 Okay, the recording is on, we'll come back to the second lecture. I'm going to go ahead and share the notes. Alright, so I'm purposely spending a bit of time here on chapter 4 on Jesus' teaching on faith because I really want us to understand this is how we ought to exercise faith in God. This is what Jesus taught us, and this is how we're going to exercise faith in God, right? So, we spend a lot of time on the earlier point, which is our will is involved, our will and desire is involved in the exercise of faith. And I purposely spent a lot more time on this because many times, like I said, people take the position that, well, if God wants, it'll be done. And then they call that as exercising faith. But really, the way Jesus taught us, if you and I are really exercising faith in God, our will and our desire is set. It's formally fixed. It's a determined desire, which is, of course, aligned to the will of God. Okay, and that's how we exercise faith from that position, that you have set your will, you have determined your desire, that you're going to have something which God has promised, and then you go after it. Okay, so let's go on. Number four, faith is key to seeing God's glory manifested. So, we must have faith, we must believe God if we are going to see the glory of God manifested. Now, the word glory in the Greek is the word doxa, d-o-x-a. That's the Greek word for glory, doxa. It just, in general, it just refers to the splendor. It's a display of splendor. It's a display of somebody's greatness, glory, doxa. But in the context of God, the glory of God, what it really means is it is a manifestation of who God is and what he does. Who God is and what he does. So what Jesus is saying is, if you believe in John 11 verse 40, he tells Mary and Martha, he tells Martha, he says, did I not say to you, if you believe, you would see the glory of God. If you believe, there will be a display of who God is and what he does. That's the glory of God. It's a visible manifestation of who God is and what he does. And if you will believe, you will see the glory of God. So what's it going to take for us to see the glory of God, if you believe, if you have faith? If you believe, you will see the glory of God. Number five, Jesus taught us and we made mention of this in the earlier chapter as well. Jesus taught, when things go from bad to worse, only believe. When things go from bad to worse, only believe. So this is something to keep in mind because we will face situations where things go from bad to worse. You know, whether it's in your own personal experience or when you're ministering to somebody, they come to you with a problem, you pray for them. Next day, pastor, after you prayed, it became worse. Things go from bad to worse. And what do you say? Well, remember what Jesus taught and things go from bad to worse, only believe. And example, Jairus. Jairus had already come to Jesus. He had made his request. My daughter is sick. Please come. Jesus, I'm coming. They're on the way to Jairus. Jesus is coming to Jairus himself. Jesus on the way. He's taken up the matter. But things have become worse. Is Jesus on the case? Yeah. Has he taken up the matter? Yes. Is he on the way? Yes. But things have gone from bad to worse. Daughter has died now. But what does Jesus respond? He says, fear not. Only believe. Don't be afraid. Jairus, believe. So we have to do the same thing. When you're believing God for something for your own life, things go from bad to worse. Fear not only believe. You minister to somebody. Things go from bad to worse. Fear not only believe. That's what Jesus told them. And that's what we must tell them as well. Hey, don't be afraid. Leave. Or the case of Lazarus. We made mention of this last time as well. You know, they sent word. Jesus, please come. Lazarus is very sick. And just waiting. Not doing anything. By the time Lazarus is dead. Funeral service over. Put him in the tomb. Everything's over. Four days later Jesus comes. Jesus, what is this? Four days late. You're coming. But Jesus says, Martha, if you believe, you will see the glory of God. If you believe. So even at that point, what is he teaching? He's teaching. You must believe. That's what Jesus taught. And that's what we must teach. Now people will call us crazy people. We're telling people to believe. Well, that's what Jesus taught. He taught people to believe. Even things went from bad to worse. You believe. Number six. Jesus taught us. That faith is released through words. Spoken out of a believing heart. Very important to spend some time on this. What did Jesus teach us? He said. Here's how to exercise your face. Matthew 17 verse 20. Jesus said. So he would, you know, this was about the situation where they couldn't cast that demon out. And they went to Jesus and asked later, you know, why could we not do it? And he said, because of your unbelief, Matthew 17. And he said at that time, he taught them about faith. He said, assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain. Notice that. Say. To the mount. Say to. Speak to. The mountain. Move from here to there and it will move. And nothing will be impossible for you. Jesus teaching us. This is how we use faith. This is how you make your faith work. He's teaching us. He said, if you have faith, you will say you will speak words. And your words will be basically what you want to see happen. You'll tell the mountain. Move from here to there. Tell the mountain to move. So you're not praying to the mountain or mountain. Please move. You're not praying to God about the mountain. Oh God, you see how big the mountain is. How high. All right. He didn't say that. He said, if you have faith, if you have faith, you speak to the mountain. And what do you speak to the mountain or mountain? You are so big. You tell the mountain move from here to there. Now this is Jesus teaching us about faith. How to exercise. Right. So this has to be very clear in our minds. This is how Jesus taught us to exercise faith. He said, if you have faith, and notice these contrasting mustard seed with the mountain. That means what you're seeing in the natural may seem very big. It may seem huge. It may seem impossible. It may seem insurmountable compared to what is in your hearts. But what is in your heart is actually more powerful than what is in this world. Your faith in God is more powerful than the mountain. Your faith in God is more bigger or more powerful than the situation. God, what must we do? You have to speak to the situation, speak to the mountain, and tell it what you want it to do. Move. Get out of the way. You don't have to praise the situation. Don't have to magnify the situation. Tell the mountain to move. And he said, it will move. That means what is in the natural will respond to what is in your hearts. What is in the world will respond to what is in your hearts. And nothing will be impossible to you. Now the classic text for this is in Matthew chapter 11. Now you can just imagine, imagine this with me. Jesus had his 12 disciples. Right. They had enrolled in three a Bible college. Actually three and a half. Three and a half years. He said, I have these people with me for three years. Three years, I have to teach them whatever I want them to learn. After that, the Holy Spirit will come and continue teaching them. But in three years, I have to teach them. Signed up for bachelors in three year program. So they have a Jesus for three years. He has to teach them. So one day he's taking them out. They're going around and say, okay, today I'm going to teach them about faith. Right. I'm just imagining. Okay. Imagine it with me. So they come out of Jericho. And they have the traveling by the road. He sees a fig tree in a distance. He says, okay, let's see if there's any fix there. Now most likely, most likely the Bible doesn't say this, but most likely Jesus knew there will be no fix. Why? It's not the time for fix, but he's just coming. So I think it was more a setup to teach the disciples something than really going to get some fix. Oh, no, I don't know. I'm just imagining, but he comes to the tree and then he talks loudly to the tree. No fruit grown you from now on. That's kind of a center. He speaks lovely to the tree. No fruit. So everybody thinks he's very angry, very crazy. All right. So they go go. Next day, they're coming back the same way. I'm going to come back. Peter notices, hey, master, the tree that you have cursed is really up from the roots. So something happened overnight in this, you know, whatever hours that lapsed something happened to the tree. And at that time, Jesus gives them that this teaching on faith. Mark chapter 11, right? He says, okay, let me tell you how this happened, why this happened. Let me give you the lesson that I want you to learn from this. So Mark 11 and 22. First he says, Mark 11 and 22. Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God. So here's what I really want you to learn from this whole incident. You saw me. You saw me speak to the fig tree yesterday. Nothing happened immediately. Because if something had happened immediately, all 12 disciples would have gone down on their knees and say, oh. So they have it immediately. Maybe after they were a few meters away, it would have turned back and looked and said, oh, trees still standing there. I don't know what happened. So nothing took place right then. But there was a passage of time. They came back the next day. And then they saw it happened. And now Jesus is going to explain to them what really took place. So first he says, or what he wants them to really learn, have faith in God. And what do you do with that faith in God? Next verse 23. Whoever says to this mountain, be removed, be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done. He will have whatever he says. So he's giving them a teaching about faith in God. And what do you do on earth with faith in God? Have faith in God. And then don't doubt in your heart, but believe. You say, you speak words. You can even speak to the mountain, just like how I spoke to the victory. You can speak to the mountain. You can tell the mountain to move. I don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will be done. You will have whatever you say. So Jesus teaching us this is how you exercise faith in God. You have faith in God. This is how you do it. This is how you do it over natural things with things on the earth. So notice what he says. Whoever says to the mountain, that means you speak to the mountain. Now there is a place for prayer. In fact, the next verse, Mark 1124 is about prayer. There is a place to pray. But one of the ways Jesus taught us to exercise faith is the words we speak. To the words we speak. So sometimes you don't even do prayer. You just speak the words. That's one way to exercise faith in God. You speak to the mountain. You speak to situations. You speak to circumstances. You speak to sickness. You speak to money. You speak to problems. You speak to whatever in the natural. Anything in these worlds. You speak to it inanimate things, mountains, storm, wind, water. You speak to it. And then you tell it exactly what should happen. Be removed, be cast into the sea. You're giving a specific command. Exactly. Sickness, I command you to leave. Right? Or bones, I command you to be here. Or money, I command you to come. Right? Or need, I command you to be met. Debt, I command you to be canceled. Or confusion, I command you to stop. Right? So you speak to the situation or the circumstance. And you tell exactly what should happen. Jesus said that. And don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will be done. Believe the words you're speaking will come to pass. So don't doubt in your hearts. Then Jesus says, you will have what you say. You will have what you say. What you say. Notice he said, you will have what you say. He didn't say you will have what you believe. You will have what you say. That means my believing has to be expressed through my saying. So I must believe in my heart, but I must say it. I must speak it. And then what I speak, you will have what you say. I'm not saying that believing is not as important. It is important. I'm emphasizing the fact that Jesus said, you will have what you say, what you express through those words that you speak. And Luke also records the same thing. So Matthew, Mark and Luke record the same instruction, the same teaching on faith. The apostles came to Jesus one day and said, Lord, increase our faith. And then he said, this is what you need to do. Once again, you can say to the mulberry tree, be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you. So once again, you say, you say, you're saying it'll obey you. Okay. So whether it is speaking to demons or whether it is speaking to mountains or whether it is speaking to trees, it all works the same way. You have faith and you must say. Okay. So get this very clear in your mind. This is how I exercise my faith. I speak to things. So whether it's in your own life or whether it's when you're ministering to people, speak to it. Now people may think, oh, this person is crazy. What is this person speaking to somebody's headache? Headache in the name of Jesus, I command you to leave. What is this? Crazy, guys. You know, cancer in the name of Jesus command you to leave. Well, there's talking to cancer. Well, Jesus spoke. You know, he said blind eyes be open. It's a dumb mouth speak a commander spirits to leave. So Jesus himself did the same thing. Right. So when we do, when people think we're crazy, what are these people speaking to sickness disease? They're speaking to the eyes, the ears, the nose, the stomach. Well, Jesus said you speak to the objects. Speak to the mountain. So it's honestly, you know, somebody has financial problems. In the name of Jesus, I command money to come into this person's life. I command money to be released for his needs to be met. Well, you can speak to money. If you can speak to mountains, you can speak to money. It's okay. It's just a thing. It's something in the natural. Okay. God will provide. Okay. Number seven connected to this. Faith is exercised in prayer by believing you have received when you pray. So another step, another way to exercise and exercise faith. Jesus said this, whatever you ask in prayer, believing you will receive. And Mark 11, 24, the very next verse, what things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. So how must I exercise faith when I pray? He said, when you pray, that is at the time of your prayer, that is when you're asking God, talking to God, what must we believe? Believe, sorry, believe that you receive them. That means at that moment, believe you receive. Believe it's yours. Believe it's come to you, not in the natural, but in the spiritual prayer, believe that you receive and you will have, you will. So believe it is done. Now, how can you believe it? Because faith, remember what we said in the very beginning, faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. So your faith, faith in your heart is your title deep. Meaning it is your proof of ownership. So you believe that you receive God, it is done. As far between you and me, it is done. Spiritually by faith, it is done. So you believe that you have received them or you believe that you receive them at that moment in prayer. Spiritually it is done. And you will have them. Now, of course, in relation to this, there will be many questions. First question is, is it okay to pray more than once or something? Right? Is it okay to keep praying for something? And what should I do if between the time that I believe I have received by faith until the time I actually receive? There's some that could be a long period of time. What do I do in between? So these are common questions and that we need to answer and we will talk about it. Right? So I'll just give you a gist of it, but in a later chapter, we'll get into more depth on it. So one, it is all right to pray more than once until you come to the place that you believe you have received. So sometimes you pray over a matter. Say, Lord, I thank you. You know, you're using the scriptures. You're praying over it. Say, Lord, I thank you that by the stripes of Jesus, I've been healed. And it's okay to pray over the scriptures and to pray over the matter until you come to this place where you can say, Lord, for me, it is done. Okay? So to come to that place where you believe that you have received it, may take a little bit of time. So it's okay. You keep praying over the matter with the word of God. Say, God, I thank you for my healing. Lord, I thank you that Jesus took my sicknesses, my diseases, and you're praying over that matter. And at some point you say, Father, I thank you. I have been healed. It's done. So to get to that place might take some time. And it's therefore it's okay to keep praying over that matter for some time. But at some point in your heart, you come to this place where you believe it's yours. You have received. You believe that you have. It settled. I'm healed. And inside you, it's a done thing. It's completed. Once that is done, until you receive in the natural, until it manifests in the natural, what should we do? We continue to thank God for it. We continue thanksgiving. Every time you think about it, you say, Father, I thank you. And you mentioned those scriptures. You mentioned the word of God. And according to it, it is done. I thank you. I have received. I thank you that this word is fulfilled. I thank you. It has been established in my life. I thank you. Your word has come to pass. Now it may not have come to pass in the natural yet, but in the spiritual, you have settled it with God. And that's why you're thanking him in advance for the answer. Are you with me? Okay. We will see an example of this, a beautiful example of this from the life of Abraham, Sean. I'm sorry, Sean. This noise is too, this fan noise is too. Can I say a little louder? I wish I could come with this camera won't come with me. Okay. When you let me pray for something. Yes. Thanking God. Yeah. You thank him again for it. So God, I thank you that I have received it in the natural. Right. So you thank him. You praise him. When it does come into manifestation, like either the healing comes into your body or whatever else, you know, whatever we've been praying for, that it comes into manifestation in the natural. So I thank you. It's there. You know, thank you. Before I was thanking by faith for it. I received it by faith, but I knew it. I know it's not there in the natural, I was thanking him by faith. Now it is there in the natural. I'm enjoying it in the natural. I thank you for that as well. So we are thanking God before one thanking God in advance by faith. Second, we thank when it's done. You know, and this is how, for example, we also do in the natural. Suppose I'm talking to somebody and, and I say, Hey, can you send this such a, such a thing to me? Send it to me. Yeah, I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you tomorrow. My immediate response is, oh, thank you so much. He said he'll send it tomorrow, but my immediate response is thank you so much. It's, it's a, it's a kind of I'm thanking him in advance because I know he will do it. Then tomorrow comes and he sends it to me. I'll once again say thank you. Yeah, I got it. Thank you. So you're thanking before and you're thanking after. You know, it's something similar, but you're dealing with God and faith. Yeah, Sean. Okay, we're praying for somebody to be healed. Okay. What do we make of such an arm that happens many times where we pray for somebody for their healing and that person doesn't get healed. You know, let's say we pray for a believer and the person, you know, that person also believes and everybody is believing and the person dies. Now, how do we respond to it? Now, obviously there is pain involved. You know, it's a sad situation. I'm not in any way trying to diminish that, but how do we respond? First, we must always keep in mind that any failure is a failure on our side, not God's side. Right? Okay. So this person didn't get healed, but that doesn't change the truth. The truth still reads by his tribes. You were healed. The truth still reads. He forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases. Yeah. So any failure is not a failure on God's side, but it's a failure on our side. So that's the first thing. So you say God, God's will has not changed. God's truth has not changed. Just as our experience is still something that needs to rise up to the level of God's words. Right? Secondly, we should be careful not to blame something and everybody will want to ask the question, you know, why, so why didn't that person get healed? And we must be careful. And the best thing is saying, look, we know the problem is not with God, but it was ours. But we don't know for sure. You know, so we don't want to blame somebody. Oh, he didn't have enough faith or he didn't believe or, you know, maybe there was some big sin in their life or maybe they stole a lot of money and didn't return it. Okay. We shouldn't make up those things. Yes, it's true that there must have been a problem on our side, but we shouldn't speculate and make up some things. Some reasons may be obvious example, if that person never forgave somebody and they told us, hey, I cannot forgive my grand-granduncle. Whatever. So there's unforgiveness. So unforgiveness stops the work of God, it hinders the work of God. We know that in Mark 11, 25, Jesus, when you pray, forgive if you have anything against anybody. So we know Jesus taught us unforgiveness. That person was openly unforgiving and or openly hateful. We know that that could have been the cause, but if no such thing is known, we shouldn't speculate it because we will hurt people. So we acknowledge that the failure is on our side, but we have to be very careful what we point to because we don't hurt people and wrongly blame people. And thirdly, we continue to strive for God's best. So we continue to pray for people because that is God's best and we always want to strive towards that. Okay. Good questions. Let me see if anybody on the online class has questions here. Let me see this. All right. Any questions from our students online? Everyone's okay? Okay. Deepika has a question here in response to when we are praying for someone's healing, but the person dies. Is it calling it our lack? Is it also true that God has numbered their days? How to decide that? Now, what we know Deepika from God's word is that he has promised, his promise is that we can live out the full course of our lives. Right? So for example, Psalm 91 verse 14, with long life, I will satisfy him. Or verse 14 or verse 16, I don't know. Or the last verse, Psalm 91. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. So that's God's will. I will satisfy you with a long life. Right? We can also look at Psalm 90. The number of our days are three score years and 10. And maybe another 10 years. So three score years, 60, 10, 70, another 10, 80. So at least, you know, somewhere in that range, Psalm 90 talks about that. In Genesis 6, he says the number of our days will be 120 years. So somewhere, you know, there is that long life that God has promised to us. So even under the Old Covenant, Exodus 23, 25, he said the number of your days I will fulfill. So under the Old Covenant, Exodus 23, 25, he said the number of your days I will fulfill. So both in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant, the promise is that God will help us live out the full course of our life, the long life, which is somewhere between, you know, 80 to 120, somewhere in that range is what, you know, we can take a hold of based on Scripture. Do people die before that? Yes. But should we attribute that to God? I personally don't think so based on the Scriptures that we just referred to because he did say that he will satisfy us with a long life. Now, do we have an answer as to why somebody died before, you know, before 80 years? What if they died when they were 40? What if they died as a child or a teenager or young adult or some other time? We don't have an answer why? But I don't think we should change the Scriptures to match their duration of life. The Scriptures still read with a long life. I will satisfy him. Or the number of your days will be three school years and 10 and another 10. So that's the Scriptures. So we shouldn't change that to accommodate some other experience, somebody else's experience. We can all differently, we just be grateful that they are with God in heaven. If they are believers, we know that they are with God, heaven's a much better place. We rejoice in that, but we shouldn't change the Scriptures to accommodate that situation. We'll just say that, you know, you don't know the reason, but God's will is that we live out the full course of our lives. That's how I would think in looking at the situation. It's okay. Okay. I was talking to the computer. Were you all listening? Okay. All right. Okay, any questions? All good. So let's pause here. We went to point number seven. Okay. We'll stop here. We'll pick up with point number eight next week and continue. We'll finish up on Jesus teaching on faith. So I really want us to be well established, you know, in what Jesus taught us concerning faith. This is the way Jesus taught us to exercise faith, to use our faith. Okay. And so you begin to practice it. You operate from this position. Okay. And then we will go into further things. We will look at faith in the Old Testament and the next chapter. And yeah, we will finish this chapter and then move on into other things so that we get a more comprehensive view on faith and how to exercise faith. Okay. So we're going to pray together. Any more questions? Let me see. Any other questions on the live? Okay. We're going to close with closing prayer. And we'll continue this next week. Okay. You have a question? Please sit down. Okay. Somebody in the hospital. Yeah. Okay. It's dying. So the person is in the hospital. They're about to die and they were in a terrible pain. Okay. They were there. They're prerequisites. I want to die and go fast. Okay. Yeah. So we just come into agreement with them. I say, Father, we release this person to you. See, we cannot pray against their wish. Okay. They want to go. We shouldn't pray God keep. Okay. Because we have to be in agreement, right? There's another aspect of prayer we'll talk about, which is being in agreement. And especially if they want to go like, let's say they're ready. There is, you know, I'm assuming this, you know, a person is a believer. And they just say, look, I want to go. I don't think we should go there and force them to stay. Right. They want to go. So we just, Father, we just released this person to you. And let them have a peaceful transition, peaceful death. So spray and release because we can't pray against their will. So one of the things you will learn is we cannot use faith to override another person's will. Okay. That means I can't use my faith to control somebody's will. Or I cannot use my faith against their will. Even God doesn't overwrite our own will. You know, God respects that. So only so same way in a situation like this, the person wants to go. We just say, Father, we release them to you and let them have a peaceful. And there's nothing wrong in that because we're praying in line with what that person wants. Okay. Let's close in prayer and then we will dismiss. Who wants to pray? You have to come here and pray. Only then they can see you. Evangeline, whoever sits here. Okay. Evangeline, one of our students will come and pray and close. And then we will dismiss. Gracious, loving Father, we thank you for this hard Lord. Jesus, thank you that we have learned about you, Lord. Thank you that you are going to give us the will and desire, Lord, to exercise our faith. Lord, in whatever circumstances and situation we are facing, Lord. Father, thank you that we will not only be doers, we will be doers and not only hearers, Lord. Help us, Lord. Holy Spirit guide us. Be with us, Lord. Let this word manifest in our life and impact the life of others, Lord. In Jesus' name as his prayer. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. Thanks for joining the class today. I'll see you again next week. Bye now. Thank you.