 Let's continue with what we have been talking about, the cities and how God has a heart for the cities. We will first pray and then we will get into the discussion. I would just like to request someone to lead us in a word of prayer. Anyone? Precious Lord, we thank you for this time. We humble ourselves once again before your presence. Lord, we pray, open our eyes of understanding when you know more of your word, more of your mysteries of your word of God. Help us, Nancy, to share your word with boldness and speak to us tenderly, Lord. Help us to follow your word. Help us to live after the revelation that we are receiving, Lord. In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, John. Thank you for that. In the last class, actually, Nicholson had asked a question. I don't know if he's here. If he's not here, then he isn't here. So let me see. Maybe I'll post it on the stream. Basically, he asked about fasting when we pray for the city. So there are examples. There's a time when Ezra called for a fast. And at that time, everyone was fasting, including the animals, because they were seeking God for direction on how to move forward. So as a community, oh, yeah, here is Nikki. Yes. So Nicholson, welcome. I was just answering your question. You had asked if there is an involvement of fasting when we pray for the city. And so the answer is, yes, there are examples. You had people like Ezra calling for a fast when they, as a community, they needed direction and they needed God to really bless them in the work ahead. So we see that. And even in the life of Nehemiah, he's concerned about Jerusalem and he's concerned about the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. But you notice that he is praying and he did not even, sorry, he also engaged in fasting as he was seeking the Lord. So there is an element of fasting which is involved in praying for the city. So I just wanted to add that. Just give me a moment. The chair that I sit on, it keeps going down. I have to pull it up. Sorry for this. Yeah, sorry about that. OK. So there is an element of fasting there. And you asked if there is a transformation that anyone, any city has experienced. Right. So you can look up. There are a lot of articles and videos about this place called Kali in Colombia. Kali in Colombia. And based on the change that this city experienced, there are documentaries as well. I think there is one documentary which is called as Transfer Transformations. OK, you could look it up. It's a nice video to watch. And they talk about how there was a lot of rime in that city. There were murders, drug trafficking, you know, corruption. So things like that. So when such things were going on, the people decided, the Christians, they decided that they are going to start praying for the city. So they started praying and they also held one event, a city-wide event, where they gathered people, they basically invited people from all churches to come. So it's, you can see it in the video. You can see how, you know, so many people come together. They pray, they pray overnight, they worship, they are just seeking the Lord. So the report says something like when the people started praying together, they started seeking God together as a city-wide body. Changes started happening in the city. So the crime rate came down and testimonies like that. And I think the video also carries city transformation testimonies from other places as well. So just have a, yeah, OK, Siddh Kinnu has given us that link. Thank you, Siddh Kinnu. So just have a look at that and that will help us see how it actually works, you know, today. So I hope that is beneficial. Now, let's go on to what we have been discussing. We talked about God having a heart for the city. Now we will proceed from there and see how we can pray for the city and bring about this transformation. Yeah. So. Yesterday, we saw that it's us, you know, God notices the sin of the city and the agents who have to bring a change is us because we are salt and light. OK, and we are the ones who are called to pray for God's kingdom to come. Now, the body of Christ is the one that shifts the balance. Now, how do we shift the balance primarily through prayer, primarily through a spiritual warfare? OK. So when we talk about prayer and spiritual warfare, the Bible paints a picture for us. And that is to say that we as God's people are like watchmen. What do watchmen do? Watchmen, they guard a place. They watch to make sure that only the right people enter and the wrong people are kept out. So the watchmen look out for the city. They look out for the city. Now, scriptures tell us as a 62, 6 and 7 says that we are watchmen. We are watchmen on the walls. So as we pray for the city, what's happening? We are protecting the city. We are guarding the city from the works of the evil one. And we can also continue to proclaim and declare God's blessing upon the city. So we are watchmen and our characteristic is to protect. Our characteristic is to be like a gatekeeper. I already told you the ones who need to come in will come in. But the ones who shouldn't come in, you know, we prevent them from entering. So even through prayer, right in the spiritual realm, now, we may not physically be stopping human beings from coming. That's not what we are talking about. But spiritually, we can allow and disallow you know, the influences, spiritual influences over our city. So we have a great responsibility to take care of our city through prayer. So we're guarding it. We are loving and disloving influences. We are also the maintainers or the people who preserve the city. We are those righteous people who are in the city, who are crying out to God day and night for his mercy and his work to be released upon our city. So this is the responsibility that God has given us. So in a word, you know, in a way, we can say that, you know, Watchmen is one picture, but we're also like the body of Christ is like a shepherd, isn't it? Because what does a shepherd do? A shepherd also takes care of the sheep. He is keen on protecting them from any harm, you know, any attacks. When we pray, we're doing the same thing. We are protecting the city. We are like Watchmen. We're also like shepherds who are protecting the city. And that is the responsibility which God has given us. So we will look more deeply into how we are going to pray. So there are several points actually in our notes today. And I am hoping to touch on all of them and cover them so that we are equipped to pray for the city. So praying for the citywide church, how can we do that most effective way? Now, yesterday we said that as individuals, we can pray. God is looking for one man to stand in the gap and can that shift the balance? It can. And we have seen it. We have seen it in various revivals. I think I gave the example of the Welsh revival, right? Evan Roberts, it was one person. It started, it started with him. But yes, eventually a lot of other people joined in and, you know, the prayer movement started and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened. The revival took place and it also resulted in, if you read the outcomes of the Welsh revival, you will be amazed, OK? Because you see there that the crime rate came down. The the cussing, right? People used to cuss and use bad language. Those kind of things changed. So you read those results in the Welsh revival and that is city transformation. We're talking about touching the city, isn't it? So when people began to pray and it began with one person initially, then again, you know, it went on to covering a lot of other people, brought a lot of other people into the work that God was doing. However, in general, usually or normally, it takes a city-wide church to win a city-wide war. So one person can do it, a few people can do it, but it is better for a large gathering of believers in the city. You know, when God looks at the church in the city, he doesn't look at individual churches. We we see in the book of Revelation, you know, he addresses the church of Ephesus, the church of. So he looks at the city and he addresses the city-wide church. So the city-wide church itself has a large body of believers. When we rise up and when we pray together, that is the most effective way of taking the city through prayer. So a city-wide church is helpful in winning a city-wide war. Now, the example which I gave you from the transformations documentary, people came together from different churches and they prayed for their city and then they talk about the results that they saw. So for us also, we can encourage churches to come together, churches to pray together and that makes a difference. So what are some of the things that we can pray for? We can pray for the spiritual leadership in the city. So that is made up of you will have pastors, you have ministers of God, you have leaders, Christian leaders. And also we can extend it and pray for the families of these people because they are the ones who will lead the work of God in the city. So what can we pray for these people? You know, we pray the things that we pray over leaders. We would pray for God's wisdom. You would pray for, you know, the anointing breaks the yoke. So we can pray a lot. You increase the anointing upon their lives when we have more grace. Right? We are able to do more for the kingdom. So then we pray, Lord, give more grace, Lord, to all of these people. We can pray for good health, good strength. We can pray for, you know, because serving the Lord requires boldness. We can pray for boldness upon the lives of these people. And as they move forward boldly, we can also ask God for his protection upon the lives of these spiritual leaders. So are we praying for one pastor of, you know, some, you know, peace church and then one pastor of Grace Church? No, we are praying for all the pastors, anybody who is in spiritual leadership over the city. You know, the Bible says that it is God who appoints these shepherds. Leadership comes from God. So we will uphold them. We will pray over them. We will bless them. We will ask God to increase them and strengthen them. So that is one thing we can do when we are praying for the city. So pray for all the pastors, all the ministers, all the leaders, no bias in that. If God has chosen people in leadership, let us uphold them. Let us pray for all the pastors, all the leaders in the city, because they have to be strong, they have to be clear on how God is leading them. Then we can pray for the citywide church. Now, everything that we discussed when we talked about praying for the believers, praying for the brethren, praying for the local church, that can come here. So we can pray and we can say, Lord, you said you will build your church and the gates of hell will not prevail again. So that means your church is a powerful church. So let the body of believers in the city arise in the name of Jesus. OK, so we pray for a strong church. We pray for, you know, strength in the church. We pray for the church to be touched by the work of the spirit. So like a revival, God's revival, God's work of the Holy Spirit upon the church. We can pray that, you know, the people will be discipled, that they will be empowered by the word, that they will have an influence over all the spheres of society. So what are we saying? You know, first we prayed for God to strengthen the pastors and the leaders. Now we are praying for a strong, citywide church. Imagine, you know, if the church in the city is shining, all the people are taking their position and wherever God has called them, they are making a difference. It impacts the entire city. So we pray for the believers, we pray for the body of Christ and we pray that, Lord, let them make an impact. Let them be strong, let them make an impact. Now there are some points which are listed here. But additionally, the Holy Spirit might impress you with other specific points. So just feel free. But, you know, I'm giving you some general points that we can begin with. We can also pray that the church in the city be the temple of God. Now, what is a temple? A temple is defined by the God who lives in that temple. So people say, this is this God's temple, that God's temple. But we know that we as the spiritual body of Christ, we are the temple of God. Paul says, don't you know you are the temple and your body is a temple of God? So that body is applicable in our physical body, but we're also the family of God or the body of Christ. So as a body of Christ, we are the temple of God. So when we call ourselves temple, what defines a temple, the God who lives in the temple? God must dwell in us. That is what makes us a temple. If God doesn't dwell, how good is it for us to be just a gathering or a building? But God is not there. That doesn't help. But we pray that God, you fill the body of believers, make us your temple, be here in our midst to God. And then we will reflect your glory. Because if God's presence is in the temple, what can we see? We can see the glory of God with the presence of God comes the glory of God. So in the city, that's what we want. We want God to be seen. We want God's glory to be revealed and it is only revealed where God dwells. So when we pray for the city, when we pray for the city-wide church, when we pray for the churches in the city, let us pray that and say, God, you come, you dwell, you reveal your glory in our midst. And that will make an impact on our city. Okay. Then we can go ahead and we can pray that there will be a manifestation of God's glory in various ways. How does God's glory manifest? We see, you know, Jesus, the first time he does a miracle in John chapter two, when he turns water into wine, we read, he manifested his glory. So the manifestation of God's glory is through signs, wonders, miracles, healings, deliverances, you know, and the work of the spirit. It can also be through, you know, you release a prophetic word, a manifestation of the spirit because the gifts of the spirit are a manifestation of the spirit. So in all these ways and also, you know, the goodness of God, some social action that we engage in, but in the name of Jesus, you know, not just for doing good works, but in the name of Jesus, for the glory of Jesus, all these things manifest the glory of God. So we can pray God in our city, let the church arise, you know, let the body of believers be strong, you know, let them, let them do the works of God, let those works be seen. These are the prayers that we pray for the city-wide church. And one church being strong in all these ways, it is helpful. But when we are looking for a city-wide impact, we have to pray for the city-wide church. Okay. Moving on. We can also confess and repent on behalf of the city. God says, right, in 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people were called by my name, if they would humble themselves, what is humble ourselves? It's basically repentance. It's going before God and acknowledging the wrong which we have done. And we say, okay, God, you know, you pour out your presence on us. You know, we turn from our wicked ways, oh God. So we repent, we repent of our sins, but here is the other thing, you know, we can also identify with the sins of the people. And we can say that, you know, on their behalf, like you cry on their behalf or you feel the burden of sin on their behalf. So when I say, God, forgive me, forgive me for this sin in my nation. It may not mean that I have done that crime. You know, suppose I'm crying out to God and saying, you know, God, all the all the murders that are going on, all the child molestations that are going on. Lord, I repent on behalf of my people. You're a representative. Have you committed the sin? No, but this is the principle of identification where on behalf of the city, we can cry, we can repent, we can confess. OK, we can say sorry to God. And that is a biblical principle, actually, like you can identify on behalf of the sinner and repent on behalf of the sinner. OK, that doesn't mean that the sinner does not have to do his own repenting. But you understand what I mean in intercession, you know, this is the possibility we can pray by identifying the sins of the people. So this is also a manner in which we can engage in prayer. Now, it is possible that there are certain sins that have been committed in cities. OK, we read this in the Bible, where you had things like the first one was was sacrificed, which was not at all something that pleased God. You know, evil things were done in cities to protect the city, to bless the city. So there could be certain sins that were committed in the city and the Holy Spirit can lead us to repent on behalf of those sins. Now, let's take, for example, if the sin of our city is corruption. OK, and we as God's children, we are praying against that. We are saying God, you know, there shouldn't be hoarding of money. There shouldn't be injustice by extortion of money and things like that. But we can also engage in act of repentance. What are some of those acts of repentance? Now, we might be the people who say, you know, like Zacchaeus, when he came to know that I made a mistake, I should not have taken money four times. He gives back. OK, and that's his act of repentance. So we can also we know that there is a demonic influence of corruption over our city. So how do we go against it? We are praying, we're engaging in spiritual warfare, but spiritual warfare can also be in action. So if there's a lot of corruption, I engage in, you know, the right way of handling money. I am generous with my money. OK, so whatever is happening in the city through the demonic influences, we go opposite to that. If there's no honor, let's say, just example, I'm giving you. Let's say women are not being honored. There's a lot of disrespect, you know, women are not being honored. And that's the spiritual atmosphere of the city. As a church, when we engage in acts of of repentance, that there could be things here. It's mentioned as reconciliation ceremonies or it can just be an act where as a body of believers, we respect women, right? So then you're going against the spiritual influence in that particular place. OK, so I was saying we engage in actions which are opposite to the wrong spiritual influence. So they can also be, let's say, some kind of I've heard this, in fact, one of the pastors in our pastors meetings shared that in his city, there was conflict among the communities. They were not willing to talk. They were not willing to see eye to eye. So at that point, it was a Christian person who went and he mediated, right? He mediated and he tried to bring in reconciliation. And what are some ceremonies of reconciliation? Maybe we may want to honor somebody who has been put down unjustly, right? So you engage in an act like that. So when you say ceremonies, it's basically like an act that you engage in where you are countering the evil that has been done so far or the evil you know, that that has remained in the culture till now. So when we engage in an act like that, that's also a spiritual warfare act where you're breaking what has happened till now. You're changing it and there is a shift in the spiritual atmosphere. So that reconciliation, I remember that pastor saying that when he went in and, you know, he, together with some of the other Christian brothers, they went and they did this whole thing of apologizing, sorry, all that. The reconciliation slowly came because what they did did not happen through anyone else till that time. So these are all the ways in which we can change the spiritual atmosphere. One is prayer, you know, in a spiritual way, but also action. We can engage in certain actions which are opposite to the spiritual atmosphere, right? So let's say there's a lot of complaining, there's a lot of accusation, you know, bad language in our culture, in the city. We go opposite. We speak blessing. We worship, we praise, you know, we do things like that. You do an opposite action as led by the spirit of God. And that also breaks the strongholds in the city. So in that way, we can pray for the city, confess and repent on behalf of the city. Then we can pray for God's visitation. What is God's visitation? See, basically we are saying Holy Spirit come, OK, move upon us. You know, the work of the spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment. So we are saying, you come, Lord, you work in the hearts of the people, you bring them to a point of decision. And earlier we talked about how the Father draws people to Himself. So we say, God, you know, you draw the people to yourself. So we're asking for that sovereign work of God, the work of the spirit, the work of the Father. And you know, we pray, Lord, bring these people to repentance, help them, Lord, to awaken to the knowledge of God so that they can escape whatever the enemy is doing. The way is corrupting the world, the way is corrupting the lives of the people that people can actually escape it and they can be saved. So, you know, we begin to pray these things, we begin to pray that the gospel. We know that the gospel is the light which shines on the lives of the people. So we can pray, Lord, let your gospel penetrate. You bring that wisdom and revelation so that people can accept what you have done. They can understand the work of the cross. They can understand that Jesus is the Son of God. So, you know, these are prayers we can pray over our city. We can also ask God to send forth laborers, you know, because we will need many laborers. Even Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, so we can say God. And he said, pray to the God of the harvest. So, our God is a God of the harvest. If we pray to him and say, God, you send laborers, then what can God do? God will send men and women to touch the lives of the people. And, you know, he can do it in amazing ways. So we can do that, right? We can pray and we can ask God to send more people who are serving him, who will share the gospel and do the work of God in the city. We can also ask God for supernatural encounters. We've talked about these things, actually, when we prayed for those who are lost. And we can say, God, you know, let there be a release of angels, let angels go and minister, let's pray. We can pray that God gives people dreams, visions, you know, in supernatural ways. I'm sure, you know, many of you have heard that in some of the cultures where they're not accepting of Christ, a lot of people have testified of having dreams, right? Having dreams, even in closed places where there's a lot of persecution and people are not able to enter to take the gospel. There are testimonies that have come in where people have just had dreams of Jesus and they've given their lives to Christ. So we can also pray and we can say, God, in supernatural ways, Lord, you minister to the people, let them have divine visitations. The way Paul on the road to Damascus, God encountered him and his life changed. So as we pray, these things can take place. So we can begin to pray and ask God for a spiritual, for a mighty visitation. Now, I told us earlier that one thing is to pray. The other thing is to go against the works of the devil. So spiritual warfare, what are the things that we can focus on when it comes to spiritual warfare in the city? We can exercise our authority against demonic powers. We can exercise our authority against demonic powers. How to do that? You know, some of the ways in which we can exercise spiritual authority is, one, we can declare the power of cross. OK, we can declare the value of what Jesus has done on the cross. The Satan never likes it. You know, the cross is one thing he hates. He does not want us to talk about the cross. He does not want us to reflect on the cross because it is a picture of victory over the devil. He doesn't like it. So that is the first thing we can engage in. We can declare the finished work of the cross. You know, the defeat of the enemy. We can declare the blessings that have come through the cross. We can declare how we are saved. Salvation was bought through the cross. We are redeemed. This is the reality. What is on the basis of the cross? So much has taken place so we can begin to declare the victory of the cross. And that is part of spiritual warfare over the city. So engage in declaring the work, the finished work of the cross over the city. And we can declare that, you know, this is the victory. And therefore, the enemy is defeated. Then we can also very specifically identify the strongholds over the region. OK, this would come under spiritual mapping. I don't know if we spoke about it earlier, but in a simple sense, spiritual mapping is you look at a region, you look at the spiritual negative influences, OK, and basically you identify, like, for example, in the city of Ephesus as a goddess Diana, OK, and there was a lot of influence because of that goddess over the city. So that stronghold had to be broken. Similarly, over cities, there can be some demonic strongholds, there can be the worship of some god, goddess, or it can also be strongholds of injustice, alcoholism, I think I touched on that earlier. So things like that. So when we pray and we do the mapping, we can identify over this region. This is the spiritual stronghold that there are a lot of people who are, you know, engaging in sexual immorality because there is a stronghold of, you know, the spirit of lust, something like that. So when we identify those specific demonic influences, we can engage in pulling down those strongholds, right? We come against them, the prevailing strongholds and we tear them down. We proclaim how do we tear them down? Basically, again, you know, one of the best ways is to submit to God. So we exalt God, we worship God, we honor God, we speak the truth of His word, we speak what the cross has done, we declare the power of the blood. You know, these are the things that we engage in and together with that, you know, we take authority, we bind the works of the enemy over that land. OK, and, you know, we with our declaration we declare things null and void in Jesus' name. We declare the presence of God over the city. So as we're doing all these things, we're binding, we're casting out. It's really war that is going on and a transformation is coming through. So we can identify these specifics, specific strongholds and go against them. And we can also, you know, engage if there are, let's say, individuals, OK, who are affected by these demonic influences, we can also pray over them and set them free. So in many instances, like in Samaria, if you see there was a sorcerer by the name of Simon, OK, and that was the stronghold in the city. So the moment, you know, the message came to him, Philip preached and the sorcerer gave his life to Christ. OK, so things turned around. So similarly, like later you see in Paphos, there was one other sorcerer, Elimus, he was not letting the word of God penetrate the heart of one of the council leaders, but the moment Paul addressed that the leader was able to see the gospel. So these strongholds, it could also be working through individuals. And, you know, sometimes when we cast out these specific demonic spirits, there was a demon spirit in a girl in the city of Philippi, OK, and she was she had a spirit of divination going around doing fortune, telling and all. But when Paul and Barnabas, like they cast out that not Paul and Barnabas, yeah, no Barnabas in this. But Paul, he cast out that spirit. What happens is that girl is set free, OK, and we read that there are people who saw what happened. And there was like a freedom, right, which came from casting out those specific spirits that were working through individuals. So that is also a way of engaging in spiritual warfare. So we bring the freedom of God, basically, by breaking those strongholds, by casting out those demons and going against the enemy. So engage in spiritual warfare. So we pray for for God to work in the city. And we also go against the enemy. Now, we can pray for other things that the scriptures teach us to do for the city. We can also pray for the peace of the city, OK, Jeremiah 29, 7, we have seen that God has called us to pray for peace in the city. Now, for most of us, you know, we get upset that things are not going well, leaders are not leading well. But you see, there is a spiritual authority which you and I can exercise over the city. And instead of being those complainers, how about we exercise our positive spiritual authority by blessing the land and speaking peace over the land so we can pray for peace. In the city, we can also pray. The Bible calls us to pray for those who are in authority. So we may have, you know, members of parliament, members of legislative assembly. We have, you know, other influential leaders. We have people in positions. They're handling different aspects concerning the city. What is the word of God? Tell us in first Timothy two versus three and four, we are called to pray for civil authority. So instead of, you know, condemning them, putting them down, the responsibility of the churches, we pray, we pray that God, you know, you give them the wisdom, you lead them, you strengthen them, Lord, you bless them, right? So when we pray, what happens? So we are committing them into God's hands and God can lead them with his divine influence and things can turn around. So let us pray for our leaders. That is something we can do for our city. We can also pray for peace in the city. So again, you know, we are taught Paul wrote with Timothy. First Timothy two versus one through three, there he says that we can ask we can pray that let there be peace for our own peace. We have to pray, right? So we pray for peace in the city. There can be a lot of rival communities living there. And yet, you know, we can say, God, let your peace, rule and reign in our city. Let your peace, rule and reign in our community. So that way, what we're saying is, God, remove any strife, hatred, rivalry, you know, ill will and all of those things, Father, that may exist. And in the place of those things, Lord, Father, we release, O God, for we release your peace. And, you know, we maybe for this kind of a work to get done, what we said earlier, repentance also comes into the picture. What if, you know, you are the community that has been harmed or you are the community that has been hurt by others? One of the things which is required is the act of forgiveness. So we can first release forgiveness. We can first release those past hurts and say, God, we release these things. You know, we cannot change what has happened in the past, but we know that you can bless, you can bring peace amidst, you know, X, Y, Z communities that live here. So we want to be a channel of blessing. So in that way, we can begin to pray for peace among communities in a given place. We can also pray for various causes. And when we read the word of God, you know, there is God upholds causes. He upholds justice. Righteousness and justice, right? That's what the throne of God is based on. So God is an upholder of the truth and justice. So various causes are there, depending on our city. And we can pick each one of them up and we can pray for them. Some are listed here. So your notes here says pray for the poor and homeless. We know that God cares for them. So based on God's word, we can pray for those who are in need. They don't have homes. They don't have facilities so we can pray and we can also pray. God caused the government to come up with policies or God to bless those who are poor in our city. So press like this. We can pray. So whatever God upholds, we can pray for those things. We could pray for marriages in our city. We could pray for families. We could pray for, you know, safety of homes. We can pray for children that that they be influenced by good things. And the negative influences that the enemy is bringing through the Internet, through, you know, all kinds of other channels that those things would be stopped in the name of Jesus. We can pray for young people. Obviously, there'll be a lot of universities and colleges in most of the regions and the influence over their lives. We can pray and we can say, God, awaken them to the truth of your word. Let them not get sucked into, you know, evil practices, sins that are going to destroy their life. But Lord, awaken them to righteousness, awaken them to justice so we can pray for things like that. So children, young people, we can also pray for safety in the city. Right. God's protection. We can pray for the crime rate to go down. Now, we may want to be very specific about the crime rate. Remember, we said in that state of Kali, city of Kali, there was trafficking, murder. You know, those those were some of the crimes that people were dealing with. So maybe God points us to some specific things that are going on. And we want to cry out to God and say, God, these things are going on. And we speak a stop to that in the name of Jesus. So we can pray against the crimes that are taking place and ask them to seize in Jesus mighty name. So just going back to the Belch revival, it's amazing. You know, sometimes when you read about these revivals, one of the outcomes was the crime rate went down and it went down so steeply that it is said that the police didn't have any work. Every evening, people would gather for these spiritual meetings held by Evan Roberts and the team. So the whole city would be moving in the direction of the crusade or, you know, whatever you want to call it, like that large gathering where it's taking place. And the crime rate came down so much that the police were out as crowd control. Can you imagine? Because that was one of their primary jobs at that time. They didn't have anything else to do like. So is it possible for crime rate to go down? It can go down. OK, we've seen that happen in cities. So that's something we can pray for. Then we can pray for bondages to be broken. No, we see right. People are addicted. People are addicted to drugs. Sometimes we see people, you know, lying on the roads, addicted to alcohol, they're addicted to some other substance. And it's so sad for us to see these things. But as believers, we know that these are the strongholds of the enemy. He's working on the hearts of young people, on the hearts of, you know, others in our city. So we go against and we pray and we find those, you know, influences in Jesus' name and we will see God's work released upon them. So we can pray that people be set free from bondages. And that is God's heart. We can pray for just some issues here. OK, but, you know, there are so many issues that I can keep listing out. You can make your own list for your city and pray. So you could pray for elderly for their protection, could pray for purity to be established. You know, there was one point I still remember. This was early on. This was when I was in college. That was the first time that in the newspapers, there were certain pages, you know, which had like really, you know, wrong pictures and photographs till that time, we would never get newspapers like that. But it started, you know, those kind of newspapers also started coming. And I remember at that time, one pastor had gone to church and he was asking us to pray and he said, these things have to stop. You know, Satan influences, isn't it? So in that way, there could be some advertisements that can be stuff on the Internet that goes on, you know, trying to get people hooked to sexual impurity. So these things we can pray and we can say, God, you know, we we want to see reverence and purity in our land or God. We we take authority over what Satan is trying to do in the name of Jesus. So, you know, things like that. And I remember praying and after some time, actually those papers did they stop or they became less popular, something happened. But I remember that there was a call for prayer just for that. So we can pray if there's any wrong influence over the city. Then there are issues of corruption, injustice, oppression, bonded laborers in our times, you'll be amazed to see that there are still bonded laborers, right? There is castism, so many things. So all of these things exist around us. And we are God's people here. What about dignity of women? OK, crimes against women. Every day you hear news crimes against small children, right? Abuses. So just so many things that happen in the city that is displeasing to God. So pull out all those things and pray, right, for God to intervene in those situations. And also, we can engage in. There's a last section here, which says engage in ground level spiritual warfare, ground level spiritual warfare is what I already told us to exercise the power of God through our lives. So when I'm exercising the power of God through my life, I release people from bondage the way Peter, he ministered to Simon the sorcerer, Paul, right? He ministered to that, like he went against Elimus, the sorcerer. So, you know, basically, if you come across something where you have to release the power of God, you have to cast out a spirit, you have to bind the spirit, that's called as ground level spiritual warfare. So we engage in things like that. And we are able to see a freedom in our state. So these are all the points that I wanted to touch on today. I know it's a lot, but it'll be good if you can just go back and review the notes one more time. And that will really help us. But I'm just leaving this time open. Any thoughts, any questions, anything you're wondering about? Let's see if I can answer. So feel free, you can just, you know, unmute yourself and ask. Yes, yes, Divya. Yeah, thank you, Pastor. So my question is regarding, like, sometimes we just, as maybe we set up our time for praying for the city or may not be in a large group or so. But these are, since these are, you know, very, it touches on topics that are very general. So sometimes we cannot see results, right? So how can we keep ourselves motivated to, you know, continue praying? Yeah, so I didn't mention it, Divya. It's there in our notes here, where that statement comes, right? Where it says for a city-wide, city transformation, we need a city-wide church to engage in prayer. But it also says there that sometimes for city transformation, for us to see the changes, it might take months and years, okay? So what I would say is, I would say that we have to pray and ask God for a burden. So this motivation may not be based on seeing, you know, immediate results. So we really need a burden from God where, you know, we are taken by God to pray for the city for a prolonged period of time. And in a practical sense, yes, you can just look and see if there is any change. But in certain matters, no, you know, if we never know, we might pray through our lifetime and then the change might happen. Like, I have heard, you know, I'm a little interested in this whole thing about that civil rights movement and Martin Luther, King Jr. and, you know, the people, how they fought against injustice. So there are stories of, you know, mothers and grandmothers who prayed through their lifetime and nothing happened. But it's only later, right? That at a certain time, there was a transformation. It was like a wave, it came against injustice. So these matters of city transformation, it's kind of hard to keep yourself motivated, actually. Yeah, but you can look for some small changes here and rejoice in that. Right, right. Thank you. Thank you for saying that. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, but a good one. So I'm sharing a link. This was preached in church a while ago. APC, I've shared the link 2012. This is about city transformation. So just for us to get like a good idea of what we are talking about, you know, you can also spend time listening to these sermons. And yeah, God is the God of cities and we want to see, you know, cities. Why touch the entire city? Because we are talking about hundreds and thousands and millions of souls coming to God at the same time. So it is that powerful. So while we're engaging in our regular way of ministering, how do we touch the city at large? Right, these are questions. And as you look at all this, there's this thing about seven mountains. How can you influence? We are influencers. How can we influence seven mountains? Spiritual warfare for city transformation. How do we engage in things like that? So yeah, there's so much more that we can actually look at. So do think about it. If you have any questions, any other questions as of now? Okay, so feel free to post it on the stream page. I could also answer them over there for us. Okay, so yeah. So thank you. Thank you, everyone for connecting today. We will wrap up today's class. We'll close with a word of prayer and I would like to request someone. So who's going to close today? Okay, I thought as much as it can. Please go ahead. Father, we come to the throne of grace. Lord, thank you as we have learned today how to pray for our city. Lord, we keep in your hands. Lord, all the cities from where we are from. Lord, we are going back. We're from the different nations. Lord, different places. We give all the places and all of our people in your hands. Lord, every knee shall bow. Every temple for the Christ Jesus is the Lord. Lord, thank you for the prayer. Lord, thank you for all the time we have spent in prayer. And since the day we have spent in your presence. Lord, the learning about your word and Lord, learning about the praying. Lord, thank you for this hour. Lord, thank you for all the students who have joined us. And thank you for all the ma'am. Lord, who has taught us about the praying. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Sitkenoon. And thank you, everybody. God bless you all. Have a blessed weekend. A good time of worship with your local church. Be refreshed. We'll meet again next week. Take care. Bye. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Bye for now. Thank you.