 Right, so the third discipline that we need to make part of our lives is to release the past. Okay, so what do we mean by that? Release the past. You know, the thing is that as human beings the way we are created, right, we, you know, what we have here, our memory, our mind is so powerful, right, we remember so many things at the same time we also forget, you know, some things, some important things. So whatever we've been through in the past, in the recent past or the distant past, whatever, we remember, right, certain things that have happened to us, what people have spoken, you know, certain things are just there. And also, disappointments hurts, right, the way people, some people maybe things they said which hurt us, you know, it's all there, right. So when we say release our past, we're not saying that it'll be a complete erasure of all those memories, right. So many times we think, okay, as far as east is from the west, so far as we removed our sins and the Lord, you know, forgives and he forgets, yes, he does, but as human beings, you know, we find it very difficult or next impossible to forget, right, these things stay. So what do we mean when we say release the past, right, what actually holds us back and with holds us from walking in freedom is the pain of that memory, right, is the pain of that disappointment, the pain of that regret, the pain of that, you know, of those words that were spoken, right. So those are the things that are like an anchor in the wrong place, right, so anchor to that that we find very difficult to move forward, right. So when we say we release the past, those are the things that we are intentionally, you know, getting healed off and releasing and getting released from, so those are the very things. So the Lord heals us and we intentionally, you know, after, like we went through those 10 steps of renouncing, you know, forgiving and saying, you know, and then confessing and proclaiming, so after that what happens is these thoughts come back, right, these memories do come back and we need to remember and remind ourselves to say, you know, that's under the blood, you know, I choose to release, I choose to not stay there, I choose to press on, I choose to move forward, okay, and this is something that we intentionally do and we see that the Lord heals us of those pains. The Lord heals us of, you know, all those, the pain of those disappointments. So we come to a place of, of even, you know, if, even if we've been through certain traumatic, painful, shameful things, either because of our own decisions or maybe others, we come to a place of being healed and restored that we're able to even talk about it and use that as a testimony, right. But that would happen only when we release, release the past, okay. So the thing is that the past, the pain of the past has the perfect ability to hold us prisoners if we would let, okay, to hold us prisoners, to hold us captive. So we, we are unable, we are, we have, don't, don't have that ability to move forward into the promises of God, okay. For example, maybe, you know, we, we failed miserably academically, okay. Regarding our studies, you know, we failed and messed up, didn't make use of opportunities that were given to us or that were there before as we messed up, okay. So, and we are in a certain place, you know, in life. Now, let's say there is an opportunity for us to maybe, you know, upgrade our skills or further learn new things academically, okay. So immediately what happens is this memory of the painful failure that we did not do what was supposed to be done or we, we did not put in the necessary effort, whatever, you know, that pain prevents us from even stepping into or taking up this initiative, right. We, we don't want to take it up. Why? Because, you know, we messed up that time or we messed up those three or four times. So we cannot, you know, that is, that is a reminder, you know, that is the notification we get, you know, don't, don't take up because you cannot, don't take up because you failed in the past. So, so we, we consciously make a choice and I'm not going to take it up because this is what happened in my life. And so I'm just going to, I'm not going to venture into those things again, right. So what has happened here, the pain of failure, the pain of maybe shame of failure, whatever is, is holding us back. So that needs to be intentionally, we need to release ourselves from it. So how do we do that? How do we, you know, so this is just one thing, right, so there could be countless things, countless things, countless memories that really prevent us. So we need to really process that with the Lord. That's why our time with the Lord is so important then. And he actually reminds us, he would remind us, he would show us if we are sensitive, say, hey, this needs to, this is actually under the blood. Why are you still holding on to it? Why are you anchored to the wrong thing, you know, you need to be anchored to the truth. Okay. And a couple of examples that we see in scripture, one is that of Jacob. Okay, Jacob, we know the story. He had cheated, he saw of the birth, right. He ran away, spent time with his uncle, and now he was coming back as a married man. And if he was coming back with a lot of wealth, actually God has prospered in and he's coming back. And the next day, he's supposed to be meeting Esau, or the next day, or eventually he's going to be meeting Esau, but now he is scared, right. And he cries out to God, and he hears that he gets news that Esau is coming to meet him, and he's not just coming to meet him alone, he's coming with a whole bunch of people. And so he is naturally, he's afraid, will Esau hold it against him, will Esau, you know, so everything in the natural, he's so afraid about this whole situation, right. So then we read about what happened that night when he wrestles with God, when he encounters God and he's, you know, he just engages with God and he says, God, I will, Lord, I will not let go until you bless me. And then we see that he has given a new name, that the name is changed from Jacob, which means the one who cheats to Israel, the Prince with God. God gives him literally a new identity, but that name change comes, everything that is associated with the name, the truth of the name becomes his identity. And then he goes to meet Esau with a new identity, okay. So there's a lesson there for us that when we meet or when we are faced with challenges, okay, when we are faced with the things of the past, we do not meet them or we do not face them with our old identity, right. Now we have received a new identity and that's the fact that we are new creations and all that has happened, but when we, when the past comes up, right, when we are faced with certain things, the consequences of the past, Esau escaping it, of course, but we meet with it or we face it with our new identity, with who we have become. So with our new identity, our relationship with God has changed, our relationship with other people has changed, because the way we relate to them has changed, right. We are, we, the whole situation, the circumstance and everything could be, could be the same, but there's some change that has happened with this, which is within. So we, we face it with that, with that change within, right. And another example that we have is that of Joseph, okay. So Joseph being sold into slavery, being taken to a foreign land and worked there as a slave and they're also, you know, facing so much of, you know, so much of difficulty in the palace, in the, in the, in the house of Potiphar and being wrongly accused and put into prison and all through it all, you know, through the whole thing, his, you know, now of course, he didn't have the understanding or the revelation that we have right now, that of the cross and what has happened to us. But amazingly, he held on to the integrity and he held on to this understanding that God was with him throughout. And the fact that he should not let go of his integrity, right, in the face of God. So even though he had many opportunities to let go, even though he had, you know, ample, you know, kind of reasons, we could say to, to really let go, but he did not, right. So we see this when we read Genesis 41 and 51, he called the name of the firstborn manasek, for God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. And the name of the second one, he called a frame for God has cost me to be fruitful in the land of my afflictions. Okay. So, so he came with that understanding. And this was so deep rooted within that he named his children, you know, naming a child. You know, if you're a parent, you, you know, you want the, you want it to be of significance. You want that to be the identity of the child and you want something. It's with a lot of tenderness, it's with a lot of thought, right. And especially these days, you get some fancy names, you know, and people are doing all kinds of research and, you know, like we hear these names come up in our baby dedications, you know, time and time again, and then we're like, Oh, wow, what does that mean? And then it has some deep significance, right? So he is naming his children. Okay. He's naming his firstborn as manasek and secondborn as iframe. And it is to do with all that, all the years that he has, whatever has happened in the past, everything is contained in that name. And it just reminds him over and over again. This is what has happened, right? That God has made me forget that God has cost me to be fruitful in the land of affliction. So even before that, when we, you know, when we see the interaction that he has with his brothers, we see that, wow, you know, there's so much of freedom in his life. He meets with his brothers and he says in verse 19, Genesis 50 and verse 19, what we see on the screen. Do not be afraid for, am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is in this day to save many people alive. Therefore, do not be afraid. And he goes on to say, I will provide for your needs for the family and so on, because it's famine, right? So we see he faces, God vindicates him. In an amazing way, God has raised him up and he faces what has happened. You know, his, the people who had caused him harm. So he's so healed on the inside that he's able to face them. He's so healed on the inside that he's able to return, you know, return with a good deed. Even though they had actually missed up his life. So he, he somehow had the understanding that God will turn things around. Yes, this is what he's going through, but God will turn things around. And God did turn things around. So some practical things, you know, we see these examples, great examples in scripture. So some practical things for us, you know, as we, as we go through, because when we go through painful seasons and it can be extremely painful. And some of these things we cannot even share with others. And I mean, in a sense, others may not understand, even though we share it, the extent of that pain, right? But, but the thing is to, to heal and to move, to heal and to move forward. So, okay. So how do we do that practically, right? How do we do that? How do we face that? This is something that we can do. Okay. First thing is to give up our right, okay. Give up our right to hold our past. Okay. Very important. Because we, we actually hold, it is because we feel that we have a right to hold on. Maybe it's a grudge. Maybe it's some kind of a, you know, bitterness. We feel that we have a right to hold on. We have a right to hold on to these emotions. We have a right to hold on to how we feel. We have a right to, you know, hold on to those instances and everything. For the simple reason that we feel that we feel that we have been wronged. And some of these things are against God himself, right? If you're angry with God, if you're angry with God and say, you know, how can you? How could you? God, how dare you God? After all that I've done, after all the way that I've lived, how could you be angry with him? But we need to understand that as long as we are in that place of holding on, you know, I have a right to be angry. I have a right to have this thing against this person. I have a right to be unforgiving against this person for all that he or she has done as long as we have that mentality, we cannot move forward. Okay. So there's no question of releasing the past because it's a very deep anchor right there. So so what is the solution of, yeah, Divya has a question. Yeah, Divya. Thank you. Thank you. In terms of releasing the past, if there are situations where your trust has been breached and it's nothing like you have anything against the person or you have released forgiveness for them, but still to reestablish a relationship like earlier would be really difficult, right? Because there won't be a clarity, basically, whether the same thing could happen again. So so is that wrong to when we say releasing the past? Right. Right. Yeah, it's a very valid point in the sense, okay, we release the past, you know, personally we've done we've forgiven, we've released the person, but do we reinstate the person to the same level of relationship of trust and transparency and so on, because trust is broken now, you know, and it can be in various situations, you know, it can be a professional work situation, it can be a ministry team, kind of a, you know, situation, or it can be a home, you know, like a spouse or close relatives spouse, you know. So, you know, in all these scenarios, there is that, you know, it is difficult, because, you know, how can you trust again? So, you know, when it comes to work or a ministry, kind of a scenario, then, you know, the right thing to do would be to not to entrust critical, you know, or tasks of critical consequence with the person, right, because now trust is broken, let's say, you know, if the person has swindled some money, you're not going to put that person in charge of handling finance again. Okay. So, there has to be a change there till you are confident. Yes, this person can actually do this again. Okay. So, it can be a very, you know, it can be discussed with the person saying, you know, this is what, you know, going forward, this is what we are going to do. Now, I know you are in charge of this, but you do not have access to it, and for a season, and I will decide, you know, if you are in a place of, you know, making that decision, you can say I will decide when to do that. So, that's absolutely fine, because you want to observe, you want to see if there's any transformation and then trust. Same in, you know, if it's going to be a close relationship, you know, trust is broken, then definitely, you know, with the forgiveness, with the, you know, if it's mutual in the sense, you know, if you're, you know, with the spouse or a close relationship, close relative or a family member, then it becomes even more complex, right? So, at one level, you know, we can say, okay, you know, you, both of, I mean, the person has repented, person has, you know, feeling sorry for what he or she has done and, you know, wants to get back to, you know, how things work. So, even then, you can, you can say, you know, you need to give me time. It can be a conversation where I know we are going to marriage, we are going into marriage and family kind of a, you know, thing, but then, you know, this is how we can do it, saying that, okay, we need, I need time. I need time to process. So, you know, bear with me. And so there are certain things that I need to see. So, you know, while we were forgiven and, you know, you need to give me some time. Okay. That's one thing. But the other thing is that, you know, if the person has not repented or, you know, there's no change, right? And for your sake, for what the Lord has done for us, you know, what he has laid down in scripture, you know, we release forgiveness so that we can be free. Right. So, we are not reinstating trust. We are not going back to the, you know, how things were, because things are still bad. You know, maybe it's abusive, maybe trust is continuing to be broken, but we are releasing forgiveness. And it's no way we are condoning the act. And there's no way where we are, you know, trusting in the sense, but we are releasing forgiveness. Right. And that's perfectly fine. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Right. So, so the thing is to give up our right to hold on to the things of the past, we need to be able to say, Lord, you know, sometimes it's, it's giving up our right to even understand. When it comes to certain things that have happened and maybe God, you know, it's a relationship with God and then saying, Lord, I don't understand why, why did this happen? I don't understand why I had to go through that season. I don't understand. So, as long as we don't understand, can we trust God who has infinite wisdom and knowledge and understanding? Right. Yeah. We don't understand. But can we trust him with our future? Can we trust him because he has infinite understanding? Can we trust him for his nature and character and everything that we see in scripture? Okay. Like Job, Job says, though he slay me, I will, yet I will trust him. Right. Like Daniel's friends, they said, okay, our God will save. But even then, even if he does not, no, we don't know why. Even if he does not, we will not bow down and worship. Okay. So if we have that level of trust, then definitely we can move forward. We can experience freedom, move forward. So while releasing, so these are some things to release, when it comes to releasing the past, these are practical things. Okay. I forsake my right to hold on. Okay. And also, one of the most difficult things is letting go of the right to have a grudge against yourself. It can be a very subtle thing because you're just kicking yourself mentally over and over again. Oh, why did I do that? Why did I say that? And the thing is this, just by kicking yourself mentally, just by punishing yourself, some people even might do it physically, right? Punishing oneself. Just by doing that, it's not going to change the past. Okay. And to top it all, it's going to make one's life miserable, where we don't enjoy the present, and we're not able to step in fully, really, into the freedom and the future that God has for us. Okay. So what's the point, right? To punish ourselves mentally, to punish ourselves emotionally. And I did that. I did that because in my 12th standard, I didn't do well. 10th standard, I did well. 10th standard, I didn't do well. So I did that. I said, okay, I've let down my parents. So I don't want to, they were willing to put me in a college and say, okay, maybe we can get some money and get one of those management courses or management quota. That's what you call it, right? So the management quota where even if you don't have the sufficient marks, you can still do a professional course. So I said, no, no, I don't want to get in there. I just want to do something very, very basic. I'll do something that I'm not worthy of all these things. So it just went on for many years. Till I just finished that course until I could get in merit the post-graduate management course. Till then it was like a very deep struggle. Of course, I didn't know these truths, but I can say that I just ranked every time there was a talk about academics and everything. So I just punished myself that way for letting down my parents. And I also try and pay for the fees myself. Even though my parents were willing to pay, I was like, I had to repeat some papers and I would try to get the money and try to pay for it myself and all those kinds of things. So we can do practically in our lives. We end up doing these things in order to punish ourselves and say, okay, I don't deserve this. The fact is that it really does not matter. It's not going to change the past. The best thing to do is to keep moving forward and do things better and see and walk into all that God has. So it's about releasing ourselves as well, giving up the right to hold things against ourselves as well. The second thing, the practical thing that we can do is to place our past into God's hands. To place a past, maybe for some of us, it's all been fine. It's all been nice, happy, great. But for some of us, it's really checkered with a lot of challenges, a lot of trauma, a lot of difficulties. Now, can we place that the consequence of the past, the pain and hurt and everything that just happened, can we place it in God's hands? I remember a real life story, of course, of this person who actually murdered his own relatives. He was thrown into prison, murdered his own relatives, in prison became a believer. And he vowed to do something for people like him who are in prison and who cannot undo the past. So he started ministering. When we look at such lives, we see that the only thing that you can do, you can't go back. If you meet your family, if you meet your relatives, you're always reminded of what you have done. The consequence of that action is always there. So the only thing that you can do to overcome is to place that, all that has happened. You see the enormity of that whole thing, to place that in God's hands. I'm reminded of even Apostle Paul, the way he persecuted the church. And he comes to a place of saying that, forgetting those things that are behind, I press on. So we need to place that past into God's hands. We need to absolutely do that. Because he forgives, he remembers them no more. And he has promised to make everything new. So let's read some of these scriptures. Psalm 103 verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. So God has removed. But we can keep it very close to our hearts. God has removed. But we can, because we have a will, we have a choice, we can choose to keep it close to us. Or we can do what God, we can go with God. And the one who has removed our sins away from us, as far as the east is from the west, we can go with him. We can choose him. And we can choose his decision and his action. The way he sees our past. And that will be healing for us. Hebrews 10 verse 17. Hebrews 10 verse 17. Their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more, says the Lord. This is from Jeremiah 31. Their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. And before that he says, I will put my laws and their hearts and their minds. I will write them and so on. So he has perfected us. He is sanctifying us. And he's saying, their sins, I will remember no more. As he sanctifies us, this is what he says. So it makes sense for us to place our past, to entrust, the way we entrust our future, the way we entrust our present, to entrust our past into his hands. A few other things to release forgiveness. To release forgiveness to all those who offended us, all those who hurt us. Again, this is the reiteration of that. And stand firm with our decision. Now this is very, very important. This is very important because we go through highs and lows emotionally. We go through triumphs and failures. There are these mountain top experiences. There are these valleys. So when we go through those, especially those valleys, especially those, you know, maybe some kind of a failure. The thing is that there is always this invitation to revisit the hurt. There is always this opportunity when the enemy does it and our own undredued flesh does it, undredued mind thinking. There is that thing to revisit the hurt, revisit those things. And if you're not careful, excuse me, if you're not careful, we will actually go down the downward spiral again. It will be like opening up our wounds again if you're not careful or inflicting fresh wounds upon ourselves. When we have been healed. So refuse, stand firm and just remind yourself of the fact that instead of the hurt, what God has done. Remind ourselves. Let's remind ourselves of what the Lord has done. Let's remind ourselves of the fact that He is holding. It's like saying God is taking something and He's saying, okay, I've taken it. I've taken it and it's fine. But it's like going back and trying to pry His hand open. Try to open those fingers and say, God, I want to take that. So stand firm and say, that's in God's hands now. I have no right to grab it. He's taken. He has removed. He has taken it. So I have no right to go down that path. I have no right to visit that territory. I have no right. So we go with what God has done and what God wants to do. Isaiah 43, verses 18 and 19. Do not remember the former things. This is the Lord's exhortation. Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing and it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. I, even I, and He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. So this is the promise of God. He's saying, do not remember. The Lord is saying, do not make a choice and think on to remember, to go back to those things and to ponder on those things. So He's saying, remember, consider. Do not remember, nor consider. Consider is when you give it some weightage and when we take some time to consider, think about, give it some importance and give it some time and put in some effort. That is when we consider the things of old. Consider something. So the Lord is saying, do not remember, nor consider. And the reason is this. He's saying, I will do a new thing. I will make a road in the wilderness. Even though a present seems to be like a wilderness, a present situation, circumstance, environment seems to be desert-like or like a wilderness. He's saying, I will make a road in the wilderness and reverse in the desert. Reverse, there will be refreshing for you, even in that kind of a situation. So He's saying, I'll make the reverse in the desert and I'm the one who blots out your transgression for my own namesake and I will not remember your sins. So there's great reassurance, there's great reassurance from God Himself and if we would go back to remember and consider and revisit, it's an act of pride. We might actually say, I'm pitying myself but it's actually self-pity. Self-pity is actually an act of pride. We are placing ourselves even higher than God. Think about that. We are placing ourselves. But it comes cloaked in an act of humility. It's like you're humbling yourself when you revisit those hurts. It's like we're punishing ourselves. But actually, the self is bigger in magnitude. You're just magnifying the self bigger than what God is saying or what God has done. So it's a very subtle pride and we have no right to do that. As in F-54 and verse 4, do not fear, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth and will not remember the approach of your widowhood anymore. And so on, instead of your shame, instead of your shame, you shall have double honour. And instead of confusion, they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore, in their land, they shall possess everlasting joy shall be there. So this is something that is for us as believers, for us as as people. So that brings us to some of those practical, these are things that we need to be strong in. It's a discipline, spiritual discipline. So these are some things that we need to be strong in. And it's not, again, a one-time thing. And so much is really a key. The key to this is the renewing of our mind. What we see in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, to renew our minds to this. This is how I'm going to respond to this situation. Like this is how I'm going to respond to this hurt. I've made up my mind. This is how I'm going to respond. Instead of holding it, I'm going to release. Instead of revisiting, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to remember. I'm not going to give it. I'm not going to consider it as important. And I'm not going to give it that weightage of time and effort. I'm going to release that. Okay, so next we look at four more things that when it comes to staying emotionally whole. Of course, some of these things we looked at in those 10 steps. Four more things. And yeah, I think we can just go through this list. The announcing lies with the truth of God's word. We saw that the lies actually point to the resource of the enemy. It's something that is totally opposite. Or it's something that is mixed with truth. It could be that also, but it's something that the enemy brings in. So we've announced that how with the truth of God's word. Okay, so we go with what God is saying. We go with what God is prescribing and what God is suggesting and what he's inviting us to. So that's how we've announced the lies. But we also go with the truth of God's word. So it's very important. So we speak blessing, cancel curse. And we guard ourselves against negative emotions. And we practice the power of forgiveness. Now we look at it maybe points two, three and four. We look at it in detail. We'll go with it. I mean, we just go through that. The first one, of course, we'll just mention that. But the second, third and fourth, we'll go through it and how we can speak blessing in order to cancel the curse. And we'll see that. Okay, so we'll stop here for today. And we'll continue in our next class. Okay. Thank you so much. God bless. Thank you. God bless.