The Power of Letting Go

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Hey, welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. I appreciate all my loyal listeners. It means a lot to me. Thank you so much. The show again is sponsored by the International College of Ministry, enrolling right now at icmcollege.org. I thank God for that ministry. It has meant so much to my life. So today I've got a very special topic about the power of letting go. Thank you, everyone, for being with me. This is Dr. Ray Self.

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Okay, let's go. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this show. I pray, Father, that my words will be a blessing to them. Open up our hearts. Open up our ears. Open up my mouth to speak your word, and let us hear your word and understand your truth today. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. 

So today I'm gonna talk about the power of letting go. One thing that's been on my heart off and on, matter of fact, my whole life, is letting go. There's a, there's a saying, a slogan that a number of organizations use, especially self-help organizations, called “Let go and let God.” It's a very powerful, it's a very powerful statement. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans, chapter 8, that those that are led by the Holy Spirit are the sons of God. Bible also says, “‘It’s not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” 

You see, folks, our flesh, which is our natural tendencies, likes to be in control. We like to plan. We like to structure. We like to organize. We like to have our budgets. We like to have our visions and dreams. The problem with control is it, it seems normal and natural to manage your life to be a good steward of your life. But what happens is we take so much control that we control and block the Holy Spirit out of our life. Now you know that God wants to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can ever think or ask for. However, in order for Him to do that, you're going to have to let go - I have to let go - of some control. It is natural. It is normal. And it feels good to be in control. There's kind of a false sense of security when you have control over your life. There's a false sense of security that comes like, you, “I know what to expect. I've got everything planned. I've got everything worked out. This is what I'm going to do. This is where I'm going to be.” You know this– You know the drill. You understand what I'm– It sounds great. You know, I, I've got my, my plan. I've got my, my budget. I've got my vision. I got my purpose. I've got everything worked out. 

Let me ask you a question. Where's God in this? What if God has something different for you? As a matter of fact, most of the time, He does have different plans for you. And the amazing thing is what He has for you is always, as I've talked about, exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever think or ask for. God has something greater for you. Something beyond you. Something beyond your capabilities, something beyond your normal lifestyle, something that, that's bigger than you could imagine, something greater than you can imagine. He has for you because he's God. He's bigger than us. He's greater than us. Our job is to somehow, someway let Him do it. And one of the keys to doing that is to let go of your control and give Him control.

Now, I'm not saying you should live life without a plan. You should. But of course, those plans need to be submitted to the Lord. And hopefully, your plans are in alignment with God. Now, if you've been around me very long, one of my pet peeves is when we ask young people, "What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to do? You want to be a fireman? You want to be a nurse? You want to be a doctor? What do you want to do?” It's a terrible question. It's a terrible question because young people, they say, well, they don't know what they want to do. It's not a question of what they want to do. It's not even a question of what you want to do. It's a question of what God has planned for you to do. So when your desires and your vision and your plans and your structure are in alignment with God's plans and God's vision and God's structure, that's when you begin to experience this incredible blessing of God. 

See, God has more for you than you can imagine. God has more for you than you can think of. God has more for you than you can dream. God has more for you than you can plan out. more than your budget, more than your vision, more than everything you've got written out and planned. This is where you're going to be in five year– Remember the old five-year plan? Everybody's working on a five-year plan. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't plan, but what I'm saying is if you're planning so hard and you're structuring so much, you've got everything worked out, are you working God right out of the plan? Are you structuring Him out of the plan? You see it in church all the time. I see it in church. You know, we have– our church is kind of a, an analogy of life. You go to the church, they have the program and then, you know, that, you, the first is your, your welcome. Then you have praise and worship. Then you have your announcement. Then you take up the offering. Then you have a, a 20 or 30 minute sermon. Then you have a call to the altar for those who need prayer. And then you dismiss, and you go home. 

But what if God has something different He wanted to do? “No, no, no. Excuse me, God. We don't have time for you because you're not on the program today.” And you see, that's the way it is in life. So many times, we don't have time for God for what He has for us because He's not on the program today. I've got my program going on. Now, programs are good if you give room for God. If you allow God to interrupt your life and you allow God to interrupt your plans, and realize He's always got a better idea. Remember in Isaiah, His thoughts, not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. The prophet Isaiah warned us of this. And Jesus, and Paul told us in Ephesians, He'll do exceedingly abundantly more than we could think or ask for. Jesus said, “I come to give you life, life more abundantly.” All these things we can experience when we understand the power of letting go and surrendering to God. 

Now sometimes, you know, we get forced into that, where we get into a situation that we've tried to control. We've tried to fix it. We've tried to manage it. We've tried to, to get it right. We, we worried and stressed and worried and stressed and finally go, "God, I can't do this. Lord, I can't do this anymore. I don't know what to do. Lord, I surrender. I surrender to you. I let go.” And which is an amazing thing about God. This is something I've experienced so many times in my life. When I let go and trust God with the situation and my savior, my Lord knows that I am trusting Him for this, miraculous things happen. 

But when I keep interfering with God, and I keep trying to take charge, and I keep trying to do it my way, it's almost like God just folds His hands and He patiently waits for me to get to the end of my rope, where I will let go. My mother used to talk about that a lot, and um, she used to say,

"Ray, when you get to the end of the rope,” remember that old expression where you've had, you've had more than enough, you're at the end of your rope. You know, people used to say, "When you get to the end of your rope, just tie a knot and hold on." No, no, no. When you get to the end of your rope, let go and trust God. 

Now, trust God means it's not just, you know, “Oh, God, I trust you.” It means I have surrendered my plans to God. I've surrendered my life to God. I've surrendered my marriage to God, my children to God, my plans to God. Now, we don't walk around clueless and blind and not doing anything. We should make plans. We should have our budget. We should have our plans. We should have an idea of what we're going to do. But know that God likes to interfere with our plans. He likes to interrupt us and give us a better idea. He likes to add to our plans, enhance our plans, maybe even change our plans. But that only comes when you're willing to let go. 

Let go is an attitude of, “God, I need you. I trust you. I want you. I let go. And I give this to you.” Sometimes it's people we have to let go of. And that's hard for us. And you know, I, I remember people think, "Oh, if you just let go, that's a negative thing. How mean of you to let go." Letting go of another person and surrendering that person to God, especially a toxic person or troublesome person in your life, is a very loving thing to do. It's not saying, "Oh, I forget you." It's saying, "I let go, and I trust God with you because He's got great ideas and great plans and He's the healer and He's the restored and He's the redeemer." But letting go of our control and giving God control is not natural for us. But it is the most powerful thing we can do. Well, other than our salvation, submitting to God, it is a very powerful thing we can do. Letting go. Letting go and saying, "I surrender." You remember that old hymn that went like this? “I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Jesus, my Lord and Savior. I surrender all.” I think right now, for a number of you listening to me, it's time to surrender. It's time to let go of all your structure, all your plans, all your ideas, and surrender to God. 

Now, I'm not saying God's going to say…going to change all your ideas. A lot of your ideas are, are right in alignment with God. But I am saying this. This is what I've experienced so many times. I've got an idea, but God comes in with my idea and makes it so much better. He makes it bigger. He makes it greater. He makes it more amazing. And He gets the glory. And then you, you have this idea. God comes in, puts His touch on it. Then it ends up being bigger and better than anything you could imagine. And you know God's hand was on it. Then God gets the glory and God gets the praise because it's always, it's always bigger and better. 

I remember, you know, I've often said this quote because it meant so much to me. My seminary professor at one of our graduation ceremonies stood up and said, and he looked out and he, he, this audience, over a thousand people at graduation, and he said, "You can tell when it's God when it's bigger than you." And you see, you have a vision, you have a plan, you have an idea, but when you surrender and you let go, and you trust God, and you acknowledge Him in all your ways, as the Bible says, “acknowledge Him in all your ways,” you'll look at this plan and all of a sudden it's greater than you could imagine. It's bigger than you. That means God's in it and God gets the glory. You can spend your whole life with your ideas, your plans, your dreams, your visions, your thoughts, your, your budget, your calendar, your structure. And just listen to me. Listen to the words I just said. Your, your, your, your, your, your. It's all about you. You've structured God out of your life because you want to be in control. You want to be in charge. God's a jealous God. He wants to be in charge. He wants to be the one. 

You see, letting go is a very powerful thing. When God knows that you're His precious daughter or precious son has let go, and you're trusting Him, He moves. He will do powerful things on your behalf. It's time to let go of the control. Now, I want to re-emphasize. I'm not saying don't make any plans, but I am saying submit your plans to God. Know that God may alter your plans, restructure your plans, redirect your plans. Allow Him to do that. Should you make plans? Yeah, but know that God may tinker with them a little bit, may change them, may enhance them, may stretch - He loves to stretch you - may stretch you in directions you wouldn't realize. And it's just bigger than you can ever go. 

You know, I've often talked about my story, but when I made a plan to move from Memphis, Tennessee, to Orlando, Florida, it was a huge move for me here. I had a family up there. I had a wonderful church that was growing and doing great things. And I really felt that I was going to move. The Lord had called me to move to Orlando. And I made the move. I made the move. As I got down here, I wasn't quite sure what to do next. I mean, I, I was trying to plan things out, but all of a sudden, I got to Florida, and I kept running across these divine appointments. I would meet someone that would be a divine appointment. I'd meet another person, be a divine appointment. All of a sudden, doors started opening for me. Opportunities started to happen to me. Amazing opportunities. I mean, to minister in churches. A lot of it was with ministry, but opportunities to travel, opportunities to speak, um, opportunity to build a huge website, online school, opportunities for a podcast by meeting and getting connected with Charisma Magazine. Opportunities by meeting a publishing company, to write books, opportunities to, to minister overseas in Indonesia and the Philippines and Spain, Guatemala, to minister to, to amazing people, opportunities, things I could never have imagined, greater and bigger and better.

But you see, I had plans, but I didn't have complete control. I knew that God was doing something. I didn't know what it was, but I allowed Him to do it. So, I made a plan, but I let go of the results. You see, we have a fear in us that wants to have everything structured so there's nothing unexpected. We– our natural tendency is to not like surprises and the unexpected. But you see, the Holy Spirit in us wants to do the unexpected with us. Our job is to let go and surrender and let Him do the unexpected. Yeah, sometimes it's uncomfortable. Sometimes it's a little scary, but I promise you, as Jesus promised us, it's more abundant. It is greater than you could ever imagine. Does it make you uncomfortable? Does it surprise you? Absolutely. But the end result is so worth it. It is so worth it. Let go. Let God. Surrender your plans. Surrender your life to him and watch what He will do. Watch what He will do. 

I hope this makes sense to you. I want to pray for you. Heavenly Father, I thank you, Father, that your ways are greater than our ways. Your thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Father, for those listening who've just had total control over their lives, Father, I ask that you would give us the courage and the boldness and the conviction to let go and trust you and surrender to you all our plans, all our ideas, our relationships, our finances, our health, whatever area of our life, surrender our whole life to you and trust you for your promises of exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or ask. Father, we love you. Holy Spirit, convict us now of areas we need to let go of. Convict us of areas we need to let go of and give us the courage and boldness to do that in Jesus’ name. Jesus’ name.

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This has been Dr. Ray Self, and you're listening to Self Talk. I want to give you one final thought about letting go. One of the humorous things about us as human beings and letting go is we tend to, in my experience with most Christians, and me is I would let go and take it back. Let go, take it back. Let go, take it back. But you know what? I would keep letting go, and I'd realize my flesh would take it back. Maybe it's a worry or a stress. You let it go, you give it to God, then you take the worry back on. You give the worry to God, then you take it back on. It's okay. Just keep letting go. It's like forgiveness; sometimes it's not a one-time process. You have to keep doing it over and over and over again. Hope this show has been a blessing to you. Be sure and go to the website for the show. Easiest shortcut is icmcollege.org/selftalk. Google Self Talk. Be sure and subscribe, review. That helps us. That helps us get the show out. Every time you write a review or subscribe, or share, that many more people get to hear this message. And that's all I really want, folks. I thank you for listening to Self Talk. This is Dr. Ray Self. God bless you.