 Let's pray one of the prayers that Paul prays over the church in Ephesus and one of the things he prays, Ephesians 117 says that he prays and he says, verse 16, Do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. But the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. I know we've prayed this before, prayed this over us before, but we're going to pray just one aspect of it, right? Which is verse 19, he says that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. And which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. We just pray and ask the Lord to give us a revelation, give us a knowing, which could be a knowing on the inside or even an experience that he may lead us to know what is the greatness of his awesome power, which is at work in us. And it's the work of the Holy Spirit, it's the power of the Holy Spirit. So yeah, so let's pray. Father, we thank you. We thank you, Lord. We thank you. Just like Paul prayed over the believers in Ephesus, Lord, we pray over each one of us right now and over our own selves, Lord. We pray in God that you would give us the eyes of your understanding might be open to God, might be enlightened to God, that we may know there'd be a revelation in our inner man about the hope of the calling, and particularly God, we pray that you would know the extent of the exceeding greatness of your power, Lord, which is at work in us, Lord, the work of the Holy Spirit, which is at work in us, that we may know what is it that we are recipients of God, that we may know the greatness of your power, God. Greatness of your power to enable us to walk in righteousness, the greatness of your power to make, oh God, spiritual choices, the greatness of your power, God, to do great exploits, oh God, greatness of your power, Lord, the same kind of power, God, with which you raised the Lord from the dead, the same kind of power which you anointed him, Lord, what we read in Acts 10.38, that he went about doing good, Lord, that we might know the greatness of your power. Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah, we worship you, we bless your name. Yes, Father God, the greatness of your power, Lord, which is so pure, so holy, and infinite, unmatchable God, indescribable God. Yes, Lord, overwhelm us with your power this morning, God, overwhelm us with your power this morning, Father God. Yes, Master, we pray that we may experience your power in our bodies, that we may experience your power in our minds, in our spirit, oh God. Hallelujah, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father God, thank you, Lord. Yes, Lord, many times we have underestimated, Lord, your power. Lord, we have been ignorant of that, oh God, but we know the same person, the same person who forgives, who loves, who redeems, the same person who extends this awesome power and both come from you, Lord, we thank you. We thank you, we bless your name. And we receive your, yes, Lord, we receive it, God. We receive you, we receive it. Thank you for your presence and your power, which go hand in hand. We bless your name, we bless your name, God. We thank you. Thank you, Lord. Can I just decree, God, that you would enable each one of us to do great exploits, God, for the sake of your kingdom, great exploits, Master, as we declare in Daniel that they that know their God, Master, that we may know you in this aspect, Lord, that we might have fellowship, close walk, intimacy with you in this aspect, oh God, and that they that know their God shall be strong. Can I just declare each one here strong, not feeble, but strong, strong in spirit, strong in their soul realm and so strong in body, God, I declare each and everyone strong in the name of Jesus. And your word says that they'll be strong and do great exploits. So, Lord, yes, Lord, pray, God, that we will discover and walk in those good, good works that you prepared, great exploits. We decree that great exploits in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. We thank you, Lord, we thank you, we bless your name. Let's just thank him for some time. Lord, we thank you, we bless your name, we give you praise. We thank you, Lord, that we are privileged to be recipients of this. We thank you that we are privileged to be walking in this Master. Hallelujah, thank you. What an awesome privilege, God, what an awesome responsibility, God. We thank you, God, we thank you, we bless your name. We thank you for the new life. We thank you, Father, God, for blessing us. We thank you, God, for Lord, for the regeneration, for renewing us, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. We bless your name. We give you all the praise and glory. In Jesus' matchless name we pray. Amen, amen, amen. Awesome. Praise God. I believe it's, yeah, I do believe that for you it's been a good journey so far, right from the start of our course, till now, that it's been, you know, it's added another dimension to your life. I hope it's deepened your walk with God and deepened your understanding of the Holy Spirit, the person, the presence, the power of the Holy Spirit. And just like, you know, a way of reminder that we would choose to walk in, that we would intentionally choose to walk in all that we have learned and put to practice, right, that we will not neglect, especially in the area of the gifts and every other thing, right, that we will not neglect it, but we would remind ourselves and that we would choose to walk in it, okay, right. So today let's bring to a close what we've been studying about the gifts of the Spirit. Okay, we've been looking at how some of the foundations, right, we looked at love being a foundation, we looked at identity, and we looked at Christlikeness, right. So if you are following in the book, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we're looking at the chapter proper foundation and particularly we're looking at point number four, which is page 209, to maintain accurate doctrine, right, to maintain accurate doctrine. Okay, let me just project it so you can take a look. Okay, there you go. Okay, so to maintain accurate doctrine, you know, in 1 Timothy 416, Paul very clearly instructs Timothy, says take heed to yourself, which means, you know, you consider yourself, be careful about how you live, be mindful, and to the doctrine, okay, meaning the teaching and what you believe in, what you teach others, etc. Continue in them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. So the doctrine, it's very important and we are called to continue in it. Okay, Hebrews 13 and verse 9, the author of Hebrews says, do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. Okay, so various and strange doctrines, which means that it's something that is not from the word or maybe it has a strange mixture. Second part of the verse, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with food which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. So when it comes to strange doctrine, when it comes to strange teaching, it actually moves us away from the words of grace, the words of faith. What is of grace and what is of faith moves us away. So avoid that. As much as we pursue Christ's likeness, as much as we pursue the presence and the power of God, the gifts, because Paul says desire is spiritual gifts, as much as we hunger for both, we need to be rooted in the word of God. Because history is full of people who lost their anchor. They were not anchored to the word, but they were sincere. They were sincere. They were hungry. But somehow they went off because they were not rooted to the word of God. So Paul, if you look at 1 Timothy 2 Timothy, you see that Paul, time and again, comes back to that. So be rooted in the word, rightly divide the word of God. So there is no substitute to grow in our personal study God and also to test what we are receiving and being open for correction, being accountable, being open for correction, whether it's prophetic words, or being open and staying in that place of humility is the safest place. Being closed in humility and being in that place of humility, while at the same time being rooted in the word and seeking and pursuing the presence and power of God, that's the right thing to do. Common errors could be grandia, megalomania, doctrinal deviations and also some new age teaching that are totally non-biblical. So move away from it, especially when it comes to dreams and visions and interpretation of dreams and visions. A lot of people sometimes what they do is just mix all these new age things, like this is what it means, this is what it symbolizes and so on, symbolically this is what it represents. But our souls is the word of God. We depend on the Spirit of God. We depend on the word of God. The word of God itself has a lot of, you know, a lot of symbols are actually explained, the dove, the serpent, the fire, the rain. Everything is explained in the word of God, is in the word of God. So we go by the word of God and not to any other source. We go with the Spirit of God because he's the one who gives us the interpretation. The longs to God. So like Joseph said, so it comes from him, therefore we depend on him. Another thing is when you look at the fruit of the Spirit, if you look at it, love, joy, peace, talks about self-control or self-governing ability. So self-governing ability, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, is very, very important. So this self-governing ability or this self-control enables us or keeps us in that place where we do not step out and become presumptuous or we are not moved by the things of the flesh or it's not an emotional impulse or emotional leading. All that is avoided when we have the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is self-control. So if the Spirit of God is not leading then we need to be secure in ourselves not to do anything. In the sense we don't have to prove anything to anybody. We don't have to be under pressure to give a word also. But we can be secure in the fact that, hey, I'm not receiving anything. I don't believe that I should actually step out and do anything. So to be secure in that. So if the Lord has spoken, then we will obey and move and share or do according to the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we need to develop self-restraint or self-control and not do anything and be secure about it. Not be under pressure. And not think that, oh, I have not shared anything. So therefore, I'm less of a minister of God or I'm less of a believer. I'm a second-class citizen in the kingdom of God. Oh, nothing of that sort. So that's the thing. Another aspect is to grow within a local church community. We are the body of Christ, which means each one of us needs to be part of the local church. Each one of us is a member. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 talks about how we are baptized in the spiritual body of Christ. And practically, how do we live that out? Well, this is great in theory. It seems like, wow, wonderful, we are all part of the body of Christ. But practically, day to day, the way we live it out is when we are part of a local church. And that's where we can live out this spiritual truth of being members of the body. So members do not float around. Members of the body are attached to the body. All these practical things are possible or lived out when we are part of the local church. So being part of the local church also helps us to be accountable to one another, to help one another, to receive help, to receive help, to receive correction, et cetera. So we know that there is no local church which is perfect, with all works in progress, being mindful of that and being part of a church which does not compromise on the foundations and being part of that. So that will also help us. Hebrews 13 and verse 17 says, Obey those who rule over you. Be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief. For that would be unprofitable for you. So this is possible again, only if we are connected to a local church, only if we are serving in a local church, only if we choose to serve under the leadership of the local church. And also, in such an environment, we will also grow and come to a place of leading others as well, grow, mature and come to a place of leading others as well. So it's a biblical model. It's a scriptural design. It's God's design, divine design. So it's good. And that's a safety net again for us not to go off on a tangent and go off into error and bring a lot of damage to the body of Christ. So that's the thing. So that brings us to the end of what we have been looking at at the gifts of the spirit and also the aspect of the foundations for the release of the gifts, the right way for these gifts to be used for the building of the body. So any questions? Anything with regard to what we have seen so far or anything that any of your experiences that you'd like to share? Any questions at all? We can take a look at that. Just a minute, please. Yes, Divya. Thank you, Pastor. I just had a question regarding interpretation of dreams and such things. So as you had mentioned, the Bible records that God is the interpreter of dreams. So there are times when we get dreams that seem to be less than God and sometimes there can be dreams that seem to be from the evil one. So there, how can we discern and also basically the interpretation like how do we understand and whether we need to take any action upon those? Yeah, yeah. So dreams have different sources, right? Of course, you'll be learning more when we study prophecy and understanding the prophetic. So dreams have different sources. One is, of course, dreams do come from God because we see in scripture that God does communicate to us in dreams. Dreams do come from our own self because of our own, you know, through much activity of the mind, some things that we are preoccupied with, some things that we are maybe worried about, which we are fearful about, and we constantly think about and that manifests itself as dreams. Or it could be even, you know, something that's, you know, some substances that we are using. Let's say medicines or something of that sort, you know, which also costs, it's possible that it comes because of that. And we also know that it can be because of the evil one, right? So we have all these possible causes or sources of dreams. So but when God speaks, you know, like when we see, when we looked at the person of the Holy Spirit, he convicts he does not condemn. So even if a dream, in content-wise, it has something that is disturbing, from the Holy Spirit, it brings about conviction. It brings about, there is a sense of peace about it, right? But when it's from the evil one, it is always to create fear, to create intimidation, to cause us to react in fear, maybe to cause us to make some decisions out of fear and not out of faith. So we know that it's not from God. So the best thing to do, of course, in whatever case, might be is to pray and ask the Lord, because he would lead us, he would guide us. So again, it's like we see in all the other things when it comes to gifts or when it comes to being led by the Spirit of God. It again comes back to, comes down to relationship, it comes down to intimacy with God. So the best thing is to pray and to grow in that understanding of being led by him. So when we pray and ask him for interpretation, the Lord will confirm either through his word, through, so when we pray and ask, we are sensitive again when it comes to our spirit senses, like what we have been seeing. We are sensitive again, saying, God, you speak and what is it that you can confirm? He will confirm through scripture. He will confirm through his spirit and he will do that. There are some dreams which are there just for us, just to alert us and maybe to pray along that line. Pray for protection maybe. Maybe it's a disturbing dream, something like an accident or something like a disaster. But it could be that God wants us to pray, pray for our protection, pray so that that very thing does not happen. In the case of the famine, it was something that was going to happen. But if you see the redemptive side of it, there was that word of wisdom and the strategy which God gave, which Joseph shared, and that saved the nation. So that's the thing. The dream came as a warning, as something to alert the people and then also, because of the word which came, word of wisdom, which Joseph shared, the whole nation was shared. So that's the thing. So the interpretation would come from him. We can ask him, we can receive from him, and we can walk in him. So the Lord will confirm. So we don't have to be anxious about it, but we can be at peace and say, okay, God, my posture is this, I want to receive from you, I want to hear from you, and if it is from you, please confirm it. If it is not, I'm just going to put it on the shelf and tell you confirm it or tell you move me to action. That's the way to go about it. Okay, thank you, Pastor. Okay, so shall we move on then? So we'll move on to the next topic, which is from your notes, which is the anointing. That is something that we hear over and over again, the anointing or we use over and over again, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which talks about the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. When we say anointing, it refers to the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Anoint means to smear, actually. In the Old Testament, the anointed with oil and what was used in the temple or used in the tabernacle, the utensils, everything was anointed with the anointing oil. And we read about the anointing oil being a special mixture of spices and so on. And this was not to be used on, it was not to be for common use. So it was a type of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. So we see that. So when we refer to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we are talking about the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. So we read about how in Luke chapter 4 and verse 18, let's look at that verse, Luke 4 verse 18, the Lord Jesus is reading from Isaiah and this is in the synagogue and he reads out verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. So the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. And then he goes on to say all the things that he has been anointed to carry out. So to preach the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim the liberty, recovery of sight, to proclaim to set that liberty, to free people, to heal, to preach, etc. So he says he is anointed by the Holy Spirit. Then we move to Acts chapter 10. We can move to Acts chapter 10 in verse 38. So there, Peter is sharing this. So Peter says, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. So anointing talks about the presence of God. Anointing talks refers to the empowering of God, the Holy Spirit. Empowered by the Holy Spirit accompanied by the Holy Spirit. So the presence of God and the power of God in order to carry out several things. In order to carry out an assignment. So in the Old Testament we see several examples, leaders who were anointed by the Holy Spirit. We see statements like the Holy Spirit of the Lord came upon this person and the person actually carried out the assignment. The judges, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the prophet and the prophet spoke and carried out conveyed the message. So we see several examples in the Old Testament as well. So when we see that we can infer that it is the anointing it's the anointing of the Holy Spirit it's the anointing of God that brings to work the works of God or in other words that really births the supernatural. Let me just I'll just project the notes just a minute please. So it's the anointing that births the I think it's coming up on your screen. Is the anointing that births the supernatural? We see Joseph, we see Moses, we see David, we see Elijah who went over and above their natural understanding or natural abilities or capabilities or sometimes even human abilities or capabilities. Like in the case of Elijah who ran faster than a chariot when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him or the strength that came upon Samson. So it is the anointing of God that brings about the supernatural. The anointing of God also brings about lasting work in the sense it brings about deep change transformation. It's the Spirit of God because we can people can be excited or we can excite people, we can cause people to be stirred up emotionally by some of the things that we do and say we can be moved by great oratory, we can be moved by emotional speeches and so on and it can last for some time and that excitement will obviously just go away. But when it's a work of the Holy Spirit it is lasting transformation it remains when the person perceives of course it depends on the person receiving and being open and submitted, yielded but the work of the Spirit brings about causes lasting work or work that remains for a maybe till the end of that person's life it remains with that person. So the Lord Jesus says this in John 6.63 He says that it's the Spirit that gives life. The words that I speak to you they are Spirit and they are life. So the words the Word of God brings about life brings about change and transformation as drastic as death to life and that is possible because of the anointing. It is also the anointing that breaks demonic yokes and burdens. Isaiah 10.27 which will come to pass on that day that his burden shall be taken away and his yoke from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil. The yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil. Isaiah 59.19 also talks about how the enemy comes in. The Spirit of the Lord raises up a standard or a barrier or protection against it. So we see that it's the Spirit of the Lord, the anointing of the Lord that breaks the work of the enemy, breaks the hold or the yoke of the enemy. So it's the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. So it's not like that is why the Lord Jesus says that this will happen when the believers those who believe in me they will go lay hands on the sick they will cast out demons. It is the anointing, it is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us that causes the work of deliverance. So it is not a formula of just chanting the name of Jesus over and over again but it's the presence and power of the Holy One who indwells us because the sons of Skaver if you read in the book of Acts we see that the sons of Skaver did the same thing they went about they didn't have the presence and power of the Holy Spirit because they knew about the name they chose to use the name without having the intimacy or the relationship and and the Spirit actually attacked them and they went attacked them to their clothing and so on so we read about that. So we see that it is the anointing that breaks the yoke of the enemy and we also see that there are varying levels of anointing in the sense in the Old Testament we read about how the 70 leaders or the elders received a portion of the anointing the God chooses to take that the anointing that was upon Moses and he also places that on the 70 others so this is for the purpose of carrying the load of the responsibility of leadership so he does that and then they start prophesying we read about that but we see that it was a portion of what was on Moses which was laid on the elders on the leaders we also see that Elisha had a double portion of Elisha's anointing in fact he asked for it and he receives it so this anointing comes from God it's not from man especially when it comes to a double portion a man cannot give it comes from because it is about the presence and power of the Lord well we need to be and we can be repeatedly anointed we see in in Elisha's let me read that be filled with the Spirit so which means that continue to be filled with the Spirit of God do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit so that word be filled meaning continue to be filled with the Spirit so it's a continual thing we can it's an ongoing thing so we can be anointed a fresh psalm 92 and verse 10 psalm says my horn you have exalted like a wild ox I have been anointed I have been anointed I have been anointed I have been anointed like a wild ox I have been anointed with fresh oil and of course in the book of Acts we have read we have seen that they were baptized in the Holy Spirit and they were anointed over and over again they were filled with the Spirit so this fresh anointing is available for us and it is it is available for the believer for us so it's up to us to receive ask and receive fill the fresh to do the works of God to do and carry out our responsibilities we see that when it comes to the anointing the anointing can be released or transferred or imparted through the laying on of hands or through people we see that that is also scriptural that that God specifically gives instruction for to Moses and to say and of course God can do it sovereignly and God can do it sovereignly as he did with the case of Moses and the 70 others 70 elders but God also we see both in the book of Acts and also in when it comes to in the Old Testament we see that there was this laying on of hands like Moses did for Joshua and and from that day we see that he was he was being seen as a leader the Spirit of God was working in his life so God can do that and God chooses to do that for whatever reason he chooses to do that so there is the release the transfer that happens because of through human vessels right so with regard to that we will come to I just want to talk about a little bit of safeguards and so on or extremes when it comes to when it comes to laying on of hands or transfer of anointing but we see that it is scriptural laying on of hands God uses human vessels to impart anointing there is something also called the corporate anointing the sense that as believers together when we seek God when we desire the presence of God the Lord I am just using the word show up shows up but really I am just using it quote and quote because we use it the Lord showed up but the role is always there but the fact is that he manifests his presence or we as believers experience more of or we experience tangibly the manifest presence of God we see that in the temple that Solomon built and inaugurated and during the inaugural worship time Second Chronicles 5 talks about that they all worshiped together and with one voice one sound the instrumentalist and the musicians they worshiped the Lord and we see that the presence of God filled the temple it was like a glory cloud filled the temple so much so that they could not continue to minister they were completely overwhelmed by the presence and power of God so we see that happening we see the early church coming together and praying with one accord let me just go to that scripture I think it is Acts chapter Acts chapter 4 and we look at verse 30 31 so they pray and it says that the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness so they came together they were in one accord we read about it that they were in one accord with agreement in prayer, in supplications and they experienced the power of God the power of the Holy Spirit they were all filled with the Holy Spirit it just says that the place where they were assembled together was shaken in the sense the whole environment completely changed because of the manifest presence of God which was evident tangibly so we see that this is possible, this is available when we seek God together as community so we call we can call it the corporate anointing where God releases his presence and power in a tangible manner again it is for a purpose for the body of Christ for that local community to do things to represent him the world outside to go out and carry out do the works of God it comes with that and also their personal needs also being met maybe they carrying some heavy load in terms of oppression or some burdens, worries, cares everything just taken away in an instant and sovereignly God moving among them we see another example in Acts 15 or 16 sorry 13 now they gathered together Acts 13 and verse 2 and they ministered to the Lord and fasted and the Holy Spirit spoke so they were together as a corporate body talks about that they were teachers, prophets and some of them are named in verse 1 Acts 13 verse 1 and Acts 13 verse 2 talks about the fact that they were serving, ministering to the Lord they prayed, they were fasting, they were seeking God and God spoke and that was the first missionary journey, instructions for Paul sorry for Barnabas and Paul who was called Saul to be separated for the mission that God had for them so we see that there was an instruction which came as a result of that of the church seeking God together, fasting and seeking God together so so we see there's something called a corporate anointing so the presence and power of God is tangible when we say tangible we're saying that it's available or we can sense in our physical senses it's tangible at times it's tangible to our natural senses, definitely tangible to our spiritual senses coming like like heat surrounding us there's maybe joy and something like what they experienced in the temple there's a weighty glory of God and everybody is just still and they're not able to go beyond that that moment and they're just caught up with God and what he's doing in their hearts doing in their lives and we read in history also we see about the tangible manifestation of his presence so we see the tangibility of the anointing so it is possible that we're completely overwhelmed either physically with our physical senses and that God makes himself known to our physical senses and also definitely to our spiritual senses where we experience the presence of God in a powerful way I think these are some things that we have already seen on the ministry gifts and so on okay before we move on to the names of the Holy Spirit about the anointing about the tangibility of the anointing I'm going to look at one more I'm sorry yeah any questions any doubts no questions at all okay fine okay somebody has a question okay yeah please go ahead thank you pastor yeah sir I want to ask a question yeah the question is on transferring of anointing is it possible or can we choose someone that we can I'm sorry can you just repeat that is it possible can we choose someone by ourselves to be transferred to anointing maybe I choose someone maybe one of my congregation and I just say come let me maybe I want it is it possible yeah so we see that it is possible we see it is scriptural like when we read about Paul and Timothy Paul talks about the time when the elders gathered together and laid hands on him and prayed over him and Paul reminds him in the episodes first Timothy, second Timothy reminds him do not neglect that which was imparted to you when we laid hands and Paul also tells him very specifically do not neglect the gift of God which is given to you by laying on of my hands laying on the hands of the eldership so yes it is it is possible but also it depends on the on the recipient as well the recipient is also seeking God is also walking with God so which is what I want to like address in the next session so just want to talk about the mechanics of that we are not going to go too much deeper into that but really talk about what is the double portion and some of those things so yes it is possible that when we lay hands and pray but we need to understand that it is God who anoints and it is not that I who push it on people it is God who anoints it is God who takes care of that right but then he uses us as human vessels to lay hands and pray and so on so yes to answer your question yes it is possible yeah thank you sir ok sir you are welcome so we will take a break for 10 minutes and then we will be back at 10 and we will continue with it thank you