 started for me. Abinas. Started, ma'am. Can you just see it? Good morning everyone and welcome to our weekly mentoring hour. I'm so glad that all of you could join us this morning. Thank you. This morning we're just going to have time of a round of questions that you can ask and our faculty will do our best to answer your questions before we begin. Can we just pause for a word of prayer? Can I ask one of you to lead us in prayer please? Anyone lead us in prayer? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you once again for this hour of mentoring and we pray, Father, that as the leaders through your word, Father, that we will be able to apply whatever we're learning, Father, in our study, Father. And we pray that we will be able to apply to save our lives. We also pray for a blessing upon our entire faculty and a blessing upon all our students here, the Bible College. Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you Sanjay. So this morning time is open for each one of you to ask your questions. Your questions can be related to anything that you've been studying in your courses or questions related to the Bible, your quiet time, you know, what you've been reading, studying during your devotions, daily meditations. It can also be questions related to life and ministry. So please feel free to post your questions in the chat section and our faculty is here and we'll do our best to answer your questions. Or you could even unmute your mics and ask your questions, which is even better. So we could do our best to answer your questions. So the time is open for all of you. Any questions anyone has while we wait for for all of you to post your questions in the chat section. You know, we've all been hearing the end of our semester. So any of you like to share your learning experiences, what you enjoyed, anything new that you learned, any new insights, how has your semester been, what is your experience been at all people's Bible College? Anyone likes to share? Yes, please go ahead, Sanjay. Yes, but just a short, I just wanted to share, like, I mean, so far, it's been, it's been an amazing experience for me as a student of the Bible College. I mean, it's almost a year now. And one thing was, it's always good to hear the word of God, you know, it's always refreshing. And not only that, it is like, as we go through the day, there's always something to take away and apply in our lives towards the end of the session. I mean, there's always some inspiring thought that we can carry through the day. And so there's not just something we get once a week is like on a daily basis for being refreshed by the word. And it kind of encourages us, you know, to stand strong in the faith. Otherwise, if I'm not mistaken, an average person who probably just goes to church once a week. I mean, throughout the week, there's so much, so many thoughts and so many things that are bombarding their mind. But we are getting to hear the word and not only hear the word, but to discuss the word and to study the word on a daily basis. It's like living waters on a daily basis for us. I mean, I just like to leave it at that. And it's been so inspiring with the discussions we had in the classroom and, you know, the kind of the oneness, the body of Christ. I just wanted to share that. Thank you, Sanjay. Thank you so much for sharing your experience, your learning experience here at Old People's Church Bible College the last few months. Anyone else would like to share? We have a question here from Jeffina. But the question was asked by Deeksha. And the question is if the devil can't read our mind, how does he take control of our minds and our thoughts? Thank you for your question, Deeksha. And thank you for posting it, Jeffina. Yes, while the devil can't read our minds in the same way that God can, he can influence our thoughts and, you know, manipulate our minds in various ways. So, you know, the devil often uses temptation just to plant thoughts or desires in our mind that can lead us away from God's will. And these temptations basically will weaken our desires and, you know, bring an instant fear and make it more challenging for us to resist those tempting thoughts and desires. The devil is also, you know, described as the father of lies in John chapter 8 verse 44. And we know that he deceives people. And how does he deceive people? Is he deceives people by distorting the truth and creating confusion in their minds? So through lies and deceptions, you know, he can lead us astray. The devil can also spiritually attack us, you know, and this spiritual attacks is aimed at basically, you know, causing us to lose our faith and our trust in God and, you know, causing doubt and fear to be instilled in us. And so he can attack us through negative thoughts, through, you know, guilt and shameful thoughts and feelings of, you know, unworthiness and also which will lead you to question God's love, God's faithfulness, God's goodness in your life. And he can also manipulate, you know, circumstances in our events in your life, in your life which can trigger those negative thoughts and emotions and can bring in a lot of doubt, can bring in a lot of hopelessness, despair and resentments. And also the devil can use our past failures, past weaknesses, traumas, you know, sinful habits and failures that we have gone through, things that have been unresolved in our lives, emotions, insecurities, you know, ties that we have that are not yet broken, you know, and he can use all of this to gain a foothold in our minds. And that's why the Bible Paul writes and tells in Romans, you know, that we need to renew our minds every day, you know, so that we will know what is God's good, pleasing and perfect will. So it's important that we renew our minds and how do we renew our minds? We renew our minds with God's word and what is God's word? God's word is the truth. So we replace the lies that he instills in our minds, he feeds in our minds with the truth of God's word. And we know Jesus said that, you know, in his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, you know, a sanctify Jesus's prayer for the believers is sanctify them by the truth. And, you know, your word is the truth and we know that the truth will set us free. Okay. So I hope this helps, Deeksha. Nancy, if you want to add anything? Yes. So I was also thinking that, yes, the demon spirits, they can influence our minds. And though they don't have knowledge of everything, there's only one person who knows everything that is God, and he knows what we are thinking God only God knows what we are thinking. But as you rightly put it, demons manipulate. So what they can also do is they can do a little bit of guesswork on the basis of their observation of us. They know what we are sharing with people and you know, they just observe us. And then again, they can use that to really work along that and then, you know, try to influence us and tempt us and get us. So just that one additional thought that I wanted to share. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Nancy. Did that help, Deeksha? Nancy, you have to help me with the chat, if there are any questions, please. Yes, yes, just sending it across. So yes, Jeffina posted the question, does it mean that the devil uses the weaknesses of our flesh? Yes, he does. He can use our flesh and that is why, you know, we need to, like Paul writes in his letters, that we need to, you know, put to death the deeds of the flesh and we need to walk in the spirit, be led in the spirit and live in the spirit, which means basically, we need to feed our spirit man and we feed our spirit man with God's word, the truth in God's word and what God has spoken over us and what God has spoken regarding us in his word. And yes, we need to deprive our flesh, the passions and the desires, because, you know, how are we tempted? We are tempted when we are led away with our own desires. It's not, you know, Satan uses that to, you know, further the temptation, but we are tempted when we are, you know, when we are led away by our own passions and that gives way to sin. Yes, did that help? Okay, sorry, my chat is not working. It's just buffering from the time I've logged in. So we'll just move on to the next question by Joseph Williams. Joseph says, why have those who were once fervent in prayer become cold? Parson Nancy, would you like to help with this? Yes, sure Parson Selena. So there can be many reasons why somebody who is so strong in their prayer life now suddenly is finding it hard. And I can think of reasons like delay, when we are waiting on the Lord and the fulfillment has not yet come, that can be a cause of discouragement or disappointment that we expected, we stood in prayer and we trusted God for a certain result. But, you know, the outcome was not exactly how we envisioned it. So one could be facing disappointment. So that also can bring a person down and maybe they're not so fervent in prayer anymore. And I think the other thing is to just not have like a strong personal devotion. So when we don't spend time in the Word, when we don't spend time praying in the Spirit or we don't spend time in prayer in general, what also happens is, you know, the fire that we carry for the Lord can kind of become dull. So these are the three main reasons that I can think of. So if one can strengthen themselves to overcome discouragement, disappointment and even maintain a very strong, like personal strength in God, then, you know, we can continue to have a strong or a, if you want to call it like a fiery, fervent prayer life throughout. And I'm reminded of a scripture from Hebrews chapter 6, and verse 12, it says that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So the writer of the Hebrews, he's saying, don't become weak, you know, in God, or in other words, you know, he's using sluggish, don't become sluggish, slow, weak, instead of that, be like those who have received God's promises, but what did they employ? Two things, we need faith and we need a lot of patience. Okay, so faith and patience, both are required. If we don't have both of these, you know, we may find ourselves, you know, fainting time to time. And as long as we keep ourselves strong in God and overcome disappointment, discouragement, our prayer life can remain, you know, powerful and fervent. I hope that helps. Thank you. I hope that helps, Joseph. Just like to thank you, Pastor Nancy. Just like to add that, you know, there are also external factors such as stress, you know, busyness in life, trials that can distract us from prayer, that can eat into our prayer time. So it can be challenging to, you know, focus on prayer to keep, you know, that time specifically for prayer, because we are so engaged with the things of the world, it can be our job, it can be our life, it can be the busyness of this life, it can also be sin and guilt, sometimes unconfessing and guilt can also create a barrier in one's relationship with God and can cause us to distance away from God and, you know, cause us to be, you know, dry in our prayer life. Also that, you know, there's a loss of passion, you know, there's a complacency that sets in, you know, and also a spiritual stagnation because we think we've reached a point where, you know, I'm very prayerful, I've been prayerful, I've received answers, I've received breakthroughs. So there can be even a kind of a spiritual complacency, a lethargy stagnation, also can be spiritual pride at times as well. And also if we neglect our spiritual disciplines, like, you know, reading God's word, meditating on God's word, fellowshiping with believers, because we feel that we've come to a place where we are strong spiritually in our prayer life and Satan can use that to also bring our downfall. I hope that helped, Joseph. Yes, Pastor Selena, he says thank you. Okay. Sorry about the chat section that's not working. Okay. Anyway, we'll move on. Shiv Kumar's question is, can a believer watch movies and other entertainment programs? Well, the scripture passage that comes to my mind is for Corinthians chapter 10, verse 23, where says, you know, I have a right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but not everything is constructive. You know, or if you look at it in another version, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. First Corinthians 10, 23. So you need to ask yourself this question. Yes, you can watch movies, but is it worth the time? You know, because of the content in the movies, or in the entertainment programs, if you're basically talking about serials, or if you're watching some entertainment program, like a quiz, which is fine, or a talent show, or you love cooking, and so you're watching, you know, the Masterchef programs, well, that's fine, because you get a lot of cooking tips from that, you're interested in quizzing, you're interested in, you know, knowing, getting more knowledge, that's fine. But if you're talking about serials, then if you look at this, most of the serials, if you watch them, they're filled with hate and envy, and pride and jealousy, and, you know, murder, and you name it, you know, passions, which is, you know, sinful passions, lustful passions. There's a lot of nowadays, you know, these, these entertainment programs have also a lot of content to adultery, it's okay to marry, divorce. So what are people learning from this? You know, is it beneficial? You're permitted to watch it, but is it going to really benefit you? And also a few scripture passages that say in Romans chapter 12 verse 2 says, you know, do not conform yourself to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You know, Ephesians 4-23 says, be made new in the attitude of your minds. So if all of these, you know, content or movies that you're watching is, you know, going to instill lustful, sinful passions and desires, you know, then, because it's going to be, this content is going to be stored in your subconscious mind, it's going to come out when you are, you know, just lying down and your mind is addressed, you can, you can see yourself, you know, engaging in those lustful thoughts because you've been watching that kind of content. And Philippians chapter 4 verse 8, Paul writes and says, finally brothers or sisters, you know, whatever is true, right, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy, think about such things. So if you have to think about such things, you have to watch such things, read such things. And Colossians chapter 3 verse 2 says, you know, set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. So, you know, in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5 says, we need to take every thought captive in obedience to Christ Jesus. And so it's important what we feed our minds with because the battle is in the mind. And hence, we need to feed our minds with, feed our mind with the right things, with the pure things, with the true things and noble things and lovely and admirable, praiseworthy things, you will think about such things, you will live such things and you will, you know, walk in that truth and it will feed your spirit man and not your fleshly human nature. I hope that helped Shiv Kumar. Nancy, would you like to, Pasya Nancy, would you like to? Yeah, I think you've covered it quite thoroughly Pasya Selina. All I wanted to say is that in today's world we have the privilege of even reading up, you know, a review about the movie and actually knowing what content it brings. So, if at all, you know, you, we are thinking and I know parents who do this before the kids can watch a certain movie or a program, they read up about it and then they give permission and say, yeah, okay, you can watch, it's, it has good content or it doesn't have good content. So, since we have to be so careful about what goes in, because what goes in comes out and so being careful about the entertainment content that we are consuming is very, very important. Yeah, just that, thank you. Oh, thank you, Pasya Nancy. So, we'll move on to our next question by Siddiqui Nu Robert. Siddiqui Nu, good to hear from you after a long time. This question is, how can we, as people of God, effectively navigate the temptations and challenges present in the corporate environment while remaining steadfast in our faith and commitment to serving others? So, how can we, as people of God effectively navigate the temptations and challenges present in the corporate environment while remaining steadfast in our faith and commitment to serving others? Pasya Nancy, would you like to help in answering that? Yes, sure. So, Siddiqui Nu, what you are describing is life itself, whether we are in the corporate setting or anywhere else, because nobody is spared of temptations and challenges, but it is understandable that in the corporate environment with high work pressure, there are temptations that can, like if believers succumb to it, it can lead them away from God. So, what one could do is to, first of all, be really strong in the Lord to be really strong in the Word. And of course, if there is a possibility of being part of a fellowship or a group of believers who understand the corporate environment to maybe be a part of that so that people can strengthen one another. And with regard to specific principles, I would refer back to the book, the APC publication workplace. What is it called, Pasya Salina? Timeless principles of the workplace. Yeah. So, they address many specific issues and I am sure that can be a blessing to you. I hope that helps. Thank you. Thank you, Pasya Nancy. Just to add to Siddiqui Nu's question, it's basically knowing what the Word of God tells us how we need to live and it's just obeying that. So, for example, if you look at Daniel, you could look at Daniel in the Bible and he was somebody who worked in today's corporate world. But look at how Daniel lived his life. When he was supposed, Daniel chapter one, when he was supposed to eat from, they were served food from the King's table, Daniel knew that this was not the kind of food that he was supposed to eat because he was very young, he was about 13 or 14, he was very young, but he knew the kind of food, he knew the commandments, he was taught the laws, the Torah, the commandments and he knew that this was not the food that he was to eat because this food was not according to the standards that God had ordained for them as his people, the kind of meat, the wine, the food was offered to idols, to the Babylonian gods and so he takes a stand. A simple thing like food, but we see Daniel takes a stand and also when the prayer, the law was passed that no one should pray to any other God, a man the next 30 days, but what does Daniel do? He knows that he has to pray and how does he pray? He has to face towards Jerusalem so he opens his window and he does what he was used to doing and we see that even the officials tried to catch Daniel in some way in his work but he was a man of honesty, integrity, committed to his task, did what was honoring in God's sight so they could not find any fault in his work. So just simple basic principles and how did Daniel know all this? It was not just that he was a prophet and superly anointed by God so he was led by God unlike us. No, he just knew what God's commandments, what was the laws, what the Torah had commanded him, what he had learned and he was just following that. So I think how you can navigate temptations in the corporate world is and remains steadfast to our faith is just know what the word of God says and do that and obey that in that situations that you face. Did that help Siddiqinu? Pastor Celina's associate Kenu has responded. He says firstly that he's saying thank you and for the insight and for sharing the book and then later he says thanks Pastor Celina actually the question came now as I have logged in from my office and that point of view is very point to point. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Pastor Nancy. Thank you Siddiqinu. Good to hear from you. So we'll move on to the next question. Jeffina's question are angels anointed? Basically anointing means the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. So yes in the Bible the concept of angels being anointed with oil as humans where you know in some context is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible you know but anointing is explicitly mentioned in the Bible when it comes to individuals you know who are ordained by God to do specific roles or are called into specific offices such as prophets, priests and kings in the Old Testament. So angels being spiritual beings do not go the same undergo the same rituals or ordinations as we humans do but yes angels are ordained by God they're messengers agents of God to carry out his will and purpose and I don't think they need anointing the same way as we humans do because we need the anointing. Anointing basically means the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. So I am just sharing what I know Pastor Nancy would you like to add? Yes Pastor Senina. So anointing as you already stated we don't see angels being anointed with oil or you know any such actions but they are I mean I think we could look at them as being empowered. So in that sense we can say that they have the empowering of God to serve in a certain manner. Now I don't know if we can exactly use the term anointed for that but they are empowered by God. Yes thank you. Thank you. So I hope that helped. We'll move on to the next question by Joseph Williams. The Bible teaches that speaking in tongues edifies both the individual and the church how should we pray would you like to help Pastor Nancy? Yes I can but I think we missed a question from Komal. So Komal had a question before that however we can address Joseph's and then come back to Komal. Please let me know if you got that question. No I don't have that question. You don't have that question okay just a moment let me send it to you. Yes I just sent you a Komal's question. Thank you. Okay no no problem thank you. So Joseph says the Bible teaches that speaking in tongues edifies how should we pray? Okay so Joseph when we pray in tongues for personal edification we can pray either by ourselves or we can pray in a corporate setting or with other believers. Now since the personal prayer language of tongues you know it's for us so we could either pray you know under our breath or we can be a little louder it's up to us so that's how we can pray we can pray at any time we can pray in a scheduled manner or we can as in we can set aside time and pray in those those in that moment or we can just do it spontaneously so that's how praying individually works but when it comes to a church setting there are certain guidelines that the Bible gives us. So for us to understand the guidelines we can study the passage from 1st Corinthians chapter 14 where Paul talks about the use of tongues in a congregational setting. So he says if we are praying in a group setting then actually our neighbors or the people around will not be edified unless the speaking in tongues is a message and that message should have an interpretation and that requires another the operation of another gift called as you know the gift of interpretation of tongues. So in a congregational setting when we are practicing speaking of tongues you know the the way another person will be edified is when the message is understandable by them. Now having said this when one is praying in tongues as personal prayer language in a congregational setting that would still be okay provided all the people are you know like they're all believers and they understand what's going on so we need to keep that in mind. If we are going to pray loudly in tongues in a setting where unbelievers are going to walk in then they will be confused they won't understand unless there is interpretation. So when it comes to the corporate setting there are many guidelines which we can learn from 1st Corinthians chapter 14. I hope that helps thank you. Thank you pastor Nancy. I hope that helps answering your question Joseph. We'll move to the next question before we look at Komal's question we will just look at the Shimmy's question says is is hell created by God because we can only see in scriptures that God created the heavens and the earth. If God created hell what can what can the reference we can give or what is the reference we can give. If it wasn't God who created hell does that mean apart from God even Satan has the power to create things and bring things into existence. So yes you know while the Bible does not explicitly state that God created hell you know but we read in Matthew chapter 25 verse 41 where Jesus speaks about the final judgment when he says you know then he will say to those on the left depart for me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels so this was suggest that yes hell was prepared not for us humans who were created in God's image and likeness but it's basically prepared for the devil and his angels which implies that there is yes an arrangement for their punishment and for those who rebel against God and also we read in Revelation chapter 20 verse 15 where it talks about the lake of fire where it indicates you know a place of eternal punishment for the wicked and it says if anyone's name is not found in the book of life they will be thrown into the lake of fire so yes these passages of scripture suggest or imply or tell us that hell does exist and if does exist it you know it would have been created by God and you know and there is consequences for divine judgment but yes you know there's not there is no biblical reference to you know details or explanations of the of the origin or creation of hell I hope that helped answered your question Parson Nancy would you like to add anything or should we move to the next question I think I'm good for that okay thank you so we'll move on to the next question a Komal's question I think we'll take Komal's question as the last one and then I think that's the last one right and then we'll end the call because we're almost nearing time Komal's question is I know one family okay I think she has two questions yeah two questions so we'll we'll move to the the first question that she Komal has asked we say God is love and when we see that in the Old Testament there are a lot of killings of people and infants also infants cannot do any sin but why are they killed no other book has this much of killing so can you tell me about this Parson Nancy would you like to share yes I can share my thoughts yes so we do know that God is a God of love but when we whole understand his nature in whole we recognize that he's also a God of justice and which is why when sin corrupted the world there needed to be a sacrifice made for redemption to take place and so knowing that God is both a God of love and justice we notice a particularly in the Old Testament before Jesus had you know done his work that there are many divine judgments that take place and this this is also because of you know sinfulness of the people and disobedience and so because of the actions the wrong actions of people there are all these divine judgments and under which you know we see things like people being killed or infants also being killed so you know that that's how we look at it now we can definitely ask the question why didn't God stop it if he's a God of love but you know as we are saying that there are things that are there are laws that are in the world that are set right so even God had to work out a plan and we know that he's a God of love because Jesus came and he made a restitution for such things now that we have the Lord Jesus and having putting our faith in him releases grace and forgiveness on our lives that is something that you know we can preach about and yeah so that is like in a short way because we have we have only one minute left I hand it back to you Passis anyway thank you Passis Nancy just like to add two thoughts that when Adam and Eve sin sin corrupted not only them but sin passed on to the generations right up to us and will pass on to the preceding generations of the coming generations second thing also sin corrupted the entire creation that God created perfect and that's why Paul says that you know creation writes in the book of Romans that creation groans you know for its to be reinstated to its original design and a position but a white children God is a God of love he's also God of justice and mercy but Exodus chapter 20 verses five and six says that you know God says that I'm a I'm a jealous God punishing the children for the sins of their parents the third and fourth generation of those who hate me but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments so God is very clear in what he has stated in his commandments that he's a God who punishes the children for the sins of their parents the third and fourth generation but also shows love to a thousand generations so that is who God is but yes he's a God of love he shows mercy as well so through this people can at least learn that there is consequences of sin and the consequences of sin is death and they would not take God for granted we'll stop here we don't have time to answer Komal's question other question we have that question with us and we will answer that in the in our next mentoring hour and also Lucy's question so we'll answer these two questions the next mentoring are thank you all for joining the mentoring are and for your questions it was very interesting and I hope you all enjoy this mentoring are have a blessed day and God bless thank you