 Good morning, everyone. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Ravali and Nina, John and Chira for joining class this morning. Also, welcome to our in-person students and to our e-learning students who will be listening to this lecture later on. We'll begin with a word of prayer, so I'll ask since the mic is near Nina Santosh, Nina and Santosh can lead us in prayer, please. Father God, we thank you. We bless you for this day, Father. We submit each one of us unto your loving and Lord. Lord, teach us your ways, Lord, and help us to do it every day of our life, Lord. We submit us, Lord. In Jesus' precious way, we pray. Amen. Thank you. So last week we began looking at chapter three in Kingdom Builders and we began looking at, you know, how the work of the Holy Spirit, giving birth to the work of the Holy Spirit, we can learn some lessons from the Mary miracle. So we looked at, you know, how the Holy Spirit, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary conceived and she gave birth to the Son of God, how God's divine plan was unfolding in history, okay, the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we saw that and we were looking at how, you know, we can give birth to the work of the Holy Spirit and through some of the lessons that we can learn from this Mary miracle. The first thing we looked at was the work of the Spirit is released to the earth at the appointed time, okay, and we also saw that the work of the Spirit is read through ordinary people, okay. The third point is the work of the Spirit must be unadulterated, born purely of the Spirit, okay, and the fourth one is the work of the Spirit might be a cause for embarrassment, okay. So we stopped here, we're looking at point four, okay. We know that even though Mary conceived in a womb, the Son of God, it was through the power of the Holy Spirit. But did this bring her embarrassment? Yes, she could not go and tell anyone and everyone, no one would believe her story, okay. But we see that God spoke to people who mattered to her, okay. God spoke to Joseph in a dream, also the Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth and she spoke. So those who mattered to Mary, God spoke to them. So even when God, the Holy Spirit, you know, births a plan or his purposes in our life, you know, people around us may not understand, okay. Even if God calls you into full-time ministry, maybe your family, your spouse, you know, may not understand. But, you know, God will speak to them. God will speak to the select few who are very close to you. God will speak to them and they will understand because God was speaking to their hearts. So it's important at such times to stay around people who encourage you, you know, who press you forward to release what God has placed in your heart and in your life, okay. The next one is the fifth one is a work of the Spirit is released to normal natural process, okay. We see that, you know, although Mary conceived in a womb was something supernatural, it was a work of the Spirit. But we see that Mary had to engage through the natural process. God could have, you know, on the first day, get Mary conceived to the power of the Holy Spirit. On the second day, the baby could have come to full-term nine months. The third day, the baby could have been born, but we see that the God allowed it to go through the natural human process of pregnancy and delivery. So what does it teach us, you know, when God initiates his work in us by the Holy Spirit, we also need to co-labor with God, okay. And when we co-labor with God by his empowering grace, you know, we can see his work released here on the earth, which means that even though things are brought into us supernaturally, and of course, God is going to give us the grace and the gifts to fulfill the function that he is calling us to, we need to make our own sacrifices. Okay, there is sacrifices that is involved. We need to work hard. We need to persevere. We need to organize. We need to manage things. We just can't sit back and say, you know, hey, this is the work of God. I'll just sit back and relax. God will just do it. He'll just speak. Things will fall into place. He will orchestrate things. Yes, he orchestrates things, but it's important for us to work hard, persevere, plan, you know, organize things and manage what needs to be done. The sixth thing is we might encounter close doors until we reach God's appointed place, okay. Now, some of these things which we are learning in this chapter in the next chapter is what we already studied in fulfilling God's purpose for your life and in the publication receiving God's guidance, okay, in a minister's foundation, quite a repetition. So when we face close doors, not every door is a close door is a know from God, okay. We learned that in receiving God's guidance and the publication code of honor. Not every door is a closed door, which means that God wants us to enter even though we are carrying God's purposes, we're going to birth his purposes. It means that when God closes doors, it doesn't mean that, you know, it's not his purpose or it's, you know, that we're not fulfilling his purpose. It's just that he's telling us this is not the right place. He wants to birth it. This is not the right place. This is not the right people. This is not the right time. So, you know, we need to come to the place where we can birth God's purposes, the right place and the right timing. So in the case of Mary, you know, where Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem and she was full term and they were knocking on every indoor and imagine there was no place for them in any of the inns. It must have come as a big shock to them, disappointment, you know, discouragement, frustration. They could have even questioned, Mary could have even questioned, am I really carrying the son of God? You know, in my womb, if it's really the son of God, you know, God should, you know, prepare the best of the best inns in Bethlehem for us. But every in has shut its door and there was no room available. What was only available, the cattle shed. Okay. And they would never have envisioned or imagined that the son of God would be born in such a place. Okay. So what does that teach us when we are birthing God's purpose, which the Holy Spirit has, you know, put into us. We can face close doors, which means it does not mean that, you know, it's not God's purpose. It only means that when there's close doors, God is directing us to the place where he wants us to release what he is birthing in and through us. So we need to keep moving and moving till we come to the right place where God wants his work to be released and not get frustrated and disappointed and think this is not God's purpose. I'm at the early fulfilling God's purpose. Okay. The next thing is the work of the Spirit often has simple, humble beginnings. See, the son of God was born where in the cattle shed and where was, what was his manger? His manger was an animal feed trough, okay, where you put food for the animals to eat. So we see that it was not in a palace. It was not in the rich man's house. It was not in the best of the best five star or three star ins in Bethlehem. Okay. So what does it teach us? It teaches us that when God releases his work in and through us, it does not come with great grandiopalm show, you know, with big damaka like, you know, with the big noise and all of those things. It comes in very simple, humble, small beginnings. Okay. But even though it's simple, small, humble beginnings, it is something that is going to be really a damaka and the sense is going to be really powerful. It is going to impact the entire world. And, you know, two scripture passages that we can talk about this on this point is Zechariah chapter four verse six. It says, not my might, not my power, but by my spirit. Okay. And Zechariah, the same chapter was 10 verse four, chapter four was 10 says, who has despised the day of small things. So don't despise this day of small things or small beginnings. You know, don't get disappointed. It is still God's work, but he begins some things in very humble, small ways. Okay. The next one is the work of the spirit has to be protected and nurtured. Okay. So we see that, you know, Mary and Joseph, did they take care of baby Jesus? Yes, they did nurture, take care of the child when there was harm and danger. When the angel of God told him, get up, go to Egypt, you know, they went and then the time came to leave Egypt and go back to Judah. They did come back. So we see that, you know, they did take care of baby Jesus. Okay. Mary didn't say, Hey, this is a supernatural birth. This is the son of God. This is God. I don't have to take care of God. He himself can take care of himself or God can send his angels to take care of him. I don't need to take care of him. You know, that would have been foolish, but we see that Mary and Joseph, they take care of baby Jesus. They nurture him, protect him as their parents. Okay. So what do we learn that every work of God that is birth in us, his purposes has to be nurtured and protected. Okay. Just because it's the work of God, it does not mean that we be irresponsible. We have to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us and whatever he has given to us, we need to do it with excellence and we need to do it well. Okay. So that is the work of the Holy Spirit in helping us to be kingdom builders and how through the Mary miracle, you know, we can learn some of the things that, you know, how the Holy Spirit births his plans and purposes through our lives. Okay. So that is chapter three. Anyone has any questions? Chapter three about the Holy Spirit as our director in us being kingdom builders. Any questions? No. Okay. There are no questions. We'll move on to chapter four, the nature of a God given vision. Okay. We studied again this quite in detail in your first year, first semester in ministers foundation, but we will look at a few things to reiterate or we look at most of it to reiterate what we have learned. Okay. So the Holy Spirit, you know, is our director even as he directs us in kingdom building, even as we are kingdom builders. And we know that the Holy Spirit communicates to us. How does he communicate to us through the word also through prophecy. Okay. Through people to dreams and visions. Okay. What else? The prompting stillings in a witness of the Holy Spirit, all of that we have learned. Okay. So the Holy Spirit of God communicates to us through dreams and visions. Now, when we talk about dreams and visions, we're not only talking about something that is supernatural supernatural spiritual experiences of God. But it is also something that we can refer to when the Holy Spirit is giving us ideas, dreams, purposes, goals, strategies that he wants to birth in us as his people. Okay. So when we talk about dreams and visions, we're not just talking about supernatural spiritual experiences of God, but we're also talking about how the Holy Spirit uses dreams and visions to birth in us, his people, his plans, goals, purposes and dreams. Okay. And you know, through visions and dreams, it's not just some heavenly entertainment for us. Okay. Like when we see pictures or, you know, movies, you know, something like that. But every vision and dream that the Holy Spirit gives to us is he's communicating, you know, his desire that what God wants to execute here on what he wants to give birth here on. So every dream and vision that the Holy Spirit gives to us is pregnant or full, you know, waiting to give birth to the kingdom purposes that God wants to be fulfilled in and through us. Okay. So in this chapter, we're going to basically understand how God imparts his visions and how God takes us on this journey to see his vision fulfilled. So it's so wonderful that God just does not give us dreams and visions, but also how he takes us on this journey, how he prepares us and how he guides us and leads us to fulfill this vision and the dream or the plan and the purpose he's giving to us. And you know how in the process, how to carry out his purposes, his plans that he has for his kingdom here on earth. Okay. So even as we study this as kingdom builders, it will help us or enable us to walk accurately with God and to know how God is preparing us to fulfill his plans, dreams and visions. Okay. So in this chapter, there are 11 insights concerning God given vision. Okay. The first one is that the God given vision is a divine command and an authorization. Okay. So it is something that is divine command and authorization means the authorization is coming from heaven. Okay. It's a command that's coming from God. It's a God given vision that he wants to establish and extend here on the earth. So since it's a command, what should we do? A command has to be followed. It has to be obeyed. Okay. And what does authorization do? When you have an authority, what do you do? When you have, yeah, you have the power. Okay. You have the boldness. You have the confidence. So you can, you can, you suppose, you know, Francis wants, has some announcement to make to your second years. So he says, okay, he comes and makes the announcement. Then all of you are, you know, very upset and say, A, come on, Francis, this cannot happen. We have so many assessments, so many assignments, not possible at all. It says, I don't know. This Pastor Nancy said, okay. And then you'll go to Pastor Nancy and said, Oh, this, this, this, this. And then she says, I don't know. Okay. So that is a divine authorization and a divine authorization. Whoever says it, you know, says it with boldness. There's, there's no fear and there is confidence and whatever has been said has to be followed. So even as we carry God's vision, we have this divine command which has to be obeyed and also we can have this boldness, this confidence and be fearless. Okay. Sometimes when we're carrying or most of them and we're doing God's plan and purpose for our lives, you know, we can shy away, we can be afraid, we can feel incompetent, we can feel, you know, that, you know, we are not able, we are not able to do it, but then we need to be bold, fearless and confident. Why should we be bold, fearless and confident? Because when it is God's vision for our life, it is backed up with God. Okay. All of heaven is backing us up, you know, and it is God who will enable us, who is committed 100% to see that vision fulfilled in and through us, because it is his plan, his vision for his kingdom to be executed here on earth and to be his kingdom to be executed here and extended here on earth. Okay. So nothing can stop us from fulfilling this God given vision and dream. Only what can stop us ourselves? Yes, our own unwillingness, our own feeling of incompetence or our feeling of, you know, failure or that we can't do it. Nothing can stop us from fulfilling God's vision and dream. Now, the one that God gives the vision to becomes a vision bearer, that means he bears that vision. Okay. So what does he do when he bears that vision? Okay. God wants him to execute that vision here on earth through that. So, when God wants to execute his vision here on earth, he raises up a person, he gives him the vision, they become the vision bearer. And then he birds that vision in a certain place. Okay. And so the person who has this vision is proclaiming the message. And what is he doing? He's not doing it all by himself. He's, you know, when he's proclaiming the message, he's sharing his vision, he's tearing the hearts of other people around him to come and join his vision. So when God gives us a vision, it's not for I me myself and I me myself to do it by myself individually, but it is also co-laboring, co-partnering and co-working with others. God wants others to labor in our vision. Okay. So he stirs up people who are like-minded, who will be the right people to fulfill the plan and vision for your life. And he will bring about that purpose, he will fulfill that purpose in your life. Okay. So also God raises a man. Okay. Man means a human being generally, okay. Man and woman. And whose vision is to fulfill a specific purpose of God. And God gets him to proclaim this message or gives him a ministry that, you know, through which he can fulfill his plan and vision. And he becomes a vision holder of the vision bearer. And then he carries out his vision. And how does he do it? He finds different methods, different strategies, comes up with different plans. And he also incorporates different people into his method and strategy who are skilled and talented in those specific areas who can help in bringing about that vision. And, you know, carry it out and fulfill God's divine purpose. Okay. So we look at a few examples of men of God in the Bible to see how God worked through them. There were the vision bearers, but we will see how God worked through them. Okay. So the first example is Moses. Okay. Sorry. The first example is Moses. Okay. So we see that, you know, when Moses was, you know, almost 40 years old, we read in Acts 7, verse 23 says when he was 40 years old, it came to his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. That means at the age of 40, he knew what was his divine calling plan and purpose. So he bonds the vision bearer. Okay. God stirred up his heart to come to a place where he can use Moses to deliver his people out of Egypt. And so also we see that, you know, God had a plan and purpose before that as well. He had, you know, purpose that he would be taken into the palace and be trained to be the next pharaoh, the leader of Egypt. So all these were the seeds in his life. And all this was God's divine orchestration of circumstances in his life to bring him to a place where he can birth God's vision of delivering his people. Okay. So we see that sometimes God's vision can come to a simple steering in our heart or prompting in our heart, you know, something that really captures and holds our heart. Or sometimes they can be something like, you know, something that will really catch our attention. Okay. Like the burning bush. For Moses, there were two things. There was a stirring in his heart. And he came to know what was his divine call purpose that was to deliver his people out of Egypt because he knew he was not an Egyptian. He was an Israelite. And also, after 40 years, when he had messed up at the age of 80, God used the burning bush, you know, to catch his attention. Okay. So sometimes God can use a burning bush to get our attention. And it's a place where a burning bush is a place where God's presence, where God's voice is released to reveal your call and your destiny. So for some people it can be like the burning bush experience, where they can experience the presence and the voice of God. Sometimes it can just be a stirring in your heart. Okay. So we see that when he was 40 years old, there was a stirring in his heart. But 40 years later, God encountered Moses through the burning bush. Okay. So we also look at Nehemiah's life. Okay. Nehemiah, what did Nehemiah do? What did Nehemiah do? Will the walls of Jerusalem? It was ruined. The walls had broken down. The gates were burned down. And where was Nehemiah? Was he in Jerusalem? Yes. He was in Sushan, Persia. Okay. And one of his brothers, Jewish brothers, who had gone to Jerusalem and come back, you know, Nehemiah asked an update. Okay. What, how is the situation in Jerusalem? So he says no walls are broken down and, you know, the gates are burned down. Now I'm sure, you know, Hanani, the brother who shared this, would have shared this news with many other Jews. Okay. But no one's heart was stirred up like Nehemiah's heart was stirred up. And what did Nehemiah do when he heard this? He wept and mourned and fasted and prayed. It was not just for one day, two days. It was almost for three months, so much so that he was so grieved, so sad and so depressed that the king could know that something is really wrong with Nehemiah. Okay. So sometimes the Holy Spirit births his vision in and through us to a stirring in our hearts. So we need to pay attention to those stirring in our hearts. And we see that, you know, God led Nehemiah to carry out his mission. Okay. He goes to Jerusalem and he carries out the divine plan and vision. So why did God stir up his heart? So it's basically for him to go and do it. Why Nehemiah? You don't know. But if you look at the book of Nehemiah, we can look and, you know, we can use our wisdom or knowledge to understand that he was in a very prominent place of leadership next. Now the king very close to the king, the most trusted person, you know, the king would ask for wine and he would pour it and give that means there had to be the most trusted person. Okay. So he was somebody so close to king and so he could get authorization from the king. He could get materials. He could get permission. He could get leave. He could get the money. He could get protection. Everything the king provided for him. Okay. So if it was somebody else, it would have been difficult because if you read the book of Nehemiah, we know that there was it was not very easy for them to build the walls. Okay. A lot of the neighboring, the people, the Arabs were giving him a lot of trouble. Three people Sandballet and Tobiah, I think, and Tobiah Sandballet and somebody else, Hornet or something. Okay. So they caused a lot of problem and difficulty for Nehemiah. Okay. But Nehemiah because he had the king's authorization and the permission and everything, things have become so much more easier. So we see that, you know, God stirred up his heart and he followed that stirring and he did something about it and God was able to birth his plan and purpose through Nehemiah. Okay. The third thing is that a God given vision has appointed time for initiation and execution. Okay. We know that God works in Kronos time and Cairo's time. Okay. So look at Acts 7, verse 17 and 20. Can somebody read that please? Acts 7, 17 and 20. But when the time of the promise drew near when God had sown to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt. At this time, Moses was born and was well pleasing to God and he was brought up in his father's house for three months. Amen. So here we see that, you know, but when the time of the promise drew near, that means God had promised Abraham that your descendants will, your children, children will be our slaves in an unknown country, foreign country for 400 years. So the time was the Kronos time. All this time God was preparing, orchestrating things. Okay. Did everything and it was now the Cairo's moment. So the verse 17, but when the time of the promise, so this is the Kronos time. Okay. It was not the fullness of time, but the time was nearing the Cairo's time. And he says at this time, Moses was born. That was a Cairo's time. Okay. So the Cairo's time is the fullness of time when the time is ripe, when the time is near, when it's the fulfillment of the birthing of God's plan and purpose. Okay. So when the Cairo's time is the fullness of time is approaching, you know, there are two things. There's both external and internal factors. Okay. So for the Cairo's moment, or the time of season for the initiation and the execution of God's given vision, there is something like the external and the internal factors. So what is the external factors? People. Okay. The, you know, the vision better. He needs people around him to help him execute the vision that God has given him. So there are some people that God would remove. There are some people, sorry. Okay. There are some people that God would remove of the way. There are some people that God would bring into your life, the right people. And sometimes, you know, it's a previous generation that this runs its course and makes way for the next generation. Also God prepares the place. He takes the person who's the vision bearer to the right place to execute his plan and his vision. Okay. And also we see that, you know, God prepares the things that are surrounding the vision bearer like the family. Okay. The people around the tribe or the culture and also his finances. So all of these things to come together at the Cairo's moment. So these are external factors. What are the internal factors? Right heart attitudes. We saw all this in ministers foundation, right heart attitudes, right relationship with people, maturity and spiritual development in various areas of our life, putting a personal family, a personal life and a family home, everything in discipline and in order, possessing the heart of a servant, being faithful in little things and Christ like character. Okay. We studied all of this in quite a lot of detail in ministers foundation. Okay. So we can, you know, the when the Cairo's moment comes, we can either, you know, bring it into fulfillment, both God's plan and purpose, or we can delay things. How do we delay things? Yeah, by not being, you know, external factors and internal factors are not in the right place. That means we're not managed our finances. Our family is not ready. Or we are, you know, we're not in the right place. Okay. And we don't have the right people or the internal factors, you know, not having the right heart attitudes Christ like character. So, you know, there are several. So there all of these things need to come to place when the Cairo's moment comes, so that we can both God's plan and purpose. So sometimes when you know, hey, I'm, I think it's the right time for me to both God's plan and purpose, but things are not happening. Why is it not happening? Then you can look at the external and internal factors. Okay. But there is not. Is there only one Cairo's moment in our life and one Kronos moment. Why? Why are there many? Okay, God works. That means that we say that there are various plans. God has always so much more for us. God takes us to different seasons in life, right? And every season has his own plan and purpose and he's preparing us for the ultimate plan and purpose. So every season he's preparing us for his plan and purpose. And we need to be like the sons of Isikhar, understanding and knowing the times and the seasons. Okay. So we need to understand the times and seasons as God is taking us through even as he unfolds his dreams, his visions to be fulfilled in and through our lives. Okay. Yes, Anand, you have a question. When we see this context and this differences, how we can easily identify this Kronos and Cairo's? Okay. How do we identify Kronos and Cairo's? For example, when we look at Joseph's life. Okay. Now, or we look at David's life. Now, David was only 13 years old when he was, you know, was anointed as king by Samuel. And Joseph was a very young boy. Okay, so we'll study that. But it took so many years of their life, 17 or plus years for them to come into the fulfillment of their dreams or plans or what the prophet Samuel had spoken over David. So all of that in this example, if you look 400 years was a Kronos time when God was orchestrating things and preparing things like how Joseph had to go to Egypt, how he had to bring his brothers and his father and their families and how, you know, they had to stay in Egypt. And at the right time, at the right moment, 400 years, the Cairo's moment when Moses was born. And why was not Moses killed like any of the other Hebrew babies and God, why did God preserve him? It's not because he was partial, not because that he had already predestined or preplanned that Moses was going to be, you know, the leader. And so he saved him and killed the other babies because he did not have a plan and purpose for them. No, that's not right. He has a plan and purpose for everyone. It's because of the step of faith that Moses's parents had taken. If the other Hebrew parents had taken the same step of faith, you think the babies would have been protected? Yes, because God is not partial. So it all led up to the Cairo's moment when Moses was born. And that also God was planning and preparing. And when he was at the age of 40 was when God stirred up his heart, the Cairo's moment for birthing it. So there was the external factors and the internal. The external factors was God was arranging people around him. God was arranging, brought him to the right place. Moses is the right place in the palace and then all of these external. But what happened to in Moses's life? He took things matters into his own and then delayed those things more further. So even in David's life, David was the son, but there was because of King Saul, all the things that happened. How God prepares us. The fourth thing is a God given vision requires preparation. We studied quite a bit of this in the first year of ministers foundation. God prepares us before he births his plan and his vision, his calling and his drifting through us. So the primary preparation is our personal spiritual walk with God and also growth into Christ like character. So even as God is preparing us, he will give us opportunities to work alongside with others, to get into others vision sometimes so we can learn to work alongside leaders, great men and women of God. So we can learn from them and all this is going to help us immensely to birth our own dreams and vision so that we can be fully trained and equipped to fulfill God's plan and purpose for our lives. Sometimes when God is preparing us, we can find ourselves doing something that is not directly related to the vision that God has placed in our heart. So what do we do at those times? At those times, we just have to learn. We just have to go through the seasons, we just learn. Sometimes we can feel that it's very disconnected. But however God is preparing us, he's developing us in the areas that are important for us to fulfill his plan and purpose through our lives. So in the preparation time is never wasted time. We learned that for some of them the preparation time was 17 years, 30 years like Moses and Paul and David and even Jesus had to wait 30 years. But our focus should be that we should be yielded to God's, yielded, submitted in total surrender in every and each season of our lives. So let's look at some of the preparation processes that God takes people through. So we look at some men of God in the Bible. Can you just pass the mic to him please? The first person we look at is the life of Joseph. Preparation time, for some people it is something else. But in the case of Moses, we see it was delayed because he did things in his own soul. So my question is like the preparation time, will it depend on us? Like if we're being more obedient, the preparation time will go fast. But if we are not being obedient, if we are doing things on our way, not submitting, the preparation time will be long. Yes, that's what we talked about the kairos moment. The kairos moment, the birthing of the kairos moment depends on the external and internal factors. We can delay things. Delay is not from God, but delay is from us. Because God is not in a hurry to pour out his anointing through vessels that are not prepared. It will waste his anointing. Instead of extending God's kingdom, it will become a hindrance. The person is not prepared. The person is not in the right place. The right people along with him is not mentally prepared. So he's not spiritual enough. Spiritual maturity is not there. Christ's likeness is not there. It is going to actually bring a downfall. And it's going to not only destroy the vision that God has for him. God can use someone else, but it's going to destroy so many people's life associated with the vision. So God is very mindful of that. So let's look at the life of Joseph. Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold as a slave. And when he was 30 years old, he was brought out of prison. So he spent a whole 13 years in Egypt. 11 years as a slave and then a manager in Potiphar's house. And then two years in the prison. And then we see that for another nine years, he faithfully serves as a Prime Minister in Egypt. And when he was 39 years old, the first time he gets to see his brothers. And when he was probably 41 years old, the second time his brothers come along with his father. So it took approximately 30 years from the time he had the dream to the time of the fulfillment. His brothers came and bow down before him. And then he spent how many years, 70 years fulfilling God's purpose for his life. So we see that for Joseph, it happened when he was 40 years old. So don't be in a hurry. And it's important, even though it happened late, it was important that you continue to walk in the vision and the plan and purpose that God has for your life. So he walked in it for the next 70 years. Let's look at Moses' life. Moses, we know that his seed or spiritual destiny was that he was taken and raised up in the palace. And thus it was his initial preparation and him positioning himself to be the leader. So being in the palace, he was destined to be the next leader for Egypt. So it was easy for him to send away his people to their own land. So God orchestrated those things and also training him up to be a leader. He was trained mentally, physically in every way to be the next pharaoh, the next ruler. And at the age of 40, he had the study in his heart and he knew that he had a divine purpose and his purpose was to not just rule over Egypt, but to deliver his people. But he made a mistake. He tried to accomplish it through his own wisdom, his own understanding, his own carnal nature. So every time we do things in our own carnal nature, our own peshy nature, what happens? We delay God's plan and purpose for our lives. So we see here that Moses tried to attempt to do it all by himself. But it's important that we do it with God and with people who God brings about in our lives. It only delayed things by another 40 years. So what did Moses have to do the next 40 years? He had to live in the wilderness taking care of his father-in-law's sheep from the palace to the wilderness to being a shepherd. And then God had to wait for another 40 years. Why? Because the king, the pharaoh who knew Moses had to die. So what should have taken 400 years? It took 440 years because of what Moses did. But we see that Moses was able to carry out God's life assignment for his life. But again, because of a mistake he made, he was not able to enter the promised land. Instead of speaking the rock, he struck the rock again. So he died at the age of 20, but he fulfilled God's plan and purpose for his life, but sadly could not enter the promised land. Look at the life of David. David was 13 years old when he was anointed as king. And what was his initial training? He killed a lion and the bear as a shepherd. He was also a musician and so he was well known among his people. If you look at 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 17 and 23 and 1 Samuel chapter 17 verse 15, we see that he was already a hero in the hearts and minds of people of Israel. And then his success came when he killed Goliath. But even though he was successful and people loved him, King Saul made him a commander of thousands of people and sent him to fight battles thinking that he would die in the battle. But we see that God protected David and what happened for the rest of, as long as Saul lived, Saul was running behind whom? David was chasing behind him. So we see that David was running away from King Saul. He was like a, you know, he was like a vagabond running, living in caves, you know. And for a long time, but during those times he did some great exploits and God brought people into David. There were 400 strong men army that he had and some of these men were people who became generals in his army when he became king. Now when David was 23 years old, he became king of only Judah, right? And he ruled there for seven years and six months and then at the age of 30 he was finally made king over entire Israel and Judah. And so he reigned as king for the next 40 years. So it took 17 years from the time of his calling or his anointing as king to him becoming the king of Israel and Judah. So from the age of 15 to age of 30, so 17 years. And then he served God's purpose in his generation and he died around when he was 70 to 75 years. We look at the life of Paul. Paul must have been 33 years when he met, when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. And soon after that, you know, he was, he spent three years in, sorry, yeah, he spent three years in Damascus and then in Arabia. Why did he have to flee to Arabia because people tried to kill him? As soon as he encountered Christ, he started preaching the gospel so the Jews were against him, they wanted to kill him. So he ran away to Arabia and that is where they say that, you know, he received most of his revelation. Okay. And then we see that he visited Jerusalem for 15 days and during that time people tried to kill him. Then he went to Tassus and he spent time, 13 years in Tassus in Syria in Cystelia. And, you know, towards the end of those 13 years, Barnabas comes to Tassus and brought Saul to Antioch. And so Saul spends a whole year in Antioch teaching and preaching. Then after 14 years, he goes back to Jerusalem. Okay. So it is 17 years from the time he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus to his first missionary journey. And the 17 years are called as a silent years of Paul. Not that he really didn't do anything, he received most of his revelation during that time. He also preached and taught in the synagogues, not that he was not doing anything, but for 17 years. And Paul must have been about 50 years old when he began his ministry. So if you are thinking, oh, I'm 25 or 30 or 35, 40 years, don't worry, Paul was 50 years. But look at the immense work that God fulfilled in and through Paul. So we see that the 17 years silent years was Paul's training period. Jeremiah, he was the next person. Jeremiah was given his prophetic call even before he was born. And God told him not to allow people to let him know he was too young. But from the time he had the first utterance or the first visitation to his first prophetic utterance, it took 16 years. That means for the first time when God visited him to the time that he made his first prophetic utterance, how many years did it take? 16 years. So we see that from the time that God gives us his vision to the appointed time when he wants to be executed and bring it to fulfillment, there is a time of preparation. So during this preparation time, there is also a waiting time and we'll see what we need to do during the waiting time after the break. We stop here and come back after the break.