Breaking Through

Narrator: Welcome to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, the place where you can get real answers to tough questions. Jesus promised you abundant life but poor choices and dark forces stand in your way. It is time to learn how to overcome the obstacles that keep you out of your promised land. Knowledge of God will pave the path for you to walk in His blessing. [Music] Dr. Ray: Hello, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. This episode is brought to you by the International College of Ministry, a Holy Spirit-filled online seminary just waiting for you. Go to www.icmcollege.org today. I want to talk to you more about obstacles and barriers. things standing in your path. You know, we have a path, we have a plan, we have a purpose. I know you've heard this, you know, till the cows come home, but you were not an accident. And I know this is kind of a cliche now, but there's a reason for your existence, there's a reason you were created. And you were created to serve God, you're created to glorify God - whether you want to accept that or not, it's the truth and it's– the truth will set you free. God has a plan for your life and for my life and in this plan, you will find fulfillment, satisfaction, peace, joy, happiness. What's happening in the world today is there's this constant search for more, more, more. It's because people are never satisfied, because they're not doing what God created them to do. They're not living in the place God called them to live, doing what God created them to do. The number one assignment of Satan is to stop God's people from God's plan. And I've said this in other shows, but Satan cannot defeat God directly so he attacks God indirectly and his main concern is you doing what you're created to do. You are a weapon in God's arsenal and Satan wants to stop you. You are designed, beautifully and wonderfully designed as King David said, for a reason, for a purpose. And there's been a scheme of the enemy, a plan, a plot, something, trying to stand in your way your whole life. I have a passion for this and I think the reason I feel so strong about this is because I live the life that was not the life God called for me. I lived the life that the world teaches. You know, I graduated college, I went into business and became pretty successful and I lived the worldly life I, and I– listen, nothing wrong with businessmen, and business– we need business, we need business, the world runs on business and businessmen, business women, we need that. But I was living a life of a square peg in a round hole. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I worked, I was never fully satisfied. So what I did was I did what a lot of men and women are doing is, I kept striving and striving and working and working trying to achieve my goals. And what were my goals? My goals were a certain amount of money, I wanted to have money, I wanted to have a bigger home, of course I love boats, I wanted to have a bigger boat. I wanted prestige, I wanted power, I wanted finance, I wanted to be what– financially secure. But the interesting thing, even though it seems all like good stuff, I was never happy. I was– something was just eating at me. I didn't know what it was until I found out through an encounter with the Holy Spirit - a major encounter with the Holy Spirit which is a whole other story - of what God designed me to do. And the moment I stepped into that - and it was a battle - but the moment I stepped into what God created me to do, I found an excitement, I, I– and a joy and a peace I had never known before. I'll never forget the first time I was called to preach and it was at a revival over in Arkansas and the man who was hosting the revival– it had been a real revival, a revival had been going on for over six weeks every night of the week. Um, people were getting healed, people were getting delivered. The local drug dealer gets so convicted he comes into the church and lays his gun and his drugs on the altar and said, “God, forgive me,” one of those kind of revivals you know, the real, real deal. Well, the head of the revival was the president of the bible college I was going to. And one day, this is kind of like a story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, like, would you lead my sleigh tonight? One day he could not go to the revival and he needed me to go in his place. In other words, I was called up to bat. And so I went. I was nervous, I was afraid because I think I'd only maybe preached one sermon in my life at my church, it was kind of a half-hearted thing that I did, although it was an important thing I did. So I go to this revival over in Arkansas and I got up to preach and I said something like, “Praise the Lord,” and people began to shout and as I preached, the anointing fell in this building and I saw tears, and I saw joy, and I saw manifestations of the Holy Spirit like I had never seen before and the Lord was using me. And the feeling I had was overwhelming, the feeling of joy and peace and contentment. It was like no other feeling, it was like nothing I had ever felt in business. You know, there were times in business I'd swing a big business deal, I might make ten thousand bucks in an hour and it felt good, but it didn't feel anything like what I experienced at that little church over in Arkansas. you know why? Because I had somehow some way stepped into my purpose and overcome the schemes of the enemy. Now, the schemes of the enemy kept attacking me and attacking me and attacking me because Satan did not want me to preach, he did not want me to teach, did not want me to ever give a prophetic word, and he pulled out all the guns on me my entire life and fought me and fought me and fought me. And over the years - I've been doing this a long time - I've learned something about the schemes of the enemy and about overcoming them and that's why I do this podcast. I want to share this with you, I want to share some of the things I've learned. The first thing you have to do is discover the reason you were born. you discover your purpose, your plan, your, your, your destiny. You know, you know, people say, “Well, you've got to have a vision, you got to have a plan.” That's a scary stuff because most people create visions and plans that are really not coming from God, they're coming from their own imagination and what happens with that normally is a limited amount of success. But when you are doing the thing that God created you to do, not only are you successful, but you also have this uncanny peace, this supernatural peace, and you have fulfillment. I want to tell you something. Honestly, I've had a lot of money in my life, I've had times when I have plenty of money, plenty of things, and there's times when I had no money and very few things. I want to tell you something, there's no correlation with my peace and happiness. When I had the money and the things, I really wasn't happy. I was not satisfied. As a matter of fact, I was stressed. And there were times– there was stressful not having stuff too as well. But the peace and the joy I have found in my life is talking to you now. Maybe imparting something to you. Now, what I'm doing now, teaching on– I love to teach with ICM, International College of Ministry, I love this, I love this school, I love to teach my online courses and I love to travel and speak at churches around the country. I love to pray for people at the altar, I love to give prophetic words, I love to deliver a message from God, I love to counsel God's people. That's what I'm called to do, that's what I love to do, it's, it's my, it's my passion. But I was far from it until I was over in my 40s, mid 40s before I found it. So maybe…I have a passion for you maybe not to do the same mistake that I did. And I won't say I wasted a lot of my life, but I'll say this: I didn't really find my purpose till I was 45 but I maybe could have found it when I was 18…or 19, but it's never too late. It's never too late with God. So here's the bottom line of this particular show: there's a plan for your life, and I've talked in previous shows, you've got to do three things. You've got to discover your gifting, discover your plan, discover your purpose, your call, whatever it is. It can be thousands and thousands of things. It– for me it was ministry, but for you it could be carpentry. Maybe it is business for you, okay? Maybe it's a lot of things, maybe it's to be an electrician. I don't know what it is but it could be a lot of things. You must discover it. That's a whole nother lesson, I've taught a lot about it, I've got information on my website about it. And then once you discover it, you have to fight for it because this is where the enemy– this is the thing, this is what the enemy doesn't want you to do: he doesn't want you to know what it is and he certainly doesn't want you to do it. And so he will put up obstacles and walls and barriers. And many times you're being blocked and you don't even realize you're being blocked. You're being stopped and you don't realize. You think, “Well, I'm just having a bad day, I can't believe that person said that,” or “how did I get in this relationship?” or, “oh my gosh, this church is driving me crazy,” whatever it is, Satan is constantly putting up obstacles, barriers, walls, mountains. He's trying to impede your path. He's doing this supernaturally, he's also doing this by influencing circumstance and people around you. And some of the people he will use are people close to you. They don't know they're being used but he will use people close to you to try to block your path.The path is the path that God has put you on. It's the path you are born for. You know, you've ever heard the expression “I was born for this,” is that path and everything he can do, he wants to block that path for you. He wants to keep you off that path, he wants to get you to turn off that path or come to a dead end or stop or reverse your engines, whatever, but he wants to stop you. And so when Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes, he's not kidding. Matter of fact that in, ‘course, um, in Ephesians he talks about putting on the full armor of God to overcome the enemy’s schemes, okay? A scheme is a plan, a scheme is a method, a scheme is a, is a plot against you. Now, first off, you have to determine what the scheme was. For me, my scheme was I don't matter. I had that feeling come over me countless times, it was reinforced by teachers, by coaches, by family, by friends, by churches. Every time I turned around I felt like I was being ignored and the message was loud and clear: Ray, you don't matter, you don't count for anything. Who cares about Ray? Who cares what Ray wants? Who cares what Ray’s needs– who cares about Ray's opinion? The whole thing was a scheme to keep me, to block my path. You have to know what the scheme is. The schemes can be rejection, unworthiness, unlovable, I'm– re– um, illegitimacy, you know, I have to always prove myself, to have to measure up, there's a lot of schemes. But once you– what's cool is once you realize the plan, you can stand against it. Once you recognize it, you do not have to accept it. You know what's going on and you can defeat it. That's why Paul said we're not to be ignorant of Satan's schemes, all right? So, here's some uh, some keys, I put this in the show notes. You got to know what the scheme is, you got to learn and recognize when it's in operation. And then you must build your faith in the authority that's been given you. Christ has given you authority over snakes and scorpions, all the works of the enemy. “Behold, these signs will follow you,” okay? You have authority but authority is no good unless you - another point - exercise your authority, okay? And it's…in order to exercise your authority, you've got to walk and live in the presence of the Lord as much as possible. And be persistent. Oh, this is such a big one. I cannot tell you how many Christians, and I, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, will start a race and not finish it or get distracted or refuse to press through when the obstacles come. One of the greatest weapons you can forge against Satan is simply persistence. Determination. Critical, don't stop. You must cultivate friendships with people who understand and support your call and purpose. You know, do you have those people in your life that get you? And isn't it wonderful when you find someone who really understands you? I love that, I love that. Another key, and, is, is, you know, I don't want to make this into a teaching show, I'm just kind of giving you a few tips here, okay? Gotta understand the difference between petition and proclamation. There’s times when we go to God and say, “Oh, God help. God, I need your help. God, please do this. God, would you help here? God, would you do this? God, would you, would you take care of this?” But there's other times when God says, “No, my child, I've given you authority to handle this. You take care of it,” and that's when you start making the proclamations. You stand in the counsel of God and you start proclaiming. “I rebuke you Satan. I renounce this scheme against my life. I will not accept this, in the name of Jesus Christ.” You proclaim truth, you speak to the mountain with faith, you proclaim God's word, you take authority. Yes, we need to petition, stand In God's presence, but we also need to proclaim…You gotta know your identity in Christ and refuse to accept anything less. You got to know…know that you know that you know you are a joint heir with Jesus Christ, a child of the most high God and your daddy's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Be aware that Satan will use those close to you to try to hurt you. They don't know they're being used but he will, he'll use them. Continue to believe that God knows what's best for you; He'll never forsake you. Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare, not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope.’” Here's the bottom line: you're living day by day, you're doing your job and it seems like whenever this dream or this call in your heart - maybe God's called you to write a book, for example - and it seems like no matter what you do, you can't ever get this book started. Maybe you're called to uh, maybe you're called to, to start a podcast but whatever you do you can't ever seem to get this thing off the ground. Maybe Lord's called– to put you on the mission field but it seems like every time you start to go you don't have enough money, you can't get a ticket, next thing you know, there's a pandemic. What happens is when you have a passion from God, a purpose from God, God's given you the authority, He's given you the ability, He's given you the desire, He's given you the tools to do it. But there're going to be obstacles, there's going to come times where you just, you can't focus on it. People will, will discourage you and tell you you can't do it or you're not worthy or, or just– things start happening to you. When you start seeing all these distractions and hindrances and things happen to you, you got to be aware that hey, the enemy is after you. We live in a natural realm and a spirit realm simultaneously. You've got to be aware when you're being attacked because you cannot defeat Satan in the natural, you defeat him in the spiritual by taking spiritual authority over this. I hope you're getting this, I hope you're, you're getting– What I'm trying to tell you is I want you, I want you to be happy, I want, I want you to find your peace, find your joy…whatever it is, whatever you're created to do, wherever you're created to be. Find your– and it could be motherhood, I mean, it could be whatever. It could be so many things, but this is important for God, it's important for your family, it's important for your church, it's important for our nation and our community, it's important for you not only to find this but overcome every scheme of the enemy in your life and live the life God called you to live. And the wonderful thing about it is this is the abundant life that Jesus called us to. There's joy in this, there's peace in this, there's abundance in this, there's provision in this. Remember the old expression, “where God guides, God provides?” And that's my passion for you. Don't be ignorant of Satan's schemes, know when you're being blocked, know when you're being hindered. It could be a relationship, it could be just your own inability to focus. You have to persist, break through and go, “no, no, no, no, I am not going to be stopped, I'm going to do what God's called me to do.” And if you position yourself and if you determine in yourself that you're not going to be stopped. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. God will help you break through, God will help you knock down the wall, God will help you move on, and God will help you find your peace, your happiness, your fulfillment. That's what– I don't know, that's just my passion, okay? So I appreciate you listening to me today. I just pray that, that my words have been edifying to you, have encouraged you in the name of Jesus Christ and I rebuke every scheme of the enemy that is hindering anyone listening to this podcast; and you will find your purpose, God's will for your life, your peace, and your happiness, amen. Again, this show has been brought to you by International College of Ministry, incredible college, I love the– I founded the college, no wonder I'm so passionate about it. Accredited degrees in ministry, theology, prophetic ministry, counseling. Check us out, icmcollege.org. Love you much, thanks for listening. This is Dr. Ray Self. [Music] Narrator: Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's podcast, please subscribe, rate, and review our show on iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Charisma Podcast Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Your review helps our show reach more people and spread the gospel. You can purchase Dr. Self's latest book, Hear His Voice, be His Voice on amazon.com. Please visit Dr. Self's webpage at icmcollege.org for more information and free downloads.