 Okay, good morning everyone. Welcome back to another session. Let's just begin this time with a word of prayer So can one of us maybe Salome, can you lead us in prayer, please? Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord for all that I've done a father which is a glory, honor and praise a father Thank you for staying a father and having a father in our lives a father Pray for butter and you give him glory a father. Can you help him while he's leading us today a father? You give him wisdom what to speak and what not to a father Thank you Jesus for all that I've done. God you bless each and every one over here who's there and who's about to join a father God you give it glory honor and praise in Jesus most precious name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you All right, so We've come to the last chapter yesterday. We completed chapter 8. We looked at you know, how we can pursue him even as we are praying and seeking after God God is God who is response to hungry hearts and a heart that is passionate a heart that is persistent a heart that is compassionate towards the people around us and We looked at what to also pray when we are praying for revival Pray for repentance Pray for more of God the manifestation of his spirit pray for the salvation of the laws transformation of communities Also, it's very important to engage in fasting and prayers. There will be times You know, God will put in our hearts to fast and pray now The whole aspect of fasting and prayer is you know, it's a whole subject altogether. There's lots to learn about that But Isaiah very briefly he Describes in his book and he says what is the true fast? What is what does it mean to fast truly meaning? It's not about, you know, a Target, it's not about, you know, just because somebody's doing it. I'm doing it now The reason if we want to fast and pray is because we want to be changed Just like God like Jesus just to become more like him and and out of that Will, you know, flow out the miracles and God begins to answer our prayers and all of that, right? So We'll move into chapter 9 this will be our last chapter and then I think what we will do is next Monday We should be able to wrap up on this subject and I know it's a it's a long It's been a long semester meaning a lot of material that we went through a lot of revivals and Right from the first century church to now But it's always good to go back and refresh your memories Maybe, you know pick up on revivals that you like to learn more about you can go online read about them and These will help us, you know, we can get encouraged we can build our faith and Also, we can use them, you know in teaching others about the importance of Pursuing God for revival, right? So chapter 9 our page 101 in my book Stewarding revival To host the presence and and manifest his glory now There will be some points that are repeated. So I'll just go a little quick in those areas, but We are stewards of what God entrusts us with, right? So for example, if Just take a small example, right? Example we buy a guitar or an instrument now We are we've got the guitar or the instrument we need to take care of that, right? We need to be good stewards of it now For example, we buy a guitar or buy an instrument and then after we buy it. We don't take good care of it Right? What's gonna happen? maybe those if it's a guitar the strings are gonna rust off and You know the we need to make sure that we change the strings at the right time have it tuned Clean the guitar every now and then now we need to be good stewards of what God has given us Right now, maybe God maybe not all of us our own, you know started our own ministry or You know, but here's the thing whatever God has given us Whatever he has entrusted to us We need to be good stewards, right? If you are a mother if you are a wife if you are a husband or a father we need to be good stewards of You know of what God has entrusted us with Not only material blessings not only in the natural, you know the material things that we have around us But also in spiritual aspects, we are to be good stewards Right? So if God entrusts us with something he expects us to look after it to nurture it right and so This includes spiritual leadership entrusted to us Right when when we are in the ministry, maybe we are serving in different capacities within the church community Do it as good stewards, right? It's not whether okay. Hey, this person is watching or the other person is watching It's not about that being a good steward is being accountable to God Right. Yes. We need to be accountable to man. That's why we also have leaders above us but Remember that whatever we do in our life and wherever we serve whether it's in the church or The small group do it as good stewards of God right Good stewards is not only managing about managing well what has been given to us But it is also about multiplying and passing it on to generations Right now we did a lot of these revivals We saw that you know these men of God were great men and women of God did wonderful works They you know, they stewarded the revival well, but they towards the end They did not multiply it. They did not succeed that revival to the next generation Right now that's these are lessons that we can learn even as God, you know Pose out his spirit upon us in different measures We are to be Sorry good stewards of the Holy Spirit Right. So let's look at this example from Matthew chapter 13 24 was 24 towards 30. Can one of us please read that? Matthew 13 24 Towards 30 Christopher if you can go ahead and read that Yes Matthew 13 24 verse 30 another parable he put forth to them The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field But while men slept his enemy came and sowed tears among the wheat and went his way But when the grain has sprouted and produced a crop then the tears also appeared So the servant of the owner came and said to him Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tears? He said to them an enemy has done this The servant said to him Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said No, lest while you gather up the tears You will also uproot the wheat with them Then both go together until the harvest and at the time of harvest. I will say to the reapers First gather together the tears and bind them in bundles to burn them But to gather the wheat into my barn Amen. Thank you Christopher. So here Jesus is giving a wonderful example here of separating the wheat from the chaff right and here It's a wonderfully, you know, the Lord Jesus is You know putting forth this example. He's saying, okay He tells his workers go put some good seed in the ground right, but The enemy comes in between put some tears and then those begin to grow Now all of a sudden they're wondering. Hey, the workers are saying We put good seed on the ground. Where did these tears come from and it is it's interesting to see that the master knew okay, the enemy has come and So these stairs among us right among the whole plantation now, what are we getting at? But that is a move of God there will be You know Manifestations are mixed fleshly manifestations of the work of the enemy right meaning There will there will be the genuine there will be the freshly manifestations How how how do we you know look at these two now? It may look the same. Remember the enemy You know, he knows how to duplicate things, right? And so it may look Very identical. It may look exactly the same Maybe it is, you know for example You know if in certain places if there's an outpouring Maybe there's the people who want to gain attention to themselves or they want a place of superiority, right or You know this feeling of hey, I'm more spiritual than you I am holier than thou kind of attitude now these are wrong reasons and wrong motivations within a move of God Right now here's the interesting thing The worker said okay master will go and we'll you know pull off these stairs You know so that the good The wheat remains and the good plantation remains It sounds like a good idea, right? It sounds like a good idea But the master was wise enough and he said no no if we pull it off Even the wheat it's going to come along with that and then the whole you know the whole plantation is going to be a waste But let's wait for the harvest Let's wait for the time When everything is ready for the harvest We will pull them all out then we'll separate the tears and then we will separate the wheat the tears We will take it we will burn it away and the wheat we will put it into the barns And so the owner was Mindful that he should not uproot anything Even during those initial stages instead wait for the fruit wait for the harvest so wonderful example Sometimes, you know in our zeal for God We may end up being in a hurry or we may end up trying to you know correct people and We may end up doing it in the wrong way at the wrong time So sometimes, you know, we really need the spirit of discernment or we need the wisdom of God Sometimes it's very good to just keep quiet right just stay quiet and prayerfully ask the Lord what needs to be done right and and wait let let God work in those myths wait and see the fruit and You know, that's when it'll be It's wise to make decisions. Let me share this incident that happened many years ago here in the city of Mangalore Not to put down anyone but this is something that happened and It could happen to any one of us right there was this elderly couple right who stayed in the city of Mangalore and They began to attend our church you know If they've retired if it completed their work and they retired and they would come every Sunday, but one thing I noticed Every Sunday right from the second Sunday onwards. They became very comfortable with the people around so that was good But one thing I noticed is Whenever I heard them talk, you know, they would talk about, you know This other pastor or they'll be talking about this other person what he did what she did it was more like, you know kind of Gossiping kind of a thing now. They are really elder to me and And I really wanted to go and tell them right, you know, let's avoid this and Because in none of our church folks really, you know, we've maintained it after a long, you know A lot of hard work. We've maintained it in a way that we don't talk about things But, you know, I just kept quiet and this went on for a couple of Sundays And then I was asking God, God, I know that if I confront them They're going to get upset and I know that they will eventually say, you know, I'm not going to come to the church and all that So I was asking God, God, give me the wisdom. How do I Tell them because I can't keep quiet also because if I keep quiet then it's like I'm not protecting the church and I said, okay, let's wait. Let's see Let's give them another month. Let's see if there is a change. Let's see if there's fruit From what they've coming and learning over the past, you know, two months or so and I just kept quiet and somewhere around the third or the fourth month, you know This gentleman, he came up to me and he said, you know what pastor? I have been wanting to tell you this One thing I've noticed is in your church, whenever we talk about people Nobody talks back about anything. They just keep quiet and And when we were having our family prayers, the Holy Spirit very clearly told us to stop Gossiping and talking about others. So we are very sorry for speaking and talking about other people other pastors And we want to apologize If we have created any problem if there's anything that we have heard people's sentiments here But we assure you that we will not go we will not repeat this and I was so You know, I was so comforted because I thought to myself, what if I had, you know confronted that person immediately maybe they would have said, hey, oh Well, I never said anything. It's just been two weeks here. I'm here. Oh, the reaction could have been bad But you know, I thank God that They themselves understood now, there will be times they will not understand What I'm trying to get at is wait Give some time give people time right and see the fruit in their lives if there is there's no fruit that is bearing in their lives then go ahead confront and Make things right, but we must wait For people to see the fruit in their lives. What the spirit? What is of the spirit will bear genuine and lasting fruit, but Fleshly manifestations will not Right. So in due time, it will it will just be shown in in people's lives, right? If there's somebody who's always, you know Praying seeking God Living in honor, you'll see the fruit. Yeah, it is obvious. You will see good fruit But if we see people trying to make up things, you know, trying to make up prophecies or You know, fleshly manifestations just to go along. We will see the fruit Right, we may not see it immediately. We may not understand it immediately But eventually it will come out because the Lord himself said we shall be known by our fruit, right? So So give people time But also be discerning ask the Holy Spirit. That's God. When do I you know step in? How should I go about doing this? The master here in this passage. He had the spirit discernment. He had the wisdom. He said no, no, let's wait I don't know destroy the entire field which we have struggled for but let's wait and when the harvest is ready We'll do the needful. We'll pull off the Tears we'll pull off the wheat and we'll do according to it And so it's very important that we do that too when we're stewarding a visitation We need to make that a habitation of God meaning God wants to dwell among his people Yes in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would come minister to people and go away Right, but now in the new covenant the Holy Spirit is in us The Holy Spirit is with us always and so it's not only about a visitation of God. We want to pray For a habitation of God Right, so for example, we're praying for healing. We're praying for deliverance. We're praying for a You know a move of God in our midst It's it's great when God does it, you know one Sunday. There's a powerful move of God But what we also want to pray for is look God continue this let this be a habitation Day after day or week after week Maybe it's in your life group setting or your church setting. We pray God let there be let this be a habitation Let it be a continual thing going on and on like, you know, one of the things we do at ABC is we after our sermon we spend some time in ministry ministering to people so we probably You know sing a song and then we Pray for healing pray for deliverance. God gives a probably word of knowledge or a prophetic word We spend time ministering to them now. There are many times people are healed People are delivered people are restored people are, you know, their hearts are comforted now We don't want it to be okay. Just as hey, you know what that that Sunday was a wonderful service. Yes, that's great But we wanted to be a habitation Right And how do we make it a habitation? We need to teach people we as leaders need to train other people Right, uh, if the leadership is well prepared What we can do is we can ensure that the house of God Is maintained as a dwelling place of God Right, uh, so how do we? You know maintain this house of God as a dwelling place of God first one Keep the house clean No sin in the house. Right. We need to encourage people to Keep away from the things of this world. Don't let the things of this world Come into the church and these fleshly manifestations pride jealousy anger backbiting All these things right we we as a church need to keep away from it. Let's keep the church clean Right meaning Don't point fingers at others. Let's not say, okay. He's you know, this person did this and this person that that Let's keep the house clean Paul writes to the efficiency says Do not give The enemy a point of entry Another word says don't give him a foothold. Let's he take the entire room Right. Yes. Christopher. I see you raised your hand. Go ahead, Christopher Yes, this is actually in in reference to The earlier passage, uh, Matthew 13 um I just wanted to uh, you know, I guess being up this point about Uh, there's a question about whether it applies also to ourselves Where um, they may be some, uh, you know, uh, like a like a thorn in our flesh Like, you know, like Paul had, uh, obviously, you know, not a very, you know, not a very powerful thorn, but you know something that that is not Uh, there is not good in us and You know, we kind of focus on that Not and sort of, you know, forget about Um, you know, the all the good that we that we have And uh, you know, continue down that path and, you know, not really progress Uh, so there may be a time that No, uh, you know, we we um, we continue You know with the good in us realizing that there is a thorn And at the right time it gets, uh, you know, it gets it gets, uh You know taken away and uh, you know Burnt So I just wanted to bring up that point and, you know, get your uh, get you out of your this faster Yes, uh, that's good. That's a good question, Christopher. Yes, it could be applied to both But, uh, so, uh, when we look at the parables, Christopher, what we see is we have something called as the kingdom parables And then we have the regular parables, right? Uh, so, uh, this is, you know, uh, a kingdom parable So whenever we see a kingdom parables is more likely towards, uh, the kingdom of god, meaning the church as a whole, right? Now we I'm not saying we can't apply to ourselves. Yes, we can But then there are also the parables which are More, you know, related for us like, for example, the parable of the lost son, right? The parable of the lost sheep Um, uh, I'm plenty of other parables. So, uh, here on in context what Jesus is trying to say is, uh, Wherever, you know, there is even the parable of the sower is is in context to Again a person their personal life and as a community as a whole uh, and so yes, uh, Christopher, so This could be applied to our life as well. We're in, you know, there are things in our life and, uh, you know We all go through those, you know, those thorns or those tears that may be there in our in our lives, but But the point is what we can do is Christopher look at it and see Okay, is this bearing fruit in my life? Right? Uh, is it something that is helping me? You know one one one. Let me give you this example a young man a young boy a college student Um, he's a pastor's son and he came to our church and He's from a different state and he came to our church and uh, very very fervent boy Serving, you know, he's a pastor's kid. So he's there on Sundays serving in the church He asked me a pastor. Is it wrong to listen to uh, you know, uh, these Secular songs they just love songs or or you know, just regular secular songs There's nothing wrong that the lyrics are not bad. The The videos are not vulgar the lyrics are not Against god. It's just regular songs, you know, just You know, uh, love songs and they make you feel good Now he asked me is it a sin? Uh, I said Here's what I said, right? And I could be I may be wrong, but I felt that You know, this was something that he needed to hear. I asked him I told him it's not wrong If you want to listen to that If you feel that it's not it doesn't have any Bad lyrics or unholy words and the videos are not Vulgar and they don't and not explicit if you want to listen to it go ahead and listen to it And he was very happy, but then I asked him Is that What you're listening to is it bearing fruit in your life? Is it Something that is drawing you closer to god So his answer was no Is it bearing fruit in your life? No, I I get some kind of peace in my heart, you know, after a long base work listen to Okay, but is it bearing fruit? Is that peace staying for a longer time? Or is it after the song is over the piece has gone? And is it bearing fruit in your life And and and I and he said no, it's not bearing fruit Nor is it giving me like a constant peace But I just feel like doing it Right, so I remember telling him now if it's not bearing fruit in your life if it's not drawing you closer to god Then you need to make the decision to know whether that is a wheat Or a tear in your heart in your life Right, you can let it grow together Right, we can listen to gospel songs. You can listen to these songs also both are growing together Right, uh, nothing's nothing wrong is happening Right, we've got the wheat. You've got the tear also both are growing together right, uh, but Is it helpful Is it helping you Grow into more of god's likeness into more of god What is it that it does to you? So, you know, the more I probed Him the more I questioned the more I just began to ask him all these He came to an understanding that hey, uh, I can't stay without this Right, uh, because it's not something that I have to have in my life. I can't stay away from it If I want to draw closer to god and if I want to do something more for god in my life I'll have to let go of it. I'll have to take it and burn it away If I don't doesn't mean god is going to condemn me and bring, you know, whole kind of You know condemnation on me and say you are a sinner and all of that But it's just that, you know first Corinthians chapter I think it was first Corinthians three Paul is writing to the believers. He's saying we will stand at the judgment seat of christ Uh, and he's saying we will be saved from the fire But our works will be tested by fire Right And so if our works are tested by fire that which is not of god will be burnt off We will not be rewarded for that only what is of god will be rewarded. So Even if we don't stop You know, we keep listening to you know gospel songs and we are listening to secular songs It's not that we got is going to throw us into hell. No, but on the judgment day You know That will just be burnt off. There's no reward for that. I might as well do something where I am rewarded for You know, so so yes in our personal lives also there will be these tears that are growing within good ground and so Especially now, you know In this world that we're living in Young people have access to so much of music that is around us music and video games and so many other things that can easily, you know Draw attention away from god. So it's very important that we That's a work. We have to do right the holy spirit will remind us Hey, this is something that you need to get rid of now me personally Uh, you know growing up as a young boy. I used to listen to a lot of secular music is we you know me and my brothers we used to listen to heavy metal And all these bands and uh, you know, we were always listening to bands We would do all of this and then once I became a believer I would still listen to it I used to listen to it. Then I think oh man, I shouldn't have wasted my time But then this music you're listening to 10 years or you've been playing these kind of music. It's so attractive Then it came a time when I had to say, okay, I need to stop this I need to do this And so I slowly came out of that music Right. Uh, so Christopher, I hope that answers your question. There will be things in our lives Uh, well, but but the tears that we have to ourselves Uh deal with and burned off from our lives. It's all it's all the rewards. That's it. It's all about Whether we are growing closer to God or no So, Christopher, I hope that answers your question any No, I I I understand that uh That's why I I I I mean I I think I just I know wanted to Bring up the point about in that in that interim period of time where you know, uh, you know, we have We have, you know You know taken away. I mean that the tear is just taken away from us. So we just discard it completely uh There is a need to You know Focus on the on the goodness and all the good works that we we are capable of doing because I find that Sometimes um and it happens to me sometimes also I see it in the individuals also where you know, there is a lot of focus on Okay, you know, I have this, um, you know one or two tears Which could be which could be uh, not good in the in the in the short term But they focus a lot on that and then you know, it sort of he focuses them from doing good works and um, the other thing is that um I mean, I feel that You know one one status taken away and discarded it has to be replaced with something else that is good because otherwise This is void which which sort of appears over there and you know Can lead people are uh become uncomfortable with that, you know, so, um, I was just thinking about, you know, more just in that time frame of you know, um Uh, you know discarding it which may take, you know, maybe a few days. It could take a month or you know, a couple of months um and um where You first you'll focus on the on the goodness and you know, we we pray and you know, there are the, you know, uh Maybe uh, you know going through what I've got and you know talking to other people and you know discarding that And uh, but that just that that period of discarding, uh, may not be just one day. It could be We take that So just to you know, focus on the on the on the goodness and uh on the good works And um able to move on That's that's where that's coming from Yes, thank you. Thank you. Christopher. Yes, that's wonderful too. Yeah, there are times when you say, okay You know what I did this wrong So I will not serve at all. No, god is like how Christopher's saying he's saying What he's trying to bring is that you know, we all have gifts talents We have things in us that we are capable of doing and uh, god has bestowed upon us. So Uh, let's not only focus on okay, this is wrong. This is the tears in my life or these are the wrong things We also, you know, even as we are working on that We remember that we are a work in progress. We're changing Glory to glory. Uh, so we can focus on our strengths also and say god these other things that I'm able to do and able to Give to your kingdom and to serve and uh, so we also, you know, focus on that and serve god So yeah, thank you so much Christopher for sharing that all right, uh, so First one was uh, keep the house clean No sin within the house You know, one thing we always say is don't give the devil of the pulpit time Now it's sad to see that, you know, a lot of churches they Come on the pulpit and then they start saying oh this person did that this person did this And they talk about all the you know certain places you you know churches you the sermon starts off with the world news What all is happening around in the churches? That's all not required. What is the pulpit for? It is to preach the word of god Right, and so don't give the enemy A foothold don't give him time Keep the unity of the spirit the unity of the spirit Uh will bring the anointing of god and uh and when you know The unity of the spirit is where problems and conflicts will be solved remember acts chapter six There's the the there are two kinds of people there the elderlies people who for the serving of food you got the you know the widows the grekkian jews and you got the regular jews and What's happening there's division or the people or the other jews are looked after better than what we are Okay problem in the church. Let's resolve this so they all sit. Okay. They come up with the solution What is the solution? We'll choose seven people full of the holy spirit. They will do the serving of the food and problem solved right There was unity in the spirit everyone said okay, right, so Unity of the spirit will help resolve conflicts keeps the house clean three Keep a humble heart. We talked about humility the last chapter Stay away from being pride. Just be humble Look at don't look at every you know if we are a leader don't look down on people. Okay. I'm here. You are there No, we're all the same, right? Keep the lord jesus as the focus Meaning that he is the lord. He is the The owner of the house. He's the leader of the house, right? We are just his stewards. So we keep we encourage people to keep their eyes fixed on jesus not on pastors not on leaders not on evangelists and the healing and all of these things which is wonderful But our eyes need to be fixed on jesus because he is The leader right and contain continue and maintain Prayer that fuels revival now in a church community now Prayer is very essential God provides the fire And we provide the sacrifice so as we pray As we pray it's a sacrifice. We're saying god Pour out your spirit pour out your presence, right now There will be times we will go into intense times of prayers There will be times we'll go into intense times of worship continue that fuel it right if that's something god is doing fuel it right if so if it's the if it's worship that is You know where god is working through worship fuel it if god is working through prayer fuel it, you know meaning Fan it into flame or let it just increase Right and very very important stay With what is important Right in in in terms of the church There are some things That does not change for example, we love to see miracles. We love to see You know the blind see the deaf here. We love all these things, right? There will be times when you know, there'll be gold dust or You know angel visitations The angel of god came and told me this and the angel told him that and all of these things There will be testimonies within the church wonderful Right, uh praise god for those testimonies and all of these things but Our focus is not on the angels Our focus is not on the gold dust angel feathers and all these I remember one of these places uh seeing a Couple of years back. I remember seeing this where they said that there were angel feathers long kind of feathers falling off in the Church, I don't remember when I saw that to some clip that somebody sent it to me long time back It's wonderful for all this but here's the thing That should not be the focus now for example, if I'm going to church My mind should not be say, oh, what if there's gold dust today? No I've got everything wrong if I if I think that way Oh, what if an angel comes and I miss the angel? No I am going to church So that I can experience the presence of god I can hear the word of god. I can build myself up We are to stay with the important that is preaching the word winning souls discipling them fellowship with believers sharing caring equipping the saints going out on missions uh outreaches and and and that's that's that's what it is And as we do all this in between we may have all these wonderful spiritual manifestations, but that is not the key That is not, you know, it shouldn't be okay. I saw the angel So they what the angel said only and so we will listen to the angel. No, no, no That is very dangerous stick to the word stick to what Uh, the doctrine and the teaching of the word of god remember the apostles in the book of acts They're going about peter's going about and you know, they said hey peter's coming Let's line up all the sick people There and peter's walking there and the shadow of peter Brings healing on all the people there The next day they didn't say okay Shadow ministry or whatever They didn't say that Right They said what did they say? Let's continue in teaching preaching and equipping the believers. They did not stop that Right peter and john went to pray. They saw the lame man on the You know, uh Front of the temple said silver and gold have I none? But what I have I'll give to you in the name of jesus rise up and walk Right and then he rises up and walk the next day. We don't see uh You know kind of any new teachings going on there, right? It was Hey Teach the word preach the word. Let it be followed up with signs wonders and miracles, right? The the signs and wonders Did not cause them to formulate a new doctrine That's the danger here if there are angels and In a gold dust and all of it that's good but do not Start new doctrines with all these manifestations If we do so then We're at the wrong side. We we've lost focus on what is important Which is the word? Which is all the other things Right acts 542 says and daily in the temple and in every house They did not see Teaching and preaching jesus as the christ They did not stop No matter what miracles happened No matter which angel came No matter what happened They did not stop teaching and preaching the word of god So that's very important that we also in our lives, right? You know, I remember this man young man that I spoke to he was so excited about the prophetic right, he said You know, he said pastor, I want to be a prophet said that's wonderful I want to prophesy, you know, he's been watching things on youtube and you know all these profits and all these things I want to be a prophet. I want to talk into people's. I want to know, you know, I want to do this I said that's wonderful. You know, god's called you for that and if you feel that that's your calling go ahead Uh, so what do I do pastor? Uh, I said start off with reading two chapters a day And spending at least an hour in prayer said one hour in prayer And his reaction was like, oh, that's it's gonna be difficult And reading the word for how long at least two chapters keep half an hour meditate on the word of god And it was he, you know, the next after two weeks. He said what happened? Are you praying? Is god speaking to you? No, no, no, I could not pray. I don't think I would I want to be a prophet I just stick with being a worship leader You know, so emotions are there Right emotions and all of these things It's good But we need to go through the sacrifice We want to be some if if god is calling us for something greater the call greater the sacrifice Right, uh, I'm not saying you You know, I told him, you know The reason I told you to pray for one hour and read the word is because Uh, if the calling is so if you want to hear from god A prophecy is hearing from god So if you want to hear from god, you need to be able to hear the father's voice You need to understand who he is and I know my sheep hear my voice, but there needs to be You know that intimate relationship And he said that he said no, I like the way they are The way they just prophesy on stage and everyone are clapping and the way they Said that's all It's not about all of that It's the word it's it's it's god. So I told him you're losing focus Your focus is on the people on the prophets and not on god And so it's very important not to lose focus we have these you know In ministry and it's sad to say that people are So entangled with those leaders, you know, they just want to be like them Right. They forget about Jesus. They want to be like this leader While the scripture says we are the image of Christ. We need to be in the image of Christ So we need to get those things right and Consolidate what is being released Right. The word consolidate is very important, which means strengthen Strengthen what we have We talked about this also in the previous chapters Keep using what god is imparting in in each of us if we don't use it We will lose it If god is imparting some kind of a You know word of wisdom or a Prophetic word, he's releasing it to you continue to ask more continue to use it I remember the first few times, you know, I was unsure, you know, hey, is this god? I felt this in my spirit. I went to my leaders. I said Can you help me out in this? I'm not I'm not sure is that me or is it Is it is it god speaking to me? I'm not really sure and so Whatever is god is imparting in you Get help if you don't understand but use it Right Build on it grow in it if we don't We will lose it Right now consolidate strengthen Whatever we have where appropriate we can document things And you will be learning on church administration also in the final year on how to you know Have church administration and church ministry done So you can learn more on consolidation there as well then Create and maintain revival culture the culture of revival to continue You know the same way how it started off It should not be something that is like a wind which comes and goes away, but let it continue You know, the revival culture is always god focused The presence of god focused and not program focused right Now programs are important. I'm not saying we don't do events. We do a lot of events It's important. But the reason we do those events is so that The presence of god can minister to our lives and to people's lives as well. So Revival culture is one where we are full Yet we are hungry for more of god. We are blessed with all things yet We are poor and spirit meaning we are wanting more of him Is a revival culture is where we pray worship And win souls and make disciples and we are passionately eager to do more And so even as we go about doing these things I know we have a little more left, but we will stop here Next Monday Will be our last class and so we can wrap up. We have questions We can take questions as well. So We'll stop here. We'll pick up from point nine from next week And so let us all Learn and desire to be good stewards of what god has given us. It may be the smallest thing But let's be good stewards and god is pleased with that Amen. So any thoughts any questions? if you have I will what I'll do is next Monday also, uh, after the class I will post the assignment So we've divided the assignment to I've personally made it to do 50 and 50 marks and then we will consolidate And you'll be marked on 100. So All right, so I put that on Monday after the class itself. So Right any other questions any thoughts so we can close in prayer Okay So no questions. No thoughts. Okay. All right I just I just have a thought so thank thank you pastor again for your teachings. They've been really inspiring I just like that point you made about not being Programmed focus, but god focus because um We're in a time I need whereby churches define Church as the activities conferences they hold in a year It's like people are losing focus of what's important, you know um It's it those conferences are important. They empower believers, you know, but it's like We're stealing away the church from god to be more program focused and within The falls of the church and we're not emphasizing on fellowship We're not emphasizing on people reaching out to those who Often who who who are in darkness, you know, we're more about us Activity making a name, you know and all that so I think that's very instruction of Instructive rather sorry that we should be more god focus. What is god saying in our season and time? What is it god telling us to do rather than we Proposing what we ought to do we should we should allow him be the one to dictate what we ought to do Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you say yes That's that's very true. Uh, you know Even the times that we are in like for example, even you know here in mangrove when when we started off three and a half years ago We were just 10 people I thought god, how are we going to get more people now? I knew that you know and any church as that's a You know, we have to do events, right? We have to do like worship evenings or youth meetings And then we tell our youth. Hey, why don't you invite other youth? Oh, so nothing wrong about that but here what's important is Our focus is not okay. I want the church to become hundred people Now if that is the focus and that is why we are doing the worship evening Then we've got the whole thing wrong We've got all reverse Right, but the right thing to do is to say, okay god I'm going to I'm praying I want people to Experience you we want to be a blessing to the city And we will do these we are planning to do this worship evening You bring the people you bring And let the presence of god minister to them. Maybe hurting. They may be going through different challenges But let the presence of god minister to them Maybe next class. I'll share with you a few things that happened to me personally You know and how from, you know, 10 people we are now about About 75 to 80 people in the church And how in just in span of about one and a half years because it's been two almost two years You know on and off with coven so in span of one and a half years The lord brought a lot of people within our community and how did god do that? So probably I'll share that with you next class All right, all right. I think we're past time. You'll have to get to our your next session. So Let's just quickly close in prayer Father, we want to thank you for this our lord We thank you for all that we are studying and all the learning of god I pray god that you minister to each one of us. Bless each and every student Even as they're learning through different courses over this semester that your spirit will teach Impart empower and use them lord for your glory god. We thank you in jesus name. We pray Amen, amen Amen, thank you so much everyone. We will catch up next week. Have a great week ahead. God bless you all God bless God bless you pastor. Thank you. God bless