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Thank you, Lord, that Father, even as we abide in your word that Father, Lord, we are near to you, Father God. Let your word abide in our hearts, Father God. And we just pray that, Lord, you will help us to be established in your word this morning. We give you praise. We give you thanks. We give you all the glory. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Okay, so I was just thinking this morning that it's such a privilege to actually be reading the word of God, isn't it? So amidst all the other things that we can do, nothing like spending time in God's word for me as a teacher to kind of go through the word of God and study it to share with all of you is a great privilege. I'm sure for you to be seated here and spend time in the word of God is also a great privilege. So we are really grateful that we have this opportunity. Let me begin by recapping quickly on what we have learned in the last class. We looked at the introduction to prayer and we said that prayer is more than speaking to God. It is our communion with God. It is a ministry. It's a warfare and prayer is really powerful. God hears our prayer as well as he answers the prayers that we pray. We also said that prayer, when we consider why God created prayer as a design or a system, we know that we are able to release the authority that God has given us. Now let me ask the question. If there are, if you find evil in the world, wrong things happen, isn't it? There are floods, there are tornadoes, there are disasters, there are calamities. Why isn't God doing anything about it? Based on what I taught you in the last class, why can we ask the question, God, why are you not doing anything about this? Would that be right? We've looked at this in the last session. So I'm asking you, how did God create originally man? What did God tell man? You must rule and reign. Isn't it? God gave us authority, dominion. He wanted us to be above, right? All the creatures and to subdue them, to subdue. Isn't it? The things that take place in the world. Now, if something is going wrong, can we ask God the question, why are you not doing anything about it? Would that be correct? Okay, you can look at your notes if you want to. We've already talked about this in the last class. So, Shaker says God gives us the authority. That's true. What else? Okay. All right. So Moses is saying that he gives us free will and if something happens, we are responsible. We can't blame God. Okay, correct. So Moses is saying that we have been made responsible or put in charge. So when something goes wrong, we can't blame God because you remember we saw all the scriptures which said that when God created man, he gave him dominion. He made man and woman in the image of God. We saw how scriptures tell us that the heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth belongs to us. So, our understanding is that God has, we use the word deputization. Okay, in English, it simply means that we have been put in charge completely on the earth and God will not interfere. So, if it is our responsibility, God doesn't interfere in that. God doesn't suddenly intervene and say, okay, you know, something is going wrong. Let me do this. Let me figure this out. Let me fix it. God doesn't intervene because he respects the handing over of the responsibility or in other words, deputization. Okay, so I hope we are all understanding what I'm trying to say. So the deputization that God has instituted is perfect. He will not intervene or interfere because whose responsibility is it? It is man's responsibility. Okay, so this is one of the reasons why we see suffering, evil, so many things in the world. One reason, but there are many other reasons as well. But how can man take charge when things like this are happening? How can we take charge by praying? Yes, correct. That is one of the ways. But we have to take our responsibility. If God has given us responsibility by making wise choices, by being aligned to the purpose of God, the Word of God, what happens? We make good decisions, good choices. Then we are able to sort out these things that are going on. But in addition to that, in a spiritual sense, we can exercise our authority through prayer. Okay, so prayer, in addition to doing the right things, prayer is a manner in which we can release our dominion and authority. So this is something that we must always remember. And prayer is very important. We saw how even in the experience of Elijah, the prophet, he already knew the will of God. He already knew the Word of God. What God is going to do? But what did Elijah do? He prayed seven times. Why did he pray seven times? He understood how prayer works. God wants a man to partner with him. Can God do? He can do it. But he wants man to co-work, co-labour, partner with him. Okay, so Elijah understood how the authority flows through our prayer. Similarly, we saw the example of Daniel. God gave a promise that the Israelites would be set free from Babylon after 70 years. It was already decided. It was already communicated to the people. But what did Daniel do? He fasted. He prayed. Now we can ask Daniel the question. Daniel, why are you praying? God already said this is the will of God that he is going to restore the people. He is going to release the people. But God always wants a man or a woman to step in, co-labour, partner in prayer. Because that's one way of releasing the authority, God given authority. Okay, just like the original design in the Garden of Eden, he created us with dominion. But what happened? What happened to that dominion? I'm just recapping. We've discussed all this in the last class. So, okay. All right. There are answers here which say that we can't judge anything to partner with God in prayer, to see a move in this world. God does not intervene in the affairs of men without being invited. All right. Great. So that's what we've been recapping so far. So in the original design, God gave man the authority. But what happened after that? Authority shifted, correct. To whom? Satan. Why did authority shift to Satan? Thin, correct. So you see that when we are not walking in obedience to God, what happens? Something goes wrong, isn't it? In this case, sin, man sinned. The authority shifted. That is why we saw in Luke chapter 4 when Jesus is fasting. What did Satan say? I will give you the kingdoms. I will give you the rulership over the nations. But how did that happen? Because originally, God gave it to man and woman. But now Satan is saying it's in my grip. It's in my hands. So when we look at certain scriptures, we are also told that Satan is called as the ruler of this world. He's not the ruler, but right now he is interfering with the affairs of man. So the authority shifted because of sin. But what is a good news? Yeah. So Jesus died on the cross for us and we will study about this in detail. But when Jesus died on the cross, what he has done is he has restored back that authority to us. So what do we say about Satan? Satan is defeated. We use the term defeated, right? So Satan is defeated and we now have regained the authority. So if you are a believer, I am a believer. That is why we say, oh, rebuke the devil, rebuke the demons, cast out the demons. We command the demons. Why? Why? How? How can we do that? Because authority has been restored back to us. But so this is what we need to understand as far as prayer is concerned. Now, talking about the church, why do we say that the church is powerful? When I say church, I don't mean, you know, your church, my church, I don't mean local churches. The body of Christ. Why is the body of Christ powerful? Why is the body of Christ powerful? We've discussed all this. Yes. Okay. So God gave the authority to the church. Okay. God gave the authority to the church. That's true. Remember, we said last time Jesus said, I give you the keys of the kingdom. So when you have the keys, you know, when you have the keys of something, you have authority over that. You have authority, right? So I give you the keys of the kingdom, the things in the kingdom of God. God has given us the authority to operate in those things as believers, as the church. Okay, that's so powerful. That's so powerful. So every believer, no matter how young we are, you know, maybe we just accepted Jesus two hours ago, the scripture is applicable. Jesus says, I give you the keys of the kingdom. All of us, no matter how young we are, how mature we are in the Lord, we have authority. I give you the keys of the kingdom and what can you do? In that passage, Jesus said, you can bind and you can lose. Okay. So we can bind the works of the devil and we can release the things of the kingdom like the love of God, the peace of God, the joy of God, the power of God. We have the authority. We don't have to stand and watch helplessly and think, oh, all this calamity is happening. We can't do anything. No, we can pray. We can bind the devil. We can say, stop devil. You can't do this. All the crimes that are taken, we can pray against it and say, we bind the spirits which are causing destruction, which are causing confusion, disharmony. We can pray against the works of Satan and we can release the works of the kingdom. What are the works of the kingdom? We can release peace in that situation. So when I pray and I say, I declare victory, I declare peace. What's happening? I'm not simply saying, but by faith, I have the keys of the kingdom, right? So the things of the kingdom I can release, so powerful. If all believers, if we by faith begin to pray this way, we can exercise our authority. So God wants us to exercise our authority through prayer and he won't just bypass the structure that he himself has created and the deputization I already talked about it. Now, let's keep moving on. We said that though God is self-sufficient, meaning he can do all things. It's not that he can't do and he needs our help, right? But he has chosen to work with us. Again, it's a huge privilege that each of us have and these are all the reasons why we must engage in prayer because we can release our authority, we can speak to God, we can be of help to people in need and we also saw that God rewards us. When we pray, when we go pray in secret, God rewards us openly. These are all things that we've already discussed. And in the last class, we started chapter two where we discussed the right foundations for prayer. We began by stating a lot of wrong things. We pray because we are supposed to pray. We pray as a ritual. We pray as an obligation or we pray to impress God, impress people. These are all wrong reasons to pray. But there are the right foundations for prayer and today we will talk about those right foundations. The first one is to understand the nature of God. God has a nature. God has a nature. When we sing, when we worship, we say things like you are good. Isn't it? God is a just God. He is faithful. He is powerful. So, we describe the nature of God in all these ways. We even say things like, Lord, you are the healer. You are the provider. You are the peace giver. Where do we get this idea about the nature of God? Who told us that God is good? God is just. God is faithful. Who told us? Scriptures. Okay. So, Scriptures, we understand the nature of God through the word of God. So, it is the word of God that reveals to us who God is. How he is and we can observe that when you start right in the beginning. Go back to Genesis. You read about how he created Adam and Eve. Just think about it. Everything he created was good. There was no evil in him. He couldn't create anything evil because there is nothing evil in God. God is so good that he can only release what is in him. So, we understand everything he created was beautiful. It was good. It was functioning well. He created a perfect world. So, from there we get the picture. Oh, he is a creator. God. He is almighty. He is good. He is so organized. Don't you think so? Each day he had a plan. Okay, today I'm going to create this. Everything was done. Next day create this. Everything was done. So perfect. So, you know, sort of systematic. So many things we can use to describe and as you study the Bible, you won't find a contradiction to that, meaning it won't change. He was good in the beginning and when you look at Jesus, how when people came to Jesus, they said, oh, I'm sick. Jesus heal me or my son is oppressed by a demon spirit, set him free. Did Jesus change? Did he show a different nature of God? Do you think? I mean, you don't have to just shake your head because I'm expecting an answer from you but what do you think? It's consistent, right? Same thing. Same way that he ministered in the Old Covenant, you find that he did the same things, healing people, setting them free, giving them miracles, breakthroughs and if you look at this scripture, Hebrews 13, 8, it says, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever more. Okay. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. So that just tells us that God has a nature and that nature doesn't change. All right. Now, when we pray, we have to pray in accordance with the nature of God. If I pray a prayer which is not aligned to the nature of God, we said that God is good. There is only goodness in God. Okay. Now, if I pray a prayer which is evil, it cannot be, it will not be accommodated by God. Now, you can ask the question, why I want to pray that prayer? Why, why can, you know, God not accommodate it because we cannot pray against the nature of God. If God is good, no evil prayer will work, isn't it? So, if God is a just God, any prayer of injustice will not work. You know, a request for corruption will not work because we are praying against the nature of God. Now, if God is compassionate and we are praying a prayer which says, God, you cause calamity, you destroy those people, it won't work because He is a God of compassion, grace, mercy. So, for me to be effective in my prayer life, the first thing is I have to understand the nature of God. So, when I understand the nature of God and then I pray, it will be effective. All my prayers will be successful because it's not clashing with God's agenda or it's not clashing with God's purpose. Now, if we pray prayers like, Lord, I want to grow in you, I want to grow in the knowledge of your word, give me more grace to serve you, give me more anointing to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. Do you think all these prayers are valid? Yes or no? Yes, how do you know? It's very much in line with scripture, isn't it? And we can see in scripture that this is what God wants. He wants us to grow, He wants us to mature, He wants us to know Him better, He wants us to let go all the evil ways. All the things of the past, leave it behind, move forward with God, grow in God and receive the purpose of God for our lives. So, when we pray, in accordance to the nature of God, those prayers will be valid and for that, we must understand the nature of God. So, from where will we understand the nature of God scriptures? So, the more you read your Bible. So, when we read the Bible, don't just read it like, today I have to read Matthew chapter 1, okay, I'm finished, right? You keep the clock, maybe five minutes, stop watch, start, you just read it, finished, oh five minutes, finished. Today's finished, then somebody will ask us the question, did you read your Bible? Yeah, yeah, I read my Bible, today one chapter, I read it. Okay, what did you understand? Yeah, it was saying something, it was saying something about God, right? That's not how we must read the Bible. We must read the Bible to understand who God is. So, let's take for example, if you take Matthew chapter 1 and you read Matthew chapter 1, over there what do you see? So and so, we got so and so, we got so and so, we got so so and so, so you have this full genealogy, isn't it? What can you understand from that about God? Tell me two things you can understand about the nature of God from there. Nobody's read that chapter before. Okay, so we have some comments here, Charles says, he's a God of families, okay, wonderful. Yeah, that's that's one of the insights we can gain from that passage. Anything else comes to your mind when you read about God? Sister that he has history. Yes, sister, please repeat. He has a genealogy, his father. Okay, I didn't quite get that. Okay, sorry sister Gettrude, I couldn't hear you very clearly, so if you don't mind if you can type, I think he has a history. We have a history from where Jesus was born. Okay, we get the history of where Jesus was born. Okay, fine, we get that. Now, there are a few more points here in the chat as the shares, he had planned our redemption beforehand. God is gracious as Lucy, Sonia says reveals the genealogy of Jesus. Yeah, that's right. So, we can see that, you know, though it sounds like a historical record, remember God had promised to the, to the, you know, like the children of Israel and even to David, he had promised saying, you will not lack anybody on your throne. You notice how Jesus came in the genealogy of David, isn't it? So, it reminds us that he's a promise keeping God, many generations before he had promised, but when you read that one chapter, one of the things that comes to our mind is, after many generations, he still kept his word, he's a promise keeping God. Okay, so I'm just giving us some, something for us to think about. So, the word of God reveals the nature of God and that's what, when we read the Bible, we have to see, okay, what does it tell me about God? You know, okay, and God is so, he doesn't miss the details, isn't it? So and so, because so and so, all the names are there, it's amazing. So, there is so much we can learn about God. Every time you read Matthew one, you can know something more about God. So, the nature of God, if I want to grow in my prayer life, I have to grow in the word. Why? Because the word will help me understand who God really is. So, the more I know the nature of God, my prayers can be aligned to his nature and they will be effective. All right? So, that's the first point that I want to make for us. The right foundation for prayer is understanding the nature of God and God, you know, even through his covenant names, when you look at some names in the Bible, they start with the Jehovah, like Jehovah, Jehovah Rafa, Jehovah Jaira, you know, Jehovah Siddhkinu. So, there are some names that start with that word Jehovah. We call them the covenant names. Okay? That simply means that God has made a promise with us and this is a solemn promise. A covenant is a very solemn promise which God will not break. So, when God reveals himself and he says Jehovah Jaira, it simply means he will provide. He has made a promise with us. Whatever situation you are in, I am your Jehovah Jaira. I will provide and we must put our faith in that. And so, when I pray, I will pray something like, God, thank you. You have revealed that you are my provider. I know that you will provide in this situation. I know that, you know, those who fear you will not lack any good thing. I know the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. So, what is happening? I am praying in line with the nature of God. I won't pray a prayer which says, God, you never help me. I don't know why you don't help me. Don't you know that I am in need? If I pray prayers like that, actually it's not aligned to the nature of God because what is God telling us? He already said, I've made a promise with you. I will provide for you. Did he provide for the people in the wilderness, in the desert? Yes. Right? So, he will provide any situation and we have to pray as per the covenant names of God as well, which reveal for us the nature of God. So, understand who God is and pray on the basis of that. Scriptures reveal who God is, His covenant names reveal who God is and just want to remind us, He is the God of the impossible. Sometimes our prayers are very limited. We can't see more than, you know, this week, this year. We can't see. We just pray, okay, God, whatever you can do, you do. Very limited we pray, but the Bible tells us, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Nothing shall be impossible for our God. So, He's the God of the impossible. So, when we pray, when I understand that my God is the God of the impossible. He's a miracle working God. It gives me courage to pray into my future. I can pray prayers like, God, I know you are going to use me to establish a local church. I know you're going to use me to, you know, serve you in this nation. I can pray prayers like this. Why? Because He's the God of the impossible. Right now, maybe it doesn't look like it's possible. Maybe, you know, I have too many limitations, but the nature of God reveals that He's the God of the impossible. So, I can pray prayers like this and I can see the fruit of those prayers. Okay, so that's a little bit about the nature of God. Alright, so let's continue. We'll move to the next foundation for effective prayer, which is intimacy with God. Intimacy with God. Now, intimacy is a term that depicts closeness, depicts, you know, close relationship. So, we are being told that we must have a close relationship with God. Now, we can all have any level of relationship that we want to, but what is it that God is inviting us to? A close relationship with Him. Who has got to us relationally? Heavenly Father. Yes, thank you, Sister. So, Heavenly Father, how do we relate to our Father? We are generally, you know, bold. We are open. We are very comfortable, isn't it? When it comes to our Father. So, in the same way, no matter how our earthly relationship has been, one thing we know that the Heavenly Father, that the Bible talks about, that He is a wonderful Father, isn't it? So, we can develop that close relationship with God because He's our Heavenly Father. Now, prayer is not so much about learning all the steps or the keys to make it work. It's more about a relationship. Okay? It's more about if you take a good friendship. Okay? Don't you think that, you know, it takes the will of the people in that friendship to keep communicating, to be, you know, cordial to each other and to bless one another. It does. It takes some effort to build a good friendship. So, in the same way, we, when we talk about our relationship with our Heavenly Father, we need to desire and also put in that kind of, I'm using the word effort, but you know, it's something that we can do happily and willingly to draw near to God, so that we can have a closeness or I mentioned the word intimacy or fellowship with the Father. So, how do we, how do we, you know, develop this kind of a relationship? We'll talk a little bit about that, but you know, the Bible encourages us to be close to God. In John chapter 15 and verse 7, we are reminded that God's Word should well in our minds. So, can I request somebody to read John 15 and verse 7 please? John chapter 15 verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it will and it shall be done for you. Okay. So, notice here, it says if you abide in me, what is abide? Anyone? What is the word abide mean? Remain. Remain. Okay. So, when we visit someone, we just go there and we come back. Okay. If you're visiting a friend or you're visiting a relative of yours, you may go spend one hour and you come back, but that is not called as abide. You know, when we use the term abide, abide is when you stay. So, in your home, whatever is your address, generally when we give people our address, what does it mean? I live here. Okay. I abide here. That's the meaning of, of abiding. So, abide, what is Jesus telling us? If you abide in me, you got to stay. You got to live there. You got to live there. And that also means that, you know, I'm not just coming and going. Sometimes our relationship with God can be like that. When I want something, God, you're everything to me. You know, when I want blessings, I see God. When I want something good to happen in my life, I say, God, do this miracle. After that, I'll say, okay, bye. See you later. What is that? We are just visiting God whenever we want convenience. That's not what John 15 is saying. John 15 is saying, if you abide in me, meaning come live. Don't keep going. You know, every now and then don't just step out and go come back. It doesn't work like that. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, meaning the word of God is living inside us. It's always there. So, when we read the word, we put it into our hearts. We think about it. We meditate on it. It becomes a part of the way we think. It becomes a part of the way we live. It becomes a part of the way we speak what begins to happen. You know, he says, you ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Meaning, when you are so close to me, your prayers will be answered like that. Isn't it? That's what it's saying. When you abide in me, my words abide in you. You ask whatever you desire. It will be done for you. Okay. So, intimacy with God, because he's our heavenly father, you have to develop a strong relationship with him. And then what happens? My prayer life becomes so effective. Okay. So, how to make your prayer life effective? It's not actually relationship with God is the main thing that we should be talking about. But one of the results is that our prayer life becomes very effective or successful. Even Psalm 37 and verse 4, it's a, you know, quite familiar scripture where we read, delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. So, how do we get the desires of our heart? First of all, our heart has to be aligned or in line with the purposes of God or delight in God. Meaning, we are always enjoying God. And then what happens? As a result, whenever we pray, we have the answers to that. So, develop a strong relationship with God and that's the place where we will find success for our prayers. Now, the Bible teaches us that we need to have fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Okay. So, there are three persons in the Godhead. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So, the Father, yes, we generally commune with the Father. How do we commune? We pray, we say heavenly Father, right? We come to you in the name of Jesus. We are fellowshiping with the Father. How do we fellowship with the Son? Again, we can even speak to Jesus, you know, thank you for dying on the cross for me. We fellowship with the Son by reading the Word because the Son is who? The Word, isn't it? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So, the Word of God is who? Actually, the Jesus, the Son of God. Then, the Holy Spirit. We can have communion with the Holy Spirit. You know, Paul said that. He said, sweet communion with the Holy Spirit. What is communion? Communion is partnership, fellowship. So, you can imagine a good friend who is with you. Okay. Maybe, I know we have lots of friends, but maybe one or two friends are somewhat, you kind of click with them better and you spend a lot of time with them. So, when we talk about communion with the Holy Spirit, it's somewhat like that. All the time, speaking to the Holy Spirit, partnering with the Holy Spirit, maybe, you know, I'm teaching this class, while partnering with the Holy Spirit, I can say Holy Spirit, empower me, give me the right words, let it be a blessing to the people. So, what's happening? I'm partnering with the Holy Spirit to do what God is calling me to do. So, in this way, from the moment that you wake up till the moment that you sleep, we can be communion, fellowshiping with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So, prayer is not limited only to our prayer times. Like, if you have your personal devotion, you know, whatever, 5.30 to 6 o'clock, that's the time of prayer. The rest of the time, I'm free. All the time we can, fellowship and communion with the Holy Spirit. So, when we do that, now think with me, if you have a close friend like that and you're keeping in touch, generally, it happens in school, right? So, kids go and then they find this friend. These days, I've heard kids saying, what is that? BFF, best friend forever, okay? They would have just met the other child one day ago, but suddenly, they are best friend forever. This is meet my BFF, okay? So, that's the way they connect with another child and what happens? They are spending time with them. They want their parents to give them permission to come on the weekends. Okay, you come to my house, I'll go to your house. They're spending a lot of time interacting, sharing, playing together. In this way, they are building their friendship, isn't it? Now, it's somewhat similar. When we want to have fellowship with God, we need God all the time. We don't look at God as, you know, a time with God as a compartmentalized thing that, okay, only at this time, I will spend time with God. The whole time, we can fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But of course, when we set aside some special time, it is helpful and, you know, we will talk about it later on. So, in this way, we are called to fellowship with the Godhead. When you look at the life of Jesus, Jesus spent a lot of time with the Father. Yes or no? Yeah, we see that, isn't it? When you look at the life of Jesus, he prayed to the Father. When, you know, it was evening, it was morning, in the night, whenever he was, he finished some meetings, he made time to spend with the Father. So, a lot of time he was spending with the Father. So, what's happening? Fellowship, isn't it? There is this fellowship of the Father and the Son. And that is one of the reasons why Jesus was confident the way he was, because he told, I already know what the Father, I do what the Father wants me to do. So, he had developed this strong relationship with the Father, which helped him to know what to pray. And every time he prayed, it was successful. We don't see that Jesus said, be healed and that person didn't get healed. Has that happened? Never. There was only one incident when, you know, there was a person who was blind and Jesus, you know, I don't remember whether he touched his eye or, but when he tried to see, he couldn't see clearly. But the second time when Jesus ministered to that person, he was able to see. That's the only time where we see something like two steps, right? Or twice. But otherwise, everywhere, one word, it always happened. And you think, how come for Jesus, God, Father is answering? What about me? Why? Because Jesus is so connected to the Father. Jesus has such a strong fellowship with the Father. So, each of us can develop that beautiful relationship with God. So, how can we have this strong relationship with God through prayer of intimacy? Prayer of intimacy is when, you know, we take time to adore God, to honor God. You know, have we lately taken time to just sit down and say, God, thank you so much. You've been so good to me. You've blessed me so much. You've given me so many opportunities. I'm really grateful and I want to live my life for you. So, what's happening? We are developing that closeness with God. When we are opening up our hearts and we are saying, Father, I value whatever you're doing in my life, right? So, spend time, prayer of intimacy, worship. We can worship God. How can we worship God in John 4, 23 and 24? You know, there we see Jesus said that those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. Spirit and in truth. What does it mean? It means sincerity. So, when I worship God, when I'm sincere, I will build my relationship with God. We have to be sincere. Look at the life of David. When you read the Psalms of David, do you find him being sincere, honest? Yeah, you do. Even Jesus, at times when, you know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was so honest with the Father, isn't it? So, when we come in sincerity, that's when God can really do something in our lives. But if we are pretending that no, everything is okay, I'm okay. And remember, we went through that publication laying the ax to the root and we saw we may carry issues like pride, self, lust, jealousy. And there are many others, right? Like you can have bitterness, so many other things. But if I'm carrying these things within me and I'm saying, okay, I don't have to deal with it. Or I'm pretending like it's okay, God will understand. It won't work because it's not sincerity. We're just trying to cover up. But that will not help us build a strong relationship with God. So, we need to worship God in spirit and in truth on the basis of the word. What does the word say? Am I living my life like the way the word says, if I am, then I'm building my intimacy with the Lord. Transparency. Transparency is also when, you know, David says in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24, he will say something like, search me, oh God, know my heart, search me. If there is any, you know, anxiety, whatever is there within me, Lord, I'm coming to you with honesty, right? So transparency, we must not pretend with God. We have to deal with the issues that God is revealing to us and listening to him. So, when we listen to the word of God, when we are dwelling in the word of God, spending time in the word of God, even that will help us to develop a strong relationship with God. And being in his presence. So from time to time, when we spend time in the presence of God, for example, here you have that supernatural, you have your devotions, you have your group prayer time, what's happening? We are intentionally tuning in to the presence of God. And we are saying, okay, God, I want to become more sensitive to what you're saying, what you're doing, what happens? We are building our relationship with God, our communion with God. So these are all ways in which one can develop their intimacy with the Lord. So when we develop our intimacy with God, what are some of the outcomes? Well, the Bible says that we will know God better. For example, for those of us, maybe the married folk can attest to this or even like parents and children, when let's say the mother is upset, the child already knows. Just by the look of the mother, the child already knows, I don't have her approval. Okay, this is going to be tough. Why? Because familiarity, interacting so much with the parent, knowing the parents so closely, you can predict what they're going to say, what they're going to do. But think about this, when we are spending so much time with God, okay, in his word, in his presence, his voice becomes very familiar. Oh, what does God want me to do? Does God want me to do this? Or no, it's easier to answer those questions, because I already know God closely. You understand? So we know his voice better. We can understand his plans, his will, his ways. And, you know, we keep growing in that. And we will also become fruitful in the things that God is calling us to do. So let's do this. Let's take a break right now. And we will come back to continue in the right foundations to prayer. And if there's any other questions, then, you know, please do ask those questions. And it'll be really good to have an interactive class. So all right, let's go in for a break. We'll come back in 10 minutes. Thank you.