 Good morning, everyone. Let's pray and begin our session for today. I'll just say a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank and praise You, Lord, for this time. We thank You for all that we are learning. Lord, even this morning we pray that You will open up to us the truth of Your Word so that we can walk in victory, that we can live an overcoming life. We surrender, submit ourselves. Lord, every single student, Father God, on each platform. And Lord, we believe, God, that You are equipping each one and that, Father, You are causing each one, Lord, to arise in You and, Father, filling their hearts with dreams and visions of God. We submit and bless every single student. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we have been discussing, especially regarding how to engage the spirit world. And in the last class we said that there are certain practices, certain rituals, certain things that people can do which will make us sort of, or rather the spirit world to engage with the natural world. That's what we said. Now, this can be both ways, the practices that we looked at like some rituals, dedication, sacrifices, all these things, either if you do it from the biblical perspective or when people do it, unknowingly they do it from a different perspective. Even then, engaging the spirit world is something that happens. And so we must be aware of this. Now, let us move on from there. So in our notes we saw that, we saw about disciplines, dedications, sacrifices, rituals. And today let's just go to this section that talks about the spirit world recognizing authority. When we think about God, how is God like, what kind of a being is God? What kind of a being is God? Any spirit? Spirit being, sister. Yes, sister. Please come again. Spirit being, sister. So spirit being, God is a spirit. God is a spirit and therefore Jesus taught us that when we pray, we worship Him, we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So God is a spirit being. A few more things for us to recognize is that there are two kingdoms. I already mentioned there is a kingdom of light and there is a kingdom of darkness. God is the ruler, obviously he is the ruler of the entire earth but he is the one who rules and reigns over the kingdom of light. But when you look at the kingdom of darkness, who is the one who is leading or heading up the kingdom of darkness? Satan. Now we will understand a few things about these kingdoms. When we call these two separate, if you want to call it communities or something like that. When you say kingdom, what comes to your mind? Kingdom, what comes to our mind? Kingdom. When we think about a kingdom, there is a kingdom. What comes to our minds? A place of authority. A place of authority. Kingdom as the term would say kingdom. So there is a king and there is a way that king rules. So when we say kingdom of light, kingdom of darkness, there is a rulership on both sides. Whether it is kingdom of light or kingdom of darkness. And we have already said God is the ruler of the kingdom of light. Satan is the ruler of the kingdom of darkness. Now thinking about these two kingdoms, the scripture also tells us that every human being belongs to either one of the kingdoms. Okay, now there is no person who is in between. Whom we can say that I am not part of God's kingdom, but I am not part of Satan's kingdom. That can't happen. Every human being is either part of God's kingdom or part of Satan's kingdom. So if you are not part of God's kingdom, automatically after the boundary line, you fall into Satan's kingdom. Okay, so that is the reality of the spiritual world. There are scriptures, there are many verses I am not reading through, but it's all there in our notes. Ephesians 5-8, you could go to that scripture and understand that God, you know, in this world, there are two kingdoms and Jesus Christ is the ruler of the kingdom of light. Satan is the ruler of kingdom of darkness. Every human being either belongs to this kingdom or the other kingdom. Next, when we are in a kingdom, we are very much part of that kingdom and we as citizens of that kingdom are people who can be ambassadors. Okay, ambassadors or agents. So what does it mean? Now ambassador is somebody who is sent. We have ambassadors of other countries who are there in our country. They represent their own country. So ambassadors are people who are sent. Similarly, whichever kingdom we belong to, we can be ambassadors. Meaning we can be people who are agents or those who carry authority of our own kingdom and, you know, function outside. So if I'm from the kingdom of light, then I'm an ambassador of the kingdom of light. So wherever I go, I can release the power of the kingdom of light. If somebody is an ambassador of the kingdom of darkness, wherever they go, they can also release the power of the kingdom of darkness. That's how it works. Okay, so we saw two things. Now let's move on. In the spiritual kingdom, citizenship is recognized. Okay, citizenship is recognized. So what does it mean? It simply means that when we are part of a certain kingdom, scriptures tell us. In fact, 2 Timothy 219, it says, the Lord knows who are His. Okay, so God already knows which are the people who are part of the kingdom of light. Similarly, even the kingdom of darkness knows who's in the kingdom of light. Can you recall any incident in the Bible where demons are able to recognize people depending on which kingdom they belong to? Just think and tell me. Anywhere? Yes? Yes, Shani? I was thinking about that scripture when I forgot what I say. Jesus, I guess he said, I don't remember the scripture. Yeah, you're right, Shani. So in Acts chapter 19 and verse 15, there is an incident where some people, they tried to imitate Paul. Paul was casting out demons in the name of Jesus. So these people thought, we can use it like a formula. Just go use the name of Jesus, cast out demons spirits. So they tried doing it, the seven sons of Scewa. When they did that, you know what the demons said? They said, Jesus, we know. Paul, we know. Why you? Because what they were trying to do is they were part of the kingdom of darkness, but they were trying to use some principles from the kingdom of light. But the demons immediately recognized. So same way, when you and I, right? We are ministering, we are serving or we are just going about our daily lives. Demons will know, oh, this person, they're not from our kingdom. They are from the kingdom of light. So they know that we are carrying authority of the kingdom of light. So we don't have to be afraid. We can be very bold. Even the demons will recognize us. Okay, don't become too happy because of that. But I'm just trying to say that there is awareness. There is awareness, whichever kingdom we belong to, there is awareness. Okay, so that too is something for us to understand. Now, the next important thing is a person who belongs to the kingdom of light has authority over the works of darkness. So this is the ultimate truth about the two kingdoms. Yes, there are two kingdoms. We can be representatives of the two kingdoms. We are recognized for which kingdom we belong to. But the most important thing is when we are part of the kingdom of light, we are able to overcome. Right, we are able to overcome the kingdom of darkness. That's always the case. The kingdom of light will overcome the darkness. Think about this room. Maybe in the night, it will be pitch dark. One of you may walk into the room, switch on the light. You may put a light which has very little power. Even then, what happens? The light will just cut through the darkness. Yes or no? And light never takes permission. You may ask, please, can I come? Please, will you go? Put the light. What happens to the darkness? It runs away. It's gone. Has to go. No other option. So it's the same thing when we talk about us as believers, as people in the kingdom of light. When we go, darkness has to run away. That's how it is. That's how it will be. Always remember, though there are two kingdoms and we are understanding how these kingdoms are working, the kingdom of light always overcomes the kingdom of darkness. So that must really encourage our hearts. So we can exercise our spiritual authority. There's another small section here about sovereignty of God and responsibility of man. I know we have touched upon this briefly in the faith chapter, but I'll quickly go over this section as well where we know that God can do anything. But the way he has created the world. We talked about complete delegation. Complete means when he puts somebody in charge, he doesn't interfere. So, though we are expecting God to intervene at times, and we ask God the question, God, why did this happen? Why did that happen? Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? We also have a responsibility. It's not like fully we put the responsibility on God because right now we have been deputized. We have been delegated. We have been given the authority on the earth. And so we have to undertake our responsibilities. All the delegated responsibilities that God has given us, we have to take it up. And that's how we will see the fulfillment of the purposes of God. Now if we all sit down and we all just take a rest, I know the truth of the word of God thoroughly, but I'm not going to do anything. God's purposes will not be fulfilled. That's why when the children of Israel cried out to God, they were under slavery, isn't it? They cried out to God, what did God do? Whom did he send? Moses. He sent a human being. And he said, okay, come on, take responsibility. I'll guide you, you guide the people. You do your part and God will do his part. So human beings have to take up their responsibility. Can God do? Yes, God can do. But that's not how it will work because certain things are set in place. So you and I have to take our responsibility to see God's purposes fulfilled. Then other ways in which we can release that authority. You know, every Sunday we talk about speaking our faith. If we believe, we need to speak it. And so the power of the tongue, life and death is in the power of the tongue. When I want to enforce authority, one of the things that I have to do is speak. How did God create the heavens and the earth? Yeah, release authority through the words. So today we are talking about believers authority. And we want to release the authority. One of the ways in which we are going to release authority is through what we speak. If we are speaking a line to the word of God, power will be released. But if we are speaking opposite to the word of God, we are allowing Satan to sort of come in, take charge. So we must be aware of that the power of the tongue and scriptures tell us life and death is in the power of the tongue. Speak life. Speak life. Impossible situations. Speak God's intervention and God's goodness in that impossible situation. What are you doing by speaking that way? Releasing authority. Releasing power. So the power of the tongue and exercise of faith. We've already discussed this in the faith course where we said that though God can do anything unless man employs faith, things won't move. So that's why we've got to take our mustard seed faith. Speak to the mountain. Use that faith. Jesus when he looked at people he said according to your faith let it be done for you. Let it be done for you as you have desired. Why? Great is your faith. When there was unbelief God did not do anything. So the operation of faith is also necessary for the authority of God to be released in situations. So it's our responsibility as people. Take the responsibility and the law of sowing and reaping. It's amazing if you have a piece of land or just a space in your home, a garden space and you never sow a seed. Never sow a seed for let's say three years. You never sowed any seed and at the end of three years you're expecting roses and jasmine and tomatoes and potatoes. I think there'll be nothing because we didn't sow anything. Similarly, if we sow something. If I sow, you know, some tomatoes, what will grow? Tomatoes. So everything according to its own kind. So there are certain laws and principles in the word of God where we are taught that we must sow the seed of God's word. If we don't sow, we won't reap anything. But if we sow, we will reap according to its own kind. Now whose responsibility is it for the promises of God to be sort of planted in our hearts and for them to be nurtured? Our responsibility. We can't tell God that why isn't it happening God? Why am I not blessed in my finances? Why am I not blessed in some other area? The simple reason may be that we are not holding on to the promises. We never sowed the seed and we are not taking time to believe in it. And therefore it's not growing. It's not producing anything. So sow the seed of God's word. These are all ways in which we can see the power of God manifest. We can see the authority of God released. So I'll just quickly go over these points again to utilize our delegated responsibility to employ the power of the tongue to exercise our faith and sow and reap. The principle of sowing and reaping. So now let's come to the concepts of power and authority. There are two different topics for us to look at. Power and authority. We will look at a particular passage and then begin to explain what these two terms mean. We've already seen elaborately on the subject of authority. And we said authority is something that is given to someone for influence. Okay. That we've understood. Now let's look at it from the scriptural point of view further. Let's turn in our Bibles to Matthew 10 and verse one. Could somebody pick that up and read it please. Matthew 10 verse one. Can I read it sister? Okay sister Gattu please go ahead. Matthew 10 was one and when he had called his 12 disciples to him he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. So here in this passage it says that when the Lord Jesus was sending out his disciples he gave them power over unclean spirits. The English word used there is power. Now if you want to understand what the actual meaning of that word is which language should we look up? Greek. Okay in this case Greek because this text was written in Greek. So we have to go back to the text in its original language and see what was written either in Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic and then compare that with the English language because sometimes we don't have those words in the English language so the translators have used any word that they felt appropriate. So here we read that Jesus gave power over unclean spirits. Power over unclean spirits and we should look up the Greek. When we look up the Greek we get the word exosia. Okay exosia. Now the actual meaning of that word exosia is authority. It's authority. The way we discussed it earlier authority, influence, right? Influence, privilege, rights. He gave them power over unclean spirits. He gave them authority over unclean spirits. So before Jesus sent out his disciples he gave them the authority. So they did not have to be afraid. They knew if we come across unclean spirits we will be able to cast them out. You don't have to be afraid, right? So he gave them authority and we could also say that this is delegated authority. We'll come to understanding these topics later. But what is delegated authority? Deligated authority simply means that instead of Jesus himself going physically and casting out those spirits he's sending his representatives. So today you and I carry delegated authority. Jesus is not here physically but when we go what do we do? We go in the name of Jesus. What does that mean? We are going with delegated authority. So these disciples they went with delegated authority and they were able to cast out demons. So authority everyone understood? What is the Greek word for authority here? Exosia, correct. So Greek word for authority is exosia and Jesus said I give you exosia over unclean spirits. Okay, we are clear with that. Now let's move on. Let's talk about power. Luke chapter 4 and verse 14. Put somebody please turn to that scripture and read it. Luke chapter 4 verse 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. So Jesus returned in the power of the spirit to Galilee. And from then on we read that Jesus did many miracles. Jesus released this power. Jesus returned with power. Now we want to understand this word power earlier. We tried understanding that word power and it turned out to be exosia. Right? So now we want to understand this word power. What should we do? Yeah, exactly. So look up the original text. Again, this is Greek. Right? So look at the Greek text there and it says, Dunamis. All of you are thinking of youth missions. But dunamis means power. Right? Earlier exosia that we talked about meant authority. Now exosia, sorry, this power is dunamis. Okay. And dunamis is power. Yes, but it's more like ability, strength, might. Okay. The ability of God, the ability of God, the power of God is released. We say that, right? What does that mean? It means that the ability of God is released. Sometimes we say the miraculous power of God. Things couldn't happen in the natural. When the miraculous power of God was released, it happened. Meaning the miraculous ability of God, it took over. Got it. So power here means ability, strength. And just think about it, you know, mighty power. When mighty power is released and something takes place. Sometimes we talk about all these, you know, like scientific energy terms and how nuclear power is created, it's generated. Like the kind of power there is, that can do some work. So when you create something with power in it, why are people even making those things? Because you can utilize that power hopefully for something constructive. But unfortunately, sometimes people utilize it for evil things. But there is power. And when that power is released, it's actually ability and might. It does a work that cannot be done otherwise. So the word dunamis is ability. It's power, but it means ability or it means strength. Now the Lord Jesus, He gave us both of these things. He gave us both of these things and He wanted us to exercise both of these things. Let's quickly turn to Luke chapter 10 and verse 19. Luke 10 and verse 19. Luke 10 verse 19. I have given you authority to trade on serpents and scorpions and over all the power to the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Correct. So notice that both these words are used. I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Both these terms authority, exosia, dunamis, you know power, both are used. And so there is a difference between the two. But in this particular passage, we are told that yes, does Satan have some power? What does it look like? Does he have? Does our enemy have any power? What does it say? Overall the power of the enemy. So there is some power that demonic spirits exercise. But what did Jesus tell his disciples? This was not even like Jesus' last message to the disciples. He was sending out, you know, a fewer number of disciples to go and do the ministry. To them, he said, I give you authority over all the power of the enemy. Nothing by any means shall hurt you. Nothing with me. Jesus gave them authority and power. He gave them authority looking at the scripture. He gave them authority before he was crucified, right? Before he died, before he was hung on the cross. Now after he was hung on the cross, what happened? What did he tell his disciples? He gave us the great commission. Correct. He gave us the great commission. And in that, what did he say? All authority on heaven and earth belongs to me. And you go now. Like I give it to you. You go, make disciples of all nations. So when he was, when he gave authority to his disciples, even before the work of redemption, they came back with good reports. And they told Jesus, Jesus, we're able to do all these miracles. Demons are running away. So how much more we, now that Jesus has finished the work and he gave us all authority. So we carry all authority now. And we can exercise it. And what did he tell them in Acts 1-8? You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses. Right? So he gave us all authority and he also said you are going to receive power. All exosia and dunamis. Both. So if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, or you know, you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus, this is something to settle in our hearts. That we carry delegated authority given by Jesus. We carry power. Right? And so we can win over the kingdom of darkness. We can win over the kingdom of darkness. I'm going to pause right now to just give us an opportunity to share things that you may have in your hearts or maybe even ask questions before we proceed to the next chapter here. About authority, about power. Are there any questions? Sister, I have a question. Yes, Sister Getrud? Yeah, how can we exercise this authority by speaking the word? Yeah, so I just listed out a few things earlier in the previous section. You are right. We can exercise it through what we speak. We can exercise it by our faith. Right? So these are all ways in which we can exercise our authority. Is that okay? Yes, Sister. Yeah, sure. Sister Getrud and Shani, you want to ask something? Yeah, I know you said earlier, did you say that demons, people who are the kingdom of light with God, that demons can even recognize that demons know that we are part of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness that demons know that people who are part of the kingdom of darkness, is that what you said? Yes, I said that. Okay, because I'm kind of confused because I was trying to understand, I know that that verse that I said about Paul, I know Jesus, I know, but who are you? I know you were saying that they were saying that because the demons didn't recognize them because they work part of the kingdom of God. They're trying to imitate. But wouldn't they also recognize them too? Because they're not part of the kingdom of God. They're also part of the kingdom of darkness when they also would have known me. Recognize them. That's what I was trying to understand. Yes, I think so. I think so. They would be able to recognize both kingdoms, representatives of both kingdoms. Okay, so in that instance, I guess they said they didn't know them because they weren't part of the kingdom of God is in terms of in that scripture. Sorry, please come again, Shani. So in that scripture, because I know you said that, you know, demons can recognize people who are part of the kingdom of God but also their own kingdom and that scripture when they said, Jesus, I know, Paul, and I know who are you. You were saying that demons were saying that because those people were trying to imitate, I guess, the kingdom of, you know, kingdom of God. And that's why you didn't recognize them. But I was saying couldn't they just also recognize them also because they're not part of the kingdom of God. They're a part of the kingdom of darkness. That's what I was saying. Yes. Yes. So I'm agreeing. I'm agreeing with what you're saying that they can recognize representatives of their own kingdom. And if we just go back. I'm thinking maybe it's Matthew 12 where we read about, you know, Jesus, people accuse Jesus and they say he's casting out demons by Beelzebub. But then, you know, in that place, there's this explanation where Jesus says that if a kingdom is divided, it won't stand. Right? Like why would Satan, like he do things against himself. So when you read about things like that, even that gives us an idea that demonic powers would recognize their own. Okay. So yeah, you could just think about it. I know it's a little sort of a roundabout explanation. But yeah. So demons can recognize their own kind. Okay. So that is about when they say Paul, no, Jesus, no. But who are you? They still recognize that person was part of the kingdom of darkness then. Yes. Okay. And then I also want to make sure you said that in terms of exercise your authority, the power of the tongue, the exercise of faith, you have to do all of those or just do one of them or two of them or three of them in order to exercise your authority. Are you asking, sorry, Shani, I'm probably not able to hear you very clearly. Let me see if I can increase my volume. I don't know what I can do. Sorry to have you repeat your, please give me a moment. Let me see what I can do to make this faster. Yes, please. Can you, can you go ahead now? Okay. Yeah. So I know you said, I know I'm going to ask the question, how do you exercise authority? And you said the power of the tongue, the exercise of faith, the law of sewing, you have to do all those or can you just do one of them in order to exercise your authority? Do you have to do all three? Okay. So you could do either one that applies to that situation. Okay, it's not necessary that you apply the whole bag every single time. You can pick and choose led by the spirit. So I hope that answers your question. Yes, it does. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Coming back to the chat section here, where Sanjay is saying, could you share a ministry related experience where you exercise the power which God has given us in a way the disciples experienced when they saw demons flee or healing and deliverance. Okay. So when I saw exercise the power which God has given us, I think the one that comes to my mind right away is the one that I probably shared with all of us sometime back about that tumor or that swelling. And today we talked about the release of authority through the words that we speak. And so in one particular incident for those of us who were not part of the previous course, what happened was there was somebody who came with a growth near their elbow, which was suspected to be malignant and, you know, so they were still in the process of sort of identifying it and all of that. But when they came for prayer, I just had a sense to rebuke it. And I went ahead with what the spirit of God was leading me to do and rebuked it. Okay. So rebuked that tumor or that growth and said, you will disintegrate. You disappear in the name of Jesus. And the beautiful thing is it had been there for from what the person shared something like weeks to months and it had become really hard like a like a stone. But from that point onwards from the day that we spoke to it, it gradually sort of disappeared. So I praise God for that. And I feel like the power of God would have been released when we rebuked it. And then, you know, God did his work in healing that person. So, yeah, that's one thing, Brother Sanjay. But we will discuss, especially with regard to deliverance. I'll share with you my personal experiences as we go forward. Is that okay for now? Brother Sanjay? Does it? All right. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yes. Any other questions? Any other queries? Yes. Yes, Nelson. When God met Adam and Eve, he blessed them on the garden. Did he give them the power and authority also or just kept them? Yes. So our understanding is, yes, they had. When he created them, he created them perfect. We read about, you know, dominion being given to them. Genesis chapter one versus 26, 27 to rule and reign here on the earth. So I believe they carried authority and they carried power. I believe so. Yeah. So, right. And any follow-up questions? So how Eve could not realize that serpent was Satan? So why couldn't they recognize that the serpent was trying to deceive them? Satan was receiving the Eve. How she could not see that the serpent is actually Satan? Yeah. That's a good question. See when God created man and woman, he gave them dominion but he also gave them free will. So it was their choice. It was their choice. Now I am looking at it, you know, two things that I can think of. One is we say Satan is a deceiver. He deceived Eve. Okay. Eve got deceived. That tells us deception is what you look. You look like the good option but you're not. Okay. So he in that sense was a good deceiver. He was able to subtly convince Eve. So that's from Satan's side. From Adam and Eve's side, I think probably they had an idea that they shouldn't do it but it was a choice. Disobedience. That's what we talk about. They disobeyed God. So maybe they were able to sense it and discern it. They may have known that this is not the option we must pick but they made a decision to do it and then things happened. So I don't think that they couldn't discern. I think they would have discerned but they went ahead anyway. So does that answer your question? Fine. So disobedience would be my answer. Any other? Yes. Okay. So why does it take so much time even when we are using our authority? So we'll come to it. You're asking specifically with regard to deliverance. Yeah. Deliverance. When we look at the experience of Jesus, again, they were all one step. When He commanded, the demons came out. That is the standard. Now in our case, we could say that we are still building faith. We are still gaining revelation about these matters and so in our experience, every time it's not one step. As you rightly stated, it could be hours, sometimes days, that you have to work with someone for the demon to be cast out. But we have to move towards the standard that Jesus said. At some point, we could come to that place where we are able to do it very fast, quickly. So I hope that answers your question. Thank you. Good question. Okay. No questions. All right. Anyway, we are out of time. There is something. Okay. So let's do this. Let's go ahead and take a break. We'll come back in 10 minutes and then we will continue with our discussion. Sister Lucy will take up your comment at that time. Thank you. God bless you soon.