 Okay, the recording is on. Good morning and welcome everyone to the class today. We're going to take a moment to pray together and then people get started. Alayshia, would you please pray with all of us and we'll start? Okay, Pastor. I have you for that. We want to thank you this morning and praise your Holy Name. For the gift of life and the many good things that you have brought. Are we? Father, we pray you commit our session into your hands of God. We pray that you cause your Holy Spirit to come and lead us, call us and teach us in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, we pray for an understanding and grant all chances to pass the ashes as we miss and guide us and to teach us in Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you and welcome everyone. So today, I think it might be a final lecture in this course on faith. I want to just address the plan is to address some practical side to the exercise of faith. Like how do we balance faith and reason and the facts? How do we work with those things? How do we live by faith in God and His Word? Then there's our own reason, our mind. We think and God's given us our mind to use. How does that come to play? And then there are facts. Look, this is what's actually happening. So how do we live by faith in God and His Word, along with the mind that we have, which tends to think and reason and has its own reasoning and so on? And then there are facts. This is what's happening and so how do we put all that together? And of course, we want to avoid a dangerous area of presumption. And so I just want to kind of address this practical challenge when it comes to living by faith in God in this last lecture. And then we will do a quick review. Let's go through the entire, you know, all the topics and we covered. So we just get a full overview of what we have covered in this course. So that's the plan for today. And let's see, you know, whether we finish in one hour or two hours, we'll just go with the flow, right? So some of this, what I'm sharing with you today, you may see it in another course that we have, which is emotional wholeness and deliverance, which is, sorry, inner wholeness, which I think, yeah, which is a second year course. We talk about the mind, the soul of man, you know, the mind to build the emotions and, you know, that emotional aspect of person. So in that course, you'll get into a lot of deeper things and how to bring wholeness to the soul. And part of that, you will also be touching on some other things. We will be talking today. So there will be this overlap between what we're saying today and what you're going to be looking at in that course on inner wholeness that deals a little bit more in depth with the mind and the emotions of man. So what we want to do here in this lecture is how do we balance faith, reason, a renewed mind and leading of the Holy Spirit and avoid the pitfall of presumption. So this is an area where we need to get clarity on and we need to be very clear. And it's also an area where many people get into trouble because they don't distinguish between how to live by faith or they don't, you know, people don't believe and I said people, I'm talking about believers that we don't learn how to balance or how to have the interaction between faith and the mind and how to know when the Holy Spirit is leading us and when it's just presumption, something we make up. So I put this little box diagram here. It's nothing, you know, not like a biblical chart or anything. It's just something that I put to try to explain this. So if you think about our mind, that means our mind is given to us by God, right? Our ability to reason, think, analyze. It's a good thing. The mind is not a bad thing. The mind was created by God. It's a masterpiece, a masterpiece of God's creation, really. When you think about the brain and the mind, the brain is the physical organ and people can study the brain, but then the mind is much bigger than the brain. It is this intangible aspect of the person. Some of it is connected to the functions of the brain, but there's a lot that you cannot connect directly to the functions of the brain. It's there, you know it's there and it's intangible, you know, the mind, the feelings, the emotions and all of that, anyway. So when you talk about the believer's mind, we have, first of all, our ability to reason, right? That means God has given us the ability to think, you know, to analyze and to reason, which is a good thing, like I was saying, and we need to use it every day. Maybe use it every day. For instance, right now, we have used our mind to connect to this classroom. So you know how you log into your Google account, you go to classroom and then you click on the particular class, you're connected. So, I mean, it's a good thing. We can use our mind to do a lot of good things, our reason, you know, right from the food we eat and how we take care of ourselves, the work we do, so many things. In this natural world, we are using our mind and God gave us our mind to use, it's fine. But then what the Bible is telling us is that we must renew our mind. So the believer is living with a renewed mind. That means it's a mind that is learning not to be conformed to the ways of this world, but it's a mind that is learning to think according to the ways and thoughts of God, right? So that's the believer's mind, it's a renewed mind. It's a mind that lives by the word of God. So we begin to think aligned to the word of God. So that's the renewed mind of the believer. And as part of the renewed mind, we see there is our human reason, the reason that God has the ability to reason, which we have. But then there is the leading of the Holy Spirit which can override reason. See, there are times when the Holy Spirit will lead us. Now, everything I'm saying, I've kind of, you know, explained it in the text here, so you can actually read it later, but I'm just explaining this to us, right? So there are times the Holy Spirit will lead us that is beyond our ability to understand our reason. You know, for example, if the Holy Spirit tells us, you can tell somebody, call so-and-so right now and pray with that person. Now, you say, well, I haven't spoken to this person, you know, maybe in four months, I have no idea what's going on in their life, but the Holy Spirit has put that person in your heart. You feel like I have to call that person and I do talk to that person and pray with that person. Now, it is outside the realm of reason because you don't find any reason why I should call that person and I haven't spoken to that person maybe for four or five months. I have no idea what's going on in their life, but right now I feel like I need to call that person. What's happening? The Holy Spirit is leading you and me. He's leading us beyond our reason. So what do we do? At that moment, while we value our ability to reason, which God has given to us, we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit by faith, right? By faith, it's just a matter of faith. You can't explain it. You know, why do you have to, you know, call that person and talk to the person, pray with the person? I mean, there's no logical thing to it other than the Holy Spirit's prompting you. You just put that person in your mind, put that person in your heart and says, do that. So the leading of the Holy Spirit can be outside the scope or the realm of our reason, our ability to understand, logic, analyze. And for the believer, ultimately there is faith in God's word. That means we live by the promises and the principles of God's word. Now, why do you and I live by the word of God? It's faith. It's faith, right? Why? Because we believe God and we believe God's word, His word is truth. So even in our mind, faith is at work and faith is telling us, I have to believe God's word. I have to believe His promises and to live by His principles. And we do it by faith. The Bible says we walk by faith. That means I believe His promises, I live by His principles, by faith in His word. And there will be times that faith in God's word is about, it's way beyond reason. Now, all of this is happening in the mind of the believer. So this white box I've put, it's representing the mind of the believer. So in our mind, right? Faith in God's word, lower right reason, example. I'm just making, suppose you've kept aside a certain amount of money and you want to use it for your own personal need, something you're planning to buy or whatever, you kept some money aside. And then the Holy Spirit says, you see that person there? I want you to give some of your money, that money to that person. Holy Spirit's prompting you. And then you go to the word of God. And the word of God says, give, it'll be given to you. The word of God says, when you give to someone who was in need, you're actually giving to God and God will repay you. Now, in your mind, the reason you've kept that money aside is because you wanted to buy a certain thing. So that's the mind, our mind. We have been working with our mind, we've been doing something which is fine. But now the Holy Spirit is telling us something and God's word is telling us something which is beyond our mind. The word of God is saying you help someone in need, the word of God teaches us to give. And so what do we do? Our reason is saying, well, I've been keeping this money aside because I want to buy something. But now God's word is promising me, both instructing me as a principal and it's promising me that when I give, God will take care of my need. And so in the mind of the believer, ultimately we live by faith in God's word. Yes, we use our reason, we're not saying we don't use our reason, we do use our huge reason, but the leading of the Holy Spirit and faith in God's word overrides our reason. So this is how the mind of the believer is at work. I mean, this is very simplistic box diagram, but I hope you understand the interactions that are going on in our minds when between reason, the leading of the Holy Spirit and faith in God, this word. So while this is happening, you must also be careful not to get into the area of presumption. Now, this is a gray area, so purposely I've put it in a Greek box. Gray area means it really is a difficult thing. Now, what is presumption? Presumption is that we think that the Lord, the Holy Spirit is leading us when he actually has not led us. That's one way we get into presumption. Our second way we get into presumption is when the misapply faith in God's word, in a way he doesn't want us to apply, then we get into presumption. So there are two ways, main ways we get into presumption. One, when we think that the Holy Spirit is telling us something when actually he is not, or we misapply, wrongly apply faith in God's word, then we get into an area of presumption. Presumption means I'm presuming something, I'm making an assumption which is actually incorrect. Now, when we are in the area of presumption, we are on shaky ground. When we are obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit, or living by faith in God's word, God backs us up 100%. We cannot fail, we cannot fail. But when we step into this area of presumption, God is not obligated because we are outside his word, outside his actual direction, and we've got into something where we are making some assumptions and we will get into trouble. The problem is that the mind is dealing with facts. So what does reason do, deals with facts, okay? This is what has been said. And for us, we must learn to balance these three properly. That means the reason, the leading of the Holy Spirit, and the word of God, faith in God and his word, we have to balance it. So example, I'm just giving you an example. Suppose a believer is unwell, is sick, got some disease, and the believer goes to the hospital. The doctor says, look, this is your problem, and we've got to, you know, from a medical point, this is what we would do to help you. You know, it may be some kind of a treatment, it may be some kind of medication, it may be whatever. So the doctor says, this is it. So that is fact, that is information here that comes to the mind. Now, Holy Spirit, what are you saying? What should I do in this situation? There's no clear word from the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is not saying, don't go to the doctor or don't take the medicine or don't take treatment. He's not saying, don't do it. Go to God's word. God's word says, the Lord is your healer. He heals us of all our diseases. He, you know, the healing, by his stripes, we have been healed. So the believer has certain facts. There's a disease, the doctors are saying, this is the treatment we can give you, but you know, some people will survive, some people may not, we don't know, but this is what we will do to help you. The Holy Spirit is, there's no word from the Holy Spirit saying, don't take that treatment. There's just calmness, peace, quietness. And the word of God has the promises for healing. So now the believer is in a dilemma. I have faith in God and his word. And I'm gonna, I've learned, you know, we know the principles of faith and we know how to use faith, but I'm faced with fact. There's a disease. Doctors are recommending a certain treatment. Should I take it? Should I not take it? The Holy Spirit is not telling me don't take it. So what should the believer do? Now, if the believer in this moment says, God told me not to take the treatment. So I'm refusing the treatment. I'm just gonna trust in God. Now, if they say, God told me not to take the treatment, that's presumption. Why? The Holy Spirit never said, don't take the treatment. They are presuming something of the Holy Spirit. And based on that, they say, I don't want the treatment. They come into this area of presumption and they, you know, we don't know where they are as far as the word of God is concerned. I mean, yes, you know the word, but then, you know, for you to build up faith in the word requires some time. And you may need to spend time in the word to build up faith. And, but they've come into this area of presumption. So they've rejected the treatment. They're not taking the treatment. And what happens in some case? I must say it happens in all cases, but in some case, what happens? They've come into this area of presumption. The disease progresses, the believer dies. Then we are questioning, hey, they said God said not to take treatment. They said they're having faith in God, but they died. What happened? Well, the Holy Spirit never told them, don't take the treatment. But they presumed, he said it. And they presumed that they'll just go by faith in God's word. And they may not have really built up faith in God's word, which takes time. And sin, then they're in this area of presumption. So what would we recommend in a situation like this? Well, we'll say, look, build up, okay, the Holy Spirit never told you, don't go for it. So use your mind, do what you can in the natural. And at the same time, build your faith in God's word. Take time to read, meditate, confess the word, feed your spirit with the word. See, it's like, you have to build your faith muscle. Now you're dealing with a mountain, right? So you've got to bring your faith up to the level of a mustard seed, you've got to let it grow. And so you've got to feed your faith. So do both, there's nothing wrong here in using our reason or our mind because God gave us our mind. With our mind, he gave us the ability to understand natural things, do what we can in the natural. There's nothing wrong with that. And at the same time, you build up your faith in God's word and believe God for healing, right? Or, that's just one scenario. I'll give us one more scenario and then we will open it up for some discussions. Think about another scenario where a believer reads the word of God, which says, the Lord is my shepherd. I will not be in want. The believer reads the word of God, which says, my God shall supply all your need. And so he reads the word and says, hey, the Bible says God will supply all my needs. I'm going to give up my job and I don't need to work. I'm just going to quit my job and I'm just going to use faith in God and his word and the money will come in. Now, the Holy Spirit never told a believer, quit your job. God has given us a reason and the believer knows I need to work to earn money. So according to our, the mind is you need to work to earn money. The Holy Spirit didn't tell this believer, quit your job. So there's no word from the Holy Spirit. And the believer presumes that I can just believe some of the promises, but not practice the principles. The principle of the word of God is you've got to work. Sorry, you have to work. So the believer presumes to have faith in the promises, ignoring the principles of God's word. There is no word from the Holy Spirit instructing the believer to quit their job. Reason clearly says, look, you have to pay so much money for rent, for utilities, for food, for all these things are there and we're responsible for it. So what's happening? They're getting into the area of presumption. Why? Because they're presuming faith in the promises without following the principles, without a direct leading from the Holy Spirit and ignoring reason. So they're getting into the area of presumption. So what happens? The believer then begins to struggle, suffer. A lot of consequences for not having the money and so on. So that is another scenario where they're presuming faith when God is not direct to that person. Now there may be times when the Holy Spirit tells a believer saying, look, I want you to do this and this or maybe give up your job and take the next two months to prepare for doing something different, whatever. So there's a clear word from the Holy Spirit. The believer then sets aside the required money. So, okay, yeah, I have enough money to cover next two months or maybe they don't have it, but there's a clear word from God saying, I want you to take, you know, quit your job for next two months, prepare for what I'm gonna show you. And the believer takes a step of faith because he's got a word from the Holy Spirit and plus he's got God's written word saying, he will provide. So there's a combination here. Now, whether the believer may have saved money for next two months or may not have saved money, there could be various scenarios. But in this third scenario, what we're saying is, there's a clear instruction of the Holy Spirit. And then based on that, he's able to have faith in the promises and he's still in safe ground because the Holy Spirit has instructed the believer to do that. So, what I want to help us understand is that we must have faith in God's word, but in the practical situations of life, we must use our reason and there's nothing wrong in using reason, raising your mind, processing things. And we must also depend on the leading of the Holy Spirit and balance these three and avoid getting into presumption because that is dangerous, ground. So I want to pause here and just, take up some, let's just discuss this and ask some questions around it because I want us to be clear that faith in God is so powerful. He's called us to live by faith and yet there is also the aspect of the leading of the Holy Spirit and there's the aspect of reason. Reason, God has given us our mind to process the facts that we see in this world and the leading of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit Himself guiding us specifically in certain situations of each of our lives that's relevant to us, we must pay attention to that. So let's look at the questions. Number one, by any chance, what the Holy Spirit say no for treatment? The answer to number one is yes. The Holy Spirit can, if the Holy Spirit gives you a clear word in your heart, don't take it. And yeah, of course, that's when you just say, okay, I know in my heart, the Holy God has spoken and he says, he doesn't want me to do this and therefore I will not go forward. But we've got to be sure that the Holy Spirit has spoken to us, right? Number two, second question, what if a family doesn't have enough money to do the treatment? Can they refuse treatment? If the family doesn't have enough money and the treatment is available, I think the family should make an effort to try and arrange for the money and to see if they can find ways and means to get the treatment. If they cannot, then yeah, then there's no option if they just are not able to afford it, then sure, the only option is believe God and then financial constraint becomes a practical limitation and then you have no choice but to say, God, look, there is treatment, but it's not affordable and we cannot go for it. So we are limited, but you are our help and we are putting all our faith in you and trust in you, right? And three, in case one of our believers has acted upon presumption, we stand with them in faith and correct them. If you need to correct them, how do we do it? That's a good question, number three. See, this is where as leaders, we need to be able to lovingly correct people and I've done that when people have been in situations like this, I've told them. Now, whether they are willing to accept correction or not, that is something that is entirely their choice but as a leader, it's my responsibility to tell them that look, what you're having faith in God for is really not right. For example, if a family member passed away and sure, maybe they died prematurely, they died before their time and they said, they say, okay, I'm willing God to bring that person back from the dead. Now, there is a time when we pray for resurrection, that's, I would say gently say within the first 24 hours, you pray and if God brings a person back, great. But after that, you have to be careful because there are also legal implications for keeping a dead body in your home or somewhere to keep praying, you know. So, okay, let's say the other funerals happen but this believer says, no, I'm believing God to bring that person back from the dead and they go on doing this after three months, two years, three years, the believer says, I believe God is gonna bring that person from the dead. I've told the person, say, look, this is not right. We do believe that the Bible does, Jesus did instruct us in Matthew 10, seven, eight, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils. But not like what you're saying, you know, three years later, five years later, they still say, I believe God is gonna bring that person back from the dead. Now, that's really in the area of presumption, you know. So, I've had some of these conversations, told them, look, what you're doing is wrong, this is not it and so our goal, our, let's say, our goal, but our responsibility as leaders is to lovingly correct people when they are in the area of presumption and if they choose to take our instruction, that's good. If they choose to disregard it, then, you know, we've done our part and God is not gonna hold you responsible for their choice thereafter, right? So, that's the responsibility, good questions. Let's see now. Yeah. So, verse 19 to 21, yeah. So, our heart is to be right before God. If the believer is, okay, next one. The believer is struggling to go against some of their assumptions and based on the above words, what is the right course of action to help someone like that? If the believer, so this is first on 319 to 21 and the question is, if the believer is struggling to go against some of their assumptions, okay, and based on the above words, what is the right course of action to help someone like that? So, I'm trying to understand the question. So, what we're saying is, okay, the believer has made some assumptions. Yeah, yeah, Pastor. Go ahead. Yeah, suppose the believer is thinking that taking medication is wrong in God's sight. You know, if there's a very hard, you know, strong belief for that person and they're thinking that God will condemn them if they take medication so strongly. They're believing it so strongly. So, what can be done in that case? Right. So, you know, if, you know, so there are people like this where they totally refuse any medication. Now, there are two things. One is, if a person is doing it because they genuinely have faith in God, God will heal, that's good. But at the same time, we can explain to them. And again, we don't want to, you know, violate their faith. We don't want to violate their faith. But what we want to do is to give them the freedom to receive medical attention, give them the place of freedom. So, how do we do it? So, what we can explain to them is even in the Bible, you find situations where God used some natural things to help people, right? So, example is in the case of Isaiah and King Hezekiah. You know, there, as a prophesied that God would, you know, said, okay, God's going to extend your life. But at the same time, he said, you know, you take this, I forget the name of the fruit or whatever it was used and you apply it to your body, okay? And so, there was a word from God, but there was also an instruction on something the person could use to help the condition. Or when you, you know, the typical examples in 1 Timothy chapter five, where Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, because of your frequent stomach illnesses, I'm just paraphrasing it in simple English, because of frequent stomach illnesses, take a little wine. So, in those days, wine was used for its medical or medicinal values. They didn't have the kinds of treatments or medicines we have today, but for stomach issues. And Timothy apparently had some frequent stomach problems. We don't know what it is, but Paul tells Timothy, you know, take a little wine for your stomach issues. So, here is a great apostle Paul, whom God used powerfully in healing and deliverance. And yet he is advising Timothy to use a little wine to help his stomach problems. So, he didn't say, don't use it or just believe, but take something practical. So, we can give these examples and let the person know that it's not wrong in the eyes of God to use the resources God has given to us to help our bodies, while at the same time, he continued with faith in God and his words, there's nothing wrong. But the final decision will be theirs, you know, that, and we respect that, you know, if they feel very strongly, they shouldn't take me as, okay. Now, the outcomes, we've seen both, the sense there have been some outcomes where people die, because they refuse the help that was available. And then there are some outcomes where, yeah, you know, through their faith in God, they come out well, and thank God for that. But from our side, what can we do? We can show them, biblically, that it is not wrong to use whatever natural help that is available while we also continue with faith in God and we find this in both old and new testament, these two examples, it's fine. Thank you. Thank you best. Okay. So, was the explanation clear enough? Any questions, any further? Go ahead, please. One question, a little off track though, but imagine a person has believed and they have not seen the miracle. Let's say that person passed away and how would you suggest that, we cannot console them by any words, but what would be, what should be our approach while visiting them? Like they believed in faith and let's say it was a sickness and the person passed away. Yeah. So one is we never judge or condemn. So one is we don't try to explain, right? Because the fact is we don't necessarily know the exact thing that prevented healing in that particular situation. We don't unless God reveals, right? Unless God reveals specifically because every case is so different. It's so unique, right? So, okay. And this happens. I believe a person's being believing God where healing the person dies. The family is believing God, the church around them is believing God and the person dies. How should we respond? How should we comfort? How should we console? First is never judge. Never try to explain why? Because we don't know. Now we can know, we know the principles of faith. We know this is how we are to walk in faith but we are not to judge another person's faith. So we don't try to explain that and just say, you know, only God knows really what was the real reason, right? So we don't try to judge, we don't try to understand. We just point to two things. One is we point to the hope that we have of the fact that when a believer dies, they're in the presence of God and there will be resurrection. Second, we point to the fact that God's word has not changed. His word is still truth and our response is to keep believing God's word, keep going. But usually the second one, you do it later, not at that moment when you're going to console the person. You're going to console the person, you're going to be the family. The one thing is, look, yes, at this point of death, what is the hope we have as believers? We know that when we are absent in the body, we are present with the Lord. We're in a better place. And we know that ultimately death will be swallowed up in victory. So death doesn't have the final say. So that's what we do. That's what we speak and that's what we focus on. Later on, we encourage the person or the people saying, look, we've gone through this situation but God's word has not changed. God's word is still truth. And so we're going to continue believing the word of God and living by faith in God and his word. So that's how we do it. But we don't try to judge or try to find an answer because unless God clearly reveals, and there's so many examples where people get into, people try to find answers and they actually end up hurting people. And sometimes it gets really crazy when people come up with some really weird reasons. You know, I remember once when this was so, this was really, really what, I don't know what word to use, but it was really harsh in one case, a couple lost their child. Then somebody made this, you know, sent this message on WhatsApp to that person saying, because there was unfaithfulness between you, both of you, God, you lost your child. And that was so harsh. You know, first of all, so that person is using the name of God saying, God revealed to me that there was unfaithfulness between that husband and wife, and that's why the child died. And it was so harsh because, I know that couple and I know, they're Godly couple, they're living right before God. And for that person to send a message like, it was so painful. So I had to call that other person and say, hey, this is something you never do. You know, not in the name of the Lord. You don't do these things. And they're going through pain and for you to say something like this, which is there's no basis. You know, there's no basis to say something like this. And I said, look, I stand by that family because I know that family, they are close friends. I know them. And then what you said is not true. You know, it's not true. So I had to step in. I had to bring really strong correction there. So we should avoid such things that they actually cause a lot of pain to people. So, you know, don't try to find an answer because God knows, leave it to God, right? We don't know all the, everything. What we can do is point to the reality of what the Bible teaches us that death is not the end. Resurrection is coming. The believer is in the presence of God, which is far more beautiful. And we just point to that. Okay. Any other questions? Practical side, it's a challenging bit, but I just wanted to make sure we cover this so that, you know, we don't end up making mistakes in walking by faith. Okay. So let me just do a quick review and with that, we will close. I know we have just a few more minutes, but we will quickly review the course, what we did here in this course on faith, what we have covered. So, you know, and I love teaching this subject on faith and I feel, and I know it's so important for all of us to learn to walk by faith. And faith is powerful because that's how we do great exploits for the kingdom of God. But we must learn to walk properly, correctly by faith. So, just to review this course, these last 22 lectures that we've had, I think something like that. You know, we began with an introduction to faith. Then we talked about the God sovereignty, grace and faith, how they all interplay. God is sovereign. He gives us things by grace, but yet he requires us to walk by faith. So faith is not an option. Even the God is sovereign. Then we looked at the ministry of Jesus, how in his ministry, Jesus really, you know, required people to come by faith. There were occasions when he did things based on the sovereignty of God as the Lord led him. But the normal was people had to come to him in faith for them to receive, and he taught faith. So then we looked at Jesus' teaching on faith. So this is so important because for us, this is a big place where we learn about faith. Jesus taught us a lot about how to walk by faith in God. Then we did a quick look at faith in the Old Testament. Actually, by looking at Hebrews chapter 11, you see that so many people in the Old Testament, they did great things in their lifetimes by faith in God. Then we looked closely at Abraham, who's the father of faith. He saw how did he walk by faith to receive the promises of God? And the Bible New Testament's telling us he's an example, follow him. You know, how he received the promise. God gave him a promise. You will be the father from any big nation. It took him, took quite a long time for the promise to happen, but Abraham journeyed by faith into that promise. And the Bible's telling us, follow that example. We talked about faith, hope, and love, how these three are all interconnected. We need to be people of hope. We need to be people of love if we are going to walk by faith. Then we talked about how faith is pervasive in the believer's life. That means it affects every aspect of our life, of our relationship with God, of how we face life, of how we minister in the power of the Holy Spirit or we minister in the gifts of the Spirit. Every aspect of our life is undergirded by faith. We talked about nurturing our faith, that essentially we nurture our faith with the word of God. We nurture our faith by being around people of faith. We nurture our faith by listening to testimonies of faith that just builds our faith up. We talked about the basis for strong faith. That means to have strong faith, we also need to be grounded in certain other truths. We need to be grounded in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. We need to be grounded in the integrity of God's word. We need to be grounded in our identity in Christ. We need to be grounded in the authority of the name of Jesus. These things become the basis. So these are additional truths which undergird our life of faith. When we are strong in those truths, we can also be strong in our faith. Then we talked about practical ways to exercise faith. So we said, first, we must speak our faith and Jesus taught us that. Second, we need to act in line with our faith as much as possible, as situations, you know, permit us act in line with our faith. We can also praise and thank God in faith and we must be having endurance. And you go through time, you hold on in faith through time and we must be determined. That means you have this resolve that you are going to get what God promised you. That determination must be there. And of course, everything must be done in love. So love is important. We don't do it out of hate. We don't do it out of competition. We don't do it out of pride or, you know, jealousy. No, everything we do, we do in love. Then we did this, like I mentioned, this was kind of the most important lesson. It's kind of summarizing everything we've talked about in eight steps. So it's okay. Let's put everything together in eight simple steps. How to exercise faith, right? So if you want to quickly remind yourself, or how do I do this? Go to this chapter, how to exercise faith. It kind of gives you those eight steps. This is it. As you do this over and over again in different situations, this is how we bring all this truth together in exercising faith. Then towards the end of this course, we talked about collective faith when more than two or more of us can come together in agreement. And that is also very powerful so that we access collective faith for various things, to see the miracles of God, to see the deliverance of God, to serve people, to pray for people. So we come together in faith. We also talked about the joy and the resilience and rest of faith. That is when we are walking in faith, we can walk in joy, we can be resilient. Life is not going to put us down even if hardships come and we can walk in a place of rest that is peace and so on. Now, I skip these things here. Essentially, they are just telling us that these are things we can do in faith. That is, faith is a true spiritual force. We can design, dominate and demonstrate the power of God. And there's a difference between the gift of faith and our own faith. So this whole course was dealing with our faith in God. In the class on the Holy Spirit, you will learn about the gift of faith. Which is something the Holy Spirit imparts to us in that moment to do something specific. We talked about the enemies of strong faith. Things like doubt, worry, anxiety, low self-confidence, keep those things away. Don't let them dominate you. And we talked about the parameters of faith. That means we cannot overwrite God's sovereign will. We cannot overwrite another person's free will. So faith has its boundaries. And then today we covered the last one, which is how do we balance faith and reason and avoid the pitfall of presumption? So we've gone through all of these things. So what's left is for me to give you these three assessments, which I will put up in this coursework. And you have to lend off November to finish it. I know I'm behind in giving you assessments. But I'll set up these three assessments for you. And you'll have to lend off November to finish. These will be short. Each assessment won't take you more than one hour or less than one hour to do. So just need over three hours to finish them. And I'll put it out for you. And it will be done. OK. Any final questions before we wrap things up? All right, so here's what we're going to do. We will close today. Just look out for these three assessments that I'll put up in the Google Classroom. And for those of you who are doing it on eLearning, I'll put up these same assessments on eLearning so you do it wherever you are. You're learning the course. They're going to be short assessments. Each should be just about one hour or less to do. The due date will be the end of November, number 26. So you have plenty of time to do it. Yeah, so that's it. We are done with this course on faith. I want to encourage you to please just review the notes, review what we have learned, and practice. Live by faith. Apply it into your life and situations. OK, last question there. Brother Manohar, you have a question. Please go ahead. Yes, I wanted to ask, will it be OK to wish a person of other faith on their festivals? For example, can you say happy devoutly to a known Hindu? And by saying that wishing him on their festivals, do we subscribe to what they believe? Or does it amount to supporting what they believe or worship? OK, so would I tell a person, enjoy your day, enjoy your festival, enjoy your Diwali? I don't see. I don't find anything wrong in telling them, hey, enjoy whatever your festival or whatever. Because I know, I don't really subscribe to that festival, the spiritual significance of that festival. But if they are celebrating and yeah, I'm not sure. I'm trying to think, what would I do? I just say, have a nice day, have a good day. Or I guess it's also depending on what the festival is. If it's a Diwali, where it is celebrating something very spiritual, then I would be careful. Because I don't want that person to think, I'm subscribing to that festival. But if it is more of a harvest festival, which we have, they have like Onam or these harvest festivals, then it's like, hey, that's just a natural thing. They're not necessarily worshiping God, but it's something about celebrating harvest, celebrating something. So my answer to it is, I would be careful on what that festival is about. If it's about Diwali, I usually will not. Because it is a spiritual festival. If it is about something very generic, like a harvest festival or they're having a birthday or they're having something very general, celebrating something, then that's OK. But if it's very spiritual, then I would avoid it. Because even though I definitely don't subscribe to the spiritual significance of that festival, I don't want to leave a wrong impression that by greeting them for that festival, I'm actually subscribing to it. So I want to avoid that confusion. So I just say, have a nice day. Enjoy yourself, whatever, some general thing, but not necessarily greet them for that particular spiritual festival. That would be my approach. And I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but that's kind of how I feel. Thank you, boss. It is clear to me. OK. It is clear. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Laisha. All right. Thank you, everyone. We're going to just take some time to pray. And we will close in prayer. I just want to thank all of you for being part of this journey in Biblical. I wish all of you were physically present. And we could sit in a classroom and interact that way. That would be a lot of fun. And we could really learn a lot more. But these online classes are our second best option, that even though we cannot be together in the same classroom, physically, we can still connect from different parts of the world and spend time learning, asking questions, growing together. So I want to thank you for staying faithful in the class, staying faithful on this journey. And I want to encourage you to continue the journey next semester. We reopen second week of Jan. We'll have a new set of courses, new things to learn. Just feel free to connect, to keep growing. And of course, use it in your ministries, wherever you are, whatever you're doing. Use these things in your life and ministry. Let's pray together. We will close. Could one of us just pray together for the whole class? And then we will wrap up. Who wants to pray? Everybody, go ahead, sit down, please pray. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you, Father. We come to the throne of grace. Thank you, Father, the time you have given us all the things we have learned about faith, Lord, that it should be used for your kingdom expansion and your work, Lord, not our name, but your name you glorify, Father. Thank you for pastor. Thank you for all the students that we have learned today about faith and our course is almost over, Lord. Whatever we have learned, it should be used for your kingdom expansion. And your servants will be used mightily, Lord. Whatever we are, we are learning, we are equipping with, Lord, the knowledge you are getting here. Thank you for all the privileges, Lord, you have given us this day. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Amen, amen. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for being on the class. So just look out for the assessments that I'll post. And there, so we won't have lectures. Just look out for the assessments. God bless you. It's been a wonderful journey. See you soon. Bye now.