 Hey, good morning everyone. Welcome to the session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer and we'll get into our class Father we thank you so much for this time once again Lord that you have given us to Just come together and study and learn and we pray God that even as we learn That our hearts will be open to your leading to your guidance Lord that Holy Spirit you will Continue to minister to our hearts of God to learn Lord we even as we learn God empower us by your spirit of God We thank you for this wonderful opportunity in Jesus name. We pray Amen All right, so last class we were talking about Spiritual aspects that was yesterday chapter 17. We looked at how Sorry when it comes to church planting We know that the battle for souls is a spiritual battle it's so We can do all our outreaches. We can do all our programs all our events, which is all important But the real battle for souls is a spiritual battle, right? And so we learned about how the devil, you know, he binds people's minds he holds them in bondage he hinders the work of the gospel and He also brings in Things into the church by weakening the church he infiltrates into the church, right? But we also closed yesterday talking about the church's responsibility now The reason we learned about okay, what the enemy is doing is because We know his tactics. We are not unaware of it But we are also Focusing not on the enemy, but we're focusing on what God has done for us. And so through the cross God says, you know, the Lord Jesus says the church has authority the church has kingdom power We have spiritual weapons that God has given us. We You know, we subdue we overcome we can bind we can Use our spiritual weapons that God has given us To you know, build God's kingdom So as pioneers as leaders as pastors of a church This is something that we must be established in we must know in our heart that The victory is already won. The Lord Jesus has Paid the price we are victorious and and you know Just interestingly yesterday one of our Students had come down from Varanasi and I was getting got a lot of time to talk to him And he was sharing about the church in You know, North India there are so you're saying three states in India, right? One is Uttar Pradesh The other one is Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. So these are three states where there's intense persecution that is happening right now right and apparently he was saying that pastors have been You know locked up for months and years and even when the you know, the Papers go for the hearing comes into the court The judges say no, we don't want to hear this case go to another place and so But it was very disheartening to see that you know pastors and even even Women who are leaders of the church have been put into prison and they've been there for six months a year and more than a year as well But on the flip side, he was saying The more the persecution is happening the more the church is growing meaning more, you know in his entire village 500 people just in this from the beginning of January 2023 500 odd people have given their life to Christ only in his village So, you know, he was saying yes, the enemy is doing a lot Trying to hinder the work or hinder the church But God is still working. So I was so encouraged right of course. I we do feel, you know, a pain for those who are going through You know being in the prison going through this intense persecution, but we look at the other side God is still building the church God is still doing his work It's not that God is sitting back and just watching everything. No, he is building the church And so it was a very very encouraging for me. I just to hear it. Of course, we can't do Open-air events and even churches are meeting in a very Insincluded places in home settings and even in home settings, you know, he was sharing that You know, they don't meet more than five or six people because they get to know and so prayer then they would come in and So all of this is there, right? But Jesus says I will build my church The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So God has given us Weapons, he has given us authority. So let's get into chapter 18. We're talking about Raying and exercising authority for spiritual transformation, right now As a church When you look at a church I'm talking about a local church, right when you plant a local church. It is very important to engage in Three spiritual aspects, of course, there are many other but three very important is prayer praise and worship Ministry of the word Right. These are the most Important aspects in a church plot, right? I mean when you have a church We got to ensure that these three prayer Ministries of the word praise and worship now, it's not like there's an order all three of them are important And these are basically the foundations of the church now The other things of having a stage and the lights and all of that that is additional right now I'm not saying that's not important. That is important. That's needed But the foundation of the church is not You know the the lightings or the stage. No the foundation is these three Ministry of the word praise and worship and prayer, right? And and so when we engage Um In prayer when we engage In praise and worship What are we doing? We are exercising spiritual authority over those who are lost And we cannot Control or dictate people's choices, right? No, can we manipulate people? We cannot say hey Why don't you come to this place on Sunday and Uh, it's not a church service, but we're just maybe 50 of us meeting together now That's called manipulation like we don't do that, right? each person has To make their own decision To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ none of us As pastors as leaders we cannot Make a decision for another person Now they may come they may ask questions. They may have 100 questions, right? They may want to know That's wonderful, but the decision finally has to be made by the person We cannot force them to do it. We cannot say hey kneel down and pray and let Jesus come into your heart Even if he does it or if he does it by force That is not real change right so Through prayer and the exercise of spiritual authority We make it easier for people to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ now for example Look at this How many of you, you know Before becoming believers we were just living our life, you know Just doing everything in the world living sinful lives How many of you can testify that hey, I am here Because of the prayers of others Right, I'm sure many of us can say that in my personal life I didn't want God. God was the last thing on my list It was not something that I was looking forward to It was not that, you know, I wanted to learn. I wanted to know about Jesus. I was fine Everything's going fine Oh, but it was the prayers of others It was definitely the prayers of others and God's grace comes in Right, especially when you are hard hearted And, you know, you just know that You know Growing up I was very hard hearted, right? So I didn't want anybody to tell me anything Like forget about the bible. That was the last thing that they would tell me but just telling me anything I didn't want anyone to speak to me um But it was the prayers of people prayers of family members prayers of relatives and Rare groups meeting together praying. I I didn't know that Right, but those prayers what they do is they break Those hard heart, you know, we were talking about how the devil Blinds us, right? He blinds us. He hardens our heart to the gospel. So when we pray That hard heart softly You know slowly begins to break Right, there is territory gained. Why because we are we are slowly But steadily taking ground We're making sure that the enemy there's these certain areas are being broken off You know stage by stage. Okay, uh these spirits that are causing Anger or spirits that are causing this blindness, you know, people are praying for it We don't know it We don't know what's happening. But all of a sudden now six months down the line or one year down the line You're you know, you just come across some somebody telling you about Jesus and you're willing to listen Now that's basically what happened to me, right? I remember this pastor coming home and saying, why don't you come play guitar in church? I said, okay Since it's guitar I'll come Right. Uh, I didn't want anything to do with Jesus. Uh, I said, okay, guitar I'll come But just one year before that there was Nobody allowed inside my house. No pastors are allowed I would put a You know protection there. I said no past no preachers allowed inside my house But what happened is the prayers of others, right people pray people intercede And God begins to work and so while interceding for the lost we engage in two aspects pray that the lord Pray to the lord for his work to be done towards that person or towards the lost, right? Now we're talking about both people and communities and cities and nations right so Pray to the lord that his work and his will and his plans and purposes will prevail for the lost Right If you look at it You know, we study this about fulfilling God's purpose from purposes for our lives God has a blueprint. God has a purpose for every person For every city every town every city every nation. That is a purpose Right, so we pray God let your purposes prevail in this person's life Let your purposes prevail in the city In the nation in the communities let your plans let your purpose prevail So what are we doing? We are beginning to gain territory Now here's the thing that we must remember Right, even as you enter, you know that this is a spiritual battle. You know that you're entering Uh a territory where there are going to be demonic forces All right now never Be afraid of it Right, don't be afraid. Hey, where am I going? Am I? Uh, you know, am I going to bring trouble over my family or is something good? No, don't be afraid of it All right, you you go in You are praying to the lord to do it. We are not doing it Right, but the lord is going to do it So don't be afraid, right? It doesn't matter what kind of Uh territory you're gaining into Right, uh, you pray Pray with a thorough tree pray with boldness now. I want to put a little disclaimer here Now if you know that there are certain areas And uh, there's witchcraft. There is Uh occult and witchcraft practices and You know that there the these areas are there in the city Now if you feel that you're not ready to pray for that Right, it's all right Don't pray for it Right, uh, you can just take a step back right pray for other things you can pray for youth There are many other things we can pray for for the youth for teens for Workplaces the seven spheres of influence you can Right now if you're not if you feel that you're not spiritually there yet Right, uh, or there's some kind of fear Inside you it is natural. It's all right You can wait you can pray for other things right and But right there are many things that we can pray for right in the city So you can do that and do is spiritual warfare now establishing God's presence through worship And through exercising our spiritual authority to destroy What satan is doing That hinders people from coming to the gospel right so spiritual warfare right and Paul writes Corinthians Let me just try to pull up that verse here Yeah, uh second Corinthians chapter 10 Sorry verse four. He says the weapons we fight are not weapons of the world on the contrary. They have Divine power to demolish strongholds We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God we take And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to christ right so the Beginning passage 10 verse four the weapons of our warfare The weapons that we fight Are not the weapons of the world In another place he says the weapons of our warfare not carnal, but they are mighty in God They bring down strongholds right so remember that when we are fighting this spiritual warfare uh the battles though the The weapons that we have are not carnal member James he writes and he says Elijah prayed And then he gives that whole example and then he ends it by saying the prayers of a righteous man is effective Doesn't say a prayer of a pastor a prayer of a pioneer Prayer of an apostle is effective. He says the prayers of a righteous man All right, so engaging Get your church community engage together right Have times of prayers Some of the things that we do as a church and you if you'd like you can replicate it You can come up with your own plans and uh, some of the things that we do is we had We have 21 days of fasting and worship and fasting and prayer This is in the first Or maybe sometimes it's on the in february first week So the whole of february because in january we have a conference and So february first week, right 21 days fasting and prayer every day as a church Come together pray for People pray for the church pray for the city pray for the nation everything all right 21 days And then after every semester Oh, so that's every six months. We have Five days of fasting and prayer again worship Prayer prayer points. We all pray together Right. So what are we doing? We are We are establishing god's presence. We are through worship We're we're we're trying to tap into Places where the enemy is working and destroying the work of the devil right And if we look back remember the you know initially I used to think You know, why are we doing these prayers? 21 days of prayer. I don't know about 2010 And we would be maybe about 10 people And we 21 days of prayer and five days prayer I used to always think to myself why are we doing this nobody's coming? But then I realized that hey, it's not about that. It's about What is happening in spiritual realm even if we have a 10 15 people there was There was there there is something that is happening in the spiritual realms right and so The way that we can gain ground the way that we can exercise Transformation Is through spiritual warfare And then comes the other aspects right evangelism Reaching out events programs all of that comes next Spiritual warfare is number one Now if we don't pray We haven't spent time and prayer. We haven't uh done the you know the basic the foundation and Of course god is faithful. He will still work But what will happen is the you know if we are trying to reach out trying to You know tap into a new Place in a city a new area in the city. What will happen is Uh, it's very unlikely that we will not see victory Because we haven't spent time and prayer Right Most likely we'll be like, uh, you know, we may get tired may get weary. We may give up very soon Uh, so it's very important To first have these two in order right prayer Spiritual warfare. All right, so how do we pray for the lost? We learn some of this, um, and I'm sure that You know in lifestyle evangelism we learn so much But let's look at some of these points. How do we pray for the lost pray and ask God for the city as an inheritance And a possession Psalms 2 8 talks about it right ask of me. I don't give you the nations for your inheritance Pray and invite the holy spirit to bring about conviction of sin righteousness and judgment John 16 7 through 11 Uh, it's a wonderful passage john 16 7 through 11. Can we just read that? John 16 7 through 11 I can also read uh, or you can just start with the eight. So John 16 Yes, go ahead anyone can read please 7 through 11 you can read Nevertheless, I tell you the truth It is to your advantage that I go away But if I do not go away the helper will not come to you But if I depart I will send him to you and when he has come He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness And of judgment Of sin because they don't believe in me of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more Of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged Yes Yeah, thank you. John. So we see here That when we when we pray and I'm sure we all know about all of this It's good to remind ourselves when we pray and invite the holy spirit to work in people's lives It brings about sin righteousness and judgment We can not do the convicting We cannot right Because even if we can do some convicting that's only going to be You know, it could be a temporary convicting right? It's like Like what parents do to children But when the holy spirit comes he brings a holy conviction And there's a change In a person's life a person can be a hardcore criminal for 20 years And the holy spirit can make him the most softest person Uh, you know after he becomes a believer So we must pray for the holy spirit to work to move to touch people's lives Right ask god to draw them to him to the to him right so the bible teaches us john 644 John 1232 and many other passages. He says if you draw to me, I will draw I will draw my people I will draw them to me And so when we pray god, this is what you said you will draw your people You will draw your children to yourself do it Right then we pray that god will move them Bring them to repentance and to the knowledge of the truth That they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the evil one right so repentance Is again it comes through conviction When we repent of our sins god convicts us we repent of our sins And we begin to walk in the knowledge of the truth of god's work God's word god's promises And we will come to their senses to know that what they're doing is a trap by the evil one Right uh, you know I just thought i'll share this a couple of months back or maybe a month back Very close a good friend of mine Right we grew up together, but he was two years. He's two years younger to me And uh, he was a pastor's son right and Uh, you know, I would keep telling him He knows everything about the bible everything right growing up. We grew up in in church Right, he knew those bible verses everything, but you know as he became a teen he He got into drugs and all these other things and uh You know, uh, many people were praying for him Eventually what happened was he He would always sense that he's in a trap and he would tell me I feel that I'm in a prison cell All right, I keep telling him you see you know everything You know the word of god, you know Uh, the holy spirit is there it is your responsibility. There's nothing more I can do Right, you know if I tell you scriptures, you know it you know the gospel, you know what jesus did um But the enemy I I you know whenever I speak to my other thing the enemy has put a trap around this person So tell him you're in a trap. You're in a cell Because you have I love the devil to put you into the cell and locked it And you're saying devil, please help me out You don't have to ask the devil to let you out you ask god to let you out So I used to keep ministering to him And uh, you know last month Yeah, uh, all of a sudden he died of a heart attack Right and it was very very painful I was thinking about it talking about it very painful Uh, but this is what the devil does He puts people into traps And he puts people into these Craps that are not only physical but also In the mind He craps people he traps people in thinking that you know, uh, they have in prison cells And so when we pray We gotta pray that god they will know the knowledge Of the truth of god's word right Unfortunately, there are people who know the word of god, but they don't know the truth of god's word Right and so we must pray The lord you will speak to them Ask god to grant them a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that their spiritual eyes will open That we they'll be enlightened. They will see the lord They will see the beauty of his word They will see and know the purposes of god now all of these things we can pray for Poor people Right, uh, my heart goes out when I see young people My college students my heart really goes out because I see them Uh, there's so much that The world has to offer So much, you know, when we were growing up There was no phones. There was no social media. I thank god for that But I thank god for social media now as well, but uh, you know, we spend our time, you know, cycling outside or doing something outside But when I look at this generation and look at what's happening Uh, and it's so easy to follow the traps One of our church members came up to me and said I still I I I feel discouraged today. I said what happened And she said You know, she has a genuine heart. Uh, she said nobody Has commented or viewed on what I have posted on instagram It's very easy to say. Hey come on grow up But I realized that hey It's a It's a trap. You know the enemy is using these subtle small things And she's saying I couldn't I could not I could not read the word. I could not pray. I could not do anything for more than a week Subtle traps But we got to ask god to open spiritual eyes That people will be enlightened that being in god's presence Will will not be a burden something People see the beauty of his word know the purpose know the calling know the greatness of his power you know efficient is one Paul writes so beautifully he says He says what is our identity right? He's talking about we have seated together in heavenly places in christ jesus And so we can pray god Open up people's hearts open up their eyes Enlighten them let them go back to the word Let the word of god minister to them let them know that god has called them let them know the greatness of your power And god begins to work right pray that god will send for the laborers Who will share jesus and uh and influence them towards Towards just believing in jesus. So we know the worst the laborers The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few so we need more laborers pray that god will send forth laborers And finally pray for god's power to be demonstrated Science wonders and miracles that the supernatural that the supernatural interventions There'll be visitations of god god will You know there'll be outpourings In places that people will see experience the power of god Now yesterday as i mentioned i was speaking to this young man and he's from Uh varanasi and he was talking to me About some of the miracles that are happening in varanasi Right i said what is happening i asked him what is happening in the church in varanasi apart from the persecutions And people coming to christ how are people coming to christ? people who have cancers Right there are some of them who are on the death bed lame people Are walking Blind people are seeing Right and the way he's saying this He was so You know it was as if it's a common thing Right you're sharing a testimony about how an uh a lady in You know was was blind So she kept coming to church one day she one of the sundays she received healing she went and sat She received healing she went she sat back she said thank you jesus And it's a common thing Right now What do we do sometimes if somebody receives healing? Who's blind we put it on instagram facebook everywhere else Make a big deal out of it. There was no big deal You know they were they pray for the supernatural the supernatural happens And that's what we must do just like in the book of acts we pray god Start small But do it right so as we pray for this god begins to You know just work and begins to You know as a pioneer as a church he begins to really strengthen the church Right. There's the sense of unity Oneness all of this happens within the church even though we may be praying for people outside We're praying for the lost you you sense this You know there's this strength of the lord upon the church Upon the believers as well, right? uh, then Preparing for spiritual warfare Right important truths to remember when we are preparing for spiritual warfare Right, uh, and we know all of this satan has been defeated He has been crushed Has been expelled. He's been condemned. He's disarmed right Colossians 214. I love that was I I keep declaring it. I say hey What does Colossians 214 15 say having disarmed every power every principality And powers of darkness he made a public Spectacle of his victory over the devil Right. Such a powerful verse He said having disarmed he made a public spectacle Jesus didn't just say, you know Hey, uh, you know, maybe in the physical he just met with a few of them Uh after he resurrected from the dead, but in the spiritual he made a public spectacle. He said to every demon every and satan saying hey, you are defeated And satan is powerless right, so right now You and I are in this place of victory Right, so when you're praying for people when you're praying over cities over communities over people Now over your congregation Just just be just stand on this understanding. Hey I am victorious satan has been defeated And many times the devil will come to bring accusations Right. We were afraid maybe for something we have not received an answer or we've not received healing And satan may come and say see you prayed you didn't you haven't received healing Now it does not matter God says i'm the healer if he heals at that moment wonderful if he doesn't heal at that moment God is still the healer That's a don't fall into The traps of the devil right we have complete mastery and dominion over the enemy Right look 10 18. Let's read that verse like that was look 10 18 Sorry 19 look 10 19 Go ahead Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions And over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you amen Amen This is jesus saying I have given you authority over snakes and scorpions And nothing by any means will hurt you So this is this should be established in our heart That it should be there like it should be really strong in us Know that we are victorious know that we have dominion over the enemy know that we have mastery over the enemy and there is no Work that the devil can do that can bring us into his You know under his authority free. We are not contending for victory again We are we are here to enforce the victory. Jesus already has given us Right so again wonderful We know that we're not fighting for victory What satan and his demons have been crushed destroyed We operate boldly in a sense of authority Right enforce christ triumph Right, you know as a church You may be 10 people in a church Or just a small group And force christ triumph and force christ victory But I remember when uh when we were in Uh Mangalore we were about 7 8 p 7 or 8 of us and Out every day every sunday would say hey, I would make them repeat This is only eight of us Uh So our services used to go on for two and a half hours I guess We were just eight of us. So we would say we would declare This is who I am This is what god did Right and we would declare and declare and declare. We just keep saying it Right. This is what victory that we have authority We are 10 people right now But in the spiritual realms, we are a thousand people Right, you declare it And we would go out in boldness Right, uh Because there's this sense of authority the sense of boldness Right, we would enforce christ triumph enforce his victory over everything that we do Over every door that he opens we wouldn't go in like in a way of you know Uh bowing our heads or you know ashamed but no wherever we got opportunities wherever we went we went victorious We went With our head held high And that will continue to happen Right. So even you as a church we talked about this, uh, you know seven spheres of influence and even as Your church grows your ministry grows Enter those seven spheres With boldness with victory Knowing that you have dominion over whatever's demon that is working in that place whatever spiritual authority that's working You have authority Remember we talked about this Light Well, you are the light. So when you go into places of darkness light is greater than darkness Right. Remember that we are we are protected as we keep all entry points closed Satan and his demons cannot harm us Passes that we always can declare Psalms 91 Right. Psalms 91 is a beautiful sum. A thousand may fall at our side Ten thousands at our right hand, but nothing by any means shall hurt us We're protected Right. Now it's interesting to see here as we keep all entry points closed Remember the devil is like a roaring lion trying to Devour trying to deceive. He's working. He's looking for open doors And so as believers I'm not saying we don't make mistakes. We make mistakes In ministry in church. We will make mistakes Uh, but we we got to go back to god and say god, this is something I did wrong Forgive me. Help me to not to do this again. Help me to change Give me your strength. Let me get back on track Close all entry points Remember paul again says in one of the verses he says don't give the enemy. I don't know if it was paul or peter Don't give the enemy a foothold list. He takes the entire place Right. You close every door Five words are important in the spiritual realm. Our authority is exercised Primarily by the words that we speak The words that we speak are important in the spiritual realm So even if we're you know, we are just praying Right. We get up early morning. We're getting ready to go to work. You're saying He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide in the shadow of the almighty saying sounds 91 I will say of the lord. He's my refuge and my fortress. What's happening in the spiritual realm God is doing his work Right. God is setting his angels It's not like if we don't say that it doesn't he doesn't set his angels. It's just that We are exercising the authority that god has given us the words that we speak is affecting spiritual realms Right and god begins to work So speak words over your city whenever I see colleges, wherever it is Whenever I see colleges, I just say a small price. Hey god There may be about thousand people in this college That's their lives Let them Come to know you. I know it's it's a hard It's a you know, this this world has so much of temptations. There's so much that is their load, but you touch lives Supernaturally we touch them that they will come to know you that you will raise up The five-fold ministry leaders in these colleges Who will grow up to be pioneers in ministry? Maybe a three minute prayer What are we doing speaking words? You're speaking into the spiritual realm Uh and her authority is exercised through the words that we speak exercising spiritual doors Uh, sorry exercising spiritual authority to open prison doors. Uh, so we talked about this one is Establishing god's presence through praise and worship Declare the finished work of the cross for salvation of the souls in the city, right? So Uh again you on the basis of the cross we can stand we can declare we can speak over cities We can declare people are released from the power of darkness And they are and they are part of god's kingdom. We declare it now I know it's a far short. Sometimes you think hey, I'm praying. Where is the fruit or where? Remember your maybe you are the one who's putting the seeds Or maybe you are watering the seeds that have already been sold Or maybe there'll come a time and somebody else will see the harvest Right and and we learned in You know christian history and missions and we saw that how people laid the foundation People put the seeds Right others watered it what god made it grow And so you think of it that way, right? The your labor is not in vain Right identify and pull down strongholds and areas of demonic Domination And so we looked at that right those demonic dominations could be anything suicide drug addiction pornography prostitution child trafficking Murders and all of these spirits that are working Identify and pull down those strongholds Now some of the strongholds may be very subtle right it could be Uh now especially right you have homosexuality have a and the lesbian that is going on and You know even strongholds that are entering churches strongholds that are entering ministry Sometimes the devil can use money as a stronghold into people's lives Right all of these things you identify And you know you pray over these ask god to release His power his light in these places and finally Destroy the works of the evil spirits that are working in people right, so There'll be sometimes places especially if we go into places like not india where there is intense intense idol worship and Idolatry Usually what we see there is manifestations of evil spirits and spirits They control over people dominate them And so we can pray over all of these and And as we do it right we You know we must remember that as leaders remember that you know, it's not only about my church It's not only about okay my ministry When will my church grow? right remember, uh, you know It's kingdom values kingdom culture. Okay god I'm doing this And I know you know for example if you're praying for another city You're praying for strongholds and things that the devil is doing there praying that god will penetrate and We know that you're praying for another city. You know that they're not going to come and Be part of your church. They're in a different city. But what are you doing? your You are sowing into god's kingdom. It is never going to be a waste So remember our works, uh, you know our church and our ministries all of that is important Uh, but it's not the size of the ministry that matters It is what we are doing What seeds and the fruit that we are going to bear? Uh for god's kingdom that is what matters Right. So even as we you know pioneer and we build In our ministries or we're planning to start let these Be the focus Right. Let these pointers Uh be the focus of our ministry and out of all of this flows Uh the ministry Right, right any questions any thoughts? All right. Thank you so much for joining this class. Um, we'll catch up next Week. Have a great week ahead Our bless Bye