 Okay, good morning, morning everyone, morning trust that you're all doing well. We pray and we'll continue to study about believers authority. Now we are learning about the workings or the methods of workings of Satan and what are some common tactics that he uses against believers. So we touched on temptation. We'll go to all of the other common practices that he uses. Before that, let's pray and then we can proceed. I just want to check if somebody from the online batch can please lead in prayer today. Anyone kindly unmute and pray please. Then I pray sister, have a good father. Please give us a moment. We are not able to hear. Please give us one moment. Then you can start. Yes, please go ahead sister. Can unmute and pray please. Yeah, heavenly father, thank you a lot for this time you have given us my master to gather to learn your word my master. I pray that your word what we learned today my master will be transformed in our spirit my master and that will be rooted to the ground my master and we have a strong foundation my master. I pray that we will use what I will learn in our daily life my master to use it and grow and grow in maturity in the Holy Spirit in the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you sister. Let's now get back to what we were learning. But before we get into the other tactics, I want to just ask us so how to overcome temptation? How do we overcome temptation? What were some things we discussed? Speaking the word. Okay, speaking the word then anything else we can do? Yeah, praying, spending time in prayer, submitting ourselves to God, surrendering ourselves to God, and also another important thing which I think I didn't mention, but that also helps is to just remove yourself from that influence. You know, sometimes we feel tempted. I'm just giving a simple example. If let's, if it is about food, and we are so tempted, we just want to keep eating, then maybe we should avoid being in those places where we are tempted, like we want to eat those foods. So it's something as simple as that, but you can apply it for everything else. We know ourselves really well, and we know in which area we are weak, and we don't want to fall in that area. And remember, we said that Satan, he has a strategy. He knows our weaknesses. Okay, and we know our weaknesses. So it's best not to expose ourselves as far as possible to that temptation. So we can do our best. I know sometimes it's difficult to avoid, maybe you end up being there. And at that time, you have to exercise self control. But in general, if there is a setting or something which tempts us, just don't go there, right? Or as scripture says, flee, flee youthful lusts. So you just got to run out of that place so that you're not going to fall into sin. That's how it starts, isn't it? How does sin happen? It's not going to happen overnight. Remember, we saw from Hebrews 12, we say sin entangles. So you get caught in it little by little, little by little, you get caught in it to such an extent that when you want to come out, it's too difficult. And we're not able to break free. So that is why these are all personal strategies for temptation. So a good exercise for us to do is maybe write out on a piece of paper, some of the areas where we are, we may be weak, we have to be very honest. Okay, we are not trying to impress anybody. It's our own. We are just being very transparent with ourselves. And we are saying yes, you know, in these areas, I am struggling. Just write it down, be very honest. Once you write it down, then you pray and see God, what are the strategies? What are the scriptures? So then what happens? You're trying to keep yourself safe. You're trying to protect yourself, which is very helpful. Will Satan tempt? What do you think? Yeah, he won't spare anyone. All of us will be tempted. Even if we are standing strong, he'll see how to have you all seen that house of cards, which they make with cards, they'll build like a house or a tower, right? How do they make it fall? Just one card, just remove one whole thing will fall down. So he tries to do that in all believers' lives. Because if he gets that one thing enough, the whole building will come down. Okay, so we have to be on the guard. You have to be careful. Because sooner or later, temptation will come. Okay, it's not surprising. When we are tempted, it's not surprising. So in this way, just be prepared for to face that temptation. Now, we let's move on. We'll go to the next tactic of the enemy. It is called intimidation. Okay, intimidation. What does intimidation means? Intimidation is to cause fear in our hearts. Okay, along with intimidation, one of the common things that Satan does is accusation. He likes to accuse the believer and speak lies into a believer's mind. So where is the battleground? Where is the battleground or the mind? The mind is the battleground. If we lose in the mind, we will lose in life. So in the mind, he would like to inject thoughts. What kind of thoughts? When we say accusation, it will be opposite to who we are in Christ. Now, if the Bible, like the Bible says that we are loved, Satan will tell us opposite. You're not chosen. You're not beloved of God. You're rejected. You know, God has forgotten you. Lies, a lot of lies against the position in Christ. You got it. So whatever we are in Christ, in Christ Jesus, we are the children of God. Satan will say no, God doesn't care. Or if the like we know in Christ, we are redeemed by the blood, the blood has done a mighty work for us. Now, we have become a part of the kingdom of God. Satan will accuse and say, no, God doesn't accept you. God doesn't accept your worship. God doesn't accept your prayer. God doesn't accept your life of devotion. A lot of lies, accusation. You are not good enough. You can't do this. So it will be opposite to what the word of God teaches us. Got it? So this is a common and one of the major weapons of Satan. See, he cannot, if Satan could destroy us, he would, isn't it? But he cannot. Why? Tell me why? We are believers. Satan is our enemy. See, what would an enemy like to do? He wants to destroy. Isn't it? Why is it that he is not doing it? Why all this, all this methods, temptation, intimidation? Why all these methods? Because the Holy Spirit is in us. Holy Spirit is in us. Okay. Okay. Any other answers? Why? Okay. Correct. Yes. Correct. So, see on the cross of Calvary, we'll go to that. It'll come in some of the subsequent chapters. Jesus has already destroyed the devil. That's what the Bible says. So, he is already destroyed, defeated and powerless. So when somebody is already defeated in a war, they're actually not, not even in the war. You understand that? There's no, there's no battle anymore like. Jesus has already won the victory. Jesus has won the battle. So now, what's happening is, we'll, again, everything, we have to come to it later, but just so that you can understand. Because he is powerless. If he had the power, he would just destroy us. He doesn't have the power. That's the whole point. Jesus has won the victory. We carry the authority and Jesus has given us the power. Satan does not have. So, he has to do all these side kind of attacks because he just cannot destroy us. He is powerless. That's the reason. Okay. And that is why all these indirect methods, indirect, I'm calling it indirect because when he uses the indirect weapons, he wants to convince us. So, the day I am convinced that, yes, God has rejected me. God has not appointed me. God has not called me. I am, I am not blessed. I am a failure. The day I am convinced, Satan will win. He cannot win directly. It's very indirect. The only way he can defeat us is when we accept our defeat. Got it? So, that is what he tries to do through the temptation, through the intimidation. And that is why we have to be so strong in the word. Every time a lie comes, we have to stand up and say, No, what you're saying is a lie. It is written. It is written, right? Go back with faith, go back with power to speak the truth against the enemy. So, intimidation and accusation is another weapon of Satan. Bring all these thoughts and thoughts of fear, failure, anxiety. Many, I've heard somebody say this that, like, usually, right, even, even when we are serving God, some of the biggest challenges that the enemy throws is in the area of accusation and intimidation, because he doesn't want us to serve God. So, we may go through this challenge that constantly we are, we are hearing this thing that, No, you can't, you can't, you're not good enough, you won't be able to, every time we have to overcome it and say, No, I'm not going to listen to this and take a step of faith. Okay? So, great warriors can be defeated by this one thing, they accept lies in their minds. Okay? And that's the way Satan tries to defeat us. And we have to overcome it at all times. Yeah. So, what are some, some methods that they use Satan and his demons, they may remind us of the past. We all, we have, we have a new life in Christ Jesus. So, we are, we are living according to that new life now. Now I'm born again. And I am a child of God in the kingdom of God. The old life, the past since the corruption that I lived in, it's all under the blood. It's over. Okay? I've already given it to Christ. He has already forgiven me. And that's how we are living now. We're living the new life. But what Satan will do is he'll bring memories of past past sins. You know, this is what you did. This is what happened and how can God forgive you? God cannot forgive you. A lot of such lies will come into our minds. At that time, we have to say, No, the blood of the new covenant, the blood of Jesus washes away, you know, the sins of mankind. So my sins are forgiven me. You can't keep bringing it back. So it's like a battle. It's a battle. So he may bring up past sins. He may bring up some weaknesses and say, Oh, every time you fall in this area, you won't be able to do it. Or he may bring a sense of unworthiness. Unworthiness is when we go into God's presence, we may feel that God is not happy. God is not considering me. God is listening to everybody else, but He won't listen to me. You know, all kinds of thoughts that come to us and we get stuck in it. But it's a battle. We have to come out of it. We have to find healing in the deepest parts of our heart for all these areas. Okay, now there is another subject about the human soul and how sometimes over the years as we were growing up, many things have happened in our lives and we develop our emotional person and we may really be in pain, in sight and we have to find deep emotional healing, which also the word of God offers us because in Psalm 23, the scripture says, He restores my soul. Okay, so even our emotional person can be restored and it's very important for us to find healing for our hearts so that when we are strong, then whenever Satan comes, those hearts are already healed and so it won't be triggered. Got it? So we have to find, we have to be very strong in the word, strong as a person. Okay, then we'll be able to deal with this intimidation and accusation. Any questions about this kind of attack of the enemy? We'll keep moving on to the next ones. Okay, Brother Sanjay is sharing, Pastor Paul once taught us, if the enemy reminds us of our past, remind him of his future. Okay, yeah, of course, we can do that. That's quite powerful. We can remind him of his future. Alright, let's move on. The next one would be intrusion. Okay, so intrusion simply means unlawful entry. Okay, or you may want to call it illegal access. What did Jesus say in John 10, 10? Yeah, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. And how does he come in that same passage? How does Jesus describe like the good shepherd, he'll come, you know, enter directly. But the thief will come from the back door. Who's the thief? Satan. So that's what he likes to do. He wants to check every door and every window. Anything is open. If anything is open, just come in. That's the job of the thief. Right, they are studying. Anything has been left out or there are cracks. Some weakness will enter. So that is the tactic of the evil one. And we have been saying this again and again, right, that the evil one cannot touch us. We belong to Christ. Our body belongs to Christ. Okay, scriptures tell us that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Okay, and God dwells inside our body. So when Satan tries to come in and cause anything, right, maybe sickness or some pain, anything, we can take authority and say, hey, I have been bought with a price. I belong to Christ. When we belong to Christ, then the kingdom principles or the laws for that kingdom apply to us. Now we belong to the kingdom of light, isn't it? And so we can go against the enemy and say, you have no access. I've been redeemed. I've been bought with a price. I belong to Christ. No, I'm God's property. If something is somebody's property, can someone else come and take it? You can't legally just cannot because the papers declare that that object or that piece of land belongs to a certain person. In the same way, all of us as believers, we are God's property. Now if we are God's property, can God allow someone else to come touch and take or harm? He just cannot. He cannot. Now we as believers, remember we read in Genesis, God gave us the authority and dominion. So we have to use it. Whenever Satan comes, you have to say, hey, not here. You can't enter here because I belong to God. You have to take a stand and go against the devil and say that you cannot touch my family. You cannot touch my finances. You cannot touch my mind. You cannot touch my body. You cannot touch my things. So we can speak like that because we are God's property. I'm not reading the scriptures. It's already here in our notes. I'm speaking on the basis of 1 Corinthians 6 20. So we should not give him access and it's only when we give him access, right? How do we give him access? How might we give access to the devil? Any idea? By yielding into temptation. Yeah, by yielding into temptation. Any other way in which we may give the access. Yes, Shani. What about through our mind? Yes. So our minds, that's Shani's point. Definitely, that is the place where it all starts. Whenever we come in agreement with the devil, then starts the attack or whatever you want to call it, the downfall. So in the mind, when we agree with him on any matter, then he gains access. So if I say something like, you know, in this season, everybody usually gets very sick. So I may get sick. I am speaking sickness for myself. Now, it may be normal and natural in a sense, but what am I doing? I'm agreeing. So that's what he wants. When you agree on anything, I'm giving you a simple example, then access. Because we are telling the devil, yeah, it's okay. I can get sick, you know, I will be sick. Then he is able to enter. So in that way, anything else that we say, that I will never, good things will not happen to me. Every time something good starts, it ends up in something bad. We say all these things and we don't realize that it's giving access to the devil. That's not what the Bible says. Right? So when we confess these things, it starts to become a reality. How is it becoming a reality? It's not supposed to, according to what God has done for us in Christ. But what we are doing is access. You know, I always, when I start a business, I always have a loss. We said it and Satan says, okay, great. There's my backdoor entry. Let me get inside access. So the point that I'm trying to make is when we are walking with God and align to the word, then Satan cannot enter. Just cannot enter. When does he enter? When we give access and we keep giving access in all these ways. As Shani said, in the mind, first we start in the mind. We agree. And you remember the thought, we said thought will go to imagination. Imagination will go to reasoning, arguments, stronghold. At that point, it's very difficult. By then he's, he's come in, he's robbed the place. Okay. And the Lord of damage has happened. So the point is, don't let the devil get into God's property. That's intrusion. It's illegal. Okay. It's not according to the law. So what should we do as believers? When we feel like Satan is trying to come in, what should we do? We should take authority and stand on the word of God. Okay. So speak the word, take our authority in James. Sorry, first Peter five versus eight and nine. Can we quickly read that passage, please? First Peter five versus eight and nine. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, step past in the field, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. Okay. So we know he is roaming, but that scripture also says resist. Okay, resist. If somebody is trying to rob a house, will we let them? We'll say, okay, please come. Most welcome. Open the door for them. Do way. Right. We make a noise. We'll call the police. We'll shut the door. We'll do whatever it takes to stop that person from coming inside. That is resist. And when Satan tries to attack through intrusion, legally he can't do it. Okay. But somewhere something is just trying to come in and cause damage. We have to resist. We say, no way. You can't do this. You know, sometimes you got to get angry with the devil and say, come on, I'll do whatever it takes prayer, declaration, fasting, I'll do everything. I have to stop you. We are going to stop you. Right. So resist the devil. Don't let him do what he wants to do. That's the way to deal with intrusion of Satan. And of course, shut every open door in Ephesians chapter four and verse 27. It says, don't give Satan a foothold. Okay. A foothold simply means that point of access through which he can come in. And usually, usually these things are wrong belief, wrong declarations, then sin, sinful lifestyle, all these things become the foothold and Satan comes in. Right. And it's not that God is not helping us or God is not God has allowed it. God has permitted it. I think like that. It's happening because there are other reasons. Maybe we have not yet fully resisted the devil. Will he try to include? Yes, everybody's life. We will try to, but we've got to learn no foothold and resist and stand up against the devil. So that's the manner in which we have to come against intrusion of the devil. Okay. Any questions about this? Any thoughts? Okay. Let's just quickly go here. Okay. So Sanjay is saying our ignorance of the word that is lack of spiritual food to build us up in our faith. Okay. So that again is a challenge which might make us a target for Satan. Okay. So intrusion we have understood. Now let's move on to the next one. It is called opposition. Opposition as a name itself suggests is when Satan comes against us, he will oppose the work of God. He will hinder. He will try to put up, you know, like he'll counter whatever God is trying to do, the purpose of God. Even Apostle Paul in 1st Thessalonians 2 and verse 18, he says that Satan tried to hinder me. Satan tried to oppose me. So there are certain circumstances where we see that there's a very real opposition of the devil. You know, we may try to do the work of the ministry. Let's say we are going to a certain place and we want to plant a church. We go through the process. We are praying. We are, you know, trusting God for team members to come join us. We are preaching the word. We have worship. We have everything, right? Spiritual warfare is going on. We may find that there are challenges. Something happens, which will try to stop the work. Something else happens, which will try to stop the work. So is it true that Satan tries to stop God's work? Yes, he will. Why won't he? Because it will be a problem for his kingdom, right? But it should not be a surprise for us. We know that that's what he'll do. So then we become smarter. How do you go to war? You're always smarter than the enemy, right? So if they have those weapons, you think, okay, I'll use the other weapon. I'll use intelligence. I'll use this and that smarter than the enemy. So we are expecting Satan to try to oppose the work of God, the purpose of God. So we have to arise and again resist and do the needful, right? And don't give up. Basically, don't give up. Just because there is opposition, don't think that, oh, I won't be able to do. Let's stop. Don't think of stopping. We have to fight it. The opposition of the devil. We have to fight it. So when we say we have to fight it, should we fight the people? Should we fight with all the people, all our neighbors? We go fight with them. Because ma'am said you have to fight in believers authority class. Yeah, so our battles are not against flesh and blood, but they are against, you know, the powers of darkness. So when we say fight, we are referring to spiritual warfare. Okay, so spiritual warfare, when we rise up in faith, when we rise up in prayer, worship, declaration, we overcome the devil, the demonic authorities over that area. Remember, we said over regions, you have demonic strong holds. So all that through prayer, through our faith, we have to overcome. So when we keep overcoming, eventually we'll find that it's gone. We'll try to fight for some time to check whether how strong these people are, will they keep resisting us or not. Then after a while you'll be like, it's gone. They just left. Okay, so we must not give up. There will be opposition to the work of God. We may find this true in our personal individual lives or as a church family. We may find all these things happen, but don't let it discourage you or stop you. It's an usual tactic of the devil. If you read about Paul's missionary journeys, he'll go city by city. He'll do the work, but there'll be some problems. Somebody will start saying this, saying that, but with God's wisdom, deal with the problem and keep moving forward. Okay, so opposition is another weapon that Satan uses. And we must remember that Christ has given us the authority. So when Satan comes with opposition, use your authority. Keys of the kingdom. I've given you the keys of the kingdom to bind and lose. So we can exercise in binding and losing. We'll come to it later. Binding means we won't allow. Okay, we don't allow it to happen. Losing means you're allowing it to happen. What did Jesus say, I give you the authority to bind or you don't allow and lose. You allow. So we take authority and say, okay, the spirit of something, I'm just saying oppression, I bind you in the name of Jesus. We have to do it. We have to say it. Okay, so when I do that, what I'm doing is I'm saying, I'm not going to let you do what you're doing. You spirit behind whatever is going on or you spirit of strife, you spirit of confusion, you spirit of anxiety, I bind you in the name of Jesus. That's part of spiritual warfare. Prayer, all that is okay. But we have to use our authority also. So we can say that and we have to say those things. Okay, or we lose something. God has given us authority to lose. So what, how does that work? You allow something to happen. So you can say, I lose a mighty work of the spirit to take place. Let the spirit of God work in this place. You know, we lose the love, the peace, the joy of the kingdom of God in this place. You can say that for your own family also. But when you say that what happens, you're allowing those things. But there are other things that we are binding. So in this way, we can also take authority. So there is a very interesting dream which pastor has written. Usually journals is dreams. So one of those dreams he has shared here. And you can read it later. I'm not going to get into it. But basically it's it's something about he sees how once he has, he's fighting with, he's handling something small snakes. And it's very easy. He overcomes them, he throws them away and then he moves from there. Then when he goes, he sees another like a little stronger snake, like a cobra. Okay. There again, he is able to do something. He's able to jump crossover and he moves. Then when he keeps going, he finds himself before an anaconda. It's like a huge snake which can swallow you. Okay. So it's a bigger snake. And over there, he's wondering, now what shall I do? How shall I escape? Then God gives him an idea. He finds suddenly some, it's all a dream, right? God speaks to us in the dream and dream has a lot of what can I say, like all this figurative language and imagery happens in our dreams. So he suddenly sees a bunch of chicken, how they carry chicken, they tie the legs and they carry it like that. So he suddenly finds some chicken lying around like that. Then God gives him the thought that why don't you grab the chicken and throw it at this big snake and he does that. Then the snake gets distracted. It moves towards the chicken and he escapes. So apparently like he woke up in the morning and he was thinking, what is the meaning of this dream? What is God trying to say? You know, small snake, bigger snake and very big snake and all that, but God, you know, like he got this understanding as he prayed that what God was trying to tell him is Satan, to overcome Satan, we need God's wisdom. We need God's strategy. See, each time there was a different way of dealing with the devil. So that strategy is needed for every battle and we can only get it from the Lord. And maybe we are going through a particular situation. Last time we did something else to come out of that situation. Okay, that is last time. This time, we have to again ask God, what you tell me? What should I do? How should I? So see God, get his strategy, get his wisdom and then overcome the devil. Okay. The ultimate strategy of our Lord Jesus Christ is what? Yeah, the cross. The Bible teaches us that the cross is, it's like foolishness to the world. I mean, think about this. A person died on a cross. That seems like failure. That seems like the end. But to the Corinthians Paul writes, but this is the wisdom of God. We'll never be able to understand. Okay, but it is the wisdom of God. And through this work of Jesus, he saved the whole world and God's wisdom. It's so great. It's nothing compared to the wisdom of man. So God knows what he's doing and he is the God of wisdom and we must seek him. His ultimate wisdom of course is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So these are some thoughts that are given here in the section that talks about opposition. There's a small note on Paul's thorn in the flesh. So just want to repeat that the thorn in the flesh, Paul says, right, I prayed three times and it God said my grace is sufficient for you. Why did this happen to Paul? We've already given the answer for this in the previous courses. Why did Paul have a thorn in the flesh? We've already finished this. Why did the thorn continue to be there even though Paul prayed and he said Lord, you know, remove this thorn? Yeah, correct. No, my grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in your weakness. So the thorn kept misturing him but it was God's word which ultimately said that my grace is sufficient for you in this particular thing that you're going through and in your weakness, this my strength that has been made perfect. But why did Paul, see that thorn could have been removed? No, flourishing. So we have to go by the context. This passage is in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. When we study that passage in the same passage, verses 6 to 9, Paul himself explains, he says that thorn is a demon which came to oppress Paul. So thorn is not a human being or you know, we can't say, oh that person is a thorn in my flesh. You can't say that because the thorn in the flesh here is a demon and apart from that, we know that it was not a sickness or a disease. It was a demon that was oppressing Paul. So what is a thorn? It was a demon and why did God not remove the thorn? It's clear from what Paul shares that because of the many revelations that he had, God did not want him to become proud. Now can we use this and say, I have a thorn in the flesh and God is saying, he won't remove it? Yes or no? Yes? No, just give it a try. Don't feel it's not about right or wrong. I want you to interact. Can we say that I have a thorn in my flesh when I pray, then I ask God to remove it, God is saying no, my grace is sufficient for you. I can only see agreement even though you're not saying yes, some heads are shaking and all that. Okay, yes, Shani, something? No. Okay, I saw your hand raised. That's your answer. Okay. So Shani is right, we cannot use this example from Paul's life and apply it to our life. The reason is, do we have revelation like Apostle Paul? He wrote half of the New Testament. Okay, when we're talking about his level of revelation from God, it's something else. None of us can compare to that. No current apostle, because these are all the founding apostles through whom the scriptures were inspired and they wrote it. So the revelation that Paul carried, nobody can compare to it. So there's no question of God sending a thorn in our lives. Okay, so it is not applicable to any one of us. So we should not just take that passage and use it, you know, if you are sick or if you're having a problem, if you're having a relationship problem in our family, we should not say, Oh, God has given me a thorn in my flesh. It's always troubling me because and God is saying my grace is sufficient for you. It's not applicable to us. Is that clear? Did you understand what I'm trying to say? See, I'm saying that that particular thing, the thorn in the flesh, right? It was in the case of Paul because of his many revelations. Okay, but to keep him humble, but none of us can claim that we have those kind of revelations. So then where is the question of keeping us humble? Got it? So that is why I'm saying it's not applicable to us. It's fine. Okay, fine. I think that is clear. And I'll just go to a question here, Sister Gertrude is saying, can we cast demons from a distance? Yeah, there's no distance in the spiritual realm. You can. You can, Sister. It is a possibility. But the normal way in which we do it is, you know, it's good if the person is there, we'll see the steps of deliverance a bit later on. So if the person is there, then it's a lot easier to minister to them, speak to them from time to time and all of that. But yeah, you can pray for someone and deal with demonic strongholds from a distance also. Remember in our meeting, somebody said that pastor's meeting on the phone, they were casting out demons, right? If there's a demon possession, just call this pastor, he'll cast it out on the phone. It's possible because it's all about faith, right? So, yes, yes. Yeah, I have a question. I think it's probably from last class when you were mentioned that the devil is not like, he's not omnipresent like God. So can you explain to me how he puts stuff in somebody's mind to put stuff in somebody else's mind at the same thoughts at the same time if he's not omnipresent? So he has demons working for him He's like the boss, but he has an entire army and that's how he does it. Oh, okay. Okay, thank you. Yeah, sure. All right, class, let's take a break. We'll come back in about 10 minutes and continue with the next method which is deception. So we'll stop for now. Thank you.