Understand What God Wants From You

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. Thanks for being a part of the show today. Be sure and download, subscribe, do all that cool stuff that gets more views or more downloads. We appreciate it. Um, the show is brought to you by the International College of Ministry. Enrolling at icmcollege.org. If you got a call of God on your life, which you probably do, it's time to get equipped with an accredited online college. Thank you so much.

All right, so here we go. I want to talk about something very important. What does God want from us? I think so much of the time, we're missing God. And I want to explain why…we're missing God, we're missing His requirements. Um, and I want to just uh, kind of go back in scripture and explain a few things to you. But the result of this, if you kind of hang with me, the result of what I'm talking about is going to lead you into a life of peace and abundance and God's favor. And yeah, you can do this, but it's going to take some discipline on your part and some solid practicing. Practicing, yeah, is it? So, back in the days of Jeremiah, he wrote a very interesting prophecy and he said, "Behold, the days are coming when I will write My laws upon your heart…" Okay? “...and each one will know Me.” So what he was doing was he was prophesying about the coming of the Holy Spirit. So after the– Jesus died and went to the cross - matter of fact, just before that, Jesus told us that it was to our advantage that He go away because when He goes away, He will send another comforter to us, which is the Holy Spirit. So in the new covenant we have the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm going to get a little bit controversial here about the Holy Spirit because I believe in being filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe in being saved, and I believe that when you're saved, it's an incredible work of the Holy Spirit. You get regenerated, born again, given eternal life, justified, made righteous, all these incredible benefits. But I think there's more. Matter of fact, I don't think, I know there's more. It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's when you get filled with the Holy Spirit. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, life changes. 

Now, Paul said, "We are the temple of the Holy Spirit." Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit lives within you, and you are His home, His house. So, no longer do we have to go somewhere to a big temple with columns, with the inner court and outer court. The temple like Solomon built, we don't have to go somewhere looking for God because God's within us. He's living within you. So, we have several forces within us. You know, I'm a force. I, I'm, I've got a body, I got a spirit, I got a soul, I got a mind. And, my mind and my body like to be in control. But inside of me is a spirit. It's the Spirit of God. And then Paul said something about this. Now, I have the Spirit of God in you, and if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, especially baptized with the Holy Spirit, you also have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. Paul said in Romans chapter 8, "Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God." Now, that's a very important scripture. Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. And then he said, "The mind set on the flesh is death, the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” So that's a key thing for us. The flesh is our natural tendencies. Our natural tendencies draw us away from God. They do. But inside of us is the Spirit of God. 

Our brain is more like, um is like a tool. And I've said this so many times in counseling that what we focus on controls us. And you know as well as I do, when you're focused on a problem, that problem is consuming you. When you're focused on a uh, a person who hurts your feelings, they are controlling you. Whatever you're focusing on is controlling you at that moment. But the Holy Spirit living within us wants our focus. And a cool thing is, when we learn how to focus on the Holy Spirit, then we get led by the Holy Spirit. And God has so much love that He will always lead us into abundance. He'll lead us into peace. He'll lead us in the right direction. He'll lead us in the right decisions. He'll give us answers we could not have known. He'll give us abundance we could have– not have known before. Matter of fact, in Ephesians, Paul said, “To Him who can do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ever think or ask for, according to the Spirit that lives within us.” There's a Spirit within us that wants to give us exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or ask for. I could think of a lot. So, what I'm trying to tell you is we have the Holy Spirit– If you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it is a decision every day to follow Him. And it's, and it's a war because what He asks us to do and asks us to go and asks us to think many times is contrary to our natural tendencies. But when we learn how to recognize His voice and recognize His leading, that's when we start to experience life and life more abundantly. Jesus kind of explained this in His ministry. Didn't kind of, He did explain this. He said He did nothing except what the Father told Him to do. He was a very successful guy. He always went the right places, said the right things, did the right things. Um, you can have abundant life, and you can have peace that passes all understanding, and you can have, uh, that exceedingly abundantly more than you could ever think or ask for. But it's going to take all of us, including me too, learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit. 

And I want to tell you something, it is a challenge. Because, there's so much - like me - there's so much churning in my mind. You know, I'm kind of a multitasker kind of guy. Maybe I'm a little bit ADD, you know, not placing a curse on myself or anything. My mind gets all over the place thinking about stuff. But when I tune in to the Holy Spirit and what He's trying to tell me, what He's trying to show me, and where He's trying to, to convict me to do or to go, that's when I start to experience more than I could ever imagine. And that is for you. Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. I am convinced more than ever that the abundant life comes from listening to, being led by, and obeying the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the Pa– Paul said in 2 Corinthians, he said, "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” “I came to give you life and life more abundantly." Everything, the abundance, peace, goodness, healing, victory, it all comes through the leading of the Holy Spirit. That's because the Spirit of God is God. He loves you and He wants only what is best for you. He wants you to, to say the right things, to go the right places, to take the right job, get in the right relationships. He wants what's best for you, but it takes allowing Him to lead us. 

“Those…” again, Romans chapter 8, “Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God.” “The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” Now, the letter, before the new covenant, all the Israelites had to know about God was the law. You know, they had the law and it's whatever the law told them to do. They had to live by rules and regulations. And uh, and it was uh, 630 laws, regulations on what you, what you ate, what you wore, uh, the days you observed, everything was, was very rule structured. Now, rules are good. I mean, you don't want to live a ruleless life, but the problem with rules is that they're always reminding you of your failures and they're always creating shame and a sense of not measuring up. But in the new covenant, the rules of God are inside of us. And so when we obey the Holy Spirit, we're obeying God. 

Now, I'm not saying we ignore all the commandments of the Bible because the commandments of the Bible are written by the Holy Spirit. So obviously, you don't ignore those. But I, I'm, I'm watching and I'm seeing in, in the church right now, every day, people arguing theology…theology. Theology, what is that word? Theology. And, and they're, they're putting these rules on people. “You are not saved until you get baptized. You're under a curse if you don't tithe. You are required to come to church and attend church on the Sabbath. And if you don't obey the Sabbath on the seventh day, which is a Saturday, you're in disobedience to God.” And all these things and these rules and regulations that create stress. But you see, if you want to obey God and obey His commandments, you let the Holy Spirit direct your life because everything of God is within you. You see, Jesus kind of messed up the rules. You remember the story when Jesus healed um, the man that was crippled? I think it was at the pool of Bethstada or Bethsaida and he told the man to take up his bed and walk. Well, the Pharisees got upset. Not because a guy was healed, but Jesus healed on the Sabbath. “Oh my gosh, he broke a rule.” But you see, the Spirit of God is greater than that rule. And He, He understood the Pharisees were following the law of God, but they did not understand God's heart. It's not God's will that you, you wouldn't heal somebody on a Sabbath because that is a, that is considered work and that's going to be a sin. And I'm not saying that we– you don't ignore the Ten Commandments. You don't ignore the commandments in scripture. But if you want to fulfill the law of God and the requirements of God and be an obedient Christian, you do that by being led by and focusing on the Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is, is God. He has all of God's requirements. 

Let me give you, give you…I'm going to give you just a really clear example. There's a lot of people that teach tithing. “You've got to tithe. You've got to tithe.” Well, I have a little problem with that because people are tithing from their flesh. What they're doing is they're giving mathematically. They literally give mathematically. “Oh, well, I made $800 last week, I'll give 80 bucks. I made $810, that means I'll give 81 bucks. Um, I made $500, I'll give 50 bucks.” There's no Holy Spirit in that. It's just a mechanical thing. Paul said each one should give as they purpose in their heart. And he also said God loves a generous giver. He said you, you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. You sow bountifully, you reap bountifully. And so when you're, now I'm just focusing on one area here. When you're led by the Holy Spirit, you're obeying God and you're giving. When you're led by the Holy Spirit, you're obeying God with your spouse. When you're led by the Holy Spirit, you're obeying God in how you treat your boss. When you're led by the Holy Spirit, you're in obedience to God. And so, in the area of giving, uh, tithing is not necessarily obedience to God. If that's not what the Lord is leading you to say. Maybe you say, "Well, I got to give 10% because, uh, I got to give Him 80 bucks because I made $800 last week." What if the Holy Spirit wants you to give $200 or $300 because God has– He wants you to sow that seed because He has a blessing for you that’s exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever think or ask for. Now, I'm just– I'm not trying to raise an offering here. I'm not doing that. But what I'm saying is Holy Spirit-led giving, Holy Spirit-led living, Holy Spirit-led walking and talking is obedience to God. That's how you fulfill the law of God. That's how you please God. That's how you are obedient to God, is when you're led by and following what the Holy Spirit is directing you to do. That's why again, in the book of Jeremiah, He said, “I will write my law upon your heart and each one will know me.” So through the Holy Spirit you know God. 

Remember, Jesus said “All things the Father has are mine…He [He] shall take of mine and disclose it to you.” What Jesus was saying was God downloads to Jesus, Jesus downloads to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit downloads to you. So when you're leading– led by the Holy Spirit, you're in sync with Jesus and you're in sync with God. And God has– knows what's best for you. He knows what you need to do, He knows the answers to your life, He knows the direction for you, He knows the job you need, He knows about your, your, your provision, He knows everything. And He wants what's best for you. But we miss it so many times because we're led by our natural tendencies instead of being led by the supernatural incredible God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, which lives within us. The Spirit of God's within us. So the, the, the moral of the story is, if you want to please God and if you want life and life more abundantly, we have to be led. It's a critical that we're led by the Holy Spirit. 

Now, the challenge is this, is learning how to recognize His leading. There's uh, I often tell my students, there's three voices that are talking to you all the time. There's your voice, your thoughts, your mind, your ideas, you know, your emotions, and the demons. The demons are trying to talk to you. They're trying to discourage you, put shame and condemnation and guilt on you. They attack you. They do, they attack your mind. I don't know how they do that, but they do that. And then there's the Holy Spirit guiding you, talking to you, leading with you. And so it's important that we learn how to train our senses and our thoughts to tune in to God. Tune in to God. It, it's a practice and it's trial and error. There's times I thought it was God's voice talking to me and it was just my imagination. But you know what? The more I practice, the more I learn to recognize His voice - I'm not perfect at it. Nobody's perfect at it. You know, I still don't– sometimes I miss what my wife's trying to tell me. Yeah, I miss what God's trying to tell me. A lot of times I do. And usually I reap the consequences. But we can train ourselves to hear the voice of God. Jesus said, "My sheep know Me, know My voice, and they follow Me." God wants to lead you into areas that are so much beyond you could ever imagine, greater than you could ever imagine. But it comes by obeying the Holy Spirit that is within you. 

Train yourself to recognize His voice. Amen. You can do it. You can do it. Maybe try something small with Him. I used to– I told this story so many times when I was trying to learn how to, to trust God and hear God's voice. Usually on a daily basis, it was, "Oh Lord, would you please tell me where my car keys are?" I know it's ridiculous, but actually, believe it or not, so many times the Lord would speak and I would know where my car keys were. Being a little bit of a senior, that really helps me a lot. Anyway, I hope this has made sense to you. I think what I'm trying to tell you is, instead of arguing theology and arguing the laws of God and arguing the interpretation of this verse, let the Lord show it to you. Let the Lord teach you. Let the Holy Spirit teach you. One thing I've noticed with all these people arguing for their denominational, arguing for– the Catholics arguing for Mary and the, the Calvinists arguing for predestination and the Church of Christ arguing for uh, salvation is only by baptism and all that kind of stuff is what I've noticed is there's a deadness about every one of them. Because when the Holy Spirit is speaking, there's life in it. Let the Holy Spirit speak life to you. I'm not saying we should ignore sound theology. I'm a theology teacher. But I am saying the primary most important thing is let the Holy Spirit lead us. 

And I…you know, and when He's leading you, there's also you're going to have love and forgiveness. You're going to have peace that passes all understanding. You're going to love people that are unlovable when the Holy Spirit is leading you. There's a lot of benefits to it. I hope this has made sense. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this podcast. I pray, Father, that these words will be a blessing that– Let me just help. I pray, Father I have spoken your truth to them. Teach us, help us to be led by your Holy Spirit and to obey you by what you're trying to show us through your Spirit, Father. Touch, Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ ask you to touch and fall upon everyone listening to this podcast now. Fall upon them. Touch them now. Fall upon them. Fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. Fresh filling of, of the Holy Spirit to everyone listening to this show. Thank you, Jesus. Amen and amen.

Okay, well, thank you for being part of the show. You know, the usual stuff. If I would appreciate if you'd uh, subscribe, like it. Also, um you know, email me. Uh, if you have a question or way I could help you, drrayself@gmail.com. D r r a y s e l f @gmail.com. Um, if you'd like to make a contribution, that'd be cool. Uh, easiest way is icmcollege.org/donate. But whatever, it's just, it's whatever you want to do, however you felt the Lord is leading you. Thank you for being part of the show. Um, I appreciate you very much and uh, we'll do another episode next week. This is episode 275. Can you believe it? How about that? God bless you. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. 

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