 Okay, let's continue, we are talking about the joy associated with faith, resilience. So we understood that we can have a joyful journey, we can also have strong faith. So when we think about strong faith, you could also think of a life the way, you remember Jesus said the wise man builds his house on a rock, okay. So don't build your house on the sand but build it on the rock, because when you build it on the rock, what are the advantages, there can be a storm, there can be a wind, there can be, you know, there can be strong rains but still the house will stand. So in the same way our faith when it is built up so strong, no matter what we go through in each of our situations, we will hold on and see God's glory. Now the next concept here is something known as the rest, rest of faith. So see usually when we talk about faith, we say action, exercise your faith. If you have faith, speak it, if you have faith, do it, right, if you have faith, then demonstrate it, you have to do something, if you have the faith but there is also a balance, there is something known as rest. So when we have faith, we can also demonstrate rest. So there is a time to act but there is a time to be still, okay. So what did we say earlier, for developing faith, first we must examine the word of God, what is the word of God say and then start to build our faith, okay. So we will build our faith and once we have the assurance that God is going to do this for us, we can come to a place of rest and what does that place of rest look like? It looks like thanksgiving, you know no longer are we again in the action mode, all that is over because we have built our faith so strong, we are convinced right now and we are in a place where we are saying okay, thank you God, you are going to do this for me, I am convinced, I give you praise, I know at the right time it will happen. So you are in the rest mode, okay, spiritually everything that I am talking about is spiritually. Now in the natural we may still be doing some things but it is not necessarily you know like you are striving or you are struggling or you are putting in some action for the faith but you are in a place of rest. So rest is also important for us to learn, you know how to rest in God, how to be strong and trust in God. So let's read a couple of scriptures here, Isaiah 28 and verse 16, who would like to read it? It's there in the notes. Isaiah 28 verse 16, therefore those says the Lord God behold I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tribe stone, precious concern is your foundation, whoever believes us will not act hostile. So here in the book of Isaiah God talks about a stone for a foundation and he says that this stone is a, it's a tried stone or it's a very reliable stone and a corner stone. Corner stone is those days when you know in architecture, today we have a lot of pillars that we use to support the building but in the times that you know the Bible was written they would use something known as a corner stone, corner stone will hold all the load of the building. Okay, so it was very important, if you don't have a proper corner stone then the building will not sustain. So he's saying there is a strong stone, there is a corner stone and a sure foundation. So God gives such a strong foundation for us. So the understanding that we get is he's talking about our trust in him, our faith in him. When we have strong faith in God it's like a strong foundation, when a building is built on a strong foundation, will it stand, yeah it will stand because there is a sure foundation. So faith is like that sure foundation where we can be calm, I told us right you need to build your house on the rock, if you build your house on the rock whichever stress comes, whichever challenge comes, the weather will change, it will be so hot, it will be so cold, let anything happen. There is a strong foundation, the building will stand. So that is how our faith needs to be, so strong that it doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter what weather is here and gone or you know what we are going through, God people are saying, so all those things will not matter because we have come to a place of rest spiritually in God where we are saying God said it, I believe it, you know it's done, in the right time it will happen. I am just going to be joyful, I am going to thank God, I am going to trust God, keep moving on, got it. So rest is also very crucial but rest in the spirit will come only when you know faith is like that rock or that strong foundation where we are assured that you know it's fine. Have you ever met anyone who is going through a very rough season in their lives but they are at peace, I am sure you must have come across some people like that where they put their trust in God so strongly that they are not letting the situation make them angry, frustrated, you know sometimes we just react isn't it, we just react to the situation but sometimes we can come to a place where we find rest in our faith where we are saying okay fine, yeah all this is going on it's okay but I am just going to trust because God will come through for me so that peace, patience, rest all that is very palpable or we can actually see it. So look at this Isaiah 30 and verse 15 would another person like to read it, the back Isaiah 30 verse 15, for thus say the Lord God the Holy One of Israel in returning and rest you shall be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength but you would not, okay so here you know he's talking about in returning and rest you shall be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength but you would not so the focus that we can have in this passages words like rest, quietness, confidence, you know sometimes faith is not all noisy okay yes faith and action we expect that but after you have journeyed with God and you have the assurance that God will fulfill his promise, faith is also quietness, faith is also confidence, faith is also calmness where you just come got it because you have strong faith in God okay I am not going to be easily disturbed easily react easily angry because okay whatever the devil is trying to do let him do I have already overcome, faith overcomes I have already overcome so we are in a place of quietness, confidence, stillness, peace, rest got it so that is also faith sometimes faith looks like that it looks quiet calm peaceful but we can't look at a situation like that and say oh look at that person you know they don't have any faith they are not doing anything yeah I mean maybe they have already done what needs to be done now all they have to do is just trust okay so there are times or seasons situations that when we believe God for you know certain things we also have to come to a place where we have to fully trust and not become you know like agitated imagine you know the children of Israel God said okay I will take you to the promised land and finally God tells Moses okay Moses go stand near the Red Sea you hold up your rod the sea will part now once God said it quietly they have to do what God is telling them to do but if they all start arguing and you know fighting and telling most what are you doing you know we have standing here nothing is happening what is this Moses so there is a lot of unrest because they're not really trusting that God will do what he told them to do he brought them till here okay he brought them till the Red Sea at least that should help them understand that God is with us surely he will part the Red Sea we are going to go through the Red Sea but they need a sense of calmness what is that they just obey okay just obey I don't understand just quietly obey and be at peace so they follow Moses and finally he comes to that moment and he lifts up the rod and you know amazing the sea actually parts but you need that strong faith to believe in moments like that because if you can't believe if you're not at peace that God is going to do it you'll be so you know anxious when is it going to happen what is going to happen what if they do what if what if right so many things go through our minds but faith when it is resting it looks like okay I don't understand but it's going to happen I believe it I'm just going to trust God I'm just going to wait it will happen okay so that sense of calmness and peace and confidence is also a part of faith in some portions of scripture God talking to his people he says you know don't be afraid in battle he says don't be afraid you just have to be still and God will fight your battle okay so there are moments that we just have to be quiet and trust that it will happen and the very famous scripture which we all know Psalm 46 verse 10 where it says be still be still and know that I am God I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth so what is this scripture in Hindi Psalm 46 verse 10 okay so it gives us some understanding right what God is saying so those who understand Hindi also can know what we are talking about so any questions regarding this about you know resting in God in faith how about the online students okay Sanjay in quietness and confidence David faced Goliath who was angry agitated and swearing yeah yes sure we can say that all right so yeah we can then move on we'll come to chapter 20 and we'll begin by reading a scripture first Timothy chapter 6 and verse 12 so you'll have to turn in your bible to find that scripture and then read it aloud yeah first Timothy 6 and verse 12 okay just I couldn't hear you very well first Timothy 6 12 okay can you read again please fight the good fight of faith play hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good comparison in the presence of many witnesses okay great so this is Paul's instruction to Timothy who is Timothy to Paul to Paul Timothy was a a mentee or you know he even calls Timothy's son at one point because he he groomed Timothy in the ministry and he's telling Timothy something very very important so when we learn a little bit about you know Timothy and his personality and all we see that Paul had to encourage him a lot and say come on Timothy you know don't let just because you're young don't let people look down on you you can still be strong in the faith and so many such uh encouragements or exhortations Paul brings to Timothy in this passage first Timothy chapter 6 he speaks to Timothy and he says you know fight the good fight of faith so he's giving Timothy one more key firstly he's telling Timothy to be confident secondly he's telling him you know what when you are you want to serve the Lord when you want to be strong as a believer you will need to engage in a fight okay so just now we said rest in God be at peace and all that is uh uh you know that is the status of our spirit man but Paul is also reminding us that it is going to take a fight so when we when we talk about faith faith is a um you know there is a fight of faith fight the good fight of faith why is he saying fight why should you fight when do you fight or do you even fight i'm just asking when do we fight yeah there's something wrong that is being spoken something we disagree with you know something that's making us angry uh usually you know in a normal day life this is what it is but uh otherwise whenever there is an enemy okay enemy means somebody is coming to do something which they are not authorized to do maybe they are entering our hope or they are you know taking our things they are taking what belongs to us it makes us angry and we fight in those situations we say no you can't do that okay you're not allowed to do that that's where the fight comes in and Paul is telling Timothy you know uh this faith no this faith journey it's not always going to be calm sometimes you have to stand up and fight fight the good fight of faith okay now next question who should you fight with okay who is Paul asking Timothy to fight with your neighbors traffic you know you feel like fighting traffic who do you who should we fight with unbelief okay unbelief enemy okay satan good any other enemy that we can think of our own weaknesses right because there are weaknesses of the flesh sometimes we as believers also there's so many challenges laziness pride uh anger jealousy um so many things are there in the flesh right and we need to battle those things those things will not go away just by saying okay shoot go right it won't you have to fight sometimes you just have to fight hard and that is when you can overcome all these things the wrong thought process that we have or satan satan also works very hard to tempt us to confuse us okay to sidetrack us we have to fight with the devil and our own fleshly weaknesses where we say no i am going to overcome i am going to overcome so there is a fight needed as far as our spiritual journey is concerned and our faith is concerned fight the good fight of faith so to come to the finish line of our lives it's not going to happen just coolly okay sometimes yeah we are fine we are okay you know our faith you can imagine a graph right a graph will you go up come down be be the same so there are times where our energy to fight for our faith has to increase because there is opposition some or the other form of opposition external or internal uh but we need to fight it out and we have to defeat the enemy so that is why paul is telling timothy come on timothy you have to fight if you don't fight it's gone okay don't just let it go like that you you need some uh you know that spiritual um what can you say like if i may use the word anger but in a positive way right that spiritual anger spiritual determination where uh you know it really upsets you if the devil tries to do something against god's promises or you know anything else that's coming in the way we are supposed to get angry spiritually and say no we will not let this happen okay so that kind of an attitude and spiritual anger being awakened inside in our spirit determination is required to battle and fight the good fight of faith so what are some things that can uh let's talk specifically about faith and uh ask the question what are some things which can weaken our faith what can make our faith weak like some enemies that can come and make our faith weak doubt yeah correct doubt is such a uh you know uh like it's a it's a very uh subtle i would say sometimes it's very subtle subtle means that uh we don't even realize uh slowly the doubt comes and then it takes over so doubt is a very uh dangerous enemy why is it dangerous why is it dangerous you know a faith doubt is completely opposite of faith so if you can imagine um uh like uh if your faith is like uh water in a in a like a plastic can okay a little bit of doubt what will it do it just make a hole in the can then what will happen to all the faith slowly it just starts going out you're thinking i just have a small doubt but that small doubt right it will just keep it'll stay there and it will cause the faith to like leak out or become weak then nothing is left no faith is left if we allow that doubt to stay but we need to fix the doubt quickly got it so uh you remember there were times when Jesus went for ministry okay and when he went for ministry uh you you do recall he said i'm not able to do any miracles because of their because of their unbelief right unbelief and doubt what does it do god is powerful isn't it god can do anything god god can heal anybody he can touch anybody then why is he not doing why didn't jesus do that jesus is saying even if i go there i can't do because of their unbelief so look at this doubt is stopping god unbelief is stopping jesus can you can you imagine jesus wants to do but unbelief is stopping jesus so where there is unbelief faith cannot function fully even god does not move because not that he can't move but the nature of unbelief or doubt is such that it's like i mean how can you stop god but unbelief can stop god it's crazy right so unbelief is like that when we carry unbelief in our hearts even god says i can't do so it's so dangerous so fight doubt fight unbelief so how to fight unbelief how to fight unbelief same answers you already know you just have to share how to fight okay be proactive in your faith okay be proactive in your faith so get rid of that doubt so when we understand what is that doubt we can go back to the word of god okay and there we can check so i feel like this or i'm thinking like this what does the word say is it true then when we check when we spend time in god's word and we understand the word correctly faith will come back do you remember we said faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of god romance 10 17 so then when you go back to the word you're removing the doubt and doubt leaves us so just go back to the word every thought we have you just take it back to the word and try to research in the word and see okay is it really like that is god really like that and then your doubt will go away okay so spend time in the word of god so doubt is an enemy any other enemies we have we have to fight them as far as faith is concerned okay lucy says fear doubt worries then doubt pulls us down out of track okay sure yeah that happens and over thinking yeah so so true no overthinking so we think so much like even if it is i mean overthinking can happen for anything isn't it even if you have to let's say heat a cup of heat like a vessel full of water we can overthink so much oh if i light the gas if this happens if that what if it boils over if it falls on me you can think so much about any matter unnecessarily we have to think about things but not so much what if what if what if you know it just keeps going on so even the mind so the so things like you know overthinking or what lucy said she said a worry okay fear all these things have to do with the the the mind so we have to come to a place where we must renew the mind with the word of god so when we start renewing the mind with the word of god we can overcome all these things so let's say fear okay we're carrying fear in our mind so how to overcome we can meditate on god's word what does god's word say for i've not received the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind so as i'm meditating on it as i'm confessing it what understanding that does it give me it gives me the understanding that i'm a bold person because in christ that's who i am i'm bold there's no place for fear there are other scriptures we can meditate on you know there's another scripture that says perfect love casts out all fear so we can say you know god's love is filling my heart every fear is leaving me right now in the name of jesus so then what's happening we are receiving the confidence and strength which is coming through the word of god so we are not supposed to be fearful okay so in this way we are battling every fear that is coming against us and let's say worry right worry anxiety overthinking go back to the word of god what is the word of god say it just says do not be afraid only believe say okay i will not be afraid i will only believe god's word says be still and know that i am god okay i'm going to be still i'm going to put my faith in god and there are all those passages which we learned about prayer that whatever you stand believing right you pray for those things god does it for us so okay i'm not going to be anxious i'm only going to pray again philippines for you can go back to that scripture where it says do not be anxious about anything but in all things with with you know praise and supplication so that those scriptures tell us they remind us you pray about everything you pray about everything okay and you also have your mind with good thoughts whatever is good whatever is noble whatever is you know praise worthy those kind of thoughts you put it in your mind so as we are doing these things we are battling this is what fighting looks like okay we are fighting every fear every worry every anxiety so overthinking is somewhat like anxiety we are fighting all these things in our mind and then what happens to our mind the bible says in romance 12 verses 1 and 2 don't be conformed to the ways of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so our mind is getting changed our thoughts are getting changed the patterns of our thinking are getting changed that is what renewed mind is renewed mind is changing the pattern of our thinking to the way God thinks we all have a pattern of thinking but that may not necessarily be God's pattern of thinking now we have to change it change it with the word of God so when we renew our minds we can overcome all these problems what did we say fear worry anxiety confusion distraction lack of focus we are not able to focus okay fine no problem start to get the word inside right and then it's literally like repair that's happening in our minds even better word is renewal repair is just whatever is broken you fix it right but what did what did God say be renewed meaning new mind new mind we can have the way God thinks so that is what will help us to fight all these enemies so we can't keep the same mind if we are going to live our lives with the same old mind it won't work but change it how to change it get the word inside okay meditate on it confess it pray it we talked about it isn't it so start to practice these things then what will happen it's like whatever is there in our mind for a long time that will break that old thought or ungodly thought and it will get replaced by a godly thought then our mind is becoming new and it becomes stronger and every time an enemy comes let's say a worry comes back we say no I don't believe you because God's word says it is written the way Jesus fought satan when he was fasting 40 days so in that way renewed mind is what will help us fight some of these enemies got it okay so so far we said doubt is an enemy the problems of the mind like worry anxiety confusion all those things are a problem overthinking through a renewed mind we can overcome it any other enemies we have to faith any other enemies what can stop our faith sister wrong attitude okay wrong attitude could you be specific sister Gertrude like which attitude sister when you're praying against somebody you know which is not according to the word of God we sometimes we are upset over somebody and we pray against them so you know this is not in the aligned to God's word yeah correct so wrong attitude or just being not being aligned to God's word so that also will hinder our faith sure so that's a possibility any other enemies enemies to our faith what will make it tougher to believe okay so Lucy says being lethargic or Cyril says unanswered prayers okay yeah so both of these can affect being lethargic is being like not having determination okay spiritual laziness what does spiritual laziness do you remember we said faith says you know God's word says this I believe it and you know I will receive it but spiritual laziness says maybe yeah if he does let him do if he doesn't do let him not do so that is the position that laziness takes but in determination do you remember that mother who went to Jesus and she said even the the dogs eat the crumbs and Jesus was so impressed by her determination if she did not have determination do you think her childhood have got deliverance no right so you don't receive anything when we are we lack the determination to get it okay so yes there is something called spiritual laziness where we are not strong enough to go after that one thing that God wants for us okay so we need how to overcome that how to overcome spiritual laziness sister by praying every day okay by praying every day set a time aside for Bible reading and worship and I think every day when you are praying to God you know you will come overcome your spiritual laziness okay okay so spend more time in prayer to overcome spiritual laziness then what else can we do okay so spiritual laziness as sister Gertrude pointed out prayer when we when we put ourselves through when we put ourselves through discipline okay spiritual discipline it really helps us okay anything anything that will spiritually discipline us in the beginning it will be very tough right it will be very difficult for us but as we continue then that that determination or that seriousness in the spirit will develop okay over a period of time so we need to put ourselves through that spiritual discipline so prayer what she shared is correct we can fast right sometimes fasting helps helps a lot it it really does a powerful work we'll study about fasting in our prayer and intercession course so that also we can do it will really literally break some things inside you when you when you you know offer yourself to God in that way so fasting also is something we can think of then um spiritual laziness we can we can be active with our faith okay so use your faith we already said exercise your faith right faith without works is dead so we can't simply sit down and say that okay because I have faith in my heart God approves me it's it's good enough but the life has to show the faith which is in the heart so live like that such that your faith is evident through what you do the choices you make then also it shows us you know faith and works going together you're overcoming that laziness in the spirit as far as faith is concerned okay so yes laziness is a problem which we must overcome spiritual laziness and um was there another point uh unanswered prayers what uh uh Siddle shared that's true because unanswered prayers they they make us a little bit weak right because it keeps us wondering like why why this didn't happen or why it happened late but you know we need to be very strong in our understanding of who God is and who we are in Christ so if you are strong in that even unanswered prayer cannot shake you you got it because definitely we will have questions like oh why so many this person didn't get healed then it kind of affects you the next time you pray for healing now many things could have gone wrong in that one case right maybe we didn't have sufficient faith or something else was there which we didn't understand so it didn't happen the healing didn't happen but what does the word of God say it says that Christ is the healer he has already paid for our um sicknesses on the cross so once I am sure of what the word says about God and who I am as a believer you know I carry authority uh and in the name of Jesus there is there is authority and power I believe those things so strongly even unanswered prayer maybe few people didn't get healed but that is not stopping me from doing what I believe according to the truth of God's word so unanswered prayer can try to make you weak but you don't have to become weak you can be strong uh by knowing who God is and knowing the who we are and what the truth says now the other important thing that helps is the knowledge of God's word the knowledge of God's word so if we don't have good knowledge of God's word then Satan can shake our faith okay so uh like I remember myself like as a child maybe uh I didn't know too much of the bible not much just a little bit here and there okay but it's only like as opportunities started to arise like you know high school college you you understand oh there are these sermons there are these books uh you go deeper and deeper in God's word you develop your knowledge about who God is you develop your knowledge about each matter okay develop your knowledge about faith about prayer about who we are in Christ uh you know about the Holy Spirit so when you develop your knowledge about a truth of God's word the devil can't shake you okay believers who don't who are not strong in the word the devil can shake them because they don't have good strong foundation imagine about the Holy Spirit okay we have no understanding about the Holy Spirit then the Satan uh the devil can lie to us he can say all kind of things and we might believe him but if we know the word that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity the Holy Spirit uh you know is the is the person who who gives us power the Holy Spirit is with us the Holy Spirit is in me he guides me he leads me he empowers so when i know all these things as a believer the devil can't trick me people can't trick me right i'm very strong my faith uh in the work of the Holy Spirit is very strong so here is the most important part about fighting uh for faith knowledge of the word of God so any subject that you have questions about or doubts about take time to study that subject okay and develop your understanding so when we have knowledge we have understanding uh you become a like a strong tree right you have good roots and like you're strong you're thriving and uh you will not be weakened uh so that is the most important thing that you and i can do to fight for our faith develop knowledge of God's word and also help people so i'm sure all of you will be in the ministry some way or the other uh help people to understand the word because when you do that what happens their faith will grow right in the right way their faith will be strengthened then they will also stand strong for God so the most important thing to fight any doubt confusion all of those things is our understanding of God's word okay uh okay so the next uh a few points i'm going to touch and close the next thing is making sure that uh our faith is of the heart and not just of the mind you remember we said faith is of the heart we receive information in our mind but that has to translate into faith in the heart so sometimes we hear a lot of things for example let's say oh the mighty name of Jesus uh there is a book pastor has written full book mighty name of Jesus we hear it okay a little bit something we hear and we are like okay i'm going to use the mighty name of Jesus we don't have so much understanding about it okay so yeah praise God it works sometimes it just works a little bit but uh as you're continuing to use the mighty name of Jesus you know you've you've got to realize that i must develop strong faith in that subject what is the meaning of the name of Jesus what is the power of the name of Jesus so to develop that faith in my heart i start to spend time in God's word so it's more than something which is in my head in my head few things are there and i'm starting to use it but you have to go from just mental uh you know we call it mental ascent that means you just say okay pastor is saying preacher is saying teacher is saying yes fine but that that will not work for us it has to go deeper so it becomes my responsibility to get that information from my head to my heart so when faith is in my heart then i can move mountains you got it so don't just keep it in the head yeah they say the name of Jesus is mighty so i'm saying the name of Jesus is mighty it's like head to head right it doesn't work that correctly but what did we discuss so far faith must come in the heart when faith is developed in the heart we can use it then the final thing is of course you know sin will hinder if we are living in a lifestyle of sin then it's like you know our house is so beautiful and protected and all we may even put you know security cameras and everything but back door is open how do you like it no point of any security back door is open any thief can come in so that's a sinful lifestyle we are doing all godly things but then we are encouraging sin it just doesn't work faith will not be strong so sinful lifestyle is something that we must get rid of and finally any sense of shame shame and condemnation the devil likes it he loves to put shame in our mind where we feel so ashamed that oh how to come into God's presence everybody else is better than me but that's a lie because who we are in Christ we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus okay so shame guilt condemnation we need to break the hold of these things in our mind and come freely to God so i'm going to stop here there are many many enemies of faith maybe you can spend some time and evaluate yourself like which are the enemies that trouble you the most and overcome them so let's close with a word of prayer who would like to pray please let's pray thank you father for the class as we so far we studied about how to strengthen our faith and how to overcome from enemies load help each and every day to practice and exercise our faith a lot enemy will try to weaken our faith but as we so many points here that how enemies try by doubt by worry and by overthinking he tries to weaken our faith but with with the word of God let us help in day to day life to overcome everything and Lord help us to strong strong strengthen in our faith Lord Lord thank you for the class and everything I submit into your feet in Jesus Christ's name I pray Lord amen amen amen thank you everyone and we'll close off for now