 Okay, so good morning and welcome. We'll pray and get started. So would someone like to lead in prayer from the on-campus batch? Abhishek, can you just pass the mic to him or someone else? We don't have time. Thank you, Heavenly Father. We give thanks for this beautiful time, Father. As we are going to start our studies, Father. We give thanks for this time, Father. We give thanks for Teacher, Father. We pray for the teacher. You bless the teacher, Father. Father, we pray for ourselves, Father. You give us wisdom and knowledge so whatever she will teach us, we will understand it properly. And whatever we will learn, Father, we will use it in your mighty way. Father, we submit this matter in your mighty hand and we ask in the name of Jesus, Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you there for praying. In the last class, I think we had a good discussion about prophetic prayer and how we must hear from God. And that's how, you know, sometimes God leads us by speaking to us and telling us, you know, what he's going to do, whether in our lives or in someone else's life. So apart from normal prayer, normal prayer is we have some set of prayer points and we seek God for those. But prophetic prayer is when we pray on the basis of revelation or hearing from God. And each one of us can practice that. We can hear from God about what he wants us to do and who he wants us to pray for. So that was a very helpful subject. Now we can move on to the next subject here, which has to do with prayer and persisting in prayer. So the term persistence or persisting, this is chapter 10 in our notes. It has to do with being consistent, being patient and continuing to pray those requests without giving up. So persistence is to keep praying till you see the result. Some of us, we could pray about a matter, but when it doesn't come through, the tendency is to question God. Why is it not happening? What happened? What did I do? What is God thinking? And somewhere in between, we have this tendency to just let it go. We don't pray about it anymore. But persistence means when we know that something is the will of God or something is in God's heart for us, we should not stop praying till we see that happen or the fulfillment of that matter. So that's what we will discuss right now. So in the Bible, Jesus spoke about persistence or he spoke about being consistent and following up on our prayer points. So there are two passages, Luke chapter 11 and Luke chapter 18, where we will read how exactly Jesus meant persistence to be. So one of us will have to read from Luke 11 verses 5 through 8 and another person could please read from Luke 18 verses 1 through 8. Luke chapter 11 verses 5 and he said to them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to say before him. Verse 7 and he will answer from within and say, do not trouble me. The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. Verse 8, I say to you who he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs. So thank you for reading that portion Abhishek. So here we see that in this situation, there is a person who has a friend visiting at a very odd hour, which is midnight hour and obviously at midnight people are resting in their homes. But then this person, he wants to provide for the visiting friend and so he asks another person, another friend, he goes ahead and asks and says, you know, lend me three loaves for my friend has come to me on his journey. But you see in a situation like this, nobody would like to feel disturbed. Like, you don't want to be disturbed, right? But one of the qualities of this host is that he doesn't give up. He is insisting or he is persisting. Let's see what he says. Even though the friend says, don't trouble me, the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. The response is the next passage or the next verse that we see because of his persistence, because of his persistence, he will rise and give, whatever is required. So in this situation, we have to understand that there is a person who is unwilling. So at midnight, everybody is unwilling. But even an unwilling person, when there are repeated requests, what happens? Sometimes they yield or sometimes they change their mind and they say, okay, fine. You're asking so many times, you just take it. Okay, so that is the picture which is being painted for us. But is God like that? Is God somebody who is unwilling to give us? What do you think? Maybe the time that we are asking is disturbing God or what we are asking is too big for God. And that's why he says, don't disturb me. Come tomorrow. Does that ever happen with God? It doesn't because the thing is that though the example here is mentioning a person who is unwilling, God is not like that. So persistence is necessary, but we have to understand it with God in the picture. So obviously God is not someone who will make us wait and make us suffer and make us struggle. He is not that kind. Even then, Jesus is talking about an attitude on the part of the person who is asking, what is that? We must have persistence or we should not give up. That attitude is necessary to see answers to prayer. So that's the focus. It's not that God is not willing. God is very much willing, but he likes an attitude where we don't give up. And we say God, your word says, you have promised, you have spoken. I'm standing on your word. I'm standing on these scriptures. I want to see the fulfillment of this promise. So the persistence on the part of the person who's praying or on our part is what is necessary. Now let's look at one more passage. This is in Luke 18. This is also a parable about persistence on the part of somebody making a request. So Luke 18 verses 1 to 8. Sister, can I read? Then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard men. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard men yet because this widow travels me, I will avenge her lest by her, coming see very me. Then the Lord said, hear what the unjust just said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he veers long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily, nevertheless when the son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth. Okay, so very similar story here where there is a widow and she goes to the ruler of that city and she is asking for justice. What does it say about this judge? In verse 4, the last part, the judge makes this statement, though I do not fear God nor regard man. So this judge is not, doesn't seem like very righteous because he is not thinking about man or he is not thinking about God. And then we go on to read in verse 6, unjust judge. Okay, these are the qualities of the judge. Now a person like this who is unrighteous, unjust, we don't even expect a result. Sometimes when we approach, you know, some person or some agency where we feel they won't respond, our hope is very small because maybe, you know, it's just a waste of time to approach such people. But in this case, though the person is unjust, unrighteous, he still responds to the request of the widow. Why? Because of her persistence. It says here because of her continual coming. Continuously she's coming back to the ruler and saying, you have to do something. You have to do something. I won't leave you. You have to give me justice. So the persistence is what pushed the ruler to help this widow. Now again, in this passage, we have to understand there is an unwilling, unjust ruler. Is God like that? No, right. God is willing. God is righteous. God is gracious. So actually to be persistent with God, it should not be so difficult because it's easier to trust God. It's easier to believe that God will do it for us. But the focus of both of these passages is the persistence or the consistency on the part of the person who is making the prayer. If we ask and then we let go, it's unfortunate because even though something may be a promise from God, we may not see its fulfillment. But if we are consistent, if we are persistent, then we will see a fulfillment of that promise. In fact, if you go back to Luke chapter 11, just go back there, Luke 11 verses 5 through 8. So we read about this friend, isn't it, who was unwilling to give. But we saw how he gave because of the persistence of the one asking. What continues after that? What continues after verse 8? Just check in the Bible. Yeah. So Jesus is teaching about prayer after talking about persistence. And he's saying, so even somebody who does not want to give will give if you ask again and again. Then why don't you ask God? Because God will give you. If something is in his plan, if it is in his purpose, God will give it. Therefore ask, you will receive. Seek, you will find, knock, the door will be open to you. Don't give up in prayer is the point that is being made here. And in Luke 18 verse 1, just look at that. Luke 18 and verse 1, what does it say? Yeah, correct. So there is a word of encouragement. What does Jesus say? He's speaking a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Meaning keep praying. Don't get discouraged. When you don't see immediate results, don't be discouraged. That's the whole point. So sometimes when it comes to prayer, we need patience. Okay, and I've been saying in some situations, we may see, it depends on the timing that God has assigned for that promise to be fulfilled. Sometimes we see it happen in weeks, sometimes we see it happen in months, sometimes it's even a matter of years. But if we become tired, if we become discouraged and we give up, then we can't blame God. That God didn't do it. It's us who actually gave up. And that is why God's word says, don't be discouraged. Don't lose heart. Men must always pray. We have to always pray and not be discouraged. Okay, now in Hebrews chapter 6, we read about, you know, rest. God giving us or with the example of the Israelites. If you remember the Israelites, they were journeying to reach the promised land. So you read like as you move towards Hebrews chapter 6, you read about them and how finally they reached the promised land and all of that. Okay, but like in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 12, there's one statement that the writer makes. Can somebody read that out? Hebrews 6 verse 12. So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Okay, so there are two qualities which we need to fulfil God's purpose. What are the two things it's mentioned here? What do you need? Faith and patience. We can have faith, but if we lack patience, then even then it's difficult to inherit the promises of God. We may have a lot of patience, but if we don't carry faith, it's difficult to receive the promises of God. But there is a combination. When we are people of faith, along with patience. So when we talk about the subject of prayer, yes, there are many prayers that get answered like that. And when we look at the ministry of Jesus, especially in his ministry, in his personal time, he spent hours of prayer with the Lord. But in public ministry, it was like quick, right? We healed. We set free. Demon, come out. Lazarus, come forth. And it happened. So those were all commands that he issued on the basis of his strong relationship with God. He didn't sit for hours and persist with God in that moment. But throughout his personal journey, he has already been spending time with God. He's already been praying about all these matters. So the answers were very quick, so quick. You hardly find Jesus commanding twice. I think in only one situation, he commands twice. But otherwise, it's all instant, immediate, okay? Peace be still. The storm just calmed down. Any prayer that, you know, you find Jesus, especially in the ministry, results are immediate. So today, when we pray, we pray for people, we get excited, right? I prayed and they got healed. We prayed. This pain disappeared. We prayed and they're able to move their hands. Do immediate things happen? Yes, they do. Immediately, a lot of results take place. That's part of the way our faith works. That's part of the way our prayer works. But there are other prayers that fall in categories where we need some patience. We cannot get immediate results for certain prayers. So what tends to happen to us as believers is we become discouraged. We feel, in all these things, I'm praying for these matters and I'm seeing quick results but I'm praying for other matters in my personal life. I'm not seeing any quick results. Something is wrong, okay? Maybe something is wrong with me. We begin to ask such questions but what does God's Word teach us? There is also the element of persistence, patience. There are some prayers for which we must be persistent means to consistently come back to God like that friend or like that woman again and again, again and again, okay? So again and again asking God, is it, do you think it's okay or what do you feel about that? Asking God repeatedly or is it a sign of lack of faith? We already prayed about something. We prayed with faith, okay? Now, to ask God about the same thing again, is it okay? Is it not okay? It's okay? All right. So you see, when we pray for the first time, faith is necessary because without faith our prayers will not get answered. So we have to pray with faith. Sometimes when we don't have faith, we do this thing of, you know, begging God, please, please, please, again and again, right? You ring the bell again and again, hopefully he'll open the door for us. But that's not what we are talking about. That's not what we are talking about. The first time we pray, we must have faith. How will we have faith? As long as we know that it is the will of God, the purpose of God, it's in the word of God, we'll have faith. Because if we ask according to his will, he hears us, right? We've already discussed that. So when the first time we pray, it's in the will of God and we believe that God will do it for us. But there are some prayers where we know that it may take time. So we may need to go back and keep expressing our desire for that to happen. For example, I told us when we pray for revival, so many of us we are praying for months, for years, our churches are praying, okay? For a long time, we can't stop praying because it's in the heart of God. But God also wants us to pray, that is co-laboring with God. There is value to that. It's not that we are begging God and he's not listening to us. That's not the picture. He's definitely listening to us but he wants somebody to labor in prayer. For these matters, that is why we must be persistent. That is why we need some patience. So in life, like the Israelites, like the people who receive the promises, those who receive the promises, the Bible tells us two things are required. Faith, patience. Without these, we will not inherit the promises of God. Both of these are necessary. Okay? So this is how we understand persistence in prayer. And Hebrews 1035, that's also a really nice scripture. Kindly turn to it. And who would like to read that? Who would like to volunteer? I can read, sister. Okay. It's already, Mike is already there. You read it. Next, you can pass it. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. Okay. So what does it say? Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward. It's just like Jesus speaking in Luke 18 and verse one. Therefore, men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Same way, Hebrews 1035, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. In other words, keep having faith in God. Keep hoping in God. Keep asking God. Keep trusting God. Keep praying. There will be a time when we will see the promises of God fulfilled. So what if, you know, you are convinced that this is God's plan and God will do it for me and you're like thoroughly convinced. But it's still taking time to see that plan fulfilled. How will we pray? Let's say we prayed by faith once. Okay. And then we continued praying in faith for like two months. But by that time, we already have revelation from God. We have promises, pictures, scriptures, everything. We are sure. 100% sure. But this matter will only happen one year later. You still have time, right? For the whole year. How to pray? Good. Praise. Yeah. So we must praise and thank God. You remember Abraham? Yeah. He gave glory to God. He gave thanks to God. So once we are convinced that something will be fulfilled, we must start thanking God. So we can spend time thanking God. And that is also prayer. That's also persistent prayer. You got it? So this is the way in which one must confidently continue in prayer and not give up. There are, you know, quite a number of scriptures in our notes that talk about continuing earnestly or continuing sincerely, continue sincerely in prayer. All right. Now, why is it that some matters take time? Why is it that some answers take time? Let's look at that question. What do you, what do you feel? What could be the reasons? Sister, because it's not in God's timing or God's will. God knows best. Okay. Okay. God knows best. Sister, it is not in God's timing. I can see that somebody is trying to answer online, but we can't hear a person. So sister, please excuse us today. There's some issue. We're not able to hear the audio of the online students. So if you don't mind, please type in the chat, then I can read out your question. So the question I'm asking is, why do some answers take time? God knows best. That's one answer. What else? Correct. Okay. For everything, there is a time that is observed in the way God works. God works very wisely according to His timetable. Okay. So that is one of the main reasons why certain answers don't come immediately. There is a timing. Remember, we talked about the appointed times of God or the Greek word is kyros. The kyros moments of God. So in God's time at the right time with even Bible even says Galatians 4 that the Lord Jesus he came in the fullness of time. If you go back to the book of Genesis, we'll see there that God created Adam and Eve and you know the serpent came deceived, but you find a promise of God in the book of Genesis where God says that the seed of the man will crush the head of the serpent. In Genesis, God said that that Satan will be defeated. It's way back. So once Genesis has happened we are wondering God when are you going to send the seed of Adam? Who is this seed of Adam who will come and crush Satan? Everyone's waiting for the promise of God, but in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4 it says in the fullness of time God sent Jesus. So there was a timing like 2000 years had passed and then later you find that at a certain time Jesus Christ is being born. So we cannot function you know according to our own timetable there is a certain timetable that God has in mind. So there is God's timing we have to be patient enough to wait for God's timing for things to be fulfilled in our lives. This applies for everything. In personal life there is God's timing in ministry life there is God's timing you know we may start in the ministry and we may think by this time I should do all these great things and I should have a building and I should do I should go here go there but there is a timing we just have to patiently journey with God at the right time God will make all those things happen or how about the way the world functions or the way things happen in the nation there is a timing we are all aware that we are living in the last days or the last of the last days and there are so many things happening in the world we hear about matters that are going on in the world things are progressing according to God's time table ok so that is something we have to understand we must be patient and be understanding of God's timing if it is the right time to move we should know this is the time come on let's do this ok but maybe there are times when we have to wait at that time we should just wait trust God pray thank God and hold on for the right moment this is very very important this again is sort of discerning discernment from our side wisdom from our side God can give us that wisdom that we require so timing because of God's timing sometimes we feel that there are delays now what other reasons could be there why the answer doesn't come immediately any other reasons timing is one timing is ok ok maybe it's not according to God's will fine see your answer is right but because we have already understood that we should try as much as possible to pray according to God's will we are working with that in mind that we have already prayed according to God's will and still it's not happened according to God's will then you know it may not happen ok a lot of codes coming from Akhil today so God's delays are not God's deniers that's true but why are there delays one is timing God is testing us could be yes sorry he's building you up fine alright ok God is building us up that's also correct God is building us up any other reasons ok so Amman is saying that there is evil or there is the demonic kingdom they will try to stop the answers to prayers in our lives which is true it's true ok so we find in the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 10 verses 12 and 13 there is a situation where Daniel prays to God and God answers him immediately but the answer doesn't reach Daniel and he is fasting and praying for 21 days 21 days right for the answer to reach him why when God has already answered the moment he prayed God answered him but there was a demonic sort of interference which stopped the answer to from coming to him so in the same way in our lives there can be certain situations where it's not like God is not answering he has answered engage in a certain level of spiritual warfare ok so when we engage in spiritual warfare what happens you in this particular situation in the case where Daniel prayed God sent angels to fight the demonic rulers same way when we pray God is already granted this approved take it but the hindrance which is there because of demons as we pray what happens is that God will destroy that hindrance how he does it that's up to him but in the case of Daniel we see that angels go and they start fighting the demonic rulers that's when actually the answer is release to Daniel so these are all you know some points to keep in mind when there are delays maybe maybe there is some form of a hindrance in the answer from coming through while I agree like what Akhil said God's delays God's delays but even when we say God's delays I feel like God actually doesn't delay you know what I mean we are combining those two terms God's delays as if God is working late and you know God is postponing things and making it late for us he never does that he's always working on time but there are other factors in the picture which are the problem which we have to identify first is we must be discerning of timings is this the right time I'm asking God God you do this do this do this is it correct like can God do it now or is it meant to happen in another time and the second thing is yes I know God has answered me but I have to engage in spiritual warfare to destroy the works of the demons okay so that is the second thing the third one why there could be delays is some of the other points that all of you shared so just quickly look at the chart here I had asked the question why don't we receive immediate answers and there are responses a parmita says satan satan at work your sister Ghatru it's not in God's will and timing Jennifer God knows the timings Sanjay wrong motives in prayer yeah correct so we don't receive because we ask a miss the Bible says that's true then Jennifer God has a specific plan for us and in his timing our prayer according to his will will be answered according to the time that will be a great blessing for us maybe satan is responsible for the delay satan is hindering our prayers okay thank you so much for your responses as we've examined what you are saying is correct okay now timing we have some understanding about timing second is we have an understanding about demonic interference okay the third reason the third reason is God wants us to be fully obedient before we can see certain answers that was put in a different way by some of you I think Asapu said test yeah he said test and somebody said God is building a character that is true you know sometimes what God does is he allows us to go through a season where we are built up as a person as a believer as a child of God as a minister think about the life of Paul okay Apostle Paul you probably have done this in fulfilling God's purpose you know ministers foundation when Apostle Paul was called by God the historians say he was roughly around 30 33 years old yeah around that age so what will we think oh this person is already 30 something years old you start the ministry now your whole life you can serve God as long as you live so we are always in a hurry we want to do it immediately but when you study the life of Paul you understand that there were at least 16 years 16 to 17 years in the life of Apostle Paul which are called as silent years silent years where the Bible doesn't comment about it like what was he doing where was he serving what exactly happened not much information but what is going on in those years he's he his character is being developed as a minister of God he's being grounded in the doctrine of God's word he is ministering to people you know teaching the truth of God's word would that have been easy for Paul I don't think so 16 years nobody even knows the name you don't read up Paul at all you read in Acts 9 and then suddenly in Acts 11 again Paul comes back but in between like Acts 9, Acts 11 17 years so we may ask God God why are you delaying you know Paul is like your best candidate put him to work immediately let him start his work let him do all the missionary journeys God says I'm not in a hurry I need character to be built up in this individual so the greater the work it is said I'll give you one quote the greater the work the greater the preparation so God is not in a hurry he's happy to prepare us he's happy to allow us to go through that journey so that everything in us our knowledge our skills our character, our values standards all that is put in order to some extent obviously we're not saying perfection but to some extent some maturity when God sees that ok now you're ready you're mature come on start the work so God is waiting for that preparation God is waiting for that kind of obedience from our side only then he can say ok now you're ready come on do this till that time we may question God why are you not doing why are you not opening the door and God is saying you're not ready you need some more time to prepare yourself you need some more time to set everything right in your heart pray correctly the answer for that prayer comes so in various matters this happens the attitudes of our hearts becomes the problem well God wants to answer but maybe for example I'm praying for somebody to be blessed but in my heart I'm very judgmental about that person or I carry some kind of bitterness that person maybe on the surface I just prayed for them because they asked me to pray but deep within my heart I have unforgiveness, bitterness anger and then I'm asking God God why are you not answering my prayers God is saying your attitude is not correct that attitude needs to be set right within our heart so sometimes it's God's grace actually God is very gracious to us he allows time and he says this is the time I'm giving you where you can rectify change these matters within your heart so it tends to be the fact that we are not completing all obedience or we are not completing all God's requirements in order to walk through that open door or receive that blessing or see the fulfillment of that promise so even that can we are saying delay it's not because God is delay where is the delay on whose side is the delay it's our side so the faster we respond and yield to God the quicker the answers will come so these are all some of the reasons why there can be delays in our prayer we are talking a little bit more about persistence in prayer we already talked about Elijah you remember Elijah we said he is a prophet of God so he knew how to hear from God and he heard from God that there is going to be rain there is going to be drought so he already knows in 1st Kings chapter 18 he communicates it but we saw how he prayed isn't it he prayed seven times now the seven times is the persistence that we are talking about where even Elijah knew that he has to pray again and again and again for this particular matter for it to be fulfilled now if a man like Elijah and this is way back in the Old Testament today thank God we have the Bible in our hands we can read about all these people and get the wisdom from their lives but think about Elijah at that time you didn't even have the written copy of what scripture has to say but by insight and wisdom and revelation this man knew that there are some matters where one needs to pray repeatedly and that is why he prays and he even understands what is the time the moment he sees some manifestation he starts to move isn't it so that discernment Elijah had and the Bible teaches us in the book of James there is a scripture it's in James chapter 5 it's verse 17 where it says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for 3 years and 6 months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit so what does it tell us it says Elijah was a man who are we we are human beings when it says Elijah was a man it simply means he was just a human being we are also just human beings but if Elijah could pray and it rained or there was drought on his word same thing is applicable to us today if we pray earnestly we can also see results so I am just going to stop here we can come back maybe have some discussions and then close off this chapter and we will move to the next chapter so we can stop now there are no questions so we will go for a break thank you