So, I am going to talk about discrete stochastic processes, and without you know spending time on first trying to define stochastic processes, and on that discrete stochastic processes you know in abstraction. I would prefer to give you examples, and then we would try to come to a conclusion, and hopefully you know be able to define. And in fact, you would have by then by that time form your own definition of stochastic process. Of course, here we are going to write first talk about discrete stochastic processes. . Now, let us just look at one example, watch selling shop keeps a particular brand of ladies watch, and the D I let D I denote the demand for this brand in the I th week. So, let us just say that our planning horizon is 3 weeks, and so D 1 will be the demand for this particular brand of watches in the first week, D 2 in the second week, and D 3 will be in the third week. And these are you know D I is a random wearables, because the demands are not certain commodity, because otherwise the shop keepers shop keepers job will be very easy. So, here D I is a random wearables, and they are identically independently distributed random wearables. So, this one simplification has been added here. So, the D I's are not known, they are not certain events, but they are they have same distribution and independent. So, that means the demand in the first week is independent of the demand in the second week, and independent of the demand in the third week. Let N I denote the number of watches on hand at the end of the I th week. So, let us say by Saturday evening he the man takes talk of his things that he have that he has on hand. And so N I will be the same particular brand of ladies watch he has N I of them. So, that means N 1 at the end of the first week, N 2 at the end of second week, and N 3 at the end of third week. Now, orders placed for watches on Sunday evening are identically are sorry are delivered before the shop opens on Monday morning. So, this could be Sunday evening or Saturday evening whatever it is. So, before the new week begins, so on Monday morning before the shop opens the watches are delivered whatever the ordering policy. Now, suppose the ordering policy followed by the shop owner is as follows, if no watches in stock order four watches. That means by Saturday evening if he realizes that he does not have any watch of this particular brand, then he will order for four watches, and they will be delivered by Monday morning. So, that means if N I is 0 order four watches. If N I is 1 that means if he has one watch at the end of the week in stock, then he will order for two watches. And finally, if he has two or more watches left over by the end of the week, then he will not order any. So, do not order. So, this is his policy. And of course, sales are lost when the demand exceeds the number of watches in stock. So, if there is more demand and you do not have that many watches, then you lose those sales. So, fine. So, now, let us look at what would be the position in the following week. So, N I plus 1 will be let us say. So, this will N I plus 1 will denote the number of watches on hand at the end of the I plus 1th week. And how will you compute N I plus 1 given N I? So, this will be you see if N I is 0 that means at the end. So, this is your I th week and this is your I plus 1th week. So, therefore, at this point you had N I watches. Now, if N I is 0, then you ordered 4 and they were delivered by the time your I plus 1th week started. So, that means, then you will have at the beginning at this point you will have N I plus 4 watches. And then there is demand D I plus 1. So, that means, you would meet the demand and then depending on whether D I plus 1 is. So, since N I is 0 you will actually have 4 watches on hand and that is why I have written 4 here. So, actually your this thing will be 4 minus D I plus 1. And if your demand is more than this, then of course, you will say the max of this, you cannot have negative number of watches. So, either you have 4 minus D I plus 1, if D I plus 1 is less than 4 or you have no watches left at the end of the next week. So, at this point is if you are able to meet the demand D I plus 1, then whatever the difference that will be the watches on hand at this point otherwise it will be 0, if D I plus 1 is more than 4. So, similarly, if N I is 2, what were the policies? No, no N I is 1, sorry this is N I is 1. So, if N I is 1, then he orders 2 watches. So, this will be N I plus 2 minus again whatever the demand and if this number is positive, then that will be taken as the number of watches on hand at the end of the I plus 1 at week, otherwise it will be 0. So, N I of course, you can write 1 here. So, this is actually max of 3 minus D I plus 1 comma 0. So, whichever number is positive, that number you will take. So, when N I is 1 and similarly, if N I is greater than or equal to 2, then you are not ordering any watches. Two or more, you do not order, so your watches on hand at the beginning of the I plus 1 at week is N I, N I minus D I plus 1 will be what you left with at the end of the I plus 1 at week and so it will be again max of these 2. So, this is how you can, so you see the situation at the end of the I plus 1 at week is dependent on your situation at the end of the I th week and the demand. So, here are two random phenomena on which your state of the system, if you can want to call it, that means the state occupied by the system at the I plus 1 at week is given to you by N I plus 1 and here this is the current state. So, therefore, you can say that here your N I plus 1s are dependent on just N I and D I plus 1. So, the current demand and the state in which you were at the beginning of the I plus 1 at week. So, this is sort of trying to show you the dependence because the variables N I plus 1, which we are trying to tell us the state of the system at the end of every week. So, this phenomena is dependent on the two random phenomena N I and D I plus 1. So, this is one example and then we will, so now I can sort of give you a definition here saying that N I is indexed by the number of the week form a discrete stochastic process. So, then when you take these N 1, N 2, N 3, so these are three random variables and they form as, so see the thing is that you are giving them an index, which is discrete. So, N 1, N 2, N 3 and the unit of time can be anything, here it is a week, it could be month, it could be an hour or whatever it is. So, when and therefore, the discrete word. So, this is a random phenomena, which is being you know sort of indexed by a discrete time period and therefore, we will call this a discrete stochastic process. Another example and therefore, you may, so of course, this and now the next question to be asked is why study this. So, for example, I have just tried to state one or two questions that the shop owner may want to have answered, but of course, they can be many other questions that you can also raise. So, for example, the shop owner is interested in knowing the following, long term loss of sales due to his reordering policy, you see because if he can by some mechanism find out, what is the sort of estimate may not be an exact number, but he can estimate the number of sales that are lost, when this number is negative that means, he is losing out on sales, whenever this number is negative. So, if there is a mechanism by which he can find out, what is his long term sales loss of sales due to the to his reordering policy, because he wants to know whether he really has a good reordering policy or not. Then and also he may also want to know the effect of changes he makes in his reordering policies in a reordering policy. He may also want to change some of the orders there and then he would want to know, would that make the situation better for example, would it reduce his long term say, because long term word I am using here, because you know it takes a while for any system to settle down. So, we will most of the time when we talk of any stochastic process, we want to analyze it, we would be talking about its long term behavior. So, whatever the disturbances and perturbations, they all settle down after a while and then you want to look at the system, because otherwise it is very difficult to you know model any such a process, you know when the initially lot of tribulations or lot of perturbations, you cannot really analyze or you cannot model such a situation. So, therefore, it is a long term loss of sales due to his reordering policies and then he may want to know, if he makes any changes, how will that effect his again, his revenues. Essentially he is finally interested in the revenues that he gets. Now, let us look at another example, which is probably a simpler one. So, there is an automobile manufacturing company and has the policy of assigning its white collar employees. So, white collar employees means who work in their offices, office of the sales and so on. So, the three sections it has. So, the three sections it has are production, HR, you know handling human resources and sales. So, these are the three and then see we will now look at this model example and again give you another feeling about the stochastic processes. So, the three sections are production, human resource and sales. So, these are three sections in the automobile manufacturing company, where he wants to assign the white collar employees and then I mean by he I mean the owner of that manufacturing automobile manufacturing company. And there is no set pattern for reassignments, at least the employees do not know. So, there must be something in the mind of the owners, how they would reassign. So, since there is no set pattern known for the reassignments, one does not know in which section he or she will be assigned next. So, after you have been in one section for a while, certainly you know that you will be transferred, but then you do not know to which one you will be transferred. So, the next assignment may depend on the current assignment. It is possible that wherever you are right now, it may have a bearing on where you will be next. So, these are the kinds of. So, then if we let X I denote the section assigned during IH 6 month period. So, that means now you look at one employee's profile. Suppose, just take one employee, look at his profile in the sense that you want to keep on measuring. So, your time period is a 6 month time period. That means, when you get assigned to a section, it is for a 6 month period and then after the, at the end of the 6 month period, there will be another reassignment to sections and you may either stay in the same section or you may get transferred to another one. So, anyway, so let X I denote the section assigned during the IH 6 month period. And then, so the whole process can be, that means the whole process of the sections being assigned to a particular employee can be described by the sequence X 1, X 2, so on. So, as long as you are planning horizon, you will have. So, X 1 will tell you that in the first 6 months, the particular employee is in this section, whatever the value of X 1, then X 2 will tell you the section he is in in the second 6 month period and so on. And of course, X I can take the possible values. So, let us state, let us number the three sections. So, the first section is production, second section is HR, human resource and the third is sales. So, X I can take three possible values, whichever the three sections.  So, that means, over the five years, the sequence X 1, X 2, X 3 up to X 10 will tell you the sections to which the particular employee has been assigned. So, this assignment of sections to an employee is a discrete stochastic process and it is indexed by the periods 1, 2, 3 and so on. So, now, you get the meaning that. So, it is something like the process is evolving over time and there is uncertainty about the, what the state, where the system would be after you know each time period, one time period is over, then where will it be next. So, therefore, there is some sort of uncertainty about the whole process and so, this is why we are calling it a stochastic process. Now, for this particular company, an employee may ask the following questions. If an employee is working in sales, what is the probability that after two assignments, he will be working in sales again. This particular employee may want to want an answer to this question or for example, if the employee is currently in production, how many months must pass on the average before he enters HR, human resource. So, you know as I said again, just as for the first example, I am stating some questions, you can also add some more. The third one for example, is if the employee has been with the company for four years, how many times on the average he would have been assigned to HR, to human resource, then what percentage of an employee's assignments will be in sales. So, these are the questions and many more. Now, why would these questions be important, because a prospective employee who is going to join the company can ask questions like this, so that he can judge about his prospects in the company. Basically, he would like to know whether he will professionally be satisfied with the company or not. If it turns out that he comes to know that you will most of the time be with sales, then of course, he may not be wanting to you know stay with the company, because he may not be interested in sales and so on. So, I am just giving an example, but there can be many such questions that can be asked. So, the NIs of the first example and XIs of the second example are not independent random variables that you can see. In the first example, the NIs were the number of particular brand of watches that were left at the end of the week that were in stock. So, we saw that this was dependent on what should be manned is in the following week and dependent on your ordering policies. So, you cannot say that N1, N2, N3 and so on, they are independent random variables that you can see that there is some relationship and similarly, for the XIs it is possible see the whatever the way the organizers or the owners of the company decide to reassign the sections, certainly where you were and how long you have been in a particular section will have a bearing on where you will be next. So, you can feel that these random variables are not independent and therefore, any kind of computations about these random variables will not be easy thing. So, now, we will attempt to define this stochastic process after these two examples. So, any random process for which time can be measured discreetly and can be represented and can be represented as a sequence of random variables. So, I should add the word here and can be represented as a sequence of random variables, then this is I will call it a random process or I will call it a stochastic process is called a stochastic process. Or very simply you can simply say it is a sequence of random variables index by time. So, a stochastic process and definitely you can see that it is evolving over time and then you want to now look at its behavior. So, of course, now you see that if you want to answer any of these questions that I have posed and even in the earlier one, then you see you may want to know if you would need to know the joint density function of for example, if you are planning horizon is 5 years, then you may want to know the joint distribution of x 1, x 2 up to x 10 since they are not independent. And therefore, you cannot say that the joint density function of x 1 to x 10 will be product of individual density function. So, you will have to need to find out and of course, if your planning horizon is much bigger, then you can just give raise you know you can throw up your hands and say that you know you cannot compute joint density function of so many random variables. So, therefore, we need to really look at the methods by which we can sort of simplify analyzing such a process or under what conditions can we try to answer questions like this when we are looking at a stochastic process. So, for the automobile company, just look at the we can diagrammatically describe the profile of a employee and so you see here the horizontal axis is giving you the time period. So, this is the beginning of the planning horizon. So, 0 period that means the start of the process, then this denotes the first six month period, this is the second six month period, third six month period and so on. So, this is what it is and then here you have the three sections to which the person can be assigned. So, for example, what it is saying is that here in the first six months period, he was with HR, the second section. And then in the next six months period, he got assigned to production, which is your first section. I think this is production, this is HR and this is sales. So, then he got assigned to in the second six month period, he went to sales and then again after that he went to your sales in the next this month. That means one year is over, this is the next six months even. So, therefore, you can see that this diagram and here for example, here from this onwards, he continued for two periods consecutively in the production section. So, this you can diagrammatically describe the profile of an employee in the manufacturing company. Now, let us just give some more terminology. So, set of all possible values the random wearable X i takes is called the state space. So, we always describe. So, whenever wherever the system or the process is whatever situation it is in. So, that will be described by the state space and normally what we do is we give it numbers. So, the possible values in the state space we describe by the numbers. So, for example, here the three sections I numbered as 1, 2, 3. So, it is easier because otherwise you cannot go on writing the possible values that the state space contains. It may be different different things. So, we can just distinguish them by the numbers and. So, here for example, this will be X n is i means the state in which the system is at time period n. So, the value of X n. So, if I am describing my X i's are the wearables which are the random wearables which describe the process. Then when you change these that means when the system changes from one state to another we call such the process as the change is called a transition. So, are called transitions. Now, as I said that and we have seen the two examples already simple ones. We saw that the real life situations the processes will be many, many processes are stochastic because there are elements of the process which are which are not which cannot be determined with certainty. And then we also have seen that you know even in such simple examples your X i's are not independent. So, there will be some sort of dependence among the random wearables. So, therefore, as I was saying earlier that it will be very difficult to have a combined joint density function of all the possible random wearables which describe the states in which the system can be over a long time period. And so you cannot just analyze or answer any questions about the process. So, Markov suggested the following simplification. So, he said that the transition from one section to another may depend on the current section occupied. And here I should say the word only the transition from one section to another may depend on the current section occupied. So, when we said depend this of course, that means the computation of the probability, the probability with which the process will transition from one section to another would be the probability would be dependent on where you are right now. So, the current section. So, Markov suggested this simplification and the for example, in the watch shop example value of n i plus 1 to depend on the values of n i and d i plus 1 only. And the way I was describing to you the values of n i plus 1 which was max of the formula I wrote down. So, that from there we saw that we were computing n i plus 1 only depending on the values of n i and d i plus 1. So, that was that anyway. So, therefore, according to Markov's definition this is already satisfying the Markovian property right now in the, so once you have this and then that means in the in the in the in the section assignment problem what we are saying is that yeah that means we are saying that if you want to look at x i the value of x i then that will depend on. So, the probability that you will go from whatever the value of x i it will depend on where what is the value of x i minus 1. So, sort of the transition from here. So, this will depend on this and then x i will affect the value of x i plus 1 with certain probability right. So, this is the kind of dependence we are only allowing or you can say this is a simplification that. So, this makes the analysis of stochastic processes which satisfy Markov's property quite tractable and we will see this as we go on we will see that about we can probably answer almost all the questions that I wrote in the beginning about the automobile manufacturing company and the question the kind of questions that an employee may be interested in knowing. So, we should we will be able to answer the questions because if we say that the section assignment process would be would satisfy the Markov property right. Now, any stochastic process which satisfies Markov property is called a Markov chain or a Markov process. So, I will be using the word Markov chain or Markov process with the same meaning synonymously right. So, now what happens that with the Markov's property being satisfied by a process then we just need to compute the joint or the conditional probability mass function remember I am talking about these discrete processes. So, joint or conditional PMF of neighboring x i's is computed. So, it simplifies and therefore, you know when have you have two variables you can very easily compute the joint or the conditional PMF of two variables and so with that we can then able to we are then able to analyze the process over long term and whatever it is. So, now if you want to formally state Markov's property that is see essentially what you are saying is probability x n plus 1 is equal to j that means at time n plus 1 your system is occupying state j and if you look at the past history starting from x 0 is i then it will be x 1 is some i 1 and so on x n minus 1 is i n minus 1 and x n is i. So, this is the entire past history. So, if you are not assuming the Markov property being satisfied by the process then of course, to answer this compute this probability you would need to know the entire past history, but then Markov's property simplifies it and says that this whole thing can be made equal to probability x n plus 1 equal to j given that x n is i. So, wherever they can be also the current state of the system that helps you to determine. So, with some probability where the system will be in the next state next term time period and so these are known as one step transition probabilities and we will call them as p i j. So, now I am here not writing anything else why because I am now making one more simplification and what we are saying is that this is actually equal to probability of x 1 equal to j given that x naught is i. So, that means the starting state of the system suppose if you were in the system was in i state i then the next period that is in j. So, we will denote that one step transition probability and we will say that over the long period that the process goes on this does not change. That means whether at time period n plus 1 you are considering the change from x time period n to time period n plus 1 or you are considering the change from the starting initial state to this first period. So, those probabilities remain the same and that is why the word stationary. So, what we are saying is that the one step transition probabilities are stationary and essentially the explanation here is that whatever process you consider we are saying that after the initial perturbations and so on this system has settled down to stationary this system has become or the process has become stationary. So, it is not and therefore these transition probabilities are not being affected by where you are considering at what time period you are considering the transition. As we go on we will be looking at lot of processes and lot of situations real life situations where we will see that to assume that your transition probabilities have the stationarity property is not very unrealistic. So, we will continue with the yeah so I will just continue with defining and giving you how to compute these probabilities and so on or once you have these probabilities then what can you do with these. So, let us start looking at how we will now continue with the analysis of the process and so where therefore what we would need first to describe the process and what are the quantities that will require before we can continue with our analysis and trying to answer the questions related to the process. So, if x naught is the let us x naught is the present assignment by our notation right 0. So, this means whatever the value of x naught that tells us the present assignment of the employee and then we are interested in his next assignment that is we want to know the value of x 1 in the next time period. So, if suppose x naught is 1 that is the man is currently in production then x 1 can be 1 2 or 3 any of the 3 sections he can be assigned to right. So, that means you want to know the probability. So, it means this has to be given to you that is if he is already in he is starting his career with x naught equal to 1 that means he is in production right now and then what is the probability that he will be again kept in production only. So, x 1 is 1.  So, it does not matter whether it is x n plus 1 equal to 1 given x n is 1 or x naught is 1 given that x naught is 1 then x 1 is 1. So, the probability p 1 1 and then similarly you would need to know if x naught is 1 then what is the probability that he will be in h r right. So, that probability is p 1 2 and the probability that he will be in sales is given by p 1 3 right. So, these are the first step transition probabilities if you know where he is at the beginning of the planning horizon right and if you know x naught is 1, but if x naught is 2 then of course again the transition probabilities will be different in the sense that now what is this probability of going from 2 to 1. So, that means he is in h r and then the probability that he will be assigned to production. So, that must be some probability you see these are the transition probabilities which are now describing to us whatever the assignment process is and. So, therefore, again these three transition probabilities p 2 1 p 2 2 and p 2 3 are given to us and then for if x naught is equal to 3 that means if he is already he is currently in sales then his probability of going to production will be p 3 1 probability of going to sales will be p 3 2 and probability of going remaining in sales will be given by p 3 3. So, these we call as the I am not all the time saying one step transition probabilities, but that is understood. So, this is transitioning from states. So, here these three numbers these three probabilities give you the transition probabilities of transitioning from state 3 to any of the three states right. So, therefore, the process and now of course we will see that this is not a complete description of the process and we will as we go along we will find out what more we need, but let us just first look at this. So, now the nine first step transition probabilities can also be written as a 3 by 3. See remember because whatever the number of states if the number of states is capital N then your transition probabilities will be n square because you can go from one state to any of the n states. So, therefore, you will always have n square numbers and so these transition probabilities can be written in a matrix form. So, if you have n entries sorry n states that this system can occupy then it will be n cross n matrix that you can you can record all these transition probabilities in a n by n matrix. So, here since our states three states are there three sections. So, I can record all the nine transition first step transition probabilities in a 3 by 3 matrix. So, P will be called transition matrix. Now, since the man must transition from let us say from production to any one of these sale either he stays in sale production or he goes to HR or he goes to sales he must transition to one of the because after every six months that assignment is announced. So, therefore, these three probabilities will add up to one. Similarly, and therefore, also another way of saying this that these probabilities must add up to one is that they are the P 11 and P 12, P 13 describe the conditional PMF remember we have talked about it while talking about you know conditional probabilities and conditional expectation. So, this is the conditional PMF of x 1 given that x naught is 1 and. So, therefore, since this these three numbers describe the conditional PMF they must add up to 1 because. So, same way you can argue that the second and the third rows must also add up to 1.  So, now any square matrix which has because these are probabilities. So, they have to be non-negative numbers. So, any matrix A a square matrix which has all entries or all elements non-negative and the rows add up to 1 can be will qualify to be a transition matrix. That means we can say that they must be as to castig process which can be associated with such a matrix. So, all entries are non-negative and the rows the elements of the row add up to of every row add up to 1. So, this will be this will qualify to be a transition matrix. Now, another way of looking at this process because diagrams always help they fix ideas and I think they also help in the understanding of the process. So, let us see I will describe the three states by the nodes of this graph. So, first is your production HR and sales and if I am showing it arc from 1 to 2 and this is transitioning from 1 to 2. And of course, I have not entered all the probabilities, but they can be written down here. So, the arc 2 to 1 will be the transition from 1 step transition from your HR to production. And this loop describes that means you stay in 1 that is your transition from 1 to 1. So, you do not go anywhere you continue with the same state. So, this way you can look at this and so you can write down the probabilities here also p 1 1 this will be p 2 2 and this will be p 2 3. So, this will be p 3 2 and finally, this will also be p 3 3 and here this will be p 3 1 and this will be p 1 3. So, this diagram also helps you to look at and you can see that currently you can transition from for example, from 1 to 2 then you can go from 2 to 3 you can come from 3 again you can come back to 2 or you can go from 2 to 2. So, actually you can play around and you can see lot of things that you can do with the you can see how the transitioning is taking place and so on. But of course, this you can do when your number of states is small and if the number of states is large then drawing a picture like this may not be a very good alternative. And so, we will have to look at other ways of handling this process, but anyway this makes the thing look interesting. I mean the picture is there and you can just see how the process is evolving over time going from one state to another and going through these arcs. So, you see we describe the first step transition probabilities and through a diagram and so on. Now, suppose we want to now look at look at x 2 the random variable that describes the state of the system at time 2. Now, again I try to show you through the diagram. So, if you look at this for example, you start with state 1 that means you start with production and after 2 transitions you are back in production. So, what would that mean?  So, that means you continue through. So, this path describes one possibility which I have written down here and then it could be that you start from production you go to H R and then again you get transition back to production. So, that will be your second path. So, I am talking now in terms of paths because this is how you will when you go for 2 step transition probabilities this is what you will have to you will have to compute the probabilities of these paths and then finally you will start from production go to sales and then you are back to production. So, that will be your third path and so just to give you and of course we will continue this discussion in the next lecture also. So, if you look at probability x 2. So, here your actually the arrows are in the wrong direction. So, it should be x naught to 1 and then x 1 to x 2 you start from here then you transition to production and again you transition to production from the first period to the second period. And since we have Markovian property tells us that you know we just need a one step transition probabilities that means the transitioning from x naught 1 to 1 and then from in the second period from the first period from 1 to this. So, these are independent and therefore, I can write them as the product of transition probability 1 to 1 here in the first period and then again 1 to 1. So, now here again the second property that we have used is the stationarity. So, Markovian property and stationary transition probabilities both tell us that you know the probability of the first path that means transitioning from 1 to 1 in two periods along the first path the probability is p 1 1 square. And so, we will continue with this kind of computation and then show you very interesting results and then you will see that how far our analysis can go of stochastic process which satisfies Markovian property and of course, we are talking when the stationarity conditions are met.


This paper proposes a novel approach to improving the performance of reinforcement learning-based brain-machine interface, RLBMI, systems. It uses a combination of temporal difference, TD, methods and attention-gated kernel reinforcement learning, CAGROL, to assign credits to different steps of the task, as well as discriminating between spatial locations in the reproducing kernel Hilbert space, RKHS. This allows for improved performance in complex BMI tasks, such as those involving multiple steps and providing feedback to the subject. This article was authored by Xiang Chen, Xiang Zhang, Yifan Huang and others.


Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of our Pokemon VGC 2020 battle series episode My name is Lee also known as Osiris and in today's episode We're gonna be featuring a team based all around a G max and telly on so as you can see the team is on your screen right now Consisting of that G max and telly on the vanilla luxury talent flame to Rackian and a moongus There's always there will be a poker paste down in the description for you guys to check out and try if you'd like and There will be a rental code at the end of the episode as always will do a couple of games with the team And then we will throw the rental team up for you guys to have a go with if you want so G max and telly on really strong Pokemon and maybe being still a little bit slept on here It's got a couple of options what I can do and in the format at the minute if you supported right with different things Obviously, it's got that focus energy and scope lens set that we've seen before we featured that on the channel actually And but we're going with a different tack today We're going with a life orb and a bit more of a kind of a hail kind of spam with that vanilla looks there We've also integrated beat up as well on the vanilla looks as it is scarfed So it is going to be faster than majority of the team and the majority of the format So we've got the ability to beat up our own to Rackian with the weakness policy there and start doing some big damage If we need to kind of cut through teams pretty quickly got the slow parts of the team Obviously with the Luxury and the Amungus Intimidate there to help us slow things down snarl support You've got volt switch on there as well It gives us that nice slow switch and then Amungus really there to try and disrupt trick room set up from my opponent's side of the field It also pairs in nicely with a nice fire water grass core with the Intelion and Talon flame soul without further ado Let's jump on to the ladder and hopefully you can find a few games for us to feature today Intelion is like I say a really interesting Pokemon It was one of the starter Pokemon that wasn't included in the ban list It's gonna crazy fast speed stats So it naturally out speeds most of the format So it does give our opponents a bit of a headache straight away and to begin with okay Well, we've got our first opponent and they are playing a team of Kingdra Politoad Sylveon, Amungus, Ferrothorn and and Darmanitan Glaring Forms So they've got a rain core with double grass with the redirection from the Amungus and obviously the Ferrothorn as well So two Pokemon that we need to be careful with and we do have the hail obviously that can disrupt My opponent's weather, but we have to be careful because we can't just lead vanillax into this match unfortunately because if we do They are going to be able to Overwrite that with their rain from Politoad because it will be naturally slower even even if it is scarf Politoad will be faster than it So it's just a case of what do we want to bring? I think like Intelion isn't a bad lead with maybe Luxray. We could go Talonflame I probably do want Talonflame in the back to be honest. I do want vanillax I think vanillax can do a lot of work here Sylveon worries me slightly because that is going to be a bit of a problem obviously very good on the special defensive side of things And I can't really freely lead Tarakian in this one But I do well, I mean I could bring Tarakian I could bring Tarakian it might help with the Ferrothorn and the Darmanitan We'll go with that and if we can get some speed control as well to help us out against the Darmanitan It's going to be an issue Got to be careful against the Amungus of course, but we do have that Blizzard span that we could maybe start hitting The Politoad going to be a bit awkward as well But we do have Luxray to kind of fall back on for that We just need to make sure that we are protecting it correctly in this match So as we go up against the king here with these crown they're going to see Amungus and Politoad come out for my opponent, okay well Okay, so we've got a few options here I mean we could even Max Luxray to be honest, obviously the thing that I'd want to do is probably Max and Teleon go Max, Hale and Voltswitch into Because if we go Airstream like they've probably got Cobra Berry, whereas if we go Yeah, if we go Max Hale Storm we could Voltswitch out on the Amungus as well and Probably that combination is going to be enough to get the knockout onto it. So I think that's what we'll do Max Hale and We'll Voltswitch as well. Yeah, and then it gets vanilla looks on the field and then we can start like Spamming Blizzard with our and Teleon. So that's quite a nice option to be careful about using and Well, I say we need to be careful about using our G max move. It doesn't matter We're not setting the rain with it. So that's that's ideal But it'll be interesting to see what this Amungus goes for I'd imagine it's Cobra. I can't imagine it being Yachi Berry at all although We've seen some mad things in our time of course, so that's the thing we will get rid of the rain No, that's a big important thing for us to deal with the the kingdom That's maybe lurking in the back. Do you see the Amungus actually protect here, which is interesting? so We're not going to be able to get our Voltswitch out onto it the reason I wanted to go for it because if it is sashed We just break the sash with the Voltswitch Rather than letting the hail kind of do the damage to the next turn. Okay. Well, the hail is set up poly toad is Probably gonna want to switch out this next turn. I'm interested to see what it does. There's just scald Does that's a cheeky scald that is very cheeky trying to go for the burn there and it does get it which is Super unfortunate and inter luxe ray really really unfortunate and We could really do without the burn there in all honesty, but They have burnt a turn of our max now. What are they gonna switch out? Are they gonna keep Amungus on the field to go down or they're gonna switch it into something and Because we could potentially just go airstream now and and snarl I Think they're gonna switch the poly toad out in all honesty. That's what I would imagine I'll go for the hail again. We're kind of not getting the most out of Intelli on here But at the same time it's a bit of an awkward matchup for us So we have to kind of try and do what we can poly toad switching out They don't have an electric resistor or an immunity here. So and It's nice being able to Get some damage onto the field. Okay. Well, you get rid of the Amungus now whether or not It's an idea to bring in villain looks now because I think poly toads likely to maybe come back onto the field And we don't want to give ourselves. Oh, I'll put ourselves at a disadvantage. That's the one thing. So We'll get looks right off the field Terrachian isn't a bad shout here in all honesty The problem is my opponent still hasn't maxed they're doing all the right things to kind of get around and Install out our max turns, which is not ideal If we've got maybe an airstream off that last turn, it might have been a better idea Just fear the coba berry on the Amungus so much It's nice that we've been able to get rid of the Amungus now and imagine it will be poly toad coming in It's Kingdra, huh? Okay? Now I'd imagine The Dom Manitin to switch straight out to Yeah, it's gonna switch straight out to To poly toad I would presume So I think what we'll do is We'll switch into Luxor and go for an airstream Because then we get the intimidate onto the Dom Manitin we get some decent damage onto Kingdra We'll get We still got Terrachian and vanilla looks in the back at least to to bring our weather in and start disrupting remember vanilla looks as well It does have freeze drive. So we've got a nice way to actually hit the Kingdra and the poly toad if we need to Really imagine in the Dom Manitin to switch out, but we'll see we'll see if it does it doesn't switch out Which is interesting So the intimidate gonna be useful there and imagine probably close combat maybe into a super powers Sorry into the Terrachian slot potentially can't see it going for an ice type attack You see things like rock slide and stuff all the time So Can't really tell what they may be going for here Let's see though. It is a U-turn. They are gonna try and get the poly toad onto the field. So that makes a lot of sense It'll be interesting to see what the Kingdra goes for here It is gonna get its rain up and I'm kind of hoping it goes into what was the Terrachian slot now The Luxor a slot and takes that down and gives us that free switch back into vanilla Which will make this match a lot easier for us And tell you on now with this speed boost we should get the jump on Kingdra We're gonna see the Max Geyser.  It is life orb. So we do get that Information and we get an airstream off. So we're making some use It's not the best damage. Is it really but I mean, it's not the worst either And maybe a double blizzard. No, no, no way no way double blizzard gets the No way double blizzard gets the Kingdra No chance, but the thing is I think what we'll probably see is The polytode switch out here For the Dom Anatan so we could make The most of this turn where we go for the snipe shot into the polytode Make a call there and go for a freeze dry into the Kingdra. The other option is We could beat up on to our and tell you on slot The only issue doing that is Only issue doing that is That we probably well the Dom Anatan coming in we're not gonna get rid of it And it is gonna be able to hit to rack in first, which is not ideal. So I think we do snipe shots The polytode and I think we just go for a freeze dry into Kingdra And it's four times weak to the freeze dry. We should add speed it as well. So It'd be interesting to see. Okay, no switches getting caught out. All right Well, we get a little bit of damage off there. Not the greatest Okay, but we do activate an eject button. So technically we get that right It's all about this freeze dry, but it looks is pretty strong So I'm hoping we can take down this Kingdra like Kingdra's not the most Known to be the most bulkiest of Pokemon. So even though it is maxed. I'm hoping it's gonna be enough It is enough. Okay. Perfect. The Kingdra killer is here. The king has Hit the building and actually now it works out pretty perfectly because With that speed boost that we got within telemobile to add speed the Dom Anatan We know it's scarfed from the the previous turn so can't protect we can get rid of that and then just freeze dry the polytode And we got track in in the back. So I think we've got this one wrapped up pretty nicely A bit sketchy at times, but we've managed to come through this one and then tell you on Doing some nice work with our little ice cream friend vanilla X I do love these these Pokemon this pairing is is like one of those pairings like I really have like a massive soft spot for I do love and tell you on as one of the new starters the G max form is amazing and Who doesn't love vanilla? Cuz I mean it's an ice cream. It's like it's a big the design is so wacky. It's so cool I do love it a lot and Polytode another one of my favorites, of course polytode and Fortunately, I don't really have that much confidence and rain At the moment maybe that'll change with crown tundra and we get the introduction Some maybe Other Pokemon to help support a little bit Make it a bit more viable and but at the minute rain doesn't feel like it's having the best of times I still think it can work. We've seen some teams that do Have done quite well in the format. I just don't feel like it's it's quite there yet unfortunately, but Definitely has a easier time in series 6 than it did in series 5 for sure But it's still not kind of making the splash that I'd like it to which is sad because rain is definitely one of my favorite archetypes It's definitely a favorite weather of mine, but unfortunately even if something is your favorite doesn't make it good But feel free to disagree with me I'd love to hear any Counter arguments in the comment section down below be great to hear from you guys as it always is okay Well, that's a nice win for us to start with today And I'm kind of hoping we can get the beat-up strategy working in our next episode the next game That would be I'd be really good if we can get the vanillax kind of Teraki in core working Just to show that side of the team off as well Or just a blizzard spam be nice just to just blizzard spam from the good old days I love a bit of blizzard spam the chances of getting a freeze are very very probable So that would always be good and showcasing a freeze Be kind of nice, especially if you had that episode Is it over the weekend? I had the double freeze on the dragon's old team, which was pretty brutal Okay, we got an ex-opponent playing my period and moongus ferrathorn. So we got that double grass type again again So yeah, I mean it makes sense. They do both do different things one the redirection ones obviously disruption And one can just create win conditions super easily, but They're paired up anywhere with the talent flame the dust globes and perma arena. So Pretty heavy trick room team here. You've got the talent flame, which probably is more Offering, I mean it may be a split, you know, you might have tailwind and trick room mods They're like perma arena and right period can work in both both forms And But I think they're more likely to go the trick room route and all honesty Which makes me feel like it makes me feel like we could potentially go Talon For the taunt at least and then tell you I mean the perma arena does scare me slightly and So need to be super careful around that the other option is vanillax and Teraki and we could just go for the beat Up straight away, which is which would be quite a nice. I think we need a moongus And do we bring in telly on or time for it may be talent flames the one because otherwise Let's bring in telly on can we lock it. I don't think we're locked in I think I think we timed out Faffing round again faffing round, but let's see these we got and telly on in vanillax so we can just go You can just spam spam blizzard if we want turn one we'll see what my pond does No, it's wacky in this game. No, I don't think I think Luxury and Talon flame in the back Which is not good because we need we needed a moongus Yeah Okay, well well well well well well. I mean we can blizzard spam here for sure And hope we get a freeze on the the disclops that would be the best case scenario ever I don't see the moongus the moongus has to protect have to protect But we will just go blizzard blizzard There's no reason not to and It will be enough to get rid of the moongus and We've got a good chance to maybe freeze the disclops, which is what we're going for. We'll pray into the RNG gods Let's do it. I believe that we can do a moongus actually switching out. So whatever's coming in is gonna Take an absolute pelting Well, maybe not but we could still freeze the primarina.  It doesn't matter. It's fine It's fine. We get the freeze. That's all that matters. Okay. So excited about that freeze So excited about the freeze. Come on. Let's do this. Let's do this. We'll keep the free Should we just keep going blizzard spam?  I don't feel like it's a good idea to max though at the minute When we're in trick room, it's probably not the best We could potentially just go for a double blizzard again I mean the chances of getting a freeze onto the dust globs pretty good I think the primarina is not likely to have yet. She's got night shade. So maybe okay tell you on Yeah, primarina frozen. This is this is this is awesome. Okay, if we can just keep this come on get another freeze We need another freeze. We need another freeze. That's what we need I'm gonna have to switch and tell you on out. I think this next turn Can we get another? No, there's no freeze there. How's the dust globs got pain split though? That's the big question. That is the question. Um, I think maybe it's good to switch and tell you on out now. Um Potentially get luxe ray onto the field we could get talent flame onto the field as well Um, or we could just protect and tell you on this turn and then go from there Uh, I just worry about the moonga's coming onto the field again if we take We can deal with. Hmm. Yeah, because intelion's definitely in night shade range now Um, it's probably better to keep talent flame Healthy at the moment. We'll go for another free. We'll go for another blizzard, of course. That's what we need to do Um, if they've got pain split they're gonna go onto the vanillax. Um But I don't want to risk intelion here and I think it's better rather than just protecting here taking chip damage Um, it might be quite important later on in this game So there's a night shade yet Since vanillax this time that's interesting predicting the switch Primarinus is frozen. She's ideal As we get another blizzard. Can we get another freeze? Come on. We need that. We need that extra freeze. We don't get it But we got rid of the dust globs. Who would have thought? and Primarina, oh barely hanging on barely hanging on with the skin of its teeth and moonga's gonna come back in now for sure And it's gonna try and disrupt us with its spores Redirection sleep powder and all that jazz, which is not great. But how many turns of trick room have we got left? Two Okay, let's go for a snarl. I mean that the other thing is we could potentially I just worry about the ripheria being in the back as well because I'd imagine you probably have ripheria I don't want to max luxe array and then that'd be the case because we could max and go for um electric terrain so we can't be put to sleep Um, which actually might not be a bad idea in all honesty It's just if the ripheria is the last pokemon in the back. I mean that shouldn't matter too much um Let's go for that. Let's go max lightning and um, yeah, let's just blizzard again with vanillax, I guess But they're gonna spoil If they spoil luxe array then well, that's that I'm not gonna redirect that because there's no redirect in the blizzard So it doesn't make much sense there. It kind of makes more sense to stop the blizzard.   Um, that is going to protect us against the moonga's um, but I mean The fact that we got the the freeze onto primarina kind of helped us out quite a lot Now, what's the last pokemon going to be if it's something like ferrithorn? We're fine. We're super fine We've got talon flame in the back. We can bring it in heat wave go from there My opponent hasn't maxed yet as well. So we do need to keep that in mind But with the immunity to Okay, it's talon flame. That's perfect Are literally perfect It's not so good. Um In the fact that We've got redirection, um as a thing. Um I mean we could max lightning, but it's not really going to do very much. Is it we could max and knuckle booster attack a bit Um, we can max darkness We'll lower the special defense Which will probably help if vanillax comes back in later on in this match Um, and there isn't a tailwind. Yeah, I mean that's probably not a bad idea to go for max darkness And switch into talon flame. I think I don't really want to lose vanillax and telly on because I feel like they might be Good late game, especially if the brave, but the talon flames gale wings is broke And vanillax will be able to hit first as long as we get a tail tail wind up um I'd imagine we'll probably see a brave bird from the opposing talon flame into ours. Yep And the rage powder coming out. Yeah It's not going to do that. It's not doing anything at all. It really isn't especially because it's coming out fair um I'm going to try and get a tail wind up here I think that's maybe a better thing to do as the trick room should and now Or is it one? Yeah dimension send back to normal. Okay, well, we'll try and get um a tail wind up It's going to be a speed tie though between the two talon flames Now the other option is we go after the amungus Get rid of that but the amungus may protect here Fearing that and they may try and just brave birders. I don't know if they protect though If they protect the amungus then Um, the thing is I think Oh, wow. What are they maxing? Is this talon flame? Or is this amungus? It will come down to it's the talon flame. It comes down to speed tie again though, doesn't it? It will come down to speed tie.  So we should have a good chance Looks like we're gonna get it. Oh, maybe not. Maybe not the rage powder thrown off And we do get it. Okay, that's perfect So we've got the speed advantage wind and teleon comes in you can just just double blizzard Max lightning going to come out again. You have to rage powder. This should do a bit more damage Yeah, and that's definitely a blizzard range now, which is ideal Um airstream coming up Okay, that's fine That's super fine because now we bring vanilla looks and get rid of the amungus And then looks where it can take care of the talon flame So that is ideal because even with the plus one speed boost Timeflame. Oh, we got one blizzard left one Okay But I mean it's one is all we need the moongus him protect But the talent and I guess the timeflame could protect as well Um, and then we are a little bit screwed Because then go no blizzards left Blizzard it ourselves out, but let's hope my opponent doesn't do that And go wild charge and we'll go Blizzard I've even pp maxed them. So it's not like we've we've we've not done that. We've actually Um, what we're gonna see rage powder. Perfect. There we go. We've got this game locked it up in the bag Yeah, the the biggest problem there would be the max guard and the protect that deals Obviously the max dark and it's coming in handy there. Uh, gonna be able to get rid of the amungus Timeflame probably goes Flame goes airstream again trying to match our tailwind. Um, just fine because now the wild charge will take it down Um from luxe ray got the electric train boost So there's no doubt about it that luxe ray gonna be able to finish this one off And actually even though we got pretty lucky early on with that freeze Um, it's gonna happen though if you're playing like double blizzard it will happen Um, I mean this has been quite a nice match. I've enjoyed this. Of course I have We have the rng on side But the most important thing is I hope you guys at home have enjoyed it I'd love to hear your comments about the games today. Of course as always We thoughts are on the team and of course if you do try the team out Um, I'll be throwing the rental team up in a moment I would love to hear your thoughts on the team and uh, if you have had a good time playing it So like I say go on over to the rental team and with us churning out so many teams at the minute Obviously producing the rental codes. I am having to take all the teams down that we've featured recently So if there is teams, I keep saying this But as a just a reminder to you guys if there are teams that we've had up And I'm going to be throwing the gengar urchin food team up again on my alternative switch So if there are other teams You would like to see that we have been featuring recently. Um That you would like to see up again. Then do let me know I think I'm gonna have to take the perish down to be honest. Hmm. It's a bit tricky because I know the perish is quite um, I think actually the diggers b1 is probably The one isn't as new so we'll take diggers b down But like I say we're taking it down. It doesn't mean I can't put it back up I can put it on my other switch. I've got five slots free on there that we can use and I can put teams up there so But for today, we will make this one public And Hopefully you guys have a lot of fun with it and tell you on definitely a fun pokemon Especially when it's paired with that vanilla because you can have a lot of fun. The team feels pretty stable as well So, um, I think it will do you good It will serve you well I should say if you do play it on the ladder, but there's the code. All right friends, um Yeah, have fun with it as you can see there's the team The poker face is down in the description like I always mentioned earlier. Um, and yeah Just have a lot of fun with the team if you tried out It is very very fun as you can see we've had two really nice battles with it today And they've both been extremely fun So I'm sure you will have fun if you tried out said fun too many times But as always if you have enjoyed this video, please drop a like on the uh video itself It does really help the channel out And let me know more than anything that you are enjoying this sort of content And also if you are new to the channel, make sure you do hit that subscribe button hit the notification bell So you get all the up-to-date Notifs when these episodes go out as well as our other pokemon content that we do and we do have a lot lined up I am doing a live stream tonight over on twitch and we're going to be looking at the players cup Um preparation for that teams to expect and what you can do to better prepare for that starting this week on friday Registration, I believe it's still open at this moment in time So if you haven't registered and you want to play you can do that and it's all on the switch But I'll be covering that in a video Before the tournament starts. So I do catch that come across 8 p.m This evening if you are around it'll be a lot of fun We've got some cool guests coming on to talk and give you all the insights that you'll need for that starting this weekend But um, I'll leave it there friends. Have a great rest of your days. Thanks for tuning in as always And I'll see you all for the next one. So take care be kind to yourselves Be kind to each other and I'll see you all for the next one. So until then take care. Bye. Bye


Okay, so we were looking at the process of meditation and why we are looking at these Hebrew words Haga and Siak is because meditation was practiced in the Old Testament. So how do we, when we are looking at these Old Testament scriptures, which are talking about meditating on God's word or meditation in general, how do we understand that? So we are looking at how did the Jews practice meditation. So those two words are descriptive of how the Jews practiced meditation. It would normally be where they would softly kind of repeat the words, whatever they were meditating on. So they are saying a prayer or they are repeating a passage from scripture, the Hebrew scriptures, of course, they would say it softly and they would normally rock back and forth. So it is this process of just repeating, repeating, repeating and in the process of repeating, you're bringing your mind to focus on that word that you are saying. Okay, and we'll just look at this definition that's here on the slide. So in usually in English, when we talk about meditation, it's usually just something that we're doing with our mind, right? So one way is to empty your mind, to come to a place of complete openness to receive anything that may come to you. But it's always usually thought to be just a process that is related to our thoughts or related to our mind. But here when we're looking at a scriptural use of meditation, it is also the use of your mouth. So you quietly repeat in a soft, droning tone. So the intention of repeating is to remove all outside distractions and to begin to focus only on that word that you are repeating. So if it is a Bible verse, if it's a verse specific verse that you've taken to constantly be repeating that verse. And as you're repeating that verse, your mind starts to focus on it. And you're also saying it, you're able to hear it right with your ears. So it's this process of speaking, hearing and focusing our thoughts on that single phrase or that single passage or verse from scripture. So this is something that comes from a Jewish prayer called Davening where texts were recited or prayers were prayed. And this is what I was saying where they rock back and forth and they are repeating a prayer or they're repeating a text from scripture in soft tones. You're not saying it very loudly.  So is this something anyone has practiced? Has anyone tried meditating in this way or have you already heard about it? I see Ndell had messaged earlier and Gertrude is thinking about scripture, meditation is the art of thinking on God's word. Right? Okay, thank you. So this is something that I will encourage us to do, especially as we're going through this class. And I'll ask you all to share about your experience on what you're learning, what you have taken away from this practice of meditation. So for us to understand what the process is, I'll probably assign something for us to do where we are meditating on a passage. You can pick the passage, but understand what the process involves. So when you're meditating, you're thinking about that passage, you're repeating it softly and repeating it a few times. Now the amount of time you spend on it is up to you. But the idea is that you're focusing on that passage. You're speaking the word and you're also hearing it. And the idea is in that process that that word gets sewn into your heart and takes root in your heart. So this is how we look at God's word, the process of meditating on God's word. It begins in our spirit. So as we are meditating on God's word, it is a spiritual thing that we are doing. And from our spirit, it is affecting our soul. So when we're talking about the soul, we are saying it's affecting the way we think. It's affecting our imagination. It's affecting our feelings and it's affecting our will. So the soul is the place where we make our decisions. The place where we view how we view the world, how we react to the world, how we respond to the world, how do we interpret things that are happening around us. So the way we think, the way we imagine, the things we desire, the way we make decisions, all of those things are happening in the soul. So we want what's happening in our spirit as we meditate to impact what happens in our soul. And then we want to see that impact our physical bodies. That means the way we live our lives. So we want it to impact the physical aspect. So from the inner man to the soul to the body. That's the process of meditation and the impact we want it to have. So there are three parts that we're going to look at in meditation. There's contemplation, visualization and confession. We look at each of those and what that means. But when we are talking about meditating on God's word, we may be doing any of these things. We might be contemplating the word. We might be visualizing the word or we might be confessing the word. We can be doing that simultaneously. We can be doing only one of them. We can be doing them in order, whatever it is. These are the three aspects of meditation. So we'll start with contemplation. Then we look at visualization and then confession. So contemplation is what you had mentioned. Can you tell me your name again? Sagar had mentioned when he meditates on God's word. He's thinking about a specific passage in scripture. So that's what contemplation is. Where you're thinking about a specific verse and you're really going deep into what is this verse talking about. What does it say about God? What does it say about me? How should it change how I live? What are some things I can do in my present day in the way I'm living? What should I do to let this word actually be the way I'm living? Are there any hindrances in my life that will keep this word from being fruitful or keep me from living in obedience to this word? So those are some things that we will look at. Someone can read Psalm 143.5 for us please. I remember the days of Holt. I meditate on all your work. I'm used on the work of your hands. Thank you. This is where we see here. I meditate on all works and I muse. That was the word that was used in the New Living Translation. It says, I think about what you have done. So this is where it's a mental exercise. We're using our mind to ponder on whatever we are meditating on. So we're meditating on God. So we're pondering on that verse or that passage. Let's use Isaiah 53, 4, and 5. We can open that. Can I read it, sister? Yes, please. Thank you. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we steamed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our inequities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. Thank you. So let's just spend a few minutes. We're going to practice this. We may not, we can spend some time individually just looking at these words and thinking about what is this talking about. Okay. And then we'll share what any insights that you have as you've thought about it. I'll just give you say two or three minutes and you can just think about what are these two verses. Isaiah 53, 4, and 5 talking about and we'll share anything that we've learned. So any things you want to share as you were looking at those two verses? Any things that you noticed? It is like a prophecy that is like being foretold for what he referring to Jesus. So what he would be, it's like an exchange of what we deserve. He's taken upon himself. And it also refers to also we consider it as though he's punished by God. But it was the other way around that he was punished for our transgressions for our guilt and our inequities that we have committed. Okay. Yeah. So on what he's done because of which we are healed and we are made whole. Yeah. So yeah, a few important things that predicting what would happen, what Jesus would do talking about how we perceived it but what was really happening and then talking about the end result of that. The end result is us being made whole and us being healed. Anyone else want to share? Okay. So some things that we want to do as we are contemplating God's word is we want to look at what is the meaning of what is being said. Right. So what are the words that are being used? Here and now obviously we all have a different translation. So the English words being used are different but I'm just going to read from my translation. So it's saying he took my weakness. He took my sorrows. And then at the end it's saying I am whole. I am healed because of what he has done. And then it also says he took my sickness. Right. So what is the meaning of that? That he's taken my weaknesses. He's taken my sorrows. He's taken my sickness. What is the significance of it? Meaning what is the impact that that has on my life? If Jesus has taken all these things, what does that mean for my life? How can I expect that to change the way I'm living or the way I look at certain circumstances? If I'm in a difficult situation and I feel that I'm too small for that situation, how can this verse change the way I respond in that situation? Where I put my trust in Jesus rather than in my own strength or in my own power, my own ability to do something. So we look at the application of the verse. And we allow it to transform the way we think and the way we live. Right. So that is this process of contemplation. We are thinking deeply about that specific verse or that specific passage. We're thinking about what does it mean? What does the word itself mean? And then what does it mean for my life? How does it impact my life? How should I be living in obedience to this word? So we'll just look at some of these verses that we've quoted here. 2 Peter 1, 21. If someone can read that verse. We'll start with verse 20. So 2 Peter 1 verses 20 and 21. 2 Peter 1, 21. 20 and 21. Verse 21, For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Thank you. So the word that's used here in the Greek is pharaoh. And that means they were born along, they were carried by the Holy Spirit. They were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the things that they wrote. So when we look at the scriptures, whatever is written, there's not something that the Holy Spirit just kind of forced the writers to write. The Holy Spirit moved them, moved their hearts, moved their spirits to communicate a certain message, but it was the human writers who actually wrote those messages. So even in this process of meditation, we are looking at the Holy Spirit moving us in our spirits, moving us in our hearts, in the things of God. So that it is a process where the Holy Spirit is inspiring certain things in us and we are responding to that inspiration. It's not something that is forced upon us. Neither is it something that we ourselves are trying to do by our own thinking, by our own imagination. So the Holy Spirit is the one who's teaching us, who's guiding us through this process, inspiring us, inviting us to new revelations of God, opening our eyes to new truths and then we can respond to those truths. So it's still left up to us to receive that or to discard it or to continue our lives in a way that we choose. We can choose to submit to that word or we can choose to walk in rebellion. We can choose to continue to live the way we are living. So there is the aspect of the Holy Spirit and us together in this process of meditation. Can somebody read John 16, 12 to 15, please? John chapter 16 verse 12 I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now. Verse 13 However, when the Spirit of Truth has come He will guide you into all truth for He will not speak on His own authority but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will tell you things to come. Verse 14 He will glorify me for He will take off what is mine and declare it to you. Verse 15 All things that the Father has are mine therefore I said that He will take off mine and declare it to you. So we see here Jesus talking to the disciples and he's saying there's many things that I want to teach you but now is not the time, right? It's too much for you to understand it's too much for you to receive at this point of time. So the Holy Spirit will come and give you that understanding give you that revelation at a later time. So this is, we take this passage and we see that the Holy Spirit continues to be the teacher continues to be our teacher as we look at God's word that the Holy Spirit will continue to reveal things of God to us. So He will tell you everything whatever He receives from me everything that the Father belongs to the Father is mine. So the Holy Spirit is revealing the things of God is revealing the mind, the heart of the Father and the Son to us. So that's what we're doing in this process of meditation. And then let's just look at these three, last three verses Ephesians 4-23 Ephesians 4-23 you are at the mind must be made completely new. Okay so Ephesians 4-23 is talking about the renewing of our mind renewing of our thoughts renewing of our attitudes and Romans 12-2 Romans 12-2 and do not be confirmed to this word but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable in perfect will of God. Okay so here again it's changing the way we think but through that process of changing the way we think we're able to discern between right and wrong. We know what God's will is and when we know God's will then we're able to say this is not what God wants this is evil and what God wants is good so we're able to discern that between what is good and what is evil or what is pleasing to God and what is not pleasing to God and then Hebrews 5-14 Hebrews 5-14 but solid food belongs to those who are full of age that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Okay so this verse also talks about that discerning between right and wrong so that is what meditation does right it will transform the way we think it will reveal to us the will of God and it will help us in the decisions we are making in the small decisions in the big decisions to be able to discern this is the will of God and this is not the will of God so this is right this is wrong this is pleasing to God this is not pleasing to God so it is transforming our thinking and transforming the way we live as well so the first part of meditation that we looked at was contemplation and now we are going to look at visualization so visualization is to see something with our mind's eye right so not with our physical eyes but with our imagination now we see imagination being used a lot in the world through media through advertising where people are calling you to imagine a better life for yourself right when someone is trying to sell you something in an advertisement they are showing you something that is very attractive and they want to kind of grasp your desires, your imagination for your own life and they want to say this is the life you should have right so that is what actually we should be doing with scripture instead right so we don't do that enough with scripture where we are allowing God's word to capture our imagination where we start to desire to see God's word fulfill God's word have our bare fruit in our lives in the ways that God wants to do things in our lives so what does God want to accomplish in our lives how should our lives be transformed so that our lives align with what God desires for our life so we look at these examples that we have here Genesis 15 1 to 6 can I read sister? yes please Genesis 15 1 to 6 after these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying do not be afraid Abraham I am your shield your exceedingly great reward but Abraham said Lord God what will you give me seeing I go childless and the air of my house is elia of Damascus then Abraham said to look you have given me know of of swing indeed one born in my house is my air and behold the word of the Lord came to him saying this one shall not be your air but one who will come from your own body shall be your air then he brought him outside and said look now towards heaven and crown the stars if you are able to number them and he said to him how shall your descendants be and he believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness thank you and Genesis 22 17 please Genesis 22 17 blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as which is on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies thank you so you see in Genesis 15 this is the this is after God has called Abraham to leave his father's house and he's told him I'm going to make you a blessing to the nation so Abraham has left and he's come away he's not had Ishmael and God comes to him and tells him that you are going to have descendants as many as the stars God just doesn't say those words right he asked him to look up and look at this as this picture of he has an image in his mind and his promise that he receives is based on that image so God is using that picture to help Abraham imagine a new future a future that he's not yet seeing at present because he doesn't have any descendants at all right and so in Genesis 20 to 17 this is after Abraham takes Ishmael takes Isaac sorry to to give him up as a sacrifice to God and then God stops him and reiterates the same promise so I'm going to make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand in the seashore so the use of that language that using of those pictures is to help him visualize something that God is promising him that he maybe God could say I can give you a thousand children I'll give you ten thousand children but God is using these kinds of pictures to say that they won't be there be beyond your ability to number them and those pictures capture um Abraham's imagination right his imagination for his future his picture of his future um let's look at numbers 13 30 to 33 numbers 13 uh verse 30 then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said let us go up at once and take possession for we are well able to overcome it but the men who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people for they are stronger than we and they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land they had spied out saying the land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature there we saw giants the descendants of Anak came from the giants and we like grasshoppers in our own site and so we were in their site so this is an example of two groups of people who have experienced the same thing but because of the way their imagination worked or the way they saw their uh saw their reality uh they responded to that experience in different ways right so we see in numbers 13 Joshua and Caleb uh and the 10 other spies so the 12 spies are going out to explore uh the land of Canaan and God has already promised to give them that land right so in Joshua and Caleb's mind they have pictured victory they have pictured that they are going to take this land because God has promised it to them uh but the other 10 spies uh they are looking at something that is real right the people there were giants but uh they have pictured themselves as grasshoppers in comparison to those giants are they really physically grasshoppers know right but that is the imagination that they had that is the way they saw themselves uh whereas Joshua and Caleb could see themselves as people who are able to fight this battle because of God who is on their site uh so that's where we look at how is scripture how is the word of God impacting our the way we look at things the way we imagine ourselves in response to certain situations that we are facing so we allow the word of God to capture our imagination to um to uh tell us the way we should think uh the way we should picture ourselves so that when we go into a situation we are responding in a way that is in line with God's promises right uh so just because of this one incident the whole future of that generation of Israelites is impacted like they all miss out on receiving that promise that God had for them that blessing that God had for them uh and so our imaginations can have a huge part in how we receive what God wants to give us and how uh we are able to fully experience the blessings uh that God has already promised to us okay so um we'll just look at these uh a few verses that are listed here and then we'll continue Deuteronomy 11 18 therefore you shall lay up these my words in your hearts and in your being and bind them up for a sign upon your hands and as forehead hands between your eyes thank you and Deuteronomy 6 8 and you shall bind them up as a sign upon your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes uh Exodus 13 9 9 and 16 it shall be as a sign to you upon your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth and for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt 16 and it shall be as a reminder upon your hand or as a frontlet between your eyes or by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt thank you and the last passage Proverbs 4 20 and 21 a I'll read system my spine give attention to my words incline your ear to my sings do not let them depart from your eyes keep them in the minds of your heart thank you so um we saw in those first few passages the first few verses Deuteronomy and Exodus a physical act right so God was saying don't forget this law that I'm giving you these instructions do these physical things to help you remember so tie it on your hands tie it on your forehead between your eyes and these were things that the Jews actually were practicing so what was the idea was it just to have some outward symbols of God's word or what you all think was the idea behind it so that you will know how close you need to hold them up to how close you need to hold the word up to whatever the law and the thing that's how close yeah so to keep it always close to you important as as important okay to meditate on it sister to meditate on it okay to meditate on it okay yes so for okay Lucy shared to help in reciting so what they would do is they would write it and it would be tied up right on their hands on their forehead the idea was you are constantly reminding yourself of God's word and it's always something that is impacting the decisions that you're making so it's on your hands so every time you're doing something you're reminded of God's word like you may not be able to read it but you know what is written in those verses and so you're reminded of that as you're doing things with your hands but it's always also before your eyes it affects the way you view things so while that may be a physical act of tying it on your head the picture is to always allow your eyes to be seen through the word of God so your vision the way you look at the world the way you perceive the world around you is as per the word of God so the word of God informs how you are viewing the world around you how you are responding to the world around you how you are living your life daily okay so that is where we're talking about this thing of imagination it influences our perspective on the way we live our lives on the way the world around us functions is influenced by the word of God so we'll close with this last part on confession okay so meditating on God's word we talked about contemplation we talked about visualization and this last part is confession that is saying what God has said Joshua 1 8 which we read earlier it says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth meditate on it day and night so there's meditation on it and there's also this process of speaking that's included it should not depart from your mouth you should constantly be confessing the word of God and we see in that Old Testament when we were talking about those two words of meditation that in that meditation they were actually speaking the word of God in the New Testament we don't hear so much about meditation we hear about confession so what does confession mean the Greek word is homologio to speak the same thing to ascent to accord to agree with so we're saying that we are coming into agreement with the word of God we're speaking the same thing as God speaks we are agreeing with what he says and we are coming into alignment with God's will for our lives so when we are confessing God's word what we are saying is I'm coming into agreement with your promises I'm coming into agreement with what you have said and I'm speaking that same thing over my life okay we'll just read Romans 10 17 Romans 10 17 so then faith comes by hearing and yearning by the word of God thank you so when we are speaking the word we are also hearing the word and so this is that process of increasing our level of faith when we are saying we meditate on God's word and we are constantly repeating that passage that we are meditating on we are also hearing that as we are repeating it we are also hearing it so we are allowing the word to not only be on our lips but also to receive it through our ears receive it into our heart and so in that process we are growing in faith we are allowing that word to be implanted in our hearts to take root in our hearts we are allowing ourselves to begin to believe that word to take hold of that word for ourselves and for our own lives so we end with this so what are the three things on meditation the three contemplation visualization and confession so contemplation thinking visualization seeing and confession speaking okay so those are the three parts of meditation we'll close here anything ask any questions are you all good okay let's take a break and we'll come back for the next class on New Testament survey at T11 thank you