 All right, I'm just waiting for the recording to start. It's taking a while. Okay, recording is on. Thank you, John, for reminding me. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the class today. So what you're gonna do is just quickly review what we spoke of last week and then we will go forward today in some new things that we want to cover concerning faith. Now, in this course, our main thing is to learn how to exercise faith in God as we journey through life and journey through our Christian faith and grow in our Christian faith. How do we exercise faith in God? And so we're covering many different aspects of this topic and theme. And part of it is learning how to deal with the failures that we may experience in our journey of faith. So we addressed this last week when we talked about overcoming failures and why it happens and what should we do, how should we respond when we experience failure, that we never quit. We just continue because we understand we're in a learning process. And in any matter in life as well, when we go through a learning process, a training process, we never start perfect. It's a journey of growth. Same thing in our learning how to walk by faith. So we discussed that last week and then we also discussed the matter of collective faith when two or more of us can come in agreement or something and then we could see God work in response to that. The place of agreement becomes the place of power where we see God work through our lives. And so we looked at certain examples in the book of Acts, how the believers in the early church came together in agreement and faith. We also looked at scriptures and Colossians. And then we also, even in terms of collective faith, there could be things that destroy or disrupt that faith and how to do it collectively as a team. And what do we do if we face failures collectively? So we even talked about that towards the end of last class. So that was last week. This week we're going to talk a little bit about the joy, the resilience and rest of faith. And also we will talk about hopefully in the next hour we'll cover the enemies and the perimeters of faith, right? So when we talk about joy, resilience and rest of faith that means these are the outcomes or I would say the byproducts or the outcomes or the results of walking in faith. King in faith. When you and I are walking in faith, it enables us to be in a place of joy in God. It enables us to be in a place of resilience. And we will talk about the way and then enables us to be in a place of rest. Now, and that's what we want to talk about. So when we talk about joy, the place of being happy in God, being happy in God and place of joy, it comes through faith. And you see in both these scriptures in Romans 15, 13 and in 1 Peter 1, 7 through 9, the importance of faith in enabling us to walk in joy. Could somebody read both these passages of scripture for us, please? Go ahead. Romans 5, 13. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 7 to 9, the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold and perishes than perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen your love, though now you do not see him yet believing, you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul. Thank you. So notice in both these scriptures, we see joy and peace in believing. Here also he says, believing, you may rejoice with joy, inexpressible. So in Romans 15, 13, he says, may God fill you with joy. You know, the God of God of all hope. May he fill you with joy and peace. Peace, we'll talk about that later, the place of rest. Fill you with joy and peace in believing or through believing and that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here again, 1 Peter 1, actually few and we just picked out a few verses here, but Peter is writing to Jewish believers who have been scattered around Asia Minor. So that would be the believers from Jerusalem. They've been all scattered because of persecution. They've gone up, you know, in modern day geography, look at, they've been scattered out of Jerusalem. They've been scattered all the way to Lebanon and Syria and Turkey. So they all scattered in those areas if you look at the modern day map. And Peter's writing to all these Jewish believers, Christians, who have been scattered and then they're being persecuted in all of these first places for their faith in Jesus Christ. So he says, you know, the genuineness of your faith is being demonstrated. You know, so through this difficulties that they are facing, persecution, you know, the faith is being tested as it may be tested by a fire and yet he says, yet believing you may rejoice with joy. So even though they're going through a hard time and their faith is being tested, yet believing or because they believe, they can rejoice because they believe they can be in a place of joy. So faith enables us to be in a place of joy because faith gives us the assurance that, you know, what God has promised he will do, so I'm gonna be happy in God. I'm gonna be joyful in him. I'm gonna rejoice in him. Even though right now, you know, we may be going through a time of waiting or we may be going through a time of testing or we may be going through a time of, you know, whatever we're joining through in life as we are going through the journey, if we are walking in faith in God, it's gonna keep us in a place of joy. Now I'm not saying that the problems will disappear or the testing will disappear or the waiting will disappear. No, that's not gonna happen. We have to make the journey. But what I'm saying is because the scriptures are teaching us that because we believe we can be in a place of joy while we're making the journey, we're going through whatever we're going through, right? So one of the outcomes of believing or having faith in us, we can be in a place of joy. So I wanna encourage us that because you're in a place of faith, you step in to intentionally choose to be in a place of joy. That because you're in a place of faith, you refuse to be depressed. You refuse to be discouraged. You refuse to be in a place of being sad. And it used to be in a place of joy. Why? Because of your faith. So I'm believing God. So I'm gonna be happy. I'm believing God's word. So I'm gonna be happy because I know that God is going to come through for me. His word is true. God himself is true. So I'm choosing to be in a place of joy, of rejoicing because I believe, right? So faith fills us with joy in the journey. There's the other aspect of faith, which is faith is resilient. And we've already read these scriptures here. Where you can imagine these early Christians, people were against them because they were following Jesus and they were being persecuted. And they were being persecuted in every aspect. And if you look at first Peter as an episode, he talks about six different places that these believers are experiencing suffering. Meaning they're facing, having hard time. So he talks about them facing suffering in the workplace. He talks about them facing suffering because people are laughing at their conduct. Meaning the way they live, the godly life, people mocking it. He talks about facing suffering wrongfully. That means people are blaming them wrongfully. So like that, they're facing all these hardships in their everyday life because they're believers. And yet he's saying, your faith is being tested. You can be in a place of joy and you're not quitting. Your faith, you're staying true to the end. You're staying true to the end. You're receiving the end of your faith. That means you are resilient through this tough time. And so faith in God makes us resilient to hardships. So whether the hardships means persecutions, sometimes it could just mean challenges that we face. Sometimes it could be unanswered questions we face. So whatever it is, whatever the hardship is and whatever form it might come, and the Jewish Christians in those days, for them the hardship, like we said, was came through these persecutions. People were opposing them, hating them, mocking them, making it difficult for them in the workplace. So they were facing persecution. But yet they were determined to hold on to that faith until the end. I mean, still they see Jesus Christ. I'm standing here. I'm not quitting on my faith. And so they were resilient. Nobody could take them out of their place of faith. So faith results in us being able to walk in joy. Faith also makes us resilient. That means we're gonna keep standing. I think one nice illustration of being resilient is, of course, it's been a while since all these malls were open, but sometimes when you go to these malls, you would see these air-filled figures, usually like the figure of a clown or something. And then the kids will come and punch that air-filled thing. And you try to push it down, it'll go down and swing back right out. So any way you try to push it down, it just goes down and comes right back up. That means, in other words, it's just saying, look, I'm not gonna be knocked out. No, punch me as much as you want, but I'm resilient. I'm coming back up. I'm not going down. That's just, so you can see that. So no matter how many times we face those hardships, we face the challenges, when we are in a place of faith, faith makes us resilient. We're gonna come back up, whether it's persecutions, whether it's hard, challenging situations, whether it's unanswered questions, whether it's just a time of seemingly indefinite waiting for a promise to be fulfilled or whatever it might be, faith makes us resilient. We keep coming back up. We are still there fighting. We may be knocked down, but we are not knocked out. We are back on our feet, right? So that's another aspect of faith, we must understand. This is the effects of faith in our life. This is how we can live when we walk by faith, right? So when we keep our faith strong, we're also going to be resilient through the hard times, through the difficult situations. And lastly, I want to also mention, yeah, and we already saw this, the peace, joy and peace in believing. Peace is a place of rest in God, right? Now I just want to talk a little bit about this rest of faith, rest of faith. Now, because we are walking in faith, we can be in a place of rest or you could use the word peace or a place of calm assurance or calm confidence that we're not perturbed, we're not disturbed, we're not agitated, we are not anxious, but we're in a place of calm assurance, we're in a place of rest. So faith enables us to walk in rest. And you will see in Isaiah 28, and we're seeing this old Testament scripture, Isaiah 28, this is also quoted later on for us in 1 Peter chapter two. I think it's verse six, but in Isaiah 28, he says, you know, it's talking about the Shure Foundation, which in 1 Peter two is pointing us to Jesus Christ, and then he says, whoever believes will not act hastily or whoever believes is going to be in this place of calm assurance. So it's going to be in this place of rest. If you look at the commentary on that word, not act hastily to make haste, it's to be afraid or to run in terror, you know, to run as a person who's alarmed and who's afraid. So the idea is when you and I are believing, it keeps us in this place of calm assurance. We are not people who are going to be afraid, run away in terror from whatever we face. That even if we face some difficult situation, we will not act hastily. We're not going to run away in terror because we're in a place of rest through faith. So you see this again in the Bible, God says in Isaiah 30, 15, when you return and rest, you'll be saved and in quietness, confidence will be your strength. So in that place of quietness and confidence, that's where we have strength, okay? And there are several other scriptures that teaches us to be in that place of rest, to be in that place where we can not fear, but we can stand still. Like it says in Exodus 14, when they were right there at the crossing of the Red Sea, the Egyptians were right behind them, the Red Sea was before them and God says, don't be afraid, just be still. Again, another place in 2 Chronicles 20, they had three enemies, three enemy armies coming against them and the prophet speaks to the people of God and says, hey, you just stand still, stand still, stand in your place and see what God would do. Don't be afraid, don't be perturbed, don't be disturbed by anything, stand still, right? So faith enables us to enter into this place of rest. I didn't mention it in the notes here, but if let us turn please to Hebrews chapter four and in Hebrews chapter four, the writer of Hebrews is really telling us, he's teaching us that this idea or this truth of entering into this place of rest by faith is something God taught us people even in the Old Testament. So if you will go with me to Hebrews chapter, let's pick up in verse chapter three, verse 18 and 19, somebody could read Hebrews 3, 18 and 19, Hebrews 3, 18, 19, somebody could read that for us please. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. And now we also go into chapter four and let's just also read verses one and two and verse nine and 10 please. Therefore since the promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. Sin, verse six and seven, since therefore it remains that some must enter it and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Again he designates a certain day saying in David today, after such a long time as it has been said, today if you will hear his voice do not harden your hearts. Can we also read nine and 10? Right, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God, for he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his. Now, thank you. Now there's a lot that we could actually draw from all of these verses, but I just want to zero in on the fact that in this passage if you will study it, he's saying, you know, we can enter into a place of rest, but he tells us two things. It's we need to have faith in God, faith in his word, that is Hebrews four, one and two, or also end of verse 319, and because of their unbelief, they couldn't come into this place of rest. And Hebrews four, one and two he says, now we need to receive that word, believe that word. So we faith, faith puts us into this place of rest. And therefore he says, and I ask people of God, we need to come into this place of rest. And what is he talking about? He says in verse 10, we seize from our own works. That means we, you know, when this place of rest is, I stopped struggling with, I stopped striving with my own works. I have now come into this place where I'm resting in the promises of God, what he has spoken. There's a lot more in this passage, but I'm just zeroing in on that of seizing from our own works. We come into this place of rest through faith. So as we've seen in all these scriptures, when we are faith in God, we can be at peace or we can be in a place of calm assurance and we can be in a place of rest because of faith. How does this work out practically in our lives? So let's say I'm believing God for something, you know, where there's a healing, whether it's a change in the situation, whether it's, you know, I'm believing something that he has spoken to me in his word, right? Whatever it might be, I've taken a promise, I've received God's promise, I'm believing. First of all, as I'm making that journey into that promise, we don't know how long that journey may be, right? Sometimes, okay, it's just one day. You believe the promise may be next day, you know, whatever you prayed for, you receive, great. But sometimes it may not be as simple as that. The journey may be long, it may take several months, maybe it may take several years, just depending on what you're believing God for. So what do you do, what happens in that journey, while we're journeying in faith, into that promise? Remember, that when we are in faith, we can be in joy. It means as you're making that journey, you can be joyful in God, you can be happy in God. Second, we can also be resilient. That means, you know, things may be hard, things may be rough, there may be oppositions, difficulties, hurdles, challenges, delay, you know, delays, means things are taking longer than we thought. Okay, you can still be resilient. You don't give up, you don't quit, and you are in faith. And lastly, you can be in a place of rest. That means in a place of peace, calm assurance, because you believe, because you believe you're not gonna be afraid, you're not gonna be perturbed, anxious, disturbed, alarmed, no. You're in a place of rest because of believing. So when things happen, bad news comes maybe, or somebody gives you information that is challenging your faith journey or faith, you say, no, I'm gonna be in a place of rest because faith enables me to be in this place of calm assurance. I'm continue to believe I'll stay in this place of rest. I'm not gonna let these things trouble me, disturb me, no. I'm gonna be in a place of joy. Lord, I rejoice in you, I thank you, I praise you, I worship you, that your word is true, your promise is fulfilled, and I just look to you. You know, you begin to thank him, begin to praise him by faith, and so you're in a place of joy. You're rejoicing and you're not gonna quit, you're resilient. Gonna pause here. Any thoughts, any questions? You all with me so far? Yes, Divya. So Jesus in his earthly walk, I see the question, the Divya's question is, didn't Jesus exercise faith as well? So in his earthly walk, yes, he did. And that's how he demonstrated to us how to have faith, right? So many, many examples we can see in the Gospels where Jesus did something and he said, look, where's your faith? Or this is a work of faith, right? He implied that. So after he cursed the victory, told his disciples, have faith in God. Or when he calmed the storm, he said, where is your faith? So he was operating just like you and me, having faith in the Father, in the Father's purpose for his life. And he demonstrated that he taught that to us, just like how he walked under the anointing, so that we could learn how to walk under the anointing, just like how he walked in obedience to the will of the Father, so that we could learn how to walk in obedience to the will of the Father, just like how he prayed. So we could also learn how to pray. So he also did the same thing. So okay. Thank you. Thank you, Vastu. Okay. Good. Any other questions here? All right. So three simple things. When we are walking in faith, remember we can choose to walk in joy, in resilience and in rest. Okay. Make it a choice because many times, people say, I'm walking in faith, but they lose their joy. Or how they're so upset. Why is God taking so long? Why is it not happening? Now, and then they lose their joy. They get sad and whatever. But then when they do that, then it just, you know, weakens faith. Faith actually should enable us to walk in joy, be resilient and walk in a place of rest. Let me now go to the next two chapters that we want to cover today to talk about some of the enemies of faith, right? So enemies to strong faith. Let's please turn to 1st Timothy, chapter six, and verse 12. And somebody could read that for us, please. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay held on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witness. Thank you. So Paul is telling Timothy, Timothy, fight the good fight of faith. And, you know, lay hold on eternal life, which God's given to us and, you know, keep holding on to the good confession that you have confessed to the presence of many witnesses, right? That means he has testified before many people, you know, about his faith. So he says, hold on to that confession of your faith. Don't quit, don't go back on, you know, what you have spoken in front of so many people, right? But notice that first part of that verse, fight the good fight of faith. So faith in this journey of faith here is Paul is comparing it to a fight. So obviously if there's a fight, it means there are enemies that we're fighting against. So faith here is compared to being engaged in a fight or in a battle. So obviously there are enemies. So we need to know what are those enemies that could weaken our faith, that could try to rob us of our faith, that would try to, you know, make our faith ineffective. So these enemies are trying to come against our faith. And so Paul is saying fight the good fight of faith, okay? Now, why does he call it a good fight? Because it's a fight that's worth fighting, you know? A lot of other battles that we may face that are not even worth fighting. So just walk away from it. Don't waste your time in those things, you know? For example, if people start making fun of you, do you want to stand there and fight back and start making fun of them? No, that's not a fight worth fighting. Just walk away. So guys, you know, make as much fun as you want about me. It's not, I'm not bothered. Just walk away. It's not a, that's a fight not worth fighting. But here's a fight, the fight of faith that's worth fighting. It's a good fight. It's worth investing your time and effort to make, to fight this fight of faith. So you just fight the good fight. It's also a good fight because it's a fight that we know we're going to win, right? God has already told us, look, you are going to come out victorious. So it's a good fight to engage in because you are going to come out victorious. So fight the good fight of faith. But then what are the things that can come act as enemies to our faith? Now, so this chapter is just a listing of, you know, things to be looking out for, okay? And I'm not going to necessarily read, we're not going to necessarily read all the scriptures. Just going to make us aware. Look, these are things that can actually weaken our faith or try to make our faith ineffective. So be aware of these things. Now, first of all, right off we can say, Satan and his demons, they are the main enemies. They want to weaken our faith. And in fact, if possible, they'll try to rob us of our faith completely, right? Try to get us to quit on the word of God and eventually quit on God himself. That's Satan's agenda to get us to give up on our faith in God, in his word and walk away from it. But we are not going to do that. But aside from Satan and, you know, how he operates through casting doubts and thoughts of fear and so on, which we will talk about, there are some other basic things that we must understand which are enemies to strong faith. One, of course, is a lack of knowledge of God's word, you know, this is a problem. If we don't have knowledge of God's word, then we really cannot have faith in God himself. See, some people say, oh, I believe in God. Okay, it's an easy statement to say, I believe in God. But what about God do you believe and what do you know about God that you are actually believing? So it's easy to say, I believe in God, true. But what do you know about God that you're believing? Do you know him as healer? Do you know that he's promised to be healer? Do you know that he's promised to be a provider? Do you know that he's promised to be protector? Do you know that he's promised to be the guide? Do you know that he's promised to be faithful to you? Otherwise, what about God I'll be believing? Just by saying I believe God, right? So how can I believe God? Well, I need to know what he has said. Because we know in his word that he has said, I'll be your healer. We can believe him to be our healer. Because we know in his word that he has promised to provide or protect or guide or, you know, so many things that he said in his word. Therefore, we can believe, right? So lack of knowledge of God's word is an enemy to a strong faith. And that's why we need to, you know, look into the word of God, look at the promises of God, there and through the word, through his promise, we actually believe in God. Another weakness or enemy to faith is fairly to understand who we are in Christ and what it means because all that we attempt to do comes out of that, right? Because we are in Christ and because God has given this as our identity and because God has given this as our inheritance, we can say, I'm going to walk in it. I'm going to believe God for it. So strong faith comes out of that place. And when we have a lack of understanding of our identity in Christ, it weakens our faith, right? And connected to that, our failure to understand righteousness that we are the righteousness of God. Because otherwise people walk always in a sense of unright sense of shame and guilt, right? And so therefore guilt and shame weakens our faith or our failure to understand that we can use the name of Jesus to pray to the Father and that when we pray in the name of Jesus, Jesus authorized us to pray in His name. And when we pray in that name, the Father is going to pay attention to our prayer and answer our prayer. So you need to understand, look, I have a right to pray in the name of Jesus. Some of the other things we have also learned is faith requires a clear goal. Sometimes we say, yeah, I'm believing God, but what are you believing God for? You know, what is that goal? What is it? What are you pursuing God for? You know, so if you're believing God to meet your need, sorry, what is that specific need that you're believing God for? It's, you know, maybe to, in some situations, it's okay, I'm believing God to take care of all my needs, my financial needs, or I'm believing God to provide so that I could go and do this thing for the kingdom of God. So sometimes we don't know what we're believing God for, and we just say we are believing God, but that actually is an enemy to faith because we can't have faith without hope. That a clear goal. Our worry, being anxious, worry is another enemy. Fear, thoughts of fear that come into our mind is an enemy, thoughts of doubt and unbelief. So the enemy, Satan and his team, they use these, they use worry, fear, doubt as a ways to weaken our faith. Another subtle enemy to faith is mental ascent. What is mental ascent? Mental ascent is knowing in our minds, but not believing it in our heart. That is mental ascent. So people know in their minds, oh yeah, God said, I am Jehovah, Jaira. Yeah, you know that intellectually, but you really believe it in your heart to the point where if you are in a need, you can say my Jehovah, Jaira will provide, that's believing. It's one thing in our minds to say God is Jehovah, Jaira, but if you are in a place of need, would you really believe he is your Jehovah, Jaira? That is faith. So there's a difference between knowing something in our minds, believing that in our hearts. And so people don't move from knowing in the mind to believing in the heart. And that's what we say as mental ascent. That means mentally they accept it, but they don't believe it in their hearts. So we got to be careful because that's, and we can in some way deceive ourselves thinking we have faith, but it's just knowing in your mind but not necessarily believing in your heart. Sometimes there's a failure to act upon the word. So that means you believe the word. I mean, you know the word, but you're not willing to act on it. Take some steps of faith to walk in faith, but we need to walk in faith. We need to act upon it. Sometimes we have wrong attitudes, wrong motivations. We want something for the wrong reasons. Sometimes it's, you know, I want to compete with somebody. I want to out to somebody else and that could lead us into a wrong place. Of course, sin and unrighteousness, if we are asking for things just to fulfill our own lusts and the wrong things, we have to be careful. Or sometimes we just have the wrong mentality. You know, we live under guilt, shame, condemnation, a poor self image, we cannot do it, poverty. So these are things that just defeat us. These are self-defeating mindsets. That we may be carrying, which keep us from having strong faith. So we need to deal with these mindsets or sometimes we don't hold on to our faith in God. We quit. So then this is also something we could be careful of, right? So there's just a list of things to, you know, small like a checklist, you'd say, okay, you know, make sure I don't, you know, I'm not weak in any of these things or I don't let any of these things entering into my heart. My life caused me to become weak in faith, but I need to fight these things, keep them out of my life. I got to fight the good fight of faith. And just a final thought here before we go for a break is, you know, sometimes we may fail, you know, we may fail. There may be those moments of failure, but we need to get back up, right? So, you know, Jesus prayed for Peter. He said, Peter, I prayed for you that your faith should not fail. So you can imagine, you know, Peter denied Jesus three times, but Jesus' prayer was his faith does not fail, okay? He three times he stumbled, but you know what? He got back on his feet. So his faith didn't fail. Ultimately, he was still back on his faith life in Jesus Christ. Did he stumble? Yes, he did. He stumbled three times. Three times he said, no, I don't know that man. I don't know that man. I don't know that man. But Jesus prayed, even though you stumbled three times, you'll not quit on your faith. Your faith will not fail. So what's the message here? The message is, look, we have enemies to faith and we've tried to list some of these things. And in our journey of faith, you know, sometimes we may give place to some of these things temporarily, just like how Peter temporarily denied Jesus three times, but that didn't mean it was the end of his faith. He got back on his feet. I'm sure he took time to repent, say, Lord, I'm just sorry for what I did. I denied you three times. It's just terrible. I'm sorry, but I'm still in faith. I'm gonna keep joining in faith. I'm not quitting, right? So sometimes, you know, we may let one or more of these things come in cause us to waver a little bit. We may stumble, but you get back on your feet because you and I, we are fighting the good fight of faith and we know there are enemies. Satan ultimately wants to weaken our faith. He will try it through doubts and all these other ways. He'll try to weaken our faith, but we're gonna get back on our feet and keep fighting the good fight of faith. Let me pause here. Any thoughts, any questions? Are you all with me? These are short, short lessons, just trying to give us a well-rounded understanding of our walk of faith. You all with me so far? Okay. Devya, please go ahead with your question. Thank you, Pastor. My question is regarding why is that faith has to be tested? One, one, and the second is what tests our faith? Is it, who tests our faith, Radha? Is it God or is it, you know, from the evil one? Thank you. Okay. Now, this may seem a bit like a very simple, I want to say a very simplistic way of looking at it, but, you know, tests are needed for promotion, right? Tests are needed for elevation to a higher level, right? So we do that in almost, in our everyday life, we have that, you know, in school or college. We are given tests. Why? It's just to elevate us. The intent is we want to make sure that you're good at this level so we can take you on to the next level, right? Or, you know, if you're thinking in terms of driver's license or a license for some certification, they give you a test, why? So that they can certify you, you know? Yeah, this person has what it takes to be at this level, to have a driver's license, to be a qualified coach, to be a, you know, a certified trainer, whatever. So tests are there to say that we're good at we are ready for the next level. Now, our faith has to be tested so that we can then move at a higher level of faith in God. So without testing, we really won't know how strong our faith is. Where are we, right? But not only do we not know where our faith is, but it also gives us the opportunity to be at a higher level of faith in God. Who tests our faith? Now the tests, so there is God who would test our faith with the intent to elevate us. There is Satan who uses various things like we mentioned to come against our faith, but his intent is to demote us or to actually destroy our faith. So when we face tests or challenges to our faith, you must understand this is something is coming from the enemy. And if it's coming from the enemy, his intent is to destroy. His intent is to put me down. His intent is to get, drop me off my faith in God. If it's something that God has set up in my life, then it's in his intent is I want you to go up higher. Now usually God's test for our faith comes through a call of obedience. That's the way you know, you can differentiate between what's from God and what's from the devil. God's tests of faith come as a call to obedience, to higher obedience. When there is something before you that demands a higher level of obedience to God, then you know that's from God. Satan's tests or attacks on our faith is usually a call to disobedience. So you know, that's not from God, that's from the devil. He's inviting me to disobey God. So that's how you and I can tell what's from God and what's from the devil. So God's test of faith is challenging you to a higher place of obedience to God from where we are. It's challenging you. Can you believe me for this? Can you trust me for this? Can you step out and do this for me? It's a higher place of obedience. That's God testing your faith, not to destroy it, but to lift your higher, right? And Satan's work is exactly the opposite. It's like, hey, come disobey God, do something wrong. And we said, of course we say no. And the moment you say no, you're becoming stronger in your faith. Does that help, Divya? Yes, yes, Pastor, thank you. I just wanted to also clarify. So Abraham's life, we can see that is a test of faith from God. But in this case, when the scripture portion is mentioned about Peter, it is a test from the evil one, is it right? That's right, yeah. Okay. So in Abraham's case, God tested him, but he called him to a greater place of obedience. Offer your son, Isaac. In Peter's case, it was Satan tempting him to disobey, deny Jesus. And I mean, he stumbled, but he didn't give up on his faith. Okay, thank you, thank you, Pastor. So let me just look at the comment there from Sid Kenu. As you said, our faith can be robbed. How is it possible? Pastor, it's our heart as a Christian. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in those within. How can our faith be robbed? So when I used the term rob, I don't mean Satan's gonna come and steal it. But what I meant is he would try to get us to give up on our faith. So maybe I should use a better terminology would be to give up on our faith. I mean, I used the word rob, but it's not like Satan comes and takes it away when we're not watching. That's not what I meant. What I meant is that Satan would try to induce us to sin, disobey God and eventually give up on our faith in God. So that's how I meant the use of the word rob. Okay, so I'm sorry, but if that word rob gave a wrong impression or wrong meaning. What I meant was he tempts us or he puts things around us causing us to disobey God, eventually get away from a place of faith in God. That's what I meant. Okay, let's please take a quick break, our 10 minute break and we will come back. So our next session may be a very short session. I just have some content that I wanna talk about, explain to us and we may be done earlier than usual, but let's take a time, 10 minute break and we'll be back please, thank you.