 Welcome back everyone to our second lecture on faith. We'll be covering just a few more miscellaneous thoughts and aspects concerning faith, kind of bringing this course to a close. Let me go ahead and share the notes. Alright, lesson number 20. We want to talk a little bit about enemies to strong faith. What are things that we need to guard ourselves against? Things that can actually weaken our faith, their enemies to our faith, and so we need to guard against this. In 1 Timothy 6 and verse 12, Paul told Timothy, he says, Fight the good fight of faith. Fight the good fight of faith. That means if you have to fight, that means you have an enemy or enemies. So fight the good fight of faith, right? So we know one enemy is the devil, of course. But then there are other things that other enemies or things that weaken our faith or try to weaken our faith. And it's good for us to know and know how Satan will try to cripple our faith or use these things to cripple our faith, to weaken our faith, or to make our faith ineffective. So what are some of the enemies to faith? Generally speaking, right? So this is something that affects all of us. We need to be clear or be watchful about this. One is lack of knowledge of God's words. If we don't know the promise of God or the promises of God, then we don't know what we can believe for. So lack of knowledge when people don't know the words, but they don't know what God has promised, then they can't believe. So faith cannot go beyond the knowledge of the word or the knowledge of God himself because your faith is in God. So you need to know God, who he is. Then we can believe God, right? Another enemy or thing that will weaken our faith is failure to understand who we are in Christ. Many people, or let me put it in a positive way, when we know who we are in Christ, then it makes us very bold and strong in faith. Because you know you are accepted by God. You know you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ. You know that you are the righteousness of God. So when we know who we are in Christ, it makes us very bold, very strong in faith. But the other side is also true. People who don't know their identity in Christ, they don't know who they are in Christ, then they are not confident in exercising faith in God. They hesitate or maybe God doesn't want me to do this. God is condemning me, God is judging me. Some people have that kind of a mindset, a traditional mindset of condemnation, guilt, shame and so on and so forth. Instead of basing their mindset on identity in Christ. So that becomes an enemy of faith. Failure, number three, the third bullet point. Failure to understand righteousness, that we are the righteousness of God, that we have been washed by the blood of Jesus. There is no condemnation against us. We have a new heart, new identity. You know, when we don't understand our standing before God, that we can actually ask God with boldness and confidence. In the second corner of this fight, anyone says that we have been made the righteousness of God in him. That's very important. Because you've been made the righteousness of God, you can go and ask God with confidence without any sense of guilt, shame and condemnation. Failure to understand a right to use the name of Jesus. That means when you are asking in the name of Jesus, Jesus gave us the right to use that name. And when you are asking in His name, it means that you are standing in His place, acting on His behalf to do what He wants to do in that situation. So asking in the name of Jesus is something very powerful. And we need to understand that. That when I ask in the name of Jesus, it's not, okay, I'm just simply saying in Jesus' name. No, I am representing Jesus. I'm here to do what Jesus wants me to do. And therefore I'm asking in His name. I am acting on His behalf. That's what it means to ask in the name of Jesus. Some other things that hinder, and this is just a list of things. Sometimes it's a lack of a clear goal. Remember, one of the things we said, if you want to exercise strong faith, number one, you have to have a clear goal. You have to have a clear, desired goal. This is what I want to see happen. Sometimes people don't know, oh God, just give me anything. God just bless me. Okay, God bless you with what? Bless you with more clothes or bless you with more money or bless you with what? So when you say God bless me, what is it? Where do you want the blessing of God? Do you want more souls to be saved? Do you want more lives to be touched? What is it that you really want? So have a clear goal. Other things like worry, fear and doubt. So worry, fear and doubt. These things destroy faith. Remember when we have faith, we can walk in peace, joy and calmness. Assurance. But then these opposite things of fear, worry, doubt, they come to weaken our faith. So you're having faith in God and then if you are fearful about that situation, about that thing or worrying or doubting, you need to keep those things out. They will come. They will want to occupy our minds. Fear, doubt and worry will want to come and say, trouble us. So no fear, no worry, no doubt. I refuse to accept these things in Malay. I want to protect my faith in God. So guard yourself against fear, worry and doubt. Another point here is mental essence. That means mentally we say yes, but we don't have faith in our hearts. Everybody's saying this, I'll also say it, but you don't really believe it. So then that's a problem because you think we believe mentally, but you really believe in your heart, faith is of the heart. So it's not enough just to mentally say yes to something. I really believe it in my heart. I believe what Christ did on the cross. So if you really believe that Jesus on the cross defeated the enemy, then we'll not be afraid of devils and demons, devils and demons. Because you know it in your heart, a Satan is defeated. Every evil spirit is defeated. You can face those bullies. But if you're just saying in our mind, yeah, yeah, Jesus won the victory on the cross. Hallelujah. Our blood of Jesus is powerful. Just in the mind, we're just saying it, but you don't really believe it. The moment you see a demon possess man, you'll run. Afraid. Why are you afraid? You were just saying there is power, there is power, there is power, wonder, working power in the blood of the lamb. Next time, next thing, after finishing the song, you see one demon possess man, you're afraid. That means you're singing the song just from your head, not from your heart. If you really believe there is power, underworking power in the blood, demon possess man, you'll stand boldly in front. We'll see what you can do because I'm covered by the blood. You really believe it in your heart. So that's the difference. Sometimes a lot of things we say out of the top of our head, we don't believe it in the bottom of our hearts. So that's something we have to be careful about. Sometimes people are just lazy to act on the word. They're lazy to take time to read the word, to believe the promise and to act on it. That takes effort. It takes time. You go to the word of God. You meditate on the promise of God and say, God, that promise is for me. I believe it. They're lazy to do that. They don't want to do that. So then what happens? You can't have faith. Because faith comes from hearing the words. You need to take time to be in the word. You need to take time to meditate in the word. You need to take time to put that word in your heart. And if you're not willing to do that and lazy to do that, then forget it. We can't have faith. I think this is a big problem in today's church because today's church maybe is just too lazy or too busy with other things. So we don't have the time to build our faith. We don't have the time to take the promises of God and go before God and say, God, this is what you said. I want to see it happen. We don't have the time to do that. So we are really not exercising faith. We are busy with church. We are busy with activity. But very little faith. Real faith. So that's a big problem in the church. Sometimes it's wrong motivation, wrong attitudes. We are not motivated or not motivated for the right things. And so we're not in a place of faith, living in sin or unrighteousness, having guilt, shame, condemnation, a poverty mentality, a contour. Let me show you a negative mentality that hinders our faith. So we need to stay positive in our mind. And lastly, we mentioned a failure to hold fast to our confession of faith. This is what God said. So I'm holding on to it. When you let go of that, it also weakens our faith. Now, our faith will be tested. Like we saw earlier, sometimes faith will fail in moments of testing. But what do you do? You bring it back up. Doesn't matter if in a moment of testing, you didn't express faith. It's okay. Just say, repent of that. Just say, God, I'm sorry. At that moment, I didn't hold on to your word. At that moment, I didn't keep my eyes on your word. I was weak in faith and you get back up. Peter, in his moment of testing, he denied Jesus. But Jesus brought him back up. He said, come on, Peter. Even though he had denied Jesus three times, go, Peter. Go do the work. So there may be times when our faith would fail, but we need to get back up and then be a blessing to others. So just be mindful of these things. The most important thing is to guard your heart and your mind against these things. Don't let these things come in and destroy your faith or weaken your faith. You know, guard yourself against this. These are what we refer to as enemies of faith. Any questions on this before we go forward? Yes, Ren, go to the mic. In Matthew 15, it talks about this canonized woman who comes to Jesus for her daughter's healing. I mean, she just had this sixth point of having a clear, desired goal. Right? Yeah. But she did not have the knowledge of God. Neither did she understand the other's identity. And then Jesus said that she has such great faith. So how come? So why are you telling us all these things? Okay, so Ren's question is, in Matthew 15, there was this canonized woman and she came to Jesus for healing for her daughter. And Jesus tells her, you have a woman. You are of great faith. Matthew 15, 28, great is your faith. Be it to you according as you will. So Ren's question is, this woman didn't know about her righteousness, about her identity in Christ. She didn't know about all these other things that we have listed here. She had a goal. Her goal was, my daughter has to be healed. So how come she had great faith? That's a valid question. But think about the situation at that time. This was before the cross. Right? So at that time, Jesus was there in person. So it really boosted faith, meaning you saw Jesus. Example, if we see Jesus right here today, our faith will go like really, I mean, you're seeing Him. You're seeing the person. Plus, she would have heard about all the other many miracles Jesus was doing. And that's what really inspired her faith, right? She would have heard how Jesus was healing all these other people. So many multitudes were coming to Jesus and people were being healed. So she would have heard all of that. Maybe she would have even seen from far. Oh, okay, let me, I know that man. He came to Jesus, oh, he got healed. Maybe she would have also seen those miracles from a distance, watching what's happening. So all of that would have built up her faith to the place where she says, okay, I will go. I know I'm not a Jew. I know I don't belong to that same group of people. But hey, I'll go. I believe in Him. I believe in what He's doing. I'll go and get my miracle. And for her, it was very clear she wanted her daughter to be here. So what I'm saying is for the way her faith was built up was she saw the miracles and she also probably heard of many of the miracles Jesus did, right? It is true. All these other things that we've said, right? Now today we are on the other side of the cross. Jesus is not in person. But we've been given the word and the Bible is telling us faith comes by hearing the word. So that's what we have to build up our faith in this manner. Right? We don't have that same, we're not in the same position as this Kenanite woman. We are on the other side of the cross. We are the Word of God. We are the Holy Spirit, our teacher. And so we build our faith with the revelation the Holy Spirit is given to the church and then we operate from that. But the essentials are the same, meaning we have to get rid of fear and worry and doubt. We get rid of those things. I'm sure this woman also may have had to deal with something. Say, maybe you can just imagine her thought process, meaning she would have said, hey, I'm not a Jew. Can I go? You know, okay, only Jews are going. Then in her mind she says, okay, doesn't matter. I'll just go. I will still ask. He seems to be, you know, a good person. So she would have had her own things to work through mentally, you know, and yet she went to Jesus in faith and she received pressure. Okay. Let me see if there are any questions on the online class. Okay. Next list. Okay. We have some questions from our online class. When things, Deepika's question, when things get tough, waiting gets harder. It's like a wave. Most of the days rest in faith, but some days very disappointed. Does it mean being in this wave or ups and downs of it? Is it a lack of faith, emotion-based faith, or is it normal? So Deepika, remember, faith and feelings are two different things. Faith is of the heart. Feelings or emotions is part of our soul, our mind. So we can have firm faith and yet our feelings can go up and down in our emotions. Sometimes you feel, oh, excited. Sometimes you feel a little down or you feel like, especially when things around us are going up, circumstances are changing. So the answer to your question is don't confuse faith and feelings. Faith is of the heart. Feelings are of the mind. Feelings can come and go. But as long as your faith is, Lord, I still believe. I believe your word. Your word is true. What's happening? Your faith is firm. Your faith is strong. And you don't let feelings dictate your faith. You let the word of God determine your faith. So these two are two separate things. Feelings will come and go. But your faith can be steady and firm in the word of God. 1 Corinthians 2.5, that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Chai says, please explain this verse. Yeah. So Chai, when you want to understand 1 Corinthians 2.5, we look at the background. So Paul is building up chapter 1, chapter 2. In chapter 2, the early part of the verse, he says, in chapter 1, let me put it like this, in chapter 1 verse 18 onwards, he's talking about the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man. He's saying, he's talking about Christ, the preaching of the cross as being the wisdom of God. Chapter 1 verse 18 on verse 20, 21. And then he comes into chapter 2 and he says, you know, the wise people of this world, you know, they, if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And he goes on in that. So the preceding verse was Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4. Paul says, and our preaching and our teaching was not in the excellency of human wisdom or words, but in demonstration of the Spirit of power. Then he says in verse 5, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So essentially what Paul is saying is when he brought the gospel to the people at Corrin, he did not come with great preaching skills. He didn't come with human wisdom. Of course he came with the wisdom of God. He explains that, that the gospel is the wisdom of God and the power of God. That's chapter 1. So he came in the wisdom of God, but he didn't come in human wisdom. That means with great skills or great human understanding, but he came in the power of the Spirit so that people would put their faith in the power of God, what God can do. So we should not exclude the wisdom of God because he continues. This is however we speak wisdom among those who are mature. That means we do welcome and receive the wisdom of God, but what Paul is saying is we don't depend on the wisdom of man. Our faith is in the power of God, what God can do. That's what he's saying in the context. Understand it in the context of chapter 1 and chapter 2. Do you have anything specific on that you want to ask? So we're going to go to our last lesson, which is the perimeters of faith. The perimeters of faith. That means there are boundaries within which we have to exercise faith. There are some things you can't do with faith. So God has given us faith to walk by faith, to live this Christian life by faith, like we said, to receive from God, to believe, receive and so on. But there are perimeters of boundaries to faith. What are the boundaries to faith? Number one, faith cannot override the sovereignty of God. That means there are some things God has planned to do. We can't change that. Example, Jesus Christ is going to come again. You can't have faith and say, Jesus Christ, you will not come. He's going to come. Whether you have faith or not, He will come. Whatever you say, Jesus is coming back. And all the other things that God has planned, which we see in the book of Revelation, all those things, what God has planned will happen. Whether you and I have faith or not, we can't change it. Number two, related to that, faith cannot oppose God's plan for the human race. But God has planned for the human race. It's going to happen. We can't change the plan of God. You can't change that. Number three, faith cannot violate God's written words. So if God has given us something in the Word of God, in His written word, we live by that. We can't violate the written word of God. You stay aligned. We stay aligned to the written word of God. So we don't violate the written word of God. Number four, faith cannot control or manipulate another person's will. I can't use my faith and control somebody else. I say in faith that he will walk on his knees. No. I cannot control somebody else. I cannot control somebody else. Okay. Number five, faith cannot force a gift or work of God into a heart of unbelief. That means I cannot force something into somebody else. I cannot say, I command in Jesus' name, he will be saved. No. I can pray for his salvation. I can pray that God will open his eyes and all of that. But that person has to make the decision to believe in Jesus Christ. Right? So we cannot force somebody to receive something. Right? So we cannot force another person's will. We cannot force a gift or a work of God into somebody else. For example, if somebody doesn't want to be healed, we can't force them to get healed. Faith doesn't want to receive the Holy Spirit. We cannot force them to receive the Holy Spirit. Come forth, gift. And even God respects their own will. Right? So we must also understand that. So faith is not mind over matter. It's not mental gymnastics. But faith is a way of life. We live by faith. Okay? So we live by faith. So within the boundaries that God has given to us, we must learn to exercise our faith in God. Okay? So we'll come here in this course. We'll do this. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to work on creating an assessment, creating three assessments for you that will cover chapter 1 to 21. Okay? And I will put in the classroom. You will have to go on the classroom to do your exam. Okay? So three assessments. It will be on Google Classroom. All of you in person and online will do the same exam. It's an open book exam, but don't copy. The only thing you cannot do is copy from somebody else. You can copy from your notes. Copy from somebody else. Don't copy from somebody else. That's the only thing you're not allowed to do. So you have to work on your own. But it's an open book exam. It will be like a revision of all the 21 chapters. So starting from chapter 1, the purpose of the assessment is to revise everything. Okay? So you can keep your book in front of you, keep your Bible in front of you. Go through it, answer. Go through it, answer. You can do that. But don't ask somebody else, hey, what was the answer? That you must not do. Okay? You can do it at your own pace. I mean, anytime you want to do, between now and the next. So I will let Diana know when your exam, I mean, when I will put it up. I'll put the assessments up. Three assessments. 30 marks, 30 marks, 40 marks. 30, 30, 40. Okay? Okay? Open book exam, multiple choice. And you can, you have till the end of where to finish it. Okay. Sohan, you have a question? Okay, one minute. Sohan, you have a question? Or I'll just take this. Okay, maybe it's typing. What's your question? Relating to the definition of faith. Yes. Chapter 1. He views chapter 11, verse 1. Faith is a substance of things. Things, nothing. So we should have faith for things. Things hope for. Yes. Yes. Things. Okay. But we have, but I mean, the, like. You don't like things? No, master. I'm saying like, we have to have faith for healing, faith for other things. Not things, faith for healing, faith for protection. See, it's things hoped for, things that you desire. Yeah. But it's things, right? Yeah. So healing. Healing is not a thing, right? It's not a thing, but it's a thing that's desired. So peace, joy. Physical things, but there are things desired, things maybe in the emotional. So you see Ephesians 1, 3. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. What does that mean? It doesn't mean only blessings that are spiritual in nature. It means every blessing that comes from God who is spirit. Okay. God is spirit. That's why whatever he gives is spiritual, but he blesses us physically, emotionally, materially, every, everything, everything, because he created everything and he created the natural. He created physical, he created our physical body. He created every part of us. So spiritual blessing doesn't mean only, you know, what we think as spiritual blessing, but it's everything that comes from God who is spirit. It addresses all areas of life. So faith in God can be for anything and everything that comes from God. Is God the giver of healing? Yeah. Is God the giver of provision? Yeah. Is God the giver of joy? Yeah. Is God the miracle worker? Yeah. So we can have faith for whatever comes from God. Things desired. What is your problem? Okay. Sean has a question. I can't hear what the assignment is. Sean, the assignment is assessments that will be posted, that will be posted on Google Classroom. That means the exam, it's a three-part exam, three-part assessment. It'll be on Google Classroom. Okay. It is something you haven't seen yet because I haven't created an assessment in the faith course, but you may have had seen it in other courses. But it'll be questions, multiple-choice questions. They'll be there in Google Classroom. What I was saying was all the in-person students will also have to do their exam in Google Classroom along with all the online students. So everybody does the same exam in Google Classroom. It'll be three assessments, 30 marks, 30 marks, 40 marks. And you will answer it in Google Classroom. Everybody will answer it in Google Classroom. What I was saying is it's an open book exam, but please don't, you must not discuss with each other. Right? You have to work on it independently. All right? So you'll have to log into this particular course in Google Classroom. You can ask Diana Ma'am to show you how to do it. And chicken to your exam. Okay? Sean, is that clear? Or maybe when you come into class, one of these guys will show you. Okay? But you have to do your exam on your own. You're asking. Okay? So what I was also saying is the assessments are intended as a revision of the whole course. So we'll start from chapter one until chapter 21. We'll take you through course by chapter by chapter. You read the chapter, you answer the question. Okay? It's meant to be. And then, of course, get smart, get your grades. So I'm going to close this course. The main thing I want us all to learn is how to exercise faith in God. If I want to say, okay, this is the main thing I want you to take away. It is how to exercise faith in God. So review the steps of faith. That's the main thing. So we said have a desired goal. You must be clear. Get the promise of God on that. Meditate. Faith comes from hearing. Meditate on the word. And then you begin to speak your faith. You begin to act your faith. You begin to praise God for the blessing even before it happens. And it remains firm in your faith. There is endurance of faith. Be patient in faith. Declaring, standing firm in faith. You don't give up. So this is how you exercise faith. So I want us to understand that's the main thing. And then use it in your life. Use it in your life for any and every promise of God in your life. Use it. So I see another question from Sean. Until when you will have to complete the exam the last day of this semester, which is Friday, November 26th, I think it is, the last Friday of November. So till the end of the semester, you'll have to complete it. So it's a lot of time. Nothing to worry about. I should post it later this week. But I'll inform DynamM. You'll all get a notification as well through email. You'll have plenty of time. Don't worry. You can use the lecture hours next week or the following week to do your assessments. So it's not going to take additional time. You can use the lecture hours. If you want next week, Tuesday, you can sit into your exam, but separately. There are only two computers. Yes, friends. I'm sorry. So I'm going to make the exam very tricky. Every question. So this is the problem with the exam. It will have more than one right answer. Okay. So it's not like, okay, you take only one. There'll be four options or five options. So the question, four options. In four options, maybe three are correct. You have to select all the three. If you select only one, that's correct. You have not answered correctly. So you have to do very carefully. So it's easy in the sense, just check, check, check. But it's tricky in the sense you have to read it carefully. Okay. I'm sorry. Yes. Yes. It'll be autocorrected. The answer was wrong. So maybe whoever sets it up, sets it up wrong. But I won't set it up wrong. I'll set it up right. Okay. So I don't know about what happened. I don't know which course that is. It is, it'll be automatically graded. So you'll get your grades right away. It's all, it's all how you set it up. Right. So I have to tell the computer these are the right answers. So I'll tell them correctly. Sort of. Yes. Yeah. So you have to answer all the correct ones. So you have to read it carefully because out of four, three could be right. You have to select all three or maybe two are right. You have to select all two, both. So you have to read them correctly. You have to think in answer. Okay. Okay. Any questions from online students about the assessment? Okay. Yes. Yes. All multiple choice questions. So you don't have to type out long answers. You just have to check the boxes or select from the dropdown. Don't worry. I will set it up properly. So they won't be if by chance the system marks you wrong, which I don't, it will never happen because it's, it's automated. If there's anything wrong, you can tell me and we will look at it. Okay. But it won't happen. Yes. Yeah. We will, I will pause here. I'm not, you know, I'm not covering the other parts of presumptions on. So we'll pause here for this. Okay. You can take some time to read that if you wish. This is good enough for the course. Okay. Okay. Online, online students. Any questions? All right. So I'd encourage all of us. Please review lesson one to 21. Just go through everything. Main thing is learn how to exercise faith. So everything, you know, it's like it's, it's wanted to give you a complete understanding of faith. But most important is how should you exercise faith in God? So review that part. Very important. You need to practice that in your life. Okay. This is how I must exercise faith. So take this review, you know, these 21 lessons and begin to apply to your life, make it part of your life. And you have to live like this for the rest of your life. Okay. This is how you always exercise faith in God. Right. So I'm going to pray and we're going to close. This week, most likely tomorrow I'll work on the assessments, put it up, and then you can work on it next week. So there won't be any lectures next week on. You can use your lecture hours to do your exams. Okay. Or anytime. You can do it anytime. It'll always be there. But before 21st, before 26th, the last Friday of November. Let's pray and let's close. Father, we thank you for all our students who are in person who are attending online. Thank you that we could journey through this course, lesson by lesson and talk and discuss and learn. And Father, I pray that our eyes, our hearts will be open to understanding, learning about faith and how to walk in faith. And God, even as we review, I pray that these insights will take deep root in our hearts and that each one of us will learn to walk by faith in God, how to exercise faith and maybe be able to apply these things in our lives as we journey day by day with you. I pray for those who are exercising their faith for miracles, healings, deliverances in their lives. I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, let them see their work of faith fulfilled by your power. May they see the power of God come into operation, giving them the end result, their desired result for their faith. God, the miracle, the healing, the deliverance, the answer to prayer, the change in their situation, the change in their circumstance, the touching of their loved ones. God, the birthing of ministries, the accomplishing of goals, whatever it is each one is extending their faith for. Today in the name of Jesus, I pray that by the power of God they will see the outcome. They will see the desired result taking place in their lives, Father, because you called us to walk by faith and your word tells us that you fulfill our faith with your power. You fulfill it, Lord. Let the miraculous power of God bring that result in. We thank you for doing that for each one of us, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Thank you, everyone, for being part of this course. Please look out for the assessments. You'll have plenty of time to do it. Please do it. And, yeah, look forward to having you join another course next semester. Thank you so much, each one. God bless. Bye now.