 Alright, so we are back to nurturing our faith, so let's meditate a little bit on meditation. How do you meditate? Tell me the four ways. Meditation, I can only hear Shanshan, what? Tell me properly. Meditation, contemplation, visualization, confession. Okay, very good. So we got all four of these, we can apply it in our regular study of God's word. That way we can develop ourselves. So every time we read the word, try to use, try to use all these four methods or tools to internalize the word. Okay, put the word inside you. Think about the word and make it a part of who you are. Now, how else can we grow in the word of God? The second way, is second way. One was meditation, which we've understood. Second way to work with the word is, you can sow the word. You know, so farmers, what do they do? They sow the seed. So when they sow the seed, there will be a harvest at the right time. But what if a farmer does not sow the seed? What will happen? There will be no fruit, no results. And then they wonder, why am I not getting any results? There is no seed, there is no crop. Where is the harvest? Can't expect harvest because we didn't sow anything. In the same way, Jesus taught us, he taught us in the parable of the sower. Do you all remember the parable of the sower? Okay, I think it's Matthew 14, or 13, Matthew 13, parable of the sower, where he gives us this example of a sower who is sowing seed and the seed falls on good ground, it falls on stony ground, it falls on thorny ground, right? So ultimately, what is the result? Only the seed which falls on good ground grows up and it yields the results or the fruit. Okay? But what did Jesus tell us in that parable? What is the seed? What is the seed? He explained the parable later. Correct. So he says, the seed is the word of God. In that parable, the explanation that Jesus gave us, the seed is the word of God. So the word of God is supposed to be sown in our hearts. What is ground? Our hearts. Now if our heart is good ground, that simply means a heart which can have faith in God, a heart that can believe, that would be a good heart or a good ground. So the word of God is the seed, but that seed should come and fall in good ground, which is a heart that believes. Then what happens? There will be a crop, okay? There will be a harvest. So this is the second way of engaging in the word of God. First we said, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, which means meditate, meditate on the word. Then faith will grow. The second way is sow the seed. The word of God is the seed. So I must sow the word in my heart. I have earlier shared with us that in order for us to develop faith, we meditate on the seeds that can produce that fruit. So for example, if I want to plant mango tree, what seed should I put? Any idea? What a question. If you want a mango tree, you must put a mango seed, right? In the same way, when I'm talking about the word of God and I want to see God's power or blessing or outcome regarding a particular area, I can put scriptures along those lines. So if it's healing, I want to experience healing in my body. What seed should I sow? What seed should I sow? Yeah, the word of God that has to do with healing. So I'll take that and I'll start to meditate on it. Everything, all the things that I told you, meditation, contemplation, visualization, confession, I'll do that with the healing word. Then what will happen? I'll get the result. The fruit is healing because I sowed the seed of healing. Okay, now maybe I want to be prosperous or successful. What scripture should I take? I want to be successful, so what scripture should I take? Preparation, okay, scriptures that help prepare you, okay, fine. What else? Scriptures of blessing, right? Scriptures, promises in the word of God, where you see so many scriptures where God says that, okay, I will bless you. I will bless you. You're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So I take all these passages and I sow scriptures about blessings, success, victory. Then what fruit will I get? What fruit will I get? Same, blessing, victory, triumph, I'll get that. So will I get the fruit tomorrow? Today I put the seed. Okay, tomorrow I want it. Are you sure? Yeah, no plant grows like that, right? We put the seed and then we have to nurture it. So as believers sometimes we take the word and we start to pray it and then we are expecting, God, today I am not successful. Yesterday onwards I started confessing your word, but how come there's no success in my life today? You have to take time. Like a plant slowly grows, the word of God will grow in my heart. I'll become strong in my faith, in my confession. Then over a period of time I'll see that I'm actually walking in the result of whatever I was praying, okay, maybe months ago or even years ago. So we need some patience. Every farmer needs patience, yes or no? We do need a lot of patience, especially when we are sowing the seed. Some seeds will yield immediate results. Thank God for that. Okay, it's always nice to see immediate results, but some seeds will take time. We have to allow it to grow and then at the right time there will be a harvest. So this is the way we engage in the word of God. Firstly, the whole meditation aspect. Secondly, the sowing aspect, sowing the word, declare the word. There's an APC app, I don't know if you have downloaded it, but in that app there is a section known as Toolkit and in the Toolkit there is a portion where you have A to Z declarations. So you can just take those declarations and start to confess them, even daily. In our prayer time, remember we said when we pray, we can petition God, we can thank God, we can pray in the spirit. We can also have declaration. So one portion of the prayer time can just be declaration. Open up those declarations, start to speak it by faith over ourselves. So when we do that, what's happening? It's like farmer. Farmer is sowing the seed, and at the right time there will be a harvest. So in this way, we can sow the seed of God's word and see the results in our lifetime or even after that. So that's about good practices that will help us nurture our faith and make it grow because faith can grow exceedingly. Faith can grow exceedingly. All right. Now how else do we make our faith grow? We can, there are two more sections here. One says by being a part of a community of faith. Here in Philemon chapter 1 and verse 6, Paul wrote that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So the sharing of our faith will become effective firstly by acknowledgement. All right. Acknowledgement means when we say yes to what God is saying, that is acknowledgement. What is God saying about us? What does God say about us? Few things that you have learned in your course called as identity. Who are we in Christ? We are a new creation. Yeah, we are a new creation. What else are we in Christ? We are a child of God. What else are we in Christ? We are saints. So much is there. Tell me. What else? We are blessed and righteous, sanctified, blessed. And every spiritual blessing in heaven. Yeah. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We are forgiven. We are redeemed. Right? We are risen with Christ. So there is so much acknowledgement means I say, yes, that's right. That is acknowledgement. But if I don't agree with it or I don't believe in it and I say, I don't think so, then I'm not acknowledging it. So we must acknowledge. How will my faith become effective? It says here, faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. So as a believer for my faith to become effective, I must say, yes, Lord, I am forgiven. I am redeemed. I am a saint. I am blessed. You can just go on. Right? I am a child of God. So that has to become my way of thinking, way of living. Then my faith will be effective. And in this passage, he also says the sharing of your faith. So the sharing there is a word called as Koinonia. Koinonia is a Greek word. And Koinonia means fellowship or communion. See, we can all be believers by ourselves. But the Bible teaches us to commune or fellowship with other believers. That is the healthy Christian life. That is the healthy walk of a believer. So Koinonia is fellowship. We don't find God telling believers, oh, you be a believer. You're saved. You're born again. You're in Christ. You be on your own. You don't need other believers. The Bible doesn't teach us, you know, being that kind of a person. Because in the Bible, we read about the body. Okay? The body, we all understand, isn't it? The body has many parts. And every part is important. And we've seen how one hand cannot tell the other hand. You know, I don't need you. Have you ever seen one hand just floating around on its own? Because the hand is good enough. You don't need the rest of the body. I don't need the rest of the body or the head just floating around scary, right? You don't see things like that happen. But the Bible teaches us that the body is all together. All the parts of the body are together. They help each other to function together. That simply means as believers, we are all meant to serve each other, cooperate, fellowship, live and serve, what can I say, extend the kingdom of God together. So it's not about individualism where we say that, okay, I'm a believer. I don't need any other believers. We can't say that because the Bible teaches us that we are the body of Christ. Every part, every member is important. Okay, now how can my faith become stronger? We've seen how to employ the word and we've also talked about acknowledging. We must say, yes, I am, whatever the word says, I am. You acknowledge it and also share the faith. Share the faith means no to dwell with other believers, fellowship with other believers. Okay, what happens is we're able to fulfill God's purpose in our life when we know how to fellowship in the right way. Maybe they can share from their lives about what God taught them, how did they journey and that helps us in our spiritual work. Maybe there are young believers whom we want to talk to and we encourage them and say, okay, this is how you must put your trust in the Lord. So in our body, we are all helping each other. We cannot say that I can be alone and I'll be a great believer. It doesn't show the biblical manner in which God wants us to do our lives as believers. We do need fellowship and when we have a godly community, a godly faith community, it will build up our faith. Okay, so we need a good community that we should be a part of and that will also help strengthen our faith. Then moving on, we can nurture our faith with testimonies, testimonies. Testimonies are the examples from people's lives who have been through something and they have seen God's health, they have seen God's victory and they share. So when we hear testimonies, it charges us up and the Bible teaches us to share what God has done. There are two passages here in our notes. I'm on page 63 for all the people whose notes are printed. Could somebody read these two passages, Psalm 103, 105 verse 2 and 5 and then Psalm 145 verses 4 and 5. Sing to him, sing psalms to him, talk of all his wondrous work, remember his marvellous works which he has done, his wonders and the judgments of his mouth. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendour of your majesty and on your wondrous work. So we are encouraged to talk. In fact, it says sing to him, sing psalms. So we can even sing about God's goodness, God's greatness, how God came through for us, talk about it, share with other believers what God has done. So that is a way to strengthen our faith. Has a testimony encouraged any of you, a genuine testimony? Yes, all of us when you've heard a testimony in someone's life, that shows us that if God can do it for that person, God can do it even in my life and that's the importance of testimonies. So focus your mind on Godly testimonies, people who have walked with the Lord and they have so much to share. That's where maybe reading books about the lives of Godly men, Godly women, sometimes we hear songs, wonderful songs, hymns. Maybe we can go back and read the story behind that song. Why did this person write the song? There must be a testimony behind it. That's why they've come up with this song. So when we start to meditate on these testimonies, even that builds up our faith and it truly encourages us. So in this manner, we can strengthen our faith. So if you have any more questions you can ask. But I'm just going back here to the chat to answer the questions which are here. Okay. So Sunny is asking, does the Holy Spirit help believer to visualize while reading the word of God? Correct. Yeah. So that's true. Sunny, it is the Holy Spirit who helps us to get the pictures that are like in line with the word. So we're not talking about just imagine, just visualize, not like that, but the Holy Spirit will give us pictures. So it is also said that dreams and visions are the language of the Holy Spirit. Dreams and visions are the language of the Holy Spirit. So when the Holy Spirit wants to speak to us, sometimes he'll just put a picture in our minds. Okay. It may be when you're sleeping or it may be at any moment, but that's how, that's not the only way, but that's one of the main ways in which God will speak to us. So yeah, whenever we are reading the word or we are in prayer time, or even otherwise, you can be open. The Spirit can always be open to what God is revealing. So if you see a picture or a communication from God, just grasp it. Okay. Did I tell you all the other day about one sermon that I had to write and I was not prepared for it and yeah, that new wine, yeah, new wine. So that the way that communication came also was, yes, I got it in my spirit, but long ago I had seen an image of, you know, something being poured out of a jar and that was the image in my mind. So I immediately knew, hey, this is new wine. So just pick up the images that God may be sharing to us. Okay. Good. And any other questions, any other thoughts about nurturing our faith? Yes. Yes. Suppose I shared my testimony with my friends. Okay. But not Christians. Okay. But they don't believe on my testimony. So should I keep sharing my testimony to them or should I stop? Okay. It really depends. If they are unbelievers and you want them to put their trust in Jesus and you're sharing it, you can wisely share as much as is needed. So even if they don't believe you at that time, it's okay. You can share. No problem. Yeah, you can. Okay. But don't force them. So I, there was one story like in, it happened in the ministry of a friend that I know. So this person who has the ministry, he was working with young people. Okay. A lot of like drug addicts and things like that. So he once went to share about Jesus to one young man. But he didn't know that in the house, there is, there is, there was another guy. So there were two guys. And you know, they, the habits were not good and whatever. So when this person went to the house to talk to one young person, he didn't realize there was another guy hiding in the restroom. Okay. And this person went ahead and you know, shared his testimony, shared about the love of Jesus and how Jesus can save you. Jesus can bring you out of all these habits. He can make you a new person. He can give you a great life and put your faith in Jesus. So he's sharing all this to this guy, this, you know, this young man. But the marvelous thing that God has done in, in this testimony is that the person who was hiding in the restroom, he gave his life to Christ. Okay. So today, in fact, that young man, he is so strong in the Lord. He has a believing wife to, you know, children in the Lord, serving the Lord. Can you, can you think about it? He was just hiding in the restroom, but he heard the gospel. He heard the testimonies. Okay. So we don't know how God can use our testimony to change somebody's life. So don't underestimate the power of that testimony. Just pray, but be wise, be wise in what you share. You know, what details you choose to share in your testimony. It can be life changing for, for people. Okay. So, yeah. So that's something that I remember. Okay. Anything other than that? Fine. Question? Question? Not really. Okay. Fine. So we've learned a lot about nurturing our faith. Now let's go to keeping our faith strong. How can our faith be strong? Or what is the basis of our faith? So we can only have strong faith if our foundation is strong. Okay. Now think about some tall buildings, super tall, very, very tall, high buildings in the world. How will their foundation be? Any, any idea? Strong. So when they were going to build that building, how much do you think they would have dug underneath? Quite deep. So as long as you, you want a strong building, right? If you want a strong building, you have to lay a deep foundation. If you lay a ordinary foundation and you want your building to be, you know, whatever 50 floors, you can build it, but I'm not coming near that building because it can crash anytime. It does not have a strong foundation. So we all want strong faith, tall faith, but there has to be a deep foundation. Only then the faith will stand strong. So what is the strong foundation for our faith? We will look at four things that make our faith very, very strong. What are they? First is, we must be established in the integrity of God's word. Remember, we said that there can be facts, but the word of God is the truth. Okay? In John chapter 17 and verse 17, it is there in the notes. Would one of you read it? John 17 verse 17? Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Okay. So sanctify them by your truth. What is the truth? Your word is the truth. So when our faith is based on the truth, it's on a strong foundation. It will not be shaken. But if my faith is based on somebody said this, somebody said that, some message that I heard, but I'm not even checking. Is it in the word of God? Is it aligned to the truth of God's word? Then what happens? We're not sure. Foundation is not that strong. But if we are clear that our faith is based on what the truth of God's word says, then we can build tall, we can build high and have strong faith. So the authority of the word of God, the Bible says the word of God carries authority. It's the final authority. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will remain. Okay? So it is the final authority. So the word has to be final authority in my life. And if I'm basing my belief on what the word says, then my foundation will be very strong. I don't have to worry about my faith being shaken. You got it? So the most important thing is, what does the word say? So apparently, like I've heard one particular preacher say this, that whenever people used to come to him and say that, Pastor, please pray for me, you know, I am believing God for something like I'm believing God for what can we say, the blessing of a house. Okay? So he used, apparently used to ask them, okay, tell me a few scriptures based on which, you know, you are believing God for this. But apparently there were, there were people who couldn't even share one scripture. Yes, initially when God speaks to us, maybe we receive it, you know, in a, in a form of a like an image or a word in our hearts and all that's fine. But eventually we can see the truth of God's word and see connected passages of scripture in the Bible. And that'll help us stand in that, you know, in that promise that God is showing us. But that preacher said that usually people never had a word, they never had a verse, they never had, you know, nothing specific from the word of God. And so he always used to, you know, feel bad that what is this God's people, they, they don't even know the scriptures. They just come and say, you know, I want this, I want that from God. But based on what in the Bible, are you believing God for that? And they're not able to even mention one passage from the word of God. So you see, God is gracious, right? Many times he still answers, but the right way is that we must base our faith on the truth of God's word. Then nothing will shake us. I mean, there's so much more that I can talk about it, but I'll just stop myself there. If you have any questions, maybe you can ask. So as long as something is the truth, right, you don't have to worry. You know that God will do it. Like, let's say Noah, God told Noah, there's going to be a flood. Now what if that was not true? Here is a man building an ark, telling his family this and that, you know, come and help me. What if there was no flood? It's very sorry state of affairs. But when God says something, that is the truth. And then Noah started to build the ark. It makes sense because the flood came and the world was destroyed. So I must base my faith on what God is saying. If God has said it, I don't have to be afraid. People around me say, what are you doing? How can you believe God for this? Because his word says heaven and earth will pass away, but his word will not pass away. So the word of God is the final authority in our lives. It's the truth. So faith is always connected to the truth. If faith is not connected to the truth, it won't work. If faith is my imagination, right? So just imagine stuff. Okay, I'll own a helicopter. I'll own this. I'll own that. But is that what God said? If God didn't say it, don't ask God, God, why didn't you do it? He'll say, I never said it. Who asked you to believe in something that I never told you? So faith has the basis of the word, which is the truth. If there is no truth, then faith is not faith only. You can just maybe as a principle, you can have faith, but it won't work. Truth is what forms the foundation. So be strong in the truth. What does God's word say about this or that or something else? Then faith will be strong. Okay, so be based in the truth. Second, be established in the finished work of the cross. That means we must be strong in what Jesus has done on the cross. What has Jesus done on the cross? Anyone? Yeah, he was crucified, but what was the result of that? We are, yes, our sins are forgiven. We have salvation. We are sanctified or made holy. We are forgiven. We are redeemed. We are redeemed. The blessings of God or the blessings of Abraham have come upon us. The power of sin in our lives is broken. Sin can no longer rule us. That's another reality. I can live victorious. I don't have to worry about sin ruling in my life. I can overcome sin. I can overcome temptation. I can overcome any attack of the evil one. I can live as an overcomer. Greater is he who is in me than he that is in the world. And because of the cross, we have received wholeness. Wholeness means completeness or complete blessing of the mind, of the body, of our emotions. So in every way, I can be strong because of what Jesus has done on the cross. And because of the cross, the curse of sin is broken. We are no longer cursed. As believers, unfortunately, people still say, oh, this curse and that curse. No, the cross has already broken every curse. So I must acknowledge that and say, every curse, it's been broken because of what Jesus has done. And as I receive that truth, as I revoke those curses, I will be able to walk in what Christ has done for us. What else has the cross done? The cross has defeated Satan. So Satan is a defeated enemy. I'm no longer fighting an enemy who is literally like, the battle is kind of over in a sense because Satan was already defeated when Jesus hung on the cross, when Jesus died on the cross. So that is another reality. So every day when I'm living my life, I don't have to be afraid. As believers, oh, I'm scared of the devil. That's not the truth in the word. What does the Bible say? Jesus is defeated Satan. So if I'm a believer, I'm not afraid of the devil. The devil has to be afraid of me. Am I right? Correct. So in this way, having the understanding of what has the cross done for me and my faith starting from that place is a strong foundation. All right. There are many other things we can talk about, but I'll just stop with that. So the cross has done so much for us. It has put us in the family of God. It has included us in the kingdom of God. We are now qualified for the inheritance that God has for us and everything else. So a couple of other things that we must be established in. So all of this was knowing the cross, then knowing the identity in Christ. The identity that we have in Christ, we've already talked about it. If you're strong in that, then our faith is strong. Then understanding the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. So the work of the Holy Spirit, that's again another powerful truth that we must really grasp. So when I understand, who is the Holy Spirit? How does he work in the life of a believer? How does he manifest himself? What are the operations of the gifts of the Spirit? These things will also help me have a strong foundation of faith in my life. So these would be the primary ways in which we can have a strong foundation. There's one more included here, which is the authority of the name of Jesus. So when we understand the power in the name of Jesus. So again, how do we apply these things similar to what I had shared earlier? We can declare the word regarding all these matters. We can meditate on the word. We can maintain a good conscience. We can exercise our faith and also be motivated by love. So I will just stop here and Sister Gertrude has a question. Sister, do you want to ask something? Yes, Sister, those who are believers, they say they don't come under the generational curses. But what about the unbelievers, unsaved people in your family? Do they come under the generational curses? Yeah, so those who are not believers, they cannot receive from the work of the cross. Isn't it? Our thought is for everybody, right? You mean even the unbelievers? Yes, Sister. See, potentially what you're saying is correct. Meaning, for example, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him. So Jesus died for the whole world, but is the whole world saved? No. Why? Because they have not believed in him. Exactly. So unless one is a believer, or one is born again, one is part of the kingdom of God, because of their faith in what Jesus has done on the cross, they cannot have salvation. In the same way, all the blessings of the cross, one cannot have unless they have salvation. You understood, Sister Gertrud? Yeah, yeah, Sister. Yeah, so see Galatians Chapter 3 and verse 13, it says, Christ has rescued us from the curse of the law. Christ has, or in other words, it also says, redeemed us from the curse of the law. Who is the us then? It's the born again believer. So that means, those who are not born again, they may still or they will still be under curses. Okay, Sister. Thank you. Yeah, sure. Thank you. Okay, Sanjay, what is the test of fruit of salvation? How do we know we are truly saved? Okay, so the test of the fruit of salvation in short, Brother Sanjay, is a changed life. If truly one is born again, we will observe a transformation, okay, by the work of the word and by the work of the spirit. So that is very briefly how we can know whether someone is saved or not. Okay, now if you want to learn more about this, I think in the book, APC publication called as Foundations, it must be Chapter 3 or something where there is a whole section about the fruit of salvation. How do we know if we are saved? How do we know if we are born again? But the fruit comes later, but the initial indicator is the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are now born again. Okay, I hope that answers your question. Okay, sure. Thank you. Any other? Yes? No? All right. So in that case, we can just wrap up. We will pray and close for today. And I'd like to request somebody from our online batch to lead and prayer. Heavenly Father, we just wish to thank you for this time of study. And we just pray, Father, that as we learn from thy word, and as we meditate and contemplate on your word, we pray a lot that the Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us and strengthen us, Lord, in our faith. And also, Lord, help us as scripture teaches us, help us to commune and fellowship with others, to encourage one another and be blessed by each other's testimonies. And give us a hunger for your word, Father, that we may spend more time in your word and receive from your word. We pray for blessing upon all our teachers from APC and upon all the students of APC, Father. And we ask this in your precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Brother Sanjay, for leading us. So all right, we close for now. We'll meet in our next course about prayer tomorrow. Okay, Nadel is asking for the resources. I've already put that in the chat. Nadel, I hope you got it. Let me copy paste it again for you. Yes, I posted it again. Sure. Thank you.