 So far we talked about the right foundation for prayer and touched on two things, what are those two things? Nature of God and intimacy with God. So this is how we look at prayer. We want to first know who God is, what he can do and then pray. Secondly, not just pray to get but to strengthen our relationship with God. That is why God has created us. He wants to relate with us. He wants to fellowship with us. Now moving forward, we'll go to the third foundation that I mentioned earlier, which is the Redemptive Heart of God. So there is an APC publication as well called as the Redemptive Heart of God, which you can read. So basically what we see right from the Old Testament to the New Testament is a redemptive work of God. So if you study this book, you will see that there are many examples in the Old Testament where when things went wrong and things went bad and people sinned or people were in captivity, God always made a way to set them free. So if you have heard about the year of Jubilee, there was a year of Jubilee which was announced by God, which was a year when the slaves would be set free. So do you see that in what God does, his nature is revealed? He does not want somebody to remain in bondage but he made a way for people to be set free. Similarly, if you look at all the tabernacle and the temple practices, you would see there that God gave them a way. If you have committed sin, you bring this sacrifice or you bring that offering. Why? Because he wanted them to experience. We know that Jesus didn't die in the Old Testament but these are all the Bible says a shadow of the things to come. So perfection came in and through Jesus Christ. But there are all these examples or you could say shadows that tell us what God is going to do later through his son Jesus. So God has a redeeming heart always. Think about the story of Ruth. Ruth was in a very difficult situation because she had lost her husband. She probably lost everything that was going right for her in her land and she had to make a decision. That decision she made to go along with her mother-in-law to a foreign land. She was a mobitis but she decided that she would go with Naomi and be with her people. In such a situation, we read the entire story of Ruth unfold and we see how God sent her a kinsman redeemer. Redeemer, redemption, it's a theme in the word of God as well as in the nature of God. Exactly. Did God do? For Ruth, God restored her life. So redemption has to do with that, no restoration. Redemption is also to do with bringing back which was lost. So in the case of Ruth, her whole life was you could say lost in a sense, isn't it? But she married again, she met Boaz and then she had a son. So it goes on like that, how God works supernaturally to restore and redeem her life. But all of this reveals to us the redemptive nature of God. So when God does these works, we can understand. He did not let the weak be destroyed, so to speak. But he was always there to bring them out, to bring them out stronger. And the ultimate redemption is through Jesus. We know that he died on the cross for us and so he bought our salvation. Okay, the word sozo. Sozo is a Greek word and when you study that word, it means healing, deliverance, preservation, provision, things like that. So God has already done a work to protect us, bless our lives. And what is the reason? Think about it. What is the reason for God to do so much for us to give his own son his life and to buy back all these blessings for us? It's his nature. He's a redeemer by nature. So he's never happy when his people are lost. He's never happy when their lives are ruined, their lives are broken, their lives feel like it's wasted. But God is a God. We see through and through in scripture that he works in the lives of people to restore, redeem. And how did he give that redemption price, his own life he gave on the cross of Calvary? So for redemption in the practices that people had, they needed a ransom price. Something needed to be paid in order for a slave to be set free or some property to be released or a slave to be set free. Any person to be set free. So that price has already been paid as we know for us. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the blessings of the cross are made available for us. So now that I understand the redemptive heart of God, how is it going to affect my life? Even when I pray and I see there is all this brokenness in my own life, in my family maybe or in my professional life or my health. I can always pray redemption and say God, you are a redeemer, restorer. God, his ways, the latter is always better than the former. Greater glory, that's the way God works. When he restores, the second will be much better than the first. Seven times over, the Lord repays when things are lost in our lives. So we understand that this is God's nature. So we are able to pray in that way for ourselves or for the people that we care about or the people that we love. If at all, somebody is very far away from God. What happens sometimes, even parents get fed up, right? What do they say? Forget it. If he is not in the Lord, he is doing all these things, prodigal son, let him go, let him live with the pigs. Sometimes people just get, parents might even get so upset that, how come my child is far away from God and there is no redemption. But in God, there is always redemption. His nature is a redeemer. You can't help it. He is a redeemer by nature. You give him anything that's broken, he'll fix it. That is the nature of our God. I'll just come to your question. So understanding the redemptive nature of God, the example that I gave you, when we see a lost person or somebody who's lost in sin, our normal response should be, we pray for them to come back. We pray for their lives to be set right, for them to be saved, for them to know the Lord Jesus, for them to be blessed. Instead of praying prayers, where we give up on people. God, I give up on so and so. I know that they will never improve. We don't pray prayers like that because it is not in line with the redemptive heart of God. God is a redeemer, restorer and our prayers should be aligned with it, even when we do ministry. Sometimes we tend to be so, you know, not that being strict and going by the righteous standards of God is wrong. Yes, it's very much important, but you know, we have to couple it, tooth and mercy. It goes together. So we have to learn how to work with people to also administer, you know, this redemptive, restorative aspect of God's nature. Okay. Yeah. So I'll stop there. And there was a question. Let's take that question. Go ahead, Sean. David. It depends on the context. So Sean is asking, did David understand God's nature well? Okay. Yeah, I think some aspects of God's nature he did understand. Like he understood that God is a deliverer. So no wonder every time he was in a difficult situation, he reached out to God. He understood that God is a God of mercy and grace. So even when he had sinned, he went to God and he opened up about it and that he is a redeemer, restorer. Right. So he had sinned against God, but he came back and let God work in his life. So there are certain aspects that I feel David understood really well about God. Yeah. So, okay, sure. Thank you. Thanks for that question. Any other questions, thoughts? Okay. I'm looking at the chat section here. No questions in particular. So we shall move on. So we've understood that God is a redeemer and so our prayers should engage that redemptive nature of his. So if you want to understand that in a very simple way, you don't give up. When God is not giving up, we should not give up. So when we pray, we must go on in prayer till we see the result of the redemptive nature of God. A very good example is when we pray for our city or our nation, what happens? Sometimes we give up. We see all the wrong things and we are upset. We say, oh, I prayed so many prayers for revival. There is no revival enough. You know, strike off that prayer point and move on to some other better prayer point. No, stick to it because God's heart has not changed about the city, about the people who are lost. Right. So I need to keep praying in line with the redemptive nature of God. I don't give up if he has not given up. So whether it is people's marriage or people's health or people going far away from God, living a sinful life or prodigal life or, you know, your career being destroyed by some loss, some tragedy or something that has happened in your family where you feel that this is the end. You don't give up because God does not give up. We see that he has a redemptive heart towards everything that he has created. He does not give up easily on his creation. Okay, so this will help us pray effectively and see the results for our prayers. Now let's go forward. The next important key in our foundation for prayer is understanding the promises of God. So when we understand the promises of God, we are able to engage with God in prayer and enforce it. Remember, I said that prayer is a way of releasing our authority. So if I know that God's word has promised salvation, I will pray for it. Isn't it? If I know that God's word has promised salvation for all mankind, I will pray for all men. If God's word has promised wisdom and understanding, I will pray for it and I will ask God, Okay, God, you are the God of revelation with the God of wisdom, understanding. Give me wisdom because that's what you said in your word. If God's word promises us counsel and comfort, I will pray for it. So we need to know the promises of God for us. We need to know what blessings have already been given to us. So when we study God's word that He forgives all my sins. He heals all my diseases. What does it encourage me to do? I'm able to pray for forgiveness. Maybe there is something that the Holy Spirit is convicting me about. So I pray and I ask God, God, your word says that you forgive all my sins. So I repent, forgive me, help me, experience, Lord, the assurance of your forgiveness. So I'm able to receive an answer to that prayer or He heals all my diseases. Maybe the condition that I have in my body, it doesn't have a name yet or it's so rare or it's incurable. It could be anything but when I look at God's word, it says He heals all my diseases. So obviously that comes into the category of all. And so I'm able to pray and say, God, I know you are a healer. I thank you that you can, you even heal my sickness, my condition. Now Jesus healed them all, it says. So based on the word, I'm able to pray. But for that, I have to know the word, I have to know the promises. All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. So maybe I'm going through something and I wonder how can this be useful for your kingdom, Lord? How can this benefit anybody? How can it benefit me? But the Holy Spirit reminds me at that time, all things, even what you're going through right now, it is good. It is producing something good. So based on the promises of God, I'm able to pray prayers which are acceptable by God. And when the prayers are acceptable by God, we know that it will be answered. There's no reason why God will not answer that prayer. But I need to know the promises of God's word. So it is that important here for us on the earth. Let's look at this passage 1 John 5 verses 14 and 15. So I want to request somebody here in our classroom to go ahead and read it aloud while our online students look it up 1 John 5, 14 and 15. Okay, thank you so much for reading, Garisma. Can you just read it again? We'll just look at two parts of that scripture once again. Just read it again please. Okay, can you stop there? So we just understood that we have this confidence in Him that if we ask anything according to His will, what does He do? What does He do? He hears us. So when we ask anything according to His will, I just said, when we're asking for redemption, we're asking for restoration, we're asking for deliverance, we're asking for provision, we're asking for healing. According to His will. So when we study God's word, we are able to understand His will. And we ask according to that, what does the Bible say? Does He hear us or does He say, okay, come back tomorrow? He hears us because I'm asking very much in line with what He told me to ask Him. Okay, great. What does the second part say? Okay, great. So there is that assurance once again. So if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked for that. In other words, that God will answer. God will give. So the key here is to pray in line with the promises. Okay, so I'm not praying anything which is not in the word of God. Okay, so we will come to this a little later. I don't know why a certain question has not yet come from all of you, but you know, I will wait. But you see, as much as been revealed to us in the word of God, when I pray those prayers, like some of the common ones have already stated it over and over again, like healing, provision, blessing, things like that, God wants to give it to us. So when we pray for those, He hears us. And when we know that He hears us, we know that we will have what we have asked for. We can be very confident in our prayers. Now, the question which I was actually expecting from all of you is the most specific purposes for our lives. You know, should I take this job, that job, or you know, should I buy this car, that car? These kind of answers we don't have in the Bible. You know, it's not like, oh, you open up in Genesis chapter 25 verse 3 says, oh, buy a red car. You don't have that in the Bible. So then how do I pray? The petition that I pray, you know, will He hear it? So when it comes to these specifics, we'll talk about it later. How do we discern, right? What does God's will? But you know, for now, it is enough for us to know that in the general purpose, in the general will of God, we have to discern whether it fits or not. You know, I'm not asking for anything which, you know, maybe not out of greed, but I'm asking it as a provision which I require. When you look at the rest of scripture, it's okay. Jesus said, whatever is your need, give us this day our daily bread. You can pray for your needs. Nothing wrong with that. So in general, we can know that, okay, my prayer is very much fitting in the category of God's promises. So confidently, I'm going to pray about it. If I need more clarity, God will give it to me about the specifics, okay, that have to do with your life purpose and my life purpose. But in general, stick to the promises. There's a certain man of God, I heard him say that whenever people used to come to him, he would say, okay, what scriptures are you standing on? So people would tell him that nothing particularly, okay, it's just a joke. I don't use it and I don't expect you all to use it, but he would apparently respond and say, then you will get nothing in particular. If you're not standing on anything in particular, you will get nothing in particular. It's just to show that there are so many promises of God's word that you and I can stand on. Regarding every aspect of our lives. So make a list. You know, I remember as a student, the scriptures on wisdom, I had written it all down. James 1 verse 5, he will give wisdom to all those who ask. So things like that, you just write down, Isaiah 11, 2 is a spirit of wisdom, revelation, understanding the fear of the Lord. So you write down all this and when I'm praying for wisdom for my own life, I'm standing on the promises. God, your word says. So if I'm standing on the promises, what is the confidence? What we just read, 1 John 5 verses 14 and 15. When we pray, you know, aligned to his word, we know that he hears us. And when we know that he hears us, we know that he will answer our petition. So praying according to the promises of God's word is that precious. So if you can make a list of scriptures about different things for your life, finances, health, family, peace, make it, stand on those verses and pray for it. So what if we don't, you know, God is very gracious. As I told you, sometimes he just does it sovereignly. We may not ask, but still he does it. But the normal practice is to stand on the promises of God. So going back to what I quoted, you will get nothing in particular. Actually, it's not true. God is too good. Even if you don't know his promises, sometimes he does bless us. Okay. So the promises of God are very, very important. So we have a comment here in the chat from Jashan and he says, at times, even when I pray in accordance with God's will, I'm not able to see changes happening, especially circumstances or salvation of a loved one. How can I pray persistently without getting discouraged? So Jashan, I would go back to the previous point on the redemptive heart of God. So the redemptive heart of God will not give up on the salvation of your family members or the change in the circumstances that you are, you know, wanting from God. So don't give up. So we will see later on about persistence in prayer. And if I may remind you, in the last class we talked about Elijah, how he spoke the word of God, but he still went and prayed seven times for it to manifest. Right? In first Kings chapter 18, he told that it's going to rain, but he had to pray seven times. What does that show us? You know, there is an amount of persistence required. Even when you don't see anything happening, keep praying. Don't give up. If it is aligned to the promise of God's word, God will do it. It's just a matter of time. I hope that helps. Do let me know in the chat, you know, if that makes sense. Okay, so promises of God, you know, we've understood that. Now, let's also look at another important key for a strong prayer life, which is partnership with the Holy Spirit. Okay? Partnership with the Holy Spirit. We have, you know, an enabler for us in prayer. So somebody to strengthen us, somebody to, you know, stand by us. These are all the descriptions of the Holy Spirit. So God has given us his Holy Spirit to help us in many things concerning life, especially prayer. The Holy Spirit has, when we study about his nature, we see, you know, many aspects. He's a comforter, counselor. He will lead us into all truth. He's a spirit of truth, right? He's a spirit of power. So many descriptions about the Holy Spirit. So again, remember when I said the nature of God, we see the word. What does the word say about God's nature? And we can understand in the same way, what does the word say about the Holy Spirit? All these things. Here is an additional nature of the Holy Spirit. In Zechariah 12 and verse 10, the Holy Spirit is called as the spirit of grace and supplication. He's the spirit of grace and supplication. So supplication is to make requests to God. So who is the Holy Spirit? He's a spirit of grace and supplication. So when I am praying, I can get his help. We've been talking about standing on God's promises and also at times, persevering in prayer. And it's not easy, isn't it? You all agree with me? For some things, it's definitely not easy to keep pressing in and trust God. Yes, change will come. Breakthrough will come. Miracle will take place. It's hard. It's so hard. But here is the help that we have. Zechariah 12 and calls the Holy Spirit the spirit of grace and supplication. So the Holy Spirit can help me when I am in prayer. The Holy Spirit can help me when I am interceding. Intercession is to pray for others. So the Holy Spirit can strengthen me. At times when you feel weak, you can invite the Holy Spirit and say, God, give me your Holy Spirit, the strength of your spirit, Lord. Enable me to continue in prayer. And you will notice refreshing even as you keep seeking the Lord about those matters. So the Holy Spirit is the spirit of supplication. The Holy Spirit is also involved in intercession, prayer and intercession. So there's the verses in Romans chapter 8 verses 26 and 27. I will read it out for us. It says likewise, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So this intercession of the spirit and it says through groanings which cannot be uttered. So our understanding is and it's talking about praying in the spirit. Praying in the Holy Ghost as some people would say. Praying in the Holy Spirit where the prayers which are coming out are all the prayers which are in the mind of God or in other words the will of God. I don't understand them but it comes out as groanings. It comes out as some utterances. However, you see that the Holy Spirit is enabling you to pray in those maybe you're going through a challenging time or in God's foreknowledge he knows that somebody else is going through something or there are these big decisions which are coming up. So as you're praying in the spirit, what's happening? Holy Spirit is helping you and I pray in the perfect will of God for all these matters. So the Holy Spirit is helping us. We can take the help of the Holy Spirit in our prayer life. So yes, yes, Sean. Can you just come again please? So Sean's question here is as it says that the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings. Are they the groanings or the utterances of the spirit and not necessarily ours? That our faculties don't have to be engaged in this prayer in another language which is coming out. So based on some of the other passages that we see what I would say is that in Acts chapter 2 we see that the Spirit gave them utterance and they spoke is what it says. So the Spirit does give us utterance but they had to speak and similarly if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 Paul lays down certain rules for the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit at that time he tells them don't pray in tongues in the church unless you have an interpreter. So that only tells me that the faculties of the believer are in control of the believer. I can choose to pray in tongues or I can choose to stop praying in tongues. So if that were the case it's not like the Holy Spirit is overriding my will and taking over my faculty and the words just come out of me without my knowledge or without my will. So based on two of these passages my understanding the way I would interpret it see when we study about hermeneutics interpretation of scripture we would say that scripture should interpret scripture. So based on what we see in scripture if I come to this passage which is difficult for me to understand I realize that the Holy Spirit never overrides my will and therefore these groanings and utterances have to come out of me I have to speak it or release it while the Holy Spirit enables me so that's how I would understand it but if you have follow-up questions we could take it up later sure thank you good question good question there. So the bottom line however of this point is we have the help or the enabling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit when we pray so whenever I am praying and especially when it comes to intercession and you know all these matters that have to do with the redemptive heart of God we need the grace and the help of the Holy Spirit so don't have to do it alone we can depend on God and God will enable us okay moving on we will do more very key and important aspects for a good foundation in prayer before I go to that we have a question here from our students so Surya is asking how can one pray with the Holy Ghost so Surya what we will do is if you can hold on to that question if that's okay we will revisit it because there is an entire chapter on it but for now I would say how can be how can one pray with the Holy Ghost is primarily through the unknown language that the Holy Spirit gives us which is tongues okay but yes we can be empowered you know with God's wisdom as well which the Holy Spirit gives us to pray but primarily through tongues so I would say that for now and Krisha is asking those who can pray in tongues should they pray in tongues every time they pray what is the right way okay so Krisha if you look at the example of Paul again going back to the passage on 1 Corinthians 14 when he lays out all these congregational guidelines for the practice of the gifts of the Spirit verses 14 and 15 if you read he says I pray with the Spirit and I also pray with my understanding so he is making a distinction there there is something which is praying in the Spirit and there is something which is praying with understanding so there are two kinds of prayers that one can pray so to answer your question should we pray only in tongues all the time not necessarily and also pray in a natural language which is what Paul was referring to as pray with understanding so it can be a combination of both Krisha and it really depends it really depends I know that personally when I pray I switch I'm praying in tongues for some time and then I begin to pray in my own language so it just keeps going back and forth so it totally depends on how you are praying and how comfortable you are but it's good to pray in both of these ways pray in tongues and also pray in your own languages because we will come to it later there are many prayers where we can declare we can decree we need a language for that okay so both are good and you can use both sure thank you for your help alright so moving along okay one more question see Holy Spirit see Holy Spirit you mean like a human or in a vision or what do you mean okay okay so the very point very fact that he's a Holy Spirit you know that the Spirit is like formless so that's what Jesus also said about God he said that God is Spirit and we worship him in Spirit and in Truth now God in his mercy and in his plan of redemption sent his son Jesus where word became flesh okay he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory right in so we beheld him we saw him the Bible says and even John Apostle John when he writes he writes about Jesus and the life of Jesus he says we saw we we experienced we touched like with our senses we have seen the life of Jesus so as far as the you know God's physical appearance goes the Lord Jesus is that manifest so coming to the Holy Spirit he is a Spirit okay however we can understand his nature through his works what he does so but can we see him in a form like how Jesus in flesh and blood I don't think so yes so you see that you know these forms that the Holy Spirit takes I wouldn't dwell too much on it I mean I know what you mean because when we study about the presence of God and the person you know the work of the Holy Spirit there are even other things like the Holy Spirit comes like the rain the Holy Spirit comes like the fire the warmth of the Spirit you know the cold the presence of God so these are all ways of manifestation of the work of God so he came like a dove okay you know you could say at that time he seemed to be taking a form but I wouldn't read too much into that that is the form of the Holy Spirit you know what happens the reason is people will start dwelling on it and every time they look at a dove they will say Holy Spirit you know so we don't want that to happen you got it sorry yeah that would be wrong so as like for our understanding we would say Holy Spirit is formless just we leave it at that yes in one instance he took the form of a dove okay great any any other questions yes so what happens Nina is we all try to paint a picture of God based on his characteristics so no harm painting a picture but our our depiction of who God is I would say that it's just a surface of who he really is because we cannot what we are doing is very finite but God is very infinite you can keep talking about let's say the redemptive heart of God you can keep going into depths of what it means and we will never be able to you know show him as whatever that is even the father's love we know a human father that's why we paint a picture like you know like an elderly person who is very loving and kind which is okay but that is not all when I say God is a father just that one picture will not suffice but it's fine I think we all take our creative expression a painting or a song or something to share what we have understood one small part that we have understood of who God is which is okay which is fine yes sure yes yes difference sure thank you thank you so much for that question so the question is Jesus said that he will send the Holy Spirit to be with us but even in the Old Testament we find so many men and women of God being guided by the Holy Spirit and doing God's work so what is the difference so the difference is that in the New Testament after the redemptive work of Jesus you know when we are born again the Holy Spirit comes to live inside every believer which is not the case in the Old Testament so in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit only came upon you would have kings, prophets priests so the people who were called to do God's work Holy Spirit will come on them and also you would notice he would go come men go empower them to do the work and go but it's not the case right now we all have the constant indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit with us if you are a believer born again child of God Holy Spirit lives on the inside of you so that is the main difference okay so does that answer your question? sure thank you so I am just looking at the chat section here okay Prashant says thanks that helps okay Prabhu are you asking me a question I am unable to refer to the scripture that you have posted so if it's a question please let me know and I will try and answer that and also Nina had asked I didn't say that into the mic for the benefit of our online students so she was asking the image of God the Father when people paint it as a father is that how the father is so I am telling her that yes it is somewhat as is depicted but obviously God the Father is so much more than that one image that we see so looks like we are going to end this class with questions so which is very good yeah go ahead next okay so Sean is saying we shouldn't paint a picture to to reveal God okay but you know what Sean this is the way I look at it we are forbidden from worshiping an image which is quite clear in scripture so we don't you know create images and we worship them but there is always place for creative expression so if I want to paint you know the Holy Spirit as water or a rainfall nothing wrong with it because that's my revelation and my understanding I am using my skill and my creativity to capture that revelation which I'm sure will glorify God so same thing with music or you know with song or maybe a tune play a tune and it just reminds people of the presence of the Holy Spirit what's happening God has given us those creative expressions so we don't have to stop you know those expressions but we don't worship our expressions or the images that we create okay does that help Sean make sense okay thank you okay so we have three more minutes left and let me see if I can quickly touch on point six here which is to understand our position in Christ and as I said earlier we need to know the nature of God and we need to know who we are okay so it's when I know that I am a child of God it gives me the freedom to enter God's presence and pray okay I'm sure you know all of us here we are so open to go into our parents presence whatever we want we just say it because we know that we will be heard we will be accepted so in the same way when it comes to God as our father I need to know that I'm a child of God anyone when we believe him John 1 12 says we become children of God so it's one revelation of who I am in Christ Jesus but there is so much more of you know what has happened to me in Christ Jesus I'm blessed so when I go into God's presence I don't go begging like God please please you know I don't have to do that because scriptures tell me I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places so with the right understanding of who I am in Christ you know my prayer life the way I relate with God when I pray to him will change right it will shift so taking time and meditating upon our identity is very crucial otherwise what is the description of Satan what is he called accuser he's an accuser he will constantly accuse us and say oh God's not listening to you God's not interested you know he's busy you know dealing with some other thing in the planet so we should not give you to that instead you know we go back to what the word of God says right and we say no I'm praying in the will of God as we just said you know one John chapter 5 verses 14 and 15 I know that he hears me I have the confidence that he hears me right so we need to go back to our identity of who we are in Christ Jesus and it really brings a lot of freedom a lot of power and strength in our prayer life okay so with this I'm going to stop because we've you know completed our time limit for today just quickly pray and close but we will revisit the same subject and pick up from there so let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for this morning we thank you for Lord the revelation of your word of God and the presence of your spirit with us Father God thank you for everything that we have learned help us Lord to grow deeper in our prayer walk with you and Father we ask for your blessings upon every single student who's part of this class every listener and their family as well Father thank you once again in Jesus name we pray amen okay God bless see you class see you next week and see you next week too all our online students bye for now God bless