 Okay, welcome back everyone to this session. Let's pick up from where we stopped. We talked about the methods of working of Satan and we were discussing opposition. And under that, one point that we missed out last time was about Paul's thorn in the flesh. And in that passage we see that a demon is the opposition. And this is a unique situation simply because Paul was a man with great revelation. And to keep him humble, this was not sorted out for him. Though he prayed about it, he continued to struggle with the demon spirit. But then we cannot use this example in our lives today because it will not be applicable. We cannot compare with Paul's revelations. So that's how we would understand this particular passage. Now moving on to the next method of working which is deception. What is deception? So we've understood temptation, opposition, intrusion, all that we could recognize. But what is deception? Yes, Sean. Okay, miss using somebody's trust. That is one answer. Yes, Nikhil. Okay, he is sharing a Hindi word for it. And correct, that is correct. So trying, cheating somebody. Cheating somebody. Betrayal, okay. Cheating, betrayal, all that. Okay, so deception. So we have an idea of what deception is. And Satan does that. He deceives us. Why is it like a deception? Why is it like a betrayal or like a cheating? Because what he's saying is not the truth. And it's bad if we believe the lies that Satan tells us. So deception is making people believe a lie, like it's a truth. Making people think of the truth like a lie. If, for example, we read that bad company corrupts good character, that is a scripture like that. That is the truth of God's word. Now, if we are not careful about the close company, we keep the seditions, influence that comes from people. If we have good friends, great. They will lead us in good things, godly ways. But what if we have people who are pushing us into addictions and pushing us into ungodly ways. We will move towards destruction. But what is deception where Satan pushes us to believe that there's nothing wrong. What is wrong? The truth seems like the lie. No, nothing will happen to me. I will be fine. So you see that there is a sort of a non acceptance of the truth. And the lie becomes a truth where the lies I'll be fine. But what does the word of God say? No, you cannot put your hands into the wrong ungodly things and still be blessed. That's the truth of God's word. But Satan knows how to manipulate. So the truth, he will make it look like a lie. He will make it look like a truth. And when someone starts believing these things they can come into a place. Satan is a deceiver. He will deceive, but we fall into deception. So we start believing these things. We believe the lies of the devil. And the Bible says that he is a corruptor of our minds. And the Bible also says that there will be false teachings, false apostles, so many wrong things that will go against the truth. So there are many scriptures which have been given for us there where even Jesus, he warned that there will be wrong doctrines and teachings in the last days in the book of Timothy, first Timothy chapter four verse one, that also talks about deceptive people coming in and trying to corrupt our minds. One John chapter four verses one to three that also says there will be false leaders and we must discern the spirits. We cannot believe every spirit that comes to tell us about God. So that discernment is required on our part to identify what is from God and what is not from God. When we read about Satan, one thing that the Bible says is he can appear like the angel of light. See, when there is deception, right? Nobody will try to deceive us in an obvious way. Okay, what do we mean by that? Satan will not come dressed with two horns and one tail and you know, you look at Satan you're like, hey, are you Satan? Yeah, you look like Satan. So obvious. And then Satan comes to you and says, hey, I'm here. I want to deceive you. And you know, this is what he will not come in a way that you can recognize. It'll be very subtle. Like you, we won't even feel that something is off. That's how he behaves. And the Bible actually says that he can come like the angel of light. So if he wants to deceive us, why would he reveal himself as, hey, I'm the bad person. I'm the deceiver. No, he'll come like an angel of light to show us the good things, give us a better life. And as we believe his lie and go against the truth of God's word, that's when we start slipping. Okay, so he knows how to be deceptive in a very subtle way. And that's where we have to watch out everything. Even, you know, something that is taught, something that is preached every spirit that is in the world, like the Bible says, be discerning, try to figure out just because things sound good, it may not be rooted in the word. So when we are discerning, we can identify deception. So one of the ways for us to find out, you know, what is from God and what is not from God is to see the fruit. Okay, see the fruit means what is the result through the ministry or through what is done. You can see that people's lives are transformed. People are leaving sin, they are following God or you might see that, you know, many people are coming to know Christ or there is a manifestation of the gifts of the spirit. People are healed, people are delivered, people are strengthened, encouraged. So when we see this is the fruit, we can recognize that what is happening is from God. But if we don't see those things, let's say that, you know, Satan comes like the angel of light, gives some nice teaching, something deceptive. What is the result? People are falling away from God. There is no steadiness in their lives. There's a lot of confusion. You know, their family life is affected, their health is affected, they have undergoing loss, strife, confusion in their relationships. So then you know, hey, this cannot be from God. If God is doing this work, how can the fruit be the opposite? Okay, so best is to identify deception even if it is very subtle, like immediately in your spirit, because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit bears witness in our spirit. So sometimes we can tell something is wrong, you know, with the suggestion or what this person is saying, something is wrong, we can discern it immediately. And also the important thing is to know the Bible. When we know the word of God, people cannot deceive or Satan cannot deceive us so easily. Like Jesus, we can say, hey, it is written. It is written. No, I don't believe you. So that's how, you know, we have to discern and overcome deception and stay on God, stay in the truth of God's word, stay with the leading of the Holy Spirit. So there is one passage in one John chapter two versus 26 and 27, where it says that the anointing in you will teach you all things. The anointing in us, anointing is another word used for Holy Spirit in this passage. So the Holy Spirit who is within us can help us identify what is a lie, what is a truth? Now who is a minister of lie? Who's a minister of truth? So all these things, all this discernment, we can know when the Holy Spirit is working in us. And obviously we should know the word of God also. Okay, so that will help us over. Huh, yes, please. Like ma'am, you said like watch out for the fruits or whatever you are making. This is the address, these fruits are like healing deliverance and all. But then how, like also the scripture where Jesus at the end of times when people come and they will tell like we healed, we did these things in your name and God tell like we didn't, I didn't know you. So how this both goes, like if we are looking for the fruits which are like healing deliverance and all and these both were like not going hand in hand. Okay, so the way we'll understand this is when he says I don't know you, it simply means that they don't have a relationship with Jesus. Okay, so can people who don't have a relationship with Jesus do supernatural miracles? Answer is yes. There will be deceiving spirits. There will be, you know, the Bible says, miracle workers, those are two miracles. But they're not born again. That is the interpretation of that passage. A lot of people look at that passage and say that it is talking about believers, but no, it's not talking about believers. When God says I don't know you, it's like the John chapter 15, where you know the person, like you're not connected with God as a believer, you're not born again. So then you're not a part of Christ and His body, but I did miracles in your name, I prophesied. It's just to say that they are doing miracles or supernatural works similar to what is seen in the kingdom. So why am I saying this? I'm saying this because you remember, we said we should interpret unclear passages in the light of clear passages. So throughout, we see that God is the one who's giving us the mandate to walk in the supernatural. Why would He tell a believer that I don't know you? When we are in Christ, there is no reason for God to say I don't know you. But what's happening here, the scenario is, people are moving in the supernatural, but they don't have a connection with God. No, supernatural, yeah. And we know, right? It happens. We see so many people who are in the occult and all do some spiritual supernatural things, but they're not part of the kingdom. Is that okay? Okay, all right. Any other questions? Prince Mike. About opposition, about Paul, Thorne and Pleasure, you told like it's a demonic spirit. So is it like he was a demonized or he been tormented by demon? He was being tormented. Not demonized, but being tormented. Demonized as we are going to that. We'll see why I'm saying it's not demonized. So we've understood deception, okay? So when a person moves, accepts the lie of the devil, what will happen is they'll go deeper and deeper into deception. So, you know, how do I put this? Like they will begin to believe that the way they're living is correct, what they're doing is correct, you know? So at some point it's very difficult to even speak with people who have gone that path. And they feel, yeah, nothing is wrong, but that's how Satan can deceive us if we are not careful. So the truth of God's word and the work of the spirit is very, very important. We have to go by that. Then only we'll be able to identify quickly and stop the deception. Okay, yeah, sure. So basically, can you say that as we, like as we, as we fall into the deception, what really are the line that we draw in between right and wrong, that becomes blurred eventually. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. And it's really sad, but that's also the problem of Satan, right? He's fallen into deception where he, first of all, pride and then deception. What is the deception? I can become greater than God. I will go higher. I will sit on the throne. So these kind of thoughts, it's nowhere close to the reality of what God's word says. So deceived views, terms like, he, what's self deception where we ourselves, you know, brainwash ourselves to believe some lie. Okay, so we have to be careful about these things. Now moving on, yeah, another comment. Ma'am, why didn't, I mean, Satan was much closer than all of us. He was, he was there, but why didn't he never apologize to God and get that part? Why did he never apologize? He had a better understanding than all of us. He also knows the scriptures, everything, but why never thought of apologies? Why didn't Satan apologize? I don't know him so closely before the answer, but I can guess, I can, I mean, from whatever we know, I see this whole thing of pride and deception, it's very dangerous. So it may cause us to come to a place where even though it's the right thing to apologize, I don't know if you've seen it or experienced it yourself, when we're in pride, no, it doesn't even occur to us. We feel like, yeah, I'm right. Why should I apologize? So that pride and self deception has probably kept him in a place where he's not able to, he couldn't even recognize that he needs to apologize. So eventually his pride overpowered his sense of right and wrong. That's the danger, that's the danger. So which is why when the Holy Spirit convicts us, it may be something very small. It's important to have a tender heart before God. It could be very small, but we say, God, I'm so sorry. I wanna change, help me change. So when we are in that place and throughout our lives, you're safe. But when we come to a place where we say, I know, I already know, what are you gonna tell me? That is so dangerous, because you kind of lose your sense of right and wrong from there, yeah, okay. So deception, we have an idea. The next would be oppression. Oppression is if you noticed wrestling matches, okay, we've seen wrestling matches. And in those matches, usually the stronger person will overpower the weaker person. So this subduing or taking over is what is known as oppression. Subduing is oppression. So what does Satan do? He tries to take control, okay. And when we, for whatever reason, we are weak, we don't deal with it. We don't face the enemy right at the start. He can subdue us, okay. This can happen in our mind, like for example, fear. From the beginning, it can be something simple. It just starts with, oh, I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough. And then it gets worse. But what is he doing? Mentally, he's oppressing. He's pushing me down, okay. And then what happens? The oppression can even be seen in my physical health, like maybe slowly, I feel weak or I'm low immunity, I'm frequently falling sick, but it all has to do with fear. So this is just one example I'm giving you. So Satan knows how to oppress people, primarily in the mind. So fear, anxiety, accusation, anything else. You know, some kind of a deceptive thought. So he intimidation. So he'll use all this to oppress us. And sometimes that oppression can also be physical. You can see like sickness also is an oppression because in Acts chapter 10, verse 38, we read that Jesus of Nazareth, he meant about doing good, okay. Healing all who were oppressed of the devil. For God was with him. So Jesus came to set us free from the oppression of the devil. So oppression is another way in which he can actually, influence people. So the oppression can be on and off, like we may experience the things that I shared just now, they're coming in and going off, or they can be prolonged. Sometimes even a sickness or an incurable condition. It can be an oppression of the devil and it can be broken by prayer. So this is another way in which he operates. So now coming to possession, okay. So till now, the way to actually understand is, see possession is when the human capacities or abilities, I think I've told us earlier, Satan and demons take over the abilities of a person. When it comes to that stage, we say possession. So I'll just come to you Sean. So this possession can be sometimes, there is an example in Mark chapter nine, where the, you know, a parent, they bring their child for deliverance to Jesus and they say something like whenever he sees water, this demon spirit pushes him or something, water or fire, I don't remember clearly, but this demon spirit pushes him there. So only when this happens, the demon spirit comes and starts tormenting. But there is another account of the man in Gadirin where he was demon possessed that nobody could even go to him. The whole time, he was a sort of a dangerous figure, okay over there. So the demons can take over for some time on and off. So we use the term manifestation. So they manifest that they are there, the whole time or sometimes. So this is what possession is. All other things, the person has some mental control, like you can overcome. But possession is when that will power, that control has become very weak now, that even the physical faculties and some of the abilities of the person, the demons have started using it. Okay, yeah, Ashon, you had something? To say that last class, you talked about how if there's even like a crack in us believers, that's when that's what he uses in order to come and take us over or to influence us. So that's why I wanted to add, like so when we as believers have a particular fault in it, that's what Satan like targets, that's what demons target and use that to their limits. Yeah, that's true. That's true. And that's why having our hearts healed, emotional wholeness, okay? That is so important. And for believers and we will study, like as you do your courses, when it comes to ministry, right? To minister from the place of being emotionally well, okay? And to know how to manage our emotions over a period of time. If even if something happens in our life experience, how do we deal with it? How do we quickly come to that place of wholeness and then minister from that place? All that is so important. Otherwise, what Sean was saying, we leave bleeding parts of our heart and wounds and all. That's very easy for the enemy to come and take over and mess things up for us. So yeah, that's true. So all these cracks or open doors in our lives. Okay, so we've understood possession, right? We've understood. So we're talking about increasing levels, oppression and then, you know, possession. Now, domination. Domination is to be able to have a great influence. Have a great influence. And particularly we use this term as influence over places, like villages, towns, cities. So demonic influence. And I've discussed many things earlier with all of us. There is one example in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter two, verses 12 and 13. There is a mention of a city called Pergamos. Pergamos, where it says that it was the throne of Satan. Or in other words, Satan was dominating from that place. So can cities become strongholds of demonic powers? Yes, they can. So demonic powers were operating strongly from that city of Pergamos. So what's happening now? There's a domination. They can accomplish a domination. So that can happen through which they can affect many, many lives. And in the Bible, we have such examples of maybe cities or here in our notes, there are examples of people who became channels for the domination of demons. So Babylon, many times Babylon is, you know that term, it's a symbol. It's used as a symbol of the demonic or ungodly. So yeah, cities can have the domination. There are examples of people such as Jezebel. Jezebel in the Bible was a, she was a ruler, a ruler, but she encouraged a lot of witchcraft in her land. So that is why the term Jezebel through her, she became that channel that encouraged the ungodly, the demonic, a lot of occultic practices during the rule of Jezebel. So Satan can work through people also, certain individuals who are willing and happy to increase the demonic activities. So Jezebel, then Manasseh, a ruler in Jerusalem from Second Chronicles 33 in Samaria, in Acts chapter eight, there is a man called Simon, Simon the sorcerer. And from what the Bible says, he was called a God among the people in Samaria. So that shows us that he had a lot of supernatural power. Imagine, nobody will call anybody a God, but if they're calling a man God, then he must have done some significant supernatural things. So can Satan work through individuals? Yes, he can work, he can try to show his power and all. And the sad part is these individuals have given the power to demons, okay? There is one more girl in Acts chapter 16. She was a slave girl with the spirit of Python. It says she was doing fortune telling. So what does Satan and demons do? They can take over human beings. See, possession is, they've taken over, fine. Now this is domination. Domination where through that person, they're controlling the entire region, the village. So in Philippi, this girl, the slave girl, because of the way the demons were manifesting through her, it was affecting the people. So when Paul, when he cast out the demon, the whole city, right? Like in Philippi, people started becoming believers because this demon spirit which was dominating through this one person was now dealt with. You got it, same thing happened in Samaria that Simon became a believer, okay? So possession is, demons are manifesting through a person, but domination is, they work in such a way that they can take control of a village, of a city, of a town, show miracles, so many things like that, okay? So that's how it is. Now, moving on to empowerment. Empowerment is when it's sort of similar to domination where a human being is gaining power through the demonic, okay? For example, even Simon, the sorcerer. As a sorcerer, he would have done many things to get the powers which he got, okay? So similarly, people who are in the occult, what do they do? We know, right? They do many things to gain that authority. So that is empowerment where they are being empowered to keep doing the work of the devil and people are deceived because people when they look at such people, they see supernatural things taking place and they say, oh, but he's a powerful man. She's a powerful woman. All these miracles are taking place. Yes, they are taking place, but that's because the person has gone beyond the level of just possession and the demon powers now are giving their powers to this person, to continue to deceive people. So that's how it works. So the occult, there are many false religions in 1 Timothy 4, I said, right? In the last days, there will be Paul wrote to Timothy, people, false teachers, and they will teach all kinds of stuff and Satan will show his power also through some of these teachings and philosophies, but those who don't have the understanding of the word, those who are blinded to the truth of the gospel, they start believing all these false religions. So that's how it is, lies, signs and miracles. The Bible talks about that. So we have to be careful, but here is the truth that we must be grounded in, that even if Satan can manifest his power, it is nothing compared to the power of God. I think I've shared that, right? Moses, he also went, there were sorcerers in Egypt, but who overcame Moses overcame? So Elijah and the worshipers of Baal, who was the one who brought down fire? Elijah. So yes, there will be some demonstration of power, but God is greater, way greater than Satan and his power. So we should not be intimidated, but this is the progression. So any thoughts, any questions regarding what we have discussed so far? Okay, maybe I'll just share something, actually not so connected, but when we read about domination and empowerment and all, sometimes when there is the unknown, we feel more interested like, oh, what is that and how does all these things work? So I just want to encourage and at the same time, you know, sort of warn us, not to get too deep into these things. We understand that Satan can empower and dominate and do all these things, but getting deep into it, because sometimes what believers do, they develop a very unhealthy interest, that, oh, they have this practice, they have that practice, this is how the spirit speaks, that is how the spirit does. You know, they get deep into it and sometimes, I mean, myself, I have encountered some books where I felt like it's so unnecessary to go so deep into the things that people who don't believe in God do. So for us, actually speaking, we are going in depth for all this simply because you're in Bible college and you want to understand the workings of the devil, but more than anything for believers' authority and the deliverance, the subject that we must focus on is the cross, the victory of the cross. You get it? So keep the focus there and don't get misguided too much into these details. It's just a note, yeah, sure. Ma'am, during our lifestyle evangelism class, Pastor Paul was talking about like when he wanted to talk to a believer, unbeliever, sorry, who was like, I suppose a Hindu or a Muslim and all that. It's best like we should learn a bit about their allegiance so that we can find the similarities between that. So like the same thing is said about not getting too deep into the subject of demonology. Can you apply the same thing here because we are starting the religion of another person, but you shouldn't get so deep into it. Yeah, so just key concepts, no, Sean, I think probably that's what Pastor Paul was referring to. For example, see, if you look at a certain religion, you could say that, I mean, I'm not stating names of religions here, but you could say that salvation is attained in this way or they don't understand the concept of the Trinity. They don't understand the concept of the sun. So if you know key things, that's more than enough to actually have a conversation. You don't have to go so deep. Have any father, thank you very much for guiding us all here for this class, any father, thank you for leading us, my lady, any father. Have any father, thank you very much for giving us new understanding of any father and how to defend ourselves, how to better ourselves, any father, thank you very much, any father. Please help us to understand more, any father, and please help us to be well prepared, any father. And thank you very much for using my my lead to teach us all the new things, any father. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, amen. Thank you, thank you, everyone. I'll see you again on Friday in the next class. God bless.