 Okay, good morning everyone. Good to have you all in this class. Hopefully today is our last class. I'll try and wrap up all the chapters which are remaining in prayer and intercession. And yeah, if you have any clarifications, doubts, everything you can clear today. Let's pray and let's get started. I'll pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time Lord. We thank you for your grace, your strength Lord and Father God for just getting us through this entire course. We believe that every word that is spoken, that God it is implanted in our hearts and God that by your word Lord that we will be able to see Father your kingdom come in powerful ways in our lives. Heavenly Father, we pray that Lord each of us will have the spirit of intercession Lord in our lives and God that you will work powerfully through us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So let's now come to the chapter that talks about cities. In the last week sessions, we completely looked at fasting and prayer. So today we look at interceding as a group. We look at praying for others, especially for cities and regions. We all come from some or the other place and we know how our cities are. We know how our maybe our villages or our small towns are. What are the things that are going on there? We carry a concern, we carry a burden for our places and we want to see God's kingdom come there. When we say kingdom of God should come, everything that God is about, everything that heaven has we want there. Like we want peace, we want joy, we want all the pain to be removed, all the confusion to be removed. So every provision, so all the good things which are in God, all the good things which are in heaven we wanted on earth. And that's what we are saying when we say God let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come in my city, let your kingdom come in my village. So on. So today let's focus on chapter 17 that talks about how we should pray for cities. How we should pray for regions, regions means many cities put together an entire area that is a region and nations. We already know that there are several nations in the world. So how do we pray for the nations? First of all, we must understand that God is interested in communities. God is interested in groups of people. There are many scriptures where you read about the names of cities like Jerusalem, Sodom, Gomorrah, Nineveh. So we read about all these places because when God sees the people, he sees them as individuals but he sees them as cities also. So what is God's perspective or understanding about a city and how does he want a city to be? So we must first understand that only then we will be able to pray correctly for cities. We notice that God has a heart for the cities. So when Jesus saw Jerusalem, you know he cries out, right? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, right? He has this passion and this love for the city that Jerusalem would be a joy among the nations. So that is what God wants for Jerusalem. So when we look at Nineveh, Jonah, God sends him and says you go preach to those people. They were very wicked people. They were lost in their sins. But obviously it's because God loves them. He sends Jonah and says okay you go, you share about my love. If they change, good for them. And did they change? Did the people of Nineveh change? Yes, they changed, right? And Jonah was so surprised. He thought God is going to destroy them. But they changed and so God changed his mind and said okay, we will not destroy these people. But God sent a messenger to that place because he loved those people. So in this way, right? We see how God really loves people and communities. He wants everyone to change. What about Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you think God hated them? God loved them? Sinful people, right? Sexual immorality was widespread in Sodom and Gomorrah. So God said okay, I'm so angry, I want to destroy. Was that God's only intention? Destroy. Yeah, if at all they changed, right? The way God blessed Nineveh, the way he went back on his decision, right? He would have actually gone back on his decision. So when you look at God telling Abraham, why did God even tell Abraham, think about it? Because remember we are saying that God is looking for an intercessor, somebody to pray, somebody to intercede on behalf of the people. So maybe that is what God's expectation was that Abraham, he will intercede and he interceded in Genesis 18. But unfortunately, there was no righteous person in that place. And so it had to be destroyed. So God loves people, he loves communities, he wants them to change, he wants an intercessor. And when intercessors engage, when people repent, destruction and judgment will not come upon these places. That is God's heart. But we also notice that people are in so much sin that there's no other option. Destruction comes, judgment comes. But that's not God's primary will that people will be destroyed. So this is how God looks at people, communities and he wants them to change. So for them to change, like he approached Abraham, like he approached Jonah, like he approached many other people, he wants us to stand in the gap and pray for them. So Jeremiah 29 and verse 7, can somebody read that passage please? Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 7, what does it say? Jeremiah 29 verse 7. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. Okay, so God is speaking to his people and what does he say? Just go on, go back to the passage. What is he telling them? Seek the welfare of the city. Seek the welfare of the city, meaning let the city be blessed, let the city do well. That is the welfare of the city. What are some things that make the city good? How would you like your city to be? Tell me a couple of things. Peace. Genuine people. Genuine people. Unity. What else? What would you like in your cities? Good leaders. Good infrastructure. Facilities, education, medical help. These are all practical things we look for. But spiritual things, city to be saved. City to know God, love God, worship God. The people to walk in the fear of God. Now if you look at the way things are in cities, we don't find many of these things. They are lacking. And even worse situations are that there's no justice. People are fighting. There's violence. There's crimes. Crimes against the most vulnerable people, elderly women, children. It's quite scary. So God is telling the people you pray for the city. Pray for the peace of the city or pray for the welfare of the city. Now Nelson, could you just read it one more time? But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. And pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare. Okay, thank you. Also notice the people are being asked to pray for the city, which is not even their city. At that point they were in exile. You got it? So they were in a different city. But God is saying, because you are here in the city, I want you to pray. If the city does well, you will do well. If there is peace in the city, there will be peace in your lives. And that's what God is telling the people. So the question, sometimes people ask the question, this is not my city, my city is somewhere else. Should I pray for that city? Should I pray for this city? You can pray for both cities. Okay, so when the city does well, it is in peace. It will bring life to us as well. So that is the call that God gives his people. Pray for the city, pray for the welfare of the city. In its peace you will have peace. Okay, so we need to rise up and pray. God promises that when we as his people, we pray, God will bless our land. Just now we looked at so many things which are not wrong, which are not correct. And we looked at all the things that we want in the city. How to get the blessings of God? We need to repent. We need to go before God seeking his blessings. So could someone read from 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14? 2 Chronicles 7 was 14. Yes. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. Okay, so it shows that when God's people get together. What are some things that I listed out Nelson? Please read again. If my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. Okay, great. So we see that God is calling His people to position themselves in repentance, humble themselves and pray, seek my face. It means that we are positioning ourselves in humility and in repentance before God on behalf of the people. Now some of us may ask the question. We'll go to that later. Why should I repent? You know, I'm a righteous person. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Why should I repent for the city? The city may be evil. The people may be evil. But why as God's people, we need to pray, we need to seek God and repent on behalf of the city. There is something known as identification. Identification simply means we didn't make that mistake but because we are part of that family. We have a concern and we are praying on behalf of that family or on behalf of that community, on behalf of the city and that is why on behalf of the city when we come to God and we say, God we are sorry for not walking in the fear of God. We are sorry for our sinful ways. We are sorry for cheating. We are sorry for all the things that are going on in the city. For what other evil can you say? You know, we said crimes, injustice, so many things of mishandling money. So different things that are going on, we are sorry for that. We may not have done it but the church has a powerful place to sort of identify with what is going on in the city and come to God for repentance. Did you understand what I'm trying to say? It's not that we personally did that mistake. It's not like that. But we represent our city, we represent our community and we represent our people and that is why God is saying if my people who are called by my name if they would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. So we know in the armor of God the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness we are supposed to hold that. As believers we are supposed to walk in the truth and walk in righteousness. Then our walk is very powerful. We got it. So in the same way when we are coming to God and we are repenting on behalf of the city even our life should be righteous before God. Then our prayer becomes so powerful and God says I will heal your land. In other words, blessing will come. Things will change. Things will transform in our land and for that we need to go and pray because God is saying you need to pray for the peace of your city. Most of the time what do we do? Instead of praying what do we do? Any idea what believers tend to do? Instead of praying for the city. I don't know if you have done it but we complain we say what is this what is this government what is this city what is this infrastructure we complain, we point fingers and we take that position I understand sometimes it's frustrating but as a believer God is saying I am giving you the authority why don't you pray you pray for your city pray for peace, pray for prosperity I will heal your land okay So instead of being a complaining believer we can be a praying believer and that will bring the difference that will change any other passages where we can see that God calls us to pray for authorities right so like Romans 13 we are supposed to pray for the authorities whom God has placed above us so we as God's people have a responsibility to pray for you know kings, governors people who are ruling the land we are supposed to pray for the land itself for peace and justice and prosperity so when we take that position our land will be blessed and it is God ultimately that who is involved in the rise and fall of the nations you know sometimes we only do the predictions the economy how does it look is this nation better than the other nation who is overtaking which country so we do all our rational analysis which is fine but ultimately it's the blessing of the Lord it's the blessing of the Lord upon a nation that will cause it to rise up okay and it's the principles of God in that land as people live by the principles of God's word you know they there will be a blessing on the land these are the things that God is calling us to look into so God is involved in the rise and fall of nations Acts chapter 17 and verse 26 is the reference we don't have to read it but I've just stated it in a simple way so I think we are all getting the picture that we want we need to pray for people and when we look at each city we can sort of analyze what a city looks like every city is so different like if you look at Bangalore you have you know the city is growing so fast you have maybe a lot of young people living here a lot of young people coming in for jobs people from all around the country maybe you know people from across the world as well and what are their professions like we can chalk that out and we can say hey a lot of people in the IT a lot of people in whatever you know management other things so we can look at the demographics we usually say demographics you can study and research and find out what kind of people live in the city what's going on in the city right similarly you can you can study any city and data a lot of data is available okay so that way we'll know even when we are doing ministry when we when we study about church planting you know we'll come to that in your next year and the year after church planting so what are some things that we should learn about the city and first thing is to learn the demographics and what's going on in the city so that we'll be able to pray that is the first step so we understand in this way and then we can start praying you know we can depending on what the lord plants in our hearts we'll pray in general but if we are let's say you know my church is located in a particular area and there are a lot of IT parks around we can pray for the IT people their families right their children everything how they're going about their lives or maybe where we are planted if there are lot of colleges young students they come hundreds and thousands of students come they study we can pray for the students and we can say God you know bless the students let them know you help us to be an instrument to share your love so in this way we can pray for the different people who live in the city who live in the village or wherever we are from and we can get together and start blessing them so these are ways in which we can ask for God's presence to come for God's kingdom to come and also for cities to experience revival so there is a publication by the name Revivals Visitations and Moves of God APC publication you will be able to download it from apcw.org forward slash books go there and you can download it's there in Hindi it's there in English download whichever version you want and there are a lot of stories you can read about stories of revival that broke out in various parts of the world you would see that you know the first great awakening the second great awakening and then you read about portions or certain regions where revival broke out because of praying communities there were communities that prayed and asked God Lord pour out a revival one of which is in Wales Evan Roberts I've shared about that right who he started to pray and there were other young people with him who also started to pray and slowly the prayer movement became so big that the entire city started to pray and then came about the Welsh revival and the many spiritual results of the Welsh revival and the social or transformational aspects of the Welsh revival we can read about it just one example I'm giving us but in this way we notice that when we pray for cities when we pray for regions it can impact an entire you know like entire city things can be so transformed so there are many things we can read about it like in terms of social transformation it is said that when the Welsh revival happened the crime level came down in Wales and the police did not have any work to do can you imagine in a city like there's nothing no crimes nobody to catch and put in the prisons so the police didn't have any work so they became crowd managers all these huge meetings that used to take place in the evenings the police were deputed to go there and manage the crowd these are real things that have happened in history when people prayed for their cities we got it so I'm just helping us understand that there will be you know spiritual transformation there will be social transformation some of it can be immediate some of it can take time okay we should not get discouraged I know there are many people they may be praying for the city for so many years some churches are praying for India for so many years right many people are praying but then we ask what where is the result you know where is the change it'll come just be faithful God will you know make it happen so we need to pray for revival and when people have prayed for revival things have happened in history so that would be a very good book for us to go read and understand how God has impacted places so all of this is the positive part now unfortunately when cities have a lot of evil or cities have let's say sin and they are unrepentant before God cities also end up getting judgment and we see that in the Old Testament right God's judgment came upon people why because they did not heed God's voice they did not repent before God so that is also possible if there is no prayer if there is no change of heart then what happens judgment right so we need to be aware of this matter as well there are certain cities which when we look at in the Bible we see that they became strongholds of you know demonic presence demonic activity so places like Tire T-Y-R-E not too sure how you pronounce that but yes we find that that is a place that is stated as having I mean instead of God's presence his reign and rule there was a lot of evil in that particular place Persia is another place there are references to this place we are not getting into the details of it but you can always go back and research Ephesus where Paul went for ministry when he went there he noticed that there was you know worship of the goddess Diana and people a lot of people were engaged in black magic in that place that is the place where he went and did ministry when he did ministry there and miracles started happening even those who were engaged in sorcery and the occult they they turned towards God so you can imagine what kind of ministry Paul might have done there for all these people to come and they started burning all their equipment or tools that they used for black magic so there was a real transformation in that city but originally that city was the place where worship to a goddess happened and a lot of sorcery was practiced in Revelation you read about a place called Pergamos when John writes Satan is there in Pergamos he is occupied that place so cities can also become demonic strongholds that also is possible that Satan can work through that city it is so much under his control now as believers we don't want our city to be under the control of demons or Satan are you all understanding it's too heavy going above your head you know can understand okay great please feel free you can always stop and ask if there are any questions so yeah we can control cities which is also a reality so knowing all these things what we are saying is as believers let's pray let's pray for the city we just go back to all those scriptures that we saw in intercession when we read about intercession what did we say God is looking for one man to stand in the gap right? Ezekiel 22 verses 29 to 31 even one person prays it will affect the city it will affect the nation so don't ever think you know what will be the result if only I pray it's okay let's start one person can begin we have seen in history that usually prayer movements started as God gave the burden to one person and slowly it's like the fire right how do you light a big fire it starts with a spark and then it catches on it catches on so the burden that God puts on our hearts when we start slowly God will give that burden to everyone everyone kind of begin to you know experience that spirit of grace and supplication Holy Spirit is that spirit of intercession he enables us then we can pray we can intercede we can see God and we can see the transformation so one man stand in the gap and God will bless us Psalm 2 and verse 8 it is a Psalm in which to Jesus you know God is saying ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and could you just read that passage Psalms 2 verse 8 ask me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession yes so this is a promise that God is giving we can claim this too as believers and say God why why can we claim this because it's about it's in the great commission we need to impact nations and cities so we can ask God God you said in your word ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possessions so we are not asking for really reasons that oh God you know give me this nation give me inheritance we are asking for spiritual reasons and God is very happy with that this is a spiritual statement that we are primarily making here and we are saying God we are asking for the nations okay and this is something that we can we can pray as the Lord gives us the burden for it because go into the what did Jesus say go to the ends of the earth go to the ends when I had first come to apc like right at the start and I noticed the name but then also it was all people's church and world outreach okay I was so shocked I said what is this all people's church I can understand what is this world outreach this is like many years ago and at that point when I saw like a small community of people I was wondering why is it world outreach you know it doesn't look like world outreach right now but as I am seeing the journey right the vision is very important so it began as even in the beginning the vision is world outreach that's what God has given look at the great commission God says you go go to the ends of the earth so actually nothing is too big for God impacting nations it's not too big for God so when we look at the scripture like this where God says ask of me I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession so this is all spiritual like spiritually we are impacting so we can sit here today and we can pray and say God through us let the gospel go to all nations of Asia let it go to all nations of you know the American continent let it go to the African continent it's not actually a big prayer God can do it and God is saying I want you to pray ask you know it needs that courage we are so scared even to ask for our own place because it looks daunting or overwhelming to see how can we make an impact on this particular area that itself may be too much for us but God is saying big vision big dream right in prayer to start with in prayer pray ask of me and the nations it's in God's hands and you will give it to us okay so this is the way we can pray we can pray even for the nations we can declare the word that Jesus taught us in Matthew 610 what did he say he said thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven so we can say that God let your kingdom come in my city the way it is in heaven Lord let your kingdom come in my nation you got it so we can pray like this we can pray for every nation let your kingdom come let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven God make it aligned to your rule and reign the way Jesus would rule and reign the city that's how we want it so we as God's people we need to ask God for that and we can also use our authority we'll come to it authority you remember we said Jesus said I give you the keys of the kingdom whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you lose on earth will be lost in heaven so we can exercise our authority binding and losing binding and losing so we can pray in this way so now that we have understood God has a purpose for every city God has a plan for every city and we need to pray that let God's plan be fulfilled we see that Satan sometimes tries to take over cities and we have to break his hold over the cities so pray against the demonic works pray against Satan's plans you see when God has a plan Satan also has a plan but as believers we know how to cooperate with God's plans so that we can destroy Satan's plans so how do we cooperate with God's plans how do we cooperate with God's plans and destroy Satan's plans okay pray we pray in line with God's plans okay then what else can we do we sorry could you come again using authority yeah so using authority good so we can use authority we can destroy Satan's plans then only by prayer or anything more obedience obedience is needed isn't it to walk in righteousness when we walk in righteousness then we are aligning ourselves to God's plans how about renewed mind when we are in the world and our thinking is getting transformed our pattern is getting transformed then we will be able to evaluate whatever is good acceptable the perfect will of God okay so renewed mind these are all ways in which we keep aligning ourselves to God's plan and we destroy Satan's plan so in this way we need to pray for the city also and say God not the plans of Satan but let the plans of God be fulfilled in our city now whenever God sees sins in a city do you think it bothers him do you think he is affected by the sins of the people in the city does it matter to God or a community does God notice things in a community he does right you see how the Egyptians when they were mistreating the Jewish people in Egypt okay when they were in slavery what did God say when he sent Moses the cries of the people have come to me so God picked a deliverer and said you got to go do something because he is listening he is observing he is noticing so what is going on in a community in a region God notices think about Sodom and Gomorrah the evil increased and God said enough is enough I am going to destroy these people they don't have any fear of God God is noticing everything it's not like sometimes we feel that why is it getting delayed how come these the evil people are doing their evil work and nothing seems to be happening it's not like God doesn't know or God doesn't notice he is noticing so that is why we said earlier when we seek God when we humble ourselves healing will come blessing will come but if we don't repent warnings and judgment we would move in that direction so it's really us we have to choose which way but here is the point God observes especially the sins of the city they are noticed and if we don't repent then there are consequences Sodom and Gomorrah punishment it came God noticed he said look I am going to destroy them but let's give them a warning Jonah you go okay and you go and preach to them tell them what is coming up but thank God they repented so especially when it comes to sins of the city God notices okay and he is taking account of everything and we don't want our city to to kind of you know be that city where nobody nobody is praying or nobody is repenting on behalf of the city because that's quite dangerous okay so God does take notice of the sins of the city and we as God's people we've been saying you know what do we say every Sunday what is that vision our vision is to be salt and light in the city of Bangalore okay to the nation and the nations and the voice we say salt light voice what do these things mean they mean influence influence where there is light darkness has to run away so we are saying we are the light as long as we are here darkness will not prevail okay we are the salt what does salt do when you put salt it yes it gives good flavor but at the same time it preserves okay when you put salt all the chefs looking at me so when you put some salt the food items don't get spoiled so in the same way when God says we are the salt it means that we give a righteous flavor in the city and secondly all the evil and the sin that destroy the city we are actually protecting and preserving from decay destruction so we are light we are salt and we are voice what is the voice like John the Baptist repent and be baptized we are here we are telling them look Jesus has come he has given the salvation turn to God there is still time you need to turn to God God loves you all of that we are a voice to the people and as God's people and as the church you see every city this is this is also something for us to understand God would notice the church of the city if you go to the book of revelation you see the seven churches right so let's say the church of Ephesus the church of Laodicea right so so you have different churches like that Smirna so what is God saying he is saying that it's not like in a city of Ephesus there would have been many churches but God sees the overall body of Christ over that city you know and whether they are they are in line with God's purposes so there is like a collective responsibility of all believers in the city you may be from the church of peace and may be from the church of grace somebody else may be from the church of joy great but if you're all in the same city God looks as looks at all of us and he calls us as the church of you know the city of Bangalore or the city of Delhi or whichever place so there is a collective responsibility for us to take our position what is the position of the church is there any position to protect the city we've seen this when we studied intercession how do we as believers and our prayers act for a city Isaiah 62 watchman very good watchman so as believers and the church in a city we are like watchmen remember do you remember we discussed right we said we can stop the evil and we can open the doors for good things and blessings so that's how we must take our position like a gatekeeper and protector of the city so in a city depending on how strong the church is the city will be blessed but if we are all fighting among ourselves and if we you know we are all having our own agenda everyone is saying you know one is saying this one is saying that when the church is weak the church is not in agreement for the devil it's very nice because watchmen is not doing their job but as a citywide church all of us together we are praying together for the city it is so powerful so I just want to touch on a few things and you know then we'll close and take up in the next class see even here we have sometimes some pastors meetings and pastors gatherings so I've seen like you know pastors coming together all in one accord praying for the city and the last election that happened also we had some such meetings where the pastors of the city came together okay different churches and everyone was praying together and saying god you know we want good leaders we want your blessing we want all the evil to be overcome can you imagine how powerful that can be so we need to develop that kingdom thinking in your second year there is a course it's called kingdom builders kingdom means God's kingdom so it's an understanding where it's not just about you know my church your church different churches we have to become better than the other it's not like that we are all part of the kingdom and so the kingdom of God in my city has to thrive okay so that is a very very powerful when men of God women of God leaders they're of one accord in their hearts and we work together we pray together we bless the city we act like that good watchman evil cannot come to our city these are the responsibilities of the body of Christ in a given city so let's stop here if there are any questions we can take it up otherwise we will come back and we will you know get into more in the next session the wages of sin is done okay you can now go so we'll take a break and then we'll come back in the next session thank you