Schemes and Triggers

Hello, welcome to Self Talk with me, Dr. Ray Self, the show that empowers you with the Holy Spirit and gives you the ability to overcome every scheme of the enemy so you can enter your promised land. Today, you're going to get a new strategy for success in your life.

 

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Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, me, Dr. Ray Self. Very glad you're a part of the show. Be sure and subscribe, download, review, all that cool stuff that makes this show go. Thank you so much. We're sponsored again by the International College of Ministry at icmcollege.org, enrolling right now. I've got an important topic today about triggers and schemes and how they are intertwined with each other. So again, thank you for being part of the show. I appreciate you. 

 

Okay, here we go. As many of you know, if you’ve listened to my show for a while, that two times in the letters of Paul, he, he mentions schemes. In Second Corinthians, he said, "Do not be ignorant of Satan's schemes." Which means, you know, be aware that Satan has a scheme. And then, and the schemes are, by the way, designed against you. Then in Ephesians 6, it says, "Put on the full armor of God so we can stand firm against the schemes of the enemy." Now, a scheme is a systematic plan. It's a plot. It's more than an attack. It is a customized, planned, systematic demonic assignment designed for you specifically. Uh, the Bible says in, in Eph– in Isaiah that no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Well, the first part of that scripture tells us weapons are formed. Again, it's a customized weapon. And what I've taught for years, and it's important for you to understand that the primary thing, and, and I say this because I've experienced it, and thousands of other people have as well, maybe millions, is Satan hates your call, your purpose, your anointing, what God created you for. Satan does not attack God directly. I mean, you know, why would you go into a, a boxing match with God? You would lose immediately. So what he does is Satan does an indirect attack by attacking you, your call, your purpose, your anointing. That is a way he, in a– in his own way, tries to get back at God. 

 

See, God is working out a plan on this earth through you. He, He uses His people to institute and bring forth his plan. And that's done through purposes and callings. And I've talked about that a lot in my book, Redeem Your Past and Find Your Promised Land. It goes into detail about that. It's a good book, by the way. If you haven't read it, please do. Redeem Your Past, Find Your Promised Land. So, God created you before you were in your mama's womb, Jeremiah said, He knew you, and He ordained you for a purpose. This purpose is what he is after. And the primary weapon he uses is a scheme. 

 

So, how do you recognize a scheme? And what happens when your scheme manifests? And that's what I want to talk about right now. So, scheme is a plot against you that repeats itself over and over and over again. And so an easy way to recognize a scheme, a scheme is to see what is– what weapon has come against you as long as you can remember. Let me give you some ideas to kind of refresh your memory. Um, illegitimacy is a scheme. Constantly feeling underneath the surface that you're not measuring up, you're not worthy. So therefore, you strive to prove your worth. You seek titles, you seek positions, you seek, uh, you're super competitive, having to prove your value. That's a scheme of illegitimacy. It's a scheme that has you question your worth continually. Remember when Jesus was baptized and then after He was baptized, He goes into the desert. And the first demonic scheme that I see in the New Testament came against Jesus. That's when Satan said to Jesus, "If you be the son of God, turn these stones into bread…If you be the son of God, throw yourself down from this [this] temple." And what he was trying to do was get Jesus to question Himself. That's what the scheme of illegitimacy does. Obviously, Jesus did not fall for it, and He quoted the word and defeated Satan, and He was showing us something there. The other schemes are unworthiness, um, abandonment, fear, anxiety, um, worthlessness, rebellion. And these schemes are…you'll see them in early childhood. And you'll see these schemes manifest and repeat themselves throughout your life. 

 

Well, how do these schemes happen? Well, they'll happen through circumstances. These schemes will happen through…your– inadvertently through your parents, through friends, through teachers, through coaches, through your boss. And it is, just goes on and on and on. Some of you know my story that one of the schemes that I fought so many times in my life and did not really realize it ‘til years later was a scheme called “I don't matter.” And growing up, I, I literally felt that I didn't matter, that other people mattered. Other people were important, but I wasn't important. I didn't believe underneath the surface that my desires, opinions, was important. I had very low self-worth. And so everywhere I went, it seemed like I would experience something that would reinforce this message to me over and over and over again. Uh, especially when I was ignored or overlooked or criticized or put down. Uh, especially being ignored or overlooked, it would just, it would just hurt me. And it happened so many times that I began to believe the scheme. I began to– I bought into it. And I believed that I really didn't matter and other people were more important than me. And this message could be– it was repeated to me. It came to me through uh, coaches, teachers, friends, even even family. And nobody, I think, really meant to do it, but they did. And then I find that I would get triggered. Now, especially as I got older, whenever uh, I felt ignored or overlooked or even interrupted, I would get very angry and upset, and it was– it turned, to sometimes, to be an overreaction.

 

But you see, when you have a demonic scheme against your life, it has repeated itself so many times that it becomes what we call a sore spot. And, so when this scheme, when you experience this scheme or the…something happens that reminds you or reinforces the scheme, you will react. And your reaction can be over the top because you're not reacting to that– what just happened to you, what you're reacting to is years of systematic plans, systematic uh, repetition of this scheme. So, you're kind of in the constant state of when the straw breaks the camel's back. It's always that. And so you can turn into…it can cause rage or depression or uh, just anger or anxiety. It can trigger a lot of things. 

 

So, it's important when Paul said do not be ignorant of his scheme. It's important to identify what the scheme is. Uh, the most common one is illegitimacy. Uh, unworthiness is a very common scheme. Fear, anxiety are, are common schemes. Uh, and actually, you know, can get into a list of uh, quite long. Some people, uh, struggle with, um, abandonment. Abandonment, uh, abandonment issues are a big, big, big, big scheme. But when you become aware of it, and you know that this scheme is not really about your circumstance and it's not true, it's an assignment against you. Now the good news of demonic assignments is that we have authority over these assignments. That's through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

 

Now back a little bit more on schemes. Sometimes, the reason you need to be aware of these schemes is sometimes you're victimized by other people's schemes. You say something innocently. It was an innocent remark, and all of a sudden you get an overreaction from someone that just doesn't fit the bill. It's like you, you commit a misdemeanor crime, and somebody gives you the death penalty, or you say something in innocence and purity with good intentions, and it's interpreted as an insult and the person rages against you. So what's happening there is you're being attacked by somebody else's scheme. That's why it's so important to recognize his schemes. If you are a Christian and called into the ministry, there's a 99% chance you have schemes operating against you. And it's important to be aware of them because when you know that it is a scheme, instead of taking it personally, instead of trying to, uh, rebuke, uh, you know, figure out a way to intellectually overcome this, you know, it's a spiritual attack. Therefore, you go into spiritual warfare mode.

 

Spiritual warfare mode allows you to defeat the scheme. So, the constant awareness of this, this scheme of, of my scheme of “Ray, you don't matter–” I, I kind of laugh because it gets repeated all the time, you know, little messages, and Satan's still testing me with that. It's kind of like how your kids will test you with your boundaries. It's like Satan will test your boundaries. But what you need to do is, is claim the name and authority of Jesus Christ. You know, the book of James says, "Submit to God, resist the devil,” and his schemes, I'm adding that, “then he will flee from you.” Okay. Uh, Mark 16, “These signs will follow those that believe in my name: they will cast out demons…” So we need to cast out this scheme. And I think it's important to call the scheme by its name. First off, identify the scheme that's working against you. And maybe if you're married, your spouse probably has a scheme that's not only working against him, but it's working against you. 

 

What's really interesting, sometimes in relationships, you have battling schemes. You have one scheme that is feeding another person's scheme, and the schemes go back and forth fighting each other and sometimes reinforcing each other. And so it's, it's the war of the- you've heard of the War of the Worlds. It's the war of the schemes. And it's, and it gets really confusing. But when you step back and you look at it from God's point of view, you see that this is a demonic attack. Therefore, you, you say something like this. You, you take authority. Remember, God gave you authority. Now, we can pray and ask God to stop the scheme. But God told you, He gave you authority over snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy. In the book of Luke, book of Mark, “These signs will follow those that believe…” You will cast out demons. This is a demonic attack. Amen. Book of James, “Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.” So you have the power of the name above all names, Jesus Christ. And at that name every knee shall bow. So what we do is, what I recommend highly is use the name of Jesus Christ anytime you sense this scheme operating through you, or maybe through another person coming at you, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I renounce this scheme of illegitimacy. I renounce this scheme of I don't matter…” This scheme of fear, the scheme of anxiety, the scheme of abandonment, the scheme of unworthiness. “I rebuke this scheme in the name of Jesus Christ. I command you Satan, and all your demons, these, this, to stop now. I, I command this scheme to stop. I'm a child of God. I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ. I am bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. And in that name, by the name above all names, I command this scheme to stop. And Lord, forgive me for being triggered. Forgive me for overreacting, Father. And Lord, I forgive those that have overreacted against me. I thank you, Father. In Jesus' name.” Do your warfare against this scheme. 

 

So a scheme will create a trigger. A trigger is an overreaction. So take a step back. Now, when it's, when it's happening– By the way, let me give you a little more advice on this. When you're in the middle of a scheme, there's a lot of emotions at play. You're feeling emotions. Uh, you're being attacked by somebody else's schemes. There's a lot of emotions. So, what we tend to do is react instead of stepping back, taking a breath, recognizing it for what it is, and then respond correctly. And that is– we battle not against flesh and blood. Okay? Paul said, "Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities." So when I calm my emotions down, I can make a response instead of a reaction. Reactions are always…come from the emotions, and reactions normally are not good. A response, a wise response, a wise biblical response under the anointing of the Holy Spirit is what we need. And you have to do that when you are calm. So be aware of the schemes. Know that schemes can create triggers. You may get triggered and overreact. You may be the victim of somebody else's being– their scheme and they're being triggered and overreacting against you. But see it for what it is, it's a plan to stop you from your promised land, to stop you from your call, to defeat your purpose, to defeat your work for the kingdom of God, to slow you down and slow down God's purpose and God's plan through your life. But we're not going to accept that, right? No more. No more. This day it stops. Amen. 

 

Hope this has been a blessing to you. This is Dr. Ray. Thank you for being a part of today's show. Don't forget, go to the website for the show. If you would, I would appreciate it. There's a, a quick– shortcut to it is icmcollege.org/selftalk. That takes you to our website. You can subscribe to our email list. Give me a review. Be sure and share this with as many people as you can. I appreciate you very much. God bless you. And remember, no weapon formed against you will prosper because you have the authority of the name above all names. God bless you.