The Anointing in Everyday Life

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. Thank you for being with me today. I appreciate you. Got another show. I want to talk a little bit more about the anointing in everyday life. The show is sponsored by, brought to you by the International College of Ministry. icmollege.org, enrolling right now. Um, try it. Also have life coach certifications, Christian counseling certifications, license and ordination. We have a lot for you. Check it out. Anyway, thanks for being a part of the show. Let's get ready to go. Heavenly Father, I thank you for today. I thank you for everyone listening to this show. I pray for your anointing, your Spirit, your Holy Spirit to be with us, to be with me and everyone listening. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

 

So last week I was talking about why the anointing seems to be missing in the church. And the anointing is the presence of God. It's the leading of God. It's the Holy Spirit. And it's critical because you see, we've been fighting God for control our whole life. The issue of control is big. I want to be in control. I want to know what's happening. So do you. You know, we, we have our budgets, our plans, our visions, our ideas. It's all about control. But you see, God has a better plan for us. He has ways that are higher than our ways, thoughts that are better than our thoughts. He wants to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ever think or imagine. However, we're going to have to let go of control. We are going to have to let go of control. The anointing is the presence of God. It is available to us. Or I should say, the Holy Spirit, He is available to us every day. I tell my students often, there's three voices that are talking to you almost continually. There's your voice, your thoughts, your ideas, your ways, your imagination. There are demonic thoughts and literally– and I have no idea how the demons do this, but they love to intervene in our thought processes. And they, um, love to tell us things like “you're not worthy, you're not acceptable, nobody understands you, you're ignored, you're worthless, you're full of shame, condemnation,” all those negative messages. But the third voice is the voice of the Holy Spirit. And He's, He's there for us. He's here. 

 

See, the Holy Spirit's omnipresent. He's all around us. But also, if you're a Christian and you're saved, He is within us. And He wants to lead us every day. The anointing is the presence of God. And when we are in the flow with the Holy Spirit, and we're in sync with Him in our life, there's an anointing; there is peace with it. There's power, and it's, it's amazing. But there's a battle to get there. You see, naturally, we just want to live a natural life. I want to do the things that I want. I want to think the things that I think. I want to do my plans. And that, that's, that's normal. But there's the Holy Spirit who has something better for me. He has something more for me. He wants to protect me, to guide me, to provide for me, to, to give me what's important to do, what, what needs to be done, what needs to be let go of, what to be concerned about, what not to be concerned about. The anointing is available for us every day. The challenge for us is to learn how to hear His voice. And I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is talking to us continually. He's broadcasting. It's just that we're not tuned into His signal because of so much other noise and interference coming from our thoughts, our anxieties, our worries, our stress.

 

But if we can learn how to tune into the Holy Spirit and practice His presence…there was a book, um, by the– what was it? The Franciscan monk that wrote a book years ago called Practicing the Presence of the Lord. The anointing, I talked about the anointing in the church and why it's missing. But there's an anointing available for everyday life, and it is wonderful. Now look, I know that there's times we just need to live natural. We need to be a, a natural person doing normal natural things. But even in our normal natural way of living, there is the presence of God. We have the temple– we're the temple of the Holy Spirit, which means the Holy Spirit is with us 24 hours a day. The problem is we tend to shut Him out, crowd Him out, think Him out, ignore Him, pay no attention to Him because we have too much other stuff going on in our mind. And you know the scripture we talked about, in Romans. Paul said, "The mind set on the flesh is death; the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." So I don't know about you, but for me, I want life and peace. Life and peace, and, and Jesus said, "I came to give you life and give you life more abundantly." Even Jesus said the works He does are the works of His Father. So to be led by the Holy Spirit is to be walking in the anointing of God. It's to, it's to have the, the promise of Psalms 91. “He who abides in the shadow of the Almighty,” that's in the presence of God, “no pestilence will come near you. No plague will attack you.” Use all the– read Psalms 91 and all the benefits of abiding in the shadow of the Almighty. That's in His anointing.

 

So to abide in His anointing takes a conscious effort, and we have to focus on it until it becomes natural. So again, you can hear yourself think all the time. You can listen to the voices of the demons that want to discourage you, shame you, put guilt on you. They want to do anything that Jesus took to the cross and died for. They want to bring it back alive and put it back on you. Or you can listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes that leading is just a feeling of peace in your heart. Sometimes it's, it's a voice. It's a voice that– it's a, it's a thought that comes out of nowhere that's talking to you. And I, I love that. I mean, that's a critical thing. These voices that come out of nowhere, these thoughts that come out of nowhere, most of the time it's the Holy Spirit talking to us. And then there's this expression we use called checks in your spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit tells us what's wrong, what to be…what to be warned of, what not to do. And we get this little check, this uneasy feeling. But when we train ourselves and practice listening to the Holy Spirit and following His guidance, we enter into a new realm of peace and abundance and overflow. Because you see, the Holy Spirit is only going to guide you into what is best for you and also what's best for those around you. Because, you know, God's very unselfish. He wants us to be unselfish. And so we have to, and I'm encouraging - you don't have to do anything obviously - but I'm encouraging you to pay attention to the small voice, the still small voice, the, the, what we used to call the gut feelings, the impressions that come out of nowhere. And the reason I keep saying that is if God's thoughts are not our thoughts, then we need to pay attention to thoughts that we don't normally think of because that would be the Lord. Many times it's the Lord. 

 

As you practice being led by the Spirit and moving and flowing in the anointing, it becomes easier and easier and easier. Now, the problem is my normal Ray Self likes to have things figured out and to know what to expect and know what I'm going to do. And so, I crowd the Lord out. But if we can learn not to crowd the Lord…Lord out of our day, to let Him be a part of everything, we can walk and live in the anointing of God. He will protect us. He will guide us. He will lead us. He'll show us things that are exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or ask for. But it takes practice. So the three voices: your thoughts, your ways, the demonic voices, and the voice of the Holy Spirit. Do not allow Him to be - the voice of the Holy Spirit - to be crowded out of your day. A picture that I like to, to draw is this: You've heard the expression of, well, you know, God's number one, right? We, we make sure that God's number one, and then uh, your family is number two, and then your um, children are number three, your job is number four, your dog is number five, your cat's number six, you're, you're like number seven or eight down the list. I think that's terrible. It doesn't work. Picture this. Your life is like a wheel that revolves around an axle. The axle is the center of your being. And you revolve around this axle. And the axle is the Lord. It's the Holy Spirit. It's Jesus Christ. So instead of putting Jesus first for 10 minutes in the morning, we make Jesus the center of our life. And Jesus within us is through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is giving us the revelation of Jesus all the time.

 

And so it's possible to make the Holy Spirit our centerpiece. And everything that we do and say is influenced by and under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Now listen, this is…I know this is easier said than done. And I'm not saying you have to walk around being super spiritual all the time. But I am saying that all day long we should be aware of the voice of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit, the checks in our spirit, also the feelings of peace. The Bible says we're led forth by peace. When you have peace about something, it’s probably, it’s probably the Lord. When you don't have peace about it, it's probably not God. When you're feeling overwhelmed and stressed, then you're doing a, you're, you're out of the will of God because His yoke is easy, His burden is light. Being led by the Spirit, walking and living in the anointing is possible. I'm not saying it's easy, but like anything else, like exercise or any other discipline, the more you practice it, the easier it becomes.

 

Practice the presence of the Lord. Practice hearing His voice. Hear His voice. Know when He's speaking to you. Know when He's leading you. Pay attention to your heart. Now listen, you cerebral people that have the great minds, great intellects, everything's up in your head. And that's– I'm not saying we shouldn't be smart. But beyond our rational intellectual thinking is our heart. And that is where the thinking of the Lord is. And that's what we need to pay attention to. That's where the anointing is. And the result is you start to benefit and have more peace, more joy, more productivity, better marriage, better job, better health, better life, and those around you benefit immensely. Practice hearing God's voice, paying attention to that leading in your heart, pay attention to God. And you know, if sometimes you say, "Lord, just help me. Lord, help me to know your voice. Lord, help me to understand your leading. And He will. He will. It's so important. And it leads you to the abundant life that Jesus promised. 

 

Let's pray. Thank you for listening today. Heavenly Father, I thank you that we can practice your anointing. Holy Spirit, I just ask you to reveal yourself strongly and loudly to every person listening to this podcast. Forgive us for being so involved in our fleshly ways. Help us, Father, not to ignore you, but to hear you and follow you every day. To know your leading, to know what you're telling us to do or not to do, to know your love, your presence, your, your incredible goodness all day long. We know it's possible. We love you, Lord. We praise you. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. 

 

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