 again we will get started from where we stopped. I'll quickly share the screen for our online students and you can follow along as well for the screen sharing. So we've been talking about the self-sufficiency of God and his choice to depend on the prayers of man. We saw how God is really inviting us and saying that if you come to me, if you seek me then you know I will show you great and marvelous things and that is a great encouragement for us to enter God's presence and to be excited about partnering together with him, speaking with him and see him move things forward that he intends to. He really wants to do many things but he's looking for us to do our part of praying and you know we've talked enough about all of this and he also said that Jesus had a life-side of prayer. He did not excuse himself from this partnership or this relationship of co-laboring with Father God and even up until today we see that when it comes to God's work in our personal lives, in our families, it could be in the regions where God has placed us or in the nation, God wants us to rise up and pray. There is a beautiful passage in the book of Ezekiel 22 verses 29 through 31. I will read it for us. It says, the people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery and mistreated the poor and needy and they wrongfully oppressed the stranger. So there are all these evils right that are going on in the land. So what does God expect? So verse 30, so I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my rod and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads, says the Lord God. So very interesting, even when there are all these evils in the land where we live or you might say the nation that we belong to, what did God do in the times of Ezekiel? He is saying, I look for a man. Now we can again ask the same question we asked in the previous session, God can you not do it? Are you not able? Do you not know what is taking place? The answer is yes but God has chosen partnership with man which is why though God can do it, he is not doing it and what does he do? He is looking for a man or you know the women might say a woman, a man or a woman. God is looking for somebody from mankind to show up and do what he sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land. So that is intercession. We will talk more about it coming in between God and mankind. So praying for the needs of our people, speaking that to the Lord. And on behalf of our people, so that is intercession. So God is expecting intercession from us. It's only when we, it says stand in the gap. Can God, not can, will do something. It is a choice which God has made. It is the way in which he has established the worlds with the partnership of man, with the dominion of man. You know God does not do one thing and then suddenly change his mind. He created Adam and Eve in his image and he gave them authority. So suddenly he's not going to just take it away. In fact, he even restored it through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he has doubly, you know, affirmed the dominion and he honors it. He definitely can just, you know, come in there and do something, but he won't. He will hold on for a person to rise up and pray. And in this case, not very sad to say the latter portion of verse 30 says, but I found no one. So again, is God looking for many people to pray? What do you think from this passage? Not really. Just one person, right? So I looked, I sought for a man. What is looking for one person and how unfortunate not even one person was found. And when no person was found, what happens? Verse 31, therefore I have poured out my indignation of death or God's anger has come about the lawlessness of the land. So this helps us, gives us perspective about the role that God expects us to play in prayer. So even if one of us, just one person on behalf of a nation, you can rise up and you can pray, you are really seeing his declared will accomplished in the lives of your land or your people. Okay. And that is the beauty of this. So we need to understand it's not that God cannot do, but he has chosen to work with us. So we are not saying that God is, you know, God is not able. He definitely is able, but this is the way prayer works. And secondly, we do without our prayers, even without us saying anything or, you know, partnering together with him about certain matters, healing stake place or miracle stake place. There's a dramatic change in our land, but these are all, you know, exceptions. In general, we need to pray if we are going to see God's work, you know, in our midst. Now, we will go on to the next section. But before that, let me quickly see if there are any messages from our online students to answer. Okay, not yet. That's all right. We shall proceed. So why pray? We're asking this question now. Why should I pray? I think we have answered it to some extent, but let's anyway, you know, look at it all over again. It is God's design. When something is God's design, he will bless it. It's not something we have made up to reach God. Okay, I need to reach God. Let me come up with this new method of practice of prayer. No, it's not man's design. Prayer is God's design. It is God who, you know, enabled us to have this relationship. And you've seen, he says, come, seek me. No, I will hear you. And the Lord's ears are turned towards the prayers of the righteous. So it's God who is inviting us. And that gives us a lot of confidence. So if I go before the Lord in prayer, I know that he will hear me. I know that he's happy to hear my voice. And, you know, it will be a strengthening time in his presence. So prayer is God's design. And that is the first reason why we should pray. Second reason why we should pray. We must pray because this is the way in which I would say one of the ways in which we fulfill our place of authority on the earth. We've talked enough about that. And so our authority can be released through our prayers. Now, the third reason why we must pray is there are people who need our prayers. And all of us would agree that we go through challenging times, we go through difficult times. And similarly, people all over go through difficult times. And in these seasons, we can help in various ways. But one of the best ways in which we can help others is through prayer. So in our notes, we have the example of Job. Job went through a twelfth this time in his life where he lost everything. He was surrounded by many questions. He was afflicted by different challenges. But in the midst of that situation, you know what the heart cry of Job really was? Yeah, Job 16 verse 21, he says, Oh, that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleads for his neighbor. So Oh, that one might plead for a man with God. So Job really wanted somebody to pray for him when maybe he couldn't pray, maybe God and it was not possible. It was just such an overwhelming time. At that time, all he wanted was somebody else to pray and minister to him. So there is a role that intercession has in serving others so we can pray for them. And in doing that, we're actually blessing people and God's power will be seen in their lives. We might think, what can a small prayer do? No, I'm seeing somebody sick and I'm praying for them. What can a prayer, a small prayer do? No, what do we see here? God is looking for intercessory prayer. He wants us to pray for others. This is the way in which we can bless them, we can minister to them. So go ahead and do it. There are people going through all kinds of difficulties and we can be of help and service to them through our prayer. So prayer is ministry and that's another reason why you and I must take that position and pray for others. Now, the next reason why we must pray is because there is a reward attached to it. I know some of us may sound very spiritual and say, God, don't give me any reward. I will pray. I will dedicate my life to prayer and it's okay. I don't need anything. I will be in your prayer. God says, relax. If you pray, I will also reward you. I will reward you. And that's how Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 and 6. I'll quickly read out. Verse 6 I will read for us. It says, but you, when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees a secret will reward you openly. Wow. This is like a cherry on the cake, isn't it? As it is? Yes, of course. Okay. Now what about the online students? What do you think? Okay. I can see a question. So let me just quickly take up the question. Samuel, I see your hand raised. Do you want to ask something or share a view of yours? If you can type it on the chat, that would be most helpful. Oh, okay. So that was my mistake. All right. No worries. But I'm sure even the online students agree that getting a reward for something which is already so precious as prayer. No, it's really another big reason why we should pray. So at times when we see God and we're in the presence of God, it may feel like maybe I should get some work done or why am I wasting time sitting here and praying? But in those moments and you see Satan can put those thoughts in our minds, in those moments he can remind ourselves, I'm communing with God, I'm exercising my authority that God has given, I am serving others through these prayers and God is also going to reward me. He said, if I pray in secret, he will reward me openly. Now that should not be our primary motivation that, okay, I'm going to take all the rewards. So that is why I'm praying. But it is one of the, you know, encouragements for us that definitely God will reward us when we are faithful in prayer. So time and prayer is not wasted time. Time and prayer is not wasted time. Right? Even if we're taking a few moments to look to the Lord in, let's say it's a very tough time and you don't have that much of time to spend even when you look to the Lord in a few moments, it's just so powerful because we are engaging God, we're inviting God and God begins to work in that situation. So the point is prayer will enable us to do all of these things and at the same time prayer is very, very powerful and that is why we must engage in prayer going forward. Now what if we talked about all these wonderful things that take place when we pray, what if we don't pray? What would happen? It's just the opposite of all that we discussed so far. Now we will really lose the opportunity of inviting God into our lives. Now we probably just depend on ourselves and think, yes, I can make this happen. I can do it all. But when God comes into our everyday life, whatever we are doing, what he can do, we can never compare with that. So when we surrender everything of our lives into his hands, we are really inviting God's presence, we're inviting the work of God and we can see his glory in our lives. But if we don't pray and we're missing out on all that God can do in and through our lives, then second reason is if we don't pray, we will fail in our responsibility here on the earth because we've said that God has given us a responsibility and we have to fulfill it. So let's wake up to that. We have to fulfill our responsibility. Then we will fail to receive personally in our lives what we could have received through prayer. When I started out with the first session, I shared how spending time with God is to really have that exchange. Remember, sometimes for us, we'll talk more about prayer and what comes out of prayer for us. I'm surprised that when I talked about prayer, none of you said that it's just asking God our requests because sometimes that's what people think prayer is. You just tell God what you want and God will give you the prayer. I pray when I am in need. Prayer is much more than that. Prayer is also the time where that exchange happens. So maybe there are situations in our lives where we are praying about something regularly and the answer to that prayer has not yet come. In such a situation, you might wonder how useful is my prayer because I still not received the answer to what I have been asking God but in the process, what is happening? We are being changed, sitting in the presence of God and time and again, day after day, moment after moment that exchange is taking place where God is giving all of himself to me and I am releasing all that is in me to the Lord. So these are really important and powerful moments. If we don't pray, it's not just about getting what you want or getting an answer to the question that you've asked God or a petition which you've made to God. It's not just that, it is more than that. So time and prayer is when I'm experiencing him for who he is. I am being transformed in my perspective, in my nature. All this is taking place through my time spent with the Lord. So if a believer does not pray, as I just stated, we are losing the opportunity to invite him in our everyday life. Second is we are not fulfilling our responsibility here on the earth and thirdly, we are not able to receive personally everything that God wants to release to us. So this is what will happen if we don't pray. So before we go any further, I just want to quickly ask us, why do you think people don't pray or believers don't pray? What could be some of the reasons? They're too busy? Yes, we have that response over here. What else? So good two reasons here. People end up being very busy. Then another response is that people don't have the patience to wait for God's answers. If it takes too long, they just want to give up. And somehow we are the fix it quickly generation. So I understand that. All right. So some more reasons why people don't pray. We have it here on chat. Lack of faith. And the second is they don't prioritize God. They don't prioritize God. Oh, that's a nice thought, Krisha. People don't prioritize or they don't think it's important to pray. So these are all the reasons why they don't engage in prayer. And I also noticed Nina was asking us to display point number two. So here Nina, I've just shared the screen with point number two. Hope you can make a note of it. All right. So we can go forward from here. We will now touch upon the foundation for prayer. We talked about the purpose of prayer and why one needs to pray. What will happen if you don't pray? But what is the right foundation for prayer? That's the question. We will answer foundations for prayer. That way, you know, it'll help us understand the right foundation better. Okay. So people sometimes pray as a ritual. Ritual means it's you know, just part of the schedule, a habit that I need to keep in my life. And maybe, you know, when we talk about prayer, people think that I'll get my blessings if I pray. Sometimes, you know, there are these habits. Oh, before you sleep, did you pray? Whether the person means the prayer or not that secondary, but it's time to pray before you sleep. And that's all. So ritual, prayer as a ritual is, you know, not the right way of looking at prayer. Can we have prayer as part of our daily schedule and it becomes a habit? Of course. Okay. And that's a good thing. But I'm talking about just, you know, not having all the other understanding, but practicing prayer as a ritual. That is not the right foundation. Next, prayer as an obligation or a religious duty. So let's say we have decided we will pray three times a day. Whenever it's that time of the day, let's say 7am, we just pray 12 noon, we pray 8pm, we pray. It's part of our religious duties. And it just makes us feel good. Okay. Who else do you know in the New Testament who just perform their religious duties and Jesus rebuked them? The Pharisees. Okay. So people who were just religious, there was nothing about relationship with God, you know, in their perspective. So prayer is not a religious obligation. If I don't pray, God will get angry. Or if I don't pray, I will not have a blessing from God. So this is how a religious mind would think of prayer, but prayer is not that. Next, prayer as lip service. So lip service is to just say something because it's the right thing to say, but you don't really mean it. You know, when we say, you know, Heavenly Father, thank you, there's that. You just say it quickly. You have nothing to do with it, you know, from your heart. So there are sometimes, you know, people, I'm sure for the right reasons, there was this practice of learning prayer by heart. Then yes, prayer is a useful prayer. But what happens is people learn up these prayers and then they don't mean it. It's just said, take it off of your schedule and you're done. So prayer is not just lip service. And sometimes we also have a pattern of praying, we, you know, say certain statements, but don't really, you know, have the understanding of that. Or it's like pleasing God, you know, thou art glorious, thou art this, that, something, something. But I don't know any of it. I don't mean any of it. It's just the right way to pray. So that becomes lip service. And we know that, you know, God is really not interested in prayers which are like this. So prayer is not lip service. It has to be from the heart. Then here is the next foundation which is so wrong. Prayer is not used to twist God's arm. Okay, so we have this practice of, okay, I'm not getting the words, but you know, when people want to protest, yeah, protest. In our society, we see that people want to protest. They may fast, they may, you know, do certain things to get the attention of the authorities. They're doing the authorities. So similarly, for some of us, if we want something, we want a car, a house or, you know, we want this to happen in our lives. We want a certain blessing. We decide, okay, you know, I'm going to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray so much that God only will be like enough if you want. I will give it to you, take it. Okay, so it's a way of, we call it twisting the arm, where God does not want to do it. But, you know, we go against, we go pressing in in such a way that we are able to twist God's arm. But in this case, when we're talking about twisting God's arm, we need to understand that it's actually not God's will. Okay, but we think that through praying, we can change his mind. So, you know, it happens. I'm sure all of you know what I'm talking about. If we, I think the best example would be, let's say a, you know, a guy and a girl, they want to get married, right? They're not too sure whether it is God's purpose or not. But they think, okay, if I pray, pray, pray, pray, pray for one year, two years, just keep praying and just knocking on the heaven. Somehow God will be like, I'm so fed up, please, I don't want to hear your voice again. Take it, right? But that's not how it works. We'll see that the will of God is a very important knowledge for us to have. So, when we pray a line to the will of God, those things God can happily grant it to us. We don't have to twist his arm. So, prayer is not a way to twist God's arm, all right? Then moving on, prayer is not a shot in the dark, which simply means that the right thing to do is to pray. God may respond, God may not respond, but I have back a plan, you know? So, sometimes we work like that. We don't really depend on God for us. It's the right thing to do. So, hit and miss, just shoot if it hits fine, if it doesn't hit, I'll do what I need to do. I'm good. So, prayer is not that. We will talk later about believing prayer, you know, how we must understand the will of God, understand the word of God and then, you know, faith arises in our hearts. We pray according to it and things happen. Okay? So, prayer is not something we just randomly shoot with. Okay? Definitely not. Okay, let's move on. There are other wrong attitudes with regard to prayer. Prayer to prove one's spirituality or to make one feel more superior. So, in a group setting, let's imagine that, you know, one person is able to pray very fluently. Maybe another person is not able to pray that well. What happens? We can develop a sense of superiority, like, you know, I can pray fluently, I can pray loudly, I can pray like the building will fall down or, you know, the heavens will shake. I can pray like that. Has an audience. Who's the audience for prayer? God is the audience. So, the question we have to ask is, is God impressed? Maybe the people around us are impressed, but how does it matter? Because prayer is unto the Lord. So, I'm just pausing because we have a question here and in the meantime, if our online students can also please put down your thoughts in the chat would be good. Yes, please. That's right. Right. Sure. Thank you so much. So, we had a response here where from Luke chapter one, sorry. Okay, Luke chapter 18, we see the attitude of the Pharisee and the tax collector when both of them prayed and we saw God applaud the tax collector because he came with a humble attitude and, you know, he knew that it was God who was listening to him. But at the same time, the Pharisee was very religious and proud about his prayer. So, that helps us understand how God receives our prayers. So, he really sees our hearts and he hears our hearts. So, it's not just our words outside. So, we must not get stuck in impressing people around us. So, what may people do to impress others? You know, pray in a certain English. Maybe if you use and KJV, it's, yeah, it will go faster. It appears heaven faster. Is it KJV version of prayer or, you know, we end up thinking like this but not necessarily. God is hearing our hearts and God looks at our hearts. So, I'm looking at a comment here in a chat and Nina says probably because the value of power of prayer is not realized. Okay, that people don't realize the value of prayer, which is why all of these wrong foundations are seen in their lives. All right. So, let me go ahead. Let's look at some other wrong foundations. Are you all doing okay? Okay, good, good. Okay, one more question. Yes, please. Very nice. Very good question we have here. So, one of our students asked, we said this is in the context of twisting God's arm, right? So, I said that prayer should not be a means for us to get what we want and we think God will relent because of our incessant or constant prayer. This is in the context of asking for something which is not in the will of God. Okay, but when you ask for something in the will of God, there is an element of persistence in prayer. So, that will not be called as twisting God's arm. So, the difference is in twisting God's arm, it is we're asking for something which is not in the will of God. In persistent prayer, we're asking for something which is very much in the will of God. So, that example of Jacob and Jacob said, God bless me, like he went after God and he said bless me. But notice, even when God created the world and the first couple, what did he begin with? Blessing them. He began with giving them authority. So, we see that God's intention is to bless. What did he do through Abraham? He wanted to bless the nations of the world. What did he do through Jesus? Again, he wanted to break the power of Satan and bless the nations of the world. So, what about Jacob's prayer? Him going after God and pressing into God, was he trying to twist God's arm? Not at all. He was in line with what God wanted to do and so, God was actually impressed with Jacob and he said, God, I will not leave you till you bless me. So, you can also hold on to that prayer and pray it through and say, God, bless me. So, that's okay. That's a good prayer. Yes, one more question. Okay, sure. So, we had a comment where one of us said that when there is faith, the prayers are answered. So, it's not only about pressing in but also about having faith, isn't it? Okay. So, we'll get into that a little later. I get where you're coming from but we'll have to look at it in its context. Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, we have another comment. Sorry, I didn't hear you well. Okay. So, yeah, that's a very good question which you asked. So, one of our students here, she asked, is it possible to be successful in twisting God's arm? What I would say is it's unfortunate but when we are walking in disobedience, it can so happen that God just says, okay, fine, go with it. Remember, we said, God gives us a choice. If he was only sovereign and he just intervened like Superman every time and said, okay, I will fix your life. If he did things like that, his track. But you know the reality, even when he created Adam and Eve, he gave them a choice. He told them, I want you to take care of the garden, rule and reign, all of that. But here is a tree, don't eat from it. He didn't tie them up or, you know, program them and say, no way, even if you want, you can never eat from the tree. He never did that. So, God gives us a choice. So, when we try to twist his arm, you know, we may end up walking in, we may miss God's best. Let me put it like that. We may miss God's best. He will not force us to do what he wants us to do. We need to will to do it. Yeah, right. Yeah, very good question. Very good question. So, any thoughts from our online students? Please feel free. You know, it will be good to interact and learn from each other. And sometimes when we ask these questions, it enriches, you know, our learning experience. So, I encourage us and no question is small or very insignificant. Just feel free to ask and we'll address as best as possible. Okay. So, there is a comment here. There are two comments on the chat. Okay. So, Prabhu is asking comments about King Hezekiah's prayer. Please. So, again, Prabhu, you see, healing is in God's plan for us. So, we know that Hezekiah was going to die, but God granted him an additional 15 years, which was very much in the nature of God. So, we'll talk about it when we talk about the right foundations. We'll talk about us first understanding the nature of God, the will of God and then praying. So, in Hezekiah's case, the answer to his prayer of healing was in line with his nature because how did God reveal himself? He said, I am Jehovah Rafa, the God who heals you. So, he never went against his own nature. Right? So, we wouldn't call it twisting God's arm in Hezekiah's case. Please, let me know if that was helpful. And Krisha says, as we pray and partner with God, the warfare becomes more real. The devil tries his best to distract us. Then how to overcome that? Okay. All right. So, when we, we said prayer is warfare and we choose to engage in it and definitely the enemy will try to distract us. It's only when you sit to pray that you'll notice, oh, it's an important phone from my home. Somebody is trying to call me or the power went off or I thought of something I've never finished. All these thoughts just flood your mind because see Satan's primary role here on the earth is he knows his time is very short. So, if he can distract the believer, if he can confuse the believer, if he can accuse the believer, you know, he can do, use all his, his bag of tactics, if he can derail the believer from God's purpose and he can stop the believer from seeing God's glory. So, he will definitely try to do that. How to overcome, keep your focus and one very good way of keeping the focus is to get better understanding which you all are doing right now. Now that we understand, oh, wow, you know, prayer is more than me just putting out a request to God. Prayer is relationship, it's warfare, it's partnership. Then what happens? Even when these distractions come, we are able to go forward. We now know that this is very important and the next thing is you can use all your weapons of warfare. Okay, we will talk about it in one of our courses, believer's authority. God has given us spiritual weapons. When the enemy comes in, we can use the power of the name of Jesus and we can say in the name of Jesus, you know, to be God Satan, I need to do what God has called me to do. You can use the power of the blood of Jesus. You can use the power, how did Jesus deal with the situation, distraction? He said it is written, use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So, you pick up, you know, your bag of weapons, you put on your armor and you fight against the enemy. So, these are all ways in which you can answer the question. I hope that was helpful Krisha. If there's any follow up to that, you could let me know and I'm seeing Nina's question here. What happens when prayers in line with God's word don't get answered? Okay, so prayer in line with God's word, I would say Nina that I understand, you know, where you're coming from, there can be some prayers which we have prayed and it hasn't come through and there can be many reasons why it has not come through. Okay, not only the one reason that you didn't pray properly or the prayer was not effective, no, there can be many other reasons. It could be a choice which we made along the way that has taken us in a different path. So, there are many reasons why it does not fulfill. I would say when they don't get answered, we should continue to hold ourselves accountable to the standard of God's word. You know, God's will doesn't change. My experience can change. Okay, I might experience what the word says or I might not experience but I have to press in once again to what the standard of God's word is saying. Okay, so don't give up on the standard of God's word even when you don't see a prayer answered in your own journey. So, that's what I would say. If you have a follow-up question, you can even put it on the stream page after the class and I can take it up there. Okay, so Krisha says, okay, the answer and we have two questions here in our class. We will take that up. We have four minutes before we can wrap up this class and we will come back and continue on the same subject of the wrong foundation and right foundation So, yes, you had a question. Can just say allowed sit and talk. Yes, yes. So remember, I said there are many reasons why a prayer is not answered. Okay, so you just brought up one reason. So there can be a demonic interference as in the case of Daniel. Yeah, go ahead. Pushing through it is persistence, being aware. I said knowledge. Knowledge will help you keep the focus and use all your spiritual weapons of warfare. Use the word of God. Use the name of Jesus for the blood of Jesus. All of those things to stay on the front. Yeah, thank you. Yes, next question please. Okay, nice. Very good. So, the sharing here in class was about God's timing. Sometimes the prayer doesn't get answered. It does not mean that God is not going to answer it. It simply means that there is a proper time for it to be answered and we just have to be in sync with God's timing. Okay, and those prayers come through for us. So thank you so much, everyone. I will wrap up now with the word of prayer. Okay, and I'm just looking if there are any more questions on chat here for us. And yes, Surya says, okay, thank you Nina, I see your comment there also. Surya says, can we keep pressure on God while praying? Is it correct way? So Surya, the way I explained earlier, pressure on God sounds more like twisting God's arm. So we wouldn't look at prayer in this way. It's not a protest. It's not an attempt to change God's mind and get what we want. So we will talk a little more about the right way of praying and getting answers. And so I'm just going to wrap up right now. Let's wrap up with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence Lord throughout these two hours. Father God, thank you for the insights which we have gained. Lord, we believe that you are equipping us Lord and Father God that you are enabling us Lord to be those people who will spend time in the secret place Father. Yes Lord, and I just pray Lord, I pray that beyond the information which is being picked up in these classes that Lord, each one of us will develop a strong prayer life Lord and we will see you move and accomplish mighty things in and through us. Thank you Lord, thank you that you're always a God who does exceedingly abundantly more than we can ever ask, think or imagine. We honor you, we magnify you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you everyone. God bless you. Please make use of your notes to go over the content again. Any more questions we will pick it up. Just post it on the stream page online students and on campus you can just approach me. We can discuss. Thank you. Bye for now. God bless.