 link on the chat a little late. I'll just give this a minute or two to join in and we'll get started. Okay, good morning everyone and welcome. Thank you for connecting to the class today. Let's take a moment to pray and then people get started. But somebody just leave us in prayer. Anybody? You can just pray with the glass, pray together. Let's pray. Anyone? Loving Heavenly Father, once again Lord, we thank you. We praise you, Master, for this beautiful morning. Lord, we thank you that you have given another opportunity, Lord, to visit your word and Lord to learn from you. Master, I pray especially for your loving servant and especially, I pray for the Pastor Lord as he's leading us, Lord, through your word. You bless him, Lord. And Lord, you bless all of us. You won't, Lord, those who are learning together. Lord, you bless us. So the Lord we will learn and Lord will apply it in our life, Master. We thank you. Praise you. Jesus, I may pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So in this course on faith, we've been developing our understanding and learning about faith week after week. And last week, we began talking about the believer's walk of faith. Just looking at how faith is an integral part of every aspect of our lives. Everything we do, you know, stems out of this faith in God. And it's based on faith in God. So we're just going to quickly review a few things we covered last week. And then we're going to go forward. I'm going to move to the PDF. I hope nobody gets held outside the class as I do this. All right. Okay. So we just just a quick review. We spoke about the fact that we are saved by grace through faith. So salvation is what God gives to us by grace. And we receive from our side through faith. God gives it to us freely as a gift. And we receive by faith. Secondly, we also said that everything must be done in faith. So as we live this life on earth, we trust God. We put our faith in God. Everything we do must be done in faith. And we were talking about faith as a key to receiving from God. We covered James chapter one, verses five through seven. James teaches him that what do we ask? We must ask in faith without doubting. And, you know, when we doubt, we're like the wave to see, we go back and forth, back and forth. But he says you ask in faith. So the contrast is when you and I ask you in faith, there is no doubting. We are firm. We are steady. All right. So we covered till here and we're going to pick up from this point on. Just talking about faith in the life of the believer, as believers in Jesus. I'm just pointing out that, you know, various facets of our life, faith is a very important part of what we do. So number four, faith is the means to gain victory over the world. First, John chapter five verse four. Could somebody read this for us, please? First, John five verse four. First, John chapter five, four. For whatever is born of God, overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Amen. Thank you. So John is writing, he says, you know, everyone, whatever or whoever is born of God, overcomes the world. So you and I are people who overcome the world. To overcome is to live victorious over the world. This world represents this whole system of evil and rebellion that's against God, that's opposed to God, opposed to the ways of God. So it's talking about the system that we find ourselves here in and everything that's contrary to God, contrary to the ways of God, contrary to the purposes of God. So whoever is born of God, overcomes. That means we have victory over the world. But this is the victory or this is the means for victory or this is the way we have victory over the world, how it's through our faith. So faith is key here for us to live a victorious, overcoming life, our faith in God. That's how we live victorious. And that's how we overcome this world. So whatever we are learning in this course on faith, you and I begin learn how to use it as we face and in some way we contend against the things of this world. So the devil is operating, Satan and his demons are operating. There's a whole system of evil and rebellion. And we have to push against it. We are here to contend against it. And God says, you are an overcomer, you're going to win, you're going to have victory, but then you're going to do it through faith, which means that if I don't walk in faith or if I don't contend with these things, things around me, the systems of evil and rebellion and what Satan's doing, if I don't contend against those things in faith, then I'm not going to be able to walk in victory. Let me just go back to the class and you know, I don't want anybody to be held outside. Okay, just make sure everyone's in. Alright. Okay, let me go back to the PDF. So faith is important for us to live victorious. So when we face challenges and we face things in this world that are opposed to the way we are going, the way God wants us to go, what do we do? We're going to fight against it. The Bible tells us to fight the good fight of faith. And so we're going to fight against it. We're going to push back against those works of darkness, but we're going to do it with faith in God and we learn how to do that. Number five, faith is also our shield against the enemy. So let's just read these verses of scripture and then I'll explain. Could some read Ephesians 616 for us, please? Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And also for speed of five eight to nine please. Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. So there is an enemy, Satan, and all his demonic powers, forces, his demons. They're going to come against us, right? It's an enemy. They're coming against us with their temptations, with their attacks, with their various schemes. But the Bible is telling us in Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul teaches us as part of our armor that God's given to us, he says, take the shield of faith. So faith in God obviously, faith in God is a shield, it's a protection with which we are able to quench or extinguish all the fiery darts, all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Now, sorry, excuse me, now Paul is of course using some of the pictures from his day when he was writing this. So in those days, so we're going back into the first century, you know, when people, when there was people fought and they would use arrows where the arrow heads were first, you know, lighted with fire and they would shoot it against the enemy, right? So they had the arrow heads had, you know, things that were combustible, they set it on light, they lighted it, set it on fire and they shot it. And especially if they were shooting, firing these arrows across the fortress or the walls, you know, they did, so that's the picture he's using. So he's saying, you know, the enemy is going to set or shoot fiery darts, these arrows that are, you know, lighted, intending of course to do harm towards us. But what the apostle Paul is telling us is God's given us faith and this faith is going to extinguish those darts and it's going to extinguish all the fiery darts, right? That means we're not here to prevent the enemy from shooting his fiery darts, he's going to do with that's what his job is. But we've got faith in our hearts, which is like a shield and it's able to quench, nullify, neutralize, extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one. That means no matter what the enemy does we can be in a place where we are not hurt, we are not affected because we've got faith in God and we keep walking. He can shoot his fiery darts but not stop us because we've got faith that extinguishes all those fiery darts and we keep moving on. The same thing here in First Peter 5, Peter is writing, he says, look we've got an adversary, the devil, right? So yes, on this earth while we are here there's an adversary, we're going to face the adversary and he walks about like a roaring lion. So he's trying to use intimidation, a roaring lion, strike fear in the hearts of people and he's looking for opportunity on whom he can devour but we can resist him being steadfast in the faith. So we stand firm in faith. How do we resist the devil? Be steadfast in faith. Be firm in your faith. So the devil is going to try to seek whom he may devour but if you and I are firm in our faith it's a resistance against him meaning he's not going to be able to attack you, he's not going to be able to succeed against you and me. All we've got to do is stand fast or stand firm in the faith, right? So faith then is an important part of overcoming the enemy, overcoming Satan and all that he might attempt to do against us. We stand firm in faith. Number six, just itemizing different ways in which faith is important in the life of the believer. Number six, we also receive the promise of the Holy Spirit by faith, right? So Galatians 3-14, can somebody read that for us please? Galatians 3-14, the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So notice Paul is telling us yet we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So God is pouring out his Spirit on everyone, right? God is pouring out his Spirit. This is a time when the Holy Spirit is moving on all flesh and God is pouring out his Spirit but we receive, we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So faith is involved. God is pouring out his Holy Spirit on everyone but faith is involved for each one of us to receive the promise of the Spirit, right? So this would mean for us to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We receive by faith for us to pray in the Spirit, for us to manifest the gift to the Holy Spirit, for us to move in the things of the Spirit. All of that happens through faith and so faith again is so important here for us to experience and to walk in and to minister the Spirit, right? So for us to engage with the Holy Spirit we do it through faith. So that's very important for us as believers to engage with the Holy Spirit we do it through faith, okay? So number seven, I just touched on it already, but we exercise spiritual gifts and minister God's power and see miracles by faith. So not only do we receive the promise of the Spirit but just as I said for us to minister in the power of the Holy Spirit and to serve people with the power of the Holy Spirit we do that also by faith. So let's read these two scripture references Romans 12 verse 6. Romans 12 verse 6 having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us let us use them if prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith okay and Galatians chapter three verse two three and five this this only I want to learn from you did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit are you now being made perfect by the flesh therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. So you look at these two verses here so in Romans 12 Paul is saying okay we've got gifts each one of us that differ according to the grace that is given to us we've all got different gifts that God has given to us right and he's talking about ministries that God has given to us but then when we exercise the gifts and we move in our ministry how do we do it we do it in proportion to our faith so he's just using one example and I've just quoted you know just one part of the ministry he's talking about so he says if prophecy like if you're going to prophesy okay that's good but we do it in proportion to our faith so faith is involved when we minister or we exercise gifts the the ministry so the gifts that God is given to us each one of us have been given different gifts but as we minister we mince in proportion to faith or we exercise it according to the faith that's in our hearts similarly in Galatians 3 Paul is writing to the Galatians he's saying you know when you receive the spirit did you receive the spirit by doing some works that followed the law or was it through faith you heard the word believed it and you had faith and then you received the spirit so the answer is implicit of course it was by faith so he tells them you know you've started off in the spirit you can't be made perfect by you know what you're doing the flesh now then he says in verse 5 think once again he who provides who ministers the spirit to you and works miracles does he do it by law or by the hearing of faith the answer is once again it's by faith the supply of the spirit or that's ministering the spirit and the working of miracles so even you know the supernatural power of God that's demonstrated how is it going to happen it's going to happen through faith the hearing of faith that means in the word is preached we hear it we have faith in our hearts and then there's a release of the spirit and there's working of miracles right so the point I want to get across is this that you know when we serve God using the gifts he's given to us when we minister God's power and then we see miracles faith is involved so we move by faith we operate by faith and of course you know as you continue in the college now we will be having a course on you know how on you'll be of course learning in different courses but we will have this course on keys to supernatural ministry and we talk about you know how we are minister supernatural and one of the keys is of course to minister by faith right so faith is important here as well and you're serving God and ministering to people okay let me see I think somebody wants to ask a question yeah go ahead to them yeah I guess faster so um in first Corinthians 12 it also talks about the gift of faith right that the story so I was a bit like is faith given by God as a gift or is it like from within ourselves right what is the source of our faith okay so um so let's distinguish there is personal faith and there is the gift of faith and I think we will cover it in an upcoming chapter but let's explain it so personal faith that is the faith that God has given to each one of us Romans 12 verse 3 so each one of us has faith in our hearts right and this faith um and grow right so God has given Romans 12 3 God is dealt to every man a measure of faith so each one of us God has given us faith faith is in our heart we have faith we have this ability to believe God but second this one is 1 3 this faith can grow so it's our responsibility to nurture and grow our personal faith in God right and then what we just read uh Romans 12 verse 6 notice he said uh oops notice what he said in Romans 12 verse 6 he said you know uh you minister whatever when you minister you minister in proportion to your faith so there is faith in each of our hearts that's faith that we can develop we can grow and when we minister to people we minister in proportion to the faith we have in our heart right so this is the first one we call it as personal faith it means your faith in God faith that is in each of our hearts okay the faith that each one of us have it's personal faith we can grow and we live by that we walk by that faith and we minister by that faith now the gift of faith in Romans 1 Corinthians 12 7 to 11 is different why is it different because it's not your personal faith it is a infusion of it's let me put it like this it's a momentary infusion of faith that comes into our hearts by the Holy Spirit in order to carry out a specific task so that's a gift of faith personal faith is something you always have in your heart the gift of faith is momentary you and I don't have it it's an it's something that is like you and I don't hold on to it it is something that's infused into our hearts it's given to us at that moment and it's for a specific purpose so when you talk about all the nine gifts right these every believer can manifest all nine gifts of the Spirit and you will be learning that you know in your Holy Spirit class and we can always manifest the nine gifts of the Spirit one of the nine gifts is the gift of faith but all these nine gifts are initiated or activated by the Holy Spirit right the Holy Spirit is the one who gives word of knowledge or the word of wisdom or the discerning of spirits and one of them is the gift of faith right so as a believer I have personal faith in God I walk by my personal faith in God I live by this personal faith and I must develop and nurture and strengthen my personal faith in God but at the same time I must remain open to the gift of faith which is it's an momentary infusion of faith for me to do a specific work right and we will be actually seeing back in our notes an example of that gift of faith okay but these are two different it's the same faith in God but how they operate are very different does that kind of find things yes yes best uh so the gift of faith is uh when when you say this momentary uh what do you mean like it just comes and just goes it's for a particular task so example um okay let's let's look at this example that we have with the notes and you know it'll help clarify it so if I go back to the notes now you look at this an ax 316 right uh can can we read ax 316 please and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know yes the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all amen thank you so in ax 3 what has happened is there was a crippled man who was healed right now try to understand the situation here right um peter and john that particular day peter and john are walking into the temple they're coming into this particular gate which is called beautiful and there's there is a man who was lame from he's he's been he's born lame and uh 40 years he's he's about 40 years of age so he's he's been sitting there at that gate begging right now he's been there for probably years now peter and john have passed by that gate so many times before and to pray right they're going into the temple to pray so they've passed by that gate many times before did they have faith in their hearts of course they had faith in their hearts that's why they went to pray they believed god so they went but but they passed by this man the lame man before he was begging he's been there for a long time but that particular day peter looks at this man says look on us and you know peter says you know silver and gold they don't have but in the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk and the man is healed and then in verse 16 peter explains how he got healed it says his name faith in his faith notice faith so it is the name of Jesus his name it means through his authority faith through faith in his name has made this man strong home you see i know yes the faith it comes through him has given this perfect soundness in the presence of you so peter's pointing say hey faith faith was given to us by god but what was different about this faith this was a gift of faith why because all the other days peter and john of course they had faith but that was their personal faith they would go and pray and come but that day there was an infusion of the gift of faith which came into his heart and he told this man rise up and walk he was healed and peter knew it happened because of faith but really it was the gift of faith that came into his heart to bring healing here it was a momentary infusion of faith for a specific work and the work here was to make this crippled man walk right so that's the difference between personal faith and gift of faith gift of faith is something the holy spirit infuses in our hearts to do a certain work at a certain at that moment of time but it's usually the healing of a sick person the raising of a dead person the opening of blindness you know it's usually something like that but then our our regular personal faith is the faith that we have in a heart which we continue to grow and develop and then so we have to learn to minister both throughout our personal faith in god as well as to be open to the gift of faith which the holy spirit will supernaturally infuse in our hearts to serve people with okay okay thank you best get it okay go ahead john buster in roman's 12 itself was was three towards the end of the verse so it is written as god has allotted to each a measure of faith so does that mean god has a lot given us a measure of faith and we have to grow from that faith yes right okay so it can differ from person to person the amount of faith god has allotted what the scripture implies is as god has dealt to each one a measure of faith so the scripture is not telling us exactly but we can assume that when we all start out we have the same measure of faith but what each one does with it will vary right so some people will continue to nurture their faith and continue to grow in it and some people may not do that so when we are saved so we can say you know we can call it saving faith so when we are all saved at that moment there is faith given to us in our hearts it's the roman's 12 three measure of faith it's an equal measure of faith through which we are all saved but then we need to develop that faith and that second this one is one play if you've mentioned here each one will do it at a different pace but although the scripture doesn't state it I believe the implication is we all start out with the same measure of faith yeah thank you yeah okay go ahead Sani so in terms of we all start off the same measure of faith so does that mean that we all have the same faith as god we just have to exercise it does that make sense yeah so we have a faith that has been given to us from god now here's a statement that you know it's let's say it's like a debatable statement the bible tells us have faith in god this I'm quoting arc 11 22 okay so I'm referencing right now mark 11 22 jesus said in mark 11 22 have faith in god okay the literal translation of that would be have the faith of god so there are people who state you know god is a faith god and god and so we have the same faith as god and god is a faith god now I don't believe that statement I don't believe that statement is accurate you know to say god let me god is a faith god this faith is what we have in somebody greater than us now god doesn't need faith why because he's god he doesn't need to put trust in somebody greater right so in that sense god is god doesn't need faith he is god we need faith because we trust him right so when people say god is a faith god and you know god works by faith and all of that that is not really scriptural I don't see it's not there in the bible what we are saying is when we say we have the god kind of faith that means we having a faith that this is the kind of faith that is designed to be placed in god as opposed to a faith in a human person or faith in the devil or faith in the lives of the devil you know so I'm just giving you my understanding of scripture so we have faith that has been given to us from god which is what we are learning about and it is faith that we put in god but that doesn't mean god is a god who exercises faith because he doesn't need to he he's powerful he's all powerful he exercises his power he exercises his omnipotence omniscience and omnipresent so he's god and he doesn't need to have faith in anybody or anything but you and I we need to have faith in god did I clarify sonny or did I confuse you no let's clarify and just I don't know if this is correct or not but what about at the beginning does this say to begin the bible that he used faith to speak the world to existence is that true or not it's not I mean god didn't yeah it's not true there is no there's no scripture that says god used faith to speak things in existence I think what happens is people look at Hebrews 11 and verse 3 and they say you know Hebrews 11 3 says by faith we understand that the heavens were framed by the word of god right so people read it as though by faith god made the heavens that's not what they're saying right it is by faith that means who's having faith throughout the chapters people having faith so it's by faith that means by our faith we understand or we come to this recognition that all of creation was framed by the word of god so how did god create everything by his word not by faith but by his word so when people misunderstand Hebrews 11 3 they come up with that statement that says god created everything by faith no but that's not what Hebrews 11 3 is saying Hebrews 11 3 is saying that we humans we people we believers by faith we come to the recognition that god made everything by his word so that's the misunderstanding okay that clarifies it thank you all right no problem all right so we have faith in god and so what we've been talking about is you know how how faith is so important in every aspect of our lives we need it to overcome this world to live a victorious life we walk by faith we walk by faith in our fight against the enemy we walk by faith to receive and to engage with the Holy Spirit in our lives we also operate by faith in order to minister god's power and to minister healing and to minister the gifts to people so then we minister we can minister by personal faith or can we can minister through the gift of faith the gift of faith is something the Holy Spirit infuses but at any point you and I can operate by faith right so for instance you know let's say somebody is unwell somebody sick now we can minister to that person just by our personal faith that means I have faith that person has faith we come in it into agreement and we believe god healing will happen or sometimes god just moves and gives a gift of faith and says just minister to that person so you know just minister through the gift of faith and that person is healed no but they have faith or not you minister by the gift of faith and you minister so we do it both ways we all have personal faith in god we can minister out of that faith in god we can look there's word believe and minister or we can ask the spirit infuses the gift of faith we can minister out of that to people okay let's just move forward on that so i'm going back to the notes right so number eight we must fight the good fight of faith last point right could somebody read one for sympathy 612 for us please fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses okay thank you so paul is writing to timothy says hey fight the good fight of faith so there's a fight of faith involved so obviously there are enemies to faith otherwise there will be no fight so there are enemies things that are trying to destroy our faith rob us of our faith diminish our faith so we gotta fight gotta fight the fight of faith right so the fight of faith means we are fighting by fate or fighting in faith like i said here and we're also fighting for faith that means things that are trying to rob us of our faith and we are fighting in faith you know this fight against the enemies of our faith now interestingly he says fight the good fight the good fight so this is a fight that's worth fighting right it's a good fight and it's also a good fight because it's a fight that we will win that we win right so what's a good fight it's a fight that's worth fighting and it's a fight that we know we're going to win but there is a fight that means i need to engage i know that there will be things that are coming against my faith or trying to rob me of my faith or trying to hinder my faith but i'll fight you and i we fight the good fight of faith okay so that brings us to the end of this chapter chapter eight uh after the break uh we will pick up chapter nine and chapter ten what we've done in this chapter is basically just highlighted you know the different areas where as a believer we must learn to walk in faith right so i'll just quickly review what we said we said we are saved by grace through faith everything we do we must do in faith uh faith is important to receiving from god and we will kind of get into many of these detailed as we go along faith is the way we gain victory over the world faith is our shield against the enemy we receive the promise of the holy spirit by faith we exercise spiritual gifts we minister to people by faith and we must also fight the good fight of faith right so basically in everything we do as believers faith is involved okay so what we're going to do after the break is we're going to talk about nurturing our faith right just now we're going to get into the practical side of things so we've laid the foundation okay how do you nurture faith and then chapter 10 how do you build strong faith right we talk about that so those are two things where we say you know you practice these things in order to strengthen uh to nurture and strengthen your faith okay yes shani please ask you a question i didn't understand this says in your notes for number eight this fight of faith is a fight for faith in a fight in faith understand fight for faith but can you clarify fight fight in faith and give an example please yes so to fight in faith means i am fighting out of my place of faith in god of having faith in gods fight in faith so example if uh you know maybe we can think about many situations whether it's finances or family or whatever i'd say take a family situation so let's say you know as a believer you see that the enemy is trying to make inroads and i believe us he sees that the enemy is trying to make inroads against the family trying to cause confusion causing strife and division and trouble in the family so what's happening the enemy is trying to come against this person's faith his faith what must this person do he must recognize it's a fight for my faith the enemy is trying to weaken my faith in god that you know god has promised that you know my house will be blessed my family will be blessed my children will be blessed so on god has promised that but the enemy is trying to do this to weaken my faith in god so it's a fight for faith but what must the believer do he must fight back in faith it's a no devil i am standing strong in my faith in god and his word god's word says the house of the righteous will stand god's word says he blesses the house of the righteous god's word says that in the house of the righteous there's a voice of rejoicing and salvation so what's he doing he's fighting in faith right he's being strong and fading he's fighting back so it's a fight for faith because enemies come to try to destroy the faith but it's a fight in faith the believer fights back by faith in god okay thank you i understand welcome all right so what we're gonna do is after the break we'll come back are there any other questions before we go for break rossin go ahead yeah first of mark mark 11 22 we read there so jesus answered and said to them have faith in god so i've heard like some preachers say that have god kind of faith so what is that god kind of faith and they refer to this verse that's true so like we said uh the literal translation in the greek of mark 11 22 is have the faith of god or have the god kind of faith so in one sense it's true the god kind of faith is the kind of faith that we have in god the living god so you can call it the god kind of faith which is different from the human kind of a faith in a human person or faith in the devil or faith in something else like fear so when they say have the god kind of faith it simply means have faith in god or the faith that is placed in god that understanding is fine but what has happened is people have said god is a faith god and that's not true right because god doesn't need to have faith in god faith in anyone else he's got so have the god kind of faith is a correct statement it's just saying have this faith in the living god the god kind so it's the same as it is mentioned in the verse have faith in god have faith in god have the god kind you know it's not the same uh it's not so if you ask me is the statement have the god kind of faith a godic translation or rendition of mark 1122 the answer is no right mark 1122 says have faith in god or have the faith of god yeah so the the god so if you say have the faith of god or you can say if they want to render that as have the god kind of faith maybe it's okay but really mark 1122 saying have faith in god put your faith in god um is the statement have the god kind of faith you know an accurate rendition or rendering of mark 1122 you know okay you know it's not a perfect rendering but it's okay yeah i just say have faith in god i think that's fine yeah that's it thank you first any other question please okay good so let's go for a break i will be back in 10 minutes and then we get into chapter nine which is the next chapter okay god bless see you shortly thank you first