Faith Comes by Hearing

Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, me, Dr. Ray Self. So glad you're with me. This show is sponsored by the International College of Ministry. Hey, right now we got a special. I know it sounds a little worldly, but actually it's not. If you know that God's called you and you want to get equipped for your call with an accredited, Holy Spirit-filled seminary, ICM is enrolling now at icmcollege.org/enroll. And if you do it before the 15th of the month, August 15, 2025, you will save and get a free $250 tuition grant. I want to put that in. Today's show is very important, very critical, and I pray that it blesses you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for everyone listening to this show. I pray that my words will be a blessing to them, Father, because I know your word cannot return void. Amen. 

Now, I want to be very careful with this show and make sure that we don't get into anything which could be considered magical or mystical. The, there's a principles that we can do and act upon, and we can see supernatural things, but everything we do and act upon and say in this show and in life in general has to be centered on Jesus Christ and bring glory to Him. Because we want to be careful that we don't come across as uh, “Yeah, Dr. Ray gave me a magic formula for success.” Well, the magic formula is not magic at all. It's Jesus Christ, and it's supernatural, and it's the Holy Spirit living within us and the power of God within us that creates all these supernatural, incredible things. It's interesting, over the many, many years I've seen all kinds of methods and formulas and, and ideas and kind of schemes. “Well, if you do this and you say this and you and you act on this and you and you pray this way and you, and you do this way, then you'll see these incredible blessings.” Well, that gets into mysticism, which is actually an abomination to God. So, we're not getting into mysticism or any New Age stuff. I'm talking about truth in the word of God that can cause a supernatural things to manifest in your life and in your family. 

If you're a parent listening to me, probably most of you are, you have wishes and dreams for your family and for your kids, things that you want to see them…come to pass. Things that you want to realize in your children. Me, with, with my kids, you know, I pray, and I believe, and I'm speaking right now that all of my kids are going to be filled, and my grandkids, will be filled with the Holy Spirit and glorifying God all the days of their life. You see, there's something about speaking God's word into the atmosphere that causes the Holy Spirit to act on it and things to happen. Now, it's not magical, speaking God's word into the atmosphere, but what happens is speaking or proclaiming God's word with faith with authority causes the Holy Spirit to do things on your behalf because you're giving Him permission. You're pleasing God with your faith. Time and time and time again throughout scripture, you'll see things that were spoken before they happened. God created the earth, and God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. Okay? There was always, “Let's, let, let Us make man in Our own image,” and man was made. Okay, “it's not good for man to be alone,” and He brought him a wife. Okay, John the Baptist in the desert, you know, “Behold the lamb of God,” things were proclaimed, and then they happened. And that principle can help your life. 

You see, our words are powerful not in their own right, like a word itself isn't powerful. A word doesn't carry magic power. But when we speak things out loud, what happens is we, by our words, we can activate and give the Holy Spirit, uh, free rein and access in our life. Or by the words we speak, we can give demons access and permission in our life. Um, it's amazing. Last week I was talking about blessings and curses, and it's amazing, uh, how much I hear just, you know, just listening to people. And not that I eavesdrop a lot, but I was in the gym the other day, and I heard a couple ladies speaking and, and as they were talking, they were talking about all these things always happen to them and always happen to their family and always takes place with their job and always takes place in their life. I'm thinking, "Wow, that's a curse, a curse, and a curse." And you can speak these things. You can speak failure, and the demons will love to help you with that. You can speak, you know, betrayal, the demons will love to help you with that. You can speak rejection; the demons will love to help you with that. Or you can just speak out loud the word of God. 

Now, see, the word says that faith comes by hearing. There's something about hearing the word of God spoken out loud that not only it creates faith, but things, things happen. Okay. Um, in Romans 10:18, Paul said, "But I say, surely they have not heard, have they? Indeed, they have. ‘The voice has gone out into all the earth and the words to the ends of the world.’" Okay. In Romans 16, “who has believed our report?” Okay. Um, Romans 10:14, “How will they call on Him who have not believed? And how will they believe on Him who they have not heard? How will they believe if they have not heard it? How will they hear without a preacher?” Okay. “Whoever will call, that speaks on the name of the Lord will be saved.” So, there's so many things that have to do with our mouth. In James, he, “blessings and curses should not come out of the same mouth.” Okay? So words are important. The word is not…the word doesn't contain any power. But what our words do is they reflect our attitude. They reflect our heart. “Out of our heart, the mouth speaks.” And the reflections of our heart, the words of our heart and of our mouth go into the atmosphere, and they're heard in the spirit realm. In the spirit realm, you have the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. And you have these other bad guys. And I believe that both the Holy Spirit and the bad guys are listening to us. And what are we speaking? What are we speaking? And will it come to pass?

If you speak a curse, I guarantee the demons would love to help you with that. But if you speak the word of God, you know, there's so many, speak the promises of God. Proclaim the promises of God with faith. The Holy Spirit will act on those promises, and you can see things happen. Now, I'm not trying to give you a, a formula. I'm just telling you a principle here that our words spoken in agreement with God are powerful. And so, if you want to know what to say, read the scripture out loud. Read the promises of God out loud. “‘By His stripes, I am healed.’ Lord, I thank you. Your word says, ‘By His stripes, I am healed.’ Jesus, you came to give me life and life more abundantly. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for that. Amen. Lord, you said I'm the head and not the tail. I'm above and not beneath. Thank you for that. I am the head and not the tail. I'm above and not beneath.” And then, “Lord, I have a, a, a beautiful marriage. I have a wonderful job.” And, and you're just proclaiming what you believe, and you believe what you say, and then things happen. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God or the word of Christ, depending on which version, you know, you're believing. And there's just a principle of, of faith when you speak things that are going to happen. I've heard so many romantic stories about some guy who says, "You see that woman over there? I'm going to marry her." Next thing you know, they're married. Okay. 

I remember once, this is going to sound trivial, but it's, it's a principle that I'll never forget. I used to uh, race sailboats. I love to sail. I had a little 25 ft sailboat, and we were in a regatta. Now regatta is a…is, is a race, a series of races. And in the race, it could be 40 boats in this race. And I'm in this sailing race, and I have this boat, I was not the fastest boat on the lake, okay. I had a crew member with me, and I looked at my crew member and I said, "We're going to win this race, and we're going to win this regatta.” Now, and they looked at me like, "What? You mean you know that's just not really likely?" I said, "No, we're going to win this race, and we're going to win this riata." Guess what happened? We won the race, and we won the riata. We won the tournament. And I thought about that. It wasn't– did I put a magic formula, but I spaked faith. I speaked a belief into the atmosphere. Now, I'm not saying God caused me to win the race, but I think because I spoke it, I think I believed it, and I act upon it. Amen. Amen. 

If I don't– if you ever saw the movie Hoosiers, there's a great scene that kind of demonstrates this. There was this kid on the team, they're in the championship game, and there was this young boy on the team, and he was really not a good player at all. And they're down by like one or two points, and it's a championship game, and it's the very end, and this kid, who's very unlikely, not a real talented player, he gets fouled, and he's going to the foul line, and they call timeout. Now, if he makes the free throws, they will win the game. If he misses the free throws, they will lose the game. And I forgot the kid's name. Let's call him Johnny. And so they call a timeout, and the team comes over to the bench, and the coach looks at the team, he says, "Okay, guys, this is what we're going to do. Now, when Johnny hits these free throws, what we're going to do is we're going to grab the ball, and we're going to run the clock out, okay? Everybody.” Amen. Now, you know the coach did not say, “If Johnny makes the free throws.” He said, “When Johnny hits the free throws, we're going to do this.” And you know what happened? He goes to the free-throw line. He makes both free throws, and they end up winning the game. But he spoke what he believed, and the faith that was created in the atmosphere created success. 

And again, are you speaking that your kids are saved, your kids are going to serve the Lord, that your children are free, that your marriage is great, that you're prospering, uh, you're serving God, that, that the Holy Spirit is coming, He's anointing you? What are your words saying about you? Because, see, your heart is revealed, and Proverbs talks about this repeatedly, your heart is revealed by your words. Now, don't get all legalistic about that, and you can't speak the truth. I remember, I remember once that– I’ll give an example of this because this is important. I remember once there was a, a husband and a wife came over to my house one day, and we were at a prayer meeting at my home, and the wife, um, had a knee injury, and I said, "Does anyone here need prayer for healing?" And the wife said, “Oh yes, my knee is hurting really bad, and I really could use some prayer.” And the husband said, “No, don't say that. Don't say your knee is hurting.” And so I'm thinking, well, that's kind of ridiculous. Her knee was hurting. Okay. And he, he didn't want her to say it because he felt that's speaking a word curse. No. Speaking reality, speaking the truth like your leg hurts, you have a headache, that's okay. That's just reality. But you can add to that, “But I know God will heal me. But I know my healer reigns. Yes, my knee is hurting, but I believe God can, can restore it.” Remember the woman with the issue of blood? She didn't deny she had an issue of blood, but she believed if she touched the hem of Jesus's garment, she would be healed. And she said, she said that “If I can just touch His garment, I will be healed.” She didn't deny the problem, but she spoke the solution. And that's what I want to get across to you. Amen. Amen.

So just know that your words are– your words, is it something that God can work with? Excuse me. Are your words something that demons can work with? Now, don't deny the truth because the Bible also says if we confess our faults one to another and pray that we may be healed. Time and time again, people came to Jesus, admitted that they were sick. They couldn't walk. They couldn't see, and Jesus healed them. Now, what if they come up to Jesus and Jesus was ready to heal them, and they said, and Jesus said, "What can I do for you?" “Oh, no, Lord. I'm blessed. I'm already healed,” and they weren't, but they were trying to confess it. So, you have to use common sense. People admitted their disease, but they also believed Jesus would heal it. “Yes, I'm sick, but I believe Jesus will heal me. Yes, I'm hurting, but I believe the Lord will take this pain away.” And that's the reality with speaking the word of God. So, if you're depressed, you don't want to go around, “Well, how are you doing?” “Oh, I'm great. I'm blessed and highly favored.” No, you're depressed. You're not doing well. It's okay to speak the truth, but add to that truth the solution. “I feel depressed. I feel down. I feel out. I feel hopeless. But I know that my joy can come in the morning. I know that the Lord can give me joy,” enter in unbelievable. “I know that I can have the peace that passes all understanding. Lord, I thank you for your truth, for your word that can come into my life now.” 

In other words, excuse my cough. We must– I'm encouraging– you, you don't have to do anything, but I would encourage you instead of um, say for instance um, the woman with the issue of blood who said, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment I know I'll be healed.” She could have said, “I've had this issue of blood. I know Jesus is healer, but you know, I've always had this. I will probably always have this more. There's probably nothing He could do,” but she did not go there. She did not go there. She admitted the problem, but she proclaimed the truth of His healing power. And that's what I'm saying. We all have issues that we need to face. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will bring these things out. If we confess our sins, we confess our faults, we confess our disease, He's faithful and just to heal us. So sometimes, yes, we do have to confess negative things, but with that, we're just acknowledging a problem. But we can also acknowledge the truth of God's word that our savior is a healer. The word says in the book of Acts that Jesus went around healing all who were diseased and oppressed of the devil. And I can proclaim that on top of the disease or the issue. So, make sure that you do not speak words that are in agreement with or something the demons can run with. That you speak words that the Holy Spirit can use on your behalf because faith comes by hearing, and your mouth is powerful. The Bible says, the book of Job, “You shall decree a thing, and it shall be done unto you.” Amen. Amen. 

So I hope this show has blessed you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this show. Lord, I pray we didn't get out of balance here, but Lord, I know that faith comes by hearing. And Lord, we want to speak, act, believe, and do according to your truth and your words. Father, give us your truth. Put your truth in our mouth continually. Let us meditate on your word and proclaim your truths throughout the world and in our life, Father. I thank you for everyone listening to this show today. I pray, Father, the Holy Spirit will convict them on how they need to respond to this show. So, Father, we give you praise and honor and glory to the name of Jesus Christ. Amen and amen.

Well, thank you for listening, folks. This is Dr. Ray. This is the 233rd episode of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self Himself, myself, so self-aware and self-conscious. But no, I'm not going to be self-conscious, I'm going to be self, not self-defeating, but self-victory enough self puns for the day. Anyway, thank you for being a part of the show. I appreciate you so very much, and don't forget to go to the website for the show, icmcollege.org/selftalk, and subscribe. Please share it. Help us get more downloads. Appreciate you so much. God bless you. Amen. And amen.

[Music]