 All right, welcome back. We'll proceed. We talked about prayer as a ministry. Anything more to ask about it? Or we'll move on to the next subject, which is praying for the family. Okay, fine. Let's go to praying for the family and see what kind of prayers we can pray. But before we learn about praying for the family, let's look at a passage. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 from verses 6 through from verses 10 to 16 and here we have the message version of the Bible. Would somebody want to read it out? Please take the mic and read please. 1 Corinthians 7 verses 10 to 16 you can read from your notes. And if you are married, stay married. This is the master command, not mine. If a wife should leave her husband, she must either remain single or else come back and make things right with him. And husband has no right to get rid of his wife. For the rest of you who are in mixed marriage, Christian married to non-Christian, we have no explicit command for the master. So this is what you must do. If you are a man with a wife who is not a believer, but who still wants to live with you, hold on to her. If you are a woman with a husband who is not a believer, but he wants to live with you, hold on to him. The unbelieving husband shares an extreme holiness of his wife, an unbelieving wife. His life was touched by holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out as it is they are included in the spiritual purpose of God. On the other end, if the unbelieving spouse walks out, you have got to let him or go. You don't have to hold on desperately. God has called us to make the best of it peacefully as we can. You never know why the way you handle this might bring your husband not only back to you, but to God. You never know husband. The way you handle this might bring your wife not only back to you, but to God. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much, Daniel, for reading that. Now, the reason why we read this particular passage is to understand one concept and that concept is spiritual influence, okay, in the context of family. There is something known as spiritual influence in the context of marriage and what's going on is people were unbelievers who were coming to Christ and sometimes what was happening is that when in like people are already married, okay, they're already married, but one person accepts Christ or one person gets saved, then what will happen? They are the person is still unbeliever. They are still unsaved. So to such people Paul is giving an instruction. He's saying that if you are in a mixed marriage, not because they chose to get into a mixed marriage, that's not what it's saying. It's saying if you end up in a mixed marriage because one spouse got saved, right? They're already married, but now one person is saved. One person is not saved. What to do? So in that situation, he says, if your spouse is willing to stay, you that's okay. Let them be. Then he says one thing, you know, verse 13, he says, if wait, wait, yeah, verse 14, the unbelieving husband shares to an extent in the holiness of his wife and the unbelieving wife is likewise touched by the holiness of her husband. Otherwise, your children would be left out as it is. They also are included in the spiritual purposes of God. So this verse 14 is what is important for us today because what we are saying is in a marriage or in a family, God gives the believer spiritual influence over the unbelieving spouse or even the unbelieving children. Unbelieving children can also be in the purposes of God because one spouse is a believer. You understand? So there is a spiritual influence in the context of a family because God is the one who has created the family, husband, wife and children and we must respect that. The structure of a family. So there is spiritual influence that people can have in the family structure. So just because we looked at this passage and it says, you know, even if there is an unbeliever, you know, there will be spiritual influence for young people. It's not an option. You can't marry an unbeliever. As far as the Bible is concerned, it's very clear in many different passages. It says that, you know, marrying an unbeliever not just has consequences, you know, just relationally but even spiritually. The Bible teaches us that the dynamics is completely different. So don't even go in that direction to marry an unbeliever. Now coming back to our point here, we are talking about spiritual influence. So because we have spiritual influence, what we can do for our families is we can pray. Okay? So those prayers are very powerful. Now somebody outside, I've been saying this earlier also, let's imagine that there are, there is a young person and someone is praying for that young person. That prayer will be powerful but if the parents of that young person pray for that young person, that prayer is even more powerful. Why? Spiritual influence. Okay? There is something known as spiritual influence within the structure of family and that is the reason why in a family we are supposed to pray. We are supposed to pray, you know, the husband wife, you're supposed to pray for each other. Then the parents are supposed to pray for the children, children are supposed to pray for the parents and it's very powerful when this happens. Okay? Now let's see what kind of prayers we can pray. So we'll go from, you know, prayers that husband and wife can pray for each other. Then we'll go to the prayers that parents can pray for their children. Then we'll go to prayers which we can pray for our home. Right? So there are scriptural prayers in the Bible. So how to pray here? It is written in the context of a husband praying for his wife. So how can a husband pray for his wife? There are many points that a husband can cover. So he can pray, firstly he can pray for the spiritual growth of his wife. Okay? What are the scriptures for that? We have a whole bunch of scriptures listed out there. We can pray from Ephesians chapter 1 verses 15 through 21, which talks about, you know, being built up spiritually. Then Ephesians 3 verses 14 through 21. Again, you know, that talks about being strengthened. Colossians 1 verses 9 through 11, which talks about walking in the will of God. So based on these scriptures, you can pray for your spouse. Now husband can pray for the wife. Wife can also pray for the husband, the same prayers. Okay? So maybe we should read two passages, right? So then we'll have an idea of what these prayers contain. So could someone volunteer to read please? Ephesians 1 15 to 21 and another person Ephesians 3 verses 14 to 21. Long passages. Ephesians 1 15 to 21. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. For above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. Okay, thank you Nelson. So there we can see some points which we can pray such as we pray that you know the person that we are praying for in this case you know a husband or a wife that the eyes of their understanding be enlightened that they may know what is the hope of their calling what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. So there itself you have three points that the person may know God better that the person may understand what hope we have in Christ that the person may also recognize you know the power of God the power of God which is given to us through Christ. So what are we doing we are praying God you bring that understanding to the individual that's how we are praying. So this prayer you can pray for anybody we can pray it for the believers we can pray it for our family members or anyone we wish to but because you know we want to pray for the spiritual growth of our spouse we can pray this prayer. Okay, so each point we can pray for the person. Now let's quickly look at Ephesians 3 anyone who would like to read that Ephesians 3 14 to 21. For this is reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ for whom the whole family never unearthed his name that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. The Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to come comprehend with all saints what is the width length depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God now to him who is able to do extremely abundantly above all that he asks or think according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generation forever and ever. Okay, thank you. Thank you Daniel. So here we see that God would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. So this is a point that let God strengthen the you know the person we are praying for in the inner man through his spirit then we can pray may Christ dwell in your heart through faith. This is also a prayer which we can pray. We can also pray that they would have an understanding of how much God loves them. That's what it says that you may be you know rooted and grounded and understand the love of God the width the length the depth the height meaning how great God's love is towards you. So in this way what are we doing? See when we pray our prayers become very powerful when we pray by scripture based on scripture. So that is why each of these points maybe we can write down and we can say Lord let them be strengthened in the inner man let them understand your great love which you have for them. Lord let them let the eyes of their understanding be open that they may know you better. Lord we pray that what was the other one they may know the hope you know of the riches that you have granted to them. So in this way point by point we can start praying but the first priority that we have in praying for a family particularly this is regarding the spouses pray for their spiritual growth pray for their relationship with God. Now what do you do if you're not married? What do you do? Nobody asked me this question. I think the previous batch STPC they asked me a lot of questions. So what do you do if you're not married? Yeah you can pray for your family that's true your siblings your parents anything else that can be done. Pray for? You don't have a spouse no. We can't marry. Sorry. Yeah so you can pray it into the future that's the answer okay so you can pray it into the future whoever that person is you can pray now for their spiritual growth and their spiritual development for their inner person to grow. Okay so these are prayers that you don't have to wait to pray only when you get married. If you're expecting to get married then you can begin to pray this very very early so that's also a possibility. So pray for their spiritual growth. The second important thing that we will pray is Lord we pray for the spouse to recognize the purpose of God for their lives. We all have a purpose we all have a calling so all of us must thrive in our calling. You got it? So that's what we want to pray we want to say God you help them recognize their purpose let them not you know let them not be wandering here and there let them recognize the gifts that you have given them fill them with your grace give them the anointing you know which which they need help them to fulfill every good thing which you have ordained for them. You know the Bible tells us that God has prepared good works for us to walk in. I think it's Ephesians 2 20 so we can pray that prayer over our you know spouse or our future spouse and say you know God help them to walk in okay hold on to 10 to 10 yes for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so this is our prayer Lord the way let's say maybe we are pursuing God's purpose we are thriving in God's call we want the same for our spouse so we'll pray God you help them to walk in the calling we are anointed have grace open the door for every good work for them let there be no hindrance so in this way we can pray for their purpose then we can begin to declare the word of God over their lives so there are scriptures for women there are scriptures for men so you can pick that and you can pray so here as I told you this is in the context of a husband praying for his wife so there are scriptures that say that you know a wise woman builds up her home so you can pray that my wife is a wise woman she builds up the home she is prudent and she is my pride and joy she is a fruitful wine who brings blessing upon the home she brings joy and protection to the family she's a virtuous woman a prize her prize is far more than rubies she is blessed in all that she does and my heart trusts in her my children arise and call her blessed she opens her mouth with wisdom and her tongue is gentleness her own work brings her honor and respect in the city so this is all based on some scriptures from Proverbs Proverbs 14 Proverbs 19 Proverbs 12 Psalm 128 Proverbs 31 okay so we can write down scriptures like this and begin to like personalize it and speak it over our own lives now the same thing can be prayed by a lady and you can put down some scriptures like you know again Psalm 112 you can say something like you know my husband honors the Lord he he's a man who fears the Lord and he's greatly blessed or you can say prayers like he is respected in the city gates like Proverbs 31 says so you can go ahead and you can pray prayers like this over your own spouse now as you begin to make declarations like this what what do you expect to happen what can happen when we speak the word what what is supposed to happen when we are agreeing with the word we learned subject no confession manifest sorry it will manifest it will manifest correct correct so that is our faith when we speak the word when we declare the word maybe our present situation is such that it mean you may feel like what am I saying it's not true right but it's a fake journey you've got to stand in faith and you've got to confess and you've got to declare right and pray over the person whom God has put in your life so in this way we can pray for them we can also pray for you know them to be blessed for them to be successful for them to have wisdom we can pray that you know they would make good choices that God would bless the work of their hands so just think about this no we become one of their strongest intercessors and that is so beautiful isn't it so you can pray for your spouse and be like a prayer warrior for your spouse and hopefully you know they do the same for you and as a family you can grow together in the Lord similarly there are prayers from scripture which can be prayed over the children so let me read out some of these prayers so as I shared with us earlier we can pray for the spiritual growth the same thing whatever was prayed for the spouse can pray it for the children you can pray Lord open the eyes of their spiritual understanding help them to understand the hope that they have in you you can pray that you know God let them know how much you love them right so in this way establish them or God in the truth of your word so you can pray for the children for their spiritual growth we can also pray that the children from an early age that they will recognize the purpose of God for their lives we can pray protection over them God let them not wander here and there let them from a young age let them know what you are calling them for and Lord you increase the grace upon their lives increase the anointing upon their lives open doors for them to step out and serve you from a young age you know you can pray prayers like this and that that way the children will also begin to grow in the things of God and fulfill them then we can declare promises of God over children there are many promises some of them are listed in the same chapter at the end so I will read it now for us the Bible says that that children are a blessing right children are a blessing so parents can pray prayers like my children are a blessing sometimes what do parents do they say oh my children are a burden okay they say things like that but the Bible says that children are a blessing so we can declare that with our mouths and say thank you God you know children are a blessing now we can declare from Psalms 112 it has a promise that it says that a good man's children will be powerful in the land his descendants will be blessed so we say that with our mouth God we thank you that you know my children they are mighty in the land they will be mighty in the land they are blessed so these are the declarations that we need to make with our mouths then there are there are scriptures I'll just read it out it's all in your notes Psalm 127 verse verse 3 onwards it says children are a heritage from the Lord the fruit of the womb is a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior so are the children of one's youth and then you know it says the children whom the Lord has given me we are for signs and wonders Isaiah 8 verse 18 in Isaiah 44 the scripture says that God will pour out his spirit on my descendants and my his blessing on my offering so these are the declarations right that we can pray over the children Isaiah 54 and verse 13 is another passage which says all your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be their peace so take the verses pray the verses pray the verses pray the scriptures and there will be power so in this way one can pray for their children we can also pray that you know God would sanctify sanctify their gifts their callings now we may find that you know let's just take for example there is a child very talented in music now that talent can be used anyway isn't it they can use it for good things they can sing a good song they can sing songs for God or they can use it just you know these days you have all kinds of music with bad lyrics and bad thoughts happening in them a child can even use it for that but as a parent we can pray and we say God we sanctify we sanctify the gift that you have given meaning what are we doing it's almost like you're dedicating your child and you're saying God I dedicate my child I dedicate their gifts I dedicate their capabilities their strengths their life I give it into your hands you lead them according to your purposes let not the things of the world touch them so we are praying protection over children now yeah they may go through their own journey get exposed to all kinds of things but at least there is a parent who's praying for them every day like this okay and that is so powerful so we need to pray for children to walk in the purposes of God we can also pray blessing so those who are in positions of leadership God gives a responsibility to bless we can either bless or we can you know not curse is a curse is a very strong word but you know we can say careless words about people but we should not do that especially when we are in positions of leadership and authority now in this case parents parents are in position of authority so never put down with your mouth never put down the child no matter how badly they are doing okay we are not saying that you should not agree with the facts yeah we must agree with the facts if the child is not behaving properly or doing the right thing we have to tell them we have to correct them all that is there but ultimately in our prayers we need to bless them right what should you bless a parent can bless their spiritual life their character a parent can bless their health pray for blessing upon their studies upon their you know careers their career choice their friends so everything we are speaking blessings on that that this child will find the right path this child will do well in life as we saw earlier that scripture says right that that a good man his children are they are blessed they are mighty in the land so as a parent that's what we must say we must say that you know my child will be mighty in the land God is going to use my child wonderfully for his purposes so go ahead and bless bless them now bless their future we can pray blessing God whatever direction they take in their career we speak blessings on it in the name of Jesus whatever ministry they're going to take up we speak blessings in the name of Jesus maybe their future spouse right so you can just pray blessings on their future spouse so all these things as a parent because remember what did we see earlier that first Corinthians chapter 7 there is a spiritual influence we must use the influence if we don't use the influence what will happen imagine nobody is praying for the child because see Satan is very happy to create confusions as a parent when we are not blessing them when we are not covering them with our prayers then Satan is free to attack right but when we pray even if Satan tries to attack God will intervene right that's what we are asking for so it's a huge responsibility right as a leader as a parent to first of all pray pray for the people whom God has entrusted you with okay so that's what we are learning so we can pray for the children sometimes there are children who have gone away from God okay so at that point we also need to pray for them to come back now when children have gone away from God okay let's imagine okay parents are very godly they have prayed so much they have served the Lord so much they have taught the right things they were very good parents okay but somehow the child initially the child was also very good attending church reading the Bible but now something has happened right child doesn't want to come to church says I don't believe in God bad friends you know gone into all kinds of behaviors and habits and all and you know these things happen it's sometimes hard to understand how can this happen such praying parents how can the child become like this see we don't have all the answers right we don't know how something like that happened but as a parent one can still pray for the child right and God is still powerful to bring them back so that is how a parent should be because even I know of some really good parents wonderful parents the way they brought up the children in the Lord but you find that something happened the child is no longer in the truth but even like I have seen such parents they never gave up they prayed and prayed and prayed now the children are back you know they are married with their husband their spouse they're serving the Lord okay so amazing things can happen if we trust God so we learn more about how to pray for children who may have gone away from God or our loved ones who may have gone away from God we have details in this chapter but I'm going to skip it because we will cover it later okay it has an element of spiritual warfare so we have to pray with spiritual warfare when people have gone away from God okay but right now the point I want to make is never give up even if it feels like all our prayers have failed we should never give up keep praying so don't stop praying so there is an example in our notes about a man known as Franklin Graham okay everyone knows Billy Graham okay the picture is there yeah Billy Graham very famous evangelist and he impacted the lives of thousands of people but you know what his son Franklin Graham okay Franklin Graham in his early years it is said that in in college he got into smoking he was very rebellious and you know he he never listened so his mother she struggled a lot for her son and it could have been embarrassing right like you know Billy Graham's son look at you look at your father he's going and preaching everywhere look at you okay but that was his story he was rebellious he just said sorry I have nothing to do with what you're doing but the mother Ruth Graham she prayed for him and she even wrote a book which says prodigals and those who love them okay so she wrote a book about her journey in prayer for her son who went far away from God but the good part about her story and Franklin Graham story is that God touched his life okay so at some point there was a turnaround and he came back to God and he wrote a book he wrote his own story and that book is called rebel with a cause rebel with a cause but the life of Franklin Graham now he is the one with some good achievements he is the president and CEO of Billy Graham evangelistic association right now imagine if his mother didn't pray for him right but it is a struggle and even in the case of Billy Graham it happened but thank God for the prayers of the son has come back he's the one now who is taking care of their organization he has an organization known as Samaritan's purse okay Samaritan's purse which which helps people in need and he's also somebody who is a well-known preacher who's gone around the world he has met with US presidents he has met with world leaders from Europe Africa Asia Latin America so his life is completely changed now but again what is the point the point is as parents right it's a huge responsibility never give up even if it feels like the child is going away from God pray for them engage in spiritual warfare right and we keep hearing stories of how God brings them back how God touches their lives and thank God for that so at the end of the session I'm just going to stop with the verses there are lots of verses in our notes you can make use of these verses or take a take a notebook or open up a word document pull out scriptures so let's say I want to pray for my mother I want to pray for her spiritual growth I want to pray for her health I want to pray for her protection you find out scriptures from the Bible put it there okay let's say I want to pray for my father put right down you know my father and then what do you want to pray for pull out scriptures put it there I want to pray for my house okay house put scriptures and when we pray start to declare you know the way I was reading it out so you start to declare make declarations prayer for children prayer for spouse so use the spiritual influence that God gives us in a family structure okay so I'll read some verses for declarations for home and then after that if you have any questions we can address that so here in the section that says promises to pray and declare over your home the Bible says we can pray something like the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in my home okay otherwise what happens sometimes the voice of fighting and crying and all that is there in the home but we are saying no we will not accept that the voice of rejoicing the voice of salvation is in my home that is the declaration according to Psalm 118 and verse 15 we'll pray that okay then we can pray and say that you know happy are those who obey the Lord who live by his commands your work will provide for your needs you will be happy and prosperous so personalize it and say happy am I I am prosperous God provides for my needs got it so this becomes our declaration we begin to pray this and then you know you go ahead and pray other prayers which are written over there and I'll just read it okay I'm not referencing it because it's interrupting my kind of slowing me down we can pray that God my home is blessed it is the home of the just my house will stand because it is the house of a righteous person my home will flourish because it is the tent of the upright and we can declare and say that my house is a peaceful habitation it is a secure dwelling it is a quiet resting place and God protects my home all this is there in the Bible God has promised that if you are a child of God then I am blessing you with all this what do you have peace security prosperity joy then salvation right so take it how to take it put faith in it begin to declare it this is my home God I will not accept anything else okay I will not accept lack I will not accept confusion strife quarrel no I'm saying no in the name of Jesus my home is a peaceful place my home is a secure place right so begin to speak declarations like this every day start to pray and ask the Lord and you will see things change now we've already discussed sometimes the changes can happen immediately but sometimes it may take a long time before you see the change but we should not give up okay so I'm going to stop at this point but if you have any questions we can address them we can talk about it when we are praying for the person whom we are going to meet in the future and we are praying for everything like mention their joy peace it should be like their the spiritual needs and everything like some are there our fleshly needs also also there like for me it's like she must be she must know how to cook nice food it is like can we pray for these kinds of things okay extra points extra points like extra points um see I I don't say any harm you can pray right but ultimately I think you'll just have to accept who God has for you so in case on those extra points you see when it comes to asking God right for the future spouse and all we generally say there are two two categories one is non-negotiable non-negotiable means you can't compromise on that something like they must be a believer they must be strong in the Lord they must pursue the purpose of God for their lives they should be a person of integrity so this non-negotiable cannot be changed right there are other things that we ask oh they should be able to sing they should be able to listen that is negotiable so if if at all they can't you will just have to accept it okay so it's up to God whether he'll answer your prayer or not it's fine you can pray though there's no harm because food is necessary tasty food is necessary you can also cook a bishek yeah okay we'll discuss this later so we'll move on to the actually I'm a good chef so I am expecting good for you this question yeah have you experienced all this in this uh uh personal experience that God has answered your prayers uh sorry sister I didn't hear you very clearly have you experienced uh among these prayers for children husband or for the house that God has answered your prayers um yeah your personal experience okay so see uh maybe regarding the home right there are these passages like Isaiah 32 verses 18 and 19 so that is something that I always pray for my own home I always pray that passage says my people will dwell in a peaceful habitation in secure dwellings in quiet resting places so um like I think I shared earlier right much ahead I shared about some challenges we had with my mother's health and things went wrong and all so those days were very very difficult for us because you know when you're talking about you know peaceful habitation and all it just didn't make any sense to us because there was always something going wrong at home so uh but from that season I learned to pray all these prayers but I can see the difference now after praying it for many years uh how God really takes charge how God's presence is uh even about security and quietness and rest there are so many things that I can actually share but you know they are personal I can't share on this platform but yes I have experienced God answer these prayers sure thank you so much thank you yes any other questions yeah when a pastor's son is on a stray way so when people ask to the pastor how your son become like this and why I'm not taking care of this yeah what should be his answer to the people how he will defend them yeah so you see when it comes to um somebody in leadership right uh when we look at the writings of Paul to Timothy Titus there he lists out he who desires to be a bishop or a leader a pastor should be like this you know he should be the husband of one wife and he should know how to take like have his children um like his children should be obedient there are so many such things now even though let's say a person is like that in some situations uh things go wrong okay uh so what is your question what should the pastor do what should the people do pastor's son is on a stray way people will ask him and will why he you are pastor but your son is another way yeah so how that pastor will defend how he will answer to the people yeah so see as a parent the pastor can say look I am doing everything I know to address this issue and this problem so I think it's fine for the pastor to give an explanation right and do his duty as a parent to take care of the child um I I don't see anything else that a pastor can do right yeah sure thanks but yeah it's a little more tricky when it's a pastor's child I think there there is more pressure for pastor's kids so yeah that's tough but uh in court of honor we have another course right ministers foundation there we also talk about how a pastor should take care of his own family or her own family her own children uh yes there is the church but we should also know how to protect our own family you understand so there are all those aspects any other burning questions new burning questions sure so then let's uh stop with this we'll pray and close and uh I'll leave it open to anyone to pray please either people here or online can lead and pray yes sister get to please go ahead heavenly father we thank you lot for this time that you have given us to learn and ponder on your word my master in detail how to pray for your family for your children for your spouse and praying for others also blesses us lord give us that strength and that strong desire to pray on this promises my master and to be blessed whatever your promises we have for us my master lord I pray for sister lord that she has taken so much uh time to teach us my master in detail bless her lord in everything bless the work of her hand and I thank you and praise you for this time in the mighty name of Jesus I pray amen amen amen thank you thank you so much sister get through thank you everyone god bless you bye for now