 This morning, we will have our mentoring hour and welcome to all those who are already here. We'll have many more joining in very soon. I'll be your host for the mentoring hour today. I'm Deepika Samuel, one of the teaching faculty here. So as you know, during the mentoring hour, you're free to raise any questions and you know, you can get clarifications for any doubts that you have regarding any subject matter that has come up in your classes or any questions that you have regarding the Christian walk, regarding ministry matters, anything related to the Bible. So this is your time. You can raise up the questions that you have and we will try our best to answer your questions. So we could get started. Maybe we could begin with a word of prayer. All right. So after that, we can take up your questions. All right, let's pray then. Lord, we just thank you so much that we can come into your presence anytime that we wish and we thank you, Lord, that you are our guide, our teacher. And so Lord, when we come into your presence and we discuss things pertaining to you, you are there, O Lord, and you guide our discussions and you help us to gain clarity regarding the things that concern you and your kingdom. So I pray, O Lord, that in this class today, during this session, even as we discuss different issues, you would be there guiding us, leading us, helping us to gain clarity regarding many things that may be troubling us in our minds. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, maybe we can get started then. If any of you have any questions, please feel free. You can either post it here in the chat or you could just, you know, unmute yourself and raise your question. We can go ahead. Yes. For those of you who are joining in just now, we've started the session. So please feel free to go ahead and, you know, ask your questions. You can either post the questions in the chat here, or you can just unmute yourself and go ahead and, you know, speak out the question that you have. I'm sure that you do have questions. We all do, in fact. It does not have to be anything profound, anything that you would like to know. Yes, Pastor. Yeah. One question from me. So recently, when we're having a Bible study, this is one of the questions which came. So when we talk about the forgiveness of sin, we know that at the cross, Jesus finished the work for our sins, and we are eligible for complete forgiveness of sin. But there's also one verse which we read. I'm sorry. I cannot recall the exact reference, but I was talking about when people was having a discussion with Jesus regarding casting out of demons, and towards the end, Jesus was mentioning this, saying, the sin against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. So what is the exact meaning of it, and how would it apply for a life of a believer? And what is exactly sin against the Holy Spirit? Yes. You are asking two questions. One would be what exactly is meant by a sin committed against the Holy Spirit, which cannot be forgiven at all. And the related question is how would that affect a believer's life? In what way would that be related to a believer's walk? So these are the two questions that you have raised. Would anyone in the pastor team take up this question, please? Pastor Selina, would you like to address this question? Thank you, Pastor Deepika, and thank you, John, for your question. I think it's in Mark chapter 3, verses 28 to 30, where Jesus says, whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness. It's basically because we know that when Jesus was on the earth, he was 100% man, and he was fully God, fully man. But being fully man, he gave up everything, Philippians chapter 2. We see that he gave up everything that had to do with his attributes or his nature of being God, and so he was fully man. And everything that he did, all the miracles that he did, he did to the power of the Holy Spirit. So the healings, the deliverance, everything was what he did was to the power of the Holy Spirit. And people were saying that he's doing it by the power of Satan, by Belzebub, and that is going against the very work, the redemptive work, the salvation work of God. And that is hitting at the very core of what God had planned, his redemptive work and salvation, and that's talking against what God has planned and ordained. So that sin cannot be forgiven. So that is what is mentioned here in... Pastor, you have muted yourself. Oh, so sorry. Okay, thank you Deepika for the opportunity, Pastor Deepika. Thank you, John, for your question. So here, what Jesus is saying is in Mark chapter 3, recorded for us in Mark chapter 3, verses 28 to 30, where it says, truly, I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin, for they had said he has an unclean spirit. So we know that when Jesus was on the earth, he was fully God and fully man. He was 100% man and he gave up all of his attributes or nature of being God. And so we see that he, whatever science miracles and wonders he did, he did it to the power of the Holy Spirit. And so when people were saying that he's casting out demons or he's healing people by the power of Satan or Belzebub, they were basically talking against a very redemptive act of God, the very plan of salvation that God had for ordained for mankind even before the foundation of the world. So they're talking against a very heart of God, the very plans and purposes of God, the very redemptive act of God, his salvation plan that he had. And that's why Jesus says that sin cannot be forgiven because they're going against a very redemptive plan and the act of God and his plans and his purposes. Sorry, I kept giving the answer. I didn't know that I was muted. Oh no, you were. Yeah, we could hear you. It's just that around the ending it kind of got muted and we lost track. Yes. Okay, so then I just repeated the whole answer again. No, that's totally all right because it kind of clarifies the issue. So I hope that was satisfactory, John. I mean, did you get the answer that you needed or is there anything more that you would like to ask with regard to this? Yes. So this part I understand. The part which I really wanted to know is what exactly is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? Is it denying the work of the redemptive work or is there, you know, let's say in the life of a believer when he knows the love of God and consider this example itself and Jesus casted out the demon and people said he is not doing according to the spirit but according to Bale's book. So even now when we see some people when they cast out demons if someone says that this is not by Holy Spirit but this is by another spirit or demon would that be considered as blasphemy? I just wanted to be a little more specific in that. I just wanted to know about that. Anyone else would like to answer this question? Just to add further clarity to what has already been said. Yeah, from the text that we read we see that both in Matthew 12 and also here we see that they had actually attributed the works of... They actually attributed the whole miraculous and supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. They substituted that and then they said that was the work of demons or work of Satan and the Lord Jesus points out that cannot be forgiven. So looking at the text we see that we come to a conclusion it was a willful rejection. They were willfully rejecting the work of the Holy Spirit. They didn't want to receive, they didn't want to accept and I'm just assuming maybe they knew this was off. It was not of man but still they were attributing that to Satan and knowing the truth and rejecting the truth that would amount to blaspheming the Holy Spirit and attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to the work of Satan that would attribute to blasphemy. So let's say for whatever reason pride or ego and I'm holding on to my position and I'm just defending myself knowing fully well that it's a work of God but still I'm proud and I just want to protect my position of worldview and I continue to attribute that to the work of God to the work of Satan. I think we can conclude that that would amount to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, sorry. Yes, I mean what you are saying Pastor really makes a lot of sense. When we look at the overall context as mentioned here in the Gospels we see that again and again Jesus is giving signs to prove and show very clearly that he is the Son of God that he has come from God and all that he is doing is doing through the Father, through God. And so after having given them so many signs to establish who he is and if these learned people are still resisting and they are in fact going to the extent of saying no he is not of God rather he is of the devil then I guess it would truly be blasphemy because at their level knowing all the Old Testament scriptures having heard all that he is saying about himself and seeing the works that he is doing because in John he clearly says if you do not want to believe me at least believe the works that I am doing because the works were all so clearly pointing to the hand of God and so after having seen all of that like you said Pastor it's so true after having seen all of that if they are still saying no no no this is not of God it means that like you said they are trying to hold on to their worldview and they do not want to accept what Jesus is saying simply because it would be inconvenient for them and it would upset their balance so far and their doctrine and all of that so yes how would it pertain to the believer today now the believers who are seeing miracles and science and wonders if any believer were to say no no no this is not a work which the Lord is doing but rather this is of some other spirit if they were to make a statement like that now it would depend of course if they have made that statement prayerfully because they have discerned the spirits and have sensed through the Holy Spirit this is not a work of God then the Lord would back them up back up whatever they are saying on the other hand if it's just a careless statement that they are making without having relied on the Holy Spirit without really having discerned the spirits through Him, through His guidance if they are carelessly making that statement then yes I suppose they would be held accountable for that and the Lord would correct them in His time and He would reveal the truth to them and bring them back into the truth so I suppose as far as believers today are concerned yes we are meant to discern the works that we are seeing in front of our eyes because there may be some who are operating not through the Holy Spirit but through other spirits so yes we are responsible for that to discern what is being done but it has to be done very prayerfully it has to be done being very sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit so that we can judge rightly whether the work that is being done is through Him, through the Lord or through another spirit anything else at all that someone can add to this otherwise you know we can move on to another question has that helped John? yes yes yes thank you thank you Vaseline Vasadevika yes thank you yes are there any other questions that we can discuss please feel free to raise your questions may I ask a question please go ahead yeah I happened to watch a video where a lady it seems she was a worship pastor and but you know like she was just sharing like you know like she was possess how it was like it seems it was in a delivering session and according to her like she was 100% sure that she does not have any demand inside of her but you know like one lady came to her and just you know started to pray and so on and she was like feeling awkward why these ladies pray for me and I know I'm a believer you know and I can't be possessed but you know like as the as she started to pray for her you know it seems the demons started to manifest and the demons started to speak and it says that she's been possessed because she been into some sites in internet where it was kind of she was kind of exposed to wishcraft so after watching this video I was a bit kind of confused can a believer be possessed because according to the scripture a believer cannot be possessed or like was she oppressed or how did this manifestation happen so I was kind of curious and I was just kind of confused so I just want to share this yes it's a very valid question so the question being raised is can a believer be possessed by demons is that possible and does the Bible say that a believer cannot ever be possessed by demons these are the two questions that are being raised would anyone like to address this question from the pastoral team please yes pastoral Deepika can I share my thoughts thank you Zellie for that question so Zellie as we have studied in the believers authority a believer, a born again believer we know that being born again is a work of the Holy Spirit and 1 Corinthians 619 where Paul asks the believers and he says don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit he reminds the believers that the Holy Spirit is the one who dwells within a believer and also the body of believers so here is what we know while believers can be oppressed of demons they cannot be possessed because they are possessed in other words filled they have the residence of the Holy Spirit in them so a believer, a born again believer cannot be possessed by a demon spirit we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us but yes there are varying levels of influence that we can allow even the door for demonic powers to influence us they cannot oppress they could even oppress a believer at a higher level where we generally use the term demonized but we never use the term demon possessed for a believer I hope that helps Zellie thank you just to add to what Pastor Nancy shared in the Bible when we see of course in English we translate that word as possessed but in the Greek actually it's that word which means under the influence of so like Pastor Nasir rightly pointed out yes we could be in varying degrees of demonization or under the influence so a believer can be if I may use the word demonized it can be an oppression, some area some thought process even some behavioural pattern which the believer has opened the doors to for the influence of the demon to energize that like maybe an addiction or an explosive lying kind of thing which habits like pornography and other substance addictions and so on so the believer knowingly, unknowingly opens the door for the demon to energize that aspect so then the believer can be oppressed or influenced by the demon and like Pastor Nasir rightly pointed out the demon cannot possess because we are if we use the English word possessed to that degree the believer cannot be demonized because the Holy Spirit indwells us but when we look at the Greek we see the word demonized I think that would be a right word to use thank you thank you so much Pastor Jayakumar did that help Zellie would you like any further clarification you can go ahead if you have any further questions regarding this matter yeah let us know yeah I am very clear now thank you Pastor Jayak it really clarifies all my doubts thank you yes we have a person who has raised their hand on a question which has been posted in the chat now as Sam I know posted first maybe we could address that question and then Enoch we will definitely get to your question so addressing the question which has been posted in the chat it's by Sam and Sam is confirming that he has learned a lot from the lessons which are being covered in our Google classes and also on the e-platform and he has received a lot of clarity after having attended all of these classes but his issue is that he is unable to retain all of this information which is being given and you know if you are unable to retain the information then it kind of becomes difficult to practically apply it in everyday life so his question is how do we retain it how can we remember all that we have been taught so would anyone like to address this question please do go ahead okay I will just share my thoughts Pastor Deepika thank you Sam for your query here I would just like to say that I am just so excited to see your interest in attending classes and also to retain whatever you have been learning there is quite a lot of information that is shared in the three hours there is quite a lot of learning that happens a lot of information theological truths that we receive what you do is when you are following through the notes just to underline the important theological truths of you truths that you are learning and then maybe at the end of the day if you have the time I know all of you are also working just to go through those highlighted points which can help you reiterate what you have learned throughout the day or maybe if it does not happen you can go outside sometime in the weekend just to go through those highlighted notes and also the other thing is teaching the same subjects I keep learning a lot of new things and I basically jot down some things that I have forgotten or missed applying in my life something that is applicable for my present situation it is in time now and hence what I do is I kind of write it down and then I go back to it if there is something that I can use as a prayer point which I can pray over my life over my situation of people's life or just help in growing in my prayer walk with God so I write down as a prayer point and then I use that as a prayer point when I am praying that has helped the other thing is for personal application areas where I need to apply it I just kind of write it because I also forget we all forget so many things running in our mind so many things so many responsibilities that we have to do so just write it down and keep reviewing those things whether I am following this and applying this in my life and I think that has helped me immensely but always going back reading helps us to retain and also jotting down points like this just helps us to also you know to apply it in our own lives and of course if you are having a Bible study group or a life group reading in your home or you are ministering to children or you are ministering to youth or people in your church then you can teach one of these courses which you are studying or which you studied and teaching them again can bring back all those truths that you have learned and also help you in your journey with the Lord I hope that helps Samuel I am much faster still enough for that answer and yes it is very true what you said maybe we could write down at the end of the day of each day our takeaways for that day from whatever lessons we have covered so yes that would be really helpful thank you so much so Sam any additional questions that you would like to raise with regard to what has already been said in the book we will move on to the next question oh yes Pastor Jay Kumar has posted here you know revisit the lesson and release yes in application, release in application thank you so much Pastor yes Enoch you have raised your hand please go ahead with your question we have Enoch here who has raised a hand okay maybe would you like to ask your question or if you have accident please go ahead um it was me 4M in Nigeria good morning and I want to ask a question and also clarification based on the last questions the previous question before the last questions can a believer be possess a born again child of God can it be possess because I know if you are born again genuinely born again all is prefued you pray you study your Bible and you sleep possible we've lost you at the moment you're not audible we did catch the first part where you were saying that it is not possible for a believer to be possessed and then you were saying about them reading the Bible and then it kind of faded out yeah if you could continue okay what I say is this if you are genuinely born again and you pray how will you are communicating with God how will you possess is it possible for a born again child of God that is my the evening now yeah I'm I'm sure that we have caught the question yeah you're saying that a person who is praying and in communication with the Lord how could that person be possessed isn't it yes yes yes well Pastor Jay Kumar you know like he said and also like Pastor Nancy said possession is not possible because it is true the person has been possessed taken over by the Holy Spirit the person has committed himself to the Lord Jesus and because of the commitment that he has made now he has been sealed by the Holy Spirit and so yes the person is now possessed by the Holy Spirit but the person still has their free will to act as they wish and maybe even open themselves up to other influences if they so wish so like Pastor Jay Kumar said the person may expose themselves to other influences giving those other powers an opportunity to influence them and oppress them so in that sense oppression or demonization is possible so both Pastor Nancy and Pastor Jay Kumar have touched upon that point so like you said it is true the person is now sealed with the Holy Spirit they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them but due to their free will they can still choose to watch a video on witchcraft like Sister Zellie was mentioning or they can choose to live in sin consciously deliberately allowing the demons to work in their lives work through them so these are things which they can do using their independent will even though they have chosen to be in a relationship with the Lord so because of that there could be oppression there could be a strong influence and control to a certain extent over them due to their own choices the wrong choices which they have made so in that sense demonization has happened but like both Pastor Jay Kumar and Pastor Nancy clarified possession as such would not happen in the case of a believer because the person has already been claimed by the Holy Spirit these are the points which we kind of went over so would that help Brother, Inner could that help you answering the question Yes, to some extent but I can give you free will I can give you free will, that's fine that's okay Vasudevika just to ask what you have shared there is Ephesians 4.27 where Paul encourages the Ephesians believers he says to not give the devil a cold so again the same thing that you talked about about having a free will and allowing or permitting Satan to influence us and that could be through sin through various ways so we can give the devil a football as far as the word of God is concerned so that's where the influence that we have been talking about comes in so just wanted to add that point, thank you Yes, thank you so much for the clarification Pastor Yes, we will maybe move on to the next question the one posted here in the chat we have John Paul asking whether it is alright for a believer to participate in a religious program a non-christian program like the Navratri dances, it's like a cultural event and you have a lot of youngsters who would like to be part of that and you have a young believer who wants to join her friends in participating in the dance and then what should be the decision of the parent should they allow their Christian daughter to go and participate in this Navratri dance which would in a way be glorifying the forces which are being worshipped in that particular event so what should be the decision of the parent should they allow it or should they not it's the question being asked over here so would anyone like to address this question Can I Yes, please go ahead I want to we are too joking with the Bible the Bible makes it very clear touch nots, idols inside of God genuinely born the game child of God should be named for idol the Bible makes it say they that make them, if you they are doing a festival, they gather to the idols you are telling the idols, I am a part of you that's the pretendence inside of God and God it can imagine myself being a preacher and my children who are allowed to dance, that means I'm being I'm telling them, no matter the influence post on God and let God not to dance for idols Yes, I caught most of what was being said the volume kind of went off but then I could catch what was being said Yes, like you said brother we must not partake of anything that pertains to idols we must not partake of anything that pertains to idols so that should be one of the first priorities that we should consider when we are deciding whether to do something or not so anything pertaining to idols should be firm and clear and know for a believer anything else that anyone from the pastoral team would like to add please because in India it's true the Navratri dances are something very popular among the youngsters and they do it more like a cultural thing and they don't really think about the religious implications of it so anyone from the pastoral team would like to address that please Okay, Pasi Deepika, I'll just share a few of my thoughts Actually this Navratri is the nine days when the nine nights when they are dedicated to the nine goddesses of the Hindus that are worshiped and of course before they start this dance and everything that goes on throughout the night they do worship the idol they just invoke the presence of the so-called goddesses in that place so the dance and the festivity that is done there is basically two words to that idol and it's just actually attributing praise and worship to that idol by what they're doing so as Christians, as believers it's a challenge especially to explain to teens and to young people because they look at it as more like a fun thing an exciting thing but we need to teach our children that if everything that we whatever we are doing, whether it's fun whether it's entertainment all the activities that we do is it pleasing to God because this is not basically being attributed to our God we're not praising our God, we're not worshiping him but we're actually praising by dancing or taking part in it we're taking part in what is the demons or the gods and so the other gods we read in I think it is in 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 and 15 it says do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness what accord has Christ with Belal or what worship does a believer share with an unbeliever another scripture that we can show the teens is from Colossians 3 verse 17 and whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him so this scripture verses very clearly says that you know that we are not to be attributed you know attribute any of our fun or entertainment anything that this you know two other gods or goddesses but whatever we do we do everything for the glory of God so since this is basically doing it for the Hindu gods and goddesses and invoking their presence and just celebrating that and inviting unnecessarily inviting you know demonic influences into our lives it's not something that we can tell our children it's not what God wants us to do I also know that being a Gujarati we do have Dandia and Garba in our own marriages but all of the songs that people dance during our Christian weddings or believer weddings is all based on Christian worship songs so that you know that clarity is there so even if you are dancing or doing Garba or Dandia it's all based on Christian worship songs and so that also clearly shows a divide between us as believers and you know the songs that I play during Navratri's mostly movie songs but also songs that are invoking the presence and worshiping the idols that they are attributing their worship to so it's a good time to teach our children that whatever we do whatever fun or entertainment that we do whether it's glorifying God as being glory to God because God is not being glorified there then you know it's not something that we can take part in or be part of and also we know that there are many teenagers during this Navratri time get into a lot of you know harmful and many of them even you know molested or raped and so it's good to also show that part to our children and you know as a protective measure as well I hope that helped John. Oh yes thank you so much Pastor Selena for that yes like you said we would have to explain to them that they are not just doing a fun event in fact partnering themselves with the evil one so obviously that is not something that can be you know encouraged or even allowed and like you also said there is another side to it a dark side to it where there can be dangerous consequences even if they indulge in something like that okay we are all sleeping and also like you said we do have our Indian dance forms and Christians do participate in Indian dance forms but what music are we using it would have to be Christian it is not something it would have to be music that is not dedicated to other gods yes most definitely we would have to keep that in mind so even though we may be participating in Indian dance forms what music is being used what the lyrics are being used strictly forbidden to a believer so yes does that help yes yeah John Paul has posted that yes this is helpful thank you so much any other questions that anyone would like to raise sorry Indra Deepika your internet connection was a little weak in the so we put in tier some of the things you said oh no I was just summing up what you had already said so no I did not add anything new yeah we've in fact I think run out of time so yes we can in fact conclude maybe we can just yeah I think we would need to conclude because it's time but if you have any more questions you know please join in next time and we will address all of those questions thank you thank you so much